Sweden and Sports

Sweden is a sport country, And we are good in many sports. The sports most people have a interest in here are Football and Hockey. Sweden’s most  famous football player are world famous Italy, Zlatan Ibrahimovic. 

Zlatan started playing football in early age in the Swedish city Malmö (Malmo). He started playing in Malmö FF and then climbed up to great football teams. He’s played in Ajax, Juventus, Inter, Milan and FC Barcelona. Right now he’s playing in Milan and the Swedish national team. He’s seen as the greatest football player in Sweden and is a very technical player who is good at dribble the opponent. Zlatan’s has a big national career which means that even though he is famous in Sweden, They adore him even more in Italy.

Hockey is the greatest sport in Sweden, cause even if Sweden is more like a football country we have more golds and titles in hockey. We are ranked as the third best country in the world after Russia and Canada and have won the VM (world championship) 8 times.

Peter Forsberg Peter Forsberg is known as the best Swedish player of all high and is playing Center as position. He has a going career in NHL and have been playing in Nashville, Colerado, Philadelphia and the Swedish club MoDo. He have won two VM golds, two Olympic golds and two stanley cup golds. He has also won rewards like the Swedish “Goldenpuck” which is given to the most successful hockey player.

( Images taken from “http://sportbloggaren.blogg.se/images/2009/foppa_29590235.jpg”   &  “http://rebeccasvenssons.blogg.se/images/2009/zlatan_56372723.jpg” )

Swedish Music

Sweden has a lot of famous music to offer both on English and Swedish. We have well known rock groups like “In Flames” but also others like “Carola” and the old world famous group “ABBA”. ABBA is the group most people knows about and have good hits like “Dancing queen” and “Waterloo”. In Sweden music is a big industry and different music is valued here, we even have a big once-at-a-year competition for singer called “Idol” where people can come and sing for a jury to try to be a superstar.

Most music in Sweden are at English cause it sounds better, and since Swedish people are good at English we have no problem in understanding. We know all the classical bands from America here in Sweden too, as The Beatles, Queen and U2. U2 is one band who has played in Sweden a several times,  mostly in Gothenburg.

In Sweden there is not much techno, the most good techno comes from England. But we still have one man who is famous for his techno music, and he is known as Basshunter. He just makes Trance techno so all other types of techno is taken from England or America.

(Image taken at “http://katiehann.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/beatles-the-the-beatles-11927064.jpg”)

Famous People In Sweden

As all countries, Sweden have a lot of famous people. The following people i tell about is taken from different areas so you don’t get many people with the same kind of work. The only thing they all have in common are that they all are world famous. Enjoy the information about the three different characters.

Alfred Nobel lived between 1833 to 1896 and was a Swedish engineer, chemist and innovator. He is also the creator of Dynamite and the founder of the Nobel prize that was named after him. Even though his skill and science came to use in war, he was a person who wanted and strove after peace. When hes dynamite where used in war he said “When people have come to a understanding that the dynamite will destroy armies, there will be a golden peace”. What he meant was that when the people see the destructive power of the powder in the dynamite countries will not use it against each other.

This next person is also a world famous character  and is especially known by christian, This person is Saint Bridget. She spend her early years studying when she got a vision and met god. From that day she became a christian and started helping and healing people in Sweden. She spent almost all her life helping others for the sake of god which got her declared as a saint. She died 1373 but was not declared as a saint until the pope at 1999 made her one.

Astrid Lindgren is a famous Swedish writer who lived 1907-2002. She was writing children books and she became famous for especially three of them, “Pippi Longstocking”, Karlsson-on-the-roof” and “Six bullerby children”. She gained many prizes for her writings but the greatest one was in 1967 when she was awarded the literary prize. When Astrid died Sweden created the Astrid Lindgren memorial award. That award is the biggest monetary award for children and youth literature, a amount of five million SEK.

 

The images are taken from “http://99ord.se/wp-content/uploads/Manniskor/AlfredNobel2.jpg” & “http://www.astridlindgrensallskapet.se/upload/images/astrid.gif”

( Some of this fact is taken from “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Swedish_people” )

Politics

In Sweden we have a democracy where the people votes of the party we wants to rule in Sweden. Mostly the election ends like it did this year (2010) and we have a multi-party government where the different part’s is working together to create a good Sweden.  There is many party’s  who all have different thought how to make Sweden better which means you votes on the party you think have the most similar thoughts that you have. Most party’s works together with other to get more votes at the election, this have made the party’s split into two big groups called “The Alliance” and “The Red-Green”.

The prime minister is named Fredrik Reinfeldt. He is also the party leader of “Moderaterna” which is a work party and one of the biggest party’s in Sweden. He replaced the old Prime minister Göran Persson 2006 and he has a high belief from the other politicians.

In Sweden we also have a royal family although they are not allowed to have politic opinions. The king Carl Gustaf XVI and his family is more of the the face of Sweden. They bind international with our countries and improve the friendship between other European countries.

(Image taken from “http://profs.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/gavel_court-1.jpg”)

Education in Sweden

In Sweden we have at my opinion a good school system. There is many ways to go and you have as a student a choice to what schools and University’s you want to study at.

When you are about six years old you start the Preschool. This school is mostly for the kids to play but they learn some basic subjects like math and Swedish. They almost don’t have responsible and they don’t have much work since they still are so young.

When you are seven years old you start the real school. In Sweden the first school is on six years where you learn more subjects and get homework. You study the basic subjects like Math, Swedish, English and geographic but you also have secondary subjects like Sewing and Woodwork.

After your six years you start a three year long school that we call the Middle school. These nine years are in England called elementary school but here we have split it up to two. These three years is quite simple, You basically study the same subjects but also some new as NO (Nature Science and physics) and SO (History, Religion, Social, and geographic). These three years simply prepare you for the upcoming years.

When you are fifteen years old and the elementary schooltime is over you search for a high school. Mostly High schools are oriented depending on what you want to work with when you get a job. The High school is preparing the students for the job and which is possible to get a after these three years. At high school you get much responsible and can decide yourself how you are going to get the grades you want. The subjects you read at the high school depends on the high school you go at and what you need to learn to get the job you want.

After all these years you can if you want study even more at a University. For some jobs in Sweden you need to study something special at a University which means you need  to know what you want to be to be able to study right. If you want to work at a high ranked job, for example as a Doctor you need to have a University exam.

The Swedish Food

When it comes to food Sweden is a very open country who got mostly foreign food. We eat food all from stuffed cabbage to Sushi and drinks like café latte. When it comes to fast food we don’t have anything Swedish, it’s all foreign like Pizza, Hamburgers and Kebab.

But Sweden have some things that is made here, like crisp bread. The crisp bread can be found at breakfast or just a regular meal. Today Swedish people don’t eat much crisp bread but it was a big hit long ago.

In an ordinary day in Sweden you eat breakfast early. It’s known as the most important meal of the day so you eat quite a lot. Mostly the breakfast is either bread with toppings or yogurt with cereals. As to drink you often have juice or coffee. In fact, Sweden is in top three of the most coffee drinking countries in Europe.

At between 10.30 and 12.00 it’s lunch where you also eat a lot of food. The lunch is a real meal with  rice, potatoes, fish, meat or soup. This is the time of the day where you use to be as most hungry.

When the parents come home from work and the children ended their school for the day it’s time for dinner again. This food is also something bigger that you cook at home. It’s very rare that you order food for lunch or dinner in Sweden cause we are used to cook our food.

The last meal of the day is a meal who many people skip, it’s the supper. The supper is a very light meal and use to be bread with topping. It’s eaten around eight or nine before going to bed.

The national food in Sweden is potatoes, meatballs with gravy and the classical pancakes.

 

(Images taken from “http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZARBRqLx-r4/SKmJbMON21I/AAAAAAAAC0Q/l1f4WUR-zYI/s400/Kn%C3%A4ckebr%C3%B6d+WASA.jpg”

&   “http://www.foretagsbazar.se/one/images/stories/pizza.jpg”)

Swedish Traditions & Habits

In Sweden we of course have a lot of Traditions we celebrate. Most of them are foreign traditions which has come to Sweden from England or America, but we also have one that is just celebrated here.

Christmas is the biggest tradition which most countries celebrate. It is celebrated the 24st of December and is connected to snow. It’s about be together which your family and be happy for what you got. You buy and give away presents to people you care about and share happiness. The small children think that a big man in red clothes with a white beard named Santa comes with the presents in a sledge at the night before Christmas and dealing out presents. If you have been nice and haven’t done bad things, you get rewarded with more presents. This is an old legend that keeps children kind.

Another International tradition we celebrate is Easter. This tradition has faded some and the Swedish people are not as committed as the English-speaking countries. In Sweden we celebrate Easter by eating a big variation of food on a big table. When the times hits 12 all people in the towns goes to a specific place where all towns has it own bonfire. The bonfire is light and we shoots rockets in the air. The tradition says that we are doing this to scare the witches away to a place called Blåkulla for another year. The Christians in Sweden celebrate Easter because it’s the day Jesus got crucified.

Here we also have a tradition called midsummer. This tradition is not celebrated in other countries so this one is special for us. You eat Herring and potatoes which you don’t eat at other traditions and dance around something called a Maypole. It’s called a Maypole cause midsummer is celebrated in May. The tradition is most about being with the family but is most oriented to the children.

The last big tradition is the New Year who kinda obvious is celebrated at the night between 31st of December and 1st of January. When the clock hits 12 and it’s a new year, people shoots rockets and drinks champagne. This is a terrible night for cats and other animals outside that don’t like loud noises.

(Image taken from “http://www.tomelius.se/Blogg/midsommar08jM.jpg”)