I’m trying to savor all these beautiful summer days. To maximize my balcony time, I picked up a parasol at one of my favorite stores, Clas Ohlson, yesterday. In Swedish, an umbrella (paraply) is for rain, but a parasol is for sun. However, the deck parasol with clamp was not in stock, so I opted for the beach parasol and bought a REAL clamp.
Thank you, Stanley!
The Stanley clamp thing actually has two clamps with a rotating ball joint to easily adjust the angle 360 degrees (it claims). The clamp is working great! There is something nice about having good equipment.
Today, the parasol worked just fine. I can be out on the balcony in my hammock when the direct sun would be too much, but in the shade, it is perfect.
Other aspects of my day included reading on the exercise bike at the gym and having fika (basic tea) at work with Anya and her librarian boss at Johannedlund. Then back home for the final checks on my manuscript, before sending it off to the publisher this afternoon. I realize that it will never be perfect, but I think it is reasonable free of typos and errors. I’m also doing quite a bit of preparation for courses that start mid-August. Its coming so fast, but I want to make the most of these last summer days. So, at least I can read text books on the balcony!
I’ve been realizing how much of my day has been spent reading these past few days. If I consider all the news, emails, books, manuscript proofs, Swedish lessons, etc., I’m guessing that at least 80% of my day is reading. Remember, I even read on the exercise bicycle (which is common in my former USA gym, but I’m the only one here).
The exceptions to reading are (beyond the basics of sleeping, cooking, eating, cleaning, biking, grocery shopping), on Thursday, I was invited over for fika at my co-worker, Elin’s apartment. I had given her some cardamon from Tanzania, and her husband, Andreas, made a cardamon cake. They have two special needs kids, and the youngest, Ruth, is fine with me holding her on my lap. It was a nice afternoon fika on a beautiful afternoon on their patio.
I did do a little reading on IMDB (The International Movie Database), because we started talking about the historical novels by Vilhelm Moberg, who wrote about the immigrants from Sweden to Minnesota. There was a TV mini-series made, that Eric and I watched our first year of marriage. In the book, the main character is Kristina. She is from the area that Andreas comes from, Duvemåla in Småland. Then I learned that there is a musical, written by the two men from ABBA, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson.
Cool!
The other exception is the Swedish conversation with Lennart on Friday morning. However, we did some reading too. He showed me a book that he picked up at his last Swedish language talk time with the refugees and immigrants.
Ali’s book was highlighted in the newspaper recently.
A teenage Afghani refugee, Ali, wrote a book about his experience, The Angel and the Sparrow. Lennart suggested I read aloud and then translate a few sentences at a time. It is a good exercise as the Swedish isn’t too complicated, but it is a bit harder to read when choked-up. Lennart and I both had to wipe away a few tears. The first chapter describes how Ali is talking on the phone with his mother, who is back in Afghanistan. He doesn’t want her to worry about him, so he tries to fight through his heart in his throat, but he misses her so desperately. It was beautiful to hear his love for his mom. How important it is to hear the stories and connect with the humanity, not just impersonal statistics or news headlines. Next week is chapter two. I’ll keep some Kleenex handy.
Lennart is also helping me check the translation on a handbook I have for inductive Bible study methods that I will be using this fall. I check a rough Google translate draft, but Lennart helps refine it. He also shared the book of exegetical methods he wrote in Thai for his students. It is wonderful to have a tutor who understands the discipline!
The list of the 8 steps, which is developed over the book
The last non-reading, or less-reading, thing in the past few days was streaming the movie, “Yes Man,” with Jim Carrey. My recent visitor, Kathi, said it was funny, and it was a good diversion.
I did turn on the Swedish sub-titles to rationalize the use of time.
Today, I was reading church and mission history of Latin America. Fortunately, the weather was at times absolutely perfect, with sunshine filtered through light clouds to make the skin warmed but not hot!
The days hosting Mark and Kathi were great, in spite of Kathi being at half-capacity in a slow recovery from the flu.
My previous post was of our limited outing in Uppsala. We also had a limited outing in Stockholm. This included lunch at Anya’s and my favorite fika spot in the old part of town, Gamla Stan. We meandered through this historical part on the way to the ferry. Stockholm is built on 14 or so islands in addition to the mainland.
Looking back at Gamla Stan from the ferryA view toward the mainland with Gamla Stan on the left
Our destination on the other side: The ABBA Museum!
Whoo hoo! (I guess I’m in the spotlight!)Kathi and Mark moved, so you can tell that they aren’t wax figures too!
In 2015, I pondered on my blog (from Norway) if I should fulfill Anya’s request to visit The ABBA Museum when Anya and I were in Stockholm the day before my trip to Uppsala to interview at Johannelund. Kathi told me “Absolutely!” (Mark thought perhaps it was ABBAsolutely!) The ABBA Museum visit was a big part of Anya falling in love with Stockholm and her eagerness to consider moving to Sweden. Perhaps Kathi’s encouragement helped tip the scale to Sweden! Kathi and here sister were big ABBA fans when growing up!
We did a little tourist shopping and had a fika before heading home. We tried not to push Kathi too hard during her recovery. It did take something out of her, so we just rested the next day.
On Sunday, Kathi was up for church, which was followed by having tea with my three Chinese friends. It was a mix of trying to communicate in beginning Swedish (me and two of the Chinese), in beginning Mandarin (with Mark and Kathi and the three Chinese), and with intermediate English (with one of the Chinese and us). We had a nice time, and they sent us home with homemade dumplings for lunch!
After a nap and some time to hang out, we took the bus to the viking grave mounds for a quick visit to one of the most important historical sites in Sweden. There was a church service going on, so we got to peek our heads into the back of the old church from the 12th century. Then it was on the bus into town for dinner at one of the very Swedish dinning establishments. We ate outdoors next to the river, sharing some Swedish meatballs with lingonberries, and other delicious foods. (I’m glad that I’m slowly getting the hang of the bus too.)
On Monday morning, I helped Mark and Kathi get some laundry done in time to finish packing, have an early lunch, and get to the bus to the airport. It was great to have them here, but I hope next time that Kathi is not in recovery and back to her spunky self.
On my walk back to the apartment from the bus station (we took a taxi to the bus to the airport with the luggage), I saw an interesting thistle just beginning to bloom.
Fascinating to this former biology major!
On Monday, Anya started working at the Johannelund library. The librarian’s 2 daughters, who are around her age, are also working there. The city has a program that pays teenagers half of a salary for 90 hours, or 3 weeks at 30 hours per week. This is a nice place for staff member’s offspring to work, and a good benefit for Johannelund. Earlier in the summer, other staff offspring were working on the cleaning crew. Anya’s previous volunteer work in the library landed her an opportunity there, and she is liking it (and glad that she wasn’t on the cleaning crew!). Anya is the go-to person for book repair! And the Books of the Bible song that I taught her when she was 6 comes in handy now as they are now working on getting the Old Testament books cataloged into the Dewy Decimal System. (Pam, Anya said that she saw 3 of your books today!)
Now my days are technically vacation, but I spend a good chunk of the day reading for classes in the fall. I try to be in the hammock as much as possible, but there is some reading on the exercise bike too.
The main project the past 2 days has been checking the edits of the manuscript of my revised PhD dissertation. A “technical editor” made some “track changes” edits. I’m going through to approve or not-approve them. Some of the edits have seemed inconsistent, which means checking with the production editor. So, I’m not overly confident with the technical editor’s work, but it keeps me on my toes!
The brain-draining task is to locate tentative page numbers. In the text, there are many places that refer to other portions of the text. In the PhD dissertation formatting, there were section headings to which I could refer, such as, “See Section 4.3.4.” However, for the monograph, there are no section headings, so I have to track down the page numbers where I want to direct my readers (all 2 of them, assuming there are 2 crazy people!). These will be checked with the final pagination, but I want to do the time consuming work now. Later in the academic year, things will be crazy-busy. It is better to do the work now when I have more time and can take breaks in the hammock!
The weather has been very nice with highs in the low 70s and mostly to partly sunny. This is the best time to be in Uppsala. Today, it was overcast in the high 60s, but pleasant.
Today is the day for the review of our days in Wisconsin.
We spent a night with dear friends, Karen and Ed, at their cabin in Danbury. They are balm for the soul. It was only a night, but wonderfully renewing.
Then it was off to Madison to have tea with my uncle and aunt. It is a nice connection on our way through central Wisconsin. Anya found a 7-11 for a slurpee, a missed treat. Her internet research found that there are no 7-11s in Minnesota–at least in the areas we were in.
We continued on to the Hanson farmstead in southeastern Wisconsin. We spent two days on the farm and being spoiled by Aunt Donna.
This farm goes back 4 generations. The red barn is from the days of Eric’s great-grandfather.
The farm was heaven on earth for Eric. He spent many of his childhood summers and most of his teenage summers on the farm. His two older male cousins were like brothers to him. We left on the anniversary of the younger cousin’s death which was also from cancer. We visited the grave sites of both after church on Sunday.
In loving memory
These are special folk, and it is important to keep Anya connected with the relatives and special place.
Back to life in Uppsala:
Today, I had fika at Johannelund with a student who is willing to be my Swedish conversation partner over the summer. She had homemade ice cream, and we talked for almost two hours with my muddled Swedish.
In the evening, I watched the 1986 movie, The Mission, as part of my lesson prep for the fall. I’m teaching half of a history of missions course. Such a beautiful soundtrack to such a sad movie.
The movie ends with a quote from John 1:5:
The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it.
Today, I played local guide–with plenty of disclaimers for still being new and learning my Swedish context. Kathleen and Bob from my home church in Bellevue were in the area, so they came to spend a day in Uppsala. I met them at the train station and showed them around.
I met them at the train and talked over ideas to plan the day. Here’s the results:
Walk through the central square to the castle, with a view of the cathedral.
The view of the cathedral from the castle mound
Took in the vista over the botanical garden
Visited the Holy Trinity church, which is older than the cathedral
Warmer and almost cozy compared to the cathedral
Walked past the university library, but I knew that the museum is closed for renovation (too bad, because the Silver Bible is a highlight)
Went to the Gustavianum museum with the display of the Vandal period, the anatomical theater, the university’s historical artifacts (including a spike and wood samples from Jesus’ cross).
Walked over to have lunch by the river at the Lingon restaurant
Visited the Linneaus botanical garden and museum across the street
The view from his library overlooking his gardens
Headed over to the Cathedral to take in the (free) tour in English
Visited the rune stone garden
Walked over to my favorite fika place for a nice fika outside on the sidewalk tables parallel to the river on a beautiful day (this is a favorite aspect of Swedish culture)
Walked to our apartment, so that Bob could make a Skype call with his credit card activated (which was deactivated in spite of notifying the company of international travel). I couldn’t figure out anywhere to find a normal phone!
Then hopped on the bus to visit the ground of the old church and climb up one of the grave mounds in Old Uppsala.
Then we bussed back to the train station where I bid them goodbye at about 6:20 pm. (And I’m learning more about taking the bus! However, I like the Norwegian bus app better than the Swedish bus app!)
Overall, it was quite a nice day with a good pace, good weather, and fine company.
I am tired, but not from all the walking. The jet lag woke me up at 3:30 am. Let’s hope the walking in the sun helped adjust the circadian clock for a better night’s sleep.
I’m getting adjusted to this time zone. I once heard that we can allow one day for every hour of time zone difference to adjust, which gave me a bit more grace with myself. I made it through the day with only a short nap and a late afternoon walk. Fortunately, there was a good amount of sun today to walk in shorts and let the UV rays do their circadian rhythm therapy.
I’m also getting adjusted to being 53. This is my birthday today. It was mellow, which is fine after almost 2 weeks of being on the go. In one way, it will take me more time to adjust to a new year. In another way, one day more doesn’t feel much different.
Here are highlights of travel to Minnesota. (Wisconsin travels will come later.)
We arrived, picked up our rental car (Anya chose the light mint green, though I suggested the larger trunk, but in honor of Elenn and Steve who live near Detroit, we went with the mint green Ford Fiesta), and then we drove to the Mall of America! Did you know that there is no sales tax on clothes in Minnesota! That’s quite a difference from the 25% on everything in Sweden (except food, which is 12%).
Mall of America is huge! And huge savings on sales tax!
After two nights at the World Mission Prayer League guest house–and Anya’s strategic planning to find her favorite American foods–it was off to Alexandria, Minn.
Morning walks by Lake Carlos at Mount Carmel
Several mornings, I was able to get out for a walk, which went by the lake and into the woods. I saw a pelican, a rabbit, and a deer quite close up.
Family camp includes outdoor worship and campfires!
Campfire followed by smores (though I headed back just before the smores)Outdoor worship with preaching, a wordless drama by the staff, and communion
During the week, I facilitated 9 Bible study sessions on the Spirituality of the Psalms and had 4 hour-long discussions in the afternoon. On Thursday, the thanksgiving psalm day, we dug into Psalm 136, an antiphonal psalm with 26 statements of thanks to God with the refrain “for his steadfast love endures forever.” We ended by writing reasons of our own for giving thanks on paper chain slips, and then many were spoken out and added to the chain. We all replied, “”for his steadfast love endures forever” at the end of each contribution. I didn’t read them all, but one statement of thanks I saw was priceless: “Poop IN the potty.”
The thanksgiving chain. You can see “poop” on the farthest left green chain!
We had a family picture taken with everyone.
Front L-R: Diane, Elenn, Jim, Faith, Mom, me, Dad. (Jim is mom’s cousin and Diane is his wife.) Back L-R: Steve (Elenn’s husband), Jeremy (Faith’s oldest), and Anya.
Faith shared a nice photo of Mom and Dad.
Pretty wonderful with 61 years of marriage!
On the way out of Alexandria to Wisconsin, we went through Upsala, Minn. Yes, only 1 “p” in the spelling of this American town of about 400 people.
The Bible study facilitation was well received. I’ve been invited back next year, perhaps July 7-13. I’ll keep you posted.
We have arrived home safely. We were notified by text that our flight out of Minneapolis was an hour delayed, which gave us a little time to get one more dinner for Anya of her favorite Chinese fast food and bubble tea. It was a bit of an ordeal getting to a gas station to fill up the rental car, as my GPS was sending me on a wild goose chase. Yet, I managed to drop off Anya at the ticketing level and get the car to the rental check in with 5 minutes before the deadline!
I thought I had done a thorough search clearing out the rental car, but in the ticketing area, I couldn’t find my phone. However, we had to wait in line to get re-booked for a later connecting flight in Amsterdam. We got a later flight but not boarding passes for it. But there was enough time for me to head back to the car rental. I give a big thanks to Alamo at the Minneapolis-Saint Paul Airport for finding the phone under the seat. The guy who found it said it was difficult, as it went forward and backward when the chair was moved. What a relief!
During the 8+ hour flight, I only got 1 movie in (Anya recommended Moana) while Anya got two done before we slept. I haven’t slept so long (but so poorly) on a plane in a long time.
In Amsterdam, we couldn’t get boarding passes from the automated kiosk, so we waited in line to talk with the customer service. We walked away with priority boarding and business class seats! How nice! We enjoyed a nice meal!
I splurged on a taxi ride home, as we were tired and loaded with maximum free baggage (and a heavily loaded ScottE vest!). However, in the taxi, I searched through every big ScottE vest pocket (11) and my backpack to try to find the keys. I was getting a bit worried that they went to the trash with the bag of things from the rental car, but then I thought I remembered that I put them in the rolling-carry-on that was in the back of the taxi. Whew! I had. We were home in our apartment, and after showers, we started to unpack.
Now, after a vacation from Swedish lessons, I’m back trying to work on vocabulary, thinking, listening, and I even talked a bit of Swedish with the taxi driver (a nice guy from Iran).
There was news today that according to the US News and World ReportSweden is ranked number one in the world for immigration. I believe this American and Iranian would corroborate that! Yes, this is even with the challenges from Sweden taking in twice as many refugees than Germany. Way to go Sweden!
Pictures and stories of travels to the USA coming soon!
Yesterday’s post had a date of June 30 also, because I was looking at the date on my laptop that was still set to Swedish time! It was actually a very long June 29.
Anya is usually not too good at adjusting to time zones. (Jean, remember South Africa?) Some will say it is easier going west–with the sun. I think I’ve heard others say it is easier going east. For me it depends upon how much I’m in a sleep deficit and how much I have to push myself to get adjusted due to whatever responsibilities await my arrival. I try to get out walking in the sun in the late afternoon as well, when my body wants to collapse and sleep.
This time, I think the excitement of the Mall of America got Anya going. I had to keep up–a bit. I actually went to the Starbucks in the Barnes and Noble and worked on my lesson prep. However, I did drag Anya to a Duluth Trading store where I knew I could get women’s pants with proper pockets. Even my Levi’s jeans have front pockets so small, I can only fit a credit-card holder sized billfold as the pockets extend only 3.5 inches (9 cm) deep. Yup, great pockets. I even found in the clearance section a pair of pants I wanted that are no longer made, and 1 left in my size. Whoo hoo!
Anya and I did start a list of the things we appreciate about being back in the USA.
English! We can order in English. Instructions are in English. I don’t have to feel guilty about talking English!
Minnesota nice. Just walking to the car from the WMPL house, we passed a couple who smiled and said hi! They actually talked to strangers! Rarely will you get a smile from a stranger while walking by, but a “hi” is unheard of in Uppsala.
Free bathrooms in stores! Even in the malls in Uppsala and Stockholm, the bathrooms are not free!
But the best part of the day was seeing a group of amazing people here at the WMPL guest house. There is a consultation regarding the mission hospital in Pakistan. Many of the former staff are here, along with the current director, a Pakistani. My sister drove in to join them. My former missions teacher, Pat is here. Some of you would know Jan K and Annetta D. They were also joined by the Koski’s, who are wise and experienced in administration and its special challenges in the developing world. With the other WMPL staff (like Dan R), I was in the midst of a great cloud of witnesses! Amazing people!
