1) They speak English incredibly well. Everyone, fluent, without a thick accent. So much that a homeless woman came up asking for money in Swedish. I said I don't speak Swedish and she switched to perfect, fluent English. I still told her no (you just have to get used to that in Europe), but I got me thinking. What kind of country has its homeless fully fluent in two languages. I am impressed.
2) Swedish people don't have much of a sense of humor. I don't mean this negatively, but it is just true. The guys I was out with and my self kept making jokes and they just stared at us or gave serious answers. We asked our Swedish friend Leo who joined us one night and he confirmed. It just is different than the States, he didn't realize it until he lived in America for a year. We give them credit though, if we had to deal with the winter they have to we probably wouldn't have a sense of humor either.
3) Swedes really are tall. I would say the average height is 1 to 2 inches of the US. Being a short, scrawny guy it was the biggest bummer of coming here. The average female was taller than me. Lame. Definitely reduced my ability to find a Swedish wife. But tall guys, if you want a tall, beautiful, blonde wife, Sweden is the best place on Earth to go.
4) I never met the Swedish Princess that is single. So I never got to convince her she wanted to marry a short, scrawny American. I really had my hopes up on becoming a Prince in Sweden, but I guess I can always come back. I am pretty sure she reads my blog, so she probably just wasn't aware of my interest.
5) People are friendly here, but quite. No one really goes out of their way to talk to you. In stores or anything. People just want to do their thing and move on. They are friendly when you talk to them, but it is clear, unless you know them, they just want to move on to what they were doing, not talk.
6) Stockholm is the fashion capital of the world in a lot of ways. Fashion starts there for the rest of Europe, which is what dictates fashion for the States. I am not sure why it starts there, but Swedish and Germans were explaining to me that it does. Fashion companies introduce and test their new lines there, what is successful moves onto other countries. Europe is usually 1 year behind Sweden, so that makes the States about 2 years behind.
7) Speaking of fashion, the new trend is "vintage american." This means 1950/60's style. The biggest example I saw is so many people had varsity/lettermen jackets. You can also get also clothing from that period, like skirts for cheerleaders, etc. The funny thing is, after I saw the jackets there I started seeing them in Denmark and now the Netherlands.
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