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!
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