Life Lessons

Ryan and I decided that in order to get caught up on everything that's happened so far since we've arrived in Sweden, that we won't talk about individual experiences that we've had so far. We will simply summarize everything into interesting things we've learned so far about the Swedish culture.

-It is important to contact your landlord before leaving the country to see if you can even get the keys to your place in time to sleep there the night you arrive.

-Beer games are an acceptable school orientation function. It's on the schedule for next week. Be jealous.

-Lulea is a very spread out city. Yet people still walk or bike everywhere they go. A "short" walk to the gas station in Swedish really means a three hour trek that will result in blisters if you don't wear the proper shoes in English.

-If you ever visit us over here, and you hear a vuvezela (the annoying "instrument" you hear in the background during the World Cup), it is our neighbor Christopher trying to announce that he can, in fact, play an instrument correctly.

-Apparently, having a shower separated from the rest of the bathroom is not necessary for Swedes. A small hump in the floor is a good enough barrier to distinguish between where you bathe and the rest of the bathroom.

-Furnished apartment means simply that your apartment has furniture in it. It does NOT, however, have dishes, silverware, or any other cooking supplies that would've been so easy to pack.

-There is a dollar store in Sweden, and is actually called "The Dollar Store". However, unlike in the United States, everything does NOT cost a dollar. In fact, things like sheets or pots can cost as much as 100 SEK.... or approximately $15.

-Pots purchased from said "Dollar Store" do not come with pre-installed handles. These handles are also very hard to install with only the end of a nail clipper.

-You must purchase plastic bags to carry the things you've already purchased from stores.

-The words for hamburger and horsemeat look almost identical in the Swedish language. Don't worry, we didn't have to learn this lesson the hard way.

-Subway has funny tasting bread, and it costs three times as much as you would expect.

-The sun rises at about 3 am right now because it's still summer. It really aids in adjusting to the time change over here. Not.

-Every person we see on the street either has a baby, a dog, or both.

-Soda is cheaper than milk. And it tastes a lot better, too.

-Where's the beef? Apparently, not in Sweden because hamburger is equivalent to about $18/pound... for the cheap stuff.

-Swedes are prejudice to China food... it took us almost 1/2 an hour to find teriyaki sauce.

-The Swedish government has complete control over the sale of alcohol. We thought Absolute vodka would be cheaper here because it's made in Sweden, but we were wrong. It is over $60/liter here due to the extremely high taxes. Looks like we'll be sober for the next 10 months.

-The bus only runs every hour on Saturdays. It doesn't make it easier to catch when you go to the wrong bus stop.

-Swedes put ketchup on EVERYTHING. Even pizza... weird, I know.

-Free cable is nice. It's nicer to have a TV to watch it on.

-Ryan is deathly allergic to one of the plants here. We found this out the hard way while going for a run today... he's been sneezing for the past 7 hours even after taking allergy pills.


Well, I'd say that just about wraps it up. We will try to post daily from now on so we can go more in-depth on our stories and such.