ICA, A Swedish Wonderland

There's a little grocery store not 100 feet from the student complex where I'm staying at and it's called 'Ica', a miniature exposition of Swedish cuisine. All the students shop there and it always has a crowd, especially around 10:30pm - a half hour before closing. It's pretty regular as far as grocery stores go. If you're from Ohio, I would call it 'Meijer lite' or those of you from Pennsylvania, 'Mini Redners'. The major differences between US mini-marts and this one are the cheese and meat sections. You see, here the cheese section is about twice the size of the meat section and this extract of cow is sold in GIANT wedges, wheels, chunks, slices - I'm not sure the Swedes know what petite means in terms of cheese.

Being an unprejudiced omnivore, I was slightly disappointed in the meat section. When I went to Eastern Europe meat was on the menu at every meal. Here it seems meat has taken a back seat. Chicken and beef are expensive (unless it's ground beef, for some reason there's tons of that) and pork comes in front with the lowest $ sign.

Good news is that my bike is fixed! With the new wheels, I wanted to check out a shopping complex a fair distance down the road. When I got there, I walked into the first building, not really caring what it was. To my chagrin I had stepped into a Swedish Wal-Mart, which just turned out to be an ICA on steroids. I cruise around, absorbing the strange words, labels, packaging. Not expecting to buy much, I only grab a few apples and some Haribo gummies before checking out, satisfied that this ICA differed very little from an American shopping complex. In line I noticed that something was not right. Everyone had a hand-held Star Trek device that they handed to the cashier upon check out. Of course, my cashier was the 19 year old, Swedish male model of the year. He looked at me pityingly and said something in Swedish to which I answered 'Engelska?' with my sweetest and most innocent of smiles. In perfect English he replied that I needed to register and get one of the Star Trek wands out front. Flustered for more reasons than one, I didn't ask him HOW. I had to ditch my purchases behind a potted plant for sale and head back out front of the store.

Once there, I was completely and utterly trounced. There was a wall of the thingamabobs (I can't believe that word passed spell check), a movie in Swedish showing how they worked, and a sign that said you needed an ICA card to start the magic. But they didn't tell you HOW to get the card, at least not in English. In the end, I decided it wasn't worth the hassle of revealing my American ignorance to store staff so I just left, my purchases waiting alone behind that potted plant for a later date when I have my Swedish translator with me.

ICA 1, Katie 0.

Yesterday was a very relaxing Sunday. I pulled my gaming Swede outside and we walked the hour to town together and we established a language class while walking. I can now say 'How are you' and 'It's cool' in slang/dudish as well as formal Swedish. YES.

I swear this is a God blessed country because it hasn't stormed or rained any fair amount since I've been here. The humidity is nearly nill and the heat is moderate. Everyday is a perfect outside day. Imagine, perfect weather for baseball, horseback riding, gardening, walking, running - you name it.

Uppsala was gorgeous. Sadly, my camera batteries died after having lasted an admirable 6 days on a half charge. Here are some photos for your viewing pleasure:






A crutch for a tree. Pretty neat, huh!