Friday 13 July 2012

Conversation With A Woman Selling Strawberries At The Traffic Lights In Gothenburg

I'm currently in Sweden, Gothenburg for no other reason than being somewhere that isn't London.

Yesterday while wandering the streets I met a woman selling strawberries at the traffic lights, I had to talk to her, had to ask her something just to see how she thinks. 

She looked young, maybe late twenties, blonde shiny hair. I walked over, she was standing on the side walk holding a wooden crate of strawberries, they were so alive in the colour red I thought they might be breathing. 


"Hey!" I said, before even thinking what else I was going to say..."Hej!" she said back and smiled, "Jordgubbe?", I guessed this was Swedish for strawberry. I responded with the few Swedish words I know "ja" and "tack", which means "yes, thank you".

In English I asked her if she likes her job, she answered while staring at a family sitting in a yellow car, two children in the back, an old woman in the passenger seat and a man in a bright pink shirt smiling back at us, "in life" she said, "whatever you take pride in, make sure it is sweet" - she gave me a bag of strawberries and said "lycka till!" which is Swedish for "good luck".


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