Swedish People

So the jet lag is clearing a tiny bit and I’m kind of feeling less like a crazy person from wandering around the apartment all night, watching TV on the internet and nearly crying when I hear Oprah’s voice, then sleeping all day and eating at really weird times (I guess I’ve kind of been living like a college student!!), I’m starting to explore a little bit and feel like I really live here.

The people are different here.  For a start, they all speak Swedish!!!  It’s weird, but I realised yesterday when I was sitting having a coffee (luckily the baristas all speak English so I can actually order a coffee!!) that I’d never really heard people talk a foreign language before.  I mean, in French class in high school of course, but that would just be a sentence or two, and I was looking around at these people, and kids too, and just thinking wow, they speak Swedish all the time!!  And before you all think I’m just a stupid American, of course I knew that already anyway, it was just weird to experience it in real life.  I mean, to me, everyone seems super smart because they can all talk a foreign language, but maybe I seem super smart to them because I can speak English!!  Or American!

Anyway, one thing I noticed is that some words sound kind of like English, like they say ‘okay’ which pretty much means ‘okay’!!  And to say hi, they say ‘hey’ (they spell it hej, which makes me want to say it like ‘hege’ but you don’t pronounce the j).  The first time I walked into a store and someone was like ‘hey’, I was like, ‘hey, what?’ like they were kind of being rude, but then I learned that they were just saying hi.  I think maybe that when people say that Swedish people are being unfriendly, it’s just because it sounds like they’re saying ‘hey’, like ‘hey you, cut that out’ when really they are just saying hi.  Because I think they are super-friendly!!!

This is the view of the island opposite from near our apartment.  Did you know that Stockholm is on a bunch of islands?

Välkomen!

So here I am.  American gal, born and raised in Toledo, Ohio and now living here in Stockholm, Sweden!  I kind of have to pinch myself a little to think I’m really here - maybe I’m partly writing this blog to convince myself it was all real!

Not exactly sure what my impressions are so far, it’s all kind of in a haze of jet lag, and just kind of ‘did I just step into Oz weirdness’.  I’ve been kind of Euro-obsessed my whole life, I took French in high school  (bonjour!) and feel like my personality and outlook on life is kind of more European.  I’m pretty open minded.

Which is a good thing because when I went into the tiniest pharmacy you ever saw in your entire life last night, guess what was on the self, right there for everyone to see - vibrators!  I swear to God (sorry mom, you know I don’t know what one is or anything!!) - they were right there on the shelf next as bold as day.  Where I come from, that’s the kind of thing you order off the internet and it comes in a plain brown envelope (not that I ever did!!!).  I mean, kids could have seen them!!  But whatever floats your boat right, to paraphrase, I guess I’m not in Toledo any more!!