surrounded by svens

I’ve now been in Sweden for almost a month. These are some things i’ve noticed:

1. They don’t wear sunglasses. Granted it’s nearing winter and it gets dark early and sweden is typically considered a grey place this time of year, but even when it’s bright out you’d be hard pressed to find someone in shades.

2. SO QUIET! Between the library-esque silence in the Saatchi office, people are just quiet. Even when the trains are packed you could hear crickets chirping.

3. Lasagna and Moussaka. Every cafe has these two things as part of their lunch special. EVERY CAFE.

4. Smoking=Gross, Smokeless Tobacco=EVERYWHERE. It seems like if you watched any swede at some point they’d get out a little canister and pop tobacco in their mouth. They prefer the kind in little sachets for a no fuss, no muss high.

5. English aplenty. Bless their little hearts for so diligently learning english. You’d be hard pressed to find a swede that doesn’t speak it. In fact, most restaurants have english menu’s, well over half of their TV shows are in english (from US and British TV) with swedish subtitles, and they don’t overdub their movies. It’s great, but it does make it hard to practice my swedish phrases and figure out how to pronounce ANYTHING.