Month: June 2015

Yes, we’ve been out seeing BEAUTIFUL Norway. The next few days will have reflections and some photos of highlights of the stunning beauty. Here, I will address our last day.

Yesterday, we boarded the Hurtigruten ship called the MS Kong Harald (Kong = King in Norsk), which with a Roman numal V is the current King of Norway.

If you look to the right of the large ramp, you will see a row of room window in the white row just on top of the red windows.

This is the view from our window.

This means that despite the ear plugs, I was awakened during 3 of the 4 overnight cargo loading/unloading times. My iPhone decibel meter hit a 92 dbl in our cabin upon the closing of the ramp doors.

However, it was a beautiful journey from Tronheim to Bergen. I would recommend the trip. We saw stunning vision, sometimes so close to the rocks it was amazing.

We arrived in Bergen, and walked very quickly to our first night hotel, the Thon Hotel Bristol Bergen, because Anya left her iPhone there the first day on the reception area couches. It was kept safe for her! We were relieved to pick it up! So, my deepest commendations for the Thon Hotel Bristol in Bergen! (They also had the best bacon of our journey!)

Then we walked very quickly to catch our bus to Stavanger. We had seats on the 3:45 bus and arrived at 3:30. We ended up taking the 4:15 bus, which was a direct bus to Stavanger, and so would arrive a bit earlier than the 3:45 bus. All went well. This is a beautiful drive with snow capped mountains in the distance, and fjord views that deserve to be in coffee table books. We had two ferry rides that had picturesque views on a calm night at sea.

Then we hopped on the city bus to Sandnes and was home at about 10 pm.

What a full trip with so much that we saw in natural beauty, architecture, history, and art. Come back and get the more highlights.

With blessings (but glad to be home),

Beth

We had a beautiful day in Stavanger that almost reached 60 degrees! I walked Scott around some favorite places. Here are highlights in photos.

This was Anya’s last day in school. They were at a part for a scavenger hunt in groups. Her classmates said goodbye and gave her a group hug along with a journal that each had written in for her. We celebrated by going out to our favorite restaurant in Sandnes. The evening was spent packing for our trip tomorrow to Bergen.

With blessings,

Beth

In the morning, Anya was off for her second to last day of school, which was turning in books. I was off to the last Hebrew reading at my school. Knut had the Maasai Research Group read Hebrew all semester as we are all doing Old Testament projects. This keeps our Hebrew functional, but also to expand our knowledge of aspects that aren’t generally covered in master’s level Hebrew. With each past session, we did quite a bit of analysis of the variant texts, and today, we read from the Mishna, or the rabbinic literature.

At the weekly employee lunch and meeting, there were a few of us who were ending our stay at MHS. Tina, has finished her PhD dissertation and submitted it. She will defend it sometime in the early autumn. I am ending my stay here and this six month research fellowship. So, they had Belgian waffles, ice cream, strawberries, and chocolate syrup to eat for everyone, and flowers and kind words for us who were leaving.

The rest of my day was digesting other PhD dissertations and scanning a few pages from a few library resources to have access to them later in the summer.

Anya came with me to pick up our guest, Scott, from the airport. Scott has family nearby and will spend some time with them. We used to work together when Trinity Lutheran College was Lutheran Bible Institute. We both are INFJs in the Meyers-Briggs temperament indicator, so we think alike–sometimes too alike–so we have a pleasant platonic friendship. We are conveniently collaborating for some travel in Norway, and later a short trip to London, as this is a way to see some places that we wouldn’t otherwise make the effort to see. With a guest room, it makes hosting easy for us and affordable for guests.

We caught the #9 bus from the airport, but silly me, I didn’t notice that this was going TO Stavanger instead of FROM Stavanger to Sandness. So, we took the scenic route home. It really is a nice little loop past the North Sea, some inland harbors, and back to the Stavanger center. Then we switched to the #3 bus for a more direct route home.

I promised a few pictures from the monastery visit yesterday to spread the wealth of pictures. I’ll get a nice picture of my gift of flowers for tomorrow.

Have a blessed day.

Beth

Melanie and Joseph were so kind to pick us up for church today, where an American mission team to Norway was leading in music and preaching. They were from Georgia and closed with “hillbilly” music.

The preacher was an apologetics guy, and in reality, few are impacted by losing an philosophical argument compared to the many who are drawn in by the love and care from the faithful. I believe that love is that best apologetics.

Anya took off after church as she had plans with one of the Norwegians who was at the Norwegian immersion language camp that Anya attended last summer. So, I accepted Marta’s offer to visit the Utstein Kloster or monastery. It was a beautiful day, but still not warm. (Tomorrow we might break 60 degrees!)

Utstein Abbey (in Norwegian Utstein Kloster) is Norway’s best-preserved medieval monastery. The abbey, dedicated to Saint Laurence, was founded in its present location during the reign of King Magnus VI of Norway (1263–1280).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utstein_Abbey

Today I’ll share pictures of the outside, and I’ll share more tomorrow of the inside.

Afterwards, we were hosted to dinner at Marta and Kjell’s home. They have a wonderful gift of hospitality. However, it was a good thing that Anya didn’t come along as the two guests were even more bent toward theological conversations than I am!

Marta is a gift for me in this place. We have some similar aspects to our stories as MKs and adult missionaries trying to mother kids through life.

I returned home to an email from Eric’s Aunt Donna sharing the updated web post for Eric at findagrave.com.

I shared it with Anya for the celebration of American Father’s Day. It isn’t a thing here, which is probably easiest for Anya.

I’m grateful for my Dad, who prays for us daily. What a blessing! The daughters got together and bought him a tablet for Father’s Day. Now he can have fun with a renewed eye after cataract surgery and enjoy it.

With blessings,

Beth

Today in Sandnes, the sun sets at 10:52 PM, but it is dusk until civil twilight ends at 12:17 AM! The dawn’s twilight starts at 2:59 AM with sunrise at 4:24 AM. This means only 2 hours and 42 minutes of darkness. While I have an opaque shade, enough light sneaks through the edges to keep an eye mask handy. This is what happens at 58 degrees and 51 minutes north (Bellevue, WA is 47 degrees and 36 minutes north; but I can look forward to a similar midsommer in Uppsala, Sweden, at 59 degrees and 52 minutes north). Midsommer is a public holiday in Sweden!

I didn’t get any hikers to go with me to Dalsnuten, so I cleaned the house and did laundry instead.

I did need to get some groceries and what I needed was at the grocery store down town. On my way home, I walked past the harbor to get you some photos.

I never thought I would see a cherry red 57 Chevy in Sandnes!

The harbor has a great view. I can see a bit of the water from my bedroom window, but the view up the fjord is beautiful.

There is an old wooden boat named Sandnes docked in the harbor.

In the evening, got through another episode of Welcome to Sweden, but I’m not sure I’ll continue. It is a lesson of intercultural incompetency, which makes for some humor, but I find it a bit unsettling, if not disturbing. So, I then checked out an episode of Poirot. Unfortunately, murder mysteries are less disturbing.

With blessings,

Beth

The PhD journey is humbling. I was reading a couple books today that Knut loaned to me. I wanted to engage them before passing them back in a couple weeks. One is a 2015 festschrift (book in honor of) for Hans de Wit.

One of the books that Hans de Wit edited was a key link to getting me connected with intercultural hermeneutics. This 2015 book. New Perspectives on Intercultural Reading of the Bible, is not available at Amazon.com or bookfinder.com, and even on the publishers website! I think it is too new.

As I’m reading it, is hear of others in this sub-field of biblical studies who have fascinating theoretical frameworks, such as Focault (post-structuralism) to Levinas and his “philosophy of the other.”

The reality is that it is good to be aware of these various theoretical approaches, but delimit the scope of one’s own PhD project to what is pragmatic and strategic for one’s project. While a bit frustrating to constantly be confronted with what I don’t know, it is good to keep humble.

For me, Hans-Georg Gadamer is my theoretical framework.

After I chose him, I was please to see that others, like Gerald West in South Africa, had incorporated Gadamer as well, but in a different project.

To balance out these white guys, here are some other theologians I engage.

So, between some reading and time working on the laptop with other resources, I took breaks with some laundry and clipping the lawn. I also have a friend in China, and we were emailing back and forth in seemingly another world, but so cool to be in touch.

It is supposed to be a nice day tomorrow, so I sent out an email to a few friends here to see if anyone wanted to go on a hike with me tomorrow. Anya, much to my disappointment, doesn’t like to hike. So, far no takers.

Anya is off with Oda in Stavanger. They took the bus in. Anya is going to introduce Oda to Starbucks and then go see a movie. It should be a good memory-making experience.

With blessings,

Beth

We are on the last month now in Norway! Wow! So much has happened in the 4.75 months here. I realized today that I’m not walking as much as when we first arrived, because I know the bus system better, and I’ve figured out how to switch buses for more direct routes. Now, it is also warmer, so I don’t mind standing out in the rain–and the bit more sunshine–switching buses as much now.

I can get off the bus much closer to home now. The path from the bus stop had evidence that Starbucks has come to Stavanger.

But just to let you know, it didn’t stay there!

Anya went off to school. They played handball in gym. The Scandinavians have pride that they are better in handball than the USA! But Anya said she was really good at handball today, even as the goalie. When they switched to volleyball, she said she was pretty good too. For years I–the former volleyball coach–have offered to work with her to practice volleyball skills, but no! She has never liked learning from me. I could have her reading biblical Hebrew with me, but no!

We did read biblical Hebrew today for the Maasai Research Group. We’ll meet one more time on Monday, because Knut wants us to read some Midrash together (Jewish teachings about the Hebrew Bible). So, much of my morning was preparing for our Hebrew reading. I also did some library gleanings, scanning a few pages of a few books to have later.

Anya made pretzels after school. She wanted waffles for dinner, so I stopped off for some fresh strawberries (jordgubbar in Swedish) and made waffles. She was in a good mood, and we talked and laughed in the kitchen.

After dinner, we watched the movie, Miss Potter, the biopic about the creator of Peter Rabbit.

Have a great day with memories of wonderful childhood story books!

With blessings,

Beth

Anya was off to school. As it is getting to the end of the year, there isn’t much going on in class. As they studied WWII, they watched Schindler’s List today.

It is a powerful and difficult movie to watch, and Anya and I talked a bit about it.

I went off to MHS and scoured the library for resources for the remaining passages that I will engage. I have a path plotted now for the remaining 50,000 words, but I won’t have access to all these resources. So, I want to have access to the PDFs later.

Most of the students are gone and many seem to have started on their holiday. So, it is pretty quiet. That is good for me getting things done.

I did see a couple librarians. I think that Anya’s practicum in April helped me have a stronger and more personal connection with the librarians, which is always a good thing!

We chatted over dinner, and then Anya went up to shower. I worked on emails. My contact in Uppsala, my future boss (I guess), talked with a woman at church is is an American and married a Swede. So, she’s been in Sweden for about 20 years. She was asked if she would be my mentor and help me get settled in Uppsala, and she responded with joy! How wonderful to have an American interpreter of Swedish culture, just like Marta has been for me here in Stavanger.

Then I re-watched one of my favorite Ted Talks on “The Power of Vulnerability.” If you have 20 minutes, I highly recommend this moving, and funny, talk.

Maybe someday, I’ll have the time to write something and connect this with the “theology of the cross,” as I see tremendous parallels. Yes, let’s practice gratitude and joy today! (In Svenska, praktiken tacksamhet och glädje!)

What are you grateful for?

With blessings, (Med välsignelser,)

Beth

Anya stayed home today as there was a class bike trip that was not strategic, and it gave her a time to work on some Algebra 2 and other projects at home.

I went to MHS and joined the Old Testament women for lunch at a Chinese/Japanese restaurant. The food is “mama hoohoo” (transliterated Chinese meaning so-so); not good Chinese food, but fairly inexpensive for Norway at $17 an entree.

There are two postdoc researchers, including Hoyce from the Maasai Research Group, and Marta. Marta was with us in South Africa in 2012. Tina is our fourth, who recently submitted her dissertation. These are wonderful women, and we have a sense of empathy for each one’s journey. We talked a bit about my midway evaluation, and they were encouraging, but I didn’t let them get away with just pandering to me. I know there are things that I need to do to strengthen the rhetoric.

I returned to campus and worked on gathering resources from the library and online journals. I will make the most of the rest of my time here scanning pages from the library and downloading journal articles that I have access to now.

As there weren’t any pictures from the today, I’ll add some from the weekend road trip with Knut, the Maasai Research Group colleagues, and Anya.

With blessings,

Beth

Anya got an invitation to come and visit again to be with their sheep, dogs, and horses, as well as just live for a bit on a farm.

May you have a dandelion bouquet and skippingly good day!

With blessings,

Beth