Looking ahead

So... it's July!! About six months left for me in Peru. I can't believe how fast the time is flying.

I've come to realize what I want to do with myself after Peru. Which is good--last year I had no idea. I'm going to study for a Master's degree in theology. Call it the inspiration of living with nuns, that's made me want to combine my intellectual life and my faith, which up till now have been very separate for me. I'm signed up to take the GRE in Lima on September 29th, and I've had to build a few study hours per week into my schedule--I'm unbelievably busy here, and I still don't quite understand how, since my actual hours of teaching people things or accompanying them musically never add up to more than 30-odd hours per week. But there are so many more things to do here than at home: market, cooking, cleaning the house (the dust means that you really do have to clean at least once a week, and I'm in charge of the upstairs floor and the bathroom), and washing all the laundry by hand.

Plus all my things in the parish take place at night, and morning prayer takes place at 6:30 am... and on weekends, people around here like to party. Even sometimes on weekdays. My friend Victor had his birthday party last Wednesday, which we found out about after Mass at about 9 pm, decided to go, went and bought him a cake, wandered around his neighborhood trying to find his house, finally found him and the rest of the group as they were leaving his house, and ended up back in Tupac eating the cake at a Chinese restaurant and mixing the bottle of wine somebody brought with 7-up to make it go around. Got back home at 1 am and had to get to the school by 8 for the Teacher's Day performance, at which a good number of the kids proceeded to skip the choir number in favor of changing for their reggaeton dance number. Sigh. Nobody respects my art. (Lack of coordination rears its ugly head once more.) ...but anyway, it's amazing the way Victor, his birthday, and our friendship with him were valued over everyone's early-morning obligations on Thursday. Our culture could use some of that.

So, yes, I'm studying for the GRE (starting tomorrow!) and will be applying this year for MA programs beginning in September '09. Yale Divinity School has a four-year combined MA in theology and Master of Sacred Music, which would probably be fabulous for me... but my heart is set on the Graduate Theological Union at Berkeley, CA, a union of nine different theological schools from different denominations, plus a Center for Buddhist Studies, Center of Hindu Studies... everything. I have a feeling that most of my coordination/application work to get there is going to go towards getting financial aid. But presuming I can get the money worked out, that's where I'm headed. :)