From the Bus Window
From the bus window, I saw two Canada geese sauntering about in a cabbage field. Then they turned their heads and I followed their gaze to a street across the field. I remembered the street like an ice-float on the ocean, but now it fasted itself to a place once more. It was the street to the house where my cat Dschinnieh was born and where she being a tiny kitten inspected - determination embodied - the plants on the kitchen window sill, while her sister and brother ingratiated themselves to the visitor, one by holding still to be caressed and the other by untying my shoe-laces. At that point Dschinnieh was still called Casablanca’s Miss Quendy from Antigone of Avalon and Casanova of Romero. There you have a name.
Before ever getting into the bus, the day started in the dark of the early morning at the University of Bochum with my class in Greek studying the accents with a sentence like “the punishment of the father is sweet.” When I went to the bus station later to travel to the Kirchliche Hochschule (Seminary, KiHo) in Wuppertal the sun was up and it became one of those days of blue crisp sky were people are like warm rays of sunshine touching your shoulder. The bus driver even agreed that I could sip my freshly brewed coffee while jotting down notes for this letter to you.
The KiHo is a totally different place of learning than the Ruhr-Universitaet Bochum. The University in Bochum is huge (about 36,000 students), busy, academically vibrant, and initially confusing but transforming into a “comfortable puddle” after a while, as my friend Katrin assured me.
[The image shows one of four blocks that together with the Auditorium Maximum forms the Ruhr-Universitaet Bochum. The Departments of Catholic and Protestant Theology are in building GA, in case you look for them.]

The KiHo is a serene place on a hill (called locally the “Holy Mountain”). It has about 400 students, a mission house, an institute for children worship services, for police chaplaincy, for continuing pastoral education, and for archeology. It has one of the best theological libraries around, and it is a place of warm familiarity and shelter as well as of intensive study.
[The image shows some of my fellow students of the Hebrew course during the summer. I took the picture through the library window. It shows a house with student dorms and class rooms.]
Before attending the lecture on the Old Testament and a course on the exegesis of Josua this afternoon, I went to the library to do my homework on the Confessio Augustana (a course that I take in Bochum). The reception desk welcomed me with candies – Luther Bonbons, actually!!! They feature a smiling Luther on orange background (suggesting to the rash sweet-tooth Halloween). The more controlled candy-aficionado will find that the candy also advertises the Reformation Day coming up on October 31. Take a look at www.lutherbonbon.de. (You can even find a Luther e-card with a pumpkin if you are an advocate of syncretistic rituals!) If they send the candy to the US, I’ll get you some. They come in three flavors!
Having eaten candy and reading up on confession I got hungry and went to the cafeteria. This place is run by whoever is hanging out there. You can make coffee, if you like and there is always a stack of fair trade chocolates and sesame bars for a contribution of 80cents. Today, there was left over salad from the semester start worship service and feast and I joined my fellow students flocking around the cucumbers, carrots, and the cabbage salad. There always is nice food at Protestant Theology social events both in Bochum and in Wuppertal. At Bochum, the older students had baked more than twenty cakes, pies, and tarts to welcome us seventy freshmen! The bread we shared in the communion of the semester opening worship in Bochum had the fragrance of rosemary.
I wonder, if I will ever eat from the cabbage that those geese were sauntering in. I know that I’ll have one more of those Luther candies – actually, I’ll have it right now!

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