Six months later...
A lot has happened since my last post. Negotiations with Kati (who is coming to work at Fountain House in New York City while I work in her clubhouse in Jyvaskyla Finland) and our bosses has changed the time frame of our exchange from three months to two months. Now I will be going to Finland from April 21st-June 16th and Kati will be in NYC from May 1st to July 1st. A month ago I bought my plane tickets and it finally became real to me. I am incredibly excited but also a big ball of nervous energy. There is still a lot of work to be done both here at Fountain House and at home. I decided in Febuary that I was going to move out of my apartment before leaving to go to Finland and that I needed to find more stable homes for my lovely dogs. This was a hard decision to make but I feel as though it is the right time to make a break with both. So now before I leave I have to move my stuff into storage and find a home for my dogs. At work, I have to organize my projects and make sure the people I work with are taken care while I am away. WHEW!!!
In the last few months I have continued, although a bit sporadically, to learn some Finnish. Thankfully I do not sound too horrible!