fourgirlsfourcountries

That is right, I am going home. And I am going home with mixed emotions; I really long for my family at home, but it will be hard to leave my new family here. I am so glad that I decided to do this exchange, and it has been such an experience. And from what I have read from my fellow blog writers, they have been just as amazed by experiencing a whole new culture as I have been. One thing that we all have written about is the fact that people actually talk to people they do not know, which leads me to one conclusion; Swedes need to start talking! Seriously! It becomes such a better climate when people just say a genuine “Hi” or “How are you?”. I think it is time for Sweden to follow several countries examples and start being polite!

I also realised, that we have both similarities and differences in our traditions and cuisines. And it struck me that it is just these similarities that makes different cultures so interesting. Because even though it is fun to realize that you have some similar traditions with a country on the other side of the earth, it is the differences that make things interesting.

So I would like to say to the people of the world (since I know that every body on earth is reading this) that we should learn as much as we can about different cultures and try to learn from them. But we should never let go of the things that makes our country our country.

And that really is all folks, I got to go because I have a huge craving for some Swedish meatballs!

Emma

For the facts in this blog I have used these following internet sites:

http://www.gocurrency.com/articles/south-africa.htm (traditions)

http://www.everyculture.com/Sa-Th/South-Africa.html (traditions and etiquettes)

http://www.exploresouthafrica.net/culture/people.htm (traditions)

http://www.exploresouthafrica.net/culture/food.htm (food)

http://www.southafrica.info/ess_info/sa_glance/culture/food.htm (food)

I thought all these pages were really good, I got all the information I needed, and they all were serious and had their facts right. Since this was mostly tourist information- sites, it is possible that they have brought up things that are typically South African, but that few actually do these days, to make the country seem more interesting. But I have tried to ruled out that so I got the information about the real every day-life. I have also tried to use several sites so that I could control my facts.