Week 2 at Summit Semester

I'm not sure where to begin. This week has been pretty tough. Living with the same thirty people for three months isn't as easy as it sounds, and thats saying something since it doesn't sound easy at all. I can't fully explain it to people who aren't here experiencing it with me.

I don't really have much blog worthy stuff to talk about... nothing exciting happened this week. So I guess I could talk about things I learned throughout the week:

1. That it takes 6 men to gut and pack out an Elk
2. That the most compelling argument for a fetus being a human and being independent from it's mother's body is “ your mom cannot have four eyes and a penis.”
3. Sanding a log wall for three hours is not good for your sinus passages.
4. Sanding a log wall for three hours is not good for your ears
5. Sanding a log wall for three hours is good for character building
6. “A pear is an L of a long way from a pearl”

Ok, so on to more serious and pressing matters, Clement of Rome. Clement was a Hellenistic Jew who lived around the same time as Paul. He wrote a letter to the church at Corinth, which was almost added to the Bible. However, it had a few problems. One of which was that he believed in an ancient Egyptian myth about Phoenixes. The story is that there is a Phoenix that lives for 500 years, and every time the 500^th year comes around the Phoenix goes to its nest and begins to die. After it is dead it's body juices leak onto a worm (which just happens to be there....). The worm then turns into a Phoenix and carries the nest and the bones of it's parents to an ancient Egyptian alter everyday on the 500^th year. Clement believes it's a symbolism of Jesus and the Resurrection. Far out right? The other interesting thing about Clement was that Hebrews ( the book of the Bible who no one knows who the author is) is written freakishly similarly to Clement's letter to Corinth. And there is a lot of proof for him being the author of Hebrews, but I won't bore you with that.

One of the questions Professor Bauman asked us today was especially tough. In fact our whole class argued for an hour and a half about it. If you were a guy and you and your wife were expecting, and then you got in a car accident and the doctor told you (the husband) that he could only save your child or your wife, who would you choose?

My first instinct was immediately that I'd save “my wife”. As we discussed it however, I could see why someone would save the baby. One guy in the class even went so far as to call anyone who would choose the wife over the baby, a “murderer”. I disagree of course, but I challenge you think about who you would choose, and why. I didn't change my mind after the whole discussion...but some people did.

Some more of the questions we've been asked have been:

“ What is a human being?”

“What is a good life, and what good is life?”

“What good is death, and what is a good death?”

“What is good love, and what good is love?”

“What is the purpose of living?”

“Are you a body with a soul, or a soul with a body?”

“Is your soul as fallen as your body?”

“What is the purpose of free speech? What is free speech? Is absolute freedom of speech beneficial or harmful?”

I've had to answer at least three of those questions in class... with no notice whatsoever. In front of a bunch of smart kids, and a super intelligent professor.

We discussed a lot of things that I learned in highschool, like Augustine's Just War Theory, the rise and fall of Rome, why Rome fell, Why Rome fell and Christianity survived, why were Christians persecuted, Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, etc...

One of the students here is really into giving us all personality tests, to determine what our personality is. I took mine the other day and came out ESTJ. If you don't know what that is/means...shame on you! Go look it up. Although I am almost an F not a T... 

Also this week, I got a knot the size of a golfball in my neck, so for the past five days I havent been able to do much physical activity. But I should I have notified the authority figures at Semester before it had been five days... Anyway, I have to skip camping sunday night, and hiking on monday, because I have to go to the chiropractor...sadness. Other than that, I don't have much to complain about! I'll catch up with y'all next week!!!

Blog Post 9/9/11

I'm on my flight to Phoenix Arizona, a 4 ½ hour trip... which by itself is pretty bad in my opinion.

I'm by the window and the view is great, the seat next to me is empty, which is even better! However, the people sitting behind me have two kids, probably 2 and 3. Don't get me wrong I like kids... I really do. But I do not like kids on airplanes, especially when they're sitting right behind me. This particular child speaks Spanish fluently and loudly (who knew a 3 year old could have such a good vocabulary. At least I assume he has a rather large vocabulary since he wont shut up. But since I don't speak Spanish I have no idea what he's saying. He could be cussing me out for all I know...) as does his mother. The kid continuously and simultaneously kicks the back of my seat, opens and shuts his window cover, slams his car on the side of the plane and shouts random things in Spanish. I don't get how he can be so talented, but so annoying...I guess I feel the same way about opera singers, radio hosts, recorder players and Rebbecca Black. Actually scratch that, this punk behind me has more talent than Ms. Black. I'm hoping that the mother cannot read over the seat...although my computer screen is pretty big so she probably can. Mrs. Spanish lady sitting behind me, if you can read this, please refrain your child from kicking my seat, its starting to annoy me. Good thing I have Modest Mouse to help me block him out.

I've been up since 4:30am, and I was hoping to sleep on this flight since it's so long, but obviously the kid behind me had other plans for me. On my previous flight I was stuck by two giant women! At least, I'm 70% sure they were of the female gender...but I could be wrong. Have you ever tried to sleep in the tiny space in between the driver's seat of your car, and the center console 3 inches from your seat? Probably not...but thats about how much space I had. I had to pee so badly on the last flight... but I held it since the “being” sitting beside me was asleep, and as every fairytale tells you: waking up a giant is either very brave or very stupid. In this case it would have been stupid, so I held it for 2 hours...anyone who knows me can attest to the fact that 2 hours is a long time for me. It might even be a record.

Since I have nothing better to do, I'm going to continue to ramble. Airports are the best places to meet weird people, or to just watch weird people interact with other weird people. This morning in SC I saw a woman with a 5  foot long braid!!! I mean come on! Like that's just gross!

Pros and Cons of having 5 foot long hair/a braid:

Cons:

• Weird looks from everybody who doesn't also have a long braid.
• Maintenance... has to be difficult to brush, wash, braid...and dont even get me started about how hard it would be to condition that mess, she probably uses up an entire bottle every time.
• The inconvenience of tripping over your own hair
• Looking stupid when you trip over your own hair
• Failing job interviews because of sanitary hazards
• People mistaking the braid for a poisonous snake, so they attack it in an attempt to save your life.
• The inconvenience of either having to carry it, or having it drag all over the floor

Pros:

• Being able to use it as a weapon
• Using it to conceal actual weapons
• Hiding gross moles on the back of your neck and back
• If you ever run out of clothes you have plenty of hair to cover your whole body.
• Great conversation starter
• I'm pretty sure it's big enough to carry a baby in.
• If your pants start falling down you can use it as a belt! Or if you have a skirt it can serve as a sash as well.
• Getting enough attention to have a blog post written about you!

After going over the pros and cons... I hope I convinced you that getting a 5 foot braid is something everyone should do!

I hope I didn't lose all 2 of my readers (my mom and my very dedicated older brother) during that...Mom if you're still reading this I apologize for all the grammatical and punctuational errors I made already...writing is not my most talented area of life.

Whatever state I'm flying over right now looks like a checker's board... its all split up into rectangular sections of land, varying in color. Probably Texas or New Mexico. Really boring and flat looking.

I hate how everyone charges you for everything now...I can't even get peanuts for free now! They used to give out like a whole freaking meal! I did get a cup of sprite for “free”. I think they include the drink in your ticket price. If I ever own an airplane company I will serve my consumers free peanuts. FREE PEANUTS FOR EVERYONE! 1300 miles till touchdown...aka 1300 miles till I can ride myself of this family behind me. The 2 year old is crying now...please God if there's going to be a rapture...make it happen now. I'm ready.

Well I'm going to try to take a nap since I'm running on 3 hours of sleep right now.

September 13

Well I'm at Summit Semester! Colorado is so beautiful, I haven't gotten any good pictures yet because I've been really busy ever since I got here. This is the second slot of free time that I've gotten...and its not really free time, I have 10 minutes between dinner and exercise time today, so I'm using it to start my blog post because if I dont...I will keep putting it off.

Okay so today we had our second day of class! Mike Mandt was our teacher, and we learned a lot about evolution and creation. I have never fully grasped the concept of how much space there is... like earth is so small in comparison to everything else in our universe...our galaxy is even tiny in comparison to the universe...it's insanely crazy! I cannot even begin to comprehend how small we human beings are compared to outer space. And if there is that much space out there...then the probability of there being other living creatures out there somewhere seems pretty likely. No, Mom, I'm not admitting to believing in aliens... but still...It does make me wonder.

       I want to walk you through my day today, I have no idea if everyday is going to be like today, but at least you'll get to see what one of my days looks like.

I woke up at 6:30am to go on a morning hike with my buddy Sarah. We hiked on Cell Phone Hill. Dubbed that due to the fact that it's the only place on campus that one can get enough service to make a phone call. Some of you have been lucky enough to have gotten a call from me, and you can attest to the fact that its a pretty tough climb, since I'm always out of breath when I call. Anyway, we hiked all around Cell Phone Hill and came back in time for breakfast at 8am. All of our meals are served “family style”. Ten people per table and we pass the food around and it forces us to talk and get to know each other better. Meals are mandatory (not like I have a problem with that anyway...). After breakfast we have class at 9am. Class lasts until noon, when we go have lunch. Everyone is assigned to a “dish crew” each crew has 6 students, and we have to do the dishes, clean the dinning room, sweep and wipe down the kitchen, set the tables for the next meal, and dry and put up all the clean dishes. My dish crew had lunch today and it took us forever to clean up...when we wash dishes we have to rinse, wash, put in bleach water, and rinse again. I was the lucky one...I got to do the bleaching... and of course I didn't think about asking for gloves. 10 hours later, my hands still reek of bleach!

Most days after lunch we will either have class again or go study for 2 hours.

        Today we studied, all we were assigned was to read “ An Experiment in Criticism” by C.S Lewis. At first glance I was like “Ha! I have no problem with criticism...” But the book is all about what makes good literature “good” and bad literature “bad”. At 3:30 we had an exercise hour. I ran 2 miles, which was pretty good for a Floridan in Colorado if you ask me. I have not yet adjusted to the altitude, so I get out of breath really quickly. Then I played speed volleyball (be proud of me Osterbye...I actually made a few points!). At 5 we had dinner, and since it was someone's birthday we got cookies! Which was exciting because we dont get dessert unless it's a birthday. I'm really missing all my sugary snacks/desserts at home . Y'all should send me some!

             We had class again at 7 and got out at around 8:30. Everyone is just chilling or playing games/musical instruments now. One of the cooler things about Semester is that the students make their own rules. Our second day we got together and decided on 3 values that we have, and then based some rules off of the values. We don't really have many rules, only really basic ones like being on time to classes and meals and such.

My dorm room is really small...I have a really short hard bed, but I love it because by the time I crawl into it I'm just too tired to care how nice it is. I have a wardrobe (like the one in Narnia, but a lot smaller) that I share with my roomie, and we each have a desk. We also share a bathroom, which isn't too bad. I really don't have enough room for all my stuff in my room... I brought a ton of stuff!

               We had our first work crew... it was actually pretty tough. Thats coming from a girl who's father made her work every saturday! I sanded log cabin outer walls with an electic sander. Work crew is about three hours long and I got about 5 logs done. It takes a long time to sand them sufficiently. The logs are really dirty and dark brown, by the time I finished working on them they were basically white. Before and after pics are below, but it rained this morning so they dont look as clean, gahh!

before

 

after

            We have our first test next friday!! Its on C.S Lewis's book. Doctor Bauman is our main teacher and he is pretty scary! He has a list with all 30 student's names on it and he randomly picks one and asks the lucky student who got picked a question. But not easy questions, questions that really make you think. Yesterday he called on me, and as soon as he said my name terror entered my heart! I'm totes not the type to get embarrassed easily, but I have trouble answering hard questions in front of 29 smart students, 4 staff, and a really smart professor. So Bauman and I went back and forth for about 10 minutes, discussing education, and who should be in charge of it. When we were done and he finally proceeded to ask someone else a question, I realized that my shirt (mostly near my arm-pits) were completely soaked! In 10 minutes I had gone from chilly, to overly hot and sweaty. THIS IS WHAT BAUMAN DOES TO STUDENTS! No matter what you say, he will argue the opposite side.

I apologize for the lack of pictures...its sad that the only two up here are of logs... but I promise next sunday there will be many more!

World Records, Epiphanies, Cookie Crisp and Summit Semester

I'm sitting here in my kitchen trying to figure out what I want to post. Which on its own wouldn't be too bad, but, I'm having to listen to one little brother practice saxophone ( he started 4 days ago....) and the other ones play StarWars on the wii. Anyone who has siblings should understand how hard it is to write/think with little siblings around. Luckily though, I have my bowl of Cookie Crisp!


 I'm almost positive its brain food  (contrary to my mother's opinion that it's totally worthless junk food), because I've had at least three epiphanies while sitting here. Which is saying something since it only takes me about two minutes to eat a bowl of cereal. Now, I'm no expert on world records, especially records about whose had the most epiphanies (How would they even figure that out?!) but I'm pretty sure if I keep the cereal-eating up for an hour I could set a new record for most epiphanies per hour. Of course I'd have to go buy more Cookie Crisp and I'm too lazy to do that, so I guess we'll never know. I could also probably set a record for eating the most cereal or for eating it the fastest...but again I'm too lazy to try right now.

I'm sure you're not reading my blog to find out about my record setting skills, as awesome as they are, so I'll get on with it. Four days from today, I will embark on an amazing journey to Pagosa Springs, Colorado!

Why Pagosa Springs? Well other than the fact that it's beautiful, mountainous, has cool weather, is dry not humid, and is just pretty much perfect (as if I need more reasons than that), I'm going to partake in "Summit Semester".


 Everyone I've told about this asks me to explain Semester, and honestly I find that hard to do. If you continue to keep up with me via "Dear Bob" you'll read weekly updates from me on what I'm doing/learning/thinking while at Semester. But for now this will have to do: " Nestled in the Rocky Mountains is a beautiful modern facility where 30 students will learn from some of the top Christian scholars in the country. Our environment will nurture spiritual formation and hone intellectual skills, while also helping our students develop strong interpersonal relationships. Our goal is to prepare students for the challenges they will face at the university while motivating them to be influential leaders, shaping the ideas of the culture for the glory of God and the good of our society."


I feel like this description cannot fully convey the awesome-ness of what I will be doing, but I hope you keep reading my posts in the future.

Words cannot express how excited I am to be going to Colorado! I will be there for three months, and will only have internet on Sunday afternoons when we go into town.  I'll be living in a lodge, miles away from civilization... ok so thats an exaggeration, but it is far away from actual cities and stuff. I will have limited cell service, so I plan on writing plenty of letters! If you're my friend on facebook my address is on there, so feel free to write me a letter anytime :)    

Well my brothers all decided to start playing their new instruments...at the same time... if you've ever heard an entire herd of cows all start dying of some horrible disease that causes their vocal chords to deteriorate at the same time... thats what my brothers sound like right now... I sincerely hope they progress quickly so that by the time I get back they will sound like musicians!   

Why "Dear Bob"?

So, my mom always told me "So" was a horrible way to start any sentence, but I didn't want to be cliché and say " Hey y'all" or "hey everyone". So, I started with "so", I figure every good first blog post starts like that.

My blog is named "Dear Bob" because when I was 4, I saw Bob Dole on television. Now, I don't know why, but  my immature 4 year old self suddenly developed this giant crush on Bob Dole. As everyone can obviously tell, Senator Dole was quite the hottie back in the day. Really, who can blame me for having a crush on this hunk?

Bob Dole 

After seeing him on television, I decided that Bob was going to come everywhere with me. So Bob became my friend. He had dinner with me, watched TV with me, "hunted" pine cones in the woods with me and my wooden gun, had tea parties with me and Bear ( my teddy bear) and my other stuffed animals. Bob did everything with me, he was my best friend. However, Bob couldn't live in my house because there wasn't enough room so he lived in my fort in the woods behind our house. My brother said Bob was my " imaginary friend" but I'm still convinced that I was just the only one who could see him.

This story doesn't have the best ending for Bob...when I was eight my family adopted a family of five boys and Bob couldn't stand not being my best friend anymore, he was an emotional and dramatic guy. He threatened to run away if I didn't ditch my new brothers. Needless to say, I didn't ditch my new-found bros. A few days after the boys moved in, Bob ran away. I haven't seen Bob in 11 years, but I know he's out there somewhere, living a great life in someone else's woods. 

I named my Blog "Dear Bob" because I want him to realize I will never forget him, and that I still care. But I also named it this because no one else had a blog named "Dear Bob", so the availability was great! Plus, I figure it will be hard for creepers to find me ;)