Saturday musings

Did you know that people get sick in America too? I started to think I was immune and had created super resistance after getting ill in China just about every other day. I can't remember the last time I was sick in America. But apparently standing out in blizzards and riding crowded buses with coughing people everywhere can also get you sick in America. I'm glad it's the weekend though, so I don't mind my fever and sore throat as much. I do miss my Chinese students texting me to tell me to "drink more hot water and wear more cloth-es." Now I don't know what to do!

So I have survived my first week back at classes and I'm officially a second semester grad student, which sounds more impressive than a first semester one. Surely now I'm filled with so much more knowledge and overall impressiveness, right? Of course not. I'm just reminded each day of how little I do know.

And after a first semester of only quantitative and "numbers" classes, I have to learn again how to use large vocabulary words and write 20 page term papers. I haven't used a calculator once this past week. I thought I would be thrilled about that, but classmates are much more opinionated and argumentative when the topic isn't about regression analysis or marginal cost pricing. Now I have classes, like law, where we discuss what on earth "civic republicanism" is. I still don't know. I think I'm just more intrigued at how my old classmates have transformed into political scientists and public managers. Am I the only person who hasn't worked in the White House or State Department?

Okay, I'm really not complaining, but I feel like I'm on a slippery slope. I think going to the super crowded grocery store with thousands of undergrads on a Saturday morning when you're sick can do that to you...

So here's some positive things that happened this past week:
-I got to meet more new people in my new classes.
-I hung out with my Chinese friend, Grace, and we studied Chinese and English.
-My Kenyan friend came to the IV Grad Faculty Ministry Bible Study with me this week.
-I have been spending a lot more quality time in His Word.
-Last night I hung out with some of my friends and other like-minded believers, when we talked for hours about how we can better love and serve the huge international community here in Bloomington.
-I made some really good chocolate chip muffins and ate them.