Latin Scandinavian

Helena Grahn

Description

Laura, a young and hopeful Brazilian female, attends an intensive course in the south of Germany. A couple of days before the end of the course, she has a sexual adventure with one of her classmates, Gerhard. They both fall in love and keep in touch by phone and letters for months. Gerhard lives in Pietarsaari, in the Swedish-speaking part of Finland, and Laura in Sao Paulo, Brazil. They eventually get married. The author writes about living with her husband in four different countries, Brazil, Finland, Holland and Sweden. She also writes about her love towards the family she brings up with her husband and her darkest days experiencing severe culture shocks and prejudice. Suddenly, she sees herself in a position to gather all strength and wits to start a new life in a fifth country, the UK. The Latin Scandinavian is a true story about love without borders. A documentary about strong, enigmatic strengths lying dormant within us.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Memoir

Informations

• Publié par: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Date de parution: 31 mars 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528972468
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

The Latin Scandinavian
Helena Grahn
Austin Macauley Publishers
2020-03-31
The Latin Scandinavian About the Author Dedication Copyright Information © Author’s Note Germany Behind Closed Doors Back to Brazil Gerhard in Brazil I Move to Finland Autumn Wedding Holidays in Brazil Gabriel We Move to Holland Viktoria We Move to Sweden Medical Secretary Training Course Divorce
About the Author
Helena Grahn was born in São Paulo, Brazil, in 1957. She is currently living in Nottingham, in the UK and works as a linguist on self-employment basis.
She is divorced from her only ex, Finland’s Swedish husband.
Both her grown-up son and daughter live and work in Stockholm, in Sweden.
Dedication
For Thomas and Verena

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Copyright Information ©
Helena Grahn (2020)
The right of Helena Grahn to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781528949934 (Paperback)
ISBN 9781528972468 (ePub e-book)
www.austinmacauley.com
First Published (2020)
Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
25 Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London
E14 5LQ
Author’s Note
I have tried to recreate events, locales and conversations from my memories of them. In order to maintain their anonymity in some instances, I have changed the names of individuals and places. I may have changed some identifying characteristics and details such as physical properties, occupations and places of residence.
Germany
The weather is cold in Stuttgart. There is a lot of snow everywhere, especially for a tropical bird like me, coming from a country where you hardly ever see any snow. It is not my first trip to Europe; however, it is something new and adventurous. It is my first trip to Germany.
I take a cab outside after having found my big suitcase in the baggage hall and pass the passport control. I go straight to my hotel and have an early night so tired I feel from the long trip all the way from Brazil.
The day after, I wake up very early to catch the train to Staufen in the Black Forest. While I am waiting for the train in the cold morning, I see this short young girl on the platform. She briefly looks at me and asks me in German with a very heavy Brazilian accent, where I’m heading to. I immediately detect she is Brazilian and answer her “To Staufen” in plain Brazilian Portuguese. I am, of course, thinking that she is one of us, students, going to attend a German course for foreigners at the Goethe Institute. She does not seem to be surprised at all that I am also Brazilian, and we engage in a conversation about the trip from Brazil and our experience in learning foreign languages.
When the train arrives, we sit next to each other and it does not take long before I regret the fact that we ever met on that platform. She talks about her life as a rich person in Brazil and how many times she has travelled to different destinations. I feel in her voice that she is not very humble and is only trying to make herself feel superior as, whenever I mention I have been somewhere on this globe, she very quickly interrupts my thoughts by saying that she has also been there and, of course, in the most luxurious hotels whose names she cannot even remember anymore. I keep my attention looking through the windows and watching the trees passing by with the odd farmhouse here and there while she talks endlessly.
Without looking at my watch, I feel relieved to finally arrive in this little village named Staufen. That is where we are supposed to live in the next four weeks. I take my heavy suitcase and bravely carry it all the way to the exit of the little train station and head towards a cab. When I look back, I see that my new friend is also following me, and I never even asked her name. Well, as I am not intending to spend further time with her, I decide not to ask her anyway. Funnily enough, she seems to think that we are really travelling together as when I approach the driver and ask him to take me to the Goethe Institute, she immediately gets into the cab with her smaller suitcase.
I had no idea the town was so small, but we really get to the school after about six minutes. The driver helps me unload my suitcase and my little friend and I share the cab costs. When we get into the school, there is this large hall full of people. There are tables scattered everywhere and people lining up to register. Some people hold their suitcases while others do not seem to have any at all; however, I am sure they have left theirs somewhere piled up in some corner of that large room. People talk very loudly and after looking around very curiously, I decide to line up myself still holding my heavy suitcase. My friend is near me all the time and waits for her turn patiently.
After about half an hour or so, it is my turn to enrol and these two very fair-haired German ladies look at me. One of them asks in German for my surname. I feel sort of tense as I now realise that it is for real. Now I am in Germany and I must get by with my poor German, one way or the other. All questions have to do with my personal details, and I manage to understand them quite well. The lady with glasses asks me if I want to live with a family or in the ‘ Studentenheim ’ (the building reserved for foreign students to live in). I answer that I prefer to live with a German family as I had been advised back in Brazil that by doing so, I would probably have more possibilities to practice my German. I realised later that it was not quite so as the German family I stayed at, never ever spoke to me. I lived in a totally separate room on the top floor of their house.
When I am all set and start carrying my suitcase, I hear the German lady asking me in German, “Do you want to stay together with your friend?”
To which I suddenly reply, “ Nicht unbedingt. ” (Not necessarily) Both German ladies look at each other and laugh aloud.
Once again, I go outside the school and take a cab to the address I received from the school. It all feels very exciting, and I am now on my way to the house where I will be staying for the whole month. As the town is small, I know it shouldn’t be so far away and the fair-haired lady, who enrolled me at school advised me that I would be able to walk every morning. However, my suitcase does feel heavy and I am all sweat from the journey although it feels cold outside, and looking at the sky, it seems that we are going to have more snow towards the evening.
The cab takes me to ‘my’ house and helps me with the suitcase to the front door. I knock at the door and feel excited about who is going to be opening and what I am going to say in German. After a couple of minutes, I see this short blond lady open the door with a big smile. She lets me in and says, “Willkommen.” It is a warm and small house. I hear some voices in German, but no one comes to the door apart from her. She wants to help me with the suitcase, but I tell her it is too heavy, and I can manage on my own. There is a lot of stairs as my room is on the top floor. Gasping for air, I get inside my bedroom after she opened the door for me. It is a medium size room with a window at the right and my bed on the left corner. There is also a desk and a chair near the door with a lamp on it and a small wardrobe opposite. The bed feels clean and cosy, and it does feel warm inside this house. As soon as she leaves the floor going downstairs, I open the window and let the cold air inside. I start to unpack and hang my clothes one by one inside the wardrobe.
It is dark outside, and the snow falls in large flakes. I am totally exhausted, but the excitement makes me want to go outside and explore. I go to the small bathroom beside my bedroom on the same floor and take a shower. New clothes and a lot of perfume make me feel as new.
As I go outside, I think how fortunate I was to have bought my warm and expensive winter coat in Italy, two years ago. It keeps me warm no matter how cold it is. I take the map out of my pocket with all restaurants marked by the lady at school and walk fast to the nearest one. It is a chicken restaurant and I realise that there are lots of young foreigners having a meal. I have no doubt they are all starting the same course the day after, so I approach them and make myself sociable.
The day after is a Monday, and I start my way to the school. It takes me about 15 minutes to walk there. I leave shortly before 8 am. When I get to the big lounge inside the school, I see again lots of students talking aloud and it all feels very messy. Fifteen minutes later, a new German lady calls out attention using a microphone and tells us to go to our respective classrooms in accordance with the number we received when we enrolled ourselves the day before. We are all going to take a test in German, so they can assess our knowledge in the language and divide us into different groups later. The groups will be divided into beginners 1, 2, 3, intermediate 1, 2, 3 and advanced. The test is supposed to last an hour and the results should be given right after lunch and then we should all again come back to school around 2 pm.
We are back from lunch and the results are disclosed. To my surprise, I was placed in the intermediate 3 group. That was really an achievement as back in Brazil, I only attended nine terms of German at the Goethe Institute and I still did not think I could speak good German.
We start the course the day after. We are given