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One of the great things about having a really portable job is that you can have extensive holidays whilst working at your usual rate. Thus it happens that this week I've been in Sweden, writing Torah by day and spending time with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
livredor by night.
I like Sweden very much.
I like Swedish. A lot of it is very like German; like German, Swedish has a habit of making gigantic aggregate words, it has an overdependence on ummlauts and other text decoration, and it has quite a lot of random vocabulary which is basically the same as in German, at least sufficient that I can navigate public transport. Then every so often you come across something which is blatantly and startlingly French, like tricot, which is a reminder that Swedish has History.
livredor lives here, so I'm learning lots of random things about the general way of life which I probably wouldn't otherwise have picked up on - things like what people do with their summers, how maternity leave works, and why lunch in restaurants isn't taxed but supper is. In addition to the obvious splendidness of getting to spend serious time with Liv, this is a nice way of seeing a country.
They do fish properly. I'm rather used to salmon being a rather unpleasantly fatty, rich, bland sort of fish, so I was highly suspicious of it, but Liv said, Swedes Do Fish Right, and she was right; I had some salmon and it was exceedingly nice. There are also about five hundred words for herring, and having lots of vocabulary is a good indicator of taking things seriously. We walked through a covered market which had many many beautiful fish and other assorted confectionery, cheeses, and gratuitous stuffed reindeer heads.
They also do cinnamon buns properly, to the extent of having a National Cinnamon Bun day. Cinnamon buns are another thing I'm used to being overly sweet, bland and generally unpleasant; I am reconciled to cinnamon buns having potential.
And, Livredor's flat has a wild orchardial garden, where plums are just coming into season. So we have been eating plums, and making plum pie. This would be pleasant in any country, obviously.
The other utterly charming thing is that a great many buildings appear to be made out of Lego. You remember how Lego used to have very distinctive windows and doors? Here that's actually how quite a lot of windows and doors are actually shaped. I like that very much indeed; it gives the familiarity of long association to something which is actually quite foreign.
We had a super Shabbat, which I shall put in a separate post.
livredor by night.I like Sweden very much.
I like Swedish. A lot of it is very like German; like German, Swedish has a habit of making gigantic aggregate words, it has an overdependence on ummlauts and other text decoration, and it has quite a lot of random vocabulary which is basically the same as in German, at least sufficient that I can navigate public transport. Then every so often you come across something which is blatantly and startlingly French, like tricot, which is a reminder that Swedish has History.
livredor lives here, so I'm learning lots of random things about the general way of life which I probably wouldn't otherwise have picked up on - things like what people do with their summers, how maternity leave works, and why lunch in restaurants isn't taxed but supper is. In addition to the obvious splendidness of getting to spend serious time with Liv, this is a nice way of seeing a country.They do fish properly. I'm rather used to salmon being a rather unpleasantly fatty, rich, bland sort of fish, so I was highly suspicious of it, but Liv said, Swedes Do Fish Right, and she was right; I had some salmon and it was exceedingly nice. There are also about five hundred words for herring, and having lots of vocabulary is a good indicator of taking things seriously. We walked through a covered market which had many many beautiful fish and other assorted confectionery, cheeses, and gratuitous stuffed reindeer heads.
They also do cinnamon buns properly, to the extent of having a National Cinnamon Bun day. Cinnamon buns are another thing I'm used to being overly sweet, bland and generally unpleasant; I am reconciled to cinnamon buns having potential.
And, Livredor's flat has a wild orchardial garden, where plums are just coming into season. So we have been eating plums, and making plum pie. This would be pleasant in any country, obviously.
The other utterly charming thing is that a great many buildings appear to be made out of Lego. You remember how Lego used to have very distinctive windows and doors? Here that's actually how quite a lot of windows and doors are actually shaped. I like that very much indeed; it gives the familiarity of long association to something which is actually quite foreign.
We had a super Shabbat, which I shall put in a separate post.