All
Aboard! "It's Very
Swedish..." a
train on a cultural journey through Sweden, exploring the
differences big and small between American and Swedish culture.
***
I remember visiting the US when I was six, which was three years before we moved here, and seeing these set at the table.
I whispered to The Nutritionist, since it was a dinner party with non-family guests, "What's in those glasses, and why are the glasses so big, and why are they on the table?"
I was told it was water, there were cubes of ice floating in it to keep it cold, and that people drank it with their dinner when they got thirsty. I was in shock. I was used to small glasses, filled with either fruit juice, or for special occasions, sparkling cider, or if it was at home for dinner, then milk.
Why would anyone drink water? It was for washing stuff. I mean, I'd certainly had it before, like when I was pukey sick, but that was it. In Sweden, water with dinner isn't normal.
Oh, how I came to regret those thoughts. I soon acclimated to a giant glass of thirst-quenching goodness. Then when it was time to visit Sweden for the summer, I'd sit there parched at whatever food occasion it was. Ice cubes? I don't think they even have the removable, fill them up yourselves and dump version. Certainly not a luxury such as this:
Here in arid Colorado, I have no idea how I'd survive without ice water. Please meet my constant companion:
I always carry my water bottle. I probably fill it five times a day. Yes, it's glass. I like to put peppermint extract in there, and the essential oils eat plastic.
To my friends in Europe: Unless times have changed drastically since last time I was home, it's still hard to find an ice-cube across the pond. Please correct me, and educate my readers, if that has changed.
~Tina, drinking water, and soon celebrating the taxes being done with a dinner out with The Engineer!
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All pictures taken by me
