i spent several days this week at a Conference in Leuven on the Psalms and their composition. the Psalms are not really my area of expertise, but i know them fairly well, they're OT poetry, and composition is one of the things i'm somewhat interested in so it almost fits. and it's about time i started going to Biblical Studies' conferences, Leuven is (relatively) close by, the conference is not too big or too long (120 people for 2.5 days) and a former colleague from Grand Rapids was there, so i thought it a good idea to come.
and i enjoyed visiting the town, eating good food and drinking beer, listening to people discuss academic things on the Psalms, and getting to know a variety of people from all over (including a lot from the Netherlands). i think the only complaint i have is that i don't speak german. certain of the main talks were read only in german. and the first 1.5 days, i was around a lot of conversations in german.
there is one good thing about my frustration with all the german. i really started to appreciate dutch more! although my dutch is not at the level to critique a seminar discussion, after an hour of hearing german, i was absolutely thrilled to be able to understand most of what was going on in the dutch seminar. and after the first day of sitting around mainly german people, i did my best to find non-Germans to sit by - and ended up mostly by dutch folk :) [although a bit accidentally at times - would you expect someone from Sweden to know dutch?!?]
but after the overexposure to german and despite being not able to always understand everything, i admit i really appreciated most of the dutch conversations i found myself in the middle of. i guess perspective is everything :) and maybe in 2 years, i'll not only be able to critique in dutch, but i'll know some of the dutch people better and be able at least to read german. even if i might still try avoid sitting by a group from germany during a meal...
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