The Dry's/Logans Go on Holiday

Vacation season is finally over. After nearly two weeks of visitors to Sweden, I finally have a few minutes to just sit and relax, enjoy the 20 hours of sunlight, the 70 degree weather, and the beautiful people, without having to worry about finding a way to cram in a FIFTH museum or find the perfect, non-cliche present. Not that I didn't enjoy spending time with my family and Bella, but it was also very draining to be a tourist for two weeks straight. But we had a great time. I'll only hit on the highlights...

Day 1: Let the Adventure Begin

Everyone got into town full of adrenaline, but once we finished lunch, the whole gang crashed for a good three hours. I was left to walk around the hotel and entertain myself at the front desk.

Day 2: Halston and Johan

I was actually gone for most of it. First, I had an interview with Halston Fagerberg. His name might not mean much to you, but in Swedish circles, his name is synonymous with gay rights activism in the Church. He is straight and an ethicist out of the University of Uppsala. At 96, he can be a little slow, but his mind is as good, if not better, than mine. When I walked into his apartment, I noticed the framed artwork that covered the walls like wall paper. Let's just say I would not call him a minimalist. He made me these cute little sandwiches with like half a carton of butter on each of the pieces of bread. Needless to say, they were deliciously fattening. But how do you say no to a guy whose probably been up since 6 preparing this cute breakfast for you. And probably will spend much of the afternoon cleaning up after I've left.

Then I met up with Johan, one of the baristas at the cafe I've told you all about. We went to Friedmansplan, where there is a grass beach. We hung out for a couple hours before heading to a cafe for espresso shots. Then he had to go to work and I had to meet up with my family. Later that evening, we walked around the Old Town. The sunlight played tricks on us, and before we knew it, it was 10pm and we hadn't eaten a thing. Starving, we searched maddeningly for a restaurant and ended up getting caught in a tourist trap, sitting down at a terribly tacky restaurant called After. (For those of you who are wondering, Stockholm has two very tacky bars on either side of Gamla Stan owned by the same guy...one is called "Before" and the other is called "After." Prizes for anyone who can tell me which one you go to first.)

Day 3: National Museum

This day was pretty boring. We spent the morning switching hotels from Slussen to the Stand. But the upside was that we got this sick view of the harbor. And obviously I had to take a million pictures of me by the window. How many times can you say you woke up to see this kind of view. In the afternoon, my family, the frugal family that we are, went and bought these Stockholm cards, which allow you to get into most Museums and attractions in Stockholm for free, along with free transportation. We got ours for three days...and my family was ademate about getting the most out of their money. Let me madness begin. We went to the National Museum, which had your basic artwork in it. I'm not a huge art person. I can appreciate a good painting, but I can't really tell the difference between one and another in the same style. Certainly Monet and Picasso are different, but when you've got two guys painting the same girl in the same style...I'm lost.

Day 4: Nordiska, Vasa, Skansen, Roxy

Day 4 was a big step up from Day 3. We headed over to Djurgarden, a huge island with tons of preserved green space. In fact, the city is not allowed to build ANY new houses on the island, because it is not a land preserve. We started at the Nordiska Museum, which displays all sorts of Nordic traditions, design elements, fashion, and art. There was a really cool exhibit on interior design in Sweden from the beginning of the 20th century to the present. I also really enjoyed the area on Nordic traditions...which explained some of the basic Nordic holidays (Mid-summer etc).

Then we went to the Vasa museum, which is basically this building that houses a giant ship that the government recovered after it sank several hundred years ago. The story goes a little something like this: Sweden was in a war and the King ordered a ship to be constructed. The boat was designed poorly, so that not enough stones could be put into the bottom of the boat to stabilize the boat from waves and what not. If they put more stones into the bottom of the boat, then they wouldn't be able to use the cannons, becacuse they would be submerged in water. So they skimped on stones. As a result, when they set sail, only about 100 meters into their voyage, the waves got the best of the boat. It began rocking and every time it would rock, water would get into the windows of the boat. Eventually, the boat sank and rested at the bottom of the harbor for nearly a hundred years, until restorers began the processes of lifting the boat out of the water. So today they have this huge, perfectly in tact boat displayed in the museum. So cool.

Skansen was good for the second time. Nothing really new here, except for the rain. Yeah it poured for like 30 minutes. It's fun to be in a renaissance style house with 50 other people while it is pouring rain...so fun.

That night we went to Roxy. I've only been to Roxy a few times before, but I really wanted to bring my family there for dinner. Luckily, Natalie, the bartender I have befriended, was working that night, and she ended up being our waitress. She is a great, bubbly person...but she had never been a waitress before. And I think the stress really got to her. She dropped several trays of drinks...one tray was ours...another was for a different table. And she kind of forgot about bringing out check at the end of the night. BUT, the food was AMAZING. Everyone at the table was raving about how delicious and beautifully presented the food was.

Day5: MADE: Royalty edition + SMORGASBORD

Last day with the Stockholm cards....that means we had to do AS MANY museums as possible. Luckily, the plan for the day was to do all things royal: the palace, the armory, the old castle, the treasury etc. Atleast it would be more fun than all things dead or all things on canvas. We started our day at the Treasury, where they house all the crown jewels. Immediately, I was captivated by the beautiful crowns of the royal family. But I found out the tradition is not to wear the crowns. Instead, they simply display the crowns at royal functions on a regalia table. LAME! Afterwards we went to tour the apartment of the royal family. It was incredible. When they say apartment, they mean 10 GIANT rooms connected, with 15 foot ceilings, gold plated everything, chandeliers, the works! I was captivated by their lifestyle and tried to picture myself in their shoes. And then the idea came into my mind...I HAVE TO MEET PRINCE CARL PHILLIP! It's the only way. So thus began my search to become Prince of Sweden. I felt like I should be on MADE or something...where is my made coach for being Prince.

Fun fact: There are 9,696 windows in the Palace.

By the end of the apartment tour, I had already asked three people if they knew where Prince Carl Phillip lived, all of whom had no idea. What is with these people...if a prince lived in my backyard, you can bet your bottom dollar I'd know where he lived. We spent the afternoon touring the armory and the old castle. By that point, I was really tired and ready for some food. We all decided that, having skipped lunch, we ought to have a big dinner....SMORGASBORD it is!

I will admit, for anyone wondering, the smorgasbord is really just a Swedish buffet. Sorry folks. But it was DELICIOUS. It probably did my best buffet work EVER at the Smorgasbord, because I really paced myself. I started out with some soup...then worked through the starters (mainly herring...which was surprisingly good). Then came the salads and cold fishes. These were followed by the hot dishes. To give you an idea, it really is set up like a buffet. My brother skipped right ahead to the hot dishes, whereas I spent most of my time on the starters and only only got to the hot dishes after like an hour. One of the best parts of the smorgasbord was the dessert area. It was like heaven. I tried every dessert. Luckily they were pretty much bite-sized portions, so that I didn't look like a fatty...even though I'm sure everyone was thinking that.

Day 6: TOO MANY MUSEUMS MAKES MY HEAD HURT

After nearly three full days of Stockholm card, we finished our Stockholm card experience with a trip to the Nobel Museum. It was a really cute, but small, museum that explained the Nobel prizes...physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, peace. Interestingly, the Swedish parliament wanted to create a new Nobel prize for economics, to commemorate Sweden's new economic success. Unfortunately, the Nobel committee would not allow it. So instead, the Swedish bank just created this new prize "The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel." And while the actual medal is slightly different, the winner receives the same amount of money as they laurettes (which is different each year depending on how much interest is accrued by the trust), and receive their award at the same banquet. TRICKY! The other interestingly thing about the Nobel Peace Prize, is that it is given out in Oslo, rather than in Sweden. Nobel did not believe that Swedes knew anything about Peace, so he mandated that the Norwegians decide on the Peace prize.

Fun Fact: George Bernard Shaw is the only person to have won both an Academy Award and a Nobel Prize.

Afterwards, my dad headed back to the hotel to check up on my brother, who feel on the concrete and sliced open his knee. He and my mom went to the hospital while we went to the museum. While we waited for them to return, Lynn, Matt, and I went to the cafe for some lunch. We got sandwiches. These sandwiches were probably the best I had ever had. Literally, the top part of the bun couldn't fit over the sandwich, it was so big...bean sprouts everywhere, fresh lettuce, big hunks of juicy tomato, cucumber, spicy mustard, turkey. Afterwards, we spent the afternoon getting lost in the maze of streets that is Old Town, meanderuing through artisan shops and antique stores. That evening we met up with my roommate Jon for dinner at a pizza place near our apartment.

Day 7-9: A Blur

We spent the last few days doing our own things. Nothing substantial really. We took a tour of the archepelago, went to the Modern Museum, and did some shopping. I've been obsessed with the suits here...their tailored fit makes guys look so put together. So I convinced my mom to go shopping for suits with me. We didn't end up buying any, but I figured out that I wear a 48 suit. I don't have ANY clue what that means really, but now I can go to a store and find my size lol. The last night, we went to the ice bar, which was as fun time. Always good for a picture and a drink lol. Yay for vacations...and for being sooo tired now as a result.

Phase I: Complete.

As most of you know, this summer I'm doing research on the Church of Sweden (Svenskakrykan). As of Wednesday evening, I have completed the first part of the research, which consisted of doing 7 interviews with various Church officials about the Church of Sweden.

A week from today, I made my first trek out of Stockholm to a small-ish town about 45 minutes away from Stockholm, called Uppsala. Uppsala is the "hub" (if you will) for the Church of Sweden. I met with some theologians about the consequences of accepting gay marriage into their theology. He gave me some interesting perpsectives on the subject, most of which did not even focus on the Bible. He spoke about ecumenism within the Church, and the Church's insistence on "loving the neighbor." There seemed to be less focused on strict readings of the Bible (and dare I say the Bible at all).

That Sunday I met with a former priest in the Church of Sweden, who gave me a much different, more evangelical-sounding account of the situation in the Church of Sweden. His perspectives centered around particular passages in the Bible.

On Monday I journeyed back to Uppsala, this time to meet with the ARCHBISHOP of the Church. For those of you unfamiliar with the Church of Sweden's heirarchy, he is the leader of the Church. I had built him up to be this really powerful, Wizard of Oz sort of character, only to find him of normal stature and very personable. I felt so lucky to be speaking with him, but he commented that I looked tired. He blamed it on the jet lag, and I happily took his scapegoat. In reality I haven't been sleeping as well as I'd like. Jon came up for the afternoon, so we grabbed dinner at a chinese restaurant. It's really interesting how different chinese buffets in Sweden are. Have experienced two different buffets, I can attest that they don't have General Tso's Chicken, which is a staple in American buffets.

On Tuesday, I met with Eva Brunne, the Bishop-elect of Stockholm. She is the first openly lesbian bishop, and she lives in a civil partnership with her wife. I thought she'd be really important to my study because she was an active queer in the Church, but she said her experience hasn't been that bad in the Church. Maybe her experience is different than others, or maybe I just really wanted it to be bad so I could show how much better it was getting. It could be that the Church of Sweden has been really accepting of homosexuals for some time.

After meeting with Eva, I went to the Gym and did my first real work out of the summer. It felt good to get back into the groove. I've missed having that part of my routine. I've decided to go to the core class and the yoga class. The core class wasn't really bad; I've always had pretty strong core. But the yoga class SUCKED! It was soooooo much harder than I ever expected. Holding those poses for several minutes BURNS. But I think it's gonna really help me with flexibility. Afterwards, I got this delicious salad. See above. mmm.

Then Wednesday I made my longest trek so far, all the way to Karlstad, Sweden. It was pretty hot all day, so sitting in a metal train car was not my idea of a good time, but while the train was moving, we had a pretty good breeze. Unfortunately, about five minutes from the Karlstad station, I heard this whistle blow. In the back of my mind I had this bad feeling, but I wrote it off as paranoia. About a minute later, the train stopped. My curtain was closed to keep out the sun, but from the window across from me I saw a big body of water. I hoped that this train station just had a really great view of the water, but when I looked out my own window, I saw another lake. We had stopped just minutes from Karlstad. There was a message in Swedish, but I couldn't understand it. But I managed to pick up on the general tone of the train...a hush fell across the entire car. A few minutes later, an Englishman announced that the train had hit a man (an apparent suicide). For the next three hours, we waited as the authorities did an investigation and cleaned up the remains/train. I ended up being about 3 hours late for my meeting, but luckily the Bishop I was meeting was still in his office. We had an excellent conversation with him and one of his chaplains. Afterwards, I was to tired and all I wanted to do was go home. I grabbed some dinner before heading back to Stockholm, very tired and overwhelmed.

Mid-Summer and Swedish meatballs

When I started this blog, I figured it would be pretty hit or miss with the updates. Apparently, it's been more miss than hit, but I wanted to sit down and update you all on my adventures from the past few weeks.

Mid-Summer is a holiday the Swedes have to celebrate the longest day of the year. Apparently, everyone leaves the city for their country homes, leaving the restaurants and shops closed for the weekend and us with very little to do. Luckily, we heard about a festival being held at Skansen. Skansen is this outdoor museum/zoo (think Renaissance Fair meets zoo). For those of you in Massachusetts, it's a lot like Old Sturbridge Village. Our Point sponsor Jeff had invited his two friends from Munich, Tilo and Johanna, to enjoy the weekend. So we all headed over to the park to enjoy the festivities. All the events center around a giant may pole set up in the middle of the park, where kids and adults alike dance around. With the clouds in the background, it looks pretty ominous, and to tell you the truth, it wasn't the prettiest of sites.

The rest of the afternoon we spent going through the zoo. I saw my first reindeer (which happened to have a pretty red nose). There were elk, brown bears, and some other "nordic wildlife." Because it's spring, there were tons of baby animals wandering around the pens, so that was cool to see.

That evening, we went to this place called "Berns." It is this asian style restaurant housed in an old hotel lobby. It has a 1920's art deco theme. You walk and to the right is a two story mirror that reflects the entire scene onto the wall. There is a balcony the wraps around the entire area where people congregate as the night goes on--there are five bars upstairs alone, so it becomes the hot spot after 10pm. We enjoyed a delicious meal and then headed upstairs to one of the bars and had some drinks. It seemed like within a few minutes the entire restaurant and all the bar areas were packed and there was a huge line waiting to get in. I was in the hottest party in town...for the first time in my life.

The next day, Tilo, Johanna, and I rode bikes around the island that Skansen is on. It was a really nice ride, following the coast line. We saw a few of the Sail boats from the Volvo race doing some test runs, manuevered through the canals of the inner island, and found our way back to the apartment (some how). Since it was Jeff, Biv, Tilo, and Johanna's last night in town, we decided to go to a really easy dinner and just enjoy each other's company. We trekked over to the Old City (Gamla Stan). I scanned the menu as I always do, trying to figure out the menu in Swedish, before resorting to the English italics underneath. As a made my way down the menu, my eyes hit the magic words: SWEDISH MEATBALLS! When I first heard about the Swedish internship, the only thing I knew from Sweden was meatballs, so to finally see them on the menu was overwhelming. My decision was made.

Swedish Meatballs are much different than we make them in America. For starters, in America we tend to serve them with like a pasta dish, kind of as a nordic equivalent to Italian spaghetti and meatballs. However, true Swedes will eat Swedish meatballs as its own dish...they stand alone without the pasta. My meal was meatballs, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce. The second difference I noticed was in the taste. Swedish meatballs in America tend to have a very ground beef flavor to them, the same way an italian meatball might. However, from my experience with Swedish meatballs, they taste a lot like corned beef...but in that unique ball form. Overall, I was really happy with the meal. (Ashley, this one's for you!)

Religion in Sweden

After a week in Stockholm, I thought I should write about my initial impressions of religion in Stockholm. Yesterday, I traveled to Uppsala, Sweden for a meeting and interview with Goran Moller, a theologian in the Church of Sweden--Svenska Kyrkan. He was an older man, probably sixty five, with a very thick Swedish accent (when Swedes speak English, they sound very British). He made some interesting points about the Church's position on many social issues. As a Church, they follow the sentiments of the majority in the country.

On my way home from Uppsala, I met this guy, Johan. He works as a particle physicist in Lucerne, but grew up in Sweden. He told me that most people in Sweden don't really go to Church. Johan suggested that people "liked" the Church of Sweden, but that it had become to watered down. It didn't provide anything structured for their lives. There is no reason to dislike the Church, but no real reason for it to be an important part of their life.

As far as I can see, there is a traditional Swedish religious life. Children are baptized into the church and go through confirmation classes, before paying taxes to the Church. By paying taxes to the Church, they are allowed to vote for representatives in the parliament. As a tax paying member of the Church of Sweden, Swedes can get married in the Church and get buried in the cemetary. Other than that, there is really no other benefit to membership.

Despite all this supposed religious indifference, there are still those in Sweden who think that the Church has too much power on the government. In the metro station near my apartment, there was a sign funded by the humanists. The billboard reads: "God probably does not exist. Yet He still affects most people's decisions." Humanists want to minimize the affects that "God talk" have on social issues. Despite most people not believing in God or the Church, the Church still becomes the way to define themselves. The Parliament is divided into several different religious parties, and non-religious people (like Johan) vote in elections in order to prevent "conservative" parties from gaining to much power in the country.

I think Church's inability to divorce itself from the state's decisions is an interesting topic that I will investigate further in the future.

Greetings from Stockholm!
It's been five days since I arrived in Stockholm, and I wanted to update you on some of my favorite parts so far. On the first full day in Stockholm, Jon and I went on an excursion to see the Old City. Stockholm is made of like 14 different islands, the oldest of which they call the "Old City" (creative right?). Sweden is one of only a handful of countries that were neutral in WWII, so the Old City is very well preserved. While walking through the streets, we found this really small coffee shop near the Noble Museum. The waiters were really awesome and the coffee was awesome. In the following picture, the coffee shop is in the orange-melonish colored building.

Here I am with my mochaccino bianco...writing in my journal and trying to fit in.

Jon's tea and dostovesky book, my coffee and journal...

Jeff and Michael are our Point sponsor's for this summer. They L-O-V-E the Ballet, especially Swan Lake, so when they found out the Swedish Ballet was performing its 600 show of Swan Lake, they had to get tickets. The ballet was at the opera house "Operan."

"Svansjon" ie Swan Lake

Jon and I at the ballet.

This was during the first of FOUR intermissions. A little bit excessive. So it's 8:30 pm and it looks like its mid-day...right. That's how crazy the time is here.

10:45 pm, walking home from the ballet.

Last night we went to the IceBar with Jon, Jeff, Michael, and Bev (Michael and Jeff's friend). The bar is sooooo cool. They basically create a bar completely out of ice. Every month they take a day and melt down the bar and recreate it. It's sponsored by Absolut so they serve mixed drinks in the bar. You can only stay in for 45 minutes, becacuse its sooo cold in there.

Yeah, we had to wear parka's, because my huge coat wasn't enough lol
The group...Michael, Jeff, Me, Jon, and Biv (Richard...long story).

Hej Doh

T-Minus One Week

So I'm leaving for Stockholm in one week and thought I should start this blog. Yesterday I had lunch with Jon at Ciao Time. We talked about our trip to Sweden and caught up with each other.

Here are some pictures of our apartment in Stockholm.

This is the park down the street from my apartment. It looks pretty dreary in this picture from late April, but I'm hoping it gets prettier in the summer. If nothing else, I'll have some flat areas to do some running.

This is the street leading up to my apartment building. I LOVE the colors! So European!

This is the front door that leads to my apartment. Notice the guy in the window. That's Michael. He's one of the guys who is funding my trip to Sweden this summer!!! THANKS MICHAEL!

This is the living room. Can you say breakfast BALCONY!!!! I knew one day I'd get my balcony.

This is the view of the living room from the balcony.

This is the kitchen, for all those meals I will fail miserably at preparing. Atleast I'll do it on something besides a camping stove.

Bedroom #1

and #2