2012

Apologies for not having posted anything recently, but the last couple of weeks have been relatively quiet compared to December. I spent New Year in Oxford, which was rather quiet; but it was good to be back in my own room after all the travelling and business of the previous weeks. I spent New Year's Eve watching a three-part miniseries of Great Expectations, chatting to my friends on TLC and watching the Thames River fireworks on TV (i.e. my computer; BBC now offers broadcasts via the internet so I can watch live streaming of TV broadcasts on my laptop). The fireworks display was absolutely amazing and synchronised with music with a major focus on 2012 as the year of the London Olympics.

From "The Daily Telegraph" 

The rest of the holidays were spent catching up on the work and reading I was set for the break. Last week on Monday to Wednesday I spent in Shropshire on an Oxford Christian Union (OICCU) retreat (called "House Party"). We had excellent talks from Martin Goldsmith, a former student of Worcester College and international missionary, and Mike Cain, a well known British preacher and author. We also had a number of workshops/seminars; one of which was on humility as a Christian virtue (exemplified by Jesus and Paul) and the importance of remembering this and keeping it at the top of our minds in the competitive world of an Oxford. It was a talk I really needed to hear ;-) We also heard about and prayed for this term's Mission Week called This is Jesus. It is an outreach series of lunch-time and evening talks which will be held in the Oxford Town Hall throughout Fourth Week.

Pioneer Centre, Shropshire

A game of "Ninja"

The Worcester Group

Sunset on the coach ride home

The whole House Party gang

Last weekend temperatures dipped to below freezing for my first time since arriving (we have had a really "mild" winter). We had some pretty frost and the lake even froze over much of the surface confining the poor ducks to a small section of the lake. There was no chance of snow as it was completely cloudless during this time. When the clouds started to return on Tuesday/Wednesday, temperatures immediately rose even up to double figures occasionally (yes I've gotten to the point where I refer to 12 degrees C as "warm", and I don't say that with bravado - just indoor heating and appropriate clothing).

This week lectures started up again. I'm very excited about some of the courses I'm taking. I'm doing a weekly course on "intermediate Greek for post-graduates" to brush up on my Greek. We're doing Herodotus (which I already did some of in third year, but that's okay, he is my favourite Greek author). I'm also doing a course on Greek and Latin phonology and morphology and how that relates to the reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European and a course called "the linguistic description of Greek". In addition, I'm attending syntax lectures and tutorials (for those that have the slightest idea what I'm talking about and actually care, the lectures will be on LFG but I have a tutor who has agreed to give me tutorials in the Minimalist Programme). In addition to those lectures which my supervisor has told me to attend and a couple of weekly seminars, I've elected to attend a course on Oscan and Umbrian (two early Italic languages related to but not Latin) and another run by the Archaeology department on Aegean Bronze Age scripts. The latter deals mainly with Linear B which was deciphered in the last century when it was found to be used to write a pre-classical form of Greek, that used by the Myceneans. As you can see, I've got a lot more historical linguistic stuff coming up this term so it should be fun.

Thanks again to everyone who reads this and I especially appreciate those praying for me. I'd like to ask for prayer to focus on my work and not be distracted. I've also been struggling a bit fatigue (just feeling really sleepy and struggling to wake up in the mornings, even when I've gone to bed early) which may have something to do with me being unused the weather and darkness.

Thanks gain.

Sonja.