Multi-Cultural Apartment Grill-Out on National Day

According to Po Tidholm and Agneta Lilja in ther small book Celebrating the Swedish Way, Sweden has celebrated their "National" day on June 6 since 1983. They say: "This is the date on which Gustav Vasa was crowned ling in 1523 and on which a new constitution was adopted in 1809. The original idea came from Artur Hazelius, who founded the Skansen open-air museum in Stockholm and held a national day celebration there on June 6 as early as the 1890's." They go on to state: "In 1916, Hazelius's idea was officially adopted and June 6 became Swedish flag day. The name celebrated the fact that Sweden had acquired its own flag following the dissolution of the union with Norway."

So this year, J thought it would be a perfect opportunity to meet the neighbors in the apartment building by inviting them all to a bar-b-cue in the back yard. So we did. It was one of the most fun times since we've been in Sweden. There was a German man who works for the Swedish power company, a Norwegian woman who works for the transportation department, another Norwegian woman who is a writer for a large multi-national company, her Swedish husband who is a writer for a prestigious financial news organization, a Canadian woman on a 2 year assignment much like me who manages projects and has many other interests, and her Swedish friend who is retired but runs his own consulting company. Everyone brought meat to grille and a dish to share. The food was excellent but the conversation was more so. We all had a blast critiquing each other's culture. They all have lived in the United States plus other countries. J and I are plain ol' monolingual people who've only lived in one country (although some would argue that Texas is another country!). Nevertheless, our brief stay in Sweden and our few European vacations give us just enough perspective to identify with and see the humor in all that was said.


We discussed views on customer service in each country, views on nudity and especially the nude beaches in Germany, places to travel to and special tourist destinations, transportation methods, languages and especially Swedish dialects, winter sports, and about food in each culture, especially holiday food.

Near the end of the evening Janis spotted a tiny baby bird that had fallen from it's nest. So we decided to return it. However, the nest was behind a grate in the building about 10 feet (3 meters) above the ground. Plus we knew we couldn't touch the baby because the mother would kill it because of the wrong smell. So using a paper plate and the balancing skills of the tall German, we managed to save a bird. Not a bad way, at least symbolically, to end a multi-cultural grill-out.