Sunday, March 29, 2009

Less Than a Month Away

Well, it's hard to believe, but I have three weeks of class left, finals, and then I will be two-thirds of the way toward completing my Master of Divinity. In many ways, I can't wait for that time to pass. I like my classes, but I am ready to go home. Coming home for spring was great, and it just reinforces the feeling that I don't really belong in New Jersey or on the East Coast. I don't talk about that too much, partially because I don't have time, and partially because I don't want anyone to think that I sit around moping all day. But often times I feel like a foreigner out here, that I'm speaking a different language or working with a completely different set of rules from everyone else. It can get difficult sometimes, but I also have a great group of friends who lift me up on a daily basis.

Of course, with the semester coming to a close, it also means that the classwork is beginning to pile up. Thankfully I have been much better about managing my time this semester and getting some projects done earlier in the semester so that my load will be a little lighter. There will still be plenty to do, but it will be much more manageable than last year, when most of my work came all at the very end of the semester.

I have been feeling more of an urge to get out of Princeton and explore around a bit more. I drove up to Bridgewater, NJ, about 30 minutes north of Princeton, to take care of some things, but I enjoyed driving up, just getting to view some of the other parts of the state. In some places, New Jersey really is beautiful.

This evening we had our first lightning storm. It was a pretty amazing display. Crackling arms of lightning stretched across sky, lighting up the whole campus, followed by the low rumbling of thunder. I stood in the doorway of my dorm's entrance just watching for awhile. It wasn't raining very hard, so the soft patter of the rain complemented it all very nicely. A divinely orchestrated concert.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Moving Along

The semester is over half-way done. I have finished my midterms, and now it's the home stretch to get everything done before finals week. Time has certainly been flying by.

My classes have been going well. My Children's Fantasy Literature class continues to be my favorite. Before our Reading Week (aka Spring Break), I was involved in a skit where I got to play J. R. R. Tolkien. It was a lot of fun and well received by the class. Then, in the class after returning from break, a Harry Potter expert, John Granger, came to the class to talk about the Christian symbolism in the Harry Potter series. If you enjoy the Harry Potter books, you need to check out his books. I had to smack myself in the head a couple times thinking, "How could I miss something so obvious?" I have a new respect for J. K. Rowling's writing, and would actually put it pretty close to the quality of Tolkien or C. S. Lewis's writing. Later that night, our class had a Fantasy Ball where we could dress up as our favorite characters from any book in the class. I dressed up as Gandalf the Grey, complete with beard, hair and staff. I won Best Costume and received a copy of "The Tales of Beedle the Bard." Definitely worth the effort. =)

That was the levity for the week. I also had plenty of midterms to work on when I got back to school after being in CA for a week. Thankfully, I think I did well on all of them.

It was good to be home, and I definitely miss it. But in 5 weeks, I will be jetting back to CA again for the summer, which is hard to believe. I think I will be done with school before pretty much anyone else this year, flying back on April 26. And then I will only have one year left at Princeton.

I'm going to push hard to the end. There is still plenty of work to do. It is encouraging that Spring is breaking in and the trees and flowers are starting to blossom. It gives a new found energy to everything on campus.