Way behind

I was talking to a friend about blogging and realized that I am way behind on the whole "keeping people updated on my life" thing. Christmas break, reorgy week (reorganization week), a lot has been happening and changing. Yet things are still fundamentally the same. Here I sit in my little gray cell late at night typing about the humdrum of everyday life while my roommates are sound asleep in the background. I'm still a "bitter yuc" eagerly awaiting the next opportunity to escape-at least in some degree-academy life (Yearling Winter Weekend, 16 days-not that I'm counting).

Winter Leave (more commonly known to other schools as winter/Christmas break) was amazing. I had to spend the night in the airport, but managed to get out of NYC only one day behind schedule-much better than most of the people who were waiting there with me. I spent two days sleeping. Literally. At the end of the second day looked down and realized that the only time I had been out of my pajamas was to shower. The next day was Christmas! It was a great day and I was given tons of cool stuff to help traveling/spending nights in airports much more tolerable. That weekend I started hanging out with friends and spent pretty much the rest of my time at home hanging out/catching up with old buddies from what seems forever ago.

Unfortunately, it came to an end and I returned to the point. We had three days of reorgy week to get moved in, buy books, find classes and generally re-acclimatize to life here. My roommates and I stayed together in the same room so moving was easy, I just pulled my stuff out of the closet but it was still a long three days.

I have a new plebe. This time, HE doesn't fit into any of the categories of my previous plebe. The emphasis for what I am supposed to teach this semester is Buckner-prep and other military type stuff- which my new plebe openly admits is his weak point making life easier for me when trying to come up with things to talk about. My leadership style is to take people on an individual basis as much as possible rather than a one size fits all attitude so I asked him what he wants from me and his answer was a hands-off leader. Great! I'll let him do his thing and unless he screws up I won't really have to work this semester! Should be relaxing, tons more time. Although, as much time as it takes, I think I am going to miss being there when my subordinate needed me. Its nice to be able to go to bed at night knowing that in some small way, simple though it may be, you made a difference in someone's life for the better.

Classes started on a Thursday (not Saturday like I had thought, although we did still have class) and we had a one-day weekend-not nearly enough. My course load isn't bad this semester (as in the classes are relatively easy even though there are a lot of them) but my instructors...there are some real winners. Others are legitimately good though. My philosophy teacher for example is exactly what I imagine taking a class from my cousin Kyle would be like-too bad he has to be teaching such a worthless class. My schedule is as follows:

DAY 1:
Intro to Computer Science
Spanish II
Philosophy
Economics

DAY 2:
Physics II
Probability and Statistics
Spanish II (both days)
SCUBA (only the second half of the semester)

LABS:
Computer Science
Economics
Physics

Total, including SCUBA for half a semester, 20.5 credits (our labs don't actually count for credit hours, they are just a part of the class).

On the church side of things, it was really good to come back and see all my friends again. Yes, I am aware that I just said it was good to come back, and I meant it. I always miss home and dread coming back, but these guys have become as much my family as those at home, in a way. Being a branch missionary is great. We finally got around to teaching the first new-member discussion to our recent convert and we have another baptism on Saturday. Sadly, I will no longer be in/teaching the gospel essentials class. Though I struggled with it, it was good for me and I will miss seeing the investigators in that setting every week. Given what I am moving to instead; however, its a change I'm glad to make- mission prep is going to be taught during that time! We are all beginning the process of leaving the academy to serve the Lord and I can't wait! Especially after teaching the discussion yesterday.

That's about it. Exiting boredom, the story of my life.