I had such an experience when I went shopping the day after I arrived. There is a big grocery store close to my friend's apartment in Akersberga - one of Stockholm's suburbs - and I went there to do some shopping to have my "base food" covered. One thing that I noticed was that many people in the store had a scanner and they were scanning the bar codes. As I had never seen this before I asked the young guy in the cash register what this was and he let me know that some people like to scan their food items and then pay for them without going through a regular cash register. This was completely new to me and we do not have these kinds of "novelties" in the small town of Weed where I live. Some of my blog readers who read my other blog in Swedish said that they had seen these scanners primarily on the east coast of the US.
Also, in a big city like Stockholm, there is quite a bit of theft and vandalism so many grocery stores have decided to keep the carts locked and chained. My friend (who I am staying with to start with at least) had given me a small "device" in plastic that she said she was using to unlock a cart. That was easy, but when I came back to return the cart after I was done shopping, it was not quite so easy to understand how to get the "device" out of the cart. An older, grumpy lady said "are you going to be done soon?" without offering any help. I apologized and said that I did not live in Sweden and was unclear how to do this. As I couldn't quite figure out what to do, I asked a younger, very nice woman who gave me the instructions I needed. I felt kind of silly but decided to take it with a grain of salt and some humor. At least, now I know what to do. :)
Also, I have just purchased my very first cell phone in Sweden! When I lived in Sweden cell phones had just started being sold but very few people owned one and they were huge compared to today's phones. The Swedish company Ericsson was the main company for a long time in the cell phone market. Nowadays, there are lots of different companies that sell phones in Sweden.
We'll see if I will manage to set up my phone without issues. ;) I bought a fairly simple phone as I am not planning on using it for being online but mainly for being able to make and receive phone calls and send and receive text messages. But again, I felt out of place in the store where I bought the phone as things work a little bit differently in Sweden than in the US when it comes to prepaid phones which this is. I could not even sign up for a phone with a contract as I do not have any credit history at this point in Sweden.
I am noticing how much has changed in Sweden during these years that I have lived in the US and that my knowledge of Sweden is very old at this point. When you do not live in a country you lose touch with the day-to-day activities and it definitely takes some time to get up to speed.
One thing that sometimes makes me chuckle is how narrow Swedish streets are. The street that is outside my apartment in Weed is probably 3-4 times as wide as many roads are in Sweden. This one is a road that many, many cars use every day and it is still very narrow. These differences are pretty interesting and sometimes amusing.
10 comments:
I like the name of our new blog. Good choice!
No comments on this so I will be the first one:-), but now I see, I will be the second. Nice you can stay with friends and I wish you a good time here in Sweden.
And that you´ll meet other nice people too, not so many of that kind: "Are you ready yet?";-). I read in your Swedish blog about renewing a passport. It´s so easy nowadays, much better than before, after a few days you will get a message in your phone that you can pick it up.
Good luck with everything!
Good morning!
I love the name of your new blog! Congratulations.
Yes, so many things are new in Sweden but you should get a gist of it all in a few weeks. When I returned I found that the Swedish society is so much more modernized than the United States, and especially since almost everything in Sweden now takes place on-line. Thus a new modern phone and a great working computer are vital items to have as a Swede.
Good luck and I look forward to read about your adventures.
Warm regards,
Anneli
Maria: Great to see you here. :) Thanks! Yes, I thought the name was fitting right now.
Monica: It is funny that no Americans have commenter - have sent this blog address to people I know in the US. Maybe I need to address this in another post. ;)
I have met nicer people since the "grumpy lady" so they are around.
The passport thing got a bit more complicated unfortunately - will most likely write a post in both blogs about that.
Thanks!
Good morning Anneli,
Thanks! I thought the name was fitting at this point in my life.
Yes, I know that the Swedes are "tecchy nerds" ;) and I already experienced this with my Swedish passport application. That will need another post probably in both blogs as it was actually a bit upsetting what happened.
I feel sorry for elderly in Sweden who do not have a computer. I am grateful that my mom does not have to part of this as she would not have liked it.
Glad you will follow along. :)
That is INDEED a good title to your blog!
It feels strange to write to you in English, almost wrong, haha. I don't know if I can continue to do so :-)
You know, the link in your Swedish blog (leading to this blog) does not work. Still.
I hope some of your American friends will comment here as well. But alas, when I write in English on my blog I usually have ONE American commentator, the rest are Swedes. I really do not know why...
I am eagerly following your journey in Stockholm. I am a bit jealous as well...
HUGS!!!
Annika: Yes, I thought so too. :)
Yes, it feels odd to write in English but you can write in Swedish as well. I will not delete your comment. ;)
Yes, I tried to update the link and it should work now - sorry about that.
Weird that no one from the US has commented. I think I need to address that in a separate post. :)
Maybe the Americans are shy in this context for some odd reason.
I have had strange experiences with the Swedish passport police and now banks and they are not fun. So that will come as well in blog posts.
HUGS!!
Would be interesting to hear about your experiences getting the passport renewed and what the difficulties were at the banks? It was extremely hard getting a bank account here in England when I first moved here. You basically have to have a job and an income to get one. In the end one bank accepted that I had money in a Swedish account and understood that I just didn't want to pay a fee each time I withdrew money from it, and they let me open their most basic account. Saved me a lot of money! I'm forever grateful to this bank and will always stay with them. As soon as I got a job the offers of credit cards and better savings accounts came, no problems any more. Wonder if it is something similar in Sweden?
I have a friend in Sheffield who speaks fluent Swedish but we always switch back to English after a couple of sentences even if we're alone. It's weird! But at least once your American friends get reading and commenting the comments will make sense. Google translate is awful.
Anna: I will share those soon. It was not a pleasant experience with the bank to start with as I felt very excluded. They even said "We are not interested for the kind of account/transactions you are planning on doing". However, I contacted "higher powers" - as I knew that they couldn't really deny me an account - and was informed that it looked like I could open an account despite what the first person said. Tomorrow I have an appointment so will find out for sure.
Sounds like it is not always easy with banks when I read your story.
I have an American friend in Stockholm who speaks Swedish but we always speak English. I get my "American fix" ;) through her.
I don't know if the Americans will comment or not. Maybe they are too shy! :)
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