The Swede Life

Where has all the snow gone?

Think about it. Sweden. Snow. It’s a package deal, right? You don’t buy a cheeseburger without cheese, do you?

Same with snow here. After all, if a significant portion of your country is north of the Arctic Circle and the occasional moose can be seen running amok in the streets (even worse, they’re usually drunk from fermented apples. Take shelter!), there should be more of the stuff than rednecks at a gun show.

But just like the Vӓxjӧ Lakers’ chances at a decent season (that one went by the wayside after their first match, causing me to contemplate the meaning of life at a nearby pub), it seems to have vanished faster than Jackson Rathbone’s career (Jackson who? Exactly).

Remember last winter? A ferry became stranded in Stockholm harbor because there was too much ice. This year? It was four degrees the other day. Four degrees! Now on sale at H&M: shorts and tank tops!

And guess what Thursday’s high is supposed to be in Vӓxjӧ? Six degrees. Welcome to Death Valley North.

A couple years ago, my host family told me, there was so much ice that people would actually drive their cars across some of the lakes in town. Today you’d need a hovercraft, or whatever Tim Tebow has.

And I’ve even found my much-beloved winter skinny dipping to be harder. Last year, it required cutting a hole in ice that was 40 centimeters thick, then jumping in right away before it froze over again. This year? Maybe half that. It’s so warm, I’m waiting to jump in as I write this.

Maybe the whole snow thing is a bad stereotype, like blondes and a certain furniture store that starts with IKEA. After all, it did reach 25 degrees a couple of days this past summer (considering my flat didn’t have air conditioning, the only word to describe such conditions is “apocalyptic”), and there were Allsvenskan (and Superettan, and every other level of football) matches in October as there are every year.

So maybe it’s not the end of the world as we know it (though it is 2012 for those that believe such things). But it sure is warm out there… relatively speaking (current forecast for Thursday’s high temperature in Miami: 26 degrees).

And the Swedes do have a saying: “There is no bad weather, only bad clothes.”

Guess who’s going to the store now?

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Tags: Ben Mack, blogs, culture, football, ice, Lakers, snow, Stockholm, The Local, Växjö, weather

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 11th, 2012 at 5:30 am and is filed under Ben Mack. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.