A Long Time

It’s been a long time, or at least a relatively long time… How long is a long time? If you mean the time since I’ve written, considering the fact that I intended to write almost every day, and it’s been almost a month since I last posted then yes it has been a long time. If you mean the time since I’ve been home and seen you all, three months and twelve days, I would also consider that a long time. Well, I can now reset both of those counters, because I’m posting now, and I’ll be home late Wednesday night!

Since I last posted, I have had one major Physics test, one major Microeconomics test and two papers for my Gospel, Church and Culture class. On the 18th, Glee Club had its first practice for Brahm’s Requiem with Maestro John Nelson, who is a conductor who graduated from Wheaton and Juilliard http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Nelson_(conductor). He’s really a great conductor in just about every way. He has a great ear, and a great personality. Last week we had two two hour practices and three three hour practices, plus the performance. It was a ton of time, and by the end my voice was gone, and I was pretty tired and a little behind on my homework, but it was well worth it. You may know that a Requiem is a song traditionally performed at a funeral. Brahm’s wrote this requiem with some really fitting scripture references and the way he ties it in with the music is really incredible. I do not think I could have appreciated it nearly as much if I had not needed to perform it (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahms_Requiem).

There have been several other concerts on campus as well. Keith and Kristyn Getty performed here a few weeks ago. Not only did I get to go to their concert, I also visited a class where Keith Getty talked about how he writes songs. In case you do not recognize the names, the Getty’d wrote “In Christ Alone” and several other “modern hymns.”

As for academics, my Physics class has started studying relativity. If you want a brief overview of what I’m studying the rest of the semester, take a look at this: http://www.onestick.com/relativity/. I showed it to a few guys on my floor the other day and it blew their minds. In my microeconomics class, we have been going back and forth between using a textbook and two other books, Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger and Godly Materialism. Then discussing them in class. They are both very interesting books with very different perspectives. To summarize briefly, the first says that American Christians have too much wealth, considering how extremely impoverished people across the world are and that we need to give more of our money away. The second talks about how God wants people to enjoy wealth and that a constant sense of guilt for any excessive material possessions takes away some of the pleasure God wants us to take in the wealth he has blessed us with. I think I would agree with both of those summary statements, but there are some really thought provoking, subtle issues involved.

Once again, I am sorry for not posting for such a long time. I hope you all have a marvelous Thanksgiving, and I hope to see you soon!

Dayzed

Phew, Mondays are long. I woke up at 7:00 this morning, went to breakfast, went to Physics at 8:00, worked on Physics homework until chapel, then went to Calculus, Microeconomics, and Gospel, Church and Culture class all in a row. After those classes I went back to my room to finish my Physics homework and mark my Brahm’s music for Glee Club. By the time I dropped my Physics homework off at the science building I was late for Glee Club. After Glee Club, I went to dinner, and after dinner I came back to my room, sat down at my computer and started typing, which I will probably do until 7:50, when I will leave for the discussion group for my Gospel, Church, and Culture class.
Most of my days aren’t this hectic, and if I had not done so many fun things over the weekend, I would have had a few normal breaks instead of study breaks, but that’s my Monday schedule B-quad. In case you didn’t know, Wheaton has a quad schedule, where some of their classes are semester long and some of their classes are half a semester long, so some classes start and end at fall break. By the way, chapel today was really cool. http://www.wheaton.edu/wetn/chapelfall10.htm. The link might not be up yet, but once you follow this link, just click on The Sons of Korah, November 1st.
So, a lot of you said you wanted stories. So I guess I will put off my Wade Center post for a few more days, sigh. Anyway, last Thursday I went to a performance of Great Expectations, which, thanks to Rylan, I read over the summer. It was performed by Arena Theater, the more official acting group here on campus. I thought it was very well done. If you have seen Our Town performed, you might have a pretty good idea of how this play was performed. Just imagine the entire cast as the stage manager. The actors very rarely left the stage, most of the time they stayed on the stage and narrated. I think almost all the lines came straight out of the book, which didn’t bother me at all, but was really quite impressive considering how long the original book is. I don’t know if I’ve seen a more complete, accurate condensation of such a long book before.
Friday night I went to an improv show which was really fun to watch. Apparently, they have weekly workshops where they teach and practice improv comedy. I think I might try to join one in the spring. Saturday, my Passage group (you remember the camp I went to at Honey Rock) was supposed to go to the biggest corn maze in the world. Unfortunately, only four of us ended up going. Dr. Thorne, Matt (our leader) Ben (from Dr. Thorne’s group last year) and me. We had fun anyway though. The farm with the corn maze had a zip line that went over part of the maze, and also a huge double balloon of sorts where you could get in the inner balloon and roll down a hill inside the giant ball, kind of like a hamster. It cost twenty dollars, so we didn’t do it, but we did have some fun it the corn maze, and we went out to a big patch of pine trees behind the maze and played sardines and capture the flag. Really, I think capture the flag is more fun when you have to dodge Christmas trees every step of the way, there are only two people on your team, and if you get tagged you just go back to your side. It makes for a really fun, quick game.
Last night, some of my friends went out trick or treating, but I went to a small party at Laura’s apartment (Laura is the archivist/my boss at the Wade Center). We had some great snacks and watched It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, The Garfield Halloween Movie, Walt Disney’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and a somewhat spooky fairy tale from Jim Henson’s The Storyteller. I had a great time, but my GC&C class starts in ten minutes, so I will click publish, and say “goodbye.”