1. The Swedish computer keyboard still confuses me six weeks after arrival. The”@” sign should not be so hard to find. I type email addresses all the time and I cannot find this important character…
Swedish keyboard...Can you find the "@" symbol? Yup, it's that 3rd symbol on the "2" key. You have to press the "AltGr" key to get to it...I know, right?
2. I used a black, rolling case to cart stuff back and forth to work in my old job. It was a real back-saver. But I don’t feel like it’s very practical in Sweden’s winter…There is too much sand, etc. on the sidewalks (to make the walkways less slippery). I used a shoulder bag for a while but that was not good for my shoulders and back. I feel a backpack looks too young but it is the only choice left so…a loaner backpack it is!
3. Many of the indoor, professional clothes I brought to Sweden are too warm. I anticipated how cold it would be in the winter but I didn’t realize that Swedes keep the inside temperature warmer than I am used to. In California, the house was cold in the morning, since there was no point in turning on the heat for very long. Then it took time to heat up the house when I returned in the evening. Here, the indoor temperature is kept constant pretty much the whole time
4. Let me get this straight…The 1st floor is the basement and the 2nd floor is the 1st floor…no wait, start again…
5. I am completely flummoxed by the telephone numbers here. I finally figured out that there is an extra digit when it’s a cell number but then, why is it written so differently?
6. Swedish public buildings have door locks that bewilder me. I look silly when I cannot let myself out the door at work.
I am still stumped on how to operate the door at the office...
7. The shopping cart return system in Sweden is brilliant! All the carts are hooked together by a keychain system. You stick a 10 crown coin into the slot and the chain disengages. Your coin remains with the cart. When you return the cart and connect the cart to the others, your coin is ejected and returned to you. (And some people have a special store “coin” that works in the cart and doesn’t require you to fish in your coin purse. But you return the cart for the same reason—you want your special coin back.)
8.I am used to counting carbs but it seems to be expressed differently in Sweden. I have to learn to read the labels all over again because the numbers don’t seem to be the same even though it is still expressed in grams…Hmmm…will have to look into this some more…
9. OK, will someone please explain to me how to write the date in Sweden? I need to know this because I create a lot of files and I need to follow the existing naming/dating conventions. Don’t take my word for it, but I believe you put the day first if you write the date like this: 4 January, 2012. But, if you write the date in the shorter way, you would write 2012-01-04. The day is never in the middle and you must use a zero before single digits. The year can be just two digits if you want. Anyone have a different opinion about how to write the date in Sweden?
10. There are no drinking straws in any restaurant within miles of my office. This is odd because the takeout cups have lids with holes for straws. Definitely too childish to ask where they’re located when you’re having a working lunch, so I go without…
11. Candles at work! How nice! I’m so trained to worry about fire hazards but it doesn’t seem to be something Swedes worry about.
This is the reception desk at my workplace. I'm amazed that candles are allowed at work.
12. Why do many websites have a button for an English version but when you click the button you can only read one, poorly translated page in English, then it’s right back to Swedish? I’m not saying there has to be an English version, it’s just that the button implies something else…
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