Before we left, Dia asked me to write of the most unusual or noteworthy thing I encountered during the week. Some of these will be common place to those world travellers among you, but they're novel to me.
For the first week, it was the bathtub. The bathroom is say, 8 feet wide. The bathtub is then, say, 7 feet 10 inches long. It fits pretty snugly, but leaves an inch or so on both sides exposed (not caulked or anything). So when you take a shower, the water runs over the edge and onto the floor. But never fear. The entire bathroom floor is tiled and there's a drain on the floor. So when you're done, you use a squeegee and push the floor water into the drain. Unfortunately, the tub is metal and heavy and difficult to clean under. A co-worker says that they haven't cleaned under in several years and now there's something growing there.
Pleasant dreams.
Jeff
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On the unusual side, we'll stick with architecture one more week. In the US, when there's a door going into a room, there's a space of maybe half an inch to an inch under the door in most cases. Here, they build up a door stop/space filler under every door. Until we got used to it, we had a tendency to trip over them. I finally asked someone what was the point and they replied that Swedes are very conscious about their space/surroundings/privacy and that filling the space under the door cuts down on the noise.
Jeff
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We leave about half a block from a well-known church (which rings it's bells every half hour, every day). This weekend a hunger strike was going on there. There's an Iranian who now lives in Goteborg. Two of his siblings have already been killed in Iran for their political beliefs and actions. The last of his brothers is now in Sweden but is going to be sent back to Iran, because the Swedish government claims there is no threat to his life back home. In protest, the resident brother has sewn his own mouth shut, neither able to eat nor talk until the Swedish government reverses its' decision.
Bon apetit.
Jeff
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This week ... Swedes walk a lot. There's not as many cars, and public transportation is very good. So how do Swedes with young kids get around ? They have prams (strollers). These prams have large wheels, a cover over the top and waterproof cover for their legs/torsos. If you do it all the way, the only thing showing is the kid's face. But that's usually only in bad weather. There's single seat prams and two seater prams, both side-by-side and front/back. We're got a side-by-side, and Hana and Kori sit there together and ride/sleep/eat whatever. Whereas Kori squeals loudly whenever she sees a bird and Hana sings songs and points out the letters of the alphabet she recognizes, the Swedish kids are eerily quiet. Almost all just sit there. Maybe they look around a little, but silently. A whole country full of Stepford children ? It struck us as a bit ... unusual.
Jeff
P.S. Re last week's story of the filler between the floor and door, I'm now told that it's to keep the heat in individual rooms. Makes sense in a cold country.
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This week I get to make a special appearance in the weeks most unusual entry. So...buckle your seat belts I'm a little wordier. This weeks entry comes to ya'll through the eyes of a stay-at-home mom. I have become a great fan of our BBC channel and found a most enticing sports event on today. Much like the movie "Babe" I got to watch dogs herding sheep, get judged. I liked the part where the announcer would lower his voice and express his disappointment in "the dog" for not following his masters whistle to make a left hand turn. And as always when the sheep would round the last obstacle and leave close together through the exit gates the crowd would applaud. It's this or Rikke Lake or some swedish channel. Please note Jeff will return next week.
Hej-do,
Stephanie
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... Swedes are tall. Very tall. I'm told the average height for a male is about 6 feet and a woman 5'7". And for the women who aren't tall (someone has to be under average), they wear 5-6 inch heels (no joke). And often it's not just the heel that's 6 inches, but the entire shoe. The elevator shoe industry is big here. Also, there are no fat Swedes. I have yet to see even an overweight Swede. Why ? They do walk more, and they all drink this high caffeine coffee which I'm told revs up their metabolism quite a bit. Otherwise, I guess it's in the genes. Till next week...
Jeff
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This weekend we travelled to Oslo for 4 days. Beautiful city. Statues everywhere. And the nicest park I've ever been to, Frogner Park. Anyway... In Oslo, when you're walking around, there's an audible beep-beep-beep that lets you know the light has changed. This means you don't have to stare at the light and I suspect, helps the sight-impaired.
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A couple of recent incidents show differences between US and Sweden... We live on the top floor of a four story building. Directly below us are what are essentially dorm rooms. They're inhabited by, surprise, young students. Young students like to play loud music, especially on the weekends. Well, last Friday night, about 10:30, it was really loud and I went down to ask them to lower the volume. One student said "certainly" and immediately turned it off. For some reason, I don't think I'd get that if I was in a room over a US dorm. Then, yesterday was a holiday with Children's Day at the park. Merry go rounds, smurfs, popcorns etc. We take our stroller everywhere, as do many people with small children. We took a train ride around the park but had to leave the stroller behind, as it wouldn't fit on the train. Was it still there after the ride ? Of course. Someone else told us they left theirs parked for 2 hours with no problem. Would you leave your stroller at Disney World or 6 Flags or the local park for half an hour or longer. I wouldn't. Now perhaps after all this time away from the US, I'm thinking like a Swede about the terrible crime rate in the US, but I don't think so.
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This week ... In Sweden, after a child is born, the parents are given a combined 12 months parental leave. They can divide this up between them however they wish. They get full salaries and a guarantee that their job or an equivalent one will be there when they get back. My boss had a baby in December. She took the first 6 months off this year. Her husband is taking the next 6 months off. After that, the baby will be in day care while the parents both work. This is typical here. For most families, both parents work while children are in school or daycare. Why the generosity ? Possibly because the birth rate is low and the government is trying to encourage population growth.
Jeff
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Clarification... The parent taking time off gets ~ 80% pay, not full pay. Still subject to full taxation. Money is paid to parents by government, not company. Each parent must use at least one month off or money paid is reduced by 1 month (encourage father to get involved). Let's say mother makes $52000 yearly, or $1000 per week (to keep math simple). If you decide to stay home 1 year, you get paid at 80%, or $800 per week. BUT, you can decide to stay home longer, say 2 years. Then you'd get the same amount of money, but spread out over the 2 years. Then you'd get $400 per week for 2 years. If person A has a baby and person B is hired to take their place, person B is hired with the understanding that they're taking someone's place. When A comes back, B is out of a job. When parents go back to work, children are in daycare. Problem is that there's usually 6-12 months wait for daycare, and you're not allowed to get on the list until 3 months before you need it. Hope this answers a few questions I got...
Jeff
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There is no direct word for "please" in Swedish.
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In the U.S. ... You walk into the post office to mail a package and there's 15 people ahead of you. What do you do ? Stand. In line. Moving slowly. Until it's your turn.
You're in the grocery store and want to buy some turkey at the deli. There's other people there also, trying to get the attention of someone behind the counter to get some service. You might get lucky and get served quickly. Just as likely is that someone who came after you will get served before you.
You go to a bank. You stand in line. You get the point.
In Sweden ... You go into the post office. You take a number. It's 467. You look up and see they're now serving 459. You take a seat until it's your turn. You go into the bank and take a number. Uh-oh, you have 42 people ahead of you. Do you stand in line ? Nope. You take your number, go next door, do a little shopping or whatever, and return to the bank 20-30 minutes later. Now there's only 8 people ahead of you. You take a seat until it's your turn. What happends if they call your number and you're not there? In about 10 seconds, they call the next number.
Jeff
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I've had a request for my "most unusual" letter to discuss racism in Sweden. If anyone else has a question on life here, I'd be happy to try and address it. Also, if anyone doesn't want to receive these letters, tell me and I'll remove you from my mailing list.
Before we came here, Stef and I took a "cultural orientation" class. We discussed what Swedes and Sweden were like, the differences between "them" and "us", and the history, politics, religion etc. of the country. We were told that Sweden has opened its doors to immigrants in the last 15 years and has a relatively high percentage of foreign born people living in Sweden as compared to the rest of Europe. Remember, the country only has about 9 million people total. They told us that depending on your skin color and your last name, you could have a difficult time finding a job or getting a nice place to live. That jibes with what I've been told by people here, both native and non-native Swedes. One man, about my age, is from Turkey originally but has been here 18 years. He says he's always had a hard time finding a good job. Native Swedes have told me that officially discrimination is against the law, but that it goes on all the time. I eat lunch daily in our lunchroom, where there's several hundred people at any time, and the non-whites you can count on one hand. I'm told that this is because the immigrants who come here don't have the right job skills. One interesting point is that the "lower class" jobs in Dallas (janitorial, street cleaning) which are usually held by minorities are held here by whites. There is a high unemployment rate, but I don't know what the rate is for natives vs. non-natives.
Jeff
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We've gone to a restaurant and eaten. We had two burgers at $3.95, 3 drinks at .95 each and a salad at $2.95. We're in a hurry and can't find the waiter, so we want to just leave the money and go. How much cash do we leave ? Hmmm, the above adds up to ABOUT 14 bucks. We need to add 8.5% tax and 15% tip, so we need ABOUT another $3.50. Wait, was the serrvice good ? Should we leave more than 15% ? We can't find the waiter now. Should we leave less than 15%? We're in a hurry. We leave $17.50 and we go. Now we're in Scandanavia. We go to a restaurant. We have two sandwiches at 30 kronor each, 3 drinks at 8 kronor each, and a salad at 26 kronor. We're in a hurry and can't find our waiter. How much do we leave ? The above adds up to 110 kronor. How much do we leave ? 110 kronor. Tax is already included and there is no tipping. Same thing when you go to a store to buy soemthing. If it says 200 kronor, that's what you pay. Easy. The down side is that since waiters and waitresses aren't dependent on tips, the service is not as good as in the US. And I'm sure that one reason tax is included in the price here is that it's a uniform tax rate for the country. In the US, states and cities set their own local tax rates. But it is much simpler.
Till next week...
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You can only but liquor in Sweden at the state-owned stores, and they're only open M-F from 10-6.
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That should read "buy" liguor.
> > You can only but liquor in Sweden at the state-owned stores,
> > and they're only open M-F from 10-6.
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You have to bag your own groceries AND you have to buy the bags.
Jeff
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You get assigned seats in the movie theatre.
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Most beds in Sweden, even in hotels, are what we'd consider a single bed in the US. For people sleeping together, you clamp two beds together.
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Played blackjack on a cruise ship between Stockholm and Helsinki last week. We played Swedish rules. Dealer only takes 1 card, up, until players have finished taking cards. Insurance offered AFTER players have finished taking cards. If you push at 17, 18 or 19, you lose. Finnish rules are worse. If you push at 20, you lose.
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On Helsinki street corners, the street names are shown in both Finnish and Swedish.
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I went to a soccer game between Goteborg (the best Swedish team) and Glasgow (the best team in Scotland). Other than hand-clapping at good plays and a few team songs, the crowd (23,000) was QUIET. No yelling and no booing. Also, the home colors of the Goteborg team are blue and white. But in this game we wore blue/orange while the Glasgow Rangers wore blue/white. We (Americans, Canadians and British) didn't have a clue as to why. Later we find out that Glasgow's home colors are also blue and white and we were being 'nice' to them.
Goteborg 3, Glasgow 0.
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For sporting events and concerts, we've all seen porta-potties, those rows of foul-smelling portable bathrooms. Here they've also got porta-urinals. In about the same size as the porta-potties are 4 urinals facing each other with a large chunk of the plastic in between (so you don't have to look at anyone else). It's essentially a place to stand, a hole, and no door behind you.
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At the Goteborg library, you check your own books out (insert your card in a machine and scan the book's bar code). To check it in though, you must take your books to a librarian who checks them in and makes sure they're not overdue.
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Swedes and Germans both take English in school from about the fourth grade on, but the Swedes speak it much clearer. The Germans have a much thicker accent. One explanation is that while both countries watch American TV shows, the Swedes subtitle them (and can thus hear English more often) while the Germans dub the shows.
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In Amsterdam, you can buy cigarettes from the same vending machine as candy and cookies.
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The subway system in Paris has very few elevators or escalators. Difficult for the handicapped or those with children in strollers.
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You HAVE to check your jacket in a restaurant. And you have to pay for the privilege.
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In Sweden, you get paid extra (approximately 10%) for each vacation day you take.
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The rabbi here in Goteborg (Ronnie Kahana) was raised in Houston (although born in Sweden) and married a Dallas girl (Karen Knie) whom he met at Camp Young Judea. It's a small world... They've been here 4 years and just had their fifth child.
P.S. Some of you might know the story of a Dallas rabbi who abandoned his family 20+ years ago. He ended up in Goteborg a few years later for a short time.
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The Swedish word "gift" means both "married" and "poison". Draw your own conclusions.
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Swedish has an excellent system of keeping track of relatives. Rather than English's 'grandmother' and 'grandfather', Swedish has
farmar (father's mother)
marfar (mother's father)
farfar (father's father)
Likewise, uncle is either "marbror" or "farbror".
Niece is either "systerdotter" or "brorsdotter".
Any other languages do something similar ?
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The ghost & goblin version of Halloween isn't celebrated in Sweden. Instead, they observe All Saints Day, which is traditionally the day after Halloween (All Hallows Eve). On All Saints Day, people go to the cemetary and light candles on the graves of the departed.
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We have a note above the mail slot on our door which reads "INGEN REKLAM", which means "no advertisements". So we get no junk mail.
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The only spider I've seen in Sweden was in a tropical butterfly house.
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Swedes eat pizza and hamburgers with a knife and a fork.
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Stores here provide free of charge wrapping paper, boxes and ribbons for you to wrap your own purchases.
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Many Swedes celebrate not only their birthday, but their 'name' day.
Each day on the Swedish calendar has names associated with it (e.g. January 5 is Hanna/Hanneli). So our daughter Hana would celebrate that day as her name day.
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All Swedes (and Swedish residents such as ourselves) are given personal numbers, somewhat equivalent to the US SSN. The Swedish number is based on your birth date. It's of the form yymmdd-xxxx. Kori's number is 960404-7721. You need this number for just about anything here - banking, insurance, medical, etc. It IS a national ID number, which the US SSN is not supposed to be.
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There are no express lines to check out in the grocery store.
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There is no food delivery (pizza, Chinese, etc.) to your house or apartment in Goteborg.
Sounds like a good business opportunity for someone.
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I watched the Super Bowl in Sweden at an American bar seeing the Scottish satellite feed (with Scottish commentators) with commercials for cricket, rugby and the British army.
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You're guilty of DWI in Sweden if your blood alcohol content level is more than .02 (US states are .08 or .10).
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In addition to an income tax, Sweden taxes you on all your world-wide wealth over 900,000 SEK (about $115,000).
You are exempt if you're in the country for 3 years or less.
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Every February 25th in Sweden all the bookstores in the country have a sale. Many books are drastically discounted and the sale begins at midnight.
Those books are marked for sale several days in advance, and you can't buy those books prior to the sale, even if you want to pay full price.
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I went to a Swedish Hockey League (SHL) game this week between the Frolunda Indians (us) and IAK (a Stockholm team). Attendence 6003 (we were the 3).
A few differences between the SHL and the NHL:
1. The players uniforms are covered in advertisements for various companies. One team even had a web address prominently displayed.
2. The referees shirts had an advertisement for the legal bookie here.
3. The clock counts upward to 20:00 instead of down to 00:00.
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One more from the hockey game.
There was a board on the wall which had company names and numbers on them. The equivalent would look something like this in the US:
Ericsson 4-1
AT&T 3-0
Exxon 2-1
It turns out to break this code, you had to buy the game program. The program would tell you that "Ericsson" on the wall translated to todays game of Dallas Stars vs Edmonton Oilers. So the top line means Dallas is now beating Edmonton 4-1.
Pretty sneaky way of getting you to buy a program.
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Last one from hockey.
There are 12 teams in the SHL. The bottom two teams each year have to compete with minor league teams for the right to be in the SHL the next year. There's a tournament, and if they lose, they're out of the big leagues.
Take that, Saints fans!
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When you eat at a fast food restaurant, there are two prices listed for each item. Eating in is more expensive (about $.25 per item) than take-out.
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In Sweden when a couple gets engaged, they EACH wear a gold ring similar to a US-style wedding band.
When they get married, only the woman gets an additional ring, often one with a diamond, sometimes just another gold band.
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We went bowling for the first time in Sweden. For shoes, there's a large bin. Get your own, then put them back when you're done. Honor system.
Fair Disclosure Act: I bowled 210 and 135.
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Swedish commercial for blue jeans called "Bad Idea".
A small guy drives up to a building and enters. Inside are a lot of big guys - boxing, doing martial arts and lifting weights.
As the little guy enters, he's surrounded by a bunch of the big guys. The little guy looks at them and says "I hear all you guys got little dicks."
The words "Bad Idea" flash on the screen several times.
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Swedes and long-term saving...
The nationalized medical system takes care of all your medical needs, after an annual co-pay of about $130.
If you lose your job, the system pays you a high percentage of your salary.
Your retirement is essentially taken care of by the system. You'll retire with approximately 80% of your salary over x number of years prior to retirement.
Your college tuition is paid for, although most people take out a low-interest loan for books and living expenses. You pay it back by having 3% of your salary deducted. Many Swedes never pay it all off. Those who don't, stop having to pay on it at age 65.
Consequently, there's little need for long-term savings. So Swedes don't.
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I don't know if it's the same in the US, but the warning label ("Only for children above age 3") on a McDonalds's toy here is printed in 29 different languages including Russian, Hebrew, Greek, Slovakian and Polish.
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"Highways" in Sweden are often roads that go through small towns and have speed limits that go up and down constantly. The speed limits are 70, 90 and 110 km/hr (roughly 45, 55, 70 mph). It's tough to use cruise control.
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To avoid people taking too many sick days from work, you don't get paid at all for your first two days out (each time). Then you get 80% pay from then on.
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Children's strollers are so widely used here that when we took ours in for repair, we got a loaner.
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You can go to the library and look up anyone's income (as reported on their tax returns) for previous years.
There are few secrets here.
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When you go to the grocery store, you have to put a 5 or 10 crown coin (~8 SEK/$1.00) in the cart to release it. Then when you're done, you take the cart back and your money is returned. Fewer carts in the parking lot this way.
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Equivalent prices in US $ in Sweden of...
domestic stamp ... .75
international stamp ... 1.00
daily local newspaper ... 1.25
2 liter Coke ... 1.50
gas per gallon ... 4.00
Chinese lunch buffet ... 7.00
new paperback book ... 13.00
getting suit dry cleaned ... 25.00
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In Italy, the only place to buy bus tickets is at tobacco stores and newspaper stands.
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Cellular phones are much more common in Europe than in the US because only the person making the phone call pays for the air time, regardless of whether you're calling from a cell phone or a standard line.
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Ski slopes in Sweden are marked green, blue, red or black.
The last time I skiied in the US there was no red.
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In Copenhagen, there are public bikes situated at specific
sites around town, painted VERY distinctively all over with a Pepsi
logo, that you unlock by putting a 20 crown coin in (about $3). You
can
then ride it all you want. You get your money back when you return
the
bike to one of the designated sites.
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Caviar in a tube is quite popular here.
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Every Christmas Eve in Sweden the entire family gathers around
at 3 pm to watch an hour of Disney cartoons.
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Just returned from Munich where, like most European cities, they
have an excellent mass transportation system. They have an
all-day, all-over-Munich ticket for the entire family for a good price.
In this case, the entire family consists of two adults, up to
three children... and one dog.
It's nice to know the family dog is taken care of (no mention of cats).
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Foreign movies and shows for children are dubbed to Swedish.
All else is in English (or native language) and subtitled in Swedish.
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Public urination is not illegal in Sweden.
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In Russia, the dollar is king (or tsar if you prefer).
You get over 20% more rubles for dollars than for other currencies.
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I never fail to be amazed at the "international-ness"
of Europe. The food served on a flight to St. Petersberg
included: Austrian jam,
German butter,
Belgian mustard,
Dutch ketchup
and
Italian cake.
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There's an election in Sweden this month.
No ones too interested because, according to them,
"there's no issues this time". The parties agree
on almost everything.
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A friend of ours recently had a baby here. After the delivery,
she was
given a private room. There is no nursery, so the baby was with her
all
the time. She (or her husband) had to go get her food.
After two day, she was put in a room with two other new
mothers/newborns. When she first got there, she told the nurse that
the
sheets had a stain on them. She was told that new sheets were in the
cabinet.
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The Swedish Prime Minister on the whole Clinton-Lewinsky-Starr
situation: "America must be in very good shape if they can spend
so much time on Clinton's sex life."
This is my final "most unusual" letter as we're returning
to Dallas this weekend. I hope everyone enjoyed reading my
observations on the differences I found living and traveling
here.
My email address has changed: please write me at:
jnep@yahoo.com
Later,
Jeff