As promised.
1) So as I was generally surfing a while ago I stumbled upon wikitravel.org. Which of course led me to seek out the English-language article on traveling in Sweden, because I'm all generally curious and amused about what non-Swedes think of Sweden. I was not to be disappointed. While the entire article was generally funny to me, this bit was particularily interesting:
Sweden - a country of numbers
Swedish people are reputed to be rigid and organized. Almost everything has a number. Swedish people have a ten-digit personal identity number (starting by date of birth in the form YYMMDD) used in contact with all kinds of government authorities, usually mentioned before the name. Customers in Swedish shops or bank need to take a queue number note from a machine to be served in order. Each product at Systembolaget is known for its product number (which is often easier to keep track of than foreign-sounding names), and the most important feature in selection is the alcohol content (often divided by price to find the most cost-efficient product). If you order a drink in the bar, be prepared to tell how many centiliters of liquor you want. Most grocers provide milk in four or more fat content levels (plus an organic version of each, barista milk and low lactose milk, not to mention filmjölk, yoghurt and all other milk products). Before going outdoors, Swedes check air temperature, and before bathing in open water, they check water temperature. Many Swedes also own barometers, hygrometers and rain gauges to support the eternal conversation about weather with statistics. In conversation about housing, Swedes define their flats by number of rooms (En trea - "a three" - is simply a three-room-and-kitchen flat) and usually ask each other about the area by square meter. They have week numbers running from 1 to 52.
After laughing a moment at the usual "lol, my country and its never-not-hilarious views on the issues of queing" I suddenly realised that the article implied that outside of Sweden, it would be unusual to have a household thermometer. Really? Like, yeah, I get not having a barometer (only seen those things as boat supplies, seldom in a house) but a outside thermometer? Isn't that kind of vital? You know? Necessary for daily life and such and such? I mean there are a lot of things I take for granted which I have learned is not to be taken for granted outside of my country. Having high levels of literacy pre-19th century, the general concept of "lagom", short winterdays and summernights, e.t.c. But I find it pretty damn hard to believe that people in other countries are uninterested in knowing the outside temperature. I'm relatively sure that people in other countries go outside, and generally need to know what would be appropriate outerwear for that. So, just to check, it is time to have a statistical-data-ensuring poll. Been a while, hasn't it?
Poll Shantari discovers wikitravel.org
2) Also, being that my brother came to visit for Easter-weekend as previously mentioned, he brought his Student-overall or Åvve. So we could do a fabric-swapp!! You see, besides these jumpsuits being personalised by the attaching of different badges and stuff, they can also be personalised by swapping fabrics with a friend/sibling/lover/miscellanea who also has their own Åvve. We decided to swap the lower part of one of the legs, and I suggested that we took from different legs so that we would make a nice little checkered pattern when standing next to one another. :D So we basically had a little sowing session the other day, where my brother perpetuated his belief that I'm better at sewing than he is, which he managed to convince me the truth of, to be perfectly frank. I'm also finally starting to get around to adding badges. Previously, due to my jumpsuit being all black and with only one patch that has a girl in a spacesuit on a yellow circular background with a black crescent moon behind her, I sort of looked like a space mechanic when wearing it. In fact one of my cousins called me a astronaut when he saw me wearing it. Now with this random bit of bright yellow fabric courtesy of my brother, and some patches that inform others that I'm an engineering student from Trollhättan, it's finally starting to look like a genuine Åvve.
And this wasn't so much a deep dive into Swedish student culture, as mentioning something that happened this weekend which involved a already told about part of aforementioned culture, but ehm... Look! A mildy interesting sight! *legs it*
Sweden - a country of numbers
Swedish people are reputed to be rigid and organized. Almost everything has a number. Swedish people have a ten-digit personal identity number (starting by date of birth in the form YYMMDD) used in contact with all kinds of government authorities, usually mentioned before the name. Customers in Swedish shops or bank need to take a queue number note from a machine to be served in order. Each product at Systembolaget is known for its product number (which is often easier to keep track of than foreign-sounding names), and the most important feature in selection is the alcohol content (often divided by price to find the most cost-efficient product). If you order a drink in the bar, be prepared to tell how many centiliters of liquor you want. Most grocers provide milk in four or more fat content levels (plus an organic version of each, barista milk and low lactose milk, not to mention filmjölk, yoghurt and all other milk products). Before going outdoors, Swedes check air temperature, and before bathing in open water, they check water temperature. Many Swedes also own barometers, hygrometers and rain gauges to support the eternal conversation about weather with statistics. In conversation about housing, Swedes define their flats by number of rooms (En trea - "a three" - is simply a three-room-and-kitchen flat) and usually ask each other about the area by square meter. They have week numbers running from 1 to 52.
After laughing a moment at the usual "lol, my country and its never-not-hilarious views on the issues of queing" I suddenly realised that the article implied that outside of Sweden, it would be unusual to have a household thermometer. Really? Like, yeah, I get not having a barometer (only seen those things as boat supplies, seldom in a house) but a outside thermometer? Isn't that kind of vital? You know? Necessary for daily life and such and such? I mean there are a lot of things I take for granted which I have learned is not to be taken for granted outside of my country. Having high levels of literacy pre-19th century, the general concept of "lagom", short winterdays and summernights, e.t.c. But I find it pretty damn hard to believe that people in other countries are uninterested in knowing the outside temperature. I'm relatively sure that people in other countries go outside, and generally need to know what would be appropriate outerwear for that. So, just to check, it is time to have a statistical-data-ensuring poll. Been a while, hasn't it?
Poll Shantari discovers wikitravel.org
2) Also, being that my brother came to visit for Easter-weekend as previously mentioned, he brought his Student-overall or Åvve. So we could do a fabric-swapp!! You see, besides these jumpsuits being personalised by the attaching of different badges and stuff, they can also be personalised by swapping fabrics with a friend/sibling/lover/miscellanea who also has their own Åvve. We decided to swap the lower part of one of the legs, and I suggested that we took from different legs so that we would make a nice little checkered pattern when standing next to one another. :D So we basically had a little sowing session the other day, where my brother perpetuated his belief that I'm better at sewing than he is, which he managed to convince me the truth of, to be perfectly frank. I'm also finally starting to get around to adding badges. Previously, due to my jumpsuit being all black and with only one patch that has a girl in a spacesuit on a yellow circular background with a black crescent moon behind her, I sort of looked like a space mechanic when wearing it. In fact one of my cousins called me a astronaut when he saw me wearing it. Now with this random bit of bright yellow fabric courtesy of my brother, and some patches that inform others that I'm an engineering student from Trollhättan, it's finally starting to look like a genuine Åvve.
And this wasn't so much a deep dive into Swedish student culture, as mentioning something that happened this weekend which involved a already told about part of aforementioned culture, but ehm... Look! A mildy interesting sight! *legs it*