Club’s 2017-18 Exchange Student Shares her Country, Family and Dreams

Posted by John Borst on Sep 13, 2017

Varja Lindström gave us a little insight as to who she is, her family and where she lives. Varja means “Wolf”.

Lindström explained the Swedish dream of “VVV”. Translated into English, it means having a Dog, a Volvo and a house.

At one point Varja told us about her favourite treat “Bilar” by Ahlgrens. It is a small chewy treat. A bag was passed around the room for us to have a taste.

She also introduced us to the Swedish “FIKA”. Translated into English this means “let’s meet over coffee and goodies”. A humous music video drove home this concept.

Varja’s hometown is Boras in the southwest corner of Sverige (Sweden).It once was a major textile town but today is a university centre. Boras has wonderful shopping centres (Kanalleland) with beautiful old architecture. It is also the rainiest city in Sweden.

The town holds a festival to celebrate midsummer. “On the longest day, we dance around the green pole (Maypole) and wear a crown of flowers”, she told us. Every year they also hold a Street Art Festival.

Family

Varja’s family consists of a 16-yr. old brother, Esbjorn (means Bear), a 12-yr. old brother Vidar (means King of the Forest), her mother Karin and father Torbjorn. And most importantly her dog named “Princess Leia”.

Dreams

She attends Backkangs high school (1000 students) where she is studying Nature Adventure which includes such activities as climbing, skiing, and hiking. She also takes 12 major subjects over the course of her high school years.

Varja described herself as enjoying training, liking to give hugs and working part-time. She describes herself as active and ambitious as well as curious and kind. Her ambition shows up in her future dreams. She wants to travel, start a magazine, start a school, write 3 books, start a company and work with art.

She also mentioned a 3-week trip in 2013 to Nepal with her father and brother where they did a lot of site seeing and hiking.

At the end of the presentation, Varja presented President Ed Iskra with a pendant from her home club.

Enjoy a portion of Varja's presentation to the club!