I’m really excited to announce a new project I have been working on to make life and visiting Sweden more awesome.

Drumroll please…

…!

It’s called the Lost in Sweden Moosleter. I know there are so many of you fantastic bloggers out there. But, it’s hard keeping track of everyone and following through easily from Google reader or blogrolls. Plus for those just wanting to get emails, getting 100 latest blog posts from bloggers is hard to digest.

The Lost in Sweden Moosletter will be a monthly newsletter with excerpts and photos from bloggers who write about Sweden. It’s awesome because you get the best of what’s happening in Sweden by real bloggers.

Bloggers get the advantage of increasing their traffic through a collective newsletter. Everybody loves visitors <3
Joining as a blogger is SUPER easy:
1. Be a blogger that writes about Sweden on a regular basis. You don’t have to be in Sweden, you just have to write *about* Sweden.

2. You can write in any language! If it is not English, put a Google Translate button on your site so visitors can easily translate to their native language.

3. Add the badge below to your sidebar on your blog so that everyone knows you’re part of the network.

You can right click “save as” and resize the image to fit your sidebar.

You MUST also link to this blog post so people can get more information about the newsletter.

If you don’t add a badge and link up, you can’t be part of the newsletter. Sorry. :( But seriously, it’s super easy to add the image and link up and become a part of Swedish history!

4. For bloggers wanting to put the signup box on their site, comment below and I will email you the code.

Readers, sign up for the newsletter!

You can sign up right below.

5. Spread the word! I’m super-über-jätte excited to send out the first newsletter in mid-June.

Participating Bloggers

Photos from Sweden
Swedish Freak
Lost in Stockholm

Today at midnight is the end of filing taxes in Sweden. Skatteverket is quite friendly when it comes to tax filings as long as you saved all your receipts.

illustration by Jonas Karner.

I began jogging in an attempt to lose the Christmas-Easter holiday weight. Thus far, I haven’t lost anything but that could be because of the kanelbullar.

The best place that had maps was The Swedish Heart and Lung Society {Hjärt- & Lungskukas Riksförbund}. They have a collection of running trails they recommend throughout Sweden. You can pick any city in Sweden and get a map.

Here are few maps I love in the Stockholm area.

Kungsholmen island tour

Södermalm – the hipster route

Djurgården-Brunnviken border route

Lidingö – the bougie route

Sundybyberg – Solna – the double lake route

The Five Island run – a run through Södermalm, Liljeholmen, Stora Essingen, Lilla Essingen, Kungsholmen, and Långholmen

View Five Island Stockholm Run in a larger map

If you have a favorite map, link up below and I will embed it in the post.

Now time to get my feet dancing and ready for bikini time on the strand!

With over 4 million people watching in a country of 9.4 million, there was no way escaping Saturday night unscathed from the event.

And Danny Saucedo (pronounced Sau-ce-do not Sauce-Do), lost. Again. He came in second place again after losing last year’s title to unknown boy called Eric Saade.

According to the tabloid Aftonbladet, Danny was seen running out after the show and being a “sore loser.” Losing two years in a row in extremely close races, does earn the man the right to cry his heart our.

Poor Saucedo. His song, Amazing, really wasn’t amazing enough to win against Euphoria by Loreen. She won 268 points to his 198 points.

I thought Danny’s Tron-style act was fun and memorable. His song was catchy with a touch of Schalger.

Loreen has an amazing voice. It’s reminiscient of Celine Dion and at any moment, she just might break out into My Heart Will Go On. Unfortunately, Loreen’s act was borderline psychofrenic. Rapid arm movements in no particular direction, running from one side of the stage to another with arms flaying in the air, and the most bizarre backup dancer yet to be seen: a black man rolling around and then hugging her from behind.

Doesn’t he look he’s going to do something very very bad??

Borderline molesting her while arms are flapping around, euphoria is in all the wrong places.

For yet another year, Sweden is sending something of a joke. Loreen’s great but not memorable and if she continues with the current choreography, people just may wonder what Swedes have in the water supply.

Next time Danny, next time.

Enjoy!

Snuskhummer – The Filthy lobster
The Swedish language is colorful! About the Swedes love for smashing nouns together.
by OhioGirl at Tales of Södermalm

I’m so excited…!
A witty, costume expert Abby, gets engaged to a Swede. She fell in love, moved to Sweden, moved back to America, Swedo visited, and blushingly proposed. Another good AWWWWWWWW piece.
By Abby at Stay-ing Alive

When a Swede is in India…
The iconic Hairy Swede writes a post about being molested in Mumbai while taking the commuter train with our friends. And this was during the week of my wedding. Rest assured Hairy Swede brought his awesomeness in full force. PS – I’m still waiting for a non-molesting post about India for me. =)
By Hairy Swede at A Swedish American in Swedish America

Overcoming the difficulties of Swedish
How to deal with learning Swedish and failing to learn Swedish when you are in Sweden. Tips and advice provided to improve your chances of knowing the language.
By Missfoster at Swedish Freak

Good Eats in Gothenburg
Hand picked by Joy, a foodie, she lists a few great eateries in Göteborg.
By Joy at Home and Away

Snowy New Year’s Eve
This blog by Swedish-American Desiree, is a veritable food and landscape porn blog. She takes beautiful photos! But my favorite is from her New Year’s Eve, spent in northern Sweden in the winter wonderland.
By Desiree at Sweet Home Sweden

Food, food, food
Okay not entirely about Sweden but Cat in the Kitchen and Anne’s Food cover the culinary delight of foodies. Two of my favorite recipes are the raspberry cheesecake brownies with homemade kesella by Dagmar and Anne’s Swedish pepparkakor (gingerbread cookies).
Dagmar at Cat in the Kitchen
Anne at Anne’s Food

To do right is not an easy path
The generousities of the Swedish government’s asylum policies have saved thousands of people from war and death in their homelands. But, has the government done right by bringing them all here? Have the immigrants failed to integrate due to policy or culture? How will Sweden move towards assimilation in the future?
By Suzanne Daley at The New York Times

Mushroom Picking – To die or not to die…that is not the question!
Cute article about picking the wildly famous mushroom, Chanterelle. Though, a blog that say it is more fun than bunnies is hard to believe since our fuzzballs are awesome.
By Kate at Transatlantic Sketches.

Fun things to do in Lund … Seriously!
In Lund? Shitty weather? Then read ten things on what to do on a rainy day in Lund, because it rains a lot and you need this.
By The four girls at Experience Lund

There you go! I should more of these since there are such great posts written in the blogosphere. I’m just too lazy though.

Hey bloggers! And bloggarna?

I am updating my Blogroll and want to include all of you awesome folks.   Your only requirement is that your blog is about Sweden in some way.

Topics to love…and hate:

• Fashion
• Design
• Food
• Beer
• Dating
• Life
• Babies
• Feminism
• Bantering
• Travel

Your blog need not be in English or Swedish either as there are many great writers in Spanish, Italian, Dutch, and German that I’ve stumbled across.  You don’t have to be in Sweden either.

Post your link and a blurb about your website and I will update my blogroll and publish an Awesome Bloggers List soon. And do add Lost in Stockholm to your blogroll if you haven’t already. :-)

Here’s a quick look at monthly salaries for most major professions. In Sweden, employees sign up for a monthly salary rather than yearly salary.  These are based upon several years experience.  Discount heavily if you are a new graduate in the field.

Occupation          Monthly Salary in SEK (2010)
Veterinarian                               50,600
Dentists                                       50,600
Doctors                                        50,600
Pilot                                             48,200
Lawyer                                        40,700
Civil economist                          38,600
Computer Programmer           38,400
Master                                         38,000
Researcher                                 35,600
Brokers                                         34,700
Journalist                                    32,100
Author                                          32,100
IT professionals                         30,400
Psychologist                                28,000
Nurse                                             27,800
Secondary school teachers      27,300
Opticians                                     26,200
Primary school teachers          25,700
HVAC technician                      24,700
Painter                                          23,600
Tailors                                          21,600
Stockman                                    20,200

You can see that doctors and lawyers are not that much better off than an experienced programmer or pilot. There are no $200,000 incomes for doctors or lawyers in Sweden so if you expect that kind of money, don’t move here.

Despite average wages, cost of living is relatively high, especially in Stockholm. You can still achieve a high rate of savings by avoiding car ownership and living with a partner.

In addition, high unemployment amongst the youth population is persistent despite lower restrictions on hiring and terminations. Youth are those between 18-25 years of age. If you are college educated or have previous work experience, your chance of finding a job is far easier.

LO, Landsorganisationen i Sverige, the Swedish trade union confederation, ran a study regarding expectations of salaries and reality. The findings were markedly Swedish in that, respondents expected evenly distributed salaries amongst occupations.
Occupation              Expected Monthly Income           Real Monthly Income
Cashier                      22,800                                                20,400
Assistant                   25,200                                                21,600
Industry worker      25,700                                                24,100
Electrician               26,800                                                26,600
Teacher                     27,700                                                26,000
Nurse                         29,000                                               25,600
Engineer                   32,600                                               39,100
Sales Boss                35,700                                               54,600
Doctor                      39,000                                                52,800
Director of a large company 97,000                             969,800
Numbers are in 2010 SEK (kronor) via DN and LO.

Of course, not everything is equal in Sweden, especially when you reach the director/executive level positions. There, you can expect American salaries and perks with your position.

The resources below should help you if you are negotiating salaries. Be aware of salary differences between cities, gender, and experience.
SCB – http://www.scb.se/Pages/ProductTables____7538.aspx
LO – http://www.lo.se/home/lo/home.nsf/unidView/98550AB94B710AD4C12574E80042F3F0
Lönestatistik – based on user submission; hit or miss for many occupations – http://www.lonestatistik.se/loner.asp

Will have to wait until Monday to call Stockholm’s Polis Hittegods. Why work on the weekends?!

I feel really really stupid and angry with myself. It didn’t have much in there but still I hate myself for losing it.

And I feel like a moron. Did I already mention that?

By the way, if you also had back luck and lost/left stuff around the city, here’s important lost and found (hittagods) information for Stockholm:
Polisen
http://polisen.se/Stockholms_lan/sv/Kontakta-oss/Polisstationer/Stockholms-lan/City1/City-Hittegods/
Telephone: 010-56 33610 (I don’t know if the Police know their own numbers. I called it 27 times and it always is busy. Am unsure if it’s the right/real phone number)
Telephone Times
Måndag 13:00-16:00
Tisdag-onsdag 13:00-15:00
Torsdag stängt
Fredag 13:00-15:00
For a full listing – http://polisen.se/Stockholms_lan/Service/Hittegods/Hit-vander-du-dig/
Bergsgatan 54, Stockholm
Lost and Found Center Opening Hours
Måndag – Onsdag 10:00 – 15:00
Torsdag 10:00 – 19:00
Fredag 10:00 – 15:00*

SL (Tunnelbanan – Metro – Pendaltåg)
http://sl.se/sv/Verktyg/Kontakta-oss/Hittegods/
Telefon: 08-600 10 00
Fax: 08-686 26 59
Klara Östra kyrkogata 6 (near T-Centralen)
Öppettider
Måndagar: 8-19
Tis-fredagar: 8-17
Lördagar: 8-14
Söndagar och helgdagar: stängt

SJ (National Rail)
http://www.sj.se/sj/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=112&a=69527&l=sv
Telefon: Tel: 08-501 255 90
Måndag-fredag
09.00-19.00
Centralstation (main floor – Bagport Sweden AB – hittegodskontor)
Öppettider
Måndag-fredag
12.00-16.00

And if you did lost stuff, big hugs, there’s nothing worse when you lose part of your identity (or brain).

I don’t think the DN writer picked the best reasons to love stockholm. Several comments repeated themselves (green, beautiful) and some made no sense (stockholm has its own smell). I picked the best and most pompous reasons to love the capital of Scandinavia.

02 “Södermalm is in Stockholm.”
Why, thank you for the geography lesson.

11 “All the weirdos are collected here. Fantastic! Then it is not strange. ”
Just like San Francisco!

14 “The good fish restaurants.”
I hear the fish restaurants in Göteborg are way better AND cheaper.

19 “After seeing a lot of capitals in the world, I think Stockholm is one of the world’s most beautiful cities with plenty of greenery, of islands and water. With functioning subway and other communications in and out of the county, with friendly people as long as they do not sit in the car or by bike. ”

20 “Cheapest dancing in Sweden – all season at Gröna Lund will cost 189:- and then you get five dances a week with free courses in salsa and tango.”
That is cool!

33 “That it is full of people. You can go out on a Sunday to a restaurant or pub and you will have to queue.”
And this is a good thing…?
[Swedish lesson of the day - uteställe - nightclub, pub, restaurant; inneställe - popular uteställe. My fail on the original translation.]

39 “The unique blend of rock city, greenery and sparkling waters.”
Summertime in Stockholm is beautiful. It is probably my most favorite place to be on Earth.

45 “Stockholm has its own smell.”
Mmmmmmm…like old cheese.

46 “The best thing about Stockholm is that it is very far from the northern homophobic, racist Skåne and Gothenburg truculent.”

49 “As real locals have patience with anyone who feels at a disadvantage and thus whines.”

50 “Whoever does not love Stockholm is stupid in the head. Here’s everything you need – and then some. ”
No, no, who said I was arrogant? I was just merely pointing out that if you don’t love Stockholm, you’re a fucking moron.

So what’s your reason to love Stockholm?

I posted photos from the summer and maybe there are some from the spring so we can all look towards sunnier days for next year.

Plus I hope winter doesn’t start early again this year. Not lagom.

Our hot air balloon ride over Stockholm


The very beautiful Stockholm archipelago


Gamla Stan, Riddarholmen, and Nordiska Museet


Summer sunsets … around 9PM

…and the flip side of a Swedish summer = fog + rain


But filled with hallon paj,


sill,


nubbe (schnaps),


and a smörgåsbord


Gröna Lund

Red Bull Lådbilsrace Octopus


Sweden, the most grass friendly country ever


Antique cigarettes, at least sixty years old. Wanna smoke?

Midsommarblommar


Witch burning, bonfire roasting Valborg


Men in suits need ice cream. Because that’s how awesome Swedish men are.


…to be concluded by a lovely fika.