Ever since I moved to the States, I’ve been getting a lot of questions about Sweden’s political system. Mainly people asking if Sweden is a socialist state – which I can already tell you, it’s not. But I can partly understand why it seems that way. We have free healthcare, free college tuition and seriously high taxes. Oh, and our liquor store is owned by the state. Yea, that part is a bit weird.

So what is Sweden exactly? First of all: Sweden is actually a constitutional Monarchy, this meaning it has a parliament as well as a King and Queen. The King is the Head of State, however, none of the royals have any political power. They are merely there to be representatives of Sweden, especially in ceremonial situations.* Simply put, they make Sweden look good.

Sweden is also a democracy with a mixed economy. At the same time. I know, it’s confusing. This is where a lot of Americans get it wrong. Just because parts of Sweden’s economy is inspired by Socialism, parts, it doesn’t mean it’s a socialist state. A socialist state is often VERY socialist, like even kommunist, whereas a democracy is a democracy, just like the US, but its current economy has parts inspired by Socialism.

So anyway, what about the US? Why do people here ask me, in a horrified voice, “is it true Sweden is a socialist state?”? Here it is: while Sweden has a mixed economy, with small parts inspired by Socialism, the US has capitalism at its heart. Capitalism and Socialism, are opposites. Now have in mind, Sweden is NOT socialist, but that is what some Americans THINK. In these moments when I get that question, it feels like the person thinks Swedes live like in the Sovjet Union, which I find hilarious since it’s not true, but it does explain their horrified face.

I’m not going to dive deep into the US’ political system – it’s complicated – but I will say this. Capitalism is big in America, you pay for everything. Healthcare, school, etc etc. That is one type of capitalism, where the government is not very much involved. However, Sweden (Scandinavia) has their version of capitalism as well, we aren’t controlled by the government, there is just a social security net, much bigger than in the US. (Again, healthcare, tuition, etc).

I hope this post made some things a little clearer. It is a super complicated subject and my attempt to simply explain a few things does not at all cover it. But, at least you know Swedes don’t live controlled by a socialist government… 😀

-K

*https://www.kungahuset.se/royalcourt/monarchytheroyalcourt/themonarchyinsweden.4.396160511584257f2180005799.html

Breakfast – the most important meal of the day! Right? At least that’s what I’ve always been told. Breakfast is one of those things that people have a lot of different opinions about. Is it really the most important meal of the day? Do you really have to eat breakfast? What is breakfast food? That last question is what today’s post is all about.

If I say “sandwich” what do you picture? One slice of bread with ham, cheese & cucumber? Or maybe Two slices of bread with melted cheese, meat and lettuce? If you’re a Swede, you most likely will think of the first alternative. In Sweden, that is a very common thing to eat for breakfast. That, a cup of coffee and maybe a bowl of yogurt (stereotypes people, always exceptions). The sandwich might be on toasted bread, but never like a panini in the oven. Anyway, if you’re American, you most likely pictured alternative number two. Two slices of bread, melted cheese, meat & lettuce. (again, just an example.) However, Americans would NOT eat this for breakfast. It would typically be for lunch.

So, what do Americans eat for breakfast then? Now all my Swedes out there are screaming PANCAKES! EGGS! BACON! Which is definitely somewhat true. But not every day (I hope..) . It is also very common to have just a bowl of cereal or a bagel with sweet cream cheese. The word sweet would probably cover most of the American breakfast foods. Yes, this is a stereotype, but in my opinion, it is pretty much true. The yogurt would be sweetened, the cream cheese is often flavored and the milk as well.

Now, I always thought that Swedes were very strict about having breakfast, I thought everyone viewed this the same way I did. Also, I thought Americans were the opposite, that they didn’t care about breakfast. But, after finishing High School in Sweden, I can tell you that A LOT of people are not breakfast eaters there. And now, I have also learned that people are pretty much the same here. Some care, some don’t. One of the few times Swedes and Americans seem to be the same. Apart from what they actually eat of course.

-K

Long time, no see! I’ve been busy the past week since my sister has been here to visit me. But now I’m back on track. Today is Ester Sunday, so what better topic to write about than Ester in Sweden vs. the USA.

Let me start by just talking a little about the actual Easter days. In the US, people really only celebrate on the Easter Sunday. It’s a one day thing where you fit everything in. In Sweden, Easter is spread out over five full days. This means that you get a mini vacation, which is much appreciated.

So, it starts with the Thursday, which is called Maundy Thursday. This particular day is very different in Sweden. It’s the day where you can “trick or treat”, but without the “trick”. Children dress up as Easter witches and ride (walk) around on brooms door to door and collect candy. To be honest, this tradition is starting to disappear a little, but there are still a few little kids running around with their brooms. Anyway, you might be wondering where this somewhat odd tradition comes from. It actually originates from folklore from the Middle Ages. It is said, that on Maundy Thursday, all witches gathered at Blåkulla, and engaged in various witch activities. On this day people would hide their brooms in an attempt to stop this witch gathering from happening. * **(Very interessting legend for all my history nerds out there).

Next comes Good Friday, which is basically the same in both countries. Saturday, Easter Eve, is when celebrations go down in Sweden. You have a big Easter dinner, the Easter Bunny comes, eggs are painted and there is a lot of candy going around. Furthermore, in Sweden Easter Sunday isn’t really special, but in the US, this is when everything happens. The Easter bunny comes with baskets of candy for the Children and there is often an egg hunt. Also, it is very common in the US to go to a Church service in the morning, contrary to in Sweden. Additionally, American kids often get small gifts in their Easter baskets as well, which also doesn’t usually occur in Sweden. Lastly, Sweden has Easter Monday off too, anything to not go to work!!

To summarize a little, the main differences are: Where the US only celebrates the Easter Sunday, Sweden has a full five days, including the Thursday with the traditions based on stories from the middle ages. The Easter bunny, candy and eggs are basically the same, except the part with egg hunts being more common in the US. People in the US also tend to go to Church on Easter Sunday, which is very uncommon in Sweden. Lastly, Children in the US sometimes receive small gifts on Easter Sunday. If you celebrate Easter, I hope you’ve had a great time, if you don’t, I hope you’ve had a great time too. (: I’ll be back soon with more posts (:

-K

*https://witchawarenessmonth.wordpress.com/2013/03/28/blakulla/ **https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockula

Right now it is April, a couple of days ago the sun was shining and I was outside running in a t-shirt and tights. Now, it is below zero and snowing like the world was about to end. In April. Only in Minnesota is all I have to say. So, you would think people here were always prepared with warm boots, coats and hats. But no, the clothing choices here can be very interesting. Sandals, tights and sunglasses for instance.

In Sweden there is this saying: “Det finns inget dåligt väder, bara dåliga kläder” meaning “There is no bad weather, only bad clothing”. In reality this is what teachers and parents use to get kids outside out of their way, so they can have some peace and quiet. Yup, that’s the level of manipulation Swedish kids are exposed to. Haha. Anyway, This is the kind of mentality Swedes have about weather and dressing properly for it. No Swede would ever dream of walking outside in the snow without a coat. I guess Minnesotans just don’t get it. Here’s why:

I walk across campus at the University of Minnesota, and I see sandals. I see tights. I see t-shirts. I see sweatshirts. Meanwhile, I’m in snow boots and a jacket. I’ve asked a couple of people, aren’t you cold? And they usually shrug and say, nah, it’s not that bad. I guess they’re bigger Vikings than Swedes. Or not. So about the tights. This is something I’ve noticed a lot in Minnesota. A lot of girls wear tights. The whole time. Everywhere. No matter the weather. And I’m talking like yoga tights. Something I would wear if I was going to work out. But not otherwise! In my experience almost no one in Sweden does that. Most people just wear jeans.

Before I end this post, I wanted to mention something I find odd in Swedish fashion. The rolling up of the jeans. So as I mentioned, most people wear jeans in day to day life. A lot of people will roll up the bottoms of the jeans once or twice, to show some skin between the sock and the jeans. This is something a lot of people from outside of Sweden have found funny. Every culture has their thing. And that’s what we all love about different cultures. (:

-K

I’ve come to realize that I’ve talked a alot about food and coffee. Yes, that is very important to me. But I want you guys to get to read about different kinds of everyday life subjects. Therefore, I thought today’s post could be about sports. More specifically, sports in schools.

First of all I’d like to put out there, that a big cultural difference between Sweden and the US is, that the latter takes sports SUPER seriously. I mean wow, one could think that what team won would decide who lived and died. Like chill out, it’s only your 5 year old bouncing around a basketball. Anyway, in my experience Swedes generally care less about sports. Unless it’s skiing. In that case it’s blood, sweat and tears as they say. And don’t even ask them about the Norweigian skiers…

So, a major difference between the two countries is that in the USA, kids play sports through their schools. Almost every school has their own team in a set of sports, for example: American football, basketball, swimming, track, softball, tennis, dance, wrestling etc etc etc! This is something I find really good about American schools actually, you get sports for free. However, they take up a lot of time. There’s practice several days out of the week + usually tournaments during a lot of weekends.

So, do people in Sweden not do sports? Of course they do, way more than Americans in my experience, but not through school. Everything is private. If you want to play soccer, you join the local soccer club, if you want to play tennis, you go to the closest tennis club etc etc. You might think that this makes fewer people choose sports, but no, almost everyone in school plays a sport or goes to a gym. It is actually quite uncommon for younger kids NOT to play a sport.

As with everything, there are pros and cons to both countries’ setups. In America it is easy access (for once…) and mostly free. However, you are obligated to go to practice every day (roughly) and to commit so to speak. In Sweden, on the other hand, it is totally up to you what sport you choose and how often you do it, but it costs. And believe me, sports are not always cheap…. (looking at you tennis…) However, you get the chance to meet new people outside of school, which is a big pro.

-K

A couple of posts ago I talked about “fika”, so now I thought I’d go ahead and talk about what I originally wanted to: pastries. As previously mentioned in the fika post*, pastries play a vital role in Swedish culture. Whenever there is Fika, there is usually something sweet to go with it.

In Sweden there are a lot of bakeries everywhere. They sell bread, pastries, cookies etc. Usually they are their own company and store, and not for example within a supermarket. In the US, or in Minneapolis I should say (can’t really speak for the entire country here..), there are very few independent bakeries. Either they are primarily a coffee shop or they are part of a grocery store chain such as Cub or Lunds. Ironically, the one good independent bakery I have found, is a Swedish bakery. (:

But don’t get me wrong, the American bakeries within the grocery stores are also amazing. At least they look incredible. This is the second difference I wanted to get to, American bakeries are really good at making the pastries look nice, but sometimes lacks amazing taste, whereas Swedish bakeries often make really delicious pastries, that don’t look very special. They usually look more plain, less decoration so to speak. (Remember I am talking about “normal” bakeries and not like fancy expensive ones)

The last thing I wanted to talk about is the bread. Swedish bakeries often also bake bread. Again, it doesn’t have to be fancy, but it’s real and homemade. The American bakeries within the grocery store don’t do this. They only focus on the sweet, which leaves you limited to the grocery store’s bread section. And don’t even get me started on that…

-K

*https://swedesour.home.blog/2019/03/30/fikafun/

Today I thought I’d talk about this international thing called news. News is something that both Swedes and Americans constantly have around them. It is something a lot of people include in their everyday life (if they’re patient enough…). So how is it different in the two countries? Isn’t news just always news?

I can almost promise you that there aren’t any Swedes out there, who haven’t heard something on the news in Sweden about the US (and recently about President Trump..). The USA is constantly a topic of news and discussion on the Swedish news channel, they talk about the recent events and how they could come to affect Europe and Sweden. Basically, the Swedes worry about what the big scary US will do next. (:

A big difference in the world of news in the two countries, is the reliability and accessibility. In my opinion, even though the main news channel in Sweden is run by the State, it is pretty reliable. Sweden has this system of rules called “Public Service”* making sure that the TV and Radio channels run by the State are not being partial or censored. Since the Swedish news channel owned by the state usually is pretty good about staying real(one can discuss how impartial they were during the most recent US Presidential election though…) it is in my opinion both a reliable and accessible source of news. I’m not saying it’s perfect, but at least it’s honest with facts. Everyone who owns a TV, automatically gets it. (And no, I’m not brainwashed by the Swedish state haha).

Now, let’s talk about the States. The biggest difference I’ve experienced so far, is that there are SO MANY news channels. And there is not really a general opinion regarding which ones are reliable and not. There are some channels internationally known which are considered pretty reliable, but it’s not always easy to access them. Anyone who gets a TV here, also get to access a few channels for free, but they’re not the same set of channels nationally. They vary depending on where you are (which is pretty logical considering the size of this country). Another thing I’ve noticed, is that news channels in the US often are politically partial. Meaning, they sympathize with one of the two big political parties. This, is an issue for me. Whichever channel you choose, you’ll get the information at an angel. Of course Sweden can’t be rid of this 100%, but it’s not on the same level as in the US.

So, reliability and accessibility vary in the two countries. In my opinion it is easier to access reliable news in Sweden, but the US has more channels. Also, in the US, news is everywhere. At work, in the gym, in restaurants, in stores and at home. There are TVs almost everywhere. Takes some time to get used to. So in that sense, the US really puts the news out there, it’s unfortunately just harder to know what’s true and not.

-K

*http://vetapedia.se/public-service/ (sorry, it’s only in Swedish)

It’s Saturday, it’s sunny and it’s time for something sweet. Today I had one of the first really good sweet breads I have had in Minnesota. It was what I would call “kaffebröd”* in Swedish. Anyway, this gave me the idea of talking about pastries, which then reminded me about this incredibly important concept we have in Sweden: Fika. I mean really important, like a matter of life and death. (This post will not be comparing to American culture, but it is a cultural difference in itself, since it only exists in Sweden.)

I’d like to start by trying to explain what the word “fika” means. A lot of websites will give you different answers, such as “to have coffee”** or “a coffee and cake break”***. However, just like the latter link suggests, it is much more than that. Yes, it almost always involves coffee, but it doesn’t necessarily have to (kids usually prefer soft drinks), and often the coffee is accompanied by something edible. But again, it doesn’t have to be. Very vague, I know. Typical Swedish in a sense, there are rules, but you don’t have to follow them if you’re not comfortable with them. Swedes, you know what I mean.

Okay, so if fika isn’t only controlled by what you eat/drink, then what decides if it’s fika or not? Well, usually fika also includes a social aspect. Having fika is when you meet with your friends or family and you all have coffee and cake together. It is the act of being social while consuming coffee and something edible. But then again, that isn’t quite correct either, since you can actually have fika alone. Even though that would be somewhat sad. Also, fika usually takes place in the afternoon, but it isn’t strictly bound to that either. Wow, this is very unclear, sorry.

So, fika is more than just having coffee. It’s a full concept, which you can then form as you please by for instance sharing it with others. In addition to this, you can pick if you want to go to a café, or just stay at home. It can be a healthy fika with sandwiches, or a sweet one with pastries. For me, fika has to contain some sort of sweetness. Either pastries, cookies or cakes. And coffee. Lots of coffee.

To end this post I want to emphasize how vague the concept of fika really is. Fika is what you make it into. Almost anything could be a fika. It might be easier to name some things that are NOT fika: dinners, wine nights, breakfasts, brunches. Basically anytime there is another official word for it. Fika also tends to be lighter than other meals. (I said tends to be, not always….) So to summarize: Fika is the act of being social while consuming coffee and something edible. It can be anywhere, at almost any time. Hope that gave you a little clearer picture of the concept of fika, I know it might be confusing when you aren’t familiar with it. (:

-K

*https://glosbe.com/sv/en/kaffebr%C3%B6d

**https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/submission/18599/fika

***http://www.swedishfood.com/fika

Something I definitely took for granted before I got to the US, was having friends. I’ve just always had a lot of friends and family around me, which I now realize, was very fortunate. When I first got to Minnesota, it took a long time before I found somebody to actually hang out with outside of our frame activity (work, school, etc.). Even though I had joined a few clubs and worked with people my age, it just was not working.

I had someone tell me before I went to the US, that Americans are very friendly and talkative when you meet them at first, but then when you want to get closer and become friends, they don’t let you in. And this is exactly what I’ve experienced (Again, I’m always writing in a generalizing way, of course there are exceptions). People are very eager to talk to you and know more about you, they’ll even respond positively if you ask them to hang out, but they never actually take action. It’s all talk, no doing. In a sense, it’s very double faced, they are welcoming at first, but don’t follow through.

Now, you’re probably thinking I’m going to tell you how nice and welcoming Swedes are, but I’m not. Swedes are really the opposite of Americans when it comes to making friends. In my experience, if they aren’t actively looking to make friends, they can be VERY cold. It’s hard to approach Swedes and to be welcomed in to the circle. They’re not as talkative as Americans tend to be, especially not with strangers. However, once you have managed to get passed this ice and you become friends, you are instantly let in on a very deep and personal level, contrary to the Americans, who seem to like to keep you a little distant. And no, this isn’t me being bad at making friends, I’ve had other people tell me the same thing! (:

Anyway, the last thing I want to bring up is the power of familiarity when it comes to making friends. I came to the US with the attitude of not wanting to have anything to do with Swedes or Sweden, I wanted the full American experience. Pretty soon I realized, that the only social situation I felt comfortable in, was with other Swedes. When you are alone in a new place, meeting people who share your thoughts, values and culture is a really nice break. It makes you feel less different and like you aren’t going crazy. So anyway, that’s my one tip if you’re out there feeling lonely. Find someone you recognize and can relate to. (:

-K

Since I’ve had a request about addressing the way Swedes sometimes can be viewed as very frugal, that’s what I’ll do! I’m sure a lot of you at some point have been at a friend’s house, opened their fridge, and thought to yourself “wow, there’s a lot of food here”. Well, Americans who come to the house of a Swede, probably more often think, “wow, this is one empty fridge”.

No, it’s not empty, it’s just a frugal fridge. Swedes are all about practicalities. They are not keen on superfluousness (yes, that is a word, I looked it up…), and they hate waste. No food should ever have to go bad, and there shouldn’t be any extra “clutter” in the fridge, making it difficult to find things. A lot of Swedish families, including my own, bring their leftovers for lunch the next day in order to avoid buying expensive food and wasting what they already have. It’s not cheap, it’s economical okay! 😀

This kind of frugal/economical behaviour is something I’ve noticed a lot of Americans can not handle well at all. Believe me, it’s sometimes a struggle when one person in the house wants the fridge and cupboards clean and airy, while the other has a need to always fill them up. In my experience the mentality in the US goes along with the lines of “having-a-full-cupboard-shows-that-you-have-a-proper-home”. What I think confuses Americans about how Swedes choose to live, is that Swedes don’t live frugally in order to be cheap or save money, they do it for the practicality. Where Americans see cheapness, Swedes see practicality, and where Swedes see excess, Americans see properness. It’s just a clash of cultures.

I’ll get back to the different mentalities in a later post, I believe there is more to be said about that specific subject. Anyway, now you know a little about the way Swedes vs Americans keep their fridges and cupboards. Hope you enjoyed. (:

-K