All I want to do is ride my bicycle

Bonjour famille! Life here soldiers on in a generally forward direction without too much change to speak of (although my roommate mysteriously disappeared while I was out, leaving the door unlocked). We'll work this post backwards from my arrival here almost two weeks ago...

We've had a blanket of snow since Wednesday when 10 inches fell overnight, which is especially unfortunate considering that the previous 6 inches had nearly melted since the day I got here. More on that in a bit. But most crushing of all is how often I've ridden my bike since I've been back (0 times), I'd be hesitant to ride in the snow at home and the addition of horrible, terrible, miserable Missouri drivers and the possibility of hurtling out of control down an iced up hill has kept me from wandering out. Instead I refocus that energy into lusting over bikes and bike gear.

That's while I'm not reading Heidegger's Being and Time a Christmas gift from Grandma and Grandpa (thanks again!) and one of the most influential texts in Western philosophy--I'm excited by the prospect of finishing it. Heideggeran philosophy, while obscure, really interests me for its novelty and how little it has been studied (again, because his writing is really dense and because he was doing something, possibly, completely new). If I were forced to choose a graduate school today, the few schools I know of with experts in Heidegger would be among my first choices. That project has been slowed down recently though, in exchange for developing a proposal for the Undergraduate Scholars Forum. The USF is an all day series of presentations by current Westminster students; at the moment I haven't come up with a proposal I would be interested in submitting, so I may ask a few of the people I'm friends with in my metaethics class. My hope is to present something both engaging and fertile enough to provide me future opportunities using the work.

Classes themselves are well enough, with metaethics being my favorite. I dropped one class since returning, which in turn dropped my hours to 14. Of those 14 hours, two are tier classes, one is metaethics, and the other is French II. The tier classes, being introductory, are relatively easy, so I have lots of free time. I will be tutoring in the writing lab 4 hours a week again, but other than that I'm trying participate in clubs a little more. But not the debate club, debate frustrates me...although I'm still in it.

I've been here nearly two weeks, but it feels much longer. Beginning a new semester is always frustrating because it never feels like the class has begun for at least the first sessions. I had to rush back a few days early to avoid that first snow storm, and, apparently, so did Justin, because I was just getting around the morning after I arrived when he suddenly appeared. He lives in St Louis, but his parents kicked him out early because of the snowstorm.

Really, I just want to ride my bike, I have a great route spotted and possibly even a riding partner, I just need the weather.

I don't have many plans looking forward, the school is having Ben Folds in concert on the 31st, which should be exciting. My friend Bismark and I have started a blog--I'll probably put a link on here when we feel it's (finally) ready. Anyways, until then, au revoir!