Swe

I don't get to hear or speak my native language very often, other than with my sister who moved here from SF a couple of years ago. Thank God for that. It's like we have our own secret language since practically no one understands it. And there aren't that many Swedes around in the city that we have to worry about what we say - we're safe talking trash in our mother tongue.

But whenever I do hear Swedish being spoken somewhere in the city my heart beats a little faster and I naturally listen in on the conversation. I was having breakfast at the Coffee Den in Carroll Gardens when a Swedish father walked in with his American wife and their maybe 4-year old son. "Alexander," the father said, "vi väntar där ute så att vi inte är i vägen, kom nu." And the son answered: "But I don't wanna vänta där ute!!"

Alexander probably doesn't run into many Swedish people either.