I
have been at Rivendell for a month now and so-far I've really enjoyed it.
I've been kept busy from the moment I stepped unto campus! Every
Monday-Thursday we have morning and afternoon class. On Friday we
just have morning class. The first six weeks we study “Critical
Thinking” and “Logic”. I've studied logic before, but not in
the same way I'm studying it now. We've discussed subjective and
objective truth, apologetics, fallacies, some philosophy, socratic
logic, some theology, and metaphysics. We've read articles from
authors such as: Bertrand Russel, Thomas Aquinas, Peter Kreeft,
Norman Geisler, Thomas Keats, Immanuel Kant, David Hume, Aristotle,
Plato, J.P Moreland, and a few more that I can't remember.
We've
read through Genesis during our inductive Bible study, and had our
Genesis test this week. We've had a lot of homework every night, so I
have definitely been kept busy.
During
the weekends I've had time to do fun stuff. I went to the Mall of
America, which is truly daunting. I spent 3 hours there, and didn't
even get through all the stores in the East Wing... Fun fact:
the
Mall of America is the size of 78 football fields!
We
had a birthday party at Rivdendell for all the December-January
birthdays, and the theme was “Pajama Party”. My class wanted to
make a dramatic entrance so we all went out and spent hours searching
for adult sized footie pajamas. It was quite entertaining to listen
to Alexandra (one of my classmates) call six different stores and ask
if they had 14 adult sized footie pajamas. The people on the other
line usually asked her to repeat her question, and then had to
transfer her to someone else. The hours spent driving around
Bloomington and Minneapolis payed off when we entered the party and
saw everyone's expressions at our outfits.
I'm
sure all my fellow Floridians are wondering how I've been faring with
the drastic weather change which I experienced when moving from
Florida to Minnesota. Well, I've fared pretty well so far. There have
been moments when the temperature has dropped to 12 below with the
wind chill making it feel like 21 below...I remember one morning the
temperature was -15 and I had to walk out of my dorm to the
Administration building, as soon as I stepped outside the coldness
just steeped through my layers of clothing and just chilled my bones!
However, this is the warmest winter Minnesota has had in a very long
time, so I'm not complaining too much. It hasn't snowed that much
either, which is fine by me because I'm not a huge fan of snow. The
stuff is just wet, mushy and creates a mess. I can't wear normal
shoes when it snows...I prefer my Sperrys to snow-boots anyday.
You
all who know me well, know that I love food. I love good home-cooked
southern meals. I love meat. I love bread. I just love food in
general. But, I'm not a huge fan of the cafeteria food here. The
meals here don't sit well with me...literally. I'm not sure if its
because they're cooked for a lot of people or if I'm just not used to
not getting fresh meals...I just don't know. I do know this, the food
here is not amazing. I miss all the food my family cooked back home.
I also really miss Chick-fil-a. Can you believe that there is not one
Chick-fila-a in all of Minnesota?! What kind of place doesn't have a
Chick-fil-a?! The closest one to my location is in Omaha NB...6 ½
hours away. One word: REDICULOUS!!!!
I
have been eating lot of cereal, cheezits, granola bars and bananas. I
have around 3-4 bananas everyday. I think my finger-nails have really
benefited from all the bananas, because they've been looking really
good lately.
Some
things I've noticed about the North and Northerners:
It's
so dry here. Not only does the dryness effect my skin, but also my
hair... I never knew that a dry climate could effect one's hair!
The
street lights here (red, yellow, green) are on the side of the road
on little poles, instead of above the street.
It's
below freezing in the Winter and super hot and humid in the
summer...worst of both worlds.
The
people up here all sound different, and arent as polite as us
Southerners ;)
Boots
are to Minnesotans as flip-flops are to Floridians. Try to say
Minnesotans without a Minnesotan accent!
Maybe
its' because of the winter season, but a lot of the buildings here
are really ugly.
The
lakes here are beautiful...even when they're covered in ice.
There
are no Krispy Kremes or Dunkin' Doughnuts here.
The
sidewalks look perfectly normal while in all actuality they are icy
and slippery.
Thats
all for now folks. I don't want to make my post too long...Mama P
always gets on my case if it's too long.
