Hello from _______
  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • The Blogs
  • Pictures
  • Blog Archives: 2012-2013
  • And etc.

blogging 2012-2013

Shelby didn't send me a title... Haiti!!!!!!!

3/11/2012

2 Comments

 
Hello from the 6:30 am shuttle to the Newark airport. 
Well, scratch that.  They turned the light off on the shuttle and I didn't want to be the annoying one. 
Hello from looking at the new York skyline out the airport window.  It's been wonderful so far.  The KCU students that I'm travelling with are pretty cool!  Two of them are missions majors.  It was a little awkward at first but then I started being a little more outgoing.  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.
All that to say that I'm such a princess.  I was really glad for every thing that didn't work out right because it reminded me how lucky I am.  I am not afraid or worried about anything that might go wrong today.  God will be with me no matter what happens, so who cares?  I'm going to Haiti today!  I just hope I remember to take my phenergan for the eight hour bumpy bus ride.  There are no traffic laws in Haiti.  Adventure!  I might be going to tortuga this week!  We will see what all happens, and I will give you the highlights next week! All my dreams are on the verge of coming true.  Although I anticipate God's protection. I don't know what His plan is!  So on the off chance that anything happens to me, I want you guys to know that I love God so much and God loves you and I love you!  Love costs everything!
God bless!
Be a missionary wherever you are this week!
Love love love love love!
Also, you have until 9:25 to text me
Sent from my HTC Inspire™
Shelby Robin Bollar
Asbury University
1 Corinthians 13:13
2 Comments

Just Pretend it's still Friday

3/9/2012

5 Comments

 
         Hello from Fargo, North Dakota! It’s know around here as the City of Parks, none of which you would want to currently visit since it’s freezing outside. At the moment it’s actually quite warm compared to the rest of the week at 31 degrees. When I woke up this morning, it was 12 degrees but with the wind-chill it felt like -2. Great place to spend spring break, right? But really, I’ve had an awesome time this week and it’s hard to believe it’s almost over and I’ll be going home in two days. I’ll try to give you the best overview of the week I can, but expect it to be pretty rambly. It’s late and I’m tired.
         In case I failed to mention it adequately before, I spent this last week in Fargo, North Dakota and Moorhead, Minnesota on a mission trip with my church. Our two main goals were 1) basically to be an advertisement for the church plant that started in Moorhead in August as well as the church plant that started a few years back in Fargo and 2) to try to create relationships with the people we meet here. The idea, particularly for the summer teams that live here for a couple of months, is to ‘live strategically’ aka be intentional with the conversations you have with people, go out of your way to be nice and have conversations with people-get to know them, see if they go to a church in town, etc. I’m probably doing a horrible job explaining it, but whatever. Mostly, we just got to know people in town, specifically at MSUM (Minnesota State University at Moorhead), and hung up flyers for the church around town.
         As far as my week goes:
    I woke up at 5 o’clock Monday morning to meet up with everyone at the church. We had a flight to catch out of Nashville at 8 with a two-hour layover in Denver. Easily the most eventful part of our the trip was freaking out when the car right behind us started swerving, spun around, hit the embankment, and flipped. It was surreal to watch. Luckily the ambulance was really quick. We tried to look up an article about the wreck later to find out if the guy was ok, and as far as we could tell, he was alive. So…that’s good.
        Anyway, back to the trip. I traveled through 4 states in 24 hours, which is not nearly as impressive as the fact that I traveled through 3 cities and 2 states in under 10 minutes. The church we’re staying at (called Temple Baptist [which is not the church we’re here to serve which is Sojourn] which is also really nice [did you manage to understand that with all the ‘which is’s lol]) is in Fargo, North Dakota. The area we’re mainly working in is Moorhead, Minnesota. And the closest Wal-Mart where we did our week’s grocery shopping is in Dilworth, Minnesota. Fargo and Moorhead are basically the same city divided by a river which creates the dividing line for the two states. If you don’t get it, look at a map.
        Most mornings we go to MSUM. We have a table set up to offer hot chocolate in the Student Union (equivalent to DUC) and also set up a Raffle to win an ipod shuffle. It’s mostly just a way to get word out to the students that the church exists, and it’s a method to get a chance to talk to them. A lot of people ignored us but we did get a chance to meet a lot of people and have good conversations. It was kinda crasy today seeing God work. MSUM’s spring break is next week so the Student Union was basically empty the majority of the morning and most people had left or were about to leave. But there were a few people still interested in our table. Near the end of our time there, a group of girls came up and sign up for the raffle. We were nearly done and about to clean up, but we kept talking to them and they seemed really eager about the church, and I’m pretty sure we’ll see them there this Sunday :)
        We also have lunch at MSUM everyday to try to get to know the students. Another girl on the trip with me, Cara, found a group of three girls to sit with in the cafeteria. We ended up talking about The Hunger Games, differences between MSUM and Western, etc. They’re pretty awesome. One of them added me on Facebook. We got to hang out with them a little later at the University Bookstore and the next day at lunch as well.
        Most afternoons we tape up cards to houses in the surrounding neighborhoods with info on the church and its upcoming events. Did I mention the temperature here? How about the snow? Take a look at these:
Picture
Picture
Sara, you're missing out, all the snow is here :)
         This is actually pretty low on the snow level here. It’s about 6 inches, but the norm is more like 6 feet. It’s been really weird because I’m so used to snow melting by the next day, but it’s always still there, and usually there’s more and more of it. Our first day of doing cards was actually the warmest at just above freezing, which you would think is a good thing but actually led to one of the worst parts of the trip. At the intersections of sidewalk to street, you had 2 options for crossing to the next sidewalk: climb a giant snow pile or wade through 6 inch puddles that look frozen over but aren’t and are too wide to jump across. As a result, my feet, as well as the majority of the team’s, were soaked. With freezing water. Did I mention soaked? I had to walk around like that for an hour. I thought for sure I would get frostbite. Luckily, I warmed up pretty quickly, and the weather chilled enough that all the water on the sides of the streets is now frozen enough to not soak my feet completely. The walk back to the car on the first day was pretty funny because we came across a little girl walking home from school who yelled at us for not wearing boots.
        Overall the trip has been awesome, and part of that, at least for me, are always the little hilarious moments. For example, the table we have at MSUM: on the first day, we noticed we were basically between the meeting room for something called ‘The Gay Agenda’ and a hall that led to some kind of info session for Planned Parenthood. We had a little laugh out of that. And of course there’s this picture taken on our second day. I forget who wrote it, but I got a laugh out of it.
Picture
If you can't tell, yes this is a joke.
         And there are other things like the stealing and hiding of the vanilla coke, the threatening of infecting the perpetrator with bronchitis if they do not return the vanilla coke, the crazy sensitive shower knob in the tiny shower, beasting Andrew and Dillon at Phase 10, realizing Andrew bears an uncanny resemblance to Russel from UP, listening to Blake, Andrew, and Cara sing impromptu karaoke, I could go on for a while so I should probably cut it off here. My blog’s already thirty minutes late. (which there is a reason for by the way! The keys to one of our rental cars were mistakenly put in the backpack of someone not in our group at a coffee-shop we were hanging out at tonight…and they left. It took awhile to get that resolved)
        I’d love to video chat with you guys soon, it’d be much easier to tell some of these stories face to [screen to ] face. If I’ve forgotten anything worth mentioning, I’ll talk about it next week.
        But I do sorta have an ‘awesome’ of the week which, if you don’t count all the awesome ways God’s currently working in these cities, would have to be Scheels. It’s an outdoor sports shop and it’s HUGE. There’s even a Ferris Wheel inside:
Picture
Picture
Stuffed Lions and Bears? Oh my
Cool, right?
Anyway, I’m tired and I’m gonna go to bed now.

Love,
Jill

P.S.
Hey, Anna Beth. You know those decorated pig statues in Bath? Apparently there’s an equivalent here in Fargo with Bison statues. I didn’t get any pictures of the statues themselves, but I did snap a shot of a framed picture at Dunn Bros Coffee Shop that shows a lot of them:
Picture
5 Comments

Chicken and Kony and Flares! Oh my!

3/8/2012

9 Comments

 
Hello from an interesting week, both at Harlaxton and in the world in general. Over the past week, I have been to Lincoln and Nottingham, given two presentations, eaten delicious Portuguese food, and hit my head on a tree. There's also been the launch of the Kony 2012 movement ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc), which has certainly gotten people talking; and there's always the fact that the sun is exploding.

Where to begin? Well, the presentations weren't that interesting; I'm just glad they're over. And the trip to Nottingham turned out to be a college tour, like we were high schoolers...so that was mediocre. But at least now I can say I've been to Nottingham. And it was entertaining to watch the UE students marvel over  such a large university. Granted, it was even bigger than WKU, too, but UE is the smallest thing imaginable, so they were thrilled.
Lincoln and the Portuguese food go hand in hand, seeing as Elizabeth, Heather, Jordan, and I took a day trip to Lincoln to visit our British friends and eat at Nando's. I had a chicken fillet burger with lettuce, medium-spicy sauce, cheese, and PINEAPPLE! It was ridiculously delicious! And I have BRITISH FRIENDS!
Now, have I covered everything going on in my life? See, I don't remember, because I hit my head on a tree. Just kidding. I do remember, but I really did hit my head on a tree while climbing out of it. It was such a nice tree, until it bopped me right on top of the head. Which, you know, it's funny, because afterward it only hurt on the right side of my head. And it wasn't like it hurt, just felt kind of pressure-y. And it still does a little, but not as much as before. But of course, I've been convinced I'm going to keel over and die. And thinking about it makes it worse, of course. Aside from the slight weird feeling in my head, I exhibited no symptoms of a concussion, and every time I've gone to sleep so far I've woken up. So I'm pretty sure I'm fine, but you know how I am... hypochondriac and all. It was funny because I sustained said head injury the day before my group presentation in environmental science and I told my group, "Good luck on the project, in case I don't wake up tomorrow." Fortunately for us all, I was there to give the presentation. AND it was about water testing! Whee! Oh, and some swans nearly attacked us when we went to collect the sample water to test.

Now, on to the broader scope of things. I'm not very in-the-know about current events. I never watch the news over here. I don't read the paper. And I don't even know where to begin with news on the internet. But I do know about this: http://kony2012.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/
Basically, in Africa children and young adults are being abducted, abused, and forced to become soldiers. Forced to kill without reason. They don't want to do it, and they shouldn't have to. At the forefront of these atrocities is a man named Joseph Kony. The organization Invisible Children is out to make sure he is stopped. Since the 30-minute video started circulating around the internet this week, there have been many conflicting opinions about the Kony 2012 movement. Some say the campaign to make Kony well-known so the atrocities do not continue is a great idea. Some say Invisible Children is going about it all wrong. There are disputes about facts and figures, about Kony's exact location, and about what the American government can/will do. But come on, you bunch of cynics! Don't throw up your hands and say "why bother?" At least someone is trying to do something about it. And that's all I have to say about that. What do you guys think? Leave your opinion in the comments below!
Also, the sun is exploding. It just is. The end.

Just kidding! But in honor of freaking people out, 2012 comes complete with solar flares!
P.S. The Mayans didn't account for leap years, so the world has already ended according to their calendar. Think about that!
9 Comments

I'm getting used to this...

3/7/2012

5 Comments

 
Hello from Massey University! I wrote out my blog during Biology of Animals class today because so far, it's all been a review of Dr. Huskey's class. My last bio lab was about phylogenetic trees! Jill/Amy- was your class like this? At least my other classes are a bit better--my Physics professor, an elderly gentlemen, stood on top of his desk during one of his stories one day, and yesterday, he brought in a mini-canon and knocked down a plastic bottle just to prove that 45 degrees= max distance.
I forgot to mention Club's Day in my last week's blog. Last Wednesday, all of Massey's clubs set up booths in the courtyard in the middle of campus to get new members. I wanted to join the Fire Club, but alas they meet on Tuesdays during one of my labs...what is Fire Club? It's where they teach you how to play with fire! Like fire-eating, fire spinning, etc.! Instead of the Fire Club, I'm going to try to get involved with the Alpine Club (kind of like hiking with some rock climbing) and the Anime Club. The members of the Anime club said they'd help me sew a cosplay outfit for when they go to an anime convention.
In between classes, I have managed to find some time for fun. Last Saturday, we (Betsy, Jenna, Tom, and I) met with our AustraLearn Residence coordinator Brendon for a BBQ at his house and some Go-Karting. Go-Karting was super fun after I learned that you can't be a safe driver on the track. I slide around curves and even crashed a few times! After our time was up, Brendon bought us sundaes from McDonalds. Yum!
On Sunday, Betsy decided that we'll start having family dinner together where we'll cook an actual meal and sit down to eat. She even bought Monopoly Deal so we can play cards after dinner.We also celebrated Betsy's 22nd birthday by going out to eat at Lonestar on Tuesday.
And finally, yesterday, Jenna and I went into town to do some shopping. I ended up buying a cute dress that had a skirt that was short in the front and longer in the back (it's a really popular style here, along with guys having short shorts and knee-high socks with Vans (the shoe)). Question: Do you think girls who wear booty shorts and tank tops in 50-60 degree weather are ridiculous or crazy? What about girls who wear booty shorts and sandals, yet they have a puffy winter jacket on? I also signed up for a pass to Massey's  Rec Center. I'm going to try to start attending regular classes they offer. I went with Jenna to a Body Balance class-- it was intense! It's suppose to help you stretch, tone your legs, and (of course) improve your balance--like a hard yoga class. At the end, there was a relaxing 5 minutes where they played calming music while you just lay there. I almost fell asleep.  I'm going to also try the Body Jam and CXWORX sessions as well. We'll have to see if I actually go.
I can't believe that I've already been here for almost a month! I'm already used to my routine, but I wonder how I'm going to feel in another month! And with all your talk about Spring Break, I already can't wait for my mid-semester break (April 6-23--including Good Friday and the last weekend before we have to go back)! We're planning on doing a road trip all around the South Island. :)
Now it's time
5 Comments

Almost Plain Ole Tuesday

3/6/2012

18 Comments

 
Hello from Question Tuesday! You may not think it’s necessary to say that, but Question Tuesday almost didn’t happen this week! If not for dearest Anna Beth, I would have had no questions to answer this Tuesday, which would have been awful! Seriously, think about it. What is Question Tuesday without questions? It’s just… Tuesday. Plain ole Tuesday. And what’s the fun in plain ole Tuesday?

K, Question Tuesday rant over. My week has been fine, if a bit crazy. I had to miss both fencing practices last week due to illness/homework. But I’m feeling much better now, and I got everything done on time! And now it’s Spring Break!!! Yay!!!! I’m not doing anything really fun or interesting this week, just sleeping in and working on the homework that nearly all my teachers decided I needed, but after the insanity that was the last month and a half, I’m ok with that. Hopefully I can use this week to get ahead with school stuff so as to survive the remaining 8 weeks of the semester. You know, assuming my procrastinative nature doesn’t get in the way…

And speaking of which, guess what I’ve been using to procrastinate so far? Sherlock! I’ve finally had time to watch the series over the past few days, and it’s epic! Unfortunately, the last of the 6 episodes ends on a GIANT CLIFFHANGER. You guys know how I hate cliffhangers and ambiguous endings! I can’t tell you what said cliffhanger is, since most of you haven’t seen it, but just know that it’s been driving me insane for the last 24 hours. On the bright side, the mystery will be resolved, as a third series has been commissioned, and they might even be filming already (that came from Wikipedia, so it could quite probably be wrong, but I’m choosing to be optimistic right now). The downside to said upside is that new episodes won’t be out until 2013 at the earliest, so I have at least 10 months of speculation and anticipation ahead of me. *sigh*

On a less fictional note, I found out last Wednesday that I didn’t get hired by WinShape. But it’s ok! It just means I have to keep looking to figure out where God wants me this summer. I’m not really sure where to start looking though, so, if you have any helpful suggestions or ideas, I would really appreciate it. Anyway, I think that’s all I gots to say. On to the Question Tuesday questions that have been most happily supplied by dearest Anna Beth (she’s my favorite right now, by the way).

What should I be for the costume ball at Harlaxton?
A kitty! That would be purrfect, don’t you think? Kitties are adorable, and you love cats. You love every kind of cat!

 When is the BCM spring dance? (I want to crash it if I'm back in time.)
Yeah… no idea. I hope you’re back in time for the BCM spring dance, but you’re asking the wrong girl. Sorry!

 What scene are you most looking forward to in the Hunger Games movie and why? (Has everyone read the books? Again, don't want spoilers...)
I’m pretty sure a few of us still haven’t read the books, so if you fall into this category, kindly skip to the next question (or risk being SPOILED!). Anyway, I think the part I’m looking forward to most is… well, the whole movie really. I’m excited to get to see everything I read about and hoping they stayed pretty close to the movie (let’s at least not have another Eragon…). If I had to pick just one part, I’d say the arena is what I’m looking forward to the most. The action scenes are what make it, in my opinion, so worth actually seeing instead of just reading. I don’t especially want to see 22 people getting murdered, but the part where Katniss blows up the careers’ supplies sounds like it’s going to be worth seeing.

What other movie(s) coming out in 2012 are you looking forward to seeing?
Well, The Lorax just came out in theaters! I love Dr. Seuss! I’ll probably wait until it comes out on DVD to see it, but it looks pretty adorable :). I also want to see The Muppets. That came out in 2011, but I’m waiting for the DVD of that one too, and it looks pretty good (and it has Amy Adams! And Sheldon!).
I’m also really looking forward to Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. The book version was really cool, and I’m excited to see how they translate it to film. Plus Lincoln’s my favorite president! The Dark Knight Rises also looks pretty interesting, and since it’s the final movie of this Batman series, I’d say it’s a must-see.
K, this is slightly off topic, but I had to look at a list of movies coming out in 2012 to answer the question, and do you know what I found out? They’re making a Paranormal Activity 4!!! Seriously?! Wasn’t the first one enough? While we’re on the subject of movies I don’t want to see, apparently they’re also making The Great Gatsby. Even John Green couldn’t make me like that book…

How do you feel about 3D? (This is what you get when a film major asks the questions...all about movies! mwahahahaha!!!)
I don’t especially care for 3D. In my opinion, it’s just an excuse to charge extra to get into the theater, and as a poor college student, I am opposed. Besides, I feel like 2D is plenty. It looks real enough to me, and I see no reason why every single movie that comes out now needs to have a 3D option. Also, it gives my mom headaches. So I guess I’m a little biased.

If you could be a super hero, complete with an array of super powers, would you want to do it?
Well, the super powers would be pretty cool and all, but I have serious doubts about my qualifications as a potential super hero. I’m not exactly the most informed citizen, so I probably wouldn’t find out about situations requiring my help until significantly after the fact. Also I’m lazy and cowardly, not exactly adjectives most people want to describe their superheroes. So… no. I’d probably have to turn down that offer.

What's your favorite number?
7

What's your favorite fruit? What's the strangest thing you've ever eaten?
I love apples! And I tend not to eat strange things, so the strangest thing I’ve ever eaten is probably not very strange. Well, I like my eggs with ketchup. Most people look at me funny when I say that. So that’s probably the strangest thing I’ve ever eaten.

If you lived in the Capitol, what kind of weird body modifications/fashion would you have (and don't say "nothing")?
Bleh… Capitol fashion does not appeal to me. I guess if I had to do something, I’d just dye my hair sea green and turn my skin pink or something. That’s a nice color combo, don’t you think?

So that’s all for today! I’ll talk to you all later!

Love,

Sara

P.S. - Jealous of Anna Beth? Want a chance at being my favorite? Then submit Question Tuesday questions! The best question asker gets to be Sara’s favorite of the week! And I know you all want that so much! :P

P.P.S. – That sounded like a commercial… but I’m desperate! Support the cause! Be Anti-Plain Ole Tuesday!

18 Comments

Hiatus

3/5/2012

3 Comments

 
Hello from the help support team, Amy is in maintenance right now due to error:063089. We will try to fix the problem within the week. Sorry for any inconvenience.
3 Comments

6 days ohmygoshhhhhhhhhhhh

3/4/2012

6 Comments

 
Hello from living in a fantasy world!
All right, I'm going to go ahead and tell you what I know you want to know the most: the story of my life with the doctor.
As you know, the doctor and I have quite a complicated history.  My heart is indeed still devoted to him only.  He wrote me for my birthday; he is very thoughtful.  Then again, he can pop in and out of time and send me something on my birthday whenever he feels like it!
So he also wrote me a warning on my birthday, saying that he needed my help and that he would send me something.
Well, he sent me HIS SCREWDRIVER.  For those of you who don't know the doctor very well, this is serious.  He rarely lets anyone else have his sonic screwdriver!!  He must be in very grave danger.  He also sent me a blank post it note.  My first thought was this it was psychic paper, but I knew that the doctor would not leave me in the dark.  I soon discovered that the sonic screwdriver was set on invisible ink decoding mode.  I shone it on the post it to see "330.15 St8c".  It took me a long time to figure it out, but towards the end of the day a friend made a suggestion.  "Perhaps you are just not reading the doctor right."
READING!  Of course!  It's the Dewey Decimal System.  Oh, Dewey, you have blinded me once again.  Immediately after work, I rushed to the library to find another post it in the book "The Coming Struggle for Power."  Upon further examination, I discovered that there was also an invisible message on this one - P10.  P10.... That's a chapel seat!  I rushed over to Hughes Auditorium to discover a post it note on P10.  This was during the worship band practice, and they probably found me very peculiar.  Well, I am peculiar.
Anyway, you might guess that this was another invisible message, and it was "MC 231 Friday 5:15".  I barely slept Thursday Night, trying to figure out what the doctor wanted me to do the next day.  
Here's the sad ending.  You will be disappointed.
There was a tornado warning during that time, and I never got to see the doctor.  I will be trying next Friday at 5:15 in McCreless 231.... I will let you know what happens.  

Other awesome things:
*We threw a party for some runaway/homesless teenagers.  It went really well.
*I'M GOING TO HAITI IN 5 DAYS!
*I got to meet my Mentee, Aliyaha.  She's so cute!
*I went to Red Robin with Jessica and Joyce.
*I bought a $270 suitcase set for $90!
*Everything is a party all the time!
*I got 8 hours of sleep for the first time in two weeks last night!  Actually, it was only 7 hours, but that's close enough.
*I got an A on my Prison Epistles test!
*I spent a lot of time this week playing with my sonic screwdriver.
*On Friday, there was like a 100% chance of tornadoes in our area.  There were tons of storm chasers here, and they were all predicting that tornadoes would hit Wilmore and the surrounding area.  NO TORNADOES!  YAY.
*I'm all packed for Haiti.
*I bought my ticket for the summer!
*I spent like a million dollars this week.  It's going to be rough raising $3500 for my internship.  Do you guys have any ideas to help?
*I love you!


Goodbye from reality (sitting in class now).


Look at for me on here: http://nwhaititrips.wordpress.com/author/nwtraveler/


=] <3
6 Comments

New Orleans, Here I Come!

3/3/2012

3 Comments

 
Hello from 4:53 in the morning! Yes, I’m a night owl, but even this is a bit extreme for a Saturday morning. However, I’m afraid I’ve just been too busy to get (enough) sleep tonight… I leave for New Orleans in 4 hours! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! =D

In case you couldn’t tell from the above, I am really excited to go on Spring Spots with the BCM. In particular, New Orleans excites me as a place to go and do service and mission work. When I was younger, I had planned to go with my church on a mission trip to New Orleans a year post-Katrina, but two weeks before the trip, they decided I was too young to go. Because of that, I’m viewing this trip as a make-up of sorts, and as I have never been to New Orleans before, I can’t wait to get there and explore what is truly a wonderful city.

Before you ask, no, Mark’s not coming on the trip. L I know- it’s sad. However, he will get to experience the awesomeness that is ASB in White Oak, TN, so we’ll both keep busy during this week. Not to mention, tonight (Friday night) we got to watch Star Wars together in a giant lecture hall with our son Corey, who is coming on Spots with me. Oh. Yeah. Sara- congrats! You have a younger brother now! And I am actually older than him (by 3 months)! XD Lol… Mark and I decided to adopt him. He’s too awesome of a freshman not to be our son.

Back on my main topic, Mark actually asked me tonight what I was looking forward to the most about New Orleans. It took me a little bit to answer him, but what I finally realized is that I’m hoping God will use this trip to give me a small taste of service and missions in a city still recovering from a natural disaster. I think this trip will end up being an important way for me to learn more about myself and how I can best serve God in my life, and I love that I have been granted this opportunity to serve others with my friends at the BCM. It’s going to be a crazy week!

Two logistic notes… First, I’m terribly sorry I forgot about last week’s blog. I was visiting home because I (obviously) will not be there over spring break and simply forgot about writing it because of family time. Second, I will be staying at Tulane University’s BCM and will not have access to the internet (nor a computer- how will I survive?!) to be able to write my blog next Saturday- my sincerest apologies! I promise I will return the following Saturday with a fabulous blog about New Orleans! =)

Until then… I leave you with a song that has been stuck in my head ever since Mark shared it with me, and I highly encourage you to check out the rest of their music if you enjoy it!

Deas Vail- “Rewind”
3 Comments

Better get under cover, Sylvester

3/2/2012

10 Comments

 
     Hello from Emerald City! (haha, Wizard of Oz Joke! What? Of course it’s funny! :P) More realistically, hello from the hallway of Minton where Amy and I are hunkering down/hanging out with some fellow students while a tornado comes to possibly kill us all. I don’t really know how bad it is. It looked really pretty outside not too long ago, but all the big sirens just went off, so we figured we may as well play it safe. From what I hear, it’s bad in some places. Some girls on my floor are watching images of trucks being blown off the road in Louisville.
*Update: The lights above the football field are swaying really bad, so we moved to the stairwell. Here’s to hoping Bowling Green’s weather bubble protects us!*
            While I await my demise, I’ll tell you a little about my week. A new set of shouting ‘preachers’ were at DUC yesterday. They weren’t the same set of guys that occasionally yell at passing students, but I did hear a lot of yelling as I passed by and the inevitable crowd of people was assembled. This time a group of guys (I heard they were the swim team?) were out sunbathing in speedos right in front of the yelling couple. See what you’re missing Rachael and Anna Beth? Lol, jk.
            This week was pretty good…except that I had to wake up at 5:30 this morning! :(
Today was my first true field observation for my Ecology class. My partner and I managed not to get lost on the hour-long trip up to the preserve. Unfortunately, I didn’t check the weather forecast. I had a jacket, but not a rain-jacket and it didn’t have a hood. I did at least have my hiking boots. It was just sprinkling rain when we arrived, so we waited for a lull then went down to the riverbed, whereupon the heavens opened up and I got soaked. We saw plenty of birds, just no Carolina Chickadees (our primary objective). The rain was on and off for the next hour as we walked around, and ultimately we didn’t really have anything to show for our trip. Hope week after next is sunnier and filled with more chickadees.
    We’ve moved on to studying bones in Anatomy, which is both more fun and, unfortunately, more work. I took some photos to help with studying:
Picture
Vertebral column + pelvis
Picture
Infant skull
Picture
This one was less for studying and more for my own amusement. Ok, basically all the photos were for my own amusement. But I did take study pictures! They're just boring and I didn't think you'd want to see them.
         Fencing was fun Tuesday night (except for the fact that Sara and Kelsey abandoned me to be the only girl!) While Daniel and Stephen were off figuring out financial stuff for our new lockers and we were supposed to be practicing free fencing, EIther Chris or Cameron (can't remember who) had the brilliant idea of ‘realistic fencing’. It was sort of like a one-touch tournament, but head and heart shots were instant kills and no one calls halt until someone ‘dies’. Winner stays up and next in line joins the new fight instantly. It was really fun…until it got a little out of hand and Daniel told us to stop…..(we didn’t damage anything I promise!)   
        *Second update: We moved back to the hallway because things seem to be calming down  and because the stairwell was way to warm and uncomfortable.*
            My ‘awesome’ pick of the week (which has basically turned into ‘what videos on YouTube did Jill find interesting this week?’) comes in two parts. Partly just because I wanted to and partly because saying that makes me feel more like John Green.

Part 1: -Epic Rap Battle: Wright Brothers vs. Mario Brothers- 
Part 2: -Dancing and Violins-

My passion for topic browsing YouTube has resurfaced this week and I may have spent too much time watching Speedpainting and So You Think You Can Dance videos, but I can save those for another week.

Love,
Jill

P.S. I think we're going to make it. But if you don't hear from Amy on Monday, go ahead and assume the tornado got us....or that we ran away to Narnia. They're equally likely.

P.P.S.  Oh, and I read this...*cough*...all of it....
http://youtuberconfessions.tumblr.com/
10 Comments

Have you seen the little piggies?

3/1/2012

7 Comments

 

Hello from a beautiful day! Hello from the kiss of the sun, making each hill and waxy leaf shine. Hello from the smell of soil and nature and the lady bugs that flock to every outdoor surface, like the quaint wooden bench on which I’m sitting. Hello from the sound of birds and the wind rustling ever so gently through the shrubbery, and this song on repeat. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jdTf-XJVP8 
Hello. It’s Thursday. It’s the first of March, and I’m wearing short sleeves. At the moment, I wish I were also wearing sunglasses. Yes, Momma, those purple clown glasses! 
The bells just rang twice, a normal occurrence, but one that makes me think. It makes me think of WKU with all those bells, although these don’t play songs or ring like Excalibur has been stolen. It’s nice to have bells ringing, even if they do ring until midnight and beyond.
A plane just flew over, another normal occurrence, seeing as we live near an air force base. The other night it literally sounded like a plane was going to fly right through the building. Fun fact: Harlaxton used to be home to a company of airmen. Apparently they did training in the woods out back, which would explain the trench I found last Thursday when I crossed the wall.
Because it’s fun, I’m going to continue to describe my surroundings. I’m sitting on a bench right outside the conservatory. I almost feel bad, because I think my writing professor wanted this bench, but I got here first. No matter, he’s sitting on a bench farther down the path, across from his friend, a rather corpulent professor, and it looks like they’re grading papers. Earlier they were laughing and talking, but now the only laughter I hear is coming from a school several miles away. Well, there’s a little bit of laughing, but mostly there’s screaming and yelling. I think it’s recess. That or football practice. If I were over in the corner of the garden, I could see them all, dressed in their matching uniforms, running around like crazy. Some of the manor kids probably go to that school.
But for me, school is out for the weekend. There are still a few classes going on this afternoon, and I can hear one of them taking place directly behind me. Like a lot of professors, Dr. McMichael has chosen to take advantage of the gorgeous day by holding class in the conservatory. 
In front of me, there’s an expanse of brilliantly green, fluffy grass that a professor is walking across with a notebook. I wonder what she’s been writing. Beyond that, a hill slopes up once, twice, three times, forming three more levels of ground covered in lush, giant shrubs. There’s a little bench at one point, surrounded on three sides with tall shrubs; it’s like a little peninsula. And off to the left, there’s some octagonal building that I don’t know how to describe. Its purpose is lost to me, but its appearance makes the landscape all the more lovely. To the right, down the rocky garden path, I see the two professors sitting opposite one another, still hard at work, and the magnificent stone staircase that emerges from the shrubbery. Down the staircase walk the spy professor’s wife and her mother who is here for a visit. The two professors rise and greet them warmly, and now they’re laughing together. “Here we are,” the mother says, relating some story about arriving from the airport. But it’s more than that; I can tell by the joy in her chuckle. Here we are. I don’t know how long she’s been here, but it’s clear that she knows the magic of the place. Here we are.

Okay, so here I am, at Harlaxton. But I’ve been to Bath, Oxford, Stonehenge, Glastonbury, and Salisbury, and I haven’t written a thing about any of that! Because I’m sure you’re all dying to know about those places, and probably sick of reading my flowery descriptions of the grounds, here we go…
Oxford: We thought about seeing the dining hall where Harry Potter was filmed. We thought about going shopping. Instead, we took a random adventure beside a canal, past some apartments, and to a PLAYGROUND! Best way to spend a day in Oxford.
Bath: This is seriously one of my favorite places I’ve visited in England so far. It’s hilly and watery and charming. There are plenty of shops, mostly independent boutiques. I ate at a great restaurant called Garfunkel’s, which had delicious pasta and a cute Italian waiter. But where was Simon? Haha, get it? No. Okay. Moving on. I didn’t find very many of those 100 decorated pigs that are supposed to be in Bath, but I did find one. My friend Lauren found three. And I found the original pig statue that they’re based on. So that should count for at least ten pigs. Honestly, I don’t think there are 100. There were at one time, but I asked a cashier at a souvenir shop, and he told me that a lot of them had been moved or sold. So…I tried, but I didn’t see the little piggies. 
Glastonbury: I visited the weird little town of Glastonbury, which is full of mystical crystals, fortune telling, and magic shops. It is also the purported resting place of the holy grail…but I didn’t find that either. I climbed the Glastonbury Tor, which, for some reason, made me feel like a hobbit. It was so pretty though!
Stonehenge: I didn’t think I could spend an hour looking at rocks (not that I didn‘t want to go, but an hour???), but it was actually a ton of fun. Abby, Heather, and I took artsy pictures--and some creeper pictures--and Stonehenge was pretty epic, even though we can’t get very close to it.
Salisbury: This was the first time I’ve eaten at a McDonalds since I left America. Aren’t you proud? We stopped in Salisbury for a quick lunch AND got to see the tallest cathedral spire in England.

In other news, I just did the Cha Cha Slide and the Cupid Shuffle randomly with Abby, Nathan, Brooke, and Hayley down in the Bistro after watching the (terrible, yet entertaining) remake of Footloose.
Also, I’m going to play the Fairy Godmother in Harlaxton Players’ children’s show! My friend Stephanie wrote the play, and we’re going to perform it for local elementary school children! I’d like to thank Amy for making me watch numerous episodes of The Nanny, since I got the role by reading the lines in a Brooklyn accent. Thank you and good night.
--Anna Beth
7 Comments
Forward>>

    Authors

    Each of us is assigned a certain day of the week to blog.
    Sunday Fundays:
    Shelbs Magee
    Munchkin Mondays:
    Mysterious Munchkin/Amy
    Taco/Question Tuesdays:
    Sara
    Creeper Wednesday:
    Rachael
    Talk Like a Brit Thursdays:
    Anna Beth
    Footface Fridays:
    Jill
    Spanish Soap Opera Saturdays:
    Amber/Sanaa/Guest

    Archives

    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012

    Categories

    All
    Amber
    Amy
    Anna Beth
    Jill
    Rachael
    Sanaa
    Sara
    Shelby

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.