beyond the green

While everyone else at Bethel is preparing for the upcoming school year, I have been experiencing the Ecuadorian life for a month now. On July 23, I flew to Quito, Ecuador, where I will be studying and learning for the semester - until my plane takes me back to the U.S. on December 20.

Eating ice cream in the jungle

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It’s that wonderful season in academia when the end of semester, the end of the school year is in view, but it’s beyond a set of monkey bars that you have to cross on arm strength alone…just after you’ve finished rope-climbing over a wall. Maybe I drew out that metaphor too far, but here in the final weeks of school, there is a mental, near physical exhaustion from the loads of projects, tests and essays that cruelly sync up in due dates.

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It’s been almost two weeks since President Barry Bartel announced budget cuts to faculty, staff and students. The cuts were made to balance the Bethel budget for next year to the tune of 1 million dollars.

The brunt of the cutbacks was born by faculty and staff, because such a large percentage of Bethel’s annual budget goes to personnel expenses. While having a 9 to 1 student/faculty ratio is a boon to the Bethel education experience, it has been long known that the college could not sustain it.

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After the recent blizzard-like weather in Kansas, it might seem odd to talk about Spring athletics, but as the snow melts I am increasingly excited to continue our tennis season.

Bethel tennis teams played our first matches on March 3, but have not played for quite some time due to snow and other poor weather conditions. Thankfully, we have a game today and conference matches begin this Saturday (and my parents are coming from Indiana to watch them!!! I am way too excited!!). So far our team is 4-1, not a bad record at all, and we hope to keep improving as all sports teams do.

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I thought about writing this on March 14, 2009
[Disclaimer: I realize this date seems long gone and this is not the proper way to blog; I will try to be more timely in the future.]

March 14, 2009 = 3/14/2009 = 3.14 = π = PIE!!

Peach pie. Notice the intricate hearts and stars of the crust…almost gourmet.

So I know that this is not exactly a correct mathematical equation and my high school Pre-Calculus teacher would probably shake her head in discouragement, but the point is that March 14 was National Pie Day and that is cause for celebration.

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