Despite the fact that this has been a crazy and hectic week, what with Lydia being sick and Petra’s concert and various other meetings and activities that involved everyone in the family, it seems, I have managed to get a fair bit of work done. I have a meeting in a couple of weeks with my dissertation supervisors and I need to have a text ready to send them a week in advance. I’m particularly thankful now to my past self for having made an unscheduled stop at the archives last time I was in Uppsala, because I’ve been able to make some headway on transcribing some of the letters I’m working on. To be honest, it’s going to take me many months to transcribe all of those letters, as there are a few hundred of them and in many cases I have to read individual words literally letter by letter, but I’m getting a sense of what they contain and where I might go from here.

I’ve also been reading some master’s theses and thesis proposals that will be presented at the Early Modern Studies workshop that’s taking place at the university next week. This is the same master’s program that I completed a couple of years ago, and it’s always fun to see what other people are working on and, with luck, to meet up with some old classmates that I don’t often have a chance to see. Also, there are three free meals, meaning that I don’t have to worry about food shopping and preparation for at least some of the time I’m away. That’s always a bonus.