And the days go by...

Sunday morning my family group was in charge of organizing the service. It sounds simple enough, choose the number of songs, prayer, speakers and put them in order. The service started out smoothly enough with two songs as planned. Then I thought two girls were going to get up and pray and then I would give my devotion, but apparently they thought I was doing my devotion next and the confused paused lasted long enough that the speaker, the leader of our family group, thought it must be time for him to speak so he got up and launched into his sermon. When he was almost done speaking, he asked what was next in the order of the service because he hadn't been part of the planning and we told him we'd already deviated from it; we sang another song and then I gave my devotion, which went pretty well, and then we had another song and then communion. The downside of giving my devotion after the sermon, rather than before as planned, was that I couldn't concentrate very well on what the speaker said.

At lunch someone asked what I was doing after lunch and I said I wanted to go for a walk but I didn't have anyone to go with. Timo, the Discovery leader, was sitting at my table and he said I should announce a walk for that afternoon and he would be willing to be the 'trail guide.' So I made the announcement and at 3:00pm I went for a walk with Timo, EJ, and Nathan and Megumi. We went further from campus than I ever would have gone on my own, and it was so beautiful!

Trees and meadows

The path we walked

An abandoned when of some kind

The colors of fall are starting to emerge

Sunlight streaming through the forest

A path through sunbeams :)

An abandoned VW van; the trees completely surrounded it so that we figured it
must have been driven there before the trees grew.

In case you needed proof I'm actually in Sweden, and not just my camera,
here I am :)

A Short Cut to Mushrooms

So cool! Any ideas what it might once have been?

I just love walking through the forests, although I'm a little afraid of going by myself now that I've been lost twice.

We ate dinner with our family groups. My family group includes Brad, the chef, and his wife, Cece, their three-year-old daughter Cailee, their four-month-old son Oliver, and five other students: Kathleen, Sophie, Annie, Simon, and Logan. We had pizza together, which was delicious; then the guys put together a TV stand from Ikea while the girls made cookies. Last, we sat down and ate cookies and drank tea and coffee and chatted. Almost as soon as I got there, I asked if I could pick up Oliver. I carried him around for most of the evening :) . I also played with Cailee; she like to dance a lot.

Monday we had lecture in the morning, still an overview of the Bible which has now picked up the pace a bit. I appreciate the faster pace, but some students were saying they were having a hard time following now. In the afternoon I walked up a nearby hill read my Bible for a bit. Here's the view from the top of the hill.

I also encountered an interesting looking spider crawling along a branch!











In the evening we had a lesson on the history of the Swedish church, which was quite interesting. This morning I went running again, having given my blister a week to heal. I went with EJ, Melanie, Kathleen, and Christopher and I found it was much easier than the last time I went. I managed to run for 25 minutes and I didn't feel like dying or wanting to give the whole way. I guess my body finally figured out what I wanted from it. I hope it can stay this way for the next while anyway.

I've gotta go now, but I'll talk to you soon!