The end is near...

Well exams finally begin this week. My first exam in on Thursday the 20th for my Joint Seminar in Philosophy and Law. The exam shouldn't be too hard considering it has been one of my favourite courses this term. My next exam is for Ethics on the 24th which also should be a pretty good exam. After that I have a break until the 4th of June when I have my Philosophy of Mind exam which will be my hardest exam by far. Regardless it has been a very good course and I have learnt a great deal no matter the outcome of the exam. Then my final exam is on Saturday the 5th of June. It is my exam for my Contemporary Political Philosophy course which will be a little tricky, but nothing I can't handle.

Just a word to the wise (or not so wise, considering what I am about to tell you), when you have deadlines upcoming, such as exams, don't go and buy a bunch of books that you really want to read. You will find yourself torn between actually doing work, and reading what you want to read.

I managed to make this mistake this last week when I bought 5 new books from Amazon. I got Simply Christian, Surprised by Hope, Virtue Reborn and After You Believe by NT Wright, and The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical by Shane Claiborne. I have already finished Shane's book, and am almost done with Simply Christian AND I have been studying for my exams. But....I do want to spend more time reading my books...oh well school will just have to finish quickly.

Earlier this week I booked a ticket to fly to Germany in June (the 8th). I will be flying to Frankfurt and will spend about a week with my grandfathers brother Dr. Hans Hattenhauer in Speyer. I am really looking forward to reconnecting with my families heritage and relatives I haven't seen in a long time. I might also be slipping out to visit another relative (Onkel Manfred) in Treysa. But the plans aren't laid in stone yet. I do know that I will head up toward Dusseldorf to visit Viktor Penner in Wipperfurth before I fly out of Dusseldorf for Turkey on the 15th.

Then its off to Turkey with a bunch of friends to spend two weeks climbing on the Mediterranean coast. I am really looking forward to the trip.

Then its back to England for a week before flying back home! Only 47 more days left in Europe, and considering the length of my stay totaled nearly 180 days, its amazing to think of how fast the time has flown.

To all of you that graduated this past weekend (both my high school and college friends) congratulations! I am sorry I missed it, but hopefully I will see you soon and be able to congratulate you personally.

Swanage

This last weekend I went down south to the southern coast of England to the limestone quarries on the coast near Swanage. I went down with 8 other mates from the climbing club for some pre-Turkey outdoor work. Climbing indoors compared to climbing outdoors is as different as night and day. They both require different approaches in both the mental and physical aspects of climbing. So we went down there to practice some outdoor sport climbing while getting into the mindset of outdoor leading and top-roping. We went down Friday night and climbed all day Saturday. We meant to stay until Monday but the weather took a turn for the worse so we bailed out of there Sunday afternoon, but at least we got a little outdoor work under our belt before heading down to Turkey in June. The scenery along the coastline was amazing and provided a great backdrop for the climbing we were doing.

Classes start up again this week in preparation for exams, so after a month off its back to the grind. But only one more month of school and then another month of traveling and then its back to the States!

Its amazing to think of how the time has flown over here. I really have done and experienced a lot during my four months here so far.

I hope all is well with you guys back home and I look forward to seeing you guys when I get back.