This Week: Huh???

The other day I went shopping, like so many times before. Yes, you guys know me: Annika has a hard time staying away from the stores!
But, actually, I haven’t been shopping all that much since Christmas. I promised myself to lose 5 kilo, or about ten pounds, before heading to the clothing stores again. Unfortunately that has not happened yet. Me losing 5 kilos, that is-so therefore my favorite clothing stores will have to wait…Sigh…
But, of course there are other things a person has to buy: food, presents for parties, gadgets for the home etc.
The other day I went to Target, my beloved store Target, to pick up a new microwave oven and a couple of lamps for our bedroom.
I stood in line, and said nothing more than a “hi” to the cashier…He looked up at me and his next question was:
- So, where you’re from?
- Sweden…
- Oh, all right…so, how come you’re not blonde?
How on earth do I answer to that? As always I gave my tired old spiel: oh, you know not every single person in Sweden is blonde. We come in all hair colors. Sorry to disappoint you…
- No, no…your eyes are so blue…that is so Swedish!
- Oh, all right…
Sometimes I get so tired of that, it gets so old. It is classic line that all of us Swedes that are not blonde have to hear, time and again. I know it is nothing major at all. But none the less, it is a little bit annoying.

Something that also happens every once in a while is a “Bad English Day”. It is sort of like having a bad hair day, like when you hair doesn’t want to co-operate with you, you all know what I mean. Same thing with the English language…Some days it just won’t come out right. You stand there sounding like an idiot trying to explain yourself; ”ahum, you know that thing you use when you turn the channels on the TV…You know!”
-Oh, you mean a remote control.
-Yes, thank YOU!!!
Moments like that are so embarrassing. And you feel like a moron. I guess it happens to all of us. My friends and I talk about the phenomenon every now and then. It has struck us all at some point.
Another thing that I think is truly hard is when a person is spelling something fast . I still, after all these years, have such a hard time sorting a,e and i fast in my head. I get them mixed up with letters in the Swedish alphabet (help!!!). When I worked as an assistant director for a Montessori school in Arlington for a year I took a lot of phone calls, and had to write information and names down on a daily basis. I hated when a person called and spelled his or her name and address in a fast pace. I was lost, many times. Awful.

One of my best friends in the entire world lived in the States for a couple of years. We met when we were au-pairs and became fast and close friends. M was au pair for a year, just like me. She went back to Sweden again and a couple of years later she came back to the states again with her Swedish boy friend. He had landed a high-tech job in North Carolina. That was so much fun for me to have M back in the US again. I had just given birth to Karolina so it was so fantastic to have one of my best friends nearby. M and B came up a lot for visits, and we visited them. M is one of the lucky people with a perfect ear for languages. You cannot hear her Swedish accent. It is non- existent! She sounds like an American when she opens her mouth. That just happened right away. M just picked up the American accent, just like that during her year as an au-pair in Connecticut!!!
Her boyfriend B had this charming Swedish accent (that he really worked, by the way!!!), and he and I were always saying that we envied M so much!! Now M (and B) is back in Sweden again. She moved back about ten years ago. But, her American English is as perfect as always. Not fair 
The rest of us can only dream…the rest of us whom are stuck with our “Very European Accents”.