On Thursday, I was an observer in Jim’s Introduction to the New Testament course. There is an intense format the first week, as the distance-learning students are on campus. So, the morning was full with 3 hours of class with several breaks and a morning prayer time.
I started to imagine how I can work with my Swedish language limitations but with my experience with learner-centered teaching to make my classroom time as effective as possible. It will be a challenge, but I’m beginning to see a reasonable way to develop the class delivery.
The rest of the day was working from home.
Happy birthday, Mom! I know the birthday card from Sweden arrived and the gift is in the mail.
Friday was spent at home. I’m .75 FTE for the first year to allow more time to work on Swedish and a transition with LarsOlov. I worked on Swedish and laundry for the day.
I’m getting familiar with the Swedish keyboard with the 3 extra vowels. I have to remember to use Ctrl + K for italicizing words, because italics is called “kursive” in Swedish.
Any had only a half-day of school as part of her orientation for the International Baccalaureate program and her class schedule. She did win the limbo contest in one of the group activities, which she thought was fun. She is now at least on the radar screen for her group.
After lunch at home, we biked to the immigration office to get photographed and fingerprinted in the process of getting our residency permit cards. I missed a turn on the way back, so we had a scenic route on the way home. I led at the beginning, and then Anya took over. We saw the 4-H pastures with sheep and cows. We biked past the mall on the outskirts of town. It was warm reaching up to the upper 70s.
I made dinner for the household, and we ate outside to each on the beautiful evening. We even caught a glimpse of a hedgehog in the yard.
In the evening, we watched the Swedish film, My Life as a Dog, with English sub-titles.
I woke up Saturday is a little bit of a funk. I’m trying to get my head around the upcoming transition this week. The apartment that was designated for us will be available on Wednesday. While it will be good to start to get settled in our own place, it means a whole lot of unknowns again; everything about living will be new.
The apartment is unfurnished, so it means figuring out how to pull things together. A co-worker has a bed to give us. A futon is offered. A table and chairs here, an armchair there, and a bookshelf out of storage at the school. It feels a little bit like when we arrived in Tanzania in 2002 and making a home in a different land with a lot of hand-me-down furniture. This time, I’m alone with some help from Anya.
Our crate arrived yesterday on a container ship in Amsterdam, which I could track with an app.
I’ve been told that it will take 1-3 weeks to get the crate through customs, and then it has to be transported to Uppsala. Our contract has it delivered to our “door,” which I’m assuming will mean a ground level location that is reasonably convenient to leave the palate after being unloaded from the truck. In the mean time, we will need to round up and borrow some things to live with: plates, cups, pots, pans, and bedding.
I don’t like asking for help; I’d rather give it. But I will need help, especially since I don’t have a car. So, the sense of unsettledness continues on.
I realize that one thing that is crucial for getting settled is learning Swedish. So, I spent a lot of the day reviewing my grammar books and online lessons. I was encouraged with a little, free quiz online.
I’m hoping to take a placement test on Wednesday at the University–if they will let me into their Swedish for Academics course. So, it is good to review all I know as a means of helping me move ahead.
Anya worked diligently on her homework. She has an art project that is engaging her creativity in the morning. Math took up much of the afternoon.
With blessings,
Beth
Pole sana kwa KiSwedish!!