Summer

[liv]

So. I took two months "off" between quitting my job and starting my course on Monday. I've now reached the end of that time and I'm nowhere near as ready as I hoped for the start of my new life. Anyway, for logging purposes:

Things achieved:

• Two week Hebrew language intensive
• Passed the Hebrew exam the previous was preparation for
• Bought bras and shoes
• Bought some work-suitable clothes.
• Visited several communities and led services for them
• Holidays: a few days in Winchester around a community visit, a few days in Brighton with my sister, a few days in the Peak District.
• Replaced my passport.
• Found someone who will let me live in their spare room for the first few weeks of term.
• Did not catch Covid, despite some risky travelling and community work. Just hope my luck holds out through the festivals this year.

Partially achieved or at least started:

• Made some progress towards finding somewhere to live long-term, but this is still ongoing and best case scenario is that I move in end of October.
• Saw friends, including doseybat and lethargic_man and pseudomonas and some local people, and spent a bit of time with my parents and sibs in various combinations.
• Bought some stationery but not very systematically.
• Negotiated with communities about High Holy Day services and started preparation work.
• Met one of the students from my course in person, and got to know the others via WhatsApp.
• Made a start on buying a decent laptop, only the one they delivered was faulty, and I tried to get it replaced, but the model I'd picked is out of stock, so I need to get a refund and start again with a different model. I won't have it by the start of term now.
• Acquired some of the books I will use for my course, mostly with support from hatam_soferet, but didn't actually buy all the course books or work out how to store them.
• Getting small maintenance work done on the house (this was almost entirely jack but the work is well underway today).

Not done at all:

• Any progress towards learning to drive, didn't even manage to get a provisional licence or book lessons :-(
• Covid vaccination (I was hoping to go to France where apparently tourists are able to just buy vaccines OTC from pharmacies, but it was too logistical and expensive in the end).
• Proper holiday taking a full week off without work or interruptions
• Travel out of England; I'd somewhat hoped to get to Germany to see an old friend who is currently on sabbatical but usually lives in Australia, but just couldn't make it happen.
• Meeting up with several of the people I'd hoped to see this summer
• Writing references for my team at former workplace
• Sorting out long overdue piles of stuff at home, locating important papers and throwing away obsolete ones
• Sorting out clothes and deciding what to take to college
• Creating a system for organizing reading information when I'm a student.
• Any meaningful pre-course reading.

It's hard to express just how not ready I am for the start of term! But I think a lot of that is psychological, if I just turn up and go to classes I think it will all settle down within a few weeks.

Comments

[princessofgeeks]

Wishing you all the best!

[ambyr]

Good luck! Mid-life changes are always rather daunting, I think.

[rmc28]

Good luck! It's very exciting :-)

[hilarita]

Sigh about the computer faff.
And I hope the new term is interesting and that your learning is fun!

[redbird]

Best of luck!

[anais_pf]

You are going to do fine! The lack of new computer sounds like the worst problem, followed by the living situation. The rest is going to sort itself out or get left by the wayside, and it will all be fine. You have been a student before!

[highlyeccentric]

Welp, I missed a lot. What course are you taking?

[ceb]

I have to say that being a student the second time round, after a bunch of life experience and coping mechanism development, is much easier!

[hairyears]

Good luck with the course!


Also... Covid vaccination in France: I should look into this too.