So it has been a while since the last post (tah dah, tah dah...)...
Biggest news is that my proposal has been accepted, and I am legally OK to stay here for a while. We are really grateful for the provision of God in this regard. There were some nervous moments before, where I was not sure that people believed in the project. All's well now though.
I have been keeping busy by writing papers, and having arguments in my head with the authors of some material. Some academic writing is incredible in the assumptions that people make while believing that they are making none. So I am thinking through topics like truth, life and the meaning of everything. Maybe I'll write a post with my thoughts soon.Tracy has been feeling quite nauseous and tired, often coming home to sleep after her Finnish lessons. She has not really thrown up a lot though, just feels horrible. Her course has really gone well, and she wrote the final exam today, getting 57 out of 60. She is considering doing a third course, while she can...
She has been looking for a job on and off, but this seems more and more unlikely as the due date for the little ant approaches. She is trying at the moment to get a place at the Zoo as an english-speaking guide.
We went for a walk in Nuuksio National Park with friends from church. What a beautiful place. We went there one night to look for owls, this was much better. The temperature was about 20 degrees, and the sun was shining. Fresh growth was evident everywhere, and if we had costumes we might have been tempted by the many lakes we walked past. Spring has really arrived with a vengance recently. It is light until about 10 at night, and the temperatures have been approaching normality. Feels a bit like a cool South African winter day a lot of the time.We finally managed to clean the windows, without risk of them freezing over in the act of washing, so we can see the view now. We also have a little forest developing in the flat, from plants donated to us by various people. The place is starting to feel more and more like a home.
I have been playing a lot of squash recently after meeting a guy from church at the courts. We have formed a group of 4 who play round robins for an hour on Tuesdays, and then I usually fit in another hour with someone else on a Thursday. Squash is not a big sport in Finland, and most of the people playing are not locals. You would think that an indoor sport like this would be popular in a place where you can't go outside for 6 months of the year...
