It has been a while...

We have had a very eventful time, and starting with the most recent - a visit from my parents. It was so good to have them here, staying in our little flat for one week. We managed to sqeeze in a lot of touristy stuff, and walked through the whole of Helsinki - or so it felt. We also went to Talinn, the capital of Estonia, which is only 2 hours away on a ferry. It is a beautiful medieval city, with buildings dating from 1300 next to the most amazing modern achitectural wonders. It is definitely a city worth visiting. We had fantastic weather after an intitial couple of colder days (maximum of 11 degrees one day) and were able to enjoy the sunshine fully. My parents brought with them a whole suitcase of presents from various people, mostly in the form of baby clothes. We now have a whole cupboard full of the teensiest little shirts and pants you have ever seen. They are all very cute. Not many of them are white, which is good, because as my dad says, if you drop the kid in the snow, you have to be able to find it again.

On the topic of gifts, we were given a washing machine and a freezer, so now we can go berry picking and freeze some for the colder months. It will be blueberry time soon. When we got the washing machine we had to take out home insurance, which I was a little concerned about, given that everything is so expensive here. In the end, however my whole years' insurance for everything, including the building and the contents came to just over 30 euros, less than my monthly payment in SA. Obviously theft is not a big thing here...

My friend Willem invited us to their place to make some boerewors. Here you cannot buy anything like it in the shops, all their sausages look a bit like russians, with more flour in. So we spent a lovely day making and testing different mixes. We have subsequently shared some with other South Africans, all of whom are also desparate for some real wors. Seems we are all addicted.

Tracy has been much less nauseous, but is still very tired often. She was fine while my parents were here, and had enough energy to walk everywhere with us. She felt the baby move for the first time about two days ago. It is especially active when we are singing together, or praying. I think that is really cute. We are going for the 20 week scan next week.

I was formally accepted as a student by the rector of the academy at the beginning of the month. So now they cannot get rid of me (cue evil chuckle..). I have had to rewrite my proposal after meeting with a professor in Norway, who is a well known researcher in the field of music practicing, Harald Jorgensen (with a line through the o). He was so friendly and helpful, spending the best part of three days with me going over my ideas and plans. He was very enthusiastic about the project and will also help supervise parts of it in the future. I applied for admittance to a Doctoral School with the new proposal, which would mean earning a salary for being a student. Sounds like the next best thing to a real job to me. I'll hear in September whether the application was successful.

Our bible study group looks like it is finally taking off, with a 3 new people joining us recently, and one or two others showing interest. I am also meeting regularly with Willem to pray and talk, and this looks like it might grow to form a men's discipleship group. We are also hoping to start a church prayermeeting at the church office soon.

We are expecting several visitors over the next couple of weeks, including my brother, Martin, a friend of a friend, and a couch surfer from Malasia. Couch surfing is an online organisation that links travellers to hosts, meaning you don't have to pay for accommodation if you go somewhere. We have had one visitor so far, and I think it is such a good idea. You allow people to see how you live, and hopefully get an opportunity to share some of the life of God with them.