A Swede Weekend, Day 1
I don't really know the best way to describe my three days in Sweden, so I'll copy the style of my favorite writer, Bill Simmons from ESPN.com, and put it in the form of a running diary. This trip was a field study tour for my European Politics and Society class, which examines the EU.
Thursday
9:05- Bus ride to Sweden. Now you'd think that inter-country travel for 40 something foreigners on a bus would consist of more than just cruising through a checkpoint... but you're wrong. We breeze across the Swedish border and head to Malmo, the only city in Sweden I have been to. To relive that journey read here.
10:00- Swedish Migration Board. Now I have to say, for a political science field trip, this was the best place to pick up some political knowledge. Sweden actually is kind of an interesting place to study migration, mostly because they get a ton of immigrants for a nation of only 9 million people. This happens for a few reasons:
1) They have a very lax Asylum policy and get alot of refugees. Right now Iraqi's are pouring into Sweden at an alarming rate. This is becoming a problem for Sweden, but because of their constitution, politicians aren't allowed to interfere with immigration policy-- so there's no end in sight. Sweden would like the rest of Europe to share the refugee burden, but everyone else is content to pretend not to notice. Our moderator said that he thought the general public is anti-immigration, but politicians don't want to pull a Tom Tancreado, the congresssman from Colorado who advocates building a wall to keep Mexicans out, and be painted as anti-immigration.
Sweden also took in a bunch of Iraqi's from Desert Storm, or War in Iraq I as I like to call it... so now refugees from War in Iraq II are going to live with their friends and family.
2) Taxes and the exchange rate are much more favorable here than in Denmark so Danes are commuting across the bridge every morning and living in Sweden.
3) Denmark has very strict marriage regulations for Danes trying to marry foreigners, so alot of people come to Sweden to tie the knot, and they like it so much they stay.
Anyways, Sweden really has to do something about all this immigration. 30% of immigrants who come to Europe are going to Sweden, a remarkably high number for such a small country. As a final note, Sweden isn't very happy with the US for starting all these wars in the Middle East when they're the ones who end up taking in all the refugees. I don't think George W. Bush won't be getting any Swedish massages any time soon.
Unfortunately the talk that should have been half an hour long dragged out for over an hour. I asked a question about if the anti-immigration sentiments in Sweden were cultural or economic, and he said that they are strictly economic. This makes sense to me because in a welfare state like Sweden, it takes alot more resources to add people to the bottom of the social system. In the US, the immigrants are on their own to a much higher degree, and if anything I think our market economy takes advantage of the immigrants. Therefore their immigration problems are the opposite of ours.
12:00- Lunch! at Aarstinda. This food was soooo good. DIS picked up the tab for chicken, potatoes and asparagus. Probably the best food I've had since arriving in Europe... check that, definitely the best meal I've had in Europe.
This was near the Swedish Design Center... I think it was built by a one-eyed carpenter.
Also there was a skating rink in the center of town. I wanted to steal the Zamboni and see if they'd let me take it across the bridge to Denmark. Instead we bought Ice Cream, it was a much better choice.
16:00- City of Malmo, EU office. We got a couple of power points from this poor woman who is a bureaucrat, some sort of EU liason. Anyways, she was way overmatched. I can't say I really learned anything from her broken English explanation of the virtues of the city of Malmo. Pretty much all this office does is handle the $5 million that the EU has given Malmo for about 300 community projects, blah blah blah. By the end I wanted to ask her, "So what would you say you actually do here?" in the voice of one of the Bobs from Office Space.
20:30- We arrive at our youth hostel in Karlskrona. I blow a 1-0 lead in a best of three "Rocks, Paper, Scissors" contest and end up in a bunk bed. The hostel was nice, we found a place called Alibaba's for dinner, and since the menu was in Swedish my buddy Phil and I ordered something with a lot of words at the end. It ended up being Ham, Mushrooms and little tiny Shrimp... whatever it was good and only cost like 3 bucks each.
22:30 - Next we decided to sample the Swedish night life and ended up in a bar called "Play Bar." I am fairly confident it was a gay bar. I'd say 80% of the people in their were guys, they were all well dressed and hardly any of them checked out the girls we walked in with. My buddy Mike and I decided to hit the Video Slot Machines. Surprisingly we were pretty successful building up a nice little bankroll of Swedish Kroner. As you can expect we got greedy and blew all of it. After that we went to the night club in the basement which was just alot of black lights, strobe lights, techno, and what not. I think I may have had a stroke.
23:15- We decided to duck out of there, buy a pack of Swedish playing cards. Now beware because in Sweden they don't have Jacks, they have knights (Kn's). Queens are abbreviated with D's, and aces are E's.
Thursday
9:05- Bus ride to Sweden. Now you'd think that inter-country travel for 40 something foreigners on a bus would consist of more than just cruising through a checkpoint... but you're wrong. We breeze across the Swedish border and head to Malmo, the only city in Sweden I have been to. To relive that journey read here.
10:00- Swedish Migration Board. Now I have to say, for a political science field trip, this was the best place to pick up some political knowledge. Sweden actually is kind of an interesting place to study migration, mostly because they get a ton of immigrants for a nation of only 9 million people. This happens for a few reasons:
1) They have a very lax Asylum policy and get alot of refugees. Right now Iraqi's are pouring into Sweden at an alarming rate. This is becoming a problem for Sweden, but because of their constitution, politicians aren't allowed to interfere with immigration policy-- so there's no end in sight. Sweden would like the rest of Europe to share the refugee burden, but everyone else is content to pretend not to notice. Our moderator said that he thought the general public is anti-immigration, but politicians don't want to pull a Tom Tancreado, the congresssman from Colorado who advocates building a wall to keep Mexicans out, and be painted as anti-immigration.
Sweden also took in a bunch of Iraqi's from Desert Storm, or War in Iraq I as I like to call it... so now refugees from War in Iraq II are going to live with their friends and family.
2) Taxes and the exchange rate are much more favorable here than in Denmark so Danes are commuting across the bridge every morning and living in Sweden.
3) Denmark has very strict marriage regulations for Danes trying to marry foreigners, so alot of people come to Sweden to tie the knot, and they like it so much they stay.
Anyways, Sweden really has to do something about all this immigration. 30% of immigrants who come to Europe are going to Sweden, a remarkably high number for such a small country. As a final note, Sweden isn't very happy with the US for starting all these wars in the Middle East when they're the ones who end up taking in all the refugees. I don't think George W. Bush won't be getting any Swedish massages any time soon.
Unfortunately the talk that should have been half an hour long dragged out for over an hour. I asked a question about if the anti-immigration sentiments in Sweden were cultural or economic, and he said that they are strictly economic. This makes sense to me because in a welfare state like Sweden, it takes alot more resources to add people to the bottom of the social system. In the US, the immigrants are on their own to a much higher degree, and if anything I think our market economy takes advantage of the immigrants. Therefore their immigration problems are the opposite of ours.
12:00- Lunch! at Aarstinda. This food was soooo good. DIS picked up the tab for chicken, potatoes and asparagus. Probably the best food I've had since arriving in Europe... check that, definitely the best meal I've had in Europe.
13:30- We got to wander Malmo for a couple hours, and I ended up in a Cafe in a mall. Now here's a piece of advice, when in Europe, to preserve one's masculinity it is best to not ask the cute girl at the coffee shop if they have Decaf. When I did, the girl looked at me and replied in disgust. "Decaf is an American invention! You girly-man!"... cue emasculation. (I may have embellished the end of her statement)
This was near the Swedish Design Center... I think it was built by a one-eyed carpenter.Also there was a skating rink in the center of town. I wanted to steal the Zamboni and see if they'd let me take it across the bridge to Denmark. Instead we bought Ice Cream, it was a much better choice.
16:00- City of Malmo, EU office. We got a couple of power points from this poor woman who is a bureaucrat, some sort of EU liason. Anyways, she was way overmatched. I can't say I really learned anything from her broken English explanation of the virtues of the city of Malmo. Pretty much all this office does is handle the $5 million that the EU has given Malmo for about 300 community projects, blah blah blah. By the end I wanted to ask her, "So what would you say you actually do here?" in the voice of one of the Bobs from Office Space.
20:30- We arrive at our youth hostel in Karlskrona. I blow a 1-0 lead in a best of three "Rocks, Paper, Scissors" contest and end up in a bunk bed. The hostel was nice, we found a place called Alibaba's for dinner, and since the menu was in Swedish my buddy Phil and I ordered something with a lot of words at the end. It ended up being Ham, Mushrooms and little tiny Shrimp... whatever it was good and only cost like 3 bucks each.
22:30 - Next we decided to sample the Swedish night life and ended up in a bar called "Play Bar." I am fairly confident it was a gay bar. I'd say 80% of the people in their were guys, they were all well dressed and hardly any of them checked out the girls we walked in with. My buddy Mike and I decided to hit the Video Slot Machines. Surprisingly we were pretty successful building up a nice little bankroll of Swedish Kroner. As you can expect we got greedy and blew all of it. After that we went to the night club in the basement which was just alot of black lights, strobe lights, techno, and what not. I think I may have had a stroke.
23:15- We decided to duck out of there, buy a pack of Swedish playing cards. Now beware because in Sweden they don't have Jacks, they have knights (Kn's). Queens are abbreviated with D's, and aces are E's.
posted by Alex Garlick | 6:05 PM
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