Week 1 In Sweden

DAY 4: August 17th 2017

The first day of classes was slowly approaching and I was becoming more and more anxious to start a new school with new people. On Friday Emilia and I woke up early to a light rain. We ate breakfast and got ready to head back into the city to have lunch with her father. We met him at his office which was beautiful. Like everything else in Sweden, the office was clean and had a fresh smell to it. The majority of the furniture in the waiting room was white with some orange accents. It did look like a lot of the furniture was from Ikea. We waiting for a little and then when her father was done with a meeting we headed out for the day. We stopped by Emilia and her father’s church, which was beyond beautiful. The building used to only have one level (floor) but was later divided into two different floors; one for worship and one for meetings and such. The church worship space had an amazing organ. The instrument stood extremely tall with beautiful designs in the pipes and the machinery. The worship/sanctuary had this long chandelier hanging from the ceiling. Emilias father had told me that their church was rather small (around 200 people usually), which was pretty similar to my church back in Sacramento. After we left the church we walked to lunch. On the way there were people standing and sitting by buildings with signs protesting the immigration laws currently held in Sweden. We got to lunch and ate together at this nice Chinese restaurant. The food was really good and we discussed my family background and SVF and the differences between our cultures. I found out that her father works for the Evangelical Covenant Church in Sweden as a volunteer which I found very interesting since my father works for the ECC in America and I plan to work as a part of the ECC when I am older. After lunch we decided to go look at the view of Sweden from a restaurant that is in a skyscraper. The view was amazing; I found this to view to be prettier than most views I had seen in the States because all the buildings had colorful roofs and the trees lived within the city instead of on the outside. After this we went home where I watched a movie and then we helped prepare the meal for the crayfish (crawdad) party we would be having that night. I was quit nervous because I didn’t know any Swedish and I was still getting used to not understanding the discussion that the majority of the table was having. The people that came to the house were Emilias relatives; there were three children and only one of them knew how to speak English. The oldest one that could speak English started off talking to me by asking ‘What are your views on Donald Trump?’ I responded but I could tell that I was speaking too fast by her expression. I was told she had only been speaking English for three years which I still found to be pretty impressive. The night went really well, we had crayfish, some quiche like dish, chocolate mousse for dessert and tea to end the night. When the party was over we went back downstairs and went to bed. We were planning on watching a movie but I wanted to shower and when I was done I wanted to sleep instead of watching a movie. I had felt weird at the beginning of the trip not being able to speak the language of the majority of the people speaking but at this point I had gained a perspective of someone from another country that maybe couldn’t speak English and how frustrating that was. I think that as an American who is not bilingual, I can now say that I wish I was. My point of view is limited and because of the language barrier I can be seen as ignorant to other cultures which breaks my heart because I love to learn about other cultures but still only know my own. I am just more than thankful that I get the opportunity to be on the flip side of the ‘American culture’ of wanting everyone to just learn the language instead of trying to understand that maybe I’m the one who is uneducated.