Super late post! But I'm back in the states. I got back in Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately I've been sick this week and am back at student teaching with a cold. On top of that, I've had meetings and events after school everyday, which is good since it's making me stay awake longer to beat the jet lag. However, it's not the best for resting.
Anyway, this post will entail random things about Sweden that didn't fit into school or travel categories.
But first, I will recap what happened in the last week. We got to attend a technology class at the University of Gothenburg. They had planned for us to attend one since we arrived, so we were excited to go. Only Madilyne and I went because Virginia and Caroline wanted to help their teachers. The class was different than we expected. We thought there'd be at least 25-20 people in the class, including girls and a few boys. However, when we got there, there wer 4 boys in the WHOLE class! It was unusual for a class to be that small. They were taking the course for fun to learn about technology for young children to use. They'd already had their degrees in other subject areas and weren't taking classes for a program. That's a benefit of free higher education. You get to take classes because you want to and you don't have to pay extra, technically (taxes). Anyway, the class topic was also different than what we'd expected. It was about how to use materials to convey topics. For example, constructing a chair out of materials or making a simple machine that moved when cranked. It would be very STEM oriented rather than digitial technology, which is what we thought. The teacher sent us on a scavenger hunt around the city with the boys. It was cool to see the history behind what we'd already seen.
It was also our last week in the school. I'm going to miss the kids so much and I still do a week later. They all made me a card with individual post it notes with notes on them. The teacher also gave me a gift of story cubes from Flying Tiger, which I was going to buy the day before but didn't. A few of them also made me their own cards, which are also in the picture.
The flight back was amazing! Going west was longer at 9 and a half hours instead of 8. Madilyne and I had seats next to each other in row 38 towards the very back of the plane. However, it was very empty in the back and there was an open isle seat, so Madilyne moved to it and we had an empty seat between us to spread out! I also came on the flight with snacks since I knew it'd be long. But the flight attendents kept coming around with food and drinks that I didn't even need my snacks. Dinner was an amazing pasta with a pretzel roll. We got ice cream as a snack, chips, pretzels, and a pizza roll! Plus, I watched 3 movies and got some sleep.
I also realized I didn't post a picture of our last Friday Fika with the food! I'd been telling people back in the US about FIKA, so here is a picture of what it looks like. I'm also attaching a picture of the cracker and butter station (my go to when it was fish day) and salad bar where students need to take 2 different types of vegetables.
Random Facts
Manners
Swedes don't say please or excuse me. It's not an etiquette thing and it's not that they're rude or anything. To them, the word "please" is more of a begging type of word. Americans have been said to be overly polite, which can be a good and bad thing depending on where you are. When there's a crowd of people, they just push past or gently put their hands on you to move.
Water
The Swedish have the purest water in the world! Literally... The water in the north is so clean and pure from whatever natural aquifers and wells they have. I was a little skeptical at first to drink it, but I didn't want to pay for bottled water. I was very surprised when I first drank it. Plus, the faucet's hot and cold side work amazingly well. If you turn it to the cold, it will turn quickly and freezing. If you turn it to the hot side, it doesn't take long to turn burning hot.
Keyboard
The keyboard on computers and phones is different. We normally have our fingers on the ASDF JKL; but instead of the ; they have one of the 3 extra letters of their alphabet and the Norwegian/Danish alphabet. They also have 3 different uses for the number keys. We would normally use Fn or Shift on the number keys to get a number or symbol. But they have an additional key stroke which I never figured out how to get to.
Sverige and Svenska
In English and America, we call the country Sweden and the language Swedish. However, they call Sweden "Sverige" (S-ver-e-ay) and the language "Svenska". On their maps when teaching students about the world, the countries are labeled with the Swedish words for countries like Norge (Norway) and Spanien (Spain). I never thought of that, but it does make sense since Spanish is the language in English, but to the Spanish people, they call their language Español . Their country in English is Spain while they call it España. Therefore, every country and language has their own pronunciation.
Swedish Fish
When talking to our Swedish friends who are coming to TCU, we brought up the topic of Swedish Fish. We showed them the brand we have, the yellow packaging and red fish, and they laughed at us! It is an AMERICAN brand! They have Swedish Fish gummies but they look different and are better. They are thicker and not as sweet. But they are flavorful and have different flavors. Sweden is known for their gummies which you scoop out of the candy tubs and put it into a bag to weigh.
Homes, Buildings, and Cars
Also, since Europe is highly densely populated, people tend to live in small apartments. They don't have big 5 bedroom houses like the US does. The building codes are stricter and electricity is more expensive there. This is why IKEA has such innovate furniture to fit small living spaces!
Europe is known for their older buildings. They also don't have AC or central air since they don't want to have to re-rout their whole buildings or have a box hanging from their windows. Their trams and buses don't normally have AC either. They try to preserve their history and buildings by doing this. It is also not as hot as Texas, so AC isn't really needed. Now that I think of it, I didn't have AC in grade school in Pennsylvania.
The cars in Europe are also different. They are smaller and longer. I'd classify them as station wagons. Even with Audi, Mercedes, Porche, and Volvos everywhere, they are still expensive brands in Europe. They also have older looking cars since Europeans aren't as materialistic as Americans, they don't have the need to buy a new car ever few years. Most Europeans don't even drive or need cars because of public transit. The cars are also manual, so they save fuel economy and run better. You can definitely feel the cars jolt sometimes because of the clutch and gear change.
Low Crime and a Sense of Community
We did not see any police officers in Sweden. Occasionally we'd see or hear an ambulance. At first it was kind of alarming in case we needed help. But as we lived there for a little while, we saw why there was no need for constant patrol. Everywhere WE WERE was safe (not to say everywhere is). The community trusts each other. Parents could leave babies in their strollers outside of small restaurants. Kids as young as 5-years-old could take the tram alone. There was no litter anywhere. The country is very quiet. Even the dogs didn't bark and the children didn't have tantrums from what we've seen in public. It may happen at home, but not in public. Also, the trams and buses are built with parents in mind! They have spaces designated for strollers, ramps, etc. Every time we were on the tram, there'd be at least 1 or 2 strollers. It was also great because sometimes we'd see someone else helping the mother lift the stroller in and out of the tram if it wasn't low enough to the ground.
Food Rescue Box
I don't know if this applies to just Sweden or if the rest of Europe does this, but Sweden is VERY big on recycling, reducing waste, and throwing trash away. They have multiple receptacles for leftover food waste, paper, plastic, metal, glass, etc. The Swedes take it seriously which ones are used for what. If you threw it out in the wrong one, they'd look at you funny. So it was kind of hard for us to decide how to throw our trash out. It seems easy, but it's actually really hard when you realize how many different materials make up the piece of food you just ate. For example, a water bottle has plastic and paper on it. A to go sandwich box from 7-11 has paper and plastic and food waste if you don't finish. It really requires you to think about all the packaging we use. Even at school, we had a trash bin just for food waste so it didn't get mixed in with the rest of the trash. Our dorm also had a "food rescue box" where you could put food you didn't finish or didn't want. This is good because it reduces food waste and helps others out if they are hungry. My school in America has a "shared food" area where they put food they didn't eat already. But not all schools do this. Not all schools recycle or put food waste in their own trash.
Swedish Brands
I didn't realize how innovate the Scandinavians are. Besides IKEA, Sweden also home of the creators and brands: Volvo, Spotify, Skype, H&M, Nordstrom, Saab, Ericsson, and Electrolux. Famous singers and song groups are also from Sweden such as Avicii, ABBA, Tove Lo, and Robyn. Famous actors and actresses include Alicia Vikander (Tomb Raider), Alexander (True Blood) and Stellen Skarsgård (Mamma Mia), Malin Ackerman (Trophy Wife), and Greta Garbo.
I'm also attaching a photo gallery of pictures I realized I never uploaded! They're a mixture of Sweden and Prague.
