Disclaimer: I wrote most of this Wednesday afternoon and the end while I was traveling home Friday.
So I realized tonight that it's been two months since I last blogged. And I wondered why I hadn't blogged the past two months. Then I thought, Oh yeah, that'd be life. This semester has been one amazing, busy, crazy semester. Have I mentioned that I love Biola? Probably, but I can't get over how much I love being here. The people, the classes, the community. I just really love it all.
Let's see, March included a theology conference and a missions conference, paper deadlines, floor retreat, and lots of learning. First off, I learned that I really love theology. I spent ten hours over two days just soaking in theology, things I'd never even thought to question before about what I believe. As we read the Gospels in Torrey and I went to a lecture on the Synoptic Gospels, I learned so much more about what I believe. As my mentor puts it, there's a difference between knowing God and knowing about God. I've known God practically my whole life, but I've never known that much about Him. That's what I'm learning now, and I'm so glad that Biola makes everyone minor in Bible, because this stuff is too fascinating to have never learned. Secondly, missions conference was amazing! It is completely student-run - a three day event with speakers, a band, and everything in between. My favorite was something called Global Awareness - they have rooms set up that you walk through, and they put on mini-skits of places in different countries where people are suffering and Christians are being persecuted (they also had one in America dealing with abortion). They way they did the skits made it feel like you were actually there, and they were very convincing and eye-opening. Third - paper deadlines. My lit class is interesting, but I'm pretty sure 99% (if not 100%) of her students in all three of her American Lit classes were unsatisfied with how she graded our first papers. She called it a reflection paper which is very misleading because she really wanted a persuasive, argumentative paper. But I was able to rewrite mine with that in mind and will hopefully find out soon what I got on it. My Torrey paper I was actually very happy with, and I am very impatient to get it back. I was hoping to before spring break, but I'm not sure I will now. I wrote my paper on Aeneas from The Aeneid, all 2762 words of it. It's the longest paper I've ever written on one character and I really want to know what I made on it. Fourthly, floor retreat was a camping trip by the beach about 2 hours north of here. It was a lot of fun! I didn't get too much closer to the girls on my hall like I'd wanted, but I enjoyed a Sunday morning walk on the beach and sleeping outside.
April has included a midterm, Torrey freshmen initiatives, and preparing for Torrientation. My midterm was in American Lit, and again, I don't know what I made yet. I'm supposed to find out tomorrow, but I'm not sure if I will. I just really hope I got an A on it. Freshmen initiatives were a lot of fun! The games were interesting (they were how-do-you-work-in-a-group type games), but I really enjoyed hearing from Torrey alum current seniors about their experiences in Torrey. Also, we spent about 3-4 hours getting to know each other better personally. I went to bed after that (it was midnight on a church night) but my group stayed up til 2:30 am. Torrientation is the orientation for Torrey that I came to Biola about 5 days early for last August. This year, I am blessed and very excited to get to be a part of making Torrientation an awesome experience for the upcoming freshmen. I am a seer and foods coordinator. A seer is just someone who helps the freshmen with whatever they need during the week of Torrientation (we are split into groups and put with a group of freshmen). Foods coordinator is what it sounds like - since the Biola cafe isn't open yet at this time, I am in charge of making sure everyone gets fed (which is appropriate since my last name is Baker...haha). I have been so blessed to get to know the other seers and leadership teams better (which include my roommate and 9 other members from my group Edwards :) ). I absolutely love being a part of a group who can turn a 30-minute prayer meeting into an hour and half of holding hands in a circle and praying together. These people that I’ve met our absolutely amazing. :)
Other fun stuff I’ve done the past two months: beach trip to Huntington Beach – we went in the afternoon and stayed til night, had a bonfire and smores, played Frisbee and volleyball, and just hung out and had a great, relaxing time; saw Tangled and True Grit at the dollar theater; watched Monster’s Inc,, Andy Griffith, Emperor’s New Groove, and Life is Beautiful with friends (not at the same time); random trips to Chick-fil-a; Mock Rock (a musical competition at Biola – a bunch of different groups of students perform dances and lip sync to random mash-ups of popular songs to tell a story); and of course random adventures that happen in my dorm room with Elsa, Havilah, and Maci. :)
Right now, I’m headed home for spring break, which happen to always correlate with Easter, and I’m so glad for this break! As I said, this semester has been crazy busy. But it’s not quite over yet. My last three weeks of school are probably going to be my toughest yet; I just have a lot due and I really thick book to read (City of God, which hopefully I will get a lot read over break). But I am very excited that my sister Catherine will be coming to visit me my last week of school and finals week – we’ll be driving back to Georgia together once school ends.
Spring break plans – I’m getting home Friday night. Saturday will be spent with my dad’s side of the family, and I get to see my new baby cousin! And of course we’ll eat lots of good food. :) Easter Sunday, I’m going to church and then spending the afternoon/evening with my mom’s side of the family – Easter egg hunt for the little ones and of course, more good food. :) Monday I’m headed to UGA to visit friends, and Tuesday I’m going to Berry to visit more friends! I might try to visit Kennesaw too – I haven’t decided if I’ll have time yet. Then, Wednesday through Friday are homework days (because I have a lot of it!) and I’ll probably spend time with the Hasteys too. Next Saturday I head back to school. So hopefully it’ll be a fun week; I’m looking forward to it! Especially because even when I’m doing homework, I’ll have sweet Abby there with me! :)
