First week's impressions

After having spent almost a week in Stockholm now, I gathered it was about time to write down a couple of first impressions. As you note, this post will be in English, because I have had several requests of non-Dutch speakers to continue in a language that they could read. Hope you do not mind.

So as to make you a little jealous first, let me tell you that the weather has been wonderful so far. The sun shines every single day and temperatures are around 25-30 degrees Celsius. Moreover, it does not really get dark. It is 0.20 right now and there is still some light at the far horizon. In an hour or so, dawn starts. Swedish summers are the best summers I know of. Indeed, winters are very dark and cold. Therefore, Swedes enjoy the summer as intense as they possibly can. They organise group barbeques in the park and play a typical Scandinavian game called 'kubb' (one throws sticks at the other side's wooden blocks, if all are overthrown, so is one to beat the wooden king and queen that stand in the middle). They take a ferry to one of the isles along Stockholms coastline and enjoy the sun, the stillness and the icy cold water. Yup, this is Stockholm at its best.

I arrived last Tuesday, as you might know. The room I rented is very neat and has its own bathroom. I share a kitchen with five Swedish students, most of which I have met now. One of them, Mikael, is very kind and open. Thanks to his patience, I have been learning a great deal of new words in Swedish. Also, he invited me to a barbeque party last Friday. So there I found myself in a beautiful scenery along the waterside, just a little outside of the centre, in the company of a whole bunch of mathematics and physics PhD students. The atmosphere was very relaxed and social. If only them jävla muggarna would not have been there...

This Friday, I started working as a coffeecow again. It seems easier to sell coffee out in the parks and on the beaches than last year. As if more people have familiarised themselves with the concept of coffee from a thermobackpack and dare to buy a cup. This means that I sell more quickly and that my hourly wage goes up, which I do not mind at all. Today for example, I went to Langholmen, which is a popular beach for the well-to-be Stockholmarna. I sold some 70 cups in one hour and 15 minutes, almost a personal record. Apart from the money-bit, I get to meet the most wonderful and strange people. The other day, an old lady whispered to me: 'you know, you should put the word 'single' on your cap so as to get all the handsome guys here in the park to talk to you'. I thanked her for the tip, but did not follow her advise.

This morning, I visited NewLife (www.newlife.nu), an evangelical church in the south-western part of Stockholm's centre. It was very nice to see some of the people I met last year. This church was founded by a Dutch pastor called John van Dinther. I brought him a big jarr of Dutch peanut butter, which made him as happy as a child. He preached about the book of Acts, chapter 20. It was called 'Ten last-minute tips from Paul' and entailed the speech that Paul delivered to the leaders of the young church in Ephese. He remembered them of the way that he led the church when he was amongst them: serving God in a humble way, giving honest teachings (not withholding anyone from the true blessings of the gospel) and moved with tears. What struck me most was Paul's ending, in which he tells these leaders that he surrenders them to God. So after having spent three years with them, he is able to let go of them and entrust God with the further development of this young and vulnerable church. If only I could learn to develop such trust!

Seems like this was a fair deal of writing; more stories and details in the next post. Please do react if there is a specific subject you would like to know about. Ha det bra sa länge och vi hörs!