Speeding Up

Life is speeding up again. 

The two-week honeymoon in Estonia was very nice and much needed as a vacation. It was wonderful to unplug, let the days run their own course, sleep and swim and visit cafes. But unfortunately we live in a world where after a couple of holiday weeks one has to become a responsible adult again, earning money and studying and doing laundry and what not. Over the past two weeks when S. has been back to work, I have been slaving away at my computer, writing my dissertation. I have just - five minutes ago - sent the first draft of the last chapter to my supervisor. I have come to the expected and even inevitable phase where opening my dissertation folder on my computer makes me want to vomit. The throwing up phase. I am so sick and tired of it, gaaaah. 

And last week I also started the language course in Stockholm. Why waste time, we thought, and applied for the SFI (Swedish for Immigrants) course right away as we got back from the honeymoon. Now I'm beginning to think it might have been smarter to concentrate on my DMin studies first and let the Swedish wait a little but here we are. So my days look like this - a waaaay too early a start, bus and metro to Stockholm, 3,5 hours of someone speaking at me in pure Swedish, metro and bus back home, a long nap, and dissertation writing marathon. It's a little bit funny and skisophrenic because I go from sentences like "I live in Täby. Today is Monday" to sentences like "The Postmodern rejection of authority bears grave consequences for any preacher who commits herself/himself to the faithful proclamation of the Gospel." It's like there are two people living inside me - one that can't even hold the simplest conversation in a grocery store, and the other one that is pushing to get the terminal degree. Every day I go from one end of the scale to the other. I hope my sanity will not suffer too much from it haha.  

And my work in the church starts on Thursday. It is only 50% but I am already totally worried about where I will find the time and energy to get everything done that needs to get done. I will be preaching my first sermon in Ekebyholm church this coming Sabbath... I think I will need a LOT of power naps in the coming year to make all of this work out.   

But on the lighter and brighter side, marriage is wonderful and we have already reached the impressive anniversary of 5 weeks! It's so much fun to have your favourite person right next to you every day. I know it's early days but I really enjoy riding on this wave of energy and excitement - we do something fun almost every evening. We go walking and jogging, we often go swimming, we have been kayaking and cycling, we have been to the National Museum in Stockholm and sometimes we just eat junk food and watch tv. All of these things can be done and have been done alone but it's a whole different experience when you can do these things together with someone. It is simply wonderful.

Our first shopping trip as a married couple was a couple of days after returning from Estonia and we both got a brand new pair of running shoes and a pair of hiking boots. This is a promising start, I'd say. :)

A boat trip to Sandhamn island in Stockholm archipelago

Testing our new running shoes

Out and about

In the National Museum