First Week Fragments (but in a good way)

Yesterday was my most hectic feeling day at seminary so far, but hectic in a good way, hectic meaning that almost every moment was full with no time to ponder and barely time to eat.  Perhaps jam-packed would be a better descriptor?  In any case, here are some snippets of reflections:

--I went to chapel yesterday, my first time worshipping in person with the Wesley community.  In some ways, it feels like the first time ever; when I tried to join remotely in the past, the sound has been terrible.  I loved the worship service, although I did note that there was more male gendered language for God than I would have expected.  I suppose we can't abandon all the old hymns.

--The sermon was so wonderful that I wrote a post on my theology blog to try to capture it. 

--It was strange to be in person, with most of us masked.  I knew that some of my professors would be there, but I wasn't sure I recognized anyone enough to go up to them and say, "Dr. ___?  It's me, Kristin."

--I've now attended 3 of my 5 classes.  They all sound promising, but more important, the professors are all enthusiastic.  You might think that professor enthusiasm should be a given, but I'm always grateful to find out that professors still want to be teaching their subjects.

--One of my classes is hy-flex, which means some of us are meeting in person, with the rest of the class on a Zoom session.  My professor is doing all she can to have it be a truly blended class.  For example, when we break into small groups, each group will have both in person and Zoom members as part of the group.  I'm interested to see how it works out, but I'm glad I'm not the teacher who has to work with all that technology.

--As I left my evening class at 9:30, I was happy that I just had a short walk to my seminary apartment.  At one point, my spouse and I found a fixer upper of a house in SE DC, which gave me pause for all sorts of reasons.  Last night, I was glad that I wasn't hiking to the Metro station and facing a long commute home.

--I am still not unpacked.  I had thought that I would have Wednesdays be museum days, but today may be a getting organized and fully unpacked day.  As I went to class yesterday, I realized that the classwork pace will soon crank into high gear, and I need to be organized by then.  I'm headed to see my parents in Williamsburg on Friday morning, so time is running out.

--Perhaps today's museum day will be the Wesley gallery.  I thought about AU's museum, but it's closed until mid-September.

--Off to call the health and dental insurance company to make sure that the very easy buying of insurance process on Saturday actually worked.  [Update:  it did!  We are good to go, and for just $66.84, so much less than we were paying--thank you President Obama who created this HealthCare.gov exchange!).