Day 6 - University of Edinburgh

Editing this was a bit of a pain. It was hard to find a good balance between the dark bricks, the sky and the green foliage. It took me about twice the time it usually does, because I had to do a lot of small adjustments in order to get things right. Not many steps, mind you, just a lot of tweaking of the steps themselves. I love that the Nik collection gives you so much control though. I haven't used it for very long, but already I can't imagine going back to what I used to do.

This shot is of the University of Edinburgh. Last time I was in the city, I spent a lot of time at the university. Sadly, I didn't get the privilege to see the inside of this building - I was at the newer university, further down the hill. It was a very interesting time though, I got to meet so many smart persons and listen to many interesting lectures. I'm so glad I took the chance and went there, that fist time. It made me fall in love with the city, it's why I came back, and I loved to get to share it all with Mr this time (and to get to shoot it for real).

/MrsHjort

Day 15 - Great Balls of Fire

I've never been interested in history. It was always the subject I found the most boring in school - it was nothing but "years" and "old names" to me, it never came alive and I never really cared for it. Not that I hated it, it was just... meh...

When I went to the uni I really started to hate history... You see, I had to take "The History of Literature" as a part of my education. Sigh... talk about lost potential! I mean what better way is there to make history come alive than through literature? Sadly, that was far from the case. The shear volume of literary works we had to read was staggering in itself, but that's not what made me hate it - I love reading. No, the thing that made me hate it with a burning passion was that the course was accompanied with a list of (I kid you not) hundreds of authors, publishing dates and book-titles that we had to memorize for the final exam. I've never struggled so much with anything in my life! I passed though, and on my first try too. Thank goodness for that! Can you guess how much I can retain today? The answer is next to nothing. Well done uni, well done...

/MrsHjort

Life is Beauty

... or some other cryptic heading haha (silly Facebook must be rubbing off on me). Sorry, but it seemed to fit the photo :). Well anyway, for those of you who have been following me, are wondering or are just curious, I really like where I am at right now. I've recently changed careers - from school teacher to... ehm, I'm not really sure how to describe my new job (it's quite unique) but it's a desk job, and it has to do with law, news and court records. I've worked with this before, at the same company, and it's still great!

Well, as I was saying, I really like it. Don't get me wrong though, I really loved teaching too, however, this new job has proven to be better for me - when it comes to health. It's been said now and again in Swedish media (and I'm sure it's not unique to my country) that teaching is one of the most stressful and demanding professions of all. Since I am a bit too ambitious for my own good (I'm a bit of a workaholic), and tend to get a bit too involved with what I do, it has became too big for me at times, which affected my sleep a lot.

So, for the reasons mentioned, I jumped at the chance of this new job, which offered better hours, less stress, better chances of advancement, and a significant salary increase (plus, it's fun too)! So however sorry I am to leave teaching, I have to say that this has been really good for me. Though I have to admit, I do miss my students, the thrill of teaching and all the good times we had.

So, to all of my old colleagues, thank you for the memories, the laughs and the tears. It's been a pleasure! And to all of my new colleagues, thank you for welcoming me back, I'm so glad to be with you again, and I'll see you tomorrow :)

/MrsHjort

Unsuspected Twists

I have a lot of reasons to be happy right now. Spring is coming, next week is Easter Break, I've finally worked up the courage to join BotS on W1K, and about two weeks from now I'm starting a new job.

For those of you who have never heard of BotS, the acronym stands for the Battle of the Strippers - it's a comic challenge on W1K. I've lurked around there and read the strips for a while, just like I lurked around in the other arenas on W1K for quite some time before I joined in myself. I'm really glad I finally joined though. As always, the other members are very friendly and welcoming, and if any of you funny talented fellow "strippers" are reading this, thank you for making me feel so welcome!

So, the job thing. Well it's sort of bitter sweet. I really like my current job. My colleagues are wonderful, teaching is a lot of fun, and it's so nice to get to know so many intelligent and charming young people. However, sadly, the life of a teacher can also be immensely stressful at times. That's one of the reasons I'm leaving, and I will get a lot more free time working for my new employer. Furthermore, I got a really nice offer, a great salary, tasks that suit me very well, and on top of that, I'll be working side by side with Mr! If you've followed my blog you'll know that we've done this in the past, and it worked better than fine. I've really missed working with him, and our quirky inside jokes at the office.

Yes, life certainly takes its twists and turns sometimes, it's really funny that way. About seven years ago, I got employed on an hourly basis at the office, a year later I had moved on to working full time at a meat packaging facility, that made me go back to school to study to become a teacher, after that I've been working as one and now, six years later, the circle is complete. I'll be back at the office again, but this time I was offered full time, and a raise! But the best thing of all, is how the people at the firm make you feel so welcome. It's like coming home to your friends and family. So even though I'm sad to leave teaching, and all my wonderful colleagues at the school, I'm very happy to go back to my old job. It's going to be great!

Wish me good luck :)

/MrsHjort

Old Friends

Isn't it strange, how you regress when you meet buddies that you go way back with?

I met some of the girls from my class in upper secondary school today. It was like no time had passed at all and we were all teenagers again. We even did some happy girly jumping when we met haha, shrinking with excitement. What a joy to meet them! We laughed a lot, reminiscing and telling long forgotten stories. Odd expressions that we used to use popped into our heads and the way one of the girls played with her hair brought us right back to when we were sitting by a table together, waiting for science class to start, talking about random silly teen stuff. We vividly remembered walking through the corridors (the picture on the right is of a piece of art that you can find in one of the stairways) or sitting in the library together during recess... We were all in the "scientific program" and today we laughed about our nerdy hang out spot. Those were the days!

Yes, it's so much fun to talk about the "good old days", when we were all giggling teenage girls filled with mischief and dreams. Remembering our teachers is particularly fun, like our biology teacher who used to tell us stories of his camping trips, or the math teacher who at one time surprised us all by imitating an elephant in a very life like way... or the time when we brought a cake for our English teacher's 60th birthday, it brought a tear to her eye... and she cancelled the homework test that day... My, my, my! What happy memories... Time really goes by in a wink.

I love our occasional reunions! And it's really wonderful that, even though a decade has passed, we still keep in touch and meet up at least once a year. I hope we can keep it up!

/MrsHjort

My Day Off

I love some of the perks my job brings - like autumn break! I've had this whole week off, and believe me, it was well needed! Because, even though we get these extra days, we also work that much more, and often take our work home with us. It's unavoidable, or at least for me it is - there's almost always something that's nagging me, that I want to improve or solve in some way... and the last couple of weeks have been particularly crazy, with the development talks coming up.

But enough of that! This was supposed to be about my day off after all. So, I woke up to this amazing view today, and I could not resist going up to the attic to shoot the top photo. The lighting was stunning and lit up all the yellow autumn leaves gloriously. I love autumn days like this! When the colors come out in all their splendor and the air is fresh. Soon they will be a thing of the past and there will be brown everywhere, yuck! I just hate that about winter, the lack of color depresses me.

So, today being a beautiful day, I finally got the craving to go out and shoot. Honestly, I haven't felt like that for weeks and it's so nice to finally be relaxed enough to feel like doing something creative. Today has been wonderful, my dear mother-in-law and I took a spontaneous walk in the woods, shot some autumn pictures, had a nice lunch out, and ended up talking for hours. I just love that we share the same hobby! So here are today's pictures, fresh from the camera sprinkled with some photoshopping :)

/MrsHjort

Daisy - June's Morganite

I've had a terrific day today! I love my new job! I currently work as a high school teacher and I had this semester's first classes today. The student's were wonderfully well behaved, interested and happy. Students like these are every teacher's dream, and thanks to them, I walked home with a big smile on my face, even though it was raining pretty hard and I had forgotten my umbrella at home. I want every day to be like this, and it's why teaching is the best job in the world. Seriously, there are only daisies and sunshine in my world right now :).

Since, I now have a garden a lot of this year's calendar shots are of flowers in it, which makes my job a lot easier, now that life has grown rather busy again. I shot these in the morning, when the sun had just gone up and the air was nice and cool. This summer has been just wonderful, just like last year. It reminded me of the summers when I was a little girl - somehow I can't remember that it ever rained back then. Maybe it's just that way with happy memories - I always tend to romanticize the past, and thankfully I have a lot of happy memories. I'll add today to the lot of them, and maybe, in 50 years or so, I might look back and believe that this too was a sunny day - it certainly has had a sunny happy mood!

Cheers my friends

/MrsHjort

Day 25 - "Glow"

Light can do wonderful things to mundane objects. I'll lift my hat to the one who can guess what today's picture is of! I'll give you a hint; this thingy is usually white.

The Swedish word for glow ("Glöd") has multiple meanings; in some contexts it can also be interpreted as "Spunk". Today has been a very energetic day. I haven't had the time to eat lunch until just now, but somehow I've not tired the least. I've filled in for a college who is ill today, and despite leading 5 classes, almost non-stop, I felt as clear headed teaching the last class as I did the first. Funny how some days are like that. I love them! It's a great feeling going home from work and thinking "Yes! I nailed it today". That's what makes teaching the best profession in the world. When things sort of just flow - you get your pupils to the next level and also have a lot of fun along the way :)

/MrsHjort

Day 20 - "Angles"

Geometry was always my favorite type of math as I grew up. Maybe because it's so real - you can solve it logically just by looking. Geometry is everywhere in our every daily lives and it's easy to find examples to explain why things are as they are. Last semester my students got a homework project that involved designing the "swimming pool of their dreams", they also calculated it's volume, to see how many liters of water it would hold, and its area, in order to see how much tiling it would need. It tuned out very well, and it was a lot of fun to see what they had come up with.

This picture turned out pretty geometrical. I love that you can find math in photography. The golden ratio crops up again and again in most great photos, as well as the subjects we shoot. Math is beautiful :)

/MrsHjort

Day 17 - "Foundation"

Time for yet another pseudo-philosophic rant ;). My latest thesis got published the other day, and it made me think of all the things I've learned since I started my higher education. Much of the material seemed way too advanced at the time - I will certainly never tech any of the math I've learned beyond that of my first semester. At times it felt very unmotivated to master math that was even more advanced than the courses the engineers took . Yet somehow we all felt that it was necessary for us to be on a whole different level than our future students.

My pupils always get very surprised when I tell them how much we actually had to learn; "No way! Really?". And I remember from my own time in upper secondary school that I thought the math teachers were all geniuses! Maybe because at that time I really struggled, and I couldn't imagine how anybody could solve stuff that easily without having to think about it! Now I know :)

/MrsHjort