Matt's First Post

Hey everybody. So via convincing email, Babbo got me into the blog.

What's going on for me right now is school (mainly). I've decided to dedicate more of my time towards schoolwork and less towards other activities. It was pretty hard seeing as I'd almost never had to study for a test before I came here. It also doesn't help that the public school kids are way behind the private school kids (and there are a lot). I've decided to major in religion with a focus concerning the effects of Islam on the politics in the Middle East. That seems to be a hot topic right now. Pure coincidence. I'm also about half way through getting an educator's license, but I'm not sure which Praxis I'll take yet. I'm also considering a minor in Philosophy since it's only 6 classes and the courses line up with the religion major pretty well.

Staying in the same vein, let's move onto classes I'm taking this semester. Sufism (Islamic Mysticism), The Bible in Modern Literature, The Exceptional Learner, Sociology of Religion, and Soccer. We still have to take PE for 4 terms here, it reminds me of high school. The most interesting right now is Sufism, which has actually played a pretty major role in shaping the Middle East starting in about the ninth century maybe (?). Right now we're reading a book titled "God's Unruly Friends" (it's about extreme ascetics in Islam) and later we'll be reading Salman Rushdi's "The Satanic Verses".

Other news. Rugby could be going better. We're struggling to get numbers out to practice and games. We're not a very big (size) team to begin with, so with a lack of subs to keep legs fresh the games get very tiring. I've become used to the Sunday morning feeling of having a compressed back. I usually play second row or flanker (the former would explain the back). We have a home game tomorrow against UVA's B-side. It should be a good one if we have enough people show up. The weather has been pretty nice, and it's supposed to get up to the mid 50's tomorrow so that bodes well.
More 'other news', I have a new girlfriend. She's from Chicago and has an amusing accent. I think that our family friend put it best when they told me I was a "serial monogamist".

We also just got our batch of new members to the fraternity. They're working hard and learning a lot, and cleaning my entire room with a toothbrush as we speak. Kidding. But they did tell me and my friend that we were the reason that 70% of them were there. They said we did a really good job in the recruitment process. I was flattered and subsequently decided to run for Rush Chair this year. As of right now I'm running unopposed.

Glad to be a part of this now.

Over and out,
-MC