Paris!

Being 2 hours journey to Paris isn't a frequent occurance, so we decided to seize the opportunity. One of the sisters from Acton is French, but unfortunately our efforts to go with her were unsucessful. Consequently, we blundered off to France alone, relying on our traveling insticts to guide us through a foreign country with an unfamiliar language. We left home at 5:30 in the morning, (Which means we had to wake up at around 415. Keep that in mind. -Eric) and took the first Picadilly train of the day to the internaitonal rail station. We had to pick up our tickets from e-booking and go through mild security, but overall the process was painless other than the reading on the clock. We were taking the Eurostar train, they are high speed and go all over Europe. The ride is smooth and quiet, for a journey under 4 or 5 hours I would much prefer this to flying. The trip was between 2 and 3 hours, and we arrived around 10 local time. We had some difficulty figuring out the train tickets, but eventually secured a one day pass. We took the metro(underground) to the nearest Seine River stop, which was Notre Dame catheldral. Here we got tickets for a river tour, which ended up being a non-guided, hop on-hop off style tour. I would reccommend getting a spoken tour, it makes it much more interesting. We cruised the river for 45 minutes, and eventually got off at the Eiffel Tower stop. Intial impression: it is an amazing large strucure, but not as glamourous as I imagined. I expected a shining metal spire, but it is painted dull brown and the area underneath is completely infested with souvenier sellers. This is no exaggeration either, which walking underneath you will be approched by at least 10 people jingling their miniature towers(each seller has the exact same merchandise), and pass by dozens of little towels layed out with more replicas of every color and size. We admired it for a little bit, and then decided we were hungry so we marched off in hunt of food. We found a nice street cafe, where my steak was only .9 Euro more than Eric's burger, and the wine was cheaper than the soft drinks. We enjoyed the atmosphere(the waiter being terribly frustrated with us, and the smokers all outside with us), and took in the sights. We walked back to the large lawn in front of the Tower, and took the classic goofy pictures leaning on. Unfortunately we're unable to show you these pictures, for my camera decided it wanted to stop storing pictures at this point in the day, and then promptly resumed storage on the train home. We then paid 4 dollars for the right to climb the stairs, to the first and second level. The view was really nice from there, and the second level was only half way up. The line was really long and it was raining, so we decided to pass on the top level this time. We went down and then walked for a bit, really just wandering around. We caught a bus out to that big square arch thing that the Tour de France finshes at. It was big and old and impressive, but not really much to do. We walked some more, caught another bus, and walked around a bit. Admittedly we were a little lost for what to do in the city, but it was nice to see it. We then found another bus down to the river for dinner. We had to walk around for 20 minutes to find a place that: 1)was in our price range, and 2)had a menu in English. We finally found one and had some nice lasagne and steak. Afterwards we walked down one of the wide avenues, caught the metro to the station, and checked in for our train. It was an easy journey back, rolled into London around 11:00, and finlly arrived home around 11:30, exhausted. (Oh and if you are ever traveling in Paris, just letting you know all the streets look the exactly the same and it can be hard to find out which road you are on because the signs are small and hard to see. So most of the time we had no clue where we were. But i thought it was nice to be walking around a city so famous as Paris. -Eric)

Coaster Craziness

Early Thursday morning we woke up to meet Michael D at the hall. He ran into a little trouble renting the car, but a the wait wasn't too long. There were eventually 7 of us in the car, and after 3o minutes stuck in a traffic jam we were off to the amusement park. It's called Thorpe Park, it has about 8 roller coasters, and is a decent sized park. Right away we went to Stealth, a half sized, but still thrilling, Top Thrill Dragster at Cedar Point. We then went over to their signature coaster called Saw. It was a very long queue, about 90 minutes, but it was supposed to be worth it so we waited anyway. About 10 minutes in it started to sprinkle, then drizzle, and then strait out poured. We finally gave it up and headed for shelter, but by then everyone was completely drenched. (It was very very cold too. So we were under a very small shelter and all shivering. -Eric) We waited 20 minutes for the rain to stop, confirmed that the ride was running again, and got back in line. We had advanced a little, but many had stayed in line so we were still an hour back in line. It was still spitting and cold, but we finally dried off a little. The ride was really fun and worth it; (The Saw is a little bit like the Maverick in Cedar Point if any of you have been able to ride that yet. -Eric) afterwards we rode one of those spinning rides, which as also a good time. We hadn't eaten and were cold still, so finally around 3 we found a Pizza Hut buffet and went to town. We then went to do a few more rides, and squeezed in another ride on Stealth and Saw right at then end. We wearily walked to the car and made the rounds dropping everyone off, and went home.

Marathon Days (cont.)

Wednesday was once again a service day, Eric and I went with Michael B and Doug. We were in one of the nicer neighborhoods, and were getting mixed reactions. One man we gave the invitation to had been contacted by the Witnesses in Pakistan, and we had a good conversation with him. (I really enjoy working with Michael B. He's old enough to have had many good experiences and done many things in Jehovah's service, yet he's young enough to be able to still relate to. And he had the energy to do a lot in the ministry and at the meetings. -Eric) At one of the doors we found the car pictured(Audi R8 to those wondering, featured in the Ironman movies if you can't remember where you recognize it from.), quite a discovery if I do says so myself. (I say so myself too. -Eric) Stay tuned for an upcoming album dedicated to the automobile awesomeness we have observed over here. I went home after the morning, and there isn't much to report for the afternoon. Eric rushed in around 5:45 and ten minutes later we were out the door again. We barely caught our bus on the High Road, and took it north for a few miles. We got off to walk to the theatre, on the way I had a slight incident with stepping on a piece of glass that punctured my shoe. Not to worry though, not a massive amount of blood loss so we went on our way. (Through our combined medical training and experiences we deduced that a pint of blood loss isn't that bad. -Eric) We met the Ealing kids(I believe about 16 of us in total) at the theatre for the 6:50 showing of Toy Story 3. Everyone agreed it was a winner, its one of the better films I've seen lately. Afterwards we walked for 10 minutes to the proper bus stop, and had to wait another 10 for the bus. It was quite chilly but we survived. We went back to Joe's house for some snacks and video games. Finally around 11:30 we headed out, had to get back so we could have more fun the next day.

(Doug, Michael B, Blythe, and I were done with the ministry by about 12. So Michael dropped us off at Doug's house. I was going out in the afternoon but i wasn't supposed to meet Estera (yeah i was with her again) until 13:00. So after about an hour of chill time I headed out again and we ate at Morrison's for lunch. There we meet some other sisters who were just finishing up their morning so we ate with them for awhile. I was doing some quick research and note taking in preparation for a call that i wanted to do that afternoon. All the sisters for some reason kept teasing and messing with me so it was kind of hard but i think i got nicely prepared. And was able to squeeze in a couple comebacks too. There is a meeting for field service on Wednesday afternoons at 14:00 but it was only 13:30 so we did some quick calls then walked over to the sisters house that the meeting is held at. There was about 7 of us which was encouraging I'm sure because i heard that usually there is only 3 or so for the afternoon group. Guess who got to say prayer for the service group the second time that day. Me of course sillies. Its not my favorite thing to do because i think its a lot of pressure but its nice to be used and trusted to do those things so quickly over here. And i think Michael B and Doug enjoy making Blythe and I say them. After the meeting we headed out to do a study that Estera had. We realized though that she didn't have a head covering so i would need to do it. So on the way i had a crash course on what they were studying and what they had already done and talked about and different things Estera thought i should emphasize because they would be especially be good for the woman. When we got there her husband, who was very nice and friendly, let us in and we got to talk to him for a few minutes. I think he might be interested one day too. The woman then came in and her friend did too. We learned that her friend had been studying too and had attended a few meetings and she was wondering if she could sit in on the study with us. We of course said yes so the 4 of us had a little study. I rather enjoyed conducting and Estera did very well adding in things and saying them in different ways so the women understood things better. We discussed Jehovah's qualities and being able to draw close to Him and being able to be called "Jehovah's friend" just like Abraham. They thought that was amazing. The study and discussion went perfectly. They asked good questions and agreed with everything. It went so well that i wouldn't be surprised if they were attending the meetings soon. She said part of the reason they didn't go to church was because of such hypocrisy and people not getting along and hating each other. I hope that when she goes to the Kingdom Hall she can feel the love that we all have for each other. I have actually met many people that became Witnesses and were drawn to the truth simply from seeing the joy and love between the brothers and sisters and how they treated new ones. It wasn't really even about the beautiful hope we have for the future. Anyways after the study Estera and i were so happy to have just been apart of being able to teach the women a few things. Its amazing to think Jehovah and the angels might be specifically using us to teach a person. On the way back we realized we were walking really fast and skipping a little bit. Which was quite humorous. Afterwards we headed over to McDonald's. After another quick battle over who's paying again we had a few more milk shakes then went to do my call. They were busy so we weren't able to talk at all. We did some of Estera's calls then headed over to do some more territory. It was only a few flats so it was over quickly. But noticing the time i had to rush back home to make it to the movie so after saying goodbyes i hoofed it back home. It was definitely one of my favorite days of the summer so far. -Eric)

Marathon Days

Tuesday was once again designated a service day, I went out in the morning and Eric did a tiny bit more. We went for a late English breakfast with Kate and Estera after service. In the evening we went to East Acton's meeting, as we had commitments for Thursday. The meeting was good as usual, and we were able to see people we had met previously at RBC work or gatherings. Afterwards a group of about 15 of us went out to eat at a Portuguese restaurant. The food was good and the association was excellent. One of the brother's is recently back from his first 3 month International Volunteer construction assignment in the Congo. He had so many good stories and adventures to tell us about, and can't wait to go back. Talking to him reaffirmed my desire to do the exact same thing. We got home a bit late, but it was worth it, a really good day.



(For some reason Tuesdays are a good long day here. It's easy to set up dates and times to work with people. In the morning i worked with Michael D again the same as last week. We met at 8 and did some street witnessing out to Chiswick again. It was about 30 minute walk there and 30 back but we needed to burn some more time so we through in a loop around Acton too. I don't remember any specific talks with people that stand out. Street witnessing is usually more about having good association with your partner. Then if you do meet someone interested it's its own special thing. Most of the time people quickly brush you aside when you try to speak to them. But we did have fun talking about and planning for Thursday. When we met the group at 9:30 we decided to keep working together. The territory that was assigned is out toward Ealing so we got to take a half hour peregrination out to the road that we were entrusted to work. Two sisters were also going to work the street with us. We thought that they took the bus because they were talking about doing that at the meeting for service. Well since we had walked there we thought they must have arrived prior to us we so walked up the street looking for them. After failing to find them however we just decided to at one end and work towards the end where they would be arriving. It worked out fine and we met midway through the road. Then i walked with Michael all the way back to the hall then headed toward lunch. The restaurant makes very good traditional English breakfasts so Blythe and I had that. I of course having the large double portion size. The meal was lavishly palatable and the company was very refreshing. I had made plans to meet then work with Estera at Morrison's at 15:00 but after further contemplation we decided to meet at McDonald's for some ice cream instead. There aren't many good ice cream shops in Acton so McDonald's is the place to go for ice cream. After a short battle over who should pay for the ice cream, the Regular Pioneer with a job or the Regular Auxiliary Pioneer on holiday, we got our milk shakes and got on the bus towards the calls and territory. So many people were not home we tried to do some of her calls. They were also not home. It can be a bit discouraging at times. We headed out to do some more territory and we finished a few blocks of flats that were partially worked earlier that day. I needed to be back at 6 for the meeting at 7 and Estera was coming over to Doug and Kam's for dinner anyway. So the 5 of us all crowded around the kitchen table and ate a good meal of rice and stew. Wine was offered to everyone but we woefully had to abstain. Only because we were going straight to meeting however. Like Blythe said the meeting was fun. And we surprisingly knew many people. Its amazing how in Jehovah's service if you put yourself out there you can meet so many people and make many friends then somehow meet them again later. It really shows we are all just a big family. After meeting we got invited to "go get some coffee" which we soon discerned is just a code expression that's used in the Kingdom Hall to mean "hey lets go get some drinks at the pub." It became very apparent at the pub when nobody ordered coffee. Who drinks coffee at 22:00 anyway? After we were there for maybe an hour and a half Michael and his sister Prisilla took us home and we relaxed for awhile then went to sleep after a long day. For me at least.
Oh and about my future plans. Well after Bethel for awhile I am just going to continue the full time ministry. And make sure I available to get called in for disaster relief whenever it is needed. For Haiti they said they had enough volunteers but the problem was some either weren't qualified or they couldn't handle doing what was needed to be done. I was a little disappointed I wasn't able to offer myself because of still being in school. But hopefully i will be able to be used soon. And Blythe and i can make a good team. I get the people out of the destroyed home and make them well again, then he can rebuild their home and Kingdom Hall. -Eric)

Return to the Courts

On Monday we were once again able to sleep in a little, and then we decided to use the beautiful sunny day for some tennis action. Much of the skill we had attained during the first few weeks was now in hiding, but we eventually coaxed it back. We ended up playing all afternoon, with only a quick ice cream trip as a break. We came back home for a light supper, and then headed out to catch a bus to Ealing again. We went back to meet the kids from the meeting on Sunday, we were doing a Watchtower study. They regularly study every Monday, just the kids, no one over 22 to be seen. This week one of the younger brothers was assigned to conduct, and he did a really terrific job assigning paragraphs and scriptures, and making sure everything was covered. We had a good discussion about some of the points, and researched a few points as well. (During the study some things that we couldn't quite understand well enough to explain to each other came up. So one of the brothers pulled out his laptop and started researching the topic on the Watchtower libraries and we were able then tot discuss the points and understand it better. -Eric) I realize I'm gushing a little here, but it really was an enjoyable time. (It was so much fun! It was really nice to be with a lot of young people and do something spiritual and everyone take it seriously. The comments were really in depth and i think everyone had an enjoyable time. We were talking about trying to try it back home so hopefully it will work out. -Eric) Afterwards we watched Toy Story, to get in the zone for the new one coming out. We talked for awhile afterwards and suddenly it was late and we needed to catch a bus back to town.

Widening Out

Once again we were able to sleep in again on Sunday, and then we took the tube to Ealing for their meeting at 1:00. We had made arrangements with Kami, the once we met during Acton RBC and the District Convention. They have a really neat old building, it used to be a schoolhouse. (We heard that when they remodeled a few years ago they numbered all the bricks so that when they put them back up it was the exact same brick in the exact same place as it had been before. -Eric) They have lots of young people in this congregation that we were able to meet. After the meeting we went and did service for an hour, once again in the "mob" fashion. It's really fun to finish off a whole neighborhood with lightning speed. Most of the group then met an Nando's, a European chicken restaurant. They are famous for their Peri-Peri hot sauce, the whole meal was really good. After that we went to one of the pubs with a few of the guys for a drink, and we talked and laughed for another hour. (Which was so much fun. I can't wait til we can do that back home. -Eric) We finally came home around 8, just in time for our new favorite show, Top Gear. If you have a few minutes you must check out the episode about the Smallest Car in the World. After that we watched an old Sherlock Holmes movie, which was strange because we recognized all the street names. After that we went to bed so we could prepare for the jam packed day that was ahead (sarcasm :D)

British Museum and BBQ

On Saturday morning we went down to the British Museum for a Bible Tour. They are run by Witnesses, you can check out the details at the Meander Travel website. We met in the foyer area, there were around 30-40 other Witnesses there waiting, and we were all dressed up of course. As a result of our busy hectic schedule mixed with some procrastination we forgot to book one of the tours during the week; instead we just showed up and hoped for extra space. Fortunately for us there was, we were included in once of the 5 tours operating that morning. Our group had a nice family from California, some Canadian brothers and sisters, some from Germany, a group of Swedes, and a Australian group. We were on the "Keep Your Eyes on the Prize" tour, which focused on the ancient Roman Olympic and Gladiatorial games. We were led to different artifacts in the museum, and then our guide read a scripture and linked them together. (It was basically an interactive talk and instead of just explaining the scriptures there were objects that made it come to life. -Eric) The stories and situations were amazing, and it made the scriptures makes so much sense. We all had radios with earpieces, so the tour guide could talk naturally and all could hear. The tour lasted about 45 minutes and cost £4.Overall, it was a great experience and I can't recommend it enough. Afterwards we went down to the Strand to find a store we wanted to go back in, but it was closed, so we went over to up to Trafalgar Square and over to Leicester Square. We then walked up Long Acre road to Covent Garden and watched the street performers for awhile. The environment was fun and the performances entertaining, but I would recommend not coming on Saturday to avoid the crowds. (I personally love the crowds so if your like me i would recommend Saturdays. Often central London is very crowded too so its been lots of fun for me. -Eric) We then went up to Oxford Street once again because we needed to exchange an item, (and yet again we bought more clothes. -Eric) and finally took the tube home late in the afternoon. We had been invited to dinner for the evening, so we went to the store to buy a bottle of wine. Wow, that was a little overwhelming, way too many choices, but we finally settled on some Cabernet Sauvignon. After arriving home we had just enough time to breathe once, and then we were out again. We walked to Michael and Mercy's house, and supervised Michael's grilling ability. Eric had requested an African food, so there was also a dish that we ate with our hands. (Literally using only your hands. -Eric) After dinner we all watched a movie, (The first one to guess which movie we watched wins a prize! Post your answers in the comments section please. -Eric) and then it was time for pictures and time to go home.

Going Back in Time

On Friday we took the tube to the Tower of London, an ancient fortress turned prison. (Turned tourist attraction. -Eric) We started out with a tour by one of the Yeoman Warders, one of the Royal Guards to the Queen who actually lives at the tower. He told us lots of stories, the tower wasn't a nice place to be if you were a prisoner. Then we went into White Tower, the main tower right in the middle. Inside was the Royal Armory as well as other artifacts collected over time. After that was a real cream tea, consisting of real English tea, Devonshire cream, and a fresh scone. We had planned to see the Crown Jewels, but the line was hundreds long, so we figured they weren't that special. We were able to walk around on top of the walls, which gave us great views of Tower Bridge. (When we were walking by Tower Bridge a boat was going through that required the bridge to be raised. So that was neat to watch. -Eric) We left the compound and walked the short distance to London Bridge. I need to clear up some confusion here, the famous picture you always see is Tower Bridge, the one from the song is just a concrete structure. After that we ventured down to Oxford Street once more. (We were trying to get home at about 6. But it was very very crowded on Oxford Street on a Friday evening so they were actually closing down some tube stations because there were so many people! So we walked a lot further than we planned to and got home about an hour later than we were supposed to. -Eric)

Finally Get to Do Something!

All the go go going once again hit us on Thursday, so we took the time to sleep in a little.  Doug had given us some territory(one street) the night before, so that was the plan for the afternoon.  We walked out to the Hanger View Lane, which took us 30 minutes, and set to work on the 60+ residences there.  (A nice thing about this territory is if you start off with street witnessing you can get at least a guaranteed hour of service just walking there and back. -Eric)  The first group was 25 or so flats in a locked complex with intercom.  Fortunately right we arrived someone was leaving and let us in.  We went through the building, leaving invitation in the mail slot if they weren't home.  After that there was a stretch of individual houses, and we were able to find a surprising amount home.  At one of them we met a Polish brother doing construction work.  At the end of the road was another group of flats, but this time we were unable to access the building. There were 30 flats to do, so we started to work on the intercoms.  Finally, once we had done about 15 someone left and we were able to get in.  To our dismay each level also had a separate security layer, so we were still unable to reach the doors although we were in the building.  However, the first floor door was left partially open, so we could do those flats.  Then it was back to the intercom to finish the flats we still didn't have access to.  One number that we rang actually invited us up, which we were pleasantly surprised about, so we went upstairs.  The man was initially cautious, calling through the door, and then opening the door with the chain still on, but finally he not only opened the door but invited us in!  He asked us why we were there, and then told us he was a Muslim but didn't really believe it.  We were able to have a thirty minute discussion with him, and although he didn't accept what we had to say, it was at least nice to have a real conversation.  He did commend us for being young and actually having faith and trying to do good, and did take the convention invitation.  We then finished the rest of the flats in his corridor, and headed for home.  When we arrived for dinner Doug told us that many of the brothers would be gone for their listening conventions, and asked if we would like to do the number 3 talk.  I eventually volunteered, and set to work on the talk.  At meeting we realized that he was right, as some of the brothers has 2 or 3 responsibilities.  To help out, Eric read for the book study, and did a very good job I might add.  (Thanks Blythe.  It was so nice to get to have a privilege during the meeting.  Doing commenting is fun but I don't know how you sisters can do just commenting all the time. -Eric)  Then Doug had the Bible highlights and did the school, where I gave my part.  Thank goodness for the Watchtower Library, I was able to pull very good, relevant material without much difficulty.  (And he did really good too.  He even used real English terms that you Americans wouldn't get. He also barely looked at his notes which is always good for a speaker. -Eric)  The rest of the meeting was entertaining as usual, such as a little brother who whispered "YES!!" rather loudly when he was called on to comment.  (For some reason meetings are really entertaining.  Sometimes i think me and Blythe are the only ones laughing but we laugh quite a bit.  Doug talked about Solomon's 1,000 wives and made a few hilarious comments even though i don't think he meant to. -Eric)  It was a nice day overall, not to busy but very productive.

London Bethel

 Doug had arranged for us to visit his sister at the London Bethel, and we decided to go on Wednesday.  We were a tad slow in the morning, and finally left around 10:20.  We had to take three different tube trains, and the last one was delayed.  We were trying to get there for lunch, but the last one didn't even leave until 11:53.  The train arrived a few minutes later, and we still had a mile walk up a steep road to get there.  We powerwalked up the hill in our suits, and when we got to the top we saw Bethelites streaming to the main buildings from all directions.  This was a good sign, hopefully lunch hadn't started yet.  We blended into the flow, and cruised into the main entrance.  (Actually we went in through the entrance that only Bethelites can use. Guess we already look the part. -Eric)  We met Doug's sister Gwen in the entrance, where she informed us lunch wasn't till 12:15.  We could breathe a little easier, and signed in at the front desk.  We sat down to lunch, which was English roast beef, homemade chips(generous cut french fries to you Americans :P), salad, and grapes.  We ended up sitting right next to one of the sister we were supposed to look for, the fleshly sister of the sister from Ealing we sat in front of at convention in Sweden.  We can't get away from this family!  After lunch Gwen showed us her work in the book repair/bindery shop, which was very interesting.  Then we walked across the street to the IBSA House for the official tour.  We saw most departments in the building, including the 2 presses that are crammed into the little space they have.  After that we walked across the street once again, to meet a few of Eric's friends and friends of friends.  One of them, Jonathan, works in the metalwork shop, and was able to give us a tour of the whole maintenance department.  (Private tours are the best. Where we got to go isn't even on the official tour guide and most people aren't even allowed back there. -Eric)  They have many many project planned, and desperately need help.  They had just finished a 5 day concrete pour, and one of the managing brothers we talked to was disappointed when he found out I had concrete experience from RBC, they seriously would have used us.  That was definitely an opportunity missed, but I guess the lesson learned is make yourself available if you will be somewhere for an extended time.  We left Bethel late in the afternoon, and spent the rest of the day looking at suits on Oxford Street.  They actually have suits here made for slender guys, what a concept!  We found out the hard way that everything closes at 8 as the gate came down right in front us at the last store we wanted to go to.  (I had already bought everything I wanted to for the day. So i found great humor in the store closing as we were walking up to it. -Eric)  With nothing left to do we found a subway stop and came home, once again tired from a long day.

The Long Day

I shouldn't really be writing about Tuesday, it was Eric's show, so I'll just say what I did.  I met the group in the morning, and we walked to one of the farther territories to do the invitation work.  While there we had an extended discussion with a Buddhist, met plenty of atheists, and also met a brother from a nearby Spanish congregation.  We finished the whole area, and stopped around 12:30.  I had no one to work with in the afternoon, so I went home to blog and watch some boring British TV.  In the evening Eric was back, and we went to Subway for a quick bite, and met Dawn and her daughter Jade at the bus station.  We rode a bus that was filled to capacity for about 45 minutes, down to a town called Southhall.  This area of London is called "little India" and you can definitely tell why when you drive through.  We met the group at a brothers house, there were about 12 of us.  We went to the territory and just blitzed the neighborhood.  We were done an hour and a half later.  We took the bus back home and watched a few episodes of an old British comedy call Fawlty Towers with Doug and Kam.
(My day was a little bit longer. I am a regular axillary pioneer now so i am attempting to get my hours in even though we are on holiday. I am not quite sure if i will make it but i want to try at least and i do enjoy doing service with the friends here. They are fun.
Well i started off service with Michael D at the unholy hour of 8:00. It was slightly raining and slightly more freezing but doing street witnessing warmed us up quickly.  After walking to Chiswick, which took about 30 minutes, we did some large loops around the hall until we were on our way to meet the group at 9:30.  On the way i stopped a man and tried to give him a tract about the Bible.  He suddenly started to go on about how we shouldn't trust the Bible, because it was written by man and how the Bible contradicts itself and Jesus even said it did.  So i asked where it said that and so he told me to turn to a scripture in Mathew. I did and read it out loud.  After i finished he said how its so obvious and it is black and white.  Then he went on about how we shouldn't listen to him though, so we thanked him for talking and went on our way to meet the group.  Like Blythe said the territory we were going to do is one of the furthest, but an elderly brother that was out needed a ride to get there and somehow i got to be in the car too.  We did invitation work for about an hour. I had plans to work with Estera at 12 but her partner had to leave an hour early so i started to work with her at 11:00.  We finished the road that was assigned at the meeting for field service, then moved on to finish a road that she had to do.  We did one side of the street then after some pleading and begging i convinced her to go get some lunch.  I had been walking since 8:00 see so i was very very hungry.  Then we walked to an area in south Acton that some new blocks of flats had just been built.  It was our job to map out the new area.  After that we did some of her calls.  We went to see a young woman she and another sister had meet in street work and they were able to get her address to call back.  The woman was Turkish so Estera brought her a Bible Teach in Turkish.  Arrangements were made for some Turkish brothers and sisters to return and have a study with her.  Kindly her roommate suggested that a specific time and date should be set up too.  Those calls and talks with people make the whole day or week of service worth it.  It was a little before 1400 and she was supposed to meet another sister then.  So she asked if i wanted to do street witnessing until we got to the next sister's house.  I said sure so we did.  The three of us worked together and we took the bus back up to finish the other side of the street that Estera and i worked on earlier that day. For those of you keeping track that's the 3rd time that i went all the way across Acton in just a few hours.  After finishing the side of the road the other sister said she just wanted to work for an hour and so she was done.  So we street witnessed down to Morrison's and the other sister went home.  After thinking for a few minutes of what to do next we decided to go work the new block of flats that we had previously just mapped.  There were roughly 65 flats to do.  Some we used the intercoms, and others we were able to get in.  It was unbearable hot in there though so it was very draining.  I did see a Muslim woman with no head covering on, which was very brief though because within a split second she shut the door and then reappeared with a head covering on.  Oh and for you sisters, if you ever are going to talk to a Muslim man try to have a brother do it instead.  They can get very mad sometimes if a woman tries to just talk to them.  Anyway though we did door after door and floor after floor and on the last door we placed our last tract.  (Yes it was crazy)  Then we were done so i walked home and rested for less than an hour.  Then it was off to Southhall. I worked with a young sister named Leah.  We did blitz the territory and quickly did several streets.  It was nice to work in service in new places other that Acton.  Well my day was pretty busy and in total i probably did 150 flats/homes and placed over 100 invitations.  But it was fun and its a good tired after a long service day. -Eric)

Doing the Tourist Thing

We are realizing that there isn't much time left to do the famous things here, so we decided to knock a few off the list on Monday.  During the summer the changing of the guard happens once a day at 11:30.  We were a bit lax on the timetable that morning, but still managed to arrive at 11:15.  (We've been on the go for over a month and a half, we are a little tired some times. - Eric)  The crowds were incredible, but we still managed to find a spot with half a view. The ceremony started with a lot of shouting from the captain followed by a lot of stomping and gun clapping by the guard.  Then we heard the band off in the distance and they marched in followed by the new guard.  They all marched around and stomped and yelled for awhile.  Then the band set up in a semicircle and played for 10-15 minutes.  This was all concluded with more stomping and yelling and the old guard marched off.  It was interesting to see once, but the whole thing is quite ridiculous.  That's ok though, standing on your tippy toes sandwiched next to a smelly tourists for an hour made the whole experience worth it.  We left in search of food, which led us by the guards quarters.  We stopped to watch for a bit, but they weren't very still, even talking to each other.  (And drinking water. -Eric)  Maybe they're the new guys in training, who knows.  We found a bridge over the Thames, and on the other sides there were street performers all down the paths.  (There was this guy, least I think it was a guy, in a Spiderman suit bending all around in every direction.  He kept looking at me weird... -Eric)  We got some Chinese food and ate watching the river.  Afterwards we got in the queue for the London Eye, which is a big Ferris wheel with bubble things attached so you have 360* views.  The line for tickets alone was 10 minutes, and afterwards we got to see a 4D movie about what to look for.  Then we had another 10 minute wait to get on the attraction.  The view from the top was really neat, and it took about 30 minutes to get all the way around.  We grabbed an ice cream afterwards, and then walked the the other side of the river to see Big Ben.  Eric wanted to find some shops to look for clothes, so we wandered aimlessly all over the city till we found a store.  That's not really fair, I think he knew what he was doing, but it was a lot of walking. (I so had everything under control. I knew exactly where we were. We were just supposed to be some where else. -Eric)  Found a nice store and got some ties, and then finally went home.  (I got a cool shirt too. But wait til you all see Blythe's new tie. It's awesome.  -Eric) As usual here is the picture reel, I tried to edit out some of the changing of the guard pictures, got a little camera crazy there. 

Sunday, London Day 2-1

Sunday morning I took advantage of the afternoon meeting situation by sleeping, and Eric made me look bad by going out in service.  At meeting we met all our old friends again, and were able to make many plans for service and fun, as they realized we don't have much time left.  In the evening we took the bus to Shepard's Bush, and went to a place called the Green Room.  To our surprise we were met by bouncers and a cover charge, but that didn't deter us after coming that far.  (I'm not sure if its because I had never done it before but I thought it was cool going through the bouncers and having to show proof of age and getting to go inside. -Eric)  We met the brother who had invited us and a few others; we had front row seat in front of a huge screen in the pub.  For what you ask?  The World Cup final of course, get with the program you silly Americans.  The building became more and more crowded, and by kickoff the building was literally packed.  The majority there were Spain supporters, and they were a loud an jolly group.  (They had so much energy that even though at first I was neutral, towards the end I started to root for Es-pa-ña! Watching football games is interesting because there isn't always things to cheer for so the crowd makes up chants so keep the energy high. Such as Es-pa-ña! Es-pa-ña! Es-pa-ña! And Viva something something!, and so forth. -Eric)  The game was tense, no score at all for all of regulation.  Finally in the 116th minute Spain scored, and the place erupted.  I don't think I've ever experienced anything like it, the people were so so happy.  We stuck around a little to watch them all party, and went out to look for a bus home.  We finally found one, and rode it home barely able to hear from the deafening roar of the Spaniards.

Travel Joy, Again

Mariestad is a fair distance, some 320 kilometers, from our departing airport.  Because of this, just getting to the airport was a major part of the travel.  Christer drove us to the train station where we bought our tickets.  While waiting for the train we got to take a ride on the worlds smallest ferry, moved by the operator pulling a rope and at a cost of 1 krona round trip.  (The girl "operating" it had some big arms. -Eric)  We then caught our train, which was a pleasant one our journey.  The train took us back to Orebro, where we caught our bus.  The last bus ride was crowded and hot, so I feared this would be a 3 hour variety of the same.  Thankfully, though, this was a dedicated airport shuttle, which only had about 10 people on it and was completely air conditioned.  We got to Arlanda airport in Stockholm; security wasn't an issue this time but the food selection was less than desirable.  (Actually there were 2 security checkpoints. The first was normal but then after a few stores there was another checkpoints that just checked our tickets and passports. The airport had very few interesting stores at all, and all the restaurants were basically just cafes. -Eric)  Finally around 6:30 we were taxing down the runway.  I was starving already, and the flight attendants finally came with the food.  It was tuna sandwiches, yuck.  So we starved for the rest of the 2 hour flight, landed, and met Doug at the airport.  We finally got back to the house around 9:30, and were about to settle down when we got a call about a party.  We couldn't turn down the chance to meet more people, (And get some barbecued food -Eric)  so off we went and arrived around 10.  We met about 8 people we didn't know from around the area, and were able to make plans for service later.  Finally around 11:30 we drug our weary bodies home and fell into bed.

Fire and Water

There is a brother in the local Kingdom Hall who is a firefighter, and Christer had arranged for our resident fireman to go take a tour. Eric was kind enough to let us tag along, so Christer, Johan, Eric, and I trekked to the Raddningstjansten. I’ll let him tell you the highlights, but it was really neat. I don’t think it matters how old you are, fire trucks are cool to every boy/man. (And to some women too. Well the trucks were a little different than back home. They were much smaller to start off. The hoses were too. And the seat in the truck all faced forward instead of some or all of the backseats ride backwards. On one of the trucks they have a touch screen computer monitor that the firefighter could push and different compartments would open up, which was totally new for me. No matter what the country was though the basic idea of the truck was the same. Carry people there and go put out the fire. And Blythe is right; pretty much all fire trucks are cool. –Eric) We went back home for a little snack and to get our things, for it was to be a beach day. We packed the lunch and beach supplies, and did the sardine routine once again. It was a 45 minute drive to the island, and we were supposed to take a ferry to the next island, but the driver had left, and then next one wasn’t for a long time. So we had our lunch on the dock, and drove to another beach. The water was cool but pure, and the beach had really nice sand. We swam for awhile, played with a ball in the water, ate some smoked fish, and took in the sun. It was so nice to finally go to a real beach, even if it still wasn’t like home. We went home and had a traditional Swedish meal of meatballs, potatoes, and lingonberries.  There was still daylight left, so we went and played mini golf at a surprisingly difficuld course.   Afterwards we finished watching Phantom of the Opera while enjoying genuine Mariestad beer and ice cream. We were tired from the late night and busy day, so we all went to bed.

International Preaching Pros

Thursday was another Swedish pancake day (YES!), and then we walked to a nature preserve to see the surroundings. We came back for a light lunch and then drove to the Kingdom Hall for service. We were not sure what our part would be, but Christer made some calls and got permission to start the District Convention invitations early. This allowed us to memorize a short presentation and just hand them the invited and smile afterwards, which we of course did. We(10 of us) started our time with a neighborhood across the street, and then drove to a little town 30 minutes away. We worked a little over an hour, and went down to the water for a quick rest and picnic. We drove back to the territory and finished the last few streets, then it was back home to change. We met everyone from service and a few more down by the water. We prepared as a group for Sunday’s Watchtower Study, we did it family style with each person reading the paragraph and asking the question. (For our sakes I think, they did the Watchtower study in English. So they were all using copies of the Watchtower from a printer but we had our English ones. A few times some things had to be explained a little further so everyone got it, but it went well and the group was very fun. There was another young sister there named Denise (I think that’s how it spelled) who was 18, and her older sister Erika (also a guess) who were there so it was nice to hang out with young people for awhile. –Eric) It was really breezy off the lake, but between the fire and blankets it was ok. After that we grilled burgers and sausages, tossed the Frisbee, and sang some songs. It started to rain later in the evening, so we doused the fire and ran the cars. When we were back at home Eveline was playing the piano(she’s really good), and started playing a song from Phantom of the Opera. We started talking about it, and it came up that I had never seen it(I know I know insert shocked look here); right then it was decided we were watching it, even thought it was already midnight. About 1:30 the movie froze (Right after the word “but….” –Eric) and everyone went to bed, because there was more fun to be had the next day.

New Places and New Faces

In Goteborg we had met some young people who were visiting from a town a few hours away, and then by random chance we met their father at the District convention, and he invited us to come and stay for a few days. We didn’t want to miss the opportunity to make new friends, so off we went. We caught a bus to Orebro, the nearest city, and then another bus to Mariestad. The bus took 2 hours and was crowded at hot, but we survived. Christer, from the convention, met us at the bus station and drove us back to his house for spaghetti lunch. We talked for a little bit, and then it was decided we should do something. After a few calls we were out in the car again, on the way to an equestrian escapade. The car was a 5 seater, but we were 6 in total, so Christer and Anna sat in the front, and Eric, Eveline, Johan, and I sardined(yes that’s a verb) in the backseat for a nice 45 minute ride. The horses are an Icelandic breed, a little smaller but very strong. We brushed the horses, saddled up, got our helmets (If you’re cool like me you can wear the riding helmet backwards. –Eric) and protective vests, and rode off into the sunset. Well, the woods anyway. Eveline, the experienced rider, took the lead, Johan and Eric followed. Anna and I were stuck behind Christer’s horse, who had decided he was going to have the day off. We rode all over, trotting and running, and finally called it quits an hour and a half later. I was a little sore afterwards, but it was a blast. We stopped for ice cream on the way back, and went home for supper. We walked out to the harbor in the evening and got the grand tour of the town. (The father and mother went to Gilead when they were younger and got sent to a small poverty-stricken country in Africa. 85% were illiterate he said. But the people they would talk to really appreciated the pictures in the literature. But because of health reasons they moved back to Sweden. Their son Johan is 16 and is going to study to be a pastry maker. And the daughter Eveline is 14. She is very talented in music and singing. She and Anna would play the piano and sing different Kingdom songs or other songs and that was very nice to listen to. The whole family is very spiritual and fun, so these next few days are probably some of my favorite of the summer. –Eric)

Swedish Bethel and the Infamous Surströmming

A Bethel trip is always a memorable and worthwhile experience, and since we were only an hour from the Swedish “House of God” we had to go. Zoltan entrusted us with his car and GPS, and off we went. We arrived around 10:00, and just caught an English tour departing. (In our group touring there was a couple from Germany, a couple from Demark, and us from America. The only common language we had between all of us and the Swedish guide was English. I thought that was neat to have friends from different areas touring together. –Eric) First stop was the tiny dining room, with seats for 100. We then saw the Recording Studio, where the one of the fall issues was being read. We met Berit’s niece there, who was in charge of making sure every word was correct. (When we were in the room and they said we were from America the sister asked if either of us were Tracey’s boy, slightly surprised I said yes I was. Then she said how she and my mom used to be pen pals some years ago. Small world huh? –Eric) They then showed us the translation department, the main function of this Bethel, where 20 Bethelites work in teams of 3 to accurately translate the information from English to Svenska. We also got to see the old printery(all is done in Germany now), the Ministerial Training School, and the Shipping department. We saw a map of the delivery route, and our tour guide Peter said that every couple months he gets the assignment to drive the north route, which takes him about 5 days to complete, staying with brothers and sisters along the way. Finally at the end we got tea and cookies and found my families names in the guestbook from a few years ago. We went back home and had some superb ham sandwiches and leftover pizza for lunch(the bachelor lifestyle is a perfect fit for us:) We were supposed to go on a bible study with Zoltan, but the person was sick so we just relaxed in the afternoon. We had dinner with a few friends in the evening, which was an interesting meal to say the least. First we opened a can of Surstromming, fermented herring, which has a distinctive odor which I’m sure Eric would love to tell you about. (Actually the smell was that bad. It definitely doesn’t smell good but I’ve smelled worse things in my life. A bullet wound though the large intestines is a shocking smell. –Eric)<--Yes I agree it actually wasn't too bad, last years was much worse for some reason, if you're curious that can be found here. We ate a little of it while sampling about 6 different Swedish beers. This was followed by traditional herring and new potatoes, and the main course of steak, chicken, and shish kabob. (Guess who got to grill…. Me! Yay! –Eric) We went back home to pack once again, for there was other adventure in the morning.

Relaxing in Nora

Monday after the convention we were quite tired, so we slept in for once. (Hey don’t make fun, we’ve been very busy. –Eric) Later in the morning we took the rowboat out to the island again, just to get to some exercise. Later in the day Zoltan came home from work and wanted to show us around Nora. He wanted to show Eric the ambulances at the stations he cleans, but they were out on a call when we arrived. We then went to an old iron mine & refinery, where we got to walk through the huge old building where they melted and mixed the ore to make the high quality Swedish iron. The water wheel that powered the whole operation is still working and a fantastic piece of work. (I thought the wheel was amazing. They diverted a small amount of the stream to power it but the stream they are using is very small. The part that they diverted was even smaller. Only about a metre wide and a few centimeters deep, but it powers a huge wheel. The wheel was probably 7 or 8 metres in diameter. –Eric) There are old mine shafts all over the countryside, and we walked to see a few of them. Along the way we found smultron, Swedish wild strawberries with the best flavor you’ve ever tasted. We went back for dinner with Zoltan and Berit, and then met a few brothers down by the dock. We got to take out Zoltan's other boat, a 2 sail 15 foot sailboat. The wind wasn’t exceptionally strong, but that was fine since he let me be at the helm. We circled the island once, and cruised in to a small beach. We docked and all got out for an evening swim. The water was finally perfect, cool and refreshing but not cold. (Well to me it was freezing. –Eric) We splashed around for half an hour, and headed back home. I discovered that I love sailing on this trip, so hopefully I will get to do it again.

District Convention 2010, Strängnäs, Sweden

Early Friday morning, Swedish summer sun already blazing, we got up and rushed through our morning preparations. We grabbed our packed bags and freshly ironed clothes(not sure what got into me) and ran out the door at 6:30. We met Berit and Zoltan at the car and stuffed everything inside and we were off to District. The trip was about 2 hours, so not too bad. Halfway through we pulled into a gas station, and Zoltan asked if we wanted ice cream. He is a chronic jokester/prankster so we laughed it off. After using the bathroom and buying some gum we came back to the car to find him eating ice cream. Hey, I guess its never to early for ice cream. We arrived at the Strängnäs convention center about 8:30. The Witnesses used to own the facility, and then sold it and rent it now as the cost is much better this way. Because of the history the building is set up perfectly for conventions. It holds between 5000-7000 people, but since this was an English convention there were only about 1500 on Friday. We met a few of the people I had previously met from Gothenburg English congregation, but other than that we were pretty lost. I wont got into much detail about the program itself for as not to spoil it for those who haven't been yet. To get enough for an English convention in Scandinavia congregations from all over were invited, most from Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden, but as you will learn later it was a much broader reach than that. Because of the diversity, the accents of the speakers were alltogether different from one to the next. There were a few that were hard to understand, but most of the time you could adjust quickly to the voice. Friday after the convention we drove to the house we were renting, instead of a hotel. After a warm day this was a special treat cause the house had a pool. It was the four of us plus another couple, Edward and Yuri. Zoltan studied with Edward 10 years ago, so there was much laughing and teasing between the two the whole weekend. Saturday was a good day, except the convention center was boiling hot, so it was a bit difficult to pay attention. By random chance we sat right in front of a sister who we met working RBC in London. She was with a friend from Copenhagen and another London sister, and they all came up for the English Convention. (We made some plans to go to her hall when we get back to London. -Eric) We also went to the Bethel meeting on Saturday, which was much the same as at home, except they did encourage sisters to apply. On Sunday we met a brother that we met in Gothenburg, who we will hopefully get to visit later. The drama was excellent, and very very applicable. The demonstrations were well done throughout, as well as interviews with missionaries form Namibia and Uganda, a branch overseer from South Africa, and a brother who has started MTS programs all over Europe. This was just a sampling of the diversity. All weekend there was a map up by the entrance and a cup of pins so everyone could say where they were from. During the last talk on Sunday they informed us that the total came to 96 different countries! From a crowd of 1700 this was quite amazing, and we also had a group of 60 that were listening to a simultaneous Chineese translation. One brother I talked to said it was like a miniature international convention, which is the best way to describe it.

Wednesday and Thursday in Nora, Sweden

On Wednesday we took the train from Gothenburg to Örebro, which was about 3 hours and quite boring.  Our new friend Zoltan picked us up and we drove to his town, Nora.  We are staying at a brothers apartment, but he is gone so we have it all to ourselves.  There is no internet or tv there, its really strange, and also the cause of us not writing for a bit.  (When we first walked in we noticed right away it is a bachelor pad. Then after walking around a little we started getting nervous because there was no tv. We are going to be there for over a week so it might have gotten boring. -Eric)  After we got there on Wednesday Zoltan had to work, so we were left in an empty apartment, starving.  We walked down to the local ICA grocery store and set off to buy groceries, something we don't do very much.  After lots of debating and wondering around, we decided on some bread, cheese, sandwich meat, corn flakes, and milk.  Not exciting or delicious, but it gets us through breakfast and lunch cheaply.  (We had a little arguement over getting lettuce.  Don't worry we got some.  We need some healthy food. -Eric)  That evening we went down to Zoltan and Berit's house for hamburgers and beer, and met a few other local brothers at their house.  (But then after dinner we went back to the flat and discovered dozens of dvd's many of them being in English.  We can use this laptop to play the movies.  So now we have some entertainment if we get bored. -Eric)  There are about 10 Witnesses by our estimation within a 3 block area, so you run into them quite often.  On Thurday we took Zoltan's rowboat out to a nearby island, and then went swimming.  The water was very chilly again, but not near as bad as the ocean.  In the evening we went back for a spagetti dinner, and talked about our plans for the weekend, convention.

Cliff Diving Pros

All Monday we had been trying to figure something do to for Tuesday, and in one of the tourist brochures we found something. In order to make it in decent time, we had to get up at the ungodly hour of 8:30. By my request we had Swedish pancakes for breakfast again, and then left on our journey. We were under the impression we needed to go to the train station to trade our e-tickets for real ones(for our Wednesday train trip), but after waiting in line half an hour we found out the e-tickets were sufficient. O well, live and learn. We found the bus we needed and hopped on. It was about a 40 minute ride down to Ammodun Island, a nature preserve right next to the shore. We got the bus and walked 10 minutes to the bridge and another 15 minutes to the other side of the island. The terrain was tradiional Swedish coast, with large smooth cliffs and patches of pine/evergreen brush. (Smooth if you are in shoes, but if you are barefoot like i was my feet were a little tender after awhile. -Eric) We hiked past the entrance area that was infested with little kids, and walked to the southwest corner. We had heard this was a good place to dive off the cliffs, and were looking for the perfect spot. We finally found a good place and dropped all our junk. I went down to the water to check the temperature, and gracefully slipped on, fell on my butt, and slid right in the water. The rocks were so slick that i had difficulty getting out, and Eric was laughing histerically the whole time. We then found a small ledge, about 6 feet up, and took the plunge. The water was a brisk 16*C, or about 60*F. We barely got out on the slick rocks again. This time i realized i was bleeding from multiple places on my hands. Lesson learned and advice to potiential Atlantic swimmers: Barnicles on rocks are sharp as razor blades, watch out for them. I later discovered cuts on my stomach and legs, so watch out for those things. We decided to go higher, picking a ledge about 10 feet up. After these jumps we were freezing and bloodied, (The Barnicles really screw up the knees and hands. -Eric) so we just got some time to lay in the perfect sun, cooled by a sea breeze. It was our first real vacation from vacation, first time we had been able to swim all summer. We went around exploring the island, giving the Swedes a wide path(there were no apparel rules here, and they used their freedom). After hiking around for half an hour we went back to the bus stop and took it to the mall. We picked up a few items and went home to dinner. We went to the Swedish meeting at 7, and got ablsoultesly nothing out of it, but met some really nice people. Afterwards we had ice cream with strawberries, and went back to our apartment to pack. (Which we really didn't do. We just relaxed and watched some tele. -Eric)

Exploring Göteborg

Monday morning was the best one of the trip, for we were treated to Swedish pancakes. The pile disappeared rather quickly, and we set out on the town with Atti. (Swedish pancakes are the only food that Blythe has either ate as much as me or more than me. He really enjoys those things. -Eric) The first stop was the phone store to remedy our mobile issues. After 3 stores it was finally resolved and we went on to lunch, and oh what a lunch it was. We went to a small place called Steinbrenner & Nybergs, a cake company with a restaurant attached. The gimmick here is that if you buy lunch you have access to all-you-can-eat cake. We got the soup of the day (Cream of broccli, very nice - Eric), and good fresh bread. Then it was on to the cake, at least 7 different kinds to my memory. Because of the late breakfast and early lunch we were pretty full, but still managed to cram down a fair amount of cake. Afterward Atti went home and we headed off for the mall. (We walked randomly through most of the stores and scouted out some stores that we will return to later. They have some pretty cool sports and clothes stores. -Eric) When we were done there we walked down to the water and checked out the boats and such. Finally we walked up the main street, Avenyn, to look at the sights and stores. We finally had enough and went back home for dinner. That evening we admittedly did not much, except planned our trip for the next day.

Sunday, Sweden Day 1

After our little delay at the airport resulted in a mega long travel day, we were a little tired to say the least. (We were up at about 22 hours. -Eric) After a nap until 12, we went up to my grandma Atti's for breakfast. After some food and catching up, we went down to rest some more and relax. Then again at 3 we went for dinner, so we could leave for meeting at 4:15. We took the tram, and got there about 10 minutes before it started. I was able to talk to many that I met here last year, and will see them again this weekend at the District Convention. This week was their circuit overseer's visit, and both of his talks were exactly the same as when the CO visited my hall in May. (Its weird to have a Sunday meeting so late. It felt like a Tuesday or Thursday or something like that. -Eric) After the meeting Grandma Atti invited us back for ice cream and a beer. Needless to say we accepted. That night we watched a Mythbusters marathon and went to bed.

Love of Travel, Second Edition

Those of you who started reading later in our adventure may have missed the first ode to the joys of traveling, but no worries you can find it HERE. Saturday morning we were moving on to our next destination. Unfortunately for us, the flight was at 6:40, meaning we had to be up at 3 a.m. to make it to the airport in time. From various factors within our control and others outside, we only ended up with 2-3 hours of sleep. It shouldn't have mattered, it would be 2 quick flights and arrive at the final destination by 12. We waited in line to get boarding passes, (We are supposed to get to the airport 2 hours ahead of time right? Well we got there at 4:30, only to find out the SAS desk opens at 5:15. I wish they would have put that online. That's 45 minutes more of sleep we could have gotten. -Eric) went through security, sat in the terminal, boarded the flight, and sat on the plane. And sat. And sat. Finally the pilot came on that there was a small issue with an engine, a mechanic was on the way over, and hopefully it would be a quick fix. Unfortunately it wasn't, so they sent over shuttle buses and we had to get off the plane. We were driven back to the terminal, and to add insult to injury, they made us go through security again! (You are allowed to bring 100ml size bottles of liquid through security. Then after that you can buy larger bottles of liquid in the airport once through security. Well since we had already went through security to board the last flight some people had bought large bottles of liquid. Now that we were having to back through security it was mass confusion. People had huge bottles of alcohol that of course they didn't want to give up. But had some loud talking things got sort of straightned out. -Eric) After that we were given a £5 voucher for a little breakfast. Finally our flight left around 9:30. The problem is that we weren't flying direct, there was a connecting flight that we missed by 1 hour. Since it was a smaller regional flight and it was a weekend, there wasn't another flight till 2:15. We lounged around in the terminal with standby passes, and finally learned that there were no extra seats. We went back to the SAS counter to book on the last flight of the day, at 8:50. They gave us meal vouchers for 2 meals each, and expressed their apologies for the wait. No worries, we were hoping to spend an 8 hour lay-over in Copenhagen, Denmark after getting up at 3 and having flight trouble! We could have went into the city, but were just to tired, so we found good seating and sat, studied, and played chess on the laptop. Finally we were on the way around 9. The flight to Gothenburg, Sweden was only 45 minutes, basically up and down. We got to the baggage claim, waited 15 minutes, and of course my bag wasn't there. Eric decided to snoop around, and found my bag in the holding area. With all the confusion from the standby my bag got to come early, but thats better than the alternative. We found a taxi(rediculously expensive, take the bus if you can), and were wisked over to my grandmother's apartment building. (The taxi driver was going about 160 km/h, thats 100 mph for you American people. -Eric) She let us in, gave us the keys to our(my aunt's) flat, and we fell into bed, not to wake up for a long time.

Euro Fashion

Friday was relatively uneventful, we had few things to do before the next stage of the trip. After a leisurely morning and lunch at Subway we headed into central London on the tube. Once there we went to H&M; we were there to buy things, but the entertainment factor as to some of the "fashion trends" makes the trip worth it on its own. Picked up a few items, including a sweet had and shades. (I um.. spent sort of a lot of money. About 120 pounds, which is around $180. But its all good i had money set aside to splurg like that. -Eric) After a little trouble with Eric's card(For all you potentail travelers: Visa really is the card of choice over here, Mastercard has spotty coverage), we headed back home. In the evening we had the challenge of repacking our two months of clothes into one bag each, no small challenge at all. (And since had a just bought new clothes it made it even harder. -Eric) We went to bed way to late, and you'll discover why that was a problem in the next post.

I apologize for getting behind again, we've been quite busy/tired, but it will hopefully be current tonight.

Natural History Museum

We thought that today we were going to meet the Peruvian family to go sightseeing in Central London, but upon arrival at the meeting point we found out it was just the daughter and her friend taking us to the Natural History Museum.  O well, we're flexible and had nothing better to do.  We took the bus because it was closer and cheaper for everyone, but my goodness it was crowded and slow.  Now i know why we always take the tube.  We got there around 10:00, and discovered another monstrosity of a building.  We just started on one side and worked all the way through to the other, and finally walked out around 3.  I couldn't even begin to describe all that we saw, but it was amazing.  One could easily spend days in there, but you can get a glimpse from our new slideshow, located HERE .  Afterward we went to take the bus back, got on the wrong one and rode it for half an hour until it stopped at the end of the route and we realized the mistake.  So we got to take the same bus in the other direction, half an hour to the museum, and continued on towards home.  It was rush hour by now, and then bus was jammed in traffic.  What should have been a ten minute journey took an hour.  (It was unbearably hot too. Probably about 28 or 29 degrees Celsius. Which is unusually warm for this country. -Eric)  We then got on a connecting bus, the pace was quicker but it was wall to wall people.  Moral of the story: Public transport is great, but don't take London buses during the busy times.  Meeting tonight was wildly entertaining as it somehow always turns out to be, I'd explain but it's one of those you had to be there situations. We finally managed to get pictures that you asked for of the friends, so here they are. (These are only very few of the people we have been with. There will be many more pictures coming of other friends but some of these people won't be in Acton when we get back from Sweden so we decided to get pictures with them now. We should be able to get the rest of the friends when we return to Acton. -Eric)

Sister Henry

Michael who we played football with

The Almonacid Family (The wife/mother Christina was not at meeting so we couldn't get her. -Eric)

Japanese Sisters(they're going back home tomorrow)

Queuing Pros

Sometime last Saturday evening we discovered that a very famous event was starting the on Monday.  We mapped it out and were delighted to discover that it was relatively close to our home base.  To our dismay, however, the ticket ballot(draw) is back in December meaning we had no chance of buying admission online.  What are we trying go to? A historic event steeped in tradition, dominated by currently two sisters and a longtime veteran.  What is it?  Wimbledon, of course!  We are only recently tennis fans, but most likely never have the chance to go again, so why not?  Since it is a tournament, the early rounds have 19 courts playing at once.  Like I said before, we were not able to buy online, but if you get there early you are able to get "Ground Passes" that allow you to wander around to watch courts 3-19, the smaller games.  With a little more digging we found out that 500 tickets are available each day for Centre Court and Courts 1&2, but you have to queue(line up) early for them.  As in overnight early.  We joked about camping for a bit, and then went back to our activities.  Later that night we talked about it more seriously, and on Sunday we inquired around about a tent.  Just before we left we found a brother who had a small two man and we asked to use it.  He said it was fine if we wanted it, and that spurred us on to make plans.  Sunday evening we gathered a few supplies and decided to go for sure.  In the morning we woke up in decent time and went into town to buy food, other supplies, and the tent.  We went to brunch with some sisters who wanted to show us proper English breakfast. It consisted of bacon(ham), an egg, fried mushroom, baked beans, grilled tomato, a really good sausage, hash browns, toast, and tea.  (They accidentally gave us an extra plate of food. They were going to take it back but i said it was fine for them to leave it. An extra plate of food never hurt anyone right? -Eric)  After that we went back and finished packing.  Around 3:30 we left for the train station.

The journey took about an hour total,  we arrived at Wimbledon about 4:30.  What a sight it was! We thought we were early, but walked in to see two rows of tents already up.  Each row took 2 minutes to walk down, at least two football fields long.  The event was extremely organized-rows clearly marked, orange-vested stewards everywhere, trash bags every ten feet, temporary sidewalks and barricades installed, and food vendors at both ends.  (We read in a blog before we left that if queuing were a sport, the English would be champions at it. The blog was right. -Eric)  Immediately we were give a handy "Guide to Queuing" and told to set up our things but not to stake down.  We were in the back half of the second row, and the row gradually compressed until there were no gaps, then we were allowed to stake in.  Shortly afterwards a steward came around with the "Queue cards", a guarantee of our place in line.  With all the people ahead we were worried we weren't in the first 500, but to our delight the number at the bottom was 335!  After the tent was up there was not much to do, other than be attacked by fliers from about 10 different area restaurants trying to persuade us to eat with them.  After some reading and catch we gave in to one of the offers and ordered a pizza.  We talked to our neighbors until it came, and found out they had been coming every year since 1976.  They also informed us that the ticket we get are not the leftovers, as we suspected, but premium positions, that's why people put for all the effort.  The pizza came, we ate, and then back to complete boredom until bedtime.  (The pizza was surprisingly um... not large. -Eric)  Fortunately the brother who lent us the tent also gave us us thin foam pads as well, but that's where the comfort ended.  We slept in jeans and sweatshirts, no pillow, my blanket was an old towel from the house and Eric's was a thin blanket stolen from some airplane.  (I at least had sweatpants instead of jeans but still. -Eric)  The tent was small, our fellow campers noisy, and the night chilly.  We slept ok for the circumstances, but not good by any means.  By around 4:30 there was movement as people awoke, by around 5:30 the place was alive.  At 6 we broke down our camp and took everything to the left luggage facility.  By 7 the line was once again compressed, and 10 minutes later we, and 2,000 other people were on the move.  We tromped through the park where we had queued, into the golf course next door, and then the line ground to a halt.  There was a Evian sponsor tent nearby that kept us supplied with water, but once again we were stuck with nothing to do.  The steward came by and gave us wristbands for the court of our choice, we chose centre of course.  Finally by about 9:00 the queue started to move slowly, we went through security, across the bridge, and bought our tickets.  The grounds don't really open until 10:30, so for another hour we got to wait in the entrance area.  When the time eventually came we explored the grounds until 12:00, when the matches on the outer courts started.  We watched until about 12:40, and then moved to find our seats in centre court.  We were in row J, just 10 rows up, just to the right of center.

The first game we saw Serena Williams, number one women's seed.  She is one big lady!  (Not like fat or anything.. just huge. She was probably at least a foot or a foot and a half taller than the other girl she was playing. -Eric)  The other girl fought hard, but it was clear to everyone that it was a lost cause.  Serena was serving around 120, higher than some of the men we saw.  She went on to win 6-0,6-4.  Next was Rafael Nadal, the number two seeded man.  His opponent was a 20 year old from Japan who gave him a very good challenge, they were both serving in the 120-130s.  Rafa prevailed in the end though, winning 6-2,6-4.  Forgot to mention we were getting baked the entire time, so by the third match we were tired and sunburned.  We watched the first set and called it a day.  The atmosphere was fun, definitely worth going once.  We walked back to the queue area to pick up our bags, and started the long walk to the train station, meeting loads of people just arriving to queue for the next day.  We took the two trains back, walking the 15 minutes home, and dragged in around 6:30, tired, sunburned, dehydrated, undernourished, but happy from a neat experience.  We ran to the shower to hose off 36 hours worth of grime, and shoveled down a large dinner.  Exhausted only begins to describe how we felt, sleep came easy this night.

I could make today's blog separate, but we were so tired that we have done absolutely nothing so far.  The only things to report are that the water is not working for some unknown reason and I'm going to play the European brand of football with the brothers again tonight.  Tomorrow will be a more interesting read, more big things planned! (Centre Court is the main stadium in the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. But surprisingly its not very large. Only 15,000 seating capacity. And during play the crowd is required to be completely silent. I am used to being at Notre Dame for American football games with 80,000 crazy screaming, and at times half drunk fans. There was classical music being played by a live string quartet, and people sipping wine in their seats watching the match. Just totally different. During the match i found it hard to get into it because the energy seemed so low, because cheering only occurred between volleys and only for a few seconds. But it was still very fun, and i am glad we were able to go. -Eric)

Make sure to look for our new Wimbledon slideshow, located HERE .