Day 50: Strange public art 2

Sometimes I work in Akalla - a relatively socially deprived suburb of Stockholm. This is a mural in the underground station there, which is widely ignored by people. Today the escalators weren't working so I looked at this for longer than usual as I waited for the lift. I wondered:

1. Why the mural is so miserable! I mean, Akalla is quite a miserable place anyway, surely a bright mural would liven it up?
2. If the people in the background were wearing Hijabs and if the mural was making a statement about the fashionable westerners in the foreground against the muslims in the back (Akalla is a very muslim area)
3. Actually, they're not Muslims. It looks like a drab socialist image from a few decades ago. Are the fashionable young people in the foreground a criticism of wealth at other people's expense?
4. Is that a vagina?

I did some research and I discovered:

The mural is painted by Birgit Ståhl-Nyberg a social realist artist who often painted to criticise aspects of society. She painted in the 70's so this mural is probably making some criticism of Socialism or maybe a criticism of the breakdown of socialism? I actually can't decide...you can decide for yourself!
At any rate, I think it's still quite a relevant mural considering the state of society as it seems in Akalla, even if it is quite depressing for a Monday morning's commute.

Day 46: Mo Money Mo Problems

Here is me with my first full paycheck since coming to Sweden, and congratulatory mousserande (fizzy)

 

• Tax over here is around 30% of the paycheck (boo!)

• But that is spent quite well on public services and saves me money on, for example, commuting. (yay!)

• A fair amount of money comes out for national insurance, pension and other taxes (boo!)

• But this is paid by the employer through something called arbetsuppgift and doesn't change my actual paycheck amount! (yay!) 

 


Overall, pay is much better for the employee than in England but, I imagine, a greater hassle for the employer. When I am told a salary in England, I have to mentally deduct a good chunk which will inevitably be lost through tax, national insurance, student loan etc etc. Over here, the stated income amount is much closer to my actual income, which makes things like means testing a lot fairer in my view.

Day 44: Stolen TV

People often ask "how is Sweden?" and expect me to tell them tales of how different life is (that people are green and walk on their hands probably). In fact, most of the time things are the same (wake up at ass o'clock, commute, work, make dinner, sleep).

This is nowhere more evident than my experience today with television. "I'll watch TV" I thought "learn about Swedish culture".

Well, this was what was on TV. Two copies of English TV shows, QI and the Great British Bake Off. The only differences were that:

a) Intresse Klubben was substandard because Sweden doesn't have Stephen Fry and the letters in the logo don't match the name of the show
and
b) Hela Sverige Bakar (Sweden bakes) had a lot of blonde people making more breads than cakes, and a token Muslim woman. I quite enjoyed Hela Sverige Bakar actually. They have quite a good rip off of Mary sourface Berry.

Day 41: Daddy doesn't work here

Passive aggressive (and note: ineffectual) workplace note leaving, which is also avoiding the gender stereotype of the female washer-upper. Could there ever be a better picture for summing up Swedish society in a single image?

1. Passive aggressive - oh yes. Definitely. Nobody wants to say anything rude or direct to anyone. Unless they paid a lot of money and THEN they feel perfectly entitled to say some strong words. Once I was in a bar with someone underage. When they showed their ID it took the bar staff a good while to muster up the courage to.....politely ask us if we might maybe, possibly consider leaving in a half hour after we had finished our drinks. Maybe. Sorry.

2. Note leaving.  Well this is a classic passive-aggressive manouevre.

At work I used the wrong photocopier for a few weeks. A few weeks!  Did anyone tell me? Well, eventually they had to, after I ignored the many, many carefully placed notes they stuck all over the office.

3. Avoiding pidgeonholing genders. It´s an artform, lemme tellya. (is pidgeonholing a verb? It is now.)

Day 39: A&E yeah you know me

You can go abroad but sometimes the problems stay the same!

This paper says "Two days wait for A&E (ER)" which is remarkably similar to the kinds of headlines i´m used to seeing in England.

Of course...they´re being sensationalist while also hinting at an underlying problem, but here they simply don´t have enough people to claim their health system is as burdened as England´s!

Day 34: I make that fat bastard O'clock

Mmmm Fredagsfika

I don´t know if this is a workplace tradition or just a tradition in schools, where I work, but Friday is a special day when people are rota´ed into bringing delicious cakes or pastries for all the staff to celebrate the end of the week. I work in 3 different places as an itinerant teacher on Fridays, so 3x the cake for me...

...fat bastard yaaaay!!

Day 33: Strange public art 1

Creepy Baby anyone? They like to commission art here (aka throw money around to make stuff look good) but it doesn´t always result in high class Scandinavian design....

Dafuq is this?!

It´s in a school in Kista and the kids like to play on it. I am looking forward to seeing it when covered in snow...maybe it makes more sense then?

Day 29: There's no need for the carpenter to do that.

I took some books out of the library to help me learn some Swedish. This writer of this particular glossary has failed to realise that *** usually means swearwords are being censored. Hours of fun. "Take a photo with your ASS" or "The clerk fucks things in the store" are just two of the many possibilities!

Day 21: Messing about on the river

Sailing time in the Stockholm Archipelago
Definitely never done anything like this before.

While it is still fairly uncommon for people to own boats, it's definitely more common than in England where boat ownership as a hobby is, well....let's just say I've never met a single person with a sailboat in England.

The experience is a bit like caravanning, you have to take a load of stuff with you including a stove and food and then you have to find a good place to pitch (or moor...). It's a lot more technical and difficult though and the return journey was very treacherous as the winds picked up the next day.

If you get the opportunity to go in the archipelago, do it. It's a unique experience to travel around the little islands while at the same time being very close to Stockholm.