Off the beaten track and potentially out of my mind.
I grew up in East Grand Rapids, Michigan, and once I turned 18, I fled South towards warm weather and sunshine in North Carolina, where I majored in English at Davidson College. I studied abroad for six months in Perugia, Italy, where I went to the University for Foreigners, made life-long friends, and met my boyfriend. After graduation, I lived and worked in DC before moving to Vienna, Austria, and now I live in Southern Sweden with my boyfriend. Which is ironic, kind of, considering that I hate the cold. It gets quite cold here.
For the longer version of how I ended up in Sweden, check out “Welcome to the neighborhood!” on the Expat Blog.
My life in Sweden: it’s more than just meatballs and blonde bombshells.
Sweden has a certain image of itself that’s easy to buy into: it’s a very calm, orderly society with a strong social welfare system and a weakness for dairy products. People are kind but reserved. The economy is strong but built on the principles of sustainability. Liberal social values prevail. But that’s not really the whole story.
When I lived in Vienna and Italy, their kinds of crazy were right on the surface. Here, the crazy is a little bit subtler. And that’s what I like to write about—everything from the slightly off to the truly strange.
Also, there are a fair number of brunettes around. Just sayin’.
But… what do you actually do over there?
MY GIG WITH THE SWEDISH GOVERNMENT: I am the voice behind “The Expat Blog” at the Swedish government’s blog portal, blogs.sweden.se. I love writing, and I love my little corner of their blog, and this job is great fun. Dear boss, if you are reading this now, I hope you see how much I love this job. Please keep hiring me.
OTHER STUFF: I hang out with my boyfriend and friends, take day trips in the Swedish countryside, travel when I have the time and the money, read, write, cook, exercise, take long walks, try to stay on top of the dirty dishes… you know, the usual.
Tell me more! Tell me more! What do you like? What shall I buy you for your birthday?
- spicy food, strong tastes, lime and coconut (not necessarily together)
- cooking, baking, eating
- spelling, grammar, double entendre and its gassier American cousin, the pun
- feminism, gay rights, human rights, and all sorts of rights but not right-wing parties
- learning new languages
- adventure and excitement
- big cities, exploring
- party dresses and trips across the Atlantic
- chocolate, yoga
But what if I want more??
You can contact me with questions, comments, relevant hotlines, and/or frequent flyer miles by email at kate@transatlanticsketches.com.
Or you can follow me on Twitter @kwise321.
Or you can comment on a blog post, either here or at blogs.sweden.se/expat.
