Summer Adventures

The end of my freshmen year ended with the worst sunburn I've ever gotten. But I suppose it was a good way to end the year - at the beach with friends. My sister Cat came to visit me for a week and a half, and, even though she got a reality check of what living in L.A. is really like - mainly traffic - it was still a great time together. She got to meet my friends, we saw Pirates 4 at midnight together, and we got beach time. Unfortunately, for most of the time she was there, I had to study and prepare for finals, so she had many solo adventures - including meeting the Season 10 American Idol finalists and some of the past winners (including Carrie Underwood and Kris Allen). Yes, I was jealous.

Summer has been wonderful, hot, long, bittersweet, itchy, and a time of growth. The day after I got home from the 3-day trip home, I went to my aunt's house where I've been living during the weeks so I can babysit during the day here in Atlanta. I started my job with a half-peeling, half-swollen face (that sunburn...). I warned them ahead of time because I didn't want to scare the kids on my first day (ages 8 and 6, girl and boy). Thankfully, I didn't and they've actually been pretty great kids to babysit, though a bit spoiled at times. I did that for three weeks, going home on the weekends, and then I had a few days at home before I left for the Dominican Republic.

Throughout those three weeks, I'd been reading old letters that my grandmother had written to her mom and sister throughout her life. I didn't have time to finish them all before my trip (and I still haven't finished), but I did learn a lot about my grandmother through them. For instance, she had a lot of boyfriends. (So did my mother, but the trend apparently stopped with me and my sisters ;) ) I also realized what a brave woman she was. She graduated from Moody Bible Institute, spent a year in Belgium as a single missionary learning French, then was a missionary in Congo before she met my grandfather (who was a widower with three small children), married him and instantly became a mother of those girls, then moved to the Dominican Republic to be a missionary and learn Spanish.

Once in the D.R., the first week and a half I spent with just my mom in the capital city, Santo Domingo. We stayed with a friend of hers who had the cutest little cocker spaniel that I fell in love with. We arrived on a Wednesday; Thursday morning we left for a campground in a city called Maímon, where we went with the team four years ago. This time my mom spoke at a women's conference there until Saturday. I attended the meetings, tried to understand as much Spanish as I could, and ate very delicious food. I also interviewed a few older ladies that went to the early churches that my grandfather started. I enjoyed talking to them and learning about my grandfather - especially one lady who became a Christian because of Grandpa and had five children who grew up in the Lord because of that and her children now have children that have grown up in a strong, Christian home. It was very cool to see that influence and to hear these ladies talk about how much my grandfather influenced their lives.

We left the camp on Saturday and went back to Santo Domingo, staying with my mom's friend. We spent some time with my aunt and cousin that live in the capital on Saturday and Sunday, as well as attending my mom's friend's church. Spanish church services are fun, even though I can't understand much of the sermon. Monday, I spent the morning/afternoon chilling and relaxing at the house, while it poured and flooded outside (they don't have any drainage system) and my mom worked with another friend to prepare for a teacher's conference she was teaching at the next week. Monday night, we had dinner with some of my mom's friends and more people who knew my grandparents. I was able to interview all of them; it was my favorite interview to do because their ideas bounced off each other and they shared many interesting and funny stories. I learned how strict my grandmother was and how much of a jokester my grandfather was (I know where Cat gets it from now).

Tuesday, we drove 2 hours west and visited two cities - La Romana (where my mom was born) and San Pedro. I saw a few of the church/schools that my grandparents started and interviewed the pastors. I also enjoyed good food and delicious fruit drinks (the cherry and passion fruit drinks were my favorite!).

Wednesday, we drove 2 hours east and visited another two cities - Azua (I kept wanting to say Azusa, as in APU) and San Cristobal, where I saw more church/schools and interviewed more pastors. The pastor of the Azua church/school cried when I interviewed him as he remembered my grandfather. He told me that Grandpa treated him as a son and that when he and his family found out that he had died, his children cried in their rooms because it was like their grandfather had died. That was very touching; I'd never really known how much my grandfather had influenced people.

Thursday, Mom and I took a trip to the beach! I got my hair braided (it makes it easier to handle in the heat and cold showers!), enjoyed the cool, clear Caribbean Sea, and suntanned for a little bit. Unfortunately, then it started raining, so we had to leave the beach early. But it was still a fun day!

Friday, we visited the Compassion Headquarters of the Dominican Republic. I had never known this before, but my grandmother was the director there for almost ten years; when she started, they only had 3 orphanages; when she finished, they had 60! She was quite amazing.

Saturday, we went to the airport to pick up the team from church and headed four hours north on a bus to Puerto Plata. We stayed with different members of the church there; my mom and I stayed with the pastor and his wife (the sister of the lady we stayed with in Santo Domingo), good friends of my mom and a family I've known my whole life. It was good seeing them again.

Monday, we prepared for the VBS we were going to do all week and we also did cleaning and painting around their newly cemented basketball court. We handed out invitations to the VBS on Monday as well.

Tuesday-Friday we spent mornings cleaning and painting and the afternoons working the VBS. The kids are absolutely adorable! They love talking to you, even though they know you can't understand them, and taking pictures with you. On Wednesday morn, instead of working, we got to go up a mountain in a cable car. It had the prettiest views! Mountains on one side, the ocean on the other. Throughout the week, we also were put into groups with the Dominican teens from their youth group and had to perform with them Friday night. My group did a choreographed dance thing - it was a lot of fun, especially trying to communicate! I felt that I got a lot better at my Spanish the second week, when I didn't have my mother translator with me all the time ;)

Saturday was beach day! We went to Sosua, a beach that my family has always loved because of its veryyyy clear and warm water (the Atlantic Ocean). It was super fun and we got to do some shopping; but sadly, once again it rained. Except it didn't just rained. It poured, while we were shopping. And they don't have good drainage systems. The shops were outside shops, basically right on the beach, so there were literally little rivers going from the shops to the ocean, and as we ran from shop to shop, sometimes your leg would disappear up to your calf in the water. It was quite an adventure!

Sunday, we went to church and then drove four hours back to Santo Domingo. We were originally not going to do this until Monday (the day our flight left), but there was a nationwide strike planned for that day and it would be very dangerous to drive on the road that long (people would put spikes and smoking tires in the road to keep you from driving and working). So we were able to stay at a guest house of SCORE International (a place for baseball players) so there were many baseball fields around us. Then Monday, we left and God kept us safe from any riots or anything and got us to the airport safely. We flew home and the adventure ended. It was the weirdest feeling for me, coming home. I wasn't homesick, yet I didn't necessarily desire to stay longer in the D.R. I wasn't anxious to get home; it was just what I was supposed to do next so I was doing it. I realized that I was becoming disassociated with my home, which makes me sad. Living at college for a year and then living with my aunt most of the summer has made me not be homesick for my home all the time. I know it's a part of growing up, but it's weird and I don't really like it.

I had the rest of the week off from babysitting, which was nice because I got to process everything from the trip and unwind, and also help my mom clean the house. I learned a lot about my grandparents that I never knew - my grandmother died before my mom was even married and Grandpa lived in Michigan so I only saw him two or three times a year and he died when I was 12. My grandparents live on through many people's memories, and through those memories, I got to get to know my grandparents. It was a little difficult trying to compare what I read in my grandmother's letters to people's memories because I only got to the 1950s in her letters and most people were remembering things from the 70s and 80s. But I'm hoping to continue reading them and be able to have faces to put with names. I also got to get to know some of the young people in the youth group at my church now and that was a lot of fun! I really enjoyed hanging out with them; it was a new experience for me to be the older one on the mission trip.

Liz came home from China the Saturday after we got back. It was the first time my whole family had been together in 13 months, so it was a wonderful time. It's weird how some things never change, even if all the circumstances have changed. Family time was great, but I had to go back to my aunt's house in Atlanta Sunday night to start babysitting again Monday.

This past weekend, we had two family reunions, due to the fact that Liz is home. They were fun, as they always are! (And they always have good food - the desserts for the two days were banana pudding, delicious chocolate cake, and Oreo cheesecake.)

Babysitting is still going well. I got to go to Six Flags with the kids last week, and today I took them to the Atlanta Zoo - I'd never been before and it was really cool! We're going to go to the Aquarium next week, so having trips during the day makes my job very nice and fun.

Next week is my last week babysitting and then next weekend, we go up to Ohio for Kylee's wedding (Liz is the maid-of-honor). Liz leaves Thursday for Ohio, so I'm not seeing her again til the wedding. Then the day after the wedding, she heads back to China for another year. It'll be weird saying bye to her again after such a short time with her. But next summer, she'll be able to come home the whole summer.

The week after the wedding, I'll get to stay home, visit friends, and do a lot of reading for school! Then I head back to Biola on August 14 for Torrientation and I am ready to go back! Granted, I do have to do that reading and finish preparing the meal plan for Torrientation, but I miss all my friends (I've only really talked to three of them this summer) and I miss the community. And the no-rain. It hasn't quit raining since I was in the D.R. and I'm getting tired of it. And I don't tire of rain easily. Anyways, this has been long enough, and I'm tired and have to get up at 6 in the morning. So I think this is a good overview of how my summer's been going :)

"It's gonna be a long hot summer. We should be together."
- Long Hot Summer, Keith Urban

This has been a crazy semester.

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! :)

Trust and Thankfulness

Trust and thankfulness will get you safely through this day. Trust protects you from worrying and obsessing. Thankfulness keeps you from criticizing and complaining:  those "sister sins" that so easily entangle you. Keeping your eyes on Me is the same thing as trusting Me. It is a free choice that you must make thousands of times daily. The more you choose to trust Me, the easier it becomes. Thought patterns of trust become etched into your brain. Relegate troubles to the periphery of your mind, so that I can be central in your thoughts. Thus you focus on Me, entrusting your concerns into My care.

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. Colossians 2:6-7

But my eyes are fixed on You, O Sovereign Lord; in You I take refuge - do not give me over to death. Psalm 141:8

Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7

This is from the devotional book I've been going through, called Jesus Calling by Sarah Young. It pretty much summarizes what God has been teaching me this past month and what I've been attempting to focus on. Trust and thankfulness. It started out in chapel the first week in the spring semester. I don't remember who it was, but he was talking about being grateful for being here because there are tons of people around the world who are so thirsty for God's Word and I'm being fed it almost constantly here. I've been realizing how incredibly blessed I am, and I don't want to complain about the little things anymore. I'm going to trust God with my problems and thank Him for all that He's given me.

This first month of the semester has been incredibly busy. I went from having a lot of free time over interterm to hardly having any and I know it's only going to get busier. But, at the same time, I have really loved this semester so far. I've stayed ahead in my reading for Torrey, so it hasn't been stressful reading and I've been able to enjoy the books for the most part, which has been nice. I have session three days a week now, which makes it a lot busier, but it's still good. :) I also am taking a Music Appreciation class for my music minor (which, btw, I was able to get into the program at the end of last semester :) ) and an American Lit class. I really like my music app professor and the class is interesting, but he has a habit of turning most of the lights off so we can see the power points and, I'm not gonna lie, it makes me really sleepy. I have my first exam on Wednesday in there; hopefully it'll go well. My lit class is interesting - I enjoy the readings but I still haven't decided if I like the actual class. We shall see.

Another exciting thing about this semester is that I'm about 99% sure that I've found a church! It's a bit on the large side, but I've been able to get involved in the college group with my roommate and another friend and we really enjoy that. I like the worship and the preaching (even though right now they don't have a pastor, but they're looking) and we go to the smaller sanctuary so it doesn't feel quite so big; it's just hard to get to know people. We're hoping to get involved in the children's ministry - they had some openings that we're interested in - and if we can, then we're going to stick with this church. :)

So I haven't just been busy with homework and such; I've been able to have my fun too. :) I've been to the beach twice (though both times, we did reading while there), and last Saturday I went to the Getty Museum and it was amazing! If you don't know what it is, it's an art museum but it also has gardens - they were gorgeous. I have pictures of the day on Facebook. I went and saw the play Into the Woods here at Biola and was super impressed by it. There are some really talented people here. I also saw the movie The Incredibles on the lawn here and got free cotton candy, popcorn, and hot chocolate. It was very cold but fun! Last Friday I watched Lion King 1 1/2 and yesterday I watched Monsters, Inc. and Andy Griffith. It's been some fun Fridays. :)

I can't believe February is almost over. But it is, and then I just have three more months of my freshmen year. Yikes! But, as Marcus Aurelius says, life is brief, so be good while you can. Or, as I'm going to do, trust and thank God in and for everything.

"This is the stuff that drives me crazy. This is the stuff that's getting to me lately. In the middle of my little mess, I forget how big I'm blessed. This is the stuff that gets under my skin, but I've gotta trust You know exactly what You're doing. It might not be what I would choose, but this is the stuff You use."

- This Is the Stuff, Francesca Battistelli

Este tomó mucho más tiempo que pensé que sería... (This took a lot longer than I thought it would....)

Bueno, había estado un rato desde entonces yo he blogueado, pero eso es principalmente porque estaba ocupada y nada nuevo o emocionante ocurrió durante interterm. Pero aquí está que ha ocurrido los dos meses pasados:

Terminé mi primero semestre con todos A’s :) Estuve muy listo ir a mi casa, y pasé unas dos y mitad semanas maravillosas a mi casa. El viaje a casa estaba muy interesante, con mi vuelo estando demoró, mi padre y hermana se volvieron atascado en tráfico y se volvieron atascado en más tráfico en el camino casa, estando paramos en el interestatal por media hora antes de decidiendo volver alrededor y manejó sur en el camino que se dirige al norte, mi hermana se bajando de el carro y cayendo en su trasero, y entonces finalmente arribando casa a las tres en la mañana y estando salude como yo fui la mayor parte de persona en el mundo por mi perrita encantadora :) El paso a mi casa estuvo bueno; yo me relaje y pase mucho tiempo con familia y un tiempo con mis amigos. Me siente como si yo nunca he salido. Nevó el día de Navidad, y fue mi primero Navidad de blanco y ¡fue impresionante! Excepto el nievo arruinó bastante de nuestra planes con familia, y nosotros no hicimos el blanco elefante regalo cambio ése nosotros hacíamos cada año (de cual yo he comprado un $15 regala tarjeta a In-n-Out…jajaja, así ahora debo usarlo yo mismo). Nuevo Años estuvo bueno además, aunque estuvo más tranquilo que normal. Fallé mi hermana Liz durante las vacaciones. Si tú no conoces, ella es una maestra en China y ha estado allí desde junio. No volvió a casa y fue nuestro primero Navidad sin ella, lo que hizo raro.

Yo llegué a Biola en dos de enero por interterm (una tres-semana semestre). El vuelo estuve largamente y deprimente porque yo no quise salir casa todavía. Mi clase de español comenzó el día siguiente y duró 9-12:30 cada día. Entonces yo tenía quizás un hora de tarea y resto de día gratis. Las semanas de fines yo tenía más tarea porque mi maestra nos dio exámenes hacer a casa que tomaron dos a tres horas. Si tú no te das cuenta de para ahora, la razón que yo escribo este en español es porque yo me divierto mi clase. Saqué una buena nota en la clase y mi maestra me recomendó hacer un menor de español. Ya conocí querer a hacer un menor de español, pero el día antes de ella dijo este, he decidido que no quiero tomar otro interterm, así no deba poder a hacer un menor de español. Pero cruzaré ese puente después. Mi clase terminó el 21 de enero y entonces tuve una semana a relajarse antes de la primavera semestre comienza. Mis amigos comenzaron llegar la semana pasada. ¡Estoy muy contenta tener gentes en campus también! Ha sido maravilloso ver todos también.

¡La primavera semestre comienza mañana! Lunes y miércoles mi solo clase es aprecio de música de 3:30-4:45. Martes y jueves tengo literatura de americano de 10:30-11:45 y después Torrey de 1:45-4:45. Viernes tengo Torrey de 10:30-1:30. Tengo mucho lectura hacer este semestre, pero lo estoy esperar con ilusión. ¡También espero tener un trabajo pronto! Tuve una entrevista de trabajo con Coldstone Creamery anoche. Estuvo una entrevista de grupo pero fue muy bueno. Con esperanza oiré de ellos esa semana porque pienso querer esto trabajo. También, comencé correr ese pasado lunes. Corrí una milla un día cada día, pero entonces falté ayer porque fui a la playa :) Con esperanza podré continuar a correr cada día.

Yo comencé ese libro de devoción al principio del año que recibí por mi graduación de la escuela secundaria. Llama Jesús Llama y escribe como así Jesús lo escribió hablar a tú. Es muy alentador, y mucho clases por enero fue sobre confianza en Dios y descanso en Su presencia y paz, cual estuvo que necesité oír ese mes. Es muy alentador.

Así sí, este es todo este ha ocurrido con mí últimamente. Espero que te diviertas esa edición de español de mi blog :)

(Below is the translation of the above, or at least what I was trying to say. I cannot guarantee the accurateness of my Spanish.)

Well, it's been a while since I've blogged, but that's mainly because I was busy at home and then nothing of excitement was really happening over interterm. But here's what has happened the past two months:

I ended my first semester with all A's :) I was very ready to go home, though, and I got to spend a wonderful two and a half weeks at home. The trip home was very interesting, with my flight being delayed, my dad and sister getting stuck in traffic coming to pick me up and then getting stuck in more traffic on the way home, being stopped on the interstate for half an hour before deciding to turn around and drive south on the northbound, my sister getting out of the car and falling on her butt, and then finally getting home at 3 am and being greeted like I was the most important person in the world by my sweet puppy :) The time home was good; I got to relax and spend a lot of time with family and some time with my friends. It felt as if I had never left. It snowed Christmas day, so I got my first white Christmas and it was awesome! I absolutely enjoyed that day. Oh except the snow ruined some of our extended family plans, and we didn't get to do the white elephant gift exchange that we do every year (for which I had bought a $15 gift card to In-n-Out...hahaha, so now I just have to use it myself). New Years was good as well, even though it was a bit quieter than it normally is. I missed my sister Liz over the holidays. If you don't know, she is a teacher in China and has been there since June. She didn't get to come home and it was our first Christmas without her, which made it a little weird.

I got back to Biola on January 2 for interterm (a 3-week semester). The flight back was long and kind of depressing because I didn't want to leave home yet. My Spanish class started the next day and I had it from 9-12:30 every day. Then I would have maybe an hour of homework and the rest of the day to myself. Weekends I had more homework because my teacher gave us take-home tests that took between two and three hours to take. And in case you haven't realized by now, the reason I'm writing this in Spanish is because I really enjoyed my class. I ended up with an A in the class, and my teacher recommended me to add a Spanish minor. I already knew I wanted to minor in Spanish, but the day before she told me this, I had decided that I didn't want to take another interterm, even if it meant I wouldn't be able to minor in Spanish. But I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. My class ended the 21st and then I had a week to relax before spring semester starts. My friends started coming back around the middle of the week, but most people got here Friday or Saturday. I'm so glad to have people on campus again! It has been wonderful to see everyone again.

Spring semester starts tomorrow! Mondays and Wednesdays my only class is Music Appreciation from 3:30-4:45. Tuesdays and Thursdays I have American Lit. from 10:30-11:45 and then Torrey from 1:45-4:45. Fridays I have Torrey from 10:30-1:30. I have a lot of reading to do this semester, but I'm kind of looking forward to it. I'm also hoping to get a job soon! I actually had a job interview with Coldstone Creamery last night. It was a group interview but it went really well. Hopefully I will hear back from them this week because I think I would really enjoy that job. Oh, I also started running this past Monday. I ran a mile a day every day, but then I missed yesterday because I went to the beach :) Hopefully I will be able to get on a good schedule with that.

I started this really cool devotional book at the beginning of the year that I got for my high school graduation. It's called Jesus Calling and it's written as if Jesus wrote it speaking to you. It's really encouraging, and a lot of the lessons for January were about trusting in God and resting in His presence and peace, which was what I really needed to hear this month. It was super encouraging.

So yeah, that's pretty much everything that's been happening with me lately. I hope you enjoyed this Spanish edition of my blog :)

Who's on first? Who is on first.

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

(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

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