Lazy Saturdays

I'm very grateful for lazy Saturdays, as the last two weeks have been quite busy.
I finally finished all of my business at the Garda (the Irish Immigration bureau) and I have re-thought my views on immigration. I spent 10 hours (the first time it was 6 hours) waiting for a stamp that says that I'm here legally. It was a pain, but I did it.
Aaron's been taking the train to work, and has posted a number of pictures on our flickr site (Yahoo photos moved to flickr. No, I'm not trying to confuse you.) The link for that is:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/katie_sturm
All of the photos from yahoo are in transit, but for now, enjoy the 48 photos that Aaron took :)
They include his work, the train, and a little bit of our neighborhood.
We went out with friends of Aaron's from work last Friday night and had a wonderful time. They were a little crazy, but they were wonderful people. The whole vibe here is very different. No one buys just an individual drink, but everyone buys rounds, and they all take turns. No one worries about the money aspect of it, they just figure it will come back around. Now I can't say that this is true for everyone, but for the people we've been spending time with, it's true.
I have been spending a great deal of time on campus finishing registration, paperwork for the Garda, and beginning classes. This quarter, I will be taking "Authority, Tradition, and Experience," World Christianity and Interreligious Dialogue," "Judaism and Jewish Christian Dialogue," and "Northern Ireland: Conflict and the Politics of Peace." I may also participate in one or two research seminars which are dealing with current issues that professors are working on. The two available this quarter are "Religion and Modern Anti-Modernism" which is a theological exploration into religious fundamentalism (all religions). And "Politics of Religion in the US" which looks at the role of the Religious Right and the influence of the church on US politics. They both sound very interesting, and it might be helpful to have a chance to work with professors on research for the mentoring opportunity. The way that classes work here is very different from the way things happen in the States with post-graduate theological education. At Fuller, for example, you take classes and there is a basic formula for the amount of work completed. Based on "x" number of units, you spend "x" hours in class (usually 4). That number is doubled for the amount of time supposedly spent on homework (2x or 8). Then, there are on average 3-5 different evaluation opportunities. Usually a midterm and final, and then approximately 20 pages of writing, often divided up into a number of smaller projects.
Here, it's almost all research and writing and discussion and seminar. We only have 1 lecture per week for each subject. This lasts between 1.5 to 2 hours. Then, for "core" courses ("Authority, Tradition and Experience and World Christianity), there is a 1 hour seminar for discussion. Each student is required to have read the requested readings, and 2-3 students actually present material on it. Then, there are four 20page papers, one in each of the core courses and one in an elective. There are no "required" books to buy. They hand out 5-10 page bibliographies of "Recommended Reading" in various aspects of the course. Then, you are expected to make your own choices and read a great deal to orient yourself with the material. Andrew mentioned that when Trinity offers you a place to "read" for a degree, they are not kidding.
It's a great deal more reading/writing intensive and very self-motivated.
BUT! For being a little lazy about self-motivation back home, I love it here. I'm actually having a hard time choosing which books *not* to read. The library here has over 35,000 titles in the fields primarily of ecumenical theology, peace and conflict studies, and reconciliation studies. It is like a feast for my eyes and mind!
It's amazing how many of these books just look like fun to read!
For example, I'm looking through a number of books in a study room, when I turn my head and see a book called Kairos Project. Since I remember from my Greek that kairos (according to Louw and Nida) means: a favorable opportunity or occasion in view of propitious circumstances.
So, I pick it up, and start glancing through the table of contents. It's about apartheid in South Africa, and lo and behold, there's an article from Dr. Mouw (president of Fuller) in there! So I start reading the article. Mind you...it has nothing to do with any of the coursework, it just was fascinating.
The entire library is like this.
So I'm guessing I will be fine. :)
The people in my school are fantastic, and I hope to tell more about them later, but for now, I'm going to finish up this post and leave it with you.
Blessings. K & A