Trettondag

All's Well That Ends Well said William Shakespeare, and today has been a case in point for that.

We had a shooting on our street this morning. 9am seems an odd time to be gunned down as far as I'm concerned. I figured that was an 'under cover of darkness' thing, but apparently not. From what I've figured out, the man who died was a member of a branch of somebody's mafia and he was hunted down and shot at 9:15. About 9:30, I come out onto the street to discover police tape, police cars, and ambulances all over the place. I shrugged and went for my run anyway. Turns out this was the same time that the ambulance folk were trying to revive him before transport to the hospital. By the time I got back to our building, the ambulances were gone. Shortly after that, E went off to the gym. By noon, Andrew and I are ready to go out to get some groceries, but a policeman stops us at the door. If we go, he says, we won't be allowed back throught the tape (which they had moved since I went out this morning.) OK, we went back inside. Meanwhile, E has been trying unsuccessfully to get back into the building after being at the gym. She didn't see us and we didn't see her, but I mentioned she'd be coming back from the gym, and shortly after that when she tried to get across the tape again, they let her. She was understandably very upset by her interactions with the police. By 3pm, they've wrapped up the investigation (this I figured out by keeping an eye on things from our balcony), so Andrew and I tried again for the groceries (hint: if someone is going to be shot on your street requiring the police to close it all day for an investigation, have the foresight to fill the fridge the day before). They've brought in a firetruck to wash the blood stains off the sidewalk. It didn't work. They're still there.

Ah, but there's rarely a dull moment when you live downtown. Today was also Trettondag, or the day Swedes celebrate the arrival of Spring. In Göteborg, it's also the day of the Chalmers Cortege, a parade done by the university students satirizing political figures. Traffic-wise, it's a nightmare of closed streets. We managed to get out of Dodge and get to Hovås to celebrate Trettondag with my choirs. We sang a concert of traditional swedish spring songs tonight at 7 on the beach, overlooking the sea. A good-sized crowd came out to listen to us. By the time we returned to town, the parade was over and so were the street closures. We get to do it again tomorrow, the street closures I mean, because tomorrow is första maj and labour day, so all afternoon there will be demonstrations. I think we'll get the heck outta Dodge nice and early tomorrow morning to go back to spend some quiet time in the sun by the sea. After all, isn't that what enjoying Spring is all about?