Day 34: Marieudd Debrief

Date: 24 February 2006
Time: 1650 hrs
Activity: Leave apartment for the Uppsala Central Station to meet the rest at 1715, before boarding the bus for Stockholm.

Date: 24 February 2006
Time: Approximately 2000 hrs
Activity: Arrival at the house in Marieudd.

Date: 26 February 2006
Time: 1030 hrs
Activity: Mass on the frozen lake at Marieudd.

Date: 26 February 2006
Time: 1530 hrs
Activity: Departure from Marieudd.

Date: 26 February 2006
Time: 1610 hrs
Activity: Arrival at Marieudd.

Date: 26 February 2006
Time: 1630 hrs
Activity: Departure from Marieudd 2.

Date: 26 February 2006
Time: 2000 hrs
Activity: Arrival at apartment.

The last two days had been excellent.

I noticed that the people here, or many of those I met, like to use two ex- words; excellent and exactly. And they way they pronounce it is ‘ack-sir-lant’ and ‘ack-zack-ly’ respectively, with a drawn emphasis on ‘ack’. And I dare say, I’m kind of influenced now, and have been using ‘excellent’ more than I would normally have done.

The weekend officially started on Friday, 24 February 2006 at 1730 hours, when we boarded the bus towards Stockholm. We took an approximately 55-minute uneventful bus journey to the station in order to catch a train, or subway, towards Brommaplan.

The real excitement started at Arkiv Station en route to Brommaplan from Stockholm’s Central Station.

“I suddenly feel very lonely”, Juan from Columbia.

The train terminated at Arkiv, everyone had already left except us. And when a lady called out to inform us of that fact, we tried to leave but only two made it. Our group of eight was separated. There was no one we could ask for help; no one to seek information from. Where were we going???

The six of us went for a ‘train ride’ to the depot and stopped for a while before the train made its way back to Arkiv. We had a grand total of 15 minutes of uneasiness amongst us 6 non-Swedes, before someone came to inform us the train would be making its way back to the station. It was really a lucky thing that one of the two who managed to alight was a Swede, otherwise poor Hanna from the Netherlands, who can’t understand Swedish (like me) would have panicked.

But anyway, we got back onto the right route soon after. Reached Brommaplan, waited a while for the bus to Marieudd, and met Fr. Philip at the bus stop. He drove our bags and some of the girls to the house, while the rest of us who wanted to walk, made our way slowly in the dark. Yes, the dark. It was the suburbs, so maybe it’s not that surprising. But I noticed that the motorways, even the major ones, do not have any street lamps at all! Energy conservation?

When I first heard about the two cottages in Marieudd, I had the impression of long sloping roofs, red or yellow exteriors, and window sills with flower planters. I was right only on one count. The exterior was red; the roof was sloping but not the kind I’d imagined; and there were no flower planters. It isn’t a cottage anyway. Basically one is a house, and the other a shed.

The first night was spent basically eating dinner, talking and sleeping. Nothing spectacular.

And as usual, my biological clock refused to let me sleep past 0600 (in any place in the world!), and I was awake at 0530. Since there was nothing to do, and I didn’t want to stone in bed, I went for a little walk and watched colours at the lake beside the house unfold during sunrise. Beautiful. The world slowly turned from a grey black scene to a lively multi-coloured real-life painting.

After breakfast, we took a little walk over the frozen lake to a little island out in the middle. On it stood a chapel and a mausoleum. This chapel was built by a rich lady who is now resting for eternity in the mausoleum during the early 1800s. This chapel was the IKEA type of thing. You find what you wanted in the catalogue, order it, and it will come to you in a box, in separate pieces. You then have to build it according to the plans given in the box. This chapel is quite unique. There are no internal supporting pillars. All the load bearing pillars are located at the sides. The wooden chapel contrasted starkly with the heavy metal tabernacle, circular altar and pulpit. Behind the mausoleum was a Marian grotto. The statue was from the late 1800s as well, just after the Marian apparitions occurred at Fatima. Upon her passing, the lady willed the island, the house and the surrounding land to the Catholic Church on the condition that Mass is said once a year in the chapel. Cool, isn’t it?

It was sauna after lunch. Yes, I did the ice dip in the lake after the perfect 80C warm up. This process was repeated three times. No, I didn’t reach any falsettos or soprano scales. Instead, I was the stoic, stiff upper lip influenced citizen of a former British colony. No, I didn’t scream. It was fun! Really fun! I never thought I would do such a crazy thing like jumping into a hole of a frozen lake, let alone do it three times. But after the sauna, and the icy dip, it just felt so good; relaxed and sleepy. A nap was absolutely necessary after that. Excellent stuff.

Before the nap though, we had some semlor. It's cream bum eaten just before lent. Actually, semlor is quite easy to make. It can even be done in Singapore, with the simple ingredients. All you need is buns, whipped cream, and confectionary sugar to sprinkle on top of the buns. The only tough ingredient to buy is the sweetened marzipan, placed between the bottom half of the bun and the whipped cream. Perhaps, this can be found in Cold Storage or Carrefour?

After dinner, it was chips, chocolate and wine. Some stayed in the kitchen to talk, while others like me headed to the living room to play games. Jana brought a board game called Settlers. I’d not heard of that before. But it was fun. It wasn’t those easy games that even brain dead people would have no problems winning, but this game required thinking and strategising. It’s some sort like Age of Empires or Settlers PC game. Very cool, but very taxing on ones’ grey matter. In fact, it was so fun that six of us played until 0200 before heading back to bed.

Despite sleeping at 0200, the second day started early for me, at 0600. I really cannot understand why I can’t sleep past that witching hour.

"What do you do when you so early?" Fr. Philip, 2006.

"Pray.", said in an as-a-matter-of-fact manner. Does this sound arrogant? But I do what. It's not as though I'm lying or as though I have to be ashamed of that fact like that.

But of course, I did say I stone for a period of time as well.

Anyway, it was another walk before breakfast. After which was the Mass, on the frozen lake, with the elements beating down on us. It was sunny but absolutely cold because of the wind. Lucy suggested that. We went along. In retrospect, I disagree with her concept of returning to the very basics. It’s not a matter of material basics but spiritual basics. Having Mass out in the open like that only distracted my thoughts from what should be the centre of the Mass – Jesus. I was constantly thinking of how cold I was, how my toes felt frozen, how I wanted the wind to stop, etc. I couldn’t concentrate on the word of God at all. And the host wasn't unleavened bread. They had run out of it, so they substituted it with ordinary toast bread! Even though it was a truly once-in-a-lifetime experience, I didn't appreciate the inability to concentrate on the Mass very much.

It was some rest, lunch and cleaning up after that. We left in three groups. One group wanted to watch the Sweden-Finland ice hockey finals of the Turin Winter Olympics Games. One group took Fr. Philips car back to Uppsala. And one group took the bus-train-bus combination back. I was in the third group.

At 1530, Fr.Philip wanted to drive us to the bus stop, while he waited there for Group two to arrive so that he could drive them back. Little did we expect that his car would get stuck in the snow. We got out to push, but two guys and two girls weren’t able to the get car moving too far. We managed to get the car moving for a few feet before it was stuck again. We had to call reinforcements from the house. It worked almost immediately. But it was already too late for us to catch the 1553 bus to Brommaplan. And it was too late for Fr. Philip to wait any longer, because he needed to reach Uppsala for the English Mass. So off Group Two went, while the rest of us headed back to the house to wait and warm up. Heck, I was already sweating from all that pushing and the carrying of luggage. We only had 10 to 15 minutes of rest before we needed to head to the bus stop once again. But not before I had to run down to the lake in falling snow, to grab an oar that we left behind from the previous day.

The way back was rather uneventful, except for the huge amount of noise we heard when we emerged from Stockholm’s Central Station. Cars were beeping their horns everywhere. We saw crowds of people along one side of the streets.

A protest! Yay! I can finally see a protest.

Protest, my foot.

I realised what happened when I saw cars with Swedish flags, hanging from their windows, posters, and people screaming. Sweden won the ice hockey final against the arch rivals Finland. Gold medal for them.

Well, duh…

So I reached back the apartment at approximately 2000 hrs. After a long eventful, relaxed weekend, I feel totally worn out. I need a vacation for this weekend break.

Photos later. Need rest first.