After more than a month of travelling throughout Europe, I am now back in Cambridge, where I shall resume my studies. Second term (named Lent Term) begins Thursday, Jan. 18. Until then, I'm preparing for term, reading, reviewing Greek grammar and vocabulary, slowly unpacking, and hanging out with my friends.
I am particularly excited about one of my supervisions this term: Paul's Letters.
Hey, this is a new post. I've been terribly busy recently. Normally, I have two essays due each week (1x 1500 word, 1x 3000 word). Last week, however, I had three essays due (2x 1500 words, 1x 3000 word). This week, I have the normal two essays due (one of which I finished today).
I'm playing lots of table tennis here at Cambridge. I joined the CU Table Tennis Club (though I'm not nearly good enough to play on the CU team), and I'm on the Homerton College table tennis team (which I am good enough to play on). The Homerton team is in a league with the other 30 individual Cambridge colleges. The Homerton College team has played twice so far this term: first against St. Catherine's College, and then against Robinson College. We won both competitions: 5-4 against St. Catherine's and 6-3 against Robinson. Against St. Catherine's, I personally went 2-1, and then I went 1-2 against Robinson. There are three players per team, and each player plays each of the other team's players once (so there are 9 matches per competition). Each match is best of five games—although, if both teams wish to shorten the competition, they may agree to only play best of three games (this was the case at our second competition). On the CU Table Tennis Club, I am, however, on the club "ladder" (although I happen to be last, since I was the last person to join the ladder. You can even see my name on the CUTTC website here. Visit the main page for the Cambridge University Table Tennis Club website. You can see the rules and everything. (I can only think of one or two people who would be interested in all this.)
I must now go to a theology supervision ("The Shaping of Modern Theologians"), but I'll be back with another post soon.
My weekend will be spent becoming intimate with Friedrich Schleiermacher, a dead German theologian. I have a 3000-word essay on Schleiermacher due Sunday night (for a supervision Monday). Goodbye, then, for now.
The first day of the academic term proper at Cambridge University was a good day. I attended one lecture, for my course The Letters of Paul. It was quite good, for the lecturer was Prof. G. N. Stanton, the head of the Cambridge Faculty of Divinity. Today's lecture, titled "Paul: Hero or Villain," was an introduction to Paul and some ways Paul has been viewed throughout church history.
After the lecture, which lasted from noon to 1:00, I met with a professor of the Faculty of Classics to discuss the Greek reading class I will be taking. The first class is tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. GMT.
In the evening was the annual formal matriculation dinner at Homerton in the Great Hall (which appears similar to the dining hall of Hogwarts in Harry Potter). It was good food and fun, and I met some swell new friends.
(I typed this post on Sept. 24th/25th, during my travel to England. Now that I have internet access in my room, I'm finally able to post it. Hooray!)
As I write this, the time is 2:23 a.m. CDT, and I'm sitting on a large Air Canada airplane flying eastward over the Atlantic Ocean, bound for London, England. I'm in seat 17k, a window seat, sitting next to my friend and peer David Wiegert. We go to study at Homerton College, Cambridge University for the entire 2006–2007 academic year (minus, of course, Christmas break, which is Dec. 2 to Jan. 16). The flight is scheduled to arrive at London at 11:05 a.m.
I flew out of MCI (Kansas City International) at 6:00 p.m. (yesterday, technically) Sunday, September 24th. Small and uncomfortable, the plane arrived at Toronto, Canada, at about 10:00 p.m. (EST). After going through customs and inquiring three times whether we needed to reclaim our bags before boarding the connecting flight to London, it was about 10:30. Our connecting flight leaving at 10:50, we had to hurry/hasten to a bus that took us to our terminal. Running, we got off the bus and hurried hastened to our gate, where we finally arrived at 10:50, just in time to catch the plane.
While I was waiting in the customs line at the Toronto airport, a young woman named Megan Lilley introduced herself to me. Twenty-two years old and from Branson, MO, Megan was on her way to London to study at a Bible mission (or Bible school, or something) there. She wanted to introduce herself to me, she explained, because she had overheard David and I talking about the Bible. We talked for several more minutes, until we had made it through customs. An interesting, encouraging, and cool experience.
I'm presently on a bus (or coach) destined for Cambridge. Having landed at Heathrow International Airport, London, at c. 11:10 a.m. GMT (which is six hours ahead of CST), David and I, after passing through customs and collecting our luggage, proceeded to the Central Bus Station at about 11:45. We bought a one-way ticket for two to Cambridge, the bus leaving at 12:10 p.m and being scheduled to arrive at Cambridge c. 3:00.
I finally arrived at Homerton c. 4:00. David and I went to the porter's lodge to get our room keys and other check-in information. We went to our dorm, Queen's Wing, and, after some confusion, we found our rooms. All the WJC students—there are nine in all at Homerton—were all on the same hall. (An interesting group.) Each of us has a single room, and the men and women are not separated but mixed throughout the hall.
I went to the William Jewell College Perspectives on the Common Good pluralism in US democracy lecture. I asked the black lady there, "Isn't it more important to pursue the truth than to pursue the good?".
I went to the Bethel Baptist Association's annual meeting, so that I could fulfill the requirement for my ministry internship.
I went to Northland Reformed Church Sunday, the 24th. Pastor Syms' made a thoughtful and kind announcement acknowledging and thanking me for my internship and announcing my imminent journey abroad. We stayed for a bit and had interesting conversations with some of the churchfolk. I think my mom is beginning to warm up to the Reformed church and its style and members.
Having left Kansas City last Sunday, the 24th, I travelled to Cambridge, England to study abroad at Homerton College, Cambridge University, for the entire academic year. I made journal/blog entries as I travelled, but, because I won't have internet in my room until Monday, I haven't been able to post the entries and won't have a chance to post them until then. And so, this post is a sort of make-shift post until I get internet access in my room.
