Quality Galaxen Borlange

I concluded my 2 month adventure with a 2 day visit to Anna's aunt Birgitta in Leksand, which is in the traditional Dalicarlian region of Sweden. I should note we had a small delay on the train ride up to Leksand since the train hit a moose, which apparently isn't that uncommon here. Birgitta has been the best host up here taking me around and cooking us the best meals (in fact I have to get ...

Hey all,
I went to uppsala which was a forty minute train ride because there was a few things I wanted to see there and where happened to be my hotel. Uppsala had actually burned down a while back and was rebuilt. It is smaller than I expected. I saw the castle there (not too spectacular) but the botanical gardens (part of the castle) was. It was beautiful.

... we found a clean albeit small 12m2 room. Not want to spend much time in there other than to sleep we went across the parking lot to a place called Gustivik not knowing what it was we ventured in only to find a world of water. With slides, a wave pool, a rushing river, (yes rushing not lazy) the largest swimming pool I ever saw and a few Jacuzzis scattered around and all of this for only about $10.00, as Noah would say, we had the best day ever.

... GPS.
We arrived in Oslo in the pouring rain not able to see our hands in front of our faces, and of course we had booked the hotel for the view of Oslo. Finally we found our hotel after climbing up the long winding mountian road in all the fog, and what a beautiful hotel it was. Holmerkolleran, once built by a rich Norwegian Doctor as a sanitarioum for TB, it is now home to the 2011 Euopean ski jump and cross country ski championships. The championships had been ...

Today most of us disperse and there is a sadness in the air. The Swedish Summer Gathering has been a total success in getting many of the Nordic/Baltic brethren together. We had a total of 38 come. On high attendance was 34 on the Sabbath. Several had never known of each before, but they sure do now. Our mix of sermons and seminars was not only good in content, but the amount of time we had for meetings, socializing and just enjoying nature ...

... at http://lifenets.org/vinogradov/summer08 /zahora/thoughts.htm. After the presentation we had a special event: the baptism of John Wënnstrom from Oslo, Norway. He is actually a Swede working in Norway. This was a most encouraging and event not only for John but for all of us. Johnnie Lambert and I performed the baptism in the lake. We came back up on shore and held the laying on of hands ...

... their children. Klo Gay and Margaret Doh came down from Kemi, Finland. I have visited in their homes and it was so wonderful to all be together where we could meet again and where they could meet others. Margaret and Klo Gay were coming to the Feast of Tabernacles in Estonia last fall, but were not able to come at the last minute because of an issue with their refugee status. Now, we're finally ...

Via hällregn (som en dusch!) som medgav en hastighet på ca 70 km/ h på en finfin 110-väg nådde vi till slut Falun. Hälsades välkomna av Alex & Lina som dukade upp en strålande middag med jordgubbsdaiquiris, ingefärsgrillade scampi och hemmagjord mockaglass. Sedan blev det dags för en spelomgång i " Ticket to ride" där det gällde att bygga järnväg kors & tvärs över Europa enligtett intrikat regelverk. Mycket roligt även om värdinnan hade den dåliga smaken att vinna :-) Nu läggdags!

Nu har förberedelserna pågått ett tag. Böcker om Kina skall läsas, ett antal googlingar på platser som kan vara av intresse. Mycket kretsar kring allt jag hoppas hinna med vid sidan av studierna. Det visar sig väl så småningom vad tid jag har för allt annat. Snart börjar studierna här hemma på högskolan, och då får jag väl den första känslan för vad det är jag gett mig in på, - att lära mig kinesiska.

I went to Sweden to visit a friend of a friend! We had a great time - I was staying with him at his University Halls and made loads of really great new friends from all over the world. It snowed, it rained, it flooded - and then it for so hot we were sunbathing! I had a fantastic time visiting the local museums, getting drunk, getting to know more about traditional Swedish culture and came home with many great memories.