All Is (Almost) Right With The World!

Pardon me for being a bit "tongue and cheek," but now that I (Mark) finally have an office, I do almost feel as if all is right with the world! It has been a bit frustrating working for the past month without a place of my own. The biggest weight (pardon the pun) I've had to bear is lugging a backpack around stuffed with books and my laptop. There were many times I thought I would throw my back out putting it on. It was also certainly difficult not really having a quiet place to study. Most of my time was either spent in the computer lab surrounded by undergraduates (who can certainly be rather noisy) or on the third floor of the library where the Divinity collection is located. By the way, the third floor is actually the fourth floor in "US-speak" since the bottom floor is referred to as the "ground floor" here. Needless to say, carrying my backpack up four flights of stairs was not particularly enjoyable:-)

At any rate, I now am sharing a fairly large room with another student doing something on Islam (I'll need to talk to her more about that later). I have a decent sized desk, two large book-shelves, and a computer all to myself. Since it sounds like Samantha mainly works from home, I pretty well have the whole room to myself. Also, since the front door to the building is probably opened at 7:00am, it will be much easier to begin studying around 8:00 am. Those of you who know me know that I'm very much "a morning person" and consider this an especially great blessing as the library here opens at 9:00 am. That extra hour or so should really help. The plan now is to get here around 8:00 am and work till four and then work out on the days I don't have my German reading group (Wed) or New Testament seminar (Thur).

Now if we can only get things sorted out with our phone!

With a very thankful heart,
Mark

P.S. I (Rachel) would like to add that I have a doctor's appointment in about an hour. I don't expect much to come of this appointment other than to establish a working relationship with some doctor and to see if he has any ideas for looking elsewhere for answers to my problems. I also found out I have another interview next Wed. So for now I have an interview this Friday at 10am, and two next Wed. afternoon!

Also with a thankful heart,
Rachel :)