You’ve
caught me in the smack middle of midterms; I finished my third one less than
half-an-hour ago, and I have one more to go. It’s already been a long week, but
I leave on Friday for my first Spring Break in Texas (if you’ll recall, my
freshman year I was on tour with a cappella in Taiwan, and last year I was in
Jerusalem).
My
schedule is still under control; I haven’t needed to cut into my sleep schedule
or my morning routine to get things done. The reason for that, though, is that
I didn’t have a Sabbath; I spent all weekend going to various ROTC events (more
details later) and getting work done. Going a second week without a Sabbath has
taken a toll; I can’t get as much out of my morning routine when I’m tired, and
I often end up grabbing an extra half-hour of sleep instead of exercising. Still,
I’m past the halfway point.
Whatever
else the season may have brought, the weather has been stellar: it’s usually
above freezing, and we haven’t had snow in several weeks. Everybody kind of
missed February without the ever-growing piles of gray packed snow to mark its
passage, but we’re not complaining. I still get quite a bit of use out of my
winter clothing.
Speaking
of clothing (kind of), my Navy dress uniform has seen quite a bit of use in the
past couple of weeks. Last week I wore it for the leadership conference, and
this week I pulled it back out for the Tri-Service Ball. It was my first time
attending this particular ROTC event, but it was probably one of the more
enjoyable balls I’ve been to. The longer you’re in ROTC, the more people you
know, and the more comfortable mandatory social events become. In addition, the
afternoon before the ball, they sent out a few of the positions for next year’s
Midshipman Staff, so there was plenty of fodder for conversation.
The
ball was on Friday night; on Saturday night, I took my platoon out for dinner
(I was reimbursed). Social chairing isn’t really my forte, but while it wasn’t
a rousing success, I thought it went well; it gave us a chance to interact in a
more informal atmosphere and allowed me to talk to some of the freshman
face-to-face, which I haven’t had much of a chance to do before this. Everyone
has a lot of work around this time of semester, but we’re in pretty good
spirits.
I spent
the rest of my Saturday writing an essay for my take-home history midterm. I’ve
gotten so used to philosophy essays that I balk at the need to actually include
a bunch of facts in a paper. If you’re arguing that there’s moral wrong in the
world, you can just say ‘sally shouldn’t torture her cat for fun;’ you don’t
have to refer to a specific Sally in the year 1941 who did just that, and
include your primary source. So it took a while, but I think (hope) the result
was satisfactory.
The
Ethics of Atheism midterm I just finished involved an essay on textual
criticism, which was a little closer to my preferred writing style, but still
involved looking up a ton of quotes in a timed exam. Usually I finish my exams
early, but this time the professor extended the time allotment, and I and
almost everyone else took the 15-minute extension. It’s hard to make a
complicated argument and pull supporting quotes from several hundred pages of
text in an hour’s time.
In any
case, it’s almost over, and Spring Break starts on Friday after my ROTC class.
I’m looking forward to spending time with my parents and discussing a lot of
issues that have been swirling around in my head since I saw them last
face-to-face. And of course I’m looking forward to seeing many of you as well.
I won’t be posting next week, but I’ll be back the week after with reflections
on the break, heading back, and my progress with my New Year’s resolutions thus
far. Until then, all the best!
The Cafe in the Science Center (at which we can use a limited amount of our Board money from Harvard) had Arabic food this week!
Of course, as an American, there's nothing like ice cream and apple pie.
No comments:
Post a Comment