A weekend with the family

This weekend, I visited the former home of Per Erikson, my great great grandfather. He had 8 or 9 children, Arvid, Gustav, Erik, Anna, Hilda, Jenny, some others I can't remember now, and my great grandfather Axel Pearson (back then if you were Per's son, your last name reflected that fact, I'm guessing Per's father was named Erik...) Axel eventually immigrated to Chicago along with his brothers. Jenny had wanted to go to America, but wasn't allowed to. So she remained in Sweden and eventually inherited the family home. Meanwhile, in Chicago, Axel married a woman named Elsa and had a child, Marian, who had 2 daughters, one of which was Janet, and she had 2 daughters, including a beautiful baby named Amy. You still with me? So in short, Marian is my grandma. Ok, so Jenny had a daughter who had a son an his name is Björn. Bjorn is married to Kajsa and they have a son in college (or rather university) named Jerker. They had lived in Stockholm for several years, but when Bjorn retired, they moved out to the old family home in the country where they live now. So I guess that makes me some sort of 2nd niece of Björn's, 3rd cousin to Jerker, or my own grandpa...either way, I'm related to these people. Of all the children of Per and their families, the only one that Björn managed to stay in contact with was my grandmother Marian. So they write letters to each other a few times a year. My grandma had mentioned in one that I would be studying in Sweden and they offered to have me stay there whenever I wanted.

The Pearson family home

Now that we're done examining that branch of my family tree, I'll tell you about my weekend in the country visiting Björn and his family. I did all sorts of typical Swedish stuff. I've only met a few Swedish people in Stockholm so far so this was very exciting for me. Anyways, everywhere you go in Sweden you see these yellow mushrooms for sale. I have always been curious to try them, as the Swedish people seem so obsessed with them. In the woods outside of Björn's house, many of these mushrooms grow, and if you're quiet and you look hard enough, you can find them. So we went out searching in the afternoon, and we found quite a lot, 2 kg (4.4 pounds). We then went back to the house and cleaned each one with a little brush, which took a long time. But if you're drinking at the same time, this task isn't so bad. They gave me lots to drink. When I first got there they gave a beer, then more beer with dinner, and a shot of aquavit (a popular Scandinavian liquor) during dinner (shots with dinner is very common in Sweden, I told them that this is typically not the case in the states....) then whiskey after dinner...beer with lunch, gin and tonic in the afternoon, more whiskey, more shots...anyways, I tried my best not to drink too much, as I didn't want to appear like an obnoxious drunk to my hosts. But the were very insistent...I suppose this is how we can tell we're actually related...

But enough about alcohol. I'll tell you more about the food (this is what you've been waiting for Jake) Besides the mushrooms which we worked so hard on, I tried a lot of traditional Swedish foods, which I either had read about or had seen at the store but had no idea how to prepare correctly. The thing I'm most proud of trying was herring. They put herring in a jar filled with vinegar, onions, and sugar, then eat it with potatoes (we ate a ton of potatoes that weekend) or with knäckebröd (this hard cracker type thing that they devote an entire aisle to at the grocery store) This was surprisingly good. I also tried beets. Now I know what beets are, but I don't think I ever bothered to try them. These again were in a jar with some sort of sugar liquid, and were very good. We attempted to go crayfishing as well. We went out on the lake and dropped in some cages. The next morning we went back only to find that we had caught none. They say a disease from Denmark came and killed most of the crayfish in the area. Stupid Denmark. But this was alright, I secretly wished for failure. As you might remember from my last post, I do not like crayfish (So, thank you Denmark....) Oh and we drank quite a lot of coffee. 3 or 4 times a day we'd sit for an hour and drink coffee (and whiskey...) and talk. I had read that Swede's like their coffee, and I can assure you this is true. Anyways, after than weekend I never want to see another potato or cup of coffee again! (Actually I just had potatoes last night, and I'm drinking a cup of coffee as we speak...I'm so Swedish)

Gosh so much already. You can stop reading now if you wish. But I want to remember my weekend, so I'll keep writing. On Saturday, we woke up early and first checked the crayfish cages, and then drove out to a iron mine nearby. In this area of Sweden, known as Västmanland, there are many mines- copper, iron, silver- but most of them are closed by now. Now this particular mine, which I remember correctly was called Stråssa, was on top of a hill with a beautiful view of the villages in the area. It was a bit gloomy outside that day, so I don't think my pictures really do it justice. After our visit there, we drove through the woods to the Löa smelting house, which Björn and the other families in their village (of 300) each own a part of. It is no longer in use, but it is now a museum and a popular (maybe popular isn't the right word here...sometimes frequented) tourist attraction. I learned all about the process used to convert iron ore into iron in the 18th and 19th centuries. I won't make you listen to that. But I will tell you that I found some pretty sweet rocks. The rest of the evening was spent picking mushrooms, drinking coffee, eating Swedish food, and looking at old pictures of the family. We spent the next day driving around the area looking at some of the old villages and towns, and some of their smelting houses (these are called hytta in Swedish by the way and every village in the area seems to have one- not all are as well preserved though as the one I visited) We spent awhile in Örebro, the 7th largest city in Sweden, which has a very nice castle (former prison) in the middle of the city. On Sunday afternoon we said our goodbyes and I took a bus back to the city.

View from the Stråssa mines

Anyways, I was very lucky to have a opportunity like this. It was a bit awkward at first, as I had never met Björn before, well I suppose they visited Chicago when I was 2, but that doesn't count. I felt bad making them speak English all weekend (well I didn't make them, but they were very good hosts and were careful to always make me feel welcome) but their English was very good anyways. I may visit them again sometime this semester. They told me I was welcome anytime. And I would like to, that is if I manage to find a free weekend...I'm planning way too many trips. So that's it. If you want to know more about iron mining, just ask me. I think I know way too much on the subject now...

If you care to see more pictures from my weekend, here they are:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30355022@N06/sets/72157607197969241/