Diane’s World

I’m having temporary camera troubles (aka I can’t find the cord that
connects it to the computer, so just wait a day and it will show up) so
pictures will come soon.

Well, what do I have to say for the past three days?

INTENSE.

That describes it.

This post might be lengthy, but it’s worth reading. READ IT! I promise to make it entertaining.

Where to start?

Well it started on last Saturday. Sarah and Andrew and the stink-bomb nephew had just gotten back from Dallas, so I spent the day with them. My homework was finished (hallelujah!) and my plane left at 11:20 pm.

The time change is 4 hours.

Needless to say, I was miserable the next day.

I got into my apartment at 1pm, which ended up to be a very quaint condo with a nice view of a busy new york street, and with it’s own kitchen, livingroom/studyroom/dinning room, bedroom and bathroom. I have three roommates, and they are all pretty sweet.

The first day we met up with some people, went to the Manhattan mall (right across the street) and had a in-depth conversation about Francis Schaeffer and Art while scarfing down some subway sandwiches.

Later that night we met the director of the WJI - Dr. Robert Case.

Ok Dr. Case is quite the personality. Have any of you seen Land Before Time? (the first one, of course.)  There is this one part where little foot falls down this shoot and accidentally falls on this old, gruff dinosaur that resembles a turtle like thing. THAT’S WHAT DR. CASE IS LIKE!  He may talk gruff, and have heavy overbearing eyebrows, but when he talks he’s really a wise man with lots of good things to say and very kind hearted. Just like the dinosaur. (he really looks like him too.)

Anyways, we had an intense introduction where he threatened us with expulsion from the school if we are late to class, and told us not to screw things up by accidentally saying something stupid to one of the non-christian guest speakers. I know, no pressure, right?

Anyways, I had a very heavy fever from the lack of sleep on the overnight flight, and I was miserable. So I went to bed, after a short discussion with my roommates over the logic of C.S. Lewis for Jesus.

Next morning, bright and early at 6 am, I was the first of my roommates to be awake. We got all professional looking, and headed off about 4 buildings down to the Empire State Building. After passing security, we found our classroom in the King’s College.

Classes this day were INTENSE. We had three and a half hours of lecture, then a very VERY intense discussion with Hendrik Hertzberg.

Hertzberg is a very well known character - he writes for The New Yorker, and he was the guy who wrote a great deal of Jimmy Carter’s speeches. He is a self proclaimed “village atheist” or something like that. He doesn’t understand the evangelical faith. Let me tell you -this guy is a character! Schmoly! To sum it up briefly, while trying to define our God, he used phrases like “the great Hitler in the sky” and “a narcissist communist dictator”. 

I really sincerly like him though. He said that talking to a bunch of these crazy evangelicals (that believe in a God that sends people to Hell) is the most “exotic” experience he’s ever been through.

There is so much more I can say about Hertzberg, but you guys might be getting bored. I suggest reading his book Politics. It’s very entertaining. He signed mine, saying “‘Somebody bless you”. Ha.

So then we got an assigment, and four hours to work on it and get lunch. Then we had to print it out on overheads, and the whole class, for two hours, critiqued our work. A lot of people came out of that room feeling like the world’s most rediculously awful writers ever. That, especially, includes me.

He said I write too much like an editorial writer, and not enough like a narrative writer. I need more punch in my writing.

Just you wait. I’ll add punch if I literally have to get physical.

When we got out I felt horrible. My temperature was back up, I was miserably tired, I hadn’t eaten almost all day, I was just beaten to the ground in the critique, I couldn’t find my roommates, and I’m very allergic to New York.

Later that night my roommates and I had a discussion about how awful the critique made us feel, how we are all nervous about this course, and how we are all really t-shirt and jeans people back home… despite what our iron-pressed business suits made us look like. I felt a lot better.

I just still feel like the world’s worst writer.

Not what you want to feel like on a course about Journalism.

The next day, once again, I was up at 6 am. (That time change really did something to me…). This day was much better, but still just as intense. This time we got seven straight hours of instruction by the great Nancy Pearcey, student of Francis Schaeffer and great defender of the intellegent design movement (writer of Total Truth, Professor Mahaffy often recomends it in his science courses.) Dr. Case describes her as “the one person who can write better than Schaeffer about Schaeffer”. Ha!

Pearcey is a very sweet woman. She is genuinely kind, caring, and an absolute sweetheart. One person commented, “I can ask her any dumb question like, ‘Why is the Sky blue’” and she would take it seriously as thought it was the most important question in the world. You cannot feel stupid around Nancy Pearcey.

I certainly felt special today, as during one of our small breaks she asked who it was that went to Dordt College (each of teh teachers are provided with a short biography of each student.) I raised my hand, and she told me about visiting Dordt. She knows who Mahaffy is! And she said she would probably come back if she were invited. I need to remember to tell Mahaffy that!

So I now personally know Nancy Pearcey. And I have her personal email. (I need this power trip after yesterday’s bashing critique.)

Well the class was a very much so a discussion rather than a lecture - students talked just as much as the teacher did. I rarely said anything because I was too busy soaking up the richness of the conversation. Man! What an experience!

Tomorrow, my roommates and I are cooking dinner for the other students. The four rooms are going to take turns in cooking each other meals, and since I’m a motivating planning type of person (you all know that anyways about me…right?) it fell to our room to be the first to host everybody.

So me, two of my roommates and another girl went on a mission to find a grocery store.

I swear, New York does not believe in grocery stores. There are a gazillion restaraunts, but no grocery stores! RAR!

While looking, we passed Times Square, the largest store in the world (a 10-story macy where the Macy’s Day Parade takes place), Madison Square Gardens, Broadway, Virgin Records and  MTV (we got on TV! Kind of… we walked past while they were filming, and the street was included in the background).

All that to find a grocery store.

Next time I try to find something as small as a restroom in New York, remind me to bring my camera.

Anyways, the menu is odd, but as cheap as we could get. It’s tortellini, potatoes (random,  I know), salad, and cookie cake. Should be a good time.

Ok, here is a fun part. I just realized that every single person in the world journalism institute reminds me of someone back home - and hey! It might even be you! I sometimes almost accidentally call them by their equivelent

(this is mainly because Rachel, my sister, would understand this the most… mom you can have her translate it for you. This is the easiest way I can describe everybody without making this post even longer than it already is…)

The first name is the WJI person, the second is their twin I knew before NY:

Dr. Case - Land Before Time dinosaur I mentioned earlier
Emily - Amanda A.
Jessica (a roommate) - Baily N.
Jason - Philip V.D.
Max - Darius P. and Nathan M. combined
Lorae - (Laura will understand this one) it’s the girl on campus confidential! not really, but she looks just like her!!! I’ll give you a picture later!
David - Jeremiah K.
Jordan - Joshua P. (The Germany one, Rachel)
Stephen - Josh Dykstra (Big Red)
Adam - Ron from Harry Potter. No kidding.
Paige - One of the Rayburn girls
Victoria (a roommate) - My Aunt Linda meets Ali G.
Trevor - My cousin Cameron meets Trevor (Debby)
Alison - Kelly H and some random Dordt girl (I don’t know her name) combined
Amy (a roommate) - Tracey K.
and there are two girls which I can’t place for the life of me… Mary (very sweet girl) and Laura (don’t know her too well)

Anyways, this post is mainly to say I’m alive and to feed my mom’s hunger of wanting to know every detail of my life away from her. There is a lot of things I left out, just be glad I did because it would make this even longer.

Well my roommates are in bed (first time that I’m not the first in bed!) and it’s 1:30, meaning I have to wake up in 5.5 hours.

I miss a lot of you… please email me. I can use some good Washington/Dordt lovin about now.

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