I finally made it to Jönköping after a 31-hour commute over three flights and a bus ride, transiting from 37*C to -3*C. My coldest night here has been -8*C. My friends back in Perth are now battling a 40*C day. Mother Earth is fascinating.

It is my privilege to have been awarded a Visiting Doctoral Fellowship with the Media Management and Transformation Center (MMTC) at Jönköping University, Sweden until end-April. I was first introduced to the Center in June 2014 when I was invited by my dear friend Sara Ekberg to give a seminar.

The architecture of this campus and its city is rather dreamy and beautiful at all times of the day. My colleagues are a fairly encouraging and supportive bunch, with our most recent endeavours being my food explorations (and all the lunchtime nag about veggies and healthy eating…)

I live in a gorgeous area with an extremely kind neighbour and a fluffy co-resident.

It’s been somewhat of a productive week (probably fueled by jetlag and all the odd hours of wakefulness), although I keep thinking to myself that I should be writing at a much much quicker pace. I’m at a point of my candidature where I cannot wait to graduate and move on to other exciting projects, to grovel for a postdoc somewhere in the world, and to pursue three notebooks full of research and publication ideas. I am very much invested in my thesis, and I love my research a lot. But I am also beginning to feel as if more and more findings in my research area are going to become public knowledge, and some part of me wants to just get this out, so that I can engage on that field as well. I keep having to tell myself I don’t need my thesis to be perfect, I just need it to be done.

So ambitious. So little time. Must. Complete. Thesis. NAO.

Well, it certainly helps having this view to write to.

In short, all is well, save for the bit of me missing sprawling along the Swan River, haphazardly laying on grass, and being around some of the people I love.

I spend most days wrapped up in so many layers that I feel like a fatty penguin. Negotiating personal space on public buses is a skill I have to acquire.

May I finish up this chapter this evening. I aim to finish up another chapter by the end of next week. Every morning I just tell myself to keep on keeping on. And kick butt. Mostly kick butt.