Calendar Woes
So, “summer time” began Sunday. Don’t ask me why it starts at a
different time than DST in the U.S. (which, again, is different from many other countries) but it does, so I’m now EIGHT hours off from home rather than seven. “But just for the week!” -
Mr. WarbucksOn Friday I spoke with a guy who’s visiting from England. He told about trying to find a card for his mother for Mother’s Day this Sunday (the 26th) since he would be gone, etc., etc. and it caused me a tense few moments, let me tell ya! But then I realized that it really
couldn’t be Mother’s Day because my siblings aren’t clueless nor are they the kind to leave out a monetary contributor. :o) Not to mention it’s always in all my memory been in MAY. It didn’t take me long to decide that I had encountered
another cultural calendar alteration. Why isn’t something like that standard across the globe? Oh well. (It’s the 2nd Sunday in May, if anyone’s wondering. France is the 4th Sunday in May, and England is the 4th Sunday in Lent!).
Oh, and France’s prominent calendar layout is totally weird! While the format intrigues me, I prefer calendars that are more visual than chart-like and thus remain loyal to the way I grew up with. Check out the following yearly calendar (which is from the inferior planner I had no choice but to buy back in January):
If you click, you’ll both see the picture better and get a full explanation of what all’s going on in that complicated design.
And by the way: I still think "radnelac" whenever I spell calendar. Dad wasn't even teaching
me the spelling, but my sister, and yet it sticks with me!
Is Kate a Bum?? You Decide!
Yeah, it’s been a month and I’ve hardly even
looked at my England photos, let alone had time to blog about them! To make a case for my defense I’ve done some (quick) research on one central, contributing factor: E-MAIL (including e-mail chats -- half of which is business these days!).
Of course, number crunching only shows so much about what’s actually going on, but I like the concrete, condensed aspects of it as a source of information. Anyhoo, here’s what I found.
Since Feb. 27th (my first full day back from vacation):
- I have received and sent 259 e-mails, which is roughly 10 e-mails per day.
- I have received and sent 200 personal e-mails, which is 7+ e-mails per day that warranted my attention.
- Looking briefly at my e-mail history from the past several months showed that I have, indeed, been receiving twice as many e-mails as usual since the end of February. The percentage of personal e-mails was also markedly higher, and the nature of the personal e-mails I’ve been receiving seems to be more time-consuming, usually requiring that I search out information before I can reply.
And some disclaimers:
- Of course I fully realize that lots of people deal with many more e-mails in a day than that, but I don’t, so it’s taxing to me.
- And this is not to say that I don’t love getting e-mails and certainly not that I don’t love getting personal e-mails, because I really do! I firmly believe that correspondence is a large part of what keeps me going here in foreign France, which is oh so far from home.
- Many of these e-mails have to do with the coming visits of family and friends, and while I don't at all want to give the impression that I find these e-mails cumbersome (I'm way pumped to see these people!!), I will admit to them having that *taxing* element about them.
So, now that you’ve read the whine -- I mean post -- you decide:
Is Kate a bum??
I’m gonna have to answer in the affirmative. :o)
The Girls From France, Part 2
On
WEDNESDAY (Feb. 15th) Cristin, Mary Ann, and I went to
Göteborg where we were shown around by Jonathan, a church guy that goes to the university there. We ate at a
Pink Panther restaurant, saw a couple of churches, walked up a sheet of ice to a big fort-thing, saw an old school, visited the Fish Church (market, really), and talked philosophy & laughed with Jonathan. I really liked Gothenburg. That night back in Tranås
we went ice skating (click for photo set), which was fun even though I didn't skate much. Towards the end they got out a little ball and played a sort of soccer on ice skates which made me nervous, as I'm a total mom about such things. :o) Of course, it's all fun and games until someone gets hurt... only someone
did get hurt -- thankfully not badly!! There was a banged head, some blood, and later stitches, but it was all handled calmly and all seemed to be well in the end.
Good grief! and *whew*
see my Göteborg photo setMary Ann and I went to
Linköping (again, that's “lin-shuh-ping”) on
THURSDAY. We walked the university campus a little, visited a couple of churches, had fika :o), shopped, and grabbed some Burger King (which is sorely lacking in France). We had a fika/game night back at Cristin's apartment as it was our last night in Tranås. We played Tongues (a variation of Spoons) and Psychiatrist, which is one of my favorite games. I like those people!
see my Linköping photo set
On
FRIDAY we said goodbye to Tranås. Before leaving we had a quick fika with Christine, her sister Elin, and
her son William, which just made me wish we could stay around longer to really get to know all these folks! We had a little trouble paying on the train out as our train cards were expired, we didn't have enough cash, and none of our five credit cards worked in their machine (which was strange, since one had worked just fine a couple of nights before). They generously didn't do any kicking off of the two bungling Americans who were just trying to make their connection to Stockholm. :o) We were met in
Stockholm by Daniel, who was our guide and gracious host (who gave up his apartment to a couple of strangers!). He cooked us an excellent meal directly after which people began arriving for the Westminster Society, THE reformed Bible study of Stockholm (there's no reformed church there at this point). The people were great and the talk was good. The topic of the evening was the Sabbath, which is always good to reconsider. It's fascinating because the reformed community is so very small in Sweden that their faith community spans cities more easily (meaning they all know the folks in Tranås). Huh!
SATURDAY was our day in Stockholm. We started it off with the
Swedish royalty's summer palace or whatever it is, technically speaking. We got acquainted with the beautiful (but cold!), extensive grounds while waiting for it to open. Inside, we once again experienced payment issues and were thus actually let in for (heh heh)
free. We lunched somewhat late which meant that by the time we got going again, around 4:00, it was already starting to get dark (meaning most of my photo set is of stuff in the dark -- but that didn't stop me)! We got to see a lot of sites and decided that Daniel makes an excellent tour guide as he loves history and to laugh. :o) This was the one night in Sweden we really dined out, so we tried to do it "right". I tried reindeer mash (sorry, but that's what it was called),
wiener schnitzel (wrong country, I know), and fried camembert with a regional berry sauce for dessert. All interesting and, as always, I liked everything.
see my Stockholm photo set
And then
SUNDAY was another travel day: Stockholm to Paris, although it's not really as straight-forward as that. It's more of a "bus from Stockholm to
outside Stockholm, fly to
ouside Paris, bus to Paris" operation, all of which takes most of a day if you're talking about going from home base to home base. The flight itself was two hours and some.
So, towards the end of the week I complimented one of the pastors in Tranås on the church's multi-city hospitality, as they seem to have it down to a friendly science. He told me that one of the reasons they stress hospitality so much in their church is that it encourages those who are received to pray for the ministry there. It's definitely worked on me! I got to see the ministry, meet the people, and hear some of their future aspirations and I'm just plain excited about what God's doing in and through them! So if I may, I'd like to ask
those of you who pray to send up a quick word asking God to bless the efforts of His people in Sweden, specifically those associated with this MTW-affiliated ministry. It's so cool to get a window in on what God's doing throughout the world!
So that was our trip to Sweden. Praise God, again, for safe travels and for a very good trip. It'd be really fun to go back there sometime, but we'll have to just wait and see what happens!
The Girls From France, Part 1
"The Girls From France" was how our Swedish hosts referred to Mary Ann and I both prior to and during our visit. It made me smile. (That's me!)
The Backstory: So how did we hook up with these wonderful hosts of ours? Well, some
Zion/
RUF friends got me talking with their
MTW friends (thanks Karen, Joe, Tim, and Gary!), and that, as they say, was that! The
MTW Sweden people were über helpful and involved throughout our time there. They told us what we needed to know, helped us plan daytrips, and roped in some unsuspecting church folk to be our personal guides. :o) They even gave us somebody's old cell phone so that we could be in contact with whoever we needed during our stay! I could go on and on, but in short, they were GREAT.
The Setup: We stayed with an MTW intern named Cristin, whose apartment is in a building that’s one of 15ish in a grouping that share a rec. center, computer center, playgrounds, etc. The church space is on site as are many of its members. So what you get in the end is basically a parish model, meaning that daily Christian community and sharing of life is allowed to happen with ease -- COOL. Mary Ann and I were all too pleased to have the opportunity for such quality fellowship
in English (since almost everyone speaks it very well). I guess I didn’t realize how wearying it is to pursue my faith in a foreign language!
And now, as promised, I'll fill y'all in (as briefly as possible!) on what we did in Sweden.
SATURDAY (Feb. 11th) was a travel day from Paris to Stockholm to Tranås (pronounced “tra-nos”), which was our Swedish home base. We flew
Ryanair, which was kind of hilarious. Talk about your cardboard box operation! Praise God for
traveling mercies! I have to remind myself that even though traveling's never exactly cake, it
can be so very bad. We got off easy, only missing one unimportant train the whole of our time there, I think!
On
SUNDAY we went to church in the morning, ate lunch with Pastor Gary's family and other guests, went to church in the afternoon, and had dinner with a church group. What an excellent Lord’s Day!
see my Tranås photo set (This set includes stuff from throughout the week, but begins with the above-mentioned dinner.)
MONDAY morning we played in the snow with three of the now eight children of one of the pastors. We spent the day getting to know Tranås a little. That evening Mary Ann and I went with others to a Bible study in Linköping (pronounced “lin-shuh-ping”) and had the opportunity to practice our French with a new gal from Morocco who knows French better than English. How cool that we "happened" to be there to welcome her (newcomers though we were)! The Bible study itself was good and refreshing, as it was much more in the style of the American Bible studies I'm used to.
TUESDAY (Valentine's Day) we visited the town of
Gränna (pronounced "greuh-nuh", I think; known for it's candy!) and the island opposite it, called Visingsö. We went with Tim, Cristin, and Jenny (the only non-American of our fivesome!). We had much fun exploring and examining the ruins of Viking castles and just taking in the cold, winter beauty. When we got back to Tranås, Mary Ann and I were invited to help make some very girly, very fun Valentines for the six, single, on-site guys in the church. That was a hoot. Afterwards was their first annual Valentine's Volleyball Tournament and then another Bible study. I like having church stuff every day of the week!
see my Gränna photo set (be forewarned: this set has 98 pix! I just couldn't whittle it down any more.)
see my Valentine's Day photo setThe rest of the week's adventures are soon to come!
Sveeden, Yah!
a.k.a. - Winter Postcard Land
Before I launch in to what Mary Ann and I actually
did during our time there, let me present you with some
Fast Facts on Sweden, as I imagine you all may need just as much help making it a distinct entity in your minds as I did.
[BIG OL’ DISCLAIMER: I was only in Sweden for one week and my window into it was limited. These were just my observations and understandings.]
Sweden’s the place where… - the smörgåsbord originated
- Swedish meatballs, or köttbullar, really are “a thing”
- cheese slicers look like this (they probably have these in America too, but I’d never noticed them)
- they like their candy. Most stores have what seems like an excess of aisles dedicated to candy (which, of course, I have no problem with). Some Swedish specialties are their peppermint candy canes and licorice
- the vikings had their day
- they’re trying hard to make socialism work: interesting
- The Pippi Longstocking books were born
- Kirsten Larson, the American Girl, comes from
- they hold Lucia Celebrations (the candle wreath atop the head of a female, etc.)
- most houses are painted bright colors like barn red or yellow
- there’s a surplus of deer, elk, and reindeer
- it’s snowy and darn cold in the winter (“You’ve gotta come back in the summer,” says everybody)
- daylight is precious in the winter and abundant in the summer (we had 8-9 hours of daylight each day we were there)
- Midsummer festivities include maypole dances
I learned that in Sweden… - one says, “Hej!” (pronounced “hay”, meaning “hello”). I just thought it was funny to arrive in even more socially formal situations and still have people saying, “hey!” to me as I entered
- everyday clothing is casual and comfortable, but not without style (whereas in France it’s all about style and dressing on the higher end)
- one often pauses for fika, which is like England’s afternoon tea but more frequently and with coffee as the main event. Coffee is highly cultural and I often had 3-4 cups a day without even trying
- food and meals are more relaxed as they are in America -- a HUGE change from formal France. Mary Ann and I spent the whole week trying to figure out when people eat!
- sports are widely loved and ’most everyone participates
- their English is, like, perfect! They younger generation, especially, is very bilingual. You can get by without knowing Swedish as long as you know English. Yeah, I didn’t really learn any Swedish to speak of
- they seem to travel a lot. Many of the folks we met had been to the States and various other places. That would be the socialist distribution of wealth hard at work, I guess
- there’s a good dose of trust in public honesty that’s usually not disappointed (the "We're all in this together!" mentality)
- technology is generally a frequent and well-used tool
- school is bizarre because, since everyone’s equally valuable, there’s little incentive to do well and you really, really have to try to fail
- an American can feel comfortably at home. The only rules that need following are to take off your shoes when inside and to take one -- not two, not none -- of all offered food. Mary Ann and I decided that Sweden feels most like Colorado or Washington (though I’ve never, uh, been to Washington)
- Swedes and Americans are highly compatible! Of the couples we met, many (most?!) were a Swede and an American that met up somehow and tied the knot. (Of course I was in among the Christian crowd which has limited choices due to a lack of, you know, other Christians in Sweden.)
- they’re nice to foreigners! I decided that this was for me a cultural vacation: from rigid codes to friendly grace. Ahh!
Again, I was only there for a week but those are my gleanings and impressions. There are bound to be multiple errors therein, so don’t go believing all o’ this. :o)
Now I’m a Believer
So sorry for the lack of blogging! Things have been a little nuts since my return from vacation and I’m still waiting for them to normalize. In the mean time stuff continues to pile up, so I'll be officially busy for the next little while. *sigh* Oh, and Sweden and England posts are soon to come!
Anyway yes, I admit to
being in the wrong and
am now a believer. There, I said it. What changed my mind? Well, I think that would have to be the moment Sunday night when, as I fought my way through the wind on my way to meet friends, I actually had to put my full weight against it in order to keep moving forward. I laughed aloud. It was windy for three days straight, and that instance, for me, was the pinnacle. In short, I can no longer deny that this region has a persistent, exceptional wind all its own.
But I still maintain that it's silly to refer to lesser regional windiness by the name
Mistral just because the term is sometimes merited. Wind here is mostly just that, but I'll give them the term on this and other extreme occasions. :o)
