The Lindahl News: Abroad Edition

 “Rome is the city of echoes, the city of illusions, and the city of yearning.” -Giotto di Bondone, Renaissance painter Still true in 2018. But add delicious food in there, too. For five days, we went on a College Line trip to see and experience Rome: the ancient ruins, the pastas, pizza and fish at restaurants, the fountains, the busy (and sometimes dirty) streets, the churches, the catacombs, the Vatican...all will leave a permanent imprint in my brain and heart.  Day 1 - Sept. 30 (Actually more like evening as we got there following a full day of travel via bus from Sweden to Stockholm where we boarded a plane to  Rome.)   This is our travel group posing very early the morning of our departure. Once we arrived, we took another bus ride to our hostel. After a quick supper, we headed out to see some sights. The next stop and the crowd goes WILD!! As we do, too... THE COLOSSEUM is amazing! From there to... ...

Saying "yes" to a request when I first arrived on campus led to this building entry card and a set of keys!  I was asked to lead an English Conversation class once a week for students in the General Line.  And, truly, it was the best yes as far as I'm concerned. My classroom is in the oldest building on the SVF campus. It's now the home of the Music Line classes.  Once through the entry doors, up the stairs to the right is my classroom.       Complete with a drum set and a keyboard! (Check out my North Park Viking water bottle.) If I look to the right, I can see the Student Center. If I look slightly to the left, I can see the library and more classroom space. But the best view of all comes from when the table in front of me has seated students. Sorry, I cannot show them here...they are anonymous to you but not to me. Thursday is the day we meet and have been doing so for the past several weeks. ...

The Swedish word for mushroom is svamp.  And I'm continually on a search for them as we take our walks in the nearby woods.  Earlier this month, I took the above pictures on one such walk. After showing these cell phone pictures to a Swede, she said not one of them was edible --- especially the top red polka-dotted (makes me think of happy little gnomes!) one which is an Amanita muscaria (fly agaric) which, when ingested, will act on the central nervous system causing loss of coordination, agitation, nausea and sometimes even hallucinations. No thanks! Though I have seen chanterelle mushrooms in stores, I hoped to find some in the wild. No such luck --- and even if I did find one I would be worried about false identification and causing great harm to my body if I ate it.  So, I decided to go with a safer option of finding one/many in an outdoor market.  There they are!  Right next to the lingonberries and blueberries! I bought a container full...

 It's now day #2 of our class trip to Copenhagen.  This is the view we woke up to from our hostel room - do you see the red roller coaster from Tivoli Gardens to the left? After a good, but crazy-crowded breakfast at our hostel, we headed out to  Christiania. It was like far out, man. I'll let Rick Steves explain it a little bit on this link. https://youtu.be/v57JVVD6-ag                                         We had a guided tour given by "Anders the Storyteller" as surnames are not used here in Christiania.  He led us through the area of former military abandoned bunkers which were taken over by squatters in 1971 who wanted freedom from rules, freedom to do weed and freedom to live a lifestyle of their choice. About 800-900 people live here now....

It's time for another class trip!  Students have been working up to this first overnight trip with closer destinations not requiring overnight lodging and now they're/we're ready for more.  Early Tuesday morning, two coach buses arrive on campus to pick everybody up. All are given a printout of the schedule.  Having it in Swedish makes it extra special fun. You can see I nearly wore my schedule out! The first stop was in Helsingborg to board the ferry to Denmark. Hello Queen Margrethe II and Prince Henrik! After a picnic lunch in a roadside park, we headed to our first museum, Louisiana Konstmuseum - Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. Of special interest was the Moon exhibit celebrating the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 landing on the moon. I especially liked the Gleaming Lights of the Souls by Yayoi Kusama which is only able to have four visitors view the art at one time. In a small room that has mirrors on the ceiling and walls with a reflecting ...