First ON AIR message.

Greetings! Since this is my first post, and most of you are probably hearing from me for the first time in a while (I apologize, I've had a busy schedule these past few weeks), I figure I'll try and catch you up on everything that's happened since I arrived at Covenant.

I arrived in late August for Orientation Week with my family and moved into my dorm. I'm living on Brethren Hall this year (which by the way is awesome). At Covenant, "Hall Community" is a big deal. Each hall is kind of a mini family, led by the RA. Each hall has events, meetings, discipleship, and wacky traditions. For example, Brethren goes to Chapel during Convocation and Preview Weekends in Monk Robes (preview weekends being those weeks that prospective students are invited to experience Covenant).

After moving in I met me "O-Team", basically a group of other Freshman (almost all in the Business program as well) led by two Sophomores. My team's leaders were Brett Borland, a guy on my hall, and Anne McNutt, one of the most energetic and enthusiastic people I have ever known. The team got to know each other pretty well during the week as we played games, attended orientation meetings, and went to downtown Chattanooga to check out the town (It's AWESOME!).

Classes started a week after I moved in. Now that I was "orientated" I was supposed to have some idea of what I was doing. For the most part I did, and what I didn't know I picked up fast. One thing I learned was that, while I may have been able to get up at 6:30 AM every morning at home, doing that here would kill me. It's physically impossible to sleep before 11:30, just due to the level of homework and ambient noise around the hall. Another thing I learned was that just because a class has no homework, doesn't mean you don't have work to do once class ends (don't worry, no bad grades, just a realization :) ).

We've had a couple of major social events so far, including Swingfest and Kilter. Swingfest isn't actually a Covenant event. The city of Chattanooga puts on a festival for swing dancing/awkwardly standing around watching other people swing dance. (there was free popcorn!) In an awesome twist of fate, I bumped into Rebecca Lee from CFC and Christina Morgan/Marianne Stern, my misled friends who attend Bryan.

Kilter, on the other hand is a Covenant Event. It's essentially a costume party (but we got to have it inside the Tennessee Aquarium. Woot!) This year's theme was Kastaways (yes they had that whole aliteration thing going.) I went as a pirate, and had a great time with some guys from my hall (Michael Bowser, whom we all call Bowser, and Will Young, my RA) as well as some girls from Jungle (another hall) who invited us to come. (Yes, you have to be invited by girls to go to this thing. No snide comments allowed. I have deletion power.)

Aside from those major events we've had some Hall dinners and we're getting ready for Around Founders, in which we decorate the hall according to a theme (this year we have Sam I Am, by the Hon. Doc. Seuss.) I can't say what we're doing till a later date, but suffice to say it'll be awesome, and I'll miss it entirely. I have rehearsal that night.

In one of the most awesome twists of fate that has happened since I arrived here, I tried out for "The Caucasian Chalk Circle" by Bertol Brecht to kill a Friday evening and actually got a part. (Several actually, we have a small cast). This has been one of the coolest events I've had the pleasure to be involved in. The plot is way to hard to explain, but its basically a satire of govenment and justice in general (very funny). It was also written in German, which led to a funny line which probably would not have been as funny in German. "The town is rioting! We'll all be slaughtered like chickens as always." As in multiple times? It's become something of an in-joke with the theater crowd.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention my class schedule. This year I'm taking English Comp (taught by a man I heard aptly described as the "coolest grumpy old man ever"), Christian Mind (the basic "here's what being a reformed college means" class), Old Testament Introduction (very interesting class, but way too early in the morning.) Concepts in Physical Education (taught by the most eccentric person I've ever encountered. He made one of this PE course's goals "to instruct the student in the proper navigation and usage of the internet" ???????) Modern Standard Arabic 101 (AWESOME!! And taught by a Prof. who's actually from Jordan.) and lastly Principles of Accounting (which is cool both because it's my only actual business related class this semester and because I took it in high school meaning that a) I already know most of it, and b) I am very popular.)

Hopefully I can keep up this blog in order to keep up with everybody back home. My schedule can be erratic and I am horrible at remembering to call people. Oh, and about the title of this blog: it's a lame attempt to sound like a radio station. I just figured I should have a theme for this thing. "83091" is my birth month (August) followed by day (31) and year (91). Anyway, until next time this is DJ P signing off. (Look! Another lame radio reference!)