When you get to my age, you don’t expect to have many great adventures in life anymore, but, on the other hand, even daily activities can become an adventure. Especially if they are done in a different country or in an unusual way.

Today was the day to buy groceries and recycle trash. We were planning to go to the larger supermarket located in Älmsta (about 40 min by bus), but then we got lazy and just went to the smaller one that is 7 km away, or a short 10 minute bus ride.

Since the shelves are filled with quite a few unfamiliar products, or, in many cases, familiar products but with unfamiliar labels, it can be difficult to know exactly what you are buying. This can be a problem for people who are allergic or who have very specific diets, but in my case, it doesn’t matter so much.

I did make a few mistakes. I bought something that I thought was rice but ended up being some type of grain for porridge. I bought a bread that I thought was good for sandwiches, but was actually sweet (I should have realized that “honung” means honey). I bought a carton that I thought was milk, but was actually a type of yoghurt or sour milk (filmjölk). I bought a big pack of cheese that didn’t taste exactly like I expected. But other than that, everything was fine.

The next adventure was recycling the trash; the recycling bins for plastic, metal and glass are located about half a mile away from the house, and since the trash containers were quite big and heavy, we put them on top of round sleds and dragged them through the snow. Recycling here is easier than in Germany: Germans are obsessive about recycling and you have specific containers for green glass, brown glass, white glass, etc. Here, however, it’s just “färgat” (colour) or “ofärgat” (colourless).

And those were today’s awesome adventures. (Next one: laundry?)