Hej,
Here is my fourth list of random thoughts on things Swedish:
1. Dry Cleaners/Work Pants - In my town of Älmhult, there is no dry cleaners. I have not seen them in other towns, so at this point, I am not sure they exist here in Sweden. The Swedish are practical people and I think that they do not buy or wear clothes that need extra care such as dry cleaning. They even have these "work pants" that you can buy at the grocery store. They are quite ugly, but I have seen both men and women wearing them. They do not wear jeans to work around the house or yard, you must have your "work pants". No, I am not buying these pants, I will wear my jeans! They wear jeans to the office and out, but they are not working pants. Perhaps this is because jeans are very expensive here and it would be silly to ruin a pair of pants doing work around the house.
2. Store Hours/Bank Hours - This is probably a hard one to understand, especially if you are from the U.S. and know that many of our stores and banks are open an ungodly amount of hours each day. Well, here in Sweden, most stores are open from 10:00 am - 6:00 pm, except on Saturdays when they close at 2:00 pm. Two exceptions are the grocery stores are open usually from 7 or 8:00 am - until 8, 9, or 10 pm and the mall stores which stay open until 6:00 pm on Saturdays. Many smaller stores, especially in Älmhult are not open on Sundays. However, the bank is only open from 10:00 - 3:00 pm, except on Thursdays when they stay open until 5:30, get this - they are not open on Saturdays!!! Since the stores are not open any extra, it makes them extra busy on Saturday mornings when everyone is rushing to get all their shopping done. If you work, I think Saturdays are really the only time people have to shop. You can save a lot of money because you can't spend it anywhere!
3. Mail Delivery - The mail is delivered from Monday - Friday. If you get any packages, you have to pick them up either at the Post Office, before 10:00 am or after 3:30 pm or they will leave your packages at the ICA Maxi (grocery store). Larger packages get delivered this way, smaller packages will fit in your mailbox. Our mailboxes are lined up in a row along the street. The newspapers are also delivered to your mailbox, you don't get them on your front stoop.
4. License Plates - I forgot to tell you when we bought our car that the license plates come with the car - you do not change license plates with new owners or states like in the U.S. I think that when the cars are delivered to the dealerships, they have the license plate already attached. When the car changes owners, they just change the registration. This appears to be a more efficient and less wasteful because you are not always having to dispose of old license plates.
5. Number Lappers - The Swedish people are not very good at queing. You cannot just line up and everyone knows who is next. No, you have to get a number when you go into many of the stores and that is the order in which you are helped. I have actually had an old women race pass me into the Apotek (pharmacy) to make certain she got a number before I did. No big deal, she did not leave any sooner than I did! Even when you go to the grocery store and there is a line and they open another register, they will not say, "Oh, you were her first, go ahead!" No, they will just run over and get in the new line. I have also seen older men hang out at the front of the store near the checkout lines so when they open another line, they are right in line, even though their wife may still be finishing the shopping. They kind of hold a spot so they don't have to wait with the rest of us little people, who believe in letting those who are their first go.
6. Waffles - The waffles here are very sweet! They do not use waffles for breakfast like we do, they are more of a treat. The first time I had a waffle here, they served it with a fruit jelly and lots of whipped cream. They looked at me strange when I asked for just a little of each. By the time I was finished with it, the waffle was melting, like cotton candy does. David and I bought a waffle iron a few weeks ago and we used the recipe that came with it, it called for 1 1/2 cups of sugar. My waffle recipe calls for 1 tablespoon. We now make our recipe from home, we do not like our waffles that sweet!
7. Candy - Speaking of sweet, you would not believe how much the Swedes like candy! I have never seen so many people eat so much candy. They like the gummi like things, like gum drops and they love all the candy that sticks to your teeth. Even their dark chocolate is much sweeter than we are used to. The grocery stores have huge displays of loose candy to buy by the kilo. The selection is much larger than I have seen in the U.S. I think at one store they have about 3 aisles devoted to candy, loose and packaged.
8. Breaks - As many of you know I spent three weeks working at IKEA. I did not realize how regulated Swedish society is to the clock and their breaks. When it is time for break, they drop whatever they are doing and go for break. These are mostly office workers, not people working on an assembly line. When it is 12:00 - they all scramble for lunch. There is no such thing as taking a later lunch, no you must go at 12:00. I think many of the people also eat dinner at 6:00 pm. It is hard for David and I who are used to eating and taking breaks when we feel like it, not necessarily when everyone else does. One thing that I learned, this is when you can socialize with people, during the break time. Otherwise, you are mostly required to be in business mode not socialization mode. No, we do not necessarily eat dinner at 6:00, we do it when we feel like it. I am more a person that likes to do things when I feel like it, not because the clock is telling me to. One funny story, when I was working, one of the girls that I was working with, the minute the clock hit 12:00 or 5:00, she was done! She was not giving a minute more, even if she was in the middle of ironing a sheet or building a dresser drawer. She could not understand why I worked longer or did not take a break. Yes, I got paid for all the time I was there, so it was not like she was not going to get paid for doing extra. This is just not part of their society. Quite different from the ways we know.
Life is definitely more interesting here in Sweden. I am finding it a challenge to learn all these little rules, but I am not letting it rule my life. I am just being me and making certain that I am a good ambassador for the U.S.
I will come up with another list soon!
Take care.
Love,
Bridgette
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