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Swedes and physical contact Posted by on Aug 31, 2011

I never really thought about how physical relationships in different countries might be or how our physical interaction with each other takes place. In my case I was born and grew up in Sweden, so I took the way I had always been doing things to be the “right” way. At school my friends and…

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Lingonsylt – Lingonberry jam Posted by on Aug 26, 2011

I, like very many other Swedes,  love to pick berries. First, summer comes with its  season of strawberries and wild strawberries followed by the beginning of fall with its raspberries and blueberries. It’s a wild struggle to pick as many berries of one kind before the weather changes cause the remaining berries to wilt. During…

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Sweden prioritizes recycling Posted by on Aug 25, 2011

It’s funny the things which you notice sometimes. Just the other day I moved into an apartment, one that was built quite a few years back. The linoleum floors, the big windows and the kitchen were the things I noticed, but what I noticed most of all was that under the kitchen sink there was…

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Swedish hard bread is called Knäckebröd Posted by on Aug 23, 2011

Knäckebröd is a crisp and hard bread made out of Swedish rye. About 85% of Swedish households eat “Knäckebröd”, compared to about 45% in Germany and only 8% in France. Knäckebröd originated in amongst others the province Värmland in Sweden. This hard bread is rolled out to thin, flat cakes with a blunt spiked rolling-pin…

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Swedish ‘Allsång’ Posted by on Aug 1, 2011

This is a very typical Swedish summer occurrence.  ‘Allsång’ takes place outdoors, with a song leader.  People of all ages come to ‘Allsång’ to hear good music and sing along.  Everyone is given a copy of the lyrics, so you can follow along.  Even the viewers can follow along with the song texts at the…

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The verb ‘att fika’ Posted by on Jul 27, 2011

Swedes have a wonderful verb, ‘att fika’, meaning to have a cup of coffee (or tea) with something sweet or with a sandwich and preferably in the company of colleagues or friends. There is no really good translation for this verb and many people think that the word should be imported into the English language. …

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Swedish Industry Summer Break Posted by on Jul 21, 2011

In 1938 the first legislation for vacation time was signed, giving all workers the right to two weeks paid summer vacation.  As time went on, this right was lengthened to the current five weeks of guaranteed summer vacation for all workers.   Parallel with this the idea of ‘industrisemester’ was established.   This means that…

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