Swedish Stereotypes

I would say that I have more than a few friends who imagine that all Swedes are beautiful creatures who walk around outfitted in blue and white striped shirts.

This is all completely true.

The other night C and I went over to another couple's house for an impromptu hang out.  I was already wearing a pink and white striped top when I realized we had plans and didn't think much of it when C changed out of work clothes and into a blue and white striped t-shirt that we had actually bought together in the States.  


Fine.  


Then we get to our friends' house and over an hour into hanging out we moved from the kitchen to the couch where suddenly I saw it so clearly: all three of them were lined up in a row wearing blue and white stripes.  Yes, they were different garments (t-shirt, tunic, polo) with slightly different shades of blue and varying widths of stripes, but that just made it all the more hilarious to me.  At this point, I realized that I should probably say something about the red wine I've spilled on the sleeve of my pink and white striped top.  Our friend offered me one of her tops while we applied stain remover to mine.  When we pulled out her shirt drawer, there it was: a long sleeved blue and white striped shirt sitting staring squarely at me from the top of the pile.

So we spent the rest of the evening like that.  Just four twenty-something year olds hanging out together on a Sunday night in Sweden, all casually wearing different versions of the same blue and white striped motif.  


No big deal...but I'm pretty sure it was a rite of passage.