One Class, Two Finals

I took my final exam for my J-term class this morning. It was not bad for a “blue book” test, since the professor only wanted 300-word responses (he said he actually stops reading after 300, so it was kind of funny to see us all nervously counting our words as we wrote them!).

I think just getting to school this morning was more stressful than the test. I normally can make the drive to Luther in the mornings in 30 minutes or less, but with the snow it took an hour today. I made it just in time for the test, and finished in less time than it took me to get to school!

So I decided to get my books for Spring semester, since I was already on campus. The bookstore couldn’t find one of them, which is for the only class I already have a syllabus for and know I will need next week. In the meantime, I still have a final paper to write for my J-term class. I saw a classmate while I was in the bookstore and he asked me how my “break” is going, referring to the month of January. I had forgotten that for some people J-term is done—either they had shorter intensive classes or they did their cross-cultural experience—and now they have some time off before spring term starts. My final paper is due by Saturday morning, so until then I am not officially done with J-term, but am trying to get a head start on spring as well.

On a bright note, my favorite aunt is visiting from Colorado, so we went to my favorite Greek restaurant for lunch to celebrate me finishing my final test. Seeing the huge photos on the walls of the warm, sunny, Mediterranean world made me think once again about escaping from the Minnesota winter. If they still spoke Biblical Greek in Greece today, maybe I could use that as an academic excuse to spend some time in Crete, brushing up on my language skills. Maybe someday…

In the meantime, I will keep working on my final paper—actually, a doctrinal sermon. I’ve never had to footnote a sermon before, or think about preaching to an academic audience, which is what this assignment is about. So it’s really half research paper, half sermon. It should be fun to write, and might help me get prepared for the preaching class I’m taking this spring semester, which starts next Monday. I guess I will have to wait until Easter to actually have a “break.”