Another Year Flies By...

Finally! A few days to just relax, play a few video games, catch up on some fiction reading, and just have time to myself. Yes, the end of the semester is rapidly approaching, that is something I definitely cannot deny. Every week seems to just be going by faster and faster...and whether I am ready for it or not, summer holiday is right around the corner.

One major implication of this? Everything suddenly starts to be due in classes. That's right - all of those big assignments that we were told about the first day and given plenty of time to work on, but thought, 'Oh, that's not for a long time. I don't have to hurry up about that at all.' Well, now that time is over, and I DO have to worry about those papers or presentations.

However, halfway through this week I found myself generally caught up with a lot of my work, so the past two days or so I have been able to relax just a little bit. I really missed reading fictional books all this semester, but usually when I would start to read one, I would feel guilty for not reading books for classes I knew I should be working on. But I finished all of those, so it's back to fiction for me! Books are definitely a good stress reliever - they make a nice escape for me to get away from all of the chaos that is the end of the semester, and I could not appreciate them more.

Alas, this is going to be a short-lived break. Next week, I am back to cracking down on what feels like hundreds of things, even if its only a few in reality. As summer approaches, so does my Thailand mission trip, and I need to get sponsorship letters in the mail that I have been putting off for a while (again, with the thoughts of, 'Wow, that's really far away, I'm not going to worry about that for a while'), starting on another paper, going to see WU's musical (I never miss any plays here! They're always so amazing, and since I did theatre in high school...I definitely am not going to miss a free performance right here on campus) and rushing to finish up what I need for Tekkoshocon. Yet another event that I decided to go to months ago, but felt like it was far away...and now its only one week from tomorrow.

Wow. Just typing all this makes me see how much everything really has caught up with me whether I was ready for it or not. I tend to be bad at procrastinating about...well, generally everything, and though I always do get everything done in the end (or at least the important stuff) it does make for hectic times while I am working on it. And after the ordeal is over, and I am trying to catch my breath, I promise myself that next time I will start earlier and not put it off until the last minute...and yet, that never seems to happen. Interesting, really. One would think I would learn eventually.

Aside from work, free time, and then planning for more work, I still have a rather bad cold! I thought that it would go away after two weeks, but I suppose that the strange weather Waynesburg has been experiencing is not helping...why do I always end up talking about the weather on here? I blame it on the fact that I am sitting looking out a window while I type...maybe that's it. Anyway, I'm going to tell you about it no matter what the cause, loyal reader. This week started out very cold. Then it got really nice, warm, and sunny. Suddenly, yesterday it rained all day...and today its freezing cold and foggy. All in the course of about five or six days. Those sorts of confusing extremes never help me to feel better.

Oh, something exciting did happen this week! I got to make my schedule for my fall semester here at WU, and for the first time, I had enough credits that I got first dibs on the classes, and got into everything I wanted to nice and easy. I'm pretty excited about my class line-up, but it is strange to look down and not see any political science classes. Those are usually my favorites...but I am making myself save those for my spring semester at Queens University, because there are a LOT of amazing sounding poli-sci classes there.

So! This fall, you can look forward to stories about World Religions, World Literature, Religion in America, Contemporary French Cinema, French I, and Physical Geology and Oceanography. Okay, so the last one really does not fit in the line-up that well - but everyone has to take two lab sciences here, no matter what their major is. I have been putting it off pretty severely until now, but I thought that one sounded interesting, so I'm going to try my hand at it. Science is the only general education requirement I have left here, so I am excited to get it out of the way.

You know, I don't think I've mentioned this yet, but two weeks ago I started my half-semester Tennis class! I had never played tennis before in my life, but being a fan of badminton, I was excited to try it. Thus far, I have not been disappointed. Though I am definitely not good at tennis at all, it has still been a lot of fun to play, and I feel like I am getting a bit of exercise at least once a week - or at least more than just playing video games gets me.

Ah, on that subject! Besides all of the events that WU itself sponsors both on and off campus, there are also a lot of events that are set up by the students. Tonight is just one such event that a few of my friends have set up - a video game night! Now *that* is my kind of event, so hopefully I will be able to make it. Times like that are when being a commuter can be inconvenient (it starts at 10.00 PM) but especially on weekends, I can usually make it anyway. Besides, at least one girl that has video game knowledge needs to show up so that the male population at Waynesburg does not fall into the mindset that they are the only ones good at games!

Looking at my calender, I really cannot believe that I only have five weeks left in my sophomore year. Five more weeks. And only eight weeks until I will be in Thailand. And less than a year until I am in Belfast! As you can see, I get excited ahead of time for events, even if I do not do my work very much in advance. But really, this year has gone by so quickly - like, I can't believe I started writing this blog in January. I think this is my ninth entry...? But it feels like I just started. And yet, at the same time, January really feels like a long time ago when I look at what has happened between then and now. I guess that is one of those oxymoronical (is that a word? Probably not, but I like it) moments that no one can really explain - and maybe they shouldn't be able to. I like it this way.

Until next week!

Case of the Sniffles

Well, its certainly been one long week back after spring break - probably because it is the first week back after a long break...and it doesn't help that I managed to develop a terrible cold and have been coughing all week and getting little sleep that is not helped by Nyquil or something of the like. And I am *still* sick, so if anything in this blog sounds stranger than normal...I blame it on my stuffy head.

Spring break, however, was a great time! I said I was going on a trip last time but would not reveal it until this entry, so the mystery answer is...Las Vegas! A bit random I suppose, but it was a great choice - warm weather and sunshine, and lots to do all week. We even saw the newest Cirque de Soleil show, Criss Angel's Believe, which was definitely amazing.

As promised, I have just a few of about 300 pictures taken over the course of three days or so - our hotel, the awesome Paris hotel (who doesn't like an Eiffel Tower?) and a view from the Hoover Dam. Arizona is on the left, and Nevada is on the right - and check out that bridge they are building! Absolutely amazing.





But spring break aside, Monday brought me right back into the swing of things at Waynesburg - and admittedly working harder than ever. With only about a month and a half of classes left, crunch time is definitely starting, and everyone is feeling the pressure. Research paper topics for the semester are due in most of my classes, and a few of them are already requiring papers and reminding us of pending presentations. Just looking at my school schedule for the next several weeks makes me sweat - but I just have to remind myself its *always* like this at the end of the semester, and if I have survived it before, I can survive it again! Anything to keep myself optimistic.

Meanwhile, even though its almost a year away from now, I cannot stop thinking about what my semester in Belfast is going to be like. I find myself drooling over pictures of Queens University and the courses that are offered there in International Studies - I definitely bring it up at least once a day, if not more than that! A bit closer to be looking forward to is my mission trip to Thailand (which has a new departure date of 21 May), especially now that we have our plane tickets. Those two things make nice distractions to bring my mind away from being stressed out about one too many research papers in one too many classes.

But then - I guess that is what college is all about, right? Sometimes its hard to remind myself of that, especially when I run into people from my graduating high school class that are out of technical schools at this point and moving on with their lives. Sometimes, I get the feeling that I am falling behind...but when I look towards my future, I see that these four years are going to be worth it, and that helps to keep me going. Not to mention the fact that college is seriously a lot of fun - more fun than I ever thought school could be, research papers aside.

Waynesburg has another awesome trip for a great price to the Pittsburgh Zoo this Saturday (its a really nice zoo, believe me) and though I had been planning to go, sadly this stuffy head and cough is going to be keeping me at home this weekend. All the more time to spend working on my paper about the Apostle Paul I suppose...and though I may rather be at the zoo, this is probably for the better in the long run. I'll just have to plan on jumping on the next offer that WU has.

I know it seems early and far off, but right after this I am already on my way to make my schedule for next semester! Due to some unique planning a few overloads on credits, after next semester my International Culture degree will basically be done, aside from my semester abroad. However - I still have a lot of classes to do to fill up my BMS major, as well as my Political Science minor, so I am sure I can find some things to keep me busy (not that that is hard). The biggest decision that really needs to be made today is what language to take in the fall - Spanish or French? Even with a meeting in ten minutes or so from now, I am still no closer to making that decision. I guess that is what advisers are for!

Well, I do need to be heading up one of the many, many, MANY hills on campus towards my adviser's office to get my schedule sorted, and I actually do my scheduling Monday morning - I am actually pretty excited. Picking new classes is always a good feeling...and sometimes, so is the knowledge that classes I am in this semester will finally be over! Hopefully I feel better next week and have a bit more interesting things to say - being stuck mostly laying in bed with a head cold never makes for an exciting week.

It's a Wonderful Life!

Looks like this last week was quite an exciting one! Now, where to start talking about what happened...well, I guess the chronological beginning would be as good a place as any. To you, loyal reader, that may seem like the obvious option, but to my scattered mind...well, let's just say I am relieved I even thought of that to try to create some level of normalacy and semblence to my entry.

Starting from where I left off in my last post - last Friday night was WU's annual 'Dancing with the Staff,' where any student on campus can ask any faculty or staff member to team up with them, learn a Latin dance and a freestyle dance, and compete for a trophy. I went last year as well, because I love watching ballroom dancing, but this year was even better. I had several friends in the competition I could cheer for, and cheer I did. In the end, one of the leaders from my mission trip to Argentina last year was the winner, so I was really excited (I had been cheering for her the most).

Saturday was definitely the most busy day of my extremely busy week. I went with my friends Chris, Kyle, and Kevin through Waynesburg to visit the Carnegie Museums of Natural History and Art in Pittsburgh. I had not been to the museum since I was in elementary school, so I was excited to go back and see what had changed and had been added. I was far from disappointed, because Carnegie had a HUGE display of dinosaur skeletons - and well, I love dinosaurs! Actually, my friends were pretty excited about the dinosaurs, too - after all, who doesn't love dinosaurs?!

The only disappointing thing about the museum was the fact that the Art Museum was under construction for the most part. I had really been looking forward to seeing how much art I recognized and understood, because I am on my second semester of studying art history here at Waynesburg, but I only saw two things that I recognized. However, the dinosaurs definitely made up for that disappointment (if you can't tell on your own, I am still pretty excited about the dinosaurs).

Amongst our excited squeals and flailing about in the dinosaur exhibit, we learned that Kyle had never seen Jurassic Park - which to us, was only one small step below being a sin. Thus, right after we returned to Waynesburg, we all had a great time enjoying that old classic - and Kyle did like it, so I'm glad he finally had that enlightening experience.

After that blast from the past (oh, I love cheesy puns) we went to a surprise birthday party that had been planned for my friend Nick. If you look at my last entry on here, he is the boy with red hair in the pictures of styling my hair. He definitely was surprised, and had never had a surprise party before. We definitely got him the best present of all time - a garden gnome! After all, what college student doesn't need a garden gnome to brighten up their dorm? Exactly!

When the beginning of the week rolled around, so did the beginning of 'Who's Your Neighbor?' Week, which I described in my last entry. Both Monday and Tuesday nights I attended the Christ and Culture lectures with guest speaker David Batstone, co-founder of the 'Not for Sale' campaign against human trafficking. Both nights were really eye-opening experiences that I will not quickly forget. Although I already knew the fact that there were more people enslaved today than in all the centuries of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, I never realized how much of a problem it was right here in America, not just Southeast Asia, Africa, or India. Batstone even said that there were dozens of cases right here in Pittsburgh of human trafficking!

And instead of just filling us with facts and letting us leave on a guilt trip, Batstone also described ways that we could help fight human trafficking right now. In conjunction with the newly launched website , he is working to get stores across the United States to sell chocolate that is not produced with slave labor - particularly from Western Africa where many cocoa beans are harvested. He gave all of us a 'Proof of NOT Purchase' flyer that we can take to local stores here in Waynesburg that declares that we came to buy a chocolate bar, but upon discovering there were none for sale that guaranteed no slave labor was used in its production, we did not buy any. On the back, it also has places that the store can learn about freely made chocolate, and ways to stock it themselves. I am really excited to give mine to a store - I just have not decided where yet.

Last night I had the opportunity to be a part of the Experimental Psychology class's annual psychological experiment. Every year the class conducts at least three different studies that are open to anyone on campus to sign up for - and generally get bonus points for a class. I signed up for a memory test one, and we watched clips from two seperate movies and then had to answer short answer questions about what we could remember from the clips. It was pretty cool - and only 45 minutes later I had gained bonus points for my Ministry and Literature of Paul class, which I am definitely not complaining about.

Oh! Today is a big day for me, because today my airline tickets for my next big mission trip through Waynesburg are being purchased - to Thailand! I am extremely excited about the trip, and the chance to do mission work in Asia of all places. Waynesburg has never sent a trip to Southeast Asia before, so it will be a new experience for all of us - the trip is May 23 to June 4, so if you are reading this, I could always use some prayer support even now, but especially during those days! Prayer really does go a long way.

Okay. I have been saving the biggest piece of news I have for last - yesterday I was accepted into the Irish American Scholars!!!!! That's right - next year I will be studying at Queens University in Belfast, Northern Ireland! I sadly was not able to go for the entire year as I had initially wanted because so many people applied, but I am going to go for my spring semester next year! Believe me, there will be more news to come about that as I learn more but...that definitely made this week absolutely amazing. I have been waiting rather impatiently (ie: checking my e-mail every hour and my mailbox at least three times a day) to find out what was happening, and I finally know - and the answer was a good one!

Well, next week is spring break, and I am going on quite an exciting trip - but its going to be a surprise, so you'll just have to check back in two weeks to see where I went, and check out my amazing pictures. Until then!