Last night we were having dinner with an Australian friend and we were talking about similarities between the US and Australia in comparison to Sweden. We both agreed that everything in Sweden seems so nice and clean and organized and tasteful. You almost never see plastic tableware, trashy lawn ornaments, or old cars sitting in someone's yard....it's almost safe to say that the word "tacky" doesn't exist here. The majority of Swedish meals involve sitting down with real plates and silverware, candles, and real flowers on the table. People use knives and forks to eat McDonald's burgers. Household appliances are compact, sleek, and well-designed. TV commercials feature beautiful cinematography, soothing narration, and intelligent ideas...no screaming salesmen or flashing lights begging for your attention.
Now, as a backwoods, home-schooled, grew-up-in-a-trailer Michigander, I suppose my standards of "nicer" might be a little skewed. I've spent a good portion of my life living out of mobile homes, crappy apartments, tents, fieldwork cabins, the back of my truck, and a dusty concrete box that passed as a Guatemalan house, so it doesn't take a whole lot for me to think, "Ooooh, fancy." My friend summed it up perfectly when she said, "In Sweden, every time you walk into someone's house it feels like you're visiting the one 'rich' friend you had when you were a little kid." It really does make me feel like kind of a dirtbag sometimes, but I'm starting to get used to all this fancy stuff. Bring on the fresh flowers and candles, Jeeves.
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