Pretty Slow!

For some reason, this day ended up being quite slow... I kind of overslept this morning and I ended up deciding not to go to Uni today. I did run some errands in town, but came home with a major headache and slept most of the afternoon.

I'm still really really happy the meeting yesterday went down so well, I have another meeting next Monday, and I hope that will give me a definitive answer to what's going to happen with this course!! Mostly, I'm feeling I won't leave until I have gotten an answer! :)

I'm hoping to spend most of tomorrow at Uni, getting started on my thesis. Since I still don't know for sure how my semester will turn out, I don't have a real time plan for my thesis, but I still figure that the more work I get done on it now the better. I won't know anything until next week, so this week will be focused on the covenant! :)

Not much else to write about ... I'm very much enjoying being back at Uni, and I still have high hopes this will be a really good semester. But I'm going to be at Uni at 8 a.m. tomorrow, I have to leave here before 7 - so I guess I'd better get to bed now!

A Good Day (and an injury)!

The official start of the semester today, and I have to say it was a good one! :)
I did get off to a bit of a slow start, so I wasn't at Uni until about 10 in the morning - but I got started on covenant theology pretty much straight away. I notice I've been away from it a while, because I have a very hard time concentrating, and I end up getting very tired - but I also know that is something you can train yourself to get better at, so I guess I just have to hang in there, right?! :)

During the afternoon I met quite a few friends at the Department, and it's nice catching up with everyone after the summer - though there's a fair bit of confusion generally, about education systems and courses and programmes ... so I guess I'm not the only one having problems! :)

I had a meeting with my professor at 3.30, and I was quite nervous about it. I felt I had to talk to him about this whole mess about what I'm supposed to take now - and since that's not really his field of expertise it felt a bit weird going to him ... and I also had to discuss the master's thesis - which I was nervous about as well!
And I have to say this meeting went REALLY well!! First of all, I got full support in regards to the courses. We talked it through pretty thoroughly and it seemed he felt just like me! *amazing* He definitely thought I would take this one more step, so now I'm going to email another man at the Department. We've been in touch, but it seems he hasn't quite understood what I mean and I haven't understood him either ... not good! Now I'm hoping for an appointment, so we can talk this through and hopefully sort it out once and for all! And with any luck, I can take an advanced New Testament course instead! *me want!*

After that we discussed my thesis, and that went really well too! I usually find it VERY difficult to do the background reading, I never know what to read, what to focus on, I'm hopeless with planning etc. and we solved that in a really great way. My professor outlined exactly what the background check was supposed to focus on, we set a meeting in a few weeks and until then I have to have a prepared paper with the background! That's just terrific, I know what to do and when and we can have a constructive decision about it!

I'm really happy with this day, though, of course, a bit nervous about the next step. I haven't sent the email yet, but I'm going to have to do it later tonight!

when I had gotten home and had some dinner, I managed to - kind of! - repair my bike! I have recently started riding it again, after something like 10 years (it's almost like learning it again!!), and even though my Dad helped me get it in a bit better shape, I realized the handlebar had shifted a lot now, making it almost impossible for me to use the breaks - not good, right!?! I actually fixed it - yay me!!! - but ended up cutting my left hand afterwards. I think it looks worse than it is, and I usually heal pretty fast, but it was a bit annoying!
Still, I'm so happy about the outcome of this day, I don't mind! :)

A Week In Limbo!

My intention was actually not to ignore the blog for an entire week (!), but this last week has been feeling quite strange. I know I should have worked on thoughts and ideas for my Master's Thesis, but not knowing what to do about the other course/courses I have to take has made it quite difficult for me to focus. I have been waiting for a decision, and mostly feeling like I've been in some limbo state, where I haven't known anything.

I did get an email from the student counsellor on Thursday, she had forwarded a mail from a guy I've been in touch with regarding this before - and again, more confusion. At one point, he actually said one thing first and in the next sentence said the opposite, so yeah: confusion! Also, I think I have a possibility of solving this situation in a good way, but he did not mention this as an alternative, so I don't know whether it's possible or not.
I'm really fed up with all of this, and even though I want to continue this "fight" until I get a definitive answer, I'm not sure if I should. This could, in the long run, reflect badly on me, and I really don't want that ....

I'm meeting with "my" professor (Old Testament) tomorrow afternoon, and I'm basically going to let him decide! While this does not really affect him (since none of the courses are in OT), he is my tutor, and I do value his opinion. Basically I think that if he feels I should continue, and try to find out if I can take a course that I will benefit from, then I will. That way I know I'll have his support, and hopefully he might be able to give me some more names of people I can talk to. However, if he seems to think I'm exaggerating and just causing trouble, I will just give up - take the course that it was said earlier I had to take, and just ... don't make any more trouble. This is not really what I want, of course, but I still feel that I can't go on if everybody at the Department thinks I'm being a pain in the neck!

This week has mostly been centred around this, and now I'm trying to look ahead ... because the semester does start tomorrow, whether I'm ready for it or not!

I know I'm going to have a rough time now, mostly because I find it SO difficult to get going with my Master's Thesis. I know I can write, but I'm finding it extremely difficult to come to the point where I actually start to write. I need to find a subject and a line of question, something that will hold up in the academic debate, I need to be able to make a decent disposition of the thesis, and then I can start writing ... and reaching that point seems to be very difficult indeed.

I'm glad for the session with the professor tomorrow, we're going to have to discuss the thesis as well, but I also know that he can't get started on it for me - basically it's all up to me anyway ... which is a bit scary!

Apart from the thesis I do have this other little mess to deal with. At the moment I don't know what will come of it, but no matter what I will have to take quite difficult and time consuming courses - so I am in for a hard time, that's for sure!

I stand by the fact that I want to keep this blog alive though, so I'm very much hoping that I will at least have the energy to make a short entry every day! *fingers crossed*

Preparing!

I've continued my cleaning-sorting-project today, and most of it is actually finished now. All that's left is a great big "normal" cleaning to be done, as things have become sort of dirty and dusty by me dragging stuff all over the apartment! :) Still, it feels really good to have gone through things in this way now. I have managed to gather all my "collections" (that is, what is left of them) - ads, articles, photos, pin-ups etc. in one single binder (earlier I had like, ten, or something!) and I have sorted through ALL my Uni papers ... they ended up in about ten binders - that's a lot of papers! :)

Now I'm starting to think ahead, because my fall semester truly does start tomorrow morning! The library is still not keeping regular hours (10-4, they usually open 8-6), but at least I have to get started with my studies full time from tomorrow.
I have to write my Master's Thesis now (and that's a mess in itself ...) and apart from that take one, or two, courses. The problem is nobody is able to tell me WHAT to take! I have two options, I want to take one of them (two courses in New Testament Exegesis with Koine Greek), but I'm not sure I can get my degree that way. And there doesn't seem to be a single person who could tell me either. This whole thing has been dealt with very poorly from the start, because basically I've been fighting over this since sometime in early March, and I still haven't gotten any answers ... *sigh*

I'm hoping I'll be able to get started on my thesis though, and hopefully I'll be able to hunt somebody down and get some kind of answer ... Most of the courses start on August 30, and since I don't know what to take, I haven't even applied for courses yet (you're supposed to apply before April 15!!!), so I really hope I'll find out soon so I can start making arrangements for whatever it is I will be doing.

Anyway, I'll try to get a little bit of cleaning done tonight as well - and I have one bookcase to go through as well, that has been a bit forgotten in my project! :)

Last Few Days!

Finally I'm feeling up to blogging again!
Very early on Thursday morning (like 3 a.m.!) I woke up with a really bad migraine, so that day was mainly spent in bed. I haven't been sleeping very well for a while, and I'm guessing it just had caught up with me and caused the migraine.

Though still a bit shaky yesterday, I did some errands and also took a trip to IKEA in Malmö. They moved a while back, and I haven't been to the new one, which was kinda huge (the entrance was on the 3rd (!) floor!)! I didn't get much, just a few minor things (didn't feel like carrying a lot...), but it was a nice outing!

Today I'm trying (as usual) to do a lot of things at once! While still pretty annoyed at Uni about a couple of things, I'm trying to do a bit of reading for my Master's Thesis (will probably meet with my professor next week), and I've gone through some weird "clearing-out-mania" since I got back from the summerhouse ... now I'm going through all my old collections and getting rid of about 95% of them! Today I've been throwing away ALL my magazine clippings (those of you who has known me a while know that I've gathered a few *lol*), and been sorting through all my articles/ads etc. I'm figuring I should give it a couple of chances on tradera, see if anyone wants to buy them, otherwise I'm throwing them out as well!
Also sorting through a lot of trading cards, books, magazines etc, so I will at least try to get some of it sold ...

I'm hoping to get a bit done on the clearing project this week, because at the moment my apartment almost looks like a war zone, there are things and boxes and stacks of this-and-that ALL OVER the place ... and it would be nice to get things out of the way and clean up before next week! :) Guess I'd better get on with it, right?

What Lies Ahead!

Finally things seems to be fairly back on track, hopefully nothing will collapse any time soon! :)

My fall has been very uncertain and even though some things have been cleared up now, there are still some uncertainties.
This summer I found out that the Department was announcing a temporary job opening as a student counsellor, and while I don't really qualify, I still felt I had enough competence to apply ... and that of course would determine a lot about this fall. The other day I got a letter from the Head of the Department, saying I didn't get it - which didn't exactly come as a surprise to me! I do know him, he's a professor in New Testament Exegesis, and I've had him as a teacher on several courses, and he sent a really nice little note with the letter! :)

So at least now I know I won't be working this fall ... I also know that I have to finish my Master's Thesis this semester, hopefully within the year. I also have about 10 weeks worth of studies left to catch up with as well ... and therein lies the problem.
From the beginning I was meant to take this one course last semester, and it was a mess and didn't work out at all. It seemed like maybe I didn't have to take it either, and to be frank, it's got nothing to do with my own interests and speciality, so of course I wouldn't mind being able to do something a bit more useful instead. The problem is that nobody seems to be able to give an answer, and to be frank: I need to know what I'm going to do now! Right?!
I've been in contact with two student counsellors and my hope lies with one of them who has said she'll try to find out for sure this time ... I just hope it won't take too long!

I've had a bit of a rough start this week, but at least I'm feeling better now, and I guess that's the main thing right. I'm going to try to get started on my Master's Thesis, as that is the only thing I definitely know I have to do, so hopefully I get get a bit done on that this week ...

And I also hope I can keep this blog alive ... an increase in visitors would be cool too as we're closing in on the 4-year-anniversary! :D

Nordens Ark

I think that the highlight of the summer for me was a trip I made, on my own, to an animal park called Nordens Ark. They have a lot of animals both domestic and foreign to Sweden, and their aim is to care for endangered species of animals, to eventually set the free in nature again. Because of this they don't breed animals to be held in captivity, but instead they try to replicate the animals natural habitats, train them to catch their own food and so on, so they are able to cope on their own.

I learned from one of the caretakers at the park that it has been forbidden by law to feed animals in captivity live prey - which of course is how it is in nature. Instead, the caretakers now really try to replicate the conditions without using "live food" for large animals, such as leopards and tigers. They hide food, making the animals dig or tear at things in order to get their food - I found that quite fascinating.

The park is situated not long from the Swedish West Coast and the nature in and surrounding the park is fantastic. I know I kept thinking that I could have spent a day walking there even if there were no animals around, because the nature is so beautiful!

I support Nordens Ark regularly, and have done so for a number of years now, and every other year or so, I get a free entry ticket to the park as a thank you. I had gotten one this year, and it wasn't really convenient for anybody else to go with me - but I didn't mind at all. While it is great to share experiences with others, I am very used to doing things on my own, and I truly enjoy the fact that I can do EXACTLY what I want, without discussing it or thinking about anybody else (I don't think I'm really that egoistic, but still, I do enjoy that kind of freedom).
And this time, I really did enjoy being on my own - I don't always to that!
I got a bit lost on the way there, but since it was just me, I didn't mind.
I took it easy and walked around the entire park, it's quite big and the height difference within the park is quite large. I'm not in that great a condition, so it was nice being able to take it slow and rest often - and it also made me experience the animals in another way.

After having gone through the park once, I was quite happy, as I had seen two tigers up close, one of them kept walking just in front of me, just two fences between us - first time I've seen a tiger that close, so it was quite an experience!!
I had, however, not seen the wolves, nor the snow leopards (they had babies in May!!) and that felt a bit disappointing! They were going to feed the wolves later in the afternoon, and I decided to stay for that, so I took another walk around the park.
This time I got to see the snow leopards - talk about SO CUTE babies!! Unfortunately they were kept in a habitat a fair bit from all the visitors, as they are so young still, but I at least got to see them. The caretakers fed the Mum and Dad while I was there (tied the food in lots and lots of thick rope up a tree, where the animals had to try and get it!), so I got a good look at the adult animals, truly beautiful!!
The wolves were shy though, and didn't come out for their feeding, but when I went around their habitat, I saw a couple of them, even though they were a fair bit away.

I had my "new" (Christmas gift, but not that frequently used) camera lens, which was FANTASTIC, as I managed to get some really cool photos, even though the animals were quite a distance away!!

Here are a few of my favourite photos:

Rottneros Park

Despite the fact that we were very busy toward the end of the summer, one day me and my Dad and his family took a trip to Rottneros Park, a bit north from where they live. I have been there a few times before, but it was a very long time ago, and it was a lovely outing.
The park was built to reminisce of Swedish author Selma Lagerlöf's Ekeby and it is truly beautiful. We spent a few pleasant hours there, and luckily they had quite a lot for the children to do as well, one adventure park (which was, however, aimed at older children), and several other parks with lots to do.

I think we all had a great time there, and here are some photos from the trip:

General photos:




The kids were having a blast:




There were some really cool trolls in one of the gardens! :)




And finally, I discovered they had something called Bible Garden! :) Nobody was really keen on it, so while the girls were playing I went there on my own. It was quite small, but very beautiful, and had apparently come about on the initiative of former Bishop Bengt Wadensjö!

Be Careful As You Go ...

...'Cause Little People Grow!

A very true statement from Les Misérables! :)

My sisters are growing by the minute, at least it feels like it right now. M has gotten so big this summer, it's hard to explain how, but it's in her face and expressions, in her body and the way she moves, her thoughts and ideas on things, it's almost scary. She's starting school now, and while that is a year earlier than I did, it still feels unreal. I have a feeling that she has the potential to do really well in school so I hope it will work out for her. While she has some problems concentrating and staying still for more than 3 minutes at a time (which might be a problem *lol*), she's really super smart!! If she can feel motivated and challenged by school, I definitely think she'll do fantastic!!





I has grown a lot now as well, she's totally adorable and she could charm ANYone into ANYthing, no doubt about it! :) Her moods is quite remarkable, because mostly she's on top of the world, constantly laughing and absolutely gorgeous ... but if she at some point gets in a bad mood, it's quite the opposite. There's no way you can get through to her whatsoever! A cute little thing she's gotten into is that, if she does something she's not allowed to do, and you tell her off, she promptly claims: "The naughty hand did it!" Apparently this little darling has one naughty and one nice hand (and one naughty and one nice foot as well!) - she knows exactly which one is which (she doesn't change them but is surprisingly consistent), and from her point of view, the naughty hand/foot does act completely independent from her! *LOL* It is adorable, but sometimes I get a bit annoyed with it as well, since at some points you need to tell her off and you don't have time to play a game like that! But most of the time, it is adorable ...*lol*




When my Dad and his family visited me, we took a trip to Denmark, which the kids liked a lot. To make it a bit more of an adventure, I took both kids on the train to Helsingborg first, while my Dad and C drove, then we took the ferry over to Helsingör together. Here are some photos from the trip (the first two from the train!):





And finishing off with a lot of other photos! *lol* I just can't help showing off these cuties! *lol* Oh, and by the way - it would be cool to know which of these are your favourites, just out of curiosity ... I have one favourite of M and one of I! :)