Tag Archives: trulyswedish

The Swedish daycare system (förskola)

As the summer winds to an end, I thought I’d write a bit about how life in Sweden is with a toddler. Our daughter is now a bit over two and a half and has been going to the local förskola (daycare) since she turned one and a half. Let me just start by saying that the Swedish system works and is so worth it.

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Getting a driver’s license in Sweden (B-körkort)

It’s time for a fun update!  Today I’m going to talk about getting a driver’s license in Sweden (or rather, what I had to go through to get my Swedish driver’s license).  Listen up, Americans… this ain’t no joke.  The test is way harder than you think.

Raise your hand if you moved here and found out that your driver’s license was only good for the first year that you were here?  I’ve always thought that was weird – as if we would suddenly forget how to drive once the 366th day comes rolling around.

Keep your hand raised if you thought that it was no big deal for you to get a new license because you drove back in your home country, or you chose to postpone the process because you didn’t think you would need a car.

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Coronavirus times in Stockholm and Sweden

Day 57 of working from home.

As soon as it became clear that the outbreak wasn’t under control, we received a note from our head of HR that everyone would be working from home, globally, starting on March 11. It was pretty sudden – none of us had prepared for this so most of us left things in the office that we would have taken home had we known (keyboard, mice, monitors, etc).

There are a million posts on Facebook and other social media on what it is to work from home so I won’t talk so much about work – but I did want to share some perspectives from my personal life now that both my wife and I are stuck in a WFH situation.

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Characteristics of Swedish business culture

I’ve lived in Sweden for almost 8 years now and fortunately, I’ve been gainfully employed this entire time (crossing fingers). These years have given me a lot of insight into how different it is to work at a Swedish company when compared to an American company.

Here’s a few of my observations over the years…  Treat this as a cheat sheet to understanding Swedish business culture just a bit better! Continue reading

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

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