>>Driving
Tennessee has sheared crags surrounding each side of the most winding interstate roads I've ever driven on. They also have a speed limit for trucks posted under the usual one.
Illinois is flatter than Lady Gaga's voice. Flooded fields flat. They need to install some storm drains in the middle of their corn fields. Corn? I'm not actually sure what they're growing out there. Maybe rice?
I saw a tag that said "Ullico," which I *think* is a nickname my father used to call my mother, whose name is Ulla. Either that or I know that word from somewhere.
8 hours. My legs are killing me, the blood has stopped moving some time ago. I get sleepy when that happens so I fidget a lot in the car.
>>Saint Louis
Industrial, rusted truss bridges, broken down factories, surrounded by gleaming glass and steal. This place looks barely post-industrial. But it looks strategic, purposeful. I like it. There is one bridge that looks as if the trusses are nothing more than toothpicks and string, marvelous.
>>Host Family
The wife is Japanese, her name is Mari (mar-ee). She got her MD in Japan and spent time in both the US and Japan growing up. Now she teaches physiology and statistics at Saint Louis University. The husband Mark is British and is a theoretical physicist who teaches at Washington University.
Mari took me through the entirety of the house, explaining everything. Even small things such as what oven mitts are used for. I kind of chuckle at the over explanation, I know she is just being kind. Mark cracks me up. He's got a hint of sarcasm on the end of every sentence, and watching him tease his wife cracks me up even more. They are a calm, collected couple. They have one son named Francis. He just finished his 1st grade year in a Catholic school but attends a Japanese school on the side. Mari is traditionally Roman Catholic and Mark grew up in the Church of England. They settled on the Episcopal church I am at now, the Church of Saint Michael & Saint George.
Mark leaves soon for Los Alamos, New Mexico but will return after a week. After that he leaves for Britain for some time. Mari and Francis are going to Japan, where Francis will be in a Japanese public school for the summer. Their school years start in April. Mari explained to me, "It starts in the spring because this is a time of new beginnings."
>>Town
They live in a neighborhood whose population is roughly 50% Orthodox Jewish. It was interesting to see so many traditional outfits and yamulkas out and about. A main road divides their neighborhood from the other side which is predominately African American.
There are Chinese restaurants lining the main road nearby, Olive road. Every third shop seems an accurate assessment. For dinner we went to one that had taken over an old theatre that had closed down. We sat in a floor with some eighty tables, only two of them filled when we got there. It felt so empty, and I only saw three employees. A giant red curtain loomed at one end of the building with lights above them, the only sign left, though a large one, that this edifice was once a place for showbiz. I was hoping we'd get dinner and a show. No such luck. Apparently it was only used during the Chinese New Year where they opened it up to reveal a dragon dance. Wish I could see that.
>>Home
I am in a basement, my room is bigger than my apartment one which is quite sizable. I have my own bathroom and got a few groceries. Everything is very nice, very clean, well organized.
The normal excesses are missing from my life. I do not have tons of electronic things and junk weighing me down. I feel as if I can devote myself to study and exercise without temptations to good around at all hours of the night. I think I will very much enjoy this room. There is one small window, only 2.5' x 2' in the middle of the room, just enough to let in some light, and just barely above the ground.
>>Work
Due to phone and e-mail difficulties I have still yet to get in contact with my advisor Father Michael. I shall probably just head down to the church tomorrow to see what all is going on. On Sunday I will be introduced to the church publicly. I should probably be nervous, but I seem unable to get nervous, worried, or even excited about things until they are happening.
>>Night
Ironically I felt lonely during the daytime instead of the night today. Every other day those are flipped. Sometimes I worry about myself dealing with it. Hopefully the people here will keep me busy enough during the daytime to not think on it, and too tired after work to stay up late enough for it to set in. But experience tells me otherwise.
I shall do some reading now. There is much I wish to study this summer. I will do some reading and discussion with my good friend Ahmaud. I am always encouraged and enlightened by discussion with him. He is a good man and a good friend. I am going to immediately tackle some articles he gave me on the issue of homosexuality. It has become a very interesting topic to me theologically, probably couldn't help it having joined The Episcopal Church. After this I hope to read though the Venerable Bede's Ecclesiastical History so that I may learn more about my roots in the Church of England going back to the 3rd and 4th centuries. I would also like to go back through parts of Aristotle's Metaphysics that I have already read, and forge forward further. Time will tell.
Tennessee has sheared crags surrounding each side of the most winding interstate roads I've ever driven on. They also have a speed limit for trucks posted under the usual one.
Illinois is flatter than Lady Gaga's voice. Flooded fields flat. They need to install some storm drains in the middle of their corn fields. Corn? I'm not actually sure what they're growing out there. Maybe rice?
I saw a tag that said "Ullico," which I *think* is a nickname my father used to call my mother, whose name is Ulla. Either that or I know that word from somewhere.
8 hours. My legs are killing me, the blood has stopped moving some time ago. I get sleepy when that happens so I fidget a lot in the car.
>>Saint Louis
Industrial, rusted truss bridges, broken down factories, surrounded by gleaming glass and steal. This place looks barely post-industrial. But it looks strategic, purposeful. I like it. There is one bridge that looks as if the trusses are nothing more than toothpicks and string, marvelous.
>>Host Family
The wife is Japanese, her name is Mari (mar-ee). She got her MD in Japan and spent time in both the US and Japan growing up. Now she teaches physiology and statistics at Saint Louis University. The husband Mark is British and is a theoretical physicist who teaches at Washington University.
Mari took me through the entirety of the house, explaining everything. Even small things such as what oven mitts are used for. I kind of chuckle at the over explanation, I know she is just being kind. Mark cracks me up. He's got a hint of sarcasm on the end of every sentence, and watching him tease his wife cracks me up even more. They are a calm, collected couple. They have one son named Francis. He just finished his 1st grade year in a Catholic school but attends a Japanese school on the side. Mari is traditionally Roman Catholic and Mark grew up in the Church of England. They settled on the Episcopal church I am at now, the Church of Saint Michael & Saint George.
Mark leaves soon for Los Alamos, New Mexico but will return after a week. After that he leaves for Britain for some time. Mari and Francis are going to Japan, where Francis will be in a Japanese public school for the summer. Their school years start in April. Mari explained to me, "It starts in the spring because this is a time of new beginnings."
>>Town
They live in a neighborhood whose population is roughly 50% Orthodox Jewish. It was interesting to see so many traditional outfits and yamulkas out and about. A main road divides their neighborhood from the other side which is predominately African American.
There are Chinese restaurants lining the main road nearby, Olive road. Every third shop seems an accurate assessment. For dinner we went to one that had taken over an old theatre that had closed down. We sat in a floor with some eighty tables, only two of them filled when we got there. It felt so empty, and I only saw three employees. A giant red curtain loomed at one end of the building with lights above them, the only sign left, though a large one, that this edifice was once a place for showbiz. I was hoping we'd get dinner and a show. No such luck. Apparently it was only used during the Chinese New Year where they opened it up to reveal a dragon dance. Wish I could see that.
>>Home
I am in a basement, my room is bigger than my apartment one which is quite sizable. I have my own bathroom and got a few groceries. Everything is very nice, very clean, well organized.
The normal excesses are missing from my life. I do not have tons of electronic things and junk weighing me down. I feel as if I can devote myself to study and exercise without temptations to good around at all hours of the night. I think I will very much enjoy this room. There is one small window, only 2.5' x 2' in the middle of the room, just enough to let in some light, and just barely above the ground.
>>Work
Due to phone and e-mail difficulties I have still yet to get in contact with my advisor Father Michael. I shall probably just head down to the church tomorrow to see what all is going on. On Sunday I will be introduced to the church publicly. I should probably be nervous, but I seem unable to get nervous, worried, or even excited about things until they are happening.
>>Night
Ironically I felt lonely during the daytime instead of the night today. Every other day those are flipped. Sometimes I worry about myself dealing with it. Hopefully the people here will keep me busy enough during the daytime to not think on it, and too tired after work to stay up late enough for it to set in. But experience tells me otherwise.
I shall do some reading now. There is much I wish to study this summer. I will do some reading and discussion with my good friend Ahmaud. I am always encouraged and enlightened by discussion with him. He is a good man and a good friend. I am going to immediately tackle some articles he gave me on the issue of homosexuality. It has become a very interesting topic to me theologically, probably couldn't help it having joined The Episcopal Church. After this I hope to read though the Venerable Bede's Ecclesiastical History so that I may learn more about my roots in the Church of England going back to the 3rd and 4th centuries. I would also like to go back through parts of Aristotle's Metaphysics that I have already read, and forge forward further. Time will tell.
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