Friday, August 1, 2014

Testing the Odds

Hej!

Alright, so there are 0 poisonous spiders in Sweden. There is 1 slightly poisonous snake, but it doesn't do much harm either. So what are the odds that Dilpreet's bug bite (no idea what bug bit me, probably a mosquito), would look like this after a day? (Sorry for those who are squimish).
Before you get concerned - I did go see a doctor. Turns out my "bug bite" got a bacterial skin infection which is why my skin was swollen and red. Never fear, I'm on antibiotics for the week and I should be as good as new!

Now for the fun parts of my week!

I got a chance to finally visit the Gothenburg Fish Market which is located in this old church. It was a nice little fish market, but to be honest it was a bit underwhelming after visiting Bergen's outdoor fish market. I bought a shrimp salad for lunch that I enjoyed as I finished the blog about Norway last weekend!

I also visited the Gurdwara in Gothenburg last week. A gurdwara is a place of Sikh worship where people of all faiths are welcome to attend. Traditionally, everyone has their head covered and shoes off once inside the gurdwara. Typically people first visit the "Darbar Sahib" which is where the prayer takes place. At the Darbar Sahib, people donate some money to the gurdwara (typically $1 in the US; the donation is optional) and can then sit and listen to the service or go to the langar hall. The langar hall is where food is served for free to all who attend. Typically the langar hall will first serve chai tea with some snacks and then later lunch or dinner depending on what time you attend. It is customary for those who are able to participate in "seva" which is community service in order to keep the gurdwara running. This means you either help cook, clean, teach at the Sunday School, or donate to the gurdwara. It felt nice to meet other Sikhs across the globe and still see the similarities between gurdwaras in the US, Sweden, and even India.

This was drawn in the tram stop near the gurdwara. The gurdwara is located in Angered which is a part of Gothenburg which houses much of the immigrant population. It is interesting to see the differences in Angered and Mölndal, where I live in Gothenburg. It's not just America that faces problems with integration of immigrant populations - it's easy to see that in some degree, Sweden is facing a similar issue.


And lastly, you know you are in Sweden when they sell "American Ginger Ale" and have an egg slicer in the house!

Time to rest and let the antibiotics do their job!

Bye for now,
Dilpreet

P.S. Blog post about Rome should be up next Wednesday! I'll try to go back to the Weds/Sunday posting schedule.


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