I didn’t post a blog last weekend as I was in Atlanta for the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) conference. This joint conference with the American Academy of Religion draws about 11,000 people from all over the world.
I shared a room in the Marriott, where fortunately most of the sessions I attended were located. My annual roommates are wonderful, fun women, Beth and Carol, who are also Old Testament teachers in higher education.
I was fortunate that my adviser, Knut, comes to the conference a day early to allow time for “supervision.” We spent 7 hours on Friday reviewing my dissertation as it is in this stage of development. He re-read everything, and we discussed how to strengthen my dissertation. One subsection needs to be reworked to a more straight-forward approach, but this isn’t going to be too catastrophic. At then end of the day, he relayed that I was actually farther along than he expected it would be! There is still a lot of work, but I’m cautiously optimistic that I can get him text by the end of December for reading in early January. I’ll work on formatting and checking citations then. After everything is reviewed and revised, then I submit the dissertation. Hopefully, this will be in mid to late January. It takes about 5 months until the public defense. So, hopefully in early June I’ll be defending–if everything goes well!
My former PhD student colleague, Tina (now Dr. Tina), also attended SBL and co-presented a paper with my Norwegian landlord, Rebecca. Another MHS faculty member was there, and later I connected with a faculty colleague at Johannelund in Sweden. I attended his paper presentation, which unfortunately, was at the same time as Tina and Rebecca’s.
Knut also presented a paper.
His three PhD students (two former) were there to hear his paper.
Knut and I both attend the African Biblical Hermeneutics section (hermeneutics, oversimplified, means the philosophy of interpretation). So, here’s Knut showing colleagues some African scholar’s quotations in a new commentary.
Yes, there is a lot of time spent hearing papers read, but there are times to break for meals with friends or see a few local sites. Before things got rolling, Beth and I went to see the Coca-Cola World.
A highlight is tasting all the different flavors from around the world.
Here’s the first one I went to, our beloved Tanzanian ginger soda with a huge kick.
Stoney Tangawezi!
After the conference ended, Beth and I had a bit of time to visit the Ebenezer Baptist Church before departing to the airport. (We were also travel partners, as we both come from the Seattle Area.)
Across the street is a museum. I had to get a picture with one of my heroes, Gandhi. I got a picture with his statue in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa too. (There’s a statue of Gandhi also outside the Bellevue main library!)
It was a great trip, and I’m thankful to the Birkeland Legacy at the School of Mission and Theology for the small grant to pay for my travel expenses.
I’m also grateful for Janet, who comes and stays in our home in the evenings with Anya. Then Anya can have her normal rhythm and sleep well in her own bed. In addition, thanks to Jean and Marv who made the airport runs, filled the gap getting Anya to drivers ed twice in a tight turn around after school, and even got Anya from school when she was sick. As a widowed-single-mom, I’ve learned that I need to ask for help. I’m so grateful for special friends.
We also were with special friends for Thanksgiving. We have much to be thankful for, and we all shared a few special acknowledgments around the table. Peter and Kristi, Tom and Catherine, and our 5 young women had a great dinner and time together. JaLynn made turkey hoes-d’oeuvres!
You can tell that Anya had a great time braiding hair!
Another notable event(s) of the week was taking out for her practice drives. She’s getting the hang of things quite well as we increase complexity with each drive. She has lots of homework and gymnastics practice, so it is hard finding the time to get on the roads.
Finally, I have been yearning to make something with my hands instead of all the writing, so I took a bit of time this weekend to make a practice balance beam for Anya. It is only about 6 feet long (instead of the official 16 foot version), but with scrap wood, a 50% off coupon for spray adhesive, and 75% off a remnant of fake suede, Anya has a practice beam for less than $10!
With blessings,
Beth