30 November, 2005
Day 129 - What is "could" ?
Tonight at the cell group an interesting question came up: "If Jesus was tempted, does that mean he could have sinned?" I've heard this question several times before, but tonight I realized something.
I think the key here is the word "could". What is "could"? It's normally taken to mean something like "possesses the ability to". It implies potential. But what is potential? What does it mean if that potential is never realized? Was anything really there in the first place?
Potential energy is not energy. It only becomes energy if certain conditions are met. If those conditions never are met, the potential energy is irrelevant, and it would be the same as if there was no potential energy at all.
I submit that the word "could" is a way of describing our uncertainty about the future. For something with a known outcome, the only possible outcome (under given conditions) is the one that was. We don't know the future, so we can talk about the future in terms of "could" or "might". But if God does know the future, there really is nothing that "could happen" or "might happen" from his perspective. There's only what WILL happen.
Here's a question that might help explain. If God knows that you will do something, and has perfect knowledge that you will do it, can you do otherwise? The only possible answer is "no". You can challenge whether or not God knows what you will do (that's a discussion for another time), but the fact remains that IF he knows, you can't possibly do otherwise. You may have the physical or mental ability to do otherwise, but that ability will not be used, and thus is irrelevant.
Now apply that to the original question. Assuming that Jesus did not sin, it follows that he could not have sinned. Any discussion of his ability or potential to sin is irrelevant because those words, like "could", only describe situations for which the outcome is not known.
29 November, 2005
Day 128 - Two more weeks
The semester is more than halfway over, and I still have no idea where or when most of my classes are. Today was very typical.. I went to the room that's on the schedule, nobody there. I went to another room where we've had class on other days.. nobody there. I went to another room, nobody there, but on the way I ran into a couple other people in my class also searching for the right room. The fourth room turned out to be the right one, but class started several minutes late because some people still hadn't figured out which room it was. This is a commom occurrence here.
Lately I've been working a lot on a boundary layer model (a computer program designed to represent the physics of the lowest ~1 km above the earth's surface) that was developed here for urban meteorological studies. The most recent thing I did was to give the "buildings" the same thermal properties of a forest, specifically the Crosstimber Micronet. My first guess was to make the "buildings" a 50/50 mixture of air and wood. It didn't work so well, but it has some promise. This stuff may or may not end up in my dissertation. But even if it doesn't, I've been learning a lot from it.
My friend left for Oklahoma today, which made me think about two weeks from today when I go back there. I'm excited about going back, but it's also sad at the same time. Someone asked me tonight if I'm looking forward to going back home. My response was "I'm looking forward to going back, but I'm not looking forward to leaving."
28 November, 2005
Day 127 - Student Union Casino
I discovered the other day that we have real slot machines on campus at the student union. Figure that one out. I put in 20p but didn't win anything except the best prize of all, which was the opportunity to tell people I played a slot machine on a university campus. In case you're wondering, the gambling age here (like the drinking age) is 18, not 21.
On a related note, there's a good chance I might be spending a few days next month (on or around Christmas) in Las Vegas with my family. So exciting!! It's one of my favorite places. It'll be so neat to re-visit the Venecian and Paris Las Vegas hotels after visiting the real Venice and Paris.
27 November, 2005
Day 126 - London, Thanksgiving
Yesterday I gave my American friend a tour of London. After being there ~20 times, it was pretty easy to show him all the major landmarks with plenty of time to spare. We went to Picadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Parliament, the London Eye, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, that bridge where the Lake Havasu City bridge used to be, Tower Bridge, Tower of London, Greenwich, West Ham, and the British Museum. We also saw a lot of other famous places on the way between those. One of the busses we rode on almost "had a smash". And the Jubilee Line was closed because someone jumped on the track to commit suicide (2nd night in a row).
Today we went to my main church. My friend goes to Riverside in Norman, which is the church this one reminded me of so much. I think he felt right at home. Afterwards we made San Antonio skillet and pumpkin pie for some friends at church. It wasn't quite a traditional Thanksgiving meal, and we had to improvise with a few English ingredients, but it was still very fun and gave them a little taste of America.
26 November, 2005
Day 125 - Drama last night
I'm starting to get very tired (no pun intended) of the people on my floor yelling, singing, talking extremely loud, and playing loud (and awful) music at 1-4 AM. It's happened every single night since last weekend. I can't even remember a Friday or Saturday night when I wasn't kept up or woken up at 3 or 4 in the morning.
I don't think they have any malicious intent, and maybe don't even know that they're disturbing everyone on the 5th and 6th (and maybe 4th) floors. But it's obvious that they have no regard at all for other people at those times.
I learned about an extreme example of that last night. When my friend and I were at the pub last night, a guy who was stranded in Reading came and sat next to us. He came from Oxford by train and was trying to get to Bracknell. But he couldn't get past Reading because all of the trains were stopped. Apparently there was a huge crowd at the station of people waiting for them to re-open it. Many of them probably didn't make it home that night.
They were stopped because someone between Reading and London threw him/her-self on the track to commit suicide. I don't know whether that person was thinking at all about how much trouble it would cause for so many people. But it's obvious that the person didn't have much regard for anyone other than him/herself.
25 November, 2005
Day 124 - No Thanksgiving
Wow, I didn't even realize that yesterday was Thanksgiving until my mom called me (a little before Midnight). Here it's just like any other day. It's a little strange not celebrating Thanksgiving.
On Sunday we're planning on making a Thanksgiving lunch with some people at church, including pumpkin pie made with ingredients brought from America. So that'll be almost as good.
I received an unexpected birthday card from my grandma! Thank you so much!! She was smart and sent it well in advance. But to anyone else who might be thinking of sending me something for my birthday, don't!! Sometimes things take a few weeks to arrive. I might be back in America before it gets here.
24 November, 2005
Day 123 - Cigarette vending machine
Until my American friend pointed it out to me recently, I never noticed the cigarette vending machine at Windsor Hall.
I never would've thought something like that would be there. At least not a real one. As far as I know, they are illegal in America. I haven't seen one in many years, except maybe for decoration. But there's a working one in Windsor Hall. It has a sign on it that says you must be 16 or older to purchase ciagrettes, which also is interesting.
It's also right next to the bar. This makes no sense to me, especially considering their hyper-sensitivity to anything with a remote chance of starting a fire. They don't allow mini refrigerators because of the fire regulations, but they have a vending machine to make it more convenient for drunk freshers to smoke inside the hall? Which of those do you think is more likely to start a fire?
23 November, 2005
Day 122 - Friend visiting
Today my friend from America came to visit for Thanksgiving break. He'll be staying at my hall until Tuesday. Tonight we're planning to go to a "pub quiz" for two of my church cell groups. We'll probably go to London at some point, maybe a meteorology party (he's also a meteorology Ph.D. student), a "Thanksgiving" party on Sunday where we'll make authentic American pumpkin pie, and explore Reading a little more.
I have TONS of work to do this week, but hopefully I'll have time to do everything. It'll be neat to see what he thinks of England, as he's traveled almost as much as I have (in the states) but not to Europe until now.
22 November, 2005
Day 121 - Appearance on BBC TV
I had a few optimistic (but somewhat unrealistic) 'goals' for my 140 days in England/Europe. One of them was to be on TV here, particularly the BBC.
Now I can check that one off the list. I was on the BBC news last night. I didn't get to see it, but it was the first thing I heard about on the way to class this morning -- a friend in the meteorology department saw it and recognized me on there.
And for the regular readers, don't worry, it had nothing to do with any attempt to start a "Matt Haugland Night" holiday.
21 November, 2005
Day 120 - Graphic design project
I've vaguely mentioned it a few times already, but now that I have the OK to start showing it, I'll reveal what it is. Effective January 1, 2006, the College of Geosciences (which includes the School of Meteorology) at the University of Oklahoma will become the College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences (A&GS).
My 'mysterious' graphic design project was to design the logo for the college. I hope many of you will see it in May, as this is the college I'll be graduating from.
It's in the "near final" stage right now, which means there's still time for a little tweaking. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
The official colors of the college are light ("Alice") blue and brown, so it'll probably have brown instead of the dark blue. It also may appear as just the seal with the words around the outside, kinda like the current Geosciences logo.
Part of the college will be housed in the National Weather Center. I also designed the National Weather Center logo (a couple years ago), which is how I got the opportunity to do this one.
Quite a lot happened today. I got some very big news about next semester, ran a full boundary layer model for the first time, almost finished a document for my dissertation, and played my worst badminton games ever. You're lucky this logo thing came up tonight. Otherwise I would've written about the anti-Bush global warming protest in London that I was given a flier for today.
20 November, 2005
Day 119 - Missing my car
I'm starting to miss having a car. The past several nights & mornings have been pretty cold (25-35°F), and the days haven't been much warmer. Compared to Oklahoma, that's not so cold. The temperature at my land a couple mornings ago was 10°F (-12°C)! But there's a big difference. I don't have a car here.
28 degrees isn't bad at all for walking from a parking lot to a building. But it's a bit cold for having to walk miles every day. Today I spent about 2 1/2 hours walking to and from various places (church 20 minutes away, town centre 30 minutes away, nearest food 10 minutes away, etc.). It was close to miserable after a while.
I think that's another good reason why so many more Americans (especially students) have cars compared to people here. The weather in America is much more extreme. Even though it can get fairly cold here, it's not unreasonably cold. I'll never forget walking from the car to class in Oklahoma the day it was 12° with a -20° (-29°C) wind chill. Many parts of America can get even worse than that. You just can't live an English lifestyle with that kind of weather. A place like Oklahoma is too hot and too cold for walking everywhere or waiting at train stations and bus stops.
Of course, not everywhere in America is so bad. As I'm writing this, it's 72°F (22°C) back in San Jose. Not fair! I don't think it's been that warm here since August.
19 November, 2005
Day 118 - All 39 counties
Today I went all the way up to Morpeth (in Northumberland) and back. So now I've been to all 39 counties in England!
I spent almost all of my time working on the train. And I spent an hour (freezing outside the train station) in Morpeth and a couple hours in Newcastle. Newcastle is definitely one of the nicest looking cities in England. It was a cross between Durham and Manchester, which is a great combination. I especially liked the river and all the bridges across it.
On the way back I ran into some (homeless?) people selling Underground tickets -- they were used day passes, probably found on the ground, which they were selling for £2, the same price as a single ticket. It's actually a pretty good deal for people who are traveling late. And homeless people could conceivably make a lot of money doing that. It's better than asking for handouts (which, by the way, is very common here!). It's probably not a very legitimate business though. I won't say whether or not I bought one, or whether or not I talked them down to £1.
18 November, 2005
Day 117 - My "lame duck" term
American presidents in their second term are called "lame duck presidents" because they can't be elected again after that, and thus lose much of their power. As the term gets nearer to the end, they usually start focusing more on their legacy than on actually accomplishing anything.
In a way, I feel like I'm headed into my "lame duck" term as a resident in England.
I can't really buy anything anymore, because I no longer have any room in my bags to take stuff back with me. It seems almost pointless to make new friends or get too much closer to the ones I have, because I won't be able to see them after 23 days. I can't really start any big new projects here [with the exception of a modeling project that I kinda started today], because I'll be leaving before I can finish.
But I feel like there's still time to make a lasting impact on England, or at least help a few people who will be here long after I leave. For example.. I have far more meteorology experience than the other students my classes (most of them did their previous degrees in Physics or Math). So they often ask me for help with their homework or projects. There are few things I enjoy more than that. If I ever get some free time, I'd love to go down to the department and spend all day helping whoever wants help with their homework. To do that, it wouldn't make any difference whether I'm here for 23 more days or 23 more years.
Other than that, I know quite a few people around here who could use a friend to spend time with once in a while. Though I'm not gonna be here much longer, I can still spend some time with people and introduce them to new people who will be here longer.
As a side note, I'll just say a little about tomorrow. I plan to ride on trains ALL day and work on my dissertation the whole time. I know what my main destination will be, but don't know how I'll get there. I may make one last visit to Birmingham and Nottingham on the way.
17 November, 2005
Day 116 - Magic class schedule
I can be in two places at the same time, at least from the Reading Meteorology Department's point of view. I'll explain why in a minute.
This sure is a funny school. I have classes every day. All are on multiple days. And almost every day I have a particular class, it's at a different time and in a different room. A couple of them already have been moved to new rooms in different buildings. It seems that the class rooms and daily schedules are picked almost at random. But that leads to some amusing consequences.
On Thursdays, two of my classes are at the exact same time!!Today I went to half of one and half of the other, which is probably what I'll keep doing except when I have a test in one of them. It actually turned out very well! In fact, I think they should schedule more classes at the same time. It's much more efficient that way. You learn the content of two classes while only using up the time of one.
I tried to do this back at San Jose State. I got as far as enrolling in two classes that were at the same time. But they soon got wise to it and forced me to choose one or the other if I wanted credit for either. Unfortunately, at the Univ. of Oklahoma, the enrollment system won't even let you sign up for two classes at the same time.
Neither of the two teachers seem to have much of a problem with it. They both thought it was funny and gave me the lecture notes for the parts I missed. One even helped me decide which part to miss and which part to attend.
I love this school!
16 November, 2005
Day 115 - The Constant Gardener
Now that my full school schedule has started, it's hard to keep up with all the evening activities that I started when I first came here (i.e., Christian Union, 2nd church, 3 cell groups). Lately I've had to work during the evenings because I'm in class during the day. But tonight I needed a break from everything.
I took a certain girl (see Day 108 :) to dinner at Strada, an Italian restaurant at the Oracle, then to the Vue (cinema) to see 'The Constant Gardener'. It was very fun and was a nice break from everything.
The movie was a little long and slow, but very interesting. It was the first real British movie I've seen here. I used to automatically dislike movies where the dialogue was with English accents -- they always seemed frustrating and hard to follow. But this time it seemed completely normal -- even more so than the American dialogue in the previews.
I always like when movies are set in places I've been. Though most of this one was set in Africa, some scenes were at very familiar places in London (e.g., Waterloo Station). I'm now as familiar with London as with L.A. That might make me a lot more interested in British movies from now on. And if there are any movies about Wales, the East Midlands, Whitley (or chavs in general), Manchester, or Birmingham, I'm sure I'd love them regardless of how good the story is.
15 November, 2005
Day 114 - Class & graphic project
Today was the first day of my Vegetation and the Atmosphere class. I enjoyed it very much. I wish they would've had something like it at OU a couple years ago when I did my M.S. work on the impact of wheat fields on the diurnal climate of western Oklahoma. It may not be directly related to my Ph.D. work, but it's a very important aspect of microclimates, so I'm very glad to be taking it. Hopefully OU will have a similar class some day. Maybe I'd like to teach it if they do.
I also spent a few hours today and yesterday working on the "other graphic design gig" that I mentioned here a while ago. It's getting close to finished -- when it's finished, I'll reveal what it is and post it here. Just a hint.. it should be around for a long time, but I hope as many of you as possible will see it in May.
14 November, 2005
Day 113 - First real day of class
Today was my first real day of class. Yeah it's been great to not have class (except for that one field trip) for the first half of the term, but the rest of the term (i.e., the next 4 weeks) will be totally brutal.
My instruments class... it was pretty close to what I expected. I don't think I'll learn very much in that one (I already took an instruments class at OU, and have worked a lot with instruments since then) but I think it will be very helpful anyway because it's been a long time since I had such a class, my job starting in February will be very instrument-related, and I may want to teach the instruments class at OU some day, so it'll be great to know how it's done here.
The numerical modeling class... it looks like it will be quite helpful and I think I'll learn some things. But the bad part (and this is a big one) is that we have to use FORTRAN for everything. Grrrrr! I hate FORTRAN. It's been almost 7 years since I last used it and I'm not very familiar with it. Plus it takes about twice as long to do anything with it as with Perl. It can't use graphics libraries, so we have to import stuff into Matlab to plot it. And when it comes to processing data, there are a lot of nice things it can't do that can be done very easily with Perl and other languages. Plus I can't compile it on my laptop, so I have to be on campus to work on my assignments. Blaaah. Oh well. It's what almost every other meteorologist uses, so I suppose it might be useful to get familiar with it again.
13 November, 2005
Day 112 - Cardiff & my Welsh family
Today was another day full of beautiful scenery. We drove from Porthyrhyd through the Brecon Beacons to Merthyr Tydfil and down to Cardiff. It wasn't my first time in Cardiff, but I saw much more of the city than ever before -- including the Port, Millenium Centre, the Assembly of Wales, and Castell Coch (the fairy tale castle).
It was a great end to three wonderful days in Wales. My hosts referred to me as their "adopted son" and to themselves as my "Welsh family". They are two of the nicest people I've ever met. It's very easy to forget the fact that one of them is a Commander of the British Empire (an honor personally given to him by Prince Charles himself), has regular meetings with the leader(s) of Wales, and is invited to parties/lunches at Buckingham Palace with the queen -- and who knows what else.. I only learned these things from asking a lot of questions today. To me they'll always be the nice Welsh family who I met that one evening on the train.
Some time after I go back to America, I plan to visit Britain again for vacation. Besides Reading, Porthyrhyd will certainly be one of my main destinations.
By the way, I bought a big Welsh flag on the way back, which is now hanging on my wall. I love Wales!
12 November, 2005
Day 111 - Aberystwyth
On Saturday morning we made the (approx. 1 hour) drive to Aberystwyth (prounounced just how it's spelled) and made several scenic stops along the way. It was beautiful! And the weather was perfect.
They first gave me a tour of Aberystwyth, including the University of Wales, the castle, the harbor, and Constitution Hill. Then I was given a 'backstage' tour of the National Library of Wales, to the areas where the public is not allowed to go.
I had lunch with some very interesting people including the National Librarian of Wales. After that, we went to a lecture about Richard Price, a Welshman who had a significant impact on America. Price was a theologian, mathematician, and close friend of Benjamin Franklin and other founding fathers. He encouraged the British government to let go of the American colonies (and thus, was very unpopular in Britain), and is believed to have inspired some of the wording of the Declaration of Independence.
After the lecture I met even more interesting people, including some of the most prominent Welsh scholars/authors. I also met a former member of Parliament whose biography is one of the more prominent books in Welsh book stores.
There's just too much more to say. After another spectacular drive (back to Porthyrhyd a different way) and one of the best dinners I've had since leaving America, we watched the Rememberance Day service on TV, which was very interesting.
11 November, 2005
Day 110 - Birmingham, Llanelli
You might be wondering why I went all the way up to Birmingham on the way to South Wales. A few reasons: 1) I love Birmingham, 2) I know of a great & convenient place there to stop for lunch, 3) more time on the train so I could get more work done and, 4) Virgin Trains (the ones that go through B'ham) are the only ones with power outlets, and 5) I still had some doubt as to whether or not I'd actually been to Worcestershire. Now there's no doubt that I've been to 38 counties.
I met my friends in Llanelli at 6:30. They had to drive me from there (it's about an hour from Llanelli to Porthyrhyd, near Llandovery, where they live) because the rail line between Llanelli and Llandovery was washed away during recent heavy rains.
It was very nice to see them again. We had a great dinner and went to bed early. It was SO much easier to sleep in 'my' room at the farm than at Windsor Hall. So much quieter and more comfortable. It was the first time in a long time that I was able to sleep for 8 hours.
10 November, 2005
Day 109 - Back to Wales
Tomorrow I'm planning to go back to Wales to visit the friends I met there on my first trip. Because of recent mudslides (which apparently blocked the train route to Llandovery), they'll be meeting me in Llanelli (about 20 mins west of Swansea) and driving to Llandovery from there. I'll be staying at their farm in Porthyrhyd, just outside of Llandovery. On Saturday we'll go to the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth. One of my hosts, who is the President of the National Library, wrote a book about influential Welsh people in the rest of the world. One of those in the book will be there at the national library on Saturday.
On Sunday, I'm planning to attend the Welsh-speaking Anglican church in Porthyrhyd. I should be back in Reading by Sunday evening.
I plan to work on my Dorset field trip project on the way there and my dissertation on the way back.
09 November, 2005
Day 108 - Sharing cultures
I kinda had a date tonight. The plan was to meet after dinner (around 6:00) and walk down to the Vue in the town centre to see "Serenity". The problem was, it was only playing at 5:00 and 10:00, and none of the other movies there looked appealing. So we walked around the town centre & Oracle for an hour or so, went back to the Vue one last time, and eventually gave up on seeing a movie there.
But it turned out a lot better that way. We decided instead to go back to Windsor and watch
Malibu's Most Wanted. It was the one movie I brought with me here, partly because it's my favorite and partly because I thought it would be hillarious to show it to English people to give them a funny taste of part of American/California culture. I finally got my opportunity tonight.
Now I can say that I've helped greatly expand the vocabulary of an English person, like so many of them have done for me. Fo' rizeal! She didn't understand all of the jokes, and I had to explain a few words and references, but overall I think she straight up digged it. Now there's one more person in this country who understands what it means to be "down wid da brizown".
It also was quite fun to see her reaction to hearing *real* country music for the first time!
08 November, 2005
Day 107 - Becoming one of them?
Am I becoming one of them?
I've caught myself saying things like "lifts", "carpark", "... as well", "talking rubbish", "half five", "postgraduate", "fresher", "chips", "crisps", "at university", "course", "module", etc. Some of it is by accident and some is just to help people understand easier. I have one friend who always tries to use American terminology with me, and it confuses me more than anything because I'm so used to the English terms.
Recently, someone I met was surprised when I said I was American (and not English). She said "Wow, you have a very weak (American) accent.. it's almost English". It wasn't the first time I've been told that. It's probably just because most Americans they meet here are from the East, so people from the West Coast sound less 'American' to them. Or maybe it's because I occasionally try to use less American pronunciations to avoid confusion (with "Meteorology", for example, people always used to think I was saying something related to "media" -- American "meteor" sounds almost identical to their "media"). But don't get me wrong, most people can tell I'm American within about 3 seconds.
Because of all the cloudy weather, my skin is lighter than it has ever been. So I definitely look a little more British. On the other hand, I've been told I look like an American. I've also been told that I
don't look like an American, and that I look like a famous English football player.
I'm even starting to like English tea.
However, a few things confirm that I'm definitely not becoming "one of them"..
I still have no interest in English football
I still put loads of ice in my drinks whenever possible
I still don't understand Cricket (though that might be true about most people here too)
I still don't like the taste of blackcurrant, curry, ginger, or unseasoned chips/fries
I still can't handle the ridiculously high temperatures in most rooms here
I still can't drink my hot chocolate or tea at 99°C
I still like G.W. Bush
I still don't like dance/techno music
I still don't have tea breaks
and when people ask me for directions to somewhere a few blocks away, I still don't give them a 10-minute reply filled with all kinds of confusing details.
But I still have another month to go.
07 November, 2005
Day 106 - London & more fire safety
Today I went to London for several hours. I almost wasn't able to go because of another mandatory fire safety thing. It never stops! Today there was a fire safety video at 5:15 that we had to attend or else be fined (£50 I think). Thankfully, they're letting me go to another one tomorrow instead. That doesn't mean I don't still think all this fire safety stuff is ridiculous. You'd think that two booklets, three letters, two drills, and one hour-long lecture would be enough by now, but apparently not.
Anyway, I did make it to London today. My first destination was the Jewish neighborhood in the Golders Green area of north London. I was particularly interested in visiting the Jewish book stores there. I saw quite a few books that I'd love to have, but they cost a fortune and there's no way I could take them back anyway. It's interesting.. since the religion split ~1900 years ago, one side added a "New Testament" with 27 short books/letters while the other side added a "new testament" that would barely fit on a large bookshelf. But it was neat to see it all and was a good opportunity to brush up on my
(Hebrew), which isn't usually very useful around here.
After that I went to Trafalgar Square and walked from there to Parliament (no bombs or gun powder) and along the Thames toward where the Lake Havasu City (London) Bridge used to be. What an awesome walk that was! It wasn't the first time I've been in that area but it's still impressive every time I go there.
After that I went all the way down to Wimbledon. I didn't see the tennis courts though -- i think those are closer to the Southfields station than Wimbledon.
On the walk back home from Reading station I saw even more fireworks. I saw some last night as well. I'm not sure whether they're just leftovers or if they've been celebrating other people's failed attempts to blow up Parliament.
06 November, 2005
Day 105 - Newport Castle photo
Another surprising finish for one of my photos... this one was 4th place (out of 274 entries) in a contest for photos with grain (as in image grain). It is a picture of Newport Castle in Newport, Wales. (It's from my trip there on Day 86, but I couldn't post it because it was in the contest)
It's fitting, because I'll be returning to Wales on Friday - to Llandovery and Aberystwyth. It'll quite possibly be my last multi-day trip before I return to America. I think that's also fitting, as Llandovery was where I ended up on my first multi-day trip (not counting the ones with my family), and because I've had a special interest/love for Wales.
This coming week will be my last free week before all my real classes start. I plan to use it to make more progress on my dissertation, work on my Dorset field report, prepare for my Wales trip, visit London, and relax a little after the past couple hectic weeks.
05 November, 2005
Day 104 - Guy Fawkes (Bonfire) Night
Today was a big holiday here in England. If you're not familiar with Guy Fawkes Night (aka "Bonfire Night"), it's a holiday to commemorate the failed attempt of Guy Fawkes and others to blow up Parliament and kill the king in 1605.
As a holiday, it's very much like the 4th of July. And it's every bit as big as the 4th of July. Most people attend some kind of fireworks show. These often include large bonfires.
Tonight I went to a Bonfire Night celebration sponsored by Carey Baptist Church. The event was located out in the country, about 20 minutes west of town. I don't know exactly how many people were there, but it must've been at least a few hundred. They had their own fireworks show and a huge bonfire, which started as a stack of stucks about 25 feet tall!
The bonfire thing probably wouldn't work in many parts of America, especially in July. Here it's damp enough that there's not much risk of the fire spreading -- which is ironic, considering the fact that I recently received two more letters about fire safety -- more mandatory fire safety talks, for which non-attendence results in a large fine! Crazy!
Fireworks are still going off as I write this. They seem to be much more sporadic than in America. There we have a few really big fireworks displays. Here there are a lot of small ones all over the place. The bigger ones have entrance fees (£7-10!!), or so I hear. How typically European to charge you money even to watch fireworks!!
It was a very fun night! But there's one thing I don't understand. Why name a holiday after someone who tried to blow up Parliament and kill your king?!? It seems like that would encourage that sort of thing. If I try to blow up Parliament will they start having a Matt Haugland Night?
04 November, 2005
Day 103 - Revelation & Second Coming
I had an interesting discussion with a friend about the book of Revelation. He believed, as most people do, that most of what's in it still hasn't happened yet. I believe that most of it happened a long time ago. I have many reasons for that, but the main ones are: 1) The first chapter of the book says it's about things that will "soon take place", 2) I believe that it was useful and meaningful to the people it was originally written to, and 3) If you look deeper into the metaphors (and don't take the obviously symbolic language in a wooden literal way), it describes exactly the situation being faced by the people the book was written to.
I'd say that same thing about the prophesies in the book of Daniel.. that most of those also were fulfilled during the first century (by the way, long after they were written, even if you don't believe the traditional dating & authorship of the book!!). But the biggest problem I've had with all that is the return of Jesus. It supposedly hasn't happened yet, but it's supposed to fit right in with all those prophecies that seem to have been fulfilled.
I know full preterism (i.e., basically the belief that everything in the Bible was fulfilled already, including Jesus' return) is considered a heresy, but as I was talking to my friend something occurred to me. The incarnation wasn't the first time he came. John wrote that it was the "word" ("memra" in Aramaic, "davar" in Hebrew, and "logos" in greek) that became flesh, the same "word" who was there in the beginning, and who made many 'appearances' throughout the Old Testament. He just wasn't always in human form, and wasn't called "Jesus". He was usually called "malach Yahweh" (literally "Yahweh messenger", usually translated somewhat misleadingly as "the Angel of the LORD"). And sometimes he was called "dabar-Yahweh" ("Yahweh word", usually translated as "the word of the LORD").
What if, when Jesus said he would return, was speaking as malach Yahweh/davar-Yahweh, his eternal identity before (& presumably after) the incarnation? Maybe the church shouldn't have expected him to return in human form, and maybe he did return, in a similar way as in the Old Testament, toward the middle or end of the first century.
Jews were criticized for not recognizing Jesus as davar-Yahweh during his 'first' coming. But perhaps Christians didn't recognize davar-Yahweh as Jesus during his second coming.
Just something to think about.
03 November, 2005
Day 102 - Sleeping in Windsor
Here's something funny and frustrating. It seems like half of the people in my corridor like to stay up really late and be very loud around 2-4 am. The nice thing about them is that the're quiet in the morning because they're still sleeping. But the other half seem to go to bed really early and wake up really early. So if I try to sleep early, I get woken up around 3:00. And if I stay up late, I get woken up around 7 or 8. I can't even remember the last time I slept for 8 hours here. It'll be so nice to have my own place again.
02 November, 2005
Day 101 - Where I've been so far
15 countries in Europe.
The most time I've spent so far in any one place was the 2 days in Oslo. A lot of people say I need to spend more time in all these places. Of course. I've barely scratched the surface of most of the places I've been to. But I'm also getting a lot of work done while traveling, which wouldn't be possible if I spent a lot of time sightseeing. Trains are great for working and seeing places at the same time. I've been able to feel out a lot of places. So now I'll know where to go back to when I have real vacation time.
And for those of you who think I'm skipping class to do all this... not at all. My first real class doesn't start until November 14.
01 November, 2005
Day 100 - Trip map
Here's a map of where I went on my recent trip and the main places I stopped.
