February 15, 2012
Well, I\'ve now moved to Cardiff, UK for studies so you\'ll get to follow all of my new experiences. Like living on my own for the first time. In a new country.
Yep, the cold finally hit Cardiff so I was quite glad when I got this parcel from my mom! It included tea with glöggflavor (yummy!), salt liquorice, fudge with gingerbread cookie flavor and the Swedish Cosmopolitan. Perfect treat to a headache and tiredness! When I’m coming to Stockholm I think I’ll stock up with these fudges – ’cause they are truly delicious! Something you ought to try.
As in the UK, Christmas is the biggest Swedish holiday and probably the only one that the majority of Swedes still are celebrating, whether you’re Christian or part of any other religion. Even though Swedes don’t start celebrating the holiday in the beginning of November such as the British, we also are fond of counting down the days to Christmas Eve. E.g. advent is part of pre-Christmas which is very traditional, and in the past this was the fasting period before Christmas. I don’t think anyone nowadays relates advent to fasting as this is the time when Swedes begin to eat gingerbread cookies and ‘lussebullar’ (saffron buns shaped ’s’). We also have four candles for each advent Sunday, and today thus is first Advent and also four weeks until Christmas eve.
It is weird when you’re abroad for a longer period of time and you suddenly become much more patriotic and attached to your country of birth. I’ve been trying to do work today, but it’s hard to focus when you wish you were close to your family and friends. However, I’m glad I have friends here in Cardiff and the feeling of living between two worlds is slowly disappearing. Cardiff is a different world (and time zone..) from Stockholm and I guess it always will be. But a day like today, first advent, you wish you were sitting in you mom’s sofa, eating gingerbread cookies and lussebullar and of course lighting the candle. I planned to bake gingerbread cookies for today (the dough from IKEA is waiting in the fridge), but it didn’t happen. I will bake some cookies in the next coming days though, the Brits must taste something really Swedish! 
Lussebullar
It’s total chaos in the rail traffic in Stockholm and the rest of Sweden because of the snow; trains, buses and subways have been cancelled and delayed. I had plans for practise driving this forenoon but I had no choice but to return home to my boyfriend’s when the subway didn’t seem to come at all. The Swedish Rail service and the local transport never seem to be well prepared and always seem surprised when the winter comes. It’s not like we’re part of the northern Europe, absolutely not!
There has been an extreme winter this year, but you think that the responsible should be a lot better on making sure that the trains are on time and that the railroads are free of ice and snow. There’s no lack of resources – the government has put in money for restoring the tracks. In my view it’s a disaster when the local transport of Stockholm are suggesting that people should stay home from work because of the weather. It seems though that I can take advantage of the travel guarantee and take a taxi to my job!
Personally I’m longing for warmer weather and lesser snow, we have reached a point where the end of the continous snowfall and the decreasing degrees seem to be out of reach. There’s a major problem when people are struggling to find a way home from the central Stockholm or cannot get to work because of the traffic. This is the first winter since years that we have experienced a ‘full white winter’. On my way home from a night out yesterday my friend and I saw people slipping and falling on the crossing because of the stormy snowfall, I think it’s enough now!
December the 13th means Lucia and this is a tradition that has been around in Sweden since 18th century. Even though the real Santa Lucia originated from Syracuse, Sicily (Italy), Swedes have really made this their own tradition. Even though the Italian Lucia was brown haired there has been some weird rule in Sweden that Lucia should have blonde hair. Both Lucia and Advent are Swedish/Nordic preparations for Christmas celebrations. Advent starts four weeks before Christmas and each Sunday another candle is lit. Most Swedes that celebrate Christmas are not often religious, it has become a part of Swedish culture. Lucia and Advent have, like Christmas Eve, a power to bring family and friends together.
Darkness is a part of December in Sweden and when the sun don’t come around so often I like to light as many candles as I can. The environment gets much warmer then. It’s the third of Advent today so here at home we have just recently lit our third candle. By the way, perhaps you know that Swedes like to decorate their homes with electric Christmas stars and candlesticks. Funnily enough, some Brits think these electric Christmas candlesticks look so nice that they have them in their homes all year round!
Anyway, if you have been outdoors in Stockholm today you have seen that there hasn’t really been that Christmasish. It has been a good day though; my boyfriend and I went with his parents to Millesgården (an art museum at Lidingö outside of Stockholm) to see the exhibition of Lee Miller’s photographs. I was really impressed by her work and how beautiful she was, really got an ‘aha-feeling’. If you are staying in Stockholm before the end of Febuary 2010 you should go see the exhibition, as it is shown until then.
Self portrait of Lee Miller.
As diverse as Sweden is, there are a few societal norms that are distinctly Swedish. Understanding a handful of them will hopefully prepare you culturally before you relocate. When you're invited home to a Swede, you better be on time and take your shoes off, writes expat Lola Akinmade-Åkerström. Read more »
Sweden is a country where almost everyone can speak English. So why bother to learn Swedish? Edina Varnagy from Hungary managed with English for a whole year but then found that Swedish could open doors – to a job, a social life and greater understanding. Read more »
"The ice dripped in the winter sun. It was the first day when the light had been intense enough to cause dripping in the sunlight. To hear it was an extraordinary wakeup call. The cycle was happening again as it always does, always will (or so we think). I imagined that on my summer island, the bees..." READ »
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