Dear friends,
We’re all students who like to hang out at different places downtown, which is great. It’s a wonderful thing that you can run into so many other NSA students in Moscow’s coffee shops, stores, and restaurants. But having done a little restaurant work over the years, I’ve thought up a couple ‘good manners’ items which might be good to keep in mind.
1) If you go to a restaurant or coffee shop, you’re not invited to bring in your own food or drink. The people who work there have prepared food for you to purchase, and it’s rather rude to enjoy the atmosphere but bring along your own private menu.
2) Any time you use a building like a coffee shop for studying, hanging out in, etc, it’s a good idea to make some sort of purchase. It costs money to keep the business running, and if you benefit from the place, you should contribute. But also if you don’t contribute, you’re still using up a table which actual paying customers might want to fill when it’s busy. And so not only are you not patronizing the business, you may be keeping potential customers from patronizing the business as well (particularly if you’re a group of non-payers).
Of course there are always qualifications. The Nuart Theater is one – they just want students there whether or not you buy coffee. And if you go to Bucer’s for the second or third time that day, and you already had a panini or a smoothie, this isn’t as big a deal. Or suppose you swing through One World Caffe for two minutes to talk with a friend who’s already there; you don’t have to feel guilty for not buying something. But if you’re there much more than a quarter or half an hour, you probably should.

In Christ,
Luke N.

Take a look at this: http://www.leithart.com/archives/002389.php

Congratulations to those of you who did the Genesis/sun part on the latest Theology worksheet!

Evening fellow speed-readers,

Click on the title for a link to a cool map I found. It is centered on Greece, and you can see up to Thrace and down as far as Rhodes. It is especially nice because of all the small cities (which really are important, as Mr. Schlect as made us aware) are written, such as Miletus, Halicarnassus, Naxos on the isle of Naxos, and some of my personal favorites such as Magnesia, Sigeum, Megara.

(Note: There are several maps to click on once you’ve reached the actually site, but the one I printed off was Ancient Greece 2)

After recitation this afternoon, our group had a huddle in the hall and made it a priority to pull out all the stops when we study, i.e., maps, outlines, memorizing names and details and geography.

Hope this helps the rest of y’all! Enjoy, and God bless your wearied eyes!

The new school year is about to start. It has been wonderful to see the faces of those friends who left us Idahoians here for three months!

We all know how terrifying everyone likes to make the second year of New St. Andrews sound. Maybe it is. But by God’s grace we survived the first year, and with His grace we will do the second!

Psalm 127

Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.
It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep.
Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are the children of the youth.
Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with enemies in the gate.

Congratulations to all of you (us) as we have now survived a full year at NSA! The blog name has now been changed (note this) to the NSA Sophomore Class! Thanks for making this a terrific year, and let’s enjoy our summers to the fullest, play hard, work hard, and look forward to the quickly approaching fall when we will have to study hard once again.

It’s rather amusing that I should try to write a review for a rock concert, I who in 4th grade condemned all rock music as evil and who played mostly classical piano and listened to little rock throughout my life until now. But I’m doing it anyways. And in classic style, it’s a month late.
On December 10th, Awkward Silence, Commonplace, and Edward Bugg played a gig together. I missed Awkward Silence. I could review them anyways, but that might not be a very wise move.
Commonplace played before Edward Bugg, and I must say I really enjoyed their performance.
They are alternative rock with a very clear, clean sound…. (Continue Reading)

Wow, the break’s finally here. The guys can’t wait to see how much stuffing they can eat and the girls… are just glad to be home.

What an awesome college! I know, some of you out there aren’t enjoying it quite so much, the workload is heavy, and the teachers don’t apologize either. Oh well. It’s a riot, IMHO. The perfect complementary education for a Classical Christian education, lots of solid teachers who know and love God and know what they’re talking about, and a lot of fun and laughter from all sides.
And yet… without break I think that much of the freshman class here at NSA would shrivel and die, one by one. Breaks were divinely ordained from the very first week, and so it’s great to see that pattern continued here. Work hard, then relax. And eat. Then work hard again. It’s like running laps – you sprint the first two laps, then jog the third, fourth, and fifth, and then start sprinting again for the last three. The bottle of gatorade you carry with you is Bucer’s and parties. And then after the final stretch, break comes. You stumble over to the sideline, catching your breath and regurgitating all the wisdom you inhaled while running around the academic track like a rabbit with a pencil in your ear.
So what’s the wisdom? Work hard… and then have fun. Without the work, you don’t deserve the fun. And without the fun, you die like a little rabbit with a heart attack.