another week's gone! ayykee.
but we're going to Malmö tommorow. to the newest ikea, the turning torso, and then laser dome in the late afternoon. im much looking forward!
hari raya haji dinner was good too.
weekend's finally here! woot. :):):D

Taizé Lund

just when i thought i've reached the epitome of my exchange experience and wailed for home, He dropped me beautiful strangers, renewing a light of HOPE.

im in LUND UNIVERSITY! and tonight, im just so thankful that im here. the whole experience has been great so far. be it socially, academically or religiously. it doesnt need a Yale or Harvard to make a good one. at the end of the day, it is pretty much the opportunities you choose to accept and the extent of your willingness to share yourself with others.

it's Taizé Lund weekend here. Brother Matthew from Taizé has arrived in Sweden! and some young adults from all over Sweden came togeher in April to organise this mega ecumenical gathering. i registered myself as a volunteer some weeks ago. and Evelina assigned me the task of preparing food at Pingstkyrkan (Pentecostal Church) on a Friday afternoon. there, i met two swedish folks in a spotless kitchen down in the basement. they had a classy dining area too. almost like a five star hotel if you didnt see a cross on the wall. surprisingly, it was just me and two Swedish grandmoms. i had expected more youth volunteers in fact. and some youthy-camp-style-cooking-in-the-kitchen. we chatted while slicing the leeks and squash. i've to mention, they were really accomodating, speaking in english most of the time. you see, i hear about how my other non-swedish speaking friends feel so left out when their corridor mate yak in swedish. it wasn't that tough to overcome the barrier of languange, nationality and even AGE. i'll call it, the wonders of Church Culture.

so here's presenting, Birgitta (Bridget). the other, Gunborgs, left earlier. one pot contains the green linsouppa (lentil soup) for lunch on Saturday. and the other pots are filled with pasta sauce for dinner the next day too.






















then, i headed to the friary first to meet up with the other students for evening prayer at the Cathedral.























Brother Björn made everyone check their duties and attendance for the weekend against a row of post-its on above the piano because most of us didn't check or reply his repeated emails. oops!























Stephen from Milan and Yocie from Indonesia.




















then Benoit insisted we register proper, even though there wasn't much of a different. so here's inside cafe hut, beside Lund Cathedral. Maria was there too! one of the girls i went on the wood walk at Genarp with. but she and Josephina were too busy planning for this weekend that i havent seen them around since..
























in the Cathedral, all the pews were removed and carried to the crypt. something never done in fourteen years! since the last Taizé meeting was held in Lund in 1995.

no pictures though. i think it's rude to snap when people are praying. even without flash.

so moving on to day two, Saturday..

08.30 Morning Prayer
10.00 Organ Recital
10.45 Bible Introduction
12.45 Midday Prayer
13.30 Lunch
14.30 Signs of Hope and sharing
17.30 Dinner
19.00 Br. Matthew talks about the Taizé community
20.30 Evening Prayer
























i don't know the first person. but the next is Jonas, Josephina, Brother Matthew, me and Sam. Br. Matt joined us for dinner at the Pentecostal Church. there were other churches hosting the participants too. such as Baptist, All Saints, etc. this was an ecumenical event! it's wonderful to see christians working and praying together! also, a large group of fifteen year old confirmants attended this gathering in Lund. Sam was the speaker for the talk after lunch. he spoke about micro-financing as signs of hope. basically, loaning small amount of money to the poverty stricken people in africa. this will enable them to start up a trade to make a living. apparently 98% of the loans have been repaid. what's small to us, can in fact make a difference to them. remember, they live on $2/day. i was the only non-swedish speaking there. so i had a private interpreter(: but during the sharing later onwards, they attempted to speak half the time, as there were another two swedish male elders. in fact, all eight of them in my group were swedes from all over too. im glad i had to opportunity to mingle with them.























next, a picture in the cathedral before people streamed in. i'll find a nicer picture of the crowd when the official photos are out. so we had Taizé session and the lighting of candles to signify the resurrection of Christ because the night before, we remembered His crucifixion. This is practiced in Taizé (the village in France) every week. see the wooden stools, they are the cheat-kneel-kinda-stools. another clever creation!

























the new testament is a swedish-english side by side version. Birgitta gave it to me on Friday after we shared a good time. inside, is a short note of love and blessings from her too. i think it was really sweet of her. i met her again earlier today! she gives hugs that radiate LOVE. thank God for angels. (:

then tomorrow, there's the Eucharistic celebration at the Cathedral at 11am.

my first attempt at baking kanelbulle turned out pretty well. the gang came over for a largely swedish meal. we played blackjacks with some horrible dares. stinky great fun still!

taize and fika

on every first and third tuesday evenings of the month, there'll be a taize gathering at our weekday mass chapel. i like the familiarity of this prayer.(:

fika- a social institution in sweden. WARNING: AN ADDICTIVE HABIT! it's the practice of a coffeebreak. anytime and anywhere. swedes drink LOADS of coffee. there' ALWAYS a fika after church meets. and it lasted til ten plus tonight cos 12 pple sat around and talked christianity. met new friends! polish, bolivia and a dominican sister...

and while shoping at willy's today, i bought punshrulle. a swedish pastry. green marzipan with the ends dipped in chocolate, and inside a mix of crushed cookies, butter, and cacao, flavoured with punsch liqueur :):):). this pastry is often called dammsugare ("vacuum cleaner"), referring not only to its appearance, but also to the supposed practice of the pastry baker collecting crumbs from the day's cookies for filling. other names are arraksrulle (as arrak is an ingredient in punsch ) and "150-ohmer" (due to the brown-green-brown coloring). -wiki












somewhat like the Prinsesstårta..


but trying them once is enough, its uber sweet for me.

but we ate scones on Kanelbulle Day

and this is sunday's lunch after mass. we made potato leek soup! and scones. its KANELBULLE DAY on the 4th October. makes me wanna bake cinnamons now too.

film evening

23rd! today marks one month in lund. so fast. time to pay bills too. we've joined kristianstad nation. and we're going for the novischpub later this evening.

we watched a film at the friary last night. now im thinking if the word 'priory' in dominican priory is related to the word friary. hmm. so we had chips and cookies (yay!) and a film discussion after the show. its my second swedish film! so much more intellectual than the first one of vampires. here's a brief from wiki..

You, the Living (Swedish: Du levande) is a 2007 Swedish black comedy film written and directed by Roy Andersson. The film is an exploration on the "grandeur of existence,"[1] centered around the lives of an overweight woman, a disgruntled psychiatrist, a heart broken groupie, a carpenter, a business consultant, an elementary school teacher with emotional issues and her rug selling husband, among others. The basis for the film is an old Norse proverb, "Man is man's delight," taken from Hávamál in the Poetic Edda.[2] The title comes from a quote in Roman Elegies by Goethe, which is also shown as a title card right in the beginning of the film: "Be pleased then, you the living, in your delightfully warmed bed, before Lethe's ice-cold wave will lick your escaping foot."

Shot in an unconventional manner, it consists of a fluent succession of exactly 50 short sketches, most of them with a tragicomic undertone, and all except one filmed in one take. The cast is non-professional and alienating techniques such as presenting the characters in grim make-up and having them talk directly to the camera are extensively used. The financing was troublesome and the shooting took three years to finish. The film won the Silver Hugo for Best Direction at the 2007 Chicago International Film Festival and has received positive reviews.

Hazwan's Hari Raya

hari raya dinner at delphi. goodies were all baked by hazwan's mom and dhl-ed over. coolness. (: