Uppsala Graduation and another meetup

Yesterday was Uppsala University's graduation day and celebrating students were everywhere. I have never seen so many fresh-faced blonde people in my life. The boys were in blue jackets and hats that look vaguely naval while the girls were all in white. They spent the day cruising around town in large trucks, on boats, and on foot yelling, waving, drinking, and raising a hellacious din.

Celebrating students making lots of noise. Google Translate tells me the sign has something to do with cops and alcohol.

Slightly more sedate celebrants

I went to the Friday night meetup again last night and got involved in a conversation about how Sweden and other European countries are coping with the recent influx of immigrants from Africa and the Middle East. The Swedes were saying that accepting refugees is the honorable thing to do and they support it. Also, they are not shy about pointing out that Sweden has accepted more Iraqi refugees than the U.S. has. However, they don't think the government is handling the situation very well and that immigrants should be more willing to assimilate into Swedish society. Apparently, Swedish language classes are available to all immigrants free of charge but the people I was talking with thought the government should do more. They didn't seem to have any specific suggestions for what exactly should be done though.

I pointed out that in the U.S., most legal immigrants want to be Americans and, in fact, their children ARE Americans in every way that matters whether the parents like it or not. In Europe, I was told, a 2nd-generation immigrant is thought of as an immigrant's child not as, say, a Swede. The Brits in the group seemed rather proud that London is the most diverse city in Europe as evidenced by all the languages you can hear on the street. However, their view seems to be quite different from my (and I hope the American) ideal of great cultural diversity but with most people agreeing on the basics of American civic and social life including speaking English, at least in the 2nd generation.

A young German woman who is working on her PhD in Information Technology was sitting next to me. As we talked, it came out that she knows Ingrid and in fact for a time she was living in Ingrid's house! What are the odds? I told her that I have a daughter also working on a PhD at Cal Tech which seemed to impress her. She was very conversational with lots to say about her work (computer modeling of biological systems), the state of Europe vis-a-vis immigration and, being Bavarian, how much she misses the mountains of home. Very charming.

I left at about 11:00 PM. It was still quite light outside and hordes of young women in short white skirts were everywhere. Loud music was blaring, beverages were being consumed, and the parties went on. I got back to the apartment to find Ingrid and CJ hard at work at our tiny table.

Today is the National Day of Sweden which, I understand, many Swedes don't quite know how to celebrate. The holiday is relatively new and they seem to like keeping their patriotism low-key. An admirable quality in my opinion.

An unusual display of Swedish pride