On Top of the World

I'm still in Europe, but I got sick of "The Euro-diaries" as a title.

Hello, everyone. It is currently the middle of the night here, the wind is blowing fiercely, and I'm crossing my fingers for a late night thunderstorm to seal the ending of a blissful day.

It's Midsummer's Eve! There'd still be some light in the sky if it weren't for the clouds, I'd wager. For those of you who don't know, this holiday is a pretty big deal for Nordic people. I don't know the whole history or anything, but in a nutshell, they celebrate the longest day of the year. People get drunk, dance, have parties, eat a lot, all that jazz. It was great!

My work is going just swimmingly, but laboring in the sun for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week can take a hefty toll. Most days all I wanna do when I get home is eat and sleep, but I persevere. I'm so glad I'm getting to experience both being in Sweden and doing this gardening/landscaping job. One of my goals in life is to just experience as much as I possibly can. First of all, it expands your mind and looks really good on a resume. But even better, when I'm old, I'll have a crap-ton of stories to tell my grandchildren.

Tomorrow we're going hiking on these beautiful cliffs on the shoreline, and then we're going to this cool desing-y shop called Iittala that my mother just loves, and I'm way stoked. Even here in the farm country area of Sweden, there are so many awesome things to do and see!

I love you all for reading this, and I miss all my buds back in the States! Word out. Stay tuned. Exciting things happening in the near future!

The Euro-diaries: Utfart?

So I've arrived in Sweden... Sweden, where the light switches are backward, the cars are nicer, the cities are older, the people are blonder, and where utfart means driveway. 

The getting here was very fun, let me tell you. That was sarcasm. Actually, it wasn't so bad for most of it. I rode Delta for the first 9 1/2 hours of flight. It was very nice; they fed us a lot and we had a whole huge selection of movies and music we could choose from on our own little screens. I sat next to this nice girl from Berlin and we talked a while. Problem was, I talked and watched movies the whole time and never got tired enough to sleep. And it was an overnight flight. Oops. So then I had a 6 hour layover in Paris, which could have been enough time to go downtown, but knowing myself, I would have gotten lost and never would have made it back in time to catch my connecting flight. So I wandered around in the airport a bit and then sat in a chair and slept, resting my head on my somewhat uncomfortable carry-on.

Next, I flew Air France into Copenhagen, where I took a train over the sea to a town called Lund, Sweden.

 

Someone from the family I'm staying with was supposed to pick me up from there and take me to their house in Barseback, about a 20 minute drive. I'd been given their phone number, and I was to call when I got to Lund and they'd be sure to pick me up. Here's where the real problems started. 

Problem #1: I'd bought an international SIM card for my phone, but it wasn't working.

Problem #2: The pay phone wasn't accepting my credit card and I had no Swedish money.

Problem #3: The number didn't work on the phones I borrowed from other people (I think I was doing the area code wrong).

Problem #4: There were no buses to Barseback.

Problem #5: I took a taxi, but he didn't know that town very well so we couldn't find the house until we asked like 3 people off the streets where it was.

Problem #6: When I got there (close to midnight Friday), I found out they weren't expecting me until the next night, so they already had things planned out of town starting early the next morning.

I elected to remain in town, seeing as I'd gotten very little sleep the night before. They told me I could use/eat anything in the house, and that there was a beach a few kilometers away. And by beach they meant the sea. So today, after a substantial amount of sleep, I went to the sea, all alone, and had a wonderful time of it.

There's a castle a few kilometers (still getting used to the change in measurement words) up the road, apparently. I haven't seen it yet, and the father of the family I'm staying with says you can't get very close unless you want to get shot. I don't know what that's about, but I'm itching to find out.

Tomorrow for church I'm going to some Nordic conference being broadcast from Stockholm, where the prophet was supposed to be, but they're having to record his talk because of the recent death of his wife, Francis. So that'll be cool. Then on Monday I start work. Yippee!

I found my people, guys. Everyone here is blonde and pale. I belong!

The Euro-diaries: Prologue

Nature's first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf's a flower;

But only so an hour. 

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

-- Robert Frost

I first read this poem in eighth grade, when it was included in the book we read called The Outsiders, and for some reason I've had it memorized ever since. It's slightly depressing but also kind of optimistic. Basically it's saying yeah, it kinda sucks when flowers turn to leaves and the sun gets all the way up there. But aren't leaves and sunshine wonderful in their own way? Nothing gold can stay, but that doesn't mean different gold things won't follow it. Just some food for thought.

Now to the REAL point of this post. I'M GOING TO EUROPE IN 3(ish) DAYS. Holy mother that's so soon. I'm for sure gonna write about it. And take pictures. Gyahhh it's not real in my mind. I haven't thought a bit about packing yet. I don't know the first thing about what to bring on these kinds of expeditions.

So the first month isn't gonna be too eventful. Just some landscaping in Sweden for an old friend of my mother. But then I'm visiting Finland and Germany and hopefully France, and it's all gonna be fan-freaking-tastic. I'll maybe keep an update on here of all my exciting doings. I'll call it "The Euro-diaries." It'll be a great read, I promise. Or at least I hope. Yeah. AH.

Not gonna lie, I'm a little bit sad about leaving right now. A bunch of new people moved into my apartment complex for the summer, and it's just a great group. I've already made some cool friends, and I'm sad I won't be able to get to know them very well. I'll get back and there'll be like 3 weeks left to the summer and everyone will already be best friends with each other. Sad day. Oh well. I'd rather do this than stay home, hands down.

So I guess what I'm really trying to say is, goodbye and STAY TUNED! Exciting things are happening. I can't wait to experience new cultures and learn new languages and eat real chocolate (sorry Hershey's) and meet awesome people!

Wish me luck :)