Evaluation: 3 weeks in Sweden so far.

My first observation is that I thought I would have a much harder time switching from English to Swedish when talking to people. This has turned out to not be an issue, except for the very first week, when I sounded like a total moron. It could be that I have talked to a lot of people, and gotten all those early mistakes out of my system. My thinking is still very mixed, as my thoughts and self-talking go on in both English and Swedish (some times at the same time).

The 'System'
I didn't think it'd be easy to get back in the system, with address change, attempts to get unemployment, and attempts to find health care - and it wasn't. I have to say this didn't surprise me.

The Swedes
The Swedes as a people feel different. The overall 'Swedish' culture has changed in some direction that I don't know where it's going. Could be the economical situation that has brought the pessimistic outlook, but it feels deeper than that. It's hard to describe - perhaps I will be able to tell more once I understand it better (if I ever do). People don't seem to care much anymore. From what I hear and have seen so far, people in the work force just barely do what is expected out of them - particularly the younger groups. If this is a sign of laziness, a lack of belief in everybody doing their share (so why should they?), or a lack of faith in the future - I don't know. I just know that this is not the same attitude towards work ethics that I knew when I moved to Canada. Is society about to crash? What is this? I just don't know.

Family
I haven't met everyone here in town yet, but I have a bunch. My back has limited me from seeing more than I could have, and I see no rush in meeting them all as soon as possible. They're around. So far, I've met my mom, grandma, 2 aunts, 4 cousins, 5 children of cousins', and 1 child of the children of my cousins'. and that's without even leaving this town! I should meet another 4 cousins within the next month, and a bunch of their children. It's been good.

The town of Sala
I expected this small town to have grown. That appears not to be the case. Not much construction in 10 years, and the town is definitely not spreading out.
Crime has definitely gone up. I've been warned to keep out of certain areas of town after dark, and that's new to this place since I lived here.
The demographics have changed a lot. When I left, the caucasian percentage of people living here was about 99.98%. Now, it is with a rough estimate maybe 85-90%. That's a lot of change in such a short time, and even though I haven't heard of any particularly racist environment, this could throw off the balance of a small town. People who have lived here all their lives get strange notions about the new people moving in, especially if they bring with them a new culture. Change can be hard if there has been very little of it in a long time.

Conclusion
I don't like what this has become. There is no 'drive' forward in the people, and I feel more like a misfit than I thought I would. I had expected to be a misfit until I got the hang of the language again, but that part turned out to be irrelevant to my level of not fitting in. I don't want to settle for this. If this continues as it has started, I will focus my energy even more on one day getting back to the culture I have come to love, even though I can't say exactly what it is in Canada that I like and now miss so much. Naturally, a big part of it is missing my friends, but it's more than that. Much more. It's not the normal 'the grass is greener over there', because I can compare the two and see many differences.
Maybe my 600km (one-way) trip to visit my cousin in the north of Sweden will change my opinion of what Sweden has become, but I doubt it. That doesn't get me down too much, but rather stimulate my focus on making it back to Canada. I'm patient. I don't mind cocooning for a while, and pretend to be part of whatever this is here.