Sweden

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We have just arrived in Sweden and we are in an airport. Graham has just found a brochure that he wants us to read. It said that Sweden was situated in Northern Europe and lies west of the Baltic Sea and Gulf of Bothnia, providing a long coastline, and forms the eastern part of the Scandinavian Peninsula. Sweden is about 173,732 square miles and it is the 55th largest country in the world and it is the 5th largest in Europe. In 2008 it consisted of over 9.2 million people and about 15% of Sweden lies north of the Arctic Circle. Most of Sweden has a temperate climate, despite its northern latitude, with four distinct seasons and mild temperatures throughout the year. Sweden is much warmer and drier than other places at the similar latitude, and even somewhat further south, mainly because of the Gulf Stream. Temperatures vary greatly from north to south. Southern and central parts of the country have warm summers and cold winters, with average high temperatures of 68-77°F and lows of 53-59°F in the summer, and average temperatures of 25-36°F in the winter, while the northern part of the country have shorter, cooler summers and longer, colder and snowier winters, with temperatures that often drop below freezing from September through May. After we read that together, we walked outside and saw a scientist who Mr. Livingston talked to. I overheard them talking and i heard the man say that on average, most of Sweden receives between 20 and 31 in of precipitation each year, making it considerably drier than the global average. After Mr. Livingston came back, we also talked to a businessman and he told us about the economy. Timber, hydropower, and iron ore constitute the resource base of an economy heavily oriented toward foreign trade. The 20 largest companies registered in Sweden are Volvo, Ericsson, Vattenfall, Skanska, Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB, Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget, Electrolux, Volvo Personvagnar, TeliaSonera, Sandvik, Scania, ICA, Hennes & Mauritz, Nordea, Preem, Atlas Copco, Securitas, Nordstjernan, and SKF. He also stated that the 1973 oil crisis strengthened Sweden's commitment to decrease dependence on imported fossil fuels. Since then, electricity has been generated mostly from hydropower and nuclear power. He told us that the use of nuclear power has been limited, however. We then saw a ton of people who didnt speak English. We later learned that the primary language of Sweden is Swedish. After that, We went to an ice hockey game where Mr. Livingston was giving us facts about the sports there. ha said that the main sports are football and ice hockey. Second to football, horse sports have the highest number of practitioners, mostly women. Thereafter follow golf, athletics, and the team sports of handball, floorball, basketball and bandy. That was the best trip so far.

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