It's nice to be around people who are not conceited even though they have many reasons to boast. Swedes said that there is a word that doesn't translate into English that basically means, "meh, good enough". For instance, "Does he have the aptitude to fulfill this position?" Answer: "His brains are 'meh, good enough' (whatever that Swedish word was)". I wonder if this is a Scandinavian mindset. Albeit, the Swedes in Stockholm seemed to be a bit more boastful.
We asked Swedes what they felt about Norway. One young Swede who was telling us to visit some island off Stockholm seemed a bit put off when we asked if it was as pretty as the fjords in Norway. But for the most part, we heard from Swedes that they felt Norwegians were justified if they held a grudge against Sweden for maintaining neutrality during WWII.
Kentucky must have been such a culture shock from Norway. Here in the upper Midwest region, we have many immigrants from Scandinavian countries. I told my mother about the "meh, good enough" attitude (she's a quarter Swedish), and she didn't see what was unusual about that. My mother always tried to instill that a no person is better than another person. I now think this attitude came from Scandinavia.
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