Whithersoever thou goest

Today, Anya and I walked into a bare apartment. A few hours later, we are amazed at how we are well on the way to making a home. Our furnishings are hand-me-downs, but they are given with generosity and genuine care. They totally are beyond what I expected.

Three male Johannelund colleagues and a neighbor couple helped lift and carry all the heavy stuff, including a leather sofa, up two flights of stairs. There is an upside to being the only female regular faculty member when it comes to having co-workers volunteer to help with moving! (There are women there who are part-time.)

Kristina, brought risgrynsgröt, rice porridge, served with cinnamon sugar, as well as some freshly homemade bread. This is a wonderful moving tradition, but lately it is being supplanted by getting pizza. Everyone agreed how wonderful this old tradition is. The eight of us sat around the kitchen table in the living room and talked and laughed. The joke was that people were going to move regularly to have this fellowship and food!

Tomas started counting ceiling outlets, and he came back ready to fill each one and set them up. He would then ask about dressers, rugs, and bookshelves. They all arrived and were put into place.

Kristina, after hosting us in her home for a month, took Anya and me around to a thrift store, IKEA, and a home & hardware store.

Kristina is loaning us some things until our crate comes, but we needed to fill some gaps as well as get some bedding for European sized beds and appliances that use 220 volts. The microwave was on salem and my new hot water pot is really cool! Blue lights encompass the base when its on!

So, it has been a long day, but an amazing day. This is what can happen when welcomed into and connected with a community; it transformed a bare apartment into a home that was filled with laughter around a kitchen table.

May you be blessed with similar community,

Beth

Anya had a great day! She was invited to fika (coffee/tea often with pastries) with two classmates, one from South Africa and one who commutes from Stockholm by bullet train every day. After lunch, her art class went to Stockholm on the train to visit the Moderna Museet (The Museum of Modern Art).

Thanks to all who have been praying for her transition here.

Today, I had an interesting conversation over breakfast with my hosts, Jim, born and raised in the USA, and Kristina, his wife, a Swede who has lived in the USA for many years. We pondered the generally retrained Scandinavian culture and it’s Midwestern-USA cousin. I grew up in a loving family but one that didn’t talk much about feelings. Some of my development as an adult has been growth in this area, as well as being willing to show weakness and ask for help. Going through the cancer journey with Eric was part of this journey as well as the transformation that came through understanding the theology of the cross–basically a biblical understanding of grace–which frees us from the religious baggage that is co-dependent with our human nature.

While there are wonderful examples of people here who have a willingness to be authentic–i.e., including sharing weaknesses–I’ve been informed that contemporary Swedish culture highly values being in control, not showing weakness, and not needing help, because it is a sign of weakness. Feelings are not often expressed, though I hear it is OK to express that you feel stressed, but feeling frustrated (and beyond) is “not very Swedish.”

I’m still new, and so this is only a beginning understanding of a culture with many exceptions. However, I’m wondering how to be sensitive to the general culture in order to not make others uncomfortable. However, I know that I need to find ways to be me and celebrate the emotional development I’ve come to cherish.

For a glimpse of what I’m pondering, check out this Ted Talk by Brene’ Brown (though it is lacking the fullness of the theology of the cross to undergird it–though sometime I may discuss that more).

The Power of Vulnerability.

With blessings,

Beth

My morning at work seems so unproductive as I slog through reading the text book in Swedish, so in the afternoon, I read a couple chapters of the English textbook.

My new laptop is set up now, so I started to imagine the first class that I’ll be teaching in November for the Introduction to the Old Testament course. I haven’t taught a survey/overview course, so I need to crystalize a semester-long course into about 6 – 8 hours.

I signed the contract for our apartment and got the keys. After work, I biked over (about a 3.5 minute ride) to check out the apartment. Here are pictures:

The whole apartment is 724 square feet (67.3 square meters). We are wondering if the living room is big enough for a ping pong table. Perhaps we ditch the normal furniture and just play ping pong!

There are no ceiling lights in the bedrooms or living room. Anya looked at the pictures and engaged a little imagination. She is quite positive about the potential. She also said, “I guess we’re going to IKEA this weekend!” Uppsala does boast the second largest IKEA in the world!

We’ll be moving in on Saturday, so check back for the development of apartment life in Uppsala!

Anya’s pole vaulting practice was in the brand new indoor track and field center. It is only a few days old! It even smells new!

With blessings,

Beth

Six years ago today, Eric went to be with Jesus. In our prayers tonight, Anya and I thanked God for the memories of life shared and for taking care of us these years.

On Tuesdays at Johannelund, there is a chapel service with communion. The Lutheran liturgy is pretty high church in Sweden. I can appreciate the liturgy, but I’m more of a low church person.

I was going through the housing contract with a colleague and getting ready to sign, when I learned that I would have to set up a “household electricity” account. However, I still don’t have the all-important person number, so I don’t have a bank account. I was a bit taken aback wondering if I’d have to be paying rent on an apartment that wouldn’t have electricity for at least 2.5 weeks! I was imagining candles and flashlights! Later, the business guy was able to call and find out that I can set up an account without the person number. So, I’ll sign the papers tomorrow and get the keys. We won’t move in until Saturday, when we can borrow a trailer and rally some helping hands.

This morning, I found out that I could take the placement test for the “Swedish for Academics” courses from 18:15-20:00. I spent the afternoon reviewing my grammar books and figuring out where the building was on a sprawling university campus and how to bike there.

I biked past Anya’s school on the way. At 5:00 pm, there were just a few of the hundreds of bikes that typically line the racks in the day.

I found the right building on the university campus pretty easily. I’m glad to be on this venture in the age of Google Maps and Google Earth.

So with my extra time that I allotted in case I got lost, I spent about 20 minutes wandering around a huge grave yard next to the buildings. There are some famous Swedes buried there.

There were only about 6 of us who took the placement exam. There were some challenging parts, which is expected for a placement exam. I’m guessing that a second level course will be good for me in order to strengthen my grammar and give me more confidence with speaking the language. Speaking is usually the last aspect to develop.

On the way home, the sun was setting and casting a beautiful light on the cathedral.

I’m looking forward to exploring this city more. I’m looking forward to the days when I will be comfortable with talking in Swedish. I am hopeful, though I realize this is going to be a long journey.

With blessings,

Beth

It rained today! Anya will probably accept my offer to wear my rain pants next time.

I am plodding along with reading the textbooks in Swedish. I find that the fastest way is to take a picture with the Google translate function on my iPhone and then refer to the translated paragraph for the one or two words (usually) per sentence that are new to me.

A highlight of the day was seeing some of the pictures and videos from my Bellevue, WA, church`s Tanzanian mission team. Here is one to check out (by Emily):

With blessings,

Beth

No translation was offered this morning at church, so I’m not sure I understood the sermon. I gave a summary of what I thought its message was to Jim. Let’s see if he hears anything from others who also heard it. I made sure I gave the appropriate disclaimers of my beginning Swedish.

After church, we picked up milk at the grocery store as we were out at “home.” By the milk stash, Anya found the Grandiosa frozen pizza, the “modern national dish” of Norway (Source). So, we had a lunch that reminded us of Norway. (We probably ate more Dolly Dimples pizza at a restaurant as a Sunday treat than Grandiosa, but it was a trip down last year’s memory lane.)

After a nice nap, I did some Swedish language learning. I took a break with a nice long walk to Gamla Uppsala again (see post of 6 Aug). Again, Anya didn’t want to walk with me, so I went alone again. This time I climbed up the grave mounds (which is allowed) and saw the wonderful view.

The view to the NW gives a glimpse of the old cathedral.

The chapel is open to the public without charge. There is even a free toilet in a culture that has pay toilets in the mall ($1.18 to pee)!

Celsius, the guy who developed the Celsius or centigrade temperature scale is buried in here.

While there was a light rain on the way home, it wasn’t too cold or windy. It was nice walking weather.

So, the day was renewing in general. We took a bit of the easy way today. Anya has suggested that with everything so new, it is probably good to keep going to the same church instead of visiting other places. While someday I’d like to check out a service at the Uppsala Cathedral, I thought it was a wise suggestion. Yet, after church, we didn’t stay around for fika (coffee break), as most of the people we have gotten to know weren’t there. So, instead of expending effort in getting to know others, we went for the easy way today.

Recently, I have been on Facebook more than I usually am. I sense it is a desire to connect with people that know me. It takes a lot of emotional energy–especially for an introvert like me–to keep reaching out with new people all the time. Yes, dear friends, I miss you.

With blessings,

Beth

On Thursday, I was an observer in Jim’s Introduction to the New Testament course. There is an intense format the first week, as the distance-learning students are on campus. So, the morning was full with 3 hours of class with several breaks and a morning prayer time.

I started to imagine how I can work with my Swedish language limitations but with my experience with learner-centered teaching to make my classroom time as effective as possible. It will be a challenge, but I’m beginning to see a reasonable way to develop the class delivery.

The rest of the day was working from home.

Happy birthday, Mom! I know the birthday card from Sweden arrived and the gift is in the mail.

 

Friday was spent at home. I’m .75 FTE for the first year to allow more time to work on Swedish and a transition with LarsOlov. I worked on Swedish and laundry for the day.

I’m getting familiar with the Swedish keyboard with the 3 extra vowels. I have to remember to use Ctrl + K for italicizing words, because italics is called “kursive” in Swedish.

Any had only a half-day of school as part of her orientation for the International Baccalaureate program and her class schedule. She did win the limbo contest in one of the group activities, which she thought was fun. She is now at least on the radar screen for her group.

After lunch at home, we biked to the immigration office to get photographed and fingerprinted in the process of getting our residency permit cards. I missed a turn on the way back, so we had a scenic route on the way home. I led at the beginning, and then Anya took over. We saw the 4-H pastures with sheep and cows. We biked past the mall on the outskirts of town. It was warm reaching up to the upper 70s.

I made dinner for the household, and we ate outside to each on the beautiful evening. We even caught a glimpse of a hedgehog in the yard.

In the evening, we watched the Swedish film, My Life as a Dog, with English sub-titles.

 

I woke up Saturday is a little bit of a funk. I’m trying to get my head around the upcoming transition this week. The apartment that was designated for us will be available on Wednesday. While it will be good to start to get settled in our own place, it means a whole lot of unknowns again; everything about living will be new.

The apartment is unfurnished, so it means figuring out how to pull things together. A co-worker has a bed to give us. A futon is offered. A table and chairs here, an armchair there, and a bookshelf out of storage at the school. It feels a little bit like when we arrived in Tanzania in 2002 and making a home in a different land with a lot of hand-me-down furniture. This time, I’m alone with some help from Anya.

Our crate arrived yesterday on a container ship in Amsterdam, which I could track with an app.

I’ve been told that it will take 1-3 weeks to get the crate through customs, and then it has to be transported to Uppsala. Our contract has it delivered to our “door,” which I’m assuming will mean a ground level location that is reasonably convenient to leave the palate after being unloaded from the truck. In the mean time, we will need to round up and borrow some things to live with: plates, cups, pots, pans, and bedding.

I don’t like asking for help; I’d rather give it. But I will need help, especially since I don’t have a car. So, the sense of unsettledness continues on.

I realize that one thing that is crucial for getting settled is learning Swedish. So, I spent a lot of the day reviewing my grammar books and online lessons. I was encouraged with a little, free quiz online.

I’m hoping to take a placement test on Wednesday at the University–if they will let me into their Swedish for Academics course. So, it is good to review all I know as a means of helping me move ahead.

Anya worked diligently on her homework. She has an art project that is engaging her creativity in the morning. Math took up much of the afternoon.

With blessings,

Beth

Yesterday was opening convocation, which includes worship and a formal welcome. I found my new favorite Swedish word in the hymnbook. It made me wonder if there is a Swedish version of Scrabble!

During the convocation, I was formally introduced to the entire student body. The guy who is the student body president (equivalent), made a presentation that was really funny. Too bad I couldn’t understand it. I was thinking that this guy is like the Garrison Keillor of Johannelund. My colleague, LarsOlof was going to ask for a copy and translate it for me. Though, humor is very hard to translate, so I’m not sure if I’ll really get it.

I’ve had several great connections with students. There are some fascinating stories of students who come from different background but are on a path that will probably end up with being ordained (though their word means something more like marriage) as a “priest” (they don’t use pastor) in the Church of Sweden. One guy is probably mid-50s or so and sports a braided grey beard. He cultivates over a dozen varieties of chili peppers and acts in these several day-long events a couple times a year. With that braided beard, he would seem to make a great troll, one of his characters. One student has worked for many years in a psycho-therapeutic role with people who are imprisoned for crimes but are mentally unfit to ever be released (there are no life sentences in Sweden). She had a dramatic sense of call, affirmed by others, to work as a priest for wholeness–helping to prevent people from going astray. A couple students are stunning with English. One is married to an American, and other has a bachelor’s degree in English literature. One student was a bit overwhelmed and fighting back tears. Yet, she was willing to share with me. I was able to listen and let her know that I cared. We continued with a good conversation, as I heard a bit of her story and interests. She’ll do well with the academics, and I’ll follow up with her soon. There is an amazing community here.

Yesterday, I met with with LarsOlov, the Old Testament professor that I’m succeeding. He will be gone for almost a month, which is almost half the course, so I’ll be covering that portion of the co-taught course solo. I also my new boss, Kjell, and got a plan for the fall a little more formalized. The pieces of the mosaic are getting filled in to formulate a picture.

In the evening, there was a featured guest preacher. I could track a bit of his message, because he spoke really fast. However, he was engaging just to watch, while I pick out a few words.

My temporary office has been committed to me through the end of October, so now I have a name outside my door.

My mornings start with reading some Scripture in English and Swedish, and I have the Hebrew available with my Logos app on my iPhone–to see what they are trying to translate. Narrative is usually easier than poetry, so I’m now going through Genesis 1, a passage I’ve previously studied in the Hebrew.

I cooked tonight. It is always strange to go through a new grocery store, but it adds complexity to have things in Swedish. There are things that are different, so it takes more time to figure things out. I did risk and bake cornbread from scratch to go along with my turkey chili. There are no Jiffy corn muffin mixes at this store. I hear there is an American store in town that has them (and other expensive American imports). The cornbread was quite fine. The chili was fine, but I didn’t think the turkey went well. It would have been better as a vegetarian chili.

With blessings,

Beth

 

It was the first day with the new students at Johannelund. There are about 40 in the first-year class. In good Swedish fashion, we started with morning fika (coffee/tea break) with cinnamon rolls.

Kjell, the rektor (like a principal and my boss), invited me to join the students for the next introductory session. Through the Swedish, I could track the basics of what are goals of university education historically, going back to Thomas Aquinas (Kjell is a historian), and how this is seen in Johannelund today–in our 150-something academic year. Kjell is clearly an effective teacher, with an animated lecture and frequent interaction with students.

I previously learned that Johannelund is named after the second campus. It was a large house on a farm. The owner’s first wife was named Johanne. After she died, he married a second woman who was also named Johanne. He named the farm after his wives. So, the school–though no longer in that location–has a name that is feminine in origin. 🙂

While I am not the only woman faculty member, as other women serve part-time, I am the first “permanent” or regular faculty member that is a female. I have been pleased at the egalitarian nature here in the homes and in the workplace.

Part of the limited presence of women on the faculty is that faculty turn-over is generally very slow in Sweden. The person I am succeeding has been on faculty for 45 years! He’s the closest thing to permanent, but in reality, there is no permanent position. I start with a 2-year contract under EU immigration law, but it is clearly indicated that the intention is for me to continue.

There was an afternoon gathering to get to know the students a bit. The part-time music faculty member (another woman), did a great job getting us all learning names and getting to know a bit about the community. We now know who likes surströmming, fermented herring, which is notorious for its wickedly pungent smell (and which is banned from KLM flights)!

I had a bit of a challenge playing human bingo game, as I didn’t know all the vocabulary on the sheet. Elin, who is on staff, helped me with the words I didn’t know. The students are very much aware that I am from the USA, yet they are surprised to learn that I just showed up 2.5 weeks ago (but seem relieved to know that I have many years of teaching experience). I had a few nice conversations with some students with excellent English. They were very comfortable with conversation with a native English speaker. One worked with the Salvation Army in Vancouver, BC, for two years in rough parts of the city. Another is woman with a Pentecostal background and has been involved in Bible study for several years. Now, she wants to deepen her understanding. I affirmed her journey and welcomed her to a broader conversation.

Today, the weather is perfect! I biked home for lunch (less expensive than the cafeteria and gives me a mid-day stroll) and sat outside to eat.

At the end of the day, it was also a nice place to read one of the texts (in English) and review some Swedish.

Anya had a good day–her second–at Kathedral Skolan. She met two nice young women in her Spanish class. Because Anya has studied in a Spanish immersion program since kindergarten, the level of Spanish here is not very challenging for her. However, one of these new classmates lived in Spain for 15 years, so they will be able to talk and challenge each other. Her text book is Swedish to Spanish, so she’ll reverse the learning to use Spanish to learn Swedish!

Her economics instructor is an American. Anya says she’s really cool and engaging in class. Eric, who majored in economics, would be pleased to know that Anya is taking economics.

If you want to see her schedule:

1. Follow this link
2. In the upper left, in the välj typ box, choose elev (student)
3. In the välj ID, scroll down to IB15 and find Anya’s name (last name first)
4. Her schedule pops up.

So, things are picking up momentum. Hopefully, my Swedish learning will keep up the pace.

With blessings,

Beth

Anya wanted to go to Stockholm again. Since this may be the last Saturday before things get quite busy, I agreed on the condition that we would try to speak Swedish the whole time.

We have our train system figured out now. This time, we were on the top level of a double-decker train.

We did more walking around in the main shopping and tourist areas. Here are some views.

We decided to do a Seattle-style fika (“coffee” break).

We also did a bit of shopping. Anya needed some school supplies. She will eventually get a student allowance from the government of about $130 per month, so she said she would pay me back! Anya also needed rain pants for biking to and from school and pole vaulting practice. We plan to just bike and use public transportation, so we need to have rain gear. It was an exceptionally nice day, so we kept the rain gear in my backpack.

We did speak quite a bit of Swedish to each other. I spoke my phrase and repeat it in English to not only have Anya understand me but also to check my grammar. On the train rides, Anya did homework, and I worked on Swedish vocabulary, especially the verb tenses. Ugh!

We and our hosts were invited over to Donna and Lennart’s for a barbecue in the evening. We are fortunate to be so welcomed. It was a fun evening.

When it was asked if anyone wanted a beer, Anya jokingly said “yes!” Lennart immediately disappears and soon comes back with an alcohol-free German beer for her! She said it was an experience, but it wasn’t her “cup of tea.”

After dinner, we played a fun card game. The interpersonal dynamics of negotiation made it lively and interesting.

Everyone in the group is quite fun and funny. It was great to see Anya engage so well with this group of adults.

We biked home in the dark about 11:30 pm. It seems a bit weird to leave a place so late and everyone bikes home. It was a great day!

Sunday morning meant bicycling off to church. The “parking lot” was quite full. We parked our bikes in the furthest rack.

The service was nice. I had a translation earpiece, but I try to listen to both the Swedish and the English to strengthen my comprehension.

The guy that helped Anya get oriented to the Kathedral school was there too. It was nice to have another connection with him and other youth in the school.

I was invited with Donna and Lennart to visit the English bookstore after church. There are enough people in the area, especially at the university, who are English speakers and keep this shop going. Our host, Kristina, is fluent in English. She said she also prefers to read a book in English that was written in English, as she feels that much gets lost in the translation. Since so many Swedes are fluent in English, they also are reading English books.

I will be focusing on learning Swedish, so I won’t be a patron of this store for quite a while!

My afternoon is filled with emails and Swedish. A “sound proof” music room in this neighborhood is not very sound proof with the windows open. There is a local heavy metal band that practices a few times per week. We are about 100 meters/yards away and can still hear it though the windows and doors are closed!

For some unknown reason, the Nordic countries have the highest percentage od heavy metal bands per capita!

Off to more Swedish.

With blessings,

Beth