One week in and its already midsummer.

I generally enjoy the sound of children laughing.   I know not the normal start to a blog about life in Sweden.  But there is a point.  This blog was started two years ago, last time we were in Sweden.  If you want some background go ahead and read the earlier posts.  

When I started writing this post, I was getting ready to go to the midsummer celebration on the island we are on.  Midsummer is a two day event, that starts with the raising of the Maypole (I will skip the long and mostly boring explanation of the maypole thing).  Children then dance and sing around the pole to traditional songs.  There is one about a “små grodorna” or small frog, which is besides the tradition seems to have no connection to the start of summer.  There is an assortment of other songs and accompanying dances, this lasts about an hour.  

The Maypole

People dancing around the maypole

 People then return home to eat and rest.  Just as night falls, so does the inhibition of public drunkenness.  Song and dance as well as plenty of alcohol, all in the name of the longest day of the year.

My sister-in-law waiting for the night to fall

Open Containers

Before I left I was told to lock up my bikes and bring all of my kids water toys inside …thing have a tendency to disappear or ending up in places they don’t belong when the party breaks up.  After all the preparation was done, we walked down to the party, drinks in hand (it seems that the inhibition against open contains is also lost).  

If you read the posts to this blog made two years ago, you’ll see that I've been to this island many times, and in many ways I feel very comfortable here.  Attending parties like this is not a totally new to me, but there is one thing that always is a hurdle I must get over…The language, I understand a fair amount, if spoken slowly, and I’m able to focus.   I don’t speak much, mostly because I’m not comfortable doing so.  Part of this is due to my limited vocabulary, the other part is due to the fact that when I do speak Swedish, I end up feeling like a circus animal that everyone wants to hear.  Most people speak English here so it’s not impossible for me to communicate. 

The restaurant we were in has a small dining room, a handful of wait staff and at the moment about two hundred people; all speaking Swedish, quickly and at the same time.  To say my mind was in racing to keep up is a bit of an understatement.  At first I could catch a few words and generally piece conversations together.  As the night drags on (not as a negative) the number of voices increase, the volume increases, the syllables start to blend together and rate at which words fly also increase. At the same time my comprehension feel exponentially.  At the high of my confusion, all the sounds of Swedish blend together into noise.  

I’m drowning in it, at the same time taking it all in.  The environment is filled with symbols and images commonly found in parties around the world: the drunk couple dancing too close that everyone secretly hates, the older man with the seemingly misplaces overly robust laughter, and mod of faceless party goers all with their own stories.  Intermixed with these familiar characters are the cultural asynchronous elements, things you might miss if you were not looking for them.  I will be looking at these things throughout this blog. 

The evening continued to turn into night, people continued to pour into the club/restaurant the noise level grew, the band played on…I've found that after X number of drinks it doesn't matter the language, or the song…every song becomes my song. 

Navigating our way home, my wife and I, still jet lagged and also two or three wine bottles lighter need to sleep…As we approached the house, darkened and quite, the night air was pierced by a sound that generally makes me smile, that I generally live to hear, and that generally resonates with me as a father…however in this instance it meant only one thing…it meant I was not going to get sleep anytime soon, it meant I was in for an even longer night…it was the sound of my children laughing…grandparents love spoiling there grand children with candy and soda…