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Europe » Sweden » Östergötland County » Linköping
November 9th 2010
Published: November 16th 2010
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Well hello again! This is a whole new thing for me- 2 posts in 2 days!! I just wanted to update with a few pictures of what I woke up to this morning. Sweden is funny in the sense that last night when I went to bed there was absolutely no indication that when I woke up I should be pulling out the Christmas decorations and roasting chestnuts on an open fire. It's a frigan winter wonderland over here! The weather is not so cold (which is probably what makes it such prime conditions for so much snow!) as it is just 1 degree here and will apparently be a high of 3 the rest of the week. The catch is, it is supposed to snow from now right through to Thursday! Oh boy! Someone is clearly having a laugh at my expense because it is this week that my early morning classes began. I've had smooth sailing with 3pm classes up to this point and the moment I switch to the morning it's blizzard mania. har har.

One interesting thing to note are the cultural differences here in Linköping and what they mean with regards to reactions to such weather. I was definitely surprised by the sudden blizzard but I dutifully pulled out my waiting winter boots, winter coat, toque, and gloves like the good little Canadian I am. We all knew this was going to happen eventually right? I mean the whole winter thing. As I walked to school I saw everything from people in tiny jackets (even saw fashionable leather ones which do zero for warmth) to high heels and no hats or gloves. Probably the funniest thing I saw was the amount of people with their umbrellas out. I can't help it, I was mocking them in my head wondering if they knew umbrellas aren't necessarily appropriate for all levels of precipitation and if Sweden is anything like Canada, those native to the country were probably wondering what planet these people fell off of. Umbrellas?? Strange...

One fantastic thing Ive learned this season is a different way to consider the classic mittens. The German word for mitts is Halbhandschuh which translates literally in English to 'hand shoes'. I think I like this better than the Westernized version so to myself, and to my German friends I refer to mittens in this way. haha Please think of this next time you bundle up to go outside.


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17th November 2010

Umbrellas
well, actually you will find many people using umbrellas here in Vancouver when it snows, which it does rarely of course. Glad you had fun in England!

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