Hej! Yeah, that's Hello in Swedish... pronounced "Hey"... I'm already speaking the language...lol... and this is my first official blog! Tuesday, April 20th started bright and early! Sunday and Monday were behind us and a bit of a blur after traveling by plane, train and automobile over 16 hours, through a volcano to get to Ostersund, Sweden. A city of about 70,000 in the Northwest region of central Sweden. The team and I were still in denial that we made it and to be quite honest we were all not quite ready to leave our lives at home. A slight delay would have been fine but this is what we signed on for... but a whole month! Missing work... yes, I'll miss work! And missing loved ones... old and new ones!

My host "mom" as I'd like to call her for this week is a lovely lady named Eva. She is a retired journalist and we have found quite a few things in common... for those of you who know me, I often try to find the similarities in us and celebrate what makes us all one people. Eva lives in a lovely 3rd floor apartment overlooking lake Storsjon. Here is where the lake monster "The Storsjoodjuret" (or "Birger" as named in the childhood story books) is said to have lived for over 400 years... a distant relative to the Loch Ness monster, perhaps... for more detailed information than a fine historian like myself can describe here, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storsj%C3%B6odjuret. You'll also find more info. on Östersund and Frösön (yes, the keyboards here have ö on them... lol!). These are the two cities we visited today.
Eva and I have an early breakfast and walk over the Frösöbron bridge into Ostersund... about a mile to the tourism center where we meet up with the team. Happy to be reunited, we start on our adventure with our first stop being Hornsbergskyrkan (yes, this is one word... don't even bother!) Lutheran church. Everyone is Lutheran in Sweden... we talk about volunteerism as it applies to church and other areas and the priest shares that volunteerism is very low in Sweden and that almost everyone who does anything for the church is paid... which of course was interesting for me coming from the non-profit world where our work is based on volunteers. We tour the church and are lead to the basement where a locked cabinet holds old scripts. The priest pulls out a small book and hands it to me. I open the cover and see I am holding a hymnal from 1628! Need I say more?! Thought not!
After our church tour, we continue our history lesson outside where the "Frösön stone" Runic script sets. This stone dates back to 1050 and is the first written documentation of Christianity in the country. The stone pictures a Christian cross, a snake who's mouth is eating it's tail and a bondage symbol which tells of the bridging of Östersund to Frösön.
From the church grounds we mounted up... ok, we weren't riding horses... we jumped in the Volvo... and headed to the country side of Frösön to have "Fika" which is the customary break time in Sweden, in the morning around 10:30am and again in the afternoon around 2:30pm... we liked the sound of this and warmed up very quickly to the idea of "Fika time" as I like to call it. Any occasion to drink and eat chocolatey goodness is cause for celebration in my book! And speaking of warming up... it's a little cold here... who would have thought we would be longing for the warm days that spring has been bringing us back in WI.
From "Fika time" we visit Frösö church which is one of Frösön's major tourist attractions, a medieval church that recently had its 800 year anniversary. For more info. visit http://frosokyrka.se/.
Ok, let me remind you that at this point in the day... it is not even noon yet... 11:30am and we head back to Östersund where we are to give our first rotary presenation. We meet with the district governor and see many of our host "parents" along with meeting many new rotary members. Lunch is delicious and the presenation was well prepared and delivered (pat on the back team!).
From lunch we head to the Mittuniversitet (University) which is one of three campus locations in the province. Here we find that college education is free! Ok, so taxes are 50% of income but FREE people... you know what a term like that means to us Americans!
Our tour continues to the Town Hall of Östersund where we receive more history lessons! Our brains are a little on overload at this point but 2:30pm... and you know what time it is!! "Fika time". More coffee and a bite of chocolate is just what we needed to stay awake through a very interesting discussion about local government and industry... including a detailed plans implemented by the city and government to regrow jobs and industry when the military moved from the area just a few short years ago. We asked for the power points slides to add to our presenation for when we return... stay tuned for that!
We then proceed to visit Elisabeth Viggeborn, a private business owner and rotary member, she is our last stop for the day. Elisabeth owns Revent, a specialty golf travel company. She books clients to the finest golf courses in the world and has been doing so for over 10 years. We have interesting and engaging discussion about private businesses versus public, healthcare, benifits... so much more than I am prepared to get into here now that it is 3am Swedish time!
We wrapped up our discussion and headed back to the tourist center where our host parents awaited. I took the walk home with Eva... stopping at a few shops along the way... shoes people! Gotta check out the goods! Lol! You know I'll be sporting at least one new pair when I return home!
Eva and I return to her quaint apartment, she makes a lovely dinner of chicken and potatoes... we drink red wine and I share today's adventures and we talk of our lives... work, family... and of course, men! We finish talking around 11pm and then I am blessed to get in touch with loved ones at home and catch up some work... don't even say it... I've gotta do it and God bless the Iphone and thanks to my Swedish "mom" for use of her computer and internet!
Sleep comes a little bit harder when you're so far away from home (or was it all that coffee today?!) but it is time to rest now my loved ones and friends. We are up at 7:00am and off to climb a mountain... that so sounds like me... yes, I know. The team and I will take turns updating the blog so you'll hear from me again soon. Until then... Conquering Sweden, one day at a time! 28 more days to go people!
Hej da... pronounced "Hey Do" (yeah, that's right... more of the lingo around here! Lol!) By the way, yes... everyone thinks I'm Swedish here... from the time I got on the airplane through today when a man on the street asked in Swedish if I was the cutest girl he had ever seen or if he was drunk, to which my "mom" answered "Both!" and we continued on our way! Lol!)
Much love,
Heather