Jag ska stanna/sista veckor

Jag ska stanna

Yes, jag ska stanna i Sverige för en bestämd tid (jag vet inte precis), men mist till sommer, tycker jag. Tyvärr ska det inte vara i Stockholm men i Sverige finns också andra städer än Stockholm. Jag flytter till Sundsvall för att göra en andra voluntärstjänst där. I´m looking forward, men samtidigt ser jag tillbaka på mit tid i Stockholm och jag realisera det var ingen lång tid här och jag ska sakna Ni alla.

Sista Veckor

I was last week on an EVS- midterm seminar. Actually it should have taken place in the middle of my voluntary service but there were some problems with my name there and so I got no invitation. However, it was a good seminar where I had the possibility to meet new people from other countries and socialize with them. We where about 10-12 people and everyone came from another country… that leads  inevitably to interesting talks and discussions. And I had the possibility to talk with a Muslim. I can strongly recommend this to all people who think Muslims and Terrorists are the same… En vecka arbet är alltså kvar. Jag tycker det ska vara en vecka av farväl.

Nu finns mer bilder:

Teologiefestivalen

Hej folk,

på helgen var jag på Teologiefestivalen i Uppsala. Först jag tyckte det ska vara jätte jobbit, darför Teologie är en jätte svart tema för mig (och för flesta andra människor ochså). Men jag var överraskad, eftersom det tema jag välde var jätte intressant. Det har handlart om “Kairos Palestine”. Det fanns 2 personer från Palestina som har pratad om hur är situationen i Palestina och vad kan vi göra för att förankring människor från Palestine och deras situation.

I also met people from Skåne (a southern part of Sweden) where the people speak a pretty funny dialect.

Göteborg

Journey

I expected the journey to Göteborg shorter, it is about 450 km (so 45 swedisch mil) from Stockholm. A friend and I took the long distance bus and it took us 7 hours to come there. But still the bus journey was surprisingly cheap (around 400 kr for both ways) and the bus was also surprisingly full with people. More than one time was every seat in the bus taken. An important detail, there is always free (and slow, but so what) Wifi in the long distance coaches… that´s Sweden….

Göteborg…

itself seems to be a very cosy place to be. Old buildings, new buildings, nice bars, nice people, nice places for fika. For sure there was not that much people and public transportation as in Stockholm, but it was cheaper (at least public transportation) and Göteborg seems to be more “alternative”, what I really like. And it also seems to be a very young city. If I would have to choose between Stockholm and Göteborg I don’t know how my choice would be…

Snow

it snowed pretty much in Göteborg and this was the first snow which stayed for a while. Now, back in Stockholm, I had to notice, that here is even more snow and it seems to be even colder.

Snow, snow, snow…

And even more snow…

We were hosted by an Portuguese guy. And I found out, that people from southern Europe put a lot more effort to there food than I do. We had for example very good sandwiches in the morning, delicious crepes for lunch (on the picture) and a pasta salad in the evening. Awesome!
Furthermore I got to know some card tricks, which seemed to me like magic…

Göteborg

I morron ska jag åker till Göteborg (bara på helgen) och jag få se vad de finns i Göteborg.

It´s said that Göteborg is a bit more a “Swedish city” than Stockholm (but i don’t really know what that means, maybe the people walk even slower and make even more Fika…?).

Jag få se vilen stad ja tycker mer om. Stockholm eller Göteborg.

The shepherd – a strange encounter/en konstig möte

Yesterday, when I was waiting for the pendeltåg (around 23.00) I saw a young guy (maybe between 20-25) who carried a  light wooden stick with him. I was a bit curious and so I asked him “Hej, why do you have that stick” and he said: “I found it on the other track there.” and he pointed to the other side of where we stood. Then we had a little conversation like “where do you came from, what are you doing, how long are you already here …” and just the usual answers like “Tyskland, working in equmenia as a volunteer, more than 4 months…” but when I said that I´m volunteering in equmenia he said: “Oh, so you are my brother” (and actually he was a little bit scary, his glance seemed to be a bit blurry, he talked slowly (I thought at first that he was maybe caned, but he wasn´t), he was tall (I guess about 1,95) and he had this wooden stick). I didn’t really know what to answer, so I just said something like “yeah”. Then the train came and we got in and sat us in diagonally opposite to each other. We went on to talk about what kinda music we like and what instruments we play and so on. I mentioned that I´m listening quiet a lot to Heavy Metal and he said: “I have something for you.” reached into his pocket and took a book out called “The Metal Bibeln” and said: “You can have it” and I was so surprised of this gesture. Very surprised. And then he told me what he had done that day (I’m not sure if I believe all of this), and it was like: praying for a guy, who had a injured foot (and for sure it helped …), praying for another guy which had have headache (and it helped again…) and BTW the second guy was Muslim and he said that he had “converted” him and that the Muslim guy said, that he will go to church now. Strange. So far to the shepherd…

But however, he went out of the train and I was left with conflicting feelings. The really weird situation came then after he left the train. A girl was coming over to the place were I was sitting and said: “He I became Christian some months ago and I listened to your conversation.”. She then also offered me something (some little book, with Christian content) but I thought I cannot take this with me as well and went off because the train arrived at my station.

What do I take from this? Well, at first a really strange experience (I felt very happy after this two “meetings”), a Metal Bibeln, and the encouragement that my tactic of starting talks with random people (which is not a very Swedish thing, I found out) is still a good thing.

Surströming/Jul/Nytt år and a friend

Första God nyår!

Det är en lång tid, när jag hade skrivit sista gången. I min andra Blog (här: www.martinisverige.wordpress.com) har jag publicerat en rådgivning hur man kan äta Surströming (på tyska, men jag tycker man kan forstår, anyway). Dessutom jag firade Jul med min Värdfamilj. Det var jätte gemytlig och jag behövde inte sakna en jätte bra jul stämning. Min egen familj besökte mej i veckan innan Jul och dom har tagit med mycket julklappar för min värdfamilj och mej. So, nog svenska för idag.

Languages are like trees, the closer you come the more branches you can see.

I will try to extend the Swedish parts in my blog. But now you have to read English again, förlåt… ; -)

The time around New Year, I went to an event called Nyårslägret (New Years “Camp”). It took place in the good old “Folkhögskola” in Lidingö (I published some pictures before, already) and was an event for young people who are interested to celebrate New Year together. I was there as a youth leader (and also as a participant : -) and had a lot of fun. Every day there were different things to do like seminars, workshops, bible studies, outdoor activities  and a lot more. On New Years Evening we had a Band playing music and a dance floor and after this even a “disco” with a (ore more) DJ.

When we had a organizing meeting for this New Years “Camp” I was full of hope that we could do a mighty snowball-fight (with 60 people, I would call this kinda mighty) but my hopes failed.

Another important event was, that a friend of mine from Berlin was dropping by and we spent a very good (and packed…) Weekend together (Stadsmuseet, Gamla Stan, Fotografiska Museet och so vidare).

Well, enough for today.

PS: I know I use to many brackets (but I just can’t stop it …).

The world in the North …

Umeå and the way there,

Umeå is the name of the place and the goal of this trip. In the early morning at 6:30 was the departure of the train. After a night without sleep (well, I thought these times are over, but this is one of the problems when you start meeting friends at 12 …). The X2000 was the first transportation means we took and so we came to Sundsvall. A short thought: when I came from out the train I thought “I should have taken my warmers with me”. I guess about minus 2 degrees, so not that cold, but still too warm for the north. From Sundsvall we continued with the bus and this took another 4 hours, lucky me that I was able to sleep all the time. After the bus trip we came to a cute little vandrarhem. During the meeting with the international Stag we talked about the different goals the Stag has and how we could reach them, or how we could improve. Another topic was a little seminar about “how-to-handle” violence, how to prevent it and so on. In the evening we went through Umeå and saw some fire-games and some light-plays as well. In the Sunday service we played two songs and had a lot of fun with it. The instruments has been: guitar (no, not me), drums, Conga, Base, and 3 singers. I played kind of the first time base and it was awesome, and I don´t mean my play as such, I mean the fun I had. Playing Base is very casual even though one feels a bit unheard. My conclusion: Honor to the Base players!

Sundsvall 

The way back to Sundsvall was very exhausting, we had to change the bus three times and it was … well, not pleasant. But once again I could feel the Swedish mentality, so was the atmosphere in the group really good even after the last change… Swedish calmness.

In Sundsvall I visited some friends, I got to know on the EVS – seminar. For sure they come out of different countries like: Montenegro, Lithuania and Italy and have interesting projects too, like working with a youth-club for disabled youngsters or a “get-rid-of-your-prejudice”-course. Later on we made a little sightseeing tour through Sundsvall and went to the lake, the museum … Sundsvall is a lovely little Town with approximately 50 000 inhabitants and a university. It was a very good time to relax and to talk about our different projects and experiences we made in Sweden.

The way back to Stockholm was (fortunately) without complications (maybe except from all the ringing mobile phones which robbed me of my sleep).

Sundsvall at night.

At a lake, a ton filled with bread for the dugs, I was quite suprised.

Dugs, eating bread.

A root that I thought could be a good motive.

A picture from out the train.

Streets of Umeå.

Candles in Umeå in a park.

Other light plays in Umeå.

… back in Skövde.

My friend the “King of Tibro”

… and his crazy band “Hobbytransorna och Tysken”.

Martin