Month: September 2016

Well, after getting settled a bit the past few days, this was an unsettling day. The Swedish class was very challenging. It seemed to take a great leap forward in difficulty compared to last week. I realize that my conversation partner today–again being the guy fluent in Norwegian–is not one to compare with, but even the in-class conversations and exercises were beyond my ability. It was discouraging.

So, my strategy is to:

• memorize 200 more most common verbs and all their forms,
• memorize 2,000 more most common nouns with their gender and group, and
• work ahead on the readings and assignments…

… all by next week.

OK, I realize this is impossible. But perhaps I need to find another conversation partner, so that he doesn’t just cruise on filling out the grammar worksheet, while I’m still figuring out what I’m supposed to do. I need someone to work with me and figure things out together.

After returning home from class, Anya and I did the laundry. Then we biked to a cafe to meet my colleague, Maria, and her daughter for fika.

Anya and Maria’s daughter share an interest in Broadway musicals, so they found plenty to talk about. Maria and I always have plenty to talk about, and never enough time at work. She is so kind. We’ve been able to connect a few times over these past 6 weeks. Today, she was the salve for my wounded soul.

Maria is also helping me with practicing to speak Swedish, which I desperately need. I hope that every afternoon fika at work (it is just a basic coffee and tea break at work), I can arrange a one-on-one conversation partner. However, this week, I’m gone Monday through Wednesday to Växjö, where I’ll be living in a world of English at a conference. But, I will make some time for Swedish practice every day. I just need more, more, more…

The catch 22 of the day is that I have been turned down for an Internet account. I still get a simple, slow connection with my rent payment. Probably because I don’t have a Swedish bank account yet, my credit check was not approved. I called the company and asked what I could do to demonstrate that I am employed here, and that I am just waiting for my Swedish ID card so that I can get a Swedish bank account (and for Johannelund to deposit 2 months of salary). No easy answer. I could set it up in someone else’s name and bank account (ya, right), or pay 1000 kroner as a deposit. But how do I pay 1000 kroner without a Swedish bank account?

After I set up my Swedish bank account (after I get my Swedish ID card), then I will try to get approved for a real Internet account. At least I have this basic Internet access.

So, on the way home from fika, Anya and I stopped at Clas Ohlson’s housewares and hardware (and a bit more) store to get a router and a few things. We haven’t had WIFI since the switch from the pay-as-you go to the simple Internet connection (thanks to Omar). The good news is that now we have WIFI. The bad news is that Anya lost all her Snapchat streaks (having at least 1 Snapchat each day with a friend) without WIFI capability at home. Don’t worry; this isn’t earth shattering!

Off to bed. I’m trying to say my prayers in Swedish. It’s good to know that God understands even my sighs and groans (Romans 8:26).

With blessings,

Beth

Well, the title is really putting a positive spin on feeling unsettled! We have stuff now, but the unpacking is a form of taking things from boxes, creating chaos, and then slowly trying to decrease the chaos.

I have not taken any pictures the past two days, but I do have one from the delivery of the crate by one of the volunteers.

The width is the same as the breadth. It doesn’t look too big, does it!?! Especially when considering this is a major, long-term move. This big box, six 50-pound checked bags (I paid for 2 extra bags), and our carryon luggage is the material possessions from our lives in the USA.

I’m still trying to find our bath towels and the boxes are dwindling. What about the silverware drawer divider? Will they show up?

OK, I have to say it, and then I have to let it go. Often, I wish I had paid for the second crate, which would have been less than half price of the first crate. I can name the things that I would have put in it, and instead, I gave them away. But now it is water under the bridge, so I’m moving on. Sigh.

I did bring a large (2000 watt) step-down transformer. My host family in Norway (with a dual Norwegian-American citizen) had one, so it isn’t just missionaries in Tanzania that use them. I had plugged it in, after making sure the input was set at 240 volts. The power was off, and I went to plug in a power strip in the 110 outlet. Pop! There was a spark and a pop! I checked the fuse, but it still looks normal. However, the power breaker seems to have been flipped, as the outlet doesn’t work. I don’t know how power breakers work here. They look very different. So, now I’ll email the management and ask for help to do the equivalent of “flip” the breaker.

I bought a train ticket today. Next Monday, I go to Linneaus University in Växjö. (I don’t know how to pronounce it, and when I try, it sounds like I’m sneezing.) My PhD adviser, Knut, is paying my way as part of the Maasai and the Bible research grant. I am so blessed! I’m seeing Sweden through attending conferences!

In 3 weeks time, I’ll have been in Norway, Gothenburg, and Växjö. The traveling alone and to two new places is taking a lot of emotional energy for this Myers-Briggs INFJ, but I am learning a lot and making some good connections.

If you’re reading this, would you please just make a quick prayer for: 1) getting centered, 2) my Swedish class tomorrow (always a stresser), and 3) continued providential preparations for Sunday morning. I’m preaching in both services connected with a young adult retreat.

Thanks,

Beth

On 16 July, the crate with my stuff was sent from the USA. It was about the size of a large refrigerator box with 100 cubic feet of space. It arrived today, 73 days later. The 10 weeks and 3 days is significantly longer than the 8 week estimate, which would have come at a better time 2 weeks ago. But at least it is here, and it seems thus far that things were packed pretty well (though I haven’t unpacked all the dishes yet).

I’m grateful to the crew of volunteers from Johannelund who helped unload and carry boxes up two flights of stairs to our apartment.

Now it is time to unpack boxes.

I have to give a special public thanks to Omar, who helped me get connected with Internet. I had tried earlier with the little information I had, but I ran into the message that there were no Internet providers for my address. That’s when I tried to get through the Swedish phone tree and got to some sort of survey that was beyond my Swedish capacity (as mentioned in a previous posting). So, we’ve been dependent upon the pay-as-you-go (with gigabyte limits) account that is actually Jim’s. When we run out of data, I give hims some more cash to load the account. However, Omar knew how to get around this “no providers available” and got me to the right site to sign up for an account! This was so simple for someone who knew what to do. He even called back later to make sure things were OK.

The kindness of these students went a long way today!

With blessings,

Beth

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 80^th 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

I’m going to see a bit of Sweden through attending a couple conferences this fall. Tomorrow is the “Exegetical Day” at Göteborg (pronounced something like yuh-teh-BOHR-ee), where the Swedish biblical scholars gather at the University of Göteborg to share and discuss papers. Most will be in English! Whew!

I took the train from Uppsala, switched trains in Stockholm and arrived in Göteborg three hours later by bullet train. Most often, there was no English translation, so I had to work on understanding the announcements.

I had some time in the afternoon to walk around the city. I had plans to visit the city museum. On the way, there was a church with the outside door open, so I decided to stop in. It ended up that a service was in session, so I stepped in and sat down for the rest of the sermon. The pastor’s Swedish was so difficult for me to understand. There is a very different dialect in some places, perhaps he is a representative of that, besides the fact that he talked really fast!

There were 12 people in a church that could sit 560 (I did the math) on the main level and more in the balcony!

I realized that I’m thankful for the Puritans and Pietists which resulted in removing much of the ornate elements from many churches, especially in the USA.

I spent a couple hours in the city museum, which used to be the Swedish East India Trading Company building built in the 1750s. Here are some highlights.

I decided to walk around and get an understanding of where my conference will be tomorrow. I passed two big cathedrals. No, I didn’t open the front door’s!

I timed the walk back to my hotel to make sure I plan for enough time to walk to the university tomorrow morning.

I caught up on some world news (depressing) and skyped with my folks (fun).

Sweet dreams!

Beth

It just so happens that Uppsala is home of the Nordic African Institute, a center of collaboration for social science researchers dealing with Africa. They have an annual conference, which I was able to attend with some professional development funds. About 300 people from 36 countries, including 17 African countries, converged in Uppsala.

In Thursday’s post, I mentioned the opening reception in their extensive library. Friday and Saturday were the sessions with keynote speakers and panels with paper presentations.

I didn’t attend the Friday morning sessions, but rather went to my Swedish class on Friday morning. This is more important for me right now. (I think it is ironic that I go to the “English Park” buildings for my course on Swedish!)  I was able to share some of the upcoming conference sessions on analysis of social media with my Swedish class conversation partner, as I knew that this is one of her research interests.

After class, I biked two blocks over to the conference for lunch and sessions in another part of the university campus. One presentation was by a Swedish anthropologist who is studying African women’s literature. I attended session describing research on poverty and development from various African contexts including Tanzania, Rwanda, Guinea Bissau, and Botswana, among others. I learned a lot and stretched my understanding of the tension between researchers and policy makers.

In addition, I had numerous interesting conversations with researchers from all over the world. Some had no idea how to engage me in conversation after my summary description of my research (one foot in theology and one foot in social science research with the Maasai of Tanzania). I would try to make it easy on them, and I just kept asking them about their work (academics love to talk about their research, and I learn a lot). However, at the reception before dinner, there was one Danish woman who seemed eager to move to greener pastures, and she figured out how to politely excuse herself from a conversation with me and another woman from Iceland.

Later during dinner, there was the standard cordial conversations with people around me (as I kept asking others about their research). However, Hannah, from South Africa (currently doing a PhD at Oxford), asked me questions beyond the cursory introduction. Then, we continued with a rich and intriguing dialog that engaged intersections of our interests. She an exceptional conversationalist.

Soulful indigenous jazz music from South Africa entertained us after dinner.

It was a nice ambience. But the conversation with Hannah was the highlight. I realized how nice it was to operate in a world of English after all the effort in trying to manage as best I can in a Swedish world.

Saturday evening includes the packing and preparations for going by train to Gothenburg tomorrow for another conference on Monday. The “Exegetical Day” may be closer to the center of my research in biblical studies. I hope a find the Hannah equivalent there, someone to engage in rich conversation. I’ll keep you posted.

With blessings,

Beth

Wednesday was not only being back on campus for me, but it was the monthly 3.25 hour faculty meeting.

Being a bit tired from travel, two shorter nights, in a warm room, after a big lunch, and with all the conversation in Swedish, it was a long meeting. I didn’t fall asleep, but I did have my eyes closed pretty close to it a couple times!

I’m still learning the systems, but there has been a rallying of other staff to meet with me and fill in the gaps. (The orientation sheet has been found!) I learned that the employees eat together on Wednesdays. So, that is why I had a big lunch, buying lunch in the cafeteria, instead of biking home for a sandwich, some physical activity, and sometimes a 15-minute power nap.

Much of the rest of the day was Swedish homework.

Today, Thursday, I continued with Swedish, working from home, until I met a conversation partner, Åsa, in the afternoon, also taking the opportunity to print out my little essay for class. Åsa had me read the essay, and then delicately informed that every sentence needed some revision. (Sound familiar, Catharina?)

I was woodenly translating English into Swedish, so sometimes things were technically OK, but they sounded off. Other times, things were just plain off. Åsa was at first hesitant to work carefully through the essay, but slowly, it became clear that this was really helpful for me, as it clarified the grammar and a few words that I know would not happen just getting the paper back all marked up from my teacher.

I made the changes and then biked to the University of Uppsala and found the that reception for the conference is not at tomorrow’s venue, but rather at the library of the Nordic African Institute. It boasts 70,000 African-themed books and reports and 400 journals.

There are people from 36 countries (and probably more if original nationality were considered) coming to discuss recent social science research about Africa. I met people from Uganda, South Africa, Cameroon, Kenya, Germany, France, Belgium, Latvia, and more.

It is pretty amazing that this resource is in my neighborhood!

It was great to end the day Skyping with Jean (and a few moments with Marv), the dear friends who have been such a great support through dissertation proofing, packing, painting (they did it all!), and moving.

In evening prayers with Anya, I hoped that somehow, I can be a blessing here. With the language barrier, I too often feel like a burden. At least it motivates me to keep on keeping on with language learning.

Swedish class tomorrow! I hope it goes well. Then I go a couple blocks to join in the conference at lunchtime. After an afternoon of listening to papers being presented, there is dinner in the Concert Hall center!

With blessings,

Beth

In May, I was here at VID Specialized University in Stavanger, Norway, defending my dissertation. Today, I’m back to support a colleague in her post-doc research project. Hoyce is from Tanzania and part of the Maasai and the Bible research grant that Knut received from the Norwegian Research Council. I was brought in as a mid-way evaluator of her project. So, I had carefully read and wrote a detailed report with affirmations, questions, issues to discuss, and some recommendations. I think the report was 7 pages in the end. Because she is writing in her third language, English, I spent a considerable amount of time proofing and editing it. I carefully did half, but then had to be a bit more cursory to get through the 94 pages and write the report.

Before the evaluation, Knut invited me to speak at a “Forum for Glocal Theology” which discusses the tension between local and global theological issues. This is a lunch-time forum, with waffles provided for the students, followed by a 15 minute presentation and discussion. I spoke on “Intercultural Biblical Hermeneutics: Different Ways of Knowing.” OK, it might sound fancy, but it basically is a critique of Enlightenment thinking that says knowledge is only what known by reason or can be demonstrated by the scientific method. This is really important when connecting with Africans, who know things through relationship. For example, instead of Descartes’s “I think, therefore I am.” The African proverb states, “I am because we are, and since I am, therefore we are.” OK, the pictures and stories make it warmer and friendlier. I had two Egyptians and a Malagasy ask for the slides, as well as Tanzanians, Americans, and Norwegians corroborated the talk with some insightful comments.

While Hoyce was a bit anxious earlier in the day, she seemed calmer for the evaluation. I hope my words earlier helped. Before things got rolling, we had a photo op of the Maasai research group.

I brought a bag of chocolate to share, just like I did for our group seminars in 2015! Then, we spent a couple hours going through my report, Knut adding his evaluation, and some good discussion. Perhaps, a spoonful of chocolate helps the medicine go down, but it was a very constructive time.

Knut then took me to the airport with enough time to have dinner at the airport and talk over some professional opportunities for me. Here’s some things on the horizon. He’s invited me to a conference in south-central Sweden next month on “Classical Religious Texts in Global Contexts,” and I’ve been endorsed by my boss to attend. Knut also invited me to write a paper for a book related to the research I’ve been doing. This is a wonderful opportunity, but I have to make sure that my dissertation gets revised and published. Knut was encouraging me about this, and he has paved the way to make this happen. The goal now is to have it revised by the end of April.

So, the horizon is bright with some opportunities.

The sun was setting as I flew back. I arrived back in Arlanda airport about 9:15 pm. While I missed my train to Uppsala, it meant that I with another Dutch woman (who missed her train to Stockholm) were able to help a Ukranian woman contact her relatives. She spoke only a few words in English and was trying to visit her daughter, who is a university student in Umeå. There was a sweet spirit between us three strangers in a strange land, as we shared in a spirit of helping.

I collected my bike at the train station to head home. It was noticeable that it had been left there for quite a while. The type of “junk mail” here is advertisements put on the bike racks.

But equipped with front and back lights, I biked home. How good it was to see Anya asleep in bed.

She had declined the invitation to stay with Jim and Christina, our month-long hosts in August. Since several of her classmates stay in dormitories, she was game to spend one night by herself. She did have her friend, Sara, over for dinner, and they studied economics together. Everything went well.

And Anya really is liking economics! Her dad would be pleased; he was an economics major.

With blessings,

Beth

I’m catching up on posts after a very full time away for an overnight in Norway. (That sounds so strange, but that is life in this area, where instead of a trip to California, it is a trip to another country!)

I started off on bicycle, after getting confirmation that I can leave my bike in the bike racks overnight at the train station. Then bullet train to the Arlanda (Stockholm) airport.

I headed out early to make sure I made all the connections. (The INFJ Myers-Briggs temperament does this.)

I was picked up from the airport by Rebecca, and arrived for dinner at the home I lived in for six months (January – July 2015). She was in Berkeley working on a post-doc project, so it was a win-win situation.

There was just enough time to walk up the hill behind the house to get a great view of the fjord.

It is so beautiful there, and I miss the hiking to stunning vistas!

But then, it was time for a few friends to show up for a tea that Rebecca was hosting.

Tina was my PhD student colleague, as we were both supervised by Knut. She is the brilliant one, I’m just the diligent one that kept plodding along.

We were up until past 10 talking and laughing. What a great group of women!

I still had a little more work to do to prepare for tomorrow’s session, so it was a late night, turning in around midnight.

The journey continues…

I woke up early and started to review more vocabulary that was in this week’s Swedish homework. I had to go to Johannelund and print out a short essay which was assigned, as I don’t have a printer yet at home. The prompt was (in Swedish), “What I do well (do good).” I wrote that I am good at facilitating meaningful cross-cultural experiences, and gave an example of this past summer. Even though there will some grammatical issues, I like the way it came around full-circle in just one page.

I arrived on campus in time. I’m still giving a few extra minutes to allow for travel by bike. It ended up that I was way early because of the Swedish “academic quarter.” The posted time is that class starts at 9:00. However, the teacher and most students don’t show up until 15 minutes later.

The quarter system dates back to the days when the ringing of the church bell was the general method of time keeping. When the bell rang on the hour, students had 15 minutes to get to the lecture

While I knew about this, I still wondered if I might have missed an email from the teacher that morning, as emails for this class are sent to my work email address. I figured the greatest likelihood was that the delay was this 15-minute fudge factor. I’d just wait around (and practice more vocabulary on my Anki intelligent flashcard app on my phone) and see if people would show up.

Yup. The teacher showed up about 9:12 am. At 9:15, there were only 3 of us students. Eventually, we had 6, including 2 more who weren’t with us last week. So, instead of 11, we were a smaller group.

At the beginning, my conversation partners were a French woman and a Finnish woman. The French woman looks in her twenties and is working on a PhD in biology studying the human genome to determine prehistoric human migration. She works in a lab where English is spoken, and she also speaks fluent German. She was doing rather well in Swedish too. Her language capacity is humbling, but I realized that I’m not totally out of my league in this class. I am not too far behind the French woman in Swedish (forget French and German), and I think I’m a bit ahead of the Finnish woman. This twenty-something woman commutes from Stockholm every school day, where she is studying the affects of social media and free speech. Her English is exceptional, such that after hearing her first couple of words, I wondered if she was from North America. No, but she is obviously exceptionally fluent in English.

So, while I’m still struggling to track with all of the teacher’s Swedish, I can usually understand the topic and some, but not all, of the details. She speaks a bit faster than I would like. She is helpful and has us engaged in active learning with helpful exercises. We did quite of bit of talking to our conversation partner, which is important for me to get my brain connected to my mouth.

After class, I asked the teacher (in Swedish) about a recommendation for a Swedish – English dictionary (but not with such good grammar as this English sentence). I realized that I need to see some more things in a context. My flash cards are helpful, but there is something for visual learners about seeing things on a page. Specifically, there are many words that either begin with “for…” or “för…” I have a theory that actually seeing these on a page (with some of my color-coding memory associations) will help me remember which words are “for” and which ones are “för.” So I stopped by the bookstore and bought a big dictionary (over 777 pages).

So, my Swedish library is growing.

Friday afternoons are good times to do laundry. Marv, your words to me of “soon not everything will seem new” encouraged me today. I had a little more sense of what I was doing in the laundry room today. Anya helped with the laundry and did a great job of folding my clothes.

The afternoon weather was stunningly beautiful.  Some of the warmest September days on record have been seen in several parts of Sweden. I figured out a way to MacGALver (or jerry rig) my travel hammock. I hung it from a door hinge inside and strung the hammock to the balcony railing. In the hammock — half inside the house and half on the deck — I read some of the post-doc research project that I’m evaluating and will discuss in Norway next Tuesday.

Perhaps you are wondering what I mean by MacGALver it. Well, here the background.

jerry-rig: To fix an object (usually mechanical) to a working condition in a haphazard way. Also known as doing a MacGyver on it. This can apply to any non working thing, to fix it in a nonconventional way. (Source: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=jerry-rig)