Y ~ Yxsjön: Learning to Swim #atozchallenge

All Aboard! "It's Very Swedish..." a train on a cultural journey through Sweden, exploring the differences big and small between American and Swedish culture.

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As I recall from my childhood, if you wanted to learn to swim in Sweden, it was going to be in a lake. Pools are rare.  Lakes are everywhere.

The Swede taught me to swim in Yxsjön.  I'm behind DataBoy (censored for American audiences), and Swissie is next to me.  We're getting used to the cold water...slowly...

Swedish kids learn breaststroke, but not with the face in the water on every stroke like you see in competitions here.  The legs also do something different, it's not the kick of "the crawl" but more of a scissor-frog motion.  If I have time, I'll look for a video.

The point is that it's fairly easy to learn, and kids are swimming pretty quickly.  There are lessons of course, and I'd have my private lesson from my dad, while over by the dock, the other kids had to do all kinds of repetitive boring drills.

The Swede, ever the teacher (he didn't work for Volvo until we moved here) did give me a final exam.  I remember I was to swim as far as I could next to the dock where the water was deep enough that I could not stand, but not so deep as to be scary.  When I got tired, I was to grab the dock and be graded.

I remember being paid about the equivalent of $.25 for each meter I swam.  I was about one or two meter from the end of the dock, which was 25 meters long, when I grabbed the edge.  He pulled me out, held my hand, I can see myself in my white and green horizontally striped suit and remember being a little breathless and excited to learn I'd earned about $5. That was a LOT of money! I could swim!

When it came time to teach my own kids how to swim, I did what The Swede did and taught them myself.  We were visiting friends in Texas, the same friends who came up with the phrase for this "It's Very Swedish..." series, the summer they were probably 4 and 7 or close to that.  

They had one of those above ground HUGE swimming pools with plenty of room to actually swim, so I just taught hers too. Wanna know a good trick?  Have them put crocs (the shoes, for those of you who aren't familiar with this invention, born right here in my small Colorado town!) on their hands.  It helps them float a little more, and gives them confidence.

I think if I'd have had crocs to learn with, The Swede would have been out a lot more money ;-)

Do you know how to swim? How did you learn? Did you teach your kids? Feel free to share my croc idea. I didn't have it copyrighted...

~Tina, who now knows more than the breaststroke, but canNOT do the butterfly...at ALL

©2014 All Rights Reserved (the post, not the croc-on-hands-learn-to-swim-idea)

Photo credit: Momarazzi

W ~ Water, Water, Everywhere, Pick Your Country! #atozchallenge

All Aboard! "It's Very Swedish..." a train on a cultural journey through Sweden, exploring the differences big and small between American and Swedish culture.

***

If you're not into the whole cultural experience, feel free to skip to the embarrassing childhood pictures.

I've been sharing about Sweden's great lakes and the fun we had there, but they are not the only water attractions in Sweden.  Water plays a huge part of life there.  Why do you think so many Swedes gravitated to Minnesota with it's, what is it, 10,000 lakes? Swedes felt at home there.

The lakes I grew up with were of all sizes and conditions.  There were lakes we could swim in, lakes we only boated on, lakes where we fished, and of course lakes where we did all of the above.  One thing they all had in common: the water was quite cold. You do get used to it though.  Really used to it.  

It's kinda of like when my Amazing Aunt Risky asked me today, at a restaurant, if the dish was spicy.  I said no, it's just pesto, it's not spicy.  Then I got her portion, because to her, it was too spicy.  Moral: don't ask me if the water is cold.  My answer will be NO, it's fine, come on in ;-)

One of my favorite lakes was the one where The Swede's best friend had a house.  There were two docks. One where there was foot-high sea weed and you wouldn't dream of swimming there, but that's where the boat was.  The other dock was on the other side of the house, around the corner if you will, and the water was crystal clear and you could see all the way to the bottom even where it was REALLY deep.  

Here's a picture of the "sea-weed" dock.

I found that I have more childhood photos involving non-lake water.  Enjoy.  

This is our backyard in Sweden.  That's DataBoy on the left in the pool with friend I can't remember, and I'm on the left on the "beach blanket" with friend I also can't remember. This picture was only marked "Spring time back yard water play" by Momarazzi.

This is one of our favorite vacation destinations.  We stayed at the campground, but had full use of the wonderful facilities enjoyed by those who stayed at the actual, pricey resort.  It was called Billingehus, for those Swedes reading :-)  That's Farfar with Swissie in his lap.  Me styling in the bikini...thought I was styling.  Year not marked, but I'm thinking this was right before we moved to America, so about 8.

Water sports continued after the move.  This is in the backyard of our first house in America, 1974.  Me, Swissie, and DataBoy. Yes, we dragged DataBoy in, fully clothed. Good thing, or he would have been nude, and then I couldn't have put up the picture...

That's me in the flowered bikini, still thinking I'm all that, at age 12.  There's Swissie, and Farmor, in the background, headless.

Ever the gymnast, I also enjoyed diving.

What are your water experiences?  Did you grow up with access to lakes?  Are you afraid of what you can't see when you're swimming? Come back to "Y" and you'll hear my learning to swim story.  Not that you'd want to miss "X"...seriously.  X is hard enough in English...

~Tina, who happily swims anywhere she can see the bottom, and will sometimes, with enough peer pressure, swim in uncharted waters (it's hard to resist Aunt Risky...)

©2014 All Rights Reserved

All photos most likely by Momarazzi, or another family member.  For example, Momarazzi would not have cut off Farmor's head...