http://blogs.targetx.com/fuller/Alexandra/ en-us Copyright 2009 Wed, 31 Dec 2008 09:56:34 -0800 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss December 13th I finished the last of my final projects. I worked hard for three weeks on the two that I had. For Pentateuch I wrote a dialogue between Hagar and Sarah about God's inclusion of foreigners. It was for a creative project, and was one suggested. But the dialogue did give it a funky feel. Combining creative and academic writing is harder than I thought! I think next time I will stick to one or the other! Then for Theology and Pop Culture, I wrote a bible study using Grey's Anatomy. It was suppose to be 12-16 pages. However, the last two days of class we shared a little bit of what were doing, and after hearing other projects, and seeing a music video one student did to the Killers, "Are We Dancers", I felt the bar was raised a notch farther than I was aiming. So, the paper ended up being 22 pages. I felt it took that long to get out everything in quality, and had a hard time shortening it (and just hope I don't get docked for the length!) For some reason (perhaps the added "creative" element to both projects) it took me a really long time to finish my finals. Even if they were a bit more enjoyable to write than others. Then I started Christmas break. Three weeks off to relax and catch up on all the errands I had put aside during the last month of the quarter. Or at least that was my plan. Classes start up again in less than a week, and I still am wondering where all the time on my break went!! My roommate and I hosted two parties during my last weekend working on finals. Bad idea. I was convinced I would be done by then, and we wanted to do them back to back to get them out of the way. Luckily, I have got great friends who cleaned my house, decorated and cooked for me so that I could study (seriously, how great is that?!) I also had two friends in from out of town that I got to visit with. My friend Heather married the man of her dreams in June. Unfortunately, he lives in England, and now so does Heather. She was here for a week (partly during the finals). We spend many late nights up talking and laughing and did our marathon Marshalls shopping day that we are known for. It was painful to say 'goodbye' but I was able to tentatively plan a trip to visit her in August. I also squeezed in two trips during my break. One to Monterey, California to visit a friend in the military. It was my first trip to that part of California, and I would be lying if I didn't say I fell a little bit in love with the area. That was actually the first three days of my break. It was a really great. I slept in late, and took some strolls along the beach listening to the sea lions, took a mini spa day, and did some Christmas shopping along Cannery Row and a great antique shop I found near there. Then I came home to work over Christmas. Christmas is never dull in the hospital. I think its because if you come in during that time, you are really sick. And that was my experience this year. Strokes, trachs, tubes, lines... lots to keep me busy. I spent a few days sick myself, and nursing myself back to heath, and by the time I did, I was off to Seattle to spend my Christmas with mom (Christmas Eve and Day I actually worked 13 hour shifts, so my christmas celebration was actually December 27th). It was a great trip as always with family. We got my stepdad a guitar and all the stuff to go with it so he could learn to play. I think that was one of the best parts of Christmas this year - watching how excited he was as he glued himself in front of the instructional DVD and trying to find the fingering on the frets. And now I am home, and finally getting to my errands. Christmas cards are finally going out. (I guess better late then never?) My place will hopefully get organized and my books stashed away. And then the quarter starts itself all over again! http://blogs.targetx.com/fuller/Alexandra/2008/12/christmas_-_break.html http://blogs.targetx.com/fuller/Alexandra/2008/12/christmas_-_break.html Wed, 31 Dec 2008 09:56:34 -0800 Its been a busy couple weeks finishing up assignments and getting ready for what lies a head. Thankfully I was able to take a break and head home for Thanksgiving. Our whole family flew in (my mom lives in Seattle), so it was fun to have all of us together for the holiday! We had a Mexican Thanksgiving dinner on Wednesday with my step-siblings and on Thursday had a small dinner for my side of the family. It was nice to take a break from writing and enjoy my family and friends for a few days. As Fall quarter is wrapping up, I have started to look at my last two quarters at Fuller and start to look at what they might look like. Next quarter I will only have one class, and it is online. It will be nice to have an easier quarter for my last classroom quarter at Fuller. I am planning on doing a little bit of traveling with the lightened load. This will also give me a little more time to pick up hours at work (you know, to pay for Fuller!) I decided to get certified in teaching CPR/First Aid and just finished that yesterday. I will be teaching that within the hospital as well as within my church. Hopefully that is something I can easily transfer over in teaching at churches as part of medical ministries. I also found a practica that I hope to get approved for. Its a Parish/Community Nurse organization that works in inner city Hollywood/LA among the homeless and those living in poverty. I would be doing medical screenings, teachings and vaccines in churches, community organizations and homeless shelters. I would also be finding ways to increase spiritual care within the organization. I'm excited to see how it goes! http://blogs.targetx.com/fuller/Alexandra/2008/12/wrapping_up_the_quarter.html http://blogs.targetx.com/fuller/Alexandra/2008/12/wrapping_up_the_quarter.html Tue, 02 Dec 2008 10:16:57 -0800 Wow! Week 8?! I am ceaselessly amazed how how quickly the quarter flies by! My apologies for the long absence! This quarter has definately been an eventful one! I got the chance to be the patient rather the care for the patient this quarter, and have been playing catch up on most of my assignments as well as attempting to be proactive in my own health for the last few weeks. Needless to say, its been rather busy! Right now I am in the midst of a few major assignments. I am writing an eight page paper for my Pentateuch class looking at Eve and arguing a case for her being created equally in every aspect to Adam. Its been fascinating to look exegetically at the scriptures on this one! I am also researching for my final paper for Theology and Pop Culture. We have to choose a show, artist, song, movie or some other aspect of pop culture and theologize with it. I chose Grey's Anatomy and am attempting to write four bible studies from it. Its definately a more fun assignment, but not as easy as it sounds. Outside of my academic life, I am also trying to take better care of health. I have found that California has so much to offer in the way of the outdoors and exercise. Not only is it always beautiful and sunny out, but there is an endless supply of of things to do out here! Last weekend I went on a jog with a coworker in Marina del Rey and Venice (about 40 minutes from Pasadena, near Santa Monica). It was beautiful!!! We ran along the beach and watched kayakers, sailers and surfers enjoying the beautiful day. There were tons of people also running along the sand and the boardwalk that runs the length of the beach from the Marina though Venice Beach (quite the experience) to Santa Monica. Its a beautiful run (or walk) that goes a few miles. We also ran through some of canal areas of Venice. (A little background: around the turn of the century, Venice was created as a vacation spot to replicate Venice, Italy. There were tons of canals created with beautiful homes and cottages lining the water way. Now most of the canals are filled in with streets, but a few still are left and are quite pretty). The next day I was invited on a hike with some friends from church. They were hiking through the San Gabriel mountains to a really beautiful waterfall and having a picnic lunch there. I wasn't able to go, and was a little bummed, but know there will be plenty of more opportunities. There is TONS of hiking in California. My favorite is actually here in Pasadena. Its a trail that leads up to the ruins of an old hotel that was build in the early 1900s. On the way are echophones that boyscouts put out on the way (thus the name Echo Mountain). If you go a few miles farther (which I never was able to) there is a spot with telescopes that looks over the San Gabriel valley and Los Angeles. The pictures I have seen from there are beautiful! http://blogs.targetx.com/fuller/Alexandra/2008/11/so_much_to_do_so_little_time.html http://blogs.targetx.com/fuller/Alexandra/2008/11/so_much_to_do_so_little_time.html Wed, 19 Nov 2008 11:40:46 -0800 Well, I survived first week of classes. I always think that the first week of classes is just as hard at the last week, simply because of the anticipation and learning each professor's expectations. I do think I have a lot to look forward to this quarter - it may be my favorite yet! I am taking Pentatauch with Dr Goldingay online. He is one of the favorite professors at Fuller. I have always wanted to take a class with him. Its nice taking it online because I can listen to the lectures from bed at home if I want to, or while folding laundry like today! There is a considerable amount of dialoguing each week, but so far I have found the conversation of the week to be challenging and good. My online group has 8 students. I think I am the only one on Pasadena's campus and I am the only female. Its great to get different perspectives. The lesson we started this week is on the creation account. Its nice to look at the passage in a different light. Dr. Goldingay pointed out that some scholars view chapters 2-3 as a second account of creation that parrellels chapter one. I would have seen that on my own. The other class I am taking is Theology and Pop Culture. It is a bit different from the other classes I have taken at Fuller, but it is still extremely relevant to my interests and work. I could see how this actually might be my favorite class. It didn't even feel like I was in a lecture - it was great! I also just got back from a weekend trip to Seattle. My family moved up there this past year, and I took a friend with me to go and celebrate my birthday. We had typical Seattle weather, which was actually rather refreshing after the 100 degree weather we have been having in LA. We went to Pike's Place, the Seattle Art Museum, Snoqualmie Falls and of course lots of shopping. It was a nice break from the city. It is great having the flexibility with school and work this quarter to be able to take trips like this! http://blogs.targetx.com/fuller/Alexandra/2008/10/surviving_week_one.html http://blogs.targetx.com/fuller/Alexandra/2008/10/surviving_week_one.html Tue, 07 Oct 2008 18:03:42 -0800 Today starts the first day of my last year at Fuller! While I am anxiously anticipating my future, I figure I will have lots of time to tell about my plans and should probably give a little more history at what has brought me to this point. I moved out to Pasadena almost three years ago for Fuller. I had looked at several other seminaries, but Fuller was the only one that I really felt a true fit. My first visit to the campus was during a trip to Los Angeles with a few members of our church to learn about inner-city ministries. A college friend of mine was a student at Fuller, and I decided to visit him and check out Fuller while I was in town. I remember telling my pastor, “don’t worry – I’m just visiting a friend and going to compare Fuller with the other seminaries. There’s no way I would move to Los Angeles!” (Never say never! Six months later I found myself moved out here and enrolled in classes.) I visited two classes at Fuller during that visit. The first class had a guest speaker from Nigeria who talked about what spirituality looked like in his country in contrast to Western culture. I was completely fascinated by his analysis and what we could learn from a non-Western approach to Christianity. I didn’t want the class to end! The next class was Van Engen’s “Biblical Foundations of Missions”. We started the class with a few songs of worship, and I remember distinctly how heart-felt it was. During the lecture, Dr. Van Engen seemed so excited about everything he was teaching that day. It was hard not to get excited with him! I don’t know how anyone could possibly get bored taking a class with that man! After the two classes, I met with an admission counselor. Instead of trying to sell me on why I should go to Fuller, he asked me what I was looking for in my search for a seminary education and we talked about how Fuller may or may not meet those goals. He ended by praying that God would guide my path my search and give me peace. Although I normally take my time to make decisions and analyze the risks and benefits, by the end of the prayer, I knew Fuller was where I needed to be. The move to California was definitely one of the hardest decisions I made. I left all of my family and friends. I had (two) great jobs, and was part of easily one of the most authentic and amazing churches I had ever seen. California was nothing like what I would have called home, and I remember wondering if I had made a mistake. But now, three years later, I am so glad I took the risk. I love living here now, and Fuller has challenged me in ways I could never have expected but needed. It has challenged my views and strengthened my faith. Over the next few months I hope to share with you some of my experiences I have gone through as a student as well as the current events in my life. http://blogs.targetx.com/fuller/Alexandra/2008/09/beginning_of_my_fuller_journey.html http://blogs.targetx.com/fuller/Alexandra/2008/09/beginning_of_my_fuller_journey.html Tue, 30 Sep 2008 09:32:24 -0800