Moving to a new country can be difficult. You’ve got a new system, a new language, new faces and so many cultural differences. For Arabs, and especially Syrians who come to Sweden, the struggle is real! In our day-to-day life we come across a lot of moments when we stop and ask, "But... why?"
Here are some of these moments I encountered after moving to Sweden:
1. The whole transportation system
Busses don’t stop where you want them to stop? Trains actually work? Taxi fares can be higher than airplane tickets? What’s happening here?!
2. Almost everything closes at 19:00
Unlike the street markets that could be open until 21:00 or 22:00 during summer time, in Sweden all shops close at 19:00, and even earlier on Saturdays. So don’t even think about postponing your shopping until the weekend or you’ll starve to death!
3. Food from tubes
Caviar? Squeeze it from a tube. Jam? Squeeze it from a tube. Mustard? Squeeze it from a tube. Kebab cream cheese? Squeeze it from a tube. Yes, that wasn’t a typo. It’s a kebab cream cheese… squeezed from a tube… which leads us to...
4. Weird food and food combinations
There’s something fishy about Swedish food and it’s called Surströmming, which is the equivalent of fesikh in Egypt… which is the equivalent of "no thank you" for me! However, there are some combinations that I never knew I could like… yet I did! These combinations include salty licorice or meatballs with lingonberries and pickles (yes, all three together). And here I thought a meat and chicken shawarma sandwich was the ultimate combination!
5. Winter is coming, and it’s here for a while
One does not simply forget winter in Sweden, mainly because it haunts you all year long. It could be a midsummer day with the rain is falling down and you’ll have to wear your jacket. But everyone (including Swedes) agrees that the worst thing about winter isn’t the cold weather. It’s the darkness. I mean midnight at 3 p.m.? WHILE PEOPLE ARE WORKING?! But on the upside, it totally justifies all those hours of sleeping I've done.
6. Where’s the shattafeh!?
It is one thing to face all the above and more, but another to face the unexplainable, unacceptable and unsatisfying bitter world where the shattafeh doesn’t exist! #Giveusshattafeh
And these are only the beginning...