I could see on their face that they are Romanians!

If your little girl wants to try anything from here (jumping mattresses, Mary Go Rounds, the small train, the Boat of Pirates….) please, let her go! She goes for free! (Her mom can join her, as well). We’ve never charged Romanians, wheever we were…you’re ours, common!

It’s not hard to recognize us as being Romanians… especially for a Romanian guy…we look more sad and concerned than all the other people…

I graduated a Psychology college. I wanted to become a teacher but the salary was 600ron/150E per month and the transportation was not covered…how could I managed to live with that money? So, here I am, driving a truck in Sweden…but not for a Swedish salary…

We’ve been here (Sweden) for a month. We’ve been hired through a Romanian company for 6 months…we are working so hard; we can hardly sleep for 4-5 hours in the night…and they pay us so bad; we cannot compare our salaries to the Swedish ones. But it’s better than staying home (Romania), working for almost nothing.

It takes 10 hours to put up or down a “thing” like this (huge Mary Go Round type machines for the temporary fun parks). We are a team of 16 people…there are 4 Polish guys and the rest are Romanians…we spend 3-4 days in a place and then we have to move to another place…it’s tiring!




Ironically and tragically in the same time, I’m writing this post in the first day of massive strikes in Romania. It’s very hard for us to think of what’s going on back home; it’s hard not because of the distance, but of the difference between the ways the two countries/governments (Romanian and Swedish) are treating their people. The difference is also between the ways the two peoples ask for respect and gain their self respect…I’m getting very pessimistic when I consider the option of going back to Romania after Kopparbo…I only wish to visit Romania, maybe to spend vacations there…

The paragraphs above are pieces of the conversation we (mostly Vali, because I was in the Doggy train) had with 5 Romanians working for a Swedish company in a park of fun we visited last weekend…They were hired through a Romanian company, therefore they are not paid very good. They will work in Sweden until the end of October…

We were very happy to meet these guys…Bubu felt strange hearing Romanian language spoken by other people than us in Sweden. She said ‘Mommy, it’s very weird to hear this language in Sweden!’ ‘Well, they are Romanians like we are, Bubu, and they speak Romanian’. They were happy to meet us, as well. They were interested in our experience, of course (how did we get here, what do we work, how much do we make). Unlike us, they were by themselves, missing their families. There was one sad guy looking after Bubu all the time because he has a little girl, as well, but he couldn’t take her in Sweden. Oh, how lucky we are…

Yes, Vali felt them as being Romanians. He first went by himself to look around the place (Bubu and I were busy in another park…) He came back saying that there are Romanians working for the Mary go Round machines. ‘Have you talked to them?’ ‘No, but I could see on their faces…’ As they said, Romanians look tired and sad among the other nationalities…no wonder why we left Romania, no wonder why people are protesting back home, no wonder why we lack self respect and energy to ask for respect from our leaders…

Yes, we feel so good here that I only want to visit Romania!


posted by Monica

"I don't want to win, i don't want to lose"

...this is a line from the lyrics of the song that will represent this year Sweden to the Eurovision Song Contest. The song is called "This is my life" and is played by an almost unknown (till now) young singer named Anna Bergendahl. I began to learn to appreciate the song and i kind of like it a lot.

I find in the line that i use in the title of this post, so much from the identity of the swedes and their way of seeing life: nothing should strike or bother you, nothing must be extraordinary, keep things simple and do not change too much unless is really needed.

And not too much work, not too much food, not too much noise...keep things moderated.


Like we spent our first wek here:
- We did quite a lot of work at Kopparbo, but not hard or under pressure,
- we visited some places in the sourrounding,and we saw a beavers' house, foxes, rabbits and about ten musses. (elks)
- saw a scout contest in Borlänge, from the group called Stora Tunna and met Hampus and Gustav, volunteers from last year
- we did SH shoppings in Falun ( i have now a Sverige T-shirt)
-and most important for us, we have our first accound in a swedish bank (we are so proud of this)
-And Bubu played a little in the parks, Monica got to practice more driving.







So, nothing extraordinary, but things that makes us feel good, simple happy and protected. We did not win, we did not lose...we experienced and learned more.

Did i make you courious to listen to the song that represents Sweden at Eurovision contest? Do it, i am sure you will like it...and vote for it!

Kopparbo/Sweden-new start, same good old times

It's been more than 7 months since we left Kopparbo and Sweden with the thought and hope to come back...and God helped us and here we are again. For a new start, a new experience, same whishes.

It was a long and exhausting trip, more than 30 hours from our home town, to Budapest and after that to Goteborg and finally to Kopparbo. But we made it safe and sound and we got late at the camp site.

Because of this trip i did not have the time and energy to see myself and my girls at Kopparbo, so i had no expectations. We left behind our beloved families to which we got so close in the last months, our native places and head to NORTH.
We knew how it should be, but never expected to be that easy. We felt that we were away only for few days...and we are coming back to a great place that we would call it home.

Everything stayed the same: the kindness of random people, the joy and simple happiness of everyone from Kopparbo, Kimmens' and Lars Eric's fatherhood, Annelie's friendship, the beauty of the whole place.

We got back in bussiness right away, as it was the opening of the camp, so together with other twenty people we set up the place which is now ready for visitors. We carried boats to the lake, set up new holds on the climbing towers, set up the pioneers' track, fixed almost everything....only in two days. A lot to do, a work that makes you tired but happy-tired.



...You know, usually they say about movies that continue a first succesful part (like "reloaded", or "returns") that they are never as good as the first one. We are convinced this won't be the case for us. We are happy to be here, and play the main role in this movie which is our life. We even got new lines to speak out, so i plan to learn "bra svenska", learn to drive the tractor, never be late for breakfast and prepare at least one meal. Monica is determined to drive the bus, speak more swedish and cut the grass... for Bubu, everything can stay the same: much fun everywhere.

So, we are here to work as best as we can, have fun and make a great experience and we plan that this second movie to be better than the one from last year.

So, do not miss this movie, it will be a success!

Last post: Hej då Kopparbo! Hej då Sweden! Vi tackar för allt!

I have often used the game that participants are asked to say one word that best describes how they feel after ending an activity, a program or an experience.

I thought that this can be a good way to write our last post on this blog, as our time in Sweden comes to its end after four great months. Sometimes I feel I can write whole books about it, sometimes it feels like words would be meaningless...so I chose this middle way:

KIMMEN, LARS ERIC, ANNELIE, INGRID, LEIF, BLACKIE, Markus, Henric, Elin, Malin, Pia, Hampus, Gustav, Ida, Esther, Theresia, Tom Eric, Tour Andreas, LENNART, Sandra, Kurt, Lillian, Anna…

SMEDJEBACKEN, SÖDERBÄRKE, LUDVIKA, FÅGERSTA, BORLÄNGE, VÄSTEROS, FALUN, Nyköping, Stockholm.

ANN-SOFIE, GERTRUD, MATS, LINDA, JANNE, BRIGITTA, BIRGER, JERKER.

Frukost-8, Lunch-12, ficka, middag-18

Pjonärspåret, Samarbete, Klatterväg, Kanot, Hinderbarna, Smedja, Naturrum.

Dala Camp VII, Dog Camp, Scout groups, school groups, Czech people, Dutch people, French people, Scottish people, Danes, Norwegians, Finnish…

Intendentur, chain saw, måla STAKET, skrappa STAKET, gräs maskin, ropes, huge tents.

Muss!, fish, struts…

Fishing, Playground, Paddling, swimming pool, movies, Ice age, Alice, Aristocats, coffee on the boat, Midsommar, Framtidsmuseet, mines, ICA.

Köttbollar, Lax file, Kycklingpyt, Lingon, Saft, grill korv, pankakor, ost, bregott, hårtbröd, havregryn, Kaffe, milk with strawberries, kantarelle.

Five yammies, Oacaoaca, Nejugodmorgon, Shabalala, thingyes, elephant meat, Furnicateunderthecommandoftheking, who’s the b....

Good roads, endless forests, clean lakes, beautiful cities, long summer days, friendly people, blond women, common sense.

Freedom, Joy, Gratitude, Family Love, Patience, No stress, Growing bigger and smarter, Home, Lot of friends, New world, Hope for future.


For everything I described so far we want to say a sincere “Vi Tackar så mycket!”

I used 175 words and several tears. Kopparbo, Sweden, VAR REDO, we are coming back next year. Hej då!

From BuBu’s great wisdom

Our Swedish experience will soon come to its end. We feel that Kopparbo camp was a great place for us and we have been experiencing new things that helped us discover us better and grow. We also feel that our presence here was important both for our family and for the Swedish people that are connected to the camp.

These four months at Kopparbo camp helped us achieve a great deal of a different kind of life experience. By far, the most important achievement was Bubu’s transforming from a quite shy girl and mamma’s baby into a brave, courageous and open mind young lady. There are as well some important physical changes about her as she has become now taller, bigger.

But what it strikes us most all the time is her perspicacity and sharpness that leave us with no words whenever she says something. We put together some of her “pearls” that made people around her burst into laughter (and made me want to have another baby).

1.It is a big difference!
BuBu: I think there is a big difference between Romania and Sweden…
Vali: Yeah, what would that be?
BuBu: In Romania I don’t have my own lake!

Comment: Bubu fell in love with the water, when the weather was good she would have been gone swimming even three times a day. Last year she didn’t even wanted to go in and now she can swim really well (using a swimming ring, of course).

2.What do we do with Mom?
Vali: Bubu, would you like to take Annelie with us when we go back to Romania?
BuBu: Yes, sure, but what do we do with mom?

Comment: Annelie, our Swedish colleague and friend here at Kopparbo, was so nice and lovely to us and especially to Bubu and her behavior made Bubu think of the possibility of taking her with us in Romania.

3.We don’t talk about it!
Vali: Bubu, when we go back home you will have to go to the kindergarten so mom could go to work.
Bubu: Stop it! We don’t talk about it! Not now! Not ever again!


Comment: Bubu going to kindergarten has always been a delicate issue. The “don’t talk about it” attitude was always the response and she continued to use it in any other kind of situation that she did not like. Yet, recently, she said to Monica that she would like to go to a kindergarten that would be close to her work place.

4.I have bigger eyes!
Sitting around the table in the kitchen, having lunch. Bubu is pointing out of the window, saying to Ida:
Bubu: Look, there’s a big pig behind that three!
Ida: Where is it Bubu, I can not see any?
Bubu: Well, I think I have bigger eyes, that’s why I can see it and you can’t.

Comment: Ida, one of the volunteer that worked at Kopparbo this summer, was so close and friendly to Bubu all the time…and mostly, she was really patient and taught Bubu some Swedish and played with her a lot.

5.Stupid...I’m sorry! Stupid...I’m sorry!
We are all in a canoe, paddling on our way back to the camp after spending few hours on the lake. Bubu continues to put her hands in the water getting more wet, even after her mother had told her before to stop doing it.
Vali: Can’t you understand? You get wet and you will start crying because you will be cold.
Bubu: You’re stupid! (“prost” in Romanian)
Vali: What did you say? How dare you to say such a word to me? That’s a really bad word; you don’t say this to anyone!
Bubu: I heard Mom saying this word before.
Monica: Dad is right; this is a really bad word. I am sorry to have said it.
Bubu (to Vali): Stupid...I’m sorry! Stupid...I’m sorry!

Comment: NO COMMENT

6.It’s your fault!
This is one of the mornings when Bubu wakes up and she can not see Monica in the room. We are both still lying in bed, I just opened my eyes and Bubu spoke out her first words for the day.
Bubu (almost crying): Where is Mamma? Why is she not here?
Vali: I don’t know where she is. I just woke up.
Bubu: It’s only your fault. I did not want to come to Sweden.

Comment: After her last line, I suddenly burst into laughter. Of course she did not mean it because she likes the place as much as we do; she was just upset because her mother was missing. Later on I had another little talk with her:
Vali: Ok, you said it is my fault to be here in Sweden and because you don’t like we go back home tomorrow. So, today you have to pack!
Bubu: Stop it! We don’t talk about it!

7.She is my mother and my wife!
Bubu (to Vali): Take your hands off Mom. She’s mine!
Vali: But she’s mine too. She is my wife and your mother. She belongs to both of us.
Bubu: No! She’s my mother, and my wife!
Comment: Bubu loves her mother. From what she keeps saying, she loves her until planet Pluto and back. In Romanian, Bubu’s line is so much more fun: It sounds like that: “E nevasta mea si sotia mea si mama mea si ma-ta mea si Popeasca mea!”

8.I’m not your baby!
Vali (to Bubu): Oh, my sweet baby…
Bubu: I’m not your baby! I am mammy’s baby... She made me.
Vali: But I helped her too…
Bubu: How?
Vali: …You should go and ask her.

Comment: Bubu knows from Monica everything about everything. Even how babies come out from their mothers’ bellies. She does not know yet how they get there.

9.Now, we make more money!
We have tried to explain to her that we need to earn more money, so we can buy things that we need. For this, it will be necessary that Mom gets a job also. In order for Mom to have a job, Bubu has to go to the kindergarten.

One day at Kopparbo, Monica and I were preparing a piece of land to be spread with grass seeds. Bubu takes a shovel and says:
Bubu: Now, as I am helping you here and all three of us are working, we will make more money!

Comment: I could not do any work for the next 10 minutes. Neither Monica could.

10.They can not hear us anyway!
Few days ago we went to the closest town and had a walk around. Eventually, we went and visited a cemetery, attracted by the beauty of so many flowers and really nice graveyards, totally different from those we are used to back home in Romania.
At some point, Bubu is shouting after me because I was at some distance from her.
Monica: Hey, we should be quiet here. We are in a cemetery and we are not supposed to speak loud.
Bubu: But why?
Monica: Because it is not nice. There are dead people here.
Bubu: But they can not hear us anyway!

Comment: Bubu has a “killing” sense of reality. Later on, after looking at the graveyards, reading names of persons and the ages when they were alive, Bubu realized:
Bubu: From all these people here, I only know Jesus and Grandma Viorica (! my mother). I do not know anyone else.

11.I tried!
Bubu (to Vali): Can you bring me a chewing gum?
Vali: I think you should ask Mom if you are allowed…
Bubu (to Mom): Mom, can I have a gum?
Monica: No, you barely ate something today and you already had chewing gum so far.
Bubu (to Vali): That is true, but I tried!

Comment: SHE IS SMART!

Letter for the moose who jumped in front of my car

Dear moose,

You should know that it was not nice at all from you to do what you just did the other night. Who taught you that you just can jump in front of my car and scary the hell out of me?

I definitely did not expect that! I was driving carefully back home to Kopparbo after having a nice time with Ann-Sofie’s family, Bubu and Monica were singing and having fun in the back seats of the car, when you considered it is a right time to jump in front of the car.

Is it because we did not really know how big and powerful you can be? Was that any kind of punishment for us because we disturbed your peaceful dinner? Or you tried to kill yourself? But why would you do that? Swedish forests offer you a nice home. I just think you are very stupid. Beautiful animal, but stupid.

So please, read carefully my letter and take into account that your stupid action might have sent me and my family to the hospital, at least. We appreciate your beauty, we try not to bother you, but you have to promise you will not do this again. Also, read my letter to your friends and let them know that we do not really want to die in a car accident produced by a moose. It is just not funny at all.


Let’s do that: I will tell everyone what beautiful creature you are and you tell your friends what I have just asked you. Do we have a deal?


Facts about moosses (just to keep my share of the deal!)

The animal bearing name Alces alces is known in Europe as elk and in North America as moose. The name elk is connected with several earlier European variants—Latin: alces, Old Norse: elgr, Scandinavian: elg, and German: Elch—all of which refer to this animal.

In Europe, moose are found in large numbers throughout Norway, Sweden, Estonia, Finland and the Baltic States. They are also widespread through Russia. Small populations remain in Poland (Biebrza Nat. Park) and Belarus.

On average, an adult moose stands 1.8–2.1 m high at the shoulder. Males weigh 380–720kg and females weigh 270–360 kg.
A moose's body structure, with a large heavy body suspended on long spindly legs, makes these animals particularly dangerous when hit by motor vehicles. Such collisions are often fatal for both the moose and motorist. Generally, upon impact the bumper of the car will break the moose's legs. The main body of the moose will then collide with the windscreen, often with disastrous effect to both motorist and animal. In a collision of this nature, a car's airbags may not deploy or be of much use if they do. These risks led to the development of a vehicle test referred to as the "moose test" (Swedish: Älgtest, German: Elchtest).
Moose warning signs are used on roads in regions where there is a danger of collision with the animal. The triangular warning signs
common in Sweden, Norway and Finland have become coveted souvenirs among the many German tourists traveling in these countries, and authorities have had to issue warnings that it is dangerous and criminal to remove these signs.

Alice in the Wonderland –the theme of Bubu’s Swedish experience

For a month or so Bubu has been watching Alice in the Wonderland (in Swedish) on a daily basis…sometimes twice a day. It can be early in the morning, when mamma and daddy are taking breakfast in a different building and Bubu is too sleepy to join the Kopparbo team; it might be later during the day, when Bubu is getting bored or tired of climbing or of watching other people climbing (because mammy and daddy are in charge with this activity); or it can be in the rainy days, when we have no energy or funny ideas to entertain our daughter. After watching it for so many times Bubu is able to sing several lines in Swedish (this movie has beautiful songs) and to speak Swedish words or phrases that are not familiar to me, but that are useful so I have to learn them, as well. Bubu watches this movie every day because she likes its songs, she is fascinated of the ‘non-sense’ of the characters’ actions, but most of all she likes Alice –‘because she is beautiful, she sings very nice and she is so brave to travel by herself in such an unusual world’.(Alice is beautiful even if she is not a princess…it’s very nice that Bubu likes a ‘regular’ girl; she is not crazy about princess anyway, but we expect that time will come).

It took me some time to realize that Alice in the Wonderland is not just a children’s movie for Bubu and for her new life. There are many things in our life here that are similar to the movie and so many changes in Bubu that makes her to be like Alice in certain ways.

It’s not hard for me to say that Kopparbo is a Wonderland for Bubu (and for Vali and me in many ways). This place is so safe, beautiful and vast that Bubu feels very confident to explore it and most of the time she does this without me. Vali and some of our volunteer colleagues are her favorite companions. Vali is the best partner for swimming in the deep waters of ‘our’ lake (of course, Bubu is using a floating ring, but when we started to bath in the lake she wouldn’t have left the shallow waters, where she could feel the ground under her feet; now she is swimming next to Vali, where the lake is very deep), for drawing, reading and singing in Bzzz’s house (a small wood house where Bzzz stayed when she had visited us) and for riding her three wheel bicycle to Leif’s house and back (half a kilometer far from the house we live in). Then, she likes to take the meals next to Malin (one of our volunteer), to roll in the grass with Ida, to play tricks on Hampus (Bubu is filling up his boots with grass or she is hiding his hat) and to lay in the grass like a lizard with Ester. I can finally say that Bubu has begun to detach from me and to become independent and brave among new people and places (just like Alice is brave in her non-sense world; the way Bubu gets along with all these new people and the way she communicates with them it’s a non-sense for me…but it’s important that she is willing to communicate and that she can understand some Swedish in a very non-rational, emotional way).


It took such a long time…perhaps we live in the proper environment now. Of course, we met these great people, the Kopparbo team, that are so patient, friendly and good to us (especially to Bubu); they make this great environment for us; they teach us the calm, patient and relaxed Swedish way of life which is so healthy for our family. This proper environment brought Bubu and Vali very close to each other; Vali helps Bubu to explore this new world and to get the physical and the moral confidence that she is safe and strong. This father-daughter relationship started only here, at Kopparbo…it happened that the theory of the father’s role of helping his child to adapt to the environment worked in the opposite direction –the environment helped the child and her father to discover themselves and to start a close relationship. I’m so happy for that and so thankful to everything that Kopparbo means.


Remember how Alice is suddenly growing up after eating from a mushroom? We have the feeling that Bubu must be eating from a miraculous food every day. She is growing physically a lot. But more than that, she does lot of things by herself, just like a big girl (she can put all the cloths on her, she can take a good shower, including hair washing, she can take the things she needs without asking for help, she can stay by herself for a while and find her own ways of keeping herself busy).

Alice’s constant searching of the way home is also present in Bubu’s Swedish experience. She talks about our turning back home almost every day; sometimes she talks about it crying, because she misses her friends and our families (we noticed that she is getting into this sad mood when it’s raining a lot so that we cannot play outside and explore the surroundings); other times she talks about it very proudly –‘what would Doinita/Georgi/Nico/Ioana/Briana…(a long list of people and pets can go on here) would say about me doing this and that all by myself?!; some other times she talks about going back home with the regret of leaving behind the Swedish experience (we don’t have a lake with such clear waters back home; we don’t have so nice playing grounds in Pucioasa or in Lupeni; streets and playing grounds are not so clean back home; we don’t have the climbing towers back home…the list of what we don’t have is also long). Anyway, her way back home is constantly ‘interrupted’ by the good moments she is having in Kopparbo or Smedjebacken and by the good people she lives or she meets with. These are making Bubu a wise and brave Alice.