We left for Minneapolis at about 10:30am. I stopped by to see everyone at work one more time and to drop Emma off and say goodbye for the next year. On our way we stopped in at AJ’s to have lunch with him at Subway and say bye.
When we arrived we checked into billeting (hotel on a military reserves base). Then we headed to IKEA to do some shopping. More like looking but it was fun to walk around with my parents.
Then we headed to the mall to look for a one hour glasses shop. David had broken his glasses a few days before we were going to leave and of course nowhere in the UP (Upper Peninsula) could help. Luckily we found a shop that could to his exam and have the glasses ready before we left. So we walked around the mall and at some supper at Noodles and Company.
(Me “swimming” with the sharks and sea animals the mall.)
We then went back to billeting and were going to try and check in and print our tickets out. We were not able to do this because we had still not received our visas. We instantly began praying that it wouldn’t be any trouble the next day when we got to the airport.
Tuesday January 10, 2012
The day we woke up hoping that we would be in Sweden within the next 24hours. My dad took his car in for an 8am appointment to get the brakes fixed on his van. They had begun making a noise when we were downstate a few weekends ago but nothing serious and it eventually went away. Well on the way over to MN they started grinding really bad. So while he took that in David caught a shuttle to the mall for his eye appointment. My mom and I relaxed in billeting and watched movies waiting for the boys to return. Dad returned with the car at about 10:40am so we headed to the mall to find David.
( I only had my ipod camera so this didn’t turn out so well it is the front of the mall)
When we arrived at the mall he was finishing up and they said his glasses would be done in about a half an hour. That left us plenty of time to go to Cinnabon for some breakfast. Yummy! We were a little worried about the visas so we headed over to the airport a little early.
When we arrived they sent us to one of the machines to check in. It would not let us check in with out the visa so we had to talk to the man at the counter. He didn’t even ask us any questions he checked our bags right through to Copenhagen and gave us our tickets for all the way through too. First prayer answered we had our tickets now we just had to make it through the customs at the other end.
(The small things made all the difference.)
We sat and chatted with my parents until 1300 and then decided the security lines were moving pretty slowly we should probably get going to give ourselves time to find our gate. It was easier than I thought saying goodbye knowing that they are going to come visit us at some pointJ (If anyone else wants to come and visit let us know we would be more than happy to have you.)
(On our flight from MN to Chicago. Happy to be on our way.)
My bag got flagged at security in MN and O’Hare. The first time for my water bottle having water in it and too many cords in my bag and the second time they never really did figure out what the lady thought she saw. We had made it to the gate where our plane for Sweden sat.
We had 5 hours till take off. So we called family and friends to say bye one more time. At 2130 we boarded our flight. In 8.5 hours we would be in Denmark. Only a train ride away from our home for the next 5months.
Wednesday January 11, 2012
We cruised at an altitude of 40,000feet and went about 620mph making the trip seem like it zipped on by. We arrived an hour earlier than expected it was 1220. We deboarded the plane and got in line for customs. David was a little nervous at this point it was the last hurdle we had to make it through to get into the country. We got to the desk handed the man our passports he asked where we were going. David said “Malmo, Sweden.” He asked us no more questions stamped our passports and let us through. We both let out a huge sigh of relief and a prayer of thanks. We had made it in with no huge issues.
(The train ride across the bridge from Copenhagen to Malmo.)
(Our first glimpse of Sweden after getting off the train.)
We gathered our bags bought our train tickets and boarded the train. When we arrived in Malmo we had a few hiccups with getting to the SLU Alnarp campus. We eventually made it and found that there were still people on campus and they helped us to get ahold of our landlord.
(The train station from our bus stop.Malmo Central)
Our landlord to our surprise is a sweet old man in his 70s. (Although you would never know it by looking at him.) He loaded our bags in the back of his car and showed us a few areas of campus and then a little of the area where we would be living. At 1730 he dropped us at our little apartment and said he would stop in to see us the next day. We walked to a little shop called Lidl and got some dinner. We then fell into bed and fell fast asleep.
With very few hiccups and many answered prayers we made it safely to Sweden. We are still waiting to hear on our visa. It doesn’t seem to be a problem at this point yet. We have three months before it could become a problem.
At this point all we can do is pray and stay positive that it will work out how it is supposed to. That has been a theme I think we have subconsciously given this year long excursion. It will work out how it is supposed to work out and there is nothing that we can change. We will have more fun if we sit back relax and enjoy the ride rather than worry the entire time.
Thanks to everyone who was praying for us and thinking about us, as we made our venture over here.
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