An American exile longing for home and some good friends. What more could you ask of on Super Bowl Sunday? Lundagard hung out in the dead of night for this unusual Sunday.
A couple of pubs in Lund were open late for Super Bowl XLVI. Everyone should technically be sleeping on a Sunday night at two in the morning. But this Sunday, Lunds highly international community was gathered. It was Super Bowl-night. The New England Patriots against the New York Giants. Lundagard got a chat with the visitors.
Mexican Laura Morales came to the
Super Bowl at the initiative of friends but says she used to play catch with a football at home with friends.
“My neighbors were the ones who convinced me to come. I’m not into this game myself, but I used to play football with friends in Mexico.”
Australian Jenica Noble says she doesn’t know how the game is played. But she is interested anyway.
“I don’t know the rules. I don’t know the teams. I’m just here to have some fun.”
Canadian Jordan McDonald stands 
by Croatian Tomislav Kevo explaining how the game works.
“Tonight is the Super Bowl,” says Kevo,
“It’s a big issue for Canadians and Americans and a cultural experience.”
So why go to the Super Bowl while in Sweden? Jordan McDonald explains that he thought “it would be a lot of fun to watch a North American game overseas.”
A group of young Swedish men were sitting off to one side of the pub, “observing” the other spectators of the game.
“Why not come to see the game?” says Peter Benson. “We’re also here to observe the American culture.”
As the American national anthem plays, and several Americans stand up in line with their tradition, the Swedes don’t really pay mind. “The playing seems like more of a political thing, really.”
Bernie White, currently
majoring in Economics and Foreign Affairs and an avid football fan, organized the event to gather friends for the Super Bowl.
Several nights before the big game, White went to the pub to try and haggle the price of beer down, and to organize the event.
“Being away from home made me feel like I had to put something together for the Super Bowl. I eventually just took the initiative, and did it myself.”
3 Comments
Bernie's dad.
Very cool!
American Dad
Sorry…not so… very cool.
Little would one know by the article, and some statements made, that in the group of “Swedes” was an American he is my son. One might have noticed him wearing his bright yellow lakers sweatshirt, jeans and t-shirt. One shouldnt make quick assumptions and what might be taken as a low remark by saying “BYE YOU SWEDES” when the group assumed to be Swedes and not to be interested in the match, left the superbowl match before it’s completion (that would have been in the early hours of morning the next day) Two of them, again one of them my son, had medical classes the next day.
Also standing up at our National Athem I would say is not “a tradition that is carried out in a pub in the US, so why would one do this outside of the US? It is something done at the stadium. I understand, with myself included, national patriotism tends to be stronger when outside the US for long periods of time and actually a bit homesick. But be careful and considerate of others (not to dimenish national pride, we should be proad to be Americans but we dont need to rub or pride onto others.
How would you react to those in a pub in the US during a world soccer match (and if others acted in a similiar way, “BYE YOU AMERICANS” when a group leaves,and others standing up when their national athem is being played before the match?
Some Guy
Isn’t it excusable to assume someone in Sweden is Swedish, especially when they’re with a crowd of Swedish people?
I am a little bit confused by your comment, but I think it’s a warm and comforting thought that cultures can intertwine around sharing a few drinks and watching a game.