Yesterday the Braves played their first day game of the season — that is, the first game I’d have the opportunity to see live. Instead of watching it, though, I was tucked away in my basement hideaway in Uppsala as I had a class scheduled for this morning. When I arrived at the university for said class, however, there was a big note on the classroom door saying nothing more than “CANCELLED”.
A classmate and I spent some time trying to get to the bottom of the mystery, even enlisting the help of the director of my master’s program, but in the end we had to content ourselves with a long chat over coffee and the hope that nothing serious had kept the professor from attending. (Much later in the day I learned that she had a bad case of the flu. So, while not fun, it’s not a disaster, and that’s a relief.)
After the coffee catch-up, we parted ways — she to her job, and I to my research (read “semi-aimless floundering”). To my surprise, I managed to get a reasonable amount of work done and while I’ve not made any significant progress, really, I am on somewhat firmer footing than I was a day or two ago.
What I need most of all now to make measurable strides ahead is the ability to read early modern Swedish handwriting. Nearly all of my research will involve hundreds-of-years-old documents written in a spidery scrawl in my second language. Not a task for the faint of heart. I have ordered a book that should help some, and I’m planning to take a course in the fall dedicated to just this thing, so I’m hoping not to be floundering for very much longer. In the meantime, I’m going to put the bulk of my energy toward reading previous research and orienting myself as best I can in the ways of the early modern Swedish countryside.
Just now, however, I’m going to close up my laptop and make my way to airport security. My flight home leaves in an hour, and I am so ready to sleep in my own bed.
Oh yeah, and in case you were wondering, the Braves did win yesterday. I managed to follow the pitch-by-pitch report on my phone — not nearly so much fun as watching a live broadcast, but you take what you can get.