Swedish News: Sweden’s official twitter account is completely run by its citizens, each week a new Swede is updating for @Sweden, completely uncensored to show the true people of Sweden. Isn’t that neat? See the video here. Right now the user is a lesbian truck driver, and boy is she chatty! I guess I would be too if I was updating for a whole country. I wonder who will be next. I can’t seem to find anything relevant to say on my new twitter. I’m sure the more I experience the more I will tweet? For now I’ll write long comprehensive sentences linked together to make paragraphs, but I think it’ll be fun in the future. For the time being I’ve learned how to use hashtags (#) and read stuff that people are writing about #Sweden and #Swedish.
I try to go for a walk everyday to get more comfortable with my surroundings and stay on some sort of schedule since I’m not working or going to school yet, but that still doesn’t keep me from sleeping late. Yesterday I ventured out at 10:30am (my earliest outing yet) and saw four long lines of the cutest little kids walking to and from the library down the block from us (which is a beautiful glass building overlooking the Nissan River that I still haven’t gone inside). Made me want to take my walks earlier from now on, I was tempted to take a picture of the kids but I thought that might be creepy.
Anyway, my new schedule of sleeping late isn’t a habit I’m used to, I love mornings, so I suspect its due to the weather/season. It still hasn’t snowed here yet, instead its all grey skies and lots of wind. At least snow brightens everything up a bit. Depending on what time our alarm goes off the sun still hasn’t risen or seems like its struggling behind the clouds. I’m the type of person who needs light, not only to wake up but to function.
A few people regularly ask about how much daylight I see these days, what time the sun rises and sets.
For those who don’t know anything (or much) about Sweden- its very long and very North (relate to it this way: Sweden is almost the length
of the whole U.S Eastern coast; the Southern
tip in line with Northern Canada, and the North tip in line with Northern Alaska) In Southern Sweden (Where we are least effected by the harshest cold weather and the longest days or nights) we had 6 hours and 47 minutes the winter equinox on Dec 22nd, waslong. In New York the same shortest day of the year was 9 hours and 15 minutes. Today the sun rose at 8:28 and will set at 4:11, and let me tell you it feels like it rises slow and sets fast! I hope you guys are enjoying your extra two hours of sunlight! Come Summer you will be jealous, so it makes it all worth while, I get to enjoy 17 hours and 45 minutes of daylight! It sounds like a lot but its a great way to brighten up your day! I’m just relieved to be in Southern Sweden so we aren’t stuck with even longer or shorter days, that must be rough. At least they have snow now, I’m jealous of that, but not of the weather difference, I’ve been enjoying my 4 degrees C (39 F), which is about to change but at least snow is on its way!