Okay, so now I’ve had two
weeks of classes. I should know exactly what I’m doing, right? Wrong.
Classes are going well, but it seems that there is something new around
every corner and more work than I could have known! It is hard to
imagine keeping up this pace for the next three years. Grad school is
going to keep me moving!
Garrett-Evangelical is an amazing
place to be, and I’m glad that I chose to live in the dorms. I am only a
minute from class and the meals are actually pretty good. I can’t wait
until the dining halls switch to a full schedule, though, once all of
the Northwestern students get here. Everyone tells me that the food
selection is much better once the other dining halls open up!
The reading is intense. Each day I’m
going to try and journal about some of the things I am reading and
learning, so stay tuned! The biggest reading loads are in my Old
Testament class with Mr. Lester and in United Methodist Worship with Dr.
Anderson. It has been a struggle to finish all of the reading each
week. The struggle is not with the amount of reading - it is with the
type of reading. It is hard for me to be motivated to read 80 pages of
form criticism on the Old Testament, for example. Do you blame me?
A surprising thing about seminary is
the community. I envisioned a community not unlike my undergrad dorm
where everyone has classes at different times during the day and then
hangout down in the lounge in the evening. Not so, in seminary.
Everyone is in different situations. Some people commute to campus,
some live in the apartments, some live in dorms. Among all of those
people, some work full-time in another city or somewhere else in
Chicago, some have a student appointment, some are phD students who are
full-time clergy... The list goes on-and-on! With such big course
loads, we find ourselves along Lake Michigan, in the Library, in the
lounge or in our rooms READING, WRITING, and STUDYING in our “free
time”. It is much different than I imagined it, I guess...
That said, I have had a great time
getting to know people. Last Friday a group of us went down to Nevin’s
to celebrate a friend’s birthday and each Thursday night we go to IHOP
after class at 9:30p. One of the guys from my dorm and I have started a
spinning class at 6:00a on Tuesday and Thursdays (stationary bikes).
It has been refreshing to wake up and get my days started with
exercise! In October the Northwestern WTF Tae Kwon Do club will start
up and I’m planning to join. In fact, I’m planning to go down to the
rec and exercise when I finish this blog entry.
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