Pope Francis was in Sweden today. His visit was headline news, on this 499th anniversary of the beginning of the Reformation, marked on the day that Martin Luther nailed the 95 theses on the Wittenberg castle church.
Pope Francis (left) hugs Lutheran Archbishop Antje Jackelen, primate of the Church of Sweden on Monday. Photo: Andrew Medichini/AP (Source: http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/10/31/500057532/in-show-of-unity-pope-francis-marks-500th-anniversary-of-protestant-reformation)
No, I didn’t attend the ceremony. It is on the other side of Sweden, and I’m very low in the ranks here.
Anya is off from school and on fall break. Some of her friends are back home in southern Sweden and Luxembourg, so she went to Stockholm today on her own. She got a Stockholm library card and found a bubble tea shop. She hasn’t found one in Uppsala yet.
I worked with technology today, log in troubles, Moodle course development, and the scanning of out of print resources. The copier/scanner has instructions in Swedish. I couldn’t figure out how to indicate my scanning was done and to send the file to my email! I finally found someone to ask in the late afternoon, as most people were gone already.
Earlier, I had a brief conversation with a colleague about the multiple independent systems used here. There are different systems for: course information, grading, calendar/scheduling, library, email, a manual system for attendance, and I’m not even sure about recruitment and student billing, not to mention the website as well. Sweden is very high tech, so there has to be something available in a more integrated system for many of these functions. My boss invited me to share some reflections and observations, and this was one I thought could be addressed.
I had another opportunity at the Språk Cafe. My favorite conversation partner wasn’t there, but I did have a good challenge and time of conversation with Hans 1.
Time to practice Swedish!
I got news from good friends, Greg and Carol, about their possible dates to visit next May! Whoo hoo! It will be great to have visitors, though I think that my sister, Elenn, may be our first guest. I believe she is still planning a visit on her way back from her annual medical service in Pakistan, which is usually around early March. Last year, she visited us in Norway! I’m eager to welcome her here too!
Saturday was not too eventful. However, it was a beautiful sunny day. So, I got out. I needed a mop, so I biked to the mall and picked up a few things at Clas Ohlson and the more unusual things at the large grocery store, or at least things I can’t find in my neighborhood grocery store, like vanilla extract and peanut butter!
Anya was over at a friend’s apartment in the evening. Olivia has a bunch of friends over to play card games. I was at home working on Swedish. My Duolingo online lessons are done minimally toward the end of the week, when I focus on my university course lessons. So, I have lots of reminder lessons to catch up on in Duolingo.
Duolingo is a free online language learning tool that I appreciate for learning vocabulary and some grammar. It doesn’t help me develop my speaking capacity, but it helps build the foundations for speaking.
The neighbors in this student apartment complex had a booming bass on their playlist through at least 11:00 PM, but with earplugs and a tired body, I got to sleep and enjoyed the extra hour of a slow morning before church.
The weather was sunny on a crisp fall day. It seems like the sunny days have more wind though! But I did get out to make the most of the sun, which is very Swedish! I biked up to Gamla Uppsala.
The two grave mounds seen from the top of a third mound. The old church is in the background.
Can you pick out my shadow in this picture below?
Where’s Beth? Yup, the spike at the top-center of the shadow.
This is one of the most important historical sites in Sweden and goes way back to the early viking era. Few other places in all of Scandinavia appear in the early literature as often as Uppsala. Perhaps Anya is a descendant of the Yngling kings!
Looking west toward the mounds from the church gate
The lighting was nice on the church.
The Gamla Uppsala church
The church building started in the 11th century, but finished in the 12th century. There were repairs after a fire in 1240, which precipitated the move of the bishop’s seat 5 km (3.1 miles) south west to the “new” cathedral.
I had some “snappy beef barbecue” in the oven, so we had some pulled barbecue beef for dinner. I did have to stop and get some aluminum foil on the way home. We don’t have a roasting pan with a lid.
I’m not much of a cook, so if you need a recipe that is hard to mess up and the leftovers freeze very well, here it is.
Snappy Barbecue Beef Sandwiches
A recipe from Gladys Twedt of Hingham, MT (a farmer family friend from my elementary school days)
1 beef chuck roast (4 lbs.) (trimmed lean)
1 c. ketchup
1 c. barbecue sauce (hickory smoked)
4 c. chopped celery
2 c. water (half this if using a crock pot)
1 c. chopped onion
2 T. vinegar
2 T. brown sugar
2 T. Worcestershire sauce
1 t. chili powder
1 t. garlic powder (I use 3-4 cloves of pressed garlic)
1 t. salt
Rolls or buns (serves 16)
Place beef in Dutch oven (covered roaster). In a bowl, combine all remaining
ingredients (except the rolls!). Pour over beef. Cover and bake at 350
degrees for 5 hours, turning beef occasionally. Shred beef with a fork.
Serve on buns or rolls. (Freezes well—thaw, heat, and serve.)
Beth’s tip: Slice the roast in 2 inch strips for less cooking time, and cook
until it shreds easily. I’ve also done this recipe in a crock pot! It really
does freeze well, so make a big batch while you’re at it. Cook once, eat
twice–or thrice!
Slowly, I find out more of what I don’t know. I just found out that some faculty and staff gather for prayer on Thursday mornings! No one had informed me until just a few days ago. So this week, I joined them.
Several faculty and staff gather for prayer on Thursday mornings.
In morning fika (coffee/tea break), I brought my ballot. It came in the mail on Wednesday, but I had already gone online, downloaded my ballot, and mailed it it. (Remember the comment last week about actually having a conversation with someone in a store!) So, I brought my ballot to fika and passed it around for anyone to look at it who was curious.
A look at an American ballot
They were surprised to see 6 (or so) candidates on the ballot for president. They only know of the two major candidates. They were interested in all the different kind of voting, initiatives, federal, state, local, school, auditor, etc.
I don’t know what voting is like here, but I get the sense that it is important to recognize that it is a social democracy and not simply socialism. I’m hoping to have a conversation about this distinction someday.
Most of the day was preparing my essay for Swedish class tomorrow. For new teachers, typically the first semester has included 20% of the teacher’s “load” to take a course at the university on how to teach on the university level. However, with my experience, I didn’t need that. So my equivalent time has been designated for the Swedish course. I put in way more than 20% of my time in Swedish, but that is the reality of learning a language. I’m just glad to have this investment of time in my language learning. Thus, I can work on Swedish on my work computer that has Swedish grammar checker. (Microsoft Word on my personal laptop is not current enough to support grammar checker, and I’m finding out how lacking Google Translate is for good grammar.)
In the evening, Anya had some friends over to work on their Spirit Week costumes. Friday’s theme was somehow nebulous, so people could do almost anything. Anya wore her flapper dress (a previous Halloween costume that I sewed for her) that she brought along. She did her hair and make up perfectly! Unfortunately, she wouldn’t let me take a picture. One friend was Sandy in the last scene of the movie version of Grease. She rocked it! Another friend was a very cool hippie. Unfortunately, Anya wouldn’t let me take a picture. You can see that my groupie photo at our homemade pizza dinner has Anya mortified, while her friends were great sports.
Pizza night with Anya and friends
My weekly rhythm includes increasing stress through the week until Friday morning’s Swedish class. As one of the weakest in (though also newest to) Swedish language learning, I have more gaps. So, I try to fill them with additional work. I worked very hard on my essay that is one of four graded assessments in this course. I carefully go through the reading assignments, look up the new vocabulary, and write the words in my text. I listen to the companion CD and mark the accents. This helps me learn, but also prepares me for class. While I still have a difficult time tracking the details of the conversations in class, I can usually pick up the subject and some general aspects of the meaning.
Today, I started with a conversation conversation partner, the guy who is fluent in Norwegian, but then another student came in a bit late and sat on the other side of him. So, now the class could be divided up in pairs, and I was paired with one of the German women. (She’s doing a PhD on human responses and interactions with robots.) She has completed level one and two, so she has less gaps than me in this level 3 course. However, today, I didn’t feel way out of it and even was able to retrieve some vocabulary to help with our exercises. In one exercise, I even aced the placement of the adverbials in the various clauses. Whoo hoo!
To top it off, the sun was shining on my way home and through the afternoon of laundry and cleaning.
One of the realities of living with only bikes is that I try to make the most of my proximity to grocery stores; I can only haul small amounts of groceries. We miss our Smith Brother’s milk delivery, especially since it seems that I’m buying milk several times a week. I’ve taken to keeping a small nylon bag in my coat pocket just for these occasions when I stop by a store. You have to buy your plastic bags in grocery stores, so while I was good at using reusable bags in the USA, I’m even better here. On one of the grocery store trips, I celebrated the new item on the shelves this week, Coke Life, with natural Stevia sweeter. I’m glad my preferred Coke is now available!
A shout out to Puesta del Sol elementary in Bellevue!
A special footnote: On this day 21 years ago, Eric and I were married.
I was assigned to lead the chapel time this morning, which is actually called morning prayer. On Wednesdays this fall term, the faculty are giving homilies on phrases from the Nicean Creed. Sometimes, they seem like a mini lecture, which was also a common tendency at Trinity. So, I tried to navigate to a deep reflection.
The crazy thing is that I lost track of time and looked at the clock at 7 minutes to 10:00, and morning prayer starts at 10:00. The Spirit must have nudged me! I grabbed my laptop and quickly went to chapel. I didn’t even print out my notes, that would have taken too much time! I had just enough time to plug it in and take half a minute to breath. It would have been quite embarrassing to be late for my first morning prayer speaking.
Fortunately, my new laptop is smarter than me. When the cable is plugged in, then PowerPoint automatically goes into presentation mode. I saw on my laptop screen the slide that was projected, a box of notes that I had copied into PowerPoint, and the next slide. Whew! It went better than I expected. It was encouraging to have a few students and staff take out their cell phones to take pictures of the slides. One of the teachers relayed how my message just beautifully followed up on what was in her class that morning. So in spite of me speaking in English, I’m glad it was meaningful and helped to connect people to a loving and merciful God.
The rest of the day was mostly listening to Swedish. There was a 3 hour and 15 minute faculty meeting, with only two 5-minute breaks. Sometimes I wonder if my listening capacity has improved much at all, in spite of all the effort. Perhaps my expectations are higher.
Anya continues to thrive. Yesterday she gave me permission to tell you a story. We were talking and playing ping pong. She said that higher level economics was pretty easy for, especially the math. There was a quiz coming up, but she thought that she didn’t even have to study, because she understood it all already, and her higher level math is way beyond the basic math currently used in the class. But she said that she took her book home anyway to make it look like she was going to study. Then she wouldn’t frustrate the others in the class who were lugging their book home to really study. Well, compassion is one of our core family values!
I wrote to a friend last year about how these values developed in our family, because she had her first baby, a daughter. With some tweaks to remove names, here’s what I shared with her.
Perhaps this is a celebration of the life of your new girl, perhaps I am just procrastinating finishing an essay. But, I’m caught up in sharing in the joy of your motherhood. Someone said that the closest thing we get to being like God is creating life. What a great honor!
I was one who perhaps changed three diapers before I had my own daughter, and wondered if society could really entrust me with this fragile life. Now, almost 16 years later, I couldn’t image life without Anya. But one of the best ways I have learned to be a mother was through something I stumbled upon with insights from women friends farther along in the motherhood journey. I encapsulated my motherly yearnings for my daughter in a short prayer. Later, I realized it became a mission statement for me, and I’ve told Anya that this prayer summarizes my responsibility as her mother. The wonderful thing is that you have a few years to incubate a prayer, so as she is growing up, it becomes such a part of life, a deep understanding of your love for her, and a grounding of identity that it can help carry her through the unsettledness of adolescence.
The seeds of my prayer for Anya were planted by two of my women friends, both of whom only have daughters. The virtues central to our family became embedded in the prayer, which I prayed for her so often that she can recite it without a blink. There are five core virtues, but they don’t remain on lips; they get lived out in life.
One of our family virtues is respect. Then in life, we engage it in discussion and action–in mostly informal instruction–as well as seeking forgiveness of each other when we mess up. We have imagined the world together if more would value respect. We’ve talked about respect from playgrounds to watching Project Runway. Some of my greatest joys have been seeing the prayer blossom as a few of Anya’s teachers have described her with the very names of the virtues that began as whispers in prayer.
So, my prayer and mother’s mission statement is that Anya would “grow to be a godly, wise woman, full of love for Jesus, and compassion and respect for others, and the courage to do the right thing.”
It gets bumpy on the journey of life, but I see God’s hand of Providence upon her life. Thanks for all who join me in prayer for her!
Anya was dressed in grunge style for Spirit Week today. I was allowed to be fashion consultant, since I had lived in the Seattle area in the late 80s and early 90s (as well as beyond) when grunge was huge, and Seattle was considered the capital of grunge music. However, she wouldn’t let me take pictures of her.
She did let me take pictures at the end of the day when she was baking chocolate chip cookies.
She made both vegan and omnivore versions!
The fall colors were beautiful on the way to work today, which is just a little bit of a compensation for having to wear warmer clothes and rain gear.
One of the beautiful places on my bike ride to work.
I am slowly getting settled in my office. Today, I got a new chair! Its the nicest chair I’ve ever had!
My new, awesome chair!
I brought some of my art from home to fill the blank office walls. Take a look at the mat on this framed map of Africa.
The mat matches the wall!
I bought this original 1806 map print when in London last year. It already had the mat on it. Then, I had it framed in Bellevue. It is a hand colored map that has little geographical resemblance to reality in the center of the map; the center was unexplored! For example, there is no Lake Victoria. The label on the ocean in the lower right of the continent is the Ethiopian Sea. It is interesting to me in many ways.
After work, Anya and I went bicycling for recycling. Recycling is very important in both Seattle and Sweden. However, here there is a significant deposit to claim by turning in bottles at the recycling center at the entrance of grocery stores.
Ikea bags are also good for hauling plastic bottles and aluminum cans for recycling. They can’t be squished, and they have to have the label on them.The bottle recycling machine.
Each bottle or can is individually rotated and scanned to read how many kroner it is worth. Two bags about the size of a kitchen garbage bag brought $5.60. That’s a good incentive to recycle. It spits out a receipt so that the money can either be taken off a purchase at the store or get cash. (I believe the latter is true, but I always just use it to reduce my grocery payment.)
In the evening, I attended the last episode of Tro, Hopp och Kärlek, (meaning Faith, Hope, and Love) the reality TV show. The youth pastor at church was one of the featured bachelors looking for love. One of the previous youth pastors was on the show last year and actually ended up marrying the woman he met on the show. They were also there tonight. I didn’t understand much of the Swedish, but a colleague told me that it actually was a good representation of some wonderful values within a Christian relationship. The media here in Sweden often paints the church in a caricature and a bit negative at times.
Note the fundraising option to donate to hunger programs in Malawi and Ethiopia by sending money from your phone.
These priests wanted to use this opportunity to be a blessing for others, so they used it as a fundraiser to help with food programs in Malawi and Ethiopia, where there are some major food shortages currently. This was one more aspect of the compassion and global concern that is often overlooked in the media portrayals of the church.
The Swish payments by phone are everywhere! You can even make a donation to the fika (coffee/tea and goodies) after church by Swish. And now I can! Today, my colleague, Maria, helped me navigate the Swedish of my new online banking system, pay my apartment rent, and set up a Swish account. I have a working debit card and a Swish account! Now, I’m not dependent upon others to pay my bills!
So, while I advance in banking, I feel so out of the loop in language and sometimes in the community. Anya was baking cookies and not interested in going to the event tonight, so again, I go alone and most often, sit alone.
It used to be just overcast almost every day, to the point where I was surprised that there was no rain with so much grey. Now, it feels a little more like Seattle, grey with sporadic light rain. But this means that I have to wear rain pants for the bicycle ride to and from work.
I had and unusual experience today. A store clerk actually chatted with me! At the neighborhood grocery store, there is a busy desk at the entrance. There you pick up packages that are too big to go through a mail slot. You mail letters and buy stamps, and pick up any lottery winnings. There are a bunch of other services too, but these are the ones I know. Today, I mailed in my absentee ballot with the King County “Vote” panel that I cut out from my downloaded ballot and taped to my envelope. We chatted about the candidates briefly, but I’m keeping politics out of this blog, so I won’t give the details.
The American presidential election is big in conversation here. In the afternoon fika, there was quite a conversation (in Swedish), though nobody asked me anything about it. I just sat and listened to as much as I could get from the conversation. Much of it is too fast for me to understand. My boss actually did his PhD at UC Santa Barbara looking at religion in US presidential politics. So, he had quite a bit to say today at fika. I just don’t really know what he said.
I did go to the språk café or talk time at church today.
Time to practice Swedish!
I was fortunate to have my regular conversation partner from the last two weeks. However, at the beginning of the session, it seemed more difficult for me today. My brain seemed really tired, but I had enough sleep. I just couldn’t connect the concepts to words. It got a bit better later. I know that there are some topics that have vocabulary that I’m more familiar with, and these go better. About halfway through the 2 hours, Hans 1 from my first visit joined us. I wondered if that would add to the complexity, and to some degree it did, but not too much. At first he was speaking too fast, so he had to slow down. I assume that is a compliment. I’d rather not have that compliment.
In the afternoon, my boss stopped by in my new office. He was just checking in. That’s nice of him. We chatted a bit, and he invited me to share any insights or ideas I have as I see possibilities or concerns at Johannelund. He has been here only a bit over 1 year, so he is not overly protective of how things are now. He inherited most of it. I graciously mentioned a thing or two that I didn’t understand, such as with the distance learning program. He agreed that these were good to bring up in discussion. He welcomed me to keep reflecting and even write down anything that may add to these discussions.
So later, I spent a bit of time writing down the things that I see as tremendous strengths to celebrate and grow as well as some areas that could be discussed. I mentioned that perhaps I just don’t understand the full picture, so it would just be informing me of the other issues. For example, there are some dramatic differences in educational systems. Previously, I discovered that a student can return several years later to a course that they didn’t complete and finish the portions that were left hanging! I think there will be 2 or 3 writing the final exam in the course I will be teaching, starting in November! So, they don’t have to come to class, just show up for the final and simply “pass.” I understand that there is a financial incentive to the institution to have them finish. In the USA, there is a financial incentive to most students to finish the course, and if there is an incomplete given for extenuating circumstances, there is a time limit of perhaps one term or six months before it turns into whatever points were accumulated at the time, which is often a failure.
What I’m trying to figure out is if I develop the pedagogy to learner-centered teaching with my “buffet of learning” style (where for about 1/3 of the course points, students can choose various projects that align with their major, vocation, passions, and skills to stimulate active and personally meaningful learning). With these individualize projects that are presented or demonstrated to the class (engaging one aspect of reflective learning), how would students who leave come back and finish up these “buffet” projects two years later!?! I typically include a longer “standard academic paper” (instead of a shorter one with the “buffet” options–in a lower division course), so that may be the default for these former students. Perhaps if they are more engaged in the course, they won’t leave as easily, except for family or health crises.
This reminds me of a student and one of my advisees at Trinity. His mom died in the middle of the semester. It was tragic. I spent quite of bit of time with him in my office talking over how I could support him and talking through the decisions with regard to his education. His dad really wanted him to continue his studies, but he was unable to do it with such a difficult time of grieving. So, the next semester, he couldn’t finish the course either. He tried again later as well, and eventually quit his studies and went to work. A year or so later, we were talking in my office about him returning to Trinity. However, now, the curriculum had changed. I told him that the class he had with me would no longer be taught, so we’d have to put him in another class to meet that requirement. He replied, “Oh, that’s too bad! That was a great class. I should know; I took it three times!” This is one of my favorite Trinity student quotes!
The best part of the day was playing ping pong with Anya. There are always wonderful moments of laughter.
We headed off to church this morning. I learned how to buy coupons for fika today. By the entrance, there is a machine that looks a bit like an ATM. I’m not sure all it does, though I think it may include making contributions. I now know that I can also make a payment there, get a receipt, take it to the kitchen, and receive a pile of little coupons to use for fika. There is very little cash used in Sweden.
I am slowly meeting more people at church, though the conversations with any meaning are in English.
Anya invited a friend from school over for lunch after church. They ate while I worked on my next graded assignment for my Swedish course. This assignment is to be a newspaper article of 200-300 words.
Later Jim stopped buy to pick up the things that we had borrowed while we waited for our crate to come. Then we had to unpack, figure out what was still needed, get things purchased, and do the laundry in order to be ready to return clean towels, duvets, and duvet covers.
Anya and I also had some great fun playing ping pong in the afternoon. There was great laughter and some good shots. I see Anya improving already, but when I want to get the shot, I send it to her forehand. That’s her weak side.
Anya headed over to another school friend’s place for dinner. She hosts a Sunday evening dinner for several friends, and now, Anya is included. Anya was invited to stay the night there. I said that as long as she gets a good night sleep, she can stay there. It is “spirit week” at school, so Anya and her friends will be dressing up for the theme of the day. Anya loves this kind of stuff, so she may not to very well getting a good night’s sleep with all the excitement. Let’s see how it goes.
I biked off to a concert. My co-worker who teaches the music courses is in one of the best choirs in Uppsala, which has only 16 voices. The choirs is connected with the Uppsala cathedral, and the concert was there. It is an amazing place. The concert was even free. They publicized that they would take a collection, and so I was ready with some cash. They didn’t pass any baskets and I looked for a place where the collections would be taken, but I missed it. Perhaps they were at the door when exiting, but I went and talked with Maria for a few minutes. I missed the donation!
The cathedral is the tallest on in the Nordic countries.The construction of the cathedral started in 1272!The choir sang from the center of the cathedral with amazing acoustics!The view down the center on my way outThe botanist, Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778), is buried in the cathedral.
I studied botany at the University of Minnesota–Duluth, so I join the many who revere Linnaeus. He is the father of binomial nomenclature (if you didn’t remember your high school biology).
The view from the river on my way home
It is getting chilly. I need to use a different stocking cap under my bike helmet. The one I had on tonight is too thin and doesn’t block the wind well. I got home and picked out my stocking cap from Norway. When I was in Norway, I lost my stocking cap on the bus and wasn’t able to get it back with a call to lost and found. So, I bought a touristy stocking hat that was not too expensive and lined for more warmth, and the lining keeps the itchy wool away from my ears.
One of the important things I learned this week is that the lower entrance door actually is not locked during the day! The other doors need a key to unlock, such as the key to the bicycle storage room and the laundry room. Somehow I figured the ground floor door to our apartment block was the same. The latch does have a little tension, but with a strong enough pull, the door opens! However, for the past month and a half, I thought that it was locked all the time. I had be opening it with my key! And the Swedes who have observed me are either: 1) so nice that they didn’t want to embarrass me by telling me that I don’t need to use a key, or 2) they don’t talk to strangers. Crazy!
I awoke and could remember quite a bit of what I basically memorized for my oral presentation in class today. That was a good sign. This is the first of four graded elements for the pass-fail class.
Anya made French toast for her friend Sarah, who considers her first language to be French! (I asked her this morning.) Of course, this was a strange name of the food for her. Sarah’s parents live on the European continent, and she stays in a student apartment close by. It is good to have Anya’s friends over.
There was a new student in class today, another Finnish young women. Swedish is an official language in Finland and they are required to take it in high school. So, those who come to Sweden for university are too advanced for the basic Swedish courses, so the undergraduate students are put in with the Swedish for Academic 3 course, which are mostly PhD students. They fit in well, because of their foundation, and the group is congenial.
The presentations were done in small groups of four. The Finn went first, then me, then the German, and finally the French woman. My presentation was fine. I was able to be a little free from what I prepared, which is a good sign that the words and concepts had sunk in a bit. There were a few hiccups trying to remember the word I wanted to use and to switch the order of the verb and subject when following a “bisats” such as an adverbial expression of time. (“When an adverbial clause comes first, switch you the order of the verb and subject.”) This is difficult to do consistently.
Basically, I was satisfied of the outcome of my presentation. I see how I learned quite a bit through the process. However, with a sigh of relief, I’m glad it is over.
We were required to ask a question after each presentation. At the end, we wrote these on a sheet. I noticed that all of my first questions were related to language and the languages spoken in their home, work, and life. Perhaps I am interested in languages, which I am, such as the question I asked Sarah at breakfast time. Perhaps I am more comfortable with this gamut of vocabulary in Swedish.
After the presentations, we put all the phrases of a Pippi Longstocking song in order.
Thanks to the German and the French woman, our group completed it with only two times through the song. They did this in a previous course.
If you’d like to here the song about a seasick pirate, here’s the link. This YouTube video has the lyrics, but we only heard it sung.
Our group is done and gets a longer break while the other group in the opposite corner finishes the task.
The last portion of the class was on prepositions related to time. Prepositions are difficult in language learning as they have a lot of colloquial usage that aren’t related to how we use them in English. I learned a couple rules that will help me, but these are still difficult, even for the guy who is fluent in Norwegian.
On my bike ride home, I stopped for a couple pictures.
The fall colors in the cemetery across from the building where I have class.My favorite house in Uppsala so far, tucked in between apartment buildings on either side. The numbers on the front show that it was built in 1823.
I went to Johannelund after a quick lunch at home (which is on the way), where I met a student. There was a little time of Swedish practice, but it also was a time of connecting, listening, and sharing. I had an opportunity to speak God’s grace into the challenges of life. I’m beginning to see how God is making me a blessing here.
Then I moved out of my temporary office to the office that is now available for me. There isn’t much to put in it yet. There will be bookshelves coming. I’m bringing a backpack of books everyday from my apartment.
Now there is a computer and a row of books behind the chairs waiting for shelves.
I loved the view of a wooded greenbelt out of my temporary place, but if I move to the left windows and look to the right past the student apartments, I can see some beautiful fall colors.
The fall colors on campus
I arrived home to see that Anya and I got mail. We have pin numbers for our bank accounts. So, now we really can use the bank accounts–after I figure out how to confirm the money was deposited and how to transfer funds to Anya’s account.
One other YouTube video to share is especially for Marv. I wish I were there to watch it together and hear you laugh! Ismo Leikola is a Finnish comedian. A colleague who is a Swede who lives in Finland shared this at fika yesterday afternoon. (Yes, you heard that right, he commutes from Finland, and stays in an apartment on campus several days each week.)
Anya is off at youth group tonight and invited a friend from school along, a Canadian, who is joining her. I’m glad to be at home after a long week and all the emotional exhaustion of preparing for the presentation in Swedish class. I have a long task list of stuff to do for tomorrow, like figuring out all the online banking systems.
Yesterday, we had a guest speaker from the USA, Gastón Espinosa, from Claremont-McKenna College. He had two guest lectures. The first was on current trends in world Christianity, which is related to some of my research, and the second was on religion and politics in the USA presidential race. He has worked with the PEW Charitable Trust, so he is well informed. I thought it interesting that so many Swedes were interested in finding out about American politics, but the USA wields a lot of influence globally. Generally, there are well informed questions and thoughtful comments.
Dr. Espinosa speaking
I spent the evening in Swedish and baking a chocolate cake to thank the men who helped haul the ping pong table upstairs. That meant that today, I had to figure out how to get the cake strapped to my bike for a safe trip to school.
The cake made it!
The cake was well received and it was shared at morning fika for the staff in honor of the movers. One of the mover guys seemed to really be enthused about this gesture. I also noted that there was much more English spoken at morning fika than usual! So, if I need a means to unlock the English communication channels, I might have found the key–chocolate cake!
(I paused for a bit of ping pong with Anya, and now I am back!)
Later, I was shown my new office. It is a long story, but I will be moving in now.
My office furniture. Blank wall on the other side.
It is approximately 9.5 x 18 feet and the windows you see extend the full 9.5 width. I am excited about the adjustable desk, no cranking needed. It is powered by electricity.
The rest of the day has been working on getting my presentation ready for tomorrow. I’m grateful for two coworkers, Anna and Åsa, who helped with some shaping of it to strengthen it. I am stressing a bit, actually quite a bit. I can’t read it, as I’m supposed to talk through it. However, I basically have to memorize it, but I see how this effort is helping me develop vocabulary, pronunciation, and a better understanding of the words I wrote. I’m slowly developing some conversational aspects, but my last line is (as translated), “I am glad that I am here, except for my struggle with Swedish.”
Morning fika has a typical Swedish birthday cake, a princess cake, celebrating the birthday of a colleague.
A green fondant covering with layers of creamy filling is very Swedish.
Everyone stands and sings a Swedish birthday song. Then, the Swedish way of sharing the cake is not to cut it all and pass the plates around. You pass the cake around, and every one cuts a piece–just enough to have enough for everyone. “Just enough” is a very Swedish concept which translates as “lagom.”
After a Swedish start, my un-Swedishness punctuated the rest of the day.
I got a call at the morning fika telling me that my delivery would happen at noon. I told my colleagues that I have a piece of furniture being delivered at noon, and I could use some help. Then I divulged that my furniture was a ping pong table. I’m not sure they know what to do with me! This is not very Swedish, but Anya and I decided to forego the traditional living room while we are here and put the priority on something to do together as well as make a fun place for friends. The table does fold up, so we can roll it to the side of the room if needed. Anya is already planning a Thanksgiving dinner on it! Hmm, where will I get a big enough table cloth!
So, two colleagues came to the rescue and carried the heavy sides up the stairs as my back yard tree house demolition in June provoked some tendonitis which is aggravated by typing, unpacking, grocery shopping, hauling luggage, sometimes biking, etc. Thus, I’m grateful for these two coworkers who were willing to help.
Gunnar and Hans navigate the spiral staircase.A job well done and a grateful Beth!
After a quick lunch, I returned to work. The word is out that the ping pong table has arrived. I sense that this is seen as a bit quirky but fun, as well as a good thing to have with teenagers around.
The evening was spent assembling it, and then playing ping pong!
Whoo hoo! Finally!There is 43 inches of clearance at both ends. Not bad for a student apartment!
So, come on by for some ping pong!
A few follow-up notes:
Marv, thanks for reminding me to check the heater under the 110 charging station. Currently (pun intended), there is no heat in the radiator, but I have a plan for another place now that I’ve rearranged some things for the ping poing table.
Marv again: The drawer is a fiberboard, but not IKEA. It looks like a 1950’s or 60’s build cupboard and counter. They are like the ones I had in my 1956 Lake Hills home before the kitchen remodel. (Yes, I miss my pull out drawers and shelves!) I’ll work on a small brace along the front lip as you suggested.
Kathi, I see the 220 v Roombas here, and the 25% sales tax may be able to be reimbursed (though I have difficulty getting the Global Blue refunds to work for me). So, when you come to visit, leave room in your suitcase!!!
