At the same lecture we also talked a bit on non-verbal language. At the end of the lecture I invited everyone to take one of the tomato pies I had been making. I told it was common in my culture to bring some snacks with when you’re celebrating your birthday (my actual birthday is tomorrow). [...]

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Today I had a lecture again where we discussed about stereotypes. Tulips, cheese and drugs-friendly Dutch; family loyal, siesta enjoying and hard-working Mexicans; always on time, environmentally aware and reserved Swedes; and many more. What I particularly liked was that it came clear that stereotypes are not always negative, in fact stereotypes are mostly positive [...]

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So.. I got a Swedish mobile number, a Swedish bank account, I paid the first rent for my Swedish apartment and a Swedish bus card. IKEA is coming tomorrow to deliver some Swedish designed furniture :) I still need a Swedish bike though, I’ll try tomorrow. Until now the intro week and getting basic things [...]

Continue reading about Get a life! (A Swedish one)

We had this question in a group work for the anatomy of intercultural interactions course. Courses here are non parallel, so we only have one course at the time. Thats for the next 5 weeks and then comes the next course. Some exceptions, but then you probably won’t have more then 2 courses at the [...]

Continue reading about In what way does culture distort your view of reality?

Today I had my first self-made meal in my own apartment! That tastes great, although it wasn’t that good :) But, they don’t have vegetarian products here :( Even the expensive supermarket – comparable with Albert Heijn in size, service, looks, prices – only has óne vegetarian burger. Further, bio shops (or how do you [...]

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At the end of today we got a lecture about the Swedes and the Swedish culture. This was after two introduction days and our own adventures in the cities Eskilstuna and Västerås of the last days. The lecturer was Jonas Stier, also my teacher for the first course starting tomorrow morning. He’s a great guy, [...]

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