Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Starting the blog again?

I’ve given some thought to writing here again, if only to keep a catalog of my ongoing adventures; of course, others are welcome to read along. I’d actually completely forgotten about the entries I wrote from Harvard, so I suppose the break in entries isn’t too extreme.
So, to catch up: I spent the last year back in LA teaching Biblical Studies courses at Azusa Pacific University (my alma mater). Overall that was a fantastic experience and very rewarding, I’ll write something more on this later, perhaps.
Currently I’m in Berlin, having just arrive last night after a solid 24 hours of travel. I’m here because I was awarded a prestigious year-long Fulbright scholarship. This makes the third continent on which I’ve lived and studied. I still don’t really think of myself as someone especially interested in travel, I just want to do the best things at the best places and it should be no surprise they aren’t all located near one another. I’ll be affiliated with Humboldt University here in Berlin where I’ll be researching “German Specters in North American research on early Christianity and Judaism.” Perhaps I’ll elaborate later on exactly what this topic means (or just post my application essay). I have a few more days here in Berlin before I travel to the south to spend six weeks in Marburg doing intensive German language study with a number of other Fulbrighters. In the meantime I’m staying with my future housemates in Berlin, who are incredibly friendly (!) and are helping me get oriented. My body is very tired but I’m too excited to let that slow me down now.