Fika in Stockholm

Stockholm is a city built on 14 islands and is the capital of, and the biggest city in, Sweden. I spent 3 days walking around the different districts of the city. My first reaction was: it is more expensive than London. Lunch in a corner cafe consisting of a shrimp sandwich and a coffee cost me £10!
I went to see the Vasa Museum (impressive), went on a boat trip around the islands, walked around the Old Town and sampled the Swedish food. 'Fika' in Stockholm was a great experience!

Sorry to bother you, dear.

"Sorry to bother you, dear"

This is how the official work email to my English male friend started. It was sent by another male, an Indian expat on a short work assignment in the UK, in his mid 20s. My friend is a rather serious 40 year old executive. This, of course, made him laugh as, although the phrase is acceptable and frequently used in the UK, one would never use it in such a context.

Polish plumber's wife in London - what do Polish women think about their new country?

Over the past five years I have followed a Polish online discussion group in order to explore what Polish immigrants (women in specific) think about British culture. The results of this study were presented at two conferences: in London, UK in 2006; and in Krakow, Poland in 2010. Below is a short summary of the study. Polish women expressed a wide range of positive and negative opinions about how the Brits go about things. Data was gathered at two points in time: in 2006 and 2010; and then the data were compared to find out if there were any changes in how Polish women 'judged' their new country. In 2006, the participants discussed mainly material culture. Women criticised a range of issues: lunch boxes that children take to school, extreme (and silly) school safety, carpeted bathrooms; sinks or queues at bus stops.

In addition, Polish women disliked British humour: one of the participants shared a story relating to it which is meant to reflect that British humour is unique:

“ I was on a student camp in the USA in the past. There were around 300 people from all over the world. In the evenings we set down around and joked. So some Australian or a German tells a joke and everyone is laughing except for the Brits. So when the Brit was telling a joke, no one was laughing except for the Brits”.

Poles expressed unfavourable views toward quiet and distant underground commuters (In London), excessive politeness, or respecting the law. On the other hand, cultural diversity, customer service or social mobility were seen as positive aspects of the British culture.

In 2010, the expressed views were less intense and focused mainly on subjective culture: class society, humour, the widespread support for charity work amongst others.

Overall, the results of the study indicated that the opinions became weaker over time, and more accepting of the culture: One of the participants said that she “accepts everything” even though sometimes she does not “understand some phenomena”. Another one says: “in general, I have very positive attitudes”.

Dreaming of living in NYC

Today, I'm dreaming of living in NYC. I visited the city in July 2000 when I travelled to the USA as an au-pair. It left a mark in my memory and, although I have returned to the USA several times for short visits since then, I never made it to NYC again. Of course, I'm a moderate follower of SATC and love how SJP lives in her little apartment near Central Park.

I never used to like big cities. I grew up in a small village in Eastern Europe, and only started enjoying the city life when I moved to London several years ago.

NYC is one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world, with over 20m people speaking 800 different languages. A real melting pot of cultures.

Images of beauty in media

Very interesting article on images of beauty in media.
http://www.newsweek.com/feature/2010/unattainable-beauty.html

Nowy Jork - czyli co mi w duszy gra

Bardzo ciekawa relacja z Nowego Jorku - miasta, które odwiedziłam 10 lat temu, i które ciągle jest żywe w mojej pamięci. Po kilku latach spędzonych w Londynie, planuje wybrać się do Nowego Jorku aby porównać doznania.

http://kolumber.pl/photos/show/golist:142015/page:33

Globalisation of mental illnesses

Globalisation of mental illnesses: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20527441.200-how-the-us-exports-its-mental-illnesses.html?full=true