Sweden Trip Day 3 - City Mouse/Country Mouse Part 2

When Mom and I got home from Malmö centrum (downtown), Aunt Berit and Tony (Berit's friend), came over to Aunt Kerstin's for dinner. Berit speaks no English. My mom said they didn't start teaching English in school until she was in the 6th grade, Berit is 76 and my mom is 70. Needless to say the majority of the dinner conversation was in Swedish, well not the majority, all of it. I didn't really mind though, it was good practice for me to hear it in conversation versus hearing it in my normal classroom setting. The only English was when mom announced Berit had cursed.

After dinner we were heading out to spend a few days at Berit's house in the country. Oh, I almost forgot, for dessert we had this fruit salad with fresh whipped cream and these cookie pieces in it that were so stinkin' good! Mandel biskvier is what they are called. Simple dessert, yet yummy.

Berit lives in Norra Rörum which is about 40 miles northeast of Malmö. Forty miles doesn't sound like a lot, but once you leave the city it turns into farmland quickly. We stopped at the grocery store where Berit bought two loaves of bread. I bought a magazine - På Landet. I guess part of the dinner conversation was what we were eating for breakfast, Kerstin told Berit I was only eating half a piece of toast, my mom said, you never know, tomorrow she may eat the whole piece! Therefore, Berit bought two loaves of bread for three days.

When we finally got to Berit's it was pitch black outside, we went inside and I thought we were going to settle in for the night - I was wrong. You have to remember I have no idea what is being said all this time. I was immediately issued a flashlight and a lint roller. I didn't know why, but what the hell, I'm usually game for anything!

It seems up at Tony's house (which was the last house on the road and 186 miles from the nearest civilization), around the corner there had been a rascally fox entering homes and stealing pet food and various items of clothing, socks, shoes, etc. So we ventured up there to wait for the fox. It was pitch black outside, I couldn't even see my hand in front of my face. Thus, the flashlight. So there we were hunkered down in Tony's house with the door open, crouched around waiting, and waiting...Berit was holding her 4 year old black lab, Tobbe (pronounced Toe bay, not Toby, as I called him the whole time and was corrected by my mother constantly), listening to Swedish folk music, which is weird. It was quiet, except for the music and my mother, whispering in my ear the smart alec translations of the folk music...

There is a flock of ducks, flying wherever they fly for whatever season - suddenly, they see a man in a boat standing up...later the mother duck is looking for her young...it's a sad, sad song...

Next,

Everyone wanted the Miller girl because she was hot, but she told her suitors the first to earn $1,000 would get her hand in marriage, so they left and earned their keep, when they got back with the money she had married the neighbor, the moral of the story, women are fickle, you don't know the mind of a woman...

It sounds hokey, but seriously it was hard to keep quiet with my mom whispering these translations in my ear because it was so funny....

Well, the fox never came, so we went home. The lint roller was to keep the dog hair off.

One thing I noticed was the toilet paper so far had sucked, but Berit had nice toilet paper. Ah, the country!
Berit and I in the dark of night...notice the green fluorescent 7-up bottle...I was instructed to bring it to Tony's. Do foxes like 7-up?

Berit keeping Tobbe from going crazy like a fox!