Day 10 of Swedish life

After over a week here it's time to wash my skanky clothes!

If you live in a lägenhet (flat) it's likely you have a communal tvättstuga (wash room) in the basement. This has a sign up sheet so you can let others in the building know when your undies are going for a spin.

Some people are great and keep everything clean, some people are assholes and leave shit in the machines, others are just damn forgetful and we find their pants and socks lying around the drying room. You people have interesting taste.

Day 4 of Swedish life

Upon arriving in Sweden I immediately sent notice of my immigration to Migrationsverket in order to be registered here. You must do this in order to apply for a person number, but as it turns out I had no need as I am an EU citizen and therefore have the right to live and work in Sweden.

Still - they know I'm here now...

Day 3 of Swedish Life

Today I took out some books from the library to help me learn Swedish. There are Swedish classes provided by the government but you need a person number to register for them. I don't have this yet so I'm starting on my own.

You also need a person number to have a library card, so my boyfriend lent me his. I find it strange that every service here is liked to your social security number...this means someone somewhere has a very comprehensive record of my life.

Day 2 of Swedish life

  

This is how you queue in Sweden, by taking a numbered ticket and waiting for your number to come up at the cashier. It's a fair and orderly way of queuing and it takes away the opportunity for people to be assholes and push in. 

However, I had to wait a full hour to buy my rail pass which was a ridiculously long time.

Coming from London where there is a much larger volume of people, I couldn't comprehend why this took so long and why Swedish people were complacent to wait without fussing. It must be a trick of the numbering system - it's hard to see how it could be unfair.

Day 1 of Swedish Life

On my first full day of Swedish life I made a trip to Ikea because, hey, when you move in somewhere, Ikea has all the furniture you might need. Also, it's a Swedish institution (even the snobby Swedes have at least one BILLY, KOMPLEMENT or MALM)

So far, life is not so different from England...
... but why would it be when Ikea is the same everywhere?