How Sweden Has Changed Us (Been Here Too Long?)

what's up everybody and welcome back to my youtube channel today I'm joined by the lovely Michelle also a fellow youtuber and it's actually crazy because we have like the exact same life story she met a Swedish guy moved to Sweden I met a Swedish girl moved to Sweden we both broke up with our exes somehow we still like Sweden enough to stay here and enjoy this lovely country and now we're still here doing our thing she's making YouTube videos on her channel in Spanish which is like very similar to the content that I'm Jane crazy yeah and like when we started talking and like explaining our stories I was like holy this is like it's like freaky how much we have in common but we got to thinking about Swedish culture and ways that Sweden has changed us because we've both been here for quite some time now I've been here for over two years and you've been here for a little longer a for three years now for three years yes and so that's a long time and that means that this great country of Sweden has had a little bit of an impact on who we are she's coming from a Mexican background and I'm coming from us so both being North American the culture is where we come from are quite a bit different in a lot of ways from the Swedish culture so I think that we need to get right into this and explain some of the key ways that we think Sweden has actually changed us the first way that I think Sweden has changed me is that I think I talk to strangers a little bit less now that I've been living in Sweden and I think this has to do with a lot of reasons for one thing Swedes are a little bit more reserved in general and I've talked about this a lot on the channel versus people in North America they're much more outgoing I think and much more likely to start those conversations with people that they don't necessarily know and I think one reason that I myself have even become a little bit more reserved is that the eye contact it all has to do with eye contact like for example if I'm standing in the elevator in Sweden like if you're in another country you're like you acknowledge the presence and I make eye contact and and when you lock eyes with somebody it really opens it up to like actually start a conversation with that person but people are much more shy about the eye contact here which I think makes it much harder to start those conversations where I feel like when I'm in America I am much more naturally outgoing because I'm always making eye contact and seeing the people around me and is the same actually like in Mexico where just like really friendly and we're like talking to strangers also it's just like it happens just so naturally you know and here yeah I feel that it's a can I leave it like a more difficult to get that kind of like eye contact as well yeah exactly elevators and just say it was like what's he like if you're looking to someone is just like yeah they just totally and I noticed it like in the beginning I was one of the things that was most shocking to me when I came to Sweden how I reserved like I remember when I'd be like going for rods and stuff and like waving at people and like everybody like who the hell is this guy like coming out of his way to like say hi and now I've just become so accustomed the culture that's just more natural for me to also be reserved so I'm curious like if I go back to America or like visit these other places if I'm just gonna snap into being like outgoing again or if Sweden has actually changed me as a person I think that's actually right and that happened to me for example because now for example I feel that after living here for three years now hey I think I appreciate more in my personal space like for example that happened like when I go to Mexico now I'm a little bit like more reserved I think so you know like no in my family with my family is like hey how are you but yeah but I'm when I'm in street and stuff it's just like people then like in Mexico of course like approach to you and it's just like you're like friend yeah hey how are you eh can I talk to you or something and then yeah it's for me just like we can't be can t be like more weird no like what are you doing I was thinking about that too with the personal space and you were telling me earlier about like when you're on the trains and like in Sweden is like an organization and a structure to how you sit on the trains like yeah I take their own slogs bond on into town every day on my way to work and there's like groups of like four seats and it's always like if there's nobody sitting in a booth you always sit in the empty booth you never sit in another booth where somebody else is sitting unless you unless there is no empty booths then you have no choice and then there's like an organizational system we're like you sit diagonally across from the person so you're not like sitting directly in front of them or next to them so that all the booths fill up with like two people they're like diagonally across from each other and then it starts to get awkward when you're like that third person has to like come in because then you have to sit next to somebody which is like that's a little bit like an icebreaker in Sweden and then like finally it's like the fourth to the seat so it's like the little organizational system of like how you actually sit next to people it's like it would be weird if it was like there was an open booth over there and then you come up and sit next to it yeah it's really we're and I really don't want to disturb like here you know the people so I'm just like if I know that there is like people sitting here and just go to them like to the other seat you know there isn't there because I really don't want to disturb anybody here it's like the typical it's the typical Stockholm things like put the air pods in or headphones right and you're just like Sonia in your space and I think like I do that as well now like when people like even if like people want to come up and say hi to me it's like I got my headphones it's like I'm like not paying attention to my surroundings as much and you just get lost in your own little world and I think that does make it like harder to meet people in Sweden is gem in general but I always say that when you do actually get to know the Swedish people they're amazing but it's just hard in the beginning exactly I think that I've actually changed as a person a little bit being in this environment for so long they're really nice people for sure when you get to know them actually like they they open up a little bit more and they are really really nice people for sure now we're gonna hop to point number two Michele what you got for exactly know that I have become a became it's a big comer became oh I got - we got swinglish speaking speed like yeah it's like a mix of lights for me help me school yeah so I have become like more independent as well yeah I love like my personal space I love to be by myself and also for example I actually didn't do that like before but now when I write to Sweden I actually like appreciated just to walk and just like me by myself you know listen to my music and just walk around I so nice and I know that people here of course when well so it's actually they don't approach to you so that's that's cool because they really wonder you by myself sometimes how are your quiet time it's a very peaceful country I would say I mean even Stas come on being the biggest city in Sweden it's not really really crazy I mean as far as Sweden goes it's like the hustle-bustle compared to other places but like many parts of Sweden there's a lot of nature trees forth very peaceful calm way of life people are very respectful quiet so you maybe do get a lot more personal space and quiet time and makes it makes it easier and more enjoyable to be independent for my next point I'm gonna say that Sweden has also made me a little bit more independent in the way that it works with like public transportation and stuff because in America you really have to drive everywhere the public transportation is really terrible not sure unless you're in like New York or San Francisco or one of those extremely dense cities but where I'm from you really had to take the car everywhere so in Sweden I think I actually go out more and do more things because I'm not necessarily reliant on my car especially if I want to go into town and have drinks and stuff I don't have to worry about driving afterwards and which is great in Sweden they're really good about not drinking and driving the limits much lower than in America where an America people might have beer too and still drive home and it's completely legal it's okay whereas they're much more strict on that here in Sweden but because the public transportation is so good I mean I live in tabhi I don't even live in the city centre bike is still don't make me jealous I love it up here too but it just goes to show that even not living in the city centre it's very very easy to get around I can go from the north end of the city to the south and the city in 30 minutes which is just crazy anywhere I need to go I always feel like it's very very easy to and having that does make you more independent and less reliant and I think that's one reason why I go out more here in Sweden I do in America cuz in America I didn't really party that much at all right and I definitely think like a lot of my friends and stuff here we like to go out Friday Saturday nights and maybe grab a beer in town and have to work like those sorts of things and I think because the public transportation is so great it makes it much easier to do that yeah and they use a lot of like bicycles and so I love to see people you know like relaxing and just going with the bicycle oh yeah the scooters are everywhere yeah it's so nice to see them like you know mostly during the during the summer here they're always like yeah the bicycles and scooters yeah I have to buy a bicycle next year question for the summer yeah or just scooter oh yes it's good for your life that's where it's at all right point number three for me as I'm going to say that Sweden has made me more fascinated and interested in different cultures now I think that Swedes in general really enjoy traveling and experiencing different places and I always had that passion of doing that and coming to Europe everything was so much closer and I really thought of this actually the other day I was watching a yes Theory video where they had a Swedish guy well they they were basically taking two strangers and making them switch houses for like a week feels like part of their challenge and one person was in Stockholm as a guy that's on yesterday's from Stockholm and then they had they were basically around going around Stockholm looking for a stranger that wanted to go switch places with somebody in Austin Texas for a few days okay the first Swede they talked to was like Oh free ticket to America oh sure I'll come like all kids work and I'm like right away and like he was so opening and just going off and travelling experiencing something new and on the flip side when they were in Texas looking for somebody they were looking all day to find somebody that was willing to come and switch places and it was so much harder for them to find somebody right which was shocking to me but it kind of makes sense because in America for example there's a lot of people that don't even have passports I mean America's such a big country people do not travel as much it's much less common whereas in Sweden I think people are very open-minded about other cultures they travel a ton I mean all the Swedes I'd meet they've been to all these countries they go to Thailand Japan they go all over Europe I mean as an American I've now been to 11 countries which I'm I'm very proud of and that I've had those experiences and I feel very fortunate which I was an American I feel like that's a pretty high number you have trouble I'm not for sure around you yeah but that's only in the last two years before I moved to Sweden I was like 21 years old and I'd only been to three countries in my entire life most 21 year olds in Sweden have been to more than 3 countries I can confidently say that and I just think that goes to show that Swedes are very open minded about other cultures and they travel much much more than people in America and also like living here in snow cones like really multicultural there are like a lot of people from everywhere and I love it actually you know I really love to meet people from other countries and for me for example I have traveled more here around Europe because of course there are like a lot of good deals from Sweden especially like to Spain or to Thailand but everybody goes there and it's crazy related he's you're really good so it's just a cheap you know I just booked like a ticket for the weekend and then use go yeah many much easier to go experience Europe from Sweden than from Mexico much much longer flight so for us not being from Europe it's definitely nice to take advantage of those are going to make sick creatures like you like you're really expensive actually no my parents and stuff are always wanting me to fly home and stuff and it's like it's not something I can just do for a weekend like I have many plans like it's a long long journey and also if you go actually I mean if I go to Mexico I have to go at least like I don't know like two weeks or two weeks you know for sure because it's not worth it to just go for a weekend yeah it's like 12 hours on a plane and then you're like the whole time I mean you're sleeping with everybody else is away and then like you fly back tonight just makes no sense so when we go home we want to make like a long trip out of it so that it's worth I'm used makes it good just booked my tickets to the USS winters oh yeah I have the same to go to Mexico pressure point number four actually not talking about like Mexico the things that a after three years here I have stopped eating spicy food and I love spicy food for sure but here in Sweden yeah like the culture like the food culture is that the food culture is not like they are not used to doing eat spicy food so yeah I mean I stop it why for sure and I don't feel like a real mix again I notice the difference - with like jalapenos here like they say jalapenos but they're like not actual hella penises when you're in America and you have a jalapeno it's really really spicy alright and here it's like they get them on like the kebab pizza and stuff and they're not spicy at all I remember when I was working as a teacher in a school and my kids put like 10 jalapenos on their plate like these kids are crazy fourth graders and they're eating 10 jalapeno I wouldn't even eat one of those things in America and then I hate when I was like oh he's he's not spicy ya know so I think there's a huge difference between the amount of spiciness that people are used to yeah that's right yeah the thing is like every time I actually me is like spicy food I used to go for it you know to eat that goes and he's just like I just put like I go crazy with this salsa so there's not oh my god spicy food right now I do yeah I also you know that they have like they sweetie she's that good yeah nice yeah Swedish tacos are way different than Mexican taco I'm sorry sweet they're not that's good Mexican tacos yeah are you gonna defend another kind of just like another kind of food but I like you it's good like I'm not a picky eater I love those are not food in general yeah but like a good authentic Mexican taco is just that is like the holy grail for me and it's really not the easiest to find a really good Mexican food in Sweden if you guys have been following me on instagram you saw there was a week that I went to like a different Mexican restaurant every single like day of the week people are like why is he he's construed every day and actually there are a few really good restaurants here in La Mesa I really loved the prices aren't like extremely crazy and the food is pretty authentic oh no no it's not Jesus actually really so if you're in Stockholm and you want good Mexican food I would say my night that would definitely be good I actually made a vlog about it before and I was surprised when I experienced it for the first time I was like wow actually pretty good so it's still it's not as good as the amazing Mexican places that I'm used to back so I'm sure you can relate to that but force.com it's good enough it's definitely good enough yeah it's good enough for sure like every time I really want that wasn't stuff I go to that place but also they're actually like opening more new places Mexican places like jealous I think so yeah one by one stall tell us pretty good enchiladas oh you have been there yeah alright I want to like take real Mexicans in these places so I know if it's good because I have to go there and just really see it's really Mexican yeah I don't know if it's actually good I thought it was good well for you I think it's okay you know what if I go there maybe I'm gonna be like or maybe okay well the jury's still out until she tries it exactly yeah but that's the thing I mean yeah I mean I I actually actually stopped eating spicy food but when I do I just go crazy Oh salsa they kind of been using everything I'll tell you what I go crazy with my fourth point is the amount of coffee that I've been drinking alright now in Sweden people go crazy with the amount of coffee like I've always liked coffee and where I come from in America the Pacific Northwest we're really known for good coffee I mean you've got Starbucks from Seattle Seattle's best from Seattle Stumptown coffee from Portal OTT of just really really good coffee from the Pacific Northwest we're kind of known for that but you guys in Sweden you guys take coffee to any completely different level like people at work like they'll have like seven cups of coffee throughout the day fast efika hashtag fika like that is just insane to me I definitely drank a little bit more coffee because it's just like free coffee work people just making coffee all the time and people always ask me in the morning like you want coffee and I'm like I'm not gonna say no oh yeah I mean I sometimes I'll like just go a week without drinking coffee just to try to like a reset the system Coffee is freakin addictive another withdrawals like I've been kind of coffee yeah it's crazy and in Sweden people drink black coffee and in America that's something that I never did I love my coffee with like the syrups and the creamers and all the fancy sugary stuff like oh like a good sugar filled caffeine rush of coffee like starbucks syrup like everything in there I love that but now like I actually can't appreciate a good cup of black coffee as well which I would have never enjoyed before moving to Sweden all right oh my god you have to go to Mexico we have a really good coffee there oh yeah Mexico like coffee point number five for me is I think that I have changed the way that I dressed since moving to Sweden and I think it's actually kind of obvious when I look back at what I used to wear when I was in high school I mean I was like a pretty athletic guy and I kind of embraced the the jock life of wearing like basketball shorts and sweatpants to school pretty much every day like if I was wearing jeans in America I was dressing up like jeans was pretty fancy for me back in the US but here in Sweden I've really taken my style to the next level and I think that's because like people that I surround myself with here everybody in Sweden may dress so nice and like people at work and everything and if I were to not be dressing nice I think I would definitely stand how everybody just looks so amazing here people really care about their appearance and so it's actually been really really good for my style and that's why I want to bring up the sponsor of today's video I've gotten so many questions about these pants that I ordered from this website I absolutely love these pants they're extremely stretchy like these are pants that you can like wear to the gym and workout it it's great like I literally it's like the male version of but they're like dress pants like you can go do squats in them at the gym you can like go for a run and then you can like show up at the office and you're where I'm like completely dress pants and the best part is you can get two pairs of these for only seven hundred crowns I mean that is just insane to me I love these pants so much that I reached out to them on Instagram and they agreed to work with me through a sponsored video so if you are looking for some amazingly comfortable amazingly stylish pants you can check them out in the link below in the description I absolutely love these bad boys I wear them pretty much every day of the week now and I just feel like I look extremely stylish they've definitely helped take my style to the next level so if you're living in Sweden they're definitely worth checking out where my point five number five yeah I'm gonna talk about the language also because say I know Swedish I like I speak Swedish now but now for example that I'm storing in Swedish it's a little bit hard you know because of course like when you speak another language like you become a little more quiet well in my case I have become a little bit more quiet that I'm usually um and yeah I don't know I just it's just a matter of time I think so and just to adapt a little bit more with the language and feel a bit more comfortable but the same as you right well I was extremely impressed with her Swedish because when we met for the first time that was during my month of only speaking Swedish alright and we've spoken like English and stuff over texts and then when we hung out like I dropped this ball monitor like woah I'm only speaking Swedish this month like pretty much the whole night in Swedish I mean we did switch to English at one yeah this is our first time hanging out basically a language that were just both a little bit more comfortable with but like the first day yeah three hours or something was like only Swedish which was like what do you know I mean it was good because you have to really practice and you have like go for it yeah with the language and for me I feel like my month of speaking only Swedish made me much more confident and much more just feeling good about my Swedish but even after that entire month I definitely understand what you're saying like it's so much easier to express yourself in your native language I feel much more comfortable I feel like I have more personality I can joke around more I just everything just flows much more quickly so that is something where even though I feel like my Swedish is fluent now and I only speak Swedish at work pretty much because I want to stay sharp and keep it good but I do just really appreciate and I feel really lucky to live in a country where everybody speaks such amazing English I feel like it's it's something that we all kind of take for granted living in this place and for me it was always important to speak Swedish and be able to be fully confident with that but I also really appreciate the fact that I can speak English because having that level of comfort is just so much higher in English even after learning Swedish it just it's still different right and for me what happened with languages now because now I think eh well Swedish and English right right I'm Spanish so every time like I try to just focus on one language then I'm just like confusing and mixing everything you know is like it's crazy now my heavy do like when he's throwing a third language into the mix definitely makes it much tougher because before I moved to Sweden I had a pretty good grasp of German which I think really helped when I was learning Swedish they spoke so much German but now when I try to speak German I mix in Swedish all the time yeah a lot of the vocabulary and grammar is very similar between German Swedish and so it can be really really tough mixing up the languages so I totally see what you're saying yeah I mean it's quite hard but I mean it's cool you know because we're learning you learn because I mean it's really nice now I'm actually like teaching him like Spanish that's that melibea voice of it no yeah with a language thing so now we've each giving you five points but we want to go the extra mile for you guys and give you one more bonus point we always go the extra mile here but I'll give you a little bonus one because you guys have stuck around for this long my bonus one is gonna be that living in Sweden I've really come to appreciate when the weather is nice because living in a country where the summers are very long and beautiful and the summer days are long and beautiful and very nice weather and everything it really makes you appreciate those times and for those of you that have followed me on my channel for a while you know that cold weather absolute intha mean gray it's not my thing but it really has made me appreciate when the weather is nice and I think that's just something that I've come to appreciate and I also feel like I've become very typically more typical Swedish in the way that like the weather is like a conversation topic to talk about how the wilderness is such a Swedish thing because everything changes really fast here and here we are filming this in October and it the thing that I noticed is that the day's change so quickly and the people also changed yeah I think that everybody's just a little bit more happy and friendly when it's sunny and everything and I think for me this is one of the harder parts of the year because you know what's coming up you know if the long winter is waiting and living in Portland and coming from Portland we're still pretty far up north from the equator but nowhere near as far north as Sweden is so even though we might get you know pretty sure pretty much shorter days in the winter it's not nearly the same as Sweden and so you don't notice the difference from day to day as much whereas in Sweden every week that goes by it's a very very noticeable change it seemed like just a month ago it was light until like 9 p.m. yeah and now it's 6 p.m. and we had to like get rights to film this video because I filmed with the natural daylight and it's just crazy how fast it changes and we're only halfway into the cycle of the day's getting shorter cuz they keep getting shorter all the way up until December 21st before they start to get longer yet and we haven't even hit daylight savings oh god is the line now daylight savings and then you like lose an hour in the evenings but yeah so with that being said I want to end it on a positive note I appreciate when the weather is nice and living in Sweden has definitely made me appreciate this see usually like this Swedish summer is just the best for I mean it's amazing actually I don't know actually there is like a lot of people that fly from Sweden to another place during the summer of course because holidays and so but I actually I prefer to stay here are you sure I mean I love this video good then why do people leave sweet exactly no I mean like here it's no sense take your vacation days in January yeah right my last point then it's about that I appreciate more my friends the new people that I meet actually like it's not that I didn't appreciate it before it I appreciate really like the new people that I meet here and they become my friends because I know it's hard to be an expert and it's hard to be living abroad actually so yeah so when you meet people from other countries living here in Sweden it's so cool because you can share experiences and then yeah I mean it's it's it's really nice because you understand each other definitely and I I'm somebody that's very fascinating my other culture so meeting people from other countries with different experiences especially who have come to Sweden as well it's very very nice to meet those people and I would say the best part of this whole experience of abroad for me personally has been the people that I've met along the way both Swedish expats everybody I mean the friendships and the people that I've met here in Sweden have been really really good there's so many quality amazing people in this country yeah and I think that is just like the best amazing positive note that we can end this video on because the people here exactly yeah after so with bad guys be sure to press that like button if you did like this video it really helps out and leave a comment down below because I think the stuff is super interesting with the Swedish culture I'm curious to see what you guys think have we become more Swedish as we have been living here and then also press that subscribe button if you want to see more content like this I'm coming out with a podcast my roommate soon which will be in Swedish if you guys want to check that out those will be on the channel as well and then I'll have Michelle's channel which is in Spanish with some subtitles so you guys can get some more Swedish information over there but with that being said guys we will see you in another video Wow hey

Channel: Stefan Thyron

Views: 219,521

Keywords: living in sweden, american in Sweden, experiences in Sweden, swedish culture, swedish style

Id: qPt--JSUDvw

Length: 28min 53sec (1733 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 24 2019