At last! At long last! My first “real” entry! For various reasons, it’s taken me quite a long time from the date I bought this domain (way back in July) to the day I finally got everything set up, but I feel pretty proud of myself right now. Installing and figuring out Movable Type (inasmuch as I’ve got it figured out) was a nightmare and if I had a weaker constitution (or if I didn’t have my own personal in-house computer expert), I would doubtless have given up.

Anyway, most of the day has been spent getting this page up and running, and in between computer sessions I drove to town to take the written portion of the National Exam for Swedish as a second language. Yesterday I took the reading comprehension part, and tomorrow I have the speaking test. If all goes well (and I feel pretty good about it), I’ll be moving up from the basic level of the course to the “gymnasie” level (sort of like the high school or junior college level).

I was surprised (but pleasantly so) on Monday when the teacher offered a few of us the opportunity to take the test this week instead of making us wait until December. The class really is way too easy for me, and I had decided to tell the teacher on Monday after class that I was going to quit. He must have read my mind, because at the end of class he announced that he thought a few of us were at a higher level than the rest of the class and that he was going to offer us the test now. In some ways I would really rather have been able just to quit (it’s kind of a pain in the ass to go to town three times a week, and it makes Olof’s work schedule a bit crazy since he has Tage while I’m gone), but in the long run it will probably be better for me to get more classroom time. I’m not sure when we’ll get the results of the test, but I hope it’s Monday at the latest, so I can figure out what my schedule is going to look like for the rest of the fall.

Speaking of fall, it was a gorgeous fall day today! The sun was actually warm and it felt wonderful. We’re supposed to have nice weather for the next few days, which will be a welcome change from the rain and cloudiness we’ve had lately. Like almost everyone else I know in Sweden, I’m bemoaning the passing of summer. It’s not that I don’t like fall … in fact, I love fall, if we had a real fall here. Unfortunately, fall seems to pass almost unnoticed into winter, and I am so not ready for the seven or eight months of snow and freezing temperatures that is winter. Oh well, I won’t think about that now.