Day 183 (Hebrew Parsing)

I finished the parsing for my Hebrew exegesis assignment, but I still need to make it pretty. Finished all of the readings for the next two days, so I can concentrate on what's due for Thursday. I'd write more, but I really need to go to sleep. Night all!

Gay Guy in Seminary: Day 162 (Real Life)

Is there such thing as a blog that really tells it like it is? I mean, one that isn't anonymous, anyway. Because, when I started this, I totally told myself that it was going to be brutally honest so that people could see all of the dirty little details of what it's like to be in seminary, let alone what it's like being a gay guy in seminary. But, the truth is, that may people that I go to school with and other people that I don't go to school with but am very close to, read this blog. I'm not saying that I've ever lied on this blog, it's just that I have to edit some stuff out.

I can't have a private conversation with someone and then blab all about here, as interesting as that might be for some of you to read. There are political things that go on with the school, things that students do that professors may or may not know about, and certain things that people say about other people that I simply cannot in good conscience put out there on the Internet for everyone to read. Remember, we are seminarians, not saints. Besides, I probably wouldn't have very many friends after a while. I do feel that I am a trustworthy person and I want people to know that. I suppose they must if they are aware of this blog and they continue to tell me things in confidence.

There are thoughts that I have that I simply cannot share here. Yes, as open as I am trying to be, there are some things that are just too personal, especially when they are thoughts about other people.

I hope writing this doesn't disenchant anyone who has been reading this blog.

It makes me sad that I can't represent the fullness of what it is like to be here, but there are more things that I have to consider than what would make a juicy read. But, Oh! how I wish I could tell it all!

In other news:

We had our last actual Hebrew class today. Bob gave us tomorrow off to study, so all we have left is the final on Wednesday. A decent sized group of us got together at Holy Grounds to study. I'll be back there tomorrow (with a bottle of red wine to take the edge off) to continue studying.

I showed those same people the movie Tank Girl when we decided it was time for a break. I guess you could say it did not go over well. I did warn them that it was not going to be some deep intellectually stimulating experience. It's just a fun, silly, crazy mess of a movie, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. Not everything has to be serious. It's a movie from my youth and I will always love it for it's irreverent sense of humor. I must mention, however, that watching it again now, it was obviously created by some not-so-gender-issue-sensitive men (or at least I think it was). Being acclimated to the environment at SFTS, even I was a little uncomfortable with some of the scenes in the movie. I feel like I should write a paper on it now. What is graduate education doing to me?

Gay Guy in Seminary Day 161 (Ditching Church)

The seminary student was bad today and decided to sleep in instead of going to church. Please do not let this be an example for any of you. I was just really tired and felt like cooking instead. The orange glazed chicken turned out really great, but I still haven't gotten around to making the pumpkin cookies. Hopefully the shredded pumpkin isn't rotting in my fridge as we speak. Faith and I finished the Hebrew quiz today with the help of a few of our classmates (thank you Jeff & Kimberlee). Spent most of the day at Holy Grounds. Sometimes I feel like I live there, and Jim was telling me that I should consider running the place next year. Might as well, I guess, since I'm there all of the time.

I finally got an application back for one of the scholarships I was inquiring about. Hoping to get that out sometime next week. There's this other scholarship I still need to apply for. I know I shouldn't make excuses, but after all of this Hebrew, it's hard to get motivated to do anything productive. Maybe once Jan-term ends on Wednesday I can get all of the stuff done that I've been putting off.

Gay Guy in Seminary Day 152 (Halfway Point)

Thus ends the 2nd week of the Hebrew intensive. Blogging super late today because I was super distracted. Went for a super long walk with Tom & Kimberlee after class, collected pine spike and candy cap mushrooms, although I am going to do a little bit more research to make sure the mushrooms I think are candy caps actually are candy caps before I eat them. Then I showed Tom The Gamers: Dorkness Rising, and he showed me The Bear, which is a ridiculously anthropomorphic movie about bears for anyone who hasn't seen it. Wrapped up the day with lot of Magic: The Gathering with Rus & Tom.

Tomorrow morning's the bid "coffee date" with the Baptist minister. Not sure what's going to happen, but I'm sure it will be interesting. I'll keep you posted. XD

Gay Guy in Seminary Day 144 (Hebrew, Thou Dost Slay Me)

It's day 3 in the trenches. We've been marching 6 hours a day with no end in sight. The jungle is hot, and the enemy is tricky. Some of the letters are so quiet, you don't even know they're there until they're right on top of you. Then the words are zinging by your head so fast, you don't know what's going on. Right when you think you got a handle on the situation, they're gone. Sneaky bastards have the upper-hand 'cuz we're on their home turf. Spirits are high, but dropping. The onslaught is relentless. Some have resorted to bowling. I try to distract myself with cards. Don't know how much longer I can go on. Orders were to do recon on 1 thru 10 and sector 22 vocab. We have accomplished the objectives; but there'll be more orders tomorrow and we need to report back to the command post what we know. Any mistake will cost us. Tour ends in 3 weeks, but how many of us are gonna make it that far?

Gay Guy in Seminary Day 140 (Points North)

After driving back and forth a few times, I have figured out that taking the I-5 from LA to San Francisco (or vice versa) as opposed to the 1 or the 101, will reduce your travel time by approximately 1 hour. Personally, I do not think this makes up for how boring the drive is, however there is an AMAZING Indian restaurant right off the I-5 called "Taste of India", where I was TOTALLY planning to stop at, but as I was not very hungry when I was driving by it and I am experiencing a crippling shortage of cash, I decided not to, THUS eliminating any real reason to take the 5. ALSO, there was traffic on the 5 today, not too much, but it was something that I had NEVER experienced before. I guess there were a lot of people heading back home after the holiday.

I tried an A&W burger for dinner (a poor substitute for Taste of India), and it wasn't half bad. (It wasn't half good either.) I passed up In & Out because I've been eating that pretty frequently and what I really wanted (since Taste of India was no longer an option) was Wendy's, but those are few and far between, so despite my general loathing of fast food, I decided I would try an A&W burger since I had as yet to try one. I really needed to eat something other than cheesy poofs, which I had been munching on during the drive (2 varieties: White Cheddar Corn Puffs and Baked Cheese Crunchies, both from Trader Joe's and both really really good. I also had a bag of crunchy Cheetos, but I couldn't justify opening the bag with the other two bags being open.)

So, now I'm back and blogging after a brief D&D session with Rus, Matthias, Ian & Terra. My back is sore from the drive and I am not looking forward to starting the Hebrew intensive O_o. Should be interesting.

Gay Guy in Seminary Day 123 (Semester's End)

By the grace of God, my class and I have completed our first semester of seminary. It was a long and bumpy ride, but we have all grown and learned and I believe we are better people for it. It's funny that 24 hours ago, I wasn't sure I was going to make it to this point, but I managed to remember enough to pass my Church History class. I'm not saying I did well on the final, jut good enough. Some of us went out for a celebratory lunch. I took everyone to the Sunflower Cafe. Gotta do what can to keep that place open, LOL! It's my go-to place when I need to have a few hours of cozy reading; I'll be upset if I lose it. Some of us also went out for some drinks later. Very low key, kind of a reflection of the past few months.

It's strange because it seems like it went by so fast, but when I think of that first week here, it's like remembering something from two years ago. We are fast approaching Christmas, and New Year's will be right around the corner. It's kind of like starting over. A new year, a new semester. We have a Hebrew intensive in January. Over a month of Hebrew, 5 days a week, 6 hours a day, all Hebrew, all the time. Should be fun. I'm kind of looking forward to it actually. We'll have a new professor and there won't be any other classes to distract us. In the Spring semester, I believe we will be using what we've learned to actually translate some parts of the Bible in Old Testament Exegesis. Craziness, craziness, craziness. And of course, we're gonna have to find time for gaming. :-)

Gay Guy in Seminary Day 110 (Lessons and Carols)

First off, I need to apologize to any SFTFers; I realize this picture is not from this year's Lessons and Carols, but I wanted to show what the inside of Stewart Chapel looks like. The music was really good. Anyone in the area for a Lessons and Carols weekend should stop by and check it out.

So glad that it's Friday. I somehow finished the Old Testament paper and made it through another Hebrew quiz. I've kind of been slacking off on the Hebrew, but I crammed over the last few days, so I think I may be pretty much up to speed. It's not perfect, but if I keep up with it EVERY DAY, then I should be back to where I was a few weeks ago.

I watched Amazing Grace with Faith tonight. Amazing movie! (no pun intended) It's about the abolition movement in England. A nice period piece if you're into that kind of thing, but it's a lot more than that for those of you who are not. Whiled the night away paling Magic with Tom. Now gotta get to bed so I can start my 10 page Sacred and the Substance paper tomorrow O_o

Gay Guy in Seminary Day 102 (Hangover)

Yes, for the very first time ever, I woke up with a hangover this morning. Perhaps we should do this blog as a flashback...

The drive back home wasn't nearly as tedious as normal; having Amber there made the ride back much more enjoyable. Unfortunately, I wasn't specific enough when I got directions from Mapquest, because we ended up taking the 101 all the way back, and thus were unable to stop at Julia Pfieffer Falls. I could have sworn that the 101 and the 1 were essentially the same freeway, but they don't actually become the same freeway until around San Louis Obispo. We also grabbed some snacks at the gas station, so by the time we got to the Madonna Inn, neither of us were hungry.

Originally, the plan was to watch New Moon with my sister when I got back, but everyone was getting together for sushi. Since it has been over 3 months since I've had really good sushi, this was an agreeable change of plans. While at the restaurant, I took advantage of the fact that I wasn't driving to have a bottle of sake and a beer. The party moved over to the Wei house afterwards where I proceeded to have 2 shots of tequila, a glass of scotch, a martini, and another beer. Suffice it to say that I was gloriously drunk. To be honest, I was partly thinking to test my inability to get a hangover. Well, it finally happened, and as I suspected, it sucked. I'm sure other people's hangovers have been much worse; I have heard stories after all, but 5 hours of headache and nausea were enough to convince me that I never want to experience it ever again. However, I am glad that I can now say that I have had one.

Thanksgiving was typical. Lots of food; lots of fun. We watched Pandorum, a creepy sci-fi thriller. You know, the usual. We somehow ended up with 7 pies, 6 of the pumpkin variety, of which I am partaking as we speak. I was going to study Hebrew, but I decided to watch Glee instead. Oh well.

Gay Guy in Seminary Day 089 (Hiking Naked in Switzerland)

I learned about an interesting thing that people do in Switzerland tonight at the dinner party we had at our Old Testament professor's house. Apparently, some people in Switzerland like to go hiking while naked. Granted, this is not the norm, this is not something that everyone does, but it has become such a problem that Swiss officials have actually order signs to be put up at trailheads to let people know that naked hiking is not allowed. This is understandable as most people are quite shocked when they run into a naked person in the middle of the wilderness.

Some of the other things that we discussed were my alcohol problem, amazing one-legged chinese bicylists, and bus horror stories from around the world. It was a lot of fun and I was totally surprised to find out that four hours had gone by when I finally looked at the time. I finally ended up leaving close to midnight.

We talked about what our first semester at seminary was like, and for many people, it was a culture shock. One of us came here from Hawaii, another from Alaska, others from the "lower 48." Several of us have come to seminary after being out of school for a very long time, leaving well established careers. Even those of us transitioning to graduate school almost directly from undergrad have had to make adjustments, as I have written about several times in this blog. Gradutate school is simply much harder than undergrad. Most of us have had to move far away from out family and friends. Luckily, our class has come together to fill in a lot of those gaps, but home is never really replaceable.

So, for everyone reading this back home, remember that I love you and that I think about you all the time, even if I seem too busy to call. You are and will always be home to me, even as I make a second home for myself up here. I will be back home for Thanksgiving, so hit me up! I will be having as much fun and debauchery as possible for the 4 days that I'm back, and I want as many of you to be part of it as possible!

Gay Guy in Seminary: Day 086 (Hebrew)

Okay, I'm not saying this to brag, but I really need to figure out what to do about Hebrew class. I don't want to go to class because I don't think it helps me very much, and frankly, there are better things that I can do with my time. I get really good grades on the quizzes and I aced the midterm, all on self-studying, so why should I have to waste my time in class? I think that as long as I can keep getting the same grades on the tests, then I should be excused from having to attend class. The point of taking it is to learn, right? The point of taking a class is not to show how punctual we are and how good we are at paying attention. Granted, if things start to get too difficult for me, then I would have to start going to class, but I don't really see that happening before the term ends.

And, if I do decide to go to class and it becomes obvious to the professor that I am not paying attention, should he even care? He, more than anyone, should be aware of how I'm progressing in the subject. On top of everything, this is not a discussion based class. Hebrew is not about opinions, at least not at the level that we are at. It just is what it is, a bunch of rules that we have to learn. There really isn't anything for me to contribute to a class conversation about dages lene or qametz hateuf. So, it's time for you guys to vote. Should I have to go to Hebrew or should I be excused from showing up to class, as long I keep doing well no the quizzes?

Gay Guy in Seminary: Day 073 (Magic the Gathering)

I finally got to play Magic today!!!! (I know, I'm a geek) But, it is SERIOUSLY the best game EVER! It's been around for almost 15 years I think? Not really sure, but it was the first ever collectible trading card game. When you're playing, you basically take on the role of a wizard, and you're battling with another wizard and you're trying to kill each other. Sounds a little violent, but it's not, because this is all done with numbers and you're playing with cards like the one pictured here

You start with 20 life, and your opponent has to get you down to zero while protecting their own life total from you. It sounds dorky, and I admit, it is, but I swear, it's really fun!

Tom and I were studying at the coffee shop, and we took a break so I could teach him how to play the game. It was really exciting for me, because I haven't played that much since someone broke into my car and stole most of my cards. Yes, someone broke into my car, in the church parking lot no less, and stole my magic cards. Granted, they probably had no idea what they were stealing at the time, but they are gone nonetheless. It's kind of hard to stay involved with something when something like that happens. It took me several years to collect all of those cards, and they were just gone. And, who the heck breaks into a car in a church parking lot?!?!?! This was like 5 or 6 years ago, but it's still upsetting when I think about it.

Reading week update: Studied Hebrew for about an hour and read Silence.

Gay Guy in Seminary: Day 071 (My So-Called Life)

Fourth day of reading week, 2nd if you don't count the weekend. I actually did some studying and research today; you should all be proud of me. Read some of Shusaku Endo's Silence for Intro to Ministry. It's about these two Jesuit priests from Portugal who go to 16th century Japan to do missionary work during a time of heavy persecution against Christians in that country. Spent a brief period reviewing Hebrew and read a little bit of Serpent and the Rainbow for Sacred and the Substance; it's about zombies.

Yes, one of my textbooks is about zombies.

Then watched three episodes of My So-Called Life with Marlene, also for Sacred and the Substance. You know, I get the most interesting homework from that class! First, it's chicken soup, then zombies, now My So-Called Life...what's next???

The actual assignment is this, right from the syllabus: find a substance use narrative: be it a film, a novel, a painting, an album, etc… and analyze it in terms of your own faith tradition.

I'm not even really sure I understand what this means, but I did clear it with the professor beforehand to make sure I could use My So-Called Life for the assignment. Hopefully, whatever I write will be close enough to what he was expecting that it'll be okay.

Angela, the main character played by Claire Danes, doesn't really have a drug narrative, so I'm going to be writing on her best friend Rayanne Graff, played by A.J. Langer, who blacks out when she drinks and like to experiment with drugs. I'll be watching the entire series during the course of reading week as research for the paper. Sucks, doesn't it?

For those who have yet to experience My So-Called Life, it is my absolute most favorite TV series of ALL TIME! The writing blows my mind away and the acting is really good. It's filmed like a movie with amazing camera angles and lighting effects with a soundtrack to die for. The characters are real. You just have to watch it to understand. This show is so much of what I am;Angela Chase is SO MUCH of who I am. Please, please, please, if you have not seen it, try to find someone who has the DVD set, or get it from Netflix, I guarantee, you will not be disappointed!

Gay Guy in Seminary: Day 068 (Falafel)

Today was a culinary first for me of sorts. I had "real" falafel for the first time. I'd had cold falafel from a deli case before, because I had just never had the opportunity to try fresh real falafel right out of the deep fat fryer. We went to Falafel Hut in San Rafael. The food was gooooooooooood, and the service was impeccable! I ordered the "deluxe" falafel pita with eggplant and potato. We SO need to go back to that place! I want to try everything on the menu; I love discovering exotic new places to eat! The funny thing is that the restaurant was so small that it couldn't accommodate our group of 11 people, so the owner sent us two doors down to the pizza place that he owns so that we could eat there. As far as I could tell, there weren't very many people eating the pizza, but we figured it was probably busier later at night. I'll certainly let you all know how the pizza is if I ever end up having it there.

Took the Hebrew quiz today... so wasn't ready for it! Between the 3 papers and studying for Old Testament and Church History, there just wasn't any time leftover. At least my grade is high enough in that class that a not-so-decent quiz shouldn't hurt me. I cut out after turning the quiz in 'cuz I just couldn't stand to be in that class anymore. I wasn't going to learn anything useful and I just wanted to get reading week started already! I should be able to catch up on everything during reading week, detox from caffeine, and come back to school ready and refreshed to finish the semester.

We had another movie night tonight; I finally got to introduce Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist to a everyone. It is my 3rd favorite movie, after all. Alexis showed us Dangerous Beauty afterwards, a movie about a courtesan in 16th century Venice. I'm not normally a fan of period films because they tend to be depressing, but this one was actually a lot of fun. The next movie I want to share is Lawn Dogs, staring Mischa Barton and Sam Rockwell. (#1 on my movie list btw for those that don't know)

Gay Guy in Seminary: Day 067 (Reading Week)

We are now one day and one Hebrew quiz away from Reading Week, which is a week in the middle of the semester where we have no classes. I assume the point of this week is to allow us to catch up on our class reading. This week cannot come soon enough. I'm a little bit surprised that I can still write coherent sentences right now after studying for the Church History midterm all night, getting 3 hours of sleep, taking the test and spending today writing the Old Testament paper. I still have to for the Hebrew quiz.

I think I did okay on the midterm; I know I didn't fail it. I'm hoping for a low "B," but I'll be happy with a "C." I just want to pass the class so that I will have one less history class in my life. History has always been my worst subject, so it should come as no surprise that it is the one class that I am struggling with up here. After this, there should just be History II, but I hear that's nowhere near as bad as History I. Then, I should never ever have to take a history class ever again. I've already managed to eradicate math classes from my life, I'm just one dreaded subject away from being "hated subject free."

Blah... might skip the studying...

Gay Guy in Seminary: Day 064 (Breaking the Seal)

San Anselmo at night is a creepy place. I've just gotten back from walking Terra home. It is now 11:45 pm, and after walking back to the student lounge by myself, I have to ask the question, "Why hasn't anyone used this place to film a horror movie yet?" This town is basically situated in a forest, and the school itself, which is a castle if anyone has forgotten, is on a wooded hill. CREEPY!!!!! There's these little winding barely lit paths going up and down the hill through the moss and lichen covered trees so people can go to and from their apartments, not to mention those strange sounds that are always there at night when you're walking through the woods by yourself...

It is nearing midnight now, and as I sit here alone (mostly alone anyway, there's a cricket in here somewhere adding to the ambiance) in this 100 year-old castle typing this in the student lounge where the TV likes to turn on by itself, I continue to remind myself that I should not be scared because I am at a seminary and I highly doubt that God would allow some malevolent spirit to take up residence here. But, if I am going to be honest, this place still gives me the creeps, and I still have to walk back to my apartment, by myself. I've actually done it quite a few times when it's been this late, but we have the lovely addition of cloud cover from the rain earlier today, so it is much darker and cooler than normal. A castle in the woods. Are there any filmmakers out there???? (Note: I am not authorized to offer the school as a location for a motion picture. Please contact the school business office with inquiries regarding use of the school grounds for filming purposes.)

On a lighter note, I broke the seal on ditching classes today. I'm not really a "class ditcher" so I hope this doesn't start some kind of trend for me. I set my alarm to wake up for church history, hit the snooze a couple times, then just decided I was too tired to go. We were just doing a review today for the mid-term on Thursday, and I figured I could better use the time to do homework or something. But instead, I just laid in bed until it was time to get up for chapel. Leslie extended a personal invitation for me to attend because she was going to deliver the sermon today, so I felt obligated to go. I thought her use of a hymn throughout her sermon was an interesting and unique approach.

If any of the faculty or administration are reading this, I do have a slight tickle in my throat which could have easily developed into something much worse if I did not take that hour and a half to rest. Everyone is always telling me how important "self-care" is, and I was just trying to follow their advice.

The only real schoolwork I got done today was studying for the Old Testament quiz tomorrow, but I guess that's better than nothing. This is procrastination at it's finest, folks! I still have homework for Drugs and Jesus tomorrow night, which I will have to get done some time tomorrow, as well as homework for Lectio Divina, which I will probably be doing tomorrow night after I get back from Drugs and Jesus. In case anyone has forgotten, Drugs and Jesus is in Berkley, so we should be getting back from that around 10:30 tomorrow night. I also had to sign up to be a driver because our regular driver is out of town, so that will add an interesting element to my day. Hopefully it won't rain tomorrow, and hopefully I won't get us lost. Please keep your fingers crossed for me everyone.

Last, but not least, is the Old Testament paper due on Friday that I have yet to start. When will I have time to do it, you ask? I'm thinking Wednesday and Thursday. Study for the Hebrew quiz will just have to wait until the hour before the class. XD

Gay Guy in Seminary: Day 053 (Hebrew)

I have to lead with this because I can't believe I forgot to blog about it yesterday. I locked myself out of my apartment yesterday. Luckily, Amber was on her way over so we could hang out as we did homework. Normally, when I lock myself out of my apartment, I go to my neighbors Ryan and Sam who let me through their room so I can hop over the little divider between our balconies to go in through the back door, but neither one of them was home. As Amber and I stood their trying to figure out what to do, we noticed that the bathroom window was open, which is just under 7 feet from the floor. So, I gave Amber a boost, she went through the window, got onto the counter by the sink, hopped down and opened the door. Have I mentioned that I live on the fourth floor? Luckily, I don't think anyone saw us.


Today was our weekly dinner/Hebrew study night. Tom made moussaka, which is a Greek dish made with eggplant and lamb. It was very good, and he put up a valiant effort to try to get this complicated dish done before it got too late.


Here's Marlene asking Ben and Mike a question about Hebrew. Learning another language, especially one not based on the Roman alphabet, is not easy. You have to make up all kinds of weird sentences to remember what things are like "Have a taco" (thank you Ryan) to remember when to use a specific form of the definite article, or "If Alex Taveck is in front of you, then you are in the midst of Jeopardy" (thank you Tom) to remember that taveck means midst. One of my contributions was "If you go to Hawaii, they make a lei for you" to remember that le means to or for. Some other ones are "There's ganja in the garden", "Sad, eh? Go to the country!", "My ears ahz na as big as people say they are" and "I bought that Prius because when I had a Kia it sucked." The Hebrew pronunciation is in bold, the meanings are in italics bold. The crazier and weirder they are, the easier they are to remember. We're obviously not going for pronunciation accuracy here, it's just a tool to help us remember the grammar and vocabulary. As difficult as it is, it's actually a lot of fun when we all get together and try to come up with these funky ways of remembering things. It's not too bad right now, but we have a Hebrew intensive in January, which is three straight weeks of Hebrew for 4 hours a day. Hopefully, we'll all survive.

Gay Guy in Seminary: Day 050 (Chicken Fat)

I've discovered that the secret to really good chicken noodle soup (yes I put noodles in it now, thank you Ian and Tom for converting me) is chicken fat. And, celery.

And, lemon.

Anyway, sorry if that grosses anyone out that ate any chicken soup that I've made over the last few days. I've been making soup under the guise of feeding people that were getting sick, but I'm pretty sure on some level that I wanted the soup too because I haven't been feeling that well. I am so tired that I contemplated for a minute not blogging today and just going to sleep (yes, it's not even 8:00 yet) But, I figure that I haven't really missed a day of blogging yet, and I don't want to start now.

I've pulled out the heavy blankets and taken 2 Tylenol. Hopefully I'll get enough sleep that I'll wake up early and be able to do some homework before suicide Tuesday.

Suicide Tuesady = Old Testament, Biblical Hebrew, Improvisation in Ministry & The Sacred and the Substance

Gay Guy in Seminary: Day 047 (Wise or Otherwise)

So, I've survived another week of seminary. Did really good on the Hebrew quiz today; might have gotten a point or two off for the translation portion, but if I do, it's totally the professor's fault cuz he never gave us any translation instruction. I don't understand why we would find the most wooden way to translate something anyway.

We all went to the Flatiron Grill for lunch; very good burgers over there. Watched Entourage and Brothers & Sisters, then it we had a game night.

I finally got to break into Wise or Otherwise, the super fun board game my sister gave me for my birthday. I've never played Balderdash, but I've been told that Wise or Otherwise is basically a proverb version of that game. You are given the first the first half of a proverb, and the proverbs are from all over the world. Each player needs to make up the 2nd half of the proverb and then everyone votes for which one they think is real. One of the ones we got tonight was a Moorish saying that started, "You must kiss a dog on the mouth..." I'm sure you can come up with all kinds of interesting ways to end that one. The real ending, believe it or not, is, "until you get what you want from him." Fun game.

Also learned about this new gamed called Pandemic, which puts an interesting twist on the board game. In this one, each player is part of the same team of specialists that is trying to stem the tide of several outbreaks of disease around the world, so instead of playing against each other, the players are all on the same team playing against the board. It was actually pretty hard and we lost twice before finally winning on the third try.

Overall a really good day. Now eating ice cream and watching Margaret Cho, the funniest comedian in the world.

Gay Guy in Seminary: Day 46 (Ha Haa Huh )

Ha, Haa and Huh are the Hebrew articles. They all mean "the." The one you use depends on what the word it's attached to starts with. I tried to figure it out, but my brain is literally refusing to accept any more input right now. I did manage to finish my Old Testament paper at 4:00 today, then I made carne asada tacos with pico de gallo and salsa verde for my classmates. After that I did a little bit of Hebrew, but then totally hit a wall. It's only 8:00, but I think I need to go to sleep before I crash.