Pickled herring

I think every country has “national” food that makes many wonder why they eat it. Food that the rest of the world wouldn’t eat even if they were paid to do it. For example I don’t get why some countries insists on eating haggis. I know that it comes from an era where you ate everything on animals but now a days it’s crazy. I don’t think it’s wrong to eat it but it’s not something I crave. Sweden has pickled herring.

I don’t eat pickled fish but many in Sweden do. It’s often eaten during holidays but lots eat it more often. I don’t get how anyone willingly put this in their mouths. It’s raw fish in vinegar. It tastes like………fish in vinegar. The fish texture and vinegar taste are sickening. The texture is soft and hard almost like pickled mushrooms. I’ve intended to learn to like them on many occasions but I can’t even have a small bite. My mom said I used to like them but I can’t believe I did.

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Christmas

I love all things about christmas. I love the “dimmed” lights the best. Everything looks better in christmas lighting. In Sweden almost everyone has christmas lighting in every window.

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It will only be Kajsa me and my mom this year for christmas. I couldn’t have it better than this. It’s less stress when we don’t have to go somewhere. We used to go to relatives every year but now we often spend christmas home.

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Food is a big deal when it comes to christmas. The thing that most in Sweden want on the christmas table is pickled herring. It’s raw fish in vinegar. That’s right raw fish in vinegar. That’s my least favorite dish and I never let it touch my plate. There’s many tastier things to choose from and the herring devours can keep their fish to themselves.20171221_170531

We don’t have a real christmas tree. We have a little plastic tree. A big tree takes up the whole room and there’s bugs in it.

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Norms

Every place has it’s unwritten rules and norms. These are rules you have to follow or it will be hysteria all around. These rules you sometimes don’t think about. Or you never think about them. In Sweden we have all these “polite” rules.

For example swedish people would never think of not standing politely in line in grocery stores and everywhere else. We stand there and would never “cut the line” no matter what. If someone would cross that rule and not wait in line many wouldn’t say anything because we’re too polite! We think things but we don’t say them.

There’s one thing that drives me crazy but because I’m swedish I don’t say anything. Sometimes one of the local grocery stores has “member days” where members get discounts on groceries. On these days every retired person with a walking chair invade the store. I like elderly people but these I can’t take. On member days they behave like they buy all groceries they’ll need for the rest of the year. Their walking chairs are packed with all items that are discounted. What drives me crazy is that there are walking chairs everywhere. They block every inch and you can’t get to the groceries. I want to say a lot but I wait forever instead until the walking chair has another grocery on it and disappears.

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