This is summer?

Yesterday, Pete, his mum and I, went to his sister, Yvonne's town about an hour's drive from Malmö.  Her eldest son, Simon, was going through what is called there a 'Konfirmationen' or a 'confirmation'.  I don't exactly know what it is in English, but this is what the young kids there go through after they have finished months of Sunday school.  We were invited to attend the ceremony which was to be held in a church and then we'd go to Yvonne's place for lunch.

We set off at 9.45, in the cold, and windy morning.  The drive there was lovely.  Although it was cloudy, the scenery was gorgeous.  There were fields and fields of green wheat or yellow plants which I learnt would be turned into canola oil.  Beautiful!

 Once we reached the town, Pete's mum had little trouble finding the church.  But there were a lot of other people there so we had to park a bit out of the way and walk to the building.  Once I stepped out of the car, I was frozen.  The wind was strong and on top of that, it was raining lightly.  The raindrops were like blasts of ice water.  I shivered as I walked pass the neatly maintained graveyard, not because of the graves, but because of the cold.  And boy was it cold! I was wearing my summer coat which offered me little protection from the freezing, harsh wind and the fine, cold raindrops.

Other people were also making their way into the church.  Simon's group had 12 other kids so the small church was packed.  We joined Yvonne, who was already there with her 2 other children.  Sitting there, I looked curiously around me, taking in the stained glass windows, the lovely shade of green of the pews, the huge painting in front of me and also of the other Swedes there.  I felt like I was in a quaint little village.

inside the church

outside the church

Simon is the one in the middle

The ceremony took about a little over an hour.  The whole ceremony was in Swedish, of course, and Pete took it upon himself to be my translator.  I suspect it's just so he would not fall asleep :P I took it as a Swedish lesson.  As they sang, I tried to learn the pronunciation of the words.  Like some English words, they are not pronounced the way they are spelt.  This is not going to be easy!

Back at Yvonne's place, we were nice and warm and there I met up with his other sisters and nieces and I finally met his oldest sister.  They are chatty and funny.  They do like to joke and tease each other.  Now, if only I can speak Swedish...Yeah, they talk mostly in Swedish and someone, usually Pete, will translate for me.  And they do speak in English to me.  But oh, how I would love to I learn the language.

Yvonne served a Greek salad with feta cheese and olives, Swedish potato salad, grilled chicken drumsticks, cold cuts, a chicken quiche lorraine, and slices of baguettte.  Then later, there was tea and coffee to go with a selection of cookies and the very Swedish princess cake - a thin layer of sponge cake with a generous layer of whipped cream, covered with green marzipan.

We left soon after since we wanted to visit his youngest sister who was warded at the hospital in Malmö.  While waiting to get into the car, the guests who were standing outside the house to smoke, were huddled together, Pete's sister being one of them.  She was hugging herself while saying that it's too cold for summer.  Summer?  Yes, she said, according to the calendar, it's supposed to be summer.

When we reached the hospital, the parking was outdoors so we had to brave the rains and wind again.  We all pulled our jackets tight and brisk walked to the building.  Inside the wards, it was warm and nice.  It smells of coffee inside, so unlike the wards in hospitals back home.  There's even a small cosy room for visitors and we were welcomed to help ourselves to the coffe and tea.  We only have to pay a small sum for it.  The warm drink was such a blessing.

His sister is being warded for some pains in her abdomen and the doctors were going to do some tests to determine the cause.  She had to still be warded until then, I guess.  I hope they will be able to treat her.  She is also preganant, which makes it difficult to do more tests on her.

Soon, it was time to head back to the car.  The gloomy weather didn't let up.  I was so glad to be in the warm apartment.  As we wind down the day and prepared for supper, the rain stopped and the sun came up.  It was close to 7pm and it was bright!  Well, that's Swedish summer, I guess.