Thoughts about cultural differences...

Hey everyone!

Yes, I survived the weekend. We went out Friday and Saturday was my housewarming, so now I have to detox for the rest of the week. Saturday was also the day when my friend from Belgium and her boyfriend came over to visit me. So lovely that I've only lived here for three weeks and already have visitors!

A hungover Alice with her pimped bike and Belgian friend.

I should have studied this weekend, but all I did was to write down some common stereotypes for my group work in Intercultural Communication. It's quite fun to discuss stereotypes in a group where everyone is from a complete different culture. Swedish girls for example, have a quite bad reputation internationally. People basically think that we're all blonde, tall and easy to get with. Oh, and that we all drive a Volvo, furnish our houses with Ikea, use Snus instead of cigarettes, shop all our clothes at H&M, and drink a lot of Absolut Vodka, and my favourite: We have polar bears walking in the streets. This is all quite fun to hear though, especially the last one.

When we study Intercultural Communication like this, you really start to think of all the small things you haven't noticed before. How difficult it could be to communicate interculturally, and misunderstandings that you don't even notice. I even see cultural differences between me and my Norwegian roommate sometimes. Probably, because we have such similar cultures, we get really surprised when we actually find something that is completely different.

Swedish dinner: meatballs, boiled potatoes, brown sauce, lingonberry jam & mashed green peas.

Yesterday I cooked Swedish food for my roommates, so me and my Norwegian friend could feel a bit like home again. It was quite funny to see the Chinese guys' reactions to Lingonberry jam!

Anyway, got to go and study now, for real.