Category Archives: Me

A newly minted Swede

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Hello readers!

I have some big and exciting news! As of October 3, 2013, your dear blogger is an official Swede!  That’s right – I am a naturalized citizen of this country!  Don’t worry, I didn’t give up my American citizenship – nope, all I did was add to it.  I even managed to get my Swedish passport – it only took 3 days.

Being SwedishMost people congratulated me this week and asked how it felt.  My friend Victoria gave me a little “Welcome to Sweden” goodie bag filled with nostalgia-triggering items that apparently all Swedes of my generation owned at some point.  It’s been a week, so I figured I would try to put into words the emotions that have been coursing through my veins these last few days.

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Glögg season and new friends

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It’s glögg season again, and it’s time for another post!

Stockholm got its first “real” snow this past week!  Real snow is when it actually sticks to the ground and stays around, and boy was it needed.  It had been raining a lot and was dark and miserable, as it tends to be during this time of year.  But as soon as the snow came, everything brightened up.  Yes, it was still cold but I prefer cold and dry to cold and wet.  Even WordPress.com has snow on its front page!

(Side note: Californians, you have no idea how good you have it!) Continue reading →

Do Americans Dream of Swedish Sheep?

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I recently posted an entry about how Swedes speak amazing English. I thought I’d post a follow-up on learning Swedish and how it’s impacted me.

First of all, I’ve been here 3,5 years now. I took lessons sporadically for about 2 of those years – my work paid for a private tutor who’d come to the office and teach me for an hour and a half roughly every week. Of course, the nature of my work meant that sometimes I’d have unavoidable client meetings or I’d be travelling somewhere, so I’d have to schedule for when it was convenient.

I am finally at a level where I can understand most conversations if I’m paying attention – at least the context of the conversation. I can speak reasonably well too (at least I think so) and I’m doing my best to write it also. Continue reading →

Please come in, but take off your shoes first

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My dear friend Patrick Maurer will really appreciate this post, I think.  He is one of my best friends – we have known each other since early high school.  And today is his birthday!

He used to always give me shit for taking off my shoes whenever I was at his place.  “We’re not Asian, Kenneth. No need to take off your shoes, just come in.” Continue reading →

Hey! Welcome to Truly Swedish! (Hej! Välkommen till Truly Swedish!)

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Hello, and welcome to my new blog, Truly Swedish.

I haven’t blogged since 1998-1999 when I hosted my own site and logged my daily activities. The good old days of Slackware Linux and a 1 mbit DSL line. Yes, that was before “blog” was even a word. But hey, 12 years later, I’m back. Continue reading →