Sunday, September 23, 2007
The Davis Cup
Okay, last post for the night. After our orienteering adventures, Par and I went to the Davis Cup. The semi-finals were held here this weekend in Göteborg. They hold it indoors at the Scandinavium. We had pretty good seats and we watched Andy Roddick trounce Jonas Bjorkman in 3 straight sets. After which James Blake quickly dismissed Simon Aspelin. What a fun day today. Now I can say that I've seen an international tennis event. The US will face Russia back in the states in a couple of months.
The #1 American finisher
I forgot to mention that I was the top American finisher in today's race. Okay, I was the ONLY American racer today. You should have been there. I would have kicked your butt!
Look! Here's where I got lost
I'm showing Par after the race where I went and where I got lost. Lots of fun
Orienteering finish area
This was quite early when people first started showing up and getting ready. Notice the many club flags flying.
Orienteering
Do you have ANY idea what this is? I got up early AGAIN to go with the Sander family to Hjortsöndan. Orienteering is an extremely popular outdoor activity here in Sweden. Basically, here is the jest of the sport. You go out to the forest with several hundred of your closest friends and family. You are given a VERY detailed map, a compass, and a plastic fingerstick sometimes called a dibbler. The object is to race around in the forest looking for these control points. You must go in a specific order (listed on your map) and once you find it put your dibbler in to indicate that you have found the spot. Today since it was my first time they suggested that enter the Ö2. Basically, I'd be racing small girls and old ladies. No problem. A couple of things you should know. They are pretty careful about pollution so the potties are behind a big tarp and a number of 5 gallon buckets are lined up. Pretty funny site seeing a bunch of Swedes sitting on buckets. The showers were even more interesting. The last think is that you are not allowed to race in shorts. Apparently, back several years ago, people were getting really cut up and so after the race when everyone would jump into that lake or shower, there were major outbreaks of Hepatitis. Great! So Par brought me these nice running tights. I was running a race with 8 control points covering a distance of I think around 3000 meters. I was going to try for the brute force approach. Not that great of an idea. At first, I tried keeping my running shoes (my good pair) somewhat clean but that went out the window after about 30 seconds. You are running in mud, swamp, through thick brush, you name it. It was actually quite fun. The Swedes, however, are VERY into this sport. Some events attract 15,000+ people (competing, not watching). My time? 44:32. Originally, I thought I finished 5th but ended up 8th in my category. A good time would have been around 30 minutes or lower. The best guy there, Christian, is one of the folks that I'll be working with tomorrow. He's a younger guy and he is currently ranked 30th or something in the world. He's pretty fast. I looked tonight and found the Utah Orienteering site. Not too popular but I bet JJ would love to try this. Believe me, it is much more difficult than it seems. You can't just start running through the woods. The control points are tricky to find sometimes, and you really need to know how to read a map properly. When I get home, I'll scan my map and post it here. I also found more info on Wikipedia of course. Afterwards, I was quite muddy. My shoes were WAY muddy. Time for a shower. So basically, imagine a big open field, with a big huge tarp on the perimeter with hundreds of boys and men (ages 8 ot 80) all naked and showering with these hoses. It was a bit chilly but try to imagine with crappy snowy cold weather. Thankfully, it wasn't that today. It was actually a pretty nice day. We had some sandwiches afterwards and some fruit. It was really quite the experience.
Some famous shack
Supposedly this is one of the more photographed objects in all of Sweden. It is a shack that has been there forever. Something to do with helping ships coming in and out.
Church and the Baxters
Okay, before I write out this weekend, I must talk about LAST Sunday. So on Saturday, I was feeling pretty darn lonely. Missing my family, tired of being alone. I was determined to go to church the next day. I set out on Saturday afternoon to find where the meeting house was. I was using the handy Danish LDS site I had a map and address. After looking for a couple of hours I gave up, went back to the hotel and called the missionaries. They explained that the church was INSIDE the train station. So on Sunday morning, I showed up. No tie, but in more or less Sunday attire. The Saints in Ballerup are just great. I had someone by my side (or behind me) translating the entire time. The Baxters spoke in Sacrament meeting and told me just what I needed to hear. Sunday School was good, and Priesthood was all about marriage I even got to play in Priesthood as they didn't have anyone to do it. Thanks, Mom! I had a few families invite me over for dinner after church. I ended up going to the Baxters (3 teenage boys and 1 teenage girl). We had a wonderful dinner of pork, mashed potatoes, vegetables, and a yummy dessert with ice cream and berries. After dinner we walked around the small neighborhood. They showed me their garden, and we watched a Pink Panther movie on their living room wall. Of course I slept through most of it. It was VERY nice to be in a home and I really thank the Baxters for their love and hospitality.
Lysekil and Grundsund
So I got up BUTT early (if there is such a thing) to head up to Göteborg. It has been a few years since I was here and I was really looking forward to going back. This time I took a train (crossing the Oreund Bridge). I was going to Göteborg to do some work with a good friend of mine, Par Sander. Anyhow, I arrived early so that we may have a chance to go boating in the Archipelago. These are thousands of small islands that surround the coasts of Sweden. We traveled for an hour or so up to the town of Lysekil. This is where Agneta's mother lives. Sadly, it was way too windy to venture out but we still had a wonderful time. We had a wonderful lunch of breads, meats, and cheeses, and walked down to the harbor and checked out the boat. We decided to empty much of the supplies on the boat and carry them back to the summer home for the winter season. The Sanders will move the boat another weekend. Afterwards, we went to another small fishing town called Grundsund to celebrate Par's birthday. We ate a marvelous restaurant right on the water. Great food, beautiful sunset and wonderful friends.
Let's Play
Okay, so I know I MUST do some writing from the last couple of days of writing but I came across this pretty cool thing tonight. Of course with all of the blogging that goes on around the world, millions of pictures are constantly being uploaded. Google (the folks that run this blogging server) has released a website that shows (at your speed of choice) a sampling of these pictures. It's like potato chips, once you start you can't stop. Have a look. I found it quite interesting.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Shall the Youth of Zion Falter...
On Friday night, I wanted to attend the Copenhagen Temple. I found out, however, that they have no clothing rental so my choices were limited. I decided to go and do baptisms. I was supposed to be there by 7:00 and of course I was running late. It was lightly raining but in order to make it on time (or shortly thereafter) I had to run most of the way. By the time I arrived, I was completely drenched. Not because of the rain, but because I was sweating. I changed and sat next to a youth group from the western side of Denmark. It was really enjoyable. Being in the temple (no matter where in the world it is) gives such a peaceful and calm reassurance (at least for me). And I definitely needed some of that. All of it was in Danish and as hard as I tried, I just couldn't make out the words. After being baptized they asked me if I would like to do some of the baptizing. I did it in English of course even though I could have done it in Spanish. What was funny is that most of the names were from Chili (with a few from Italy). Afterwards, I met with the youth group outside the temple and got to talk to them. They live a few hours away but only get to come to the temple about every six months. Many of the youth in our neighborhood go at least once a week. Afterwards, I am more committed to go with my boys at least a couple of times a month. We need to go more often and soon they will be gone. What a great way to spend my Friday night.
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