It’s that time of the month again. You feel weak and cranky. You raid the cabinets for chocolate and realize that you don’t have any more. A sense of malaise and dissatisfaction descends. And t...
Last Thursday was Kristi himmelsfärds dag, aka Happy Jesus Christ’s Ascension to Heaven Day. Sometimes I feel like when it comes to religion, Sweden’s motto is this: “Christianity—we̵...
Have you ever thought about starting a business? If so, you’re not alone. Unless your transition abroad was prompted by a job offer, it can be extremely difficult to enter the job market in a f...
I’m starting a new campaign. From now on, every spring day should be just like Valborg and May Day. Sure, we can squeeze in a few days of work here and there, but once we’ve done our duty...
I’m not much for right-wing politics in the US, and usually their talking points about Sweden tend towards the incendiary at the expense of the, ahem, facts. IT’S A SOCIALIST NATION!!! FULL OF GODLES...
Have you ever heard about the one marshmallow/two marshmallow dilemma? In the late 1960s, Stanford professor of psychology Walter Mischel ran a series of tests on children to measure their levels of ...
You’re all alone, and every little noise is magnified by the solitude in your apartment. Somewhere in the hall, you can hear footsteps and the sound of something heavy being dropped unceremoniously o...
You don’t meet many people who are passionate about historic windmills. (I don’t, at least.) This weekend was the exception. I first started talking to Cecilia about the windmill in Vollsjö sometime ...
In the United States, where I’m from, Easter is a pretty child-safe holiday. You eat chocolate, you paint some eggs, your clothing suddenly becomes pastel, floral napkins mysteriously show up on your...
This morning I woke up three times. Once at 7, because the radiator was emitting a high-pitched whine; once at 8, when Simon got up; and finally around 10:15, because I was having a dream that I was ...
The English language has a lot of words… maybe even the most words of all the languages in the whole wide world. I can’t be totally sure of that because I haven’t counted myself, and even if I had, I...
Before I lived in Sweden, spring was a time of year that I looked forward to and enjoyed. End of story. Now that I’ve lived in Sweden, I have a completely different relationship with spring. Sp...
It’s cold and flu season in Sweden, so it’s not uncommon to be a little sick right now. After a month or so of not being able to shake this kind of strange feeling, though, I decided to go ahead and ...
Signs of the season: spring flowers, muddy sidewalks, balmy breezes and best of all—sun, glorious sun! Two weeks ago, I was surprised to wake up one weekend morning because of sun shining into our be...
This post is a continuation of Saturday’s post, where you can read Tips 1-7 for learning a language! Swedish is not a language many people study just for the heck of it. Romance languages, German, Ch...
Swedish is not a language many people study just for the heck of it. Romance languages, German, Chinese or Japanese—not too out of the ordinary. But Swedish? Not so much. Nonetheless, when in Rome… S...
*Innnnnn and ooooooout. Innnnnn and ooooooout.Innnnnn and ooooooout.* Ok. I think I’m ready to speak normally now. ROYALBABYROYALBABYROYALBABYROY ALBABY!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh, sorry. Maybe not. Prince...
If you want to live in Sweden and you’re not an EU or Swiss citizen, you’ve got basically three options: one, study; two, have a lasting and genuine relationship with someone else who has permission ...
We Americans are known for throwing around the word “love” to mean everything from “This is an amazing sandwich” (I LOVE JIMMY JOHN’S!) to “I want to spend the res...
Food is a way of getting to know a country, its people and its history. By learning about typical Swedish cuisine, for example, you’ll learn about the importance of the sea, the different flora and f...
When I was young, my mom told me that I was as precious and unique as a snowflake. Or at least she probably would have if she had been into sentimental platitudes, which (thank goodness) she’s not. M...
Get your mind out of the gutter, people. Real sausages. To eat. Not, you know… Ok, I give up. Have your laugh. Sausage party. Last Saturday was a day that I had waited for—no, longed for—for almost a...
On Wednesday, I published Part I of 20 Ways to Annoy a Swede. So here it is, fresh out of the oven: Part II of 20 Ways to Annoy a Swede! If you didn’t read the last post, here’s a little ...
We’ve all been there, right? That terribly awkward moment when… … you look up from your plate and see that the whole table is staring at you, their once-friendly faces alternating between looks of di...
Does anyone else ever get totally surprised by the realization that it’s Friday, and *whoosh!* another week has just raced by? The days pass so quickly that sometimes I think there’s a massive hoax b...
Finally, you arrive in Sweden. Maybe you’re meeting someone—maybe an old friend. A friend who could be more than a friend. A lover. You’re welcomed at the airport, and on the trip towards his or her ...
I love the idea of New Year’s resolutions. Keeping them is another thing altogether. I don’t think I’ve ever kept a New Year’s resolution that has been life-changing… or kept one at all, if we’...
My nails are painted and I did my hair… almost time to head to the party! Holy moly, is it really almost 2012? I can’t believe what a year it has been. A store in Malmö getting ready for ...
Celebrating Christmas in a foreign country is tough, right? You miss your family. You have no idea what’s going on. To top it off, Swedes can’t even figure out what day they’re supposed to celebrate ...
We’ve been to glögg parties; we’ve decorated our friends’ trees. Finally, it was time to bring the holiday spirit to our own home. During the last two years of living abroad, I’ve avoided buying a Ch...
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