Better Late Than Never...

Current Princeton Temp: 25 degrees

I think the beginning of a new semester is the best time to tell you all about the last one (and by that I mean my first semester, and the most recent one) of my grad school career. Just the bones here (it's too late for anything more)...classes, professors, likes and dislikes. So, here goes...

• Church History 101, taught by Drs. Kathleen McVey and Paul Rorem. It turned out OK, but not my favorite course.
• Orientation to Old Testament Studies, taught by Drs. Jacqueline Lapsley and Dennis Olsen. Great class, lots of information, and a captivating course on the OT, but I was frustrated that I took it, especially when I realized I didn't need to because I could have gotten advanced placement. Grrr...oh well. You live and you learn.
• Introduction to New Testament Greek, taught by Dr. Shane Berg. Interesting course, and I like the idea that I can pick up the Greek New Testament and read it, or I'll be able to at the end of this semester. Tedious work, but I imagine it will be worth it.
• Pluralism, Dialogue, and Witness, taught by Dr. Richard Young. A history of religions course that would have been more aptly named "Christiantity and the Abrahamic Religions" since that was most of what we talked about. Not at all what I was expecting.
• The Self in the System, taught by (although in this case, perhaps the word moderated or facilitated by would be more appropriate) Dr. Robert Dykstra. Great course in pastoral counseling where we looked at several methods of addressing issues related to pastoral counseling. This course included a peer counseling component where we were both counseled by a peer and counseled a peer for 5 weeks...both terrifying and rewarding.

Like I said, the new semester starts soon..7.5 hours to be exact. I'm excited about this semester...oh, but I can't tell you about that yet. ;-) I've got to make you all wait with baited breath. I promise to be more...timely...with this type of thing this semester.

Also speaking of last semester, prayers of thanksgiving are in order. I've received back all but one of my grades and have gotten all A's and B's so far. I'm relieved and thankful...not to mention that working hard on finals and then getting good grades is a great motivator!






"Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school." -Albert Einstein (a Princeton man himself)

Winding down

Current Princeton Temp: 34 and snowing =)

This is me, just coming up for air between finals. I am 80% done with my first round in grad school. That's a good feeling...the one and only left is Old Testament, which I've started (barely) prepping for. It's on Wednesday afternoon at 2:30, and by 5:30 at the latest (5:35 if you take into account packing up my "Relax" lotion, Kleenex, and pens, putting on my scarf, coat and gloves, and walking out of the building) I will be free from all the testing, with one semester of grad school firmly under my belt. I'm excited for that moment. I've been looking forward to it for several weeks now, particularly when I realized how drastic of a change I had made in my life over the past few months and how I was longing to just feel...settled. That isn't quite the right feeling, but it's close. I'm looking forward to know I can make it, that I can survive a semester because surviving this one means I have a pretty good chance of surviving the next one and so on.

Since I am tired because I haven't gotten much sleep (I had my church history final this morning...3 hours long, and then a paper for my religious pluralism class due this afternoon) I'm going to go to bed early tonight and get cracking early tomorrow on my prepping for OT. Prayers, as always during exam time, are coveted as are encouragements, however brief they may be. It's always good to be reminded of why I'm doing this.

Blessings on you all!