In case you weren't aware, the Swedes are pretty much the most delightful people on the face of the planet.
I've never been to Sweden, but I took advantage of a hotline created by a Swedish tourism agency that connects people around the world with a random volunteer Swede who will talk with anyone who calls about—well—anything.
Call 46-771-793-336 (American callers should dial 011 first), and you'll be met by an automated voice that says, "Calling Sweden. You will soon be connected to a random Swede somewhere in Sweden."
The person on the receiving end of my call was Catarina Wallén, a 52-year-old woman who lives in Karlskrona, a small island on the southeastern tip of the country. She was with her friend and daughters, and had just finished dinner. The men had all gone upstairs to watch a soccer game, and they were relaxing and drinking wine. It was 10pm in Sweden, and they were just getting their weekend started.
Our first topic of conversation, trite as it may be, was the weather. It was a balmy 50 degrees in Karlskrona, which sounded great considering that I was in Chicago on a snowy April day. The crummy forecast had me a bit bummed out, so I asked them what they do when the weather is bad and they get depressed. Catarina didn't miss a beat; she told me that they work out, read books, travel and (of course) drink. A lot.
So we had that in common.
She and her friends have been to a lot of places around the world, America included. She's been to California, Arizona and New York (which she loved—how can you not?). When asked to sum up the country in one word, she said “big.” While she loves the country, she did say she as a bit unsettled by the current state of the American political election, particularly Donald Trump, who she described as a "wannabe politician."
Catarina went on to describe Karlskrona, and the group got a good chuckle over my amazement at the fact that they live on an island and own a pair of boats. They laughed at all of my jokes, actually, which makes me wonder how I'd do as a stand-up comic in Scandinavia.
She gave a pretty hard sell for the island—after all, this whole thing is a tourism ploy (see: they laughed at all of my jokes)—describing it as small but beautiful with a set of amazing views. She referenced this YouTube video from Visit Karlskrona, which makes me want to pack up all of my things and live there. With Catarina. And her friends. And their wine.
Catarina didn't hesitate to query me about American's opinions on Sweden. I gave her an obvious response: meatballs, IKEA, cold weather, picturesque and...wait, it's not Switzerland? It was a better view than other callers had had of the place. She said she had spoken to a man from the Philippines the day before who couldn't stop talking about the Volvo Museum, and that he loves IKEA but doesn't go often at all. Another man from Austria asked if Swedes drink a lot like the Finnish (apparently that's a thing?).
She capped off the call by telling me: "I think that [these calls] are making the world maybe bigger...or smaller, I can't tell."