As I mentioned, last Sunday night we had a service on the persecuted church. We read stories of recent persecutions around the world. the stories were printed out and stapled to crosses that were set up in a field in rows, resembling a grave yard. It was very impactful to read story after story of families killed because they were Christians, a Muslim girl killed by her own brother for becoming a Christian, a church burned down and people killed and hurt just because they were Christians, etc. There were dozens of these stories that we read and it really reminded all of us how blessed we are to live in countries with religious freedom and reminded us to pray for all of our brothers and sisters in Christ who suffer so much!
The school schedule here is similar to Capernwray but slightly different.
A typical weekday looks like this:
8:00 breakfast –some days people get up just in time for breakfast, other days people get up early and run or read. For me it depends on the day. =)
9:30 lectures – in between breakfast and lectures many people have a school duty to perform, i.e. cleaning bathrooms, hallways, cleaning up breakfast and washing the tables, etc. We each have an assigned duty and switch every 2 weeks. The first 2 weeks of school I had to clean a set of bathrooms in the chapel lecture hall. Everyone having a duty keeps the school costs down so we don’t have to have more staff.
10:20-10:35 coffee break –we have break in the hang-out room above the chapel lecture hall. There is a foosball table and a pool table as well as card games, etc. If it’s a sunny day, I like to go out and sit on the balcony. =)
10:35-12:15 2 more lectures (we have a 5 min. break in between these 2)
12:45 lunch –again, we have a break between the end of lectures and lunch so people can set out the food and dishes (these are duties as well)
afternoon free time –afternoons may include walks, working out, practices for outreaches, reading and study time, etc.
5:30 dinner (again, gap between end of dinner and lectures for duty time)
7:15-9:00 2 evening lectures –After lectures on Monday and Thursday I lead a girls’ prayer time. One of the girls at Capernwray did this over the winter and I really appreciated it so I’ve started prayer time here. Other nights, I may play games in the bik (the name of the hang-out room over the chapel with the pool and foosball tables), read, or spend time on the internet trying to stay in contact with you all! =)
10:30 lock-up/curfew: everyone has to be in their dorm building but can choose when to go to sleep. One thing I find interesting is that Holsby seems to go to bed earlier than Capernwray, or at least the girls do. It’s actually quiet at curfew and you get in trouble if you make too much noise. I realized this is different from Capernwray because there were no staff sleeping in our girls’ dorm area and enforcing quiet. We weren’t loud or rude, but we did stay up later talking, playing games, or watching movies occasionally.
Here's the inside of our chapel/ lecture hall.Holsby tries to encourage people to interact and be social by banning private movie viewings. So no one is allowed to watch DVDs on their computers (as we were at Capernwray). I appreciate that this means people can’t disappear into their rooms and watch lots of movies, but at the same time there are definitely moments when I miss being able to plop down on my bed, and watch a movie with my roommates.
This weekend we have a 4 day weekend. The purpose of this long weekend is to give people the opportunity to travel somewhere and to give us a break from school. Capernwray had one of these in the fall which is when I went to Edinburgh, Scotland. This weekend I chose to stay on campus (many people are doing this as we’ve been in Europe for 8 months and are low on funds and energy/desire to travel). On Friday and Saturday, we will be taking advantage of all the water in the area and I will be doing a mini canoe trip with 7 other girls. I look forward to this and think it will be a good balance of being able to hang-out on campus and get off of campus and explore. Also, over this travel weekend, the rule of no movies is suspended so I know we will be watching movies a few nights. =)
As at Capernwray, we have family groups here. These are groups which students and staff are assigned to that will do various activities together. Groups are made in an effort to mix people from different countries. In my new family group here we have students from Canada, the US, Austria, and Sweden. Our group is led by 4 staff members: the 2 RAs both from Canada, and an older couple that has been here on staff for 30 years, they’re like the grandparents of our family. =) Family groups at Holsby meet Sunday night every other week for dinner and can go until lock-up. We often wish lock-up was later on these nights because the time seems to fly when we’re together! In addition to these Sunday evening times, we often get together on other evenings for fun. Our group has people with several birthdays this term and last week we climbed a small hill together to eat ice cream and play games together in honor of one of my “brother’s” birthdays. And today we are going to get together again this evening to honor to other family birthdays. One of my sister’s was yesterday and one of my brother’s is tomorrow! These times are fun nights to hang out with a set group of people and get to bond and know them more. Plus it’s fun just being able to call people “brother” or “sister” while we’re away from our real family! =)
here's my family group =)Last Saturday, I biked into town with 2 friends. We walked around town, did some grocery shopping, and ate lunch at a pizzeria. Students recommended we try a local specialty pizza named the “jala jala” (pronounced yala-yala). This pizza is unusual in that in addition to the normal cheese and tomato sauce, it has kabob meat, onions, lettuce, French fries, and salad dressing sauce on it! I know it sounds gross and unhealthy, but I tried it (I mean, I’m only in Sweden once!) and liked it! I know my liking it doesn’t change that it’s really unhealthy, but what pizza is? =) Anyway, the bike ride into town is about 12km (I think) so we got some good exercise.
While we were in town I also went to the thrift store to look for fabric for a costume. I had the idea to have a native American photo shoot so I invited friends to dress up with me and just have fun running around the forest taking pictures. This may sound silly but I was a lot of fun (I had to think of some way to take advantage of the great forests we have here!). I found a table cloth at the thrift store and cut it up to make an Indian dress. My Swedish “sister” Kristin was one of the girls who dressed up with me and we had so much fun in our costumes we decided not to change and to go to family groups that evening dressed like that!
Here's just a sample of the pictures we took:
It was SO much fun! =)In family groups that evening, we had a lovely campfire and made smores and shared stories. For some of my European siblings, it was their 1st smore. (however it wasn’t quite a true smore since they don’t have graham crackers here so we used the best substitute we had). The staff came up with a creative idea to get us all to walk down to the campfire: they had all the guys give the girls piggy back rides. The tricky part was that it was a trust walk! The girls had to give the guys directions on how to walk down the hill, through the forest, over uneven dirt, sticks, etc. while the guys had their eyes closed and carried the girls on their backs. It was hard to do but we all arrived at the campfire in tact and perhaps with a bit more trust for each other. =)
We have also enjoyed having student initiated campfires several nights during free time after lectures, just a couple students sitting around the fire on rocks and benches talking or making smores. One time one of the boys even bought orange chocolate which we used to make smores and it tasted so good! I hadn’t thought of using flavored chocolate before but I really enjoyed it! The marshmallows are slightly different here, they taste sweeter in a way (if that’s even possible) and interestingly enough don’t catch on fire! They can burn and turn black but they can’t become torches like American marshmallows can.
Last week, one of the girls here had her brother visiting for the week and they both love swing dancing, so they initiated swing dancing times multiple evenings that week. I had great fun dancing and appreciate coming into a group where I don’t have to teach everyone how to dance before I can dance with them (although I have taught friends moves).
Friday the 24th we had a school field trip to a world renown hand glass blowing factory named Kosta Boda. We got to tour the factory, which really ended up meaning that we could stand right by all the people blowing and shaping the glass and walk around and watch at whatever station we wanted. We were surprised by the lack of safety precautions for the workers. We even saw a man working in socks and sandals! However, besides that, don’t worry, it all was pretty safe! =)
After the factory, we went to a moose park to see the big animals that Sweden is known for! Every hunting season there are thousands of moose killed (and there are still thousands in Sweden, they have many moose related accidents as you many imagine). We walked around the park looking for moose, some were in the open, others were hiding in the forest and you had to look carefully to spot them!
We also had the opportunity to buy moose burgers so I tried one! It tasted a bit like a German sausage. It was kind of bizarre to have the taste of a sausage in the shape of a hamburger because we unconsciously were expecting a similar taste to a regular beef burger.
Here's our group at the moose farm. If you look closely, in the back there are 2 students sitting on a moose statue. =)Then on the way home to Holsby we stopped at an old fashioned Swedish church. It was very pretty and quaint, country looking. Almost everything (the walls, the pews, ceiling, etc.) was painted with ornate free hand details.
here's the inside of the church
we have a small pond with LOTS of frogs in it, here we are trying to catch some =)Wheww! Well that was probably the longest post yet! Thank you for sticking with me through it. Normally I wouldn’t write such a long post, but I have so many weeks of no writing to make up for!
I have so many pictures to share with you all and have uploaded many onto Facebook. If you wish to see more pictures of the incidents I have described above, you can check out the albums which I think will give you a much better understanding of what life looks like here! It’s much easier to show you than tell you everything. =)
God bless,
♥ Sarah ♪♫♪♫♫
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