Thanksgiving = Success!

I was fortunate enough where I was able to have 10 days off for Thanksgiving!  Really, I just got lucky.  Originally, I was looking for flights home the Tuesday or Wednesday before Thanksgiving.  Thank goodness I checked my syllabi.  My Wednesday class is at Boston College and they had no classes the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.  For my Tuesday afternoon class, I had an online exam, so there was no need to be at school for it.  Furthermore, my Tuesday morning class was canceled because my professor would be at a conference in Atlanta.  I decided to skip my Monday class and since I have no class on Fridays, I got to fly home the Thursday before Thanksgiving!  And that saved me $200 on a plane ticket!

Visiting Perry in St. Louis!

On Friday, I drove up to St. Louis to visit Perry.  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I had come out at midnight that morning.  Perry bought us tickets! So we went on a nice date, then we went and saw the movie with Ted and Maddie.  I hate the Harry Potter movies.  I always feel like they are poorly made and usually just two minute summaries of every chapter crammed together.  I realize I should appreciate them as a movie without comparing them to the books.  But honestly, I have no idea how people who have never read the books follow the movies, especially if they haven't seen all the movies.  But, this HP movie was great!  I loved it!  The past three have been made much better!  And since the last book is broken into two parts, they don't have to cut so much out.  I wouldn't mind seeing it again!



The next night I went to the Alpha Phi Omega formal with Perry.  It was great being back at SLU seeing lots of friends and familiar faces.  The dance was downtown at a nice hotel.  It was a blast, which I would have expected nothing less!  The following evening we had dinner with Perry's family which was kind of a Thanksgiving dinner.  It was delicious, of course!

When I got back to Memphis, I had to study for my online paleography exam.  I silenced the entire house for two and a half hours so I could focus (thanks, Mom!).  I got an A, so that was very exciting! And then Perry drove down on Wednesday for Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving was also great in itself.  The whole family came over on Thanksgiving.  We had I think twenty people there.  It's always great when we all get together.  I can't wait for Christmas!

Oh and we finished the break with Brooke, Gary, Amber, Tommy, Perry, and I winning third place at Swanky's live trivia night.  Nothing like some margaritas and trivia.

I'm currently in the middle of finals.  Well, officially, they start on Monday.  This past week was our "reading period," so there was no class.  I finished my Gandhi term paper and take home final for Early Christian Thought.  I have a Christian architecture final on Wednesday and a Paleography final on Thursday, as well as a project for that class and then I'm flying home on Friday.  I can't wait!  I'm already anxious!

New York, New York!

Yeah, everyone in Times Square could see us!

I made a trip down to NYC during the first weekend in November to visit my dear friend Astrid and her friend Birta (I hope I'm spelling that right, Birta!).  Astrid is my sister's friend that was a foreign exchange student from Germany, back when they were in high school.  The last time I saw her was about two years ago at Amber's wedding.  On this visit, she went to Memphis for two weeks and then went to NYC for a few days to visit Birta, her friend from home.  Since I'm pretty close, I decided to take a bus on down to see them.

I must put a plug in for the Megabus.  I first heard about Megabus my freshman year at SLU.  They are a very cheap bus service.  I've taken it once from St. Louis to Chicago.  It actually goes to Memphis now too!  Basically, the earlier you book, the cheaper your ticket.  They even offer tickets for as low as $1!  Now, they have double decker buses, so it was neat riding to NYC and back on the top deck.

Once in NYC, I met up with the girls and we walked around Times Square for a bit.  Then we went to dinner at a nicer-than-we-expected-yet-affordable Italian restaurant.  After more sightseeing (check out our picture in Times Square!), we made our way to our hostel.

Hostels always have good stories.  And I of course have a great hostel story for you!  I was given a two person room, which consisted of a bunk bed and like 2 feet more of space. Luckily for me, I had no roommate.  Well, the guy at the front desk said someone could show up later in the night.  So, while lying in bed, anytime I heard some noise in the hallway, my ears would perk up, wondering if I would have a visitor.  About one or two in the morning, not long after I went to bed, I heard some footsteps and then my door open.  I decided to play the whole pretend I'm asleep thing, but that didn't last long.  That's how me and <roommate> met.  I can't remember her name.  But, I spoke more Spanish than she did English.  She was from Quito, Ecuador.  I think she was upset because she had to sleep on the top bunk (she was a little on the large side and probably in her 30s or 40s).  Anyway, I slept through the night, even though the room was ridiculously hot.  In the morning, we both were awake and talked for a while.  Our conversation was mostly in Spanish.  I was surprised at how much I could remember.  We had quite the exemplary elementary conversation.

After I met up with Astrid and Birta, we walked through Central Park for awhile and then down 5th Avenue.  We also hit up Grand Central Station, then met up with my friend Nathan from high school for lunch.  Nathan hung out with us for the rest of the day.  We went to the top of the Rockefeller building and the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art.  The art museum was free at this time, so it was nice to save some money.  It was pretty neat.  Afterwards, I had to find my bus stop for my trip back to Boston.

It was nice to have a short trip to go down to NYC and especially nice to hang out with Astrid and meet Birta.  Also, I hadn't seen Nathan in years, so it was good to catch up.  Now, I just to need to go to Germany to visit Astrid!

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.
Learn more.

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.

Veritoss!

Ever since I graduated from high school, and thus no longer on any formal athletic team, my physical fitness has taken I drastic drop on the priorities list. SLU renovated the Simon Rec. Center during my freshman year, resulting in a wonderful, state of the art workout facility. Other than the spring of my sophomore year and the first three weeks of junior year, I was only in the rec. center while giving campus tours (but let's not forget the two times I had to practice for the Student - Faculty Hoops for Haiti benefit game!).

Our wonderful logo.

Harvard has its own workout facilities, but as I am now a graduate student, those cost additional fees, which they graciously don't automatically add to your term bill. In an attempt to force myself to have regular physical activity, I decided to join the HDS ultimate frisbee team! It's been a lot fun. It was pretty tiresome the first week, but as of last weekend, I can definitely notice improvements.

The name of the team is Veritoss, which for those who don't notice the pun, is a play on Harvard's motto Veritas (Latin for truth). We are not a part of any formal league.  Basically, we get together and play on Saturdays.  But, we also play other schools.  This Saturday we have the 2nd Annual "Church v. State" game against the Kennedy School of Government.  Hopefully we'll win! We have also been in discussion in challenging Yale Divinity School's team.

Frisbee has been a great way for me to stay fit, active, and meet new people. The following is the challenge we posted on Yale Divinity's door (as they require for any challenges, the pompous fools...):

"Yale Divinity School Ultimate Frisbee Team,

Let it be known The Flying Disc team of Yale Divinity School is hereby challenged to an epic duel of passion, pluck, perseverance and piety by the humble - but unbelievably talented (and attractive) - Harvard Divinity School Flying Disc players, also known as Team VeriTOSS.

We propose that a match be held at a location and time agreeable to both teams. We would remind Yale Divinity, however, that we can and will pummel them at any instance and at any locale within the year of our (or someone else's) Lord, 2010.

We ask only that all who wish to gaze upon such a site do so with the utmost respect for game, country and their own personal concept of that which may or may not be divine.

You may contact us at the following address: teamveritoss@gmail.com

Consider the gauntlet thrown.

With Love,
The Harvard Divinity School Ultimate Frisbee Team, aka Team VeriTOSS

PS Team VeriTOSS knows Yale only exists because Harvard came first.

PPS Bulldogs are silly, and lousy frisbee players."

Some Sightseeing and Libraries!

I had a marvelous day yesterday.  I was really busy because I had a lot of work to finish before class.  That doesn't sound like a marvelous day, but let me explain.  I was in search of an article for my paleography class that was on reserve in the library.  The divinity library didn't have it, so I had to walk across campus to another library that did have it.  On my walk over I decided to enter a huge building that I walk by all the time. And that's how I found Memorial Church.  It's a beautiful church that is known for its special World War II memorial. Etched onto the wall of the church is every Harvard student that lost their life fighting in WWII. It covered the entire wall, so think how many students that was.

Memorial Church

There were two student casualties from the Divinity school.  And one of those names is probably one of the most looked at.  Next to one of the names, there follows the unique distinction of "(enemy combatant)." Of course the lone German soldier had to come from the Divinity school... The reason of his inclusion was that the memorial was to honor all Harvard students who perished. Apparently this student was drafted into the German army and killed somewhere on the Russian front, either as a soldier or medic.  It's not precisely known.

I left the church and walked across to Widener Library, which is the main library on campus.  I had walked past this many a times and was looking forward to exploring it.  I walked up the large stone staircase, swiped my ID, only to walk up another stone staircase.  I had no idea where I was really going.  I stumbled into a really nice room that was roped off right past the doorway.  I didn't know what was so special about it.  It just looked like a really nice, wood paneled room with a fireplace and lots of books. I was about to leave when I realized the book in the glass case, which was the focal point of the room.  The "Room is Alarmed" sign made much more sense.  There was a Gutenberg Bible in the case! Quick history lesson: Gutenberg invented the movable type printing press and his Bibles were the first printed books. There are only like 20 complete ones still remaining and Harvard owns two. I was lucky enough to be at SLU's ceremony last year, when they were presented with a single page from a Gutenberg Bible.

A Gutenberg, but not Harvard's... at least I don't think.

Perhaps it's kind of nerdy, but this was a highlight of my day. The Gutenberg Bibles were printed in the 1450s. I'm taking paleography this semester, which is the study of manuscripts.  Manuscripts, being handwritten, are even older than the Gutenberg Bible and that's what I'll be studying! As you can see, I'm very excited. Don't worry, you'll be able to hear all about my paleographic adventures throughout the semester!

Latina est Gaudium!

Salvete! I have great news! So, in order to receive my degree, I am required to be proficient in another language relating to my studies. To show that you are proficient, you have to pass one of HDS' language proficiency exams.  They have these at the beginning and end of each year. If you fail, it means nothing.  It doesn't go on your transcript or anything.  So, having earned a certificate in Latin at Saint Louis University (SLU), I decided, why not? It would be foolish of me not to.

The exam was an hour long and I could use the aid of one dictionary.  I had to translate an excerpt from some medieval sermon about a Bible passage, which happened to be when some crowd was pressing heavily upon Jesus, etc. I found the beginning really difficult.  However, once passed that that, I did much better.  But, I ran out of time, not being able to complete the last 2-3 sentences.  I was pretty sure I failed, or at most barely passed.

Well guess what?! (as I'm sure you already have...).  I passed!!! The four possibilities are: Not Passing, Low Pass, Pass, or High Pass.  I got a Pass, so I did even better than I thought I would! As you can tell, I was pretty excited.  I'm taking a paleography and medieval manuscripts seminar this fall (the former is the study of the latter). I was a little intimidated, not sure if I would be up to par with my Latin.  This makes me feel much better.

With regards to languages, Harvard has a great summer language program.  This summer, I think I'm going to study German.  In addition to Latin, I took German during my last two semesters at SLU.  Ideally, I would like to pass the German proficiency exam as well.  If I had proficiency level for German and Latin on my PhD applications, that would make my application very competitive.

I don't have class on Fridays, so today's news is a great start to the weekend. And happy early birthday to McCoy!!!

Weather & School

I can tell the weather is slowly starting to change into fall.  It's still hot enough to sweat outside during the day, but it's cooling off much more in the evenings now.  I'm excited to see the leaves change, as I feel like that is the stereotype of New England.  However, I don't think I'm really prepared for the winter.  I still need to purchase a good winter coat and some snow boots.  Everyone has been telling me I must get snow boots.  So, my eye is on the lookout for a good coat and a pair of boots.

BUT, it turns out that winter gear is ridiculously expensive.  I don't think I've seen a coat under $200.  And everyone tells me it's better to get a good one that will last.  I want to get one of the coats that are a shell that will be easy to layer with. I visited an East Mountain Sports the other day, but it's still to early for them to have coats in stock.

Moving on from the weather, school has been going well.  The divinity school has 4 main buildings. The first is Andover Hall, which is the building in the photo.  The divinity school library is also connected to Andover hall. I applied for a work study job at the library.  I interviewed for a job at the circulation desk, but people from last year were able to fill up the time slots, so they didn't hire anyone new.  Then, yesterday, I interviewed to work in the periodicals department.  They only have one opening and I think a number of people applied for the position.  So who knows if I'll get it.  It would be nice though to have a small 10 hours/week job that pays well.  And I'd become familiar with the library, which would be good for research.

The other buildings are Rockefeller Hall, Divinity Hall, and the Center for the Study of World Religions (CSWR).  One would think Divinity Hall would be our main building...  Rockefeller Hall is mostly classrooms, but it also has a cafe.  Divinity Hall has a few classrooms, but is mostly administrative offices like financial aid and the registrar.  Lastly, the CSWR is more of a residence and a meeting place. They have various events, but also apartments for students or visiting scholars.  So far, any event they have has plenty of food and drink, so I always make sure to go to those.

Lastly, I played ultimate frisbee the other day with the HDS ultimate frisbee team.  It was a lot of fun, but I was exhausted! I mainly went to force myself to have some physical activity, and that is exactly what I got. Perhaps I'll join.  Who knows...

New Beginnings

People talk differently here. I suppose I sound different to them, but as I'm the hearer, I can be the judge. For those of you who don't know, I'm starting a masters program at Harvard Divinity School.  Thus, I've moved up to Cambridge, MA having all kinds of experiences. I had thought about having a blog.  I enjoyed having one when I was abroad, but they are difficult to keep up with and I figured I wouldn't be able to think of enough things to write about.  However, after some prodding, I decided why not? I'm far away from family and friends and all things familiar, so this would be a good way to offer a window into this new chapter of my life.

So what exactly am I doing? I'm pursuing a Master of Theological Studies (MTS). It is a two year program, after of which I will (fingers crossed) apply and be accepted into a Ph.D. program.  As I'm sure many of you are thinking--and many people ask me--does this mean I'm going to be a preacher? Not exactly. Yes, I am at a divinity school, but an MTS is a degree more associated with academia, whereas a Master of Divinity (MDiv) is a more pastoral degree.

I had orientation last week and am currently in a shopping period for classes.  Basically, instead of registering for classes beforehand, we can go to the first day of how many classes we want and decide which ones we would like to take.  This way, we have the opportunity to view syllabi, etc.  I mostly have my schedule figured out, but I'll let you know about that in a later post.

I'm not entirely sure what I want this blog to be.  I imagine I'll use it to share stories, adventures, and opinions, along with the occasional rant. If you have any suggestions, feel free to let me know.