Swedish Factoids

• Nearly everyone in Sweden speaks English as a second language (seriously, even the panhandlers I encountered were bilingual)
• I was told by a Swedish woman that employees who are required to work in a facility without natural daylight (like me) must be compensated for the conditions--generally with increased vacation time
• Stockholm has set a goal to be the most user-friendly city for people with physical disabilities by 2010
• In Sweden you can buy sparkling water with varying amounts of "sparkle"
• Swedish parents are given 18 months of paid leave for each child born--and apparently three of those months must be used by the "minority" parent (the policy was developed to encourage paternal involvement in parenting)
• Sweden is so far north that, around this time of year, on the southern tip of Sweden there are only four or five hours of darkness a night