Tag archives for Swedish behaviour

You know you’ve been in Sweden too long when you…

* 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.

 

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Stockholm never sleeps

…. or does it?

During the cold winter I wasn’t as enthusiastic at the idea of going out as I was at the beginning of the 1st semester. But once I was out of my Lappis room, I wasn’t ready to get back very soon.

Going out in Stockholm is always a dilemma between going to a concert, dancing in a nightclub, chilling in a bar or getting drunk at a corridor party. I have spent the first two years of my university studies in a small town of Dijon in the East of France. Dijon is not a big city to be fickle about choosing the place to go out, so when I arrived to Stockholm I was lost between all the possibilities that the night life can offer. Back in France on the week ends I mostly used to go to bars with my friends, drinking really cheap and quite good wine, and I really missed this “bar-culture” in Stockholm. And it’s not because Stockholm doesn’t have enough bars, no, on the contrary, there’s a lot of very nice places with good music and a cool atmosphere, but spending 6-7 euros on the less expensive beer spoils it all. But what Stockholm does have, in comparison to France, is the cool concept of night clubs with a chilling zone which sometimes has… a ping pong table. I swear, it’s the funniest thing you could do in a club and an original way to meet people.  Read more » >>

Some Crazy Coffee Habits

In North America we think we take our coffee seriously. Whether you brew your own at home or pick up something at the local Starbucks, it is a morning staple for most people. Cafes on every corner are common, offering coffee to go to suit a more fast-placed lifestyle.

But, the truth is, us North Americans know nothing about coffee drinking. In Sweden, it is more of a cultural practice, a time-honoured tradition, and a social entitlement that brings people together.

The coffee habits I have observed since I have been here still amaze me to this day. A typical day of coffee drinking can include, coffee at home before leaving for work, coffee when arriving to work, fika break mid-morning, coffee after lunch, fika break in the afternoon and even possibly a coffee after dinner.

Coffee is an institution in Sweden. Photo By: Pixelthing (CC BY-SA 2.0)

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