Midsummer, day 2

It's possible that I did dream about my future husband, but forgot it when I woke up to my alarm. I really wasn’t ready for it, but it helped that I was excited for the reason.  The conference included the chance to do a session in the temple, and I wasn’t going to miss that for anything—even a little more sleep.

I didn’t realize that I’d become so comfortable and familiar with the few temples I regularly visit (DC and Newport Beach) that I’d almost forgotten what it’s like to be a first-timer who has no idea where she’s going.  The biggest difference:  you rent your clothing before getting to the recommend desk and coming inside.  It was also my first time doing a session in a language other than English, and I’ll confess that at points where I already knew what was going on I’d flip through the other 8 languages on the headset to see what it sounded like in Finnish, Norwegian, etc.  I think I actually understood parts of one channel, which was probably Dutch.  It touched me to think that we were simultaneously being taught the same eternal truths in the language we were most comfortable with—and that the Spirit doesn’t need headsets for the same effect.  At the end, they set up the veils by language and you went through accordingly.  It was clear that they get foreign-language visitors all the time and that 9 languages in a group didn’t faze them.  Although it pre-dates the “mini-temples”, in many respects it felt smaller than Newport Beach’s temple and was truly the House of the Lord, rather than His mansion or castle.  Each session room only sat 30 people, and the Celestial Room was the size of a standard living room that quickly became cozy.  On my way out I looked lost enough that a volunteer approached me to help; when I told her where I was from she was kind enough to give me a tour.  It only lasted about 3 minutes, but she showed me the sealing rooms (one’s pink, the other blue).  I wouldn’t say the décor had anything striking, but in typical Scandinavian fashion there was a lot of unstained wood furniture.

I returned to the dorms, changed, and joined the group for a lunch of traditional Swedish food.  I was all over the meatballs and potatoes, but circled around the other items a little suspiciously.  I like embracing the culture of places I visit through music and dance...but I'm not a big seafood person.  Still, I had nothing to lose so I took a little of everything...which is good, because it didn't sit well with me.  I could handle the deviled eggs that had something fishy in the filling, but my gag reflex started kicking in with the pickled herring and I'm afraid my facial expressions could've offended our kind hosts.  I later found out you're not supposed to eat it full strength, but have a little bit with a lot of potato.  Too late, I'm afraid, and I likely won't be attempting that again anytime soon.  In this country, I'll stick to appreciating their meatballs and chocolate!

Our Midsummer celebration continued after lunch, as we boarded the buses and traveled to central Stockholm to visit Skansen.  Like the Norwegian folk museum, Skansen is an outdoor park that preserves traditional architecture from different regions of Sweden throughout their history. I was especially struck by how much has changed for them in the last century, especially in rural areas.  I also learned that their Lutheran churches traditionally put roosters on top under the crosses to distinguish them from the Catholics.  The explanation I was given was that it was a reminder that Peter (who Catholics trace their authority to) denied Christ thrice before the cock crew.  Our time there was limited, but a clear highlight for me was watching some traditional folk dancers.

Their show had a loose narrative and it was fun to see the energetic dances, bright costumes and adorable children who stayed for photos afterward.

apparently, she wasn't as excited

 They still had the trimmings of Midsummer at the park, which consisted of birch branches (looking like mini trees) flanking every doorway and a few giant maypoles. 

 One seemed to be the multi-cultural, covering your bases pole with a 5-pointed star, a star of David, and other symbols on the pole. The other was in a clearing, and after their performance some of the dancers headed there to help teach the visitors the traditional Midsummer dances we'd seen yesterday.  Eager to show off my skills from the day before, I could barely wait for a song to end before joining the circles. 

dancing 'round the maypole

The biggest difference from the day before: these musicians explained the songs and choreography in English as well as Swedish.  It turns out some of my guesses were fairly accurate, but for at least one song they were completely wrong.  It turned out we were doing a dance about frogs, which consisted of hopping around like them.  It looked ridiculous, but was apparently a good workout because my upper legs were sore the rest of the day.  We saw a few more areas of the park, including the area representing where Maggie's grandmother was from, but the time was too short and we raced back to catch our bus.

Our break before dinner was presumably to primp for the evening, but I spent most of it trying to nap.  We saw an email that tonight's dinner and dance were "fancy dress" once we were already on the road--thankfully we'd packed something a little nicer than normal so we didn't feel under-dressed. 

our "fancy dress"

The seating arrangement was randomized by picking a picture and then finding its match at the seats.  I was given a picture of Scarlett O'Hara, and soon found Rhett Butler's photo at a seat with some really nice Finns.  It was a good dinner, but I looked forward to dance afterward.  We had a great evening, and tried inserting our new folk moves into the Top 40 songs.  In true Mormon fashion, the dance ended a little before midnight, and we got to spend the after party cleaning the church so it'd be ready to use for worship in a few hours.  It went fairly quickly, and knowing it was the last night a group of us stayed up late chatting and eating chocolate in a classroom until the wee hours.  I can say it was mostly dark when I went to bed, but when I got up at 3:30 AM to use the bathroom the sun was already coming up again.  Crazy Midsummer!