Sweden

host families

Most Swedish host families don’t live in big cities, but rather in suburbs, rural areas, small towns or communities. Since most Swedish parents work full time, children tend to help them after work by helping to cook, do the laundry, the dishes or clean. Once in a while, it can also be a fun idea to suggest cooking on your own for the whole family as a way of saying thank you.

In Sweden, it’s very common that every family member has lots of activities to do in their free time and just get together for dinner, usually around 6 or 7 pm. However, don’t expect them to drive you places but use public transportation instead. Swedish teenagers are considered to be independent and discuss issues with their parents like young adults. They have a certain amount of freedom, but this also brings responsibility with it. Talk about things with your host family and definitely don’t do anything behind their backs, because that’s regarded as a no-go in every family. Always be honest by sharing your experiences and activities with them. 

school

Individualistic education, in which each student can meet their specific needs, is encouraged by the Swedish School Plan. Students are also encouraged to participate in student councils to form the education they would like with their teachers.

After students finish compulsory school, people between the ages of 16 and 20 can choose voluntarily whether or not to attend upper secondary school. In total, there are 18 national upper secondary programs, each lasting three years. Arts, hotel and tourism, business management and economics, humanities, and the social science program are just some of the available programs. Every program consists of foundation subjects, orientations, specializations, specific subjects and a diploma project. English, physical education, science studies, history, mathematics, social studies, Swedish and religion are the upper secondary foundation subjects. However, science studies are replaced by biology, chemistry and physics in the natural science program, and replaced by just physics and chemistry in the technology program. 

Overall, Swedish tend to have a breakfast early in the morning, a light lunch at noon and a heavy dinner to end the day with. Usually, people also consume snacks throughout the day or have a coffee break in the afternoon along with a delicious pastry. This sort of afternoon tea time is known as fika. During fika friends and family get together to have a coffee and this is often served together with cookies, pastries or pieces of cake. 

The Swedish cuisine is considered to be focused on soft and crisp breads, cultured dairy products, beef, chicken, pork, lamb and seafood. Boiled potatoes are frequently used as a side dish. Swedes also offer a huge amount and variety of different kinds of bread, both sweetened and spiced. Fruit is also very popular, since a lot of meat dishes are accompanied by lingonberry jam, and fruit soups like blueberry soup can also be served. 

ingredients

500 g (18 oz) ground (minced) beef/pork mixture

250 ml (1¼ cup) milk

75 g (¾ cup) white breadcrumbs

1 egg

1 onion

salt, white pepper

ground allspice

preparation

Finely dice the onion, and sauté gently in a little butter without browning. Soak the breadcrumbs in milk. Blend the ground meat, preferably in a food processor, with the onion, egg, milk/breadcrumb mixture and the spices to the proper consistency and taste. Add a little water if the mixture feels too firm. Check the taste by test-frying one meatball. Then shape small meatballs with the aid of two spoons and place on water-rinsed plates. Brown a generous pat of butter in a frying pan, and when it ‘goes quiet’ place the meatballs in the pan and let them brown on all sides. Shake the frying pan often. Serve with potato purée or boiled potatoes and raw stirred lingonberries. (source: https://sweden.se/collection/classic-swedish-food/article/classic-swedish-food-meatballs/)

climate

The major part of Sweden knows a temperate climate, although the country has a northern latitude. The year is divided into four seasons and temperatures are mostly mild. Sweden, and even the South, has a warmer and drier climate than other countries at a similar latitude, thanks to the Gulf Stream. The northern United States, Canada and Russia have, for example, heavier winters than Sweden.

Due to its latitude, there are also a lot variations in the length of the daylight. In the north, there’s no sunlight for some part of each winter and the sun never sets for part of each summer too. In late June, the sun can keep shining for about 18 hours in Sweden’s capital, Stockholm, while daylight only lasts for 6 hours in late December. The highest temperature that was ever measured in Sweden was 38 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit), and the coldest was -52.6 degrees Celsius (or -62.7 degrees Fahrenheit).

nature

The Swedes attach a lot of value to nature: 97% of the country is unhabituated, so a large amount of the area is covered by national parks and nature reserves. In the past, Linnæus made an important contribution to the Swedish ecology, developing a better and streamlined categorization system for all the plants and animals. He also made sure that Sweden’s wilderness remained unpaved. He was the founding father of Sweden as a nation that’s aware and conscious of nature. 

National park Abisko and the Northern lights were called the world’s most illuminating experiences by Lonely Planet. This national park is wide-known for its magnificent and natural beauty, its amazing wildlife and its adventurous activities, both in summer and winter. During the summer, popular things to do are hiking along waterfalls, canyons and fjords, caving and fly-fishing. In winters, on the other hand, it can be fun to go Nordic, Alpine or off-piste skiing, dog sledding, or even eating reindeer and drinking coffee around a campfire. 

pop

Thanks to ABBA, who gained international prominence because they won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974, Sweden was able to enter into a new era. They turned out to be one of the most successful groups of the world ever, right after The Beatles. Nowadays, they still sell 2 to 3 million records every year. Other popular Swedish artists include Roxette, Agnes, Loreen, and Caesars. 

electronic music

In 2011, a Swedish DJ Avicii was voted the 6th best DJ in the world. Although a lot of techno producers are from Sweden, they are often more famous on an international and global level than in Sweden itself. 

Do you love attending festivals? Then Sweden’s definitely the right place for you! Sweden’s biggest and most popular festival is called Bråvalla festival, an annually held three-day music festival in June. Some of the best bands and artists in the world already performed here, including Editors, Mumford & Sons, Macklemore, Robbie Williams, Rammstein, Green Day, Muse, Avicii, Kings of Leon and Kanye West. Go ahead and explore this awesome music festival with your new friends and other exchange students! 

Since 1990, the Stockholm International Film Festival has been held every year in the second half of November. Its goal is to support new talents by offering scholarships and competitions. That’s why the festival chooses to focus on debuting directors or directors that only created up to three movies yet. By doing this, they hope to broaden the selection of films in Sweden. The festival wants to show good quality films from everywhere around the world, that would otherwise not be able to get a spot in the mainstream film repertoire.