A Weekend of Rugby

Dear family and friends,

My first week back after spring break was the usual transition between my “normal life” attitude and my “studyharddon’tsleepgeteverythingdoneArrggg!” attitude. As I watched my family drive away Sunday night I felt pretty hollow and lonely inside, but by Monday morning I was more or less over not seeing them again for another two and a half months. It’s been pretty hard getting back in the swing of things though, because Continue reading “A Weekend of Rugby”

Power corrupts- updated

In recent years I have become wary of a certain situation. Whenever I find myself admonishing someone to be careful of some sin or situation, a little voice mumbles something in my head. Has this ever happened to you? The voice is mumbling “… your turn next?” Sometimes this happens before my words to the other person are even out of my mouth. “There but for the grace of God, go I” said John Bradford, and I believe it wholeheartedly.

The Governor of New York apparently Continue reading “Power corrupts- updated”

Blizzard

Dear friends and family,

Despite my better judgment, I’m going to write an update this week because so many cool things have happened. Most important and wonderfully exciting is we had a blizzard here in Columbus!!! It started snowing Friday morning, kept going through to Friday night, and by Saturday morning it was blizzarding and it didn’t really stop until Saturday evening. I can’t say what the average snow fall is or anything, but around my dorm it ranges between a foot and a foot and a half deep. The wind was blowing pretty hard the whole time, so the snow got moved around quite a bit.

Snow is so much fun!! and this is the first time I’ve been in so much snow (excluding a big snow we had when I was about 5 which I don’t remember very well). Friday evening I spent an hour sliding down a steep pathway, very very fun, and later that evening after my usual IFI potluck, a few other international students and I Continue reading “Blizzard”

One Yard Halfback

“No one wants to carry the ball 99 yards all the way to the one-yard line, and then give it to the halfback who gets all the credit,” one state senator complained to a local journalist.

I don’t usually start a post with a quote from a rabidly liberal journalist who works for the largest, most despicable newspaper in the U.S. Paul Krugman, however (writing here in the New York Times) makes an excellent point. Is Barack Obama really an Eli Manning for Democratic progressives and liberals, or is he something else? I must give credit here Continue reading “One Yard Halfback”

The End of the World….. I mean Quarter Has Come

The End of the Quarter Has Come…….oh yeah…..dear family and friends too,

Mostly, the last week is here and then finals, which I won’t call a week because it is not. However, this is a first for me, since last quarter I only had one final and that was pretty easy, and this quarter I have four finals. Therefore, today you get an abbreviated version of my activities for the past week, and next week you probably won’t be hearing from me at all, as I doubt I’ll be able to unstick my face from my textbooks long enough to write an e-mail longer than “ask me after finals.” There is definitely nothing in the world quite like college ;)>

Tuesday- I took my second math midterm. If you want to know Continue reading “The End of the World….. I mean Quarter Has Come”

Photojournal of “Christmas in Kentucky”

This is quite a bit late, but by now you family members will be ready to enjoy the memories. For the record, we tried to get all Ted’s family to come here for Christmas, and it worked, more or less. His brother Dan arrived about the 20th, and Stephen came on the 22nd with Emily and Riley, with Beckham flying in on Christmas Eve. Ted’s sister Lucy spent Christmas with her family in England, then came over the water with her sister-in-law, Pauline, on the 27th. Sad to say, there was only about a day and 1/2 overlap when the early and late visitors were here at the same time. But we made the most of it!

Here is Serena, basking in the glow of the Christmas tree, impatient for it to be loaded with presents, and for her cousins to arrive!
Serena basking in Chistmas tree ambiance
Continue reading “Photojournal of “Christmas in Kentucky””

Chenoweth Academy in the Sentinel News

A reporter spent some time recently with Beth and Serena, and this article is the result. Here are some comments from Beth about what was published and what the process was like from her angle:

This interview was actually an interesting experience. After I mentioned that my middle daughter was studying Chinese and Arabic, the reporter, Nathan, volunteered that he had spent 2 years in China as a missionary. I assumed that he was Continue reading “Chenoweth Academy in the Sentinel News”

An Exciting Week

Greetings fellow conspirators (don’t ask, I just wanted to say something different),

I have had quite a week, and I’m sure your just withering away in your chair waiting to read about it since you were deprived of my brilliant and witty writing last week. Ahem……so anyway this week I got to meet General Abizaid, the recently retired CENTCOM commander (CENTCOM stands for Central Command, which is basically where all the top military decisions of the United States are made). He came to OSU to give a talk about the state of the Middle East and how Continue reading “An Exciting Week”

Barack Obama is white!

Stanley Ann DurhamThere… I’ve been struggling with this for months, and now I’ve said it. So, before you click past, aghast at such umbrage, may I point out a simple fact: Sen. Obama’s mother is white. Of course, his father is a black man from Africa, making him very precisely an “African-American”. Nevertheless, with inter-racial parentage, it stands to reason that he is just as much white as black. In truth, he is mulatto, a term I became more familiar with in the first stages of Sarah’s courtship with Dani Auguste. (In Haiti, by the way, these folks are typically from the upper classes and are given respect as a matter of course.) This tension was brought to mind while reading this article today from the Wall Street Journal, and I think it makes an excellent point. Somehow, Sen. Obama’s vision and Continue reading “Barack Obama is white!”