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.

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.

You unpacked the two tiny bags the airlines allow for you to carry and now sitting in a tiny apartment wondering will happen next.

There were a lot of things I wish I knew about Sweden before coming here. Just to make life a little easier in understanding day to day adventures. Take this with a pinch of salt, or a bucket, if I am caustic. I’ve been around too many years already.

1. Beer is to Swedes as … - It’s quantity over quality.
2. Systembolaget is the bane of your existence –  Come to terms with being stripped the rights to buy alcohol at any time for a reasonable price.  If you do not, you just may go insane.
3. “$10 for a piss beer, why yes please” – Swedish beer is disgusting, it is also expensive.  Want the good beer, pony up even more kronor.  The secret to not going broke on two beers?  Pre-party at home with friends.
4. Laundry dates – The laundry room has a sign up board or even a complicated electronic system to choose a date and time to wash the undies. The benefit is that you no longer need a roll of quarters or wait for the annoying neighbor to finish laundry before you snipe it.
5. The inside of windows need washing – Because Sweden is smart and understands cold winters, the windows are double, triple, or quadruple pane. In certain styles, the windows separates into each pane. This ends up gathering a lot of dust and crap so be sure to do a spring and fall cleaning.
6. Queue up – Grab your ticket and wait till you are called. At the doctor. At the alcohol monopoly. At the hospital. At the bakery. At the charcuterie. Except the grocery stores, you line up in the lanes. If there is no queuing, there is a high chance for total chaos.
7. Help is offered only if asked – Duh, just ask. Don’t ask and no one will help.
8. Don’t hold doors opens, no one cares – Perhaps this is a jaded biased statement, but holding doors open for someone is great because it’s the one time you will hear “tack” but no one will hold for you. Just ask my husband, he occasionally allows a 75kg door to slam into my face.
9. Door open outward – I still do not understand why.
10. Escalators maybe up-down in the British style – Not all stations but some. Because SL (tunnelbana – metro) wants to confuse you.
11. Holidays exist solely for sweet treats – When life is in the Arctic, create days for yummy goodies. Waffles, semlor, and cinnamon buns all their own worshiped day. And you thought the Pasta religion was weird.
12. Fires at Easter is meant to scare the witches – The witches had a meeting at Blåkulla and now they are flying home. Lighting a fire will scare them off and keep them from playing tricks on you. No Easter bunnies or Peeps either.
13. Fires at Valborg is meant to scare more witches – Now that it is springtime, the witches may cause mischief and prevent spring from blossoming.
14. Don’t talk to strangers – Remember what your parents told you as a child? Don’t talk to strangers and don’t eat candy, unless it is Saturday.
15. Candy is to be consumed on Saturdays – Yes, lördagsgodis is for Saturdays and Saturdays only.
16. Christmas is celebrated on December 24th – All holidays in Sweden are celebrated on the eves. That includes Christmas.
17. Everyone watches Kalle Anka (Donald Duck) and Disney excerpts at 15hr on December 24th – A tradition for thirty years, the Disney special appears on Christmas Eve just as the sun sets and families gather to drink glögg (mulled wine) and enjoy some pre-dinner snacks. Every year is essentially the same show but it is the security blanket of the dark winter nights.
18. Learning Swedish at SFI maybe a waste of your time – If you have to take a Swedish class at SFI, try to pass out to the highest level that you can. If not, supplement your time with Swedish language resources such as reading the papers online, watching the subtitles on American tv shows, and buying a couple good language books.
19. Everything is built for giants – Okay not everything, but I’ve learned that shelving, coat hooks, and buttons can up far up if you’re a lowly 155cm or less in height.
20. Compliments are for crazy people – Girls, the days when men give you compliments for your pretty hair or eyes is over. Other girls giving you compliments on your shirt or dress or hairstyle is also over. A few may do it because they are crazy, but by and large, Swedes are uncomfortable with compliments. Do not attempt to give one, it may up with a terrorized Swede.
21. Swedish girls are not all blond or beautiful – They can in fact, come in ugly, brunette, and flat chested varietals. Complimenting the entire population of females in Sweden as beautiful, blond, busty is surefire way to get disenfranchised by the feminists. As mentioned before, Swedes do not take compliments well, this is one of those times. Perhaps, calling Swedish women “average and dull” is more suitable?
22. Traffic lights and road signs are for sissies – Drivers of Stockholm have yet to understand the fine art of driving a vehicle in a city without disobeying all sense of logic. You know when you’re in trouble when the Vägverket (DMV equivalent) has commercials to teach drivers to “think about pedestrians.” They’re people too you know!
23. ID cards at found at Skatteverket – And at Skatteverket only now. Fill the paperwork, drag a Swede (or hopefully, not, and just wait a few extra weeks), pay the dues and get a lovely card that proves you exist in Sweden.
24. Passports may not be legal ID – Some post offices are so anal that unless you have a Swedish ID card (or EU), you cannot pick up a package. That’s the moment to go into bitch mode.
25. Service and Swedes are an oxymoron – Stockholm is a rude city. It is unlike New York City in that unless you pay absolute top dollar you will have zero service. In Stockholm, it is perfectly acceptable to pay $30 for a drink and be treated like shit and served in a plastic cup.
26. Fika is a daily ritual of drinking coffee with friends – You can call it the water cooler break, the coffee date, or black death, but coffee and Swedes are married with alcohol playing a sneaky mistress. Fika occurs around 10am and 3pm at the office and anytime in the afternoon at home or with friends.
27. Pies in Sweden are delicious – Take advantage of summer pies like raspberry, strawberry, and rhubard. They are must haves for a fika.
28. Apartments are an endangered species –  Finding a first-hand contract sucks.  Finding a second-hand contract sucks.  Buying an apartment is a proctology exam.  Have a shot of Svedka.
29. Stockholm and Sweden are a love-hate relationship –  You can feel that way, it’s okay.  If people judge you on your worst days, they are not your friends anyway.

If you have more, “I wish I knew about Stockholm…” post in the comments. I’ll incorporate them.

First, the collection of articles on living in Sweden.

• The Misery of Finding an Apartment in Stockholm
• Being a Foreign Housewife
• Job Interview Tips in Sweden
• Apartment Hunting in Stockholm: Part 42
• Finding a Job in Sweden
• Job Posting in Sweden
• Swedish CVs and Job Interviews
• Finding an Apartment
• English Bookstores
• Learn Swedish: Don’t Sätt på en Skygg Lapp

For me, I was lucky; I knew people who knew people. Still, it took a lot of random conversations with a lot of people to determine if I wanted to be friends with them.

Swedes for one, can take awhile to become friendly and become friends. Making friends with Swedes who have lived in the same city all their life is the hardest, probably the worst thing you can do. These Swedes have always had the same pillar of friends from grade school to gymnasium to university, plus or minus a few friends. As a result, they are stable, don’t need new friends, and don’t need more things to do. Skip making friends with these Swedes until you are settled down and comfortable with life.

I made the easiest friends with the Swedes who have lived abroad. They have more of open mind and can relate to nomads. You can meet these Swedes at pub quiz nights, international companies, meetup clubs, and even blogs (hi Hairy Swede!).

And it’s okay if you don’t have many friends; your possy in Sweden maybe smaller than what you had at home. But make friends with people you enjoy being with.

Here are some places, online and offline to meet more people in Sweden, not just Stockholm.

Meetup.com - Meetup has meeting all over the world. Find local meetings in the city you live. Stockholm and Gothenburg has regular meetings and outings and the people there are really friendly.

Couchsurfing – Surf on someone’s couch for the night and make a new friend. Great if you’re about to move to the city. You can also go to the couchsurfing meetups to meet people who host surfers or just want to hang out.

Working or attending university – Try not to work at an über Swedish company. You know which companies those; they’re large, impersonal, and no one cares about anyone else. University is great to meet other foreigners but difficult to dig up the Swedes. Work hard at initiating conversations with them.

Embassy or native culture events – If you are in Stockholm or Göteborg, you are lucky. There are always embassy/consulate events going on for citizens to feel back at home. In some of the smaller cities there maybe joint groups not run by the embassy but maybe a business or cultural group.

Yoga Lessons – A long shot but at least you get in shape and get out of the house.

Tech groups – There are tons of them here! Check out Geek Girls, Episerver, Robert Nyman’s Geek Meet.

Belly, Bollywood, African dancing – It’s unusual but again at worst case you get out of house and do something fun! Also check out Indian Dance Studio and Dans Dojon and Layali Dance Studio.

Swedish classes – A total hit or miss. You will meet foreigners, not Swedes so this should not be a priority on the list of making Swedish friends.

Even more expensive than Stockholm, 58 333 kr/m² for an apartment. To buy or not to buy…

But if you, like 24% of Swedes live in Stockholm county, you’re in for some serious spending and judicious savings.

I thought I would break down my cost per month, which maybe helpful for those moving to the city for their Swedish dream. Even moving from Göteborg or a small town would mean a big sticker shock. Since I live with someone (thus saving on the fixed costs), I marked our joint total expenses with an **.

• Apartment rental per month: 9500** (YMWV from 7000-15000 a month on Stockholm rentals)
• Gas, & electricity per month: 300-600**
• Cable internet: 300**
• SL monthly ticket: 690
• Food: 4000**
• Total – 15000 for two people, 7500SEK for one person, per month

Variable costs:

• After work (AW) Beer: 60 kronor per beer; 80-120 kronor for a 4cl mixed drink
• Outside lunch: 70-130 kronor per lunch
• Health: 0-200 depending on the need for doctor’s visitors, medicine, etc
• Clubbing: 120-150SEK entrance fee plus drinks which can vary from 60 kronor for a beer to 150 kronor for a mixed drink
• Dinner: 250 kronor for entrée and one drink
• SATS gym membership: 550 includes gym and unlimited entry to classes
• Shopping: 0-?
• System Bolaget: 700** for booze shopping of beer and wine; spirits will add 200SEK per 70ml bottle (at minimum)

Even though I can be a cheap bastard, I eat out one or two times a week just because cooking every night of the week is impossible. I do not club anymore since I hate going out in Stockholm so I ‘save’ a lot there. SATS gym club is a whooping 550SEK a month but the gyms tend to be really nice and not as crowded as Friskis & Svettis, which is cheaper.  If you’re working, you should be getting a health reimbursement of 2000-4000SEK annually. This can help offset gym memberships, massages (for real!), swimming hall, and sports/yoga classes.

Last, I eat dinner out two to three times a month with friends and spend at least 400 kronor for myself.   If I buy anything like socks and underwear or a book, that adds another 500-1000 kronor.   Sadly, there’s no bunny to shop for.

And the dreaded loans.  I have student loans that amount to 2000 kronor per month. Your mileage may vary on this greatly.

With the variable costs, I spend 4910 (160+550+1200+1000+ 2000) on the mid-high end.   At lowest amount, I spend 4000SEK and adding in shoes or gift shopping, the cost per month jumps to 6000 kronor.

In all, my costs are:
7500 on fixed costs
+ 4910 on variable costs
= 12410 Total kronor per month

Now, let’s factor in that you make 20000SEK after taxes in Stockholm, a solid, average salary. At a savings rate of 12% of your disposable income, at minimum you should save 2400 SEK a month. In reality, it’s good to prepare for a rainy day or a trip you have planned; save more.

Accounting for post tax salary and costs per month, I’m left with 7590 kronor, more than enough to save and take an awesome trip later on.

Yes, it costs a lot of month to live in Stockholm, but there’s no reason for you to be one of the broke-on-the-24th-of-the-month people.