Okay, there's something I need to discuss with you. You must remember my lamentation about my Hermeneutics paper last October - after submitting it I declared on Facebook that it might have been the worst Hermeneutics paper in the history of mankind. As soon as I had submitted it, I forced myself to forget all about it. And it mattered even less once I had decided to pull the breaks and not go back to Amsterdam any time soon. I was so done with this essay shame.

But this is what has happened. I have been contacted by both of these people who marked my paper, one of them is my colleague (both as a pastor and as a lecturer) from Tartu, the man who got me into this Amsterdam trouble in the first place. The second marker was the principal and he wrote me an email two days ago and sent the feedback to my essay. They both said the same thing and came up with the same offer. "Would you be willing to turn your essay into an article for the Journal of European Baptist Studies?" The principal continues, "This Journal is intended for good work produced by aspiring and developing scholars and we think your essay could be developed into a suitable article." WHAT!? I ask. WHAT!?

The first marker gave me 75 for that paper. I never once got 75 for an essay in Newbold.

So this raises a serious issue. Someone here is totally out of touch with reality. And as far as I can analyse this situation, there are only two options. It's either me who cannot evaluate my own work properly (and thus needs to reevaluate things on a bigger scale). Or. It's the IBTSC people who don't have a clue what a good essay looks like. I don't even know which option is scarier...

I told A. about this last night. A. said if I ever needed a sign about having to go back to academia, this would be the one.

What am I suppose to do now? Help me.

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But as to things more practical, I have also had to reevaluate the whole moving apartments thing. I have moved it from the "annoying stuff that inevitably happens" box to "blessings and mercy" box. It's been only two weeks (and most of last week I wasn't even in Tallinn) but I already like this apartment and neighborhood a lot. The thing that surprises me the most about it is the peace and quiet that surrounds this area. It's so quiet there! I had lived in the middle of the city centre for 1,5 years and had forgotten what silence sounded like. But now I can just sit on my couch late in the evenings and do nothing and listen to the quiet. It is so nice! Or even today, just this morning I decided to work from home and to get my sermon for the coming weekend on paper (since it has been very crowded in the conference office this week and I have not been able to concentrate properly). And it took me only an hour to finish my sermon from home. The surrounding was just so inspiring.

I have also decided not to have Internet in my new home. I mean, I still have my phone so I can check Twitter and weather forecast but I can't write important emails after the office hours are over. So most evenings when I leave the office, I leave my laptop here, I don't even bother taking it home with me. It is a very nice feeling to be able to do that, very nice indeed. I intend to keep it this way. The only annoying thing is that my best blogging ideas hit me late at night and I have to wait until the next day to write them down. :)