Sunday, November 2, 2008

Understanding Stockholm

The first time I had a chance to explore Stockholm was in 2001 when I won a scholarship to study as an Erasmus student (never too blessed and definitely the best thing ever made by the European Union or anyone who has established it), for what would have been the most shocking year of my life. When my Erasmus ended I was so shocked and depressed that I had not the strength to cry but I swore to myself that I would never have lived in Italy any longer and one day I would be back in Stockholm (where I live now), even if not as a student any more. After living in Northern Europe (England and Ireland) I was back in Sweden in 2006, first one year in Gothenburg and then I returned to Stockholm in 2007, keeping my promise.
I imagine that now you yearn to know something specific about the famous girls and what the Swedish capital can offer.

You need to know that in this nation who commands is them, the women.
Pretty, uninhibited, usually healthy, gentle, friendly, active in the choice of partners but also shy, introverted, very rough / vulgar and individualistic / selfish.
Can they be all these things simultaneously? They (several of them) are. How’s that possible?
It’s important to understand the way in which these girls live, which is not very different from how the boys live. The Swedes (men and women) have a simple life because it’s divided into stages, have an infinite number of rules to follow (almost) all the time and those who follow them can live and be accepted in Sweden, who doesn’t tend to be marginalized by the society. The rules are accepted uncritically, they exist and people follow them, if you don’t you're judged a slob or a character that puts at risk the civil coabitation. When I want to make some "friends" in Sweden I say that the unquestioned respect of certain rules that leads to sad and disgusting life styles and when I say that I know for that person, male or female (if not a transgressive) I am already branded as a person not to associate with. But people cannot respect the rules 24 hours a day 7 days a week without getting seriously ill so the Swedes have their safety valve in the weekend where alcohol consumption per capita lets off licence stores make a fortune and allows boys but especially girls (who choose) to do what they want, forgetting the rules that would return to lead their lives from Monday.
We can therefore say that the Swedes are shy, introverted kind and educate from Monday to Friday; uninhibited, extroverted and sometimes rough in the weekend when alcohol changes their behavior.
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