Week 1 In Sweden

DAY 2: August 15th 2017

I woke up the next morning at 10am (not on my own I might add); Emilia had plans to see the city of Stockholm which I was more than excited to do. When we woke up, her two cats, Skrutten and Tussie came in to be with us and welcome us to the day. I went to the bathroom and then headed upstairs for my first breakfast in Sweden. We were welcomed by Emilias younger sister who was at the table drinking tea. Emilia offered me some tea (of course I said yes) and we proceeded to make breakfast. She offered me cereal and milk, however she also asked I wanted a type of yogurt milk that was strawberry flavored which is called sour milk (unrelated to sour cream). The sour milk we both put in our cereal and drank our tea. Emilia also offered me a sandwich, which took me by surprise. Sandwiches are usually eaten at lunch time in America so when I was offered one at 8am I was taken aback. I said yes (when in Rome, right?). We ate bread, which looked and tasted like naan bread, with butter and cheese. Once again, the silence was killing me. I wanted to talk about politics, about funny videos I had seen, about anything. I figured that maybe it’s more of a Western Culture to fill all silences with small talk. I found it weird wanting to engage in small talk when I really actually hate small talk. Perhaps this silence said more about me than anything else. When we were finished we got ready and headed for the train. We took a bus to the train station and when we finally got into the city it started to rain. Emilia was a little bummed out about the rain but I felt so calm and peaceful. The rain always made me feel so relaxed and at peace with the world. I also noticed that many many people were smoking cigarettes, more than in the States. When I pointed this out to her, she explained that there are probably less hard drugs in Sweden and that’s why more people turn to cigarettes; although some people only smoke when they’re drunk. We made our way to the tourist part of the city where there was the military band on horses getting ready to play and march. It was really quite amazing to witness. The city was breathtaking. I never thought nature could exist so naturally among the urbanized society. We saw a palace/castle with guards and ate lunch in the tourist area. I quickly figured out how to decipher between kronor and American dollars (divide the kronor by 8). After we ate lunch we went to a thrift shop which was way nicer than the thrift shops we have in the US. We were on our way down to the first floor of the shop when we ran into two of Emilias friends. They were both very friendly and welcoming. They invited us to their apartment to hang out after dinner, we agreed and continued shopping. Neither of us bought anything but it was fun to shop and hang with Emilia. We made our way back to the train station so that I could catch up on some sleep before going out with some of Emilias friends. After we were finished with dinner we headed for the train station again. We met her friends outside their apartment building and talked outside for a while before going up into their room. We drank chocolate milk with mint flavored vodka which I found very delicious. We played ‘never have I ever’ and then went to the beach to listen to one of her friends play the guitar and sit by the water. It was so refreshing to sit with people, listen to acoustic guitar, and watch the city on the water. While the first silence was awkward for me this silence was beautiful. Life was happening now; no agendas, no obligations just spending time with people you cared about doing things that make you happy. This lesson of just being I will definitely be taking back home with me. Maybe silence was human and I didn’t need to fill empty spaces with random quotes about the weather.