FAR8.1: Travelling South...

I’ve been told that you can’t say you’ve been to the Faroe Islands unless you’ve been to Suðuroy, the South Island. So although I’d been here for a month and a half, I still couldn’t say I’d been to the Faroe Islands – until this weekend.

So when the opportunity arose to go to Suðuroy with a couple of officers from the Salvation Army, I jumped at the chance. And I had a fantastic time – the scenery was stunning, the people were so friendly (I ate a LOT of cake) and it was great to see some more of the country.

One of the things I was most looking forward to was the journey. It takes two and a half hours (usually it takes just two hours from Tórshavn, but the ferry is currently in Denmark being serviced, so we were using an older ferry, St. Ola) and I’d heard the scenery was great. I have a bit of a thing about islands, and I loved travelling through the fog, seeing islands I’d heard of, but never seen, suddenly appear from the mist – it must be the romantic in me!

So I made a little video of some of the trip – it’s a little different to the other videos, and I don’t know whether it’ll be particularly interesting for people that aren’t my mum (and most of you aren’t), but I quite like it...

But before you look at it, here’s a map of the Faroes (complete with spelling mistakes) so you can get your bearings:

As I said, we were using an older ferry, which had evidently come in from Estonia. Now my Estonian phrasebook was not one of the things I had expected to need in the Faroes (stupid, I know), so I was a bit concerned to see signs like this, which are clearly very important (check out the number of exclamation marks!), and not have a clue: But then I realised that you just read out the Estonian words and it sounds like English anyway...St. Ola: A highlight was a visit to the other Salvation Army corps (church) on the islands, located in the village (or, as far as the Faroes are concerned, metropolis) of Vágur (pop. 1,400):Somehow I got roped into singing a song in the meeting – and for the very first time, I accompanied myself on the piano, singing ‘He Leadeth Me’. I was so nervous, because I’m not that confident on the piano, but it seemed to go OK...

So thank you to everyone who made the weekend great :)

FAR7.1: Kavi!*

I may be getting on in years, but I still get excited by snow (here’s some more proof). I woke up Tuesday morning to find that quite a few inches of snow had arrived overnight (it had been falling so hard that I’d actually thought it had been raining all night – something which isn’t too unusual here...). And it was proper snow! Like when you were a kid and you’d go outside and you didn’t know where the pavement finished and where the road started, until you fell into it. Well, that’s what used to happen to me. And what happened to me on no less than five occasions yesterday...

(What was even stranger was that the schools stayed open... And you know what? If the Faroese had trains, I reckon they’d have even been running... Don’t they know how dangerous snow is?!).

Anyway, I’d just got (‘got’, not ‘gotten’) used to the fact that Tórshavn was so picturesque, and stopped taking photos every 5 minutes – and then the place went and got a whole lot picturesquer!

So here’s a couple of shots. This is an old Faroese house, complete with grass roof – and I don’t remember the last time I saw icicles like this...
The old town: A view from Tórshavn Cathedral (the Cathedral is tiny – it’s not even the biggest church in Tórshavn – but it has a certain something!):The town hall: But then it had all gone. And all we were left with was a giant skating rink...*The Faroese word for ‘snow’, in case you hadn’t guessed. Or didn’t know already.

FAR6.2: Birthdays

FAR6.1: Celebrations

This weekend was excellent. The Salvation Army band at the corps in Tórshavn was 75 years old and a whole heap of things were planned to mark the occasion!

The excitement started on Thursday 23rd October, the actual day of the anniversary, where after a short march from the hall, we played outside the town hall and had breakfast with the Mayor of Tórshavn. (The Salvation Army, and particularly the band, has a very high profile in the Faroe Islands, playing an important part in the national day celebrations every July).

Getting ready for the march (at 8.50am – how hardcore!):

At breakfast with the Mayor: Following the breakfast, six of us went to the radio station Rás2, where the bandmaster and the bass player were interviewed, and we played four tunes live on air. Those who were interviewed did a fantastic job and made the most of a real opportunity for witness. The DJs had really done their homework too! This is just before we played on air (I always get a little overexcited... Although radio is actually a bit of a step down for me ;) ):On the Friday we had our first rehearsal with our guest from Norway, Major Jan Harald Hagen, head of music for the Norwegian Territory (The global Salvation Army is divided into territories for administrative purposes. The Faroe Islands are part of the Norwegian territory, together with Iceland... And Norway, but you probably got that). He was a great bloke and we had a good time together – although the language situation got somewhat confusing!*Saturday was marked by more rehearsals with Jan Harald, followed by a very nice meal at a hotel in Tórshavn for members of the band and their families.

Sunday night was the music festival, which we had all advertised by putting up posters around town, and we really hoped the turn-out would be good. It was fantastic – there were over 150 people there. The evening was excellent – a lot of humour, the band played really well, there were testimonies, vocal items, etc. – and although the band was the main feature for most of the night, no-one in that hall could have gone home without knowing they had been in Church and that the sole purpose of everything we do is to further the Christian message. Apparently an awful lot of the congregation had never been to an Army meeting before. Good stuff!

On two occasions during the meeting, we looked at a few photos from the band’s history, right up to the present day (I was even on some of them!) – it’s fairly unusual to be looking at photos of the old days and be sitting in a band that is bigger now than back then... (I’ll write more about the Salvation Army here in a future post).

It was a fantastic weekend, and a real privilege to be a part of it. I timed my stay pretty well, didn’t I?

As I said, the radio DJs had really done their research, and they spoke all about the Salvation Army and its history, and even played a recording of William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, speaking in 1910. It was fascinating to hear. I’ve listened to it a lot now, and I’m fairly sure I have the subtitles right – enjoy:*Seriously, it did my head in: Jan Harald is Norwegian, and spoke, as you would expect, Norwegian. The Faroese can all speak Danish and understand Norwegian – many of them speak Norwegian too, so they used Danish, Norwegian or a mixture of the two when speaking to, or in front of Jan Harald, but Faroese to each other and to me. Now I understand Norwegian, and speak Swedish – Swedish and Norwegian are close enough that one person can speak Swedish and the other Norwegian, and have a decent conversation. So I spoke Swedish when speaking to or in front of Jan Harald, who would reply in Norwegian, but I spoke Faroese to everyone else. Towards the end, I got completely confused, and apologised to one girl for speaking to her in Swedish, when I was in fact speaking Faroese.

FAR4.1/5.1: Fótbóltur...

Unfortunately I wasn't too well when I recorded the second part of the video, so that explains why I look/sound so rough - you might need to fiddle with the volume controls halfway through. But I sorted out my accent!

FAR3.3: Mum and Dad in the Faroes (Part Two)

On Saturday evening we had a fantastic meal with some people from the corps (Salvation Army church) who really worked hard to give us an excellent evening. Thank you!

On the Sunday we decided to hire a very little car (anything bigger would have been a nightmare on some of those mountain roads!) to see some of the sights that the buses couldn’t show us. Again we saw lots of beautiful views that are hard to capture on camera – you’ll just have to come and see for yourself!

After a great evening meeting at the Salvation Army, it was back to the hotel to catch my television debut ;) (see here). Early the next day, they were off (with a slightly more tense [my computer thinks it should be ‘tenser’, but that can’t be right, can it?] trip to the airport than one would hope...):It was great having them here and they seemed pretty taken with the place!

One final thing: the hotel we stayed in had little comments written next to the doors, à la:But my particular favourites were:

FAR3.2: Mum and Dad in the Faroes (Part One)

So this week Mum and Dad came to see me in the Faroes (I think they came to see me, otherwise it was just a pretty big coincidence that they came to the place I’m currently living). I had a great time with them. The weather – not traditionally one of the Faroe Islands’ key selling points – was fantastic (if cold) and we saw loads. I thought the next two blog posts could take the form of photo posts, just to show you some of the things we got up to. Ok, so the weather wasn’t fantastic when they arrived. In fact, it was a storm, but it got better!

We spent the first full day travelling up to the Northern Islands – and even had snow (the first snow this winter). This is from Klaksvík, the Faroes’ second town. I had to take them to my favourite village, Viðareiði, and they fell in love with it too (well they said they did).It’s a stunning place. You stand in the middle of the village and can see a panoramic view of seven islands, mountains, etc. Stunning, but not easy to capture on camera.

Bus drivers in the Faroes are something else. Last time I went to Viðareiði (see here) the bus driver saw I was taking photos through the window and stopped the bus so that I could get off and get some better shots. Well, this time we got out and didn’t have long until we needed to catch the bus back (we had a choice of staying in Viðareiði for fifteen minutes or two hours – beautiful as it is, it’d be hard to fill two hours). We decided to make the most of our fifteen minutes and see as much as possible. Realising this, the bus driver told us not to worry about coming back to the bus stop – he’d come and pick us up before going back, giving us nearly double the time we thought we’d have. Nice! That evening we went to one of Tórshavn’s restaurants – for a town the size of Tórshavn, the range of restaurants is fantastic. The next day was our day for sightseeing in Tórshavn:I’m adding this picture because I just like it. There aren’t many European capitals where you can get a shot like this in the town centre...

FAR3.1: So, What's New?

(I know - I'm increasingly sounding like an Australian who's spent a year or two in England... I have no idea where that's come from).

FAR2.1: First Reflections

(I was absolutely shattered in this photo. I think it shows).

So, for all those who were worried that my new-found interest in video-blogging would mean an end to the traditional mitchenstein format – have no fear. I’ll still be blogging in the original way from time to time. I don’t want people to say they can no longer enjoy mitchenstein at work.

Well. I’ve now been in the Faroe Islands for nearly two weeks – I can’t believe that’s all it’s been. I can just about remember what my house looks like. To be honest, I found the first week or so quite difficult, which came as a surprise to me. Being in a new country is always a strange experience, but I’ve done it twice before (as part of my degree, I had to spend a year in Germany and Sweden) and I considered myself a bit of an old-hand, but nothing prepares you for feeling like a complete alien on new ground.

I decided straightaway that I would do everything in Faroese, which definitely makes things harder, but I know that come the time I have to go home, I’ll feel much better for having done that. And it is getting easier. The language situation here is actually quite confusing – while the people only speak Faroese between themselves, they all speak fluent Danish, and most TV, subtitles on films, books, etc. are in Danish. It can be pretty confusing to be watching the TV in Danish and then be asked a question in Faroese. I’m like ‘Er... hang on’. But it makes life exciting (that’s actually only the half of it, but I’ll come to that in a later post).

And the Faroese themselves? Have been nothing but welcoming. So many people have invited me into their homes and along to things that they’ve been doing, and I’m hugely grateful for that. So ‘thank you’ to any who may be reading this. The people are so friendly and genuine (and trendy, so I fit right in) – when they tell you that you should feel free to pop in any time, you know they actually mean it (although I’m much too English to ever actually do that).

I just majorly split that infinitive and it felt good.

One thing I’m learning about though is what they call ‘Faroese time’, which basically means that nothing happens at the time it’s due to. Add a good fifteen-thirty minutes to any stated time, and you’ll be on the right track. Get this Katie, here I actually have a reputation for being early.

I’ve decided to start a new blog in Faroese (mitchenstein í føroyalandi ‘mitchenstein in faroeland’). It’s purely for my own purposes – just to make sure I’m writing a little bit of Faroese on a regular basis. I’m not expecting anyone to read it. There won’t be anything interesting on it that won’t be on here, so don’t worry, you don’t have to learn Faroese (‘Phew,’ I hear you say).

I think that’s about it for now.

PS. I may be approaching 25, but we never stop learning as we go through life:

Things You Shouldn’t Say to a Girl who Shows You Her Outfit for Netball (Part 1)

‘It’s not very flattering, is it?’

I apologise again Stacey, it is SO not what I meant. What I actually meant to say was ‘It’s weird how it goes out at the sides’. I’ve learned from my mistakes.

PPS. My postcard wall’s looking bare... ;)

FAR1.2: What Now?

Hopefully my accent's ok here ;)

FAR1.1: And so it Starts...

(This was my first attempt, so I don't think I quite got the volume levels right... You might need to turn it up a bit!)

Where I'm At

Things have been a little quiet on the mitchenstein front over the last few weeks. The Olympics finished, and we finished in fourth place (not bad,eh?). Summer seems to have been and gone. Things are starting up again and the world rolls on.

For me, things are all a little up in the air at the moment, and in a couple of weeks, I start a bit of a new adventure. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little nervous, but I’m also excited – let’s see where this baby takes us!

Check back in a fortnight or so, when I’ll kind of re-launch mitchenstein. In the meantime, don’t forget to check out my Project 365 for regular picture updates.

By the way, I had an excellent weekend this weekend. It managed to be relaxing, tiring, exciting and inspiring all in one. It was great catching up with fantastic friends, and a big thanks to all those who were there! I’m a lucky guy.

Take care and God bless,

John

Who'da Thunk?

I never thought I'd see Great Britain in third place halfway through the Olympics, ahead of Germany, Australia and Russia.So we can't play football, rugby or cricket, but cycling, rowing and sailing are ours!

Whatever happens now, in the words of Mariah Carey, 'they can't take that away from us'!*

Speaking of Australia, as we were a few lines ago, I had a little more to say about my recent trip down under, but the Salvation Army music camp got in the way. I hope you'll be able to excuse the lack of chronology in mitchenstein's most recent posts.

My sister Caroline and her husband Brettmond (whose name is actually Brett, but it sounds like it should be short for something, doesn't it?) very kindly took us camping one night, in the wilds of Victoria. Now, I've not done a lot of camping in my time, well not since I was in the cubs, and even then, we didn't have to put the tents up ourselves (outrageous, isn't it?). So I was a little inexperienced and didn't really know what to do.

But while the others worked I took a photo of myself holding a hammer, so that it would look like I'd helped to put up the tent.

After a while, I was allowed to help by holding various things. They figured that I couldn't cause much damage there:

They were, of course, wrong.

So I went back to taking photos.

When we told others we were going camping, they said 'Ooh, it's gonna get cold!' I was like 'Come on, it's Australia. How cold can it get?'

What do I know?

It was, without doubt, the coldest night of my life. I can't really put it into words, and the photos can't really convey it, but... (if I carried on that sentence, I'd be trying to put it into words).

We had a great time though out in the 'bush' - and I saw an echidna. I took a photo of it (and I used to be able to see it in this picture, but I have no idea now):

We had a great trip all in all, seeing family and meeting new cousins - and we saw some great Australian tourist attractions (Australian tourist attractions are a little different from in other countries):

*Ok, Mariah Carey's actual words were 'they can't take that away from me', but I don't feel I can take all of the credit for Great Britain's performance at the Olympics. Think of the trainers.

A Normal Life

Man. Today the phone’s been ringing non-stop. I’ve had emails, texts, constant ‘bings’ from MSN...

And why?

Well, word seems to have got out that I’m now quite a celebrity in Germany. Yes, ‘John Mitchinson’ is on its way to becoming a bit of household name amongst our Teutonic cousins. Consequently, friends have been ringing non-stop, desperate to ask ‘Will you still remember us when you’re rich and famous?’ Chances are, I will.

So what’s the background to all this?

When I was in Germany for a Salvation Army music camp, a very large and influential German newspaper (the Kieler Nachrichten) decided to run a story about me, along with a photo. I didn’t ask for all the attention that came with it – it just happened. I can’t say I’m not enjoying the stares of recognition as I walk down the street, but ultimately, all I want is a normal life.

Here’s the article:

And here’s the zoomed-in picture:

But through it all, I’m still just Johnny from the block.

While this may have been a lot for you to take in, I do have one other bit of news to share with you.

People, our time has come.

With the eyes of the world currently on Beijing (she wasn’t singing!), it’s only natural that our thoughts should drift towards the next Olympic games, London 2012.

We’ve seen the fantastic buildings in Beijing – and we’re compelled to think of the fine London landmarks that will house our own Olympic events: Horse Guards Parade, the Millennium Dome, Wimbledon and... a Salvation Army farm in Hadleigh, Essex.

That’s right, the mountain bike event is going to be held here in our little corner of south-east Essex and on Salvation Army land – how cool is that? (Click here for proof).

You read it here first (possibly).

(Read on for more about the music camp in Germany and my first-ever video!)

John Goes to Germany and then Makes a Video and Writes a Blogpost

Apologies for the slight break, but I’m back! I’ve just been at the Salvation Army’s music camp in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany – and we had an amazing time. Check out this video I made (it was my first ever video [hence the overuse of special effects – the mark of an amateur], but I’m pretty chuffed with myself):

This was my third time at the music camp in Germany – and it was the best. I’ve been to a few different music schools, but there’s just something about the German one for me. This year topped the two other years for two main reasons:

1) I was in charge of the Bible Study group for the fifteen to eighteen-year-olds, which was daunting, hard work, but just about one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done, and

2) This year I made a real effort to speak to as many different people as I could. In previous years I’ve been a little too dependent on a smaller group, but this year I had so much fun spending time with so many different people. It was sweet!

And I didn’t make this video here, but have a look – and check out that euphonium player... (credit to Jens for uploading):


And finally,

The John Mitchinson diet:

1. Go to northern Germany.,
2. Eat Haribo every morning,
3. Go to the ice-cream parlour every day (including twice on one occasion),

See the weight drop off!
I can’t understand it. I followed the above pattern rigorously and managed to lose 9lbs (4 kilo) in just under two weeks...*
*Stomach may have been pushed out/pulled in for dramatic effect.