Translations
Hej (hey) = hello (informal)
Tack = Thanks
Hej då (hey doe)= goodbye
Ha det bra (ha day bra) = Take care (often in conjunction with hej då)
I even looked up the spelling! :)
So far things have been great. I have met so many people from other countries. At first it was almost like catalogging how many different countries I could hit. Britain/Luxemborg, France, Germany, Spain, Italy (this guy cracked me up after he picked up a swedish girl in the library the 2nd day we were here, then chased me down in the mall trying to find a place to find tablecloths), Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Serbia, Greek (there are a _lot_ of greeks here, it's almost funny), Iran, China, India, Pakistan, Australia, Columbia, Venezuala, Mexico, Canada. I've missed a few I'm sure. At first I wondered if I would meet any Swedes. And I have! Though 1 myth, they are not _all_ blonde... though a lot are. yes, they are cute... J from Luxemborg is dating a swedish woman who did a big womens run in Stockholm. He said it was quite a sight seeing 20000 mostly blonde swedish women warming up for the 5k race. I'll let ya'll just think about that a moment.
It's been quite a change. From rural NH to living above a mall. Yes, I live in apartments inside a mall currently. It's actually not bad, right by the train station. I have had to get used to 24hour time because most times are listed that way. Meatballs, yes, it's a very swedish dish. I've had them twice since I got here. They often eat them with gravy, a relish, and potatoes.
The Tbana is the train system. It's awesome, I can pretty much get around Stockholm quite easily. I even visited the largest IKEA in the world which is on the outskirts of the city. There are 2 one in north and one south and I have been to both. I've also gotten into reading on the train, which has been a great diversion though I'm going to need a book source soon since I only brought a couple of pleasure books with me. Though apparently there is a large public library that has all sorts of international books, so I'm hoping that will appease me. Paperback books are quite expensive (~$15+) and since I don't really want to ship read books back when I leave I don't mind borrowing.
Culture shock 2. I have never walked into as many doors as I do here and the Swedes must be monster strong because all the doors are annoyingly hard to open. The doors have no rhyme or reason as to which direction they open. Everyone laughs about it, because we are all trying to open doors in the wrong direction. You then have to guess as to whether you are going in the wrong direction or not strong enough.
The Swedes love queues. Everything has numbers. You take a number everywhere, but it's actually quite nice sometimes, because you can go sit while waiting for the number and the signs often tell you which window to go to when your number comes up, if there are multiple windows like in a bank. They also seem to like security and id cards. I have to swipe an id card 3 times and then use a key to get into my apartment. The university has already given me 2 different id cards with 2 more to come, I think. And I apparently have 2 domain passwords, 1 student record password, and a separate name and password to the library. I'm pretty computer savvy... and I haven't actually figured out which password goes to which... and yesterday I made the system mad and it locked me out. :)
I have now experienced a swedish sauna as well as swimming in the Baltic and running back and forth between the two. It was awesome!
Stockholm is beautiful. The weather has been apparently unseasonally warm, but it has been basically dry and sunny and coolish (~65-75F). I will maybe post some pics when I figure out the webspace situation.
Tack = Thanks
Hej då (hey doe)= goodbye
Ha det bra (ha day bra) = Take care (often in conjunction with hej då)
I even looked up the spelling! :)
So far things have been great. I have met so many people from other countries. At first it was almost like catalogging how many different countries I could hit. Britain/Luxemborg, France, Germany, Spain, Italy (this guy cracked me up after he picked up a swedish girl in the library the 2nd day we were here, then chased me down in the mall trying to find a place to find tablecloths), Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Serbia, Greek (there are a _lot_ of greeks here, it's almost funny), Iran, China, India, Pakistan, Australia, Columbia, Venezuala, Mexico, Canada. I've missed a few I'm sure. At first I wondered if I would meet any Swedes. And I have! Though 1 myth, they are not _all_ blonde... though a lot are. yes, they are cute... J from Luxemborg is dating a swedish woman who did a big womens run in Stockholm. He said it was quite a sight seeing 20000 mostly blonde swedish women warming up for the 5k race. I'll let ya'll just think about that a moment.
It's been quite a change. From rural NH to living above a mall. Yes, I live in apartments inside a mall currently. It's actually not bad, right by the train station. I have had to get used to 24hour time because most times are listed that way. Meatballs, yes, it's a very swedish dish. I've had them twice since I got here. They often eat them with gravy, a relish, and potatoes.
The Tbana is the train system. It's awesome, I can pretty much get around Stockholm quite easily. I even visited the largest IKEA in the world which is on the outskirts of the city. There are 2 one in north and one south and I have been to both. I've also gotten into reading on the train, which has been a great diversion though I'm going to need a book source soon since I only brought a couple of pleasure books with me. Though apparently there is a large public library that has all sorts of international books, so I'm hoping that will appease me. Paperback books are quite expensive (~$15+) and since I don't really want to ship read books back when I leave I don't mind borrowing.
Culture shock 2. I have never walked into as many doors as I do here and the Swedes must be monster strong because all the doors are annoyingly hard to open. The doors have no rhyme or reason as to which direction they open. Everyone laughs about it, because we are all trying to open doors in the wrong direction. You then have to guess as to whether you are going in the wrong direction or not strong enough.
The Swedes love queues. Everything has numbers. You take a number everywhere, but it's actually quite nice sometimes, because you can go sit while waiting for the number and the signs often tell you which window to go to when your number comes up, if there are multiple windows like in a bank. They also seem to like security and id cards. I have to swipe an id card 3 times and then use a key to get into my apartment. The university has already given me 2 different id cards with 2 more to come, I think. And I apparently have 2 domain passwords, 1 student record password, and a separate name and password to the library. I'm pretty computer savvy... and I haven't actually figured out which password goes to which... and yesterday I made the system mad and it locked me out. :)
I have now experienced a swedish sauna as well as swimming in the Baltic and running back and forth between the two. It was awesome!
Stockholm is beautiful. The weather has been apparently unseasonally warm, but it has been basically dry and sunny and coolish (~65-75F). I will maybe post some pics when I figure out the webspace situation.