6 days left.....

...and I'm trying not to count them. I'll try to catch you up to date with the happenings here at Summit Semester for the past two weeks.
Last week(13-19) was a normal week of work crews, study times, solitudes, and class with Dr. Bauman. Actually, it was our last normal week. Finals for Bauman were taken on Saturday. I studied as hard as I could with as much time as I had, however, I studied a bit incorrectly. I thought that Dr. Bauman would be asking us to defend our opinions and beliefs. Instead we were tested on what we had learned over the ten weeks he had taught us. By reviewing all that we had studied, I think I remember and understand a lot of what we learned better now. We had finals for three hours in the afternoon and an hour and a half at night covering Church History, English Literature, and Politics. English Lit was the easiest, while Politics was the hardest. But I think I did pretty well. It was definitely a good experience for me.
Dr. Bauman spent two hours that night answering questions that we as students had been wondering for our entire time with him. He is an amazing man, I must say. I am privileged to have studied under him. As alumni have said, Dr. Bauman will now be a voice inside my head which I don’t mind at all; in fact, I’m very thankful for that. One student asked how we could thank him for what he did for us. He said the way that we have thanked him is by improving in the way we think and speak. That’s why he does what he does, to see us improve in those ways. Dr. Bauman excels in his intelligence, teaching methods, and physical strength. Although sad to see him leave Summit Semester(at least for this year), I never will I forget him.

This past week(20-27) was a very abnormal, yet super awesome week. Eric Smith came back to teach on Tuesday night, and Wednesday morning and night. He finished an overview of the Old Testament and covered the intertestamental period. I found that period to be quite intriguing because of never hearing the history of "the 400 years of silence" before. Next week, he will finish by teaching on the New Testament. The Tuesday work crew was our last Tuesday work crew. We spent our time preparing for our holiday guests( I think around 60 people came) by making lots of food and cleaning. The guests began arriving Tuesday night and didn't stop coming until Thursday.
For our Thanksgiving meal, all the students signed up to make either a family tradition dish, a favorite dish, or a "required" dish. I made frog eyed salad! It turned out pretty well I must say so myself, except for the clumpy noodles. Baha. The kitchen was full of people and dishes and food for hours on Wednesday and Thursday. At one on Thursday afternoon we celebrated Thanksgiving(my first thanksgiving away from home; however, it wasn't especially difficult to be away from my family. It was kind of exciting to be on my own in a way) by eating tons and tons of food. Then for dinner, we ate the leftovers. Super duper yummy. We ended the night by playing games.
Friday was a free day, which meant I got to sleep in until ten thirty. :) Awesome. I spent the day studying IVP, the Intro to the Bible( last book due), making Christamas ornaments for the humongous tree that Nathan and Shelly and some of the students went to chop down in the morning, watched Home Alone, and concluded the evening( at 1:30 am) by playing two hilarious games of picture telephone. Our mentor, Jeremy, also came "home" that evening. He had gone home three weeks before to be with his dad who passed away. I am so grateful to God that Jeremy was able to come back to spend the last week with us. It's so good to have him back.
Saturday was a semi free day, however, with planned optional events. The afternoon was spent in a gingerbread making contest. Teater, Kara, Maggie, Matt, and I were on a team. We started out by making a ski lift(worked out perfectly), and began building our ski resort, when the building wouldn't stick together. All of us were frustrated for a while until we came up with an idea( with Clara's help): the ski resort was destroyed in a practice run by the Swiss army. It consisted of two demolished buildings, little people covered in blood, tanks, and canons. Lots of blood and death, which was super awesome. My fav. just kidding. kinda. We got second place though. That surprised us because we didn't think anyone would vote for us. Everyone else's houses were quite creative. Pictures will be on facebook next week when I get home. In the evening we had a quite entertaining white elephant Christmas party with delicous foods. Afterwards we watched Elf, typical. :) It was super funny.
All in all, this week was quite relaxing with lots of holiday decorating, games, music, and food. However, I'm ready for another week of semi structure. I guess I get antsy when there isn't any structure. Haha.
This morning the chuch body at Grace Fellowship "sent us off" with their prayers since it was our last week with them. I cried. That was probably just the beginning of the tears that I'll have to face this week. I think I am ready to go home; I'm not afraid of the future, but filled with the hope of Jesus. And this week I was reminded that the Holy Spirit will always be with me. I am not alone in this journey of defending my worldview and my faith and my opinions, this journey of learning and sharing. I am extremely sad about leaving this community of amazing people, and I know that it will be a drastic change to go home. But this is God's plan for my life, and I will follow him with courage.
Next week will be my last blog here at Summit Semester, and it won't even be posted here in Pagosa Springs. Thank you for reading and joining me on my journey. I know that the journey will continue when I go home.