Half a year in Sweden

We had a group of Dutch visitors here last weekend. They work with Jochem, I had never met them before and they had never been to Sweden. Every time you meet someone from a different country who has no previous knowledge of your country you end up talking about differences or similarities between the two cultures. So did we. What is typical Swedish food, what is the main difference living in Ulricehamn compare to living in Nijmegen (our previous hometown in the Netherlands) or is life better in Sweden then in the Netherlands? Difficult but very interesting questions I think (well, the Swedish food question is quite easy to answer but the rest…).

We lived in a big city before and we now live in a small town. We commuted a lot. I travelled 5 hours a day, four days a week and Jochem usually spent 10 to 12 hours commuting every week. We had a cleaner (oh, how I miss her!) and we had Francis – our babysitter who was like a family member. Life was pretty chaotic! Now it takes me 5 minutes on the bicycle to get to work. I’m home at five every day and the kids can do almost any sport they want after school. Crime rates are low and house prices as well. We have two pubs but from Sunday to Wednesday they are closed. Is this typically Swedish? No, this is typically small town life and we could probably have found something similar in the Netherlands (if we had moved to Friesland or to Limburg). However, life here is different and it is not easy to explain why. The paste is slower and life is more organized (not ours but for normal people I think it is :)!) and the surroundings here are fantastically beautiful. I never knew how beautiful Sweden was until I started travelling. It is also accessible in the sense that you can walk, run, and bicycle or put up a tent almost anywhere. And, it is all for free! Great!

Is there a downside to our life in Sweden or is everything better here? No place or culture offers the complete package but almost every place offers something special and what that is can only be in the eyes of the beholder. We miss family and friends and the weekend tournaments at the local tennis club. I miss the shopping and the cafés and sometimes the anonymity a big city brings. At the same time we see more of our Swedish family and our Swedish friends and that is really nice. I spend a lot more times with the kids and that is obviously a fantastic advantage! We still have to work on expanding our social network locally.

After 6 months in Ulricehamn I now know that I need to stay updated with the ice hockey scores if I want to be part of the discussions at the coffee break. I have seen more wildlife than ever before and I have improved my driving skills in snow and on ice. The job is challenging and I feel that I’m part of a great team. The kids have learned to speak Swedish really well and feel at home at school and with their friends. With the changing of seasons we have been picking apples and peers today (several bags) and I guess it is time to show the kids that I once knew how to bake. In other words, the move to Sweden was a step in the right direction.