a few reflections on culture

First I would like the say happy birthday to elise :)

Currently it is snowing here in Sweden. I can't say that snow is quite as beautiful at this time of year when we're all so ready for spring, and have been fooled into thinking that it was already here last week. And it was snowing in the UK a few days ago too! Hopefully it will be sunny and warm for our trip; one can always hope.

I was sitting in on a class called "Money and Time" offered by the theology department here at the university. Several of my friends are taking it and I thought it might be interesting to just listen to the lectures sometimes. They had a guest speaker and he said a few things I thought worth writing down (in my summarized version). Here they are:

A love of reality shows is perhaps a symptom of loneliness because we feel like we know these people even though we don't actually. [a sort of quasi-relationship]

We have a need to feel a part of a metanarrative. We used to get this from the Bible, politics, etc. but now these are decreasing in importance. We live vicariously as a substitute for real living.

The media becomes the main provider of social construction as the family and other traditional institutions diminish. The media tells us who we are.

I wouldn't have expected these topics so much in a class about money and time, but I guess that's the beauty of a discussion oriented class. Tonight after debate club a bunch of us went downstairs to the pub and had a good chat. I suppose it can't be helped, but I think so many conversations I have here involve comparing Sweden to the US (or which ever country you're an exchange student from). Tonight we compared political parties, financial crises, and views about sexuality. We decided that all American parties are to the right of right-wing Swedish parties, Sweden's crash in the early 1990's is quite similar to today's housing crisis and subsequent issues in the American economy, and that Swedes have incredibly different views and norms when it comes to sexuality. All of this could probably be guessed. On the last point, it's not just that people have a lot of random partners, but the whole society seems to be much more relaxed. Most girls in high school are on birth control, and according to one swede, still being a virgin at 18 means you're either extremely religious or something is wrong. I don't think this is true in the US. At the same time, I don't think most Americans have a good view of sexuality either. But perhaps this blog is not the proper forum for this discussion.

I do appreciate the way the world seems to turn a little slower here, but maybe that's just how it looks through the eyes of an exchange student with a lot of free time. People always have time for fika or one drink at the pub. Maybe that's how it is at UConn too, and I'm just too busy having a scheduled lifestyle that I can't see it. In any event I hope that some of this relaxation follows me home.

We're off to the UK on Sunday. I can't believe it's already April. Certainly time speeds along, even when you have nothing important to do. At least I'm doing a lot of reading and researching. I'm also trying to relearn some subjects I've forgotten. Okay, time to read. Seriously I feel like my life consists only in processing written and verbal information. Anyhow, goodnight.