This one didn't get sent either, but it's not as bad as the last one

I am doing this seminar with our Tutor: "How to write an academic paper in German." And I am filled with thoughts and fears. Can I handle this? Should I just give up the idea of writing it in German and concentrate on learning the correct form and then using the langauge I trust myself in? My goodness.

It is so interesting, how Germany has regulated everything from light bulbs to paper sizes to how to write a scientific paper. And I must admit, it works. People don't trip over each other so much here. They know the rules, and norms, and the rules and norms were created exactly for that reason: that we can order our lives with each other smoothly. Sometimes it means waiting longer, or planning ahead so you don't need groceries when all the stores are closed... but in the end, it may even save time and hassle. This holds true for all who know the rules. However as a foreigner, a fresh face on the horizon, I feel oppressed by the rules, not freed by them. I get the feeling newcomers are routinely punished for not yet knowing the rules.

All of this regulation has also what seems to me to be a dark side. It is regulated, that pastors go through this University training, which makes them into academic theologians. They can write a 30-page paper in six weeks about any minute subtopic of Soteriology, for example, but they never get sensitivity training or are encouraged to think about how to teach this stuff in a congregation or how the search for the historical Jesus might possibly relate to the everyday lives of their parishoners. I sometimes get the impression the German university system is a painfully dry, over-regulated theologian-factory. We, on the other hand, have 8 happy pastoral-formation centers. Maybe both systems fill the needs in their respective niches: an orderly, regulated Germany needs pastors who know and can play by the rules, introduce God into the midst of the regulations. And America needs free spirits, creative thinkers... or, just maybe, Germany needs a few creative thinkers to rile things up and ventilate the stuffy lecture halls, and American theology needs an infrastructure that systematically ensures no one falls through the cracks. Maybe Germany needs an infusion of the American God, and vice versa. Maybe that is what exchange programs are all about.