Author: Velkommen

The recap of Thursday.

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.

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.

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.

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 special footnote: On this day 21 years ago, Eric and I were married.

With blessings,

Beth

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.”

With blessings,

Beth

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.

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.

I am slowly getting settled in my office. Today, I got a new chair! Its the nicest chair I’ve ever had!

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.

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.

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.

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.

With blessings,

Beth

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.

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.

With blessings,

Beth

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!

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).

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!

With blessings,

Beth

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

With blessings,

Beth

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.

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 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.

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.”

With blessings,

Beth

 

 

 

Morning fika has a typical Swedish birthday cake, a princess cake, celebrating the birthday of a colleague.

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.

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!

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!!!

With blessings,

Beth

Most of my work day was spent making adjustments to my class content, trying to figure out which few aspects of the 5 books of the Pentateuch get mentioned in a 90 minute time frame. I think I have an outline I can live with, but I’m still not sure I’m down to 90 minutes. (For those who care, I put the Documentary Hypothesis discussion on a previous day’s session on historiography. The topics were determined previously by the person I am eventually succeeding and with whom I will be co-teaching this term. This adjustment gives me more time with the selected themes of the Pentateuch.)

I joined the talk time again after lunch. I started again with my conversation partner from last week, which was good. She knows what I can do and what I can’t, so it helps me engage more meaningfully more expediently. However, later, there were three more women who joined the table. One had been in dialogue with other people, but they left after an hour, and then she joined us. I realized that the dynamics became more challenging, but I just tried to keep on. One of the women was excited to know that I had been in Tanzania and knew some Kiswahili. She also had been a teacher at a girls school in southern Tanzania for about 10 years. This is a good place to practice speaking Swedish, but I did do a bit of Swedish conversation with the business guy at the morning fika. It just gets so pedantic with my limited vocabulary and capacity, so I try not to burden others too much with my belabored and pathetically slow Swedish. So, I have conversations with myself. I am quite patient with myself as a conversation partner, but I’m not good at correcting her–as if I’d know if I’m correct!

This evening while Anya was off at pole vaulting practice and running twenty 60 meter sprints(!), I was adjusting our step-down transformer.

I decided to get the Roomba out of storage in the closet. (For my mom and dad: this is a robotic vacuum cleaner.) I was thinking that it wouldn’t be too practical here, because every room has a significant threshold at the doorway (about 2 cm or 7/8ths of an inch); the Roomba won’t be able to crawl over it. However, as the dust bunnies start to appear, I figure I’ll get it going and bring it into different rooms throughout the day.

A little back story on the Roomba: When Eric was diagnosed with brain cancer, we got a Golden Retriever puppy that Anya named Boomer and Eric trained. Goldens are a breed that are genetically predisposed to being seizure-sensitive, and seizures are part of the brain cancer journey. (Woldie, I still wonder if Eric’s seizure at your house freaked out your boys when they were so impressionable!) One day when we were in the crazy days of Eric’s cancer treatments and I was stressed over all the dog hair, I knew I had to make some tactical purchases. I went out and bought the Roomba and a leather coat, as my black wool coat took too much effort to sticky-roller blonde dog hair off of it. I actually wore the leather coat today. Boomer went to live with Jon and Ann on Lake Sammamish before we went to Norway. This July, the Sunday before we left for Tanzania and Sweden, we were told that Boomer was put to sleep to relieve her suffering from cancer. Boomer was well loved and brought lots of joy, and the Roomba reminds me of her (and all the hair I pulled out of the Roomba!).

With blessings,

Beth

Church included a nice brass band today. There is usually a mixture of hymns and less traditional songs. With one of the hymns, they had to be creative as the six verses (or was it eight!) needed different instrumentation! But it was well received.

After service, I was treated to fika (coffee, tea, and refreshments) and had a conversation in English with an American and a German (both who also speak excellent Swedish) about American politics. But don’t worry, this blog will be an oasis away from American politics!

After church and a nap, I worked on getting things a little more settled. I hung a collection of Maasai women’s beaded collars (essosi) and some collars with beaded fringe (I believe they are called nailelo).

Some other Maasai items were hung and some things rearranged for a more cohesive feel. Anya started to call our living room a Maasai museum.

Just so you know, everything isn’t in Maasai motif.

Ingrid Bergman came back to Sweden! My favorite movie during high school and college was Casablanca. A friend gave me this poster during my college days. It seemed appropriate to put up the Swede now that I’m living in Sweden.

I also hemmed the Ikea curtains for the living room. I made sure there was room in the packing crate for the sewing machine that Grandma and Grandpa Hanson bought for Anya (and one of the reasons to bring the step-down transformer).

While I sewed, I listened repeatedly to recent broadcasts of Swedish news in simplified Swedish. I’m amazed at how much of a visual learner I am, so I’m trying to strengthen my aural capacity. I hope this helps!

With blessings,

Beth