sweden vs. norway

[cimorene]

norwegians hate swedes in much the way canadians hate americans (or auburn football fans hate alabama):  they think they're stupid and that everything is an example of this.  most americans aren't aware of this at all.  i don't know if the same is true of sweden.  but we had a norwegian exchange student when i was 14 who gave my dad a tshirt with a row of swedish flags (five) and one norwegian one that says finn fem feil, find five mistakes.  this shirt is old and worn and paint-spotted by now, and no longer fits daddy, but mom happened to pull it from the store of old shirts to wear painting the entrance hall at our house yesterday.  that's when the fun started.

lillian, quietly: i thought you weren't going to wear that shirt anymore, mom.
mom:  i didn't go anywhere.
lillian: but you weren't going to wear it.
mom: i wasn't going to wear it out of the house.
lillian: NO that's NOT why you weren't going to wear it! (in an undertone, as if hoping i wouldn't hear) you said you wouldn't wear it because we know a swedish person now!  well, a finnish person who's kind of swedish!*

*wax_jism is a swedish finn--it's a 2% or 5% minority or something like that.  swedish is actually her native tongue.  she's not recently from sweden, although the swedish finn population is all concentrated together mostly, preserving its own unique culture and whatnot via a lot of inbreeding.

Comments

[phineasjones.livejournal.com]

aw. that's really kind of sweet.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

this is true. cute, too. also gobsmacking! (my brain was like: WHY wouldn't mom wear this shirt???) i told her it was fine. 'wax knows about the shirt,' i said. 'they think it's funny.'