Academic success!

OK, it was just one little reflection paper that I did, but it WAS the first paper I've written since the Spring of 1993. So I was more than a little nervous when Dr. House found me after class today to give me back my paper that I had written for Hermeneutics last week. I waited until I got to the car to look at it because I was afraid that if I received any negative comments that, while they would be helpful, my initial response would probably be tears. (Another piece of evidence to support Chad's comments about my being "uber-sensitive.") I needn't have worried! I received an A on the paper and had several positive comments..."good point", "good questions", and "thoughtful reflections." It was a great way to start my grad school academic career!

New toy!

Earlier this month Apple announced a new product...the iPod Touch. It's sort of like the iPhone in design, but is still an iPod. Now, lest you think I robbed a bank and shelled out the $399...I did not, but my friend Chad did! He's a computer techy guy and loves gadgets, so he dropped the cash on the latest toy out there. To recoup a bit of his expense he offered to sell me his old iPod photo for a very nice price...about half of what they are currently selling for on ebay. I was tickled to get the opportunity to purchase it at such a great price...plus he can be my own technical support guy! :) I erased his 2064 song library tonight and loaded my 77 song library on it! It's obviously not quite as full, but it sounds better in my opinion! I will keep adding to it as I put my CDs on the computer, but until then I have my favorite songs to listen to! WooHoo! Yay for new toys....at great prices!

The past few days...

Life since getting back from school on Wednesday evening has been busy... Thursday I had a dentist appointment (no cavities!) and some meetings. I spent the rest of the day getting settled back into my life and studying.

Friday I had coffee in the morning with Tracy and Amanda. Tracy hears most of my thoughts in a pretty uncensored manner, so it was a stretch to share that openly with Amanda - not because it was particularly shocking stuff, but she is a recent GC grad and I'm used to filtering what I say to her through the RD filter I use - no talking about work frustrations or future plans that don't include GC unless they are very abstract in nature, etc. Amanda responded well to it all - I hope she wasn't uncomfortable with what I said. I'll have to follow up with her the next time we connect without others around.

Later that day I had lunch with one of my old roommates. She brought along her sister-in-law, who is a mutual friend. It was fun to see them again. In the afternoon I had supervision with a couple of my students and then did some grocery shopping for the event that my staff and I were hosting that night.

We had karaoke and late night activities that night. It was an overwhelming success in my opinion. The RAs did a great job advertising and lots of folks came. A wide variety of students sang with the karaoke. After the singing was done we had crafts and henna in the coffee shop with a DDR tourney up in the 3rd floor lounge. I headed to bed around 1:30 while things were still going strong in the Connector!

Saturday was grocery shopping and cooking prep for Sunday's cooking commitments. In the evening Andrea and Amanda came over for dinner and to watch "High School Musical 2." When the movie was over it was still early so we played a game of Dutch Blitz! I love that game! :)

Sunday was church, lunch at the Becks, dinner and meeting with the RAs, and walking the floors. Pretty standard fair minus a movie or cards with the Rissers.

Today I studied for a couple hours and then did supervision meetings for a couple hours. I snuck in a fun lunch with Deanna too! For dinner I hosted another "Supper at Susie's." I had 7 gals over. It was a really fun group! The rest of the evening was spent doing office work that needed to be done. Now I'm heading to bed! Night! :)

Day 3 of Hermeneutics

Day 3 of Hermeneutics was the best yet! I am finding that I seriously enjoy the classroom setting. I like wrapping my mind around new concepts, the exchange of opinions of other students, stories and wisdom from my professor, and the confidence is building in me! I was mentally pooped by the end of the day, but I wished a little bit that I had class again tomorrow - I will miss sitting in that big circle talking about new hermeneutical tools and God's word.

Being back on campus has brought comfort in the familiar, but frustration with the problems of the day. It makes me long to be at the end of the educational process and working in a different field. I love my job most days, but the discipline part gets old. I understand the principle that each year we get new students and have to teach them our community expectations - a task that is repeated each and every year. Even though I understand that, it gets a little wearing to be describing the "whys" behind our expectations for the umpteenth or umphundredth time. I would love this job so much more if I didn't have to do the discipline! But they couldn't really justify paying me to have that much fun! I have to earn my pay with a little bit of the yuck work.

Well, this tired girl is heading to bed!

Another great day in class!

Today was day two of Hermeneutics. It was great! Dr. House started with a devotional about DL Moody and how important prayer is. I was challenged to increase my prayer life over some important issues at LifeSpring and in my own life.

Our morning discussion was on topic of "Setting" as a focus in hermeneutical study. Dr. House lectured for a while before letting us loose to work in groups on 6 problems in the library that used the tools he had covered in the lecture. It was exciting to use the resources in the library to explore the passages. I was particularly struck when studying Jesus' use of the terms "shepherd" and "door" in John. Our group found a reference that contrasted that passage against the same terms in Ezek 34. It provided additional insight into our role as shepherd's of the flock we are given. Good stuff!

Jessica (my new friend) and I had lunch at a fun little Mexican place (similar to El Camino, but not quite as good.) We had a great conversation about our faith journeys and how we think we will be changed by this experience in grad school. I love it when I have significant conversations with new people! Funny how one of my concerns when I as a young adult was that my bubbly personality would hide the ways I was striving to lead a life of significance. I am thankful that I have been able to find a way to balance the two.

The afternoon was spent doing "word studies." There was another lecture followed by more time to work in a group. I like the format and am learning a lot this way. The group I work with is great. Each person is working hard and there seems to be a real collaborative spirit among us.

One more day and then I head back to the land of Goshen. I'm excited to see everyone, but I will miss the academic focus of these first days of class.

Education has begun!

Today I learned a lot. We spent most of the day talking about the various faulty approaches to Biblical interpretation. I had completed all of the required reading, but the differences were a bit muddy in my mind. Dr. House did a great job explaining the differences - giving us examples. After he lectured we broke up into groups to figure out several more examples. I was pleased that what had seemed quite confusing before was becoming clearer to me. I was feeling quite confident about the class until the prof told us that what we covered today was the easy stuff. sigh.

We also had a good discussion about several contemporary issues facing the church...the emergent church, the lobbying bills that congress is trying to pass, the history and possible future of the Christian university system in the United States, etc. It was challenging, energizing, sobering, and thought provoking. It has me excited about how my vocation and Christian life might be walked out in the future. I was challenged to do more reading on these and many other contemporary issues. It will be interesting to see how I can fit that into my life these days on top of studies and work...but how can I NOT fit it in?!

First day of school!

I survived my first day of school! I actually did more than just survive it...I actually enjoyed it and am looking forward to going back tomorrow! My class has 19 people in it and I think I know the names of 6 or so of them already. The professor was wonderful. He's doing a great job of explaining the concepts and using some humor in the process. The day went quickly and I felt like I left understanding much more than I did when I arrived...which is what is supposed to happen, right?! :)


We went to the Salvation Army at lunch to buy sweaters since the conference room we meet in had the AC running full power! Then we headed over to Wendy's for lunch. When we pulled into the parking lot I noticed the van next to us was from Goshen College. When I went into the restaurant I looked around for students, but didn't see any. I got in line and the glanced out in the restaurant again and saw some old friends sitting at a table eating lunch. Dave Lehman and Rodney Schrock (friends that used to go to church with me) were in Huntington working at a job site and were having lunch there. They didn't know I was taking classes, so they were as surprised to see me as I was to see them. I visited with them a bit before getting back in line. When we went back out the car the people in the Goshen College van were coming out of the Pizza Hut next door. It was the athletic department that was in Huntington for some conference meetings. So lunch was full of familiar faces in a place that I didn't expect to see anyone I knew.

That's all for now. I'll write about my actual class...maybe later tonight.

Tomorrow I go to school!

Tomorrow morning I head back to the world of academia. I'm feeling mostly excited about it all. I met my Hermeneutics professor yesterday at orientation. He seems likes a wonderful, intelligent, kind older man. I'd guess he is in his late 50s or early 60s. I talked with him a bit about my fears of being overwhelmed by the class and he set me at ease. He said that most people coming into the class don't have a lot of experiences with what we are covering, so I will be in good company. We won't actually become experts in the process - we'll more just be gaining the tools of the process and how to use them.

I am excited to meet the other people in my class. There are 17 of us in the class. I hope that there is someone there I can connect with - the idea of making some new friends is something I am eager to do. I haven't made many new friends in the past couple of years, so it will be fun to go through the process of getting to know some new people. OK, I do that every fall with my students, but I'm talking about peers - like minded adults who have a bit more life experience.

Well, I need to get to bed....5:00 is going to come awfully early! I will try to post at some point this week to let you know class goes! ps....Keep me in your prayers this week!

Supper at Susie's

I love to cook and students love to eat. To help all of us do more of what we enjoy I run a program called "Supper at Susie's." Students from my residence hall are invited to send me an email saying that they would like to eat at my place. I create a list of all interested parties and invite groups of 5-7 students to my house for dinner about once a week. Tonight was my first one of the year. I had a group of 8 freshmen women over. It was a lot of fun! We talked about all sorts of stuff...our favorite tv shows as children, our earliest memories, campus activities, our siblings, all sorts of stuff! It was great.

I made a dish from one of my Rachael Ray cookbooks, "Chicken in orange-scallion-sesame sauce and big fat spicy sate noodles." It was spicy and absolutely wonderful! I think it was a little "wilder" than some of the girl's were used to, but once they tried it they ate it up....some even had seconds! We finished off with a frozen fruity dessert.

I love feeding the students! They really appreciate something different (and better) than cafeteria food. And I think the feelings of home that being in my apartment brings helps them adjust a bit better too! I look forward to more and more fun evenings like this!

My new RAs!

Here's a photo of me and my new RA team from move in day last week. They are a fun group of people and are doing a great job so far. I have enjoyed getting to know them and am looking forward to the year ahead. Maybe I'll have time to write more later this week after my paper for Hermeneutics is done. We'll see... :)