5,000 miles and we are here

Three airports, three planes, and a total of 5,000 miles and the five arrived safely in Sweden on Wednesday, May 2.

Cassie and I realized that we did not have much about our team on the blog, so we thought you may find the following interesting:

Our Team:

Joe Roberts, 53, GSE Team Leader, is an Insurance and Investment Broker for Midlands Financial Benefits. Joe is married to Sheryl, and has two children – Sonya and Christopher, and one grandson, Tobey. Joe enjoys visiting historical sites, music, and sports.

Cassie Carrington, 26, is a Desktop Publisher with HDR in Omaha. Cassie calls Omaha home. In her free time, she enjoys quilting, scrapbooking, spending time with family and friends (especially Lou, the boyfriend), going to movies, hiking, traveling, and reading a good book over a cup of coffee.

Pete Jenkins, 30, is a Realtor with CBSHOME Real Estate in Omaha. Pete grew up in Omaha. In his free time, Pete enjoys riding his motorcycle, hunting and golf.

Kristi Nohavec, 35, is an Architect and Structural Engineer with Clark Enersen in Lincoln. Kristi grew up on a farm outside Dorchester, Nebraska. Kristi enjoys travelling, spending time with family and friends, cooking, and reading.

Eric Drumheller, 31, is Director of Community Relations at EducationQuest Foundation. Eric is originally from Gering, Nebraska and now calls Lincoln home. In Eric’s free time, he is pursuing his Masters in Public Administration from the University of Nebraska Omaha and enjoys traveling, dining out and home renovations.

We were greeted by Per-Arne Medin, the Governor of District 2340 at the Örbero Airport. He, along with Peter Larne, Sweden’s GSE Team leader, welcomed us to Sweden and provided transportation to our first casual meeting at the Lindesberg golf club. We met our host families at the golf club and went to our host homes. The evening spent getting to know them and allowed us time to adjust to the time difference (seven hours difference from Lincoln).

Thursday, May 3, we toured Björkhagaskolan (the equivalent of the American grade school) and the Lindskolan (equivalent to our high school). Our lunch was at the school’s restaurant where culinary arts student learn a trade. Following, we toured the school grounds and visited many classrooms. One distinct difference I noticed at the elementary school was students remove their shoes before they enter any room.

Following the school visits, we had coffee and rolls at one of our host families parents house on a lake outside Lindesberg. This evening we are having a salmon dinner at a local pottery gallery and workshop.

The quote of the day: “everything in America is bigger, even the rumors.”

New things experienced: aquavit (hard liquor), toasted by the host committee upon arrival, root mousse (a combination of mashed potatoes, carrots and yams).

Photo's are sponsored by our new friend Anders Johansson.


View from the last leg of our trip, on the Fokker 50 (and SAS plane)


Children's shoes outside of their library.





View of the lake where we had afternoon coffee.