Monday, March 31, 2008

Sweden’s Summer Time

Well today is baseball’s Opening Day. Kind of. Opening Day seems to be spread out a little bit more. But today is the day that baseball opens up for mass consumption. Which means summer is here. Kind of.

In Sweden summer is also here. Kind of. Yesterday the clocks changed. To sommar tid. Summer time. From winter time. It was daylight savings. And all of a sudden it is still light at about 7:30 in the evening. Which is confusing because it is still March. And when it is this light it should probably be a little warmer and say… June. These northern latitudes are confusing.

Sweden is relatively new to daylight savings. Not until 1980 did they start implementing the time change. And now the whole EU is on a certain schedule. The last Sunday of March. Which is why it ended up being on March 30th this year. Almost three weeks after the US made the switch.

The idea for the start of daylight savings, at least in the US, was to take advantage of the daylight. No good having it light at 6 in the morning when most people aren't even up that early anyway. And it's just a waste of electricity and energy to keep the lights on late at night when all sorts of daylight has been wasted in the morning. So clearly the US is at the forefront of the green movement of utilizing daylight to save the world.

I'm just excited that the time difference is back to normal, I fear change and that one hour was really screwing me up when I tried to call the US. I'm also excited that I made it through a dark Swedish winter. That darkness had no chance against me. It is but a distant memory. And now the light is on its way.

In all honesty, it did go fast. It was rough for a little while but all of a sudden I'm staring at 13 hour days and those 6 hour days are long gone. It's nice to know that this is very doable. Because that's an intimidating amount of darkness. But the summer brings a glorious amount of light.

18 comments:

  1. You gotta love the light of the Swedish summer! and hate the darkness of the winter...

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  2. Hairy,
    In honor of opening day, who's your team? My love for baseball has dwindled somewhat from my obession during my youth but opening day is still brings a great feeling!

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  3. There are not many things I miss about Sweden...but my, the endless summer nights. Those I really miss.

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  4. Summertime in Sweden is golden! As it is in Denmark as well.

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  5. @robban - it's true. the excitement and newness of the constant darkness wore thin pretty quick.

    @travis - well as a kid in COlorado it was the Braves seeing as how COlorado didn't have professional baseball until '93. I blame TBS for my affinity for the Braves. But basically ever since I left for college I really grew attached to the Rockies. Gotta support the hometown team was the thniking I suppose when I decided to leave home.

    @anette - they are pretty impressive

    @terry - indeed. summertime in most places is pretty glorious.

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  6. Talking about sports these are also important days for swedish sports fans. "Allsvenskan" the swedish football series had it's premiere on march 30'th. Unlike our hockey series the quality is relatively shitty though :p, but there are still many enthusiasts.

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  7. @anonymous - Swedish soccer is an enigma to me. first off, as I've mentioned before, I don't like soccer. But I still kind of pay attention. and what blows my mind is that everyone rags on the level of play but the fans still come to watch. it's like a cult. they are breaking attendance records left and right and there can be over 20,000 people at an AIK game.

    then hockey has excellent quality and doesn't draw half that number. I don't understand.

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  8. Guess it's because of the tradition "soccer" has in the country and the popularity of the national team. Even though for example the hockey team is more succesful, people are generally more interested in the soccer team. It's also the sport with the largest amount of practitioners.

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  9. Wtf? How can you not like football?

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  10. @anonymous - I suppose that's true. but just because everyones doing it doesnt make it ok. and bad soccer shouldn't be watched. hell even good soccer is a stretch... but I appreciate your reasoning. and it makes sense too. so I buy it.

    @anonymous - I love football. I was hurting here during the fall every sunday when I couldn't watch a great football game on tv. It's soccer I can't stand.

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  11. I can't stand americans who call football soccer and call a a shitty game like american football football when you don't even use your foot. Football is a beautiful sport. I mean the real football so you wont say that bad joke agian)

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  12. ok it was a bad joke but don't say you "can't stand americans who call football soccer," in the US that is what it is called. that's like you can't stand Englishman who say fag when clearly they mean cigarette.

    However, I just don't like soccer. Everyone says it is a beautiful game. I think it is boring. And I keep trying to like it just because I am here in Europe. I just can't get in to it. At all. I played when I was younger, I've watched plenty of games on TV, I've watched college soccer in person, I've watched international tournaments, I've watched Argentina-England in a bar in England, I've really tried. It bores me.

    See a past post:
    http://welcometosweden.blogspot.com/2007/09/five-tips-for-making-soccerfootball.html

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  13. Anonymous- you sound extremely close minded when you are bashing american football by calling it shitty. Just be thankful that the U.S. has American football or the rest of the world would never win a sprint medal in the olympics ever again!
    I love soccer/fotbol as much as the next guy but I see no problems with someone that doesnt enjoy the sport as long as they don't go out bashing it (sort of like you are doing with american football)...
    Here in the U.S. there is a large percentage of American media personalities that go out of their way to bash and belittle soccer...I have no time for that. They are usually uneducated about the sport like you sound with American football
    As long as Hairy doesnt bash soccer (and I dont think he does) then no problems here!
    I mean if he cant get into England v Argentina then he just wasnt born to love soccer. No harm, no foul!

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  14. well said travis. I keep trying this soccer thing but I just can't do it. but whatever floats your boat or in this case our anonymous friends boat.

    maybe I need to go to a big European game in person. live sports are hard to beat...

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  15. Quite the football discussion going on here...

    Hairy Swede, you should definitely try seeing a match live in the arena. The Euros are coming up this summer and would definitely be a great opportunity. Though, I think it's hard to get tickets - especially at this stage. If you don't like football/soccer after that, there's no hope of ever turning you straight...:P

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  16. @robban - I might have to give it a go. as of yet though I haven't been able to get into it. and I have seen soccer live. just not here in Europe. so who knows. I might become a convert. doubtful but I'm always down for some live sports.

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  17. Well, I guess you've seen football in USA, then? Well, not too offend you but American football (didn't mean to confuse you, I'm talking about soccer) is not good football. If you want to see good football you need to see a match in a big and good European national league, Champions League, World cup, European CUp, Copa America etc. The best for you would probably be to see USA (or maybe Sweden) play in the World Cup. It gets a lot more exciting when it's your own country that's playing. When you're national pride is at stake.

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  18. yeah thats what everybody says... we'll see. I might have to make that happen at some point in the next year or so.

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