More Kiruna - Mostly Churches

We spent only a few days in the north of Sweden. Most of our time was spent working, but we did get to explore a bit. First is a photo of some wind turbines in the distance. I really love taking photos of wind turbines.





This is the dish at the EISCAT facility.



This old church is located in Jukkasjärvi, outside of Kiruna. The Swedish Wiki page says it was built in 1607-1608 and finished in 1785 (not really sure what the gap in time means). Also, apparently they were making some repairs in 1907 and found 87 graves under the floor of the church.





Finally we come to the Kiruna church. I was so impressed by this church. The outside looks pretty great, but once you get inside it is just spectacular. The construction with wooden beams is so beautiful and impressive to see. (Sweden at large agrees, naming it their most well-liked building in 2001.)











The craziest thing about this church is that they are getting ready to take it apart so that it can be moved, along with the rest of the city, two miles to the east and then be reconstructed. Kiruna is a mining town, and apparently the mine is gradually being dug under the current city, making it necessary to completely relocate. I'm just glad I got to visit while I could still visit this church!

Santa and our Christmas Eve dinner

Yesterday Santa stopped by.



It happened that I had been talking with my landlord who has five small children and also had a couple nephews visiting, and he asked if Greg and I would be busy in the afternoon. "I don't think so?" "Oh does Greg want to play Santa and distribute the gifts?" Greg agreed, so they met up in the laundry room to go over their plans. The trickiest part was probably the fact that GregSanta had to speak Swedish to the children.



And that lasted all of ten minutes, and then Greg and I cooked our dinner.



Yes that tall candle is one that I made. I know you were wondering. And after dinner we went to midnight Mass, which was actually quite nice. I really liked that it was not overly crowded like a Christmas Mass usually is. Also we sang the Swedish version of Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming. Bonus!

Sju skrivkort

Another week of linking up!

- 1 -

I don't know if a "quick take" is actually a skrivkort, but that is the best I'll be able to come up with.

- 2 -

On Monday I got to ride my bike home with my new friend! I don't even know her name! But we live in the same neighborhood, so we rode bikes home together after dance class! This is the highlight of any six-year-old's day!

- 3 -

I really like my co-workers. I realized I don't write much about work on this here blog, but I am okay with that. Or at least I'm okay with not writing my about the details of my work. Especially since I have to keep it on the DL since I just found out that someone at another university may or may not be doing a very similar project. Anyhow. I do appreciate that the majority of people here do not take themselves too seriously and can joke around a bit. I feel that with scientists, that is not an easy trait.

- 4 -

Snow!
It started snowing Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, and has been snowing since (ish). I need to get my bike into winter-mode. My plan is to get studded snow tires and then lower my seat so that my feet can touch the ground while I'm sitting on the seat. So many others do not seem phased by the snow on the ground; they just merrily ride their bikes along. (Although I did see at least one blotchy spot in the snow with sliding tire marks leading up to it.) Here is a gratuitous animated gif.

- 5 -

The snow also means that things look much less depressing around here. Everyone had said that November is the worst month because the days are getting shorter and there is no snow yet, so everything is really dark. But with snow on the ground the small amount of sunlight has a lot of good reflecting surface, which really makes a nice difference.

This photo was taken well after sunset, but it was the first night of snow, and I thought it was quite beautiful.

- 6 -

We have an advent wreath* in the office kitchen. Like I said last week, really good at celebrating religious holidays, this secular country is.

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In other religious news. Maybe you know (or maybe you don't) that the English translation of the Catholic Mass was revised in order to be a more accurate translation of the Latin Mass. The new translation was implemented last year at the beginning of advent. When we got to Sweden, we were happy to see that they had a Mass in English every Sunday. The first time we went, it was a surprise to find the old translation. Well it turns out that there is no requirement for countries that do not have English as the primary language to use the new translation (or something like that, trust me, I asked a priest). So, it wasn't wrong to be using the old translation, just kind of unfortunate (in my opinion). So, luckily (!), the church here is going to start using the new translation. And now that I have un-learned the new translation just after I was feeling comfortable with it, I get to re-learn what I un-learned.

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*It is really just a candle holder with four candles in a straight line. But just the first candle was lit today for advent (or at least the anticipation of it).

Barcelona Cathedral

The Barcelona cathedral is amazing. I took a small trip to see it while Greg was conferencing and was very glad I did. I will definitely have to take him back before we leave. And once again, until I get a wider angle lens, you get my makeshift panorama version of the exterior.

Barcelona!

Barcelona is treating us well! We arrived on Saturday to the sound of banging in the street, which turned out to be fireworks for the Feast of Sant Joan (St. John). Apparently this is an incredibly big celebration, and there were fireworks throughout the entire night, throughout the entire city.

On Sunday we went to Mass at Sagrada Familia. Wikipedia can give you all sorts of interesting information on this church.

I stuck these photos together to give the full extent of this structure. Hugely magnificent.