Sverige!

Hej!

While I'm abroad, I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon and keep a blog. Follow or don't follow...it doesn't matter to me and I'll never know either way. But I thought it would be a good way to both stay in touch with friends and assure my mother than I have not yet died on the mean streets of Sweden.

A little background...I'm studying this semester at Uppsala Universitet. It's about 40 minutes north of Stockholm and about twice as old as the USA. Everyone is blond, beautiful, and marvelously warm and welcoming. This is my fourth or fifth day here, and I stopped feeling lonely and homesick about 15 hours in (of course, 9 of those hours were spent sleeping and showering off the two days of planes, trains, and automobiles). I'm incredibly lucky, and I have no doubt that this entire semester is going to be filled with such sweet, incredible, gentle people.

My flight here was pretty dramatic, and the stress culminated in me standing in the train station of Uppsala, completely and utterly lost. I hadn't had internet since Philadelphia and pay phones haven't been used since the 90s. It was nearing midnight as I sat on my 65lb duffel bag in the dark station, waiting for someone to come meet me. I tried asking a couple people for their cell phones, but they were (understandably) weary of the homeless American girl. By the time I had figured everything out, my body was crashing and I had learned a new definition for the word "helpless".

There's a tradition here called "fika", which is a lot like the American version of going out for coffee. When someone invites you to fika, it simply is them trying to reach out and get to know you a little better. I've only had fika once so far, and it was in my roommate's (I have 6: 3 guys, 3 girls, all amazingly nice) bedroom with some tiny biscuits and cups of berry tea. Swedes are very busy, and fika is an easy, cheap, and quick way to meet up with friends, without the stress of having the make an awkward excuse about studying when you want to leave. If you're done socializing, you simply leave. It's excellent for someone as socially inept as me. As soon as there's a hint of an awkward silence, I just walk out of the room and avoid the awkward avoiding-eye-contact-as-you-try-to-laugh-at-someone's-uncomfortable-jokes. And no one is offended.

Sweden is, generally, very very cold. Even after spending every winter of my life knee-deep in snow, I'm unprepared for the biting, brutal temperatures. I've gotten lost twice already, and there is nothing fun about being stuck outside for two hours as the sun begins to set (at 2 or 3pm) and the cold starts to find its way between your 5 layers of clothing. My two-hour wanderings have been extended mostly due to pride, as I know any of the dozens of strangers on the street would be more than willing to help me find my destination...I just really want to find it on my own. On my last visit to the grocery store, I asked a woman to help translate the tea names for me. After explaining almost every tea in the aisle, she kept asking "Do you have any more questions? Can I help you find something else? Where are you from?"

In a way, it's not hard to find alone time...but it is hard to get lonely.

Sweden is also crazy expensive. 65kr (which is about $10) is a very reasonable price for a tiny salad. I found a McDonald's in a shopping center yesterday and a very small coffee was the equivalent to $5. Luckily, I've become addicted to little tea crackers and you can get a roll of 50 for like 5kr (which is under a dollar). The adjustment is shocking.

I'm currently living in the largest consumer of candy in the world, so get ready to see me blow up like a balloon this semester. Their chocolate, and I say this completely seriously, is addictive. I've never been a huge chocolate fan, but I am forever changed by the rows and rows of chocolate covered marshmallows, bananas, peanuts, rice krispies, graham crackers, almonds, and coconut that are found in every food shop in the city.

There's so much I want to say. I don't want to make this too long.

Alcohol is crazy expensive. It is monopolized by the government, which tries to limit drunkenness by pricing alcohol by the alcohol content. For example, wine and beer is cheaper than hard alcohol because it contains less actual alcohol. I'm not kidding when I say the government developed this program to prevent people from getting drunk. Scandinavian history, specifically the Vikings, have always made alcohol a huge part of their lifestyle. The government is trying to change this with the systembolaget (the alcohol monopolization). However, people still manage to drink like champions. I immediately fell in love with their alcoholic apple cider. I feel like they have this in America too, so I'm not going to pretend it's some big exotic drink. But it is delicious and only 35kr ($5) for a glass.

More posts to come. Thank you for reading!