From the Land of Dreams

My blogger Friends...I am in Poland, and freezing. It is nice here the sky is WET the air is windy and I am frozen. That is what I tried to avoind by going to Poland so late in the school year. But the poeple here are super, I eat in the cafeteria, at least the breakfast.Then I have lectures T-Th. I managed to have tennis two sundays in a row. The court condition is rather poor compared to Manker Patten in Chattanooga, but the people are just as nice as at home. The rain waited untill we have finished playing...how considrate can you get. Food at my friend Ted's home is super. I have a little room in the attic in the!...! girls dorm. But they say I am safe here...so are they. Thanks to KJ DeFoor the students here are not starving, and thanks to Myrna Ott, dr. Helmuth Ott's wife the girls are dressed in some very stylish apparell. The girls here take turns taking care of me...they make sure that my room is clean and my clothes are washed, that I make it to worship and breakfast everyday [just about]. My plans to visit Zakopane or Ojcow were "chilled out" it is atill too cold to go hiking in the high mountains. I have seen the drs. Lyko in Warsaw but have not visited them in their house in Krakow. My beloved Wife Ann has been most forgiving of my laziness and again is helping me to get a new booking for my return flight home. The "D" day is in July. Zosia is helping at the office and Andrew is helping with the Finley meetings, helping out with the video side of the operation. This coming Sabbath I will preach at the Seminary church, then on the 13-th I will travel to Bydgoszcz and Gdansk for the doctoral defence of dr. Tarasiuk. In his "corner" he will have Rector prof.dr. hab. Kozirog; Prof.dr.hab.zw. Z.Lyko and me. Also my friend dr. Baron will defend his dissertation within a short time. His work is academically the most valuable addition to the historical background of the people of Israel. I hear the rumor that his wife Beata is even better [if that is possible?] scholar than he. A bit of a surprice for me...I met my friend from the Warsaw University an Egyptologist, archeologist prof. dr. Jakobielski, one of the precious few that are left, from my student times in the department of Semitic Studies. Still going strong and doing well are my other friends: prof.dr.hab. Lyczkowska, chairman of the Assyriology department, prof.dr.hab. Szczudlowska-Dembska, former chair of the Egyptology department, and the chair of the Ethiopic department prof.dr.hab. Joanna Mantel-Niecko. Am I bragging? Yes indeed, but they are just the cream of the crop of my many friends in Poland, from different walks of life. Everytime I visit Poland I am encouraged to publish some of my scholarly works for the benefit of others. More later as I have to take over one more lecture for a friend.