Cecilia grew up in the old Swedish university town of Uppsala. As a child she had an interest in art and textiles, but would eventually go on to study chemistry and liminology - the study of rivers. Her studies would eventually lead her to work for the Swedish Polar Secretariat and work at the Swedish scientific base in the Antarctic. This connection also lead to her meeting her Tasmanian husband, Harry and ultimately coming to Tasmania in 1998.
Although Swedes like Cecilia invariably speak excellent English, adjusting to a new life so far away from family was not without its challenges, and in this episode we discuss a few of them, and also a few of the ways Cecilia tries to maintain connection with some of her Swedish roots, especially finding regular opportunities to speak Swedish with other Swedes in Tasmania.
We also talk about a few very distinctive Swedish things such as the concept of "lagom" and the notorious and very much acquired taste of "surströmming", a kind of fermented herring eaten mainly in the north of Sweden ( Look it up on YouTube and you will get a sense of the strong reactions that it evokes from foreigners ! ).
