Tamworth
I've rewritten this update so many times it's ridiculous. This time I won't leave the laptop until it is finished.
Townsville has been great. It has been tiring, frustrating, challenging and absolutely amazing. When I finished uni, I hoped I never had to do that much school work again, but I should have known better... I've learned a lot about myself, about others and about leadership. It feels like I've grown more in the last few months than I previously did the last few years of my life. Being married helps to grow you as well. It really has been awesome.
We're spending the rest of our time in Australia here in Tamworth, with Isaac's family. Isaac is busy with work (fixing up old trucks to be resold) and I'm actually not really busy at all. Since I'm on a tourist visa, it's a bit like I'm stuck on a forced vacation. Since I've been studying and working quite intensively the last 5 years, I probably do need some sort of vacation, but it's very abrupt to go from the full-on Leadership Training School in Townsville to suddenly have nothing more to do than what I want to do. To be honest, I'm not that great at doing just what I want to do. I produce nothing, I feel tired and I get extremely frustrated. I struggle to write when I know I have all the time in the world to do so. Isn't it silly? Since 2010, I've been longing for some time on my own so I can be creative and write. Now I have all that time and it feels as if all my creativity has left.
Don't think it's all bad though, because it really isn't. Tamworth is terrific and Isaac's family is awesome. From the stories Isaac told me, I expected this to be a dry place with burnt grass and an unrelenting sun shining down from a perfectly blue sky. And it was, for a start. The skin on my hands cracked the first few days here because the air was so dry. Then the rains and the storms came. I saw more rain here the first week than I did during our 3 months in Townsville. In fact, if it wasn't for the heat and the emerald-green grass, it would feel much like any November at home in Sweden.
I still can't give you any details, simply because no contracts have been signed, no applications have been made, which means that things can still change.
But, for those of you that can't wait and don't care about the details; here is the rough plan. Me and Isaac are coming home, as planned, on Christmas. We'll come straight from Tamworth's summer to Swedish winter. (Doesn't that sound marvelous? It actually does, I miss the snow.) If all goes well, we'll have a teeny-tiny apartment to move in to and spend 6 months in. Please come visit. Please don't come all at once. Then we'll shoot off again in June, back to Townsville to spend another 2 years in Australia. After that, I don't know. But we really love Sweden. Both of us.
So, that's the rough plan. As I said, nothing is set in concrete yet, so we might not get the apartment. We might not be able to go back to Townsville. Visas might not work out. Prayers are very much appreciated. We always need them.
Stockholm, see you again when you run on 6 hours of daylight and Australia will be getting unbearably hot.Some adventure stories will hopefully follow soon. I just felt like this information dump probably was enough for now.
