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October 26, 2004
Give It Up
This afternoon I met my small group to go over our PowerPoint presentation. Tomomi and Renaud had worked on it, while Birte and I had worked on the paper itself, so I hadn't seen it before now. I was blown away with their creativity--the presentation was great! We did a little fine-tuning, and went through a dry-run. I'll be talking about social sustainability and community investing--all in 5 minutes.
Tomomi and I had dinner at a little kebab place near the school, where we met Mitch. After a delicious meal (which was WAY too big), we biked back to Kungsmarksvagen, my home sweet home. Mitch's small group is actually focusing on how to make Kungsmarksvagen a nicer place to live--and has met with lots of municipality and city representatives--so I am somewhat hopeful that things probably won't get worse...
As for my housing situation, I am looking at it this way: it's a sign. I am now convinced that I will pass the Foreign Service Oral Exam in November and will be immediately called into a training session, requiring me to leave the program early (thus solving my frustration about the program AND the housing situation). So, really, it's better that I have to stay in this place. Right?
I finally got around to uploading pictures from the Canadian Thanksgiving last week. First, one of me (notice the perfectly shaped eyebrows):
Next, one of the dinner itself:
From left to right: Ron, Cesar, Susan, Renaud, and Paulo. Now, for the next picture, a little explanation is necessary. Because of the food preparation required, people started eating the cool dishes while the hot dishes baked in the oven and I made the gravy on the stovetop. By the time I got to the table (which was heaving with dishes for 40 people), this is what was left:
Finally, here is a picture from the front of my window. It doesn't really capture the full beauty of the trees because of the cloudy weather. I tried for a week to catch a better glimpse, but the sun refused to come out. And now, sadly, the leaves are past their peak.
Anyway, it's now after midnight and I have to be back at campus by 8 a.m. tomorrow morning to prepare for our 8:30 a.m. presentation. Sigh. I will be GLAD when this is all over.
But perhaps I should do a little studying before I go to bed. That nap this afternoon has left me wide awake...
