i’ve only worked there for about 1 month, but my co-workers at the church celebrated my birthday with me with a wednesday morning fika! the secretary of the church had a birthday last friday & mine is coming up, so we decided to have a cooperative birthday fika wednesday morning. in sweden, the birthday tradition is to invite people to your own birthday fika and prepare everything for them; so she brought lots of delicious, fresh bread & all the fixin’s for sandwiches and i brought the cake. sweden is over-the-top amazing with their pastries, baked-goods, and cakes – as you can see. if only you could have tasted! we set the table and had about 12 people there to enjoy a cozy morning fika in the church’s cafe. what a great way to start the day!
after lunch & more work at the church , i headed to my swedish “class”. it’s not really a class. it feels more like a free, private tutor. go me! i am continuing my swedish language education through an online course, and i meet my teacher every 2-3 weeks to go over what i have done and take a few little tests. it’s really informal & relaxed, and we move at my own pace – so it can go as quickly or as slowly as i want. i’d love to just fly through it all, but realistically, i must balance my work at the church, my “internship”, which is not officially an internship right now, my swedish class, and my family life. nevertheless, the class feels fantastic and i am glad to be studying & pushing myself even harder with my swedish!
on my way to the school where i met my teacher yesterday, i came across a few beautiful fall-ish scenes. even though i was walking in a drizzly rain, with gray skies all around, and a chill in the air, i enjoyed it. i mean, it’s almost officially fall (tomorrow!), and besides, there’s nothing like the warm, vibrant colors of the leaves to serve as an antidote for the dark, dreary skies.
my school.
after school, i headed to my internship (lina’s job) for the weekly wednesday night meetings. let me just say that sitting with 15-20 young people, watching them grow as leaders, seeing their strength and individual personalities, laughing with them, and talking with them leaves me feeling so inspired. and there are tons of questions and thoughts rolling around in my head these days, and i feel pulled in lots of different directions, but, seriously… how lucky am i? coming home to my love and my sweet kitty every night puts everything in perspective. i may be busy trying to balance my life, but i am so lucky, so blessed.
peace.
The birthday fika looks delicious. I enjoyed the angle of the second photo with the coffee cups. Did you know the table runner was new when Norrkopings metodistorsamling moved into Bredgatan in 1984? We were given one as a going away gift. Our American habits mean it does not deck the table very often, but it creates warm feelings in me when I see it.