Wander & Nest

June is a big month for holidays and celebrations in Sweden! One morning I had the windows of the apartment open while I was working from home and started to hear the beginnings of a huge day party – cars honking, music blasting, dancing, people wearing flags of various countries, etc. At first I saw several Turkish flags and thought something major must have just happened in Turkey, but the internet gave me nothing, then I started seeing flags from many more countries and was stumped. I texted Ranya at Mara’s school because surely they could hear the celebration too and she told me it was a high school graduation party! What?!? And she told me that the kids pile into open-side semi tucks that drives them around the city while they blast music and dance on the truck (picture from Google since I didn’t manage to capture a photo though I did see the trucks!). The whole high school graduation celebrations are amazing and kind of hilarious.

There have been a few days of various closures at Mara’s school, sometimes for holidays other times for teacher prep day (which we’re pretty sure is just a party day for them at the end of the school year sans children – all the power to them!) Wylie and I split those days and have our own little adventures with Mara. She and I went for a real fika together and she did great. She had chocolate ice cream, naturally. Wylie and Mara have been hitting parks and hiking up to the hill, Skansen Kronan, by our place. They even had breakfast up there one day.

On another no-school day, Mara and I met up with Suzi and her kids Adia and Zoe for a rainy day at Slottskogen park. Suzi showed us more parts of the park we hadn’t explored yet including a cafe, where we had rainy day ice cream, and petting zoo! It’s been so nice to get to know Suzi. She and I have gotten together a couple of times without kids now and it’s been so fun. I never thought I’d meet a Swedish friend during such a short stay, but thanks to highly localized daycare and everyone walking to drop off and pick up kids there’s actually way more opportunity to meet people. It feels like I’ve known Suzi for years, not weeks, and I’m excited to keep in touch and organize visits once we’re living in France.

Another big deal in Sweden is Pride! There are pride flags everywhere and celebrations for equal love all month long. Actually there’s always a good number of pride flags flying high in Sweden and June is amped up. I was blown away when Mara came home with a pride flag she had made at school and took on the daycare pride parade. That’s right, daycare took all of the kids on their own little pride parade through Järntorget square. What I love so much about this is that they schools just do these activities without permission slips or discussions with parents, because as a society they’ve decided that raising kids to be loving of everyone is the right thing to do. And that was even more evident at the city’s Pride parade. It was the most wholesome thing I’ve ever seen – families, kids, babies in strollers joining the performers, dancers, marchers, and advocates. It was awesome.

To round out the weekend, we took a Sunday day trip to the sailing island, Marstrand. We rented a car for the hour or so journey North of Gothenburg. The trip was meh (or mid as the kids say… is that still a thing??). The weather was not ideal, super windy, on and off drizzle, and mostly grey with some glimpses of sun now and then. Plus Mara was pretty fussy. We did enjoy a nice lunch, a great playground, and, you guessed it, ice cream!

If nothing else, the day trip confirmed that we do not want a car. It’s such a hassle, so expensive, and not pleasant with a toddler in a car seat. Good thing we’re moving to a subtle city with no car required!