So what's it like to live in Sweden?

[trientalis]

I'm feeling somewhat discouraged about the way things are going in the United States. For some peculiar reason, Sweden is starting to look good despite the cold dark winters.

Clue me in please. What's it like to live in Sweden, or heck, even just visit the place?

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

[InTheServiceOfZeke]

i hear it's full of swedes.

[livius drusus]

I don't know much about Sweden, I'm afraid, but I understand it's a great place for women (http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=13437).

[JoeP]

Moosie's Europeforum (http://europeforum.12.forumer.com/) has some Swedish regulars. Well, one at least, and some Finns who could probably give you a different view.

erimir (http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/member.php?u=691) spent some time there, but doesn't seem to have been active here in the past month.

[viscousmemories]

I've only been to Sweden once myself and only for a day, but I think I could live there. I don't know about the winter, though. I grew up in Michigan and I really hate the long, cold winters.

[erimir]

erimir (http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/member.php?u=691) spent some time there, but doesn't seem to have been active here in the past month.Yes, I did. 5 months actually.

I don't think my experience as an exchange student on my own (that is, nobody came with me) is all that representative.

The weather in southern Sweden (Malmö/Lund) is comparable to that of many northern American cities. It'll be warm in the summer, but not that warm. It'll be uncommon for it to go above the 70s. In the winter, it stays mostly above freezing, which results in that when it snows, it doesn't tend to stick for the whole winter, and instead it either melts or gets rained on, and then you have slush for a few days. I hate slush. But as I said, it doesn't go below freezing for most of the winter (it just gets pretty close).

Stockholm is colder of course, and the snow will actually stay on the ground (outside of the pedestrian areas that have heated streets to melt the snow, that is) but a much larger city.

But your question is very vague, so I just went on the weather topic.

Did you have any more specific ones, I can possibly answer them.

[viscousmemories]

He's A-LIVE!

:emostein:

[erimir]

Well, I wouldn't quite say "alive".

More undead :zombie:

[Ensign Steve]

I went to Malmo one time for lunch. That's the shortest amount of time I ever spent in one country. It was awesome.

[trientalis]

First off, thanks to everyone for their input so far.
Second, for erimir, a few more specific questions.
1. How's the food? I haven't really had much Swedish food beyond IKEA meatballs. Oh and are there lots of restaurants specializing in other cuisines (Thai, Chinese, French, etc.)?

2. How's the public transportation system? Is it extensive enough to be useful? How well maintained is the physical infrastructure?

3. How widespread is access to the internet?

4. How are the libraries?

5. What are the people like (your impression)? Are they optimistic and friendly?

Thanks again for your patience with my questions.

[Dingfod]

1. Surf and turf: reindeer and fiske.

2. Reindeer-pulled sleighs go everywhere, that and SAABs and Volvos with spiked tires because it's always winter there because it is much better to have snow to roll in or a frozen lake to jump in after soaking in the sauna after much sex with all the beautiful oversexed Swedes.

5. All Swedes are good-looking blondes with blue eyes and into kinky sex, male or female. I've seen the videos.

[godfry n. glad]

Yeah...I grew up with this impression of Sweden:

http://www.theodoresworld.net/pics/0507/bikiniImage3.jpg

I Am Curious Yellow (& Blue, too) was released during my formative years.

[viscousmemories]

I had such a strong "they're all blonde-haired and blue-eyed" impression that I was genuinely shocked to find almost no blonde-haired women in Göteburg.

[godfry n. glad]

I had such a strong "they're all blonde-haired and blue-eyed" impression that I was genuinely shocked to find almost no blonde-haired women in Göteburg.

Yeah, me, too...but that was reinforced by the number of blue-eyed blonde types in the local Scandinavian ethnic community.

[Dingfod]

The only Swede I've even known in real life is a redhead.

[godfry n. glad]

The only Swede I've even known in real life is a redhead.

Blonde, redhead...they're both products of what my brown-eyed brunette college girlfriend called "weak genes".

[Ensign Steve]

Hey!
:jd:

[JoeP]

No weak genes there, no, definitely not. No way.

[InTheServiceOfZeke]

i'm sure living in Sweden somehow involves the use of an allen key.

[Uthgar the Brazen]

That poor bombshell on the left has no ass. :sadyup:

Does Sweden need any more girly men? I know between the respective appearances of ABBA and Aqua it's probably pushing some sort of population record by now, but I'm just curious.

[fragment]

I've worked with a couple of Swedes. Nice guys, and funny in a bit of an oddball kind of way. They spoke English well too, I think it's a compulsory subject in school or something. They were working as web designers for the London-based company I was coding for, so they were doing it all through the 'net. No worries with access there, in fact it sounded like the connections were faster and more reliable than the UK (which probably wouldn't surprise anyone familiar with BT).

One of them was blonde, but in the dirty blonde way, not that practically albino or soak-your-head-in-a-bucket-of-bleach way.

[godfry n. glad]

That poor bombshell on the left has no ass. :sadyup:

Does Sweden need any more girly men? I know between the respective appearances of ABBA and Aqua it's probably pushing some sort of population record by now, but I'm just curious.


Well, from what I understood about Sweden, then at least one of those bikini wearers is male. Or formerly male.

[Ensign Steve]

Probably the one with no ass.

[Ensign Steve]

No worries with access there, in fact it sounded like the connections were faster and more reliable than the UK (which probably wouldn't surprise anyone familiar with BT).

Indeed.

Graph:
http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/Images/commentarynews/broadbandspeedchart.jpg

[godfry n. glad]

Yeah...There should be no technological lag in the Scandinavian countries. If anything, they'll probably be more advanced. For example, right across the Baltic's Gulf of Bothnia is the nation with the highest saturation of cell phone use: Finland. That sounds like a curse, more than a blessing, but it does indicate full-blown technological addiction.

[erimir]

First off, thanks to everyone for their input so far.
Second, for erimir, a few more specific questions.
1. How's the food? I haven't really had much Swedish food beyond IKEA meatballs. Oh and are there lots of restaurants specializing in other cuisines (Thai, Chinese, French, etc.)?Well, I guess it depends on what price range you're talking about. Many of the ethnic restaurants you'd expect in the US are going to be more expensive. I mean, imagine paying almost $20 for a burrito, and it's not even better than one you can get for $8 in the US. So if Mexican's your thing, there are less, and they're less cheap. But food in Sweden in general is more expensive. But I did see Thai and Chinese restaurants there. You also have some American restaurants (beyond McDonald's, that is). I dunno that I saw any specifically French restaurants, but like in the US, you can expect expensive restaurants to serve some food with a French influence.

On the other hand, there are plenty of cheap Middle Eastern places to eat. If you want falafel or doner kebab...

As for Swedish food itself, I personally don't like fish much, so I can't judge that part of the cuisine (which is a significant part). I can tell you that IKEA meatballs aren't the best, but I am comparing them to my mom's homemade meatballs, so... The meaty stuff is good. Lots of potatoes too. If you like liver (like I do), then you'll enjoy having leverpastej (a liver spread, think pâté but less "fancy") on bread.

Besides the sort of "meat and potatoes" stuff you can expect in any Germanic country, there seems to be a significant amount of fusion going on at restaurants and stuff. So, I guess Swedish cuisine is becoming more cosmopolitan besides just having ethnic restaurants around. You can buy ingredients for stuff like Mexican food at the store easily.

2. How's the public transportation system? Is it extensive enough to be useful? How well maintained is the physical infrastructure?

We walked everywhere or took a taxi/got a ride with relatives when we were in Stockholm, pretty much, since our hotel was in the middle of the pedestrian center.

But in Lund and Malmö there was a good bus system, nice bus stops with signs telling you how long the next bus will be. The infrastructure seems nice enough. The only thing to watch out is that (as in Europe in general), many of the towns are very old and so will have horrible city centers as far as driving is concerned. In Lund most people get around by bicycle, not just because Swedes like exercise and the environment, but because the town is a thousand years old and driving in it is very confusing and there are lots of one way streets and such.

3. How widespread is access to the internet?

Very. I don't know about prices tho. You can get it in restaurants and internet cafés too.

4. How are the libraries?

I dunno. I barely used the university's library, much less any others.

5. What are the people like (your impression)? Are they optimistic and friendly?

Depends on what you mean by friendly. They're nice enough, but they do not talk to strangers in the street for the most part. They have the famous "Scandinavian reserve", so the pragmatics of conversation are different. For example, if you're having a conversation and there's a lull, you would not be expected to explain why you're leaving if you just got up and left (whereas I feel in the US, you would either be told, or ask if you weren't).

But I think they warm up a bit when you get to know them.

But I guess you would probably say they're less friendly, than say, Italians. But I mean, it depends. I personally am quite fine without strangers talking to me in the street, so I wouldn't necessarily consider that a disadvantage.

[JoeP]

Before you make any decision:

IOL: Pool campaign sees bikini tops disappear (http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=29&art_id=nw20071113181005892C228762)

Decades after some women cast aside their bras as an act of feminist radicalism a group of Swedish women have launched a campaign to go topless in local swimming pools.

The Bara Brost (Bare Breast) campaign began two months ago in the south of the country, one of the campaigners, Astrid Hellroth, said.

[viscousmemories]

And people ridicule me for being a feminist.

[Clutch Munny]

My brother lives in Sweden with his wife and daughter, and soon-to-be second kid.

He likes it just fine. Especially for young families it's a very supportive society; and he enjoys his quality of life plenty. (e.g., cycling to work, the manageable scale of cities, pleasantly temperate summers and winters -- due to the Gulf Stream).

[erimir]

Oh yeah, they definitely have perks for people having children. Good paid leave for both the father and mother, you can't lose your job, etc. Swedish men also contribute more to child-rearing than in many other countries.

Result: Sweden has one of the highest birth rates in Europe, while still having a high proportion of women in the workforce (note: their birth rate is still below replacement level, and so still well below the US birth rate). Although, I definitely felt like I saw more babies when I was in Sweden. Swedish parents seem to take their babies out with them more, they take them on buses, and out even in the winter cold.

In fact, my parents told me once that my mother was accused of being a bad mom by some people because she took us out in a stroller even during the middle of winter (in Cleveland). But she showed them that we were just fine b/c we had proper clothing and such. In fact, this was the inspiration for my parents starting their business of importing Swedish children's clothing and baby products to the US which was very successful for a while. They were the ones who originally began importing Baby Björn and Nowa Li to the US. You might know Baby Björn... I definitely noticed when I saw it in Knocked Up.

The reason this business doesn't continue to this day is that 1. Baby Björn kept raising their prices to the point where sales declined sharply and 2. Nowa Li allowed a mail order catalog to carry their products, whereas my parents had been shipping Nowa Li to stores like Nordstrom's and other upscale department stores, which don't want to carry anything from a catalog.