Home Stretch (already!)

Hi again!

Here I am again as the weeks speed by. I think we're kept busy enough that it's easy not to notice the time flying past. Personally, I'm exhausted, but doing well. Since I wrote last, we finished our phase of lectures (just the first four weeks) and have been using class to work though specific issues (everything from operations on conjoined twins to land ownership). The basic concept is to explore the complexities of the dilemmas involved, look at what relevant principles we can draw from scripture, and use these to form a position on the issue. It's rarely a simple process, but the difficulty has been rewarding. As homework, we've been tracking 10 key world issues and writing as many questions as we can on each every week--totalling hundreds of pages of questions by now. The investment of time and energy has been draining, but I'd say worth it.

Backing up, our second half of lecture was particularly impacting. Our speaker Matt Rawlins worked with us to get really personal in identifying how our communication is rooted in defensiveness (hiding, protecting ourselves, needing control) as well as working through some principles of learning to be able to disclose our own agendas and develop a common ground of information from which we can explain our conclusions. You could basically summarize the gist of his message as: "we're all defensive jerks--what are we going to do about it?" A short paragraph doesn't really do this content justice, but for me this may have been the most developmental part of the school so far.

Outside of school life, I've really enjoyed connecting a bit more deeply with the other students here. This really is a high-quality bunch of people and the diversity rarely gets boring ...be it philosophizing over lunch dishes, charting new territory in the forest, or watching movies from all over the world. This last weekend was extended so we had Mon and Tuesday off. I took the opportunity to make a website for a friend which I was very pleased to squeeze in despite all plausibility. Last Sunday, I also celebrated surviving the first 21 years of my life! Thanks all for the emails and notes on facebook. It was actually a really cool day. It was quiet, but I felt really honored by Swiss chocolate, random notes, and getting treated to some potent spirits at the local Auberge up the street.

Now it's home stretch (with less than three weeks remaining). This week, I have a 15 page paper on the dilemmas of economics in Russia, next I'll work with three other students to do a group paper examining Russia's development more holistically. For the final week, Liz will be able to visit! She gets in just in time for our group projects and then to spend a few days around Burtigny and getting to know the school!! An exciting (and very distracting) prospect indeed.

I hope to post again before then, but I'll be back in Seattle after March 27th. I'm enrolled for spring classes at UW and am planning to dive back in full force. If all goes well, I'll have a place to live too--I'm planning to sublet a room from another CHID student who's doing a study abroad in Italy.

Enjoy some random pictures below...

Burtigny Countryside

Burtigny Countryside with U.F.O.

Not beautiful, but I think this was my first successfully-landed handspring. Woo hoo!

Be afraid. Our self-imposed 80's day...

A few Saturday's back, some of us went to France, where I made it skiing for the first time in years (maybe since I was 15?).

We accidentally skied into some back country where we had to hike out. We stopped for lunch at the top of the world and I did a handstand. Geneva is below the haze in the background.

After, we decided to cool off a bit and "ski free." It wasn't as cold as you might think--except maybe for some of the looks we got :o).