Sweden from the inside

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I live in the north of Sweden – the most beautiful place on earth. When I say north – I really mean north. I live just below the Arctic circle and we have long and dark and cold winters with lots of snow. The first snow comes in October or November and stays on the ground until April/May. Around Christmas it’s only a few hours of daylight. Then in Mars/April the days are getting pretty long and the sun is warming everything up – it is very beautiful when the sun reflects in the whit snow. Then comes the wonderful springtime – when it gets green and warm and bright. The summer with the midnight sun and mosquitoes has it’s charm – but I would not miss the mosquitoes anything at all if they were gone. The best thing with the north of Sweden is the 4 seasons – all of them is very beautiful – the scenes are incredible, the temperature changelings from –40F in the cold winter up to 80-85F in the summer. The darkness in the winter and the brightness in the summer – it’s a land of contrasts – and it is my home. We are free to go out in the wood and pick berries – we can camp almost everywhere. We can go skiing, and hiking and biking. The air and water is clean. But not everything is good – the high gas prizes, the high unemployment, the closing of places to give birth and so on. The north of Sweden is a forgotten place for the people that make the decisions in this county even if we support the rest of Sweden with paper from the several paper mills, we have the mining, the woods, and the waterpower. Okay, we have high taxes, but we still get much for it. We never have to pay for the kids going to school (not even the university) - not even for the food up to grade 12. We have good maternity leave, we can stay home for over a year with our newborn baby with 80% of our income. Every child (up to 20) go to the dentist for free, in most places in Sweden the children also get all medical treatment for free - medication is max: $200 a year for all children. Adults have to pay but about $100/ year and up to about $200 for medications. Things have started to change, but still this is a great country to live in. If you would like to know more feel free to ask.