The Mango Scandal

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I used to looove mango as a child. The sweet-sour orange fruitiness with a slight flavor of cedars, could there be any better fruit?! When my mom brought them home on summer days I didn't know where they came from. Today I do and as a consequence I don't buy them anymore.
I was skyping with one of my friends from one of the biggest mango-growing countries, India, just the other day. She is a very sweet girl from Pune. Two years ago when I visited her and her husband they told me about the mango season. The fresh Indian mango is nothing like the unripe green desaster we get in the supermarkets here. They were talking about the quality of their mango with dreamy eyes, in short, they absolutely made my mouth water.
But then they told me that the best mangoes never reach the Indian people. They are shipped to the international markets right away.
Now, two years later, things have gotten worse. It is mango season right now and my friend told me they've had a single mango and only because someone has given it to them. The price of mango is so high that she simply can't afford anymore - and she belongs to the Indian middle class. The wikipedia entry listing uses of mango in Indian and Pakistani cuisine stretches three paragraphs. How will that work when no one can afford them anymore?

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I told her that I don't buy mango in Germany, though I love them, as they are either unripe or brought by plane, which is environmentally insane. I didn't dare telling her how many mangoes I see rotting in our supermarkets until noone wants them anymore...
That's a downside of globalization.
What do you think? Can we make a change buy responsible shopping or are we helping the markets of the country of origin by buying tropic fruit? Which fruit are "exotic" in your country? Do you buy it?

Series: Cultural Stereotype Buster: Western people are more hygienic - NOT!

Western people are so much more hygienic. They don't eat with their hands, don't spit on the floor, have superclean flats and streets, don't blow their nose with their hands, you know what I'm talking about... When I encountered other cultures more intensely this world view that I had absorbed from my environment was suddenly challenged.
The first time was with an Italian friend of mine on my stay abroad in Ireland. A group of some of my international student friends was discussing hygiene and my Italian friend complained that there wasn't a bidet in any bathroom in Ireland. He asked how you are supposed to clean yourself after the toilet without a bidet. My Dutch friend and I told him that that was what the paper was for. He looked at us in disgust and said: "But that's not enough to clean yourself!"
You haven't seen a bidet yet? Neither had I when I went to Italy for the first time as a teen. This is what I discovered:

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As you can see, it's a very low washbasin. My first thought was that it looked like a men's toilet. My parents were so kind as to explain... Still, being told how to use it and being able to use it properly are two different things.  If you ever come in need of using one, here's a description of how to handle the situation (believe me, a bidet is not self-explanatory, really).
In India I have seen heaps of trash on the street. People spit on the ground in public and had no (!) toilet paper. On the other hand, Indians keep the left hand off the food at all times. One hand is the one for the bathroom and the other for the food. I guess many Indians don't mind if us Europeans struggle to eat with only one hand and use both, but they'd never do it themselves. And if you've ever tried to rip some bread off a loaf with one hand you know a second hand comes in handy. If you're saying this is just a small exception to an otherwise less hygienic people let me tell you you are wrong. How do you drink straight from a bottle? Well, you surely put the bottle to your lips and - Not the Indians! They pour the water in their mouth without touching the bottle with their lips. They use their right hand to hold the bottle to keep it above the mouth and then pour the water. Unfortunately I don't think there is a video online showing how it is done. Drinking like that requires quite some practice. Lucky for me it is warm in India and it wasn't so bad that I spilled water all over my clothes...
Eating with only one hand and not drinking straight from the bottle are both measures that reduce the risk of infection by bacteria in the warm and humid Indian climate.
Other Asian countries also have hygiene habits that are stricter than Europe's. Whenever I see pictures of streets in Japan and Singapore I am amazed by the cleanliness of the streets. Not one piece of paper in any of the images. They must either be really disciplined photoshoppers or they just have much cleaner streets than us Europeans. I know the punishment for littering is quite high in Singapore and I'm not sure about Japan, but rules like that wouldn't work that well here.
How about you? Did you visit a country that had much stricter hygiene habits than your home country? How did you feel? Did you follow or stick to your own system?

SERIES: Unravelling Foreign Craftiness: KIRIGAMI

Oh, I get the "being a noob"-feeling smacked in the face so often since I've started blogging a month ago. Now I have accidentally deleted one of my best posts (as I thought I was just deleting duplicate copies). I have a backup, but all your lovely comments are lost. I am soo sorry and sad. You're probably not going to make this mistake, but let me tell you, always check which version you are actually deleting. I also have to redo all the links :-( So here is the recovered version:


Part one of uncovering foreign craftiness will feature Japan. Some of you might know Kirigami already. I'll give you a little portrait about the craft, some resources to get started and my own experience when I tried my luck. I used to do kirigami a little as a kid (cutting snowflakes...) but apart from that I didn't have a lot of experience. Then one of my swap-partners and first blog followers was so sweet to send me a kirigami starter kit. Also see the next post for a tutorial of a kirigami window hanging.

Craft

Kirigami

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History and Role in the Country
As you could have guessed, the first part of the name "kirigami" means "to cut" and the second "paper". Cutting the paper is often combined with folding the paper.
I couldn't find a lot about the history and role of kirigami. Several sites mention that kirigami goes back a long time and was used to create offerings for the gods in temples. It later became recognized as an art form. Today many primary school children learn it by cutting snowflakes or making paper doll chains.
Artists on the other hand create amazingly complex designs as you can see on this page (that is also a good starting place for information about kirigami).

How it is done
There are millions of ways to do kirigami. You can fold the paper first and then cut away shapes to create symmetry or even fold in between. It completely depends which project you'd like to do. Have a look at what you get when you search for kirigami in flickr. Amazing variety, isn't it?!

The snowflake is a good place to start as the complexity is only determined by your skill, it doesn't take too long (not like an altered book project), the ingredients are cheap and the results are very interesting designs. And you won't necessarily end up with a snowflake as my how-to shows...

Here's a tutorial of how to create the basic snowflake:



Here's a more complex one (although the background music makes is quite annoying after this long winter...). As you can see, there are different folding techniques. 



Ok, but what do you do with all the snowflakes you created? This designer's site has some awesome and stylish products made from kirigami designs. He makes them from fabric or uses the designs as stencils.
Aren't these coasters nice:

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If you are in a place that has internet but no paper, this site has a game that lets you cut snowflake designs (with straight lines). It is also nice practice at times.

Here's a video that shows you how to do a three dimensional christmas tree with star on top by combining folding and cutting. Not really in season, but it's lovely.

Beginner's review
Difficulty: 
Totally flexible. When you start with the snowflake even kids can do it and at the same time there is no upper limit. The complexity of the design will reflect your skill. If you aim higher and attempt some pop-up shapes or architecture, the difficulty increases significantly. Beware as you can become frustrated if you aim too high.

Equipment:
You only need good paper scissors and paper. My scissors had a round point which was helpful as it didn't get caught in the details I had already cut. A sharp point is probably better for details though. Use thin paper for snowflakes so the multiple folds don't get too bulky. I used thin origami paper. You can use different colors so you'll get more than just white snowflakes.

Fun factor:
High. It was fun to do something I've done as a child but now on a more advanced level. Also, cutting snowflakes doesn't take long and the end result is always a nice surprise. So five stars for fun factor!

SERIES: Cultural ambassadors: BRAZIL (Cross-culture email connection)

Next in our series is fancy Brazil. This should be interesting as we rarely hear anything about Brazil apart from football. That's why I'm very curious about my fellow swapper's portrait of his home country.

A little about Brazil

Breakfast

Well, i'm not used to eat breakfast. When i do, it´s chocolate milk. But when i eat a biiiig breakfast, it's bread, with butter or cream cheese, a juice, a piece of cake (corn or orange cake). Sometimes we have something that i call "cheese bread" (translating exactly as we say in portuguese), but is also known as "cheese roll", and it´s delicious. I included a recipe here, so everyone can try it. Is really common here, eveywhere you can find them frozen or just recently off the furnace.

Day at work

I´ll describe how my day was today, march 24. I went to work by car, my mom drove me because i´m getting my driver´s license just now. As i´m a journalist, i write at a local newspaper, and at the same place runs a tv channel (only cable, but still) and we try at most to do the same news for both. I got there and as i get 1pm, i have to listen to everything the other reporters already did and write it down. So, today we had a non-profit organization group called Amor-Exigente (Toughlove), with two interviews about their work in Teresópolis, where i live. Then, a community manifesto about the bad maintenance of a street, also with an interview.

I went to my lunch break and payed the first tax to get my driver´s license, R$174, about U$90.

Back at work, i started writing the texts. While at the Toughlove story, i had to stop and listen to another and more important interview about city´s health problems - really political and problematic story, but there we go.

In the meantime, some crazy old man showed up in the reception asking about an article that he insisted was not on the air or in the newspaper. Crazy because it was, two days ago, but he insisted that it wasn't and started yelling and stuff....Big mess. The reporter who was responsable for that article went downstairs to talk to him, and came back crying. With this situation, the guys went there and explained, for the 468768418th time, that it was broadcasted, and he "understood" and went away.

Then i was only writing, i also ate some cookies and laughed a little with my co-workers, but that was it.

By 6pm, my editor went to college - he´s into biology - and i finished the articles and waited for my boss - and the person who design the newspaper - to start mounting the first page.

As we had some difficult articles, i had to wait until one of the reporters finished it so we could send the first page to print. And by 7:30 i was getting a cab and going home.

- what a "SHORT" description, huh?

Day off

Here in Brazil we have  a loooooot of holidays, but since i started working at the newspaper (since july, 2009), i don't have much options than the weekends. When it´s a Friday, most likely i´ll have it as day off. But any other day, i´ll have to work...Carnival in Brazil means at least three days off - i had none and worked more than normal days.

In weekends, i like to stay at home watching tv series, sleeping and playing games. But i also go out, at night, to bars or to friend´s houses. Sundays means sleep and crafts day for me, but my boyfriend/fiancee/hub (well, nine years together!) doesn't get really excited when it comes to crafts, so...Sometimes i have to craft another day.

About Brazil

 

My country is in a really good position now. Except for the fact that it´s still considered "third world". From the outside, people get a totally wrong and different view of Brazil. No, we are not just forest, we do not live with monkeys, we have malls, cars, food...The metropolises are well developed, slightly different from NY or any other - so people say, i haven't been outside Brazil.

The current president, Luis Inácio Lula da Silva, is getting great publicity and the leaders are starting to trust Brazil and invest, believe and help. Brazil sent more money than most countries, getting close to USA help.

From the inside, we have lots of rotten situations, in politics and society. The police is, in most cases, corrupted and able to take bribes. This happens for cultural reasons, as we call "jeitinho brasileiro" - brazilian way of life. I had to study about brazilian culture in college, and i am pretty aware of this kind of behavior. A friend of mine was in Canada for Winter Olympics for OBS, and we were talking last weekend about the subway. In Vancouver, people only have to pay for a ticket and get in. Here, it would be IMPOSSIBLE to implement a system like that - because of this brazilian way of life: everyone would find a way to cheat. If you are a tourist, you must pay attention when you get a cab, cause even the taxi drivers take longer routes, charges way more, this kind of stuff.

Internally, Brazil is a good place to live, but you have to be at the "middle class". You have to get private health services, private schools. The public colleges are well seen but not really the better option. The public bus is not great either and, specially in Teresópolis, is way too expensive.

In politics, we´re in an election year. We will vote for president, senator, and something that we call "deputado", but i could't really find how to translate that. It´s a representative politic between state and federation, below senators. We have to vote for a federal and one for the state. It´s like this: city council (10 in Teresópolis) -> mayor -> deputado for the state (70) ->  governor -> federal deputado (513) -> senators (81) -> president. This way, you can understand what a mess this is: so many politics, so much MONEY they spent that i wonder if this is the case in any other country.

But in general Brazilians are ignorant. A big part of the whole population doesn't know why or how to vote, and sells it for food, cement, anything. Now this is starting to change - here in Teresópolis, the mayor won the election showing a big change in society´s perception. But it hardly happens in other small towns like mine, and...We keep placing these bad people who steal from the government.

Everyone wants to get a public position to work. The contests for a public position - from almost analphabet people to the most graduated ones - are really competitive, and the salaries are that great. The ones who have more money can study better, and these people are better prepared to get these jobs - and this circle goes on and on. I was thinking about having some tests, trying to get a public job, cause is really stable and pays well, but at the same time i dont think it´s truly fair.

I think it´s enough, i´m talking and talking and i guess it was not supposed to be that big!!!! xD

 

Language

We only speak PORTUGUESE! Most movies that talks about Brazilians puts us talking spanish, but it's totally wrong - all the other countries from Latin America speak Spanish in other dialects. I don´t even know how to say "the book is on the table" in spanish. We do have some natives that keep their languages, but this population is really small.

What we do have is accents: each state has their own way to speak, and it´s really funny. From north to south, we have different slangs and words with different meanings - the portuguese is so rich that learning english gets easy!!

  

 

Minorities

Well, the minorities here i could say it's the native people. But everyone around here is a victim. We have programs for womens, black people, yellow people, white people, blind people, deaf people...I think most of these groups puts themselves in such a victim situation that they become a minority, and it´s bad for everyone.

As we´re such a mixed up race, racial problems are really rare. My grand grand parents were native, portuguese, spanish, european...I have light skin, light brown hair and brown eyes. My boyfriend has the same history in family when it comes to ancients, and he looks much more like a mexican or bolivian person than me. We all look pretty different and all the same - and i think this is how we are supposed to be. No race, just human beings. I have cousins with curly hair, african hair, blond hair...Most people here are this mixed.

But, in the historical roots, the black people were sacrified and still lives in bad condition, as they were also slaves for a long time around here. A big part of slum's population are dark or black people, sadly, with a few natives. We also have a lot of migration, people of northern states coming to the south states like Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and even lower states. These people are often discriminated.

Holidays

The most known are Carnival, easter and christmas. In Carnival, we say that the year does´t start until this holiday. Big party, lot of glitter, party, music. I´m not really into it, i don't have patience anymore.

Easter is chocolate. At the Friday before Easter just fish - as a good and mostly christian country. At Easter Sunday, lots of chocolate! We have our easter eggs totally different: it´s chocolate egg, of all sizes and tastes. Really good, specially if you wanna get fatter!!!

 

National stuff

We have a looooooooot of national things that other countries does not. Fruits are the top one, but breads, sweets, even our barbecue is different! The "cheese bread" is an example, but we have A LOT more.

Guaraná, as an example, competes with COCA COLA over here. Is great, really delicious, and rare around the world. Sweets made with pumpkin, milk, coconut, jellies of all sorts...

Rice, beans, meat, french fries and fried egg is one of the most popular plate, but not that typical. In each state we have dishes. In Rio, gust (by google translator of "rabanada"), steak with garlic and lentil soup with sausage are the most common dishes- and delicious!

For products, i can´t really say, as i don´t have much idea of what´s available elsewhere and what´s not. As those huge multinational companies are here too, lots of what i might think is peculiar maybe is sold in any other country. But i surely know that Guaraná is not!! Lol.

 

 

Boys and girls

Well, men and women are no big difference here. We do have people of different religions - from jews to muslims going thru african traditions - but the role of each one is sustained as in United States or Europe.

Women have total freedom, and in Rio the feminist movement is really strong. No, no men in command or telling us what to do! Lol.

As i see, we´re almost equal, except by the fact that jobs use to pay better to men than women. It´s still a social discrimination, but we´re fighting against these situations.

 

Famous one

I think Gisele Bundchen is one of the most famous brazilian. Top model married to Tom Brady, and stuff...Lots of money.

 

Crafts

Well, we have LOTS of crafts. Scrapbooking is not a regular thing, but knitting, crochetting, cross stitch and embroideries are easily found.

 

Religion

We are about 75% catholic. I don´t have a religion, but we have SO MANY options! Buddhism, jewish, catholic, spiritualism, and afro-descendent religions as Candomblé, Quimbanda, Umbanda, and others.

 

Pão de Queijo!

Ingredients:
1 cup tapioca starch
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
6 tablespoons plain yogurt, nonfat or regular
1 cup grated parmesan cheese

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450°F. Put tapioca starch in a metal bowl. Mix oil, water and salt in a pan. Bring to a boil. Pour the sputtering mixture onto the tapioca starch carefully to protect yourself from hot spatters. Mix together with a wooden spoon. Dough will be stiff. When cool enough to touch, add egg and mix well. Blend in yogurt. When well mixed, stir in cheese. Rub hands with oil and form batter into balls. Place on a greased baking sheet. Reduce oven temperature to 350°F. Bake 25_30 minutes, or until done. The rolls puff up during baking, but become flattened when cool

I found a picture for the recipe, looks delicious, right?! 

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Another thing that is probably not that commonly known. While Brazil's biggest city is Sao Paulo, the actual capital is Brasília.
I found a nice pic of Sao Paulo by an expat American:

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If the post made you cuious about Brazil and you'd like to learn more be sure to check out this expat's blog. He has a lot of personal expertise and the intercultural background to be able to give outsiders a comprehensible image. Check his tags on the side for special themes such as the big cities, cost of living or politics.


When you hear a description about a different country that you don't know very well, you always connect it to your own experience from your home country or other countries you've visited. This way you create new representations in your brain by evaluating similarities and differences. Let me share a few of my thoughts and feel free to comment your own reactions in the comments. I shamefully have to admit I also thought Brazilians speak Spanish. Won't make that mistake again. Getting the driver's license, for example, seems to be cheaper in Brazil. I start getting the feeling it is cheaper and easier in any other country. In Germany it costs about 2000 Dollars and many many hours...

I also found interesting that German and Brazilian Easter customs are so much the same. We have chocolate eggs as well and there is Good Friday before Easter Sunday when people usually eat fish. See the power of the Christian religion. The situation about men and women is also pretty similar here. I think it is the same in many countries that have gone through a strong period of emancipation. Women have the same rights as men, can vote and choose any job they want but are still not paid the same as men and don't reach top positions as easily.


When researching Brazil I found another nice pic:

 

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Does this look like Germany to you? It does, but it is Blumenau in Brazil, where there used to be strong German influence through immigrants. There were even German schools. After a nationalization campaign and WW2 that became less and less and today these villages speak Portugese as well.

Finally, here's another great reason to visit Brazil: The waterfalls at Iguazu, which are shared by Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil.

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Thanks to our fellow swapper for the great description. 
I hope you enjoyed this. Also check out the other entries if you haven't yet or leave comments below.

DISCLAYMER:

All umarked text in this post was supplied by a third party. The opinions expressed are not the same as those of the author of this blog. According to §§8 to 10 of the German Tele-Media Act, I am not obligated to monitor third party information provided or stored on my website. However, Ishall promptly remove any content upon becoming aware that it violates the law. My liability in such an instance shall commence at the time I become aware of the respective violation.

Visit to the Netherlands - part 2

As my fellow swapper in the cross-cultural email connection swap explained here, there are some current developments in the Netherlands that are quite worrisome. The "party of freedom" (how ironical) and their party leader Geert Wilders are on a roll against minorities in the country, abusing the economic crisis and rising tensions for their own twisted rhetorics. He even dares talking about deportation. Unfortunately Wilders is a very intelligent character with great debating skills. We've seen that strategy before...
Due to our German history much of this happens under cover here, whereas in neighboring countries it is discussed publicly (see Switzerland for the minaret ban proposal). I am not saying this is better or worse. Just in general it seems a common theme that the old mechanism of difficult economic and political times and the search for easy scapegoats along with xenophobia is starting once more. For me it was especially hard to believe that the age of the 60s had left so little effect in Germany. I mean the people in power right now were part of the movement that demanded prosecution of WW3 crimes and attacked their parents for tabooing everything that had happened.
My Dutch friend told me he really loved de Hague, but he couldn't warm up to it as so many people voted for Wilders. I wonder if the situation will get worse once more or people will realize sooner where this might be going.

The Netherlands used to have a very multicultural, tolerant image in the past, which they are slowly losing. The problems of integration are boiling up just as they are in Germany and other countries.
This picture very much reminded me of the USA. On this square kids from Africa and the Middle East were playing together. On the next it was the Asian kids...

We have large city areas with majorities of Turkish people. It is natural that these areas develop (think China Town for another example) but still, the trend to ghettoization is quite sad. Mosques are often actually doing quite a bit of work opening the communities and creating dialogue with German neighbors. Multiculturalism really is nothing to be proud of, interculturalism is.

Hmm. Naming similarities is more difficult than finding differences. How typical :-(
Well, the Netherlands and Germany share a good deal of media, education, economic, political and religious

factors. In consequence it is quite easy for my friend and me to converse without much need for explanations.
Another thing that the Netherlands and Germany share, for example, is that they have three layers of governing: federal, provincial (in Germany it is state level) and communal. You can see the flags of all Dutch provinces here (the one of Holland with the hearts and diagonal blue stripes is best known, I think):

The middle layer of government, so to say, doesn't have as much power in the Netherlands as it does in Germany. That means over here you might get in trouble if you change from one federal state to the next as a high-school-student (and a few of them are only city-size), because the school systems are completely different. It makes a lot of things very complicated, as you can imagine.

Ok, enough of the complicated things. We had great weather and the architecture of the city is very interesting, a blend of historic houses and (mostly) well-designed skyscrapers, where most things are in walking distance.

And finally, just for fun, this picture made me laugh. I am getting the idea this hotel tower is never going to be finished... (if you don't get the joke, check the name of the hotel)

SERIES: Cultural ambassadors: NORWAY (Cross-culture email connection)

The second part of the series is coming to us from Norway. Thanks for the more satirical insight to one of our northern European countries.

Hello everyone =)
This is the Cross-culture Email Connection from Norway!

a description of what you eat for breakfast:
Well, I don't eat breakfast. I'm from a family that has been growling
at each others over bowls of cereal for ages, and, well, it's no use.
I can't find any appetite unless I've been up and about for a while.
But most people in Norway eat slices of bread with some kind of
disgusting stuff on it. Seriously, jam and cheese are OK, but fish in
tomato sauce, some mushed up stuff from liver and other parts of
animals you don't want to know what is... is that a way to start the
day? Not in my world. Some eat cereal, but no one cooks in the morning
here. No egg and bacon, no waffles, hardly any toast, no scrambled
eggs. If you can't make it all with a knife it's not breakfast.

a short description of a typical work day:

Well, for Norwegians it's mostly "management". People here are so damn
spoiled, and eastern European people flock into our country to do the
work that no one here wants to do. If it's not fun and well paid it's
hardly worth doing. And even though Norwegians are winning cooking
competitions all the time we would just starve to death without
Asians. The work hours are 8 hours a day including a 30 minutes paid
lunch, and it's not hard work. I have no idea how we came from Vikings
to this lazy ass shit.

a description of your favorite day off (weekend or holiday):
I have nothing else than days off... But I'm not normal. Most
Norwegian has busy weekends. People that have moved to Norway often
comment about our strange habit of going to "hytta" most weekends. And
yes, it's strange. Norwegians often have at least one "hytte" in the
family, a cabin or second home, either in the mountains or by the sea
(or both). When I grew up we had both a sea and a mountain hytte, one
on either side of the family. It's usually owned by the grandparents
and either sold or inherited when they die. My soon-to-be-in-laws have
a mountain hytte, and me and my boyfriend often go there. Most folks
go there and stay the whole weekend, but we just go after work on
Friday, bring hot dogs to heat in the fireplace and watch all the good
stuff on TV (almost every single good show is running back to back on
Fridays), and just hang out. It's nice to get away from everything,
there is hardly any phone signals up there, the computers stay home,
and there is not any visible neighbors there either. We go back home
again on Saturday morning so that we can do something useful during
the weekend too. Like fix our house, cars, chop wood and things that
take time and has to be done.
But what I want to do over the weekend, when I don't want to get away
or paint something with a big brush is Geocaching. It's not a huge
sport, but there is a lot of caches in Norway, and if the weather is
nice there is nothing better than to get out and see something new. I
prefer caching in cities, mostly because my boyfriend is such a whiner
when it comes to bushes and shrubs. He is scared of bugs, and it's so
funny, because I grew up SO close to the city, and he grew up in the
countryside, and I'm the one that has no problems with nature. I also
like traveling, but a weekend is too short time to see much. We have
been to every single county in Norway, so we need more time to travel.

a short description of your country and its position in the world,
including something you like about it and something you don't like:

Oh boy... Norway is a very very small country, with a very very VERY
big ego. Yes, I know, we are rated as the best country to live in in
the world, every single year by the UN, but we are not important. Ok,
so we contribute with a lot of stuff, Norway is a rich country that
can throw a lot of money at things like earthquakes and tsunamis, and
our doctors seem to want to travel a lot and help out, but we really
don't matter. 4,5 million people can't make a huge impression on the
world. We win in winter sports that hardly anyone watches, we haven't
had a world known politician or musicians since the 80ties, and the
only thing people seem to mention about Norway when I get postcrossing
cards is Eurovision (witch we won last year and hosting this year) and
that they have some relatives that came from Norway. It seems like our
biggest export is people, especially to the US.
I like that we can help out with stuff, and actually be a good example
that it's possible to get over a war (WW2) and come out on top like we
have done. We are lucky to have oil, and we know it. I like the fact
that we stand up to our neighbors in the north with no fear. The
Russians don't seem to get used to being treated like everyone else,
and it's fun to see how they react!

a list of languages (optional: dialects) that are spoken in your country

OH BOY! Seriously. I could talk about it all day. I'll try to keep it short.
We have 3 official languages in Norway. It's Bokmål (regular
Norwegian), Nynorsk (new Norwegian) and Samisk. Samisk is spoken by
the Sami people that live in the area around the common borders of
Norway, Sweden and Finland. If you speak Samisk to someone that is not
a Sami it will get you nowhere. It's a VERY strange language, and you
don't learn it in regular school. Nynorsk is something very strange.
It's a written language, but no one really speaks it! It's a written
version of a lot of dialects, and there is a LOT of dialects in
Norway. It's quite hard to understand people from many places, and I
feel really sorry for all the people moving to Norway that are not
from Sweden or Denmark, because we have soooo many dialects and
strange words from strange places. If you are an expert in dialects in
Norway you can pinpoint where people are from just by listening to
them talk for a while, but it seems like every little town has it's
own words. Just the strange words and dialect from around where I live
has it's own book now. And many of the words make -no- sense. Words
that mean one thing in one part of the country means something very
different somewhere else.
Bokmål is not really spoken either, but close. It's the language that
is most common around our capital Oslo, and it's the language most
kids learn in school. But all kids have classes in both Bokmål and
Nynorsk. The languages are not very different, but most of the grammar
needs to be learned. I really don't think learning Swedish or Danish
would be any harder than Nynorsk or Bokmål. Most Norwegian speak
Swedish quite well if they just dare to try, because we have watched a
lot of Swedish television programs on TV, and nothing is dubbed here.
That also means we speak English very well here, and we actually start
learning English before we learn our second Norwegian language.

description of the role of men and women in your country:

Norway is the country of social inequality. We pride ourselves on the
fact that anyone can be anything in Norway, no matter if they are
rich, poor, man or woman. Education is free and available to everyone.
Men in Norway has to take their part in everything that goes on in the
house, like cooking, cleaning and watching kids. There is absolutely
no rules or regulations that differ men and women in Norway. Still,
women usually earn less than men, and there is more men that are
mechanics and more women in the kindergartens, but it's not because of
any thing other than peoples own choices. We even have high government
officials that only work with equality. Discriminating is frowned upon
from all angles.

a type of craft that is typical for your country
We have something called Bunad. It is a traditional costume, made both
for men and women. They vary from place to place, over 200 versions
are known, and it's a very old tradition. It's kinda hard to explain
how it looks, but it's VERY time consuming to make, and it's way too
hot to wear in the summer. Usually it's worn on our national day (17th
May), weddings and such.
I don't have a Bunad. Mostly because the one made where I grew up is
so damned ugly, and the tradition is that you get the one from where
you came from. But also it's so expensive and they are so heavy to
wear, and sooo much work putting them on. On 16th of May you really
should not call any females, because they are probably angry as hell
as they try to get their Bunad ready, ironing the shirt and polishing
the silver stuff.

[I added links to some pictures for better understanding:
girls wearing bunad
fashion photo of women with bonnets ]

a list of the three most important holidays of your country and how
they are cebrated:

We REALLY do Christmas. Not in the "buy as much as you can and eat
until you drop"-Christmas, there is a lot of gifts, but it's also very
much about the traditions, family, cards, friends, advent calendars
and that the sun is turning and we can look forward to seeing it
again! Much of Norway has what we call Mørketid, Dark Times, when the
sun is not seen for months, or just a tiny bit in the middle of the
day. It is a big deal that it's coming back, and our Christmas
celebration has way more to do with the old Norse mythology, the one
the Vikings believed in. They also celebrated what they called Yule,
that is pronounced much like what we call Christmas now; Jul. It is
believed that Christmas was put to the 24th of December (not 25th like
in the US) because of Yule, witch was celebrated on the 22th, because
we would never give it up anyway and the Christians had to make it
their own. Norwegians are not a religious people at all, so Christmas
is more tradition than anything else. I guess we would celebrate it
the same way if Christianity had never arrived. We also insist that
Santa comes from Norway, and if a letter is sent to "Santa, North
Pole" it ends up in Norway. Someone in the town of Drøbak opens every
single letter.

So that was Christmas. We also have Easter, witch is spent at the
hytte, or if you are a geek, in the worlds biggest LAN party in the
Olympic stadium Vikingskipet. I've been there for the whole easter 5
times, but since I live just 30 minutes away I can meet people that
visit anyway, and I don't have too sleep on the floor and get a
headache from the noise in there. When 5500 geeks are in the same room
it's not quiet! It's very much fun if you know a lot of people that
are there though, and I had a blast, but most of the people I know
that are there are arranging it, and have no time to goof off. Some
people go south for the easter, but it's not very hot yet in the
southern parts of Europe.

Those are the two most important ones, we also have a winter and
autumn-week off, also spent at the hytte (*giggle), and we have time
off on some more Christian days of importance in the spring, and 1th
of May (workers day, most people fix their gardens this day, but it's
supposed to be a day for protest) and 17th of May, witch is The
National Day, spent in Bunad with too much ice cream, walking in
parades with marching bands and waving with flags. It's such a day of
nationalism... But it's fun for the kids, and usually it's a great day
to spend outside.

Hope I didn't bore you to death ;P

How much I'd like a hytte where no one can reach you through modern technology... Preferably this one, oh and the inside, soo nice.

DISCLAYMER:

All umarked text in this post was supplied by a third party. The opinions expressed are not the same as those of the author of this blog. According to §§8 to 10 of the German Tele-Media Act, I am not obligated to monitor third party information provided or stored on my website. However, Ishall promptly remove any content upon becoming aware that it violates the law. My liability in such an instance shall commence at the time I become aware of the respective violation.

SERIES Cultural ambassadors (Cross-culture email connection)

I have initiated a swap on swap-bot that might help to increase intercultural knowledge and understanding and broaden our horizons. Every participant will be an ambassador for his country and give his own subjective view on a number of issues. Some questions are optional, some are mandatory. During the next two weeks I will publish their stories anonymously.

Here the swap-rules for everybody again:

Swap requirements:

There will only be one swapper from each country (post your country in the comments). You will send the same email to 6 people that contains:

• a description of what you eat for breakfast
• a short description of a typical work day
• a description of your favorite day off (weekend or holiday)
• a short description of your country and its position in the world, including something you like about it and something you don't like
• a list of languages (optional: dialects) that are spoken in your country

Also please pick three or more of these:

• a description of the most common ethnic minorities in your country and how they are viewed
• a list of the three most important holidays of your country and how they are cebrated.
• description of some national specialties/products
• a description of the role of men and women in your country
• a famous person from your country and what she/he is famous for
• a type of craft that is typical for your country (doesn't have to be typical ONLY for your country)
• the role of religion in your country

Tell me if you think I've forgotten interesting aspects in the comments.

Important:

This is a swap for cultural understanding. That means please don't sign up if you are a) easily offended or b) like to piss people off ;-) Be mindful about other perspectives and remember that you might be paired with somebody from a country that is at war with yours or has a high level of state propaganda and censorship (and don't assume yours hasn't...). This is why I would discourage any further contact between participants apart from purely positive friendship or penpal request. Don't go spamming someone because you didn't like their country or their answers (or there will be consequences)!