Sunday, September 21, 2008

Sweden from outside

Reading Beijing Confidential made me think about what Sweden might be like seen from the outside. Via a webpage of a friend I rediscovered this funny list of "Things That Are Different in Sweden". Some of the things I don't recognize or understand (Front doors on the back of houses shaped like barns?), and some are very specific (not all apartments have two doors), but in general it's exactly the kind things you would notice if you go there. For us it's funny, because we don't notice those things when we are at home, but after a year abroad it's easy to see that it might seem a bit different.

For the more serious, go to the CIA World Factbook.

2 comments:

Elliot said...

Huh! A lot of things that sound pretty strange to me. Though not all of them.

And what does this mean:

"If you think a Swede is suffocating she may just be saying yes."

Åka said...

Well, a way of saying "yes" in Swedish (in the north of Sweden at least) is to voicelessly suck air between your lips (shaped like "o"). It sounds like a sigh "phew!", only backwards and without the voice. Does this make sense?