Demystifying Swedes and their culture

I was reading an article about culture shock in March and found that I was actually deep in the thick of it. Here is one tool that I have found very helpful to that end. South of Sweden is a magazine that you can get here in Skåne and on the net at http://www.sosweden.se/. It is invaluable to me as a transplant for many reasons. First, it is about Sweden. Second, it is in English. It is a guide of things to do and places to go. It is a business directory. Most of all it has a couple of columns written by ex-pats that I can relate to well. The best part is a "dear abby" like column that aims to demystify Swedes. I can honestly say that almost every column has helped me. There was one about the institution of the "fika" (coffee break in simple terms). The last one was about a lady who slipped and fell in the grocery store parking lot and nobody helped her. She was NOT hurt but was confused why nobody seemed to even notice. I had this exact same experience. I tripped fell in front of a whole group of people. I scrambled up and was stunned that nobody seemed to notice. I almost wondered if I had imagined it. In the column "Abby" responded that Swedes would have thought it to be an embarassing situation so instead of embarassing me further by asking me if I was okay and thus drawing more attention to me they would rather just pretend it didn't happen. Strange for my culture but in according to her typical for here. The column is called "Dear Hettie". I just got an email invitation the other day calling for questions for "Hettie". Should you like to send in a question here is the email. collette@sosmag.se The letters are always amusing, insightful, and truly helpful.