You Are My Sunshine

hello all,

First off, the weather today is mighty fine. About 64 degrees (er... 17 Celsius) and sunny. The leaves are rustling in the cool Autumn breeze, Fall Fest is in full swing down at the student union, and I am in my room... sort of doing homework, mostly writing in this blog. I seem to have designated Sunday afternoon as my "write to friends, call home, update blog" time. However, there is always a small sting of homesickness that accompanies such times, so I apologize in advance if any of my writing is subtly melancholic. :]

Hmmm.. one thing I would like to say is that it is very difficult to put pictures up here, so if you have a facebook and can access my profile, please feel free to browse the gallery. However, if you do not, and you would like to see some pictures, please just send me an email and I can easily send some your way. (joshboden@rogers.com)

So I went to Philadelphia for the first time on Friday! In the evening, after classes and everything, a group of friends and I hopped in my friend's car (Chris) and drove two hours to downtown Philly to see that Copeland concert I mentioned before. It. Was. Amazing. ahah I was really shocked when we got there because the venue was literally a church basement. Just a big room with about 400 people and one of the greatest bands of all time. Their performance was one of the best I've ever seen, and the opening acts were excellent as well. It was a late night, but totally worth it.

Speaking of Philly, there's this little contest called the "world .. series" or something like that. Anyways, it's kind of a big deal and I must admit that I am, for the first time in recent years, actually getting pretty excited rooting for a team. To cheer for the Rays would be suicide, so I've joined this entire state in the charge: Go Phillies!! There was a Philadelphia Eagles game on after lunch, the Pittsburg Steelers game is on right now, and then the 4th World Series game starts in a few hours. Let me just say that the sports craze around here is a little contagious.

Classes are going really well. My workload has been very manageable recently. I had a few papers due this week, but just short ones. Also a couple tests, but they all went really well. Oh and I delivered an informative speech on Thursday morning about being Canadian. Basically, I took it upon myself to disillusion my peers in Communications class on the myths surrounding Canada. Ha ha it was a blast to deliver, and the class seemed to like it a lot too. One guy said, "You should be a Communications major or something." Well, seeing as I am a Communications major, I found that pretty affirming.

I played in the last of the first-year chapels on Thursday morning, as well. Now I'm just another member of the worship community, so it might be a while before I get to play again, but that's alright. I can wait.

In the meantime, I've been trying really hard to prioritize things. I am not unbearably busy, but there are lots of things (mainly keeping in touch with people back home) that can get neglected. So I'm determined to do that and also to work harder at doing regular and in-depth devotions. I'm going to join a small group on Monday nights and try to find a time in the week to join an outreach project. There are tons going on, so the onus is on me to find something that works.

I have a swim meet on Tuesday and another one on the weekend. So those will be fun, but truth be told, I've pretty much decided that this will be my only year on the swim team. While the exercise and visible improvement is a definite bonus, I can't help but feel like there are lots of other things I could be doing with more time .. maybe things that are more signficant. BUT, I'm not sure because being on an NCAA college sports team is pretty awesome.

Last thing: I really want to see High School Musical 3 this week. .. just had to get that out.

Alright, well, I've been at this for a while. Once again, thanks for reading. Please feel free to send me mail (electronic or not). I love you all. And those of you who are praying for me, thank you soo much. I would love to hear what is new with you, so please post comments or send me emails.

Thanks for everything,
Josh