It's a Fibertäcke Sval, duh

I was most displeased to come into my apartment with the hope that there would be some bedding left from the person who lived in my room before me, only to find that my mattress was bare. With little time and energy to shop yesterday, I decided I would just deal with it for one night, until I was pleased to find a left over duvet on top of the washer and dryer in the kitchen and decided that would suffice as a blanket. I then came to find that not only was it left over but it also was apparently left to be washed and smelled like male B.O. Don't ask why or how, but I somehow dealt with it and also slept with it from midnight until noon the next day.

Today was dedicated to Kristen and I furnishing our rooms to the greatest of our capacities (and wallets). We went to a sort of department store in Sweden and looked around the bedding, only to find that we couldn't distinguish between a pillowcase, duvet, or the variations of sheets. This confusion led me to begin taking things out of their packaging in order to investigate. In the end, out of frustration I decided to nix the idea of a flat sheet and went for just a fitted sheet. After shopping and coffee, Kristen and I also went to the grocery store near my apartment and across from the train station and began making our way around. After putting random items in the cart, we came to the juice, milk and yogurt area..which is where things began getting a little fuzzier/overwhelming for me. Most of the juices were named similar things, not to mention fusions of different juices, I ended up deciding on apple, orange juice and mango (I think). Yogurt came in a variety of packages, including cartons that look exactly like milk cartons, with a variety of flavors. And then, there's the milk situation. I had heard from a Lund returnee that the Swedes are very big on a certain type of milk that tastes sour, they enjoy putting it on their cereals and sometimes even drink it straight. I had forgotten this detail until I was in front of the rather large milk section. Not only were the milks named different things but they also had different percentages..0,1 0,5 1,5 which added to my dairy anxiety. In this department, I decided on 1,5% mellanmjölk..which I later looked up to discover that it was indeed skim milk. Live it and learn it, I suppose!

A few things I have noticed about the Swedes and their culture thus far:

-their Fanta tastes superior to Fanta in the states

-like in other parts of Europe, drivers dislike pedestrians

-almost every every every store closes at 6 p.m. sharp, and they won't even give you a pity glance as you stare blankly at the locked door

-gladiator sandals are a bigger trend in Sweden than they are in the states

-the Swedes like to wear salmon(ly) colored pants

-most everyone from Sweden is beautiful

-they like random seeds on every type of bread product

-they make the most delicious chai lattes

Tomorrow's task: begin my Swedish language course at 9 a.m. sharp, buy a bike (and hopefully keep it from getting stolen), buy a phone!