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Post by varyag on Jun 13, 2009 18:22:56 GMT -6
Hi everybody.
My name is Orjan and i'm from Sweden. I became a member today after lurkin' around this board for some years.
I guess I've been interested in American history all of my life. When I was about ten i asked my dad if we could buy an Amercan flag and hoist on half on june 25 1976, but of course, he said no way.
My interest in the battle and Custer began when i was studying archaeology and anthropology at university some 15 years ago. I found a copy at the university library about the battlefield excavations and that's were it started for me. But I can't remember who wrote it now.
Sweden isn't the best place to live in if you want to be a student of the LBH battle, so I'm really greatfull to all the boards and the people who share their ideas and knowledge. Since I found this board, I've been a member of The Little Big Horn Battle Theory of the Month Club. :-)
All the Best Orjan
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Post by bc on Jun 14, 2009 21:03:05 GMT -6
Welcome Orjan. You can join the other two swedes here, Sven & Ollie. Their wives Olga and Lena show up every once in a while. They are always good for a laugh. Can't keep them guys from horsing around. I married a swede. We went to Sweden in 93. Spent about a week or so there. My wife is working with the Swedish Gen Line people who are putting all Swedish church records online. We live 12 miles south of Little Sweden USA, aka Lindsborg, KS. Where are you from? You can answer that between your raw fish and reindeer snacks.
bc
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Post by varyag on Jun 15, 2009 15:07:42 GMT -6
bc, thanks!
I shamefully have to admit, yes, you can find reindeer snacks here, they are absolutely disgustíng.
I can accept that people belive there are polarbears in the streets, that all girls are blond and answers jaaa to every question, that you can't take more than three stepps before you stumble into pornomovie shoot, that we are communists, etc. I can even under understand those who mix Sweden up with Switzerland, commenting on our excellent watches and exqusite chocolates, BUT RAW FISH!!!!
Are you sure you not mix up your memories from Sweden with a trip to Japan? Maybe you should ask your Swedish wife, Inga.
I've heard about Lindsborg, but I don't know much about it, not more than what's in the articles in Kansas Historical Quarterlies. Aren't there a Swedish community in Minnesota too? I'm looking forward to meet the Swedes.
I live in Asarp, Vastra Gotaland, 20 kilometers south of Falkoping. It's farmland here, some of the farms in the aeria dates back to the 16th century. I live right in the middle of a huge gravefield with it's oldest parts going back to stoneage, 5000 bc, with the carachteristic chambertombs (ganggrifter) and lots of garvemounds, stonecircles,erected stones from the ironage. But before i moved here, I lived in Gothenburg.
Were did you spend your week in Sweden?
Orjan
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Post by bc on Jun 15, 2009 20:32:55 GMT -6
bc, thanks! I shamefully have to admit, yes, you can find reindeer snacks here, they are absolutely disgustíng. I can accept that people belive there are polarbears in the streets, that all girls are blond and answers jaaa to every question, that you can't take more than three stepps before you stumble into pornomovie shoot, that we are communists, etc. I can even under understand those who mix Sweden up with Switzerland, commenting on our excellent watches and exqusite chocolates, BUT RAW FISH!!!! Are you sure you not mix up your memories from Sweden with a trip to Japan? Maybe you should ask your Swedish wife, Inga. I've heard about Lindsborg, but I don't know much about it, not more than what's in the articles in Kansas Historical Quarterlies. Aren't there a Swedish community in Minnesota too? I'm looking forward to meet the Swedes. I live in Asarp, Vastra Gotaland, 20 kilometers south of Falkoping. It's farmland here, some of the farms in the aeria dates back to the 16th century. I live right in the middle of a huge gravefield with it's oldest parts going back to stoneage, 5000 bc, with the carachteristic chambertombs (ganggrifter) and lots of garvemounds, stonecircles,erected stones from the ironage. But before i moved here, I lived in Gothenburg. Were did you spend your week in Sweden? Orjan Orjan, guess I have to correct a few things. We know not all Swedish girls are blond, all you have to do is look under their arms to see who the natural blondes are. I looked all over and couldn't find a pornomovie shoot. I've never met a girl yet who answered Jaa to all my questions, darn it. Communists?, did you guys build the Kia and sell it here? And you didn't fool me with your watches and chocolates but I did load up on some cheap Swedish Army knives and Swedish tulip bulbs. I've been to Japan but couldn't find any knives, tulips, or blonde girls who say jaa all the time. I did find a large supply of resistors and capacitors there. Inga is pronounced Linda in English. Minnesota has 2 or 3 swedish communities but they don't count since most of the state is Norwegian. Lindsborg is where the buffalo were so thick, they drank the Smoky Hill river dry in one spot. A place where NA raiders didn't kidnap the white women, chose to kill instead. You live over in the stone age area. You have the same issue Pakistan and North Korea have: It doesn't do any good to threaten to bomb them back to the stone age since they never left it. Same place Linda's Anderson relatives came from in the Smaland area, town of Habo. Don't suppose there aren't too many Andersons around there, are there? The Johnsons came from Okna. Talk about a needle in a haystack. The Quicks, Gustafsons, and Olafsons all came from Floby not to far from you. The Quick name got started when one joined the Swedish Army and the Army assigned new names. We are planning to go back sometime in the next few years. She knows all the little towns and churchs they came from. Surely you have some relatives in the states. We were with a friend who had relatives about 30 miles south of Stockholm. They had their son and daughter in law let us borrow their apartment for a week. We made trips to Stockholm and for a few days hopped a flight to Helsinki and took a train trip to St. Petersburg, Russia. They cooked a great meal on our last night. Asked what I liked and said mashed potatoes and gravy. She said potatoes and gravy is kind of a delicacy there for special occasions and she made them. We rented a one way car and drove up to Oslo. We have a friend in Oslo who knows more swedish jokes than Carter has pills. Drove back down the west coast, stopped for part of the day in Utabura and checked out the museums and stuff at the port where most people immigrated from. We then spent the next couple weeks with a night in most countries driving down to Denmark, Germany, Poland, Chechoslovakia, Austria, lower Germany, Italy, Switzlerland, Luxemborg, and finally Paris. Think I liked Vienna the best and Berlin was the worst. In Poland, we drove by this Polish police speed trap (I swear to God) where we came out of the forest into an opening that had a forested hill top out in the middle of nowhere, and on this hilltop were two polish cops standing by their police car just a few feet off the road with a hand held radar who were checking cars from behind after the cars had already driven past them!! Which reminds me, do you know how many Swedes it takes to screw in a lightbulb? Do you know why the Swedes settled in Lindsborg in the northern part of my county, and the Russian Mennonites settled in Moundridge in the southern part of my county? (Moundridge got first choice) I kid the Swedes. One of Linda's relatives staked a gold mine claim in poverty gulch in Cripple Creek, Colorado. He sold it and the new owner hit a vein that produced 3/4 of a million bucks. That was around the time his brother was blinded in a mining accident. bc
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Post by varyag on Jun 16, 2009 16:04:17 GMT -6
bc, looking under girls arms to see if they are natural blondes!! That would have been a good advice in 1975. Today most girls and women shaves it off, even here in stoneage country. I don't know what the girls do in wheathead land. Perhaps they shave at the anual squaredance competition to look pretty, put shoes on their feet, brush their teeth, etc. :-) The communist....thing...., took it from the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. A congressmember, I think, accused President Obama for turning America into a "Swedish like" country and of course Jon sent a reporter to do a research on Sweden and Swedish celebrities. It was hillarious. I just love that guy. Perhaps not the best name on a car in english speaking countries. I don't think they know in Asia what the letters stands for. Just take a look here, they don't know anything at all: engrishfunny.com/Many archeologists belive that the stoneage, specially the hunter/gatherer period was the best and most peaceful period in mans history. So by bombing them back to stoneage you might do them a favor. Yes that's true all the towns you mention are just an hours drive from were I live. Actually, I was in Floby yesterday. Speaking of smaland and Okna, my mother was from Vetlanda. I've spent many summers there as a kid. As far as I know, non of my relatives emigrated. It was quiet a trip you made, all those countries. I've only been to Berlin, Paris and Rome. You should be really careful about driving in former communist states, it's not safe even today. In some countries you can't even trust the police. What is Utabura. Sounds like a place in Africa. :-) You are talking about rotesoldater or indelta soldater. Rote comes from the word rotera ( rotate ) All the people living in a county were under the obligaton to supply for normaly one soldier, depending on the size, how many farms etc.. It ment that the other men living in that same aeria never risked being drafted. The soldiers were also given a small homestead to use as long as they were in service. They were usually kicked out when they got older. Once a year the soldiers were gathered, doing military training, etc and it was at these gatherings that they were given their new surnames like quick, thunder, lightening, danger, brave etc, but of course in swedish. We have two sides of the foundation of one of those cottages on our land. I already know those jokes. From the beginning they are Swedish jokes, the Norweigians just nicked them. Orjan
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Post by bc on Jun 16, 2009 16:46:41 GMT -6
Orjan, So your girls figured out how a razor works, eh? Guess it's time to go back then. Forget the squaredance competition, around here we have to drive to the east coast to find a shoe store and to find a store that sells toothbrushes and toothpaste. What do you do with that month off for vacation every summer? Seems like most of you ex-vikings all head to the med for a month. They need a month cause it is a long row by longboat. Utabura is based on swedish phonetic spelling from what the swedes tell me anyway. Give you a hint, the g's may be silent.
bc
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Post by varyag on Jun 16, 2009 17:50:56 GMT -6
Goteborg/Gothenburg?
O
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Post by bc on Jun 16, 2009 18:00:52 GMT -6
Si. My final clue would have been a city where you lived. When we were there that was how they were pronouncing it. How do you pronounce it in Sverige/Schweden/Suede/Ruotsi? bc
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Post by varyag on Jun 17, 2009 12:23:36 GMT -6
Now I see what you mean. I first pronounced it in Swedish, otaborra. :-) When I first read it I didn't understood what you meant so I googled it and the closest hit was a place in Rhwanda, Africa.
But now, I think utabora is pretty close, but let's see if we can do it better.
First, there are two silent G's in it, so drop the last A in utabora and replace it with a silent G. Then there's the first O, that's an O with two dots over it, like the O in my name. This O is pronounced much like the EA in earl or the I in sir.
If we now use the word Yo, like in, Yo man, what's up, and spell Goteborg like this: Yotebory. The last part, borg, is pronounced like the borg in cyborg, but with a silent G.
When you pronounce Swedish words, remember that swedish is a "soft" language, compared to english. Take the name John, to me it sounds almost like Djohn, so try and drop the d-ish sound on the silent G's and the J's.
An American girl, who was learning swedish, told me that we have long words. To explain it she used the word cat, in swedish spelled katt. To her katt sounded like kaaat. I hope i didn't confuse it too much.
No, this year the longboat stays on shore, we need to do some work on our house.
Orjan
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Post by Diane Merkel on Jun 17, 2009 20:52:09 GMT -6
You two should take your comedy act on the road! Welcome, varyag! I'm glad you decided to join us after all this time.
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Post by varyag on Jun 18, 2009 15:32:46 GMT -6
Thank You, Diane.
I didn't picture my membership to start off like this but I've had great fun.
Orjan
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