semiswede

Spring has been a long time coming this year. It seems that cloudy and cool has prevailed which makes it hard to believe it is the end of May with the temperature stuck in the 50s and 60s (12-18C). But there is one thing that reassures the fact we are headed into summer, and that […]

This past weekend my five year anniversary in Sweden came and went without much more than the thought of “huh, today it’s been five years since I moved to Sweden.” Five years is kind of a milestone though, so I have been giving some thought to my half-decade here and my gradual Swedification. It ranges […]

Melodifestivalen begins this weekend with a six-week long competition that will grip the nation until March 9th when we find out who will represent Sweden in the 2013 Eurovision song contest. Founded in 1956, Eurovision is the top-ranked program in Europe with 125 million viewers tuning in annually to watch musical performances from roughly 40 nations. […]

Vecka 28-31 har vi stängt för semester. Translation? Week 28-31 we are closed for vacation. During the precious Swedish summer you will find variations of this sign from websites to hand-written versions hanging in small shops. Swedes take summer very seriously and there is always hope for a mild, yet gloriously warm and sunny summer. […]

Snödroppar (snow drops), the first sign of spring. We are mid-spring in southern Sweden. I can’t speak for the folks farther north, but I assume they are 3-8 weeks behind us depending on their latitude. Spring in Skåne (SKOH-nuh), the southernmost region of Sweden, begins as early as late February when the first snow drops […]

Today is the winter solstice. The day of the year with the least amount of daylight hours. With an impressive north to south distance this day in Sweden means a range of no daylight in the northernmost reaches of the country to 7 hours of daylight at the southernmost point. 

Pea soup on Thursday has been a tradition in Sweden since the Middle Ages. It stems from the Friday fasting historically observed by the Roman Catholic church as a reminder of Jesus’ suffering and death on Good Friday. Thursdays had a somewhat festive aura and peas were considered a luxury item. 

I recently wrote an article for http://www.thelocal.se (the Swedish news in English) about the developing Swedish wine industry. Before stumbling upon a bottle of Swedish rosé this summer at the local systembolaget (the government controlled liquor store) it hadn’t even occurred to me that Swedish vineyards exist.

IKEA has a mouse problem. I was shocked when I ran into this today.