a quick book recommendation

I'm currently reading through Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church by N.T. Wright with a Christian study circle here in Sweden. I've been reading it all day actually. The author is a bishop or something in the Church of England. The first 2 chapters aren't impressive but if you push through them he does a very rigorous evaluation of the plausibility of the ressurection and then discusses what the early church thought about heaven and what that means for us today. When forced to think about my own views of the afterlife, I found that I really had no clear picture nor a solid scriptural basis for the patchy views I did hold. Thus the great value of this book. If you have no time for reading (which is certainly a shame), perhaps we can discuss the implications of this scriptural view of heaven over fika (a Swedish word that has no real English translation but roughly means "coffee break") sometime :) Otherwise pick it up.

As a side note, I've really enjoyed this study circle which is made up of me, Hannah and her Swedish boyfriend, and a few other very cool Swedes. It's been great discussing with such smart and critically-minded Christians who aren't afraid to seek truth, even if it takes a slightly different shape than what we have been brought up to believe. I leave each night feeling stretched and challenged, both intellectually and spiritually, and with a stronger desire to live in obedience to Christ's teaching in humility and love.

Our amazing UK adventure!

Okay so I have a bunch to do and don't have time to be too detailed but do ask me about our wonderful trip when I get home. I'll put the skeleton of events here so I won't forget.

April 12th: Stephen arrives in Sweden!! Little tour of Uppsala.

April 13th: Wake up sooo early. Taxi to Arlanda Airport. Fly to Heathrow. Our plane is a bit late and we miss our bus to Bath. Eat lunch at Cafe Nero (as Stephen said, kill enough Christians and they'll name a coffee chain after you). Take the next bus to Bath and enjoy the LOVELY scenery of the English countryside. It's so green! Check in at the Bay Tree House B&B, see the Roman Baths, eat some satisfying BK, and enjoy a relaxing evening.

April 14th: Eat the first of our delicious full English breakfasts! Take an overly-expensive trainride to London and head to our second B&B, another Bay Tree House B&B with no relation to the first. Chat with our gracious hosts for a while. Go on one of those touristy-but-practical bus tours of the city. See the Tower of London (which isn't just a tower, was I the only one who expected just a tower?). Have a nice dinner at Max's. Walk around a little and find a beautifully lit up King's College complex with fountains- how romantic :)

April 15th: Chat it up with folks at breakfast, some Danes and a nice Australian guy. See London by foot. Saw the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. Loved Westminster Abbey and saw Big Ben and Parliament. Walked 2 hours across London (mostly through Green and Hyde Parks) to get some real English afternoon tea- the distance looked much smaller on the map! Stephen had some excellent tea sandwiches and Queen's cake and I tried clotted cream and jam on scones. We walked by lots of Londoners sipping coffee in Starbucks (out of real mugs). This was such a busy day, I think I'm forgetting some of the stuff we did, but we saw a lot. Then a major highlight: we saw Les Miserables. It was sooo good!

April 16th: Quick breakfast and then to King's Cross Station to catch our train to Edinburgh (with a comfortable for me but not for Stephen margin of about 10 minutes). Long train ride in which we talk a little with the English couple across the table from us. Eat some very tasty and authentic Italian food in Edinburgh... delicious roast duck and the best fresh mozzarella I've ever had! We walk around and almost climb a fence to take a shortcut, but I've been too well socialized not to climb fences! We climb a lot of hills to see Edinburgh Castle and some great views. Eventually we went to Hertz downtown to pick up our rental card, the fiesty little Ford Fiesta. Getting into the passenger side on the left of the car was certainly an experience, driving it off the lot into a steady stream of downtown traffic was terrifying. Of course I left all the driving to Stephen who is far more capable and managed to stay calm despite the craziness. We made a wrong turn somewhere but managed to end up at Micky D's where Stephen enjoyed his dinner emmensly. We hit the open road as the sun was starting to set. Needless to say, Scotland is beautiful. Despite one wrong turn that cost us about 45 min (my fault) we made it up to Inverness and our last B&B, the Blue Bell House.

April 17th: Our first full Scottish breakfast, complete with potatoe scones and black pudding (got to love that coagulated pig's blood- but we didn't find that out til Friday post-breakfast). Drive around the Inverness area, see Loch Ness (home of Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster), and see Urquart Castle. Stephen buys some sweet euro-clothes. We manage to find a late dinner (which was harder than you'd think) and try some Scottish ale.

April 18th: Chat with an Australian couple at breakfast and then head west. See some STUNNING scenery and eventually arrive at Elien Donan Castle on the western side of the Highlands (Inverness is on the east coast). Drink some cappucinos and visit the castle. Make our way to the cute and isolated coastal village of Plockton. Eat at Grumpy's (fish and chips and scottish meat pie). Enjoy the scenery all the way home. Eat Thai food and groove to some cool Scottish music at Hootenanny's. Stephen decides scotch whiskey is really only tasty on the first sip. The band encorporates bag pipes and a fiddle into rock music, good stuff.

April 19th: After another delicious breakfast (I especially love the tomatos and beans), we head towards Glasgow. Pass through Perth and stop for lunch in Stirling. So many SHEEP! Drive through Glasgow but don't stop because traffic is backed up for miles. Hang for a bit in Prestwick before our flight back to Sweden. Fly to the Ryan Air airport, Skavsta, then bus to Stockholm center and taxi to Stallmastaregarden Hotel (a really romantic place actually), arriving past 1 am.

April 20th: [Not technically part of our UK adventure] Great Scandinavian breakfast and leisurely walk to Stockholm's train station. Upon arrival in Uppsala we got some ice cream (short lived though) and sat with a whole lot of other students along the river reading in the sun. Even played ultimate frisbee with my corridormates. Stayed up talking and reminising about our lovely time together.

April 21st: Really sad day! Took Stephen to the airport and said goodbye around 1:00 pm. That afternoon was probably the most sad I've been here. I ended up sitting on a bench on my way home reading for a few hours and then spent the rest of the night reading in bed. Seriously, I don't know what I would do if I couldn't read.

So that was our action-packed 9 days together. Spent a lot more $$ than I expected, but it was definitely worth it. Now I'm looking forward to the summer and more time with my favorite accountant. The days are flying by but, babe, I'm missing you so much! Can't wait to hang out with lise too :)

See facebook for a bunch of pics. If you're really curious, I have a whole lot more that didn't make the cut and would be happy to show you. Here are a few:

English breakfast!
Steve likes this one. I'm enjoying a strange version of an iced latte at the first Cafe Nero we saw.
Touring London!
How's that black pudding, babe?

At Elien Donan Castle near Kyle of Lochalsh. We had beautiful weather the whole trip!

Some "beautiful" scenery as we drive in our car.

a few reflections on culture

First I would like the say happy birthday to elise :)

Currently it is snowing here in Sweden. I can't say that snow is quite as beautiful at this time of year when we're all so ready for spring, and have been fooled into thinking that it was already here last week. And it was snowing in the UK a few days ago too! Hopefully it will be sunny and warm for our trip; one can always hope.

I was sitting in on a class called "Money and Time" offered by the theology department here at the university. Several of my friends are taking it and I thought it might be interesting to just listen to the lectures sometimes. They had a guest speaker and he said a few things I thought worth writing down (in my summarized version). Here they are:

A love of reality shows is perhaps a symptom of loneliness because we feel like we know these people even though we don't actually. [a sort of quasi-relationship]

We have a need to feel a part of a metanarrative. We used to get this from the Bible, politics, etc. but now these are decreasing in importance. We live vicariously as a substitute for real living.

The media becomes the main provider of social construction as the family and other traditional institutions diminish. The media tells us who we are.

I wouldn't have expected these topics so much in a class about money and time, but I guess that's the beauty of a discussion oriented class. Tonight after debate club a bunch of us went downstairs to the pub and had a good chat. I suppose it can't be helped, but I think so many conversations I have here involve comparing Sweden to the US (or which ever country you're an exchange student from). Tonight we compared political parties, financial crises, and views about sexuality. We decided that all American parties are to the right of right-wing Swedish parties, Sweden's crash in the early 1990's is quite similar to today's housing crisis and subsequent issues in the American economy, and that Swedes have incredibly different views and norms when it comes to sexuality. All of this could probably be guessed. On the last point, it's not just that people have a lot of random partners, but the whole society seems to be much more relaxed. Most girls in high school are on birth control, and according to one swede, still being a virgin at 18 means you're either extremely religious or something is wrong. I don't think this is true in the US. At the same time, I don't think most Americans have a good view of sexuality either. But perhaps this blog is not the proper forum for this discussion.

I do appreciate the way the world seems to turn a little slower here, but maybe that's just how it looks through the eyes of an exchange student with a lot of free time. People always have time for fika or one drink at the pub. Maybe that's how it is at UConn too, and I'm just too busy having a scheduled lifestyle that I can't see it. In any event I hope that some of this relaxation follows me home.

We're off to the UK on Sunday. I can't believe it's already April. Certainly time speeds along, even when you have nothing important to do. At least I'm doing a lot of reading and researching. I'm also trying to relearn some subjects I've forgotten. Okay, time to read. Seriously I feel like my life consists only in processing written and verbal information. Anyhow, goodnight.

be persuaded to read persuasion

So I started Persuasion by Jane Austin about 3 days ago, but since I had to study for my exam (on the economic history of sweden) I couldn't really indulge until yesterday, when I spent from 2 to 7 pm reading and then finished it this morning while doing laundry. If you have not read it already, I highly recommend it. I will not ruin the ending or anything in this entry, but it evokes some thoughts on romance so I will allow myself to ponder my reaction here. I hope you find it "agreeable." Reading austin always makes one desire a most illustrious and graceful rhetoric, preferably with a poignant british accent. (sooo excited about england/scotland!)

Often in life the things we have to wait for are more rewarding than those we don't. Granted some things are inherently good, and no amount of speed or delay will change that they are so. Yet sometimes it is the waiting period that makes the end result so much more valuable. I don't think it is good for anyone to always have what they want, as soon as they want it. Modern technology has sped up the pace of life so much that perhaps we expect all our desires to be met instantaneously, but I don't think that is a best possible outcome. Something is certainly gained in waiting.

For example, I love Christmas. Perhaps even more than the day, I love the season preceeding it. The idea of advent, living in anticipation of Christ's return to earth, surely agrees with me in that something is gained by our waiting for Christ's return, and while we wait, looking forward to it and perservering through the troubles of this life. I can enjoy December 25th much more if I have been living in anticipation since at least Thanksgiving. I used to remove a link in the red and green construction paper chain each day. I hate it when holidays sneak up on me. Something is lost.

I started by saying I would talk about romance, but I think you've already made the connection. The first thing Corinthians 13 says about love is that it is patient. Another word for patience, long-suffering, has always made me pause. "Long" and "suffering": I don't know anyone who likes long suffering. If we must suffer, we want it to be over as quickly as possible. In persuasion, Anne has been "suffering" for 8 years when we first meet her as a character. Longing for someone she loves but can't be with, believing him lost forever, possibly married to another. She talks a lot about constancy. It seems to me both the gift and the curse of strong feelings that we don't get over them quickly. Yet another good reason for marriage to be forever. Hearts which cleave to each other and become one are not meant to be parted.

Still I maintain that a romance that endures trials, separations, and difficulties is much the better for it. I agree with Mrs. Smith (a friend of Anne's) that our true characters are revealed in the painful and awful sitations rather than the sunny day. And of course, anything which we have long waited for gains even more value because of the wait. In all my grown years of coming and going from home, I find that I am most happy to see my family, our pets, and that lovely grey colonial on the day I arrive from a long separation. I can appreciate them more after feeling their absence.

One song that always makes me reflect is The Wait by Built to Spill. You should go listen to it because the music really adds a lot but here are the lyrics:

You wait/ You wait/ You wait for summer, Then you wait for rain/ You wait/ You wait/ You wait for darkness then you wait for day/ Yeah, you wait

You wait/ You wait/And she said patience, patience, darling/ Patience, patience, it will come

You wait/ You wait/ You wait for August, Then you wait for May/ You wait/ You wait/ You wait to get up, Then you wait to play/ You wait

You wait/ You wait for someone that'll make the waiting worth the wait
You wait/You wait/ You wait

I don't know exactly why I put the whole song in except that I think it rings so true. Perhaps another aspect of waiting, patience, and long-suffering that should be discussed is what we do in the meantime. If we don't know how to enjoy the days going by in anticipation, we won't be truly able to enjoy the event/person/etc. that we've been waiting all this time for. As soon as one thing arrives, we'll start longing for something else! It's so characteristic of our nature, and daily contentment is not. I spent most of my younger years believing that my life would finally "start" in college. Then there is my tendancy even now to think that my life can't have abundance until I'm married, and so in some aspects I'm waiting for my life to "start" then.

I guess what this song reminds me of is the need to be content everyday even as we wait. We are not guaranteed a tomorrow, and while planning for the future is wise, it is also wise to be thankful for all our present circumstances, if for no other reason than that God is in control and is working all things together for our good.

And now I should really go to bed. I recommend both Persuasion and The Idiot (which I just finished reading as well). I also read Candide (Voltaire) at my corridormate's urging, which is satirical and sobering. It's a bit unrelated to this entry here but perhaps I'll discuss it in a future post. So be content and wait for someone who will make the waiting worth the wait.

pictures from copenhagen. better late than never.

thoughts on the welfare state

I've been learning a lot about Sweden's welfare state, both in and out of the classroom. In my first class here we discussed liberal egalitarianism (made famous by rawls and expanded upon by dworkin) which explains the need for a welfare state on a theoretical basis which considers the moral equality of individuals as paramount. This line of thinking recognizes that there are inherent inequalities between people (that they don't deserve) and thus desires to equalize positions, allowing inequity only when it benefits the least well off. Perhaps at a theoretical level this seems right, but putting it into practice requires a society which does not believe that individuals have a considerable amount of self-ownership. Liberal egalitariansim seems to require the valuing of others in the community on an equal level with yourself and immediate family while at the same time promoting individuals and individual rights as supreme. This almost seems a contradiction. The individualistic western culture with which liberalism has historically been associated seems to make the imposition of a welfare state a difficult task.

In the States we don't usually think of our country as being a welfare state, but to some degree it certainly is. Granted you can go from riches to rags and end up on the streets, but there are unemployment transfers and government sponsored programs to keep you from going hungry and get you back on your feet, as long as you want to get back to work. The government provides education and subsidizes higher education and healthcare for many who can't afford them. We seem to take it for granted that a modern state provides basic services to its population but this was not always the case, nor is it true everywhere today.

Let's go back to the reasons for the welfare state. I've always thought that governments provide basic services like education because it is in the best interest of the state to have an educated population. Certainly countries have and will continue to compete for places of power in the global community and that requires a certain level of competancy among laborers (at least in the modern context). The Swedish welfare state takes it further, they provide free education all the way through (including masters and Ph.D's), generous retirement benefits, gender-equalizing policies such as shared maternity/paternity leave paid for by the government, free healthcare (like the rest of europe), etc. The sentiment here is "we're all equal so why shouldn't we all have the same opportunities?"

I think it really comes down to values. In the states people are always talking about "hard work" while here the buzz word seems to be "equality". I've always taken it for granted that inequity is inherent in the world and thus some people will have to work harder than others to have "the good life." I guess I've never questioned the justice of such a thought. I used to whine to my dad that someone got more than me- he would simply reply, "michelle, life's not fair." Perhaps that is why the swedish culture and liberal egalitarianism seem so strange to me. Is it unjust for some to have more than others? Since when did justice mean an equal distribution? For some people, the two seem to be equivical. Is this a cultural sense of entitlement? Am I wrong to think that God gives to each a certain lot, and it's what we do with what we're given (talents, opportunities, resources) by which we are measured?

So all these thoughts are rolling around in my brain whilest I'm also pondering economic development. Previously I have considered my reason for being involved in development more along the lines of compassion for the poor than giving them their due. Do I think it's right and just that a few hundred families own most of the arable land in South America and the landless farmers are often employed at close to slave wages? Certainly not. There is plenty of injustice based on distribution. But this is where I get stuck. I do think that the huge tracks of land sitting unused by rich landowners should be redistributed to the people without land, but I'm not sure if I consider such an action an act of mercy and love like Christ told us to act, or as a requirement of justice because each person has a moral right to an equal share. So now you see that this entry is really just me trying to figure out what I think.

Back in the 1970's, the swedish welfare state was much more built up and regulated than it is today (the economic crisis of the 90's brought a lot of deregulation). The majority of the population was within one of 4 national labor unions and these unions basically sat down with employers and made deals while the government watched and gave its blessing. The main thrust of this policy was 'wage solidarity' which meant "equal pay for equal work"- even between companies and in somewhat different industries. This resulted in the majority of the population having very similar incomes and the floor and ceiling effect- with government money transfers, no one could drop below a certain level and with a progressive tax scheme that dramatically taxed away extra income after a certain point. This is why Sweden has one of the lowest Gini coeffiecints (which measures inequality) in the world. The system also focused on preventitive measures and proactive government intervention which is less costly than recovery and crisis management. This was one argument that the welfare state could propel development rather than stifle it.

The Swedes seem more relaxed about their work. On the news the other night they were interviewing people in the debate to change the workday from 8 to 6 hours a day. The woman they were interviewing was saying how nice it was for her to have 2 more hours a day at home with her family since her company had switched. I can't really imagine America instituting a 6 hour work day, so that working over 30 hours a week would mean overtime. Yet it's a nice thought. Certainly all those worried that China is going to pass us as a world power wouldn't like what that would do to GDP. It definitely seems like there are less adult Swedes working themselves to death, though family values seem to be weaker here (that's an entry for another day).

Well thanks for reading to this point, I know that was probably just a lot of incoherent rambling. I'm curious to hear what people think about a "just distribution" so leave a comment if you like. Being a brunette is great, I feel like I have a whole new wardrobe. My corridor is feeling more like a family everday. I guess I do a lot of "real" cooking compared to some of the others because Alexander told me today I'm like the corridor "wife". He said he wouldn't mind if I had some food on the table for him when he got home lol. All that probably because today I tried to cook a whole chicken and it looked all fancy. Tasted pretty good too. Okay well I should really go back to learning about Sweden's economic history and reading up on the world development reports for my economic development class. I can't believe it's March 18th!

taking the plunge

I dyed my hair dark brown. I think I like it. I'll miss my natural hair color because it is rather unique, but I figure now is as good a time as any to try something a little different (perhaps quite different). here are some recent photos:

Eating pancakes with my corridormates. Texas and I sort of had a bake off, a friendly one of course.

Some corridormates and Kayla hanging out in our kitchen. From left to right: Kayla, Ali, Howard, Jonathan, and Texas.