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The Christianville Spirit
The Spirit that Inspires The Soul
June 11th, 2025 – TCS # 902
Hej Hej, Godmorgon, and God Dag,
My Readers!
Wow! Another Triple Greeting! This Triple Greeting, unlike Most of My Triple Greetings are Different Languages in One Greeting, but in This Case, This Triple Greeting is in The Same Language. So, This Greeting is in a Different Language than I have Done before In This Series.
These Greetings and This Language, compared to The Other Two Languages that I mentioned in This Series are much Less Formal. Romance Languages tend to be Alot about The Formal v. Informal;
However, This Language, a Germanic Language is more of Blanket Phrases to Get The Point across whether You know the Person or not. At Least, In My (Alleged) Opinion, I feel that It is easier for The Learner of Said Language. But, Oh! My Friend and Reader, This Language can sometimes Trick You a little Bit, but I’m getting ahead of Myself!
For The Record, The Greetings mean The Following,
Hej Hej (Hello) - Easy! It sounds like The English “Hey” once said Twice or Once if You prefer!;
God Morgon (Good Morning) - In The Language, It is written as “Morgon” but Said to sound like “Morron”
For The Record, To Christians Out There, It is Pronounced “Guoot Moron”
If However, You might not Know What Time It is, then Use either “HEj Hej” (Hey-Hey) or
“God Dag” (Guoot-Dahg)
It is a Safe Greeting and Appreciated Greeting. So, I Kinda of Spoiled The Country of Which We are going.
If You don’t care for Spoilers, like Most People. I will give You some Hints! This Country that Created A Furniture Store, Is Known for an 80s Girl Band that Everyone know, and
An Online Video Chat Program.
Okay, so This Country might be Easy to Guess or It Might not be Either It depends! Give Up?
I Present to You...The Nation of Sweden!
Locally known as Sverige (S).
A Country that Alot of People have heard of and, Unlike The Countries that I have written about This Series,
I have actually been to.
A Country that I celebrate Their National Holiday Each Year Now, Actually, I think Sweden was The First Country’s National Holiday other than My Home Country of The USA that I actually started celebrating
Truth be Told, When I was told that We were going to Sweden for a PTLS Event, It was a Dream come True!
I had Always wanted to go to Sweden because I had heard How Beautiful It was, as well as Clean and Seemingly Happy People (According World Happiness Statistics) but, I think that Sweden is more than That though!
So, Considering that I had written about My Fascination about Europe in Three Parts (Refer to “My Fascination with Europe” Newsletter)
and Then wrote about My Fascination about Switzerland & Italy, I figured Why Not write about
My 3rd Dream Country that I am Fascinated with, Sweden!
So, I am sure that You are Asking, Why is Sweden so Fascinating?! Well, I am about to Tell You!
Let’s Jump In!
Why Am I Fascinated with Sweden?
Ahh Sweden (or Locally Known as Sverige)!
I can hear The Song, “Dancing Queen” by ABBA playing in My Head.
So, Let’s Start with Geography Lesson! Where is Sweden (Sverige)? You know when You look at a Map of Europe and You see, A Country in Northern Europe that compares to Look a lot like Lake Michigan in The US. I have seen Maps that compare Lake Michigan (in The Great Lakes) and Sweden together.
Yeah, That is Sweden! You literally can’t miss it!
Bordering Denmark (DK) to The Southwest;
Norway (NOR.) to The Northwest;
And, Finland (FIN) to The Northeast
It also has A Lot of Water surrounding It
on The South, The West and East,
This is Slightly Complex than Italy but, The South and The East is The Baltic Sea (Where We get The Term, “The Baltics”)
The East and Northeast is The Gulf of Bothnia
Added Bonus, Sweden has One Island in The Baltic Sea called Gotland
Now, Sweden does have Little Islands near Stockholm, commonly referred to as “The Stockholm Archipelago”
The Capitol is Stockholm (Stockholm is Unique because of The Colorful City Hall, The City Center is literally on an Island; and Stockholm Area has like 10 Islands!)
And, Finally, The Currency is
The Swedish Krona
Sweden is One of A Few Countries decided to Opt-Out of
“The Euro Zone” to have It’s Own Currency!
It is a Politically Neutral Country that is surrounded by
EU Countries and The Non-EU Country of Norway (NOR.) but, It is Part of Schengen, which is Equally Fascinating!
So, Why is Sweden so Fascinating?
Okay, I know the First Reason is going to be Very Cliche but, Follow with Me, Okay?
++ IKEA and ABBA
So, Word and Name Association Time, Folks! When You think of Sweden, What is The First Thing that makes You think of Sweden! Probably One of Two Answers.
The Furniture Store known as IKEA (I-Key-Ah) that has Very Convenient yet Really-Hard-to-Assemble Furniture.
The Part that Fascinates me Most, is How They Make
270 Square Feet of Space not look so Tiny but, Would Work for Someone who doesn’t want to get up much!
Of Course, We can’t talk about Sweden without Talking about The Band from The 80s, ABBA. Known for
The Songs, “Dancing Queen” and “Mamma Mia”.
Now, Of Course, If You want to Hear a Swedish Song that (Shock!) Better than ABBA, Slightly;
Check out The Song, “Dover Calais” by Style.
(Swedish Version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40NMFFO45Nk )
(English Version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qSpKuI5Z-w)
It is a Song about Two People Falling in Love on a Ferry between Dover, UK and Calais (F). Swedish Version is Better. If You Do Listen to The Sweden Version, The Lyrics
“Någonstans mellan Dover Calais” means
“Somewhere Between”
Okay, Jumping Out of Swedish Cliches!
The Next Reason is Very Uniquely Swedish!
++ Two Words to Must Know,
Fika and Lagom
Travelers and Geography Lovers alike will tell You that There are Certain Words or Phrases in Local Languages that are Hard to Translate (and, Don’t Deserve to be Translated!)
The First Word is Fika. Fika is a Swedish Tradition as Old as Time! Not to Mention, A Trademark in Swedish Culture!
Fika is described as “A Coffee Break” with Family, Family and/or Co-Workers. By The Way, It’s not a Cup of Coffee like Us Americans do! It can be a Cinamon Roll (Yes Really!); Cup of Coffee (Yep!); Pastry; or Even a Cup of Hot Chocolate and a Pastry. Oh and Swedes will literally Stop what They doing, Even Driving, to have a Fika!
The Second is Lagom, Means that Whatever You are Doing is Just Right, Not More and Not Less. It is Perfect!
It is sort of like having The Perfect Amount of A Drink, like a Soda or Hot Chocolate, or Lingonberry Juice (A Swedish Trademark too!)
While We are talking about The Swedish Language, We move into The Third Reason
++ The Interchangeable & (Sometimes) Recognizable Language
Swedish Language is Very Fascinating to Me for
Three Reasons. One, To hear Someone speaking Swedish, whether It is on Television or In Person, The Language sounds Very Sing-Songy Sounds (and, Please No Offense to Any Swedes reading This).
Reason Two: Some Swedish Words, are basically Two Words into One.
The Word for Their National Day? Sverigesnationaldag
{Meaning “Sverige’s (Sweden’s) National Dag (Day)”}
The Name for a Food Hall in
City Centre Stockholm,
Kungshallen {Meaning “Kung (King) - Hallen (Hall)}
Now, Remember when I said about Sweden’s Language can Trick You!
Here’s an Example of How Swedish can Trick You!:
Våning (Va-Awrn-Ing) (Floor)
Varning (VAhrning) (Warning)
One means, Watch Out! Alert! Be Careful!
The Other means that Elevator was arrived at a Floor
On The Familiar Side, The Word “Drink” is “Drynk”
(or Drink with a Y).
So, We have talked about The Culture! Let’s Talk about The Nature! With The Next Reason!
++ The Swedish Nature (and, Saunas)
Swedish Nature is like Non-Other! Now, Yes, I know I said that about Switzerland (Do Not Get Them Confused!) but, Switzerland excels with Mountains and Lakes.
Sweden excels with Woods and Lakes! I remember that when I was in Sweden that The Trees are Very Tall and Very Dense. Sweden is also said to Have The Cleanest Lakes! Of Course, because Sweden is farther up North, They get The Glacial Water from Far-Northern Sweden that makes The Lakes so Clean! Of Course, We can’t Forget the Sauna Culture in Sweden! In Sweden, During The Winter Season, You go into The Sauna, into a Frozen Lake, and Back in 20 Minute Time Span. Meanwhile, In The Summer, Swedes go to Their “Summer Homes” in The Woods and, Sometimes do The Sauna but They do it in The Summer to Relax, where as Winter is more for Health Reasons.
And, Now, We wrap up with The Final Reason of Fascination, The People!
++ Reserved and Very Loyal People (aka Swedes)
Now, Alot can be said about The Swedish People, The Most Cliche Answer would probably be The Top-Of-The-Line and Beyond Beautiful, Swedish Girls! Must be All The Saunas and Good Healthy Food like Herring in like 6 Ways. Totally Kidding! But, I will leave that to The Arts’ Subject to Interpretation as My Brother often tells Me.
No, The Swedish People are kind of a Strange Breed of People (Again No Offense to Swedes!)
But, If You were ask a Swede, What their Biggest Fear is, It would be to Come out of Their House or Apartment, and There is a Neighbour or Stranger who is A Bit too Friendly for Their Liking. However though, as Reserved as Swedes are and This is I guess that Tricky Part of Sweden, sort of like The Words for “Floor” and “Warning! Look Out!” is that, Once You be-friend a Swede (In A Nice Way!), You will literally be Their Friend for Life. Oh! And Clear Your Social Calendar! Because You will be on Their Party Guest-List for Life.
And, I do mean, For Life!
All in all, as You can see, Sweden is a Very Fascinating Country with Lots of Culture, Awesome People (Reserved and All!), and Stunning Scenery!
Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Enjoy a Fika while You learn about Sweden! Åk Sverige! (Go Sweden!)
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