If there is one thing that I am more worried about it’s food shopping. Not the actual shopping itself but getting to the checkout. Currently I feel like a seven year old child when being accompanied by his mother when I visit a store. I stand there listening to a conversation I cannot understand and nod politely in agreement.
I don’t want to rely on my girlfriend to do a shop. There will be times where I will want to leave the flat and go grab a sandwich or something to eat. But for some reason I tend to freeze when the shop assistant says the word “Hej”. Part of me wants to shout out “HEY!” just as the fonze did in Happy Days and hold two thumbs in the air, but I know that they will probably section me for being crazy.
But it is these simple things that are the most important to overcome. Going to a bar I feel is different, they will have more Swedish/English speaking people than a store would and I am certainly not going to say “I’m British” when I am in a store. I must learn how to say the simplest of things and converse (by the way anybody know a good private Swedish tutor in Norrkoping? 
For now the fear of the word “Hej” is a large one. Just like the child accompanying their mother to a store I want to join in the conversation but I don’t want to appear to be a fool. So maybe the Fonzie approach is the best until then. Just smile politely and point those thumbs. All together now.
HEY!
