I knew that the 30 minute walk to the university with a backpack would make me a bit sweaty, so I wore a t-shirt and changed in the bathroom. There were less than a hundred people there, but it sounded like a decent turn out as this was the first time the conference was held in Göteborg, on this 80th anniversary of the Swedish Exegetical Society.
The papers presented today were by scholars from Finland, Great Britain, and USA. They were mostly on the second temple time period and included many extra-biblical texts that I’m not too familiar with. So, I learned some things, but I also reaffirmed that my approach of holding the tension between scholarship and service to the church (sort of between theory and praxis) is where I best resonate.
I met some of the colleagues in the discipline, which is good, as this is a pretty small guild in Sweden. But I also was able to connect with Lena.
Lena is the reason I’m in Sweden. We have been roommates on at least four different Society of Biblical Literature conferences. (Yes, I attend nerdy conferences, but they have become actually rather fun with the conversations over meals with friends.) Lena told me about the position at Johannelund. And the rest is history. Lena is Swedish, but she teaches (in English) at the University of Aberdeen in Scottland, but she is in Göteborg for one semester this fall. So, this is the first time we have met in Sweden. (Yes, and I’m a native English speaker, trying to learn Swedish to teach in it!)
I had planned to stay with Lena tonight, but I received word that my crate is arriving in the morning sometime between 8:30 and 10:00 am. I thought of having Anya stay home from school, but she has a math competition. And, I’m so new that I don’t have retired friends yet, who might be willing to bring a book and sit and read in my apartment and keep an eye on the crate until I get home at 2:15 PM. So, I’m on the night train that goes way up north, but I’ll get off in Uppsala at 11:30 PM.
I did miss the evening dinner that I had already paid for. But Jim passed on word to one of the conference coordinators that someone else could be invited to fill my place. I hope it was a blessing.
On the way out of the city, a double rainbow was visible out the window. For a while, we were driving ahead under the bow with color visible on both sides of the train. Sigh.
Back in Uppsala.
Beth