A Very Scattered Introduction to Sweden

I spent a long time trying to come up with a cohesive topic for my first post about Sweden, but every time I start to write about one topic, I somehow take a wrong turn midway through and end up on a completely unrelated topic. In the Welsh countryside, life moves forward in a steady, comfortable rhythm, but now I’m back to the colorful blur that is city life, and everything is so new and shiny, and my thoughts are still moving in an excited whir that makes focusing on anything for too long surprisingly difficult. So this post is just going to be a bulleted list of observations and perhaps next time I’ll be settled enough to not sound like a kindergartener after consuming way too much sugar.

•         Fika is more than just a coffee break, it is an all-important, religiously followed time to sit, drink coffee, have a good conversation, and not think about work. One of my Swedish co-workers joked that he only came to work so that he could have break from fika. At any given time, you can find people sitting in the comfy chairs in the lunch room enjoying their fika. My department also has an organized fika every other week, in which one person brings food, and everybody – from the department chair to the lowly interns – sits at a long table for as long as the food and conversation last, no matter how long that may be. It’s surprisingly intimate and very inclusive – even as the brand new intern sitting at a table full of professors and PhD students, I felt completely at ease.
•         Hierarchies work differently here. They exist, certainly, and titles and responsibilities are the same, but they don’t cause quite the separation that is normal in their American counterparts. I am the only undergraduate working full-time in my department, and by far the least knowledgeable person, but nobody seems to care. At fika last week, I ended up spending an hour talking to the department chair about American politics and it didn’t feel any different than talking to an old friend about it (internally, I was still panicking and slightly fan-girling, of course, but I seemed to be the only one who thought anything of the massive difference in status).
•         In contrast to the American emphasis on individualism and things like “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps” and “taking the road less travelled,” Swedes greatly value inclusion and working together for the betterment of the group. Here, everyone – rich or poor, full-blooded Swedish or newly immigrated – goes to public school together until college. Getting held back a grade does not happen; the class simply waits for everyone to catch up. On my first day of work, the professor for whom I’m working took me around the very large department and introduced me to every single person. My picture and some information about me will also be sent around so that everyone knows who I am and why I’m here. It’s not special treatment; it’s just how it works here. Everyone is included, no one is alienated, and I have to say, it is a really nice way for things to work. I’ve worked in much smaller departments for a much longer time, but one week in, I already feel more like a part of this group than I have any other.