Nineteen Days in Denver

Whereas the Australian summer was characterised by fires, floods and earthquakes, the past two weeks here have been characterised by cold snaps, hail storms and tornadoes.

We have continued to settle in well. Philip has built a good friendship with Hayden. In fact, last night he joined a "coach pitch" baseball team with Hayden. This is a version of baseball where the coach pitches the ball to the kids, rather than have them hit off a tee or try to pitch to each other. Philip's natural athleticism shone through, of course, as he caught and threw the ball really well. His batting needs some work (since he played tee-ball over the Aussie summer).

He has really enjoyed riding his bike around the grounds of the seminary. He was complaining that the brake handle was too stiff, so I tried it and found out he has no rear brakes! I took it to the bike shop but, being the beginning of summer, they have 10 day turnaround to replace the brake lever. So, knowing Philip couldn't last two weeks without his bike, I booked it in (to take back in a week), but brought it home. Today Philip was still tearing around, even without proper brakes. (The front ones sort of work). He has been accumulating scrapes on his knees and feet, but they haven't stopped him.

Katrise has been working on riding her three wheeled scooter. Initially it was very much a "hop and a step", but her legs seem to have strengthened over the last three days and she really does now "scooter".

Liz's sister, Berit, went out of town for two days, so we minded our niece, Delaney, for two mornings while Dan was at work. Katrise was soooooo excited to have another girl to play with. They did dress up in princess fairy dresses, explored the river bank and brought home leaves and feathers to make a montage.

Philip has also been playing with two boys from Zimbabwe. TC is the older one and together they found a robin's nest with baby birds in it. Philip drew a picture of it in his homeschooling today.

We finally made it to church last weekend. The first weekend we were so jet lagged we slept through the morning. Last week we had the 'flu and couldn't all get ready in time. (Going as half a family to a new church is a bit daunting). So this week we visited the church that Liz's sisters (Berit & Victoria) attend. Next week we are going to begin to check out some other churches. We were going to go to "Waterstone", which is where Katrise is going to pre-school in September, but I just heard that Lee Strobel is speaking at Cherryhills Community Church this Sunday and we may change our plans.

Liz picked up a bike tonight and we are looking forward to going for a ride sometime over the next couple of days. The bike path beside the Platte River is absolutely gorgeous. It runs for about 8 miles, is smooth, wide and level. Not particularly taxing (and has a 15mph speed limit), which makes it all the more enjoyable.

It's been almost 10 years since Liz and I last lived here. There are some remarkable differences that I have noticed between last time and this time. Let me share some with you.

Technology has changed remarkably. When we last lived here, we had a laptop and we dialed into compuserve to send emails to our few friends who also had email. Phone calls were ridiculously expensive.

This time I have a new laptop I am using for study. Liz is using my old one (which used to be her old one). Each room in our apartment (except the bathrooms) has a network plug and so I can plug the laptop into the internet anywhere. (What is more, each of the study desks in the library also has a powerpoint and network plug). And the internet is noticeably faster here than in Sydney.

We bought an option on skype which, for $140 for the year, allows us to call a landline in any of 40 countries around the world for no charge. In the US, that also includes cell phones.

When I received an email this week from our landlord saying that there was a serious plumbing problem at our house, I just jumped on skype, called her and it was sorted out in minutes. I called mum and dad at my uncle's house in England.

We also bought phone numbers in Denver and in Sydney (for $40 each for the year), so that our family and friends can call us without using skype. This has saved us having to have a phone - we just have to have the computer on. (Skype takes voice mail messages if we don't answer).

Of course, there is facebook, this blog and email so that we can share stories, photos and even just our moods with people pretty easily.

The Internet has also allowed me to keep connected to my favourite Aussie sporting team - the Eels. I was able to watch the first State of Origin game and the last couple of Eels games. The distance between continents is shrinking!

We arrived just at the peak of the "garage [emphasis on the second syllable] sale" season here in Colorado. We picked up lots of useful things for the apartment - and a $10 bike for me! One cultural shock came from seeing two SUV's pull up in the driveway of the garage sale and 10 hispanic people jump out, descend on the stuff for sale, pick and pull at it, argue or discuss it in Spanish, approach the seller (who was a bit overwhelmed), make a deal, load up and pull out - around the corner to the next garage sale to do it all again! Liz heard that some people come up from Mexico just for garage sale season in Colorado, and we wouldn't be surprised if that is what we saw! Garage sales here also run on Friday and Saturday - an interesting quirk from Sydney's usual Saturday and Sunday sales.

One interesting thing about our apartment is that it is on the front side of the apartment complex at the seminary. It is close to the main road (Santa Fe) and on the other side of the road is a train line. Every half hour or so, long train loads of coal go rumbling by. We've been getting used to the noise (and can now sleep through the midnight train and the 6am train), but it affects our TV reception. We had been hoping to avoid paying for cable TV while here, but every time a train goes by the reception drops out - often in the middle of an important news story or piece of dialogue or sport.

I've spent hours in the library each day this week. My Hebrew intensive class begins next Monday. So I scheduled a NT Greek exam for this Friday morning. I thought I had better sit the Greek exam before my brain goes to mush trying to study Hebrew! So, I have been reviewing all of last year's Greek so that it is fresh. I am up to speed on 1st and 2nd declension nouns, participles and liquid verbs. If I don't pass the test, I won't be able to do the New Testament subject in the Fall semester that I need. Areas covered by the exam are:

1. All vocabulary words that occur fifty or more times in the Greek N.T.
2. Conjugation of regular verbs in all three persons, singular and plural
3. Ability to parse all verb forms, regular and irregular
4. Explanation of the uses and meaning of verb tenses and moods (except the optative but
including participles and infinitives) and explanation of the various functions of each
5. Ability to decline first and second declension nouns and adjectives
6. Ability to parse third declension noun and adjective forms
7. Identification of various classes of pronouns and their uses
8. Meaning of such details as augments, reduplication, contract verbs, deponent verbs,
articles, etc.
9. Ability to translate the Gospel of John or 1 John–Greek to English.

When a friend heard that I was studying Hebrew this summer he said "Aahh, summer suicide Hebrew" - very encouraging! Then when I bought the textbook from the Seminary bookshop yesterday, the student serving me said, "Oh. Well, good luck." Maybe it will be pretty intense!

With that in mind, I have been also working at getting ahead in one of the other courses I am doing this summer: "Foundations of Teaching and Learning ", with it's textbook "Introduction to Christian Education" by Michael J. Anthony. I thought the course would be mostly about adult Sunday School classes - something that I haven't seen in Sydney. But the course is broader than that. It includes children's classes, small groups, Sunday teaching and any other form of discipleship and training that the church seeks to use to help people grow in their knowledge of and practice of their faith.

The first paper was a two page historical sketch of a person of major influence on Christian Education. My classmates chose John Calvin, Thomas Aquinas and Fredrick Douglass. I chose Henrietta Mears because of her influence on Billy Graham and Bill Bright (founder of Campus Crusade). It was very interesting reading a couple of biographies about her and learning more about the time and culture in which she lived. Her influence, through her adult Sunday school, conferences and Sunday School curriculum was profound and international.

We also have to read an additional 1,000 pages from books other than the prescribed textbook. From the potential reading list, I have chosen:
Gardner, Howard. Multiple Intelligences. New York: Basic Books, 1993.
Gregory, John Milton. The Seven Laws of Teaching. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1956.
Hendricks, Howard. Teaching to Change Lives. Sisters, OR: Multnomah, 1987.
LeFever, Marlene. Learning Styles. Colorado Springs: David C. Cook Publishing, 1995.
Wilkinson, Bruce H. The Seven Laws of the Learner. Sisters: Multnomah Press, 1992.

I've been really looking forward to my parent's arriving on Friday week. They are visiting for 9 days. We miss them already (they've been travelling for about two months), so I don't know how we'll go being away from them for a year! We're looking forward to showing them around where we are living.

Anyway, that's probably too much now for anyone to have read. If you do get this far, drop me an email and let me know - send me the codeword: train :) Thanks.