Month: October 2017

The Swedish higher education system is a bit strange for me and my academic administration sensibilities. In the economies of scale, it is easier to have fewer terms to schedule and to process registration. Yet, here, we have 2 terms (like semesters, but semester here means vacation), and each term has two, 10-week blocks. And there are summer reading courses. So, basically, we have 5 quarters with 4 periods to schedule.

The first block is coming to an end this next week. I had one exam last Friday, for the first course on computer-aided biblical research where we learn Accordance software. Before this course, no one besides me owned a biblical research software program. Now, we’ve entered the 21st century! (But not yet on our academic learning management system. UGH!)

This week, I have more exams in Intro to the Old Testament and biblical Hebrew. However, in the Intro to the OT, there are 4 students who couldn’t make the mid-term, so they will take the mid-term and the final consecutively. Also, any students who did not pass sections from the first mid-term will retake those sections. Then, students who didn’t pass the exam last year can show up to take it. I have one who notified me, but I could end up with more. So, I have to give 3 different exams for 1 course. Each exam that is given has to be offered 3 times in the first 12 months! Students have 5 times to pass the exam (or portions of the exam connected to a course goal). If they don’t pass the 5th time, they can ask for another adjudicator to check their exam. If not earning a pass, then they have to take the course again. As tuition is free, they don’t have to pay again. So, there are lots of carrots but not a lot of sticks.

The challenges for me is that the exams are written in Swedish. So, I have to make 3 exams different and in Swedish. I’ll have to ask colleagues to proof them tomorrow for Tuesday’s exam.

Last week, the last session in Into to the OT was the book of Esther. So, we had some fun in a “competitive story telling” engagement of the book. I put the numbers of the 9 chapters on plastic bottle tops to pick randomly out of a basket. (With all my plastic tops, Anya said, “Sometimes I don’t know if you’re teaching college or kindergarten).  Then, pairs of students had 8 minutes to prepare their retelling (in Swedish, so I miss quite a bit of the humor). Everyone voted at the end for the best storytelling, and we had a tie. It is a good thing I had 2 bags of chocolates. And yes, they all shared. Here are some highlights.

It was a fun end of the lessons.

My former PhD advisor was in town that afternoon for a conference at the University. The Nordic Institute for Mission and Ecumenical research partnered with the exegetical theology departments. Knut read a paper. Not only was it great to be there and support him, I keep on learning and being inspired by his work–as were the others.

In the evening, we were all invited to a Chinese hot pot dinner that was paid by the university! I was fortunate to sit across from the senior statesman of the Old Testament department at Uppsala University. We had met before, but on this day, he invited me to give a seminar at the university. He heard that I had presented a seminary at Lunds University, which hopefully was for good reasons—not because I’m some sort of a loose cannon.

I presented part of what I gave at Lunds University to my colleagues at JTH on Wednesday. We have quarterly research seminars where faculty members share what they have been working on. It was good to share my theoretical framework for multi-epistemological exegesis. I learned more about the history of theological education in Sweden and what has influenced the continuation of traditional of historical-critical exegesis. My colleagues are very supportive of my perspective of trying to broaden the conversation, especially including Majority World voices. They said that it is probably easier to have an American do this than it would be for a Swede. So, perhaps I’m contributing to the scholarly conversation that may put a crack in the research milieu which does not currently allow for any theological interpretations.

This next week, Anya is on a fall break. She will be having a change of pace, but with only 3 weeks until exam week, she will be studying quite a bit. However, we have plans on Friday to go to Oslo. I’ll be presenting a paper as part of Knut’s Maasai and the Bible research group, so I’ll see Knut again. Anya and I will have two nights in Oslo, and providentially, we are booked into the same hotel as my former PhD student colleague, who is now teaching OT in Stavanger. She was the bright one of Knut’s students. She is teaching both Greek and Hebrew along with OT book courses.

I am teaching Hebrew, but I’m feeling a bit sorry for my students. I don’t think I am the best Hebrew teacher, and 6 weeks into the course, I realized that I need to prepare a Hebrew to Swedish vocabulary list each week. Oops. I haven’t found a Hebrew-Swedish lexicon in the library, so I’m slowly compiling an Excel spreadsheet from a Swedish Hebrew grammar book.

Today, I opened our apartment door for Anya and I to go to church (an hour later, because we just are adjusting to daylights savings this weekend), and we had a reminder that we are in student housing. There was a broken beer bottle just outside our door.

I swept it up for safety sake, and headed off to church.

A colleague from work who also attends that church asked me if I’d be interested in leading an English Alpha conversation group. For a university town, I’m a little surprised that this church doesn’t have other English ministries besides translation of the morning services into English. Perhaps we are a bit too far from the university (1.5 km), though we are not too far from student housing (.5 km). This seems like it would be a mutual blessing, so I said yes.

I also spent some of the day figuring out if I can go to Minnesota after the Society of Biblical Literature conference in Boston in mid-November. My mom’s health is deteriorating quickly. We did have a very nice week together last July, but I would also like to say goodbye and be there to support my Dad a bit. However, I haven’t been able to find an available flight back on the dates I need. I am flying British Airways, but all the economy, deluxe economy, and even all of the business seats that I checked were sold out. I’ll have to see if there are any options to make this work. I have my Christmas-New Year’s tickets set, and we’ll be in Duluth in the New Year, but my physician sister doesn’t believe my mom will last more than a month. So, say a quick prayer for my mom. We know she will be with Jesus. I’m just praying for a transition that is as gracious and painless as possible. There still is loss, but there is comfort knowing that she will be free at last.

So, we walk by faith, not by sight.

Beth

I learned this week that I wasn’t saying that “My life is full” in the best way. I was saying, “Mitt liv är upptagen,” which—I now understand—relays a sense of occupied, like a restroom is occupied. At first, it was recommend that I say, “Mitt liv är stressad,” yes, stressed. But I said that I wasn’t really stressed, just busy. So, the phrase is now, “Jag har mycket att göra,” or I have much to do. (Though sometimes, saying that I am stressed would be an appropriate response.)

Last weekend, I accepted a couple social invitations. On Saturday morning, Anya and I went to see our friend’s daughter’s ice skating competition. It was great to support her.

Afterwards, we went out for fika with another couple, Donna and Lennart, and then Anya went with Donna to a special yarn store.

Last Sunday, I went with Donna and her goddaughter to Österbybruk, which is about 1.5 hours north–a beautiful drive on a sunny fall afternoon. This small city was a bustling ironwork area since King Gustav Vasa (think military armaments for the 30-years war) through much of the 20th century. They had an early Christmas fair with over 80 vendors selling handcrafts and artisan foods, including cheese, chocolate, jams, and smoked salmon. The free samples were great!

The manor house also had many artisan booths, but here are pictures of the outside.

A few other features of our visit:

Other fall images of Uppsala:

In October 9th’s posting, I told of the sewage back up into the Johannelund basement. I since have learned that there the lowest part filled up with sewage 80 centimeters (31 inches) deep! All week, there were workers ripping out all the damaged things: furnishings, walls, flooring, etc. The dumpsters were piling up.

At times, the smell was horrible in the hallways. We kept classroom and office door closed to keep the smell out. The smell is much better, but it still lingers.

So, the chaos went into crazy proportions. There was already stuff going on with a remodeling project, such that our entrances looks like this in September:

The changes are not only physical. On the 11th, there was an announcement regarding our rektor, Kjell (like a president and academic dean combined). He works 50% here and 50% as a professor of history at Linköping University (LU), 3.5 hours to the southwest by train, where Kjell lives. LU told him that Kjell has to decide to either work at LU 100% or leave. So, Kjell has asked the faculty at Johannelund if we want him to stay. These important conversations are in Swedish, which makes it more frustrating.

This past Thursday, I was headed to Västerås, about 1.5 hours west of Uppsala by bus. I was biking to the bus station when a group of about 5 teenage guys were walking out of the grocery store by the station. It is a little plaza, but there is a clearly marked bike path down the middle. However, one of the guys was walking backwards while he was chatting with his friends, and he didn’t see that he was walking right into the bike lane. I had slowed down in this busy area, and I tried to ring my bell, but with my big winter gloves, I couldn’t get traction on the bell. So, I ended up in a controlled fall to avoid missing him. I don’t know if he realized what happened or just tried to ignore that he caused a problem, as he walked on with his buddies. Fortunately, two others stopped and asked me if I was OK. Yes, I wasn’t hurt badly, but I did come away with a big bruise on my ankle. I was so glad that I had my shearling boots on that have thick leather and wool padding. Otherwise, I would have been really hurting. (Yes, I wear a helmet.)

At night, as I rolled into bed, I discovered a sore hip. So, one more—though smaller—bruise. My back is a little tender too, so perhaps that is from the fall.

The adult ed class at Västerås went well. I sat with 4 Syrian refugees during the supper time. We are all working on learning Swedish, but of course, they are here with horrible stories of fleeing war. But this church is providing a warm welcome and a caring community. There is a significant portion of the Syrians who come from Christian backgrounds, and one had a beautiful cross that he wore prominently. In Sweden, wearing a cross is a faith statement, neither a tradition nor a decoration. I really enjoyed experiencing this vibrant church.

Last week, my mother was moved from the rehabilitation center into a nursing facility. Fortunately, there was an opening in a facility that is close to dad. One sister was there to help with a week of work, and another sister is there continuing with the support. I’m trying to figure out if I change my flight after a mid-November conference in Boston to visit and help too. It would be a bit complicated on this side with some meetings and classes to accommodate, so I’m waiting for wisdom from my sister who is there now. I do plan to visit after New Years as well.

Oh, I almost forgot (really). My book came from the publisher. One coworker asked me about buying one and providing a receipt. I had to think about how to do this, because I didn’t think anyone would actually want to buy one at $85! I suggested that he just borrow the one that I will donate to the library. Yet, he was persistent, so I’ll figure out a receipt.

With blessings,

Beth

Today is Eric’s birthday. He would have been 53. Anya celebrated the day by wearing one of his sweatshirts. The University of Wisconsin’s Bucky Badger was at Katedralskolan today.

On Saturday, Anya had some dim sum (Cantonese Chinese food) in Stockholm with friends after the SAT exam in the morning. Eric and I would often celebrate birthdays with eating dim sum at the Noble Court restaurant in Bellevue. Yes, sometimes I’m a little lonely, but I figure it gives me more time for grading papers.

This past weekend, I spent most of it on grading papers and preparing for class. I won’t bore you with the all the details, but I’m initiating a new process here to equip students with the exegetical methods (inductive study skills, a.k.a., “Keys”) that I did at Trinity, and I want it to go well. Serving both campus and distance students in the same course (not by my choice) means figuring out ways to communicate and respond to distance students meaningfully. I’m also preparing my summary handbook to be bi-lingual. So, I have to prepare the translation (starting with a Google Translate draft—which is quite rough) and ask for help from a native Swedish speaker for checking the translation.

Today, I arrived at school to teach and was confronted with an overwhelming sewer smell. With all the rain, the storm sewer backed up, and spilled sewage water about a foot deep throughout the basement of the building. There were 2 septic suction trucks working most of the day, making many trips with full tanks.

Because the clogged sewer was not on our property but in an area the is controlled by the city, the city had to be involved. The good news is that Johannelund will not be the responsible party, but will have to deal with the clean up crisis. Fortunately, the smell wasn’t in the classrooms and there were bathrooms available in the church, which is connected to Johannelund.

Last week, the big event was the Exegetical Day. The Old and New Testament teachers and researchers from all over Sweden gathered for a day of seminars and an evening dinner. Two of the seminars were in Swedish, so I opted to work at home during those and attend the two seminars in English. There was a Dutch expert on the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament) who talked about some interesting translation issues. I don’t know too much about the Septuagint, so it was quite interesting and helped to fill in a gap in my knowledge. The information helped in a discussion time today in class. There was a whole bunch of thoughtful question on the different canons.

In the evening, there was a dinner. James, my New Testament colleague at Johannelund, also attended, as he has done every year for the past 15 years. However, this dinner was different. We met at one of the “nation” houses, which would be a bit like a fraternity house. During the evening, there was entertainment as well as everybody joining in classic Swedish university student songs (think drinking songs). So, I had a taste of the university life, though without the drunkenness that is infamous at Swedish university student gatherings.

Yes, life is busy, but there are some meaningful moments with students and friends that give me some hints that I’m being a blessing.

With blessings,

Beth

This week, I had two big presentations. The first was an academic presentation at Lund University in southwest Sweden. I flew there, which made it only a day, but a very long one, especially because I was at the airport quite early. I’m still new to catching the bus and figuring out domestic air travel logistics, so I’d rather be early and wait a bit rather than stressing about missing my flight.

The weather was wonderful in Lund. I complimented my host, Fredrik, on his arranging great weather. We walked the 10 minutes from the bus to the campus, passing the beautiful library. This is one of 2 libraries in Sweden which is required to hold every book printed in Swedish. Thus, it is a great library for Swedish church history PhD research.

After lunch with the dean and 2 Old Testament teachers, we had the seminar. Because of some illness and conflicts, there ended up only to be 4 people, 3 teachers and 1 PhD student. This made for good conversation after my 50 minute presentation with plenty of time allotted for conversation in the 1 hour and 45 minute seminar.

Here is the summary I wrote up for Knut, who was so gracious to read a draft of the presentation with constructive comments:

__________

 

There is a special clock there.

The clock was built around 1380! However, for many years, it was in storage, and then rebuilt in 1837. Elizabeth took her keys and went behind the railing to figure out on which day of the week I was born–a Sunday. I had been told that, but I didn’t realize I was born on a leap year! The sun, moon, and star movements are represented, and one can figure out the movable church-year holidays.

One curious bit from the day was an old manual Hebrew typewriter on Fredrik’s desk. Now it is for novelty, but he said that when he was preparing his PhD thesis, before the IBM typewriter with the movable type balls, he would leave blanks in his pages and then go to the library to use this typewriter to fill in the Hebrew. Now, with computers, it is so much easier (but still challenging). However, now I know why my biblical Hebrew keyboard has its layout; it matches this one!

On Saturday, I led a Bible study for a young adult conference that is co-sponsored by Johannelund, my church, and the EFS (Swedish Evangelical Mission). There were perhaps 150 people, and I taught from Exodus 34, “the long name of God” (with quite a bit of background for context). It is an amazing passage as well as the climax after the golden calf idolatry crisis. God’s steadfast love and forgiveness is described in 7 different ways. The reconciliation and renewal with God’s promise to create new, astounding wonders demonstrates God’s commitment to the people of Israel, who are the center of the Abrahamic covenant and God’s plan for rescue of humanity and creation.

One colleague said afterwards, “I can tell why you have received all those teaching awards.” I replied, “I actually haven’t received any awards, just a pedagogy grant (that helped develop collaborative teaching methods for biblical studies). But thanks for thinking that I did!” So, it seems that it went well.

Today, Sunday, I’m understandably tired. I’m enjoying a Sabbath rest. Though my rest included a long walk (8.2 km/5 miles) to Old Uppsala. There are bits of wood on the way. It was a rather nice day with some sun breaks, so many were out walking, jogging, biking, and picnicking.

This colony of mushrooms is thriving by a park bench in the graveyard by the old church.

Tomorrow is the “Exegetical Day,” a conference for all the Old and New Testament scholars in Sweden. I’m thinking about skipping the first session, because it is in Swedish. I can get other things done and hit the English sessions later.

With blessings,

Beth