GodStop.

Today, I finally stopped. And I think God was waiting all this while for me to stop, but you know Him, He's a gentleman. He waited about three weeks for me to stop and the moment I did, He rushed out to meet me. Kinda like when the prodigal son returned and his father ran out to meet him. It was glorious, serene, overwhelming, humbling and uplifting all at the same time. My God knows exactly what I needed and He met me. All I needed to do was stop.


Ever since I arrived my days have been long, fun, hectic, packed with activities. Even on Sundays, yes there were no English services though I must have asked a dozen people, but I realized that even if there had been, my Sundays were spent traveling on trains. Probably that's why I felt like the prodigal son, I've not been at a worship service in what feels like an eternity. Especially since in Singapore church was not a Sunday morning slot, it was my Fridays to Sundays and it spilled into my weekdays, and I loved it.

But here, I've learned that being involved at church was not a want, it to me now feels like a need. It taught me how to depend on God and be constantly thankful, constantly praising. I've just had so much going on that I didn't notice that all-too-familiar God-shaped hole forming in me. And tonight at about 11pm, in the quiet and stillness of my empty house I was prompted to worship...truly worship not just read the devotion like I usually do, but to sing and reflect as well.

It's strange because tonight is the only night I've decided to stay in for the evening so far. I've been coming home past midnight a lot and because I start my day early I am just too tired to really take time to be with God. And the only reason I stayed in is because I am the only one among my roomies who doesn't have a bike and I didn't want to walk alone to the party. And I had actually spent the whole day looking for a bike and was quite bummed out that everyone managed to find one except me.

But now, I'm glad I had a quiet night in with three friends and a simple dinner. And once everyone had left I obeyed the prompting and listened to 'Indescribable' by Chris Tomlin. I was immediately reminded of my initial reaction when I arrived in Lulea, one of wide-eyed wonder at how beautifully God had crafted this place with its lakes and forests and wild flowers. And as I began to pray I was reminded that I worship God because I was meant to do it, when I don't, that is when that feeling of lack that is so easy to ignore and so hard to put your finger on surfaces. The need to worship is extremely real, it is a balm to the soul and I think the song 'From The Inside Out' by Hillsongs puts it well - "My soul cries out to worship you from the inside out". It couldn't be truer, I needed to say "Lord you are awesome and I praise you", I needed to sing "And I found myself in You, Lord". I'm going to just worship like this on my own until the English service at the end of September.



I'm so glad I skipped the party and just stopped tonight. The others may have gained a reputation for being cool (but yeah, who said partying is the coolest thing to do), but I met God. And though He didn't say very much, He spoke into me and reminded me of the reason He created me- to worship Him. Not because He needs to be worshiped but because when we don't, we will eventually realise an emptiness that nothing else can fill...we're just wonderfully wired to need constant interaction with our creator. How awesome is that?

On Culture

Being here in Europe and traveling with Mel has been an eye-opener in many ways. People always wonder how this girl from India and that girl from China came to be such good friends and converse so fluently in English with one another. I like it when they ask, so that I can clarify that we are both from Singapore, that we were both born there, our families have lived there for generations and that the country is made up of 4 main ethnic groups so we need English as a common language. Because whenever we tell them "Oh I'm from Singapore", they go "oh but you look like you're from India" or "China"...which i guess is technically correct.

Anyway the above paragraph is just a 'by the way' kinda thing. What I really wanted to muse about was my culture and identity. What got me thinking about this was an Indian guy at the Copenhagen train station who stopped to talk to me becuase he thought he had found a kindred Tamil spirit . He had moved there with his parents 20 years ago to escape the civil war in Sri Lanka.

So he was talking about Indian culture and language and how the modern Indian girls in Denmark speak Tamil very well and know traditional Indian dance. And when I admitted that I could barely speak Tamil and and hardly in touch with Indian culture, he began to lecture me about the importance of preserving my culture. I patiently listened and nodded for the entire length of his 'talk'. Then I realised that what he was saying made perfect sense for someone living in a country where his/her ethnic group is still seen as a migrant community and not an official people group. But in Singapore-and please, feel free to disagree with me on this but this is my sincere opinion- I don't need to preserve Indian culture.

I pride myself on being Singaporean first, then Indian. So the culture that I hold dearest to me is the Singaporean culture. Singlish, Chilli Crab with fried mantou, Bengs&Minahs, struggling with your mother tongue at the O levels, national day songs, supper clubs...these are the things of MY culture. And if I ever were to migrate, it would be this Singaporean-ness that I'll take with me. Of course being Indian will colour who I am to a certain degree but it does not get much more than that.

Let the mainland Indians carry on thier cultures where ever they are because it is their culture. If they don't preserve it, who will? Likewise, as a Singaporean I should preserve Singaporean culture. Why should I preserve a culture I don't even fully grasp just because that is my ethnic group? It's not that I'm not proud of my Indian-ness, I don't have any problems with it, it's just that the Indian culture is not something I am acquainted enough with to want to fiercely preserve. I'm more concerned that collective Singaporean culture doesn't die out some day.

But that's just me, the stubborn and opinionated one....Always having to be against the grain.

Whirlwind Tour of Scandinavia

How do I even begin to condense our entire trip into a blog post....I think it's an impossible feat, but if you go on FB you'll see all the pictures and my captions tend to be long so it's kinda like i'm narrating what went on. But here I guess I can give the juicy highlights, if any :)

This was the plan:
1.Depart Lulea 12 Aug, arrive in Stockholm 13 Aug
2.Depart Stockholm 13 Aug, arrive in Oslo 13 Aug
3.Depart Oslo 13 Aug, arrive in Malmo 14 Aug
4.Depart Malmo 14 Aug, arrive in Copenhagen 14 Aug
5.Depart Copenhagen 14 August, arrive Goteborg 15 Aug
6.Depart Goteborg 15 Aug, arrive in Lulea 16 Aug

Crazy? Well, maybe. Fun? Oh boy yes indeed-y!
We always took the night trains out but we had to stay in Goteborg bus terminal from 10:32pm to 9am the next day cos al the rooms in the city was taken due to some festival. Our train for Lulea was only at 5pm on the 15th. So that was the scariest thing we had to do. The young people there were all drunk and loud...Mel and I were afraid someone would throw up on us or something. And some guy like 3 inches away from my face and asked me if I "wanted to buy speed". My faint Chirstian, Singaporean girl heart almost stopped beating. Hahaha looking back on it now it's all so funny. But while we were actually trying to sleep in the station, it really wasn't.Anyway on to the good stuff!
Oslo! Very expensive and very pretty. Getting around here was easy and we didn't get lost. We saw men in kilts and men dressed as vikings everywhere, so that was cool. We even met an old guy - Earl- who went on about raffles hotel who told us "you've not been to Norway unless you've been to Bern". Then He took pictures with us and stood a little too close and held on a little too tight.....Sleazy old man. Hahaha.
And since we had not showered in many many hours, we were so excited to shower in the Malmo train staion. It cos about 30SEK, SGD$7 for a nice warm shower in a very clean bathroom. It felt good and we got on to out train to Copenhagen nice and clean!
In Copenhagen, the Mermaid statue is addressed as 'She'. I think thats just so quaint, no? We really had to fight out way trough the hordes of tourits just go get a picture with her, with our backpacks and DSLRs, it was no easy feat and poor Mel in her flip flops almost fell into the water twice. After that we headed to Hamlet's castle and the Stroget which is the main shopping district. I'm sure we could have covered more, but there was an outlet sale...and things were cheap...and the queue to the dressing room was long....so we got distracted :p

But all in all, I am proud of myself becuase I only spent SGD$100 during my entire time traveling, excluding the eurail pass of course! But I only spent money on cheap snacks, bus travel, seat reservation, a small gift for an aunt and clothes. Mel and I are so economical :)

Back in Sweden at Goteborg, after our scary night out, we visited the festival grounds and really got into the swing of things. There was a museum exhibit of wedding outfits promoting love and harmony among different races, so Mel and I decided to get hitched. Don't we look like blushing brides?But We're glad to be back in Lulea, I mean its kinda boring here but amny of the exchnage students have arrived and Mel's dorm-mates and my room-mates and neighbours seem real nice. We're constantly having dinner gatherings all over the place and meeting to do stuff, so I think things in the 'fun department' will start to pick up :)

Traveling

Traveling in Lulea is best done on bicycle and all the exchange students including Mel got one, but I have not....I figure if I am not confident riding it and would rather walk 5km, then I should not get a bike just cos everyone else is....I do see that it's much faster with a bike though. oh well.

Anyway, if you have read my previous post travelling by bus in Lulea is a bit of a chore because of all the waiting, I think people here must be very patient...back in Singapore just waiting 15mins for my beloved no.359 will get me irritated. And here I have no choice but to wait 49 mins :s

Mel and I have been wanting to get out of here for a while to see Norway, Denmark and more of Sweden but no one can tell us what to do with our Eurail pass and the "best" part of it is, that Lulea train station does NOT have an information counter or any body to answer questions on trains! Unbelievable, no?

Haha, so we found a travel agency and got that sorted. We leave Lulea tomorrow on a 6pm train back to Stockholm then to Oslo, Norway. Then from Oslo we'll head to Malmo, Sweden then Copenhagen, Denmark and Gothenberg, Sweden before we head up to Lulea again. Night trains also mean that we don't need to get lodging, yay! I can't wait :)

New Friends!

I just hosted a very successful dinner party tonight and I'm so very happy about it. Its just great to have people all gather around a table of simple food and eat and talk. I just pulled together some pasta, sauce, and corn form the pantry and a new friend (Kate) brought nuggests, and we made it work to feed about 8 people. Most of us were exchange students except for Kate and her boyfriend (M) who live next door to me.

I'm excited that I've met good people so quickly and many of them were just happy to eat in a 'home' especially since they just arrived today. You see, I made friends with the couple Kate and M yesterday night when I went to buy a thick blanket from M who is selling a whole bunch of tstuff. And Mel and I hit it off with Kate right away. So I invited her and M over for dinner, something I was told Swedish people never do, and Kate was so thrilled that someone she just met would actually open their home and kitchen to a stranger.

I decided that I should also invite Marco and Daniel, two really nice guys from Brazil to join us as well and they each brought another exchange student to just arrived today, Michael from Switzerland and Scott from the US. So yes, it was wonderful to have a home bustling with great conversation and warm people.

Everyone came about about 8pm and only left at about 12am! I love dinner parties =D

On another note, I really really like Kate, she's so sweet. She brought me and Mel out to the thrift store to get stuff for the house and tomorrow she's taking us to the dollar store. She even helped me with dinner (while I was skyping with Shaun) and showed me how to work the washing machines here. She's a little lonely here, because even though she's Swedish, she's new to Lulea and she's a lot more forthcoming than most Swedish people - who tend to be more reserved according to her- so she was just really glad that Mel and I were so comfortable and open with her. She's just full of positive energy and she sees the good in everyone, I can learn so much from her. Mel and I didn't get Swedish buddies from the uni even though we applied, but I think we've gained so much more than just a 'Swedish buddy' in Kate, she's a Godsend.

I'm looking forward to the spending more time with all these guys here and I'm excited about welcoming my house-mates...I hope they come sooner than later so I don't have to be alone in this big house. But at least Mel is staying over here every night so it's not so bad and we are not 5Km away from each other any more.

Wish I remembered to take pictures at the gathering...but I guess I have all 5 months to take as many pictures with all these wonderful people as I want :)

Gammelstad Church Town

It was a beautiful day out - plus it was Sunday, which meant everything including the shopping district was closed except for the supermarket - so Mel and I thought we'd go to Lulea's most famous site - Gammelstad Church Town - 10km away from town.
To get there we had to wait 49 mins for bus number 4 from the university to the centrum, then from the centrum we had to wait another hour for bus number 9 to go up t0 the church town. But it was so worth it as I can't get enough of those traditional Swedish cottages with the white trimming. Plus the church in the centre of it all was just gorgeous to say the least.

We got a guided tour for 50 Kronor (thats like SGD$10) and our guide Majlis (Mai-lis) was so nice, she even offered to help me look for a church with an English service near the university. We also made friends with a guy from Turkey who joined us fro the guided tour. It was just 3 of us and the guide so it was nice and cosy :)Gammelstad, as in the pictures will look far more spectacular in the winter when the roofs and the ground is white, but even now in the summer it is so lovely becuase of the contrast between the clear blue skies an dthe deep copper red of the cottages.We were told that this church was built in the 1600s by the then Swedish king as a fortress to ward of the Russians who wanted this part of Sweden for themselves. Then small cottages were built for people who travel here for church festivals and to spend saturday night there before going to church on Sunday. And this tradition continues as the cottages are still passed down from generation to generation within families that own one (and you must be from Lulea to own one). However, there is no running water in the cottages and no open flames are allowed, and you are only allowed to spend one night in it at a time. So everything is well preserved.

The church is also a living church as many baptisms and weddings still take place there and they have Sunday services there too. It is so popular that if you wnat to marry there, you need to book at least a year in advance, and they can have as many as 6 events going on in one day in the church! And really, a church wedding here would be so grand, considering the architecture of the church and the altar piece!
And just like it was hard to get there, coming back home, included wiating 2 hours for a bus. And it would not have been so bad if the shops there were open, but it was a Sunday there was no where we could go but the bus stop as even the cafes had closed by 4pm. Such is life in charming Lulea.
I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves :) More are up on Facebook!

Lulea Finally!

I woke up at 6:30am to the sight of beautiful country meadows, a rustic train station plucked out of some movie and a thick fog. Lulea is a beautiful sleepy town. Not quite as gorgeous as Stockholm but you can't go wrong with nature can you?

It was hard getting a taxi to the university but we found our way and we met the student coordinator who showed us our new homes (5km apart though so boo hoo about that) and we got our Swedish sim cards so if you want my number FB or email me!

My place is great, It's a 4 bedroom apartment with a living room and kitchen and 2 bathrooms. Its got so much space and the view from the porch and my room window is so nice! It's about 1.5km from the university and I have to cut through this quaint little wooded area which the other students say is "absolutely safe even when dark" so I'll take their word for it. Anyways no one but students and lecturers live around here.Mel's place is 3Km from the Uni and she has her own little flat but she shares a kitchen and living room with 5 other people on her floor. I'm just sad that we are so far apart, we cna't even walk home together. I'm hoping that things will get better once our room/floor mates move in sometime next week so we'll have company.

We had a tiring but relatively mundane day, settling admin stuff, buying basic things we need for the hostels. We also set up Swedbank accounts! And the guy who was helping us -Daniel- is such a nice guy, he not only helped us with banking, he also printed out maps for us and drew us simpler routes to get from hostel to uni. He's also a student at Lulea tech and is on a summer internship, so we're bound to see him again since the uni is quite small :)

After some shopping and a very yummy $10 pizza which mel and I shared, we parted ways to go home. It was about 7pm but still so bright out. I got a bit lost and a nice lady who works at the uni gave me a lift and showed me the path through the woods that I should take next time instead. The poeple here are really wonderful. Mel got a bit lost too, but she made it on her own safe and sound.

Well tonight is going to be spent skyping with shaun and unpacking and tomorrow Mel and I will be going shopping for 2nd hand bicycles! Wheee!