Hello from home, where I’ve been since I got back from camp Saturday, and look out guys, because I actually have stuff to talk about today: camp was so amazing! I’ve never been to camp with Living Hope before, so I wasn’t really sure to expect, but it was such a great week!
Granted, things were a little chaotic and confusing at first, but then I mostly got things figured out and could just enjoy the amazingness of everything that was going on.

For starters, I didn’t realize it before I came, but the college kids and adults who came as chaperones actually got to have their own Bible Study groups and everything! We went through Ephesians at the same pace as the campers did, and I really learned a lot, along with getting to meet a lot of cool people. Our group even got to have a team name like the
others: we as the college group were Sonic Boom. It’s getting kind of late now, so I don’t have much time to talk about all the cool things we did, like our cheer-monkey-winning team cheer and the trust fall stuff we got to do for recreation (before I came to camp I thought a trust fall was just where you fall back and someone catches you), but I’ll try and post those stories in the et cetera section in the next day or two. I do want to mention, though, that the staffer in charge of our college Bible study was literally a broken leader (Jill :). He broke his arm setting up the day before the first camp was supposed to start, so this was his first week actually doing a camp, and he got to ease in and be a little spoiled with the college kids. I think this week he has ninth and tenth graders, so good luck to him :P (and yes, I did just mention that so I
could tell Jill tease Jill about the whole broken leader thing some more :)

Anyway, aside from getting to have Bible study and other activities with other college students, I was really amazed at how God was at work during camp. Thursday night, I think, is when things really hit their peak and we really felt God’s presence. During worship, they had an altar call, and so many campers went down, brought their friends with them to pray.
Our church devotion was after that, and so many students went to the front to tell about things in their past that God was helping them to get rid of, share callings they were feeling for the next step in their lives, and pray for their peers. It was really a blessing to see all the ways that God was working in the lives of all of our kids, and that was just from our church. I mean, I’ve heard people talk about the “camp high” before when they see kids just coming back from church camp, but I don’t think you can really understand it until you’ve actually been and experienced the fellowship and closeness to God that happens when so many people get together and spend their week studying the Bible and worshipping. I just can’t stress enough how awesome this whole thing was!

I’m not really sure how to transition now to something like Question Tuesday, but it’s getting late, and I have to get this posted. Just know, though, that this isn’t over. So far I feel like I’ve been mentioning camp more than Anna Beth’s talked about Britain and Europe, and I was only gone for a week. So anyway, here are this week’s Questions!

 Rachael:
 If I were to ask a question in the comments of your last blog the night before your suppose to blog again, would you see it?
Most likely. I usually check comments again before I post, just to make sure I haven’t missed anything. If there are a lot of questions, though, or they require a lot of thought, then I
might end up postponing them to next week anyway, like I did with AB’s a couple
weeks ago.
How much money would it cost to buy the city of Winner, South Dakota?
Probably like a billion dollars. Do the vlogbrothers find a specific price? It’s been too long since I watched that video, and I’m too lazy to look it up…
Under what circumstances would you eat a blended happy meal?
Probably none but the direst. In situations like these, I find that it’s better to learn from other people’s mistakes. That way you can make your own all new mistakes instead!
Can you tell what I've been doing for the past 2 days? (Hint 970 videos are a lot to
go through...)
:P Yay for YouTube!
Does Mr.Mime creep you out?
Not really. I think he’s pretty cool!
Favorite pokemon? Both out of the original pokemon and out of the newer
versions.
Now I have to go and look through all the
pokemon…hang on…
Eevee maybe? It’s cute, and can
turn into a lot of cool different pokemon. Except that when I get one I always
wish I could have several so I could have all the different evolve forms…
What do you know of the movie adaptations
of John Green's books?
That they don’t exist yet, which makes me sad. I think John was working on a script for one of them awhile back, though, which is cool. But at this point, any movies are probably not going to be out for several years minimum. So for now we’ll just have to be satisfied
with the books. Which isn’t too bad, since I still have several to read :)
Hank or John? Why?
John! Hank is cool, and I like some of his songs, but he’s also a lot more willing and open to talk about really gross things that I just don’t want to hear about. John, on the other hand, is
hilarious and writes books. It’s also really adorable when he talks about his
wife. And if that weren’t good enough, he has a baby!!!! Babies always win!!!
Do you think that sometimes JK resembles John Green?
I’ve never really thought about it before, but I suppose I could see the resemblance.
Will you go see the Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter
movie?
Um, yeah! I read the book awhile ago, and it was really good! Which reminds me, I think Jill wanted to borrow that…
(This also goes out to Jill)
Have you read Uglies by Scott Westerfield? If not, why?
I mean, John Green is friends with him...
No. I’ve seen it in the store a lot, and I read about it once, but I couldn’t decide if it sounded like something I’d actually enjoy reading, so my indecision led to no book. Plus, when I first heard about it, I had no idea who John Green even was (my life used to be so sad… :P), so that factor did not weigh in on my mental conflict.

 Shelby:
Would you ever come to Haiti?
Well, it wouldn’t be my ideal vacation place or anything, but to go see you, I would be very excited to go to Haiti :) You know, assuming I had the money and all.
What if I got married in Haiti?
Then I sincerely hope I would be able to make it.
What would you do if God called you to be a teacher in a third world
country?
Then I’d like to think that I would
go and teach in a third world country without too much arguing. I mean, if it’s
God’s will, He’s going to get me there eventually; I just hope that I would have
the obedience to submit to Him and not be all pigheaded about it.
Do you think that He would?
It’s possible. I mean, at this
point any teaching abroad I’ve considered would be temporary, like during my
student teaching or right after I graduate, through the Fulbright program or
something like that. I’ve never really considered leaving America on a more
permanent basis, though. I’m too fond of being in a familiar place with familiar
people to think I would do well in somewhere completely different and previously
unknown to me, though if God did call me elsewhere, I know that He would have no
trouble taking my fears and inadequacies and using them to show His own strength
and power (2 Corinthians 12:9). I mean, as a small example, I came to camp last
week: a new place where everyone there I either knew a little bit or not at all.
I was excited, but also worried; my whole reason for being there was to
facilitate the camp experience for the kids and make sure they were staying safe
and everything. You guys know I’m not that great at just walking up to people I
don’t know so well and starting up a conversation. But God gave me the strength
and courage to interact with the campers and other people at camp, if not as
much as a normal person, at least more than I thought I’d be able to, so that
  hopefully I helped make it a more meaningful experience for them.  
So, back to the question, I’ve
always figured that I would teach here in America, probably Kentucky, ideally
even Bowling Green, where it’s familiar and I’m comfortable. But that’s just my
half-baked plan, and who am I to try and guess what God has in store for me? I
know it’ll be infinitely better than anything I could come up with :)
Would you rather never be able to live in
America again or never be able to leave your house
again?
I would definitely rather never be able to live
in America again. Being shut into my house for the rest of my life would be
  miserable for so many reasons, while having to live outside America, while
  scary and unfamiliar, would be full of so much promise and potential. I would
  be sad that it would be a lot more difficult to see any of my friends or
  family, but we could still keep in touch with that newfangled fancy Internet,
  and hopefully you all could come visit me on occasion. And if my only
  limitation is my banishment from my home country, think of all the other places
  I could go!
So, really, there’s no contest: live the rest of
  my life as a shut-in with limited human contact and nowhere to go, or leave the
  country and visit amazing places, hopefully getting occasional visits from the
  people I love in the place that has banished me. Now I’m curious though: is
  this a difficult question for anyone? Or would anyone actually prefer staying
  at home? I’d like to hear your opinions on this one.

Jill:
Your answer to the
seven world wonders is a complete cop out. You didn’t even try to answer it! I
demand you try again.
Augh! I don’t know places Jill! Why do you do this to me?
1.      Stonehenge
 2.      Venice canals
3.      Grand Canyon
4.      Niagara Falls
5.      Mammoth Cave
6.      Great Coral Reef
7.      Pyramids
Happy now?

Anna Beth:
Imagine that all the books in the world
  are about to be permanently destroyed (this includes digital/internet copies
  and audiobooks, no loopholes)...except for 10. These 10 books will survive for
  ages and be the only books left for generations to come. What 10 books would
  you choose to preserve?
K, the Bible for starters. Then I was going to say the 7 Harry Potter
books, but they would just take up too much room on the list… so instead the
Fault in our Stars and the first Artemis Fowl, then my next 7 are the Barnes and
Noble complete editions of: Mark Twain, Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Edgar Allen
Poe, Sherlock Holmes, Narnia, and Hitchhiker’s Guide to the
Galaxy.
Why do people like sad songs?
Sometimes
people just want to be sad. Sadness is an emotion that people feel, and there
are songs that cater to that emotion. I mean, a lot of the time a song is good
because people can relate to it, or it makes them feel something, and it’s
pretty easy to make something sad very emotive.
You meet your soul mate. However, there is a catch: Every three years, someone will break both of your soul mate's collarbones with a Crescent wrench, and there is only one way you can stop this from happening: You must swallow a pill that will make every song you hear--for the rest of your life--sound like Justin Bieber's song "Boyfriend." When you hear anything on the radio, it will sound (to your ears) like Justin Bieber. When you hear a commercial jingle on TV, it will sound like Justin Bieber; if you sing to yourself in the shower, your voice will sound like Justin Bieber(but it will only sound this way to you). Would you do it?
Would you still do it if you loved your soul mate but he didn't love you or know
what you had done for him?
Well, in this hypothetical situation I’m saying I would.
Especially after Jill explained how awful it is to have your collar bone broken,
I wouldn’t want my husband going through that! Maybe I’d learn to love Justin
Bieber :P Oh, but worship on Sundays would be so awful…
Would you rather have an assortment of awesome superpowers (telekinesis, flying, etc.) OR the ability to time travel?
An assortment of awesome superpowers. I’d
always be afraid of messing something up by my timetravelling shenanigans. So
unless I have a pro with me (coughdoctorcough), I wouldn’t want to mess with the
space-time continuum. Plus I always have trouble picking just one superpower to
want, so getting an assortment would cater to my indecisiveness quite well
:)
A boy you really like asks you on
a date. However, the Doctor comes that very night and invites you to travel with
  him in the TARDIS. He makes it clear that this is your one chance to travel in
  time and space. But--for some reason--it means you HAVE to stand the boy up
  without warning, and this may be your only shot with him. Which do you
choose?
Ahh, you’re asking me to choose between love and adventure? I guess the main problem
  here is that I don’t know the definite repercussions of my decision. I mean, I
know that it’s my only chance to travel with the Doctor, but I don’t know
whether this is the boy I could end up marrying or whether I’ll be able to
explain later and have another chance with him. There’s just so much
uncertainty!
Although, I am with the Doctor… I could ask him to do his
Time Lord magic and tell me whether losing this chance to go on the date would
totally screw up my love life forever, or if I’ll have another chance with the
boy, or if he’s not even the boy I should be going for. Because if I’ll have a
second chance, or he’s the wrong boy, then I’d definitely choose the Doctor. But
if it’s my only chance with my soul mate then I’d definitely choose the date. 
Ok, I’d probably choose the Doctor. Because everything always seems to work out with
  him. I mean, all the companions he’s had (at least of the new series that I’ve
  seen) have ended up getting their happily ever afters. So it’d probably work
  out. Right?
If you were going insane, would you
rather be seeing or hearing things that aren’t really
there?
I’d rather hear things that aren’t really there. Because then, since I won’t know
  what’s real and what’s not, I can just learn only to respond to voices that I
can actually match a face to: like, I won’t acknowledge it unless I can see the
  person or thing creating the noise. Then maybe I can hid my insanity for
  awhile, and learn to deal with it. With seeing things, though, I don’t think
  there’d really be a way to tell what’s real and what isn’t. 
 
And this week’s winner is… Shelby! I really
liked her last two questions; they got me thinking and I feel like they were
  worthwhile things to consider. So, happy Question Tuesday, sorry this blog is
  so late, but I should be getting back on schedule by next week. Talk to you
  later!

Love, 

Sara

P.S. Sorry the formatting's weird. It's late, and I'm too tired to go through and fix all of it :/

I'm confused.  Why does it seem like everyone is answering questions this week?  Well, no one asked me any questions, so here it goes.

Hello from… SUNDAY!!! MWAHAHAHAHA! So, following in the lovely footsteps of Anna Beth and Jill, as my makeup blog from last week I’ve decided to help hijack Sara’s throne over Question Tuesday by answering my own Question Tuesday *cough Saturday/Sunday* questions! Many thanks to my twin for coming up with some really awesome and difficult questions for me to answer! =)

1. At long last, someone invents "the dream VCR." This machine allows you to tape an entire evening's worth of your own dreams, which you can then watch at your leisure. However, the inventor of the dream VCR will only allow you to use this device of you agree to a strange caveat: When you watch your dreams, you must do so with your family and your closest friends in the same room. They get to watch your dreams along with you. And if you don't agree to this, you can't use the dream VCR.
Would you still do this?

Confession: When I read this question I felt this strange bout of power rush over me… So this is how Sara feels! ;)
Well, for one I would hope it’s a dream DVD player because if I’m going to record my dreams, I’d better be able to watch the recording in HD. ;)
Actually, this question is kind of intriguing because I rarely ever dream… Well, I guess I should say remember my dreams, since apparently we all do dream nightly. I typically only remember my dreams once or twice every 6 mo or so, so to have the ability to capture all of those missing dreams would be pretty neat. [Side note: I do have recurring dreams- as in, I get the exact same dream once every 3 years / 7 years (Honestly, I do! It’s like déjà vu in dreams! Take that, Inception! XD), so it may be interesting to record them too.] However, and I’m being totally honest here, my dreams tend to be kind of freaky / scary / rated at least PG-13, if not worse, and when they’re nightmares, they’re typically about the people closest to me, and even though they’re only dreams, I still wouldn’t want those I love to see them. So no. I wouldn’t record my dreams if I had to share them with my family and closest friends.

2. Imagine cats can read. Do you think the average cat would enjoy Garfield, or would cats find this cartoon to be an insulting caricature?

Hahaha! I think cats are overall pretty intelligent creatures who would enjoy reading about how Garfield runs the house and how silly Jon and Odie are, so if they were able to read Garfield, I think they’d like it!

3. Also, going along with question #1, what is the most embarrassing dream you've ever had? What is your favorite dream you've had?

Oh gosh, I’ve already revealed the rating of most of my dreams, and now I have to reveal the most embarrassing one?! Well, if I didn’t have to write it down and could just tell the girls reading this, I would- so ask me sometime if you’re really that curious. However, just so you have a vague idea & I’m kind of answering the question, it’d be like one of those trashy summer novels that are meant for beach reading with no one looking over your shoulder… Rated R. (and now I’m all embarrassed…)

To not be a cop-out, the most embarrassing dream I can note on here is actually one of my recurring dreams (every 3 years). In this dream, I’m in this really sparkly store colored in pretty pastels, and there are sale racks everywhere… especially ones with dresses. And I just spend the entire dream shopping. Yes, I have a recurring shopping dream. XD I have no defense for myself…

My favorite dream… You know, because I can hardly ever remember my dreams, I don’t actually have one. The ones I remember besides my recurring dreams are always nightmares, so they wouldn’t be my favorite. I do remember having this really awesome one where I was a spy in this foreign land somewhere in Europe in the 1800s, and all of my friends appeared in some way or another as characters completely different from themselves, so that was really cool. J Plus, I think at the end of it, we all jumped off of this huge waterfall into a giant lake at the bottom. At night. Pretty epic ending.

4. Would you accept $1,000,000 in U.S. dollars (or the equivalent in whatever currency) to leave your country and never set foot in it again?

No. There’s not an amount of money in the world that could make me leave the US permanently. I really love America and everything in it. I may leave it for a period of years, but I’d always want to come back.

5. If you knew you were going to go blind in 2 months, what would you do? What would you want to travel and see?

I think I’d want to do everything on my (non-existent except in my head) bucket list because for me, sight is such a big part of everything. I love mapping out in my head everywhere I’ve been by the scenery and buildings and landmarks, so not being able to see that would almost kill me. I should note that, if this were to happen, hopefully I will have already gotten my passport so I can go abroad. My top places to travel to currently are the west coast, Alaska, Las Vegas (yes!), Indonesia (that may be where I’d want to go first), Britain, Antarctica (just because), Germany, and Spain. Plus at some point in my life I’d like to travel the world in 80 days… I think that’s just a really awesome thing to do. I know 80 days is longer than 2 months, but maybe I could do it faster with modern transportation… ;)

6. Do you think time travel will ever be possible?...Or is it already?

I actually don’t think time travel will ever be possible. I believe that black holes do have something to do with it, but I think that if man was able to travel back in time to the beginning of creation to settle the argument of Creationism, I think it’s more likely that Jesus would return first. As wonderful as it would be to be able to see that, I kind of think that would lead to faith simply because of actually seeing it, which takes away a huge part of blind faith / “believing without seeing.” So, no. I don’t think mankind will ever be able to time travel.

7. If you could change sex for a week, would you do it?

Weirdly enough, I was actually thinking about this today! I decided that I am glad I was born as a girl because I think there’s a lot of advantages to being a girl that men don’t realize… Plus I kind of think of us as being sneakier & more clever. ;) (I think that comes from all of my Nancy Drew reading when I was little.) However, for a week… Yes. I would change my sex. I’m kind of curious as to how my view on life and normal everyday matters would change. Plus, I’ll be honest: I really do want to know what guys think about all day (even if I may regret wondering it).

8. What's the weirdest thing you've ever thought of naming your future child?

This brings me back to a conversation I had with Mark the first day we were back from winter break this past year (No, we weren’t dating at that point). He mentioned that over the break he came up with a list of names he’d consider naming his future children, and no offense, dear, but some of them were quite ridiculous! (I should note that a lot of them I did like, so I can’t knock them all.)

However, I really haven’t come up with a lot of names for any children I might have in the future. Part of that is because for the longest time, I didn’t want children, so I didn’t bother trying to name them. (My apologies if this blog is still around sometime in the future, and my future children read this!) Any names that I have come up for my future children I’m not sure would be completely relevant either- I know I’d like to adopt and am still undecided as to whether or not I want to have a child from me and my future husband, so if I adopt my children old enough, I wouldn’t name them. Anyway. I honestly think that naming my child something common- say Emily, Sarah (no offense, Sara- I’m glad your spelling is different), Jennifer, John, Bob, etc. – just feels weird to me, so I would name my child something a bit more unique (Exception: I really, really like the name Michael.) As far as weird goes, perhaps Ariana, Esther, Cena, Noelle, Ariel Beth, etc… if you can call any of those weird. Sorry there’s not really any guy names… I’ve just always figured that if I have a boy, I will name him Michael. (and I’ve just kind of always figured my first child will be a boy) *shrugs*

9. If you had to name your son Marmaduke or Huckleberry, which would you choose? (By the way, those are the actual names of 2 of Bear Grylls' sons!)

Oh gosh… Let’s go with Marmaduke. It has less of a reputation than Huckleberry does… I think. o.O Plus, I kind of like the ring of it…

10. If you could only listen to 5 songs for the rest of your life, what would they be?

First, I’d want to seriously hurt whoever took away all of the music. I’m honestly not sure what I’d do with only 5. Also, my favorite songs change every year or so. But if I had to choose… These would be my current top 5. (not in any particular order)

1. “Let Us Break Bread Together” – my favorite church hymn

2. “Baba Yetu” – Victory did an a cappella version of this, in which I had a small solo, and we recorded it in May. I can’t wait to get this back… It’s the Lord’s Prayer in Swahili, and it sounds absolutely wonderful.

3. “How He Loves” – David Crowder Band. This is one of my favorite (if not my favorite) contemporary worship songs, and I could listen to it on replay almost any day.

-- Oh gosh… This is so hard!!!! I love music so much that I feel like I’m missing some! I might come back and edit this tomorrow, but I wanted it up tonight. For the record, I’m now going to look at my master list of my favorite songs and will list the two which stand out now.--

4. “Science and Faith” –The Script. Something about this song just makes me agree with everything in it, and every time I listen to it, it just knocks me over with how true it is about love, life, and God.

5. Ok. So this is a tie between “For the First Time” by The Script (I have wonderful memories of performing this as a duet with my other twin Kelsey to audition for the Melodores this year) and “The Man Who Can’t Be Moved” by The Script (just one of those songs that just is). But if I was absolutely forced to choose… I’d probably choose “The Man Who Can’t Be Moved.” :) I just love it and everything about it.

& That wraps it up! Wow, that was a lot of fun! I’ll have to hijack this from Sara another time too… ;)

Hello from my last weekend of dorm life! EVER! Can you tell I’m happy about that? =) Actually, I’m at home this weekend, trying to prepare everything else that I need to bring down to the apartment when I move in Tuesday. It’s all quite exciting… I’ve purchased renters insurance, ordered Comcast internet, scheduled my move-in appointment, and made sure my roomies have paid their rent (2 down, 1 to go :) Now all that’s left is packing, purchasing a mattress/boxspring/frame, finishing my headboard, and paying my rent when I get there to check-in, and meeting up with my summer roommate Hanna! I’m super excited about it all!!!

On a more depressing note, this past week has been absolutely terrible, and I apologize for my lack of a real blog post last week. It’s honestly felt as if the world decided to throw the wildest, most annoying and terrible things at me, all within the span of about 5 days. Thankfully, the worst is over now, and moving in Tuesday will be my last stressful thing for a while, I hope. J

Here’s the quick run-down of everything insane, crazy, annoying, and just plain depressing that’s happened this week:

-          Last Saturday I had a major fight with my sister and a small fight with my mom. Things have since resolved, but it was still pretty hard to go through. Things are a lot better now, praise God, but some things unfortunately I don’t see changing.

-          Tuesday morning I woke up and noticed a large red bump on my arm, and I had a very itchy back. I didn’t really think about it more than “Hmmm…” until that night when I was lying in bed and became very itchy again. I then realized that I hadn’t been outside for it to be a mosquito bite and, after talking with my mom, we thought that my dorm bed likely had bed bugs. So, at about 10:15 at night, I packed all of my stuff from the dorm apartment and moved it over to another building, where I woke up my new roommate (oops, but it’s better than waking up to someone in your apartment) and had to be completely out of my old room by midnight. Yeah. So much fun. It took until about 12:30am, at which point I didn’t unpack and instead fell asleep. The episode also caused me to fall behind on my online course homework. :( Plus, I have to take all of the necessary bed bug precautions and may need to trash my nice comforter and sheets :(

-          Tuesday afternoon at work I also had to give a demo of the program I’ve been working on. While it’s completely functional, it’s WAY too slow. :( So the next three weeks I am dedicated to making it run faster! It was a big disappointment to see it run so slow, though, but I will work to the best of my ability to improve it!

-          Wednesday morning I woke up at 7am, unpacked a little, then headed over to the student clinic to be seen. Instead, they couldn’t see me at that time, and I went back later in the day. It’s since been determined it was likely a spider bite, hopefully not poisonous, but it still hasn’t gone away or decreased in size, so it’s still possible it was bed bugs. Also of note: my roommate is ignoring me. I tried being friendly the first day and worked out in the living room in case she wanted to talk, but after a minute of small talk after her work, she retreated to her bedroom. I haven’t seen or heard her since.

-          I didn’t get much sleep Wednesday night because I woke up several times with a severe pain and pressure in my right ear. I knew I irritated it Monday afternoon with my headphones, but I didn’t think it would evolve to something so painful. I went to the clinic again early Thursday morning, and the nurse said I had a giant white head taking up half of the inside of my ear. Seriously?! I didn’t even know you could get acne in your ear. That night I had to apply a hot towel, and it kind of popped, but it didn’t really go away until this morning. It’s still kind of there, so hopefully it’s going away.

-          I also found out Thursday that my ears have crazy amounts of wax in them, so after my right ear heals, I'm supposed to go back and make 2 days worth of appointments at the clinic for them to clean them. Yuck.

-          Thursday afternoon I had an interview for an IT security internship that would be for during the school year. It went fairly well, thank goodness, but the entire time I was just hoping that the pain in my ear would go away.

-          Thursday night I had to study for my final in my logic class… at 8am Friday morning. Sigh. I didn’t get to study as much as I wanted because at about 10:30pm that night I developed a major migraine- the kind that you can’t ignore. So I looked for my pain medicine, only to realize that I didn’t have it… and accidentally left it in my other dorm room. I had to choice but to finish my studying quickly (until about 1am) and go to bed, hoping it would go away by the next morning for my final. It didn’t, and I ended up taking my final with the headache, which didn’t go away until 2pm Friday.

So yeah. It’s kind of felt like the world’s been out to get me, especially when you consider during the entire week I was frantically trying to arrange a decision and order renters insurance and internet, as well as make final preparations for moving into my apartment Tuesday. Tuesday night I’ll (hopefully) be able to breathe easier. (fingers crossed!)

Despite all of the crazy mess that happened above, there were still a few good things that happened :)

-          Mark and I were able to chat Thursday night! (Yes, when I should have been studying, but I still got the studying done, and the final was fine…) We had to arrange for a special time for us to talk, since when I’m awake, he’s usually sleeping- Bangladesh is 11 hours ahead of Central time. Still, he was willing to wake up at 7am to chat with me on Facebook, despite him having a limited amount of data usage and it being 7am! (Apparently though he couldn’t sleep well that night because he kept waking up and hoping it was 7am. Isn’t he so sweet?! *blushes* ) It was absolutely wonderful to talk with him… I really miss him and am excited to see him in a few weeks, but God is doing amazing work through him in Bangladesh. =D    

-          My final went well. I’m pretty confident I’ve (for once!) gotten a high A in the class. =D

 -          I’m almost ready to move into my apartment!!!!!! =D =D =D

-          My mom was wonderful throughout my terrible week- she was always willing to listen to me on the phone and always tried to cheer me up. I love her so much! :)

-          I MADE IT THROUGH THE WEEK! Honestly, Friday night was wonderful because I essentially just went home, ordered Comcast internet and the renters insurance, and went to sleep.

I think that about covers my week. As you can tell, it’s been absolutely crazy, and the strangest things happened, but God helped me through it all. Actually, it was really wonderful for me to just step back at certain points in the madness and just thank God for the good things in my life and ask his help for the things I couldn’t control.

As for now, I am ready to collapse into sleep again, but I think I’ll go finish my new headboard for my apartment since tomorrow I’ll be busy mattress shopping. Happy Father’s Day tomorrow to all of your fathers- and mine too!

Lastly, for some reason, I’ve been drawn to a lot of music by Pink this week… As I was listening, I was surprised to realize that I actually know a lot more of her music than I thought I did- I didn’t know she’s had so many hits! Here’s one of her singles that you may not have heard… It’s pretty catchy, and it kind of captures a lot of what you think about when you like someone and even though you probably shouldn’t, you just can’t stop liking them, and you wish something would happen... all the while going absolutely crazy! XD Enjoy!

Here’s to a better week and hopes that you all had a much better week than I did! :)

Pink- “It’s All Your Fault”

although some times don't apply gut the longest one definitely does.

       Hello from another lazy Friday. I didn’t do much today other than drop off some applications. Wish me luck on finding a job.
      It’s been another week of me watching perhaps too much past television shows. The highlight of this week’s list was probably re-watching the 1st season of ‘The Mole’. It’s the best and most intelligent reality show in my opinion. You guys should watch it sometime.
             Also, I’m a huge nerd. But you all already knew that. Why did I feel the need to say it again? Oh, just because I randomly decided to stay up late (not that new of a revelation really) to watch/reread Hamlet (NOT the Mel Gibson version) and look at some analyses of the play. And I had fun doing it (the fact that David Tennant was recently in an adaptation may or may not have had something to do with it). I admit I wasn’t the biggest fan of the play before *coughblamemelgibsoncough* and honestly it’s still far from my favorite, but I did find it more interesting the second time through.  
            Speaking of being a nerd, I think I’ll share something cool and random I learned this week. I think Rachael may enjoy it since it involves shoving a cat somewhere it doesn’t want to go. Did you know if you put a Siamese cat in the refrigerator it’ll turn completely dark brown/black? As you know the extremities of these cats (tail, feet, face, ears) are dark brown/black while the rest of it is creamy or white.

          The extremities of basically all mammals are a bit colder than the rest of the body. The fur of Siamese cats is peculiar in that it’s pale when warm (as it is on the warm trunk of the body), but if the temperature goes down a few degrees it’ll start turning darker. It has to do with a heat-sensitive enzyme involved in melanin production, but my guess is I’ve already bored everyone so I’ll move on, lol.

            I’ll change from something random…..to something else random. I’ve had this rock in my room for years. It’s pretty big – about the size of two fists. I picked it up from the sinkhole down the street from my house in elementary school because we had this project where we were supposed to bring different looking rocks in to class in order to classify and learn about different rock types…or something. It was a long time ago. Anyway, when we were done with the project I took the rock home. I thought it kinda looked like a T-rex head, so I helped it along a little:

         I liked it and kept it for years. But it’s just so random and I didn’t need it. The last few years it’s just been moving from drawer to closet to the top of the book shelf to other random places because I didn’t really know what to do with it. So Tuesday I finally took it back home.

It can live happily with its rock friends now. I just want some kid to find it someday and think it’s the coolest thing ever. Is that weird?

Ok, there hasn’t been a point in any of this blog, so I’ll just move on to thievery. Continuing Anna Beth’s theme, I’m also going to take over question Tuesday (thanks for the questions AB).

If you were a superhero, would you want a sidekick? Why or why not?

I don’t think I would want a sidekick. It’s not that I’d want to be alone or anything. The groups of superheroes like the Justice League or the Avengers are pretty cool. But I don’t particularly like sidekicks. I suppose they could be helpful, but they’re also a bit of a liability. And not as cool. It’s actually a little unfair to them. If they’re out saving people, why would they want to be demoted to ‘sidekick’ instead of trying to be a superhero themselves? 

Why do things that are bad for you taste better?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcZHc44Y6DY&feature=plcp

Would you rather have an unlimited supply of bread and books, or an unlimited supply of money but you couldn't spend it on bread or books?

Does the second option mean I can still have bread and books but that I just can’t use my unlimited money to buy them? If that’s the case, then I would definitely pick the second option. If not, I guess the first option.

Of all the places you applied for a summer job, which are you most hoping will hire you (aside from the hospital--actually paid ones, I mean)?

Great Harvest

What's the most recent dream you remember having?

Um, I haven’t remembered many of my dreams recently. The most recent I can remember anything about involved me shattering the screen of my phone, but I don’t remember any other part of the dream though I know there was more to it. The only reason I remember that is because I woke up thinking it had actually happened. Sorry this isn’t very thrilling of an answer.

Would you be willing to murder an innocent person if it would 'somehow' end all hunger in the world?

No.

Would you be willing to give up half of what you now own (randomly selected) for a pill that would permanently change you so that one hour of sleep each day would fully refresh you?

No. I think I’m already used to functioning on the occasional lack of sleep. And just because I’m awake doesn’t mean I’d be more productive. Having the pill would be nice, but not knowing what of my stuff I’d be trading for it doesn’t seem worth it.

If you could have free, unlimited service for five years from an extremely good cook, chauffeur, or masseuse, which would you choose?

Masseuse! I suppose it’d be nice to not have to pay for my meals, but massages feels so good! And I can drive myself.

Would you accept $1,000,000 in U.S. dollars (or the equivalent in whatever currency) to leave your country and never set foot in it again?

Hmmmm….This is the hardest question I think. I like living in the US. It’s quite hard to think of actually living, not just visiting, another country. But it would be nice to have that money to both travel everywhere I’ve wanted to go and then hopefully have some left over to set myself up in another country. But it’d be harder to see you all and other people that are still living in the US. So, I guess my answer is no. (but perhaps if the amount of money was significantly raised?...)

And that’s the end of questions for me.

Now I have a mini-project (sort of) for you all! Judge a book by its cover literally (or google stuff about the plot or whatever). Help me decide what I should read next. You can pick from the pictures below, some of which are books I’ve had for years but never got around to actually reading. Or if you have a better suggestion go ahead and tell me that instead.

     Oh and Rachael: No I haven’t read Uglies.  Sounds interesting though. Maybe I'll read that next.

Love,
Jill

Hello from---SURPRISE! IT'S A VLOG!!! Special thanks to Jill for all her help, and for being in Bowling Green with me while the rest of you are gone. lol.

Hello from the land between finals--two down and two to go! Can you believe I have a final on a Saturday?
I would like to say that I've been studying my butt off this past week, but I can't. No, this study week was mostly a messing-around-on-the-internet kind of week. I don't feel any more prepared for my finals after this study week than before it. I may actually feel LESS prepared because I had a week to forget what we covered. Have I mentioned how weird the education/grading system over here is really weird to me? It's almost impossible to get an A over here--by an 'A' I mean a 90% or above. The grading is all based on the bell curve, and that somehow means that a 65% could be a 'B' on one assignment, but a or a 'C' on another...I still don't understand it, so I've decided to ignore it and simply hope I pass my classes. (My confusion increased when my RA attempted to explain how my Physics class's grades worked--as long as I get a 50% on the final, I pass the class, and if I do poorly, they add my midterm points to my final, but the final is now worth 60% instead of 50%--or something....)
As you guys might have guessed from my post on Sara's wall, I have once again started watching the vlogbrothers. I am now through the first year of videos--yay!
After my finals are done, I'm going on a trip to Hobbiton. Too bad it's about 5 hours away by bus--do you guys have any book recommendations?
Kind of along the same lines, but not really, do you guys have any questions you would like to ask Ian McKellen? He had an open question segment during his show...so far I only have "How do you get into character?"
12 more days until I leave New Zealand...I wonder how fast it's going to go?
Back to studying Physics....maybe
Rachael

      Hello from camp! Well, sort of. I’m writing this on Sunday, at which point I’m still at home in my room. But if you’re reading this, then it’s at least Tuesday, and some nice friend of ours has posted this for me because I don’t have a computer. I don’t have too much to say about the past week. I worked, and I hung out with Jill and Anna Beth, and I stayed at home and wasted time online. One of the fun things I did with Jill and AB was go on a bike ride, though I sort of ruined it. We rode from Jill’s house to Living Hope so I could pick up a form for camp, and on the way back I pretty much died, so we ended up going back to Jill’s house to watch YouTube instead of continuing our biking adventures. Sorry about that, guys… Anyway, after that we ended up making tacos and green beans, so it was still a really fun day. And now I’m leaving for camp tomorrow! (tomorrow as in Monday, I mean, not Wednesday. Not that you couldn’t figure that out for yourself) I’m pretty excited, though I also have pretty much no idea what I’m supposed to be doing there, so hopefully I’ll have a lot to blog about when I get back! So for now let’s move on to Question Tuesday! Since I’m writing this on Sunday, any questions asked since then will have to be addressed next week. But here’s what’s already been asked:

Jill:

What was your favorite scene from Single Father/what did you like most about the show? Are you glad I told you to watch it?

Well, my favorite thing about Single Father has to be the fact that it had Scottish people/accents. Especially David Tennant. Really, though, my favorite part was when Dave went after Sarah at the very end. Everything worked out and was all happy, so that was good :) I must say, the first two episodes I was not very happy to have taken your advice and started the series, but all’s well that ends well, you know :P

What did you get in trouble for the most when you were younger?

Well, at home I got in trouble a lot for fighting with my siblings. At school, I generally tried to follow the rules, but when I did get in trouble, it was pretty much for talking.

If you pick out your own seven wonders of the world, what would they be?

I don’t know. I haven’t been enough places to see that many wonders. I can’t even name the existing seven wonders…

If you could do something dangerous just once with no risk what would you do?

Poke Shelby :D

If you could only keep one picture of any event from your past (all other pictures of your entire life have been destroyed) what kind of picture would it be? Who/what would be in it? (this picture doesn’t actually have to exist. You can imagine that there was a robotic unobtrusive photographer following you around whenever you wanted it. Or you can choose one that does already exist).

The first thing that comes to mind is just a picture of me right after I was born, with my parents and grandparents all in it. Because babies are cute, and it’s funny to think how different they all looked 20 years ago (crazy that someone could change so much in just 20 years, right? :P )

Have you ever thrown away an item you wish you’d saved? What was it?

I’m sure I have, I just can’t think of any examples right now.

Would you write a reference for a friend who you feel is poorly qualified?

I’d like to think not, but I’d probably have a really hard time saying no…

Imagine you can talk to an alien in another galaxy via radio only. How would you describe left and right? Also how can you describe laughter?

Well, it probably wouldn’t matter what I said. Being able to talk to an alien isn’t going to mean much if, as is most likely, it doesn’t understand the language I’m speaking. Assuming said alien and I could find common linguistic ground, however, it would still probably be impossible to describe left and right (by which I mean to designate which is which) without a visual or something, seeing as I have no idea what the alien’s surroundings are like and thus no way of giving a reference point as to each side. I mean, if I knew the alien had the same anatomy as me, I could say that the left hand is on the side of the body where your heart is, and the right side is the other side, but I highly doubt that the alien would be that much like a human. Laughter, in contrast, I could describe by just… laughing. It is radio, after all. The alien may not be able to see me, but it can hear me.

If you were really a robot, would you want to know?

Yeah! If I knew I could test out all the robotic abilities I never knew I had!

… wait, is there something you’re not telling me? :P

Would you rather be a flower or a tree and why?

A tree. They’re less likely to be trampled and they live longer. Plus I just like trees better anyway. They’re good for climbing and looking at, whereas flowers are only sometimes pretty and almost never smell good (to me, at least).

Do you think you’re good at thinking outside the box?

Not especially. I never get those puzzle things (e.g. the 9 dots arranged in a square that you have to draw four lines through all of them, or the IX that you have to turn into 6 with a single pen stroke) until after they’re explained to me.

You’re driving along on a wild, stormy night. It’s raining heavily when suddenly you pass by a bus stop where you see three people waiting. They are: an old lady who looks as if she is about to die, an old friend who once save your life, and your soul mate. Your car can only hold two people (1 driver, 1 passenger). Who, if anyone would you give a ride to?

Well, if I stopped at all (which would be unlikely, seeing as visibility would be significantly reduced from the storm, and I’m not in the habit of just stopping in the middle of the road in the first place), I’d probably give a ride to my friend, seeing as that’s the only person there whom I actually know. I do want more details on the old lady, though. In what way does she appear to be dying? Is she actually dying? Does she need to get to the hospital immediately? Is it the storm that’s making her seem to be dying? If so, I’d assume that the friend and soul mate would already have called an ambulance and it would be no good for me to take her in my car, though I may need to wait with them until the ambulance arrived.

Anna Beth:

If you ever had a boat, could I name it for you, since you show no interest in naming it yourself?

Sure. Though I do get veto power in this hypothetical situation.

Do you avoid naming inanimate objects because you’re too indecisive to choose names?

That probably has a lot to do with it. :)

Rachael:

If you could rule a country as Queen, which country would it be?

Britain. Cause then I’d have a cool accent :) I also can’t think of any other monarchies at the moment…

If you could be a mythical creature, what would it be?

Either a hobbit, so I could marry Pippin, or a mermaid, because they’re cool. The nice, friendly, pretty kind, I mean, not the creepy, scary, siren ones.

Out of all the animals or creatures in any book or movie, which one would you want as a pet?

Well, the nerdfighter in me would want a puppy sized elephant from the second Journey to the Center of the Earth movie.

After looking through my copy of Fantastic Beasts and Where to find them, however, I’d really like to have a puffskein. They sound so adorable!!!

What would you name it?

I would name my puffskein Puffy or Fluffy or something. Cause I’m creative like that.

Why don’t you like naming objects? Didn’t you name your car?

Because there doesn’t seem to be any point in it. Plus, like Anna Beth pointed out, I’m too indecisive to come up with anything good. And my mom’s the one who named Betsy, not me.

So that’s all the Questions I have thus far received! This week’s winner is Rachael, cause she asked me fun questions and stuff. Bye now!

Love,
Sara

This is what my mosquito bites look like.

this is the umbrella that I saw at the night market in Taichung.

this is the piggy-bunny that I REALLY WANTED!!! but didn't get in taipei.

this is the chick that I WANTED TOO but didn't get.

this is what I wanted to bring Jill but couldn't.

these were giant fishys that I saw and wanted to keep. They were the length of my arm

This is were I end this post before internet stops working again and my new hair cut.