You want to know what might be the single most refreshing thing about being an American expat living in Sweden is? Seeing WOMEN. On MONEY. And not just women, women in the arts. Women who ignite imaginations. Women who create culture. Women who, I would guess, are at least 1/2 responsible for creating this country as we know it today.
I don’t know if I’ve written about it before, or am just always noticing and thinking about it, so I think I have already written about it. There are just SO MANY small conveniences all around here in Göteborg/Sweden to make things efficient. For instance, while waiting in line at our local supermarket, ICA Maxi, a large decal on the floor suggests you put UPC codes on the products you are purchasing facing you when you put them on the…
Have I mentioned how the Swedes like to take care of families? Beyond the 480 days per child of paid parental leave parents split between themselves, there are small conveniences everywhere making early parenthood just a little bit less of a struggle. From ample room on busses and trams for the many prams you see being pushed around each day, to pram parking areas and baby wearing harnesses available to be borrowed at museums, they seem to totally get that…
The blog that turned me (and likely thousands of others) onto blogs was Design*Sponge. I remember a very specific feeling I had nearly every evening sometime around 2005 or 2006. I would come home from work, turn on my (giant) computer, wait for it to “warm up” (or was it dialing up?!) while I made a quick dinner, and would pull up Design*Sponge and feel, likely for the first time since art school, that I was back with my people….