Saturday
I flew to MSP in between the storms that dumped 18+ inches of snow on Ohio and one of the admissions people picked me and another woman (also named Jen) up from the airport. Sara (the admissions chick) then drove us around the cities and showed us the highlights. We went to Chipotle for dinner. After that, we were dropped off at our dorm rooms and we had the rest of the evening to ourselves. I had a TV, so I checked in with my family members and watched Britcoms until I fell asleep.

Sunday
I went to church with Jen, Sara, and her friend Matthew, who was also going to be doing “A Day in the Life of Luther Seminary” with us. We attended Roseville Lutheran and it was a nice service, though more Baptist than Lutheran. We went to lunch at Subway afterwards and then Jen and I walked around the sem and the surrounding neighborhood (St. Anthony Park) and took pictures. We returned to our dorms and went to Northwestern Hall to register and get our name tags (which were our meal tickets for our time there). We met the other people who were doing the same program and sat through some talks on what the program was and on the “Top 10 Reasons Not To Go To Seminary”. After that, we had dinner and heard a lecture on the call of Moses given by an Old Testament professor, which was really good. We then met in small groups with students and talked about our calls and our experiences before going and doing Holden Evening Prayer. I *really* miss singing Holden, so I was a *very* happy Jen. We returned to our dorm and the 20somethings all stayed up late talking about calls and ministry things. The group seemed to be mostly youth/family ministry hopefuls, which was pretty interesting.

Monday
I woke up at 6:45 and showered, tossed back my hair into a ponytail, and dressed. I then went down to breakfast with the others and we ate with the admissions staff. We had tours after that and my ponytail froze. That was… an experience. We then had talks on admissions things and went down to chapel, which was wonderful. I really miss daily chapel and the music and preaching was fantastic. We had free time after that and I used it to talk to the housing people, the financial aid people, the admissions guru (who greeted me with a hug), stalk a few of my father-in-law’s buddies and got one (Craig Koester)in his office, and get pictures of the death mask of Martin Luther. (It’s sitting in a display case on the third floor. It’s kind of like a Lutheran relic.) I had lunch in a group with the admissions people and my other program mates. After lunch, we were able to sit in on classes and I chose to sit in on the class of Dr. James Nestingen who is a dear friend of my in-laws and the person I was mainly supposed to stalk. (My father-in-law had given me his phone number and told me to call him. I’m more of an email person and so I ended up leaving him an email and phone message. My mother-in-law joked about him tiptoeing around with a fake mustache to avoid the little 5’1″ female who was stalking him.) It was a class on the Renaissance and Reformation and we talked about the teachings of Thomas Aquinas and nominalism, which was the hermeneutic that followed his time. After that, we had the final events and most people left. I and another man were staying until the next morning, so I got some calls made and headed back to my room. Chris (the other man) and I went to dinner at 5:30 and talked for a long time. I then went back to my room and watched “Joe Millionare” (for the first time) and cheered as Zora was the one picked. I saw part of Letterman but missed Dr. Phil. (Thankfully, Jon taped it for me.)

Tuesday
I got up at 5:45, cleaned up, packed and headed to MSP. I got there muy early and had to clear security. I got some of the stuff in psych report fixed while I was waiting for my plane and I flew from MSP to Detroit and then Columbus.