It is summertime and we fill our house in Ulricehamn with Dutch friends and our summerhouse in Vegby (small town outside Ulricehamn) with even more friends. I love summer in Sweden and always enjoy showing family and friends the beautiful place we live in. This is, when the sun is shining or at least when it is somewhat dry. There is nothing better than a canoe trip on the lake or a bicycling trip on a sunny day as the surroundings are amazing here. However, when it keeps on raining Ulricehamn does not have a lot to offer. The swimming pool is closed, there is no museum open and the library is closed Friday to Monday morning. We have been to the science museum Navet in Borås and to Gothenburg which is great but I wish there was more to do in Ulricehamn. The bowling alley stays open but some kids are just too young to enjoy it. I guess I shouldn’t complain. Rain is better than drought and so far summer has been quite all right. We have filled the summerhouse with games, DVDs and some extra raincoats. However, there must be some business opportunities for anyone with a bright indoor idea!
I had two weeks of holiday in June and spent it on Rhodos with the family reading books in the sun. During two weeks I read six novels and four children’s books (I love reading for the kids) and one of the books I read was “A short story of Tractors in Ukrainian” by Marina Lewycka – a funny, crazy and tragic story. The book starts out like this;
"Two years after my mother died, my father fell in love with a glamorous blond Ukrainian divorcee. He was eighty-four and she was thirty-six. She exploded into our lives like a fluffy pink grenade, churning up the murky water, bringing to the surface sludge of sloughed-off memories, giving the family ghosts a kick up the backside."
This family drama is also a story of emigration, fulfilling dreams or chasing them. Somehow I always fall for books where people take a leap into the unknown or take charge of their own destiny (whether or not they do the right thing which you can ask yourself in this book).
Some people who are about to take a leap into the unknown shortly is the Dutch family moving to Ulricehamn now in August. A family of five plus an English bulldog is moving here and starting up a new life. For years they have dreamt about a life in Sweden, taking Swedish lessons and spent their holidays in Sweden. With a job in Gothenburg they now have the possibility to fulfil their dream and I wish them all the best. This summer we also had some other Dutch families from the emigration fair visiting the region and having a look at job possibilities (part of the emigration project I´ve been working on). So far our Emigration project is still under scrutiny but I believe we have to keep a very personal approach in this if we want it to work. Emigrating to another country, starting a new life, building up a new social context and achieving a sense of belonging takes time and demands more than a newsletter, a list of real estate agents or a description of the Swedish school system. I know – I have done it!
May 2013
in Ulricehamn
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Friday, July 8, 2011
A story about a cherry
I would like to tell you a story about the importance of a cherry. In the early 20th century an Italian family emigrated to the US. They had a daughter who grew up hearing about this wonderful country far away and when she grew old enough she decided to visit Italy and see this country she had heard so much about. Her name was Cecilia and she did not speak a word of Italian as her parents had fully embraced their new country and wanted their children to exceed in English.
I don´t know what year Cecilia arrived in Italy but Benito Mussolini was not yet a dictator and fascism had not yet taken control over the country so it must have been before 1922. Italy was all she had expected, with all the flavours of long time cherished dreams and it didn’t take long for her to find her soul mate. She married and decided to stay in Italy. In those days deciding to stay in a country as Italy with all of your family living in the US was a most definite decision. Transatlantic flight carrying passengers didn’t start until the middle of the 20th century and she most likely arrived on the transatlantic Italia Line, a ship travelling between the United States and Italy in the beginning of the century.
After Mussolini came to power life in Italy changed. Anyone opposing Mussolini was brutally silenced and Mussolini saw many as his enemies. Being an American in a fascist country was often not seen with positive eyes but Cecilia had made her choice. She had become a mother and Italy had become her home. In the end of the 30s the Second World War broke out with Mussolini supporting Hitler and Germany. Really hard times arrived for Cecilia, her family and many others. But, the war ended and contact was once again established with the family on the other side of the ocean. 80 million people died in the Second World War in Europe and so much was destroyed.
Still, life was turning for the better and Cecilia had become a grandmother. Her granddaughter had been named after her and together they used to open the big cross-Atlantic parcels that arrived from the United States now and then. They contained sliced pineapple and red cocktail cherries in cans – things that was not yet to be found in Italy in the 50s. Cecilia used to bake a special cake with a cream topping. In the middle she would put a red cocktail cherry and her granddaughter, little Cecilia, would be the one who got the cherry - a cherry that would leave a red mark on the white cream topping. Maybe the cherry was a reminder of loved once far away, maybe it carried the hope that life would get better? For little Cecilia I think it showed her that there were more worlds to explore and that love can be transferred in the shape of a cherry.
I was told this story a few days ago by little Cecilia, today a woman with two grown up children. We sat down to have a drink after taking part in a course in Successful Management of EU projects on Cyprus (a course with participants from all over Europe). Some of us got a cherry in our drinks but Cecilia didn´t get one which she did not like. So, she told us her story and obviously got our cherries.
I spent one week on Cyprus this summer with participants from Greece, Slovakia, Rumania, Iceland (living in Denmark), Austria, Germany, Sweden and Italy learning about project management. I am sure we all learned more about project management, but as so often in these international groups, I think the main lesson learned was something else.
I don´t know what year Cecilia arrived in Italy but Benito Mussolini was not yet a dictator and fascism had not yet taken control over the country so it must have been before 1922. Italy was all she had expected, with all the flavours of long time cherished dreams and it didn’t take long for her to find her soul mate. She married and decided to stay in Italy. In those days deciding to stay in a country as Italy with all of your family living in the US was a most definite decision. Transatlantic flight carrying passengers didn’t start until the middle of the 20th century and she most likely arrived on the transatlantic Italia Line, a ship travelling between the United States and Italy in the beginning of the century.
After Mussolini came to power life in Italy changed. Anyone opposing Mussolini was brutally silenced and Mussolini saw many as his enemies. Being an American in a fascist country was often not seen with positive eyes but Cecilia had made her choice. She had become a mother and Italy had become her home. In the end of the 30s the Second World War broke out with Mussolini supporting Hitler and Germany. Really hard times arrived for Cecilia, her family and many others. But, the war ended and contact was once again established with the family on the other side of the ocean. 80 million people died in the Second World War in Europe and so much was destroyed.
Still, life was turning for the better and Cecilia had become a grandmother. Her granddaughter had been named after her and together they used to open the big cross-Atlantic parcels that arrived from the United States now and then. They contained sliced pineapple and red cocktail cherries in cans – things that was not yet to be found in Italy in the 50s. Cecilia used to bake a special cake with a cream topping. In the middle she would put a red cocktail cherry and her granddaughter, little Cecilia, would be the one who got the cherry - a cherry that would leave a red mark on the white cream topping. Maybe the cherry was a reminder of loved once far away, maybe it carried the hope that life would get better? For little Cecilia I think it showed her that there were more worlds to explore and that love can be transferred in the shape of a cherry.
I was told this story a few days ago by little Cecilia, today a woman with two grown up children. We sat down to have a drink after taking part in a course in Successful Management of EU projects on Cyprus (a course with participants from all over Europe). Some of us got a cherry in our drinks but Cecilia didn´t get one which she did not like. So, she told us her story and obviously got our cherries.
I spent one week on Cyprus this summer with participants from Greece, Slovakia, Rumania, Iceland (living in Denmark), Austria, Germany, Sweden and Italy learning about project management. I am sure we all learned more about project management, but as so often in these international groups, I think the main lesson learned was something else.
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