Thursday, September 4, 2008

the swedish post system and more

during my bicycle rides along the train tracks away from school, i noticed a trend of painted mailboxes among the plain, official ones. i've decided to document this phenomenon as well as i can while in jämtland:


a row of mailboxes on birka stern rd.



the standard, government issued mailbox

a scene of lake störsjon

a rendering of nils, the boy who flew all over sweden on a goose
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wonderful_Adventures_of_Nils)

petsson, the overalled farm cat

a monet-esque postbox



simple yet charming

doggy post


the most impressive yet, a full panorama beach scene!

a bit of background as provided by my visit to the swedish post museum in stockholm, gamla stan:

the items the rural postmen were supplied with: a bugle, official crown pin and a pistol. most rural mailmen were also farmers or store owners, who did it on the side.

here is a wax model of a rural postman, the kind that would deliver to these very boxes (or, something like them.) it was accompanied with a small story about what he might be doing, but i did not document it.


this project will continue throughout the year. its really funny to think of all these peoples addresses being posted on the internet, and they have no idea.

i began my slöjd (craft) classes yesterday, we made birch bark tool covers, for knives or needles:

one is just bark, the other i covered with cloth.

i also played my first swedish floor hockey game, and made two goals, one of which was from me slipping and falling (always wearing the wrong shoes) into the goal, with the ball behind me ("typical american girl, doing it big")

the folk group will be playing at a dance on saturday in östersund! very excited. i even bought a dress for this very occasion before i knew it would happen.

i am going to go on a bicycle ride with my new monark, which my teacher lent me for the year. hej då!


3 comments:

Jay said...

i believe postal systems determine the quality of a society. its sort of like judging how good a restaurant is going to be based on its bread..

JesseArg! said...

this is unreal. i feel like someone is blogging a parody of erin schneider.

erin said...

i hope that is not a bad thing?