Till startsidan
Thursday 20 November, 2008
NEW POSTAL ADRESS
Business Region Göteborg AB
Box 111 19
SE-404 23 Göteborg
Sweden
Visiting address
Norra Hamngatan 14
Phone: +46 31 61 24 02
Fax: +46 31 61 24 01
Welcome to "The Other Side" for August 2008
It is already August. The Swedish summer does seem to fly by quickly. We have had some great sunny warm days and some rainy ones as well. This combination is what makes up a typical summer here. I rather like the variety of it all. What does get one down is constant rain and wind when you know the sun should be shining. Sometimes the nice weather, can give you a sense of panic, though. You know it is short-lived and you want to go on a picnic, meet up with friends, go swimming, tend to the garden, lie in the hammock, soak up the sun and you hardly know where to start. I really do feel that when the sun is shining and it is warm there is no nicer place to be than Sweden. I think I have said this before. You have the sea or a lake nearby and you can always go for a swim and you can always keep cool, if you want to. I never complain about the heat in Sweden. In fact, I never feel that it is too hot here. I find it amusing that one moment people complain about the cold which lasts for such a long time and the next they are complaining about the heat. Perhaps the weather is something that always warrants complaining about.

I am just back from a lovely week in England. I went cycling in the Cotswolds with friends. I just loved it how almost everyone was on for a chat and how easy it was to greet people. They actually wanted to say Good Morning or Good Afternoon. They did not try to avoid your glance when you looked at them. This is one thing that I am not alone in finding rather annoying about Swedes. I am generalising here again. We have been living in a small country area for some time now. We have a few people who we chat to but the majority do tend to look away at something particularly interesting at their feet or in the sky when we wander by. I asked one of the friendly neighbours about this and her explanation was “they are Finnish". I thought this was rather an interesting generalisation of Finns. I do not know a lot about Finns but I have heard that Swedes are considered to be the life of the party in comparison.

When I worked at Volvo there were quite a few mornings spoiled for me by someone walking towards me refusing to meet my eyes and unwilling to say hej or god morgon. I used to wonder about this. Surely it is easier just to say these simple words than to go to all the trouble to look away and not to say them. I told myself not to let this worry me but it did. I have this strange need of contact with other people. Over the years I have learned that it is just better to say hej or whatever and not to worry too much if the other person answers me or not.
I have been thinking about what Pierre says in this month´s interview about socialising in Sweden. I need people in my life and I like inviting people to visit. I do sometimes get the impression that they are the ones doing me a favour. It is not often that invitations are met with a spontaneous thank you but rather more a “we will have to see what we are doing". Perhaps I should take the hint. Perhaps they are trying to tell me something.
In Australia, and in many other countries, you can just pop in on people. When you do this you are prepared for the fact that they might not be home or they might be busy. I have tried this here and have felt that it was well received but the same people have never reciprocated so I soon realised it was not a good idea. I have two friends (a Brit and an Australian) who just drop in. Other than that our social life is usually something that needs to be decided a few weeks in advance.  I won´t go on and on about this.

I do agree with Pierre that here you tend to spend your New Year´s Eve and other celebrations during the year with the same people. It is not easy for others to break into these groups. I am lucky. I have some great friends. I don´t mind being the organiser and initiating things. I have chosen to be like this and I am prepared to invite people around even when they are too busy to have me back.

I have chosen to live in Sweden. There are lots of reasons for this and one is that I felt there were better opportunities for women to pursue a career here than in Australia. When I had my children childcare outside of the home was not readily available. My kids and I both loved their day care centres. I was so impressed by what my children learned and how they developed their social skills.

Another reason is the proximity to the variety that the rest of Europepresents. I love having that on my doorstep. I also love the accessibility of the outdoors. I have always wanted to live by the water and now I am doing that in a house in the middle of a forest but I am still only 15 minutes drive from the second largest city in Sweden.
When I first moved to Sweden I read the newspaper every day. Well, of course I couldn´t understand much, but it really helped me with my Swedish. I had to look for a flat and I soon learned to understand these advertisements. I promised an Australian friend I would find her a job if she came to Sweden — I learned lots of new words by perusing these ads. (She got a job the day after she arrived in Sweden!) You will be surprised by just how much you understand and how quickly you pick things up by doing this.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if there is anything you would like to discuss or to disagree or even agree with.

All the best,

Sandra

0706 499291
sandra@safety-first.se
Updated: 20080818