Letter 01-2007. Soon out again.
11th March 2007
Dear friends,
We are already far into 2007 before at last there is a letter from me. I am not so good at writing when I am in Norway, but the foreign countries call again, so then there will probably be more frequent updates from me again.
I have spent much time this winter planning studies abroad. As I mentioned in my last letter, I have applied for a year exchange to the USA. My application is accepted. In August I travel to Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa.
When I came to MF (my school) in the beginning of January, I got a new opportunity for a travel abroad. Norwegian students are surprisingly uninterested in travelling abroad during their studies. “You don’t want to travel to Germany too?” I was asked by the international consultant at MF, she had a couple of stipends which noone had applied for. Yes, I would like to go to Germany too. Leipzig is the town. The semester starts in April. I have therefore sometimes spent more time trying to remember my German than reading the curriculum I am supposed to come through by this short spring semester I get in Norway before I leave. The Goethe Institute has several practical books for someone in need of repetition, and monthly German films demanding as much concentration as a book. I have also come to know the German-speaking congregation in Oslo. I can admit that I do not understand everything, but at least I have started.
I take two subjects (I take three in a normal semester) at MF this spring, one in systematic theology, and one in practical theology. Before I decided to go for the studies in Germany, I had signed up for a subject in NT also, but I will not sit for the exam 1st June. I started to follow the lectures, and I did not manage to quit when I had first started. But now there is a break in the lectures. Now there is full focus on the PT subject which is called “Pastoral care and practice in institution”. I have my practice in Aker hospital these four weeks before the Easter holidays. We are a group of five students having the same supervisor, and besides separate pastoral duties, talks with patients at a post at the hospital, we spend much time together in the group. It is really a learn-to-know-yourself-practice, and I have certainly started.
The first day at the post I attended a doctor’s visit to some patients. I had not expected that it would make such an impression. I only stood there watching. But it was not “only”. We visited a patient with great pains. I found it difficult to see him lying there, and I wanted to take some of his pain. I got warm and felt sick, and when I started to be dizzy, I understood that it was probably wise to go out and get some fresh air and water. I went towards the door, and reached the handle. Then I woke up at the floor in the hall. It is my first time fainting. I had not thought I would react like that. But I find it a bit exciting. Now I have something to work on, something to learn about myself. What made me have that reaction?
I have not attended any more doctor’s visits, and I have not fainted again. I have had some good talks with patients, and I look forward to talking with more of them. I also look forward to learning more about the ministry in the hospital and perhaps see if this can be a future ministry for me, and then of course it is exciting to see how far I come with this learn-to-know-yourself-project…
Ready-to-learn greetings from Hanne.
Dear friends,
We are already far into 2007 before at last there is a letter from me. I am not so good at writing when I am in Norway, but the foreign countries call again, so then there will probably be more frequent updates from me again.
I have spent much time this winter planning studies abroad. As I mentioned in my last letter, I have applied for a year exchange to the USA. My application is accepted. In August I travel to Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa.
When I came to MF (my school) in the beginning of January, I got a new opportunity for a travel abroad. Norwegian students are surprisingly uninterested in travelling abroad during their studies. “You don’t want to travel to Germany too?” I was asked by the international consultant at MF, she had a couple of stipends which noone had applied for. Yes, I would like to go to Germany too. Leipzig is the town. The semester starts in April. I have therefore sometimes spent more time trying to remember my German than reading the curriculum I am supposed to come through by this short spring semester I get in Norway before I leave. The Goethe Institute has several practical books for someone in need of repetition, and monthly German films demanding as much concentration as a book. I have also come to know the German-speaking congregation in Oslo. I can admit that I do not understand everything, but at least I have started.
I take two subjects (I take three in a normal semester) at MF this spring, one in systematic theology, and one in practical theology. Before I decided to go for the studies in Germany, I had signed up for a subject in NT also, but I will not sit for the exam 1st June. I started to follow the lectures, and I did not manage to quit when I had first started. But now there is a break in the lectures. Now there is full focus on the PT subject which is called “Pastoral care and practice in institution”. I have my practice in Aker hospital these four weeks before the Easter holidays. We are a group of five students having the same supervisor, and besides separate pastoral duties, talks with patients at a post at the hospital, we spend much time together in the group. It is really a learn-to-know-yourself-practice, and I have certainly started.
The first day at the post I attended a doctor’s visit to some patients. I had not expected that it would make such an impression. I only stood there watching. But it was not “only”. We visited a patient with great pains. I found it difficult to see him lying there, and I wanted to take some of his pain. I got warm and felt sick, and when I started to be dizzy, I understood that it was probably wise to go out and get some fresh air and water. I went towards the door, and reached the handle. Then I woke up at the floor in the hall. It is my first time fainting. I had not thought I would react like that. But I find it a bit exciting. Now I have something to work on, something to learn about myself. What made me have that reaction?
I have not attended any more doctor’s visits, and I have not fainted again. I have had some good talks with patients, and I look forward to talking with more of them. I also look forward to learning more about the ministry in the hospital and perhaps see if this can be a future ministry for me, and then of course it is exciting to see how far I come with this learn-to-know-yourself-project…
Ready-to-learn greetings from Hanne.
posted by Hanne at 3:24 PM
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