Classes Have Begun!

Today was my first day of classes, and after three months of no class I got to begin with a full 6 hours of class! All of my classes only meet once a week, so each session is three hours. They give us breaks, but it is a lot of sitting in one place. Both classes take place in St. Mary's College, home to the Divinity school, and are in rooms 30 feet apart. Very weird, but I guess it is good preparation for that 3-hour PCON seminar I'll be taking next fall.

My first class was Theology of the Musical. Before you start laughing, finish reading. It is going to be a hard class. First of all, the professor is a reverend. Not quite sure how that is going to impact our class discussions, but it is different from anything I've had at Colgate. Secondly, there is a crap load of work to do. We have to write a 2500 word sermon (I've never even really witnessed a sermon before...) and we have to take part in an hour and a half long group presentation. My group goes last, which is a double-edged sword, but at least we get to present on Les Miserables. He said that previous groups had made videos, sung and played instruments, danced and were very peppy and exciting. He did a good job of splitting up the Americans and the Brits (his terms, not mine). My group is me, Lauren and two girls who are full time students here. They seem really nice. Hopefully we can get a game plan soon and start working on the presentation. The best part of class was the end. We spent the last 30 minutes watching a BBC program called "Songs of Praise." Originally meant to be a show where hymns were sung, it has transformed into a program where celebrities sing songs from musicals that have a religious undertone. The DVD version even scrolls the lyrics across the bottom. So we spent quite some time singing (or observing in my case) songs from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream coat, Godspell, Phantom of the Opera and The Sound of Music. The most loud and enthusiastic singer was the professor. I'm nervously excited to see where the semester will take us.

My second class was the one taught by our Colgate professor. It is called Heresy and Dissent in Medieval Christianity. We spent those three hours in a very intense discussion about belief, rituals, practice and heresy. We had to try and define the terms and figure out how the authors we read used the terms in different ways. It was actually exciting. I've never taken a religion class before and wasn't sure to expect, but the class reminded me a lot of a PCON class I took last semester called Peace and Conflict in the Digital Age. I can't do the class justice in just a sentence, but suffice it to say that the course has changed the way I read and think. For real. As I was looking over the notes I made in the margins of the text we read, I saw stuff I never thought I would write. I'm a big nerd. It's fine. But it felt really great to be in a class where we dove into the material deeply and had a healthy debate. If all the classes are like the one we just had, the three hours will not be a problem. Especially if we continue to get breaks and if someone brings snacks.

It was also sunny today! I was very, very pleased. I have to figure out how to get onto, or at least near, the golf course so I can take some pictures.