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blogging 2012-2013

There's a part of me that loves not knowing

3/31/2012

11 Comments

 
Hello from a very sleepy Amber. Well, no. That’s not it. I’ve been relaxing in my bed for the past 4 hours or so, and I can honestly say this is the first time I’ve had time alone to relax for… Well, since winter break when my foot forced me to stop and do nothing for once. Anyway, I’m just feeling very peaceful and reminiscent and lethargic… and contemplative. About things I shouldn’t be thinking about, but I am. Things that led me to think, “Hey! It’s technically (almost) Saturday, and who else should I talk about this with but my awesome friends? BLOG!”

Before I start this, I should probably cap this with a warning: I’m a girl in her first ever official relationship. I’m sappy. Can’t help it. Get over it. I’m going to talk about Mark, since he doesn’t read this… unless he’s a way better stalker than I think. Still- not everything will be about Mark, but he is the current main place of my thoughts. If you’re tired of me referencing him, go look over at the picture page. I will post New Orleans pictures in an hour or so, so enjoy those instead of this blog post! (If you’re reading the blog, you should still go look at pictures after… :) ) Now… onto the actual blog.

My song’s going to be a preface to this…

Daughtry- Start of Something Good
First off, I really like this song. It honestly captures everything that my relationship is right now (except the “like at first sight part,” but that’s another story), and I especially love the lines, “And I’m going to say what I need to say And hope to God that it don’t scare you away Don’t want to be misunderstood.” A large part of my and Mark’s relationship is us talking. I love that, and our quirkiness sometimes just makes me want to melt into a puddle of happiness. Actually, everything about our relationship makes me want to melt into a puddle of happiness, and apparently I was very much a flirt for at least a month before we got together, even though I didn’t realize AT ALL. It’s ok though. He did too. Our friends shipped us. XD

Anyway, tonight I’ve been thinking about the future. I know it’s a scary topic, but I recently realized that I’m graduating next year. I’m honestly scared. It’ll be ok, but I’m still uncomfortable thinking about parts of it. Specifically, the part involving my relationship with Mark. 2013 is in 9 months. If we’re still together in 9 months, what do we do? Do we try to make plans to be together? Do we break up at graduation, even if our relationship is something… special? We’re currently skirting around the topic of the future. I mean, we talk about meeting up in the summer, his retaking the MCAT (even though his score was very good), my taking the GRE, his med schools he’d like to apply to, my hopeful graduate schools, and the common places between them, but when it comes to actually talking about where we see ourselves in 5 years, 10 years, etc, we’ve simply not addressed it. Granted, a large part of us not talking about it is because we’ve only been in a relationship for a month and a half… These subjects don’t need to be brought up for a bit longer, and I’m completely fine with that.

That doesn’t mean I don’t think about it.

I have no idea where God will lead us after graduation. I have no idea how our relationship will change in the next months (although I certainly hope we stay together for a while. I do kinda like him. ;) But it’s like the song says- “I’m starting to believe that This could be the start of something good.” I’m hopeful about our relationship. I’m not thinking very far into the future, but I’m enjoying the time we have right now.

However, I realized tonight I do have a few answers. If we’re still together come graduation, would I be open to staying together? Without a doubt, yes. Would I want to be near him? Yes, although it may not happen, and at that point, I would be open to a long-distance relationship. Would I be thinking about something more? At that point, it’s possible. I really don’t know, and I’m not going to try to imagine it at all right now… Like I said, it’s WAY too early. But I feel that God is working in this relationship for a reason, and as long as we follow His path, everything will be ok, whether or not we’re still together as a couple or if we’re just friends.

Sara, my question for Question Tuesday is, “If you were in a fairly serious relationship in college (1 year +), and you both were going to graduate at the same time, how would you try to handle your relationship leading up to graduation and after?” I’m just curious to see what you’ll say (assuming you’re reading this…)

Until another time… Adieu.
11 Comments

If you don't hear from us by Monday, we were eaten by a bear

3/30/2012

15 Comments

 
         Hello from 12:01; it’s officially Friday! Why is Jill writing this so uncharacteristically early you ask? Well, Amy and I are going to the Smokey Mountains tomorrow/today! We’re going on a trip with our Ecology class for the weekend, and since we leave around 11:30, I didn’t feel I’d have enough time to write a blog in between then and coming back from bird observations. So, now is a good a time as any to write something for you guys.
    I need to interrupt this blog for a moment to tell you that apparently Amy talks in Chinese in her sleep. I have no idea what she just said, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't English.
        Tuesday night Amy, Sara, and I went to a magic show on campus!!! (yeah, we skipped fencing, but it was totally worth it. The event was called ‘The Maze’ and it was amazing! I highly recommend you guys seeing it if you ever get the chance. If you do plan on trying to see this guy and don’t want to know some of the stuff that went on (not that I’ll really spoil anything), skip this paragraph. It started out so intense with dim lighting, pounding music, and a voice that said that we were about to be basically part of social experiment. The person on the speaker told us we stayed to watch the performance we were consenting to interact in any way with the show. He actually gave us fifteen minutes to make up our mind if we wanted to leave, after which the doors to the theater would be locked. The show itself was so cool. The Magician, Jim, was hilarious. And of course very good at his job. I’ll only mention two of his tricks, my favorite two. In part of the show, he brought up two people onto the stage and said something to the effect that he was going to psychically link them. He had them stand apart from one another with their eyes tightly shut. Then he went up to one of them and nudged their shoulder a few times. He then stepped back and said to raise your hand if you felt something touch you. And they both raised their hands! And then he asked them to point to where they felt the touch and they pointed to the same spot! Oh man, I just reread that. The description simply does not do it justice. It was awesome to watch in person. I should also mention another awesome aspect of the show: it was sponsored by the BCM. Jim’s a Christian, and in some of his acts he makes these cool connections between the trick and life. There was a cool analogy made, that I would fail horribly to retell, when he was levitating a metal pipe. It had to do with people knowing what he’s doing is fake, you can’t actually make a pipe fly, but they still choose to believe it’s something magical or supernatural. Blaaahhh. Words. It’s hard to express in writing the awesomeness of the show.

Awkward transition.

You guys should pick my minor for me…….
I’ve been thinking a lot this week about what to minor in and I’m so indecisive. I spent Wednesday night just searching through the list of available programs trying to decide on one. I do kinda have a top 4 that I’ve been bouncing between the last few days: Anthropology, History, Religious Studies, and American Sign Language. At the moment, I’m thinking History is out because it requires more hours, but I’ll probably be reconsidering it later anyway. Blleeeeccchhhhh. I don’t like decisions. What input do you guys have? Oh, and the one bright point of this is my discovery that apparently Western has some program called Canadian Studies! Sadly, I haven’t been able to find any information on it other than that it exists.

    And I would like to take this time to respond, somewhat, to one of Sara’s answers on Tuesday’s blog.
“Is a picture really worth a thousand words?
In fact, it is only worth 999. People are just lazy and
like to round up. Really, though, I tend not to subscribe to this
particular philosophy. I would much prefer a thousand word story to a single
measly picture. I guess I’m probably a little biased, though- I mean, you guys
have seen my attempts at “artwork” :P I’m sure there are plenty of people who
could spend well over a thousand words describing a single picture. I’m just not
one of them.”
         I don’t really know why, but this question got me thinking. Not really about anything big, but just pictures that I’ve seen and like. I don’t remember if I’ve mentioned it to all of you, but I have the tendency to save images I come across on the internet for various reasons. Sometimes it’s  just something funny, but others are more the type to evoke emotion. I like some because they show human cleverness and others because they tell a story without any words. Or they snapshot a story where you don’t really know everything. I know Sara said she’s not very good at drawing (I consider myself far from the best as well), but that shouldn’t stop an appreciation. Shall I give a little gallery and you all tell your opinion on how many words they’re worth?
(I'll go ahead and apologize now to the creators of these pictures in the incredibly unlikely event that they are reading this. I didn't save the info on where I got any of these so I am unable to give credit to the source if it wasn't already stamped on the picture.)
Picture
(Click the image to make it bigger)
This is the first thing I thought of after reading Sara's answer. I know I've shown this to at least of one you before, and I'm pretty sure I got weird looks for saying I liked it. To me, this as an instant emotional affect. Granted, I can't really form any words when thinking about it. I mean, I could technically. It'd be fairly easy to come up with a story to go along with it. But I was thinking the real power behind it (if it even has an affect of anyone else) isn't really in descriptive words so much as the feelings. Of course, this picture is a little unfair since it includes words on it.....

Picture




This one I just found incredibly cute.

Picture



And here's one I wouldn't mind trying to duplicate at some point.

Picture
Picture
Picture

Something tells me this one could be well over 1000 words...plus some musical numbers.

Picture
It seemed only right to include some actual artwork among all the snapshots.

Picture
And here's the last picture I'll share because I feel this has basically turned into my own personal show and tell. It's called Glaucus atlanticus. Pretty, right?

There are so many more I could have included, but I've come to realize that my favorites all have some form of writing on them. Best of both worlds maybe?   
        Anyway, I'm not really sure what I'm trying to get at here. Maybe that pictures are perfectly capable of being of equal importance to 1000 words? Thinking back on childhood memories, would you rather have one good picture of that memory or a 1000 word summary? That's not a rhetorical question by the way, I'm curious what you guys would prefer. All that being said, I am also partial to written stories over pictures.
  
         And speaking of artwork (look! An actual segue this time!) ‘tis the season for the Fine Arts kids to have their fun on campus. There are several art projects outside that I’ve come across in the last few days, most of which are…odd. Figured I’d share them with you (why not go all out with a picture-tastic blog?).

Picture
Some saran wrapped trees. Although I at first just thought it was really weird and kinda wasteful, it ended up being somewhat interesting. The little sign on it talks about evoking a sense of play in viewers, inviting them to touch it or, for the more adventurous, crawl inside it (which of course we did)

Picture
Amy ___________________ me
Picture


This one, a bar-code in the grass, was described as a discussion on land owner ship and whether it could belong to people.

Picture


And here we have a pile of cow bones. Easily got the most weird looks from what I could tell.

Picture


This one had something to do with Zen Garden, but I can't really remember because the main thing this reminds me of is Amy's reaction upon realizing they used grains of rice instead of sand: "They're wasting food!!!!!"

        There were a few others, but I want to go to bed now so I'll cut it off here. Amy and I'll be sure to film some stuff up in the mountains for VEDA next week.

Love,
Jill

P.S:
15 Comments

Allons-y!

3/29/2012

7 Comments

 
    Hello from I just saw Jill! Well, okay, so I skyped Jill a couple of hours ago, but still. It's Thursday and I remembered this time! A lot has happened since last week, when I technically wrote on Wednesday. 
    For one thing, I went to Paris, which was amazingly magnificent! I saw the Palace of Versailles, the Louvre (complete with Mona Lisa herself), the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe (sort of), and Notre Dame. I also saw (and ate) a WHOLE LOT of bread, cheese, and Nutella. Honestly, I'd have to say that breakfast at the hotel was one of my favorite meals. They had salami, cheese, and delicious bread every morning, along with chocolate cereal, more Nutella, and chocolate chip croissants. So yummy!
     I also ate at an outdoor cafe (which had a TV showing a special about Justin Beiber--go figure) and bought ice cream and a sandwich from a street vendor stand thing. I bought some art, too. So get ready for that to go up on our wall next year, roomie. :)
     Some other highlights of the trip were getting semi-lost on the way to Versailles (and seeing a kitty), eating Chinese food (I tried duck soup) at a super posh mall and then sunbathing on the rooftop terrace, and celebrating my friend Kenzie's 21st birthday by shopping, sightseeing, and a toast at midnight. I got to meet her friend, Adam, who's interning in Germany this semester, since he came to visit for her birthday. He was really cool and we all hung out on Saturday and climbed the Eiffel Tower that night. What an amazing view!
       We went to the Lock Bridge, too. It was a really gorgeous sight: a bridge full of locks with couples' names on them, symbolizing eternal love. The keys to those locks have been thrown into the Seine. Their love will never be unchained.
      Also, in Paris there are a lot of people selling things in the streets and trying to get you to donate to things and sign petitions. One of them, upon finding out we were Americans, simply said, "Obama! Hakuna Matata!" LOL.
    Even though there are things like that where people kind of bug you, and it's easy to get lost, and we got to the Rodin Museum right as it closed, Paris was remarkable. I've discovered since going to D.C. in high school and going to a lot of cities here that I really like big cities. Don't get me wrong, I love the sprawling space and peace the countryside offers, but there's just something electric and magical about big cities. There's always something going on, something to be a part of, whether you're aware of it or not. For instance, in Paris, I saw people filming a commercial and a music video, witnessed the end of a marathon with runners going up the Eiffel Tower, watched a bride get wedding photos taken, and heard musicians who randomly hopped on the train playing a saxophone and an accordion. It's moments like these between all the touristy stuff that really brings traveling to life. You can see the Eiffel Tower on a postcard, but when you actually go there and see all the vibrancy surrounding it, that's when you truly get the international experience.
     And that was Paris. The weather there was amazing, and thankfully I returned to England to some more excellent weather. It has been so gorgeous outside lately! I had a class outside this afternoon, and then a bunch of us went out at dusk to play capture the flag. It was a pretty intense game, and it was particularly epic because right before we started playing, one guy announced, "May the odds be ever in your favor!" and a couple of people did the District 12 salute.
    Which brings me to my final point of the week, I FINALLY SAW THE HUNGER GAMES!!!!!!!!!! Oh my goodness, I was so excited. You all know how obsessed I am. Well, a couple of my friends and I went to see the movie on Tuesday and went to the carnival fair thing they had in Grantham. It was a great day. Oh my goodness! I would have seen it on the 23rd in Paris but the theater only had it in French (and the ticket seller guy made fun of us). But now that I've finally seen it...I want to see it again. It just seemed to go by so quickly. I need to see it again to fully take it in. Also, I will probably be writing a movie review of it soon in the And Etc. section of our website, but I was going to wait until you had all seen it. 
      So, for now, that's all I've got to say about that. Now I'll leave you with a picture of a couple on the Lock Bridge in Paris...
Picture
7 Comments

Napier and Dr. Death

3/28/2012

3 Comments

 
Hello from someone who is hungry!
I ate my last soup-on-the-go for dinner a couple hours ago, and I'm not sure when I'll be able to go to town :( Did you know everything here closes REALLY early? Most of the clothing stores and whatnot close by 5:30 and you're lucky if your local Pak-and-Save closes at 9. I miss Wal-Mart (and a variety of fast-food chains that don't close at 8). Anyway, I had my first mid-term exam today for my Biology of Animals class--it wasn't hard, but it wasn't easy. I have my Physics mid term and my first paper in Ethics due next week. I had to opt out of going North for the weekend in order to give myself time to study...I don't think I'll be coming out of my room until next Wednesday.
Unfortunately all this studying I had/have to do means that I haven't seen the Hunger Games yet (gasp!). Though I may make time for myself to go see it Friday--fingers crossed!
This leads to why I haven't seen it yet. I would have had time to go to the premiere, but alas the local movie theater didn't have one :(
Instead of going to the movies, I got to go to Napier!
I love Napier.
I really wish they had a university there, and although it's only two hours North of us, the weather was so much nicer than here in Palmy. When we left, the weather was 55-60-ish, overcast, and windy, but when we got off at Napier it was a good 75 degrees  and clear (and at night! We got there at 8).
I experienced staying at a hostel for the first time, but it was literally across the street from the ocean and only $25 a night/per person. When I got there, I realized that I had forgotten a towel. I was just going to use my fancy TRESemme Fresh Start stuff until the shops opened up the next day, but when we took a walk around town later that night we saw a Countdown that was open to midnight (gasp!).
The next day was absolutely beautiful! It was so warm and sunny, I got to wear a tank-ish top shirt and sandals! We got up early and went to a cafe for breakfast and coffee and then walked around looking at the shops. We walked along the beach going back to the hostel before our wine tour--there wasn't sand on the beach, only rocks! Our wine tour guide Peter picked us up from our hostel at 12:30 later that day and we went on a wine tour adventure.
The first place we went, The Mission, we didn't have a wine tasting, we only stopped to pick up an older English couple who had lunch there. It also had a pretty cool story: The Mission is a vineyard that was started by the Catholic Church so the priests who went to New Zealand to convert the Maori could have wine to be used during Mass. It eventually turned into a seminary, and around 1920, they moved the entire building to its current location. They sliced up the building like bread into (I think) 12 sections and moving the pieces 5 miles, and then put them back together.
The Mission vineyard is also the oldest business still owned by its original owner--in this case, the Catholic Church.
The waiting list to have a wedding/reception there is 3 years. Peter said that the joke is women come and see the vineyard and sign up to have there wedding there, and then they have 3 years to find a man.
We had a wine tasting at Salvare, Ash Ridge, and Sileni Estates--my favorite vineyard was Salvare and I liked all rosé  wines I tasted (as oppose to the whites or reds). At the first two vineyards, they also made olive oils that we got to taste by dipping little pieces of bread in it. Salvare also had diffent dips and vinaigrettes that we also dipped bread in--really delicious stuff! After our wine tasting at Sileni, we stayed for a little while eating snacks that Peter provided us and sitting on the patio. There was a topping we named "lime sludge" that was really good (Peter couldn't remember its proper name, but joked that it reminded him of sludge). 
The next day we got up a little earlier (our bus left at 3), went to a new cafe, shopped, and then visited the National Aquarium. It wasn't as big as I thought it would be, but it had this cool tunnel with a rotating platform. For lunch we had excellent sushi from a place that looked really sketchy the night before.
We got back to Palmy (and the cold weather) around 6 and my studying began.
I'm also getting back into the habit of taking lots of pictures with my phone, too bad the battery doesn't hold a good charge anymore...and you can see all the places I went in Napier by the photos on Facebook.
Cheers!

I almost forgot to mention, we change Biology lecturers every couple of weeks and we have Dr. Death now! His last name is Death and he has his PhD!
3 Comments

Craziness and fun stuff

3/27/2012

16 Comments

 
Hello from-when is it ever going to end?!?! Sorry. I’ve
been up to a lot of procrastinating lately, and it’s catching up to me. I have
too much stuff to do!!!!! On the bright side, things will hopefully calm down
soon. I finish up classroom observations this week, so that will remove a lot of
  craziness. I love visiting elementary classrooms and being around the kids, but
  it adds to my already busy schedule and makes things even more hectic, so I’ll
  be glad to have one less thing to worry about. Also on the bright side, fun
  stuff happened this weekend! Jill, Amy, Nayab, and I went to see the Hunger
  Games on Friday, and it was AWESOME!!!!!! Seriously, it may very well be my
  favorite movie adaptation of a book ever. Not that that’s a very objective
  assessment. I did just see it, and I’m probably still pretty biased. But it was
  still really great. It would also appear that I answered AB’s question about
  most anticipated movies of 2012 a bit early- when we watched the movie, there
  were previews for so many movies that I want to see now! The Avengers, the new
  Spiderman (I wasn’t interested at first, seeing as the last adaptation just
  finished not too long ago, but it has cool actors and it looks pretty
  intriguing), and this hilarious-looking movie about Dads (What to expect when
  you’re expecting, or something? I think it’s gonna be pretty great) were all
  featured before the movie started, and they all look really cool and
stuff!

 Another cool thing I got to see this weekend was South
  Warren’s production of Crazy for You! I had never heard of it before I went to
  see it, so I wasn’t sure what to expect, but as Amber said, Alexis was in it,
  and I got to see it with Amber and Jill. And it was so good! Everybody did a
  great job with the singing and the acting, and it was really funny too. I
  wasn’t especially wishing to go back to the chaos of musical practice like
  Amber, but I did love seeing it, and I wish my sister would have been in it so
  I could have the DVD to watch… 

Oh, well. Maybe next year. So that was my week for the
most part: craziness and fun. So have some Question Tuesday!

 Favorite Question
  Tuesday question ever

 Well, I just looked back at all the questions I’ve
answered, and I really like answering the “too much” questions, but I have to
say that my all-time favorite was Amber’s question: “How
  rare is it for two people to like each other at the same time and actually do
  something about it?” I mean, for one thing, it’s a sappy subject and fun to
  think about, and for another, I was very happy for my mom and new step-dad 
 :)

If we have a right
to life, doesn't that mean we have a right to wave it away? Talking about
  euthanasia...

 I think history has shown that bad things happen when
humans take lives into their own hands, whether this is in the form of ending
your own life or someone else’s. Suicide is bad enough, but with euthanasia
someone else is helping another
person kill him/herself! I know I wouldn’t want to do
that...

 If you could paint a
  picture of any scenery you’ve seen before, what would you
paint?

 This is probably kind of weird, but we took a trip to
Gatlinburg (TN) back when I was in middle school to see family and stuffs, and
on the highway, we kept passing these clearings that were covered in Kudzu (the
  invasive ivy species that pretty much covers everything and that was, most
fortuitously, mentioned in a SciShow episode just yesterday! It’s so exciting
when the Green brothers and I talk about the same things!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDOwTXobJ3k&feature=g-u-u&context=G24eef3cFUAAAAAAABAA). I mean, I know Kudzu is bad
and all, and it kills trees and stuff, but it’s just so pretty! I mean, look at
this picture:

Drat, I can't make the picture go here! Technology hates me :( just look at the end of the blog, i guess...

 What would you name
  the autobiography of your life?

 At the moment, Crazytown is looking like a pretty good
  option.

Where's
Waldo?

 No one knows since he borrowed Harry’s invisibility cloak  :(
(I have a flair to prove it! :P )

Is 
a picture really worth a thousand
  words?

In fact, it is only worth 999. People are just lazy and
like to round up.
 Really, though, I tend not to subscribe to this
particular philosophy. I would much prefer a thousand word story to a single
measly picture. I guess I’m probably a little biased, though- I mean, you guys
have seen my attempts at “artwork” :P I’m sure there are plenty of people who
could spend well over a thousand words describing a single picture. I’m just not
one of them.

 I think that Jill has earned herself the right to
favorite of the week! I rather enjoyed her picture questions. So, yay Jill! 

Love, 

Sara

P.S.- can anyone tell me what's up with the formatting in the blog? I don't know what's wrong or how to fix it! Weebly is being so mean to me!!!!!!!

Kudzu: isn't is just so magical and beautiful?
Picture
16 Comments

Happy for half a day

3/26/2012

3 Comments

 
Hello from a half-day happy Monday, okay maybe a little more than half three quarter happy Monday.  Hmm... I had something I wanted to write at the beginning, then I read Shelby's awesome post and I don't know what to say anymore. Anything in my life seems so insignificant in the whole aspect of the world. By the way, I'm so glad Shelby is my friend.... and everyone else.  I really miss everyone. Anna beth, hurry up and come back! Rachael, I hope you still remember me, I feel like we haven't talk for a while now, and we won't see each other until..... a long time from now(Cry). I miss my daughter and mother and father !!! The reason for me being relatively happy today was because I got my paper back in Living in a Roman city today and got good comments:). That's basically it, you can say that i'm pretty easily satisfied. Reason for the quarter part of unhappiness... I didn't do as well as I hoped in my Anatomy and physiology  lab :(. I wished I had more to share, but if  I started a detail report of what I did today, more than likely you all would be entirely bored.  A short break down of a day in Amy's life is like this.

7:15 alarm rings
7:20 alarm rings again
7:25 wakes up and lays around 
magic happens in between here
7:43 leave for class
lots of class happens
lunch with friends or alone :(
walk down hill
NAP TIME
dinner
fun on computer
stress from work neglected
sleep....
I don't know how I get anything done 
3 Comments

ayiti, mwen ke (haiti, my heart)

3/25/2012

7 Comments

 
Hello from the world’s longest BLOG (in my cozy bed – things are back to normal)!

March 10, 2012

I had to wait in the airport in Cincinnati for 6 hours because that was the only time I could get a ride to the airport.  I wouldn’t have minded except that the anticipation was killing me.  I didn’t have anyone to talk to until the KCU students got there just an hour or so before the flight.  They were pretty friendly although it was a little awkward at first.  The KCU students that I'm travelling with are pretty cool!  Two of them are missions majors.  Everything that could go wrong yesterday did.  The airline I thought I was going on doesn't exist anymore.  Imagine my surprise when I got to the airport at Cincinnati and there was no airline to match my itinerary!  I had to throw away my water bottle packed in my carryon, and it cost me ten bucks to get a snack and water at the airport.  Our flight was delayed, and we had to wait an hour and a half in the Newark cold for our hotel shuttle.  I wore flip flops.  The Cincinnati airport didn't have any food, so I didn't get to eat all day until 8 pm!  Then we went to Ruby Tuesdays.  I enjoyed getting to know the KCU students better.  However, sometimes I didn’t really appreciate the way they were acting towards people that we met while we were travelling or their attitudes (like complaining).  That begs the question: when does the mission trip start?  The mentality for short termers is usually that the trip starts as soon as we get to our ministry destination.  We need to remember that we are missionaries, ambassadors for Christ, at all times and in all situations.  Taking trips is a good thing, but we need to live missionary lives. 

March 11 – Flying to Haiti

We had to get up super early in the morning, and the time change really didn’t help things.  I was glad that I didn’t have to navigate the airport by myself, even though I certainly could have handled it.  Did I mention that I lost the back of my phone in the airport?  Dumb.  It’s hard to be upset about these things when you know the conditions that other people live in every day.  The plane right to Haiti was great!  I sat next to a Haitian man named William.  He helped me with my Kreyol a little bit, and he shared his gum with me.  He was going back to visit family, but he lives in New Jersey.  I also sat next to a girl named Emily Chant.  She was on her second or third trip to Haiti, and she was flying by herself!  We really hit it off though.  She’s the only Christian in her family, and she’s a youth minister now.  She was working to figure out how to partner her youth ministry with some organizations in Haiti.  She was really cool!  She also said she felt like she had known me her whole life!  We were pretty excited for each other, and it was a great way to start everything off.  The airport in Port-au-Prince was a little confusing, mostly because no one spoke Angle.  I would not have liked being there on my own, so I was really glad to be with the group from KCU.  It was so hot in Haiti!  I was really glad, but my body was kind of shocked.  Newark was like 15 degrees, and Haiti was like 90.  My body really did not know what was going on.  At least when we were on the bus it was breezy.  That’s kind of what it is like everywhere in Haiti.  There is no air conditioning, but everything is really open.  The windows are just holes in the wall that allow the wind to cool you off.  And a lot of things are just sheltered (with no walls).  The bus ride was crazy.  Imagine the worst roads you’ve ever been on in America.  That’s what the first three hours is like.  The second three hours is a lesson in what a school bus is capable of.  We were driving through streams and standing water and huge bumps that through me up into the air.  It’s not easy to throw me two feet in the air, so you can imagine.  That poor bus was very capable.  I didn’t mind the six hour bus ride – probably because I was so glad to be in Haiti.  But some people cried.  Some people had a really rough time with it.  My emotions were immediately confused driving through Haiti and seeing everything.  I was so happy to be there.  I had waited so long and dreamed of it so much.  And yet, is it inhumane to look upon such poverty and smile?  We drove by the tent cities in PAP.  Imagine living in a tent.  For years.  Maybe for your whole life.  Imagine that.  Now stop.  What kind of tent did you picture?  Was it the really nice kind with rooms and dividers and screened windows that you took when your girl scout troop camped in the backyard?  Because they don’t even that.  It’s just a raggedy old tarp propped by sticks or pipes or whatever you might find.  And that is where they live.  But I loved every person I saw so much, that I couldn’t help but be happy to drive by and wave through the window and smile big.  And all you hear is “BLANC BLANC BLANC BLANC BLANC!!!!!”   That means “white.”  And that is your first identity as an American in Haiti.  Now, just a sidenote, this crazy bus ride was so bumpy that my water bottle came open in my backpack.  It broke my ipod, destroyed my journal, and water damaged my bible.  Whoops!  It’s hard to explain everything to you guys.  Haiti is not like anything that you have ever seen.  And hearing about it and seeing pictures will not really help you understand.  So I hope you guys can come with me sometime!

By the way, there is hardly ever water and only sometimes electricity.  We ran out of beds, so I volunteered to sleep on the floor.  I wasn’t nervous about sleeping on the floor, and I was pretty proud of myself.  But after a few nights, I found out about the rat problem.  Apparently it used to be really bad, but now it’s mostly taken care of.  However, I saw a huge rat in the rafters of our ceiling one night, and it freaked Tina out a lot!  (Tina was like my mother for the duration of the trip.  She was so sweet, and she always wanted to take care of me!  She was so proud of me for coming by myself, and she invited me to come to her house any time!  Sweet sweet.)  Anyway, one morning I was on the floor, and there was an animal on me.  And I was just like, “Dear God, please let this be Lola (the mission’s little pug), because if this is a big rat, I might cry.”  Thankfully, it was just Lola, and I smacked her across the room.  That ridiculous dog!  Waking me up in the morning and scaring me half to death!

March 12 – First whole day in Haiti!

First, they gave us a tour of the mission compound!  It’s legit, and it’s pretty big.  They have about six programs running from there including: nutrition, birthing center, medical clinic, baby orphanage, gran moun, aquaponics, Miriam center, and… I think that’s it.  That’s seven because aquaponics isn’t really a program yet, I guess.  It’s complicated.  Anyway, they gave us a tour of everything, explaining some of their ministries.  We went to the gran moun, which is where the old people are!  It’s kind of like a retirement home.  Basically, they have no one to take care of them, so NWHCM takes care of them.  We went down there and greeted them, and they just want to shake and kiss your hand!  They are so cute!  I went down there to visit them a couple of times, but it’s harder for me to reach out to older people.  They don’t speak any English, and some of them are blind or handicapped in other ways.  They liked getting their pictures taken though!  They were super cute!  We walked past the baby orphanage, but I didn’t get to see any of them.  We walked past the Miriam center and said hello to the kids.  The kids there are all mentally or physically handicapped.  Most orphanages don’t take handicapped, so it’s really a beautiful thing.  I know it costs a lot to take care of those little ones though.  They are so fun!  They are always happy, and they love music.  They love to play and walk around holding hands.  Adorable.  So, after seeing everything, I wasn’t sure exactly what I should do.  So, I was going to go to the baby orphanage.  I went back to our dorms to get my camera and everything, but then I found out that KCU was going to the brothel.  So I wanted to come, so I ran back to my room again to get money for the bracelet bandits.  When I came back out, they had already gone.  Now, you’re not supposed to go out of the mission gates by yourself, and there is a guard there.  He let me out, and I assumed that the group would be right outside the gate.  However, I got out there and I didn’t see any blancs anywhere.  I knew that I should have gone back, but I really didn’t want to miss out on the brothel.  So I stood there, looking very dumb, I’m sure.  I don’t know how long it was, but it felt like forever.  Then, some kid pointed me in one direction, and I decided to trust her.  Luckily, I did find the group in that direction.  There were all these teenage boys who knew a lot of English (well, relatively a lot).  I thought they just wanted to talk to us because I guess that was not what I was expecting from the bracelet bandits.  But it was them!  Basically, they want to be your friend so that you will buy bracelets from them.  They are pretty darn clever.  They will ask if you want a bracelet that says “zanmi mwen” because you are their friend!  It melts most people’s hearts, I’ve got to say.  I kind of wanted one that said that, but I restrained myself!  I got one that said Haiti from my friend Fabrice.  He asked if I got it because I love Haiti.  I told him yes, so he asked if I love Jesus.  And I said yes.  So then he tried to convince me to get a JEZI bracelet.  Hahaha, those are smart boys.  I was impressed.  I didn’t get one that said that, but I thought his tactics were pretty strong!  Then we went to the brothel.  Most of the women there were wearing pants, reassuring me about the necessity of skirt-wearing.  The main room where the women hang out is just a little, dirty room.  It’s hard to explain.  Everything is concrete there.  It’s almost like hanging out in a musty garage, and the brothel is right on the beach.  There isn’t really an “inside” in Haiti.  Everywhere is outside!  There are huge openings in the walls, like windows, but they’re not glass.  They are either open to the air or barred.  Okay, it’s kind of like bathrooms at the beach that you don’t really want to use them if you can possibly wait until you get home.  Get it?  That is the best comparison I can make.  We didn’t go to the back, but Ashley the intern told us that the place where they work is basically a barn stall… and that’s where they live too, with their kids, if they’re allowed to live there.  Some of the women don’t get to stay there.  One lady told us that she had to go out on the street looking for work every night, so that she would have somewhere to sleep that night.  A lot of the women are not from St Louis.  They left their homes because they were too embarrassed to work at a brothel in their hometown.  We asked them all about their kids.  Most of them had a regular amount – like 2 to 4.  One lady had 14 kids.  They all had a similar story.  A lot of them were from a town that got particularly wrecked by a recent hurricane.  Many of their houses were destroyed and/or their husbands died.  I think every single one of them (we talked to like ten-ish) had fatherless children.  They don’t have a lot of options for how to support their children.  You know, you hear that women only work at places like that to support their kids, and you’re just like “whatever.”  At least, I was.  It seems like a flaky excuse until you meet women like this, and hear it from their own mouths.  They just want their kids to be fed.  They just want to find a way to get out, but they feel worthless, and they don’t know anywhere to go to live a different kind of life.  We sang Amazing Grace for them, and one of the women sang a song for us.  We asked for prayer requests, and they all just wanted us to pray for their children.  Then we fathered them into the middle of the room and circled around them to pray.  We had our hands on them, so when I started to cry during the prayer, I was concerned that people would see me when we all opened our eyes.  I was definitely surprised when we opened our eyes and the whole room was in tears, including the women.  One of the women was wailing.  Tina was sitting next to her, crying and holding her and talking to her.  I got down on my knees and held her hand.  I just wanted her to know that she was worthy, and I didn’t know what to do.  And I guess I felt like God was saying that I needed to kiss her hand.  I thought of a million things at once – “God I could get sick or something… she’s dirty… the woman who wiped Jesus’ feet with her hair… the elderly who kissed my dirty hand… Jesus touching lepers… Jesus cleaning his disciples’ feet.”  I was actually pretty overwhelmed.  But I did it.  I kissed the hand of a prostitute, and I prayed for her.  And I love her. 

Here’s one of the things I thought about that day – the least of these verses in the Bible.

   31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

   34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

   37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

   40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

   41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

   44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

   45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

   46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

Okay, so if you’re like me, you feel like you’re fulfilling this passage every time you feed someone hungry, or clothe someone, or visit someone in prison or anything like that.  (This passage becomes a lot more real when you do everything on the list in one week.)

But I have to ask myself, and ask YOU this:  what if Jesus was hungry every day?  Are we off the hook if we feed someone once a week, once a month, once a year?  How much is enough?  The least of these are hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, and in prison every day.  What does that mean for us?  If Jesus was in prison every day, would you visit him every day?   I could say a lot about this, but I think it’d be better if you just think about it on your own for now. 

I met another one of the bracelet bandits – Fenji.  He also makes kites and paintings because he wants to stand out from the rest of them.  He is so funny.  He climbed up a tree to sell Coty a kite.  He literally flew the kite to Coty, and Coty stuck the money in a pipe and leaned off the building to get the money to Fenji.  Hahahahahaha.

I spent a couple hours looking at the stars that night.  It was so beautiful.  There were so many stars it almost made me dizzy.  It’s crazy.  It doesn’t feel real.  I wanted to sleep outside, but it rains every night.  I didn’t want to run inside in the middle of the night all wet. 

March 13 – My first day without KCU

I had to decide if I would go stay at an orphanage for a few days with KCU or stay on campus by myself.  Going to the orphanage would have meant a three hour bus ride, no water at all, and spaghetti for every meal.  Staying would mean having to strike out on my own and figure things out for myself.  I decided that the latter would actually be more out of my comfort zone.  So I waved KCU goodbye, afraid that I might be missing out on all the fun.  NOPE!  I was certain after about two minutes that I had made the correct choice.  I walked down to the courtyard by the nutrition program, where kids usually hang out.  I immediately was surrounded by children.  I might expound on this later, but let’s just say that is was wonderful to have the experience of being the only blanc around and being surrounded by Haitians.  We sang and played and practiced my Kreyol.  I spent the whole morning there.  After lunch, I went down to Aquaponics!  Okay, let me tell you what it is really quickly.  Farming fish and growing produce in water both have their issues (there is a lot of waste for the former and it’s hard to fertilize the latter).  However, when you put them together they solve each other’s problems!  Basically, you use fish poo to fertilize the plants, and it’s a great system!  It’s awesome!  Anyway, it isn’t all the way set up yet, but I got to help get the electricity running and help Ed with the solar panels.  I was pretty nervous that we were going to blow up the whole mission, but we didn’t!  There was a moment when I was on the roof and he was like four stories distance below me at the aquaponics greenhouse thing.  He had told me that I would either have to switch one switch off or the other switch on.  I was so afraid of forgetting it because I don’t have half a brain lately.  Even if I put all my energy into remembering one such little fact like that, all it takes is a bird to fly by or a stray thought, and it’s gone!  It’s rather frustrating at times.  Anyway, I was trying super hard to remember, but I almost forgot!  I was yelling down to him “it’s this one, right?!?!”  And he just laughed at me and nodded.  And it worked!  Ed was so happy!  He’s been working on the project for like nine months.  At Devo’s every night we share about the day, and Ed went first to say, “A lot of people have helped me with this project, but it took one little girl from Asbury College to get it done.”  Hahaha, and I wasn’t sure he liked me!  I spent the evening hanging out with the team from Bermuda!  They were great!  So funny.  They were aged 40-82.  The 40 year old guy drove me nuts.  He insisted on speaking at Devo’s every night, and he would say the most obvious things that everyone already knew!  Jenny was born in London, but she moved to Bermuda in her 20’s.  She was so funny.  She was grossed out that we were only allowed to flush if we went number two (to conserve water).  Anyway, they were all great, and they even let me into their team picture!  It’s on facebook if you want to see it.  

I also went to the prison in PdP, the brothel again, played with the babies a lot, and went to a children’s home called the house of hope.  The adventure of travelling back home was quite an ordeal, and one of my best moments was when I was on a tap tap, and I hear “wavin’ flag.”  LOVE!  If you want to hear about these, maybe I can tell you next week.  I’ve already spent like two hours writing this, and it’s kind of hard for me!

So, let me tell you about this past week.  I got back to Asbury at 2 AM on Monday, and it’s been horrible ever since.  It’s hard to explain what it’s like being back.  I still don’t know what God’s calling is for my life, but I do know that I was I were there right now instead of here.  The second I got back, I dug through my checked bag looking for my camera because I just needed to see it RIGHT THAT SECOND!  And wait, I don’t see it.  I don’t see it… Then I start to get worried.  I spent a few hours in denial, thinking that my camera would turn up.  That’s when I realized that my iPod was also missing… Boo!  The main thing is that I just really wish I had my pictures, and I don’t.  It hurts a lot.   It is bad enough that I don’t have a little orphan in my arms right now, but I can’t even look at a picture of me with them!  I had so many great pictures.  So many…  And videos, priceless videos.  One video of Tatiana, I would literally pay $200-300 to get that video back.  You don’t even understand.  So that’s hard, but then this week has just been yuck.  I have a million projects and assignments and tests, and I can’t take it!  I have to do my missions portfolio, my internship contract, my course request form, my schedule for next year, my study questions, my take home test for western classics, a research paper, a huge reading paper, another big test, nutrition analysis, intro to comm stuff, write journals for class, AGH!  Meanwhile, I’m still processing everything that happened last week.  Also, I’m working on raising $3500.  What am I going to do if I don’t raise it all?  I don’t know!  It’s not that I don’t trust God with it, but logistically I don’t know enough people who are willing to open up their wallets for a thing like this.  [Speaking of which, if any of you guys want to help out… lol.  But really, consider it.  Sara gave me $20, and it really meant a lot!  Any amount helps!  Also, I’m sure a lot of your parents would think that this is a really worthwhile thing, so you could ask them if they are interested in supporting this!  It’s not like you’re just asking them for money.  You’re giving them an opportunity to help a really good cause.  Come on, you can at least ask!  Just saying.]

Anyway, trying to send out support letters is really hard, and I just don’t know exactly what I’m going to do to get my hands on this money!  This is going to be a really tough month, then finals, then I’ll be in Haiti, assuming that I come up with enough money!  Then I’ll have like three days before my senior year starts, with another new roommate.

It’s just a lot.  And meanwhile I’m just tired.  I’m probably going to be up most of the night tonight.  Last night, I actually had an opportunity to sleep six hours, but I couldn’t fall asleep, even though I was thoroughly exhausted!  So I guess it doesn’t matter that I’ll probably be napping from like 6-9 (if I’m lucky) then rollin’ on over to chapel and class and lunch and class and class and the library for a research paper that’s due Tuesday and a meeting and work  and staying up all night tomorrow to finish that paper.  Meanwhile, I really ought to get the rest of my letters sent out in the next couple of days.  I guess I just feel inadequate.  So I felt really insecure and stressed this week – two emotions that I haven’t had in about a year, at least.  I don’t know why I was so insecure this week.  It was awful.  Part of it is that I was depressed, and I guess one of my insecurities is that people only like me when I’m happy.  So I felt all week like my friends were looking at me with disdain, annoyed that I would have the nerve to be so upset.  I know that’s probably not true, but it is how I felt.  I spent a lot of time in my room because I knew that being around people would either make them mad at me or me mad at them.  So I spent like all day yesterday alone, and I thought in the evening I would be ready to see friends again.  So I invited Kristen, Jessica, and Monica to go to Orange Leaf and Wal-Mart with me.  First of all, my car had a flat.  That delayed our leaving for an hour and a half.  It would have been fine on a normal day, but I have been so emotional all week.  Crying all the time!  So I just broke down again, and I was having trouble holding it together while these boys came and helped with the car.  Then we took Kristen’s car to Orange Leaf, and we just took our froyo back to the car, which defeated MY purpose which was to spend time together.  Then we went to Wal-Mart, and Jessica and Kristen started to go off in one direction.  I wanted to follow them, but they wanted to get out of there quickly (also defeating my purpose of spending time together) so they sent me off to get what I needed.  I was like “doesn’t anyone want to come with me?”  Jessica and Kristen told Monica to come with me, and Monica said the rudest thing I have ever heard come out of her mouth.  “Why do I always get stuck with Shelby?”  Well, that killed any happiness that I was regaining from the friend outing.  I had been planning on going to the rave with them (There was a rave to celebrate the end of the Legacy Games.  It’s kind of like the Hunger Games, only no one dies.  Asbury is the dorkiest campus ever.  We competed by class because there is a lot of class identity at Asbury.  Illuminated didn’t win because all of the involved kids are in the musical, which had practices during the events.  There were all sorts of tournaments every night that you got points for winning.  There were also some points hidden around campus that you could turn in.  It was really cool, but I worked during all of the events, so I couldn’t participate.  Also, Brodie was at the rave, so I wanted to go to hang out with him), but Monica killed it for me.  I cried the whole car ride home, and no one noticed.  I was upset the whole evening… it was awful.

So I guess I just feel like everything is against me.  I’m getting B’s on everything where I should be getting A’s.  I don’t have enough time to sleep or do everything that is expected of me. But we sang a song at church today, a song that I have always liked, but it gained new meaning for me this morning.  “Oh my God, He will not delay, my refuge and strength always.  I will not fear.  His promise is true.  My God will come through always.”  It really reminded me that God is enough, and it doesn’t matter what else is going on in my life.  The first verse is like “my foes are many.  They rise against me, but I will hold my ground.  I will not fear the war.  I will not fear the storm.  My help is on the way.”  So that is true for me tonight, as I write this to you.  It’s going to be a rough month, but God will be there with me.  My foes are many – loneliness, missing Haiti, tiredness, homework, stress – it’s all rising against me at once.  And yet, God is still here, and I can’t lose Him, so everything will be good.

I’m sorry this is so long, and I still didn’t get to tell you half the things about Haiti.  However, it is almost midnight your time (past midnight my time).  Please ask questions about specific things you want to know about anything!  Comments much appreciated.  Let’s see how many of you survived reading this whole darn thing!

LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

Text me any time… I miss you guys, and I feel left out because you see each other all the time!

And really, ask your parents if they want to support a good cause…. No really.  It’s not hard…

=]

SHELBS MAGEE

<3 <3 <3

 

Since no one has pestered me about this, I assume no one is staying up to read it....lol

7 Comments

Wow, I’m terrible at remembering to post when I’m home…

3/24/2012

6 Comments

 
…But hello from Bowling Green! A huge THANK YOU! to mija Sara for reminding me to post because apparently I get blog amnesia whenever I come home for the weekend. Why was I home for the weekend, you ask? Why, because it’s MUSICAL WEEKEND! Crazy for You was absolutely fabulous- I am so glad I got to see my sister perform as a Folly Girl! She looked so cute, especially as she’s one of the shorter dancers, and she got to be lifted up quite frequently :) Now, I’m a little suspicious of some of the cowboys she was dancing with… ;) Regardless, I am so proud of her, and the entire cast was phenomenal! I spent the entire musical wishing that I was up there- including the many, many tap numbers!- and I really need to watch Beauty and the Beast again. With Mark, if I’m not too nervous about showing him freshman Amber. I still have a problem with saying ‘Rennn-dezzzzz-voussssssssssssssssss’ instead of the normal ‘Rendezvous,’ and as he speaks French (& German) fairly fluently, he stares at me really strangely until I explain. XD

It was wonderful seeing so many people the past couple of days at musical! Friday night was basically a giant musical reunion, as there were about 10 of us former musical members there to see the show. Tonight I was also so happy to see Jill & Sara! Hooray for lovely friendship time! I also got to see Jon, which was quite a surprise as I haven’t seen him since he transferred from UK, but it completed my week, as I also got a surprise call from Chris, Leang, & Dah Gee in the middle of the week… checking up on me and asking about the many ways they could intimidate Mark, of course. I also got to see and give hugs to Mrs. Schmitt, Mrs. Belcher, & Ms. Houchins- they’re doing quite well, and Mrs. Schmitt asked about you Sanaa :) She hopes you’re doing well. Also, apparently Ms. Houchins still uses my and Sanaa’s old essays as examples… She’s also quite excited to get Alexis in her AP class next year. The second generation of Alexis & Heather ought to be an interesting combination for her :)

Alas, I have quite a bit of homework that has yet to be started, but I do have a lovely grande caffé mocha to keep me awake. I shall leave you with the song that is a wonderful song to blast on the radio as you’re driving back from Starbucks… =)

Oh! And happy Hunger Games! I LOVED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Non-reading Hunger Games people liked it too (cough Mark cough), so it’s nice to know it’s not just my obsession that made me like the movie. What did you all think??? (PS- Anna Beth, I shall compose “The Hanging Tree” before the 3rd movie…)

Train- “Drive By”
6 Comments

Happy Hunger Games!

3/23/2012

4 Comments

 
Hello from the muddiest I’ve been in quite awhile. I just got back from the bio-preserve (what? Jill’s posting a blog before nightfall? Nonsense!) and I’m kinda caked in dirt. The weather has decided it really enjoys having rain on Friday mornings so the forest was a little squishy. It wouldn’t have been that bad if our observation route didn’t take us through this little mud pit:
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I'm not gonna lie, sliding in the mud was kinda fun
         It may not look steep, but it’s a bit of a hassle trekking up the sides on ground that only looks kinda firm. The return trip made me feel a little like Shadow from ‘Homeward Bound’ (not that the majority of you have even seen that movie :P) with all the slipping and sliding around when attempting to get up the embankment. Here’s a small sample of how muddy my boots got, but keep in mind that this was only halfway through the excursion:
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I think it’s laughing at me
Although we did see some chickadees today, they didn’t stick around for very long. Like I said before, I think they like to tease me.

         As Sara already mentioned, the Border Brawl was last Saturday. It was a lot of fun! I didn’t do too badly. I won some bouts and lost a lot more. My favorite was definitely my direct elimination epee bout with Nick, though. He’s the president of MTSU’s fencing club. I ended up losing, but not before tying the score 9-9 (Not to mention I was beating him for at least half the match) It was pretty awesome.
        After the Border Brawl and eating at Cheddars (where, as Sara mentioned, Alex and Nick thoroughly entertained us) my mom and I went back to Western to watch the end of the indoor drumline competition that had been going on all day. It was pretty cool. The last one we stayed for was easily the best of the night. I don’t remember which school it was, but they had a tribal theme and it was completely epic. That’s the best I can do to describe it.
        Other than this morning and the end of yesterday, the weather has been amazing. That coupled with the beautiful blooming trees in front of DUC make the walk to class not too bad.
Picture
Sorry a picture just doesn't quite do it justice.
Picture





And I also want to include this picture for no other reason than that I thought it was really cool. They were all over campus for a few days.

         And to continue the theme of the title of this blog, I’m going to see the Hunger Games movie tonight!!! (with Sara, Amy, and maybe Nayab, of course). Woot! I’m excited :D  I really hope isn’t a let down from the books. I know they always have to make changes when adapting to film, but I really want it turn out well *coughunlikeeragoncough* And since I’m talking about it, I may as well mention the two hunger games themed stories of the week. In ASL, the teacher called for a volunteer and one of the girls hopped up and loudly said, “I volunteer as tribute!” I cracked up! And also, when coming back to the dorm from fencing practice, I heard someone doing Rue’s whistle in the stairwell. Amy got excited thinking Rachael was somehow back from New Zealand.
        That’s basically all I have to say about this week. So I’ll leave you with something both awesome and reminiscent of our childhood:
Now off to shower-land!
-Jill
4 Comments

This isn't cheating...

3/22/2012

3 Comments

 
Hello from an alternate reality. You only think it's Wednesday. But you're all sadly mistaken. Really it's Thursday and I'm posting my blog on the right day. Just go with it.
I'm heading off to Paris in about an hour, and so I wanted to post something today to avoid punishment by those who might make me eat weird things blended together...or something.
Yeah, so in honor of going to France, here's all the French I know:
Bonjour = hello
Merci = thank you
Tre jolie! = very pretty!
la rue =the street
fromage =cheese
avec =with
amour = love 
And I know the days of the week, but I don't know how to spell them.
Good thing I have a French/English phrase book.
The end.
-Anna Beth
3 Comments
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    Each of us is assigned a certain day of the week to blog.
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