It's a real pain to have to write an exam on the pay after christmas. Worse is to write 4 exams in one day on the day after christmas. The exams were no fun. I've never enjoyed exams. I don't see that it in any way effectively tests a persons knowledge or the ability of the person to use such knowledge. All it really tests is short term memory skills!
So I don't think I did very well. FOrtunately passing is not a requirement to continue my studying. So on I go. I can only hope and pray that some new opportunities avail themselves because the study is driving me nuts!
I had to say goodbye to some more friends this weeks. 2 of the friends I made in class are leaving. One returning to Germany the other to Australia. Hopefully though they'll both be back here soon.
Now all I have to do is get somebody to read this again....
Thursday, December 29, 2005
Monday, December 26, 2005
Christmas
Christmas comes and christmas goes. We had a great christmas. İt was cold! Very Cold! But we had a great service followed by a shared meal. Good food and good company means we soon forgot the cold. We also had a party on Friday nıght, for foreigners. There we exchanged gifts under the christmas tree. Also fun!
Today then I had to write exams. Tomorrow another exam. Judgıng from gut feeleıng I'm still a long way from where I need to be.
More later!
Today then I had to write exams. Tomorrow another exam. Judgıng from gut feeleıng I'm still a long way from where I need to be.
More later!
Monday, December 12, 2005
An excellent weekend
This past weekend was the best I've had since coming to Turkey. I had a really fun time. On Saturday I visited a friend who's from Guatemala. He just moved into a new house and invited a few people over for lunch. We had a cool time socialising and eating. It was good fun and we had people there from all over the world; USA, Ecuador, South Africa, Romania, Moldovia and more. We had to speak a lot of Turkish because not everyone could understand english very well.
In the evening we went to the International church, which was having a youth evening. Quite a lot of young people from all over the world were there. Including quite a large number of locals. Again we had a great time of worship together. All in Turkish of course. The songs were mostly Turkish versions of well known english worship songs. So we all knew what we were singing, even if we didn't understand all the words.
Sunday morning we had church and I actually could follow a bit of what was being preached. That's a real change!
Then after church I went to visit another university friend. He's from Germany. We did some studying together and then his girlfriend made us all supper. Another good social occassion that lasted well into the night. Of course that left me totally exasted today.
Now I need a break to recover from the weekend!
In the evening we went to the International church, which was having a youth evening. Quite a lot of young people from all over the world were there. Including quite a large number of locals. Again we had a great time of worship together. All in Turkish of course. The songs were mostly Turkish versions of well known english worship songs. So we all knew what we were singing, even if we didn't understand all the words.
Sunday morning we had church and I actually could follow a bit of what was being preached. That's a real change!
Then after church I went to visit another university friend. He's from Germany. We did some studying together and then his girlfriend made us all supper. Another good social occassion that lasted well into the night. Of course that left me totally exasted today.
Now I need a break to recover from the weekend!
Thursday, December 08, 2005
2 in 2
Amazing isn't it? 2 updates in 2 days!
I missed the bus this morning....again...! This is a common occurance, but what can you expect when I have a 25 minute walk to the bus stop. The result was arriving 2 minutes late for class (as opposed to arriving 18 minutes early). But 2 minutes is late and late comers are not allowed in class! Go figure. I feel like I'm back in primary school! Only thing missing is being sent to the principals office. That may yet happen...
As you may guess from my sporadic updates, I have no ADSL line yet. No ports available in our area = unknown time to installation. Well, there are worse things than having to wait for ADSL.
I missed the bus this morning....again...! This is a common occurance, but what can you expect when I have a 25 minute walk to the bus stop. The result was arriving 2 minutes late for class (as opposed to arriving 18 minutes early). But 2 minutes is late and late comers are not allowed in class! Go figure. I feel like I'm back in primary school! Only thing missing is being sent to the principals office. That may yet happen...
As you may guess from my sporadic updates, I have no ADSL line yet. No ports available in our area = unknown time to installation. Well, there are worse things than having to wait for ADSL.
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
Slow Updates
Well it seems I'm not doing to well at keeping this updated. It's mostly laziness!
I read something interesting this week that I hadn't thought of before. We seem to think Judaism as in the OT was a religion of works. That people obeyed the law in order to gain salvation. But that's not true. Gods plan has not changed at all. God initiated the covenant with Isreal, choosing them as his people. The law came later and was seen as a way to show God how much you loved him. Obedience to the law was in thankfulness to the covenant that God had made.
It seems that the coming of Jesus only changed one thing in this respect. The difference now is that we are no longer God's chosen by ancestory inheritance, by being a jew. Now we are God's chosen by believing in him and in the sacrifice that Jesus made on this earth.
I don't understand the significance of Jesus' actions in the spiritual realm, but somehow his presence on earth and eventual death and resurrection have broken the hold that death had. Somehow it signified the expansion of God's chosen people beyond the nation of Isreal.
I read something interesting this week that I hadn't thought of before. We seem to think Judaism as in the OT was a religion of works. That people obeyed the law in order to gain salvation. But that's not true. Gods plan has not changed at all. God initiated the covenant with Isreal, choosing them as his people. The law came later and was seen as a way to show God how much you loved him. Obedience to the law was in thankfulness to the covenant that God had made.
It seems that the coming of Jesus only changed one thing in this respect. The difference now is that we are no longer God's chosen by ancestory inheritance, by being a jew. Now we are God's chosen by believing in him and in the sacrifice that Jesus made on this earth.
I don't understand the significance of Jesus' actions in the spiritual realm, but somehow his presence on earth and eventual death and resurrection have broken the hold that death had. Somehow it signified the expansion of God's chosen people beyond the nation of Isreal.
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