Housing: check. Flight: check. Mental Preparedess: not so much

It's now almost the end of May, only two short months until I pack up as much as my life as I can fit in two suitcases and move to a faw away land. Having my flight booked and my housing all sorted out (I'm a mere 15 minute walk from my school) things are beginning to fall into place.
I just applied for a work permit (way too late, I know, but I think things will work out) and now only have to take care of a few things before I am almost almost ready.

So, now that I am at least semi on-track in terms of paperwork, it seems I am becoming less and less mentally prepared. Why? Well, it seems my mind can't seem to stop focusing on the things I won't have in Sweden: family, friends, familiarity, food (vegan food), as well as other things that do not begin with the letter f. (work!) And why is my brain doing this? Maybe it's taking mini-snapshots of all the things I love about Ottawa and storing them for me to revisit while I'm gone. Sometimes people come up and talk about Sweden, and it feels surreal, like I'm not actually going to go. Obviously, my mind is more than made up, and the desire to go outweighs the desire to stay. But last night I had a dream that I was pregnant, and thus could not go to Sweden. I was sad about it, because this has been in the works for months and months, and a lot of money, time, and effort has gone into Sweden 2010!

So as I ebb and flow between excitement and mild anxiety, I still have that insane task of packing up my life. Man, this is going to be different!

for future reference. . .

Last post brought to you thanks to: caffeine in certain wisdom teeth painkillers. Wow.
Future posts will hopefully be:

1) more interesting (save this one)
2) shorter
3) funnier?

Min Resa i Mark i Sverige (My Journey to the Land of Sweden)

Hello internet (or more accurately, hello my friends and family who will be reading this. . . hopefully) and welcome to my Renblog 2.0.

So, last year when my dear friend Danielle and I travelled through some of Europe, I kept a blog. I really enjoyed reflecting on my travels before, during, and after, and I really enjoyed reading people's responses to our different (mis)adventures.

So, I will be heading off to Boras, Sweden to teach English and French for (at least) a year this August (2010).

Where is Boras? Please consult this lovely internet map (the red dot!). As you can see, it's not too far from Goteborg (Gothenburg) which is the second largest city in Sweden, and the home of the Ottawa Senators' captain, Mr. Daniel Alfredsson!

So, why am I bloggering to blog? (yes, there will be many-a lame pun, brace yourselves)

First of all, it will help with the initial loneliness and homesickness. I love my home. I am overjoyed at the opportunity to live in Sweden and would not trade it for anything, but I do love a lot about being at home.

Secondly, it will allow me to share my experiences on a much larger scale than individual email messages. (But I will still send these, obviously)

Thirdly, it will help serve as a journal where things will be kept upbeat and positive for the most part, because who wants a Debbie Downer blog?

Anyways, there are many reasons for doing this, and so here I go!

A little bit about me:

I am a twenty two year old yet-to-be certified teacher from Ottawa. I went to Queen's University for Teacher's College where I learned a bit about teaching, and a lot about myself.

One of the best parts of Queen's is the office of Alan Travers and Elspeth Morgan. They work tirelessly to ensure the best overseas institutions make Queen's teacher candidates a top priority for overseas work.

As most people are aware, jobs in teaching are few and far between in my neck of the woods. I'm in no way against supply teaching, and working my way up the totem poll, but since high school I have always known that I want to experience life in more places than my humble home of Carp. When the opportunity presented itself to teach and travel, I knew I could not pass it up.

So, why Sweden? Well, many University courses dealing with socialist nations, health care and education systems planted a seed about Scandinavian nations and Sweden in particular. I defintely built it up in my mind as a kind of egalitarian utopia. Add to that the human rights policies, and regulations about not being able to target children in advertising around Christmastime. . . and wow, I knew it was a place I could jive with.

So one January morning at Duncan MacArthur, a friend told me that a Swedish organization was handing out interviews on the spot. I rushed down, signed up for one the very next day, and without much time to prepare, walked in the snow to my interview. I did not have time to carefully select the right "education buzzwords" to woo the interviewers with, and my nervousness was apparent. However, I believe a huge selling point was the fact that at my placement I had helped coach the Girls hockey team. They interviewers' eyes perked when I mentionned I play hockey, and loved to coach and be involved. We got sidetracked as they told me that I would fit right in in Sweden based on this fact. I left the interview confident enough, and so excited at the prospect! I bought a kitchen knife on my way home, which has no relevance to this blog, but I just remembered that I went from September to January without a kitchen knife.

Now, this is getting long, and I am rambling, so let's fast-forward. On Danielle's birthday I got the email saying I was being offered a job! Ectasy! Happiness! Shock! More Happiness!

I went away for the weekend, and upon my return, my friends had created a Swedish flag on my door! (see below, if this works - I am no Blogmaster)

I was on a perpetual high which lasted until I started looking up the cost of flights to Sweden.. . . .

but this has all been worked out. Flight booked! Apartment found! Work permit. . . in the process!

More later, this is long, arduous, and not too interesting even for me!

Peace for now. . . . I do promise there will be interesting posts to come!

-Ren