Yesterday I was sitting on my balcony with a cup of coffee and a cigarette when a woman walks by outside my window with a huge bag of crisps in her arms, eating as she goes along. And I just realized how wierd Sweden is sometimes. I have never in my entire life seen a grown woman out walking and eating crisps, maybe from one of the small packs they have in vendin machines, but only juring the night going home from a party. Never in broad daylight with a big pack. Swedes are so wierd with this. You cant buy sweets and crisps in the shop with out feeling embarrassed, or is this just me? I think that is the sort of mentality towards unhealthy stuff here. Everyone eats it, but no one wants to be seen with a bag of crisps in their shopping bag.
In England it is so completely the opposite. I have two examples where the difference is huge.
So, my school in Stockholm when I was a kid (10-16) had this school caffetetria that sold cakes, yogurt, fruit, hot chocolate and stuff. Mainly for the kids that stayed in school in the afternoon because their parents worked late. You could sit and play cards in the cafeteria, play pool or whatever. Anyways, there was a lot of fuss about this from some parents and in the end they decided to change. So we could no longer buy any cakes or even yoghurt at school, because they contained two much sugar. Instead you could only buy fruit. Except for fridays, on fridays you could get wipped cream on your hot chocolate for 5sek extra! Of cause people stoped going to the cafeteria, there was a sweet shop just around the corner... This sounds kind of normal for us Swedish people, well maybe a bit on the extreme side, but still you cant blame the parents from wanting their kids to eat healthy right?
Oh well here goes my English example... I went to school in England for 6 months, I was supposed to stay for a year, but it didn't work out. That is another story however...
What I wanted to tell was about my school. Ok, well the first differance, food in school is not included like it is in Sweden. Ofcause some people bring packed lunch, but they cant sit in the cafeteria with the other students, they have to sit in an empty classroom, wich is kind of wierd, so not many brought packed lunch at my school. The food at school was more or less chips and sausages, pizza or ceiche (spelling?). Well I'm a vegetarian so I had pizza and cieche everyday for 6 months. Seriously I gained so much weight in England, I'm not used to eating that way... So this was the only food the school had to offer, of cause there always was desert and crisps to your lunch as well. And it you have a snack in the afternoon its completely normal to have a bag of crisps.
So seeing this woman walking down the street with a bag of crisps the other day just made me think about it. Being half English half Swedish I notice these differences quite well. It's so small things. You don't really think about them I think if you are not grown up with both cultures. I mean you don't see the differences, our ways are so "normal" to us because we are used to them , we never question them.
Ok, that is all for today. Maybe you are bored out of your brain now, maybe not.
Cheerio!
My favourite crisps.... Hula Hoops.... But I'll tell you a secret, I prefer the bacon taste... wierd coming from a veggie huh?
No new pictures to post so you'll have to do with this one. ;)