Home Sweet Home

Wow, blogging really got away from me the last few weeks. Things in Sweden were crazy busy. The students in Uppsala were finishing classes and moving back to their homes for the summer. So we were spending a lot of time meeting with our friends.

I got to meet with Malin quite a bit towards the end of project. I miss her so much already. We met for lunch one day at Cafe Unico and then she when shopping at H&M with me. We met again the last weekend I was there and ate at a Greek Restaurant, I had a Carbonarra pasta and it was so good. She is so sweet. She bought me a pair of earrings and a big flower pin that goes in my hair. I can't wait to see her again!

We had a celebrities party for our Swedish friends to come to at Rififi's (an Italian restaurant). Not many of our friends came, but we had a really good time getting dressed up and dancing the night away. Well until 10 pm when they kicked us out. I'll post some pictures later because I'm not on my computer.

We spent a day in Helsinki, Finland for our mid-project trip. We took a two night cruise there. I didn't have the best Helsinki experience, but the cruise itself was rather interesting. LD, Emily, & I decided we wanted to go to this museum and after walking forever and a half to get there, it was closed. We got to hang around at the street market some though and I got some gifts for some family and friends.

The last weekend in Uppsala, Aaron took some of our team to visit Gamla Uppsala to see the Viking Mounds. The Viking Mounds was once an area of Pagen worship where human sacrifices were made. It was crazy seeing these huge mounds that were filled with bodies and even standing atop some of the mounds. We took some time to pray for Uppsala while we were there.

It was really sad to leave Uppsala, I definitely wasn't prepared to leave. I didn't want to leave my roommates or anyone else on the team. I had gotten used to our small living quarters and enjoyed them. The roommies and I even pushed our beds together one night.

Monday we left for debriefing in Munich, Germany. While in Germany we went to the Dachau Concentration Camp, which was really cool to see and heartbreaking at the same time. We also went to the Neuschwanstein Castle, which is the castle the Sleeping Beauty Castle is based on. I took the tour inside and it was beautiful, but everything inside is copyrighted so I couldn't take pictures.

Thursday was the day to say goodbye to Europe and my team. Before we even left Germany, I had to say goodbye to my rooms, Mindy. That wasn't fun. We also had to tell Emma and Eden bye as well. They were all traveling to various places in Europe before returning to the states. For the nine hour plane ride home I got to sit with my other rooms, Emily. We had a pretty good time. We watched Confessions of a Shopaholic and Slumdog Millionaire together. That was the longest nine hours of my life. It was so boring. We finally arrived in DC and the first thing we all did was pulled out our cell phones and called family and friends. We had a four hour layover in DC, which wasn't too bad once we went through customs and ate dinner. I was so exhausted. We arrived in DC around 6:30 pm, which was really 12:30 am Sweden time and I was pushing to stay awake so I could sleep that night. We didn't leave DC till 10 and arrived in Greensboro at like 10:45 (4:45 am Sweden time). Alex picked me up from the airport. We were excited because we got to meet everyone's friends and family. I got to meet Matt, Emily's boyfriend, and Hope, Emily's new puppy; I had already met both via Skype while on project.

Then I had the hour and a half drive to Raleigh, which was weird since I hadn't been in a car for 5 weeks. Alex had flowers and a build-a-bear waiting for me when I got home :D

Well that sums up project. Sorry for the long delay in blogging, things have been crazy since I got home. I've put some of the pictures from project on facebook, you should check them out.

If you are interested in continuing to support the ministry in Sweden, please let me know and I'll put you in contact with a member of the STINT team.