Some Changes of Plan and Tentative Flight Information

On Friday I met with my adviser for Field Education. In case I haven't explained yet, as part of the Masters of Divinity program students are required to do a minimum of two field education experiences: either two year long placements or one year long placement and one summer placement, and one of those placements must be in a church. During my meeting with my Field Ed adviser, I discussed my options for my placements, and during that meeting my plans may have changed a bit.

Originally, I was planning on doing a summer church placement and then doing a year long placement at a university involved in some sort of teaching position as a teaching assistant or something similar. I was not planning on doing a CPE (clinical pastoral experience). After my meeting, I will probably end up doing a CPE. Though I'm not in the ordination process, I am trying to fulfill ordination requirements as much as possible, and the CPE is one of the big requirements. So I am planning to apply to the Arcadia Methodist Hospital CPE program; I contacted one of the supervisors during the weekend to find out more information. When I have a little more time I will give some more details on the field education placements I am hoping to do.

I also have tentative flight plans. I haven't ordered tickets yet, but I have them on hold and most likely will be purchasing them in the next 24 hours. Here are the details:

Midwest Airlines
12/22
Depart from Newark 5:45 p.m. to Milwaukee 7:00 p.m.
Depart from Milwaukee 8:00 p.m. to LAX 10:14 p.m.

01/11
Depart from LAX 11:15 p.m. to Milwaukee 4:44 a.m.
Depart from Milwaukee 7:35 a.m. to Newark 10:45 a.m.

I was able to find that for under $400, and that's about all that's left under $400 so I think that will ultimately be my flight information, but I will keep everyone updated.

Life is Good For Now

Today I successfully interviewed for a job at the Princeton University Store, and I will be starting my new job as a customer service representative on Wednesday! That eases much of the stress that was weighing on my mind, and I'm glad that I need not worry about it any longer.

It should be a good job. It's basically a standard retail job: stocking shelves, making the store look presentable, working the cash register, and assisting students and customers when they need help. It'll be about 15-17 hours a week, so it will be fairly light; anymore would probably be bad for me, so 15 should be plenty. It's $8.50 an hour, so that will be good as well; similar to what I was earning when I was a manager at IMT at Azusa Pacific. It is very encouraging, and I feel much more settled as I continue this semester.

Closing out the First Week

The first full week of class has almost come to a close. I have three more classes today and two classes tomorrow. So far I am enjoying all of my classes. My "Church as 'Public'" class looks as though it will be an immense challenge but well worth the effort that I will put into it. The professor is quite intense during lectures and those lecture periods are two hours long. Thankfully, we only have lecture once a week and small group discussions for an hour later in the week. As an example of the intensity of the class, on Tuesday we spent the entire two hour period trying to define the word "public" and how it is being used when referring to the church, theology, politics, ethics, in relation to private, worship, service, etc. I think my brain was slowly seeping out my ears with the consistency of Jello by the time class was dismissed. But I am enjoying the class and I think in the end I will end up getting quite a bit out of struggling through the material.

I am taking Hebrew as a pass/fail course, at least for this semester. Though I'm somewhat nervous about doing that, overall I think it will be good to know that I can learn Hebrew without the pressure of feeling that if I don't do well it will hurt my overall GPA. Pass/fail basically means that if I get a 70% or higher on the classwork, I pass the class; no letter grade. So hopefully that will prove not to be an issue in the future. And should it become an issue, at least I know that if I do need a grade for the class, I can always take a summer intensive and know that generally I'll be able to breeze through it.

I am currently still jobless, but I have an interview tomorrow at 11AM at the Princeton University Store. Hopefully that will work out and I can stop stressing about how I will eventually make it home for Christmas or how I will afford my books for this semester. So that is encouraging and I'm praying that I will be able to take on some hours.

Other than that, things are going well. I have a core group of guys who I spend time with on a regular basis and typically share meals together with. We have started a weekly group for five us, eating dinner together and sharing our struggles with one another to support each other. It's a good safety net, and I think they will be a good support through this first semester and beyond.

And finally, I am going to be doing some cardio kickboxing on Monday nights to get into shape. The first session was Monday night, and it went well, though I found out how out of shape I am. But it will be good exercise for the week and a chance to take a break from my studies during the week. One of the guys in that core group I mentioned, Jarod, is the one who is leading the sessions, and he is a good leader.

I hope everyone is doing well, and I'll post when I know how my interview went.

End of the First Week

It has been a good first week, though stressful. I have sat in all of my classes now except for my speech class, which meets once a week on Monday. All of the classes look like they are going to be very good. A couple (Systematic Theology II and Church as 'Public') look like they will be the most difficult of the bunch, but they also look like they will be some of the best classes I have this semester.

And, yes, there is a ton of reading. I probably have about 500 pages that I need to have read by Monday. That will probably be about normal. Maybe 300-500 pages per week. That maybe doesn't sound too bad, but it is all dense reading. Put on top of that time to work, eat, and generally stay sane, and it's a lot of reading. Thankfully, there are two weeks during the semester, one before mid-terms, some before finals, that are designated as "reading weeks." The are no classes during that week so that we can catch up on our reading. And though it may be tempting to do otherwise, I will probably take full advantage of that week to catch up on the reading that I won't be able to keep up with.

I'm still adjusting to life on the East coast, mostly in sleep pattern. I've already developed a pretty close group of friends that go to meals together often, so I feel I have that kind of a support group together. We'll see what the first full week is like, complete with a full class schedule and precepts. Tomorrow I plan on attending Nassau Presbyterian Church. I'm not expecting it to become my church home, but it's a place with a lot of history in Princeton and the Presbyterian church in general. So it seems like a place that I should check out at least once.

I'll update again soon.

Overwhelming

It is hard to fully describe what all I have experienced in the short time I've been here, but to say that it has been overwhelming in so many different ways is probably the only way I can describe it.

Today ended orientation, beginning with some small informational meetings, ending with the president's reception, dinner with the faculty, and convocation. I have met so many interesting people that I'm looking forward to getting to know.

I think what has been most surprising - and it was surprising during the preview weekend I was here also - is how much the spiritual and faith aspect of our education has been stressed this weekend. In almost every session, from professors across the different departments, from faculty and staff, the important of our education both being an academic endeavor and a spiritual experience has been heavily emphasized. It's refreshing, and it makes me glad that I am a part of a tradition (the reformed tradition) that emphasizes the importance of both spiritual and academic discipline. It has been surprising though.

I will give an update on how my first couple classes go tomorrow. I'm also adding professors' names to my classes in case anyone reading happens to know the professors here.

My Revised Fall Schedule

Here is my new, revised schedule for the Fall. I had to rearrange some of my classes and dropped another based on the advice on some of the seniors I talked to. I'm pretty excited with what I'm taking:

Hebrew I (Prof. Hutton)
Speech Communication I (TBA)
Church History I (Profs McVey and Rorem)
Systematic Theology II (Profs Guder and McCormack)
Church as "Public": the ecclesiologies of Lindbeck, Hauerwas, Hutter and Barth (Prof. Flett)
Exegesis of the Epistle of Hebrews (Prof. Wagner)

More Placement News

Today was another good day with more good results. I have successfully placed out of three of the four main introduction classes. I do not have to take the Old Testament, New Testament or the first have of Systematic Theology orientation courses. Which means that instead of taking OT101, I am now taking Systematic Theology II. Unfortunately it means my books are more expensive and I will have to return some of them, but overall, I'm glad that I can accelerate my education a bit. That doesn't mean I'll be cutting down my time here: advanced placement only means I can replace those credits with upper division credits. So I'll still be taking the same number of classes. It does mean, though, that I can start getting into the exegesis and other deeper classes sooner.

So that's the main news for today. I'm going to get a head start on my reading since I will be bogged down with plenty of it in the coming weeks.

Results of the Placement Exam and Orientation News

I was informed this evening that I have placed out of Greek! I do not have to take Greek at PTS. So phase 1 is complete. My next goal is to get advanced placement for at least the NT intro class. Then I can start taking exegesis classes as early as next semester. If I am able to also test out of my OT Intro class, then I can start taking an exegesis class this semester with a professor who I met at the seminar weekend I went to. So we'll see what happens. I'm praying that I can get out of both, and I feel fairly confident that I can get placed out of the NT intro class.

Orientation is going well. I have met many people from different backgrounds and experiences. It has been a fairly easy transition. I have felt right at home since the first night I arrived, and though things are moving perhaps more quickly than I would like, at the same time I am not feeling left behind or alone.

This morning I attended Hopewell Presbyterian Church. It was a good experience, it was very welcoming from the first moment I stepped in with another seminarian who gave me a ride. The service was good, and I met a couple of APU grads from Redlands, one of whom was teaching a Freshmen Writing Seminar my first year there. So that was encouraging; it could very become my home church out here.

I've been using TV as my outlet to relax, so I've been watching a lot of Discovery channel programming and baseball when it's available. It can be nice sometimes to turn off my mind for 30 minutes to let myself recoup and not have to think about what is weighing on me. And of course, I'm reading and doing my usual logic puzzles as well.

I'm excited for this week. Classes begin Wednesday, so that's when it all breaks loose I suppose. But I'm looking forward to it. It should be an interesting semester.

Greek Placement Test

I took my Greek placement test today. I felt that I did pretty well. The test was two hours, and I used almost every minute of it. It wasn't a tough test, but there are still a few places that gave me a small spot of trouble. I was given a fairly large passage from I Corinthians. It was 12:12-27, the passage about what it means to be the body of Christ. That was by far the more difficult of the two passages. A lot of syntatical elements to muddle through, a few participles here and there. A good overall passage to cover most of the basics of biblical Greek, and a good refresher for me.

The second passage, which I think I pretty much nailed, was a hybrid passage from John. Verses 52-54 and 67-70 were combined into one short paragraph. I know I completely messed up on one very short question in that passage (instead of saying, "where would we go," I said "where should we follow you?") but overall I felt comfortable with how I did. Hopefully I did well enough to pass out, so we'll see how everything goes. I find out on Sunday night or Monday morning, so here's hoping!

The Purpose of this Site!

So I have finally determined what I will be using this site for! This will be my site for occasional updates on my goings on at Princeton as I spend my time here. I'll still update my xanga with more personal stuff, but this will be used to let people know how things are going here. And the title still seems to fit, so we'll keep it. =) More to come later!