Differences between the U.S. and Sweden

Before moving to Sweden, I honestly had no idea what to expect. I thought the scenery would be just like in The Sound of Music (even though that movie takes place in Austria) with lush green rolling hills and gigantic mountains and bright blue lakes. I also thought that Swedish would sound exactly like the language the Swedish Chef speaks on The Muppets (that's sometimes true). Anyways, I thought I would make a list of just a few of the differences that I've noticed about Sweden. (These might not be true throughout the entire country, this is all just from my personal experience).

Heavy/Tricky Doors: The doors at my school are crazy heavy. They have large silver handles on both sides so it is almost always impossible for me to figure out if I need to push or pull the door open, this results in me running into a lot of doors that pull open instead of push open, quite the entertainment for my friends.

Wooden Floors (un-carpeted floors): In the U.S. ( at least at my house) most of the hallways, the tv room, the living room, and bedrooms are carpeted. In Sweden, I have yet to see a single carpeted room in a home. Most floors are wooden, tile, or vinyl. However, I have seen more area rugs than ever before.  I quite like wooden flooring, but it was definitely a strange experience to vacuum a wooden floor for the first time.

Something Fishy: Kalles Kaviar and Sill. Kalles Kaviar is salted fish paste that comes in a tube that bears a strong resemblance to a toothpaste tube. For the life of me I cannot figure out why some Swedes find this to be an appealing food, but I am told that it is very delicious on hard-boiled eggs. Kalles Kaviar is something that I will probably never like, but something that I've found that is actually pretty good is sill. Sill is jarred herring that is eaten with potatoes and comes in a variety of flavors. By far the best flavor of sill in my opinion is mustard sill. Sill is often enjoyed as a traditional Christmas, Easter, and Mid Summer food and is best when served with potatoes.

School: I think school in Sweden is fantastic, at least in my experience. The school lunch is free and usually pretty good, and it's nice to have a hot meal for every lunch, and on the rare occassion that the school lunch isn't great, there's always a delicious salad bar. Besides lunch, Swedish high schools also provide their students with laptops. Teachers in Sweden are always addressed by their first names instead of Mr. or Mrs. and teachers are a lot more connected to their students here. Something else that is different about school in Sweden is that in high school here, you get to pick a program (Languages, Science, Social Studies etc.) and more of your classes are focused on that area of interest. Everyone is divided into classes of about 30 people each and each class goes to all of their lessons together. It's really cool to get to know a small group of people better rather than always going to class with different people for every different lesson. High school in Sweden is 3 years instead of 4 and it's called gymnasium. The years of schooling also have different numbers instead of 10th, 11th, and 12th, grades there's Year 1, Year 2, and Year 3. I am currently enrolled in Year 3 which means that I get to "graduate" with my class in June, I am really looking forward to that experience! 

My beautiful school.

Cars: The cars in Sweden are generally smaller than the cars in America, and I have yet to see a single pick-up truck. There is also a much higher percentage of cars with a manual transmission as opposed to an automatic transmission. The cars in Sweden are generally Saab or Volvo (both Swedish companies) but I have seen other brands such as BMW and Volkswagen as well. 

This is a typical Swedish car in my opinion, many of the cars here are station wagons.

Fil: Fil is a Swedish dairy product that is quite similar to yoghurt. I think in English it would be called "sour milk" but it's not sour, it's basically like yoghurt, but it is in more of a liquid state, so you can easily pour fil into a bowl. Fil is a product that can be found in almost any home in Sweden. Fil is delicious with müsli or fruit.

Knäckebröd: Knäckebröd is a Swedish bread that I think would be called something like "crisp bread" in English. When  I first moved to Sweden, I had a hard time believing that this was bread, to me the texture and consistency is more similar to crackers rather than bread. However, I have learned to love this bread and I don't know what I'll do without it back in America. Knäckebröd is best when served with butter and cheese. 

Kronor: Kronor (SEK) is the national currency in Sweden. It would be translated as "crowns" in English. The equivalent of $1.00 (USD) in crowns is roughly 6.4 crowns. So there are approximately 6.4 crowns for every dollar, however that is just a rough estimate because currency values fluctuate. This kind of currency conversion can be confusing because prices appear to be much higher than they actually are. For example a shirt from H&M in Sweden can be priced around 129 SEK, but it that is  $20.00. Buying a snack at the grocery store might cost around 50 SEK which is around $8.00. I remember on my first full day in Sweden, I went to MAX (Swedish fast-food restaurant similar to McDonald's) with Simon and Hannes, and the burger I ordered cost 85 SEK ($13.00) and they bought my lunch for me, and I was so panicked and I thought that they had spent the equivalent of $85.00 on a hamburger meal for me.

Language: This is a pretty obvious difference. In the United States, English is the de facto national language. In Sweden, Swedish is the national language. Swedish is a Germanic language with an interesting history. Swedish has many words borrowed from German, English, and French. Swedish also has three additional letters that are not in the English alphabet: Å. Ä, Ö. Swedish is a mutually intelligible lanugage for speakers of Danish and Norwegian. 

Movie Theatres: Going to the movies in Sweden is a lot fun but it can also be quite expensive. A typical movie ticket costs around 110 SEK ($17.00) and that's just the ticket price, not including snacks. Something else that is different about movie theatres in Sweden is that when you purchase your ticket, you also book your seat. This is good system if you think in advance, you can book a really nice seat, however if you are more impulsive like me, you'll often find yourself sitting in Row 2. 

Bus Etiquette: Bus  etiquette in Sweden is quite different than bus etiquette in the United States. Bus etiquette in the U.S. doesn't really exist, because most people drive cars. I digress. Bus etiquette in Sweden involves standing as far away as you can from the other people waiting for the bus. Swedes are very respectful people and they don't want to invade your personal space, just as they would not like for you to invade theirs. It's best to keep a distance of at least 2 meters (6.5 feet) between you and the person beside you. 

I could write more about all of the difference between Sweden and the United States, these are just some of the differences that I've noticed since moving here. The United States and Sweden also have many similarities, maybe I'll address that in another blog post. 

My friend Cecilia would like me to mention that we Americans pronounce IKEA wrong, very, very, very wrong. IKEA is a Swedish furniture store and it is very near and dear to Cecilia. IKEA is properly prounounced like this E(ee)-(KEA) not I(i)-KEA- Now you know. And if you don't pronounce it right....the IKEA Warriors will pay you a visit. You've been warned.

Kulning

This past weekend I attended a two-day kulning course with Ulrika (first host mom) and Monika (Ulrika's sister/ my host aunt) led by music teacher/kulning expert, Britta Röjås. The course was an incredible experience, tons of fun, and I learned a lot, however, in order to understand the complete awesomeness of my weekend, I have to explain what kulning is, or at least attempt to explain kulning. 

This is Britta Röjås, the woman who taught our kulning course.

Kulning is a Swedish folk tradition that roughly translates to "herding calls" in English, I think. There aren't any words in English that can really describe what kulning is but if you imagine a mix of yodeling and opera singing, that's sort of what it sounds like. Kulning is a musical technique that is used to call livestock home from distant pastures.  Kulning is very high-pitched and thus the sound is able to travel long distances. Kulning often sounds quite eerie and sad, but also loud and powerful.

 It is almost impossible to describe if you've never heard it before. If done properly, the strength behind the singing will come from the stomach and not the throat, although this technique is difficult to master. Kulning often follows the melody of a song, but what differentiates kulning from singing is that you don't sing any words, just the melody of the song. 



This is how I imagine kulning would look if done traditionally. This is also one of the first images that appears if you Google kulning. But it gives an idea of what I'm writing about.

Kulning is not just music, it is used to communicate important messages between livestock herders. An example of this would be a melody I learned this weekend: "Lever du? Lever du? Ja' trodde du var långa långa död", which in my head translates to: " Are you alive? Are you alive? I thought you were long, long dead". Another example is " Leta ej mer, leta ej mer, korna e hemma" which in my head translates to: " Look no more, look no more, the cows are home". I can't guarantee that either of my lyric translations are accurate, but the idea comes across, just how important the melody is to kulning. Kulning is a tradition that has been used in livestock raising since medieval times. Kulning is not as prevalent today, but it is still significant.

Now that I've explained kulning, it's possible to understand how great my weekend was. But this weekend was not my first experience with kulning. I also attended a one day kulning course in November with Monika, also taught by Britta. That was my first experience with kulning. I thought it was challenging, but ultimately rewarding and fun! Here are some pictures from the course in November:

 
Britta teaching us the basics.



It's all about attitude



And being expressive



Britta is the queen of attitude and kulning. She's wonderful.

In January, Monika and I organized our very own kulning course. We gathered in Lugnet in the afternoon with about 20 people including my first host family and their relatives from Stockholm and Uppsala, my second host family, and my fellow exchange student Beth. Monika remembered a lot more of the details from our course in November and she bravely taught all of us the kulning basics. I was the assistant teacher, for sure.

Beth and I had a lot of fun with our torches during our kulning promenade.

 After the lesson, we split into two groups: one group walked to Sunnerstabacken (the ski hill in Uppsala) and the other group walked along the river until we were across from Sunnerstabacken, but on the other side of the river. We had lit torches and we did kulning for each other, and got quite a few strange looks from passers by. After our outdoor kulning evening, we all walked together back to my first host family's house and we had a lovely potluck dinner together. 

Our kulning party in January was such a great experience, I could hardly wait for the 2-day kulning course in February. Ulrika, Monika, and I had a blast together on Saturday and Sunday working on our kulning skills. We sang, practiced kulning, and laughed. This past weekend was absolutely terrific and it was an exprience I will certainly never forget. 

Thank you Monika for the photos of Britta! 

A post about cows. Yes. Cows.

Although I've yet to update my blog about Jullovet (Christmas Break), I thought I would share this. While in Västergötland with my second host family, we spent some time on a farm. This farm had many cows. I took pictures. Enjoy!

 Cute Calf

Close-up of the same cute calf

Mamma and new-born baby calf

This calf was born at 8:00 in the morning, and I met the calf at 14:00 in the afternoon, on the same day. I've never seen a new-born calf before but it was adorable and tiny, and also a wee bit slimy and gross, but mostly adorable! 

So those are just some of the many cow pictures I have on my iPod, I only uploaded the cutest ones. I forgot to even mention the milk robot. How did I not mention the milk robot?! It's as you might've guessed a robot that milks all the cows. Unfortunately, I did not get a good picture of the robot. My bad.

Meeting all the cows was just one of the many cool things I did while in Västergötland. I'll update my blog later with more adventures from Christmas Break.

Långfärdsskridskor Äventyr- Lake Ice Skating Adventure

Today I went on an adventure and tried something new that I've never done before: ice skating on a lake with long ice skates. I actually have no idea how to translate "långfärdsskridskor" into English but they are essentially these really long ice skates that you strap onto cross-country-esque ski boots. I think each blade is about 12 inches long, so it's actually easier to balance than regular ice skates. The basic idea is to move the same way you would while waiting in the ski lift line and moving towards the ski lift by moving your skis in sort of a v-shape, I am awful at describing this, but that's how you're supposed to skate with long ice skates. I understood the technique in theory, but I found it to be much more difficult in practice. 

As stated above: easy in theory, harder in practice. ( I'm on the left of this photo and Beth is on the right)

I went ice skating on Lake Ekoln near Uppsala at a place called Hammarskog with Ulrika and Bengt-Ove (my first host parents), Axel (little brother from my first host family) and Beth (RYE student from California). I am so happy that they invited me to go ice skating with them, although I am not going to lie, I felt really nervous when they called the night before to tell me about the gear I would need for the following day which included: an apparatus that you put around your neck so if you fall through the ice you have two ice picks to dig into the ice and pull yourself out again (I have no idea what this is called in English), a backpack with a buckle around the waist so that if you fall through the ice, the backpack does not go over your head and push you further underwater, and in the backpack it is also important to include extra clothes in a plastic bag so you have something dry to change into if you fall through the ice. Needless to say, after this phone conversation I was both nervous and excited for the next day, having no idea what this adventure would have in store. 

Ice skating on the lake.

I ended up having an absolutely wonderful afternoon on the lake, even though Bengt-Ove lapped Beth and me a few times. I made it around the path on the lake three times, and I only fell down twice! This was my first time ever ice skating on a lake with long ice skates, so I was pretty happy that I only fell two times and only got a little bit wet.  After ice skating, we went inside the lodge for fika and I had a little sandwich and a coffee as well as a great conversation with everyone. 

From left: Me (clearly psyched to be ice skating), Beth, Bengt-Ove, and Axel. 

Overall, today was an adventure and a whole new experience for me. Before coming to Sweden, I would've never had the opportunity to go ice skating on a frozen lake with long ice skates, and even though I was afraid of falling through the ice at any moment, I had a terrific time ice skating. I would like to thank my first host family for taking me ice skating on the lake today, helping me up when I fell down, and for today's yummy fika. I am definitely looking forward to having more chances to go ice skating this winter both at the skating rink and on the lake. I'm sure I'll have plenty more stories about my ice skating adventures in the future, so stay tuned!

Thank you Ulrika for these great photos!

Höstlovet- The Fall Break

Well, seeing as how it's now the end of January, a blog post about my Fall Break (October 28th- November 1st) is now long overdue. Better late than never, right? 

Fall Break was absolutely fantastic. I had the opportunity to visit Stockholm for the day with Ulrika, Anna, and Axel and we went on a boat tour around Djurgården and saw many beautiful buildings and islands. We had lunch at Pizza Hut with Agnes, Egon, and Filippa (Anna and Axel's cousins). We also visited Globen (Ericsson Globe) which is an arena in Stockholm that is the world's largest spherical building.  We had wonderful fika and apple pie with Ulrika's sister, Monika. That evening, we had delicious Indian food for  dinner (and fresh-baked naan) with Roger, Egon, Filippa, and Agnes. That day in Stockholm was one of my favorite days in Sweden that I've had so far,  I got to meet and spend time with so many wonderful people and also visit what I am now conviced is the most beautiful city in the world, Stockholm. 

When we took the subway to Roger's apartment, I encountered quite possibly the longest escalator I have ever seen. This photo does not even begin to do it justice.

View of the sunset from the top of Globen SkyView (A round glass elevator that goes on top of the arena)

'Cause I'm on top of the world!

This is a cool giraffe thing I saw on the boat tour, I don't even know what it is, but I love giraffes.

STOCKHOLM.

STOCKHOLM, again.

More Stockholm.

I accidentally took a picture of my leg, and I thought it looked cool, okay?

Another fun part of Höstlovet was celebrating Halloween in Sweden. In recent years, Halloween has grown to be an actual, celebrated holiday in Sweden, and the Swedes are finally catching on to the idea of trick-or-treating (In Swedish: bus eller godis). It never occurred to me before, just how American celebrating Halloween is, so I was beyond excited when my younger host brother Axel, asked me to go trick-or-treating in the neighborhood with him. I had no idea that I was going to go out on Halloween night, so I had no costume prepared. But I followed my Dad's motto: "Improvise, adapt, overcome". 

My host family's house, all decked out for Axel's Halloween party. 

More Halloween decorations.

Axel dressed as a ninja and me dressed as a monkey? Note the clever improvisation of my costume: recycled 3D glasses, monkey gloves, ears, and a tail, and some faux fur wrapped around my winter jacket. Halloween was so much fun this year, and I had a great time going trick-or-treating with Axel. We got quite the haul of candy, even from neighbors who were unaware that it was Halloween. I had definitely missed trick-or-treating and celebrating Halloween in Sweden was wicked. 

I had more adventures than just visiting Stockholm and celebrating Halloween during Höstlovet, I also recieved an amazing care package from my Mom, visited Dalarna and my host dad's side of the family, toured the Falu Gruva (Falun Copper Mine), chopped downed tree trunks into firewood, and took a dock out of a lake. It was all spectacular.

Anticipation.

Suprise! I officially have the best mom in the entire world. She sent me two gigantic bottles of maple syrup, new converse, new socks, wrapped Christmas presents, and my favorite winter sweater. The package weighed 12 lbs ( 5kg)! If you're reading this Mom, thank you again!

Falu Gruva is a copper mine in Falun that we got to take a tour inside of! I don't remember how deep we went into the mine, but it was cold, dark, and also eerily beautiful. 

From the left: Anna, Axel, and me after completing the mine tour (hence the orange ponchos and hard hats).

Pushing wood through the wood-splitter, harder than it looks.

Bemp (host dad) and his brother Anders pulling the dock out of the lake, as shown in this picture, I helped out a lot.

Chopping wood and doing that one annoying photo pose, nailed it.

I had a magnificent Fall Break, I ate moose meat for the first time, experienced wonderful sight-seeing in Stockholm, chopped wood, went inside a copper mine, celebrated Halloween, and overall had a great time off from school. I am so thankful to my first host family for taking me to all of these places, showing me more of Sweden, and giving me memories I'll never forget. 

I completely forgot to mention how beautiful the changing of the leaves is in the fall in Sweden, it's indescribable.

Relaxing Weekend

On Friday afternoon, my host parents Anders and Karin and my younger host sister, Emma (age 11), left for a weekend trip to Ulricehamn in Västergötland to visit Anders' family's farm Bredgård. My other host sister Alva ( age 16) was at her friend's house for the evening and I had been invited to Mikael and Marie Sandströms house for Fredagsmys. 

The Sandströms are another Rotary host family that live in the same neighborhood as me. In Uppsala there are four RYE students and we are all teenage girls from the Western United States (Washington State, California, Utah, & Colorado). We have four host families in Uppsala that we rotate between, however we only switch between three of the families, so I have an extra set of host parents that I will never live with, the Sandströms. Marie knew that my host parents were going out of town for the weekend, so she invited me over for dinner on Friday night. We had Hawaiian pizza and salad for dinner, followed by delicious pumpkin chocolate chip cookies made by Sierra, Beth, and me. 

After dinner,  I played with Heda (the Sandströms adorable 10- week old Bernese mountain dog puppy). Heda likes to bite, and she is really playful and adorable, I am so jealous of Sierra and Beth because they get to live with a cute puppy! But it's all good, because I live two blocks from the Sandströms house, so I can visit the puppy pretty much whenever, and I'll definitely be doing that. 

(Clearly seen in the above photo: World's cutest puppy!!!! Thank you Sierra for this photo) 

On Saturday, my host sister Alva and her Scout friends made fake beards for a competition to be held in Stockholm the following day, and I spent the morning "helping" them make their beards, in reality, I just ate all of the cookies on the table and drank some lemon green tea. I spent Saturday afternoon doing homework (terribily exciting, I know) and in the evening I ate the rest of my leftover pizza for dinner, and I took the bus into the city center to go to the movie theatre. I met my friend Cecilia at the movies and we decided to see The Wolf of Wall Street. Despite being three hours long and quite raunchy and controversial, I was impressed by the movie. The acting and directing was astounding and the film was overall really well-made, with good music and cinematography. 

Sunday morning was uneventful, mostly because I slept in all morning, which was great. I spent the rest of Sunday watching tv, working on homework, writing a speech for my Swedish class, and just generally relaxing.

I didn't do that much this past weekend, but it was really nice to kick back and de-stress, I am now feeling well-rested and ready for more adventures, bring it on Sweden. 

Thanksgiving in Sweden

Thanksgiving. A classic American holiday, but seeing as how I am now living in Sweden, I had absolutely no idea how I was going to cook such a huge meal for my first host family. They were so incredibly helpful with the planning, the grocery shopping, and the cooking. The dinner for 8 people (My host family and my host family's grandparents) turned out wonderfully. The food turned out well,  and I was amongst the most wonderful company. This year, Thanksgiving included a turkey, stuffing, salad, cranberry sauce, dinner rolls, green bean casserole,mashed potatoes, gravy, pumpkin pie, and pecan pie. I am so grateful for my Thanksgiving in Sweden this year. I was able to share traditions from my American family with my Swedish family and it was overall one of the best Thanksgivings I have ever had, and I have many great memories from that day.

Pumpkin Pie

Stuffed Turkey

The turkey after Ulrika sewed it up

Turkey, just out of the oven

The turkey

Dessert

Mashed Potatoes 

Dinner Rolls

Stuffing and Green bean casserole

Salad and cranberry sauce

Thanksgiving dinner in Sweden

From the left: Bengt-Ove, Ulrika,Ulf, Axel, Anna, and Catarina

Time to dig in!

I want to give a very sincere thank you to everyone who helped me with Thanksgiving dinner! (Especially my families in the U.S. and Sweden)