Norge.

Today I left Sweden and the world of DTS for Norway with my friend Cecilie. I will be staying with her at her house until friday. It is honestly a really weird thing. I don't know what to do with all the choices. It was quite overwhelming today at our lunch stop trying to decide what to eat. I realized I have not had to decide what to eat in about 6 months... so now with all the choices its a little crazy. I also have no idea what we will do to fill each day. We have not exactly had free time either these last months and when we do have free time there are 20 people to do somethign with. Its gonna be a weird time of adjusting and travelling and being busy but with so few people...

so anyways I am home 2 weeks from tomorrow! hurah hurrah... so exciting. Now I will spend 5 fabuluos days in beautifull Norway... then 5 equally fabulous days in Sweden... 2 great days in germany, 2 days in holland (spent with Rachel who's doing DTS In amsterdam...) and then HOME.

i'll post a picture of me and cecilie in the lovley Norweigen Mountains soon...

Back in Sweden

On Friday mornign we arrived back in sweden after 9.5 weeks in Africa. We were imersed in a completley different culture while there and everythign was different. Language, food, people, weather, transportation...etc. It was such a good experience and I'll post some more outreach stories if I have time later.

All in all being back is a bizare feeling. There are so many people you want to reconnect with and here stories of other peoples outreach while at the same time you still want to spend time with your team because you know the time here will soon be up and your relationship will be long distance and not nearly the same. Its weird not to be with your team 24/7 and to be spending time with different people. I miss team meetings and meal times and just relaxing together or our little routines that you didnt' really realize were routines while you were on outreach but now that thigns are different i miss the small things. All in all though it is good to be back. I"m excited for life and i'm excited for more exciting adventures that will take place this next month. The past few days i have finished planning my short trip after my DTS before flying home out of Amsterdam... This is what it looks like...

Feb 18- Graduation
Feb 19- Drive to Norway with Cecilie and her parents
Feb 20-24 Stay at Cecilies in Bergen and visit Lina too (also in bergen)
Feb 24- take the night train from Bergen to Gothenburg (sweden)
Feb 25- ARrive in Gothenburg and take train to Herrjungen?
Feb 25-March 1- Spend with Maria at her house... and go visit Alfred in Boat... 2.5 hour drive from Marias... and Visit Martina for a Fika...
March 1- take night bus from gothenburg to Hamburg
March 2 ARrive in Hamburg. spend the day with Lisa at her house...
March 3- take a night bus to Amsterdam.
March 4. Arrive in Amsterdam... visit rachel... see my nanny friend... stay with my dutch family...
March 6- fly home in teh morning...
March 6. 5:41 pm arrive home in vancouver...

What a lovely plan!

untill later.

ok i'm off...

Ok. I'm off to Uganda...

I will be working with the hope foundation.

http://www.hopefoundation.ug/

and we will be staying in and around Kamuli:) Near Jinja... and possibly some time in Kampala...

I'll let you know I'm alive as soon as I can get access to a computer.

our swedish lovleyness...

Me and Cecilie went on a walk for a few hours in the freezing freezing cold!

Ok... so this is the continuation of the last post... Our boys (the swedish ones) came into our rooms early saturday morning to wake us up! It was quite exciting but at first i was quite confused as to what was happening... It was so fun though... They even gave us lovley cookies just like the swedish tradition. It was so nice. I was surprised at how beautifull their voices were but maybe it was just that I was so so tired... I didn't even remember if they sang english or swedish to us:)

St Lucia's Day - A very swedish tradtion.

Ok... so here is some background information on St Lucia's day... so that you willl understand my next post. Happy reading...

Around Christmas time in Sweden, one of the biggest celebrations is St. Lucia's Day (or St. Lucy's Day) on December 13th. The celebration comes from stories that were told by Monks who first brought Christianity to Sweden.

St Lucia was a young Christian girl who was martyred, killed for her faith, in 304AD. The most common story told about St Lucia is that she would secretly bring food to the persecuted Christians in Rome, who lived in hiding in the catacombs under the city. She would wear candles on her head so she had both her hands free to carry things. Lucy means 'light' so this is a very appropriate name.

St. Lucia's Day is now celebrated by a girl dressing in a white dress with a red sash round her waist and a crown of candles on her head. (Normally electric candles are used for safety!) The crown is made of Lingonberry branches which are evergreen and symbolise new life in winter. Schools normally have their own St. Lucias and some town and villages also choose a girl to play St. Lucia in a procession where carols are sung.
In homes often the eldest girl plays St Lucia for her family, bringing them 'Lussekatts', St Lucia's day buns flavoured with saffron and dotted with raisins which are eaten for breakfast. This is how the family is woken up. Other girl siblings also can help!

Good Morning.

My room is quite fun in the morning. We often have trouble getting out of bed. We used to have a bit of a routine but as DTS has gone on we've thrown our routine out the window. It used to be Helena first up, then Me, then Anna, then Hanna... but now its different everyday. Hanna is even sometimes first! sometimes we all lay in bed and we look at eachother and then its a race for who can get out first... I usually loose that since i am on a bunk bed... not the top but its still a ladder in the way of just rolling out. I am quite sad to say goodbye to all my roommates. I thoroughly enjoy or mornings filled with lafter and moaning before getting up. I like our fights for the mirror and sink and the countdown to "prayer time" Its quite funny. Yesterday morning I was only half ready before be prayed... so i was sitting down in the middle of my room with my hair in a towel holding my makeup bag.

Now i will tell you a little kinda funny Heidi moment. Yesterday was a very busy day for me with lots of one on one talks. I first met with my one on one from 1-2 then from 2-245 I had a one on one with my school leader, and then from 3-4 I had a one on one with our speaker. I also had 1 hour of prayer for my Uganda team and yeah lots of other stuff througout the day. Problem was that i was not feeling so well in the evening. After our prayer time I wanted to just spend some more time journaling in the prayer room so i was there for about 1 hour but felt really sick so i decided to come up to my room and put my pjamas on.. it was only 8 oclock.. then i felt so so sick i didn't want to go anywhere or do anything so I just layed in bed. My roommate was skyping and was like, "are you goign to bed already" and i was like, I'm not sure. I think i'll jsut take a nap. So i layed down, she left quite confused by me... and I went to sleep. At 8 oclock. Then at 9 occlock i woke up still feeling sick but a bit better and i got up... and I finished getting ready for bed... talked to my roommate and my friend for a while.. and went back to bed at 1030. Who in the world has a nap at 8pm? I dont know... but it was wierd... I dont think i was thinking to clearly. I just wanted to lay down! But now i am feeling much much better and ready for a new day.

SNOW