Road Trip - Italy

There have been no new posts lately because life has been pretty hectic here, or maybe more accurately I have been to lazy to update the blog. Well it seems that every time I think I have handed in my last form there is another of waiting to be filled out. I have completed the admittance procedures at the Uni, but still have to wait until Sept. 22 to get my student card and register for my classes, this requires a couple more forms. Oh well, such is the German system.

Now for something you will really like (wink: Rocky and Bullwinkle)... we are off to Italy tomorrow. We will be driving in a Ford Nugget van which has its own kitchen and sleep quarters. Very excited about the trip. Here is a sketch of what we will do, but you never know what way the wind will blow. When we get back I will fill in the details. We are going to drive to close to Geneva and park over night near a lake that is there, I think there is like 17 different names for it (which is the problem in Europe sometimes because you have the name for the place in the predominant language[s] of country, the butchered English translation and all the surrounding countries call it something else in their language). From there we will head to a camp ground in Alassio which is midway between Monaco and Genova and right on the Mediterranean Sea. We will stay there for 4ish nights. The next destination is Rome. We are going to stay at a camping parkplace just outside of the city which has a shuttle bus to a train which brings you to the old city centre. We are planning to stay there for another 4 days. I think this is the part of the trip that I (Christopher) am most excited about. Mostly because the Apostle Paul was there and even thought his footprint will be underneath levels of dust it is still will be standing where he was 2000 years ago (Of course Israel would be the best destination for nostalgia such as this, but you can't do everything at once). There are also countless other historical sites which will be captivating. After we finish our trip to Rome, we will head back north and stop at a camp ground in Tuscany in a city called Viareggio. There we are about 1.5 km from another beach which faces the Mediterranean Sea. Here we will spend another 4ish nights maxing and relaxing.

So hopefully I have not lost all our readership because of not posting enough. After we get back I will have lots to write about.

Universität Freiburg - One

So I had my first Doctoral Supervision meeting at Universität Freiburg with Prof. Dr. Irsigler. I had received notice a couple days earlier that I had successfully passed the evaluation and was accept as a Doctoral student. For a German student this process would have been done after two years, but for internationals they make sure that you will be allowed to graduate before you move to a different country. I had received tentative acceptance and was pretty sure that the full would come, but it is nice to have confirmation.

The meeting was good and were able to discuss my area of research for the future. It has been refined some from the Book of Twelve theme I was going to work on. It is now directed more broadly to post-captivity writings (Second Isaiah, Third Isaiah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, and some Psalms) and the influence of Zephaniah as a bridge between the two periods. I will also be looking at the treatment of the poor and humble in this time period. The meeting was done half in German and half in English. He spoke German slowly and tired to use basic vocabulary and I spoke English. It was a good challenge for me and also an encouragement that I was able to follow and understand.

(Note: The picture insert has me standing in front of the building of Theologie Fakultät which is on the third and fourth floors.)

Doors are opening

The last month has been exciting but also difficult. It is now settling in that we are staying here and that we are not just on vacation. We have been trying to figure out what our life here will look like but it seems that patience really is a virtue. A virtue I do not have.

Before we left Canada I contacted my former boss, Laurie, and asked if World Relief Canada (WRC) had some contract work for me that I could do from Germany. While in Kenya I took a class on Sustainable Development and I was sad that I was not part of the relief and development (R&D) field anymore. Laurie had just heard about a job opening at Integral Alliance in England that did not require going into the office. I applied a couple of weeks ago and after the interviewing process was offered the position this week. It is an administrative position for the office of a global alliance of relief and development agencies (www.integralalliance.org). I am very excited to continue working in this field. I have learned so much at WRC and am thrilled to now be exposed to the international R&D community. So the pieces are coming together and life is becoming more normal.