Hej,
I went to Richard Orange’s fermented herring party last week and lived to tell the tale. Although I’m not sure my breath will ever properly recover.
My northern Swedish mother scoffed at the notion. “I never eat surströmming with beginners,” she muttered, firm in her conviction that it’s a delicacy to be savoured without appalled exclamations such as “ew” and “who farted”.
I suspect Richard is now in her corner.
In fact, he goes as far as to argue that fermented herring parties are much more fun than Sweden’s other late-summer staple, crayfish parties.
I’m not sure I agree, but what do you think?
In other news
If you’re planning your autumn budget (or even your 2024 budget), it might be worth reading our write-up of Swedbank’s economic forecast for the next couple of years – although it seems like even the experts can’t quite tell where the economy is going to land. Will it get worse, or continue to be resilient?
The Swedish construction industry is not doing so well at the moment, which could mean bad news for the country’s housing shortage in the future.
We answered another reader’s question this week. They asked if you can lose your Swedish citizenship if you’ve never lived in Sweden – here’s the answer.
Anyone can ask a “reader’s question” and we do our best to answer. Here are our guidelines to how to ask our editorial team questions about life in Sweden.
Especially if you’re a new student in Sweden, you might be wondering how to address your lecturers, so we put together a guide to how to write a polite email or letter in Sweden. On the plus side, it’s pretty straightforward, but the challenge is that it probably goes against everything you’ve ever been taught.
As always, there’s much more to read on www.thelocal.se. Thanks for being a member. Your support helps our journalism survive and hopefully thrive, but I want to make sure it’s worth your money as well, so if you have any feedback, questions or ideas you’re always welcome to email me – I read them all.
Have a great weekend,
Emma
Editor, The Local Sweden
Inside Sweden is our weekly newsletter for members that gives you news, analysis and, sometimes, takes you behind the scenes at The Local. It’s published each Saturday and members can receive it directly to your inbox, by going to your newsletter preferences.
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