I've been realizing some things about myself lately that aren't necessarily bad but they need changing. I've sort of know it all semester but the why and the how really just hit me this week. I blame my Torrey paper, Joshua, and God. ("Blame" not being a bad thing, just the cause.)
I read the book of Joshua Saturday and took my notes on it Sunday night. One of the main things I noticed was that courage was a main issue in the first part of the book. God tells Joshua to "be strong and courageous," the Israelites tell Joshua to "be strong and courageous," and Joshua tells the people to "be strong and courageous." Another main theme in the book is faith. The Israelites have finally learned to trust God to lead them into the promised land and defeat their enemies for them, and their faith shows. Then I realized that faith and courage are related. When God told the Israelites to march around the walls of Jericho for seven days and then to blow trumpets and shout and the walls would fall down, they had to have had their doubts. All I could think of was the VeggieTales version, with the Jericho peas taunting the Israelite veggies and throwing purple slushy on them. I mean, it does sound pretty crazy. They had to have the courage to walk and shout and have the faith that God would knock the walls down. To have faith is to have courage, and to have courage is to have faith. This is what I wrote in my notes: "As long as we have enough faith to obey, think of what we can accomplish! With faith as big as a mustard seed, the walls will come down. Faith also takes courage. I think that is why 'be strong and courageous' was repeated so much in the first part of the book. They were essentially saying 'have faith.' Faith and courage are kind of interrelated. Maybe that's why faith and trust are so hard for me, because I don't have a lot of courage. Maybe if I had more courage, I could trust God easier."
I worked on editing my paper Monday afternoon/evening and Tuesday morning. My first draft used the characters in The Odyssey and The Three Theban Plays to discuss identity: how it is determined, what influences it, and the fact that it can be changed. To edit it, I needed to discuss fewer characters and analyze identity more - why is it important. I didn't really know where to start, so I prayed and then I realized what I wanted to write about (somehow that always works ;) ). I decided to focus more on how someone's identity changes. To do this, I needed to discuss what exactly identity is (I was able to use a lot of my first draft for this), how it affects a person's actions, and how that person goes about changing it. I'm not going to completely explain my paper here because it would be easier to just post my paper (all ten pages of it). The main thing I realized was that it takes courage to change your identity. Your identity drives your actions, whether you realize it or not, and if your actions need to change then your identity needs to change, maybe not all of it but at least a part of it. But keeping your old identity means doing what you have always done - what is comfortable and secure. It takes courage to break out of your comfort zone and do something different from normal. Not just one time, but all the time. I don't know if I'm making much sense; I explained it better in my paper - or at least I hope I did.
Then Tuesday afternoon was session time on Joshua. And what was one of the things we talked about? Courage and strength. This was when I realized how all of this relates to my life. You see, I have this problem in sessions. I don't talk a lot. If you know me well, you aren't surprised by this. It's not that I don't have things to say; there's just a lot of people in my group that like to talk and I'm not one to butt in and give my ideas. But, I'll admit, sometimes I don't have anything to contribute and sometimes I don't know if my idea is relevant so I don't share when I have a chance to. I thought I was getting better earlier in the semester because I was talking more, but ever since we started the Bible, I feel like I've gone backwards. And yesterday the tutor noticed. He asked me a direct question, and I had something to say, and after session he tried to encourage me to talk more. It's something I've known that I need to work on, but I've never really known exactly how.
I have an identity as a daughter of Christ. A lot of people stop there with their identity, but that is not a unique identity; thousands of people are daughters of Christ. That's only a part of my identity. My identity is that I am the youngest member of the Baker family, an introvert, a dreamer, and a daughter of Christ. But I was stuck on the introvert part. There's nothing wrong with being an introvert. It's partly why I want to be a writer, because it's easier for me to write ideas and feelings than talk about them. I came in to Torrey knowing that I would most likely be the one in the group saying the least. I even told Dr. Reynolds in my phone interview back in April that I tend to not talk in group discussions like these. I've recently realized that I go into each session knowing that I won't talk much; it's more comfortable to just do what I've always done. But at this point in my life I don't want to be an introvert in session anymore. I don't need to go into sessions thinking, "I'm an introvert, I'm not going to contribute much." I want to go in thinking, "I may be an introvert, but I still have important ideas to contribute, and, by golly, I'm gonna talk about them!"
I just looked up synonyms for "introvert." Some that popped up: shy, hesitant, loner, nervous, cautious, afraid, apprehensive, unassured, distrustful, solitary, wary, bashful, reluctant, reserved, modest, humble, conscious, timid, fearful, suspicious. I think that's enough. I don't really know where I'm going with this right now (that's how my thoughts have been these past few days), but what I do know is that it takes courage to act outside your comfort zone and have faith that God still has everything under control, and I don't have a lot of courage. So I'm going to be working on that, in the little time that I have left of this semester, and next semester. I'll let you know how it works out, and if a clearer version of what I was trying to say comes to mind I will write it down.
In the meantime, I head home two weeks from today! And I absolutely cannot wait. And it's Christmas time. All the more reason to be happy. :D
"Why me? I'm just a simple man of trade. Why Him, with all the rulers in the world? Why here, inside this stable filled with hay? Why her? She's just an ordinary girl. Now I'm not one to second guess what angels have to say, but this is such a strange way to save the world."
- A Strange Way to Save the World, 4HIM
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Friday, November 19, 2010
(Insert random yet somehow relevant title here)
Reading the Bible and then discussing it has been quite interesting. I've enjoyed it a lot, and my group has really grown during the past three or four sessions. I'm not going to go in much detail though because I could say a number of things that we've talked about and learned and done and I don't really know where to start. So I will just say that I still love where I am and what I am doing. :)
This past week was basically Harry Potter week. Haha! Last Friday and Saturday, I watched all six HP movies with my friends and last night we went to the midnight showing of the new movie. :) Around seven last night, two of my friends and I decided that we were going to dress up for the movie. Not dress up like characters or anything, but dress up nice and fancy. And then they decided to play with my hair and makeup. Let's just say I've never gone to a movie theater looking that nice. ;) We got to the theater around 9:30ish and the line was wrapped allllll the way around the building. We waited in line til around 11 and then it started moving. There were thirteen in our group and we didn't think we would be able to all sit together, but the whole front row was empty and we decided the seats weren't that close to the screen so we got to sit all together which was nice. And the movie ended up being really good! I was very impressed and happy with it. :) Even though I went to bed at 3 and only got four hours of sleep because I have an 8:30 class. It was okay though, because I came back to my room, talked to Cat on the phone for a bit, and went back to bed at 10. I slept til 1. It was quite lovely.
I had my last intramural volleyball game this past Wednesday! It was a lot of fun, and we were so close to winning! If we had won, we would have played in the championship match (of the C league, but still ;) ). We lost 25-23, 11-25, 13-15. And the team we played had already beaten us two other times. So we definitely improved as a team lol. It was still a lot of fun, and I'm definitely glad I decided to play!
Thanksgiving is almost here! Which means Christmas is almost here! Which means I get to go home soon! 26 days to be exact. Yes, I am looking forward to it.
But before that happens I have a lot going on. I'm spending Thanksgiving with my friend Havilah, who lives about an hour away. My roommie is coming too. We are leaving Tuesday evening (because we don't get the whole week off) and coming back Sunday. Not sure exactly what all we're going to be doing. I do know that we will be going Black Friday shopping, which is something I don't think I've done before, so that should be fun! School-wise, my next few weeks are going to be crazy! This is what they look like:
Monday - Spanish project due
Tuesday - Leviticus and Deuteronomy reading and notes due
Thanksgiving break
Monday - 4-5 page essay due for Brit. Lit. (that I haven't really started yet)
Tuesday - Joshua reading and notes due
Thursday - Hebrews reading and notes due
Friday - 2nd draft of 7-10 page Torrey paper that is worth 30% of my final grade and I still haven't gotten it back yet to know what I need to change is due
Monday - Pull Questions due (PQs are questions that we get at the end of each Torrey session. You have to answer one per book, 300-600 words. My Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus/Deuteronomy, Joshua, and Hebrews PQs will be due. As of now, I have not done any of them, but I only have Exodus and Numbers because we haven't had the other sessions yet.)
Friday - Finals start. I might do my Torrey final on this day. I get to sign up for it, but I haven't decided if I want to do it this day or the next Monday or Tuesday.
Monday - Brit. Lit. Final
Tuesday - Piano juries (and my piano minor auditions). I just have to play three songs memorized. It shouldn't be that hard, just depends on how nervous I get.
Wednesday - Spanish Final. Fly home!!
So that is my busy schedule for the next few weeks. And now I am going to go to bed early (yes, I know, on a Friday night too) and get up around 8 to try and finish reading Leviticus before my piano lesson. Good night. :)
"Well, I'm going home, back to the place where I belong."
- Home, Daughtry
This past week was basically Harry Potter week. Haha! Last Friday and Saturday, I watched all six HP movies with my friends and last night we went to the midnight showing of the new movie. :) Around seven last night, two of my friends and I decided that we were going to dress up for the movie. Not dress up like characters or anything, but dress up nice and fancy. And then they decided to play with my hair and makeup. Let's just say I've never gone to a movie theater looking that nice. ;) We got to the theater around 9:30ish and the line was wrapped allllll the way around the building. We waited in line til around 11 and then it started moving. There were thirteen in our group and we didn't think we would be able to all sit together, but the whole front row was empty and we decided the seats weren't that close to the screen so we got to sit all together which was nice. And the movie ended up being really good! I was very impressed and happy with it. :) Even though I went to bed at 3 and only got four hours of sleep because I have an 8:30 class. It was okay though, because I came back to my room, talked to Cat on the phone for a bit, and went back to bed at 10. I slept til 1. It was quite lovely.
I had my last intramural volleyball game this past Wednesday! It was a lot of fun, and we were so close to winning! If we had won, we would have played in the championship match (of the C league, but still ;) ). We lost 25-23, 11-25, 13-15. And the team we played had already beaten us two other times. So we definitely improved as a team lol. It was still a lot of fun, and I'm definitely glad I decided to play!
Thanksgiving is almost here! Which means Christmas is almost here! Which means I get to go home soon! 26 days to be exact. Yes, I am looking forward to it.
But before that happens I have a lot going on. I'm spending Thanksgiving with my friend Havilah, who lives about an hour away. My roommie is coming too. We are leaving Tuesday evening (because we don't get the whole week off) and coming back Sunday. Not sure exactly what all we're going to be doing. I do know that we will be going Black Friday shopping, which is something I don't think I've done before, so that should be fun! School-wise, my next few weeks are going to be crazy! This is what they look like:
Monday - Spanish project due
Tuesday - Leviticus and Deuteronomy reading and notes due
Thanksgiving break
Monday - 4-5 page essay due for Brit. Lit. (that I haven't really started yet)
Tuesday - Joshua reading and notes due
Thursday - Hebrews reading and notes due
Friday - 2nd draft of 7-10 page Torrey paper that is worth 30% of my final grade and I still haven't gotten it back yet to know what I need to change is due
Monday - Pull Questions due (PQs are questions that we get at the end of each Torrey session. You have to answer one per book, 300-600 words. My Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus/Deuteronomy, Joshua, and Hebrews PQs will be due. As of now, I have not done any of them, but I only have Exodus and Numbers because we haven't had the other sessions yet.)
Friday - Finals start. I might do my Torrey final on this day. I get to sign up for it, but I haven't decided if I want to do it this day or the next Monday or Tuesday.
Monday - Brit. Lit. Final
Tuesday - Piano juries (and my piano minor auditions). I just have to play three songs memorized. It shouldn't be that hard, just depends on how nervous I get.
Wednesday - Spanish Final. Fly home!!
So that is my busy schedule for the next few weeks. And now I am going to go to bed early (yes, I know, on a Friday night too) and get up around 8 to try and finish reading Leviticus before my piano lesson. Good night. :)
"Well, I'm going home, back to the place where I belong."
- Home, Daughtry
Monday, November 8, 2010
Learning is a long and lengthy lecture.
I feel like I've learned a lot this past week. Nothing really different or unusual happened; I just feel like I've learned things. Well, I did have my first Reynolds session. (This is a Torrey session with Dr. Reynolds - the director of the whole Torrey Honors Institute - as the tutor.) On Tuesday and it was on Plato's Timaeus. I finally have an appreciation for Plato now that we're done reading his books. That guy was so brilliant! It's hard to say what exactly I learned because it's so confusing and I still don't understand all of it. I can explain one concept that stuck out to me though. In Plato's Republic (yeah, I know, it was in the Timaeus session but we talked about some of Plato's other books that we'd read, too), Socrates talks about the people who care more about appearing to be just than actually being just. And we applied this to being wise too. My whole life people have always called me smart - if I got anything less than perfection it was always a shock to people. I'm not perfect, nor have I ever been perfect. But I quickly realized that I could get the good grades without really doing much at all. I became lazy. As long as everyone said I was smart, I believed that I was smart. But, looking back now, I think I was more worried about appearing to be smart than actually being smart and learning. Especially during my senior year. The excitement that I felt in elementary school, when I would finish my homework and get to do the homework that my older sister was doing, had left me. I no longer had a love of learning. I think I'm finally starting to get that back, and I have Plato to thank for it. Which is weird to say. But he's tough to read and tough to discuss, but what he says and the way he says it can just be so darn cool. And then our session on Thursday (also on Timaeus) was really good too and beneficial to our group as a whole. Which was what we needed. We're growing as a group together, as we all try to finish our first semester in Torrey successfully.
Dr. Reynolds pointed out to us that a lot of things in the Narnia books are from Plato. C.S. Lewis was that smart. So Thursday night, we watched the first Narnia, and there's this one quote from Plato that Aslan says - "where's the fourth?" - and it has so much more meaning now, and we were nerds and got really quiet right before he said it (the rest of the movie we were talking the whole time, and we assigned people roles in the Narnia books. I got Lucy :) ). Anyways that's my learning experience for now.
Midnight Madness was last night! So much fun! It's basically a pep rally to kick off the basketball season. But it was a lot better than my high school pep rallies (nothing against Northwest) which never worked for the Northwest-Dalton football games. Anyways they had the cheerleaders do a dance, and they called out all the sports teams at Biola, and then introduced the basketball players by name. We learned a cheer to do at the games. They had a 3-pointer competition between the girl and guy basketball players. The girls represented upper campus (yay!) and the boys represented lower campus. Of course the girls won! ;) Then the dance team Xopoc (I think that's how you spell it...) came out and they were AMAZING!! really, really good. It was fun to watch. Then we got to run on to the court, like we apparently will at the end of the basketball games, and they had a bunch of confetti and it was red-and-white madness! It's really weird being a red team now since the red team in high school was our biggest opponent. Oh well.
I have a canker sore on my bottom lip that hurts like the dickens. Especially when I eat, which is super annoying. Hopefully it'll go away soon.
I have my first Bible session tomorrow! On Genesis. I'm really excited to see how it goes. It was weird, going from reading Plato to reading the Bible because I was reading the Bible how I read Plato, and I've never done that before. Normally, when I read the Bible, I read a chapter a day. I read Genesis in three days this weekend. It was so cool! Anyways, I'm excited for session tomorrow.
5 more weeks til Christmas break!
Well, that's basically all I wanted to say. And I wanna go to bed now. So goodnight, and thanks for reading, whoever you are that happened to read this. :)
"There's a road like a long grey ribbon as far as I can see, and it's pullin' independence outta me."
- Independence, The Band Perry
Dr. Reynolds pointed out to us that a lot of things in the Narnia books are from Plato. C.S. Lewis was that smart. So Thursday night, we watched the first Narnia, and there's this one quote from Plato that Aslan says - "where's the fourth?" - and it has so much more meaning now, and we were nerds and got really quiet right before he said it (the rest of the movie we were talking the whole time, and we assigned people roles in the Narnia books. I got Lucy :) ). Anyways that's my learning experience for now.
Midnight Madness was last night! So much fun! It's basically a pep rally to kick off the basketball season. But it was a lot better than my high school pep rallies (nothing against Northwest) which never worked for the Northwest-Dalton football games. Anyways they had the cheerleaders do a dance, and they called out all the sports teams at Biola, and then introduced the basketball players by name. We learned a cheer to do at the games. They had a 3-pointer competition between the girl and guy basketball players. The girls represented upper campus (yay!) and the boys represented lower campus. Of course the girls won! ;) Then the dance team Xopoc (I think that's how you spell it...) came out and they were AMAZING!! really, really good. It was fun to watch. Then we got to run on to the court, like we apparently will at the end of the basketball games, and they had a bunch of confetti and it was red-and-white madness! It's really weird being a red team now since the red team in high school was our biggest opponent. Oh well.
I have a canker sore on my bottom lip that hurts like the dickens. Especially when I eat, which is super annoying. Hopefully it'll go away soon.
I have my first Bible session tomorrow! On Genesis. I'm really excited to see how it goes. It was weird, going from reading Plato to reading the Bible because I was reading the Bible how I read Plato, and I've never done that before. Normally, when I read the Bible, I read a chapter a day. I read Genesis in three days this weekend. It was so cool! Anyways, I'm excited for session tomorrow.
5 more weeks til Christmas break!
Well, that's basically all I wanted to say. And I wanna go to bed now. So goodnight, and thanks for reading, whoever you are that happened to read this. :)
"There's a road like a long grey ribbon as far as I can see, and it's pullin' independence outta me."
- Independence, The Band Perry
Sunday, October 31, 2010
No Sleep 2nite, Hermeneut-tics, and Blue Hair Dye
Wow, this past week has been crazy! Or maybe it's just been this weekend; it's just seemed longer. The big Torrey paper that you write once a semester and is worth 30% of your entire grade was due this past Friday at 5 p.m. It was only the first draft (we get it returned to us with comments and stuff and then have to turn it in one more time), but we still have to have it pretty close to a final copy. I started on this paper a week early (really earlier because I did an outline the weekend before). So I finished writing it last Saturday night and then e-mailed it to a sophomore who was kind enough to read a bunch of freshmen papers and give them helpful comments. I talked with her Monday night about my paper, and she said I had good ideas but I needed to go deeper into the topic; it was a good AP English paper, but not a very great Torrey paper. So I worked on it a little throughout the week but I wasn't really sure what to change. Until Thursday night. Around 9 p.m. Liiiight bulbbb (said in the funny Gru accent). Around 11, my roommate and I went to the Eagle's Nest for some caffeine and chocolate chip cookies. We needed a break and energy to keep writing. Boy, we were sure hyper for the rest of the night. At 1 a.m., after getting more caffeine and more cookies, we went to the SUB (Student Union Building) where a bunch of Torrey people were working on their papers together and getting help from upperclassmen. My roommate and I settled in on one of the pool tables (one of the only available seats left) and continued working. and working. and sometimes getting interrupted by people. and being hyper. and laughing at random things that would not be funny during normal hours of the day. and working some more. I finally finished at 4 a.m., and ended up getting in bed at 4:30. My roommate got in at 5. But we got it done! Some people didn't even go to bed that night. Welcome to college, I guess. But even though we didn't get sleep, I had a lot of fun that night. It was so crazy! We read each others' papers on Friday, corrected some things, and got it turned in at 3 p.m. Then we celebrated with some strawberry smoothies. :)
I skipped a class for the first time Friday morning. Spanish. at 8:30. I decided to give myself some more sleep. I got up at 8:30 and went to chapel at 9:30. The DBC (Dr. Barry Corey, aka president of Biola) was speaking about the Lausanne Conference that he'd just gotten back from. It was very interesting! Being with Christians from all over the world in one town, learning how to evangelize the world, and learning how Christians live in different countries would be an incredibly cool experience. He showed us some videos of some of the speakers (also a video of Issac Slade from the Fray playing "How to Save a Life" on the piano - very cool), and he also showed us a video of a young boy in an orphanage in Kenya (he went there after the conference), which apparently Biola has helped out a lot with, telling all the Biola students "thank you" for everything they've done. It was very sweet and very cool to hear. I'm glad I got up to go.
Saturday, I attended a mandatory Hermeneutics Conference for all Torrey freshmen. from 10-3, with an hour break for lunch. It was basically telling us how we should read and take notes on the Bible (we start with Genesis next week). It was all very interesting and good information, and I took some notes, but I was incredibly tired (as was everyone else). Therefore, it was hard to pay attention. I found myself writing Taylor Swift lyrics because they were stuck in my head. Hehe. One thing I remember is the Hermeneutics song. "Hermeneut, hermeneut, hermeneut, hermeneut, TICS, bridging the gap!" After the conference, I went with some friends to see Inception. It was just as good as the first time I saw it, except a little better because I saw the beginning this time. But because the movie started 15 minutes late, we didn't make it back to campus in time for dinner in the caf. So we decided to go to Eagle's Nest (a little food place on campus). Just kidding, they were closed too. Though why they close at 5 p.m. on a Saturday evening is a mystery to me. Let's go to Chick-fil-a! So we ate yummy chicken and I burnt the roof of my mouth on my sandwich because I was starving and a bit too eager to eat. Also, my friends like making me laugh so much that I can't breathe. For some reason, they find this amusing. I have no earthly idea why.....
When we got back to campus again, we decided to do homework together in the SUB for awhile, and then play Apples-to-Apples. We realized that that game does not always have the best cards. Sometimes they are really lame, sometimes they are just plain wrong.
Today was Candyland! Every Halloween, Alpha (the dorm I live in) is transformed into Candyland the board game/movie. A balloon arch covers the entrance of the walkway and a colorful path leads up to the doors. There's a popcorn machine and snacks and candy at the entrance. In the lobby, multiple games offer many chances for prizes and candy. Face painting is also available. There are 6 halls in Alpha. Each hall has a different theme, and the doors are all decorated according to theme. My hall theme was "Grandma Nut goes to the movies." My roommie and I did "The Nut in the Hat," and dressed as Thing 1 and Thing 2. We were quite proud of our door and costumes! Especially since we'd really only started them today. The door took us 3 hours today after church. We'd already bought red shirts and leggings earlier this week, but we hadn't made the "Thing 1/2" circles for the shirts and we didn't have blue hair dye. We went out to the Rite Aid and found some blue hair dye that said "semi-permanent." What does that mean? We didn't know, so we did something that you aren't supposed to do, and I don't think I've ever done. We opened the sealed box to look at the instructions. Do your hair for 30 minutes - stays in 1-6 months; 10 minutes- 1-3 weeks. This is not what we want! Good thing we opened it up. We next went to the CVS Pharmacy but they didn't have anything. It was a God-thing, though, that there was a beauty salon next door and they had exactly what we wanted: spray-on hair dye that comes out with shampoo. There was only one blue color left! Yay! We got back to campus with about 30 minutes to complete our costumes. We quickly finished the shirts, put our costumes on, and sprayed each others hair. My roommie sprayed my ear. Accidentally. But my ear was blue. And it still has blue in it. Oh well. ;) Also, when i blew my nose a few hours later, blue stuff came out. Don't ask me why; I have no idea how that happened! Anyways, at 5:30, the kids came, and I worked one of the games for an hour. Then, I helped my roommie hand out candy for awhile; when we were running low, we decided to go look at all the halls. There is so much creativity in Alpha! And all the little kids were adorable! It was so wonderful to be around a bunch of kids again; I really miss being around children. Needless to say, Candyland was a ton of fun!
However, I'm still trying to catch up on sleep and I have homework to do tonight. Pull Questions due tomorrow by 5 and Timaeus has to be read by Tuesday. Then I can get my normal sleep. Hopefully.
"The lingering question kept me up, 2 a.m., who do you love? I wonder 'till I'm wide awake...I was enchanted to meet you."
-Enchanted, Taylor Swift
I skipped a class for the first time Friday morning. Spanish. at 8:30. I decided to give myself some more sleep. I got up at 8:30 and went to chapel at 9:30. The DBC (Dr. Barry Corey, aka president of Biola) was speaking about the Lausanne Conference that he'd just gotten back from. It was very interesting! Being with Christians from all over the world in one town, learning how to evangelize the world, and learning how Christians live in different countries would be an incredibly cool experience. He showed us some videos of some of the speakers (also a video of Issac Slade from the Fray playing "How to Save a Life" on the piano - very cool), and he also showed us a video of a young boy in an orphanage in Kenya (he went there after the conference), which apparently Biola has helped out a lot with, telling all the Biola students "thank you" for everything they've done. It was very sweet and very cool to hear. I'm glad I got up to go.
Saturday, I attended a mandatory Hermeneutics Conference for all Torrey freshmen. from 10-3, with an hour break for lunch. It was basically telling us how we should read and take notes on the Bible (we start with Genesis next week). It was all very interesting and good information, and I took some notes, but I was incredibly tired (as was everyone else). Therefore, it was hard to pay attention. I found myself writing Taylor Swift lyrics because they were stuck in my head. Hehe. One thing I remember is the Hermeneutics song. "Hermeneut, hermeneut, hermeneut, hermeneut, TICS, bridging the gap!" After the conference, I went with some friends to see Inception. It was just as good as the first time I saw it, except a little better because I saw the beginning this time. But because the movie started 15 minutes late, we didn't make it back to campus in time for dinner in the caf. So we decided to go to Eagle's Nest (a little food place on campus). Just kidding, they were closed too. Though why they close at 5 p.m. on a Saturday evening is a mystery to me. Let's go to Chick-fil-a! So we ate yummy chicken and I burnt the roof of my mouth on my sandwich because I was starving and a bit too eager to eat. Also, my friends like making me laugh so much that I can't breathe. For some reason, they find this amusing. I have no earthly idea why.....
When we got back to campus again, we decided to do homework together in the SUB for awhile, and then play Apples-to-Apples. We realized that that game does not always have the best cards. Sometimes they are really lame, sometimes they are just plain wrong.
Today was Candyland! Every Halloween, Alpha (the dorm I live in) is transformed into Candyland the board game/movie. A balloon arch covers the entrance of the walkway and a colorful path leads up to the doors. There's a popcorn machine and snacks and candy at the entrance. In the lobby, multiple games offer many chances for prizes and candy. Face painting is also available. There are 6 halls in Alpha. Each hall has a different theme, and the doors are all decorated according to theme. My hall theme was "Grandma Nut goes to the movies." My roommie and I did "The Nut in the Hat," and dressed as Thing 1 and Thing 2. We were quite proud of our door and costumes! Especially since we'd really only started them today. The door took us 3 hours today after church. We'd already bought red shirts and leggings earlier this week, but we hadn't made the "Thing 1/2" circles for the shirts and we didn't have blue hair dye. We went out to the Rite Aid and found some blue hair dye that said "semi-permanent." What does that mean? We didn't know, so we did something that you aren't supposed to do, and I don't think I've ever done. We opened the sealed box to look at the instructions. Do your hair for 30 minutes - stays in 1-6 months; 10 minutes- 1-3 weeks. This is not what we want! Good thing we opened it up. We next went to the CVS Pharmacy but they didn't have anything. It was a God-thing, though, that there was a beauty salon next door and they had exactly what we wanted: spray-on hair dye that comes out with shampoo. There was only one blue color left! Yay! We got back to campus with about 30 minutes to complete our costumes. We quickly finished the shirts, put our costumes on, and sprayed each others hair. My roommie sprayed my ear. Accidentally. But my ear was blue. And it still has blue in it. Oh well. ;) Also, when i blew my nose a few hours later, blue stuff came out. Don't ask me why; I have no idea how that happened! Anyways, at 5:30, the kids came, and I worked one of the games for an hour. Then, I helped my roommie hand out candy for awhile; when we were running low, we decided to go look at all the halls. There is so much creativity in Alpha! And all the little kids were adorable! It was so wonderful to be around a bunch of kids again; I really miss being around children. Needless to say, Candyland was a ton of fun!
However, I'm still trying to catch up on sleep and I have homework to do tonight. Pull Questions due tomorrow by 5 and Timaeus has to be read by Tuesday. Then I can get my normal sleep. Hopefully.
"The lingering question kept me up, 2 a.m., who do you love? I wonder 'till I'm wide awake...I was enchanted to meet you."
-Enchanted, Taylor Swift
Monday, October 25, 2010
Home is where the heart is - it's true
Last week was the Torrey Bible Conference (which has nothing to do with the Torrey Honors Program, they are merely named after the same guy), a 3-day break from classes and 8 sessions on this year's theme - peacemaking. It was all very interesting and good information (and one of the speakers had a British accent!), but I didn't really feel that it applied to me personally. I'm not in a conflict with anyone at this time in my life. I don't feel like I ever really have been. It might be because I hate confrontation. Or something like that. But it was a nice break from classes since we don't have a fall break. I got to sleep-in an extra hour Wednesday and Thursday and an extra two and a half hours on Friday which was absolutely lovely.
Today, I got my first college midterm back. I made a 92! Which I am happy with. It was for British Literature. It was also my only midterm.
Today, I went out and bought the new Taylor Swift cd, from Target so I got the deluxe version. Hehe :) It's a really good cd, but it had one song on it that I could actually relate to. "Never Grow Up." It's not about a guy, it's about, well, growing up. One part says this: "So here I am in my new apartment in a big city, they just dropped me off. It's so much colder than I thought it would be so I tuck myself in and turn my night light on. Wish I'd never grown up. I wish I'd never grown up." I had already been feeling a little homesick last night. I randomly thought of the song "It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas" and then I realized that I wanted this to be true because that would mean I would be going home soon. Then this song made me more homesick. I'm trying not to be homesick, because I still love it here and I'm still enjoying my time here. But, I have to admit, I miss cuddling with Abby while she sleeps. I miss hearing Jake say my name in his little accent and get excited whenever I go to the Hastey house. I miss Josiah's sweet laugh and how he loves telling you, in detail, about something completely random. I miss Nathan's cool inventions and random gifts that show you that he does care. I miss my mom's hugs. and cooking. I miss turning to my dad for anything. and his cooking. I miss laying on the couch. I miss driving every day. I miss having somewhere to go. I miss being able to eat whenever I wanted to. I miss going swimming and to the movies every week with Emily, Tiffany, Logan, Garrett, and occasionally Chelsea. I miss my church. I miss my sisters...
I'm making myself more homesick. I'm going to stop now.
Life really is good. I got to spend an unplanned hour with three amazing girls. Chapel this week is focusing on the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in Cape Town, South Africa. It's basically a big gathering of Christians from around the world, discussing and learning about believers in different areas and how they need help and prayer and other things. The president of Biola is there, along with some professors and students, and we're watching video footage of some of the panels. It's really interesting. I might be going to Knotts' Berry Farm this Friday. I really want to, right now it depends on if more people wanna come too. I've found a church I like. I'm going to keep trying it for awhile to see if it's for sure the one I want to attend here. I still love Biola.
I just miss home.
"I wish I'd never grown up. I could still be little. I wish I'd never grown up. It could still be simple. Oh darling, don't you ever grow up."
- Never Grow Up, Taylor Swift
Today, I got my first college midterm back. I made a 92! Which I am happy with. It was for British Literature. It was also my only midterm.
Today, I went out and bought the new Taylor Swift cd, from Target so I got the deluxe version. Hehe :) It's a really good cd, but it had one song on it that I could actually relate to. "Never Grow Up." It's not about a guy, it's about, well, growing up. One part says this: "So here I am in my new apartment in a big city, they just dropped me off. It's so much colder than I thought it would be so I tuck myself in and turn my night light on. Wish I'd never grown up. I wish I'd never grown up." I had already been feeling a little homesick last night. I randomly thought of the song "It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas" and then I realized that I wanted this to be true because that would mean I would be going home soon. Then this song made me more homesick. I'm trying not to be homesick, because I still love it here and I'm still enjoying my time here. But, I have to admit, I miss cuddling with Abby while she sleeps. I miss hearing Jake say my name in his little accent and get excited whenever I go to the Hastey house. I miss Josiah's sweet laugh and how he loves telling you, in detail, about something completely random. I miss Nathan's cool inventions and random gifts that show you that he does care. I miss my mom's hugs. and cooking. I miss turning to my dad for anything. and his cooking. I miss laying on the couch. I miss driving every day. I miss having somewhere to go. I miss being able to eat whenever I wanted to. I miss going swimming and to the movies every week with Emily, Tiffany, Logan, Garrett, and occasionally Chelsea. I miss my church. I miss my sisters...
I'm making myself more homesick. I'm going to stop now.
Life really is good. I got to spend an unplanned hour with three amazing girls. Chapel this week is focusing on the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in Cape Town, South Africa. It's basically a big gathering of Christians from around the world, discussing and learning about believers in different areas and how they need help and prayer and other things. The president of Biola is there, along with some professors and students, and we're watching video footage of some of the panels. It's really interesting. I might be going to Knotts' Berry Farm this Friday. I really want to, right now it depends on if more people wanna come too. I've found a church I like. I'm going to keep trying it for awhile to see if it's for sure the one I want to attend here. I still love Biola.
I just miss home.
"I wish I'd never grown up. I could still be little. I wish I'd never grown up. It could still be simple. Oh darling, don't you ever grow up."
- Never Grow Up, Taylor Swift
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Story Time!
Once upon a time there lived a young Southern girl who dreamed of traveling the world and telling people's stories. But she wasn't sure how she could ever live her dream. One day she found a wonderful place thousands of miles from her home that would give her many opportunities to travel and the knowledge that she would need to do it. She knew this was the place she wanted to be, but it was only an impossible dream. So she lived her days in a sad loneliness, withdrawing into herself more than ever.
However, nothing is impossible with God. He was faithful and gave her the desires of her heart. He provided a way for her to go to the wonderful place and live out her dream. She went gratefully with joy and peace in her heart. Many strange things greeted her when she got there, but she loved everything about the place. She met new people who didn't know her because of her family or friends or as that smart girl. It was her new beginning. She made friends based on who she was as an individual.
After two months of living in this new place, she still felt like she was living in a dream. Nothing was the same as her life before. She'd lived so long believing her dream would not come true; the fact that she'd been living it for two months did not lesson its impact on her. While she was busier than she'd been in a long time, she enjoyed every minute of it. Knowing she was where God wanted her brought an incredible feeling of peace. Even though occasionally a desire hit her to see her parents, her sisters, her friends, her adorable puppy, or her sweet boys, she knew it was all God's plan. She would see them soon enough. People don't get to live their dreams everyday. This Southern girl was blessed and thanked God for the life He had given her. The End.
"In this city where dreams are made of."
- L.A. Baby, Jonas Brothers
However, nothing is impossible with God. He was faithful and gave her the desires of her heart. He provided a way for her to go to the wonderful place and live out her dream. She went gratefully with joy and peace in her heart. Many strange things greeted her when she got there, but she loved everything about the place. She met new people who didn't know her because of her family or friends or as that smart girl. It was her new beginning. She made friends based on who she was as an individual.
After two months of living in this new place, she still felt like she was living in a dream. Nothing was the same as her life before. She'd lived so long believing her dream would not come true; the fact that she'd been living it for two months did not lesson its impact on her. While she was busier than she'd been in a long time, she enjoyed every minute of it. Knowing she was where God wanted her brought an incredible feeling of peace. Even though occasionally a desire hit her to see her parents, her sisters, her friends, her adorable puppy, or her sweet boys, she knew it was all God's plan. She would see them soon enough. People don't get to live their dreams everyday. This Southern girl was blessed and thanked God for the life He had given her. The End.
"In this city where dreams are made of."
- L.A. Baby, Jonas Brothers
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Hello world :)
So my lovely sister Liz convinced me to start a blog because she has a blog where I can follow her life and she wants to follow my life. So here I am. :) A week ago today I turned 19. It's really weird being 19. Anyways I got to sleep in a little on that day (til 10) which was nice, and I got to eat homemade chocolate chip banana bread for breakfast which is AMAZING. I opened my present from Cat at this point to - she got me a cd and The Last Song. :) I had to go to a piano lesson at 12 for half an hour, then around 1:30 myself and four of my girlfriends hopped in my car and headed off to Hollywood! It was quite the adventure. It took us about 45 minutes to get there (and it's fairly easy to get there from here), and then we had to find parking while being in awe of the fact that we were in Hollywood (only one of us had been before - not me hehe). We finally see a sign for $2 parking which sounded awesome! So we made our way down there and drove around for a bit before we found a great parking space in a corner next to a stairwell. The stairs were on the sketchy side, but when we got out we were right next to the outdoor mall which was where we wanted to go. I have pictures of it on Facebook if you want to know what it looks like. We found the walkways where you stand and take pictures of the Hollywood sign and we had a great view! Apparently you can't get anywhere near the actual sign; you're only allowed to see it from a distance. And it was neat because there was a cross near the sign.
During our walk, we found a restaurant called Disney's Soda Fountain which looked pretty darn awesome. They had a menu outside and we decided to peruse it - we found the Mickey's Masterpiece for 30 bucks. Split between 5 of us, we decided $6 wasn't that bad to spend. So in we go! (Again, pictures of the restaurant plus dessert are on Facebook.) Our waiter comes and we tell him what we want right away. Oh and we steal napkins. They looked cool so we put them all in our purse and were going to ask the waiter for more, but he came prepared. The first thing he did was give us each a napkin as if we'd never had any to begin with! After awhile, we see our dessert on the counter just sitting there. We begin to get impatient. "Why aren't the bringing it to us? Where's our waiter? Why is no one picking it up? Just pick it up and give it to us already! Oh there's our waiter! Pick it up, pick it up, pick it up...no what is he doing? Oh he's putting whipped cream on it! Oh okay, we need that. And cherries are good too. Okay now pick it up, come on, just bring it over here already. Where's he going now? Wait, no, come back! Just pick it up!! FINALLY! Oh no, wait, what is he doing? He's telling the whole restaurant what we ordered??" That was the gist of our conversation. And yes our waiter announced to the whole restaurant that we had ordered the Mickey's Masterpiece and then told them all it was my birthday (my friend had told him earlier that it was my birthday). They then proceeded to sing a zip-a-dee-do-dah birthday song to me! Needless to say, this was my favorite part of the day. :) Plus the dessert was delicious! It consisted of 8 different flavored scoops of ice cream, chocolate sauce, and whipped cream all around Mickey's hat from Fantasia. Unfortunately, we couldn't keep the hat. But after we ate every bite, they gave us all pins that say, "I ate the whole thing," and I got a birthday pin that was advantageous to me later on in the day....
After we'd had our fill, we continued to walk around, taking pictures and wondering if any of the cars driving by contained someone famous. We found the place with all the footprints and hand prints and got some pictures of that. It was a bit crowded there. There were lots of people on the street dressed like characters, trying to get money I suppose. Around this time, my friend Heather had to leave so we waited with her for her mom to pick her up. Then we decided that it was time for us to go.We went to the door where we had come out of the stairwell from the parking garage. It was locked. But there was an elevator nearby, so we checked it out. It didn't go down, only up. So we thought that maybe we're in the wrong place. We walked up some stairs and found another elevator. We got in, only to realize that it was the same elevator we'd been in before, just on the 2nd level. So it only went down one level, not to the parking garage. We quickly got out and kept looking. Another stairwell was nearby so we went down those stairs. It looked different, but maybe it would lead us where we wanted to go. Nope. We went to the bottom of the stairs, walked out, and we were on the first level again, where we'd been five minutes earlier. If people had been watching us, they would've been laughing their heads off at this point. We decided to walk around the street and go in the car entrance because we didn't know what else to do. Fortunately for us, we ran into some fellow Biolans, explained our dilemma, and they directed us in the way to go. We still got a little lost trying to find the stairs or an elevator, but eventually we were in the parking garage. Finding my car proved to not be that difficult. I gave the parking ticket to the guy collecting money at the exit, only to find out that we owed $10, not $2. Turns out you have to get your ticket validated for the $2 price - meaning you have to spend money in Hollywood and get someone to mark it. Thanks for letting us know this ahead of time. On our way back to school, we decided to stop at Chick-fil-a for dinner, because they were having a special where you can get two meals for the price of one if you say, "I want the double," or something like that. When we arrive and I go to order, the girl tells me the deal ended at 7 (it was about 8:00). Drat. Then she says, "But is it your birthday?" I was a bit surprised, then looked down and realized I was still wearing my birthday pin. "Yeah it is!" She asked to see my Biola I.D. and then gave me my meal for free! I will always be eating a meal at Chick-fil-a on my birthday from now on.
We arrived back on campus, and my birthday adventure ended. It was quite the exciting day! And I was bombarded on Facebook with birthday messages. :) God has blessed me with many friends here and back home and an absolutely wonderful family that I wouldn't trade for anything.
I'll leave you with the lyrics from a song on the cd that Cat gave me. You can interpret it as you want to...
"This ain't a threat but I think I outta warn ya, gonna fall in love if you go to California."
- Half Moon Bay, Train
The Hollywood sign with the cross below it.
After that, we walked around the mall a bit more and then decided to go look at the stars on the Walk of Fame. Numerous pictures of the people's names I recognized can again be found in the wonderful world of Facebook. Apparently the entire Walk of Fame is about 2 and a half miles. We did not walk all of it, but I'm pretty sure we did most of it.
During our walk, we found a restaurant called Disney's Soda Fountain which looked pretty darn awesome. They had a menu outside and we decided to peruse it - we found the Mickey's Masterpiece for 30 bucks. Split between 5 of us, we decided $6 wasn't that bad to spend. So in we go! (Again, pictures of the restaurant plus dessert are on Facebook.) Our waiter comes and we tell him what we want right away. Oh and we steal napkins. They looked cool so we put them all in our purse and were going to ask the waiter for more, but he came prepared. The first thing he did was give us each a napkin as if we'd never had any to begin with! After awhile, we see our dessert on the counter just sitting there. We begin to get impatient. "Why aren't the bringing it to us? Where's our waiter? Why is no one picking it up? Just pick it up and give it to us already! Oh there's our waiter! Pick it up, pick it up, pick it up...no what is he doing? Oh he's putting whipped cream on it! Oh okay, we need that. And cherries are good too. Okay now pick it up, come on, just bring it over here already. Where's he going now? Wait, no, come back! Just pick it up!! FINALLY! Oh no, wait, what is he doing? He's telling the whole restaurant what we ordered??" That was the gist of our conversation. And yes our waiter announced to the whole restaurant that we had ordered the Mickey's Masterpiece and then told them all it was my birthday (my friend had told him earlier that it was my birthday). They then proceeded to sing a zip-a-dee-do-dah birthday song to me! Needless to say, this was my favorite part of the day. :) Plus the dessert was delicious! It consisted of 8 different flavored scoops of ice cream, chocolate sauce, and whipped cream all around Mickey's hat from Fantasia. Unfortunately, we couldn't keep the hat. But after we ate every bite, they gave us all pins that say, "I ate the whole thing," and I got a birthday pin that was advantageous to me later on in the day....
After we'd had our fill, we continued to walk around, taking pictures and wondering if any of the cars driving by contained someone famous. We found the place with all the footprints and hand prints and got some pictures of that. It was a bit crowded there. There were lots of people on the street dressed like characters, trying to get money I suppose. Around this time, my friend Heather had to leave so we waited with her for her mom to pick her up. Then we decided that it was time for us to go.We went to the door where we had come out of the stairwell from the parking garage. It was locked. But there was an elevator nearby, so we checked it out. It didn't go down, only up. So we thought that maybe we're in the wrong place. We walked up some stairs and found another elevator. We got in, only to realize that it was the same elevator we'd been in before, just on the 2nd level. So it only went down one level, not to the parking garage. We quickly got out and kept looking. Another stairwell was nearby so we went down those stairs. It looked different, but maybe it would lead us where we wanted to go. Nope. We went to the bottom of the stairs, walked out, and we were on the first level again, where we'd been five minutes earlier. If people had been watching us, they would've been laughing their heads off at this point. We decided to walk around the street and go in the car entrance because we didn't know what else to do. Fortunately for us, we ran into some fellow Biolans, explained our dilemma, and they directed us in the way to go. We still got a little lost trying to find the stairs or an elevator, but eventually we were in the parking garage. Finding my car proved to not be that difficult. I gave the parking ticket to the guy collecting money at the exit, only to find out that we owed $10, not $2. Turns out you have to get your ticket validated for the $2 price - meaning you have to spend money in Hollywood and get someone to mark it. Thanks for letting us know this ahead of time. On our way back to school, we decided to stop at Chick-fil-a for dinner, because they were having a special where you can get two meals for the price of one if you say, "I want the double," or something like that. When we arrive and I go to order, the girl tells me the deal ended at 7 (it was about 8:00). Drat. Then she says, "But is it your birthday?" I was a bit surprised, then looked down and realized I was still wearing my birthday pin. "Yeah it is!" She asked to see my Biola I.D. and then gave me my meal for free! I will always be eating a meal at Chick-fil-a on my birthday from now on.
We arrived back on campus, and my birthday adventure ended. It was quite the exciting day! And I was bombarded on Facebook with birthday messages. :) God has blessed me with many friends here and back home and an absolutely wonderful family that I wouldn't trade for anything.
I'll leave you with the lyrics from a song on the cd that Cat gave me. You can interpret it as you want to...
"This ain't a threat but I think I outta warn ya, gonna fall in love if you go to California."
- Half Moon Bay, Train
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