Sunday 30 March 2008

Not Really A Great Day!

I guess I'm surprised to be in a fairly good mood after all, because this day has indeed not been a great one!

Started out early too, I slept poorly, and Zorro couldn't relax at all!! I stumbled up feeling half-dead, only to realize that we had to put the clocks forward an hour today, so it was even later than I thought!!

I managed to pull myself together and get some studying done during the morning. Around lunch-time I came to realize something not-not-not funny at all!
I had been making plans with Annika to join her and a friend of hers (I know her from online though) to go to Gothenburg in May and see a Tour of Sweeny Tood!! I haven't seen a musical in ages, and I was thrilled to find out that both Michael McCarthy and David Shannon would be in it!! I've seen David Shannon in the Internation Tour of Chess in Oslo and he totally impressed me - and Michael McCarthy is my favourite musical performer after Philip Quast - so I was really excited to get to see them both!!
Only until I started checking out trains and buses and realized there was no way I would be able to!!!!!!! I don't want to take Zorro somewhere, so the idea was just to go to Gothenburg in the late afternoon and go home straight after the musical - yeah right!! Aaprently there are no trains whatsoever between half past seven on Saturday evening and half past nine on Sunday morning!! (and the buses were almost as bad!!) There was no way I could make it, so unfortunately I had to cancel!! *sobbing and crying* :( :(

I also went shopping, I had a few things I really needed to get - otherwise I wouldn't have gotten out since it's been storming like crazy here. I went downtown, did the shopping only to find that all three possible buses left like a minute before (would be almost half an hour to the next one). I had a lot to carry, and managed to also realize that I had forgotten most of the important stuff I had to get!!
On the bus home - when I finally got on it - there were not only five kids screaming on top of their lungs, there were also some pretty major misunderstandings - some of them involving me! *DEEP sigh* Lucky for me that didn't happen four years ago, or I would probably not have left my apartment for weeks!!

I did manage to pull myself together a bit during the afternoon, I finished cleaning my apartment and also got some more studying done ...
But now I'm depressed again!! Swedish Ice Hockey Finals .... my team, Färjestad, SUCK this year!!! And it's horrible!!! They've managed to get to semi-finals (beating their worse enemy, Frölunda - yay!! *evil smile!*), but now it looks like they're going to loose to Linköping!!

Oh, and if you hadn't noticed: this was NOT a good day!
*grumpy*

Still, and I surprise myself writing this down, I am actually looking forward to tomorrow!! (that is so not like me!!!!) *lol*
We start up the new Hebrew course tomorrow at 10, and I really enjoy the group, the students and the teacher, and I know this course will be even more interesting and exciting then the last one (which I really enjoyed!!), so I am looking forward to that! In the afternoon we have the introduction to the Biblical Interpretation course, and while I'm not quite as excited about that one, I am looking forward to learning what they did to our schedule and why they decided to almost cut our lectures in half!!!

I will probably be very tired tomorrow night, but I'm hoping I'll be in a better mood then! :)
Take care!

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My Life At The Moment!
Currently reading: Himlen är en plats på jorden, Åke Edwardsson
Currently watching: Navy CIS, I think
Currently listening to: Nothing
My Plans for tomorrow:Hebrew lecture, Biblical Interpretation lecture, some errands, studies

Saturday 29 March 2008

Back In Business!

I had a rather slack day yesterday, but have pretty much gotten back in business today.
Yesterday I went into town to meet with my Hebrew professor, only to find he wasn't there! I was only supposed to pick up an exam, and he'd left it in his mail inbox, so I could pick it up there. I also got the group-exam-paper back, which was nice. I knew I'd passed, and I had only gotten one minor comment, but everything that I can put behind me feels good right now, as so much is going on!

Apart from that, I didn't get much done, however! It felt kind of annoying, since I know I have lots and lots to do, but I guess you could afford at least one day off every now and again, right?! :)

Today I've gotten started on cleaning my apartment, I hope I'll finish it tomorrow, so it'll be set for next week. I've also started preparing Hebrew Bible-verses for next course which starts on Monday! So far I've finished everything for Monday and Tuesday, but I know upcoming week will be heavy - and next weekend I'm off north to visit my families! - so it feels good to be a bit ahead for a change!

Also found out that there's been some major changes to the Biblical Interpreation course that will start on Monday! They've included another teacher (only on three lectures or something, but still), and they've removed a lot of lectures!! The course spans the rest of the semester and we have 11 (!!) lectures planned - and that's it! I think they removed 8-10 lectures in this new schedule ... *weird* I'm curious about what will happen on the introduction on Monday!

I've been suffering from a rather annoying headache all day today - not enough to knock me out, but enough for things to be a bit difficult (especially Hebrew!), and it feels generally annoying! I'm heading off to bed soon, so hopefully I'll feel better in the morning!

Hope you're enjoying your Saturday night!

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My Life At The Moment!
Currently reading: Vildåsnans törst - en bok om den hebreiska bibeln, Åke Lundqvist
Currently watching: Stargate SG-1, season 2 ("Thor's Chariot")
Currently listening to: Les Misérables Israeli Radio Recording
My Plans for tomorrow: Cleaning, shopping, Hebrew

Thursday 27 March 2008

At Long Last!

I'm so sorry for my lack of entries here, but what can I say? It's a crazy, crazy, crazy world out there!!
Things have mostly been focused on my New Testament exam, which took place today! Unfortunately I was behind on two other projects for that course, which took up most of my Easter weekend, so I had pretty much two days (not even whole days!) to finish all 55 questions for the exam - and some of them were huge!!!
Needless to say, yesterday I walked between the kitchen table - where I looked up the answers and wrote them down - and the computer - where I typed them. I kept going, more or less living on coffee and caffein-pills, and I finished at 3.15 a.m. this morning! *YAWN*!
I slept until about 7.30, then printed all the questions, and could afford to take things easy a little bit this morning, while trying to review the questions.
I left at about 11.30, which was very early (the exam was at 2), but I figured I could study at Uni too. Lucky for me, I went early! First there was an accident here in town, so my bus was almost 15 minutes late (meaning I had missed one train), and then when I got to the trainstation the train I was going to take was really late! It usually takes me about 15 minutes by train, today it took an hour!!! *yikes*
When I got to where the exam was taking place, it was almost circus. I was taking the New Testament exam with my group, and in the room next-door, my Hebrew-friends (*lol*!) was taking their exam!!
My exam was 'okay', and I will be surprised if I didn't pass, because then I must have misunderstood big-time. I can't be sure that I'll get VG (the high-grade, equivalent to A or B in the ECTS-system), because it's really hard to get that in the new system, and for that I'll need some luck! But I feel confident I passed, and that's the main thing, because then I can honestly put this course behind me now! *yay*

Tomorrow I'll go back to Uni and meet the Hebrew professor, I'm going to get the exam they took yesterday to check it out during the weekend - only for my personal benefit (since I've already taken that course). I really would have wanted to set up a potential exam-situation here at home and take it "properly" (that is, in the same way as if I'd taken it today), but that won't work, because I have focused so much on NT lately and a lot less on Hebrew ... so there's not really much point in trying to make it into a 'real' exam, when I haven't studied the way I would have for a 'real' exam! Still, I think it's good to check it out, and I suspect we'll go through it on Monday, at least I'll have an idea what it's about then! :)

Other plans for the weekend ... I won't be stressing the way I have these last few days, but I certainly have a lot planned. Tomorrow morning I'll take some time to check out the town after seeing my Hebrew professor, I hardly ever get to do that anymore, and the rest of the weekend I have to clean my apartment, do a ton of laundry, check out the Hebrew exam (go back and repeat some grammar first I suspect! *lol*), start preparing Hebrew sentences (biblical verses) for next week and get started on my reading-course in Hebrew ... sound like I'll be busy?! Yeah, I thought so! *lol*

Still, I'm in a really good mood today, I feel proud of myself for actually completing all the New Testament questions, despite the fact that they took so much time, I feel confident I passed the exam today, and I feel pretty confident about the future in general, even though I know I'm for studies 24/7 for the next few months!! But I really don't mind!! I'm really starting to feel at ease at Uni, I'm coping with the social situation in a way that I don't think I ever have before, I'm taking subjects I'm interested in (at least most of the time ...), I'm even getting more and more established at the Department, I'm learning that talking to teachers is just like talking to other, normal human beings ...
Yeah, like I said ... things feel pretty good right now! :)

So, on that positive note, I will sign off and say Good Night - because I am indeed very tired right now! :) Take care!

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My Life At The Moment!
Currently reading: Vildåsnans törst, en bok om den hebreiska bibeln, Åke Lundqvist
Currently watching: Stargate SG-1, season 1 (yup, starting from the beginning again now! *lol*)
Currently listening to: We need a vacation, Mary-Kate & Ashley Olsen (suitable, isn't it? *lol*)
My Plans for tomorrow: Trip to Uni, some shopping, cleaning and studies

Sunday 23 March 2008

Going Crazy!!

It feels like I'm seriously starting to loose my mind right now!
I do absolutely nothing except study right now (and occasionally I eat), and I get absolutely nothing done!! It's really starting to get to me now, because I have a ton of work to get through before the exam (on Thursday), and since I am at it, studying all the time, I don't understand why I can't get anything done!
I still have to write a huge paper, of a book that is so abstract it takes forever just to figure out what's he's trying to say (and I'm not doing a very good job of that, either) - and then you're supposed to give your own thoughts and reflection of what the authors says.
On top of that, there are two books for the written exam, and we got out some questions to help us study ... and I feel compelled to do them all, after all, it would be pretty stupid to ignore that much actual help, right? The only problem is, there are 55 massive questions, and I haven't even started yet! Way to go, Jessica!!! *sigh*

As you probably have noticed, I am not in a good mood right now! I know there's still some time left before the exam, but just the feeling to studying constantly without feeling you get anything done at all, is completely frustrating, and makes it really difficult!

I don't have much plans for the upcoming week either, except focus on the exam 100%. I do have a Hebrew lecture on Tuesday afternoon, and I really want to go. It's the last one on the language-course (then moving on to a more interpretative course), and we're going to go through some vital texts. That course takes it's exam at the same time I'm taking NT, so I'm hoping to talk to my teacher about maybe getting a copy of the exam on Friday, so I can take the weekend to go through it and get a personal check on how well I've been doing these last few weeks (which is not very well, I'm afraid, but still) ... So I do hope I can get to the lecture on Tuesday, but apart from that, I won't do anything except study until Thursday afternoon! *yawn*

I've just finished reading through the main book (though I cheated a bit toward the end *oops*), and I'm totally exhausted, so I'm gonna get something to eat now, head off to bed, and try to get an early start tomorrow morning!

Take care!

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My Life At The Moment!
Currently reading: God knows!! *sigh*
Currently watching: Stargate SG-1, season 1
Currently listening to: Walk Through the Fire, Once More With Feeling
My Plans for tomorrow: STUDIES!

Friday 21 March 2008

Feeling Very Nervous!

My study-situation is totally NOT good right now ... and I'm getting seriously nervous about the exam! I know it's a while yet, but I have so much to do, and it's taking forever!! For once I don't feel completely guilty though, because I've never in my life studied as hard as I have this semester, but naturally you do feel guilty when you're falling behind and not getting everything done in time ... *very confusing*
I have kept at it almost the entire day today, but like I said, it's taking SO long! Currently I'm writing a paper on one book (I was worried on how to get enough pages, he wanted about 8, but now I realize I'll probably end up getting double that, and have to cut back instead!) and a paper on a seminar I missed. After that I have to read two books (one short, in Enligsh - about 150 pages - and one big book in Swedish, about 500 pages), and answer 55 questions on those book (preparation for the exam), and learn the answers ... and I should also prepare about 15 sentences for Hebrew lecture on Tuesday ... *GAAAAH*
Sorry, but I'm getting really edgy right now, and I'm not sure how I'll manage to pull this off. I don't have anything planned for these days except for studies (need to take a short trip shopping groceries tomorrow though) and I should try to get the apartment cleaned up a bit ... but I'm still worried I'm not gonna be able to get everything done in time! *stressing*

Otherwise I don't have much to write about, I'm completely burried in the New Testament right now!! We were supposed to get a lot of snow today, but the temperature rose, so it ended up just raining instead. I'm not that happy about getting snow now, but since I will hardly be able to outside until next Friday, I don't worry that much about the weather! :)

Oh, and I got some photos of my sisters in the mail yesterday! Boy, they've grown a lot since Christmas!! I have one picture posted on my Everyday Pictures! blog, and here are two more! :)





I hope you all are enjoying your Easter Holiday (those of you who have one ... I know a few people more than me that need to devote Easter to studies!!)!!!

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My Life At The Moment!
Currently reading: The Bible and Contemporary Culture/Jesus och de första kristna
Currently watching: Stargate: Special Features! *yay*
Currently listening to: May It Be - Enya, Lord of the Rings Soundtrack
My Plans for tomorrow: STUDIES, STUDIES, shopping trip, STUDIES, STUDIES, cleaning, STUDIES, STUDIES!

Wednesday 19 March 2008

Slack But Still Tired!

I'm really tired tonight, and not getting much done, but my day hasn't been that intense at all. I have kept "doing" things, but none of it difficult or intense in that way ... so I really shouldn't be as tired as I am ...

New Testament lecture at 10 ... it said we were supposed to go through moments we missed on the course, be able to ask questions etc. but it turned out to be nothing more than a major evaluation (for two hours!!) ... I think it's really good to have these kinds of follow-ups, the teacher from the Old Testament course came as well, to sum things up, and that's good, but it felt strange to use an entire lecture for it! Good in the sense that you didn't have to be focused or concentrated, but still, it felt like the time could have been better spent if we had actually done something ...

At 12 I met Sara for lunch, yay!!!!! I have really missed her, and it was GREAT catching up! We'll be taking the next course together (Biblical interpretation) and I'm really looking forward to that - we haven't studied together since we got to know eachother, which was fall semester 2006!!!
We had a lovely lunch, with lots of laughter - and also agreed on having a sushi-night with Johanna!! I've never even had sushi before, so I'm definately looking forward to that - very exciting!! :)

After lunch I went to Malmö to meet a friend and her 3 months-old baby, D!!! Sooooo cute!!! :D He keeps growing and growing so much for every time I see him, it's absolutely amazing!!
I got home about six, and hasn't gotten much done since then, unfortunately! I'm gonna be SO busy during the upcoming week, but I've been battling off a throbbing headache the entire day (it started on the train to Uni!), so even though I managed to get rid of it when I got home, I've been really tired ... I have started clearing up a bit, and I hope I can get a bit more done before going to sleep ....

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My Life At The Moment!
Currently reading: The Bible and Contemporary Culture, Gerd Theissen
Currently watching: Stargate SG-1, season 10
Currently listening to: The Phantom of the Opera (PTO Original Cast)
My Plans for tomorrow: Hebrew lecture, shopping, cleaning, studies

Tuesday 18 March 2008

A Slight Turn-around?!

I have had a better day today - it's been long and tiresome, but I have felt better than I have for the past week or so, and I'm greatful for that!
Hebrew first this morning, I hadn't prepared anything, but since I'm always at Uni early, I at least managed to rush through about nine sentences before it started getting busy. Luckily, I didn't have to read anything though!
I find it frustrating that I'm getting more and more nervous about this whole reading-thing, but I guess all I can do is hang in there, and not start avoiding it - because I know for certain how disastrous that can be! Also, it will be a bit different when we start the next Hebrew course, which focuses more on interpretation than pure language-skills, so I guess my anxieties should ease up a bit then!

After Hebrew I stayed at the Department studying, so I did all the sentences for Thursday's Hebrew class, and also managed to review the book we were having a group exam on.
Said exam started at 1.15, and I wasn't quite as nervous as I thought I'd be. I mostly find it difficult to form smaller groups (I have a strong feeling this has come up before *lol*), but today - like on the last seminar - it worked out very smoothly, and those of us seated together formed a group. I also got to work with a girl I have spoken a little to before, we got started talking right before the Old Testament exam, and we've had a few words here and there since then. She seems really nice, and it felt good to have someone at least a little familiar in the group.
The discussions were okay, but not great - but that was also due to the fact that the questions were really strange.
We were supposed to disucss them for 45 minutes, then take 45 minutes to write down individual answers - but I felt it was so much focus on personal opinions, it felt almost stupid to do it as an "exam" ... I appreciate the fact that our teacher wants us to think for ourselves, form our own opinions, and not only learn what everybody else thinks - but how can you have an exam on personal opinions? The concept of 'if you don't agree with the teacher, you've failed' hardly seem plausible, now does it?
I don't think he even can fail anyone, so I think it was rather strange. Still, it's his decision, and at least it's over and done with!

I've fallen way far behind in both Hebrew and New Testament now ... I was supposed to hand in a paper tomorrow, that is not going to happen! But at least I have an entire week with only two lectures, so I'm hoping to be disciplined, and be able to catch up a bit then!

Also found out tonight, that I'm going to meet Sara for lunch tomorrow - yay!!! She's been gone forever now, and I haven't seen her since we had my birthday celebration, so I'm really really looking forward to it! Also fits perfectly, because I have a New Testament lecture 10-12 and will head down to Malmö to meet a friend around 1.30-2, so a lunch inbetween there is perfect! :)

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My Life At The Moment!
Currently reading: The Bible and Contemporary Culture
Currently watching: Stargate SG-1, season 10
Currently listening to: Face of a stranger, Philip Quast
My Plans for tomorrow: NT lecture, lunch with Sara, meeting a friend, studies

Monday 17 March 2008

Tiresome Start!

I'm completely exhausted right now, so I can't help but be a bit nervous about how the rest of the week will turn out.
I was supposed to get a lot of studying done this morning, but it started snowing a lot and I was a bit worried about the trains not leaving in time. I kept checking and aparently they did have a complete loss of power a bit north of where I live, so all trains were standing. They managed to get the schedule back to normal from my trainstation pretty soon though, so at least I managed to get into town, even though the weather was really terrible!

New Testament lecture first, I was pretty tired but it was an okay lecture - delt with the theology of John!
After that Hebrew, and by then I was really tired! I also have noticed that I'm getting more and more nervous and anxious about Hebrew, and that upsets me a bit! I've been coping so well with it before, and it bugs me that I keep getting rather high anxiety levels about reading and translating. It hasn't gotten too far yet, I am doing it and I'm not completely tortured by it, but it still bothers me to see this change - I was a lot more comfortable with it some three or four weeks ago. I guess it could be a combination of the fact that the texts are getting harder, and that I'm really really really tired right now.
We had a massive text today, with 18 sentences, so for the first time, every student got to read a sentence! :) I think I got the shortest one, which was fairly easy - but I was still really nervous, and I kind of made a mistake ...

We were done at 5, and when I got to the train station, the trains were, of course, a mess! It was snowing really bad, with strong winds, so I guess that was pretty given. One train managed to be on time, so I was still in my home town at about 5.45 - and then I had to go shopping. Even the city buses were late, so I wasn't home until about 7 p.m. - definately more dead than alive - and completely frozen!!

Zorro was outright insane, since I had been gone for so long, so I tried coping with him, unpacking my groceries, preparing some food, eating some food (and inbetween all of these things: coping with Zorro) ... and now I feel dead!

I was supposed to have studied tonight, I have 14 sentences for Hebrew to prepare - for tomorrow - and we have a group exam on a somewhat complicated book in New Testament tomorrow afternoon - but I have no energy whatsoever.
I'm hoping that if I can go to sleep now, I can get up at 4 a.m. - that way I might be able to prepare at least some of the Hebrew sentences tomorrow morning before I leave (that is: if the trains are running at all, because at the moment it looks like we're snowed in!), and then I can study for the exam between 10 and 1 tomorrow ... sounds like a plan, at least!
So in accordance with my plan, I'm saying Good night and going to bed!
Seeya!

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My Life At The Moment!
Currently reading:
Currently watching:
Currently listening to:
My Plans for tomorrow:

Sunday 16 March 2008

The Weekend From Hell!

Yeah, actually I've had a really horrible weekend - so now I'm mostly trying to hope all you guys had better weekends, and also not having a complete breakdown over next week!
I have soooo much that has to be done right now, and I've ended up not doing much of anything. I can't say that I've just ignored it either, because I have tried, but everything ended up being a total mess. The books I was supposed to read were completely weird, I'm realizing more and more for every minute passing by, that when it comes to the Bible, I definately should focus on the Old Testament - I don't have much interested for feel that tingling fascination over the New Testament that I do for the Old Testament! I know I have to get through this course, but let's just say, I'll be glad when it's over, that's for sure.

This horrible weekend, will of course effect me during the upcoming weeks as well - I'm hoping I will be able to cope with the oral-and-written group exam (on Tuesday) and the written larger exam (on March 27th), but there are a few assignments I probably won't be able to hand in in time, so I hope that won't be too much of a problem!

I also have to consider Hebrew, because that class will take its exam at the same time as I'll be taking my New Testament exam ... but I still would like to be able to look at the Hebrew exam, and see if I have been able to learn a bit more now than last year. I guess I'll have to try to talk my teacher into letting me get a copy of the exam, but of course, after the others have actually taken it ... Guess I'll have to talk to him about it and see if we can work something out ...

I have managed to make a few changes to my blogs today, so I thought I'd let you know about that.
I have decided to delete my weight blog ... it just didn't work out. I'm still really motivated to try to loose (a lot of) weight, but I don't see the concept of the blog as working out! Things at Uni are sooo busy (and will be even worse), and I am running into some problems there, so I'll only be stressed out at having to always watch what I eat, know that I have to weigh in at certain days on certain times and report it all in a blog! I'll still give it a good try, no doubt about that, just without the whole blog-thing!
I have also decided to delete my Swedish Social Phobia blog. It hasn't turned out the way I had hoped, and I don't see any reason to keep it (you can read more about it there, in my 'good-bye-post', which will be available for a couple of days).

But, knowing me, I just couldn't delete the blogs without coming up with new ideas to new blogs! *lol* I hope these new ones will work out of course, but I have thought through the concepts, so I hope I can make them work out the way I want to! :)

The first one is called "Everyday Pictures!", and will basically be a picture-blog! Nothing much, but I will try to post one picture, a photo, or image or graphic, every day and supply a short comment to it. That won't be too "difficult", so I hope I can keep updating it every day ...
The other one is a Swedish blog [hence me writing in Swedish now!]: Cogito, ergo sum! (Jag tänker, alltså finns jag till) Det här kommer att bli en mera djupgående, lite mer filosofisk, blogg, som inte blir så begränsad som min Social fobi blogg. Den här bloggen kommer inte att bli regelbundet uppdaterad, men jag hoppas kunna sätta mig ner lite då och då och dela med mig av tankar och känslor som jag går och grubblar över!

Okay, like I said before - I hope you all had a much better weekend than me! :) Now I just hope my upcoming week won't suffer toooooo much because of this hellish weekend!

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My Life At The Moment!
Currently reading: The Bible and Contemporary Culture / What is New Testament theology?
Currently watching: Stargate SG-1, season 10 (The Quest, yay!)
Currently listening to: Interview with Amanda Tapping
My Plans for tomorrow: Studies, New Testament lecture, Hebrew lecture, more studies

Thursday 13 March 2008

Rough Day - Indeed!

Yes, today was rather hard to get through ... but I did it, and I don't think I made a complete mess of myself, so I guess that's a good thing, right?!

Hebrew first ... went okay, pretty good. I actually had found one verb-form that most other students had had trouble getting the hang of it, so that boosted my self-esteem a little! I meant to talk to our teacher during the break about some questions about my New Testament/Paul seminar, but I was really nervous about it! I have a very had time doing stuff like that, somewhere deep inside me I have this feeling that whatever I say is stupid, and I'm annoying and ... God knows what! I really wanted to do it though, because I do realize these feelings are wrong (even though I can't seem to get rid of them), but our teacher managed to disappear completely! I more or less "followed him around" (almost anyway!), and I finally caught up with him. At the time, it felt very rough, I felt stupid and stupid and stupid and ... well, you get the picture, but once I got home and managed to think through what exactly had happened, I think it did turn out pretty well actually! :) So in retrospect, I'm really glad I went through with it, even though it felt pretty awful at the time!

After Hebrew, the seminar - and I was very nervous about this. We were supposed to have prepared a number of assignment, then go off into smaller groups and discuss them, and then have a discussion together, the whole class. First and foremost I was worried about forming these smaller groups, since I haven't really connected to anyone on this course ... I say Hello to most people, but it's not much more than that. It turned out to work out well though, as we formed groups according to the way we had sat down in the classroom, so those 3-5 students seated together formed one group.
The discussion in itself felt mostly "weird" though. I spoke quite a lot (at least for being me), and more than I had anticipated, which felt good - but I didn't feel we went through the assignments very thoroughly and I felt a lot of things were not "finished" and just left hangin ...
This made the later discussion, when we gathered again, even more difficult, and here I really felt like I was going back in time a couple of years ... I was really terrified at the thought of having to say something, and our teacher sometimes asked specific groups what they had discussed and talked about ... luckily for me, I didn't have to say anything, but those 45 minutes were really hard on me!!

I went straight home, had some improvised mini-lunch, and was supposed to start studying. Before completing that thought, I had fallen asleep on my couch, and I slept for 2½ hours!!! *yikes* It took quite a while to wake up properly, and I also felt a need to work through this day in my diary ... so I didn't get started with my studies until 6.30!! I do feel a little guilty about that, but I also know that I am very tired now, and this kind of day really takes it's toll on me, and I need to recover properly! I did manage to prepare all 18 (!!) Hebrew sentences for Monday tonight, so tomorrow morning, it's all New Testament! :)

Later tonight I was giving Zorro a treat - some tuna, which he really loves! His stomach is a bit sensitive though, so I usually don't give him much at a time. But after he had seconds (with about 1-1½ hours inbetween) he started throwing up like crazy! Nothing to do but try to clear up as best I could (insterestingly enough he always makes sure he throws up on the carpets, and not on the floor, making cleaning up that much more difficult).
He seemed to calm down and was about to jump up in my lap, when something happened, he made a dash for my living room table (where I keep everything and more!), couldn't land properly and ended up tearing down most of what was on it, including a bottle of water and a mug almost full of coffee ... which of course meant that I was crawling around on the floor trying to clean the carpet again! *terrific*

I'm quite tired now, so I'm going to get some sleep and hope I can stay really efficient these three whole days until next week starts!

Take care!

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My Life At The Moment!
Currently reading: The Bible and Contemporary Culture, Gerd Theissen
Currently watching: Stargate SG-1, season 9
Currently listening to: Nothing
My Plans for tomorrow: STUDIES

Wednesday 12 March 2008

Intense Studying!

Today has been spent studying, studying and oh yeah - studying! *sigh*
I think I have prepared for the seminar tomorrow ... at least I've been writing 19 pages by hand, so that should constitute some preparation at least! I'm still very worried though, I really don't like seminars, and this one will be the first I'm attending, so that makes it rather a big deal! I do hope I can go through with it, and I think I will - but that doesn't stop me from feeling quite anxious!!

I did bump into some really interesting connections with the Old Testament - Paul quotes it rather often - which made things a bit more easy to take! It did raise some questions though, so I'm hoping I can have a word with my Hebrew professor about it tomorrow, would be very interesting to find the answers to my questions, even though they may not be addressed at the seminar!

This will be a short entry, but I have you a rather lengthy summary of what's currently going on earlier today, so I hope you'll forgive me. As I said before, I'm pretty nervous about tomorrow on many levels, so I'm gonna try to get some sleep now, so I can get up early and start dealing with my "issues"!


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My Life At The Moment!
Currently reading: Lots and lots of New Testament books
Currently watching: Stargate SG-1, season 9
Currently listening to: Nothing
My Plans for tomorrow: Hebrew lecture, New Testament seminar and STUDIES!

A Follow-Up!

I realize my last entry wasn't that informative, since I was about to fall off the chair when I was writing it, so I thought I'd make some kind of follow-up to it now - when taking a break from studies.

Yesterday wasn't a very good day, but I think I'll blame it on the fact that I was so tired. I don't think I would have felt so bad, had my mind been in a better shape. I'm hoping this won't effect me later on though, especially in Hebrew. I had higher anxiety levels than I have had before, and the fact that I got to read on top of that, made it a bit difficult to handle ... so I hope that won't effect me at lectures tomorrow, instead I hope I can see it as an isolated event!

I think that since things have worked out so well for me this semester, that has given me an enormous adrenaline-boost, which I have lived on since the beginning of February ... and now, going on a months and a half, my adrenaline is more or less depleted - hence me being so tired all the time! I'm still equally greatful for the fact that everything works so well, but I'm not quite as "hyper" as I was before ... I tend to get tired a lot quicker, and that effects my motivation in both classes, which isn't quite so high right now! That is a real shame, and I hope this is a temporary set-back, so I can get both my energy and my motivation back eventually!
Especially considering the fact that starting in April, I will take on yet another course, making it three courses to work out at the same time! *oops*

Okay, moving on to more pressing issues ... what's up in my life at the moment?!

Hebrew is pretty ... I don't want to say "slow", because that would be a lie, but at the moment, I simply cannot prioritize it, but must merely make sure I keep up with lectures and preparations, and not much else! A bit of a shame, as there's an exam planned to March 27th ... I cannot take it along with the others in the class, because my New Testament course has its exam at the exact same time, but I had hoped to be able to get a copy of the Hebrew exam afterwards, only to "test" myself ... but I'm not sure there's much point, if I cannot study any Hebrew at all now ... Guess I'm gonna have to think about that for a while ...

New Testament is very intense right now, at least for about a week - and it won't slow down much after that either.
Right now I'm busy preparing nine tasks for a seminar tomorrow. It's more interesting than I had expected (especially the bits that you can tie in with the Old Testament!!! *lol*), but it takes a lot of time! I have prepared about half, and I have already written a bit over 11 pages ... *yikes* And not only that, I haven't participated in any seminars this semester, so there will be a mental aspect of this that I'm gonna have to deal with as well ... finding a group to work with (I have hardly gotten to know anyone on that course *sigh*), being able to participate in discussions etc - I guess that's what I'll be doing tonight and tomorrow morning.
We have this seminar tomorrow 10-12 (I also have Hebrew 8-10), but then we don't have any more lectures this week.
During my three-day-weekend I will keep busy though. We're supposed to read one book called The Bible and Contemporary Culture, and then write an 8-9 pages long paper on that, which will take some effort. About half of it will be merely a summary of the book, but the rest is supposed to be our own thoughs and reflections on the theories the book brings forth, so that will definately take a lot of energy! (Last day to hand in the paper is next Wednesday)
Also, we're supposed to read a book called What is New Testament theology?, and we will have a so called "group exam" next Thursday on that book - also a great focus on our own thoughts and feelings and opinions, and apparently this book was rather difficult to get through - so that will also take a lot of time.

Upcoming events for me are:
On Monday I have a New Testament lecture 1-3 p.m. and Hebrew lectures 3-5 p.m. (*yawn*), on Thursday we have Hebrew 8-10 and the group exam 1-3, on Wednesday we have a New Testament lecutre 10-12 and I might be visiting a friend after that - and Thursday has Hebrew 8-10. After that, there's an "Easter break" (if you can call it that), and one Hebrew lecture the following Tuesday ... and then the exam (New Testament and Hebrew at the same time, so I'm going to have to take NT) on March 27th ...
And before that I have to hand in a paper on a seminar I didn't go to ...
So yeah ... I will no doubt keep busy in the future!

I really have some thoughts on the future after these courses too, but I'm guessing I should look too far ahead, at the risk of loosing all conception of reality! :)
At least this has given you a bit of an insight on what's going on right now.
Not much time for relaxing activities, but I hope I can at least meet some friends every now and again. Sara has been away for quite some time now, but she's back for good soon, so I hope I can hang out with her and Johanna occasionally at least - to get some kind of perspective on things and not get completely stuck in the Bible! :)

Oh yeah, one thing before I sign off for now. I'm seriously considering giving up on my other blogs. The weight-blog never really got going the way I wanted it to, and my efforts at loosing weight are very irregular. One week I can focus a lot of my weight and loose quite a lot, only to let go completely and gain a lot ... *sigh* My intention is still to really try, but I'm not sure if it'll work out, and the blog does not seem to work out.
Also, the Social Phobia blog isn't working either. I kind of like it, but I don't have the time or energy to update it the way I want, and even though I maintain my idea that you're never really "cured" from something like Social Phobia, I don't suffer from it the way I have previously, so the only intent of the blog seems lost ... I would like to keep a Swedish blog with more "serious" and thematic thoughs (that is, not like this blog which mostly focuses on day-to-day activities) ...
I haven't quite made up my mind yet, so you'll have to wait and see what happens! :)

Take care!

Tuesday 11 March 2008

Feeling Ridiculous!

I'm feeling pretty stupid, but I'm actually considering going to bed at 7 p.m.!! :) I'm so utterly exhausted, and I have tons of work to do, but just staying up worrying because I don't have the energy to do anything won't do me any good, so I'm hoping to go to bed now, and instead be able to head up at about 2.30 or 3 a.m. and start studying then!

Today has been ... okay, I guess. I'm really really really tired all the time now, and that affects me in a not so positive way, actually! We had Hebrew first, and I felt my sentences were poorly prepared, and I had a higher anxiety level than I usually got ... I ended up having to read, a rather strange sentence and it just felt very awkward!! I don't think it really was that awkward, seen from an outside perspective, I got a few comments, but then again, everybody gets comments ... so I guess it was just a feeling!

Afterwards me and Lena prepared the sentences for Thursday (no lectures tomorrow!!!!), and that worked out a bit better, I think I got the hang of most of them - just one was completely impossible!!
I was supposed to start reading a book for New Testament too, but I could hardly get my eyes open, so there was not much point in doing that ...

New Testament lecture at 1, and I nearly fell asleep during the lecture! I don't think I've ever been so tired during class before EVER!!
I got home at about four, had to deal with Zorro, who tends to go insane when I've been away for long, tried to get something to eat, had to deal with Zorro - again - and quickly realized there was no WAY I would start studying tonight!

So now I'm off to bed, I hope I can get a productive day tomorrow and that I will be able to write a longer and more informative entry here then ...

"Good night!"

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My Life At The Moment!
Currently reading: Vildåsnans törst, Åke Lundqvist
Currently watching: Stargate SG-1, season 8
Currently listening to: Nothing
My Plans for tomorrow: Clearing up a bit here and STUDIES and STUDIES and oh! did I mention STUDIES!

Monday 10 March 2008

8000 Visitors - Amazing!

I haven't quite kept up with my counter lately, and just the other day I happened to notice it was closing in on 8000 visitors - and now we've passed that!
Thank you very much to all readers! :)

I had a very demanding day today, with lectures in both Hebrew and New Testament, as well as some "challenges" to face up to, so I was quite nervous this morning. As a result of that, I've suffered a pretty bad head ache all day today, but despite that, everything has worked out really well!!! And I am SO greatful for that!

I didn't leave home as early as I had planned, since it was a rather tough morning, so I wasn't at Uni until 8.45 this morning, but at least I managed to get some studying done!
Hebrew lectures first, at 10, and I really didn't want to read today because I hadn't done very well on any sentence! And to my relief, I didn't have to!!! Guess I never made it to "five-times-in-a-row", right?! *lol*
But I did managed to answer a question in class during the second half ... it's nothing big, really, it's very de-dramatized and a very relaxed situation, the group is great, and not many students seem to show up now - but despite that, I get a huge kick every time I manage to answer a question like that! :)

Afterwards I managed to buy some quick lunch before it was time for New Testament ... in a new place, at a completely different Uni Department! This was really the time for my 'challenge', but I managed to pull it off, and I think it worked out fairly well! For some reason, even the group as a whole felt different and better - as a person with Social Phobia you tend to get hypersensetive and hyperaware of group dynamics, and I have not felt comfortable in the NT group (it's the same one I took the Old Testament with too), but today it felt a lot better, for some reason!! During the break we have I always feel rather awkward, I haven't really found anyone I can relax together with, even though I am on "speaking-terms" with several students, but I was really tired and most of the others had headed outside, so I decided to follow! When I arrived it sort of came naturally to join a group of 5-6 students, I don't say much (hardly anything), but at least I'm not standing by myself some distance away, right?! After a while our teacher came, and started talking to us, and that usually makes me even more nervous than just being around other students, but somehow I could become even more active when he arrived! Cool! He will be teaching the next course I'm going to take to, Biblical Interpretation, so I guess it's good if I can start feeling a bit more relaxed around him!

The headache has been with me though, so I just barely managed to prepare the Hebrew sentences for tomorrow (and they didn't quite work out either!), but I haven't even started on the New Testament stuff yet ... so I'm feeling kind of stressed out over that! SO much that has to be done in a VERY short time ...
I hope I can keep away from headaches most of the time the next week and a half, because I really need to be 110% efficient the entire time!

But now I'm going to try to get some sleep, to get rid of the headache and to be able to get up at 4.30 tomorrow morning! *yawn*

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My Life At The Moment!
Currently reading: Vildåsnans törst, Åke Lundqvist
Currently watching: Stargate SG-1, season 8
Currently listening to: Les Misérables Original French Concept Album
My Plans for tomorrow: Hebrew lecture, studies at Uni, New Testament lecture, studies

Sunday 9 March 2008

Moving On To Paul!

Having spent most of yesterday reading through the New Testament, today I have focused on the epistles of Paul! Actually not my favourite part of the Bible, or the New Testament, so I'm more and more realizing why I'm going to focus my further studies on the Old Testament!
I feel so much more inspired and interested in the Hebrew studies, even just plain old language studies with a million different verb forms, than the New Testament, so at least I'm finding out I have made the right choice when it comes to future studies! :)

The next week and a half will be sooooo demanding!! I really hope I can keep up with writing an entry here once a day, but I won't promise anything! Until next Wednesday I'm supposed to:
  • Read one book and answer questions in regards to it (have read the first chapters and done questions today).
  • Read another book and write an 8 page-long paper on it.
  • Write another paper (won't know any details until tomorrow about that)
  • Prepare for a seminar on Thursday
  • Read yet another book on which we will a "group-exam" (kind of complicated story) next Tuesday (March 18)
So yeah, I will keep busy! *dreading it already*
On top of that I will have to keep up in Hebrew and it least prepare the sentences for each lecture. I know I'm going to have "let go" of the Hebrew assignments if things gets to much, but I know that if I stop preparing for each lecture, I probably will fall so far behind I won't be able to catch up. So even though I won't "study" any Hebrew, I still have to prepare the sentenecs for each day, otherwise I don't think I can continue with that course ...
But needless to say, it won't be easy ...

Wish me luck!

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My Life At The Moment!
Currently reading: An introduction to the study of Paul - David G Horrell
Currently watching: Stargate SG-1, season 8
Currently listening to: I'll Never Tell, Once More With Feeling
My Plans for tomorrow: Studies at the Department, Hebrew lecture, New Testament lecture, running errands

Saturday 8 March 2008

The New Testament - A Crash Course!

Today has been all, all, all about studying ... and "Stargate SG-1" inbetween! *lol*
I quickly realized that if I'm going to be able to study the litterature for the New Testament course properly, I really need to read through the New Testament first ... I started a while ago, but didn't get THAT far ... today I started with the Gospel of John and actually finished it, right through the Book of Revelations ... though my head was aching so bad afterwards ... a bit too much of sacrificial lambs and blood and scrolls and Holy Spirits ...
Still, I'm really glad I got through it today, because that means I can start studying "more properly" tomorrow morning! I'm quickly realizing how very much I have to do now, so I hope I can stay efficient!
This last week was quite intense for me, and I was always exhausted when I got home, so I didn't get much studying done at home ... meaning I now have A LOT of it!! Next week seems to be a bit slower though, I have double lectures (Hebrew and New Testament) on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, but I don't have any lectures at all on Wednesday and Friday, so that feels very good! Since I'm travelling to and from Uni, only that takes about an hour in each direction, so being able to be home for an entire day make things a lot more efficient ...

In my breaks I'm currently going through my "Stargate SG-1" box! *YAY!* Watched "Heroes" a few days ago, and I had totally forgotten how wonderful those sets of episodes are ... really fantastic! Also, a true favourite is "The Lost City", which I recently watched (along with the follow-ups "The New Order") - boy, do I love this show or what?!!? Thrilled to actually find a {deliberate??} typo on the dvd with "The Lost City" ... it said Audio Commentary was by Director Martin Wood, and I have enjoyed his commentaries before, so I decided to watch it! And to my surprise and delight it turned out to be not only Martin Wood but also writer Robert Cooper AND my favourite actress Amanda Tapping!! *YAY! - again!* :)

Ah well, I know it's fairly early yet, but since Zorro usually decides it's time to go up at about 4 a.m. these days, I'd like to get early nights to get some sleep at least!
Hope you're enjoying your weekend! :)

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My Life At The Moment!
Currently reading: Just finished the New Testament
Currently watching: Stargate SG-1, season 8
Currently listening to: "Vildgräs", Kristina From Duvemåla (Anders Ekborg)
My Plans for tomorrow: New Testament studies

Friday 7 March 2008

A Good But Tired Day!

Today has been really good, but I have been extremely tired!!
It was a pain to get up at about 4.30 this morning, but at least I was studying Hebrew sentences at the Department at 7.45 (my train gets in rather early)!! Lecture as usual, and can you believe it: I was asked to read AGAIN!! I know it's more or less "circumstantial", not really, but close enough, but it still feels rather strange, fourth time in a row?!!? Still, like I said in my previous entry, I am greatful for it, so I guess I shouldn't say anything about it! I guess it's hard for me not to think back at last spring and what this would have done to me then ... I'd probably dropped the course entirely, I think!

After lectures, some of us including our teacher went for coffee at a nearby Department! I had a vague idea about going to a mall afterwards, mostly to do "something" other then go from studies at home to studies at Uni and then back to studies at home, but I wasn't sure about times and hadn't quite made up my mind! When we broke up our little coffe-date, I realized I might have had about 2-3 minutes to get to a bus stop in order to get to the mall (otherwise I would have had to wait for over half an hour, and I probably would have gone home instead). I walked rather quickly had an eye out for the bus the entire time ... I got to the bus stop and about 15 seconds later, the bus arrived! Is that great timing or what?!

I didn't buy anything at the mall, though I certainly could have!! One store had a sale on dvd box sets for 99:- (about US$16) and another store had the book "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince", hardcover in English (these books are very expensive in Sweden) for 69:- (about US$11) ... but I managed to not buy anything ... my economy is very strained at the moment, to say the least, and the litterature for the courses I'll be taking are quite expensive!

I had planned to stay about an hour, and take a bus home at 12. Those buses only go once an hour, so it had a bit to do with timing. I got tied up, and thought I was going to miss my bus, I rushed to the bus stop and once again, I had to wait maybe a minute, then the bus showed up! Lucky me!

Unfortunately I've been completely exhausted tonight! I know I maybe could consider taking Friday night off ... and of course I have, since I haven't had the energy to do anything at all ... but I can't help feeling bad, because I have SO much to do, I really don't have time to take any kind of break!
Still, I'm really tired right now and it's only 9 p.m. so I'm hoping if I can fall asleep fairly soon, I should be able to be up and about pretty early tomorrow morning!

Take care - I hope you will have a great weekend!!

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My Life At The Moment!
Currently reading: The Bible - The Gospel of Luke
Currently watching: Stargate SG-1, season 7
Currently listening to: Brother Louie - Modern Talking
My Plans for tomorrow: Heavy studying!

Thursday 6 March 2008

Quick Recoveries!

I think what I have mostly thought about today, is my ability to quickly recover from set-backs these days! I felt rather down yesterday night, and even though nothing of what went wrong then has been solved yet, I have still been able to go through with this day and make it work out really well ... which also means that what happened yesterday don't get quite so big, and it doesn't destroy the rest of my life ... which it usually did earlier!

Hebrew lectures this morning, I was asked to read again!! It's the third time in a row now, but I'm actually really greatful for it, because even though it doesn't bother me anymore, I still have the feeling of the more I do it, the better prepared I will for future challenges, no matter what they are! I also got the "funny sentence" today, everybody - including me and our teacher! - laughed at it: (attempting to transcribe) mawaet basir, which roughly translates: "There's death in the pot!" *lol*
Things worked out well at lectures, and toward the end, we read The Lord's Prayer in Hebrew, which was quite nice! We've come so far now, that we could read quite a lot of it, and given help with certain words, pretty much all of it ... very exciting! One verb-form looked a bit strange, and our teacher said that we had covered this and wondered if anyone dared trying to analyze it ... I did, and I was correct!! YAY! I hope this doesn't sound too pretentious, because I certainly don't intend to be that, I'm just trying to clarify how very far I have come in this class, because this was not even in my imagination last year! During this part of the course last year, I think I was at, at the most, one lecture a week (there's usually five!) ... so there's such a massive difference, I find it difficult to explain!

I had a study-date with Lena afterwards, and even though a lot of sentences were very strange, at least we managed to prepare all of them.
At 12 I met Johanna for lunch, and it was really great catching up with her again!! I'm so completely up in my studies now, everything I do focuses on one course or another, and it's a great relief to just take a break from it and relax a bit! Sara is visiting Martin in the very north of Sweden right now, but it won't be toooo long before she's back, so I hope we can have another "girl's night", the three of us, when she's back (and hopefully after my New Testament-exam ....)!!

I've been massively tired all afternoon, so I haven't gotten quite as much done as I had hoped! I've been very tired for a while now, and also suffered a lot of headaches ... so I'm thinking I need to start taking a lot of vitamins! I'm probably not getting enough of them at all these days, and I think that could at least prevent me from being exhausted all the time! :)

Soon weekend! Makes no major difference for me, as I have to study sooooo much all the time now - I really should read one book and write an 8 or 9 pages long report on it during this weekend!! *nervous laugh* Don't think I'll cope with that, but I have to at least get most of it done, that's for sure!!

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My Life At The Moment!
Currently reading: New Testament - The Gospel of Mark
Currently watching: Stargate SG-1, season 7
Currently listening to: Les Misérables 21st Anniversary Concert
My Plans for tomorrow: Hebrew lecture, studies, possibly shopping ...

Wednesday 5 March 2008

Several Little Things!

I really have had an okay day today, but several little things have not gone right, and enough little things going wrong has still made me in a bad mood tonight! I'm not really complaining, because the way I'm generally feeling now, and have been for almost the entire semester, is absolutly amazing, and I don't think I've felt this good - generally speaking - anytime ever!! But I still can't help but be a little annoyed about these things not quite working out today ...

Sorry about the vagueness, but at least one of these things happened quite fast and a bit unexpected, so I haven't been able to process it properly myself yet - which is why I don't feel like writing about it here - and I'm hoping that once I have been able to work my way through it, it won't feel quite so bad and I will be able to handle it ...

Short blog entry today, the only thing that has really happened today was that I met a friend and her 2½ months old son - he'd grown a lot in two months, and I had a lovely "conversation" with him when we met! :)
Other than that - not much ...
But hey, at least I'm sticking to my 'once-a-day-blogging' concept ... points for effort?! :)

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My Life At The Moment!
Currently reading: Should jump ahead to the New Testament of the Bible ...
Currently watching: Stargate SG-1, season 7
Currently listening to: Where in the World (Secret Garden, London Cast), Philip Quast
My Plans for tomorrow: Hebrew lecture, Hebrew studies, lunch with Johanna, New Testament studies

Tuesday 4 March 2008

Some Good News ... And Some Bad!

Mixed feelings about today ... mostly good, but some bad as well! Despite I have to go against the chronological order of the day, I will start off with the bad news, only to be able to finish off with the positive ones ... :)

I'm supposed to have a seminar tomorrow, in my New Testament-course ... which I will not go to! *sigh* I had high hopes of going to seminars at this course, but not everything this semester works out! I have missed a few lectures, because I've been sick, so aparently I missed when our teacher handed out the instructions for the semiar. I found this out today, and I tried to work my way up to actually be able to approach him and ask for the instruction, and that wasn't easy! Things are generally a lot better now than before, but this group in Bible Studies (the Old and New Testament-courses are parts of a larger Bible Studies course, so it's the same group of students) ... well, I don't feel quite comfortable in this group, so things that in some way attract attention to me feel rather tough (you can notice the difference in Hebrew, a different group of students, where I'm almost always completely at ease!) ... I think I had mananged to overcome the most acute anxiety regarding the seminar-instructions, when I realized that what we had to prepare was SO much, it would have taken .... I'd make a guess and say maybe 5-7 hours! ... and that only made my anxiety worse again.
And then the thing that made me realize I would not go .... We were supposed to analyze a number of New Testament-texts, and our teacher says he should read the text out loud, because ancient texts were meant to be oral, so we should practice on how to read it, in order to best mediate the text's message ... and then we could "perform" and "dramatize" the texts during the seminar!! *YEAH RIGHT!!!* I'm NOT doing any kind of dramatic act in this group, that's for sure!!!! So, aparently, I'm going to have to make some written complement instead ....
This dampened my otherwise good mood, because I had really hoped I could have joined in the seminars on this course ... but with this final thing, no way!! And hey!! Since when are we required to act just to study the Bible?!?!? Okay, granted, those studying to be priests or ministers might have to "act" or "perform", but that is not my thing!!!
Okay, enough rambling, moving on to more positive news! :)

First out, Hebrew class this morning!! I don't think I've ever enjoyed myself more then I do when I'm there. Sure, I'm nervous and have slight levels of anxiety at times, but overall, I love this class!!! The group is really nice and friendly, our teacher is very passionate and wonderful with a great sense of humour, and I really feel at ease and like I belong there!!
I was asked to read again today ... luckily I got a really easy sentence that hardly even needed analyzing, but I'm just so extremely happy that I'm going through with this in the manner I am!!
During the second half of the lecture, we read a modern Hebrew text, which was totally cool!! We started yesterday and finished today ... there were a lot of laughs, since we are mostly used to the quite liturgical language of the Hebrew Bible - and this visit by two aparently illterate restaurang-visitors was quite funny! I also managed to answer a question that was related to this modern Hebrew text - yay me! :)

I spent the "break" between lectures (10-1) studying, mostly ... and during the New Testament lecture (before the semiar-thing came up) we found out that our Old Testament-exam was ready ... *gulp* I was most curious, especially since they are implementing a new grading system now, to more easily adapt to the European educational system ... It will take a while to get used to though ...:)
I was happily surprised when I got my exam though ... I scored 24 out of 28, which was a B (in the old system, the high grade, VG)!! I more easily reference the old system, as I'm used to that, and I'm very happy to get VG, as I really didn't think I would (I thought it not impossible I'd passed, but to get VG was quite unexpected!)!!
Also, something to think about! Practically (even though I've made some special arrangements), this semester I've been taking two full-time courses at the same time, and taking this exam and the "test" we did for Hebrew a while back - I've gotten VG on both of them!! *proud*

So, even though the end of the day at Uni was a bit disappointing, overall I'm in a good mood and have had quite a good day today! :)
Since this seminar-thing happened, I've had to change my plans for tomorrow a bit though. No seminar, obviously! I was also supposed to have lunch with Johanna, but since it's turned out like this, I really don't feel like going into town or the Department tomorrow, so I'm hoping we can re-schedule .... so tomorrow I'll only go to see a good friend and her young son in the afternoon - the rest of the time I can study at home ....

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My Life At The Moment!
Currently reading: Litterature to my courses
Currently watching: Stargate SG-1, season 7
Currently listening to: The Ghost Song, Mary-Kate & Ashley Olsen
My Plans for tomorrow: Meeting a friend, studies!

Monday 3 March 2008

2nd Day In A Row!

Yes, so far managing to stay to my new "once-a-day" blogging! *lol*

I've had a completely Hebrew-focused day today, I met a friend at about 9 this morning and we studied Hebrew until our lecture began at 1, and then when I got home I prepared all the Hebrew sentences until tomorrow! Yay me! :)
Hebrew lectures are really working out fantastic right now!! I'm still lacking a fair bit of knowledge, it's a lot to take in, and I know there are certain areas I really should work a lot on, but lectures are just working out so great right now - and compared to last year, it's an astronomical difference! I think from a completley outside perspective, if somebody who didn't know me or my background or my problems, had been in class last year and now, they would have sworn I was two different persons!!! :)
Like today ... I had prepared the sentences, but I had rushed through them a bit, I didn't quite feel like they had worked out well, and this of course, made me feel anxious! The anxiety levels are nowhere near what they were a year ago, but they are there, I cannot deny that. Usually our teacher "asks" somebody to read and translate, but today he started out by asking for volunteers ... a few students responded to this, but after a while, nobody said anything ... Our teacher asked me, and it was completely out of the blue, he didn't follow any "order" and he was randomly choosing from about 15 people, so I was completely unprepared - but I read it, and I made some translation or other, and it just .... it works out! I even read wrong, which was possibly my worst fear last year, because one dot aparently indicated not one, but two things in this word - and how was I to know that?!
I think what really really amazes me though, it perhaps not so much the fact that I do read and go through with that part of things, it's the fact that when I'm doing something "wrong", it doesn't bother me!! Our teacher is the kindest man possible, and he never makes you feel bad or anything like that, but had this incident today - where I read a word wrong - happened a year ago, I don't think I would have made it to class in a number of weeks actually! And now I can just shrug it off! Amazing!!

Just one thing about Hebrew that isn't great ... sometimes our teacher asks us more general Biblical questions, that are relevant to what we are talking about! Very very often, I know the answer, but I have as of yet never been able to answer ... and that really bugs me!! Like today, he asked what two kings were regarded as "righteous" (mostly in the 2 Books of Kings), and I knew the answer (don't know their names in English - sorry! - but for those of you who read Swedish, they were Hiskia and Josia) - but somewhere in my mind this little voice kept saying: "Don't take a chance, what if you are wrong???" And that totally bugs me!!!
I know I've come such a long way this semester, and things are working out for me like never before, but it's hard to settle for that, because now that I see things actually can work out, I want to make everything I can out of it! I guess I'm just going to have to keep trying, right?

Now I'm also hoping to catch up in my New Testament course. We have a seminar on Wednesday, and I'm quite nervous about that - I haven't been to any seminars this semester, and I do find that difficult to deal with. Also, that group is nowhere as nice as the Hebrew group, which also hightens anxiety levels. I am fairly sure I will cope, but I am also fairly sure it will be difficult! I'm hoping we will get further information on what the seminar will be about, questions to think about etc at lectures tomorrow, because I know that if I'm going to cope, I need to be really prepared!!
I really should read some New Testament litterature now, but I'm really tired, and I have a very long day tomorrow, so I'm guessing I'll postpone that, and try to get to bed instead.

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My Life At The Moment!
Currently reading: New Testament litterature - and the Bible (Song of Songs)
Currently watching: Stargate SG-1, season 6
Currently listening to: Nothing
My Plans for tomorrow: Hebrew lecture, Hebrew studies, New Testament lecture

Sunday 2 March 2008

Trying For March!?

I really do want to keep this blog updated every day, but these days it seems impossible! *sigh* Guess I'll have to give it a new try during March, right?! :) I enjoy this blog, and it keeps getting visitors, so I will try to make an effort to update it more regularly!

What's been going on? Well, it's easily summarized: STUDIES!! I don't do much apart from studying these days, as you might have noticed - and as boring as it may sound, I really am enjoying myself! Sure, some days aren't that great - I've suffered a cold for about a week which of course has put a damper on my mood, but overall, I think things are working out really well! We did an unofficial "trial-test" in Hebrew last week, nothing serious at all, we got to take it home and prepare it, our teacher didn't grade it, he just went through the correct answers during class - but I pretended it was a real exam, studied for it, and performed it in a "proper" manner ... and to my huge surprise, it turned out I would only get 2 points below the maximum score .... Knowing how things were last semester, this is truly amazing, and that made my day - even though my cold was really terrible! :)

I started feeling better and better during the weekend, so I managed to do a real cleaning of my entire apartment, which was more than neccessary, that's for sure, and I've also gotten quite a bit of studying in, so at least the weekend doesn't feel like a complete waste ... even though there's always that little voice inside you, telling you that you could have done more and more and more ... :)

I have a very heavy week coming up, so I hope I can go to bed early tonight!!
Tomorrow I'm meeting a friend for Hebrew studies at 9, then it's lectures at 1 (still haven't decided if I'm going to New Testament or Hebrew, as they are colliding, but that's a long story ...).
On Tuesday I have Hebrew 8-10 and New Testament 1-3, so I'm hoping to get some studying done during the break.
On Wedesday I have a New Testament seminar 10-12, I'm having lunch with Johanna at 12, and then around 2-3 I'm meeting a friend and her young son in Malmö!
Thursday and Friday are "easy days" with only Hebrew 8-10 .... but I have a feeling I will be rather tired on Friday afternoon, that's for sure! :)

I hope you all had a great weekend - and wish me luck on my intention of writing something here every day! :)

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My Life At The Moment!
Currently reading: Litterature for the courses I'm taking
Currently watching: Stargate SG-1, season 6
Currently listening to: Nothing
My Plans for tomorrow: Studying, lectures