I come from a family of immigrants and expats. My sisters and I were born in the Philippines, and we immigrated to the US when I was a little girl. My father was spent most of his life in Micronesia, Polynesia and South East Asia. His sister lived in Polynesia and Japan. And my grandmother also spent many years in South East Asia. So when I first moved to China, my dad said to me, “You’ll be just fine. You’ve got it in your blood to travel the world.” I think he’s right. But my travels have been limited to Asia. While I love Asia, I want to see more.

Top on my current I want to go to there! list is Sweden.

Photos provided by Panoramio are under the copyright of their owners.

I find the landscape beautiful. As a NW girl, I really appreciate the outdoors- although I spend most of my time in front of a monitor working. Try a Google image search for “Swedish landscape” and you’ll be hard-pressed to find anything you could remotely call “not-pretty.”

The people also look really, really hot. I have to visit any country that produced this

Or this

But most importantly,  I have not seen a plate of Swedish food that I don’t want to inhale.

Source unknown
Source unknown

I’m so hungry now with no way to satisfy my craving. Someone needs to open a Swedish restaurant in Changping stat!

I stumbled across this interesting site that details the etiquette of different cultures. I’m sure it’s mostly a generalization. However, I found what they listed for Americans to be pretty true. We do like our personal space, and we are direct and to-the-point.

Here is a little bit of what Kwintessential has to say about the Swedes. If I have any Swedish readers, can you tell me if you find this accurate? I’m interested to know.

One of the key characteristics of Swedish culture is that Swedes are egalitarian in nature, humble and find boasting absolutely unacceptable. In many ways, Swedes prefer to listen to others as opposed to ensuring that their own voice is heard.

When speaking, Swedes speak softly and calmly. It is rare that you were witness a Swede demonstrating anger or strong emotion in public.

The family in Sweden is extremely important and as such, the rights of children are well protected.

Do not offer a toast to anyone more senior to you in age. When offering a toast then lift your glass and nod at everyone present looking from those seated on your right to those seated on your left before taking a sip. You should then nod again before replacing your glass on the table.

Business Personnel in Sweden are typically fairly reserved and as such it is important that all dealings are formal and serious until it is deemed acceptable by the respective Swedish personnel to allow events to become more relaxed.

Read more on Kwintessential.