Month: May 2015

Anya gave me her Mother’s Day gift early while in Sweden, because she was so exited about it. It was a nice small Fjällräven bag in red (not the blue from their website).

Anya wasn’t feeling well, so I went off to church. I had a nice chat with a Norwegian and two Ethiopian masters students. I was really pleased to hear of the one who just submitted his master’s thesis. He sounds like he is in a healthy situation with his sending church, who are also giving some support to his family while he is away.

On my walk to the bus through the central area, I ran into thousands of motorcycles on the plaza in front of the cathedral!

You can see a semi truck there. Here’s the view from the other side.

There was some biker and rock-n-roll festival. I didn’t stay beyond a couple pictures, as I’m headed home to prepare for guests tonight.

By the bus stand, there was a flurry of birds hoping to get the bread crumbs.

Marta, Kjell, and Jenna joined us for dinner. We made pot stickers (actually gyoza) together, which is not a typically Norwegian thing to do. For dessert, we had both yogurt panna cotta and Marta brought a lovely almond cake.

Anya and Jenna walked up the hill by our house for a little exercise after dessert.

That was Anya’s first time up there. It is a great view from the top. Here’s a picture from a previous blog (Feb 15).

After dishes and this blog, its time to get to bed.

Happy Mother’s Day you mothers, but especially mine.

With blessings,

Beth

Today was a catch up day for unpacking from the Sweden trip, grocery shopping, laundry, and cleaning. We’re having friends over for dinner tomorrow, so we needed to tidy up a bit. Anya wasn’t feeling well and had a low-grade fever for part of the day. Despite this, she managed to do some work to catch up on her online English course.

Getting to the grocery store before 10 am is good, as things are slow. On my walk down, I saw that they started the fountain. Here’s a glimpse.

I walked through the mall, though most of the stores weren’t open yet. The flags are out preparing for the 17th of May, which is the Norwegian Constitution Day, which is analogous to our 4th of July.

One of the things I like about Norwegian grocery stores is these tags. Each tag lists the price per Kg (or what ever is the measure), and these are the same across similar items. So, it is very easy to compare prices. It seems that in the USA there are variations in what volume is measured, so it isn’t as easy to compare price. Oh, by the way, in Norway, I get the hot salsa because the medium seems mild to me!

I got almost everything on my list and filled three bags. So, I took the bus part of the way home.

I cleaned quite a bit of the house, so here are some of the living room pictures.

The “indoor gazebo” picture from April 30 is connected to this room; left of the double doors.

It is quite cozy. My landlord, Rebecca, has a nice sense of style with an appreciation for antiques.

More home pictures on another “slow” day.

With blessings,

Beth

Anya wasn’t feeling well, so she stayed home to rest, and when feeling better, to work on her online English course. She got a bit behind with our travels to Sweden.

I bused to MHS. I’m happy to have figured out a way to walk down the hill in the morning and take the #3 bus to Stavanger. It means switching buses at the bus station, but as long as it is not rainy or too cold, it can work slick. Today, I had a little run to catch the #2 bus at the next stop about 100 feet away. Yesterday, it meant waiting for 15 minutes.

Today was the dissertation defense of Steffan. He is the philosophy lecturer that is at Johannelund Seminary (which I visited earlier in the week), filling in for 1 year while their regular prof is on sabbatical. The defense is quite a formal occasion, including a procession of the candidate, the three “opponents,” and the rector (translated as principal by some–but think on the university level). This is a valuable experience for me to observe in order to see what my future will hold and to learn how to respond in an optimal fashion to difficult questions.

After the formal introduction and description of the process, Steffan gave a 10 minute overview of his research. His dissertation is entitled, De Incarnatione Filij Dei: Jerome Zanchi (1516-90) and the Analysis of Reformed Scholastic Christology. Then for 45 minutes (which seemed longer–perhaps because this is highly technical theological philosophy) the first opponent brought challenges for discussion. This was followed by a 45 minute break (Whew! time for tea.), and then there were 2 opponents from the audience. This is a public defense, so anyone can challenge the defender through a formal request process. They get 10 minutes. The second opponent then had her 45 minutes of challenges and conversation.

I was impressed by the caliber of the opponents. The first is a professor emeritus, with a teaching career that included Regent College in Vancouver. I studied there twice in intensive courses over the summer and one extension course in Seattle. So, later I introduced myself and talked a bit with him. The second opponent is a Pfizer Award winner!!! The Pfizer Award is awarded annually by the History of Science Society “in recognition of an outstanding book dealing with the history of science.” The 2010 winner was Maria Rosa Antognazza, for her book Leibniz: An Intellectual Biography (Cambridge University Press, 2009). She is a Professor and Head of the Philosophy Department from King’s College London. I can’t imagine being a PhD candidate and learning that one of your opponents is a Pfizer Award winner! (Fortunately, this won’t be possible for me!)

As you can tell by her name, she is Italian. So, all except one of the participants in the defense were communicating in there second (or third?) language.

It ended up that I was able to have lunch with this group, invited by Steffan. Unfortunately, Maria Rosa was at the other end of the table, so I didn’t have a personal connection with her. However, I sat across from LarsOlof, the Professor of OT at Johannelund, where I visited earlier this week. So, it was nice to have a collegial colleague to talk with.

After lunch, I walked with LarsOlof to the bus terminal for him to catch a bus to the airport, and I grabbed the #3 bus home in rush hour traffic. Then, I came home and read the Wikipedia article on Leibniz to put him into a fuller context. I knew he was the one who coined the term “theodicy” but I didn’t know that he is considered to be an developer of calculus independent of Newton’s development.

I’m mentally and socially exhausted, so I’m glad to be home and resting. Anya is doing better.

Anya and I left home at the same time. I literally ran to the bus stop–the one down the hill–so I could catch a bus to Stavanger Sentrum and switch to the #2 bus going up to MHS. However, there was a spot inspection of passengers with their tickets. It took about 3 minutes, but I missed two #2 buses by 15 seconds! So, I had to wait for 15 minutes for the next one, which made me 10 minutes late to our Maasai research group seminar. I had notified Knut by text, apologized, and later brought out chocolate for the group.

Zephania facilitated a book review on a Maasai ethnography. Then we reviewed the progress of the developing projects for Hoyce and Zephania. I get to see how PhD projects beyond my own are developed, which helps me see what I need to accomplish in my writing.

I ate lunch at my desk and worked on getting some content from books in order to return them to the library. There are a couple quotes to help support some argumentation, but in the game of academia, I wanted to expand my bibliography with these two sources. I have two other sources from each of these two authors, so I’m demonstrating my more thorough engagement of their work. One is an anthropologist who researched the Maasai, Paul Spencer. One is an African theologian, John Mbiti.

Then I reviewed some resources that I scanned at Makumira seminary. These are documents from the archives of earlier writing on the Maasai which are out of print. I tried to put them in a reasonable shape to share with Knut and review some of their content.

There was a trial lecture today of a PhD candidate. What is interesting is that I just met this guy in Uppsala on Monday, and had dinner with him and 2 other faculty from Johannelund, where he teaches. The other person representing Johannelund, was one of the other faculty I had dinner with, their OT prof, LarsOlof. He also attended my presentation and had some nice conversations. So, after the trial lecture. Knut invited our Maasai research group to have dinner with LarsOlof to talk about our projects and OT biblical studies in Sweden. It was a rich conversation. Here are two elder statesmen of Scandinavian OT studies, and we sat for at least 2 hours talking. I gathered some great insights, so it was a privilege to hear and participate in this dialogue.

Unfortunately, I have no great photos of the day, but here is one to share with part of an insight I learned tonight.

Knut relayed that the Stavanger Cathedral is one of the best examples of a medieval cathedral. Why? Because Stavanger was so poor that it couldn’t keep remodeling and upgrading the cathedral! The Uppsala Cathedral was updated last in the 1800s, putting on the tall spires. The national cathedral of Norway in Tronheim was similarly updated recently. So, maybe there is something good about not being awash in money! Perhaps a bit of encouragement today!

With blessings,

Beth

It is consoling that it feels like we are home again!

After packing up after breakfast, the day was mostly spent in travel. Though I did attend the morning chapel, where my host, James, was giving the homily in Swedish. He is an American, but he married a Swede and has lived in Sweden for 20 years, so his Swedish is excellent! Though, I’m not the one to judge.

I emailed one of my seminary profs, who is of Swedish heritage, speaks fluent Swedish, and has done many writing and translating projects in Swedish. In fact, he has collaborated with two of the faculty at Johannelund. So, it was fun to email him and relay how we were talking about him. It was in his class that my sense of call to be a Bible teacher was confirmed.

Anya was glad for the trip and had several highlights, especially Stockholm. She’s going to wear her ABBA Museum T-shirt to school tomorrow.

Below are pictures from our visit to Sweden which didn’t get posted previously, but showing a few more images of our journey.

 

Our flight took us through Copenhagen on our way back, but we didn’t have enough time to get out of the airport. I tell Anya that we can’t count a country visited unless you get out of the airport. She was hoping even to walk outside, but then we’d have to come back through the security check. Yuck! She was consoled by walking through many of the duty free shops and getting a Starbucks frappuccino. There isn’t a Starbucks yet in Stavanger, but they are remodeling a waterfront store by the Cathedral. So, we’ll soon have one.

So, we’re glad to be “home” safely after a great journey.

With blessings,

Beth

Anya and I both didn’t sleep very well. Perhaps we were too close to the automatic door opening noise in the evening. Perhaps it was the first night in a new bed with only one pillow. Perhaps the blinds and drapes weren’t opaque enough for the 4:35 am sunrise. Perhaps there was lots on my mind. Perhaps all of the above. Regardless, the day went very well here at Johannelunds teologiska högskola.

After a tour of the campus, I joined the community for the chapel with communion service and then tea with the faculty (of course, most drank coffee). Then my presentation about my PhD research was shared. The Swedish Evangelical Mission has had a long relationship with Tanzania. One of the faculty taught at one of the seminaries in the south for 10 years. He had great Kiswahili. Just on the way to lunch, I met the current director of the Swedish Evangelical Mission who had also worked in Tanzania. As we leave tomorrow, I’ll miss the student presentation of their trip to Tanzania recently. I’m among friends!

After some lunch and conversations, our host took us around Uppsala, with an amazing church and scientific history. The tallest cathedral in Scandinavia is here (most of the structure was built between 1272 and 1420).

There are some important people interred here, including Gustav I, born Gustav Eriksson and later known as Gustav Vasa (1496 – 1560), was King of Sweden from 1523 until his 1560 death. His sarcophagus has two of his three wives with him (looking like he has two wives in bed!).

But my favorite as a biology major who studies botany is Carl Linnaeus (1707 – 1778), also known after his ennoblement as Carl von Linné. Linnaeus was a botanist, physician, and zoologist, who laid the foundations for the modern biological naming scheme of binomial nomenclature. He is known as the father of modern taxonomy, and is also considered one of the fathers of modern ecology. (Wikipedia)

We walked past the University of Uppsala, which had other famous people besides Linneaus:

• Nathan Söderblom (1866–1931) awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1930
• Anders Celsius (1701–1744), physicist, astronomer and inventor of the Celsius scale
• Anders Jonas Ångström (1814 – 1874) a physicist and one of the founders of the science of spectroscopy; the Ångström unit (1 Å = 10−10 m) in which the wavelengths of light and interatomic spacings in condensed matter are sometimes measured are named after him
• Niklas Zennström (1966-  ) co-founder of KaZaA and Skype is also a former student at Uppsala University
• And several other Nobel laureates in the sciences and literature as well.

As we walked, we had to be careful not to walk on the bike path. There are bikes everywhere! It is quite flat all about, except a modest hill up to the main university library and a “silly castle”.

 

A special feature of the library (which we didn’t see) is The Codex Argenteus, “Silver Book”, is a 6th-century manuscript, originally containing bishop Ulfilas’s 4th century translation of the Bible into the Gothic language. (Wikipedia) This is one of the oldest Gothic language sources, translated by one of the first Bible translators, Ulfila (who was considered somewhat of a heretic due to his Arian views).

Another old inscription (one of several) was a rune stone by the university. Though it seems older than a manuscript, it is actually from the 13th century. The manuscript is twice as old!

Our host treated us to tea/soda and pastries, and then agreed to leave us in the shopping area of the city (Oh, this is the 4th largest city of Sweden with just under 150,000 people.) Anya was glad to have some time walking around and checking things out. We only bought a notebook and some food, including a yogurt smoothie.

We ended up walking the 1.8 miles back to campus along walking paths, staying on the right to not get run over by bikes on the other half of the paved path.

We return to Sandnes tomorrow.

With blessings,

Beth

Things went well today. My little worry was getting enough coins (90 krona) to fill the luggage locker for the day while we were out and about. My American credit card does not have the chip and PIN system. I have a card with a chip, but it requires a signature. Fortunately, I chose a hotel really close to the train/bus station, and they had a free luggage room. (Now I have a bunch of coins! Though I didn’t have 90 krona in the morning!)

We started walking past Klara Church (1572) and then to the Gustav Adolf’s monument, who is known as Gustavus Adolphus the Great and credited for establishing Sweden as a great power.

 

Gustav is on the horse in bronze. The Royal Opera is on the right. Verdi composed an opera based on the murder of one of the Swedish kings here. (link for more info)

We got front seats in the top of the double decker bus for the 1.5 hour tour of Stockholm. The early worm gets the best seats! Highlights from 1000 years of history, last 500 years of architecture, and other cultural centers were noted (though they missed mentioning the ABBA museum even though we drove right by it!) I’m loving the architecture. Anya isn’t quite there.

We then had an hour canal, harbor ride, which got us beyond the central city area. So much to see; so little time.

Anya knew that after the canal tour, it was her time to be in control. We went shopping! (The bus tour did help us scope out some shopping which was actually not to far from our hotel.) I would have gone to the City Hall where the Nobel Prize banquet is held, but I’ve been there before and Anya wasn’t interested in more architecture. Off to shopping!

Fälraven is a Swedish brand that originally developed to outfit Greenland expeditions, very well made, and very cool! Anya looks very Nordic now! Things are a bit cheaper here than in Norway, and I can apply for a tax rebate that reduces the cost about 20% more.

After two hours of whirlwind shopping, we retrieved our bags and found our high-speed train to Uppsala (pronounces oop SAH lah), where we were met by one of the faculty members, an American who married a Swede. We got settled in the guest room on campus, and I quickly reviewed the faculty info from the website to look well informed. Then we were taken to an Ethiopian restaurant with 3 of the faculty for an informal time to connect. This seminary, Johannelund, has a long history of missions with Ethiopia and Tanzania. So, I’m invited here to make a presentation about my research project interfacing with Tanzania.

So, I better get to bed and get a good night’s sleep.

With blessings,

Beth

This is the day that Marty McFly went into the future in Back to the Future II (Anya says). This is the day that Anya and I went to Sweden.

First, the rest of yesterday’s highlights.

We put on our finest dress we have here and went to the Sandnes Kulturhus (Culture House/Concert Hall) for the “Humanistisk Konfirmation” or the rite of passage for atheists. It is a celebration where most women in attendance and some men wear a bunad or traditional Norwegian dress.

The confirmation for most 15-year-old youth is done with a two year curriculum in the Norwegian Lutheran Church (no longer a state church), but those who aren’t affiliated with the church established a traditional rite. It is marked by young women most often getting a bunad (in a design and colors from that area, which can cost up to $4,000 with lots of silver jewelry). Oda shared with us the stories of the gifts that were given by family and the women who had embroidered her skirt and shawl. No young men wore bunads, but Oda explained that the young men typically aren’t done growing, so it doesn’t make sense to get it now.

Also, the family and friends give gifts of money. One of Anya’s classmates received a total equivalent to $3,000. So, it is a big deal.

Afterwards, we were invited to dinner with the family and friends, where there were some speeches honoring Oda. We met at the Sandes Ulf Stadium, where there is a room large enough to host the 32 or so of us.

There was wonderful food and fancy desserts, including the tradition kransekake.

It was a wonderful time, and it was special to be invited. Oda has been a great friend to Anya, and it was a privilege to be part of her celebration. We were sat next to Oda’s neighbors, who are great in English (wheh!). The Norsk husband met a beautiful woman from Maritius (islands East of Madagascar) of Indian descent in engineering school in the UK. Wonderful conversationalists and special neighbors to Oda, who is like a big sister to their daughter and son.

Now highlights of May 3:

Today, we flew to the Arlanda airport and took the high-speed train (127 miles per hour) to Stockholm.

I chose a hotel very close to the central train and bus terminal to minimize the walking, We checked in quickly and took a taxi to the Vasa Museum.

“The Vasa Museum is a maritime museum in Stockholm, Sweden. Located on the island of Djurgården, the museum displays the only almost fully intact 17th century ship that has ever been salvaged, the 64-gun warship Vasa that sank on her maiden voyage in 1628. The Vasa Museum opened in 1990 and, according to the official web site, is the most visited museum in Scandinavia” (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasa_Museum).

I remember visiting the ship in its restoration process in 1978; it stank with whatever they were using to treat the wood.

Then we were off to the nearby ABBA Museum.

Afterwards, we walked down the waterfront and into the central parks with fountains, statues, and amazing architecture. They don’t thrill Anya, but they amaze me. Then we went to the shopping district. This thrills Anya! The shops were closed by then on a Sunday evening, but she’s scoped out where she wants to visit tomorrow.

Our windowless hotel room is about twice the size of the queen sized bed, with a bathroom with a bit less area than the bed. This is what $111 can get you in downtown Stockholm. It does have free wifi and breakfast in the morning.

I only have a moment to post a quick message with a great photo.

Anya’s friend, Oda, had her confirmation today. I’d say half of the women were wearing the traditional dress called a bunad. These are special and each piece has a story and connection with family. Here’s Oda and Anya.

I’ll have to give you highlights tomorrow, as I need to get some sleep before our travels to Stockholm tomorrow.

With blessings,

Beth

Happy May Day! We celebrated with homemade biscuits for breakfast. We really just need 3/4ths of a recipe, which is why we should all be cooking in metric!

In Sandnes and Stavanger, there is a huge motorcycle “parade” that rides on May 1 each year. I walked about 30 minutes to a pedestrian overpass to watch the ride. I couldn’t get Anya to go with me.

I’m guessing that I stood there for at least 20 minutes watching the motorcycles drive by. Some waved, some tooted patterns on their horn, one even did a wheelie. Marta and Kjell were probably out there, but I couldn’t spot them.

I walked back the scenic route.

Following a winding river, a footpath goes for an estimated 4 miles. Along the way are playgrounds, sand volleyball, picnic tables, and solar system monuments. Pluto is the one 4 miles away. The bank of the river is lined with beautiful daffodils. As it is a holiday, many were out with kids at the playground and having a picnic lunch.

Walking back through Sandnes, I came upon a May Day ceremony, where they had a speech, laid a wreath at a monument (that I can’t read), a choir, and a marching band.

Close to home is a lovely embankment on the side of this fjord.

The hill was stunning with color.

At home, I was out doing some yard work, mowing the lawn and weeding. The neighbor, Gunnar, and I started talking. Now, he has a bit more English than I have Norsk, which is minimal. But we had a great connection. He invited me up to see the flowers, which I have shared with you just a couple days ago–the ones outside the kitchen table window. I somehow let him know that we enjoyed them. He introduced me to his wife, who speaks English, but she was sick so stayed inside. But I got the tour up the hillside.

So, you might sense the steepness of the hill, as our house in brown with white trim is in the middle left of the picture. Remember that his flowers are outside our kitchen window, and now we’re way above the roof of the house. Up this terracing, he has loads of berries and fruit trees, even red and white grapes. He’s lived in the house for about 80 years and made the rock wall terracing himself. He had stories of where he picked up some of the rocks.

It would have been nice to speak Norsk, but I was able to express how beautiful it was and my thanks for the tour.

It was a beautiful day, but my knees are telling me I did a bit too much weeding. But I did get most of the grass out between the slate stones in a patio area under the Adirondack chairs. The little mossy stuff will fill in nicely.

I have a presentation about my PhD work to give on Tuesday in Uppsala, so I’ve been getting that ready to go as well today. I still couldn’t get “SJ” train tickets from Stockholm to Uppsala on the high-speed train online, but I was able to get tickets from the airport to Stockholm on a different train online.

With blessings,

Beth