Church

Cobblestones! These rocks were used (possibly back even to the Vikings) to fill up the bottom of a boat after unloading goods afar after a voyage. A certain amount of weight is needed in the lower part of the ship in order for it to maintain balance (think Vasa ship...) so they would load rocks into the lower decks. But when the got back home and had goods to fill the bottom of the boat again, they would just dump the rocks on Stockholm and then leave. Eventually these rocks were used to create cobblestone streets. It's cool to think that these rocks have sailed across oceans to get here. And now I'm walkin' all over them!

So it's Söndag (Sunday) so we went to church! We rode the tunnelbana for an hour in order to get there! Crazy. At church, we found out that we're in the same ward as both our Swedish teacher (and her husband) and our humanities professor (and his family)! It was a pleasant surprise. The other students who are studying abroad through BYU live in a different part of Stockholm, so they are in a different ward. It's a big city.

The ward was smaller, but still wonderful (it was a regular family ward, not a YSA). The members seem very dedicated. I think it would be harder to remain active in Europe than in the US. Going to church isn't nearly as common as it is in the States. It was fast Sunday, so members were bearing their testimonies. We did have translation headphones (which the elder from England was voicing. he's pretty funny. "We will now sing hymn number 157... er, whatever hymn that is.") but after the first testimony, I just wanted full Swedish immersion, so I took them out. It was hard! I don't understand much. I can catch "Jesu Kristi," "bröder, systrar," and "och," which means "and." I can catch that one almost every time!

For Sunday school, the singles go technically have their own class, but it's combined with the investigators class! And it was in English today, since more than half the class were native english speakers. Yay!

Relief society was awesome! it was mostly in Swedish, but then we broke into groups, and our group was speaking english! We met a lovely older lady named Monica who has pretty much traveled the world, raised 7 righteous kids and practically started the church in stockholm. Amazing. We got some recipe ideas from her, which was great!

We were invited to dinner by the nicest girl in Sweden. Her name is Mara, and she's actually from the states, but works in Sweden. Also, she speaks like 5 languages so watch out! She's amazing. And an amazing cook! But on the way to her apartment we totally missed our bus connection and almost left Stockholm, going the completely wrong direction! Eeep, but we made it back okay. It just took like two hours instead of 45 minutes. :) Good thing we're all pretty easygoing girls. Dinner was a delicious Quiche, and the sister missionaries were over also! They are fantastic. I really like them, though it's a little strange being older/the same age as them.

I didn't get a picture of anything today but here's what I drew in my journal today (I still need to color things in..):

The bus stop. 

Notes from dinner.

The tunnelbanan signage. I love the exit signs here.

Fourth of July! ...from Sweden.

Happy fourth! No one really cares out here though, haha. Unless you're an American missionary. The place where we have our Swedish classes is also where the Stockholm missionaries meet for zone (district?) meetings once a week. Today was the day, and the whiteboard was decorated with a lovely huge American flag, in addition to lots of happy Americans. For their opening song, they sang a rousing chorus of the national anthem (and sounded really really good, actually) which we heard all the way from our classroom behind closed doors (dörr!) Good way to start off the day.

Swedish class, lunch break (I wandered around and found a salad bar, asian market, and muffin bakery) and then we were off to the Historiksa Museet!

This is awesome typography that was on the floors! A huge, beautiful timeline that led you through the exhibit!

Hitler Vikings. Yeah!

I thought this display was really innovative: It's a projection onto the ground. But it looks so good. 

The Futhark alphabet.

Spoils from "The Gold Room"

Plus it had stunning pamphlets. The Swedes. They know...

Really a fantastic museum. Great for kids too! the Swedes know how to entertain while being very informative  I think the coolest part was the courtyard, where they had medieval activities: from archery to baking your own little viking cracker (which was delicious), to making felt or crocheting a bracelet, and all sorts of viking games.

After, we took a trip to the grocery store! It was a blast, and nice to get some cheap food for a change! Yay! Then we headed back to our apartment to celebrate the 4th of July with Swedish hot dogs, cokes, and carrotsticks. We also put zucchini on our hot dogs. Just because we can.

Swedes like their hotdog longer than their bun. It's weird.

And then we watched the Swedish Crown Princess Victoria's wedding ceremony (because we were in the exact church that she was married in yesterday! Storkyrkan!). Followed by Princess Madeline's (which is fairly recent). Followed by the Swedish national anthem.

Then we got a little homesick for the US. And so we watched "America Song." And then the Independence Day movie speech to top it all off.

#merica

P.S. I did head fireworks going off somewhere, but it was at like 11 pm, and it wasn't even dark yet. So... I guess that's a good reason that fireworks aren't a popular summertime activity.

Stockholm Cathedral and the City!

This is Storkyrkan, which literally translates to "big church." In English I think it's called the Stockholm Cathedral though.

St. 

It was beautiful! It's kind of a big deal too. In the nieghboring courtyard is where the Stockholm massacre took place, which even was kind of the turning point for Sweden. After that a king rounded things up and pulled the country together. Anyway, my favorite part of the cathedral was the gravestones which were embedded into the ground. There was hundreds of years of type there! From carolingian styled characters to modern typefaces like didot, even set in italics! Such an interesting conglomeration of history in that building. This famous painting was also inside, which was awesome! 

Vädersolstavlan ("The Sun Dog Painting"), Urban Målare, Jacob Elbfas
There are two artists, because the painting was later restored, but restored with major changes and additions. 

After the church, the kids broke off and explored the older part of the city, which is an island in the center! It's called Galma Stan (but is still part of Stockholm). I love Stockholm so much. Oh so much.

We found a really neat, really old store that had all sorts of old interesting things!

"Kitty" is the Swedish Nancy Drew...

I'm thinking about buying this rug. Yes? It's only $23.

Amazing craft. These are all handwoven designs. The owner was literally sewing things on an ancient sewing machine, right there in the shop.

These lions are everywhere. I like them.

It's not foosball, it's miniature hokey! The Swedes always seem to beat the Finnish though.

Hej Sverige!

Classes started today! They were great. We have Swedish language for three hours in the morning, and then culture class about 3 times a week. More about that later. We took a class field trip today to the old part of town, which is actually a little island right in the center of the city. So beautiful. And just like 800+ years old. nbd. We found a rune that was used as a cornerstone for one of the buildings. More about this excursion later—so tired, and it's so late!

This is Marcus, who literally had told me about the runes just an hour before. And then we found one! He was pretty happy.

This is the view walking to T-Centralen, which is the subway station!

This is Sarah and Heather waiting at the bus stop! Ja!

Sweden bound

Our bus to the airport to catch our flight to Stockholm came at 2:30 am. So why sleep? Instead, we stayed up all night editing photos and watching TV. First Wimbledon recaps, the BBC for a bit, and then this awesome show called "Eye spy" or something like that. Pretty funny show, and gripping. Or, at 1 am it was... Also, I really liked this commercial.

So at 2 we prayed before leaving the cute house we were staying in, and walked the streets of London to our bus station (20 minute walk). Kind of sketch. But mostly just weird seeing the streets so empty. Heather's suitcase with wheels seemed so loud. Saw a few homeless people along the way, which was sad too.

0 hours of sleep yay

We actually stood at the wrong station, so we MISSED OUR BUS! Scariest moment of our life, since our airline is not very nice and won't help you out if you miss your flight. But we both trusted in God, prayed really hard in our hearts, and the next bus 30 minutes later let us ride! Miracle. We made it to the airport in good time, spend the rest of my pounds on breakfast, and then caught our flight. Also a really good thing that we had planned buffer time, because we ended up needing it! Always plan on being there early. Today made all of the time spent arriving early and waiting in airports in the past worth it.

Just before boarding!

I slept for the whole two hour flight. We sat behind these ridiculously cute blonde, blue eyed Swedish toddlers. They were reading Dora the Explorer books in English. Wow, okay cool.

When we arrived, this was an ad that is straight gorgeous:

In Stockholm for less than 10 minutes and
found this beautiful type. It even has a
ligature for the "fö." I think I'm going to
like it here.

Our professor met us at the bus station (we took another bus after our flight) and the day in Stockholm began! We visited the institute building, where our classes will be held. The sister missionaries were there, and we got to chat with them! They seem really nice. Then we went to the apartment that we'll be staying in. Sarah Soderborg, Heather Hackney and I will be living together in student housing! Two LDS girls live in the apartment, but one is moving out in two days, and the other will be in and out for the summer. So each of us will have our own room! More about that later. Our new roommate bought us pizza that was really really tasty. We all talked and did our Swedish homework, since tomorrow is the first day of class! After pizza Heather and I went to sleep. For a long time. I woke up at 9:30 and it was still really bright! It felt like 5:00 in the evening, but was nearly 10! Crazy. This is going to take some getting used to.

I woke up from my nap to yelling. Turns out Tuesday nights are the night before "finals" or tests, so everyone just collectively yells to get their frustration out.

And now it's so very late again! And my body wants more sleep. And tomorrow is class! God natt!

London, day four

Last day in London. Here's how it went. Started with the changing of the guard. You can kind of see them waaaay in the back left of the photo. Cool beans. Crazy tourists. Can you image what it must have been like last year? Loco.

Then we ventured to Magma, which is heaven on earth. So many magazine. So beautiful. I died. And almost spent all of my money. I should have, actually.

After spending quite a lot of time in there, we found a telephone booth. Well not found. More like picked one. They're everywhere.

Photo by Heather Hackney

Walking around we saw lots of interesting things! Like the beautiful type on this umbrella shop:

And a place to drop off your mail. Way more elegant than our blue boxy-things in the US.

Then we went for afternoon tea at a place called Tea and Tattle. It was charming, really. A four course meal: tea, finger sandwiches, scones, and cake. Yum.

Don't worry, it's peppermint herbal, and it was goood.

After tea, we took the tube to Hackney, since that's heather's last name. And there's this giant theater with her name in stone. Not gonna lie, it's pretty cool. 

Then we took the bus (just for fun!) and sat on the upper deck (of course). We asked for directions to abbey Road, but the girl giving us directions had such a thick accent that we couldn't understand what she was saying, so she wrote it on a piece of paper (Kilburn, not Gilbert). We found our way, and got our picture.

Photo by Heather Hackney

Yay London! We rode the tube back into town and stopped by the British Museum (where the Rosetta stone is!) but they were literally closing the gates as we arrived. Whoops, so maybe next time! So instead we walked around for the golden hour. Heather got some gorgeous photos, which was a dream. We walked over the Thames on a bridge, and saw a lot of beautiful sights. It's so pretty here!

Photo by Heather Hackney

Photo by Heather Hackney

Other sights from the day:

At every crosswalk this is painted on the street. So you know
 which way to look before crossing, because it can be really,
 really confusing.

Farewell London! We've loved you. But it's time to say hej ("hey") to Stockholm!

Inläggets rubrik

I think that means new post.

Blogger went Swedish on me. I didn't even ask.