I had missed the joy of telling you how lovely the party was in Lysekil over the past weekend- that celebrated the 25th birthday of "Laney"- ( no! not her real name) - my sister-in-law's oldest son's SAMBO.
It WAS a lovely party! Much fun was had -indeed. Memories were had and made. And the birthday girl was MOST adorable -as she always is! I enjoyed sitting with all my "swedish family"- chatting and trying -if not soooo noticeably to overcome my abject horror at speaking swedish and trying to really get in to it!
I enjoyed catching up with Ilyssa- the sister -in-law-always just da best!, listening to Alfie's tales of spending a WEEK! with 2,000 scouts camping in the pouring rain, seeing Eytan-off on a rare break from working too much, and darling Miles and Pernilla- always a fabulously adorable eye-candy couple ! and fun to chat with too! And meeting all of Laney's family was a blast. I even chatted with her Farmor in SWEDISH a bit! WOAH!
That said- parties are different in this part of the world.
HERE-at least for this fun occasion- there were actually ORGANIZED "Activities" and Events in a party - so it seems!
There is Arrival Time- and I'll be gosh-danged if that isn't always RIGHT-ON-TIME, Eatin' Time, Present Openin' Time, the Singing-and-Drinking Hour(s) Time- all perfectly logical to me- and..... apparently....a SPORTS -Time! Yeeeeessiirreeee!-when I asked incredulously- this party had a Sporting Event!......for a-d-u-l-t-s!! Now this was a first!,but, hey, I went along with it - and it was actualleeee.....way fun....
Now, back "in my country", if there is ever any appointed time for any activity at a party-( at least for adults) , after the "Hey, thanks for coming , have a beer,"- I must have missed it. THIS-however- was ORGANIZED.
My husband - it seemed,also,(while i had been busy helping prepare the chicken skewers ) had assumed "some sort of responsibility" for gearing up the Sports Portion of the Event. At the appointed hour for said activity,we all headed out to the near by soccer field for this Sports Event Portion. Various games,inclusive of CHICKEN SOCCER!( yes, but that's ANOTHER blog!).....to....a game of "BRANNBOLL"( with 2 friggin' dots over the "A"-ok!?)-
BRANNBOLL-a.k.a.- the Ever- Egalitarian-Swede's-Response-to-American-Baseball...( PIX of game above is NOT from the party-no one's downloaded yet... )
The hubbie apparently was to be the referee.( i declined to play and sat on the sidelines....) He stood there on the side,kept score, recorded time, (called for the mid-game oddly " FIKA-esque" BEER BREAK- of course!) and in the end was to Announce-the-Winner...
Many people played very hard- and drank beer in line waiting their Egalitarian turn ( natch!)- and SIXTEN scored several home runs!! ( GO, SIXTEN!)- I was routin' for him! He was the best out there!
-Plenty of FUN- much Joy of Competition and Merriment had by All-
then Roy called for the Game Completion -AND-it came time to Announce the Winning Team!-
or , at least I thought....
this is where I was wrong....
Roy called both teams over for the STARTLING WINNING RESULTS- only to find out: THAT THERE WERE NONE!!!!
It seems, BOTH teams, he explained, had had various meritorious moments-( a home run for team A - a remarkable CATCH by TEAM B) etc, etc, but in the end - this was- in fact-that BOTH TEAMS had .....WON!
REMARKABLE- isn't it? NO- this wasn't even a TIE!- both teams had ACTUALLY WON!
Now after that- everyone seemed perfectly happy with these results, much back slapping, frivolity,laughing, and general gayness on everyone's faces.....
Then they all picked up to return back for Cake Eatin' and Coffee Portion back at the house....
but,WOAH! I had to check it out!
I grabbed the score pad out of the hubbie's hands. Sure enough, best i could make out from his hen-scratch score-keeping, there WERE more points on one side than the other.....( I HATE to BREAK it to you guys if you were there- THERE WAS A WINNER!)
-"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN- BOTH TEAMS WON!? Didn't you add it up?! for God's Sake!?!? WHO WON? Why didn't you tell them!?!? Wouldn't they want to know, for Chrissake!?!"
(-thinking how well Sixten had played alone! his OWN SON! surely he would want to know!!)
"WWEEeeelllll, the problem was.....," Roy-of-the-Even-Temper explained," The Birthday Girl was on one team, and her brother that helped most to organize all of the sports events was on the other team. Now if one team had won and the other hadn't.... well.... that just wouldn't have been right, would it?"
"WELL, HELL YA!! It would have! THIRTY -FIVE people just took an hour to play a game and they all tried very hard- OF COURSE- they 'd like to know if they WON or NOT!"
to which i got just about this:
" Well, he said, ".....no, you just can't do it that way...it's just not the way it's done...."
and-so- that was it- no winners , no losers, and I - who hadn't EVEN PLAYED- seemed to be the ONLY one that was UPSET about it!!!...
This event alone explains (or reinforces to you-that-know-all-too-well) REAMS about the Swedish Culture.
Just REAMS...egalitarianism,keeping the peace,not rocking the boat, avoiding possible confrontation,etc. , just REAMS.....
....Truly ,its' at times like this, I realize that I came from Jupiter and landed on SOMETHING the other side of Pluto- and, to quote Jerry Seinfeld-"NOT that there's anything wrong with THAT( the other side of Pluto)".
Back home it wouldda been a cold day in hell- before we wouldn't have taken our gloves off and fought through to a fifteenth over-time until we at least got ....a WINNER!!!!
What's wrong with WINNING or LOSING!? Someone has to do one of each-right? And sometimes you win and sometimes you lose- all that stuff...right?
If you're an adult - you get over losing fairly easily , i think- or seek revenge at next years ' party game- right!?.....
I returned with the Hubbie to the Cake Portion of the Awfully Lovely Party with an empty feeling in my stomach. Really. Perhaps that's why I had to try ONE of EACH of the 4 CAKES there!.....
so -obviously- the swedish words of the day are:
- BRANBOLL- with 2 dots over the "A"- that's -UNTRANSLATABLE- but: the swede's "knock-off" of "the game that Ruth built!"
- VINNARE- the WINNER! well!.....at least they have a WORD for it....i'm almost shocked!
- FORLORARE-( with a 2 dots over the first stinkin' O- ok!?)-that's the LOSERS-"not that there's anything WRONG with THAT-either!!!")
and as it turns out- with 4 slices of cake sittin' in my belly -STILL needling the hubbie to see who REALLY WON- I apparently was the only one there that felt like a bit of a FORLORARE- ( again with the dang dot-s- somewhere)!!
And as to a LESSON for my SOUL: ENJOY NEW THINGS!-even if i can't bite off total egalitarianism -yet -probably EVER!!! OH - and TO be sure to ALWAYS say:
HAPPY B'DAY ,LANEY ( WINK! ^_-)- it was a blast!
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