Extra time discovered, Statics test, Loft and van plans

Today the LU exchange students had a meeting with some professors from Taylor University who are doing exploratory work for setting up an exchange program with Handong. We discussed mostly what you'd imagine we would. These are the guys who are going to be taking my laptop back with them. They'll mail to Acer it when they get back to the US, and Acer will get it ahead of time and hopefully to me before the Spring semester starts.

I found out today that all of my finals are going to be on Monday, and I will be completely done at 3:00 Monday. I didn't know this before, and I was planning on sticking around until Friday, but now that I have no compelling reason to stay(along with several others who are done Tuesday), we are trying to see if it's possible to do some touristy stuff in the newfound 5 days. We'd probably leave Tuesday afternoon, but we're not sure what what exactly we'd do or where we'd stay. The guy who was here a while ago advised us to leave a few days extra at the end of our trip, banking on the surety that some friendly Korean would invite us to stay with them after the semester. No luck there yet, and possibly with just a few days remaining I'm not sure if that will be a reality or not. Spas/saunas/bathhouses are very popular in Korea, and it's very common to sleep at these places(and this is intended, not mischievous). We could ostensibly stay at one of these places for the whole time. I think the best thing would be to stay a few nights at these spa places, and try hard to find a family to house us for the latter part of the trip. I have yet to visit a Korean homestead(or Seoul), and I'd really like to do that. In any case, this extra time is a blessing and I look forward to it, even if it will be a bit difficult to manage on short notice.

I retook the first Statics test today, and I think I did well. Dot products and cross products I was a bit shaky on, but I forsee partial credit there even if I didn't get it just right. On the other problems I think I did quite well. We'll see. I'm glad for this turnaround in my comprehension, it marks not only passing the course but also a change in my study habits- the task of finishing my degree is still daunting, but not worrying/impossible-seeming like it was before.

Next semester I'm going to be rooming with Tyrell Braker, which I predict to be great. He's moving onto 2A from the slightly cramped Trinity dorms, so I'm the one with loftmaking experience. In the past year or so a few people have tried the half-inverse loft idea. Usually lofts are ~6 feet tall underneath with 4 feet of space on top for beds. What's been tried recently is to make half of the room the usual 6-under, 4-over configuration, and the other half 4-under and 6-over. I'm thinking that we might try doing the whole think as 4-under, 6-over. I've always liked the open feeling when the loft is down(if not the cramping for floorspace), and I think that this method would have the advantages of the normal loft setup(keeps the beds and storage from eating floorspace) while also giving the open feeling, plus the neat factor. I didn't think I'd have a brand new room to configure when I got back- this is really great. I'm not sorry now that I bought that couch last semester(which is now sitting in the van on the Arden's property).

Speaking of the van, I'm not sure what to do with it- I told Mr. Arden I would only need to store it until January, meaning that I should do something with it when I get back. Much of the stuff in it is going to be migrated to the dorm room when I get back(couch, desk, books, normal dorm room stuff), but also much of it is not dorm room friendly(giant air compressor, several 55 gallon drums, the van itself). I did talk to another person(my pastor at Crossroads) who was open to having it parked on his property, so it might end up there. Mr. Arden might end up being fine with keeping it on his land for the time being. We'll see. I'm toying around with the idea of buying/renting a small plot of land in Longview and building my trailer apartment, which would naturally give me a place to put my van. However, that's not going to happen just yet. Yes, I know that living in a trailer is antisocial and that wanting to live in a trailer is psychologically aberrant. We'll see.

Anyway, I'm happy and all is going well here. Please pray for my finals and that we'd get everything straightened out with the last week here. See you all soon!