And we're back!

Whew.  Talk about jumping right into the hustle and bustle of that crazy thing we call university life!  There's quite the chasm between my last two weeks at home and my first two days of classes.  The juxtaposition of the two by itself is enough to exhaust me!

Needless to say, I made it back to the Mount safe and sound.  One of my best friends picked me up from the airport on Saturday evening and I spent the night at her house.  We hit the road in the morning and arrived at the Mount in the early afternoon.  I spent most of the day cleaning my room (it was a mess since I had decided to go up to New York during finals week-- that was not originally part of my plans!) and unpacking my suitcases.  Whilst doing said activities I came to the realization that:

a) I have way too much clothes.  Especially jackets.  It's ridiculous.  And I'm not even one of those girls who loves to shop and what not.  My mom loves to buy me things.  Thus I own a ridiculous amount of clothing.  We have a clothing drive for Haiti going on right now, so I think I'm going to get rid of some stuff.

b) I own A LOT of books.  This one I'm not complaining about.  ;-)  But, I probably have about 70 books "out" in my room.  Plus two full plastic bins of books that I figured I wouldn't be using this semester.  And these don't even include the probably 150 or so books that I have at home (and wish I had at school! I love my books!).  That's definitely one thing I'll miss when/if I enter.  My books.

At any rate, I went to Mass Sunday evening and then hung out with a big group of friends.  We played this weird game... I can't recall the name of it, but it was like a very complicated Apples to Apples.  It was awesome!  And goodness gracious you could tell we were a Catholic group!  So many of our witty answers revolved somehow around something Catholic.  It was good times, though.  I really want to make it a priority to spend quality time with my friends this semester.

Speaking of...  I remember something that my AP Government teacher told my high school senior class.  She said, "There are three things you can do in college: study, have a social life, and sleep.  Unfortunately you can only do two of the three simultaneously.  Without fail, one of the three will be left behind."

Add to that list keeping a healthy spiritual life and work and you find that it becomes a heck of a juggling game to squeeze in everything.

I'd be crazy if I didn't say I'm a little bit worried about this semester.  I thought it was going to be a breeze, but after having been to all of my classes, now I'm not so sure.  Each of my five classes have a major research paper in it (usually you only have two, maybe three that have a substantial paper assigned).  I counted up the number of pages total that I'll be writing and it hit 64 pages.  And mind you that does not include the smaller papers (2-3 pages) OR my honors theses (which is supposed to be 25-50 pages long).  Heh.  If I die this semester, everyone knows why.

I'd be a little more relaxed about my writing this semester if it weren't for the fact that these are all research papers.  I can write fairly quickly (I usually write all my papers the night before they're due... those are usually 5-7 pages) and I do very well.  But, I'll be the first to admit that I'm just not that great at research.  I don't enjoy it and I can't do it quickly.  I get bored too easily.  And frankly (this is probably the biggest problem), I don't have the discipline to start it early.  Of course I'm going to have to with all of these projects.  Otherwise there's no way I'll survive the semester.

On the other hand, my classes are all really swell.  I love them!  History of Economic Thought (ECON 406) is going to be tough...  I'm not so sure the professor was honest with me when he said I'd be fine in it (he was trying to make sure that there would be enough people signing up for it to teach it).  Luckily I'm taking it pass/fail, so I only need to earn 60% to pass the class.  It's going to be very informative, though!  Basically the professor wants to teach us that we can't blame economic systems (particularly capitalism) as the causes for our social evils.  Rather, the cause of our social evils is spiritual.  We have to remedy the spiritual problems in order to fix the social evils.  This is why it's sad that so many religious and priests have turned to simply trying to fix social justice issues (not to say they're not important- they are!) rather than focus on the spiritual well-being of their people they serve.

My Contemporary Catholic Philosophy (PHIL 346, I think) is also going to rock.  We're reading Ratzinger, Henri de Lubac, Alasdair MacIntrye, and Pope Paul VI.  The course is essentially trying to understand and examine the Catholic response to the problems of modernity.  It's going to be great.

Moral Philosophy is going to be awesome simply because it is.  We're reading Fagothey (Thomist), Grisez (Thomist, but not in the traditional sense), Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics, and then a few other things.  The class is being taught by my s/d, an amazingly intelligent moral theologian.  About 2/3 of the class are seminarians.

And Body or Soul: A Philosophical Investigation (PHIL 400) is going to be tough, but very intriguing.  Our very Catholic professor wants to help us delve into the relationship between the brain and the soul and the functions of each.  None of us know a lot of science, but we'll be learning as we go.  Our first reading is Charles Darwin!  Then we're moving onto a lot of Plato (we're reading the entire Phaedo and Republic).  Aristotle's De Anima of course.  Something else.  Oh!  And Brave New World  by Huxley.  Great book!

All good stuff.  I'm exhausted now, however.  It's been a long day.  Woke up for the 7am Mass and made my holy hour right afterward.  Then had class, a short break for lunch, another class, and then work for the rest of the afternoon.

But, God is good!  And life is wonderful!  I can't wait to meet with my s/d on Monday of next week!