Did I get culture shock? Damn straight! They don't pack your shopping bags in the supermarket. You have to do it yourself. How uncivilised! It took me a number of weeks to work up the coordination to pack my groceries while simultaneously signing the credit card authorisation. On the topic of credit cards, they also need photo ID with a credit card purchase if you don't have a PIN number on your credit card. Bizarrely the Victorian drivers licence seems to satisfy the requirements for photo ID.
What about eating? Talk about flipping the day on its head, not only have I shifted my day 8 hours into the past, I now eat my main meal at lunch time. The Swedes have a culture of large lunches and light dinners. Every restaurant has a set lunch menu with 3 or 4 dishes (ie. one meat dish, one soup, one fish and one vegetarian). This is called "dagens lunch" in Swedish, which is translated as lunch of the day. Around work all the restaurants publish the whole week's menu on the web, so we can decide before going out where we go. Once at the restaurant you pick up a tray and load your food up like you see on American high-school TV shows. Included in the price is a salad and usually a drink and coffee. Coffee is essential when returning to work after such heavy lunches! No wonder the Swedes are the 2nd highest per capita consumers of coffee.
The phrase (in English) "after work" is a noun in Sweden, e.g. "lets go for an after work". Go drinking! What if it's too cold? It doesn't matter, the bars give you complimentary blankets if you are drinking outdoors! That's right... there's no such thing as too cold, you just haven't got enough blankets yet.
I've spotted some productivity improvements Swedish bars could make: get rid of unisex toilets! Urinals are fast and efficient, forcing the guys to queue for cubicles is just bad business practise. The faster I'm out of the toilet and back at the bar, the sooner I can buy more beer! Mind you, buying beer at Swedish prices is not something you want to rush into... better check with your bank manager first. It's not uncommon to pay around 50kr for a 400ml beer ($10). Yup, that round of 3 beers just set you back $30. A Swedish mate offers this phrase whenever I complain: "welcome to Sweden: last communist state on earth". Thanks Olly.
Another not-quite-right Swedish-English expression in common use is: "how many are we?". Which the reply could be: "we are three". You'd use this when asking how many people are going to lunch (or to an after work!). I think it's a cute expression, and it's shorter than asking properly "how many of us are there?".
Mind you, you'll be eating alone if you are not on time. Swede's are punctuality freaks. You might find they even turn up early to meetings! Crazy I tell you. A meeting time is the time to leave you desk and make your way to the meeting in my books. And keep in-mind lunch is at 11:30am, no later, or you might miss out.
When visiting a friend's house in Sweden, don't forget to take off your shoes. The best way to lose a friend in Sweden is to, turn up to their house late for dinner, and then keep your shoes on. It's probably quite a practical piece of etiquette though, since I suspect it's pretty muddy here in winter.
What are some of the good things about living in Sweden?
- The public transport is usually on time, and it runs all night.
- Holidays are no problem, the rest of Europe is not far away.
- Summer has awesomely long days (though, I'm glad I'm not here for winter darkness).
- Everyone speaks English - this is good and bad - makes learning Swedish hard.
- Innebandy, see my previous post on that.
- Most people eat lunch out, it's good for socialising with workmates, and getting out of the office.
- Fika: a Swedish coffee break, everyone attends, lasts at least 15 minutes, and sometimes includes cake.
- No water restrictions.
What's bad?
- 25% GST.
- Coffee is usually bad, unless you find "Italian" style coffee.
- Pizza is terrible. And it doesn't come pre-sliced.
- Eating out costs heaps if it's not dagens lunch.
- Queuing is taken way too seriously here.
I'll finish this post with a few amusing things.
- You order beer like so: en stor stack tack! This literally means, a big strong one thanks.
- Fart, bra and slut are all common words: go, good and end.
- If it's over 20°C and sunny, then everyone in the office goes out for ice cream.
- Oh... and seriously... everyone drives Volvo's.
Postscript: I found an awesome list of "you know you're Swedish when..." from an Australian perspective at http://www.coolabah.com/sweden/youknow.html.
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