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Tag archives for sweden

Frogs in the Road

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Sign that says "frogs on the road"

Sign that says “frogs on the road”

 

This is my final post as Work blogger for Sweden.se. It’s been a great experience for me. I began writing in October, 2011 while I prepared to move to Sweden and waited for my work visa. I moved to Uppsala and began working as a technical writer in Stockholm in late November. That was nearly six months ago. The gift of writing a blog was that it made me really pay attention to the little things in my transition from American life to Swedish life.

I’ve come a long way, baby.

  • I learned to drive in Swedish roundabouts and reacquainted myself with the manual transmission.
  • I navigated the complicated waters of being a foreign citizen in Sweden; learned how to work with the Migration Board and the Tax Agency.
  • I convinced a Swedish bank to let me open an account so that I could get receive paychecks from my employer; then waited the months it took to get registered in Sweden so that I could have an account with more benefits, such as the ability to send money owed and to pay for things online.
  • I learned to ride the commuter train to work and complain about the delays like a real Swede
  • • I watched wacky cartoons and film clips on Christmas and New Year’s eves. Crazy old lady and her butler, anyone? (Who knew about these hidden Swedish customs?)
  • I basked in the amazing gluten-free alternatives readily available in Sweden. Wow, gluten-free bread can actually taste good!
  • I discovered that Swedes love candles and there are even lit candles at my workplace, outside restaurants and in the airport.
  • I discovered what the Swedish ice claw is (not a horror film!)
  • I found out that offices in Sweden can be highly mobile. In my office, there aren’t even any landlines.
  • I worked on having a Sweden-friendly CV and cover letter. They didn’t have to be in Swedish but they had to have the right tone.
  • I went to my first social and professional networking meetings in Stockholm. that took all my courage for some reason.
  • I got my work permit extended, obtained a personal number and a Swedish ID—keys to accessing the benefits of Swedish society and moving freely in and out of the country.
  • I learned about feathers and witches at Easter and bonfires and rafting at Walpurgis.

I learned that, in Sweden, sometimes you dance around the Christmas tree or the May Pole singing about frogs. And sometimes there are frogs in the road.

You can read my own blog at http://3menandaswede.blogspot.se/

Thanks for reading!

Kristin Lund

May 10, 2012

“10-voice Blow to the Body,” “Armed Horse” and Other Interesting Uppsala Police Reports

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Swedish police car

...About to respond to an armed horse call...Photo by: Riggwelter (CC BY 3.0)

 

I have always loved reading the police reports in small town newspapers. It’s simply great reading. It gives you a sense of what’s going on around you–the stuff that you might not otherwise know about. Recently I stumbled across the police report in an Uppsala newspaper called, well, “The Uppsala Newspaper (Uppsala Tidningen). There I read my first Swedish police report in the April 26-May 3, 2012 edition. At first I thought I would tell you about it, or maybe translate some of the text and fix the Google translation. But you know what? This stuff is even better with the crazy Google translation. So, here it is, almost in its entirety (some repetitive shoplifting removed), including some hilarious translation…*

*Yes, there are real victims in these reports. My heart goes out to them. Read more » >>

Kristin Lund

May 3, 2012

Doing Business with Swedes

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Swedish laboratory

You don't actually have to wear a hazmat suit to do business with Swedes...Photo by: Melker Dahlstrand/imagebank.sweden.se

 

A co-worker recently loaned me a book called “Swedes as Others See Them.” The book was first published in English in 1981 and was last updated in 1991 so it is 21 years old. It’s a quick read and I found it limited but interesting.

Next, I am thinking of reading a book called “Modern Day Vikings: A Practical Guide to Interacting with the Swedes” which was recommended at the AWC meeting I attended recently. (Read more about that here.) But since my turn doing this blog will soon be at an end, I thought I had better write about this subject in case I don’t get to that book right away.

The first edition of “Swedes as Others See Them” sold over 40,000 copies which is a large amount for such a niche book. The book is ostensibly written for business people who work cross-culturally—Swedes working with foreign cultures and foreign cultures working with Swedes. It’s not so much a factual book “here’s how Swedish people do it” but more of a thought-provoking treatise on how we can easily misinterpret other cultural norms. Read more » >>

Kristin Lund

April 24, 2012

Swedish Habits?

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Portions of white snus

“White portions” of Swedish snus can be any color. The name refers to the style, not the color. Photo by: Alekos (CC BY 3.0)

 I noticed recently at work that a number of my male co-workers use snus. There are Swedish women who use snus but we don’t have very many women where I work and I don’t believe the few we do have use it. I had this vague idea that snus is the same thing as chewing tobacco but people assured me it wasn’t. Snus has also been in the newspapers a lot recently so I took it as a sign that I should educate myself a little bit and then share what I learned with you. As usual, this is only my opinion about the subject becuase this is a blog and not a journal article. I’m sure some readers will know much more about the subject than I do. Also, I freely admit a predjudice against tobacco products but I tried to keep an open mind about this Swedish passion… Read more » >>

Kristin Lund

April 22, 2012

Witches and Feathers? It Must Be Easter!

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It’s Easter (Påsk) time and that can only mean Spring, right? Sure it snowed and hailed last weekend here in Uppsala but there is no way that Spring is not coming. It’s cool the way Swedes watch for signs of Spring and how eager they are to get out and enjoy the outdoors the minute the weather makes things a little more hospitable. It’s good to look up from your computer now and then and get outside. (Wrote the woman typing out a blog post!)

flowerbed next to Spring snow

We gamely planted flowers last weekend even though it snowed (and then mostly melted) the night before...Photo by: K.Lund

 

Some of the Swedish Easter traditions I recognize and others are completely foreign to me as an American.

Candy? Yup, we got that.

Colored eggs? Yup.

Egg hunts? Yup, but it’s different in Sweden, more on that in my next post.

Witches going door to door? Nope. Not seen that before.

Feather trees? Excuse me, what?

 

The Easter Witch

Let’s get right to the Easter Witch. According to a slim book I have called “Celebrating the Swedish Way” published by the Swedish Institute, “Trick-or-treat became an Eastertime tradition in the 19th century, originally practiced by adults in masks and costumes, but later by young girls.”

In modern times, little kids—mostly girls but some boys, too—go door to door dressed up as witches (this involves lots of head scarves, kitchen aprons, and painted-on freckles) and beg for candy. Like most traditions around the world, it is a mix of the old and new. The witch concept harks back to the belief that witches would fly to Blåkulla, a German mountain, the Thursday before Easter (Maundy Thrusday) to frolic with Satan.

According to the ”Celebrating” book, people also used to hide their brooms and rakes so that witches could not fly off on them. But I saw a neighbor out burning leaves this morning so obviously that is no longer a concern. At least in Uppsala.

Easter witches go door to door on Maundry Thursday in Sweden

Easter witches go door to door begging for candy on Maundry Thursday in Sweden. Photo by: Lena Granefelt/imagebank.sweden.se

 

Feather Trees

I have read so many different explanations as to how this came about that I no longer have a good grasp on the concept. But feathers in trees, how awesome is that? And the feathers are always these bright pinks, blues and yellows. The two trees outside the train station in Knivsta (see below) looked like a giant Dr. Seuss bird crashed into a similar bird mid-air and all that’s left is an explosion of feathers caught in the trees.

feather trees in Knivsta

Feather trees in Knivsta are signs of Spring even if one instantly knows those feathers didn't actually come from buds! Photo by: K. Lund

 

The home version is an Easter tree (Påskris) consisting of some birch twigs and sticks in a vase with the colored feathers tied on with thread or wire. Some people hang eggs from the branches. Nearly every attempt at explaining how this tradition came about involves a vague reference to Christ’s suffering and people (in the days of old) thrashing each other with branches. Luckily that last part seems to have disappeared!

Easter decorations

What can be cuter than the holiday decorations kids make from milk cartons and tp rolls at school? Photo by: K.Lund

 

Kristin Lund

April 5, 2012