The last few days

So the last few days have been of some accomplishments. I am understanding little conversations more and more, but still very reluctantto actually speak in Swedish. It's the first time I've been somewhere where I don't really speak the language (and I live here!!) and I get embarrassed by my inability.

A few days ago I was a little tired of staying home, it was the first day I didn't go out and I felt a little trapped. So I decided to go out to the supermarket and buy snacks. As I was paying, a man with a kid heard me talk in English to the employee of the store, and walked towards me. He started asking questions, in a strong Irish accent and telling me he's been here four years, has a kid (absurdly cute kid by the way) and could offer me a job?? Weird things. He told me to go meet him at the pizzaria sometime this week and we would talk about it. I'm not really going, but I think it's funny how there's random people starting conversations with me just because they mistake me for american (?) or canadian (??). I think maybe I havent't been here long enough to start missing people from "back home" but I see how this could be a thing in the future.

So in case you were wondering if Sweden is the most civillized country in the world, the answer is: probably. This is a hard thing to measure, but I'm a little impressed every day at how the little details keep things rolling nice and smooth around here, and how much information flow there is between all the little parts of everyday life to make things quicker. This deserves a separate post, but I'll try to keep it in a few paragraphs:

The Swedish Public Transportation System

It is impressive.

I haven't been to Germany in over seven years, or anywhere else maybe a little organized other than London, so I can't compare it to the rest of the very organized parts of Europe. Comparing it to Brazil would just be unfair. So I'm going to just write my ode to the public transportation system here.

First, there is an app for that. I have a little app that tells me how to get from here to anywhere, and it's in real time. As in, it tells me all my options of routes, and how much time I have left before the buses pass (and YES THEY ARE ON TIME). Also, it shows little maps of how to walk from my current location to the nearest bus stop. And it's fast.

Second, you can pay the bus with your phone. Not like, you beep your phone on a machine or something. You just text a number, and you get a text reply back. You show the text you received to the bus driver and you are good to go. Then when the phone bill arrives, you pay for everything together.

Third, it's a tiny country and A LOT of the buses are those big articulate ones. I keep thinking of Sao Paulo and its millions and millions of people squeezed in small warm dirty  buses and subways constantly. And it makes me sad. Not only are the buses big here even in the suburbs, but they are also nice and cozy (yes, I am thinking of you, 40-degree-Celsius bus rides in Sao Paulo!!). I bet the subway can be quite crowded during rush hour, but I haven't experienced anything like that for now.

To be honest, my only question is why does the subway stop and wait at the end of each line? I live nearest to one of the final stops for the metro, and every time I walk in, the train is stopped for quite a few minutes at the station. I suppose here they focus on having it run on time rather than run the whole track as many times as possible, as it probably happens in SP.




As for the city, it is beautiful. You should come and visit Stockholm.