Clarification for the one person who reads my blog

"Everyone drives a new car"
This was not supposed to imply that a lot of people drive. In the city (even the small ones) most people take public transportation, which, like I said, was the best I’ve ever seen. I actually meant that those few that do drive choose new cars with more efficient mpg ratings and fewer emissions. In the time I was there I did not see one gas-guzzling "clunker" on the road like you see everywhere in America. And it's actually illegal to let your car idle for more than a minute or two and i know that sounds like one of those laws that nobody cares about like registering an indoor cat with your town, but it's not - in Sweden neighbors will report you.

"When people talk to strangers they are either mentally insane or American"
This might not be seen as a good thing to everyone, but it was for me.
Everyday I had a 25 minute tram ride home from the city and in that time not one person would try to talk to me. You could be sitting next to the same person the whole time and never even lock eyes. Swedes just don't give a shit about chit chat like Americans do and would rather just leave you alone. There was one exception when a teenage boy heard my American accent and wanted to know what my heritage was...it was so strange to him for someone to have so many different backgrounds and he wanted to know if all Americans were like that... it was interesting

It is true that "anyone who thinks "Americans are cool" must have a serious intelligence deficit." because Americans are by far the lamest group of people ever (hello - the puritans!) but when you travel the world so much it feels good when someone actually thinks you are cool (accurate or not)... Swedes and the Japanese are the only ones I’ve encountered that actually thought this way... and to this day I do not know why