Swedish facts!

Earlier this week Maggie provided me with this great link: http://www.cbc.ca/strombo/comedy-1/swedishness-a-hilarious-mockumentary-on-swedish-culture.html  (Thanks George!)

It really is a great video that has a lot of truth to it. Farther down the page he provided a great link to a tonne of facts about Sweden! I thought I would share the facts with you and comment on a few of them. (Facts in blue, my comments in black!)

Sweden is the 3rd largest EU country in land area, after France and Spain.

Sweden is one of the homelands of the Germanic ethnicity and culture. The Goths, the Suevirs and the Norses (Vikings) all trace their origin back to Sweden (as well as Norway and Denmark for the latter).

In the 9th and 10th centuries, Swedish Vikings invaded and settled in parts of Eastern Europe as far as Constantinople and the Caspian Sea. They founded the first kingdom of Russia. All the Tsars of Russia until the last one, Nicholas II, were of Swedish Viking descent.

As of 2006, Sweden had won 588 (winter and summer) Olympic medals, a feat only excelled by 6 much more populous countries (the USA, the USSR, Italy, France, Germany and the UK). Guess Canada has quite a ways to go to get on this list!

In 2010, 2011 and 2012, Sweden was ranked third in the world for the inequality-adjusted Human Development Index (HDI) defined by the United Nations Development Programme 

In 2006 Swedish people had the longest life expectancy in Europe (80.51 years). As of 2010 they were fifth (80.88 years), overtaken by Switzerland, Italy, Iceland and France. I must say eating lots of fruits and veggies is not the cause... Maybe it's a sign that carbs help you live longer! That would be fantastic!

Swedish people have the lowest income inequality in the world, with a Gini index of 23 in 2005. Having taken a class on Food Poverty and Hunger this year, I know that this is truly fantastic! Income inequality is a huge part of how poverty and hunger start.

Sweden has the smallest gender employment-rate gap in the developed world, with only 4% more men in employment than women. No stay-at-home moms here!

Swedish women have their first child in average at 30 years old, the oldest in Europe along with Ireland and the Netherlands. I've been told before to have all my kids BEFORE I am thirty! Although, with the previous fact, it is clear women here love to work, and I think it is a good idea to save up before having children (Lord knows they cost you a tonne!)

Sweden has the highest percentage of working mothers in the developed world, no less than 76% of them. I am curious to know when this trend started, and what the levels are of other countries!

The Swedes spend the longest time in tertiary education with an average student age of 25.5 years old.

40% of Swedish women and 32% of Swedish men aged 25 to 64 participate in education or training. Compare it to the EU average is 10% for women and 9% for men. I think this is awesome! I love it when people are keen to learn new things, and aren't stuck thinking their way is the only way.

A 2007 UNICEF report on child well-being in rich countries ranked Sweden as the best country on 3 out of 6 dimensions (children's material well-being, health & safety, and behaviours & risks), and second best country overall after the Netherlands. I guess this is a great place to raise your kids!

As of 2006, Sweden was the most generous country in the world regarding aid to poor countries. It is the only nation where donations exceed 1% of the GDP. I wonder how much better off the world would be if every country gave that much?

The Swedish maternity and paternity leave is one of the longest and most generous in the world, allowing the the father and mother to take a shared total of 480 days (16 months) off at 77.6% of their salary. Maybe this is why the mothers return to work? 

As of late 2012, Sweden had obtained 30 Nobel prizes, including 5 Peace prizes. This is the 5th highest number of laureates in the world, and the highest per capita ratio for any country with over 1 million inhabitants. Of course Nobel Prizes are awarded by Sweden (except the Peace Prize, awarded by Norway).

Sweden has the highest number of McDonald restaurants per capita in Europe (although that is only about half of the US ratio). I've only seen one on the island so far...

With 47% of female parliamentarians (in 2006), Sweden has the highest proportion of women lawmakers in the world. WOW! You go girls!!

In 1862, Sweden became the first country to grant suffrage for (married) women, although only for local elections. Yay for women's rights! This was before Canada was even a country!

Sweden is set to become the first country in the world to phase out petrol for biofuel. According to Alex we have 25 years until the earth runs out of oil, so I'd say Sweden is pretty lucky!

Sweden ranks second in Europe (after Finland) in terms of technological achievement. There they are, using their smarts again!

Founded in Stockholm in 1995, the Metro newspapers has quickly become the world's leading free newspaper intended for commuters.As of late 2009, there were 56 daily editions in 19 countries in 15 languages across Europe, North and South America and Asia. I think I've seen these in Toronto! Cool!

Sweden has, along with Denmark and Hungary, the highest standard Value Added Tax rate in the world (25%). Okay this is one downfall of living here. At least the prices are taxes-included, so what you see is what you pay!

Total taxation in Sweden amount to 54.2 % of GDP, the highest level worldwide. One word: Ouch.

Sweden has an excellent reputation as a car maker with Volvo and Saab. Scania trucks are also Swedish. 

The world-famous discount furniture chain IKEA was founded in Sweden in 1943. Yay for cheap furniture! And a great store to play in ;)

The Swedish company Electrolux holds 28% share of the household appliances market in the world. It owns over 40 brands, including AEG-Electrolux, Zanussi, Eureka and Frigidaire. Another random thing that no one knew was Swedish...

The Stockholm Globe Arena is the world's largest hemispherical building, with a diameter of 110 meters, an inner height of 85 meters, and a total volume of 600,000 m³. It is also the world's largest scale model of the Solar System. Cool!

Sorry there were so many facts... I just couldn't seem to narrow it down; they were all so interesting!

I promise the next post will be awesome and adventure filled, because I am leaving early tomorrow to go to Stockholm for the weekend!

A blustery day in Hemse

Karl (now 5) had several friends over for a birthday party today. We got to eat this beautiful ice cream salad: 

This is ice cream layered with bananas, meringue, chocolate sauce and topped with chocolate wafer cookies! Very delish, and the kids loved it!

After some birthday shenanigans I went and toured the town of Hemse. It is the second largest city on the island, with a population of a phenomenal 1,700. Needless to say, there wasn't a whole lot to do there, but it did keep me occupied for an afternoon!

After getting off the bus, I took a tour of the church. Not too extravagant in terms of size, but it was beautifully decorated with paintings!

 This is just a small example, the walls were covered in this! Back in the medieval period, the bible verses were in Latin, and many people couldn't read Latin so what did they do? Drew pictures for them! This is a part of the story of the birth of baby Jesus. Many of the churches have these paintings on the wall, but some are more intricate than others. This cemetery was also quite lovely; almost every single plot had flowers on it!

I then took a tour of all of the shops. There was an interesting Red Cross second hand store that I enjoyed. There were also several gift shops and a few cafes and restaurants. One thing I have noticed is that Gotland does tourist shops very tastefully. I remember being in Paris, France and just walking by store upon store of sweatshirts and shot glasses. Gotland has none of that; their souvenir stores feel just like gift shops (which I suppose in a way they are).

I headed to the ICA (one of the most popular grocery store chains) for some lunch. I had a garlic baguette, potato salad and some candy! I love their candy here, just a huge bulk section with chocolate as well, and everything is the same price so you can just dump it all into one bag! They have chocolates just like Rolos that I quite fancy. I was surprised when I collected my receipt that my pear saft had cost the most out of all my items! While one does need to keep hydrated, it often seems to come at an expense around here.

After taking the bus back to Burgsvik, I had a nice bike ride back to Norrgårde. It is an awesome feeling to only hear the rustling of the wind in the trees, the whirring of your bike on the pavement and the occasional bird. I love nature! I am definitely not one for big cities, and although there isn't a whole lot to do on this island, I definitely prefer it over a largely populated area! I was able to take some lovely pictures on the way as well! 

The cows here are SO photogenic, it's really great! That old windmill is right by the sea, although I was unsuccessful in getting a shot with both sea and windmill together.

Tonight we ordered in pizza. It's very different from Canadian pizza! The crust is very thin and they don't overdo it on the cheese, so the pizza is "skinny" enough that each person orders their own (medium sized) pizza! Now we are relaxing and watching some America's Funniest Home Videos! :) Tomorrow I am off to church to see Stina (and grandma Annika!) sing in the choir!

The foodie in me took over this post...

This week has FLOWN by for me! Anyone else feel the same? (I hope so, considering most of you got a short week and I didn't!) Yesterday and today were regular work days for me. Yesterday I was able to meet some neighbours that are just a few years older than me. Hopefully they will be able to help me explore the island more!

Since it's almost time for supper I guess tonight will be the post about FOOD... 

The Swedes LOVE their bread, and their milk products. I had bread four times already today and haven't eaten supper yet! On a good note, they have way cooler bread than us. A lot more variety, and tons of types of buns and other types apart from the regular loaf! Something Stina (7) loves to put on her bread is liver paste.. I have yet to try it but a lot of the locals enjoy it. They also have caviar in a tube in MANY different flavours. Once again, those that have grown up with it really enjoy it! I didn't take too much of  a liking to it.

Of course Sweden is famous for their meatballs, and rightly so! I seem to eat them like I'll never see them again... They have a great berry sauce that complements them very well! Here they are big pork eaters. I have already tried wild pork roast (from the mainland, no wild pork on the island!) and what Markus called "pork skin" but I'm not sure if that's what it actually was. We eat a lot of sandwich meat on our bread (even for breakfast)!

I have already mentioned a bit about their milk products, but I feel it needs to be emphasized again, because it is such a huge part of their diet! Walking into the dairy section of the grocery store is so overwhelming because there is TONS to choose from. They have several types of milk, as well as pourable yogurts. Baking butter and bread butter are two separate things, and of course each has about 4 different versions. There is also a lot of cheese to choose from! I have yet to really figure out what any of them are because the names are so different, but many of them are quite delicious!

One thing I've found odd here is their pasta. Not the noodles itself, but the sauces.. They always have cream in them, and their version of a tomato sauce is ketchup and cream. It is an interesting flavour! The lasagna we had once reminded me of sloppy joes! Just this week we had plain macaroni noodles and meatballs and a bottle of ketchup. It had actually never occurred to me to eat noodles without sauce... It wasn't too bad though.

Saft... <3 Saft is, from what I've been told, like pop without the bubbles. I suppose it could be like fruit punch or those cocktails you can get in North America... But saft is way better! Especially for someone like me who doesn't really enjoy pop for the simple factor of the bubbles. It's like a dream come true! Most people buy it in a concentrated form and mix it with water at home! Two of my favourite flavours are raspberry and pear! (They are huge with pears here.. pear popsicles, juice, candy etc! I think Canada should take a hint... I love pear!)

I mentioned before that they eat 5 times a day... I've literally eaten seven pieces of bread today. I am still surprised I'm not gaining weight.. (that I know of anyway.. I haven't weighed myself, but my pants are still fitting so I think I'm okay!)

This one's for you mother: They LOVE their potatoes! We probably eat them close to once a day in one form or another. 

Another random food I've noticed they have here that isn't in Canada (that I know of) is called American Dressing. I think it's supposed to be like Big Mac sauce... They love it on their burgers and hotdogs! (By the way, Canadian hotdogs are way better for some reason.)

Almost done.. This is kind of food related.. They only use metric here. Whenever I'm asked to bake something I find an epic recipe.. In imperial. The task of converting can be quite difficult. Even their oven is in Celsius! They use centiliters and deciliters very frequently here, in package measurements, and their baking tools. 

For anyone curious about my actual life the past few days, and not just what's been going through my mouth, it's been fairly uneventful. I worked at feeding the sheep and pressure washing the fence, which I am finally done! I also oiled part of the deck. Yesterday we finished de-worming all of the sheep, YAY!

I don't have any concrete plans for the weekend; hopefully something grand will pop up! Bye for now :)

The European farming life

I spent my entire day today farming.. something that doesn't always happen. With the spring rolling right along and the weather getting warmer, we are doing a lot of work with the sheep to get them ready for summer!

Apart from my usual job of feeding hay to the lambs and the ewes that have been weaned, I helped to "drench" (de-worm) about 200 ewes today. I am definitely going to be a strong girl by the time I leave here, because each ewe weighs about 150 pounds! For those unfamiliar with sheep: they get worms in their tummy! Each flock is different, depending on how often they are on pasture and how resistant the breed is to worms. But de-worming is very common, some shepherds do it up to six times a year, although the Westbergs only do it once a year. One time they went three years without having to do it at all! It's just a liquid medicine you have to give them. Quite simple once you can catch the sheep and hold it still!

I also helped to wean the lambs of about 100 ewes (I get to drench those ewes tomorrow). Weaning is an interesting time for sure... Noise levels get higher than ever during this time of year. It should take a few days then the lambs and ewes will learn to be quite content apart. Some extra tasty food is extremely helpful of course ;). 

My last big job of the day was to help catch and sort 45 lambs for slaughter. When I say lamb I mean a 110-130 pound sheep.. So once again I was able to get a workout! Seriously, anyone that doesn't have money for a gym membership should try farming. I'm sure a neighbour farmer would love the help too! ;)

I will say now that watching a sheepdog do its work is really an amazing thing! (Also, how does anyone get by shepherding without one?) It is like nature combined with talent and a lot of training. When it all comes together, it's great! I think I can say I know more Swedish sheepdog commands than English... Someone will have to teach me when I get home!

I suppose for my Aggie and farming alike friends, I should explain a few differences between European and Canadian Agriculture that I have noticed so far.

It is illegal to dock tails in Sweden, and many other European countries. (This includes dogs, pigs and other animals as well). This practice is still common in North America. The obvious reason why this is banned is because it causes pain to the animals. But there are many reasons why people still do dock tails, a main one (for sheep anyway) being that it eliminates the chance of feces getting stuck in the tail. When this happens, gross things like maggots can start living in the feces and will eventually start to eat the sheep. I recently read that in North America people can be "docked for not having docked". AKA they can lose money at the market or slaughter for two reasons: The butcher doesn't want to spend extra time on the tail, and it is also considered poor shepherding if the tail is not docked. 

Castration via rubber band is illegal here. Karin (my host mother) said that it is very uncommon around here to castrate, simply because it's takes extra time and is not necessary. Lambs here go to slaughter before they are sexually mature, so there's no risk of pregnancy or crazy ram hormones. From what I know, they get the same price either way. This isn't always so in North America, but it all depends on various circumstances.

I was talking to a beef farmer a couple weeks ago and he raises bulls for meat. I asked him why  not steers, and he explained to me that there is a law here that you have to put them out on pasture for a certain amount of time, which adds a whole extra season before they have gained enough to be sent to the butcher. So unless the demand for steer meat increases largely, it is only practical for farmers in Sweden to be raising bulls!

Fun fact: I visited a Swedish Agricultural school last week! It was for ages 16-19. (An extension of high school for them, there are different specialized schools all over the country). I was expecting a day of, well, classrooms and lessons. This was far from my visions! I spent the entire morning exploring the dairy, swine and sheep operations they have on campus, and got a tour of their fields. The students are given tasks every day on the on-campus farm, to prepare them for their farming future! In the afternoon they had welding class (where I did get to try welding for the first time)! Then we spent 10 minutes in the classroom going over a quiz from last week. Then to coffee break where they talked to their teacher about the practicum they had last week. Then it was home time! Best school day ever in my opinion. I probably learned more about the hands-on type of farming stuff than I will at my 4 years earning my Agricultural Business degree (I know, university is all theoretical and stuff... Still makes me sad that I can't play with animals at school)! 

For those of you that are totally sick of my farming rant (sorry!) I will tell you this fun piece of info: "chase me" is one of the 3 English phrases that Karl here (5) knows. So after my long day of work I had the pleasure of chasing a little boy all around the house! Who, despite being caught several times, was never "it". So, you can be positively sure I got my exercise tonight! And in saying that, I am totally ready for bed. 

Goodnight!

A summary-The first few weeks

Now, I have always enjoyed writing, but English was always one of my worst subjects in school. So please bear with me if my language choice isn't as colourful as you had hoped!

For those of you who don't know, I am spending four months on the island of Gotland, off the east coast of Sweden, in the middle of the Baltic Sea! I am spending my time here working on a sheep farm, and of course exploring! Now you may be thinking, how the heck did she find herself a farm halfway across the world!? Well, I am on an AgriVenture exchange. I received a scholarship from 4-H Canada to help cover a large portion of the cost of the trip. With AgriVenture, you can be set up with a farm in many different countries, and you can also choose the type of farm! The idea is, I spend my weeks working full time, in return for a small salary (room and board is taken off), and I get my weekends to explore!

I have been here for three weeks now, and am slowly getting into the routine of things. I help a lot in the barns (feeding, weighing, weaning etc) and outside (gardening, painting etc). Once a week I get to clean the house, and sometimes I get to bake! 

A bit about Swedish life

I eat 5 times a day here! And almost every meal contains dairy.. they love their milk, butter and cheese! Sometimes my lactose intolerant tummy doesn't like it, but usually it's okay in moderation. Three of these "meals" (breakfast, and 2 "fika" [coffee breaks]) are made up of bread, butter and whatever else you like! Lunch and Supper are always hot meals.

Many people here speak English very well (big sigh of relief when I found that out!). The money they use is Swedish Krona, and it's about 6.2 times the Canadian dollar! Hopefully I'll be great at arithmetic when I get back with all the mental math I have to do here ;).

Of course the most famous things out of Sweden are IKEA and ABBA! I learned that the guy who owns IKEA is very tight with his money and still drives around an old clunker.. Of course everyone still shops there anyway! Some awesome things that I didn't know were Swedish are H&M and Pippi Longstocking! The house from her TV series is on this island, I will have to visit some day!

Gotland 

Gotland is the island I am on. It is an extremely popular tourist destination with the mainlanders, and it's because it is so beautiful!I seriously recommend it for anyone wanting a vacation that is a little less mainstream, unique in it's own way, and very relaxing, I definitely recommend Gotland! 

 I am on the south part of the island and no more than a 15 minute drive from the sea in 3 directions! This island is very well known for it's Gotlandic Sheep (we have some on the farm here). Almost every gift shop has sheepskin products in stock!

Gotland is also famous for it's medieval history-there are over 90 medieval churches on the island! Vikings also lived here many years ago-there is a museum full of artifacts on the island that boast it holds the most viking related artifacts in the world!

As I have been here for 3 weeks already, this post could go on for much longer... Perhaps I will spare you this time and within the next few posts I will start talking more about my daily life here.

Cheers!