andave's place

...or in other words, the chronicles of andave's trip to Patrick Henry College.

Succinctly, it was flippin' fantabulous. It was everything I had hoped and more. If I can't attend, I don't care; it is enough that such a college founded on such solid principles and ideas exist. Imagine having professors willing to teach unbiblical things but still able to gently point out how they refer to or disagree with the Bible.

We (two other girls and I) got there after a fairly uneventful day of getting to know each other while flying. The admissions counselor, who's worked with us often, picked us up and took us to Wendy's because we missed dinner. Then we were delivered to our dorms. We had such splendid hostesses - both of them were tiny but so very sweet.

The fun started the next day. (by the way, dress code at PHC is corporate casual during business hours, and encompasses everything from slacks and a sweater to suits.) After breakfast, in which many interesting students came and introduced themselves, we went to chapel. There are different types of chapel, but attendance is mandatory daily. That day was wing chapel, where the RA of each wing would prepare a short lesson.

Then I had my first class: Literary Theory and Criticism. This is an upper-level class...and I enjoyed it tremendously! It really challenged my views of literature in some ways. Late that night I spent an hour writing down some thoughts about the class that I intend to email to him soon - here's what I wrote.

"...Dr. Hake is the quintessential literature professor - intelligent, learned, kind, and passionate about books. He's brave enough (and rightfully so) to discuss things that aren't Christian but to show how they differ from or as the case may be, point to Christianity; that's one for you, Mrs. Swanson.

He also praised Harold Bloom, calling him a 'literary czar' - who according to some on the LitNet is a hack. I'd like to go into this a bit more with him, Dr. Hake I mean.

I also learned of an interesting piece of scholasticism called a “variorum,” which lists in chronological order the critical interpretations of a piece over time. I’ll have to email him about how that differs with translations, because I read an 1800s translation of Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov and I’d wonder how that would change the meaning not only as a translated work but for me, reading it today.

Then he brought up a different point that really challenged the way I look at literature -- at least I think it did. Now, I’ve always seen literature as purely subjective; that’s one of the reasons I want to teach it. In reading a piece one tries to find the author’s meaning, -- but depending on the text with a personal variety of “different-colored glasses.” Meaning, the knowledge, experiences, and emotions one brings to the work not only evolve with each reading but also that one facet of the reader or the text’s personality, so to speak, might be emphasized more in one reading than another, depending on the reader. However it seems as though my idea of “purely subjective” is somewhat mild. Dr. Hake said that “our job as readers is not to create the meaning of a work but to discover it.” He added that we can never say that a piece infallibly means our interpretation of it and that’s definitely true considering that the reader is not the author.
(Can you tell which was my favorite class already?)

Then in the second class I took, Freedom’s Foundations II, they were reading de Tocqueville! Democracy in America! Seriously! When I told Dr. Bayer afterwards how excited I got when I realized it was de Tocqueville they were reading, she smiled and told me that he was actually quite accessible.
I am looking forward to that!

After lunch the admissions counselor took “the California Contingent” to this adorable little coffee shop called Beans in the Belfry. It’s an old church that has been renovated into a coffee place and full of random, half-broken pieces of mismatched furniture. It’s got books and old photos scattered around - splendid for a drink and studying! So cute!

We also had a session with the Financial Aid advisor, a jovial gentleman whose method of awarding scholarships is very fair. He spent about an hour going over things with us and thankfully it doesn’t look quite as bad as we thought. We haven’t gotten the final cost yet, but I did get my scholarships packet and among others, I got the faculty awarded literature scholarship – and only one is awarded each semester, I believe.

The next day I had an 8 A.M. Greek class. Greek will be difficult. There are so many ways to declaim a verb!

I think I’d really enjoy philosophy. The philosophy professor is a REALLY young man – maybe early 30s but with his Ph.D. All of the teachers, I think, have their doctorates. Anyways, he lectured on George Berkely. It’s a bit…odd. Berkely holds that everything is either an idea or the mind that creates the idea. So, reality is an idea – I think.

Biology’s do-able. A bit boring, but the professor is bubbly and enthusiastic and succeeds in getting the students excited. I was able to speak with him for a few minutes, later, and he told me about his two little girls and their birthday party plans. His girls are five and four years old.

Theology was fun. Dr. Cox talked about pneumatology, the study of the Holy Spirit. As that’s a favorite, much-traveled topic of my pastor’s, I was on familiar grounds and well able to enjoy the lecture. Dr. Cox is also very funny and personable.

Chapel attendance is required daily, which I’m really excited about. I’d really grow spiritually at this college. The first day, it was wing chapel – chapel in the dorms. The second day we had a board member speak; Mr. Clay from Texas. He wears jeans, a cowboy hat, and an accent. (BTW, there were people from Texas saying ‘all y’all,’ to us.) He cracked funny jokes for a while, saying that the board had passed an amendment to the dress code for chapel speaker and affixing a digital camera to his hat. “I’ll follow you as you go to the bathroom!” Or joking about a kid who wants to go to “Russia” for the “beautiful women,” when in reality the student wants to go to Azerbaijan to be a youth pastor, I think it was. But after the jokes he gave a really kind, inspiring message that really spoke about his principles and the principles of the college. Seriously, the simple yet eloquent things he said are what all America should be and what I see America as, a long time ago, and what I love her for. Even now, this land has so much potential, and believe me, PHC students bolster that potential substantially!

We also were able to go on a tour of the new Barbara Hodel student center, which is currently set for opening sometime in August. It’s going to be amazing! At over 100,000 square feet, it’ll have new classrooms, offices, student lounges, gym areas, sound-engineering rooms, and even a student kitchen!

And, for the weird part…

Since we got there I had been waiting for me to do something really stupid, like dump a drink down my shirt or drop my plate (the food, incidentally, was great).

Well, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.

Our last day after business hours there was a dancing lesson off-campus in preparation for their upcoming Liberty Ball. It was sort of a surprise they had for us. While there, I danced twice with a very genial, elegant person named Brett. He had visited with us at dinner and I had mistaken him for his twin brother Alex, who was in the play rehearsals I had watched the evening before. Somehow during the day I learned he was Brett Harris. In the course of our dances I tried to make inane polite conversation (quite ineffectively, as you can imagine. I’m dreadful at making conversation.) I really loved dancing with him; he’s such a smooth dancer. We danced the Viennese Waltz and it was wonderful. It worked! But mostly because he led me so splendidly – thanks to him we spun around the room and I rotated while up on the balls of my feet and wow!

The lesson ended, we said our goodbyes, and were going back to the campus and talking about our dancing partners when the other girls got to talking about Brett’s BOOK. And his blog. And I had a dreadful realization that Brett Harris is actually someone kind of famous. He and his twin brother Alex started the Rebelution, a “teenage rebellion against the low expectations of an ungodly culture.” They also cowrote a book, a very, um, influential book in the Bright Young (Conservative) Thing’s world. One that many friends of mine are interested in.

So I danced with a famous person…twice! And I didn’t even know it!

Wow, did I feel stupid. I really hope I didn’t say anything idiotic to him…I guess now I have to read the book! It inspires teens to actually stand up for what’s right and developing a voice and breaking society expectations for teens.

And at the dance I also learned to rhumba.

Just thought I should add that for verisimilitude.

But one of the guys I rumbaed with, Pete, is a literature major in his senior year. I had lunched with him earlier that day and had a splendid time talking to him and asking him questions about his writing and his plans for the future. He wants to do both creative writing and screen writing. I wanted to ask if he’d mind showing me some of his stuff, but I didn’t know if he’d think that weird, so I didn’t. I wish we had exchanged emails or something; he was very kind. He danced with me three times – rumba, waltz, and foxtrot. Although I strongly suspect he danced with me so many times out of politeness I’d be really flattered if it was something else.

Another guy – I don’t remember his name – taught me some really cool swing steps – pretzel, arms, and how to spin really quickly. Waltz and swing have to be my favorite ballroom dances.

As you can tell, PHC was unbelievable in every sense of the word. That such a college exists is mind-boggling. Even if I am unable to attend, I’m just glad it’s there. Mr. Clay the Texan said that the students at PHC are the best and the brightest in the world, and I agree. The students there will stand up for what’s right – Biblically.

I do want to go to this college, so I’m just going to have to trust in God. Especially now, I’m feeling really confident that He WILL provide, and if not for PHC, something that will trump it, even if it’s not for a while. God is good.

I think all the other girls with me were just as impressed with the college as I was. I had seen them before at the New Years Eve dance I went to but we didn’t become friends until this trip. They’re a fantastic lot and they definitely strike me as PHC material. (that’s something else I was fascinated by – it was really interesting to see how “raw” the four of us were in comparison to the actual students, but it was obvious that we’d do well at the college and actually stand a chance!). Two of us are accepted; the other two won’t apply till next year. So we’ve struck up pretty close friendships (I wasn’t expecting that. I thought it would be awkward through and through.) But we added each other on Facebook and keep in touch. We’re also likely to keep in touch with our hostesses as well. Both of them were amazing! One’s a lit major; I can’t remember what the other one is majoring in. They were cute, tiny, fun-loving, hard-working, and incomprehensibly busy!

And then it was over. Our flight back took forever – we got delayed three hours in Dallas because bad weather had closed them down to two runways instead of their usual six. But we spent the time at the airport wisely (read: eating.). Actually I’ve no idea how those girls can eat so much – they’re tall, willowy, slender, and drop-dead-gorgeous. I’m insanely jealous; if I so much think about the food they ate I’d gain ten pounds.

We bought dinner in the airport and took it on the plane with us. One of the girls and I got really yummy food from a Tex-Mex place and we had just put away the leftovers when the guy next to her told her he had gotten food-poisoning from that place not an hour before. So the rest of the flight home I was on tenterhooks wondering if I was going to get sick. It was so irritating, considering how much I enjoyed my meal! But I didn’t get sick and when I got home I gave the rest of my burrito to my dad and he enjoyed it too. So there.

…Thus ends the tale of my visit to Patrick Henry College.

Monday though, there’ll be a PHC information night and ice cream social that at least three of us who went will be attending and perhaps speaking about our visit. The admissions counselor will be there presenting info about the college so it will be nice to see her again.

And that brings us up to today.

Oh, and I bought a laptop. Fully paid for by my babysitting money – howzat for independence?

p.s. pictures in the next entry.