The Fika Revolution

                                 
                       

Since I moved to Southern Sweden ten months ago I have known that I wanted to start writing about my experiences as an American living in Scandinavia but I have had a really tough time deciding how and where to start .

As anyone who has moved to a new country knows there are so many different things to wrap your head around that just focusing one thing at a time is near impossible. We arrived in Sweden on the 9th of December.For for any Californian the winter in Sweden alone is a sobering reality. On top of that I pretty much started taking Swedish Classes full time upon my arrival. Then I was lucky enough to be offered a job working for the city of Hassleholm where I tried to speak Swedish and fixed "fika". In the states when someone makes the coffee in the office it's usually the least important person in the organization, in Sweden the person who makes the coffee is more respected and thought as the person who keeps the engine of the organization running. Anyone who has worked in Sweden knows that if there is not fresh coffee ready at all times during the working day, otherwise nice, professional people turn into caffeine crazed monsters.

From all of these experiences I came to the conclusion that the Swedish "Fika" custom is so important to life in Sweden that it had to be the subject matter for my first post.For those of you who are not familiar with "Fika", here's the Wikipedia definition:
  
"Fika is a social institution in Sweden; it means having a break, most often a coffee break, with one's colleagues, friends, date or family. The word "fika" can serve as both a verb and a noun. Swedes consider having a coffee an important part of the culture. You can fika at work by taking a “coffee break”, fika with someone like a “coffee date”, or just drink a cup of coffee. As such, the word has quite ambiguous connotations, but almost always including something to eat, such as cookies, cakes and even candy, accompanied by a drink. This practice of taking a break, typically with a cinnamon roll or some biscuits or cookies, or sometimes a smörgås or a fruit on the side, is central to Swedish life, and is regularly enjoyed even by government employees.^[2]"

The Swede's fika tradition is one my absolute favorite parts of the culture for a few reasons:
1. Any excuse I have to take a break or invite people over to be social I appreciate greatly.
2.Any excuse I have to put together a nice spread serving various types of Swedish baked goods on a variety of fine platters my husband said we have no use for, is also appreciated
3. Any excuse I have to drink a cup of Swedish coffee (I will dedicate a whole post to this subject later) after 11am without guilt is the most appreciated of all.