Today is Sweden's national day. Nothing is happening.
No, really, nothing is happening. The holiday is a new one, having only been recognized as a "red day" (that is, a day off of work) for the last couple years or so, and so there are no traditions built up around it yet. We discussed it at fika a few times this week—the other international students and postdocs and I asked repeatedly, "What should we do to celebrate the day?" and got no answer whatsoever. "When in doubt, eat herring," suggested someone once, rather halfheartedly. But that's what they do for every holiday. "Errr... do we come into work, then?" we asked. No one answered, but they avoided our eyes. So... I guess that's a no, we foreigners tacitly decided.
We listened to the national anthem a couple times in Swedish class Wednesday night, and our teacher told us that if we wanted, we could go into Stockholm and see the royal family on parade, but she isn't much of a royalist and didn't think it would be worth anyone's while.
So we celebrated by sleeping in and lazing about (except for a brief excursion to check out Joe's new bike and laze in the sun for a few minutes), and having blood-orange ginger sorbet, which was delicious. Maybe by next year, the leaders of the country will have come up with something more exciting to do... you know, like something involving explosives!
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