Today, I learned that:

June is the best time of the year in Sweden and thus many people go on vacation now. Yesterday, Radio Sweden’s programme “P4 Världen” told us about the conditions to obtain a paid vacation around the world. It was surprising to hear that USA has no law about a paid vacation, and, as one can easily understand, in Greece now everything is upside-down. Until some years ago, the Greeks had vacation every year and elections every four years, but now it is the opposite, elections every year and vacation, at best, every four years. Listen to reference #1 below.

But why do the Swedes use the word “semester” for vacation? The programme gave no hint, and a search on the internet does not reveal any satisfactory explanation.

Do you remember Imelda Marcos, wife of the former Philippine dictator, Ferdinand Marcos? When they opened the presidential closets, they found 5 000 pairs of shoes in her collection! In Brazil, we are now seeing something similar. Cláudia Cruz, wife of the suspended president of the lower house of the Brazilian Parliament, Eduardo Cunha, denies that the money used for shopping shoes in Florida has anything to do with what was extracted from Petrobras in a deal over petrol exploration outside the African coast. Look at the following drawing from yesterday’s edition of Folha de S. Paulo, reference #2 below, about her reaction to answer the incriminatory questions:

… That’s what I learned in school !

Refs.:

1: Vem har rätt till semester?

2: Folha de São Paulo, sábado 11 de junho de 2016

+: What did you learn in school today ?