Awesomeness.

Hello!  I thought I would post since I've been having a pretty awesome 2 days.

Classes are going well this week.  I feel a little bit overwhelmed in my History and Archaeology of the Ancient Near East class, but I think that's due to me being extremely tired and not feeling well in class on Monday.  I just took a Hebrew quiz, which I think I aced.  I'm ahead in my reading for all of my classes.

Awesome.

Then, yesterday, my birthday party was planned, which is great, since I LOVE my birthday.  It's the only day that it's all about me:).  It's not really a party, it's more like a gathering of people at a restaurant.  But still fun.  AND later in the day, a cute guy asked me for my phone number:).  I'm pretty happy about that. I invited him to my birthday party.

Super Awesome.

Today, there was a library orientation session, to get us orientated to the library - how to do searches for books, inter-library loans, etc.  There was a chance to win a $25 gift card to the bookstore when it was over.  And I won!

Really Super Awesome!

Last awesome thing for the day:  I went to the gym last night, and there's a scale.  Turns out I have lost 14 lbs since I started trying to lose weight!  No wonder my jeans are all saggy in the butt.

Amazingly Super Awesome!

First week review

It's been an eventful week!  I've had all of my classes, and the one that I like the best is Introduction to the Old Testament.  Although, I actually think I like learning Hebrew too.  I'm a weirdo.  I'm having trouble finding a place to do homework where I can concentrate and not be too social, but still be near friends.  I have found that I really don't like to be by myself.  It's strange, really, because I thought that my 2 years being alone at Calvin, and my 2 years being alone at home had made me an introvert.  But that's not the case.  I actually find that I am not in my room all that often. So for all of you who were worried that I wouldn't leave my room, there's really no need to worry any more.

So, call me strange (I do), but when I got back in a classroom again, it felt like coming home.  It felt so good to be sitting at a desk, listening to a professor, and learning things.  I love being here.  In looking at the future, I can already tell that it will be hard to leave this place when I graduate.  Unfortunately, I still have no real idea what I will be doing when I am done.  So I guess wherever God leads me is where I will be going.  Hopefully he will lead me somewhere, because I really can't handle when I lack a sense of direction.

I haven't played my guitar here in a few months, and it's starting to bother me.  I really want to play.  But since my suitemate is so sensitive to noise, I don't really feel like I can play in my room.  She left my roommate and I a note to close the doors quieter, that's how sensitive she is.  So no guitar playing, I guess.

I had a job interview at the YMCA this week for their after-school program, and hopefully I'll get that job.  I have no idea what it pays, but it would really work out well if I could do it.

Yesterday, I had the worst mac & cheese ever.  I thought that mac & cheese was something you couldn't ruin.  I was proved wrong.  It was disgusting.  The cafeteria is kind of hit or miss.  Sometimes it's great - we had turkey and stuffing and cranberries and mashed sweet potatoes the other night and it was amazing.  Other times it's disgusting.  Like mac & cheese.

Well, that is all I can think of right now, so hope you all have a good weekend!

First Day Review

Sorry it's been so long!  I've just been busy!  I have been making tons of new friends, which is awesome.

Yesterday was my first day of classes.  I had History and Archaeology of the Ancient Near East.  Just saying the title makes me feel really smart.  I think it will be an interesting class.  Here's how my week works:

Monday - History and Archaeology of the Ancient Near East - 9:15-12:15
Tuesday - Intro to the Old Testament - 1:15-4:15
Wednesday - Hebrew I - 10:45-12:15
Thursday - Theology Survey I - 2:00-5:00
Friday - Hebrew I - 10:45-12:15

I kind of like having only one class on a day.  Even though it means I don't get days off, I have a lot of time to study.  I don't really like having to do everything on one day.

The weather has been really nice here the last few days.  We've sat outside to eat dinner, which is fun.

Still haven't found a job, but I'm working on it!

You'll also be happy to hear that even though I never made my bed at home, I make it here every day.  I feel old and responsible now.

That's all for now!  I hope to post again at the end of the week.

Nice to meet you, my name is...

I finally feel like I'm starting to settle in.  We had some problems in the bathroom (like the shower drain not working), but that was fixed yesterday, so I could move all my stuff into the bathroom.  I slept all last night without waking up once (the previous nights, I kept waking up around 4).  It's the little changes that help.  Like buying a foam topper so my bed is more comfortable.  I also purchased another pillow to put behind mine so that my pillow doesn't fall down the cracks in the middle of the night.

Making friends helps too.  Some of us new girls have formed sort of a posse.  We pretty much go everywhere together.  There are three of us from Lamont (the main girls dorm, where I live), and three from Retreat House (which is down the hill). There are still plenty of people to meet, however.  I have no idea how many new people there are here, but every day I meet more, which is great.

Yesterday was our first orientation session, where they overloaded us with information about registration, campus safety, etc.  They also introduced all the professors, which was helpful, so we kind of have an idea who they are.  They also sort of introduced us to the professors.  They would ask us to stand if we were in a certain age range, if we came right from college, or work, or other fields.  More than half are in the 21-25 range, and most of them are right out of college.  It makes me feel old.  Actually, all the people here that I would call friends now are right out of college.  Probably about a quarter of the newbies are in the 26-30 range, and the last quarter are in the 31 and over range.  If they haven't just graduated, new students mostly come from ministry settings.  Only a few came from the marketplace, and I was one of three (that I saw) in the education field.  One of those three (her name is Valerie) came up to me during one of the breaks and said something to the effect of, "you're a teacher and you're over 26!  Me too!  We should be best friends forever!"  To which I promptly said yes, we should.  I would also say that the male to female ratio is 2:1.  There's a lot of guys here.  It's actually sort of weird because in the last 2 years, I've been in a predominantly female industry.

So far I have only met one other person doing the MA in Old Testament.  Her name is Debbie.  I'm pretty sure we're going to have every class together, so I'm glad I at least know her name.

I'm going to start looking for a job soon.  I want to get my class schedule in place first, so I know what hours I'm unavailable.  

Tonight I'm going to one of my professor's homes, which I'm kind of nervous about.  I really get nervous about everything.  I'm sure it will be fine.  Tomorrow is the registration fair, when I get to figure out what classes I'm taking!  So that's exciting.  I'll probably post again tomorrow with my class schedule.  Have a great day!

I'm here!

I finally made it!  That was the longest drive EVER.  Okay, maybe not ever, but I'm ready to stay out of the car for a while.  I'm all moved in!  Everything is set up where I want it to be.  My room is pretty large, but it is divided into two halves by the furniture.  So it's like Inception: I have a room within a room.  I'll post some pics:

So this is my desk.  When you walk into my room, it is directly to the left.  I brought the white shelving unit from home.

Here's my bed!  This was taken last night, so it's dark outside.  There's no air conditioning, so bringing the fan was a great idea.  The white square thing on the top of the white shelf is a lamp.  I bought that last night.  The light fixture in the room is on my roommate's side, so not much light gets over to my side.  And the lamp on the desk was too far away to turn off while lying in bed.  Underneath my bed is 2 dressers, both full to the brim.  My bed is kind of high up, I can't just crawl in bed, I have to use my desk chair to get up.

This is the view from my bed.  I have a bookshelf (it has a few more shelves that you can't see), and next to that is the wardrobe.  On the other side of the wardrobe and bookshelf is my roommate's half.  The door leads out into the living room.

I haven't met my roommate yet.  Her name is Brittanie.  She will be back sometime this week.  My suitemate seems nice.  She's from Taiwan, and her name is Grace.

This place is pretty dead yet.  I expect it to be more lively when more people move in tomorrow.  I met someone moving in today, her name is Rachel.  You should all be proud of me because I popped my head in her room and introduced myself.

Massachusetts so far seems pretty nice.  There's a lot of trees, and cute houses.  There's a lot of horses.  In fact, as I was driving around today, there was a horse show, and across the street was a polo playing field.  They have games every Sunday at 3.   I've never seen polo actually being played before, and I was kind of interested.  Admission to the game was $10 though, and I couldn't justify that.

I attempted to go to church this morning, but I wasn't connected to the internet, so I couldn't figure out where to go.  I only had my phone.  So I ended up looking for churches on my phone, and I thought I would try First Presbyterian in Ipswich.  I couldn't figure out where the church was when I started driving!  I got kind of lost.  There's a church fair later this week, so hopefully I'll find out more about the churches around here (including directions!).

I got gas yesterday, and it was $3.63 a gallon.  I'm pretty happy with that.  I don't know if everything else is cheaper around here, but I'll find out soon.

I'm really bored, but I can't think of anything else to write about.  I spent 2 hours reading Harry Potter in the great room.  While I was in there, only 3 people walked by.  The rest of the time the room was empty.  I don't know if it's like that every Sunday, or just this weekend.

Well, I think I may attempt to buy a new ethernet cord so I don't have to sit on my bed to be on the internet.  Hope everyone has a great holiday tomorrow!

Moving Day Part 1

Moving is underway!  Sort of.  I'm working on getting everything packed in my car right now.  Before I was worried that everything wouldn't fit.  Now I'm wondering what else I can take along!

Tonight Mom and I are driving to St. Joseph, MI.  It's about 2 hours away, and more north than we really need to go, but it will knock a couple of hours off our time tomorrow.   Tomorrow is the big one.  We're driving from St. Joseph, MI to Johnson City, NY.  We were originally going to drive to Utica, NY, but Irene put a dent in those plans.  I-90 is closed for a good chunk of road.  Then it's on to GC!  I'm excited/nervous.

Last night, I received some of my books, including my Hebrew textbook.  So, being the nerd that I am, I proceeded to memorize the Hebrew alphabet already.  Here goes: alef, bet, gimel, dalet, he, waw, zayin, het, tet, yod, kaf, lamed, mem, nun, samek, ayin, pe, tsade, qof, resh, sin, shin, taw.  I did that all without looking!  Unfortunately I can't show you what the letters look like, so you'll just have to imagine.  Learning another language is more than just learning the alphabet, and judging from this book, it won't be easy.  Instead of reading left to right, which I've been doing for 26ish years, I will be reading right to left.  Backwards.  In another language.

No one said seminary was going to be easy.

Anyways, I'm excited to get on the road!  Only a few more things to do, then a lot of sitting around and waiting for my mom's cake decorating class to be done, and then we're off!  I don't expect to be able to post until late Saturday or sometime on Sunday, but maybe by then my dorm will look presentable, and I will post pictures!  Enjoy your Labor Day weekends!