Best Yes

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.

I love Thursdays.  

The first week started out on the easy topic of transportation and how they got to campus each day.

We transitioned to Astrid Lindgren (after having just been to her hometown of Vimmerby) and Pippi Longstocking.  This led right into Harry Potter, TV shows and movies.

Then we got into the not- so- easy topic of politics (they thought Bernie should have won) and their upcoming Swedish elections.

 

The second  week started out with a bang (!) when I told them I came from Chicago and they wanted to know how I often I heard gunshots go off and if I have seen people killed. This led to a discussion on gun control and led me to do a lot of research for class the next week. One of the students told about a recent stabbing near to Jonkoping by a student who had been bullied.

The topics are getting more real today.

On a lighter note, though, was talk of moose in the Smaland area, and where we could go to spot them - which we did over that weekend.

 

The third week I asked students what they had done over the weekend and I learned one was in a football (soccer) club.  This led to a discussion about Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Henrik Lundquist and sports in United States.

Another student had gone to a Kevin Hart show in Stockholm, leading to a discussion about Second City in Chicago.

The most animated discussion for the day, however, was when I asked what to do with my two oldest grandchildren when they come to visit in November (yay!).  The class left with me with a long list of fun things such as: Leoslekland, Yump, Kinarps Arena for skating, and even possible skiing areas.

We were unable to meet last week due to the Copenhagen trip, but today in the fifth week we talked about that.  I enjoyed seeing my students on that trip taking it all in, and today I found out that they liked the shopping in the city (the shoes! the clothes!), but thought the prices were too expensive.

They liked the outdoor art at the Louisiana Art Museum, the otters at the Blue Planet Aquarium, and the walk through Christiania - they seemed interested to hear I had lived through the actual 70s

hippie times.

I thought it would be okay to show this pic of a couple of my students on the trip.

Now that we are getting more comfortable with each other, the time in class seems to fly by. Truly, this is one of the most powerful relational experiences I have had while living abroad.

So glad the word "yes" came out of my mouth!