Cultural Learnings Of… Swedish High School Graduation

Some time ago I showed you how Estonians celebrate the graudation of high school, or "gymnasium" (same word, spelt differently in places up here). This week I was in Stockholm for a few days and saw how the Swedish* also celebrate this important time in a young persons life… by getting wasted and riding around in the back of massive trucks with music blaring.  All I had was a gemini and a cassette adapter… happy days. It appears "Time Of Your Life" by Greenday has fallen out of favour with the graduating kidding these days, however I was enthused to see them rocking out to "Living On A Prayer" instead. I can get behind that!

Not only were the kiddies riding around on trucks on Friday but there was a massive Iraq conference going on in Stockholm with all kinds of international people like Condi Rice attending. Apparently it was insantiy. For Sweden. Or so the taxi driver said. You get all the good advice from taxi drivers.

* I am pretty sure Sweden isnt the only country to have this tradition. I am yet to find out if they do this in Estonia too. I cant imagine they have a tradition of it however, doesnt strike me as something the commies would have been down with.

By Louis Zezeran

Louis Zezeran is an Australian Stand Up comedian and comedy promoter based in Tallinn, Estonia. He was the co-founder of Comedy Estonia, Comedy Finland and Comedy Latvia. Louis writes, does gigs and performs at private events through the Baltics and Finland

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