Back in Student Mode
by Simone
Friends, hello. Classes resumed last week and I am back in student mode.
In the past for J-term I am away from the seminary because my work schedule usually does not allow me the flexibility to take intensive courses during the day. This time away usually allows me to do a little catching up with other parts of my life away from seminary and prep for the spring semester (books and binders put away, home study space restored to some kind of order.) This J-term I was not physically on campus but I did take a course: Early Christians in Asia Minor. I’ll tell you more about it but first let me tell you about the end of December.
I went home at the end of December. My goals were to see my family and friends, sleep late and to knit. I saw lots of family and friends. I did not get to sleep late. I did not finish my knitting projects. I’m okay with missing out on the latter two because I did the first one in abundance. On my mother’s side of the family I arrived in home the very day of an annual gathering of her cousins. Looking at my cousins my age I see WE are collectively graying around our temples, baby cousins are heading to high school and college, and our parents are moving a little slower. Still there was lots of laughter and we all realized how fortunate we are.
My other highlights in December were other young family members. My eleven year old niece introduced me to Disney’s High School Musical—I think she watched it at least every other day. I managed to hang in there for at least 30 minutes of it. I managed to pry her away from the DVD to play games. Connect Four is an old favorite which I won over and over. (Hey kids have to learn to lose, right?) And my five year old nephew told the best jokes ever. I am biased but check this one out: Why did the cow walk across the street? He wanted to go to the mooooo-vie. Perhaps you had to be there and see him bat those long curly eyelashes.
After about five days at home I returned to work in the Twin Cities and finished preparing to travel to Turkey January 9th–19th. This post is getting long so I will give you the Cliff Notes version about Turkey and share more later: the trip was a wonderful learning and travel experience. We started out in Istanbul saw much their and headed to Kayseri and traveled around this area before proceeding on to Izmir and back to Istanbul. We packed so much into those nine days on the ground in Turkey. One high point of our stay in Istanbul was walking around Hagia Sohpia—an impressive structure rebuilt in the 6th century by Emperor Justinian I in an attempt to establish Constantinople (modern Istanbul) as a kind of second Rome. Being there made me think in new ways about church and empire. The high point in Istanbul was visiting with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew—the spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians around the world. We were an ecumenical group which he noted and he advised us to “fulfill and accomplish your studies to work for the one church of Christ.”
I look forward to sharing with you more highlights of the Turkey experience, a-hah moments from my coursework and other happenings. I hope your year is also off to a good start.
In the past for J-term I am away from the seminary because my work schedule usually does not allow me the flexibility to take intensive courses during the day. This time away usually allows me to do a little catching up with other parts of my life away from seminary and prep for the spring semester (books and binders put away, home study space restored to some kind of order.) This J-term I was not physically on campus but I did take a course: Early Christians in Asia Minor. I’ll tell you more about it but first let me tell you about the end of December.
I went home at the end of December. My goals were to see my family and friends, sleep late and to knit. I saw lots of family and friends. I did not get to sleep late. I did not finish my knitting projects. I’m okay with missing out on the latter two because I did the first one in abundance. On my mother’s side of the family I arrived in home the very day of an annual gathering of her cousins. Looking at my cousins my age I see WE are collectively graying around our temples, baby cousins are heading to high school and college, and our parents are moving a little slower. Still there was lots of laughter and we all realized how fortunate we are.
My other highlights in December were other young family members. My eleven year old niece introduced me to Disney’s High School Musical—I think she watched it at least every other day. I managed to hang in there for at least 30 minutes of it. I managed to pry her away from the DVD to play games. Connect Four is an old favorite which I won over and over. (Hey kids have to learn to lose, right?) And my five year old nephew told the best jokes ever. I am biased but check this one out: Why did the cow walk across the street? He wanted to go to the mooooo-vie. Perhaps you had to be there and see him bat those long curly eyelashes.
After about five days at home I returned to work in the Twin Cities and finished preparing to travel to Turkey January 9th–19th. This post is getting long so I will give you the Cliff Notes version about Turkey and share more later: the trip was a wonderful learning and travel experience. We started out in Istanbul saw much their and headed to Kayseri and traveled around this area before proceeding on to Izmir and back to Istanbul. We packed so much into those nine days on the ground in Turkey. One high point of our stay in Istanbul was walking around Hagia Sohpia—an impressive structure rebuilt in the 6th century by Emperor Justinian I in an attempt to establish Constantinople (modern Istanbul) as a kind of second Rome. Being there made me think in new ways about church and empire. The high point in Istanbul was visiting with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew—the spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians around the world. We were an ecumenical group which he noted and he advised us to “fulfill and accomplish your studies to work for the one church of Christ.”
I look forward to sharing with you more highlights of the Turkey experience, a-hah moments from my coursework and other happenings. I hope your year is also off to a good start.
posted by Simone at 6:48 AM
1 Comments:
Simone, I hope you will post some of your comments about the Turkey trip. It's something I hope to do and I'd love to hear about it.
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