'Hej' is my favorite Swedish word.

I haven't been here very long, but I've been here long enough to have already developed an appreciation for the Swedish language.  It is a language filled with a lot of crazy and downright funny words to an anglophone like me.

Really?!?  It doesn't strike me as THAT sort of establishment...

Despite the ones that make me chuckle (and there are many), it's actually a different word that I really like;  'Hej'.  Pronounced simply 'Hey', it is an informal greeting used commonly in day to day life here.  I know to most of you this seems like is makes it anything but special, but let me tell you why I like it so much.

First it is the simple fact that it sounds exactly the same as any Canadian would greet a friend.  It's familiarity is comforting.

Second, and more personally profound, is they way it is said.  I have yet to wander into a store or up to ask a stranger a question and not be greeted with a warm and friendly 'Hej'.  To most of you (and by this I mean my fellow Canadians) this is something you probably don't even realize how much you take for granted, and likely don't understand why I am bothering to write about it.  However, after having spent a fair deal of time elsewhere in the world, is amazing to me how deeply this sort of casual friendliness really colours your view of a place.

Sweden is an amazing place, full of all sorts of things I would never find anywhere back in Canada.  Yet it's the little things like a smile and a 'Hej' from a stranger, the sort of thing you find practically EVERYWHERE back home, that make this place wonderful to me.

:)