Everyday Life

Sweden is similar to Canada in many respects even though it is half the planet away. Many of the activities of daily life here are only subtly different than they would be back in Victoria. But here are some details of daily activities that you might find interesting:

• grocery shopping is generally the same as in Canada but with a few small differences
• although washing clothes isn't that different scheduling when you'll do laundry definitely is
• better remember an essential addressing tip or you won't get your mail
• Sweden's money is easy to understand but there are a few things to keep in mind (please note this link takes you nowhere at the moment as I have not yet written the material to go with it - thanks for your patience)
• if you're going to take the bus in Uppsala here are some things you need to know (please note this link takes you nowhere at the moment as I have not yet written the material to go with it - thanks for your patience)
• mysterious artifacts in Swedish suburbia
• staying in shape as the days darken and shorten
• the daily walk to school (note this was before the first snowfall)

Grocery Shopping

There are several large grocery store chains in Uppsala - ICA (pronounced EEK-AH), Coop and (much to my delight since I've shopped there in the UK) Lidl. There is another store I've seen, out in the 'big box store' area (Bolanderna) called City Gross and I think it's a supermarket too. Small branches of all these stores are grocery stores only with the usual smattering of other goods like you would (mostly) find at our supermarkets - you know, a half aisle of overpriced housewares in case you break the corkscrew or need a rolling pin and don't have time to get to somewhere with cheaper prices, drugstore items (shampoo, deodorant, soap), pet stuff and of course (since this is Europe after all) an extensive selection of beer and cider (but not wine or spirits).

The bigger branches (like the Maxi ICA a couple of kilometers away in the Stenhagen shopping center) stock everything from food to footwear to technology and towels. And have some amazing deals too - for example I'll probably be heading there in a couple of weeks to buy a couple of pairs of sandals I saw that were priced at $12 per pair (80 SEK). Not all outlets are open the same hours nor are they open the same hours on different days of the week (you can see in the photo of my local ICA below that it is open all days from 8:00 am to 11:30 pm but other branches close as early as 8:00 or 9:00 pm.

What are some subtle differences I've come across - first of all is the pricing - if the sign says something is '2 for X price' you must buy 2 to get that price. One piece is not x/2 but another higher price. Almost every sign indicates the price you are paying per kilo (for meat, veg, cheese etc) or per piece (for teabags for example). This is really helpful in terms of comparing prices. Prices are not uniform across different outlets of the same chain and a Swedish friend has told me that the ICA Vast outlet that is closest to where I am staying in Flogsta (a predominantly student-occupied neighbourhood) has cheaper prices than other branches and that the pricing is determined by computerized tracking of what sells and what doesn't.

There is a bewildering array of milk and other dairy products available but no bulk food (with one exception that I'll get to later). Swedes seem to be in love with Mexican food and there is a huge display (I'll try and get a shot of it when I go today) of taco 'fixings' along with tortillas. Everything - with the exception of meat and cheese - seems to be sold in modestly sized portions. For example yesterday I went to buy brown sugar to make banana bread and the biggest quantity I could find was a 500gm box. If I go to the 'ethnic' store in Sivia Torg I will see 10kg bags of rice and big jars (like a liter or two) of olives and pickles but in the supermarket near me the portions on offer seem small. Perhaps this is a reaction to it being a student area with people on tight budgets - maybe bigger sizes which might cost less on a per unit basis don't sell because of the higher outlay required to buy them.

When it comes to the check out there are a few differences. First of all you pay for plastic bags (1.5 SEK or about 22 cents per bag) and you might think this would encourage people to bring cloth bags or to re-use old plastic ones but that seems not to be the case. You put your card into the card reader before your groceries are all scanned and enter your pin and then wait for the cashier to put in the amount which you then okay. The cashier has a chair (very civilized - why don't we do that in Canada?) and the packing area behind her till splits into two so that she can send your purchases down one side while the next person's will go down the other side. And you pack your own groceries.

Finally, if you pay with cash you only give the cashier the bills - if you have coins they go in this funny red box thing. So for example if your bill was 27 SEK you might give the cashier a 20 SEK note (that's the smallest denomination note) and slip a 10 SEK coin (that's the biggest denomination coin) into the red box thing. Three 1 SEK coins would come out of the bottom of the red box thing as your change - the coin part of your change would come from the same place if you gave the cashier a 50 SEK note. She would hand you back a 20 SEK note and the three 1 SEK coins would come out of the red box.

Overall the prices at the supermarket are much the same as in Canada although some things are much more expensive (though none come to mind at the moment) - probably due to how far they've come or lack of demand. Other things cost less - cheese is quite a bit cheaper and chicken too. Granted it was on sale but the other day I bought 1 kg of boneless, skinless frozen chicken breasts for $6.00. Of course I don't know what the quality will be like and I know that there is water injected into them (the labelling here, even in Swedish, seems a lot more frank than that in Canada) but still.

Oh, and the bulk food that's available - candy! None of it appeals to me much but obviously it is very important to the Swedes because it is in every supermarket I've been to so far.

This 125gm package was either $1.50 or $2.25 - quite a bargain I thought

The amazingly large (to my eyes at least) candy section at the supermarket

Candy is 79 kr (about $12) per kilogram

Close up of the candy section with about the only one that appeals to me - licorice allsorts

The taco fixings section - spice mixes, salsa, tortillas etc.

Sign for my 'local' ICA supermarket (ICA west)

Mail


A few days after I arrived, driven by necessity rather than any great desire, I opened a bank account with Nordea which is a financial powerhouse in the Nordic region with about 1,400 branches in Finland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway. At that time I was told to expect a bank card in the mail within a few days. When over a week later it hadn't shown up I returned to the bank and learned an important lesson about Swedish addresses.

I had noticed when I arrived that the flat where I was staying had no identifying number on or beside the door like I was used to from Canada. Instead my landlady's name was on a small plate beside the door. When I thought about it later my error was obvious - I had omitted the "c/o Karlen" (Karlen is my landlady's last name) in the address I had given the bank and so the mail carrier had my bank card in an envelope that bore my name and the address of the apartment building. But which of the 56 flats was I living in - well, none of them obviously since my name wasn't next to any door!

I arranged to get the bank to send me another card - this time including the all important "c/o" part in the address and sure enough a couple of days later both this card and the original one popped through the mail slot. That's another thing - every apartment gets mail delivered directly through a mail slot in its door in our building - no bank of boxes downstairs in the lobby although I seem to remember that was the case in a recently renovated building I was in a couple of weeks ago.

The final difference is that I'm unsure as to whether the same mail carrier does the same route here all the time or if it is someone different each day. Obviously if it is the latter that's another reason that mail must be precisely addressed since the carrier would have no chance to become familiar with occupants (and in a student neighbourhood like this that has such high turnover that's unlikely anyway). The mail carrier also doesn't walk or drive their route - they do it by bicycle (see photo below). Goodness knows how this works in winter! Security seems, to me at least, to be rather lax as the bike, with mail in various panniers and baskets, is simply left outside the building while the carrier delivers items inside.

On reflection this must be a 'downtown' route because there is just the single carrier on the front - most mail bikes have panniers on at least the back and sometimes front too - just above the light on the rear is the logo of the Swedish postal system

Laundry


The basic equipment for doing the laundry in Sweden is similar to that in Canada though, as you might expect, the machines are the much more energy and water efficient front loaders. What is different though is how the situation of having multiple people wanting to do laundry, potentially at the same time, is handled. In Canada most apartment buildings I've lived in have either had a 'first come, first served' policy or in smaller buildings with fewer suites you might have a designated day. Not surprisingly the Swedes use a much more complicated system.

Each of the building's two laundry rooms has 2 front-loading washers

Below is an image of the laundry room scheduling board. This building has 2 laundry rooms, each with 2 front-loading washers and a large, industrial-sized dryer and other sundry equipment to be shared among 56 flats. Each flat is issued a little widget (I don't really know what else to call it) and keys that fit into that widget. You book your laundry time by locking your widget into a slot on the scheduling board. The widget can also be used to secure the door when you are doing laundry - as is shown in the second photo.

Laundry room scheduling board - you can store your widget in the two rows down the bottom if you don't have a time scheduled at the moment. It's pretty self-explanatory I think (choose your date and time period and lock your widget in there if it is not already booked by someone else).

When it is your laundry time you can take your widget off the scheduling board and use it to lock the laundry room door so that no one else can have access to the room while you are washing clothes.

There are some other oddities in the Swedish laundry routine - for example the item in the next picture is unfamiliar to me (I don't mean the iron - though it's been a hell of a long time since I used one! - rather the thing it is sitting on). Perhaps it is a press for things like trousers and sheets? Anyone? If you know please put it in the comments. The other item in the next photo is a drying cabinet which I guess might be useful for things that would get pulled out of shape by throwing in the dryer or otherwise damaged.

Trouser (sheet?) press?

Drying cabinet

The dryer in the laundry room is a very good one - getting the clothes dry much more quickly and efficiently than I am used to from Canada and also seeming not to develop as much static on the clothes (although I am not using any dryer sheets or fabric softener). And finally - you can see from the last photo how much like Victoria the environment is - that's Oregon Grape growing outside the laundry room window.

The dryer is very good!

Oregon grape outside the laundry room window

Mysterious Artifacts

I love to walk, I firmly believe there is no better way to learn about your new neighbourhood/city/country, and of course when you are somewhere new there are bound to be things that are unexplained, mysterious or just plain odd. I understand the first picture but include it because I think it is quirky and delightful (unlike much of the 'public art' in Victoria which just pisses me off because I think it is execrable and a poor use of taxpayers' money - but what do I know).

I think the sculpture pictured above is of an imaginary animal since its head looks somewhat weasel or ferret like but its lower body is too stocky and compressed for those creatures. I'm not sure if it is triggered by the wind or what but the upper part (trumpet-like where you can see the critter's head) rotates in the wind - it's very charming and maybe just a bit spooky.

I see the objects pictured in the photo above all over Uppsala. At first glance I thought they were solar powered lights but they are not. Their open grill work would seem to suggest they are ventilating something underground but what? I've asked a couple of Swedes but no one seems to know. Anyone have any ideas?

The final photo is of tags on a pole (I think it was a light pole but I can't actually remember). I have also seen similar tags on the poles bearing street signs at intersections. Are they something to do with property boundaries? I haven't asked anyone about these but perhaps will do so in the near future.


Staying in Shape

So far the weather here has been quite pleasant although the amount of rain has surprised me - I guess I expected it to be more Calgary-like with quite cold days that were dry and full of sunshine. But it has instead been much more like Victoria than I expected but with slightly lower temperatures (I think we've only had a couple of mornings where it was less than 5 degrees C) and quite wet with some real deluges when I was very happy that I was inside and not on the walk to or from school.

I would say my activity level here is higher than it was in Victoria because I live closer to where I need to go every day (Drottninggatan 4 - 1.9km away) compared to when I was in Canada (where UVic where I was either working or studying was 5km distant). So I walk both ways usually every day. Also I do not have access to cheap transit here as I did in Victoria (where I often managed to get a monthly pass for $40 or about 270 kr for my Swedish readers). My only options here are to use the value card which costs 18 kr ($2.70) for a single trip or purchase a monthly pass for 370 kr (about $56) which for me at the moment is not economically rational.

This lack of cheap transit means I mostly walk to all the places I want to go unless it is very late and I want to get home quickly and/or the weather is absolutely sh*tty (and note by sh*tty I mean pouring with rain - if properly dressed and shod I have no problem walking in the cold and/or snow but I have yet to find any clothing that keeps you from getting absolutely soaked in a rainstorm and there are few things more uncomfortable than squelching along in wet shoes and sodden clothing).

I have been jogging 3-4 times a week pretty much since I got here although there is no denying it is nowhere near as much fun as it was in Flogsta where I could be in the forest within a few minutes and doesn't compare to the beauty and endlessly varying scenes I was so lucky to enjoy every day as I ran along the ocean in Victoria. I miss the ocean very, very much and realize that being close to the sea is extremely important to me and will certainly shape where I decide to eventually put down roots (although perhaps I never will do that).

In anticipation of crappy weather to come in which jogging outdoors might become much more difficult if not downright dangerous (I remember more than one encounter with icy patches that resulted in falls in my 11 years in Calgary) I joined a gym. My classmate Milad works for Fitness24Seven which just opened a new branch here in Uppsala (they have over 80 locations in Sweden, Norway and Finland). I was lucky enough to get a year membership for 1200 kr ($185) which is an AWESOME deal and way cheaper than the student gym Campus 1477 (yes, students have to pay for the campus gym here - and it's not cheap - about $38 per month, although to be fair that does entitle you to free classes like spinning and sports court bookings which Fitness24Seven does not offer).

I am taking full advantage of the facility which, as its name suggests, is open 24 hours a day although the reception desk is only staffed for about 7 hours (so far I haven't been once during staffed hours). The Swedes love security and getting in the front door(s) requires an access card, two keypads and your fingerprint. The access card also gets those of you that qualify into the ladies' change room and ladies' gym. I have discovered that in this town at least (maybe due to the high number of students who stay up late and then sleep in?) going to the gym early is not popular and when I get there - usually around 7:00ish - there are typically less than 5 people in there with me and the highest number of women I've ever seen in the women's gym, besides myself, is TWO! It's like having your own personal gym.

I'm doing some core exercises and a bit of cardio (say 20 minutes) three days a week and then a longer stretch of cardio (45 minutes) on Tuesdays and Thursdays. For now I will probably keep jogging outside on the weekends but that may change once the weather deteriorates (although I will try to stay jogging outside as long as possible since the treadmill is BORING in the extreme - anyone who has any ideas for podcasts that could make the time go faster let me know - there are TVs but they are tuned to Swedish channels and although there is lots of English TV available I doubt I would find anything to watch at 7:00 am).

And lest this all sound so solitary and a bit antisocial I want to let you know that I signed up for and participated in the first annual Studentlopp which was a 5km or 10km 'fun run' (although there was prize money and timing chips) last weekend. It was a really good event although my time was unmentionably slow (but slightly better than my Run through Time performance so perhaps I am improving). I was happy to see the personable Eva Åkesson, Vice-Chancellor of Uppsala University there. She came up and greeted me warmly - I have run into her several times since coming to Uppsala and it feels like we are old friends now (I always wonder if UVic's David Turpin would be as warm and down-to-earth in interacting with students as she is - I doubt it). Each of us that finished the run got a water bottle and a medal - it was a fun event and I'll keep my eyes open for more opportunities to do such runs in the months to come.

The Daily Walk to School

Here is the route I walk each day from my home in Vaktargatan to Drottninggatan 4 which is just the other side of the river. It's just 2 km and is a pleasant walk although definitely not as enjoyable now there is so much snow on ground with often a sheet of slippery ice underneath it. I fell near my school on December 8th and I still (today is December 21 and the world has not ended) am not able to use my right hand and arm without pain.

View Larger Map

Blogger is being very unhelpful in terms of allowing me to add a series of photographs that chronicles this walk so I am going to create a separate page for the subject.