Funny Things

Hello again from Sweden! We're wrapping up our second full week of ministry and headed into a much needed weekend (our tiredness has caught up with us the last few days!). Tomorrow we're going to Stockholm for the day so we'll post again after that!

In the meantime, I was thinking today about a couple of funny things that have happened so far. Thought I should blog about it:

-Yesterday I was walking through downtown and saw a high school band playing. As I got closer I was thinking, this song sounds really familiar. Finally I realized it was "The Rose" by Bette Midler. So many things are different in Sweden than in America. But school bands around the world are rocking out to The Rose. Couldn't help but think back to how I played that song on my flute back in the day :)

-Sunday after church some of our team was jonesing for McDonald's. At first I was planning to get a hamburger, but as I looked at the menu, was relieved to see that the #9 combo exists here too....

My secret is out, I love a good Filet o Fish. And being in Sweden was no exception. The guy making the puke face is Scott, one of the students with us from UNC. He's making fun of me and how 99% of the world's population would never order such a thing.

-Last night Josh and I went out on a date and ended up at an Irish Pub. We were excited to get fish and chips and shepherd's pie (which they ended up being out of so bummer!). Anyways, as we were eating, an interesting song came on in the restaurant...Achy, Breaky Heart by Billy Ray Cyrus. How hilarious to be sitting in an Irish pub in Sweden listening to Billy Ray. Talk about worlds colliding!

-After dinner on Tuesday we were walking past one of the "nations" which turn into clubs at night. There was a huge line of people waiting to get in. All of a sudden a marching band comes blaring down the street and heads into the club. If I had a dollar for every time I saw a marching band parading down a street on a Tuesday and head into a club...I''d have one dollar. Drumline 3: the streets of Sweden comes out in theaters soon :) (Josh got a video of this event which we'll post later)

-My favorite moment came today. I was having lunch with a girl on project when we heard these really loud sounds. It kept happening over and over again and we couldn't figure out what it was. We kept looking around and no one seemed concerned, so we figured we wouldn't be either. I left lunch and headed to campus and while I was walking, I heard the loud booms again. Finally, I decided to stop someone and ask what was up. "Do you speak English?" I asked the girl passing by. "Yes" she said. "What is that noise?!" I asked. "It's the cannons going off near the castle." She replied. "Oh," I replied, glad to know what it was, but now a;armed about why cannons were going off. "So why are they going off?" I said. "I guess someone's coming," she remarked and kept walking. I thought to myself, "SOMEONE'S coming? Like who? Another country to invade? A famous person? What did she mean?!" Thankfully, I found out later Sweden was not at war. They were being fired for a special event being held in Uppsala. Whew!

I'm sure as the summer goes on we will have many more funny stories! I'll leave you with one last picture. Nothing funny happened here, but thought the blog entry needed another pic. This is Josh and I and the other staff couple Ben and Jen from UNC-Wilmington by the river that runs through Uppsala.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Erin