Month: April 2015

One of my degrees is in biology with a focus on plants (but I couldn’t tell you how to grow them). So, I enjoy the flowers–or catkins–in this photo.

It was a beautiful day, so many were outside.

All the pre-schoolers out and about have to wear the reflector vests. However, you’ll see them outside in cold or sun.

The students at MHS were practicing vocabulary (Greek?) outside. After I took this picture, the young women showed up with 2 liters of ice cream for all.

I didn’t want to get too close, as Anya already thinks I’m a bit creepy just getting photos of life in Stavanger.

At MHS, there was chapel with communion (in Norsk) and the employee lunch gathering (in Norsk). I just listen. I am deluded to believe that if it is something important for me to know, someone will translate it into English for me. They did mention what Knut had already told me; their employee retreat will be next week for a few days. Do you know where they are going? Rome! In other circumstances, I could have been included, but the plans were made prior to my plans. No, it is not free, as there is some contribution to participate, but I think it is subsidized somewhat. Not bad, huh!?!

I’m in the curse section of my paper. Here’s a sample of the typical curse formula from the middle bronze age from the Hammerabi stele, “May Nergal, the mighty one among the deities… have him beaten with his mighty weapon and shatter his limbs like a clay figurine.”

I will give Knut about 35 pages to take with him to Sweden. He is one of the presenters at a conference on Isaiah. He’s been working on a paper. I think that is why we didn’t meet today.

I did get some significant reading, writing, and revising done. I reached the 39,000 word mark today! 39% done with the draft! Yes, there will be some revisions on those words.

I’m the little engine that could. I’m not the biggest or brightest in the bunch, but I’m keeping on keeping on.

With blessings,

Beth

I woke up right at sunrise–my sunrise over the east fjord hills/small mountains.(When does a hill become a mountain?). I can see the point of the sunrise creeping north over time, marked by the topography of the hills.

Anya wasn’t feeling well, so I left her home and took the bus to church. It was a beautiful day with glorious sunshine. I’m reading along the way, sometimes having to put my sunglasses on to read–even in the bus–as the sun shines through the window.

The service today including sharing about a new educational mission project in Sierra Leone. They were able to start school again this past Tuesday, as schools have been cancelled due to the ebola crisis. Still, my prayers continue for this country, with Libera and Guinea, as the losses surpass 10,600 lives (an underestimate).

Another life was lost. A beloved woman from the Stavanger International Church died from cancer this past week. I only knew her through the faithful prayers for her. She was a beautiful Asian, who sang with the worship team. It was amazing to see a community grieve together while holding on to the promise of the resurrection. I’ve never experienced such shared time during Sunday morning. There are things about this church that are not polished and smooth, but there is an amazing care and support for people from all around the world, including Anya and me.

I walked through Old Stavanger to the bus stand in a beautiful area. I took a picture of my favorite statue in Stavanger.

I think it has the most interesting composition. The inscription is pretty cool too.

I returned home for a nice nap, some break times outside in the sun, and a bit more work on the dissertation writing.

After dinner, we worked on some travel plans.

The sun stays up later, so we’re getting ready for bed while it is still light. My phone alarm usually surprises me how late it is. But off to sleep now.

With blessings,

Beth

Yes, I spent most of the day writing. So how come I show only 1,678 more words than at the end of the day yesterday! Ok, this is a slow process with research, citations, rewriting, making adjustments to strengthen the logical progression, and making a few tweaks to earlier content to make things work better.

Though if I have 60 days like today, I would have 100,000 words–the magic number for a dissertation–in quantity. The other issue is quality. I actually am at 38,000+ words, but these words include some known relatively minor revisions for chapters 1-3. Chapter 4 may have some more significant revisions. We’ll see.

Anya wasn’t feeling well, so I took a break and made some biscuits; good comfort food. We had tomato soup for supper–more comfort food–but the stuff here comes in a packet instead of a can. I miss Campbell’s.

I did a bit more work after dinner, folded the laundry, and then Anya and I watched the musical Mama Mia. We thought the singing and dancing parts were like a series of music videos, but the music is fun and good medicine for Anya. We are preparing for our trip to Stockholm!

Since not much to write about to you folks, here’s the highlights of our first day in Bergen. We arrived safely! This was my first time driving in unknown regions. (I did drive the car the previous night from the airport, ending up taking the bus routes! I know bus routes!

What was amazing was that on our first of two ferry rides, we were getting into the car, and I hear, “Beth!?!” Knut and his wife, Berly, were in the car immediately behind us! So, Karen and Erin got to meet Knut, though it was a very short meeting.

Anya said, “We know three families in Norway, and what’s the chances that one is right behind us on the ferry!” Erin was joking that Knut was keeping an eye on me and wondering why I wasn’t working on my dissertation. I thought, “Knut is my shepherd…” He turned off before the next ferry, to go and visit his grandchildren, including a set of triplets who are 2.5 years old!

We checked into our hotel, and walked to the end of the harbor for a 3.5 hour fjord cruise. It was beautiful, then hail, then beautiful, then hail, then beautiful!

We got up close to a beautiful waterfall.

We had dinner at Pepe’s Pizza, with Karen offering that her husband, Ralph, pick up the tab (who wasn’t there). What a nice man! Then we walked around to see the city.

And see our ancestors!

We visited the grocery store too, as we realized that the stores would be closed for the next two days for Maunday Thursday and Good Friday. So, we would have some food for our lunches on the ferry home the next day.

Our hotel was just down a bit from the beautiful old water front buildings.

If I could, I would just want to travel the world and visit as many UNESCO World Heritage sites as I could!

We headed to bed after a great day, and grateful that my first day of driving in Norway went safely. As we were getting ready for bed, Karen surprised us with “Spa Night,” at least for our feet! She brought four foot spa packages. It was hilarious. It was a jolly holiday with Karen!

Bergen Day 2 to come later–on another slow day

With blessings,

Beth

I got this written but didn’t get it posted. Here’s the post from the day before.

Anya’s practicum was mostly in the library today. She was shelving books, checking the order of the systematic theology books (to make sure they are systematized! What do you think, Elenn, a reasonable pun!?!). She said that the best part was gluing covers on in a binding machine. Anya loves the art of handmade book binding! She’s made several smaller books for her art class, under her beloved art teacher, Miss Colleen (who she dearly misses). When she learned that my dissertation will be published (God willing I finish it), she immediately asked if it would be a stitched binding. I told her no, to her great disappointment. If/when it get reworked into a book, there is a good chance it will be stitched, but depending upon the publisher.  Today. I showed her examples of other PhD dissertations from MHS. She was not impressed aesthetically.

I spent the morning with 1 Samuel 2 in Hebrew, Hannah’s song of praise in the first 10 verses. Poetry is harder to work with, but I’m also trying to understand a few of the harder aspects of vowel changes. However, the cool thing about this passage is to compare it with themes in Mary’s song, called the Magnificat, in Luke 1:46-55!

After lunch with Anya, the Maasai Research Group met. Knut had us working with an ostracon (pottery inscription) from 701 BC from Lachish.

I remember being to Lachish in 1992, totally unprepared. I didn’t have any idea about this history. Now, I hope to see the relief carvings that the Assyrian King, Sennacherib, commissioned in commemorating its destruction. They are in the British Museum. (We’re planning a trip for the end of June.)

What Knut brought out was that this photo of the pottery has the author’s writing (probably in the British Museum!), which is not possible for biblical scholars. We don’t have the original copies from David, or Hannah, or even later guys like Ezra.

We continued to work on shaping the research projects for Zephania and Hoyce by helping them talk through the research question and their project outlines. I get to learn better how to articulate my research by hearing these projects discussed in detail.

I did set a meeting with Knut for Monday. I want to have some discussion about my project. I’m amazed at how much I better understand my project with each passing stage–both what it is and what it is not. It is different from what I imagined it to be 2.5 years ago, but it is more engaging for me than I would have ever guessed because it is different than a traditional PhD dissertation in Old Testament. It is multi-disciplinary, and it is more of a transformative dialogue than traditional biblical scholarship.

Finally, the days are getting much longer, and the dusk lasts a long time up north. I recently checked the sunrise-sunset calendar, and on June 21, as I recall, there will be 18 hours 24 minutes of sunlight. But if you count civil twilight and dusk too, there is less than 1.5 hours of night! Good thing we have opaque blinds!

With blessings,

Beth

Anya finished her practicum. She is very glad it is over. It took a lot of effort to encourage her along this week. She did provide some significant volunteer work for the school, such as shelving books, putting together archive boxes, and binding books. She did learn a bit about the workings of a library, but obviously, the more interesting and technical stuff would take too much time to train Anya for too little service time.

I enjoyed having a travel and lunch partner each day. Today, we were running a little late (I couldn’t find my glasses), so we went down the hill to catch the #3 bus to Stavanger. We knew we would have to switch buses in the city, but it was a sunny day. Wow, the #3 bus was full of high school students–until we passed one high school.

Changing buses at the bus terminal means Anya’s plea for something at the 7-11 right next door. She was off with my coin purse for a pastry. We also saw the brand new bus, which Anya rode yesterday. It must be hydrogen powered, but I haven’t found out the details yet. Anya says there are USB charging stations at each seat.

The view at the bus terminal is beautiful, as the central lake is across the street. The fountain is now running. (Not during the winter.) And the  AD 1135 cathedral is across the water.

With my camera out, I tried to take a picture of Anya, but she’s a bit irritated with me taking photos of her. So, I tried to sneak a selfie with her in the background.

The rest of the day was writing with a short visit to the library to get some books for the weekend. I think a descent backbone structure is coming together, but it needs lots of fleshing out.

Anya met her 50% mark on her online English course. We met our 3-month to go mark. It will be half-way mark on mid-day the 20th. So, Anya will have to pick up the pace to get done before the end of her semester. But, she’s figured out how to make the most of her time while listening to the online lectures–and is producing some amazing knitting and trying her hand at calligraphy!

With blessings,

Beth

Anya is amazing! She just started knitting about 1 week ago, and she’s already figured out how to make a patterned sock.

She wouldn’t hold it, so I had to take the picture of it with her in the background. Instead of a selfie, it is a socki!

To and from MHS on the bus today. Anya put together some boxes for the archives and shelved some books. I’m working more on chapter 4. It seems that it is working best if I have my general outline (plan) for the chapter, then I write some, and I follow up by outlining what I really wrote. It is cumbersome, but I see that it makes it more cohesive and progress with more logical coherence. My goal is to have this sub-section drafted by early next week for Knut to review. Anya works stitch by stitch and a sock gets made. I work word by work, and hopefully a dissertation will be made. 🙂

I also did some more Hebrew for tomorrow’s meeting of the Maasai Research Group and plan for our trip to Stockholm. We arrive mid-day on Sunday on a direct early afternoon flight from Stavanger, so I have to figure out what is open on Sunday evenings. With some strategy, we could take in the Vasa museum and the ABBA museum. I bounced these off Anya, and she wasn’t too excited. Perhaps she just wants to go shopping!

Anya did invite Oda over to taste some of her American candy from her birthday care package. It was good to have some time with her friend, as the whole class isn’t meeting for school this week with everyone doing a practicum. As you can imagine, Anya gets a bit tired of me. So, I tried to give her some space tonight and work out of sight on my Hebrew.

With blessings,

Beth

Off to MHS for both of us on the bus. Anya is knitting on the bus, making productive use of the time. She’s got two colors in patterns. I’m amazed. I try to read on the bus, which I did on some of today’s ride with a commentary on Exodus 20 (the 10 Commandments). (Anya doesn’t appreciate my commentary on the commentary!)

Anya was back in the library in the morning for her practicum, shelving more books. We had lunch together, estimating how much our $13.50 lunch would cost in the USA. We estimated $7, which is about the average at double the cost of food in Norway. Her afternoon was with the archivist, who spent quite a bit of time just introducing her to the discipline, the archives, and various related issues (new non-acidic paper storage boxes). He sounds like the dream archivist with a great passion for his work. But still, Anya is determining that this is not a vocational path for her.

Knut stopped by my office, seeing my door open with Anya there. He said that when he did this practicum at Anya’s age, he shadowed a dentist for a week and then interviewed him. His first question was something li,e, “Do you have to naturally be evil to be a dentist, or does that develop?” I’m glad he didn’t choose to be a dentist, and his would-be patients are probably too!

We arrived home to a mailbox with notification that a package for Anya was at the post office, ready for pick up. She was so excited. We walked down and picked up this huge box! Anya’s friends pooled together some gifts and about $63 of postage(!) and sent her a wonderful care package. She was so excited!

The package included taco seasoning, I made tacos for dinner. (In Norway, they have Norwegian-style tacos on Friday nights.) Anya even ate the ground beef because it had the seasoning from her friends! (Anya is a selective red-meat eater and prefers poultry.)

This was fun to see Anya so thrilled! Then we played “Name that Tune” with her Spotify account on her phone, which was shuffling through songs from musicals. She’s pretty amazing!

I’m exhausted! I think the mental challenge of more work on chapter 4, with a little revision of a part of chapter 3, is so draining. Our brains are like 8% of our body weight but consume 25% of the calories of a recommended daily allowance. Wow! It could have also been the wind that picked up in the middle of the night and made noise throughout the night. So, I need some sleep.

With blessings,

Beth

Today, Anya and I both took the bus to MHS, as this is the first day of a week of praktiss or a practicum. The whole class is out this week in sites that they have arranged (perhaps with some parental help–like mine) to check out a potential career. I guess depending upon the career, it may be from job shadowing to some hands-on work.

As we have a very limited network here, I contacted the head librarian and head archivist at MHS to ask if they would be willing to have Anya there to look at information technology in those areas. They were willing to have her in a shared praktiss, half in the library and half in the archives. I think this is even better, as she will have a broader experience–and more varied things to do.

How did it go today? Anya was bored silly reshelving books. She said she sang the alphabet song in her head a zillion times. She also had to learn how to alphabetize in Swedish. The interesting thing is that MHS’s library uses an old German theological library cataloging system. So, their software is from the 70s! It works well for them, but it seems strange to us.

From the MHS website, “The library holds a collection of approximately 90.000 volumes covering theology, missiology, religion, and intercultural studies.” Check out more at http://www.mhs.no/bibliotek/?432

Here’s a bit more to give you a sense of Anya’s cross-cultural library experience today. Regardless, she will be able to put on her resume’ her practicum in a university library. We’re hoping that this may help her get a library job when she goes to university (instead of the custodial crew).

Library orientation

Hovedlesesalen / Main reading room (main floor)

• Le    Encyclopedias and reference works
• Bi     Bible
• GT   Old Testament
• Jød   Judaism
• NT    New Testament
• ST    Systematique theology

Galleriet / Gallery (1st floor)

• KH    Church history
• PT     Practical theology
• Ps     Psychology

Nysalen (main floor)

• RV    Religion and religions
• MV    Missiology
• Ku    Cultural studies
• SV    Languages

Tidskriftsrommet / Journals (basement)

• Ti   Periodicals
• År   Yearbooks

I was in my office reading and writing on my dissertation most of the day. I did get a good sub-section written, but it was back in chapter 3 instead of progressing on chapter 4. I need to talk with Knut a bit more about my chapter 4. I will provide a sample and express my questions with some tangible content to critique.

We bused home both tired. I worked on a tax payment online, bill payments online, banking online, and figuring out that our tolls to Bergen and back were $109.95, which was divided 4 ways. This covered roads, It is about $2.50 just to drive into the Sandnes city limits, another $2.50 for the Stavanger city limits, and back through on the return.

Probably several cities had tolls like this. Each tunnel and probably bridge had tolls. The ferry’s were extra at about $40 on average per ferry ride.

I still have Bergen highlights to share, but I’ll find a day when I have nothing much to say.

With blessings,

Beth

This morning, I spent my breakfast with the Wikipedia articles of Norway history in WWII as well as some of the Norwegian public figures. (Why is the street called Roald Amundsen? Oh, he was the first one to the South Pole, and who Roald Dahl was named after.)

Off by bus to church (I forgot my old gloves on the bus; they had holes, so not a big loss), where the Malagasy church joined us with their pastor preaching a really encouraging sermon. Here are all the kids up front singing.

After church and fellowship time (Anya talked with a high school young woman whose dad works for NATO), we walked to Dolly Dimple’s for pizza with a light rain.

Waiting for our pizza in our favorite table in the corner with windows on 2 sides, Anya took out her knitting.

We bused home, where I napped and awoke to spend the afternoon with emails and preparations for our trip to Sweden in early May. It is so dramatic to go a few hours and be in another country (more like Vancouver–not like to Baltimore, Denver, Minneapolis, Atlanta, San Jose, etc.). Since we got here 2.5 months ago, Tørbjorn (our sometimes basement dweller) has been to Berlin, Amsterdam, and Liverpool. (Shh, I’m not sure if his parents in Berkeley know he’s gone and not in his university classes!)

With blessings,

Beth

Last night, Knut gave a little story about a picture he had on his wall. Where he grew up, there are two 11th century churches right next to each other. Here’s the Wikipedia info:

The Sister Churches (Norwegian: Søsterkirkene) consist of two late 12th-century churches built side by side at Granavollen, Gran, Hadeland, in Norway.

According to local folklore, the two churches were commissioned by two sisters who had fallen out and therefore would not be seen in the same church. It is, however, not uncommon for medieval churches with different functions to be built close to one another. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sister_Churches,_Norway)

I went to look up this infomation (which I found and shared with you). But then I also wanted to see where this was on Google Earth. When I zoomed in, I found a pin marker that I had set there prior to arriving. My mother-in-law had done quite a bit of genealogical work on the family heritage in the early 90s. I scanned the book to have it with me. But I also went through and highlighted each town name, put them in a spreadsheet, and then put a pin in Google Earth for each town that has a current corresponding town. It so happens that Anya’s paternal-grandfather’s maternal-grandfather came from Hadeland, who was named Hans Skarie (1846-1913) and immigrated to the USA. I emailed Knut, who said that the Skari(e) name is still in the area, though he doesn’t know any personally.

Here’s a little schematic of some of Anya’s family tree on Eric’s side:

• 17th generation: Alvard Skjalgs died of the Black Death of the 1350s!
• Anya’s paternal grandmother’s maternal grandfather’s mother is Torgjer Larsdotter Helland (1834-1914).“Torgjerd’s ancestral lines are tracked to ancient times-if one accepts ‘Ynglinga Tal’, a poem by Thjodolf of Hvin, Harald the Fairhair’s poet, which lists the first thirty Yngling Kings, with information about each King’s death and burial place.” Here’s the info on Ynglinga Tal on Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ynglingatal. While the historicity is questioned, there seems to be some valid content in this list of Scandinavian kings. Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yngling.

So, is Anya a Swedish princess? There’s some link to Harald the Fairhair, the Norsk king who unified three rival kingdoms after a battle near Stavanger in AD 872. We saw the memorial when Erin and Karen were visiting. Here’s more info., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sverd_i_fjell