Why, hello!
I write to you now at the conclusion of what was probably my busiest week for schoolwork... ever. Well, actually, I've had equally crammed weeks in the past and I'm sure to have more, but it was just a little overwhelming, especially this close to the end of the semester. Oh yeah! That's right, this was the last week of classes!
That said, I apologize for the lack of adventure and intrigue in this week's entry, (I sure make a lot of apologies in these things...) but if you're still interested, read on...
Disclaimer: this entire paragraph is completely sarcastic...
So once again I refrained from interfering with weekend fun last weekend. There will be plenty of week days in my life, I figure, so I might as well make the most of my exciting weekends. Abstaining from productive activities on weekends has afforded me many wonderful opportunities since entering college. Save homework for Monday, that's my motto. And remember kids, abstinence is key.
Just joshing...
Ha, but even though I did, in fact, do work on the weekend, I still had a lot to do on Monday. And so it began.
Due for Tuesday, I had a self-evaluation report based on my speeches throughout the semester (that was fun to write...) and the final draft for that last Amish paper. So that occupied a lot of Monday. And I have a confession to make. Normally I am really diligent with editing my papers before I hand them in, but I did all of my editing on the computer this time, printed it off, stapled it, and handed it in without a thought. Well, as it turns out, somewhere along the way page 4 slipped out of the pile, causing me to unknowingly hand in 4 pages of a 5-page paper. Suffice it to say I was shocked, nervous, and a tad embarrassed when my professor told me. Thankfully, however, this story of a dumb mistake does have a happy ending. "I can still tell this is 'A' writing. Good work," was the comment next to the grade. There are good people in the world, after all...
Speaking of the Amish, we spent our last two weeks in classes discussing the Amish school shooting in Nickel Mines, Lancaster County, PA back in 2006. You might have heard about the tragedy on the news, and if you'd like to hear more from an expert... ahem.. just send me an email. Ha, but really, if you want a really interesting read about the tragedy and the ensuing (and immediate) forgiveness offered by the Amish, pick up Amish Grace. Good book, very fascinating subject, co-written by my very own professor, Dr. David Weaver-Zercher.
Well, how about I move on recounting the excitement. Wednesday morning consisted of a Spanish presentation and an Intro to Wellness final exam. Neither were really that hard, but both required a frustrating about of preparation. Lame. But they went well.
Wednesday night was a diamond in the rough. I worked for a while in the library on a project due for Friday (more on that later) and my Thursday morning Communications test, and then went to a concert committee meeting. We discussed upcoming shows, and there was even a little heated discussion concerning the pros and cons of bringing a worship concert to Messiah. Some people want to do it, other people think that is the responsibility of Student Ministries, other people think Concert Committee has a lot better resources to get a good worship concert, other people think we should use those resources to get a good artist into the school that could give the school an even better name in the community, and so on. Personally, I'd love to see a worship concert at Messiah. But we'll see.
I left the meeting early, got some work done in the Union (sort of) and then got ready for Wednesday night's B-sides. If I haven't mentioned this before, every Wednesday there is a free concert in the Student Union featuring some smaller local band on tour through the area. Sometimes the acts are nothing extraordinary, sometimes they are a little too extraordinary, and sometimes the artists are amazing! This week featured one of the latter. The band is called Farewell Flight; they're just a local band from the area, but they are actually doing really well for themselves. They've been featured in a bunch of music magazines and have a full-length album out already (which I hastily obtained). A friend of mine from the area (that I met through another friend here) came to the show with a bunch of his friends too, so I got to enjoy an awesome concert and make some new chums along the way!
Now, I bet you're on the edge of your seat dying to hear about Thursday. What will become of the ever-increasing workload? Will it culminate to such a great height, threatening to engulf poor Joshua in the rising tides of unrelenting pressure? Will he survive the crashing waves of academia as they pound upon his fragile mind? I'm sure you are begging for answers to all these questions and more, so read on, my faithful followers... 'followers' in a virtual sense, that is.
Thursday was primarily spent working on the biggest project in the history of projects. Yes, that's right, completing the task required loftier ambitions than those required for petty tasks like the Great Wall of China or the Pyramids. Basically, it was a 6-part portfolio for my Intro to Communications Seminar class. It was one of things that we (theoretically) work on throughout the semester, but ... well, some of the terribly irresponsible students in the class procrastinated to the last two days. Tsk, tsk.
I conducted two interviews, created a fully updated resume, did several self-assessment quizzes online, collected 'artifacts' from the last couple years to include, wrote conclusion and introduction sections, and, of course, wrote dozens of 1-2 page reflection papers. Ha, I'm starting to get pretty good at throwing down random 2-page personal reactions in 10 minutes flat.
I'm getting sick of talking about all this homework, but I will say that I also wrote my written COMM final on Thursday and realized during the exam that I had over-studied. What a beautiful realization.
I dropped off that portfolio on Friday afternoon and felt an immediate bounce in my step. With my renewed vigour, I walked back to my room only to be evacuated immediately due to some smoking light bulb in the basement. Oh well. It happens. Then, like a true American, I joined a game of football on a nearby field with some friends.. and a bunch of older (bigger) guys. It was really fun, but let's just say that tackle football really stresses your body in ways that swimming laps does not. I'm still sore...
A quick shower and some dinner later, we were ready for Christmas Tradition. What is this Christmas Tradition, you ask? Well, it is quite simply the big Christmas Formal dance, held at the Hershey Lodge. Yeah, it's a big deal. It was a fun night, lots of pictures and laughter and dancing and smiles and pictures and dancing and fun. Had I not been aching from head-to-toe already, I might have lasted a little longer on the dance floor...
After the dance, we did what all hungry people do at 1 AM: we went to a diner. There's nothing like breakfast in the morning -- very early morning. Saturday, for me, was spent sleeping and enjoying some well-deserved relaxation. I also dragged my worn and weary body to the arts building and ended up playing around on a piano for two hours. So that was fun.. and a very satisfying release.
I had a rockin' good time at the Swim Team Christmas party last night. After the gift exchange, I ended up with a new drag suit for practice (aka. a pair of women's underwear... hardy har har..). This morning I went to CLA with my friend Dave. He's got a car and a nice hat. What else can I say? Ha, he's a really great guy.. and I've eaten breakfast almost every day this semester. Church was pretty good. The children's choir was singing (all 300 of them), so that was a delightfully joyful little Christmas treat!
Now I'm going to study a little Spanish for my final on Wednesday. Whoever said I don't work ahead was .. wrong. I don't have any exams tomorrow (thank goodness!), but I have Psych on Tuesday and Spanish on Wednesday. Then I leave Thursday morning for the Great White North. I know it's only been three weeks since I was at home, but I just can't wait to be back and see friends I haven't seen since the summer. And then it's Christmas!
Speaking of Christmas, I don't know when I'll update this again. If it's not before Christmas, Merry Christmas to all, and to all, a Good Night!
Oodles of Toodles!
Josh
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Sunday, December 7, 2008
FaLaLaLaLa... LaLaLaLA!
Hi.
I'm sorry I haven't updated in two weeks. No, really, it's actually been bugging me a lot -- sort of a subconscious nagging to feed the starving masses the information they need. I can tell you that a lot has been going on the last two weeks, but doing so also causes a pang of guilt for leaving you in the dark. I shudder to think of all my faithful readers that have turned to other sources of college confessions in my negligence...
Anyways, I should get down to business. Here it goes:
Well, for those of you who did not know, I went home last week from Nov. 26 to Nov. 29. You might be wondering why I made no mention of such a significant event... Well, the plan was to surprise Katrina, so keeping it a secret was a natural part of that plan. And it was awesome! Haha... I'd never seen anyone so utterly speechless before! So if you want more details on that, feel free to send me a note or give me a ring or something.
So it was also Sam's 13th birthday when I got home, so it was great to be able to celebrate that with the family and help him design his new (my old) room to exact specifications. It was a very nice three-ish days at home with the family and the Katrina, and it also helped me find a simpler way home. I'm going with a friend to Buffalo and then taking a bus from there to Toronto. Much cheaper too... So, yeah. It was a very nice little break. I loved being home, but I was also very excited to go back. Perfect situation, if you ask me.
So a week ago today, I made it back to campus after another long day of travel. I had nothing due on Monday, so I figured I would take it easy over the break and save the schoolwork for school. The only problem with that plan was that I had a speech to present and an essay to hand in.. both on Tuesday. So, around 5 hours on Monday were spent in the library.. and a lot of last-minute revisions were made Tuesday morning, but it all worked out quite nicely in the end. I delivered a 13 minute persuasive speech (only 5 minutes too long...) on eugenics that went really well. It's easy to deliver a good speech, I feel, when you are talking about something you really care about... and it definitely helps when your audience is on the same page as you. The speech was basically all about designer babies and the future of human genetics, including modern genetic tests and some schocking statistics (namely, that 86% of couples that discover their infant has down syndrome choose to abort). Even though the topic is a tad frightening and admittedly depressing, it was cool to be able to simultaneously educate and persuade my class on a really serious issue.
Then there was that paper. Oh boy... this was a fun one (and I'm not being sarcastic at all). We had to compare two movies featuring the Amish for their educational and factual credibility, writing as informally as we liked. And informal is what I like. We were comparing the Harrison Ford action-thriller Witness to a much lower-budget documentary called Devil's Playground. I argued in favour of the Ford flick, and if you want a copy of the paper (before it gets published.. ahem.. ) then just let me know.
In case you were wondering, I try and jot down notes throughout the week so I can return to them later when I sit here scratching my head trying to remember what on earth I've been doing. So my notes tell me (in all CAPS) to mention DECK THE HALLS. Every year at the beginning of December, there is a campus-wide decoration competition for the best Christmas decor. The men of Witmer 3B (aka. Sparta) rose to the challenge and created A Spartan Christmas experience. We had shepherds, angels (I was one of these), a Mary, a Joseph, a baby Jesus, Spartans, narrators, etc. People entered and were led through the Christmas story with a little twist. Anyways, after a lot of work the hall looked really sweet and was full of shirtless men wearing bedsheets. We did probably 10 performances to get all the people lined up through the hall and.... WE WON THE BEST HALL FOR THE FRESHMEN MEN! Someday soon we'll get a pizza party, and it will be the happiest, merriest, most festive Christmas party ever!
The next night Messiah's SAB (Student Activities Board) hosted a Christmas party in the Student Union. We donned ugly Christmas sweaters as we decorated cookies and ornaments, took pictures with Santa, and listened to special guest Rosie Thomas (you haven't heard of her.. but she's amazing). So that was a very fun night.
As usual, just fill in all the gaps up there with lots of swimming and school stuff.
I am writing late on Sunday night at the end of an awesome weekend. So you'd like to hear about it, EH? (yes i still say "eh"). Well, Friday afternoon Austin, Isaac, Lauren, Jess, Elise and I hopped into Lauren's van and set sail for New York City! We stayed at Lauren's house about 45 minutes outside the city in New Jersey.. but really all we did there was sleep. After a brief bite, we boarded a bus bound for the big ... apple (nuts, I ran out of alliterations). Basically, it was amazing! We just wandered around, soaking in the sights and sounds like the inexperienced college kids we are. A few hundred photographs later, we made it to the "big tree" at Rockefeller Center... and continued to gawk and giggle. As expected, the city was absolutely jam-packed. But, in a sense, that almost made it more exciting just to be part of all the excitement like that. We also went ice-skating at Bryant Park, stopping at the Charmin' Restrooms along the way (a stop I would definitely recommend to any NYC tourist) ... you'll have to see for yourself.
So NYC was awesome! Man... I don't think I've ever seen so many people (and open stores) at midnight! We got on a bus back to New Jersey and, or course, felt very hungry. So we went to some renowned 24-hour diner and had pancakes and Canadian bacon (yeyeah!) at 2 in the morning. Then we slept for a long time, ate some more, and left to make it back for the Men's Ensemble dress rehearsal. Oh, and later on we watched Burn After Reading (aka. the WORST movie ever). It was a movie about nothing that made zero sense and was just really depressing. ha.. how's that for a movie critique? Then we went out to downtown Harrisburg basically because we had a car to take us there. We parked and wandered around, warmed up in hotel lobbies and bought junk food. Good fun.
Today I was basically out all day. We left for St. Lawrence Cathedral in Harrisburg right after lunch, rehearsed, waited around, performed, got back to school, ate, sat around, went to the chapel, warmed up, performed, and finished. The performances, if you're wondering, went really well! The one on campus was especially fun and now we're singing at chapel on Thursday.
Annndd then I went back to the room, changed, and 'creeked' Isaac because his birthday was on Saturday. He put up a fight, let me tell you. I guess something about the fact that it's only 15 degrees (or - 10 Celsius) outside made him a little hesitant to jump in the creek. But we got him!
And now I am sitting here writing, watching the clock creep dangerously close to midnight. The problem with midnight on a Sunday, you see, is that I must drag my weary body from my bed into the pool at 5:30 AM on Mondays.
Now, I'm sure you all just breathed a heavy sigh of sympathy, and I appreciate that. But worry not about my well-being... because I am being quite well, thank you very much. I hope you can see through my objective story-telling just how much fun I'm having. I really feel so blessed every day to be here and to be surrounded by all the people I've been getting to know. It's soo great and I'm really thankful for everyone back home who still cares about me. And I'm assuming if you are reading this that you thought about me at some point as you clicked your way to my page, so I just want to thank you for all of your support and prayers. They mean a lot and they've helped in more ways than you know.
ATTN: Mom, don't read this:
Alright, I'm gonna go adjust the time stamp so it looks like I'm not up as late as I really am... I'm so clever...
Okay, all, thanks for reading. I hope your thirst for information has been quenched. Aunt Ingrid, I'm sure you had a miserable Monday morning last week, so I'm here once again to help!
Love love love love,
Josh
P.S. Guess who's out of time to edit again!?
I'm sorry I haven't updated in two weeks. No, really, it's actually been bugging me a lot -- sort of a subconscious nagging to feed the starving masses the information they need. I can tell you that a lot has been going on the last two weeks, but doing so also causes a pang of guilt for leaving you in the dark. I shudder to think of all my faithful readers that have turned to other sources of college confessions in my negligence...
Anyways, I should get down to business. Here it goes:
Well, for those of you who did not know, I went home last week from Nov. 26 to Nov. 29. You might be wondering why I made no mention of such a significant event... Well, the plan was to surprise Katrina, so keeping it a secret was a natural part of that plan. And it was awesome! Haha... I'd never seen anyone so utterly speechless before! So if you want more details on that, feel free to send me a note or give me a ring or something.
So it was also Sam's 13th birthday when I got home, so it was great to be able to celebrate that with the family and help him design his new (my old) room to exact specifications. It was a very nice three-ish days at home with the family and the Katrina, and it also helped me find a simpler way home. I'm going with a friend to Buffalo and then taking a bus from there to Toronto. Much cheaper too... So, yeah. It was a very nice little break. I loved being home, but I was also very excited to go back. Perfect situation, if you ask me.
So a week ago today, I made it back to campus after another long day of travel. I had nothing due on Monday, so I figured I would take it easy over the break and save the schoolwork for school. The only problem with that plan was that I had a speech to present and an essay to hand in.. both on Tuesday. So, around 5 hours on Monday were spent in the library.. and a lot of last-minute revisions were made Tuesday morning, but it all worked out quite nicely in the end. I delivered a 13 minute persuasive speech (only 5 minutes too long...) on eugenics that went really well. It's easy to deliver a good speech, I feel, when you are talking about something you really care about... and it definitely helps when your audience is on the same page as you. The speech was basically all about designer babies and the future of human genetics, including modern genetic tests and some schocking statistics (namely, that 86% of couples that discover their infant has down syndrome choose to abort). Even though the topic is a tad frightening and admittedly depressing, it was cool to be able to simultaneously educate and persuade my class on a really serious issue.
Then there was that paper. Oh boy... this was a fun one (and I'm not being sarcastic at all). We had to compare two movies featuring the Amish for their educational and factual credibility, writing as informally as we liked. And informal is what I like. We were comparing the Harrison Ford action-thriller Witness to a much lower-budget documentary called Devil's Playground. I argued in favour of the Ford flick, and if you want a copy of the paper (before it gets published.. ahem.. ) then just let me know.
In case you were wondering, I try and jot down notes throughout the week so I can return to them later when I sit here scratching my head trying to remember what on earth I've been doing. So my notes tell me (in all CAPS) to mention DECK THE HALLS. Every year at the beginning of December, there is a campus-wide decoration competition for the best Christmas decor. The men of Witmer 3B (aka. Sparta) rose to the challenge and created A Spartan Christmas experience. We had shepherds, angels (I was one of these), a Mary, a Joseph, a baby Jesus, Spartans, narrators, etc. People entered and were led through the Christmas story with a little twist. Anyways, after a lot of work the hall looked really sweet and was full of shirtless men wearing bedsheets. We did probably 10 performances to get all the people lined up through the hall and.... WE WON THE BEST HALL FOR THE FRESHMEN MEN! Someday soon we'll get a pizza party, and it will be the happiest, merriest, most festive Christmas party ever!
The next night Messiah's SAB (Student Activities Board) hosted a Christmas party in the Student Union. We donned ugly Christmas sweaters as we decorated cookies and ornaments, took pictures with Santa, and listened to special guest Rosie Thomas (you haven't heard of her.. but she's amazing). So that was a very fun night.
As usual, just fill in all the gaps up there with lots of swimming and school stuff.
I am writing late on Sunday night at the end of an awesome weekend. So you'd like to hear about it, EH? (yes i still say "eh"). Well, Friday afternoon Austin, Isaac, Lauren, Jess, Elise and I hopped into Lauren's van and set sail for New York City! We stayed at Lauren's house about 45 minutes outside the city in New Jersey.. but really all we did there was sleep. After a brief bite, we boarded a bus bound for the big ... apple (nuts, I ran out of alliterations). Basically, it was amazing! We just wandered around, soaking in the sights and sounds like the inexperienced college kids we are. A few hundred photographs later, we made it to the "big tree" at Rockefeller Center... and continued to gawk and giggle. As expected, the city was absolutely jam-packed. But, in a sense, that almost made it more exciting just to be part of all the excitement like that. We also went ice-skating at Bryant Park, stopping at the Charmin' Restrooms along the way (a stop I would definitely recommend to any NYC tourist) ... you'll have to see for yourself.
So NYC was awesome! Man... I don't think I've ever seen so many people (and open stores) at midnight! We got on a bus back to New Jersey and, or course, felt very hungry. So we went to some renowned 24-hour diner and had pancakes and Canadian bacon (yeyeah!) at 2 in the morning. Then we slept for a long time, ate some more, and left to make it back for the Men's Ensemble dress rehearsal. Oh, and later on we watched Burn After Reading (aka. the WORST movie ever). It was a movie about nothing that made zero sense and was just really depressing. ha.. how's that for a movie critique? Then we went out to downtown Harrisburg basically because we had a car to take us there. We parked and wandered around, warmed up in hotel lobbies and bought junk food. Good fun.
Today I was basically out all day. We left for St. Lawrence Cathedral in Harrisburg right after lunch, rehearsed, waited around, performed, got back to school, ate, sat around, went to the chapel, warmed up, performed, and finished. The performances, if you're wondering, went really well! The one on campus was especially fun and now we're singing at chapel on Thursday.
Annndd then I went back to the room, changed, and 'creeked' Isaac because his birthday was on Saturday. He put up a fight, let me tell you. I guess something about the fact that it's only 15 degrees (or - 10 Celsius) outside made him a little hesitant to jump in the creek. But we got him!
And now I am sitting here writing, watching the clock creep dangerously close to midnight. The problem with midnight on a Sunday, you see, is that I must drag my weary body from my bed into the pool at 5:30 AM on Mondays.
Now, I'm sure you all just breathed a heavy sigh of sympathy, and I appreciate that. But worry not about my well-being... because I am being quite well, thank you very much. I hope you can see through my objective story-telling just how much fun I'm having. I really feel so blessed every day to be here and to be surrounded by all the people I've been getting to know. It's soo great and I'm really thankful for everyone back home who still cares about me. And I'm assuming if you are reading this that you thought about me at some point as you clicked your way to my page, so I just want to thank you for all of your support and prayers. They mean a lot and they've helped in more ways than you know.
ATTN: Mom, don't read this:
Alright, I'm gonna go adjust the time stamp so it looks like I'm not up as late as I really am... I'm so clever...
Okay, all, thanks for reading. I hope your thirst for information has been quenched. Aunt Ingrid, I'm sure you had a miserable Monday morning last week, so I'm here once again to help!
Love love love love,
Josh
P.S. Guess who's out of time to edit again!?
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