Observations on life as a research student (one month in)

Well, despite what might appear to be the case, Liana and I haven't come to Scotland just to check out a lot of cool castles, play golf, and write blogposts so captivating that the internet itself might blow up.

Nope. Though some of you may have forgotten, I came here to get my PhD! I mentioned a few weeks back that I would post an update of how my work has been going, so I figured I'd better get to it. How is life as a PhD research student?

First off, I must say that this is certainly a different style of school work than I have been used to in the past. Like most things in life, it has its positive and negative aspects. On the good side, I am in complete control of my schedule. No deadlines to get an assignment done by, no exams to study for. I can choose when to work, where to work, what to work on... it's entirely up to me. I'm basically trying to keep (as much as possible) an 8:30/9:00am-5:30/6:00pm schedule, depending on the day. The only immovable time slot of the week is 2:30-4:00 on Thursday afternoons, which is when the Biblical Studies research seminar happens. But I find schedules to be conducive to me actually getting work done, so most of the rest of the days are divided up into blocks in my head anyway.

The morning starts with some work in Hebrew and Greek, and then I read and/or write (whatever needs to get done) until lunch. As often as possible I head home for lunch, which has been one of my favourite parts about living here - getting to spend a half-hour or so with Liana is a great way to break up a work day! After lunch comes German. (Sidenote: I'm learning German for reading comprehension from a grammar written by a woman who possibly [1] was a crazy cat lady; and [2] had something going on with her mailman. This according to a fellow PhD student who took German lessons from her in person.) (Sidenote #2: Some of the practice sentences in this grammar are pretty comical, e.g. "Der Winter schadet den fleißigen Hamster nicht." That little gem has become a motto of our office.) After Deutsch I spend the rest of the day doing more reading/writing.

This first month (and, I anticipate, many of the months to come) has involved a lot of reading. My supervisor (remember, he-who-must-not-be-blogged-about) essentially told me at our first meeting that I need to be very familiar with everything written between 167 BC (the beginning of the Maccabean revolt) and 135 AD (the end of the Bar-Kochba revolt). So, 300 years worth of stuff. NBD, right? Well, thankfully I was already partially aware of this, since much of the Jewish pseudepigrapha and apocrypha was produced during this period, as were the works of Josephus, all of which will be really important for my project. I spent a couple of weeks going through Josephus' Jewish War with my eyes open for any ways in which Josephus addresses the question I am asking, then taking the resultant observations and writing them up into a paper for my supervisor to look over. We had a good chat about it (Great news! I can write a paper in proper English, according to him!) and about the direction this work is heading.

We've met twice now, and both times I've come away feeling a bit dizzied by the approximately 28 different aspects of the project we discussed, but also encouraged. He's been very helpful and responsive with addressing my questions and concerns, but in answering the one problem that's popped into my head he brings up three others that hadn't occurred to me! There are just so many angles to this question I'm exploring that I think it's going to be a bit of a task to (first) choose what to look at next, and (second) figure out how to approach it. I guess that's the nature of this adventure I've embarked on, though. For the foreseeable future (i.e. the next few months at least) the majority of my work is going to consist of doing much the same as I did with the Jewish War with all the other (relevant) primary sources. I think I'm going to come across some pretty cool stuff. Hellooooooo 1 Enoch! (Trust me. Go check out the Animal Apocalypse).

The other great aspect of meeting with my supervisor has been getting to ask him questions that don't specifically relate to my thesis. I'm going to try to take advantage of these opportunities as often as they come up. We had a very interesting discussion about being a Christian scholar working in the secular academy... what a chance to discuss this with a man who has remained thoroughly involved with the church throughout his career as one of the foremost NT scholars in the world!

Alright, well... this post has become longer than I intended it to, so I'm going to cut it off there and leave myself something to say next time. Final thought: I think I'm going to like doing this work, as long as I can stay focused, trust the process, and take it one step at a time. After all, I am doing what I love, exploring a question I am extremely interested in, working with an incredible supervisor. I better appreciate the heck out of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

And just because I didn't want to post to the blog without a photo...
From the top of St Rule's tower!

The Morning Commute

I thought that some of you out there might be interested in seeing what my morning commute to my office is like. So join me, if you please, on a walk through St Andrews!

(Big props to our friend Chris Brewer, whose idea for this blog post I am straightup plagiarizing. You can check out his fantastic blog here. Oh, and for those who are curious... these photos were taken three days ago. Before the rain set in. I don't get a beautiful sunrise every day!)

Here we are, standing outside our building (it's the one on the left). I've now gone out the front door, up a few steps, and am looking left (south) down Muttoes Lane.

A bit further south down Muttoes, with the back entrance to The Keys pub on the right (hence the kegs).
Market Street is dead ahead!

A beautiful morning on Market. I have now turned towards the east - Muttoes Lane is to the left of this photo.
We will be heading east down Market for quite a ways.

After the busy section of Market Street ends, it turns into this narrow, cobbled, very medieval looking path - my favourite part of the walk. Still heading east.

At the end of Market, looking north up Castle Street. OK, this is a bit misleading, because we're actually going to head south, but I often turn and look north up the street at this point, because I love the glimpse of the castle ruins.

OK, there we go. Same viewpoint as above, now turned to look south down Castle Street.

At the intersection of Castle Street and South Street. We'll be making a left here.

Just after making that left, we're now looking east again, this time on South Street. The final stage of what (I'm sure you've noticed) has been a monumental journey!

The Roundel! At the far southeast corner of South Street. The cathedral ruin is just hidden around the corner, but directly ahead is St. Rule's tower, built even before the cathedral (probably around 1130)!

Here we are! The door to the Roundel.

Welcome to my office: the Bannerman Room. Named after Robert Bannerman, principal of St Mary's College from 1539-1546, it is on the first floor of the Roundel and has four desks and a (somewhat partial, admittedly) view out on to the garden. My desk is in the far corner by the books there.

Here we have it! A good space to work in. I'll be spending a lot of time here over the next few years.

Level Up

Yesterday the weather changed to what I suppose might be a more realistic expectation for the upcoming Scottish fall/winter. What?! It's not beautifully sunny, with crisp, clean air every day here? Yeah... not quite. The rain came in a serious way, along with dark clouds and wind. Lots of wind.

This morning, I went for a run. Here I am afterwards.

What this photo does not communicate well:

- How entirely friggin' soaked I am. Especially the lower half of my body.
- The two layers underneath my jacket.
- The toque on my head.
- The (sopping wet) fleece gloves on my hands.
- The sand plastered to my legs from the wind blowing down near the sea.
- How thankful I am for gore-tex.

And finally...

- The feeling of accomplishment for actually getting up, in what was essentially total darkness (at 7 am), facing down the inevitability of this weather, and running anyway!

What's up now, Scotland?!
















(OK I take that last part back. I think things may get worse. Or at least colder.)

Our First Expedition!

Today we ventured out on our first expedition to explore historic Scotland. We spent a full and wonderful day with our friends the Allens (Garrick & Andrea) and the Brewers (Chris & Rachel and their boys John and Sam). It was a fantastic time: a day full of beautiful scenery, fascinating history, and good times with great people.

Getting an early start, we caught an 8:10 bus and headed down to Dunfermline, about a 1.5 hour ride away. The main sight to see there is the old (OK, let's be honest, very old - it sits on the site of an abbey first built up in the early 12th century) palace and abbey. Dunfermline was for a long time the capital of Scotland, and in the (still functioning) nearby church, King Robert the Bruce lies buried under the altar.

Dunfermline Church from the northeast, standing over the ruins of the Abbey

Liana and I in front of the main entrance

The Great East Window of the Abbey

Stained glass in the Romanesque interior of the church

After exploring the ruins of the abbey and church, we hopped back on a bus and headed off to Aberdour, a small town a little ways away, where we grabbed some lunch. This is noteworthy only for the fact that Liana and I both tried our first bites of haggis! Garrick is a big haggis fan (and not Scottish - yes, these people exist), and let us eat off his plate. My opinion? It was actually pretty friggin' delicious. Think savoury, rich sausage, with a similar consistency to... hmm... somewhere between meatloaf and oatmeal... except way more appetizing than that ended up sounding. I guess it's tough to describe. You'll have to try it for yourself.

Scotland's national dish: haggis, neeps, and tatties!

Anyway, back on topic: filled with haggis, we wandered over to nearby Aberdour Castle, where we spent a good long while exploring the ruins and surrounding site. Aberdour Castle is one of the oldest in Scotland, inhabited continuously for almost 500 years from the 12th century on by the Mortimers and Douglases, and includes beautiful terraced grounds, a lovely garden, and St. Fillian's (a small 12th century church). Very cool stuff! I am such a sucker for that thrilling feeling that comes with knowing that the tightly curving stone stairwell you're climbing or the arched window you're looking out of (or whatever) has been climbed up/looked through by people for hundreds and hundreds of years! History is just fascinating.

Aberdour Castle ruins (the tower is the oldest chunk, dating to 12th century)

Liana takes in the view

Next on the itinerary was Elie, a small town in the East Neuk where we briefly stopped to check out the beach. The East Neuk is an area of several small fishing villages along the east coast of Fife, south of St Andrews. They are all quite quaint and charming, just what you'd expect.

Liana looking cold on the beach in Elie

Elie's exemplification of East Neuk quaint-ness

Finally, after yet another bus ride (ride 5/6 on the day - each of which averaged 45 minutes!) we arrived in Anstruther, another beautiful little East Neuk town, home to what is (apparently) the UK's number one place for fish and chips. It goes without saying that this was our dinner destination. My opinion? Well first, a little back-story. Apparently the people who started the Anstruther place sold it after it got huge, were out of the biz for a while, and then opened up another place in St Andrews (called Tail End) - which some claim is, in fact, better than Anstruther. We've now had both so I feel qualified to give an opinion. My vote is that as for the chips and the tartar sauce, Tail End was better. But for fish, Anstruther took it. The fish was crispier and less greasy than what we had in St Andrews. Pretty delish. The local fave is haddock, so that's what we had.

Anstruther Sunset

The gang in front of the famous "chippie"
L-R: Garrick, Andrea, Liana, John, Sam, Chris, Rachel

Another bus ride and we were home. What a day! It really made me aware of just how surrounded by history we are here. What an opportunity Liana and I have! OK. Enough exuberance for now. I'm exhausted and need to go to bed.

General Update

Hey friends! I thought another update might be in order, since much has happened over the past couple of weeks, as we have continued to settle in and make St Andrews our home. So here goes!

- Well, we've been in our flat now for almost two weeks. Over this period of time, I have felt a noticeable daily increase in how "at home" I've felt here. When we first moved in, both Liana and I felt very unsettled - in some ways, as weird and out-of-place as at any other point since we've arrived. I think this was probably due in large part to the fact of our staying with the Watts-es for our first week. We arrived to someone's home - a place that was lived in, set up, and filled with all the things (physical and otherwise) that make a home a home. Their gracious and loving welcome allowed us to make the transition here in a very comforting and comfortable environment. When the day came for us to move into our own place, well... it was just a place. The walls were bare, the furniture was odd... it just felt - unknown. And it has taken some "wearing in", as it were. The good news is that this continues to happen; slowly, yes. But it is happening. This will be a good home.

- Speaking a little less metaphysically, the flat itself is, all in all, pretty great. It's small, yes, but it has pretty much everything we need. Liana has been working hard at cleaning the place (ask her about the bathroom sometime - she had to deep-clean it in stages over a period of two days), since standards of cleanliness just don't seem to be quite the same as they are at home. Thankfully, we got the place through a great leasing agency, who has already (1) sent a handyman to fix the fridge door; (2) sent a plumber to fix the toilet; (3) sent another handyman to re-caulk the bathtub; and (4) convinced the landlord to purchase a new vacuum cleaner (the one already here looked like it was an early 20th century prototype). We've got some odd furniture: two IKEA poangs, a white/brown rattan chair, and a retro [in the bad way] wingback. The under-the-counter fridge is actually totally do-able with the grocery store so close by, and I've taken on the role of dishwasher, which I've actually been finding to be something I enjoy doing in the evenings. The best part about the flat is probably the location (it's directly across the street from the library, and only a five-minute walk (or less) from almost everything you'd want to get to in town. But my favourite parts are: (1) the fact that it's so close to my office that I can walk home for lunch; and (2) the big windows, especially on the eastern side, resulting in (a) the morning sun (when it shows up) pouring into the apartment, and (b) in this view:

Yup. That's the view out our windows.

- We rented a car and drove down to Edinburgh to pick up our shipment from a warehouse near the airport. I drove. That was... a little crazy. Once you got used to it though, it was pretty cool! And now I can say I've driven a Vauxhall! Wahoo. My lasting impression of driving here is that I was all of a sudden much more conscious of the fact that I was actually sitting on a certain side of the car. I had all this real estate to my left that I had to be aware of! I probably drove more safely than I normally would at home, simply by virtue of the fact that my brain was entirely engaged in concentrating on what I was doing the whole time.

- We've been here three Sundays now, and over that time we've gone to two different churches. The first week we went to the Kingdom Vineyard church with Steve & Elissa. The past two weeks we've gone to Trinity Church, which is the more contemporary service affiliated with Holy Trinity, a very historical church (John Knox's church!) affiliated with the Church of Scotland (Presbyterian). A number of folks who we've met through St. Mary's go there. We've enjoyed all the services we've been to, but we're not sure yet where we'll stick. We're both excited about this opportunity to try out some different places and different worshipping traditions. Still on the list to potentially check out are the "regular" (read: more high-church) Holy Trinity service, All Saints Church (Episcopalian), the Baptist church, and the Free church.

- The community of St Mary's has lived up to its reputation, as we have been wonderfully welcomed here with dinner invitations from five different families over the course of the past two weeks! Wow. Elissa jokes that the first few months in St Andrews it feels like you're going on a whole bunch of first dates with other couples/families, testing out the water to see who you're going to be a good fit with. :-) I guess there are similarities, but truly I have just been grateful that people have been so openly willing and excited to invite us into their homes, share a meal with us, and get to know us. It's been exciting - and a bit tiring. But good tired, if you know what I mean. We've continued to see Steve, Elissa, and Isaac whenever we can (including Sunday night Downton Abbey viewing parties), and I'm so very glad to be getting to know these wonderful people better. Praise God for bringing them into our lives! Hopefully, as time goes by, there will be some other relationships with some of the folks we've met so far that will deepen and solidify. We will trust in God for that.

- I know that some of you are probably very much wanting to read about how Liana's job hunt is going, and how my school work is progressing, but I promised myself I wasn't going to write super-long blog posts. So I'll set aside the former for Liana to tell you about herself, and I'll save the latter to update you on another time.

We are thinking about you all back at home. May you all know God's blessing as you work for the building of his kingdom with the gifts that are yours by his Spirit!

On a run this morning: the West Sands at sunrise.
 It's not really in the frame, but the St Andrews skyline would be off to the right.