On Monday afternoon I received an acceptance letter from Amsterdam, they have accepted my PhD proposal and have offered me a place in Research Degree Studies program so from August onward I can call myself a student again. Two days later I'm still trying to get my head around it. :)

The uni is called International Baptist Theological Study Centre and the simplest way to describe it is to say that what Newbold is for Adventist church in Europe, IBTSC is for Baptist church in Europe. That's the place where their pastors and academics come from and where the spirit of historical Baptism is kept alive and thriving. I kinda like it. When I thought about getting started with my studies again and when I talked about it with my senior pastor, we both agreed the mentality and the spirit of the place is important. Spirituality. Because it's not only about academic standards or the quality of supervision I'm after, I want to be among people who believe in what they say and teach. So when I received the preliminary information about courses and costs and credits on Monday, it said somewhere in that letter that all the students are expected to attend daily worship services. And I was like, yup, I like this place already!

Obviously, the question will remain - if it took me so little time and relatively little effort on my proposal to get accepted in an average university, does it mean that with more time and effort I could have fought my way into and could have been accepted in some posh age-old English university? I guess I'll never know. Some questions ought to remain without an answer.

I get all excited and a little nervous when I think about having to take two intensive courses in the end of August. Oh, student life! Libraries and essays and endless intensives... And the other side of student life as well - new places and new friends and new professors. And plane tickets and airports. Wow.

Amsterdam, baby!