Grading

Here in Sweden we have the same grades as in the U.S. We have six different steps: A, B, C, D, E and F and the A is the best and the F means that you have failed. It is a little bit hard to get an A in the beginning of a course. This kind of grading has just been introduced to the Swedish school and from the beginning it was MVG, VG and G but the state didn’t think that grading was fair enough and besides it easier to have the same grading as the rest of the world.

Since this grading is very new it is a bit hard to understand even for the teachers but we are working on it. In math the final grade depends a lot on a single big test in the end of the course while in the Social studies the final grade depends on whole course. Most of the pupils don’t like the new grading’s just because it is harder to get an A then a MVG and some teachers think it is inefficient. Well, let’s see what the future says about it!


Written by: Carolina, Dudu and Daniel

A Swedish animal - the elk

The elk is a quite big animal that lives in the forests here in Sweden. It is the largest animal in the deer family. In Sweden the elk is called the king of the forest. During the autumn it´s allowed to hunt the elk and many people likes to eat the meat. The elk likes to eat vegetables. If you are driving here in Sweden you have to watch out because sometimes it can be an elk on the road. Because of that we have road signs that warn against elks.

Traditions in Sweden

Christmas Eve, is one of our biggest traditions in Sweden. We´re dancing around the Christmas tree and open Christmas presents. We´re also eating a lot of food for example meatballs, sausage, marinates salmon and of course pickled herring!

Easter, is also a quite big tradition. At Easter the Easter bunny hide eggs filled with candy, which we must look for and when we have found it you get to it the candy. We´re also painting eggs in many different colors and patterns. We´re drinking “Påskmust” it tastes like Coca-Cola but a little bit sweeter.

New Year, on New Year’s Eve you eat good food and stay up all night and fire crackers. You´re also wishing your family and all your friends luck for the coming year. Many people are creating promises that you will be meet the next year.

Midsummer is the day on the year when the sun stays up for the whole day.
On midsummer we make a maypole of leaves and flowers and we sing and dance around it with flower crown on our heads.

We celebrate Halloween by dressing up and go knocking doors and when they open it we say “trick or treat” and if we don’t get candy we do some tricks.

All saint’s day is according to legends, the day when the wall between the dead and the alive is the smallest. It is a tradition in Sweden to go and light candles on graves and remind ourselves of the dead.

//Carina and Julia

Our town Luleå

Luleå is a very beautiful town and are located in the northern Sweden. It’s a small town with about 70-80 000 inhabitants. Luleå have a lovely archipelago. It’s easy to take a boat and explore the islands, you can also rent a jetski. There are also many cabins out on the Islands to rent. The picture to the left is taken in the archipelago of us

Here in Sweden we often go out and take a “fika”. That is like the English words for take a coffee, but with some sweet bread to it. To take a “fika” with friends in the sunset is one of the best things to do in the summer. Luleå have very cozy “fika” places. The first picture is taken from north Harbour in Luleå last summer. The second one is on a "fika" place.

Every summer there is a festival that is called “ Luleå kalaset”. All the youth are looking forward to this event and famous musicians comes to perform. The event lasts for three days.

/Emilia Jönsson, Ida Ejnestrand and Emma Johansson

Equestrian

You probably did not know that horse riding is the second largest sport in Sweden,
only football is bigger.
An equestrian gets a good idea of ​​responsibility and they often have easier with the school.
And did you know that 75% of all female managers here in Sweden are being or have been riding.
Horse riding is the world's most expensive sport.
87% of all the people in Sweden, who have tried to ride once they have been forced, have started to ride because they think it was fun.
So if the whole of Sweden would try to ride would be 67% thought it was funny and start with that. Every third person in your class would love horses if they tried to ride.
We equestrians are twice as brave as football or hockey players.
You know that all riding gives twice as much muscle as playing football provides?

Equestrians from Sweden

Angelica Augustsson

Angelica Augustsson is a equestrian from Sweden who is compete in the World cup. She is born in 1987 in Sweden and she grew up outside Gothenburg with her family and she has been riding since she was 8 years old and she got her first horse when she was 9 years old. Right now she works as a rider for Dietmar Gugler in Germany.

Rolf-Göran Bengtsson

Rolf Göran Bengtsson is born in 1962 in Lund and he is also a Swedish horse rider who also lives and works in Germany. He started to ride at young age and his first horse was a little Shetlandpony namned Belladonna. Right now he is the best rider in the world and he won the European championship in Madrid this year.

/ Carolina, Frida and Hanna

Flat water kayaking in Sweden

Anders Gustafsson is one of the world’s fastest flat water racing kayak paddlers. He has won a lot of medals over the years in the very best of competitions worldwide Though never a gold medal at the world championship, until the year 2010 when it actually was in Poznań, in Poland, where he won the 500 meter K1 final.
The majority of people would most probably refer kayaking to a calm river where someone is just going with the stream, observing the environment, but kayak racing is just like skiing or running – a physical sport. This video of Anders Gustafsson will prove it: (the actual paddeling starts at around 01:35)

Alfred Nobel

Alfred Nobel is one of the most awesome Swedes to have ever walked the earth.
He is an inventor, who (as most people would know) created the dynamite.

He was born in Stockholm year 1833, and he grew up in a poor family.

During his life he invented various different items, including the Dynamite.
What he did with the nitroglycerine was to make it safer to use and handle, because it exploded more easily before.

When he died he realized that his inventions could be used as tools of death, which was an idea he did not like.
Therefore he created a fund, that gives prizes to people who make breakthroughs in various fields, that include: Physics/Medicine, Peace, Literature, Kemistry, and Economy.
If you get a prize from the fund you will win a "Nobel Prize", which is regarded pretty highly around the world.