Flag Football, Salt Lick and the Authority of Scripture

what's that you say? Well- in some ways, that is the best way to descibe the my day today. That is to say that I woken up early on a beautiful Saturday morning to go to flag football practice/ scrimage. Let me explain... there is an Episcopalian Seminary less than two blocks from my seminary and apparently, every Saturday before reading week in December, our two schools play each other in what has been affectionately dubbed "Polity Bowl." Now our school has won the last two years, and they are serious about keeping the winning streak alive (something my beloved Hurricanes have yet to even create in this short preseason... more about them later though). Which means that every Saturday until then they have a two hour practice in the morning. It's pretty fun I guess, at least its a nice way to spend some time outdoors.

Salt Lick- that's actually a resturaunt in Driftwood, TX (I can't make this stuff up people) that is known for it's smoked meat. Well, my friend Scott had a birthday earlier this week and to celebrate a group of us drove out there (approx. 40 minutes south of Austin) to eat at this "famed" place. It was pretty dang good (I just had the chicken) but everybody else got pork ribs, beef brisket and sausage. We got there around 3pm and there was a 40 minute wait- if that gives you any indication of how popular it is - check out the site http://www.saltlickbbq.com if you want to learn more about it- I think Kenny (my brother) would love this place.

And finally, the Authority of Scripture which is what I have been reading about the rest of the day in order to begin a paper on said subject that is due right before fall break. AKA the real reason why I am here in Texas at all.

Although, I do want to share one more "adventure in Texas" story to close this post- last night Melissa and I decided to go check out th

e band "South Austin Jug Band" at this little hole in the wall establishment- of which Austin has dozens of which makes it incredibly easy and cheap to see live music here- just because we liked their name. They turned out to be a bluegrass band that was all strings- a mandolin player, a fiddler or two, an upright bassist and two acustic guitarists. They were really a lot of fun and one the bands that opened for them, Uncle Lucius, was pretty good as well. It made for quite an enjoyable night.

Tomorrow- its off to visit another church- although I think I will be going to a Catholic one so I can write another paper (for Worship Class) and get that assignment knocked out before fall break as well.

Finally, I am attaching a couple of pictures from Salt Lick because I thought they were funny. I have discovered that the pictures never really pop up on my actual blog where I put them when I am composing this thing so I am not even going to try to place them this time.

Anyways- until next time (which will be very soon as I need to give my completely biased pre-opening night analysis of NHL Hockey this season)- you all take care.
Carrie

Mid week's end...

Hi all-
So it is the end of Wednesday, which means for me only one more day of classes this week which is great, although Thursday is always the longest day (we have three classes tomorrow). Well, a few things have happened since my last post so I thought I would fill you all in... 1) I got my test back from Church History- and I got a 96. Which is very cool- but being so close to a 100 just makes me wish that I could have gotten that instead. 2) I took my second test on Tuesday in Old Testament- I haven't gotten that grade back but I am predicting a "B"- 3) I also turned in my first paper this morning for Intro to Worship- it was on the relevance of "traditional" worship in today's context- I am quite proud of it actually- 4) I did not get elected to the senate- which I am more than fine with- it frees up my Wednesdays... 5) I did however get a job on campus and technically started working today- I am one of two new AV/Tech people here (I feel like I am following in the footsteps eerily of my mentor) and today our school hosted the President's Colloquim and the topic for debate was immigration. They had three people here to speak on it, on guest visas, on securing borders, rights for illegal aliens etc- with very different opinions from one another- it was pretty interesting. Anyways, I had to get to the chapel early to learn how to work the camera and sound board and so I took a couple of pictures of the chapel and thought I would share them with you... The first one is the stained glass window that sits in the front of the chapel.
The second one is the front of the worship space (normally there is a communion table but they took it out and replaced it with a folding table to host the pannelists).

Anyways- just thought I'd share.

That's it for now. I have got some more reading to do- will blog again soon.

Take care- Carrie

One month!

This past Friday marked the one month anniversary of me living here in Austin. It's hard to believe that I have been here this long. Today I checked out my 5th church, Hope Presbyterian. It was pretty cool- their service today was led primarily by the Stephen Ministers in their congregation- so that was neat... I have also been attending for the last three weeks a young adult group (ages 22-35) at Covenant Presbyterian. It's been kind of good to get to know some other people outside of the Seminary walls.
Anyways, let's see... what to tell you all about these last few days... I took my first test Thursday and feel really confident about how I did on it. I have my next test Tuesday and I am starting to feel pretty good about being prepared for this one as well. My first paper is due this Wednesday too, so it is going to be a busy week. Uhm... I got nominated for Jr. Class Senator- I will find out this Wednesday if I won. I also played raquet ball on Friday (and lost terribly 4 games in a row)... we had "Fall Fest" on Friday and this guy Ryan Jensen (from Tennesse) cooked up some bar-be-que and some beef brisket and the on-going debate ensues here about who's bar-be-que is better, pulled pork (good ole' NC style) or this beef stuff that people call bar-be-que here. Of course all of us here that are from east of the Mississippi think the pig is where it's at. But I digress,...
One thing that I have noticed about chapel time. Tuesday is our bigger chapel service, its when we celebrate the Eucharist, and although the chapel is pretty small, when the place is at least half full it is really cool to hear everyone worshipping. That is to say, when you get a room full (or mostly full) of people who are pastors and wannabe pastors, you get people participating in their loud voices which means the whole place echoes with the words and music. In comparisson, if you have a room full of youth in the same situation, they would be more likely than not singing softly (if at all- I am picturing Clark mouthing the words or Brendan singing in falsetto) and using their "in door"' voices when reading the lituragy... anyways- it's a noticable difference, and I like it.
Well, I need to get going. I am sorry if this is sort of jumbled- I am so tired and it's only Sunday...
Take care and if you can, please pray for my cousins Megan (and her family) as she continues to struggle with cancer and also for Will- who is getting shipped off to Afghanistan tomorrow to be a door gunner on a helicopter and also also for Wake (my cousin not the county) who apparently busted up his knee up at ASU playing football and will be in a wheel chair for the next couple of months... Thanks. Peace. -Carrie

Hungarian Cooks...

Its been a while since I have posted any sort of real updates about how things are going here in Texas, so I thought I would do a little of that before I get to my reading for class tomorrow... (always the procrastanator). Let's see... I just got home from having dinner with the President of the seminary. It's an annual thing he does to try and get to know the new students, it was pretty cool I guess. I tried to talk him into putting a pool in his back yard because the Episcipal (sp?) Seminary has one for its students... We'll see how that flies. I have my first test this week, its in church history and it spans 586BC to 500AD. So, there is a lot of information to memorize. YAY!
This weekend marked my fourth Sunday here and I have now visited 4 different Presbyterian Churches, and Ted (the President) has reccomended 3 more for me to try out- so that's something. None of them seem to fall in what I call the "moderate" category- the church yesterday, Westlake, is on a cliff overlooking the hill country, and is a beautiful building. It's on the western side of Austin (the beginning of the hill country)- anyways- Sarah and I decided to ride out to West Cave Preserve to go see the cave and got to see some of the more pretty landscape of Texas- although when we got there, we found out we couldn't go down the bluff without a guide and the trip would have taken upwards of two hours so we opted out since we do have a test- but it is something I would go to again if I had more time.
Saturday night I went back to the Alamo Draft House and saw the movie "Beer Fest." It was pretty funny and pretty dumb- but it made for an excellent study break.
These past two weekends there have been a ton of visitors to Austin, last week it was the Buck Eye fans, this weekend it was the Austin City Limits music festival- which I tried to get in as a volunteer, but that didn't work out so much. But what it has meant is a LOT more traffic and people in general all around- which is kind of weird to be in a place with so much happening all the time.
School is going well so far I think. This week starts putting the proverbial pedal to the medal with the first test, next week is a test and a paper and it keeps going like that for the next 3 years I think. I am enjoying the lectures though and the weather. Chapel has been nice to go in the midst of classes, it helps remind me of why I am here I think.
I do miss my friends and family back east though. I miss the rythym. I look forward to being back in NC in less than a month and am looking forward to catching up with most of you. Don't get me wrong, there are some cool people here, but it is different- you know?

Oh well- I really do need to get at the books, hope all of you are doing well. Take care and I will update again soon. -C

ohh- post note- the chef at the school as well as some of his helpers are Hungarian, and tonight I learned a very interesting word in Hungarian, the english means "I'll do it." I won't type here how you say it in Hungarian, but ask me if you are curious and I'll let you know, it will make you laugh...

Pics from last Thursday 30 celebration

I will post actual words about things later- but I wanted to share a few pics from my 30th birthday at the Hole In the Wall...

1st pic...Derick, Grant, Ryan P and Ryan J and
the Miller Lite Girls were there, which made the boys happy...
2nd pic- Sarah J, me and Melissa

3rd pic-I switched places with the MLGirl (taking Man Law Survey) ...
4th pic...Sarah F (the Iowan- uhm Go Cyclones!?), me and Scott (from NC!, sort of- most recently from there anyways...)

First week wrap-up

Well the first week has come and gone and so have my 20s... Yep I started seminary and turned 30 in these last few days. So, the question I have gotten the most is what's this all been like for me... in that regard, I offer you some first week highlights...
Monday- Trip to San Antonio (which I wrote about earlier, but here are some pictures from the day, the stone font, is supposedly the baptsimal font that was used at the Mission in the 1800s in San Antonio, I thought it was pretty cool. Also, the picture of the city is from the top of the Tower of Americas- both pictures taken by Sarah Feltman).
Tuesday- First two classes (Intro to the Old Testament and Systematic Theology I- both classes are very engaging and I do believe that I will enjoy them a lot and hopefully learn a lot from them). Also on that day we had convocation and opening worship and I cooked dinner for my buddy, Nikki, and another classmate, Melissa- my firsts dinner guests in the new digs.
Wednesday- I had The Church as a Worshiping Community class, aka Intro to Worship. I think this is going to be my favorite class, I thoroughly enjoyed the first lecture at least. We also had our first mid-week manna (which is a weekly student forum and it comes with free coffee and donoughts, so thats pretty cool). We also took the MLAT to help evaluate our ability to learn foreign languages, and through the test I happened to learn some Kurdish words. Tij=1; yong=hawk, xozo= easy, wener=book, lah=wolf, etc.
Thursday- I had three classes that day and also celebrated the big 30. Nikki brought snacks to share for my 9:30 class (she is a great buddy!) Additionally, I was taken out to eat by Jamie, Melissa and Sarah at a Tex-Mex restruant where they sing happy birthday with morracas and frog puppets- yep, frog puppets. Later that night, Melissa, Sarah F, Sarah J, Elvis Ryan, Tattoo Ryan, Scott, Grant, Derick and I went out for adult breverages to this place called "Hole in the Wall." It was a fun evening with some rather random things occuring. For instance, this one woman, who knew Ryan, caught a live cricket and gave it to me as a birthday present (weird) and she also kissed me on both my cheeks (more weird). Also, the Miller Light girls were there (in their school girl outfits- Brad- you would have died) promoting the "Man Laws" and were going around collecting new laws. Ryan (Elvis) and Derick's laws were both chosen as good calls (if you have seen the commericials it makes sense) and they/we won two free pitchers of beer because of it. All in all, it was a very fun and weird day. (Perhaps pictures might pop up later)
Today (Friday)- There aren't any high lights from today except to say that I got a new O2 sensor put in my car so hopefully the Check Engine light will finally stay off and I can pass the state inspection. That and the Frendutos called. (yesterday lots of people called too and I loved talking to all of you/ and/or having you sing to me- esp. the Badgers and TAPC staff).

This weekend, the school is having a chili cook-off and 40,000+ people have descended into Austin to watch Ohio State take on UT in football tomorrow. So I imagine the day will be filled with burnt orange and red and lots of noise. Hopefully, I will be able to tackle all the readings I need to do before Monday and week 2 gets up and running.
I will write again soon. Take care and thanks to all of you who have supported me in any way. C

Alamo Squared

In the last couple of days I have actually done some "touristy" type stuff. On Saturday night I went to the famed "Original Alamo Draft House" (South Lamar one) and saw the movie "Talladega Nights." This theater could possibly be one of the coolest places to ever watch a movie. They sometimes will have actors/directors/writers (ie Quentin Tarentino) come in and screen movies with the people. They also have live music and interactive movie showings (ie "The Boy Band Sing-a-Long- which I will be going to later this month). But on top of all that they cater each set of previews and "pre-show" entertainment arround the movie you are about to see, plus they serve beer (and food) to you while watching the show. It definately is a place I would reccomend checking out if you are ever in Austin.
I also went to San Antonio today with a class mate to check out the seventh largest city in America (as a note, Austin is the 16th largest city). We went and saw the famous land mark "The Alamo"- the original one, noted for its famed 13 day seige back in the 1800s. It is pretty small but it is also pretty cool. Sarah got some good pictures that I will try to post later. We also went to the River Walk, ate some good food down by the San Antonio River, fed some fish and birds, took a boat ride on the river (very touristy no doubt) and then we walked around the city and wound up at the Tower of the Americas which is similar to the Space Needle (at least to me) in that it was 750 feet tall and had a circular observation deck at the top. There at the tower, we watched a 4-D movie about Texas (which was really cool) and took the glass elevator up to the top of the tower and walked around and looked at San Antonio from the sky. (Note: Tom, I know where the Spurs play and can definately get you there to a game when you come to visit).

All in all, it made for quite an enjoyable day. The weather was perfect. And we arrived back to Austin with plenty of time to fret over the fact that tomorrow is our first day of school! I actually picked up my "Survey of the Old Testament" textbook and have already ready the first 6 pages of it- which is pretty amazing for me. (Of course, now I have stopped so I can procrastinate a little longer- to write this blog entry- some things never change). Well, I want to finish this chapter so I can go to bed and hopefully sleep the sound sleep of a person well prepared to begin seminary- AUUUUGGHHH!!! (jk) Take care one and all, and drop me a line sometime ok? -CaRRie

the phenomenom that is...

So I am sitting here in my apartment, surfing on the internet (Thanks Greg A for the wifi connection) and chatting with my friend Tom in Wilmington and all the sudden I hear someone talking. No, it's not the voices of my head, it is however the commentator for the UT football game. My apartment is like 6 blocks from the stadium but apparently I am close enough to hear the calls. I can even hear the 85,000 fans cheering and booing... Right now the other team has the ball. Ross tackles... 1st and 10 from the Texas 24.
Yeah. That's something. Earlier this morning I went to a book sale with another incoming student (Stephen) and on or drive back to the apartments everywhere we looked kids were walking around in the burnt orange longhorn tee shirts and other paraphanilla (sp???). This is a very strange phenomenom for me since my university didn't have football and while the triangle dominates the world of college basketball, well, football, uhm not so much.

To let you know, I have completed the whole orientation. My first semester of books cost me about $400 (two of them were out of stock) and I signed my life away yesterday on a loan for the first year of school... But classes will be starting in three days and I am excited about that (and a little nervous about the academic rigours). People are very friendly here at the seminary which is great and on Monday, one of my other new classmates (Sarah- from Iowa---really) and I are going to drive down to San Antonio to see the city and the Alamo. It will be my first real adventure in Texas! So, all in all, I am getting settled in in my new life. They say that the spring and fall times here are the most wonderful times (temperature and therefore outdoor activity wise) so I am lookig forward to that too.

On another note, please continue to lift my cousin, Megan up in prayer. She is coming to the end of her ten year fight against cancer and she and her family need all the prayer and support we can find.

Well, I am going to close this post. I think I will start on some reading for my first class. (Maybe this will be the year that I don't procrastinate- HA HA HA HA).... Oh well, take care and I will write more soon....