mountainmelody

Apparently the tests show that I don't have mono (or swine flu, or strep...). So I'm going to try a new tactic: If anyone here can tell me why I've felt so tired and awful for the past three weeks, you'll win my undying love and affection! ;)

I've been feeling really bad lately. Yuck!

I think I may have mono...double yuck!

We'll see what the doctor's tests say.

I've finished drafting all 8 chapters of my dissertation!! I hope to have to make only minor revisions from this point on. (We'll see.) According to my professor, I should be finished this spring.

I'm not going to take the time right now to count all my words, footnotes, etc--I think it's around 85,000 words or 350 pages.

And I'm not going to count the number of hours it's taken me either! :)

It feels like this every now and then...

The theologian may indulge in the pleasing task of describing religion as she descended from heaven, arrayed in her native purity. A more melancholy duty is imposed upon the historian. [S]he must discover the inevitable mixture of error and corruption which she contracts in a long residence upon earth, among a weak and degenerate race of beings.

-Edward Gibbon

I thought of it when I saw this cutout on a school playground nearby.

I'm always amused by the signs I see while I'm traveling (and at home too). Since I'm posting most of my trip photos on Facebook, I thought I'd post a few fun signs I enountered here.


I can't read the Dutch writing on this sign...but thanks to the picture, I think I know what it says!

Check back for more soon. :)

I've been lazy with my blog--and even Facebook and Twitter--lately, probably because of the small trip I just returned from. But tonight I'm inspired to post after attending my first meeting of the Blount County Bloggers group. (Thanks, everyone!)

I'd like to tell you about an interesting experience I had in the Netherlands. We were settling in for our first meeting of the week when suddenly a couple came down the aisle to the front of the meeting room. They were dressed rather plainly, but looked normal enough.

But then the man started waving a Bible and talking loudly about hellfire and things like that. He kept on going, even when the meeting organizers tried to get him to leave. It was quite a sight!

Honestly, I thought this was all a show--some kind of skit or something to reinforce that although this was a Christian meeting, we didn't need to be Bible thumpers like this.

But it turns out it was real!

Apparently this couple had come all the way from Germany to protest our meetings. They were from some kind of fundamentalist sect. I'm not sure what was so controversial, but I guess they thought the group was too liberal or something. It turns out that they had disrupted several similar meetings earlier in the week.

I saw them only this one time, but it was quite an experience! I just wish I had realized it was real. I might have listened more closely--or maybe snuck out my camera! :)

...just busy! More later--or check Facebook.

another video

I'm on my way home now. Here's a video of the Scottish Highlands, until I get a chance to post more.