Yes, by the title you can tell that there are a lot of cognates (words that have a common etymological origin) in Swedish, because it also is a Germanic language, like English. The challenge in my language learning is remembering which words are actually cognates and which are not–and I want them to be–and the spellings are often slightly different.
Kulturnatten is an annual event with hundreds of opportunities to explore the manifold aspects of history and culture in the city. I was invited by Donna and Lennart. (Donna is from California with Swedish heritage. She came to Uppsala for university and fell in love with a Swede!)
Here were some of my highlights:
If you don’t know parkour, here’s the link for more info. And then watch this clip of the first few minutes of Casino Royale, the James Bond movie for an amazing parkour display.
The Linneaus garden was free today.
I always enjoy views of the cathedral from around town.
My absolute highlights were in the university library museum, but photos were not allowed.
The library treasures include:
- The Silver Bible, or more officially, The Codex Argenteus (Latin for “Silver Book/Codex”), is a 6th-century manuscript, originally containing bishop Ulfilas’s 4th century translation of the Bible into the Gothic language.
- A huge map of Scandinavia from 1539, the Carta Marina
- A first edition of Newton’s Principia Mathamatica from 1687
- A page of Motzart’s handwritten notation for The Magic Flute
- A page from the 42-line Bible printed by Gutenberg
- Copernicus’s handwritten notes in the margin of an early astronomy book by de Sacrobosco
- And more!
It really was amazing. There are now 19 more museums to see in Uppsala, but I want to go back and spend more time here again.
Today, in addition to church, the adventures were biking over to the mall to visit Clas Ohlson (housewares and hardware store) again. We are still getting settled and our crate hasn’t arrived, so there are some things to get and less just to tide us over.
The Internet account that we are borrowing from Jim ran out of data. We didn’t know it was not unlimited. So, we had to ask Jim to buy us some more data, especially for Anya’s homework, and then I’ll reimburse him. It’s back on, so I can send this blog post out now.
Anya was invited to the youth Bible study at church tonight. That’s great. I forgot that today’s schedule was switched to the two services on Sunday morning during the school year. We arrived too late for the first service, and so we went to my office to access the Internet and went to the second service. There are few youth in the second service, so it will be good for Anya to connect with them tonight.
One amazing cultural trivia about Sweden is that there are 65,000 choirs in this land of 10,000,000 people (or 1 choir for every 153.8 people!). “Everybody” sings! There is even a reality TV show where local choirs compete against each other. So, the singing in church is great!
With blessings,
Beth
We love hearing about Stockholm, and I need to see the library. No pictures, alas. Thanks. Marvinnjean