Lights out for UC Davis

Tonight in an attempt to feel some normalcy I went to the Griz first away game of the season against UC Davis (which happens to only be an hour and a half away). You can say what you want about the game, but we played like crap tonight. We have a couple of green quarter backs, and lost a lot of great players to graduation last year. Mariana, and Reynolds are really the only thing holding our offense together, but they don't seem to have a lot to work with. The game started with the teams going back and forth punt for punt, when the Griz started to concede stupid fouls, and the Aggies put one through the up rights to make the score 3-0 Aggies. The half ended with that score... yeah, exciting I know right? :( The Second half didn't seem to change much at first with the exception of a great punt return of about 30+ yards. The Aggies took advantage once they got the ball back though and continued to one receiver (Carter) who when he was covered couldn't do anything, but Coach Hauk never had him covered! The Aggies scored early making the score 10-0 Aggies. Finally the Griz started to show some life after trading another couple of punts with Davis, and following a beautiful 60+ yard reception/run putting the Griz on the 2 yard line Chase Reynolds ran the ball in with the PAT giving us a score of 10-7 Aggies lead. the Griz started showing life, but still committed some stupid fowls. Thankfully the Aggies made mistakes of their own like a fumble on the 25 yard line resulting in another Griz touchdown. 14-10 Griz lead. after some more "entertaining" football the Griz notched a field goal for a score of 17-10. On the Aggies final drive they started on their own 33 yard line but after a long pass to... guess who was not covered... Carter putting them deep in Griz territory. The Griz were looking strong in the red zone, and the Aggies were forced to take a time out with less than a minute on the clock, and a 4th and 7 from the Griz 12. Just as the players were returning to the field... Bam... All the Field's flood lights turned off. This resulted in a 20 minute delay in the game as they let the lights cool, restruck them, and let them rebuild intensity. Even after this long timeout caused by an "accident," The Griz held the Aggies one more time for a final score of 17-10 Griz win. A win the team definitely didn't earn tonight, but hopefully they will learn a lot from tape, and bring their A game the rest of the season. If anyone in the Bay area would like to attend a Griz game, I am planning on attending the Sac State game as well in late October.

Hebrew study sessions, and emotional roller coasters.

Yesterday was the day when there are minimal classes at the seminary. I am taking one class that is the equivalent of an elective. It is a Spirituality class on Lectio Devina. This is a form of prayer I first learned about during my inquirers weekend here and it is a very interesting and spiritual form of contemplative prayer. It starts with a verse or passage and can be done with either a small group, or individual (seems in my experience to work better with a group), everyone gets into a comfortable position, and just relaxes, you concentrate on your breathing, and attempt silence. The verse is then read and you quietly contemplate on that. After a few minutes, the verse is read again, and you listen for a word or phrase that catches your attention. Then you have more silence during which time you think about the word/phrase over and over. You then are prompted to think about how this word/phrase has affected you, or how it speaks to you. You pray on this for a few minutes; then you are prompted to think about how this word/phrase may be inviting you. The description only gives a glimpse into how it works, but when you actually partake, it can be very spiritual.

After class I was going to take a quick break to rest then go on a road bike ride one of the senior students told me about. I sat down and started watching Dumb and Dumber, and next ting I knew the bell tower was ringing 2 o’clock. Charles came by and we headed down to Tom’s (one of the NCers) room to study for our first Hebrew quiz on the alphabet which is coming up Friday. We spent bout ½ hour to 45 minutes studying then I decided I needed to get going on my ride so I could get it in. Once I hit the first big hill (about 3 miles up and 3 down) I remembered that I had only ridden my road bike twice in the last 2.5 months and I was being a little bit ambitious wanting to ride a 30-40 mile ride right out of the gates. I ended up riding most of the way to the Golden Gate then back home rounding out a 21 mile ride which is what I rode every day back home. It was very refreshing, and about 45 min after I got back Charles came by again because he had cooked several of us dinner and we headed back to Tom’s room to eat and study more. It was a great study session using dessert plates and dry erase markers to write down the letter and transliteration of each letter read to us. Julie had called earlier in the day because she had decided to take Hebrew with us, so she came by and we got her started on the alphabet to prepare for a quiz on her first day of class.

Thursday is another day where I only have one class. It is basically a repeat of Monday, but because we only have intro to Ministry on Mondays, I only have Church History in the morning. After class, I didn’t really do much, I just ran some errands around town, and was raped by the gas pump ($3.299 per gallon!). Later in the night we were supposed to be meeting for dinner and studying at 6 but the first game of the NFL season started at 5:30. So Gavin and Jim came over and we hung out in Sam’s room and watched the first half till 7 before heading to the Trinity House for dinner. The Maden Curse struck early this year with Polamalu injuring his MCL.

Shortly before the first half ended I got a call that shook my world. The rest of the night I was just kind of in a daze trying my best to just go on business as usual with all the people around me. I was a little worthless at the study session, and didn’t have an appetite. I feel lost, but know that when I get a grip on the situation I have many friends here I can console in.

Seminary class day one

Today was the first day of classes. We started with our OT intro and went over some of the basic differences between the Christian OT, and the First Testament/Hebrew Bible. Mainly the differences are the order of the books, which I had already found out from Bob Cootes book Power Politics and the Making of the Bible. After chapel it was on to Hebrew where we learned the Aleph Bet song, an upbeat children’s song to learn the Hebrew alphabet, check it out, you can find it on http://www.Youtube.com

WE also went over the alphabet, how to pronounce each letter, and what the transliteration of each is. Professor Imchen let us know our first quiz will be Friday on basically what we learned today.

At about 2:30 Charles came over and informed me Julie was at the GTU and not coming back so we didn’t have a driver for the bus to Berkeley, so I ran over to the administration building and turned in my license and insurance info to drive. I drove us at 6, and while waiting at Starr King for “Jesus and Drugs” (doesn’t really deal with Jesus at all) I got a call from the seminary saying I was OK to drive… oops! J

I also got good news today in terms of the possibility of Naval Chaplaincy. I have been trying to find out my re enlistment code for about a year now, but never used the proper channels because I was afraid to call my OSO. I was looking through online forums earlier this week and someone was saying anyone who DORs from OCS gets a RE4 (not recommended for reenlistment) which the Navy right now will not take RE4s. the Naval Chaplain Recruiter told me I would have to consider the Army or Air Force, or use the Jag to try and get my RE changed. I called my OSO today in Spokane, and the Gunnery Sergeant informed me I do not get DD214 forms, or an RE code for dropping, so the path is clear! IT is getting pretty late, and I have spirituality class early tomorrow morning, so I am going to head to bed now, and I invite you to keep on following my blog because there is much more to come.

Oh Yeah! The Griz are Playing UC Davis on Saturday, so I am going to try to get tickets and head the hour and a half to the North East so I can watch my boys in action on the road!

Orientated cont...

Wednesday started with the fun lecture on "Paying for Seminary." This was a subject I really don't like to talk about or listen to, but I did get a few helpful facts. Through all the doom and gloom of loans we learned about a few more scholarships available, and heard about a student who basically made a PT job out of looking for scholarships, and completely paid for seminary that way. I don't think I would be able to spend hour after hour looking for and filling out scholarship apps, so I think I will find a real PT job, and fill out the apps for the scholarships I know of. There was one scholarship they told us about that offers $12,000 each year if you are chosen for it, then after all this great info about this wonderful scholarship they told us it was only for Unitarian students... which I think in our seminary is just Laura (as I incorrectly called Lauren in the last post). There is no Chapel on Wednesday (or traditional classes for that matter) because it is a day to rest, and a lot of students have to work in different congregations on this day. Instead we had a community fair with different churches and organizations giving us info and recruiting our services. I spent some time talking to the girls from Young Life and will be meeting with one of them for coffee sometime in the next couple of weeks to discuss me volunteering. We had lunch at the Vice President's house, and a lot of the auxiliary members of the seminary were present, it was very interesting to hear about how they came to their current stations in life. After this we had a presentation on our health insurance (which is great as long as I am in California where Kaiser Permanente is present), since I was already being billed for it (we had to accept the billing agreement before we could register our classes) I went ahead and signed up. We then had a few hours off before a community potluck and talent show at Montague Hall and Montgomery Chapel. There are so many talented musicians here, it kind of made me feel inadequate since my musical talents are nil.

Thursday was another busy day, but with fewer items on the agenda. We first met and had a lecture on critical writing which again made me feel like I was in high school all over again, Ijust kind of spaced that hour and a half out, and was very ready for chapel following it. Chapel on Thursdays is a contemporary praise service, and the praise band is really good for not having a drum set. I talked to a few people, and may practice with them every once in a while to hone my guitar skills, but will not be taking the praise band class. Next came the GTU/UC Berkeley tour. We loaded up into the vans and headed over to the GTU. On the way one van and a personal vehicle lost us, and ended up in a round about each thinking they were following the other... after about 5 or so trips around the round about they continued on their way and eventually met up with us a the former GTU Book store. We got our GTU IDs, had lunch, and a couple of us wen to the UCB library and got our library cards. Following this we all met back up again for a tour of the UC Berkeley campus and trip to the bookstore. I had ordered all of my books online for pickup at the store, so I went in to pick them up. 4 books were on back order which worked out in my favor, because I barely fit the books I picked up in my day pack.

Friday was our first (unofficial) class. We had a Intro to Ministry "retreat" from 8:30-3:30 with a break for chapel (Fridays are Communion) and lunch (Yay Friday's lunch was paid for!). We started off with a prayer by method of "Examine." This involves looking back at a certain period of time (for us it was the week) and writing down all the events that effected us. Next we went through the list and labeled each item as empowering us spiritually, draining us spiritually, or neither/both. After this we were let out to quietly contemplate and pray on these items. We Introduced ourselves again after chapel and told one item of the week that drained us, and one that empowered us. It turns out Julie (from Alaska) and I had similar drains being that we felt out of place geographically, and afterwords we decided we are going to have to find some time to get out of the city and into the wilderness. My empowering item was the sense of community I feel here, I left a close knit church, but as soon as I met my classmates we started creating our own little congregation here, and that will be a huge help. We finished the day with an African video of Jesus life portraying him as an african man in modern times. it was very powerful, and I wish they had a release of it in the US (our professor had a screening copy he and another professor got ahold of). Saturday ended the week on a great note with a 12 mile hike (about 1800 ft elevation gain/drop again) to Stinson beach. It was beautiful, and made me feel a little less out of my element. I did a little body surfing in the ocean, and ended the day with a mountain bike ride on the fire trails (and a couple side tracks as I got lost). What a great week!

Orientated

OK, I am now two weeks into seminary and my first official week is over. Week one was orientation, so we spent a lot of time sitting in Scott 101 listening to people tell us about signing up for classes, health insurance, call, etc... It was a pretty long week, and I stayed fairly busy. I should have been blogging daily because there will be a lot left out of this post because I just won't remember it.

On our first day of orientation we started off with breakfast at the Butin's house (SFTS president and his wife). The president gave a nice little speech, and one of the important items he hit on was to give yourself a day for sabbath. This was kind of reassuring to hear as Tim's sermon at my commissioning service was on just this. My sabbath days will involve a whole lot of riding my bike, climbing, and playing guitar. After breakfast we had our first chapel service (monday's are a traditional service). After chapel we headed to Scott Hall for a discussion about planning our classes, and discussion of Tofu with Polly Coote. Tofu is the basic classes we need to take to obtain our Masters of Divinity. They are called Tofu because they are the basics we need to survive in seminary, but are a little bland, and need other classes to add flavor to our seminary experience. At lunch I sat with my roommate Sam and neighbor Charles. Charles is from the Santa Barbara Presbytery, and is out. It turns out Santa Barbara is the second most conservative presbytery int he church (right behind San Diego), so his ordination process sounds like it will be along arduous process. Sam was trying to convince him to change presbyteries to one of the more liberal Northern Cal Presbyteries like Redwood or San Francisco, but Charles thinks he was put in the Santa Barbara Presbytery for a reason and is looking to blaze the trail and cary the cross for seminary students who are openly gay. This made me realize how easy my life is being a white heterosexual male, and also started me wondering why God makes people so closed minded especially when he puts them a position of authority in the church. If a person is called to serve God, who are they to decide whether they can do it or not? After lunch the PCUSA students met for a discussion of the ordination process in our denomination and the care process. It turns out Mike Wilson and I were the only seminarians currently in the inquirer stage, and Charles is close. That night about 9 of us went to dinner at a chinese restaurant on the main drag of this section of Marin County (Sir Francis Drake Blvd.). We had two students from North Carolina; Tom and Ian (Ian is a Marine Corps Vet waiting on the GI Bill to pay for seminary), Laura a UCC with interest in femenism from Colorado, Gavin from Hawaii, Terra a former Med student who has been living in the bay area for a few years, Faith from TX (displaced from La due to Hurricane Katrina), Julie from Alaska, Charles my neighbor from down by LA, and myself. The food was pretty good, and the Butins showed up to the same restaurant as we were being served. We are quite the crew with diverse backgrounds, and one common interest.

Tuesday started with a "form filling out fiesta" in Scott Hall, which I expected (after the Marine Corps) to fill the full two hours with signing our names over, and over, and over, and over... but it ended up only being about 5 things to sign. WE also had an opportunity to sign up for classes during this time, so I logged on (love Wifi in the buildings) and made sure all my classes were registered. After the forms we headed down to Montgomery chapel for Tuesday Chapel which is a contemplative chapel. We then headed back to Scott for a study skills lesson ( I felt like I was back in high school, they realize we are masters students right?), and we got to meet our advisors. Lunch for Tuesday I sat at the table with our new Dean who is Catholic... I love how ecumenical this place is! We talked a lot about the spirituality classes offered on Wednesdays and this semesters is on Lectio Devina, if you haven't heard of this, check it out, I first learned about it at my inquirers weekend in 2008, and love it. I signed up for the class Tuesday night brining the grand total of my classes to 6 for 16 credits (4 tofu classes: Hebrew, OT 1, HIstory 1, and intro to Ministry; 1 class at the Unitarian seminary at he GTU in Berkley called "The sacred and substance [or Jesus and Drugs as my classmates have coined it, there are 6 or 7 of us taking this so we will be nearly half the class which should be interesting!], and the spirituality class).

More to come covering Wednesday through Saturday soon...

I will start Blogging once my Seminary Journey Officially starts so everyone can keep up with what's going on in the Life of Ryan (like the Life of Brian, but with more Jesus, and less making fun of him)