On Tuesday is the solstice and as I have already written on this blog, it means that we Swedes celebrate Midsummer. In honor of this, IKEA arranged a smorgasbord (or smörgåsbord as it should be spelled) with traditional midsummer food such as herring and salmon, along with the at any Swedish celebrations abroad obligatory meatballs. (In Sweden, we traditionally don’t serve meatballs at midsummer.) And as usually, our song group was invited to sing. It is necessary to get tickets in advance for these events, and I am always surprised to see the variety of people who come; it is definitely not just the Swedish au-pair girls and Scandinavian descendants that might be expected. In fact, there are normally families there from all over the world, and judging by their knowledge of Swedish traditional dances, they’ve spent a significant amount of time in Sweden. While I am not so surprised that they’ve lived in Sweden, I am a bit curios why they left. Was it the unwelcoming labor market? Or was it simply too cold? Anyway, I ate too much as always, but the singing went well and the evening was very nice. I could also tell that I now have created a proper home here in Washington since I only walked out of the IKEA store with a dish brush and a package of napkins. I apparently have everything I need!