Ikea furniture, Absolut Vodka, Volvo cars, H&M clothing — Sweden may be synonymous with many things, but clever television advertising isn’t one of them.
Amanda and I don’t watch much TV, but when we do we usually mute the commercials because they’re so boring.
Maybe I was just spoiled growing up in a country where corporations spend millions of dollars and countless hours on one 30-second spot for Super Bowl Sunday, but the ads just seem dull here.
There are exceptions, of course. Here are a few of my recent favorites.
ICA Reklamfilm Midsommarfest i butiken 2011
I should preface this by explaining that ICA, one of the largest and most Swedish of the many supermarket chains here, is not making fun of Down syndrome.
The company launched a controversial ad campaign a few years back featuring Swedish actor Mats Melin as “Jerry.” According to one report, the ads were designed “to challenge prejudices about mental disability.” Different people think different things about the commercials, and it’s hard to say whether the ads have any effect on changing perceptions about those with mental disabilities.
This ad is a funny parody of Midsummer, traditional floral wreaths and all. Somehow, ICA commercials are consistently able to convey humor and the week’s sale prices at the same time.
Com Hem Bredband - snabbt stabilt och jättejättebra – Juditune
Fast, stable and very, very great. That’s essentially the broadband from Com Hem, a triple play telecommunications provider that has featured redheads Judith and Judith in many of its recent commercials.
I think autotune is the greatest things to happen to music in my lifetime, so I was obviously already onboard when Com Hem jumped on the bandwagon. Amanda and many other people I know hate this commercial, but I enjoy it.
Tele2 - Sound Studio
This commercial literally made me laugh so hard one night I cried. And that was probably the 40th or 50th time I had seen it.
Frank the Sheep originated with Tele2 Netherlands and spread to Sweden, Tele2’s original European market, because sheep is pronounced very similarly to “cheap” in Swedish.
Frank is pretty ignorant when it comes to Swedish. This ad gets me EVERY time.
“That wasn’t good? Felt good!
Who speaks Swedish anyway? Heh… Swedes.”
And I’ll leave you with a classic for a popular Swedish beer that aired at least a few years back.
Falcon Fisherman
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Thursday, August 18, 2011
One Year Later
I arrived in Sweden a year ago tonight.
Today, I can say without an ounce (or perhaps I should say gram?) of hesitation that moving to here is the best decision I’ve ever made.
My shortcomings in the Swedish language aside, I’ve established a pretty respectable life here in 12 short months.
I wake up next to my dream girl every morning in the perfect apartment, in an ideal small town with exceptional train service. No member of my outstanding support system lives more than 20 minutes away. It’s taken a lot of effort but I finally feel like I’m starting to be able to call a few friends “close.” I have an amazing job that pays well and is secure until at least next summer.
I’ve grown accustomed to a lot of things I never thought I would, too:
As far as my Swedish is concerned, it’s obviously going to take greater self-discipline, but I think what it’s really going to take is a commitment to spend more time here this year.
After having lived in Sweden for only a few weeks last fall, I took a solo vacation to Glasgow. We went to Sicily for Amanda’s birthday in November. I visited Germany and Denmark with my brother in January. Then I spent more than 10 weeks over three separate trips in the United States. All told, I spent 85 of my first 365 days as a resident of Sweden, outside of Sweden. That’s less than 77% of my time actually spent in this glorious country. Pretty difficult to focus on learning a language under those circumstances, but that goal now sits alone at the top of my list for the next 12 months.
I’m looking forward to what my second year here has in store.
Today, I can say without an ounce (or perhaps I should say gram?) of hesitation that moving to here is the best decision I’ve ever made.
My shortcomings in the Swedish language aside, I’ve established a pretty respectable life here in 12 short months.
I wake up next to my dream girl every morning in the perfect apartment, in an ideal small town with exceptional train service. No member of my outstanding support system lives more than 20 minutes away. It’s taken a lot of effort but I finally feel like I’m starting to be able to call a few friends “close.” I have an amazing job that pays well and is secure until at least next summer.
I’ve grown accustomed to a lot of things I never thought I would, too:
- Strong coffee, and lots of it
- Incessant conversations about weather
- Trying to argue in a culture that avoids even minor confrontations at all costs
- Lunch replacing dinner as my main meal of the day
- No shoes indoors
- Planning everything in advance, whether it’s doing laundry or visiting a friend
- Complete and total division of work and leisure time, with zero overlap under any circumstances
- Outrageous food and drink prices
- Queuing (that’s European for “waiting in line”) for everything
- Striving to come across as modest and humble in a country where bragging is practically a jailable offense
As far as my Swedish is concerned, it’s obviously going to take greater self-discipline, but I think what it’s really going to take is a commitment to spend more time here this year.
After having lived in Sweden for only a few weeks last fall, I took a solo vacation to Glasgow. We went to Sicily for Amanda’s birthday in November. I visited Germany and Denmark with my brother in January. Then I spent more than 10 weeks over three separate trips in the United States. All told, I spent 85 of my first 365 days as a resident of Sweden, outside of Sweden. That’s less than 77% of my time actually spent in this glorious country. Pretty difficult to focus on learning a language under those circumstances, but that goal now sits alone at the top of my list for the next 12 months.
I’m looking forward to what my second year here has in store.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
2,100 Miles a Week
People used to call me crazy when they learned I drove 50 miles each way to work in Fairfield, three or four days a week, during my first two years at Sacramento State.
Even my 60-mile roundtrip to Auburn the last few years shocked many of my friends.
Both commutes pale in comparison to the daily grind I started this morning.
For the next year, I’m going to attempt to travel more than 400 miles daily, five days a week.
That’s more than 2,100 miles every week. Leaving our apartment before 6 a.m., getting home after 9 p.m.
There are exactly 341 kilometers of rail between Falköping and Stockholm, which is about 212 miles. To put my commute in perspective for a Californian, the following drives are each between 210 and 220 miles:
Eureka to Santa Rosa on US-101
Reno to San Francisco on I-80
Redding to San Francisco on I-5 and I-505
Sacramento to Visalia on CA-99
Fresno to Los Angeles on CA-99
Other trips in the same distance range include Boston to New York (215 miles), Phoenix to Yuma (211 miles) Ft. Lauderdale to Orlando (213 miles), Dallas to Oklahoma City (206 miles), Salem to Seattle (219) and Lansing to Chicago (218 miles).
It’s almost like commuting from New York City to Washington, D.C. (227 miles) or Toronto to Detroit (232 miles). And back. Every day.
The trip can be as short as 2 hours, 20 minutes each way depending on train type/speed and number of stops, but the average ride will be almost three hours each way. Most people wouldn’t wish that on their worst enemy.
Granted, there’s a huge difference between traveling 200 miles by train and making some of those aforementioned comparable drives in a car. They really shouldn’t be compared. This guy is the only one I could find who commutes a similar distance on roads. But six hours a day on a train is still borderline insane.
Fortunately, mobile broadband is booming in Sweden so I’ll have internet at all times. With a computer and web access, there are far fewer things I can’t do that I would do anywhere else.
My MacBook Pro and 3 stick are going to be my best friends.
Even my 60-mile roundtrip to Auburn the last few years shocked many of my friends.
Both commutes pale in comparison to the daily grind I started this morning.
For the next year, I’m going to attempt to travel more than 400 miles daily, five days a week.
That’s more than 2,100 miles every week. Leaving our apartment before 6 a.m., getting home after 9 p.m.
There are exactly 341 kilometers of rail between Falköping and Stockholm, which is about 212 miles. To put my commute in perspective for a Californian, the following drives are each between 210 and 220 miles:
Eureka to Santa Rosa on US-101
Reno to San Francisco on I-80
Redding to San Francisco on I-5 and I-505
Sacramento to Visalia on CA-99
Fresno to Los Angeles on CA-99
Other trips in the same distance range include Boston to New York (215 miles), Phoenix to Yuma (211 miles) Ft. Lauderdale to Orlando (213 miles), Dallas to Oklahoma City (206 miles), Salem to Seattle (219) and Lansing to Chicago (218 miles).
It’s almost like commuting from New York City to Washington, D.C. (227 miles) or Toronto to Detroit (232 miles). And back. Every day.
The trip can be as short as 2 hours, 20 minutes each way depending on train type/speed and number of stops, but the average ride will be almost three hours each way. Most people wouldn’t wish that on their worst enemy.
Granted, there’s a huge difference between traveling 200 miles by train and making some of those aforementioned comparable drives in a car. They really shouldn’t be compared. This guy is the only one I could find who commutes a similar distance on roads. But six hours a day on a train is still borderline insane.
Fortunately, mobile broadband is booming in Sweden so I’ll have internet at all times. With a computer and web access, there are far fewer things I can’t do that I would do anywhere else.
My MacBook Pro and 3 stick are going to be my best friends.
Friday, June 24, 2011
Olofsbo
We kicked off our summer vacation last week by spending eight days at Amanda’s family’s cabin on the west coast. The house is 150 meters from the Kattegat sea, which separates Sweden and Denmark.
The house is 220 kilometers — only about 140 miles — southwest of Falköping in a tiny summer community called Olofsbo, which is a few minutes north of Falkenberg, a town of 25,000.
Olofsbo is home to around 1,000 houses, most of which are small summer cabins, and two campsites. Houses in the front row, like Amanda’s family’s, look out onto a long, sandy beach.
Below is an aerial view I found through Google Images, with our cabin’s location indicated by the red dot:
This was my second time at the cabin and first since moving to Sweden. We spent a few days there in January 2010 when I first visited the country but that was in the middle of one of the worst winters on record.
Everything obviously looked very different 18 months later in warmer weather.
Falkenberg is a much nicer town in the summer, too.
Tonight we’re celebrating midsummer with family out on the farm and the rest of the weekend will be devoted to packing for our U.S. visit. We look forward to seeing all of you back home very soon.
The house is 220 kilometers — only about 140 miles — southwest of Falköping in a tiny summer community called Olofsbo, which is a few minutes north of Falkenberg, a town of 25,000.
Olofsbo is home to around 1,000 houses, most of which are small summer cabins, and two campsites. Houses in the front row, like Amanda’s family’s, look out onto a long, sandy beach.
Below is an aerial view I found through Google Images, with our cabin’s location indicated by the red dot:
This was my second time at the cabin and first since moving to Sweden. We spent a few days there in January 2010 when I first visited the country but that was in the middle of one of the worst winters on record.
Everything obviously looked very different 18 months later in warmer weather.
Falkenberg is a much nicer town in the summer, too.
Tonight we’re celebrating midsummer with family out on the farm and the rest of the weekend will be devoted to packing for our U.S. visit. We look forward to seeing all of you back home very soon.
Monday, June 13, 2011
High School Graduation
Falköping’s high school graduated the class of 2011 on Friday.
For whatever reason or combination of reasons, high school graduation is a monumental event in Sweden and our town is no exception.
It started with a lunch for students and their teachers on Thursday, followed by a student breakfast Friday morning before a graduation ceremony. After the ceremony, students paraded through town while embarrassing their teachers in creative ways.
The woodshop kids showed off their carpentry skills.
The parade ended in the town square, where students celebrated some more with family and friends…
… before loading onto flatbeds to be driven around town while they got drunk.
Much to the chagrin of local police.
Then there was a student ball on Sunday, where many classmates partied together for the last time. Some move out of the area to pursue higher education but a large number enter the workforce immediately — high school in Sweden is divided into programs of emphasis and while some programs are college preparatory, around two-thirds are vocational.
For whatever reason or combination of reasons, high school graduation is a monumental event in Sweden and our town is no exception.
It started with a lunch for students and their teachers on Thursday, followed by a student breakfast Friday morning before a graduation ceremony. After the ceremony, students paraded through town while embarrassing their teachers in creative ways.
The woodshop kids showed off their carpentry skills.
The parade ended in the town square, where students celebrated some more with family and friends…
… before loading onto flatbeds to be driven around town while they got drunk.
Much to the chagrin of local police.
Then there was a student ball on Sunday, where many classmates partied together for the last time. Some move out of the area to pursue higher education but a large number enter the workforce immediately — high school in Sweden is divided into programs of emphasis and while some programs are college preparatory, around two-thirds are vocational.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
National Day
Sweden celebrated its National Day yesterday, although maybe “celebrate” isn’t the most appropriate word.
Swedes save all rowdiness for Midsummer later this month. According to a survey conducted by SVT, the country’s national television broadcaster, roughly 80 percent of Swedes don’t do anything special on National Day.
While many countries, like the United States and our Scandinavian neighbor Norway, celebrate independence on their National Day, Sweden doesn’t have any such history to commemorate.
June 6 is the day Gustav Vasa was elected king in 1523, and also the day Sweden adopted new constitutions in both 1809 and 1974. The date became Swedish Flag Day in 1916 and the government first officially recognized it as National Day in 1983, though it’s only been a public holiday for six years. If it falls during the workweek it’s viewed by most Swedes simply as a bonus day off as the weather is starting to warm up.
The weather couldn’t have been any better yesterday in Falköping. The town organized a day of music, performances and free mini golf in the park.
I’ve never seen so many people out and about here.
Sunday, May 29, 2011
SOS Causes Distress
I hope I never need an urgent emergency response in Sweden, because the system here is frighteningly flawed. I’d literally be scared for my life if I ever need immediate medical assistance.
Last night around 11, I heard what sounded like someone trying to open our kitchen door. I went to check it out and sure enough, the handle moved a few times while I stood there. I tried to open the door but couldn’t.
We had heard a big group of people leave a party on the floor above us a short time before, and we soon ascertained that someone had passed out in our stairwell.
Amanda went out our front door, walked around the building and back in through the rear entrance to find an unresponsive woman slumped against our door. She tried to talk to the woman but she was incoherent. Amanda went upstairs to see if anyone was still at the party, but evidently everyone had gone to the bars and left this woman on our doorstep. By the time Amanda got back downstairs the woman had lost consciousness, but was still breathing.
Our other upstairs neighbor Ida came down to help and we called multiple friends of the people who threw the party to see if anybody knew who the woman was or who she had come to the party with, but to no avail. The woman’s cell phone had a pin code and she couldn’t give it to us.
I’ve heard too many horror stories about people choking on their own vomit and dying because their friends left them to pass out, and I knew this woman could be in danger, so we decided we had no choice but to call for an ambulance.
The emergency number in Sweden — and the 26 other member countries of the European Union — is 112. Children are taught to memorize it by “1 mouth, 1 nose and 2 eyes,” which has always been somewhat confusing to me because people also have two ears, and sound can be a very useful sense in detecting certain emergency situations, too, right? But I digress.
For almost 40 years, a private for-profit company called SOS Alarm has been responsible for operating 112 in Sweden. When you dial the number, you reach an operator in one of 18 regional offices.
You explain your emergency situation and the operator makes a critical determination of which services — police, ambulance and/or fire — you need dispatched to your location. They then transfer you to who they feel is the most appropriate authority in your local area and you repeat your situation to them before coordinating the details of the response.
I might be missing something here, but it sure seems like one of those situations where the middleman can be cut from the equation.
In the 15 minutes between our call to 112 and the arrival of two policemen, the woman had regained some consciousness. Also during that time, one of the partygoers returned and tried to help the woman sit up. Another partygoer showed up shortly after the police and saved the woman from arrest by convincing the police that they should just let her and the first partygoer drive the woman home.
What upset me the most wasn’t that the police spent most of their short time in our building laughing as the woman tried to put words together. It wasn’t that they didn’t ask any questions or do any investigation, like trying to find out if she had combined drugs with alcohol and maybe really needed serious medical attention. It wasn’t even that they didn’t blink an eye as the second partygoer, who also appeared drunk, offered to drive the woman home in a country with a virtual zero-tolerance policy for driving while intoxicated.
It was the fact that contrary to the ambulance response that Ida, Amanda and I were recommending based on having observed the woman first-hand, the SOS Alarm operator concluded that only police should be sent. If the police had then found the woman in as serious trouble as she appeared to be when we called, I suppose it would have probably taken another 15 minutes for an ambulance.
The company’s money-saving measure worked out last night, but it often doesn’t. SOS Alarm and the 112 system have come under serious fire recently, and with good reason.
SOS Alarm’s defense is pathetic. The company usually claims these unfortunate situations occur during times of high demand for emergency services, but I think it has much more to do with money. In this article from just a week ago, the troubled company’s owners are demanding profit hikes.
I can practically count on both hands the number of times I’ve heard emergency sirens since I moved here last August. Service demand can’t be that high, and it’s so sad that lives have been lost because SOS is too profit-oriented to operate under a “better safe than sorry” mentality. If any company should take such precautions, they’re it.
Four Swedish counties already plan to ditch SOS Alarm in favor of another company this fall and others should follow suit. SOS has a track record of incompetence and that’s just unacceptable when human lives are at stake.
Last night around 11, I heard what sounded like someone trying to open our kitchen door. I went to check it out and sure enough, the handle moved a few times while I stood there. I tried to open the door but couldn’t.
We had heard a big group of people leave a party on the floor above us a short time before, and we soon ascertained that someone had passed out in our stairwell.
Amanda went out our front door, walked around the building and back in through the rear entrance to find an unresponsive woman slumped against our door. She tried to talk to the woman but she was incoherent. Amanda went upstairs to see if anyone was still at the party, but evidently everyone had gone to the bars and left this woman on our doorstep. By the time Amanda got back downstairs the woman had lost consciousness, but was still breathing.
Our other upstairs neighbor Ida came down to help and we called multiple friends of the people who threw the party to see if anybody knew who the woman was or who she had come to the party with, but to no avail. The woman’s cell phone had a pin code and she couldn’t give it to us.
I’ve heard too many horror stories about people choking on their own vomit and dying because their friends left them to pass out, and I knew this woman could be in danger, so we decided we had no choice but to call for an ambulance.
The emergency number in Sweden — and the 26 other member countries of the European Union — is 112. Children are taught to memorize it by “1 mouth, 1 nose and 2 eyes,” which has always been somewhat confusing to me because people also have two ears, and sound can be a very useful sense in detecting certain emergency situations, too, right? But I digress.
For almost 40 years, a private for-profit company called SOS Alarm has been responsible for operating 112 in Sweden. When you dial the number, you reach an operator in one of 18 regional offices.
You explain your emergency situation and the operator makes a critical determination of which services — police, ambulance and/or fire — you need dispatched to your location. They then transfer you to who they feel is the most appropriate authority in your local area and you repeat your situation to them before coordinating the details of the response.
I might be missing something here, but it sure seems like one of those situations where the middleman can be cut from the equation.
In the 15 minutes between our call to 112 and the arrival of two policemen, the woman had regained some consciousness. Also during that time, one of the partygoers returned and tried to help the woman sit up. Another partygoer showed up shortly after the police and saved the woman from arrest by convincing the police that they should just let her and the first partygoer drive the woman home.
What upset me the most wasn’t that the police spent most of their short time in our building laughing as the woman tried to put words together. It wasn’t that they didn’t ask any questions or do any investigation, like trying to find out if she had combined drugs with alcohol and maybe really needed serious medical attention. It wasn’t even that they didn’t blink an eye as the second partygoer, who also appeared drunk, offered to drive the woman home in a country with a virtual zero-tolerance policy for driving while intoxicated.
It was the fact that contrary to the ambulance response that Ida, Amanda and I were recommending based on having observed the woman first-hand, the SOS Alarm operator concluded that only police should be sent. If the police had then found the woman in as serious trouble as she appeared to be when we called, I suppose it would have probably taken another 15 minutes for an ambulance.
The company’s money-saving measure worked out last night, but it often doesn’t. SOS Alarm and the 112 system have come under serious fire recently, and with good reason.
- Earlier this year, a 23-year-old man in Stockholm had difficulty breathing. The on-call nurse at SOS Alarm refused to send an ambulance despite the man’s repeated “help me” pleas (read the sickening transcript here). The man died of a ruptured spleen.
- Last year, a woman in Gothenburg was also denied an ambulance and died from renal failure and pneumonia.
- A few years ago in Eastern Sweden during a wild street party, a man was found unconscious. The SOS operator passed the information along to police, assuming it was just a drunk passed out, when in fact the man had choked on food. He was eventually taken to a hospital, where he died.
- In 2008, a 34-year-old man died despite his mom’s five calls to SOS while she thought he was having a heart attack. The ambulance took two hours to arrive, and when it finally did the man dropped dead. SOS blamed the huge delay on icy roads.
- Just this month, friends of a Green Party politician who was stabbed outside a Stockholm subway station accused SOS Alarm of a negligent reaction and slow ambulance response. SOS contests that the 17 minutes between call and ambulance arrival is adequate, which shocks me.
- Earlier this year, the wife of a man who complained of chest pains was told by an SOS operator that they should just go to the pharmacy and buy cough medicine, since it was cold season. The wife persisted and when an ambulance was eventually dispatched, it was determined that the man had suffered a heart attack.
- Two years ago, a young boy who spilled a cup of hot tea on himself. An SOS operator told his mom she should drive him to the hospital herself. The drive took 40 minutes, and when they arrived the boy was taken by ambulance to another hospital based on his critical burns.
SOS Alarm’s defense is pathetic. The company usually claims these unfortunate situations occur during times of high demand for emergency services, but I think it has much more to do with money. In this article from just a week ago, the troubled company’s owners are demanding profit hikes.
I can practically count on both hands the number of times I’ve heard emergency sirens since I moved here last August. Service demand can’t be that high, and it’s so sad that lives have been lost because SOS is too profit-oriented to operate under a “better safe than sorry” mentality. If any company should take such precautions, they’re it.
Four Swedish counties already plan to ditch SOS Alarm in favor of another company this fall and others should follow suit. SOS has a track record of incompetence and that’s just unacceptable when human lives are at stake.
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