Beeing a real Swede means ... (part II)

After three weeks of language classes we already got an deep insight into the Swedish culture - thank you to my teacher Christin ;-)

The last lessons she gave us were about food, economy and communication - lets see if I can tell it like she did:

Because it is so cold in Sweden and the weather changes that often, a real Swede loves to talk about the weather. It is also a good start for a random conversation because, as I already mentioned - a Swede is shy and don't like to talk to strangers.
I have to admit, the weather is really changing quickly here and therefore Christins' first question in the morning class is - Ha du en paraply? Do you have an umbrella with you? We are always waiting for this question with a smile ;-)

Christin also likes to talk about food! We learned that real Swedes eat fish on Tuesday and on Thursday they eat pea soup with ham and as a dessert pancakes with whipped cream and jam. A traditional Swedish breakfast consists of lots of milk, cereals with a special kind of milk, eggs, fresh fruit and a sandwich with cheese or ham in it called smörgås or maka. Christin said you cannot eat something sweet for breakfast, this is only common for Fika.
I will just comment on that - Anna which I am living with is a real Swede, in Åland I made friends with real Swedes and NOONE knew about these 'rules' and none cares either! Everyone I met until now has Kanebulle and Kaffe for breakfast, and for Fika if they like ;-)

The economy lesson was interesting too. Because of the fear of robbery it is not possible to buy your tickets in the Metro/ Bus, you have to go to the Kiosk to buy it. Also in the supermarkets you have automatic cash return, which means that the change will be automatically forwarded by the computer system and the cashier has no influence on that.
In order to create more jobs the government decided to pass a law that it is not allowed to offer products or services cheaper when people buy via Internet e.g. a flight, a cruise etc. costs the same if you book via Internet or by a travel agency. Norwegian Air has brought this further because you have to pay extra for your luggage if you buy the flight via Internet but if you book via a travel agency you get 20kg free luggage.
Also the tax has been reduced to create more work, but until now it has not really turned out the way they wanted it to be.

Finally, another story of Christin about the Swedish culture. The Swedes are that shy that they wanna avoid every situation where they could be forced to talk to strangers. So they put in their earplugs but do not turn on the music, just to look busy and not available for a conversation. Same thing in the elevator or when you are riding the Metro. Again, I talked to Swedes and they think that's stupid and not true - but I just wanted to mention it here.

To be continued (for sure) ...