Report by Katie
I went to lunch with my friend in my hometown, Knoxville, Tennessee, the first week of September 2009. We ate Japanese, and the waiter forgot to give us our fortune cookies. I don’t believe in fortune cookies, but I love the way they taste and I had paid for it, dang it, so I went over to the basket and asked the waiter if I could grab one. He nodded, so I picked it up and we walked out of the restaurant towards the building I work in. Opening up the cookie while we walked, I read it to my friend, “Expect an exciting trip to come your way soon.”
- Maybe it’s the cruise Joe and I just booked…
- Or maybe there are even better things to come…
I just thought to myself that my friend had always been the enthusiast. One of my mentors, he always encourages me to dream. That was as far as I thought about it.
That following weekend, the Jenny Berggren Source posted the dates that Jenny would be signing her book at the BokMassan in Gothenburg, Sweden.
By Wednesday, September 9, I had the vacation time marked out at work. Then I had to wait, which I am horrible at doing.
And my husband loved this time for me. “Guess what? In two weeks, you’re going to be looking at Jenny Berggren face-to-face…That means that the way you are looking at me right now, you’ll be looking at Jenny Berggren in a week…In four days, you’re going to meet Jenny Berggren…16 years and it comes down to two days…” He thoroughly enjoyed trying to psyche me up about the whole thing, but I was trying to stay calm. I have a wild imagination and I could have gotten very exciting ideas about how it would be, only to get my feelings hurt.
So, I prepared myself for—at best—getting to have Jenny sign a book for me and say something along the line of “Thank you for coming.” I would have been very happy with this outcome. The whole trip would have been more than worth it to me, especially if I had enough wits about me to tell her all that she has done for me.
Finally, it came time to leave. I was so excited that I couldn’t sleep but three hours the night before my flight. I left my house for my flight from Knoxville to Newark at 4:30 a.m. on Friday. The flight landed in Newark at 8:30 a.m. Then, I got to wait again. My flight from Newark to Stockholm was not scheduled to fly until 5:30 p.m.
I attempted to distract myself with work e-mails on my blackberry, reading books, or listening to music, but I was anxious the entire time. The flight to Stockholm was pretty full and I was flying standby, so there was a chance I might have gotten myself excited to meet my role model of 16 years, only to get turned away by a full flight.
When you fly standby, they board all paying customers first. Then, they call out the standby people who get to have a seat by order of seniority. This time, waiting for my name to be called meant so much more. They called my name out pretty quickly and my heart leapt!
After 8.5 hours, I landed in Stockholm at 7 a.m. on Saturday. Then, I had to wait for a 9:55 flight to Gothenburg. Same thing, except this time I got the last seat available. I couldn’t believe it. I was so nervous I’d miss the flight I was literally sweating it. Now, in a couple of hours, I was going to be seeing Jenny Berggren in person!!!!
I started to let my mind wander. Earlier, I had Tweeted Jenny on her Twitter profile that our church was interested in having her perform. I had sent Jenny many Tweet messages. I didn’t know if it was really Jenny that had been actually viewing her Twitter account, or if she had someone else managing it. What if she recognized me? I would die!
I made a friend with a Swedish woman my age on that flight to Gothenburg. She told me she was headed my way, so I could follow her. She was very sweet, and a great distraction to keep me from getting too nervous. I followed her onto the bus that would take me into Gothenburg from the airport. The first stop was in front of the convention center. I said goodbye to the woman and hopped off the bus.
There was a line outside to get into the building. I was relieved that it wasn’t as cold as I had expected. I didn’t have time to check in to my hotel before Jenny’s first signing, so I would have to check my suitcase inside the convention center. In the mean time, I was really standing out dragging luggage around.
There was a crazy—but friendly—guy with his girlfriend in front of me in line outside.
- blahblahblahblah (He spoke Swedish first)
- What was that?
- Are you a writer?
- No, I’m just coming to see someone speak.
- Why do you have your luggage?
- Haven’t had time to check in to my hotel. I just got off that bus. (Pointing to the bus driving away.)
- Where are you from?
- Knoxville, Tennesssee.
- Who are you coming to see?
- Jenny Berggren! (big smile)
- You came all the way from Knoxville to see Jenny Berggren?
- Yep!
- That is SO COOL!!!
He proceeded to tell me about how he was moving to Kentucky (just an hour north of where I live) this coming summer. He kept going back to “how cool” it was that I came this far to see Jenny. That made me smile even bigger.
So then I made it inside and bought a ticket, waited in line to get money from the ATM, checked my suitcase, and headed into the convention area.
Jenny’s area was easy to locate. I saw Jessi and Anja first. We recognized each other from our MySpace profile pictures and I rushed up to greet them. It was comforting to know someone there. They are so nice! I had a great time visiting with them the entire trip.
Then I saw Anna’s name tag and spoke to her for a little bit, bought Jenny’s book, looked up, and Jenny was walking up!
Now this was only my third time to Europe in my life. All three times have been within the last year. The last two times, it took me a couple of hours to settle down and get oriented.
But now, I had only been walking around one building in Sweden for 45 minutes and here came the person I had looked up to since I was eleven-years-old!
Jenny waived and said “Hej!” to Jessi and Anja. Then she made eye contact with me and did the same.
At this point, I was frozen, and I’m sure it was with a big, goofy smile on my face! J Anna hopped up on the stage with Jenny and began to interview her in Swedish. I started to take pictures and Jenny looked my way a couple of times.
I still couldn’t let myself believe that Jenny recognized me yet. Like I said, I
have a wild imagination and I have been hurt by it before. So then Jenny
finished speaking and she started signing books at her table. I stayed beside
Jessi and Anja behind this bookshelf they had set their video camera on.
Everyone was going up for Jenny to sign books.
Jessi looked at me like, “Get up there!” I kept muttering about how I didn’t want to be pushy and I would just wait. I was chickening out!
“Listen,” Jessi said. “I mean, you came all the way across the ocean to see her. Go!”
I sucked it up and walked up to the table. This is all blurry for me right here. Maybe Jessi and Anja got it on video so that I can remember everything. I think we said hi to each other, I put the book on the table, and I remember Jenny saying, “Now I want to get this right. How do you spell your name?”
I spelled my name out loud so quickly that an American could not have understood it. Jenny looked at me and I started stuttering, trying to spell it more slowly. So Jenny grabbed a piece of paper and said, “Write it.”
As she wrote, I talked, but I can’t remember things clearly at this point. I remember she asked me questions because I still needed provoking.
I was taking her in, and my first thought about Jenny was how radiant she was. You know how she sings “Shine on my voice so people hear it. Lead me to speak the words of joy” in “Give Me the Faith”? Well, she shines the joy outwardly. I had speculated to my husband, Joe, that she would have a radiance about her and I knew she would probably have what I call “sparklely eyes” but both exceeded my expectations. The cameras don’t do her justice.
So things that were said are still blurry to me here. I think I stepped away and went back to my comfort zone with Jessi and Anja. Anna was standing there, too. Very nice people right here, I thought about those three, plus Jenny.
So then Jenny came over to us (which was like three-four feet) She let Jessi listen to her new song on her iPod and said to me, “So I hear you want me to sing at your church!” This was the point that I could finally accept that she did recognize me! We talked some about Jenny coming over. Anja’s turn to listen. Then mine!
I LOVED the new song. I mentioned one of the lyrics I liked to Jenny. That made her happy. She smiled and said, “Yes..”
Then she asked what we wanted to do.
“Coffee?” I suggested with a hopeful smile. I think she said something like, “Coffee? Yes, I think we can do that…” and then she started signing more books and talking to the Libris people or something, while I just stood there and thought holy crap!
In a short few minutes, Jenny was like, “C’mon,” and we (Jessi, Anja and I) were off, following Jenny. I was still disoriented. Actually I would say I was in a complete fog. It made me laugh the way Jenny weaved through the crowd of people so quickly. Very direct. My kind of person! I mentioned that I was hungry (I had not had a real meal in over 10 hours). “You’re hungry?” Jenny inquired and she then was walking more determined than before.
When I was younger, I had very low self-confidence and I apologized ALL the time. Now that I’m older, I only revert to it when I’m really concerned about how a person thinks about me. So here with Jenny, I was apologizing for everything. The first restaurant we tried to go to, I was underdressed for. “Sorry!” The second one was a buffet, and I was the only hungry one. “Sorry!”
Finally, we went down a long hallway and got on an elevator. I enjoyed this part because Jenny was humming to herself and sounded beautiful. She is always so witty and made some funny comments here.
When we got to the top, there was a restaurant with a gorgeous view. Jessi and I had to check our coats. While we were waiting in line for that, Jenny and Anja went to sit down. Talking to Jessi in line was soothing. This was all so much more than I had expected and I was only a couple of hours off the plane! I told myself that I could calm down in line talking to Jessi.
Right when I told myself that, Jenny popped up out of nowhere with a menu. “Pick something out to eat, okay?” She went back and sat down.
When Jessi and I got to the table, Jenny asked if I had picked something out. I told her I always liked to order what was cultural to the place I was visiting so what did she recommend? She said if I liked shellfish, I should go for the shrimp. I LOVE seafood, so this was a choice I was happy to make.
Right when I had gotten settled, the waiter was ordering drinks. I didn’t realize everyone had ordered beer, and ordered wine. (I wouldn’t have cared if I was the only one drinking wine, I still would have ordered it.) Then Jenny switched her order from beer to wine, and looked at me reassuringly. I can say that Jenny was this considerate through the entire trip. She is a VERY considerate person.
So no substantial food, and only six hours of sleep—max—in the last 48 hours. The one glass of wine got to me quickly. It relaxed me enough to get over the nerves I was battling. And boy, did I talk, (more like my usual self. Jenny answered all of my questions. She was very open. This part should be on a video coming soon on the Jenny Source.
I didn’t see the camera there on the table until half-way through the meal. Then, I just figured it was too late and pretended like it must be turned off and kept talking. I was enjoying myself too much to turn back now.
Jenny had to leave early to go speak again, and Jessi and Anja were nice enough to stay and chat with me while I finished. I was the only one that ate.
We got back to Jenny’s booth just as she had finished speaking and she was signing books again. We spoke with her for a minute. Jessi and Anja left to walk around the festival. I left to go check in to my hotel before I lost my room. Before we left, Jessi and Anja mentioned an interview with Jenny and a guy that would be the next day. Did I want to come?
Of course! I thought I’d be watching an interview. We agreed to meet at Jenny’s next book signing that evening, which was later on. I got to my hotel, cleaned up, and came back. I wasn’t in time to see Jenny speak, which I later found out this interview was the only one in English!
Jenny and Anna were there, but Jessi and Anja had left. I thought I had only beaten them there, so I waited around. I still hadn’t slept and was getting very tired. I sat down on another empty stage in Jenny’s booth area.
I stood up after a while because I was about to fall asleep. Anna came over and I told her it had been a bad idea for me to sit down. Anna is so nice and very enjoyable to talk with.
Jenny came over and spoke with me a little more. I had mentioned a hard time I was going through to her at lunch and she asked me to sit down on the stage with her and tell her more about that. “You can sit down,” she assured me.
We sat down, and I sat on her microphone and it turned on. “Just not on the microphone,” she said laughing. A man ran over and took it from me and turned it off. I told Jenny at that moment that I would put this in my blog, (so there you go)! I also apologized again.
“You shoudn’t say ‘sorry’ so much,” Jenny told me.
“I know, you have a whole song about it..” I said and laughed. But Jenny just looked at me like, “Yes.” And that was that.
So Jenny and I spoke. I didn’t want to talk about my bad situation because this was too happy of a time for me. I did tell her about hard times I had in my past and how she was able to help me with her music and example. To my surprise, she remembered my story.
I was floored. “You read my letter?!”
“Well, it touched me,” she said. Then she mentioned that she thought she put it in her book. And started thumbing through the book to find it. I think I froze again, but to me, Jenny was my friend at this point, so I was able to go on talking with her, at least half-way like a human anyway!
We talked for a long time. I don’t know how long. All I kept thinking was how much better of a person Jenny was than I had already thought. I always knew she was sincere and down-to-earth, but this was just even more than I could have imagined.
At lunch and at this talk, Jenny told me some very insightful things she had surmised from me telling her about myself just then. Things that have probably already changed my life. At lunch, she gave great advice about faith. I think ministering is one of her spiritual gifts.
It got time to where Jenny needed to go. She advised me about jetlag, to go to sleep right away, so that I would at least have some sleep. Better than none.
I went back to the hotel and called my husband to fill him in. (I had already called him after the lunch at this point.) He was so happy, he just kept laughing out loud and exclaiming “Yeah!”
I could barely sleep, I was so excited. I got up the next day and went to Jenny’s book signing area. Jessi and Anja arrived. Then Jenny got there. There were some other fans that came that day. She signed some books and then it was time to go.
We followed Jenny through the crowd like little ducklings, went into a room and sat down at a table. The guy that I thought was going to interview Jenny sat down in the floor. Jenny told us to sit around the table. Then I quickly found out that we were supposed to be interviewing Jenny!
This part, I don’t have to describe because it will be on the Jenny Source soon, so I won’t spoil it.
I was stricken when Jenny had us pull our chairs around to help her choose the book cover. I’m actually used to being on camera because I have to be interviewed on tv and radio in my job, but I was freaked out this time, sitting next to Jenny! I have shown the video that was put on the Jenny Source to my friends and Joe and they have all laughed so hard. Every single person said they have never seen me make that face before! Ha ha. I hope I didn’t look like that the whole weekend. Oh, well.
So then that was over, and we went back to Jenny’s booth. Jenny left with the Libris people. Jessi and Anja agreed to go watch me eat…again. I felt bad. They kept having to watch the American eat…
We had a good time. We shared Ace of Base stories, how Jenny had affected our lives. I ate mystery meat. They watched. Good times.
Then we ventured on to the room where Jenny was to give her seminar. We sat on the floor in the hall outside and were the first in line. Yea! Jakob passed through. He said “Hej!” to us and seemed very happy.
We went in and sat on the front row. Me on the end, Jessi, and then Anja. A woman came and sat down on the other side of Anja. When I looked at her, she smiled at me warmly. I thought to myself that she could be Jenny’s mom.
Then Jenny came in and her presentation went up on the screen. She did a great job, I’m sure. It was in Swedish so…But I can say that she was definitely able to convey pure emotion because I picked up on it without even knowing the language.
She introduced Jakob and his family that was sitting in the back. They stood up. Then she introduced her mom, and I found out I was right. When the seminar was over, Jenny did more book signing.
Jessi, Anja and I spoke to Jakob for a little bit. We complimented his web site and found out he does it himself. I was impressed!
When she was available, I asked Jenny if I could get one more picture with her. She looked great in the last picture I explained, but I didn’t like the way I looked in the pic the day before. She kindly agreed.
After our picture, I took some pictures of Jenny and Jakob together while she held up her book. They are so cute together! Then it was time for Jenny to go. I thanked her so much, but she just kept thanking me. She is so humble. I don’t know many people as humble as her.
Jessi and Anja were going to give me a walking tour of Gothenburg, I had a blast doing that with them. We had pasta on the harbor. I had more shrimp…
Jessi knew the city really well, and even showed me where they recorded the “Beautiful Morning” video.
Overall, the trip left me feeling very inspired. Jenny is an incredible person. I have never met anyone before that reveals their faith through their eyes so much as her. She is very open-hearted and kind.
If I didn’t have her book signed on my mantle, I would have a hard time believing the weekend even occurred. I am so, so grateful.
And…I still have that fortune cookie slip!