No train to stockholm

Well this is the week the kids have off so we found ourselves in a perdicatment because without school there isnt much to do. We went on a hike out in the woods and explored and it was beautiful but cold. Emilie and her older sister took me and alyssa to Luleå this week too which is kinda like chicago only smaller colder and the stores are more expensive but the malls were really cool to walk through. It kinda sucks being the only guy in my group because i do feel slightly secluded and left out in some things that go on but ive been making guy friends which i am very thankful for. Today is halloween and grottan but no one really dresses up but in honour of the occasion i plan to stuff myself with candy as i always have done and will continue to do. I need to start ordering more books to entertain myself because i am watching to many movies. We get to see some northern lights here and that is so cool to see. Anyway i am ranting but i will try and write more later. in peace,

-Samuel j. Miller

jag heter Samuel och Jag nej talar Svenska.

my name is Samuel and i dont speak swedish. Ok so its fun the here but bloody hard to pronouce. In the english alphebet we have 5 vowels, the swedes have 9 (A,E,I,O,U,Y,Å,Ä,and Ö). but we have those sounds in english we just dont have seperate letters for them lik Ä is a double OO sound like in goose but its still hard to remember that. Anyway today we got to go to the highschool and talk to kids there in the tenth grade and they arent talkative but more so than middle schoolers. i have to go to swedish classes so i will continue later. lol ha started again. anyway to me really the kids just seem really bored but i dunno they are warming up to us ´slowly but surely. Anyway i cant think of anything else i can say so peace

set the controls to the heart of the sun

Well i am writting this post in Jokkmokk Sweden. The plane ride from chicago to stockholm was amazing, I have never seen anything so beautiful in my life until we broke through the clouds and kept rising and rising. I expect heaven would be something like it. We had like a little computer in front of us and we could pick movies to watch to kill time so that made things go pretty fast but after 5 hours your ready to land. Oh my goodness landing sucks dot com. we got here at 7 40am which would be 1 40 in the morning back home then we flu to luleå and drove to Jokkmokk. so we made it to where we are staying at about 2 30 here which is 6 30am back home. Tom took us to his house to eat and meet his wife Disa and his youngest daughter Hannah. Everyone here is very friendly but we stick out big time as americans so you kinda feel stared at by everyone but we are something new so its not unexpected or unwelcome. I am so excited to learn swedish, more now because i can't tell what anything says without it. it is beautiful here at night. Oh we didnt sleep for about 28 hours because to try and get use to the time difference we stayed up till about nine o clock here then went to bed but i still feel rather sick and jetlag isnt fun. I keep all at home in my prayers.

working over time

well its weird going from a house of 16 to a house of three but it has been really nice getting to know alyssa and bethany. Our visas have come so we leave on monday which is really exciting but its really awesome to stay here for this week, at first i thought it would blow but its been alot of fun. We got to help out at a place on monday that serves food to people with HIV\AIDs, it was so neat seeing how nice the staff were and how passionite they are about what they do. Later that night we went to a seminar on the book "battlestar galatica and philosophy" my first thought was this surpasses any other nerdy thing i have ever done but it was really fascinating to here the different theories people had developed through the show. Yesterday we worked at a pre school place i worked at before early when we were here. this weekend we get to go on a camping retreat with the brethern church we live next to and i am super excited about being in the wilderness for a bit again. to sum this up people rock and i am nerd dot com. (on a sadder note the cubs and sox s are out of the running but i trudge on) in peace, -Samuel j.

the word i shall not mention (visas)

well they haven't come in yet so i shall continue to stay in the house in Chicago while everyone else is leaving. Though it will be hard to watch everyone leave i think it will be very nice to have this opportunity to really get to know my team members which will be very helpful for when we are together in a different culture because we will be able to be open with each other. i want to thank everyone who has and is continuing to pray for our visas. oh and MY FAMILY IS COMING THIS WEEKEND!!!!! WOOT!.