#133 Forging a Life in Sweden

(upbeat music) Welcome to Life in the Land of the Ice and Snow. My name is Heather and my guest today is Mike from Sue St. Mary Canada. How are you doing, Mike? - Hi, Heather, I'm doing great, thanks. - I was just talking to you before this. You were telling me how to pronounce the name of Sue St. Mary. And could you say again, where it's located in Canada? - So it's S-A-U-L-T Sue St. Mary. It's north of Michigan. So where Lake Superior meets Lake Huron, and if you go up past, there's a, there's the Mackinac Bridge, which everybody knows about. And then the international bridge, bridges, Upper Peninsula of Michigan, too, northern, what we can now call Northern Ontario, because in wind zero type of Detroit, it's also Ontario, but it's like it wraps all the way around. - Okay, it's always so interesting with how that border is right there. - Yeah, yeah, it's somewhat convoluted. - Yeah, so these days, like, how is it going across the border from Canada to the US and back and forth? You just like stop, I went up very, very long time ago, and you just kind of stopped at a toll booth on the bridge. - Yeah, yeah, it's, I mean, it's been 10 years since I've done it. - Oh. - However, once upon a time, you didn't even need to have a passport. You just, all you had to have was your license, got your bid if you actually knew somebody at the bridge. Ah! (laughing) If you've gone enough and many people from the Sue do what we call cross-border shopping. So, and then also, there's a university called Lake Superior State University. And so a lot of Canadians will go to that. They have a special tuition, because they're so close. So then after 9/11, of course, then we at least, we did need to have passports. Still wasn't very, very strict. I had funny story, and I won't mention any names except that it was my wife. (laughing) So we had come in, I picked her up in Detroit, and we had come in to Canada, and I happened to know quite a few of the guys, and a buddy of mine was working the Canadian border. Print, ah, yeah, come on, you know, come on in. Now, this is my girlfriend Natalita, I'm not mentioning names. (laughing) And so we just let us in. Well, going back, she didn't have the proper documentation, but nobody thought of that. And they're saying, well, why don't, how did you even get in? (laughing) Again, we weren't mentioning any names at that point, because we didn't want to get in and trouble. - Oh no. - And so, I mean, we worked it out. She had to pay no fine, just the fee to do it for the proper, the entrance permit kind of thing. So, yeah. (laughing) So it can be fairly lax. - Yeah, I guess so. If you know the right people. - If you know the right people. (laughing) - So how long has it been since you lived there, and how long have you been in Sweden? - Well, November 13th is 11 years. - Wow, come on up. - So yeah. - Yeah, it's coming up fast, and it just goes by so fast. - So I'm guessing you moved for your girlfriend? - I came, I'm a love refugee, as they call us. So yeah, I came for her, she's the scientist here. - Oh, cool. - And then it was a great move. I mean, geographically, it's not a lot different than where I'm from. - Yeah, I guess so. - Yeah, I guess so. - To big bodies of water, we've got the Baltic and we've got Malloran here. And the geographies, trees are the same. We'll get into about theater home, eventually. The rocks and everything. I never feel homesick that way, because I feel like I'm at home. - Yeah, I thought about that, yeah. - But you're from Texas? - I'm from Texas, so it's a little bigger of a shock for me. - Yeah, well, and the weather too. For me, it's-- - Yeah, the weather especially. - For me, it's like, this isn't even winter. - Yeah. - So, and I know back home, the last, I think, three or four years, they've been getting like 10 feet of snow. And we always had a lot, but the 10 feet is still a little bit high. And the weather's still cold, but here it's never that cold. I'm still wearing like sweatshirts through the summer, or hoodies. - Yeah, I'm a little different, but I'm getting used to it over the years. - How long have you been here? - I've been here 24 years. - 24, oh wow, okay. - Yeah, so it's been a while. - So the language is okay for you? - It's okay, I still, when I speak Swedish, I like to tell people I sound a little bit like a caveman because I'm missed, you know, my grammar here and there. - Right. - Basically, it's fine. And I think that listening and reading always come before talking and writing. So I'm fine with that. It's just people like give me a second glance if I'm speaking Swedish. - Right. - Is she foreign, or is there something off about her? (laughing) - We won't go there anymore, but yeah. - Yeah. But how did it work for you with Swedish? - Well, it's not working so well there, yet. - I understand. - And it's not for, well, I can't say it's not for lack of trying. It's not for lack of a desire, but at some point you have to decide, do I need to, where am I gonna sacrifice? You know, the time to do that obviously was in the very beginning when you get here. - I did try SFE and I liked it except my teacher, one of the speak to me in English most of the time. - Ah. - And then I was went into Arbor's fermenting and my, I guess, case worker, if you will. He said don't go to SFE. 'Cause if you wanna learn another language, you'll learn it, but you won't learn Swedish there. And it's like, okay. And then life got in a way and all the things that happened happened. - And thankfully Sweden is such an easy place to land if you don't have it. But I do, I believe it's respectful and you should try to learn it. And I'm doing dolingo and jump speak and all these things now. - Yeah. - And just on your own time. - Trying to at least hear and I don't think, this may sound really odd to people, but I don't think I hear it very well. I mean, we've lived in the same place since I moved here. - Yeah. - Fourth floor, I know what it's supposed to say. And I have, I think maybe three or four times, I've heard it say Fira, as opposed to, I don't even know. Most of the time I think it says Sistra. But that mean why? (laughing) It's an enemy thing. - Let me just something with the way your ears kind of turned for this type of language. - It must be, I don't know. - Well since you're from Canada, did you also speak French? - Well, that's, or is this more of a Quebec thing? - It's another, no, no, no, we have all the schools. If you start off in kindergarten and whatnot, you will learn some French. Now they have what's called French immersion, so a lot of people are putting their kids in from the beginning. They get their English at home, and their school is essentially a hundred percent French. I don't know if they, like here where they mix it up, I'm not sure. So a lot of people do. Now when I was four years old, my dad took a job down in the Detroit area. So from four to 12, for four to 11, I lived in Detroit. So when I came back then, my teachers at that point were saying, just learn the alphabet. And I know the French alphabet very well. (laughing) I still, and it's funny though, and I went to a University of Ottawa, which is a bilingual university. And it's certainly, I am not bragging about how much I understand, but I probably understand more French, kind of just through Osmosis. - And that's what's gonna happen here over the years in Sweden. I think it took five years until I could understand people. And yeah, probably close to 10 until I was comfortable speaking. Now is your partner in Sweden? - Yeah, he is Swedish. - Yeah. And then having kids that helped a lot because then I got to hear it a lot slower and a lot simpler. So that was part of that. But you, well, we're gonna get to what you do for a living in a minute, but I would say for me, I of course had to start taking jobs at the beginning in international places where everyone speaks English. And that's what I've kind of fallen into. So I'm kind of missing the part where I'm forced to speak Swedish all the time, which makes it a lot slower. - I mean, I actually believe tourism is Sweden or tourism is Stockholm. Whoever is dropping the ball. I mean, if more people from the West knew how easy it was to come to Sweden in general, this place would be booming. - I know. - With the exception of UK, and a little bit of Amsterdam or whatever, where else do they speak the kind of Swedish, where you don't even have to worry about communication. Or I'm sorry, English sir. - No, no, I mean, it's really unlike a lot of other places, you go to Germany, France, Italy, especially if you're kind of okay in the large towns, but if you go to the smaller towns, you're lost a lot of people speak English. And I think one of our theories on that is, I've noticed that countries like France, Germany, and Italy, they dub their movies and TV shows whereas Sweden has always used subtitles. And I think just hearing things in the original language is part of what's historically helped the Swedes be a lot better at English and other languages because they hear it. So I think it makes a difference. - Yeah. - I think so too. And I mean, I'm amazed, my daughter's eight, the vocabulary that she has because of social media. It's incredible. - Oh, the kids catch on to everything. - Absolutely. - I mean, YouTube and video games and all of that, kids who are completely Swedish, very young, that were friends with my kids. It's amazing. They're so good at English. - Oh yeah, absolutely. Some too, they work really hard at not having an accent. I've been fooled out on the island. It's like, oh yeah, so when did you come from the States or if I knew they're Swedish, how long did you live in the States? So I've never lived there. Wow. - They don't realize they should keep a bit of an accent. And I'll tell you a quick story. When I first met my husband and we would go back to visit in Texas, he had more of a Swedish accent. And it was great because every time we went to restaurants, the waitresses would flirt with each other. him and they they're oh where are you from you know sweet oh we got so many free desserts all the time and now he's lived with me so long that most of his accent is gone and people don't pick up on it anymore. They don't want to play for dessert. I know but let's get to what I'm very interested in the career that you have found yourself in Sweden and is this something that started in Sweden or is this something you carried on with you? No absolutely not. This was literally a walk through the door scenario. So my wife was was a hobby jeweler and she was making some really incredible stuff and as I was saying we you know our North American sensibility is let's you know let's sell this stuff and the friend of mine saw the saw what she was wearing and she really liked them and I said of course we can make a pair of those for you and she bought them and I think there was a sense of validity you know validation and then one day there was another situation and and I was just amazed she asked me to help make a bracelet out of a basically a washer like a steel washer but it was silver. So just a round circle and she said we need to make this fit somebody's wrist I'm like there's no way heck that's gonna happen. I mean it was not very big and so she asked me to help her with it and she gave me that she told me how to do it you know heat it, hit it, hit it, hit it, hit it until it expands until you get to the size you want and we did it. I'm like amazed. Now I'm a pretty big guy and I probably hit it way harder than I needed to because she was always at work when I was working on this and I destroyed the mandrel that we were using and she wanted well we're not gonna do it that way again but it was kind of like the seed was planted I mean and not really but because I wasn't doing any other jewelry except helping her I wasn't certainly wasn't looking at any blacksmith or anything and then one day she sent me a picture of a set of doors and that's all it was just these you know if you like sort of a grayish door old Swedish style and like okay what the heck says the next day she sent a sail sheet and I'm like looking at it and one of the funny things that got my attention was the google translate takes forging and says throwing so in my mind it's also throwing axes which I thought was pretty cool I knew I knew it was still a blacksmith shop and I knew that there was other components too but I thought while you know and now we're gonna throw some axes too and so the next day while we talked to her I talked to and tell you about it and she's gonna well let's see what we can do so I called the guy and again North American version of it as opposed to perhaps somebody from Sweden you know gives his expression of interest and then sits back I went to see him like every third day or called him if I didn't see him I called him every third day and for you know both six weeks that went on and he's like you really want this place I said yeah I said you know but I need your help because we don't know any I don't know anything about blacksmithing yeah yeah yeah so then after about about eight weeks I think this started in sometime in November maybe late October and we finally took the keys in December or late December early January yeah and then he said oh yeah but you can learn YouTube too I'm like and yeah that doesn't sound right and my wife being assigned this definitely didn't sound right let's educate educate educate and she found a master blacksmith up in a moon got Patrick Faldeen and he's you know he's an amazing blacksmith to tell moonness media he makes amazing knives he makes just anything and he's a great guy and so I went to him almost every day for about five months until we opened up on May 1st so this started let's say it started January 1st I went to him until basically the day before I opened you know five days a week four days a week whatever it was put in lots of hours so I I crammed in a lot of knowledge really fast and I knew that I just had to be smarter or not smarter but better than that person that walked in the door I didn't know is that everybody in Sweden is connected to a bloody blacksmith it's like every day somebody my grandfather is a blacksmith I've done forging you know everybody has some of connections I joke about you know seven degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon and yeah here it's three degrees to a black smith yeah it's like well I'm glad I did it the way I did it because at least I can speak on it right you know and you know and if they know more that's great I still know what they're talking about it's not like I'm you know deer in the headlights type of thing so yeah then that May 1st we opened up I did have a partner and and I I do give them a lot of credit that because they made the decision quickly and they probably probably forced our hand you know we my wife and I tend to maybe over analyze and we may have not got it so I give them a lot of credit on that sense because they for they they did put up their part of the money so we ended up at doing it as well sadly it didn't work out we ended up buying buying them out at you know that Christmas yeah and these things happen you know you find especially if you're a little bit spontaneous you go through these things quickly and it's like okay but yeah and they're or he's living in Italy loving life so it's great wow yeah worked out for everybody yeah absolutely I know this but I don't think you've mentioned this where is this place located so the we call it rock the forge and it's located in this great little island called fieta homeana and it's classified as the closest island in the archipelago from Stockholm I think it's a bit of a stretch I mean it's you know from NACA it's five minutes from leader girl it's five minutes from Stockholm it's 25 minutes but it's a great little island and for anybody that happens to listen to this that might be from the Midwest it's kind of like a very small Maconaw Island which is in Lake Huron and I mean it's a Midwest thing but I did recently read I mean of course these you know top ten lists are always you know very very slanted towards certain things but Maconaw Island was the number one tourist attraction in the United States wow I mean I feel like I've heard of it yeah I mean there's the Maconaw bridge of course and then there's Maconaw City on the on the lower peninsula and then there's a beautiful island and it's got the grand hotel and but it's quite big the fieta homeana is about a thousand steps around it's about a kilometer yes I've only been once and it's been quite a while but could you describe like I know it's a fairly cheap day trip on the boat from Stockholm but I don't really know what all is there like if somebody wanted to take a day trip from Stockholm well what most of the time what happens is people come out and there's one two three three full on restaurants a brewery that has burgers and whatnot and it's they they brew the Roombier they no longer brew it on the island just because they bought a bigger place and they kind of outgrew the island but now it's a super cool bar and then there's a chocolate factory and a cafe so that's your food it's working for me yeah then that's your food component and then there's a series of makers there's the glass blores which they've got a big space they're we're kind of in behind them Fredrick Nielsen is like a rock star in that industry it means something to have a Fredrick Nielsen piece of art a Corolla cast castman I pull up I'm pronouncing that properly she's an artist and she made again she she draws quite a bit of attention on Instagram for her art a lot of people love it then there's a group of potters and they make beautiful stuff then there's a textile girl and a Lee and she makes some great stuff then there's Corolla then there's Almina she does more of a Swedish style of knitting and whatnot so she makes beautiful stuff and then there's a new person out there Christian and they're they're more of country down to kind of the woodworking stuff and most of us do some form of I call mine experiences but most do some form of experience and and what do you mean by experience so if somebody comes in and wants to try blacksmithing we have a couple of introduction programs one is called nailed it you make a nail the other one is called happy hooker guess what you make yeah make a hook I mean and then if somebody has experience and then we will custom design it for them but we're very flexible we're very accommodating we try to do that all the time we also have another one for for jewelry and we call that rock your ring so we can we try all our experiences we try to keep fairly concise like about an hour hour and a half because you're on this beautiful island and you want to walk around and it's amazing how many people come out there just to get sun of course you know that yeah as soon as the sun comes out and I mean the way I guess it's the way the island situated at that point in the day the sun is just beaming down on you it's a beautiful environment yeah absolutely but then the restaurants are kind of they run the place in the sense that everybody comes out there a lot of businesses bring their staff out there and if that's the case then we don't even see those people because they they're just a great thing that the businesses do here but they pay for the food they pay for the food and nobody wants to move from there because we're going to get as much of both of those as we can very Swedish yeah what about in the winter is everything open in the winter yeah so it is season okay so it go the season runs generally from the first weekend of May so it could be April 30th to May 1st if it falls on on the weekend and then it's the last the second Sunday in September and so it's it's just finished but we just finished up a couple weeks ago yeah then the table or sorry the restaurants do what's called Christmas table or as you know you'll board Krogan theater home on this Krogan is well known for theirs and they make a really beautiful, they have a chef that sort of comes on for that and they do really, really well. Rokari, which is the small house, they do an amazing job as well. But there's nothing that gets the same situation where the business is, a lot of times it's the business is taking them out there and they just want to get as much food, as much alcohol in them as they can. Thank you, whatever your business is. Yeah. But especially the new people, you always try, you're full of new ideas and oh yeah, I'm going to change everything here. Nothing changes. I even tried, I talked to the VD, Henrik at Krogan and I said, "Would you mind if I put a table out in front of the restaurant?" No, no problem. He goes, "But people have tried this before." I said, "Yeah, I'm sure, but I'm different." For two hours, people walked past and I had these beautiful knives from I was selling some for, I should say I was displaying some for her Patrick and an all our jewelry and not a single person. I mean, barely gave us a glance, like, didn't say, "Oh, what are you doing?" No, they were like so focused to run into the restaurant, most of them didn't even notice that we were there. So I guess there's no Christmas market there. There is no Christmas market as of this time. There's always talk that we're going to try and do it, it can change everything. It's been the next idea for probably 25 years. Yep, that's right. Did you ever think your path would lead you to living in Sweden and working as a blacksmith or silversmith? Absolutely not. Now, the funny thing is that my last name is Prentice, so now I'm a Prentice. Oh, there you go. So maybe somebody was telling me something all along. Well, I feel like we did our interview in the wrong time of the year. I should have done this before May. Maybe they'll run a wee run. Yeah, or a follow-up interview. We'll bring you out and do an experience with you. Ooh, I'd like that. That would be good. We'll record it. Absolutely. I'll make a nail. Or you can be a happy hooker. Yeah, of course. Obviously, yeah. It means so much to so many different people, so different things than different people. Well, you know, on this podcast, I usually ask people for any tips or recommendations, but I feel like we've definitely covered that this time. Well, and I was going to say pretty hard for me not to recommend Seattle Homena. Yes. So instead of ending on recommendations, if you happen to have any kind of funny story, I know that I have a lot from making either language or cultural mistakes. For my examples, like I washed my hair with conditioner for a month because I just grabbed the first thing that looked like shampoo, and I kept thinking, "Oh my God, the water here makes my hair so greasy all the time," and then I had another friend and they tried to make a cake, but they couldn't figure out baking powder, and they bought yeast and always tasted horrible. So some things like that. Yeah, there's so many little things like that. And I tend to try to shy away from disparaging Swedish people because I have a business. Right. Well, that guy said this about Swedish people. I'm not going to say, "I'm not going there." Yeah. Certainly, it's interesting because, like you said, baking powder, or when I'd been looking for baking soda for a long time, not thinking, of course, that it was just sodium bicarbonate. And it's those little things. And then when you don't know the language and you start realizing that there's so many words that actually are the same or sound the same, it's just the emphasis of the language. Where we tend to emphasize a certain part of the word, the Swedish people will emphasize another one. Funny story when I first moved here. My wife and I, on my first birthday here, decided to do a southern tour, and we weren't married at the time. So we wanted to do all the historical roads around the south, and you don't get to know Sweden better. And I still want to go north. We haven't done that yet. So we're driving around, and we decided we're going to stop in a campground. And first part of that is we're going to tent, and it wasn't the best day, so we managed to find one of the stugas. But the beds, my wife is six foot tall, I'm six foot three, and the beds are too short. Well, we did think that we'll bring an air mattress, we'll blow up the air mattress, and within five minutes the air mattress was flat. So we had to sleep in the bunk beds, which was like ridiculously kind of like get our knees. But the funny part of the story is I went into the cafeteria or to the what we call confectionary. And there was a young boy there, probably 18, 19 years old, and never assume anybody wants to know that I don't speak Swedish or would, you know, I always lead with I'm sorry. I apologize, I haven't learned Swedish yet. And people seem to appreciate that. A few people probably are getting tired of it, but they do appreciate it. So of course, you know about the Swedish chef, and this whole time that I've been here now at that point, probably not that long, probably maybe around a year, thinking, well, where the heck did they get the Swedish chef from? I've never heard anybody that sounds at all like that. And so I mean, obviously there was some creative license going on it. And then I met this kid, and he was speaking English. But my first response was, oh my God, you're the Swedish chef. And he's like blank, like, I had no idea. So I search on YouTube and I found Swedish chef, and he starts laughing. And the whole thing is is, I mean, we already know the Swedish language is very melodic. Yes. But the South is much more melodic and almost singing, and it just hit me in the head. And I found where they got the Swedish chef. I might have said this on here before, but in my first year, I remember having the TV on and brushing my teeth in the bathroom. And I found myself bouncing up and down to the newscaster, and that's when I realized they're like, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh. Also a second side note is my children, when they watch the Muppet Show, instead of thinking that was the Swedish chef, they always called him the chef. The chef? Well, that's another kind of funny thing, too, right? Whether, no matter where you are, whether it's IKEA or whether it's a high-end restaurant, you're buying meatballs, unless you're not from Sweden. Yeah. You mean Swedish meatballs? Oh, you mean meatballs. Yes. Of course, I mean meatballs. But come on. But now, I mean, I don't even think about it. But if somebody comes in from out of the town, it's like, oh, let's go have some Swedish meatballs. They're meatballs. Yeah. You know, so yeah. It's like getting a massage. Well, isn't everything here technically a Swedish massage? Right. Exactly. So those little things I don't mind making fun of. Yeah. But some of the other cultural things that might, I try to stay with, got to keep your customer base. Absolutely. Well, it's been so much fun talking to you. Absolutely. And now I'm, I'm really excited to go out to fiat at home and then check out your shop. And now I feel like I have to set a reminder of my calendar. Definitely. We'll do a, we'll do an experience and we'll talk about that as well. I love that. Definitely get you out there to, we, we just love passing on what experiences we have as little as they may be. I would love to try that out. Maybe, maybe we can work that out in May or something. Absolutely. We'll have a great day. To me, it's cold outside, but I guess you're doing pretty well. I'm sitting here in shorts. Yeah. Of course.