Cultural Tidbits

Hejhej!
So I've been in Sweden for a little over 3 weeks now and I'm starting to pick up on trends and do's and don'ts of living here.
I put together a little list of my top ten cultural tidbits for Sweden...

1. Take your shoes off! You never enter a Swede’s home and walk around their house with your shoes on. This is practically a sin in Sweden.

2. Don’t smile at complete strangers. It gives the impression that you’re either interested or really creepy.

3. Don’t be early and don’t be late. If something is scheduled for 12:00, you need to be there at 12:00.

4. Wait your turn. Swedes will wait in line for HOURS. I’m not kidding. They’re known for waiting in ridiculously long lines for everything (groceries, department stores, banks… anything you can think of). It’s actually a joke here that waiting in line is a professional sport in Sweden.

5. During dinner, there should be at least 3 types of sauces at the table. Swedes eat everything with sauce. There’s a sauce isle at the grocery store. And it’s not just ketchup, mayo, and ranch dressing. Even desert! Whip cream on your pie? Nope… cream sauce.

6. “Lagom.” There is no word in English that this translates to, but it basically means not too much, not too little. Swedes are all about moderation and they tend to live their lives that way. For example, a wealthy person probably wouldn’t drive their most expensive car around a poorer side of town because they don’t want to look like they are bragging about their money. Very opposite from American culture where “bigger is better.”

7. Bicyclists rule!

8. If you don’t recycle here, you’re a loser. In my corridor alone, there are 6 different recycling bins for different materials. If you’re unsure of where something should go, chances are you could set it on the garbage can and someone would take it and put it in the right recycling bin.

9. Baggy jeans do not exist here. Women wear leggings, tights, skinny straight leg jeans and skirts. The only guys here wearing baggy jeans with their boxers showing are probably American exchange students. A Swedish friend told me they tried to bring back the flared jean here and it didn't go over well.

10. You cannot buy a case of beer in Sweden. The liquor stores, System Bolaget, are government run and if you want beer, you pick them out one by one. It's supposed to make it more difficult for people to buy tons of alcohol and get trashed.

Hopefully these are interesting and give you a better idea of what life's like here.
Onto other things... On Friday of this week I'm touring a glass and crystal factory! Sweden is world famous for their glassworks so this should be a really cool trip. I'm also visiting a Swedish moose farm and get to taste some moose burger and sausage.
Then off to GOTLAND next weekend!!
I posted a few recent pictures to this post. They are, in order, Iron Age grave field in the woods on campus- the Student Union, just down the path from my corridor- and of course, Teleborg Castle again.
I think that's all for now... I'll post again after the moose and glassworks tour!
Hej då!

-Sara