* Call your friends to go for a “fika“…
instead of inviting a friend to go for a coffee, it becomes natural to ask:
“Are you up for a fika around 4 p.m.?”
* Write “hej” instead of “hey“…
when you begin text messages. And no, it is not misspelled.
* Get angry when people do not recycle properly…
because everyone should know what plastic and what carton is.
* Think it’s usual to see cows on the way to uni…
when you’re walking from the student residence Lappkärsberget to Stockholm university.
* Appreciate the smallest ray of sunshine…
when it’s the only one you’ve seen since several days/weeks/months.
* Aren’t surprised when the airport is quiet…
or the train station. Or the metro on a Friday evening.
* Go out on a Friday night at 9 p.m…
because you don’t want to pay 15 euros to enter a club.
* Go to the gym several times per week…
because in Sweden everyone works out!
* Buy alcohol in the afternoon, several hours before the party…
or even several days before. Because Systembolaget is closed on Saturday evenings. And on holidays.
* Come to a party with your own alcohol mix that you put in a plastic bottle…
because “Joey doesn’t share alcohol“.
* Drink milk during dinner…
to be tall as a Swede.
* Eat cheese, shrimps and crab from a tube…
because that’s the way to do it, man!
* Wear a small leather pocket on a lace around your neck…
yes, the one you can barely put your keys in. So fashionable… and so useless.
* Go sun-bathing when it’s 15°C and think the water’s warm when it reaches 12°C…
because that’s the summer here!
Lappis. June 2012. Photo by Nathalia Mikhalkov.
