Light Reading Anyone?

The stack of books I'll be reading this semester.

If there is one word I could use to summarize grad. school, it would undoubtedly be: Reading.  I feel confident in saying a large majority (like 80%+) of my non-class time I spend reading.  I mean, I like to read and most of my readings are good, but there are a lot.  As much as I miss being at SLU, there is no way I could have accomplished this amount of work while there.  Having so many friends around and being embedded in the social scene would have taken its toll on my studies (don't worry I have friends here too and am not a recluse!).

My classes are great.  I'm only enrolled in four classes and other than one, they're only once a week.  So I'm really not in class all that much, which is good because it gives me time to read.  When I first arrived in Boston, I wanted to find a small, part time job to have some sort of income.  I mean, I'm not allowed to work more than ten hours a week to still qualify for my financial aid.  However, I don't even know where I'd find those ten hours to work!

On Mondays, I have a seminar on Gandhi.  It's great.  I've never really known much about Gandhi other than being identified with nonviolence, India, and you usually see a quote in people's e-mail signature or something of that nature.  It's been great reading his writings and writings about him and his satyagraha movement.

I'm also enrolled in a course on the early church fathers titled "Early Christian Thought: The Greek Tradition." It's going really well too.  We read lots of primary sources.  There is a lot of theology and philosophy in it, which I wanted because now that I'm solely focusing on theology (I was also a philosophy undergrad), I wanted to still have some philosophy.

Another class I'm taking is a course on paleography and medieval manuscripts.  Basically we learn about the history of paleography (study of manuscripts) and learn how to transcribe medieval documents.  Why is this of any importance? Well, just as languages have evolved overtime, so has our writing.  Imagine trying to read Latin that resembles Arabic or just scribbles on paper (not that I think Arabic is scribbles!) with no punctuation or spaces between words.  Yeah, it can be quite difficult.  The reason it is important is because there are thousands of manuscripts in libraries across the world that no one has any idea what they are.  Thus, many of these manuscripts will hold vital information and will at sometime need to be identified.  Most importantly, paleographers will determine documents' authenticity.

My last class is a History of Christian Architecture.  This course is at Boston College.  As BC and Harvard are members of the Boston Theological Institute, we can take courses at each other's schools.  I became interested in Christian architecture during my junior year at SLU when I wrote a paper on theological reflections in architecture.  Also, I saw many different churches and architectural styles when I went on Semester at Sea, so its cool learning about places I've been.  If only I had learned before I visited them! I guess I'll just have to go back.

Anyway, that is a short synopsis of my classes.  I'm learning a lot and am lucky I like all my classes!

Tours Galore!

A Hahvard tour guide.
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Having worked in the Office of Undergraduate Admission at Saint Louis University, I have four years experience of giving campus tours.  Thus, whenever I see tours on Harvard's campus, I always kind of pay attention.  However, after only spending a few days on campus, I quickly discovered that Harvard always has tourists. There are always groups of tourists being shepherded across campus.  I have maybe seen two or three tours that actually consisted of prospective students and their families.  The rest are tours done by another company that does tours for tourists.  There is always a group of people around the John Harvard statue taking pictures.  Thus, not many students ever walk near it, lest they be confused for a tourist!

That being said, I've become accustomed to the idea that many people on campus are not enrolled.  Since the weather is so nice outside, I try to read outside as much as possible.  However, I can't help but notice that on a few occasions, people on tours will take a picture of me.  I mean I can understand their thinking.  "Oh look, there's a student studying. Let's take a picture." However, I have to relay the following experience to you, as it is just too funny.

It was a Sunday afternoon and I was reading outside, lying in the grass in the quad between Memorial Church and Widener Library.  Every half hour or so, a large tour group would pass by.  I had noticed maybe two people take pictures of me.  On this occasion, however, a group of Japanese tourists were stopped in front of the church listening to their tour guide and taking pictures.  One of the said tourists proceeded to lie down in the grass maybe 15 or 20 feet in front of me in the exact same position I was lying in.  Then her friend took a picture of her with me in the background.  I found it somewhat humorous, but then three more people proceeded to do the same thing!!! Am I just supposed to be OK with this?! I mean I felt it was funny, but slightly awkward.  I just continued to read.  No harm done. It was a funny experience.

In other news, today is Gandhi's birthday.  My seminar on him has gone very, very well.  I'm really enjoying it.  I just finished reading his autobiography about half an hour ago.  In honor of his birthday, my class is getting together tonight to watch the famous 1982 classic Gandhi that really introduced him to much of the Western world.  It won eight academy awards.  I've never seen it all the way through, so I'm anticipating it tonight.  But, I'll have to miss the Florida vs. Alabama football game tonight, which is kind of a bummer.  But, then I want to slap myself, as it's just a game of no significant importance. Life deserves more.