You came back! Thank you!
I really do appreciate you taking the time out of your day to peer through this window to my life. Without you, I'd just be spewing nonsense into cyberspace, blindly assuming that it will be received. So thanks for giving my keyboard-happy fingers some direction and purpose. I'll try to keep the view exciting.
Well, I write to you now at the conclusion of J-Term break. Four days ago, I watched a mass exodus of my peers departing these hallowed halls of education for home-cooked meals, a few days of rest and recuperation, and an enviable change of scenery. BUT, a part of me was actually looking forward to some solitude and rest, and in hindsight I can see why. They say time flies when you're having fun (who are "they" anyways?), so the fact that the return of the masses came way sooner than expected probably means I was having fun. In fact, a few of my stranded comrades and I were remarking that we aren't really too eager for everybody to get back.
I'm sure you're dying to discover how 4 days of virtual isolation and time to kill were spent, so I'll tell you. First off, I got to know myself a little better over this break: one, I really do love time to myself, free of distractions and noise, and two, I'm better organized than I thought I was. Within a few hours of everyone's departure, I had already made a list of things I wanted to get done, mentally mapping out how much time I would actually have to accomplish these tasks. As it turned out, I didn't really have very much free time. Thursday and Friday were pretty much the same: swimming practice from 10-12, a few free hours in the afternoon, dinner and team party/hang-outs in the evening. (In case you forgot, the reason I stayed here was for the swim meet on Saturday.)
The remainder of my time was spent talking to my lovely lady, recording/listening to music, reading a little, writing a little, studying a little Spanish. I hadn't really given much thought to the meet on Saturday until dinner on Friday, when the assistant coach's personal pep-talk got me thinking that I really could qualify for the regional meet in two weeks -- Mid Atlantic Conference (MACs). So, a slight body shave and tons of nerves later, I was ready for the meet. And wouldn't ya know it!? I made the cut! Ha! I shaved (literally) 1.5 seconds off my 50-yard freestyle time to a lean 24.1 seconds, making the qualifying time by 0.3 seconds.
So there you have it! Though I'm a long shot from winning anything at MACs, at least I can say that I was good enough to go. It will, unfortunately, extend my season another two weeks and continue to absorb lots of time and energy, but I'm actually okay with that. Work doesn't start up again for a couple more weeks, so aside from a whole new batch of classes, things will carry on as normal.
Speaking of classes, I'm pretty excited to start fresh. This might sound sort of dumb, but I almost don't even remember how I balanced work from 5 classes last semester after focusing so intently on just one for the past three weeks. But I'm sure I'll figure it out again. I'm taking:
Mon, Wed, Friday: start @ 9, end @ 12:30 (amaazing!)
- Spanish 102 (yikes!! :| )
- Intro to Philosophy (*strokes no-longer-existent beard..)
- Created and Called for Community (a mandatory Messiah course)
Tues, Thurs
- Magazine Writing (challenging but rewarding!)
- Problem Solving with Computers (get my math credit, and finally learn how to use Excel!)
So that is that. People are trickling in now, and the noise is already starting to bug me. Ha.. I feel like a grouchy old hermit; maybe I should open the door and welcome people home now. Yeah.. I'll go do that.
Oh! But before I do, I wanted to give some mention to church this morning. Two friends of mine still here for break (Andrew and Tyler) decided to drag our weary bodies out of bed for church after a foolishly late night watching Shawshank Redemption. But I'm really glad we did! We weren't sure if the church buses would be coming, seeing as the school was out of session and everything, but we figured it was worth a try. Shortly after 10, and just before we lost hope, the CLA bus pulled up. The service was excellent, as expected, and the message was one of the best I've heard there. To put it bluntly (as Pastor Wayde did not hesitate to do) the new series is all about sex -- defending virginity, sexual sins, sexual predators, etc.
At first there was plenty of awkward laughter rippling throughout the 1,000+ person congregation, but that gradually subsided as the subject matter got a little heavier. Ha but there was an elderly lady behind me who clucked her way through the service with plenty of "Oh!"s and "Ha!"s. The message, entitled In Defense of Virginity, was compelling to say the least. The service ended on a more subdued note as we were reminded of God's forgiveness around Communion and the hope that we can find even when we must live forever with the consequences of our actions.
Reasons for staying pure (emotional bondage, diseases, quality of future marriage) were coupled with powerful anecdotes like this one:
Said the girl being harassed for her virginity, "I can become like you whenever I want, but you can never become like me."
Tip of the Day: Save sex for marriage.
Anyways, thanks again for your prayers. There will be a lot of major changes in the next few days, so I really appreciate all your continued support.
Love squared,
jmb
Galatians 6: 9-10
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Sunday, January 25, 2009
back to basics.
Hello!
It's Sunday afternoon, meaning only one thing for me and my horde of faithful readers -- another addition to this building saga. Where it will end, only God knows...
It's been another good week; nothing all that remarkable happened. It went by really fast, which is always nice. Class is great. I'd love to say I've learned a lot, but it would be more accurate to say that I've just gained some fresh perspectives on certain theological topics. Enthusiastic teaching and inconclusive class discussions can only get so far before we need to put down our pens and acknowledge the ultimate inferiority of our own intellect. That's not to say, however, that theology is a useless pursuit; rather, it is just one field of study that necessitates complete humility. God is so vastly beyond all our understanding that no one could ever claim to come close to comprehension... but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try.
I'm currently (well, when I'm done this) working on our one-and-only essay for the class. It's an exegetical paper on any passage of scripture, written from the perspective of one of the theologians we covered in class. I'm writing a theological analysis of Psalms 12 with the voice of Gustavo Gutierrez (a Latin-American professor and father of 'Liberation Theology'). In other words, I'm analyzing God's promises to overcome injustice from the perspective of the poor. It really is interesting to contemplate the Gospel from the position of the world's oppressed and suffering. Try it sometime.
Work! Yes, I've worked 6.5 hours since my last post. If you recall, I was really nervous to start, and I was especially nervous before/during my first call. BUT I survived... and, actually, it went really well. I raised $65 for my fellow students! I still have to get more accustomed to our 'scripts' and all of that, but my first two days of work were surprisingly fun. Thank you so much for prayers and encouragement and all that good stuff! I'll start working a full 10-hours a week in February.
*scratches head and tries to remember other matters of significance*
Oh! Swimming is almost over. We'll have practices this week and then our final meet on Saturday. Depending on how well I do there, I might have another month of practices and meets, but I'm not planning (er...expecting) to do very well. It's been fun, but I'm looking forward to moving on.
J-Term will be over on Wednesday, which means by Wednesday night pretty much everyone around here will be gone, save a few athletes and friends from faraway. So I'll have a quiet few days until classes resume on Monday. Maybe I'll blog earlier...
Church this morning was good. We went to a different church down the road, called Country and Town Baptist, to support Elise (she was playing in the worship band). The small-town church experience is a lot different from the regular CLA mega-church service, but I liked it. The message was about the importance of church, and how, well, Christians should go to church. "If we miss church and do not 'miss' church, something is wrong."
Hmm.. well, that's pretty much been life lately. Still waking up late, still doing devos, still going to class, swimming, eating, and now working. I'm excited about the start of Spring Semester, but also a little apprehensive about my workload.
Thanks so much for ... everything!
I hope I've once again quenched your thirst for details, but if there's anything you'd like to know more about, let me know!
J.M.B.
added later:
I just realized I never said anything about what I've done between the regular chores. I wouldn't want you thinking that my life is void of fun... oh no, not at all.
Some extracurricular highlights this past week included a trip to a Salvation Army Thrift Store, movies, and waffles. The second semester has found many students scrambling for jobs or pinching pennies more than ever. Wednesdays at Sal-Val (as it's known) are 50% off most items, and it was interesting to note the number of Messiah kids browsing for vintage T-shirts and flannels.
I watched a few movies this week, the highlight being The Secret Life of Bees in the campus theater on Friday. Getting seated after the lights had dimmed caused me to miss the slightly embarrassing girl:guy ratio. Oh well, I have no shame. It was still a really intense, powerful, moving, heart-warming, movie... and I see nothing wrong with that.
After the movie, a few of us went out for late-night waffles. Nothing hits the spot like a very early morning breakfast. But don't worry, Mom, we got back and were lying snug in our beds by 10:00 pm (give or take a few).
Okay I think I'm really done now.
I'm off to the Fiction Family concert. I'm ticket-taking; it makes me feel important.
It's Sunday afternoon, meaning only one thing for me and my horde of faithful readers -- another addition to this building saga. Where it will end, only God knows...
It's been another good week; nothing all that remarkable happened. It went by really fast, which is always nice. Class is great. I'd love to say I've learned a lot, but it would be more accurate to say that I've just gained some fresh perspectives on certain theological topics. Enthusiastic teaching and inconclusive class discussions can only get so far before we need to put down our pens and acknowledge the ultimate inferiority of our own intellect. That's not to say, however, that theology is a useless pursuit; rather, it is just one field of study that necessitates complete humility. God is so vastly beyond all our understanding that no one could ever claim to come close to comprehension... but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try.
I'm currently (well, when I'm done this) working on our one-and-only essay for the class. It's an exegetical paper on any passage of scripture, written from the perspective of one of the theologians we covered in class. I'm writing a theological analysis of Psalms 12 with the voice of Gustavo Gutierrez (a Latin-American professor and father of 'Liberation Theology'). In other words, I'm analyzing God's promises to overcome injustice from the perspective of the poor. It really is interesting to contemplate the Gospel from the position of the world's oppressed and suffering. Try it sometime.
Work! Yes, I've worked 6.5 hours since my last post. If you recall, I was really nervous to start, and I was especially nervous before/during my first call. BUT I survived... and, actually, it went really well. I raised $65 for my fellow students! I still have to get more accustomed to our 'scripts' and all of that, but my first two days of work were surprisingly fun. Thank you so much for prayers and encouragement and all that good stuff! I'll start working a full 10-hours a week in February.
*scratches head and tries to remember other matters of significance*
Oh! Swimming is almost over. We'll have practices this week and then our final meet on Saturday. Depending on how well I do there, I might have another month of practices and meets, but I'm not planning (er...expecting) to do very well. It's been fun, but I'm looking forward to moving on.
J-Term will be over on Wednesday, which means by Wednesday night pretty much everyone around here will be gone, save a few athletes and friends from faraway. So I'll have a quiet few days until classes resume on Monday. Maybe I'll blog earlier...
Church this morning was good. We went to a different church down the road, called Country and Town Baptist, to support Elise (she was playing in the worship band). The small-town church experience is a lot different from the regular CLA mega-church service, but I liked it. The message was about the importance of church, and how, well, Christians should go to church. "If we miss church and do not 'miss' church, something is wrong."
Hmm.. well, that's pretty much been life lately. Still waking up late, still doing devos, still going to class, swimming, eating, and now working. I'm excited about the start of Spring Semester, but also a little apprehensive about my workload.
Thanks so much for ... everything!
I hope I've once again quenched your thirst for details, but if there's anything you'd like to know more about, let me know!
J.M.B.
added later:
I just realized I never said anything about what I've done between the regular chores. I wouldn't want you thinking that my life is void of fun... oh no, not at all.
Some extracurricular highlights this past week included a trip to a Salvation Army Thrift Store, movies, and waffles. The second semester has found many students scrambling for jobs or pinching pennies more than ever. Wednesdays at Sal-Val (as it's known) are 50% off most items, and it was interesting to note the number of Messiah kids browsing for vintage T-shirts and flannels.
I watched a few movies this week, the highlight being The Secret Life of Bees in the campus theater on Friday. Getting seated after the lights had dimmed caused me to miss the slightly embarrassing girl:guy ratio. Oh well, I have no shame. It was still a really intense, powerful, moving, heart-warming, movie... and I see nothing wrong with that.
After the movie, a few of us went out for late-night waffles. Nothing hits the spot like a very early morning breakfast. But don't worry, Mom, we got back and were lying snug in our beds by 10:00 pm (give or take a few).
Okay I think I'm really done now.
I'm off to the Fiction Family concert. I'm ticket-taking; it makes me feel important.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Another Day in the Life
Dearest beloved readership,
It's only been six days since the last entry, and I'm back with another! By now, I hope all your fears of your favourite weekly reading slipping into irregularity have been silenced. You can now put those nights of fitful sleep behind you, resting assured in the hope of a new blog every Sunday.
This week went by fast. Actually, truth be told, I don't really remember much of what happened. My class doesn't start until 1 p.m., so the days go by pretty quickly. I wake up late (around 10), do my homework for that day's class, go to lunch, sit in class for three hours, head to the pool at 4, run up to dinner at six, sit around in Lottie for a long time (to avoid the frigid cold outside), and then busy myself with a whole host of fun activities come nightfall.
Class is going really well. If you don't remember, I'm in Intro to Christian Theology. There's been a lot of homework, but it's really educational and interesting.. so it's not so bad. We had our first exam (of three) on Tuesday. I got an A, which, I'm sure, comes of no surprise. We have another test on Tuesday.
This weekend is of the long-variety, thanks to a certain Martin Luther King Jr. I was supposed to spend a day in Harrisburg tomorrow volunteering, but no one offered to take my work shift. So, unfortunately, I'll be sitting around all day (just kidding, I'll be productive) before going to my first Phonathon shift from 5:45 to 9:00. I'm done training (all five hours of it), but now I'm just nervous about remembering everything. Think of me Monday night, sitting in a swivel-chair, glued to a computer screen, trying to move a mouse with sweaty palms.
Continuing completely out of chronological order, Friday night I went out with some friends (a different group -- the 'usual crew' had all dispersed for the long-weekend) to see Defiance -- a new movie about Polish Jews during WWII. Based on a true events, the story of three Polish brothers that shelter Jews in the woods of Belarus could have been told more powerfully. It was still really good, and very informative, but it just .. missed something. I'd recommend seeing for yourself.
Here's something that is of no real relevance... to anything, really, but will give you another glimpse into the hard-knock life of a college kid:
After the movie, we faced a most terrible of circumstances: we were hungry. And if that wasn't unpleasant enough, it was almost 1 AM. Surprisingly, there are very few places to get food at one in the morning. When fast food proved to be out of the question (Eat great, even late? ... psh, whatever...) we turned, in desperation, to the only thing we could find: a gas station. Suffice it to say that a dozen powdered donuts and 3 bags of chips later, we were satisfied. Yet still I ask myself: what is this world coming to when a band of 7 hungry youth can find nothing to satiate their appetites in the wee hours of the morning?
Anyways, swimming season is wrapping up. Work is starting up. J-Term is awesome. Volunteering will start up soon (still waiting to figure out my Spring schedule, including work, before I commit). Devotions have been as consistent as my ice-cream consumption (in other words... they've been daily)... (but, then again, I haven't been eating nearly as much ice cream these days... I guess there's just no time for ice cream with all this time spent in the Word)!
In other news, the Philadelphia Eagles just lost the NFC Championship Game. Most people around here are carrying dejected expressions as everybody's favourite birds just lost their shot in the Super Bowl. I'll admit I was a tad disappointed too; enthusiasm for these things is quite contagious.
So that's life: class, homework, fun, friends, God, work (not, by any means, in that order). Thanks again for all your prayers.
If you want anything from me, just ask.
J.M.B.
It's only been six days since the last entry, and I'm back with another! By now, I hope all your fears of your favourite weekly reading slipping into irregularity have been silenced. You can now put those nights of fitful sleep behind you, resting assured in the hope of a new blog every Sunday.
This week went by fast. Actually, truth be told, I don't really remember much of what happened. My class doesn't start until 1 p.m., so the days go by pretty quickly. I wake up late (around 10), do my homework for that day's class, go to lunch, sit in class for three hours, head to the pool at 4, run up to dinner at six, sit around in Lottie for a long time (to avoid the frigid cold outside), and then busy myself with a whole host of fun activities come nightfall.
Class is going really well. If you don't remember, I'm in Intro to Christian Theology. There's been a lot of homework, but it's really educational and interesting.. so it's not so bad. We had our first exam (of three) on Tuesday. I got an A, which, I'm sure, comes of no surprise. We have another test on Tuesday.
This weekend is of the long-variety, thanks to a certain Martin Luther King Jr. I was supposed to spend a day in Harrisburg tomorrow volunteering, but no one offered to take my work shift. So, unfortunately, I'll be sitting around all day (just kidding, I'll be productive) before going to my first Phonathon shift from 5:45 to 9:00. I'm done training (all five hours of it), but now I'm just nervous about remembering everything. Think of me Monday night, sitting in a swivel-chair, glued to a computer screen, trying to move a mouse with sweaty palms.
Continuing completely out of chronological order, Friday night I went out with some friends (a different group -- the 'usual crew' had all dispersed for the long-weekend) to see Defiance -- a new movie about Polish Jews during WWII. Based on a true events, the story of three Polish brothers that shelter Jews in the woods of Belarus could have been told more powerfully. It was still really good, and very informative, but it just .. missed something. I'd recommend seeing for yourself.
Here's something that is of no real relevance... to anything, really, but will give you another glimpse into the hard-knock life of a college kid:
After the movie, we faced a most terrible of circumstances: we were hungry. And if that wasn't unpleasant enough, it was almost 1 AM. Surprisingly, there are very few places to get food at one in the morning. When fast food proved to be out of the question (Eat great, even late? ... psh, whatever...) we turned, in desperation, to the only thing we could find: a gas station. Suffice it to say that a dozen powdered donuts and 3 bags of chips later, we were satisfied. Yet still I ask myself: what is this world coming to when a band of 7 hungry youth can find nothing to satiate their appetites in the wee hours of the morning?
Anyways, swimming season is wrapping up. Work is starting up. J-Term is awesome. Volunteering will start up soon (still waiting to figure out my Spring schedule, including work, before I commit). Devotions have been as consistent as my ice-cream consumption (in other words... they've been daily)... (but, then again, I haven't been eating nearly as much ice cream these days... I guess there's just no time for ice cream with all this time spent in the Word)!
In other news, the Philadelphia Eagles just lost the NFC Championship Game. Most people around here are carrying dejected expressions as everybody's favourite birds just lost their shot in the Super Bowl. I'll admit I was a tad disappointed too; enthusiasm for these things is quite contagious.
So that's life: class, homework, fun, friends, God, work (not, by any means, in that order). Thanks again for all your prayers.
If you want anything from me, just ask.
J.M.B.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
aannd ... we're back!
Dear readers,
It’s been way too long. A new semester has brought a new schedule and new activities that seem to threaten the regularity of your most beloved blog. For this, I apologize. But I assure you that I’ll be back into the swing of things soon.
Since we last spoke (or.. I spoke, you listened), I spent two and a half wonderful weeks at home for Christmas and fun with family, friends, and a little special someone. It actually felt like a vacation. When I was younger, I’d hear Grandparents staying at our house say that they were on vacation, and I could never really fathom that spending time at 1 Dalecroft Circle could feel like a vacation. But that’s exactly what it felt like for me! No schoolwork and plenty of time to spend with the people I love most. And then there was Christmas and New Year’s! Jinkeys, it was grand!
One of the greatest things about the break, actually, was the little digital recorder that I received for Christmas. I recorded a good five or six songs over the break with a whole bunch of talented people. (If you’d like to request a copy of any of these acclaimed cover songs, just send me an email. Go for it… ask me. They might be worth something one day. ha..)
But, as a wise (and seemingly pessimistic) person once said, “all good things must end.” So I left all the joys of home behind and looked forward to all the joys of school ahead of me. … Now, before you spill your coffee or knock something over at reading such a paradoxical proclamation (“joys of school”), I just want to assure you that I do, in fact, find joy in my schooling. Yes, you may gasp, laugh in my face, or call me a liar, but I will not deny that I really do love school.
I’m currently in the midst of J-term, which is essentially an entire semester crammed into three weeks. We take one class for three hours a day over 15 days. The homework abounds and the reading is unending, but I’m taking theology and learning a lot. Classes consist of a lot of deep thinking and inconclusive discussions, but my teacher is great; he’s only 25(ish) and really enthusiastic about the material.
I’ve also started training for my Phonathon job. I have one more session later this week and then I’ll hopefully start working next week. I’m pretty nervous, though, about my first few calls as there is a lot to remember and a very high likelihood of rejection… So I’d appreciate prayers for that.
Speaking of prayers, I feel like I should dedicate at least a portion of this blog to something very exciting that’s been happening recently. Basically, I’ve really started to focus on spending more personal time with God. It’s one thing to spend your college years in a wonderful, safe, nurturing environment, but it’s quite another to try and live your faith actively. And actively is how I want to live. I’ve been more faithful with my devotions than ever thanks to a very reliable and encouraging accountability partner (thanks, kk). I went down to the Agape Center with a friend the other day and collected some ‘literature’ on serving opportunities around the community; I’m planning to fit some volunteering into my schedule for the Spring. I figure my priorities have been shamefully self-centered recently and that definitely needs to change. Which gets me thinking…
A lot of people say college is the “time that people define themselves.” I can attest first-hand that this is true – people fill their time with all sorts of things (everything from video games to dance classes) in hopes of solidifying their identities. But I’ve talked to a few people who feel really discouraged with this new college lifestyle, that it’s not as fulfilling as they’d expected. Admittedly, I felt myself sharing many of those sentiments earlier on this year. I was busy, but I was feeling sort of aimless; I’m in a perfect little bubble, surrounded by the nicest people and given the greatest opportunities, but it doesn’t feel quite right to spend all this time and energy focused solely on myself. I mean, the goal of ‘tertiary’ education might be to beef up my resume and gain lots of valuable experiences, but I don’t think that my greater purpose as a Christ-follower needs to be compromised in the meantime. On the contrary, I feel like all of my goals for college (good grades, lifelong friends, rewarding experiences, adventures abroad) need to first be rooted in a desire to seek God and see his work accomplished through me. And if I can do that and have a fulfilling, enriching, and challenging experience at college, then this mammoth investment called Messiah will be worth every penny.
So that is that.
In other news, swimming is great. Well, truth be told, I haven’t been going to any morning practices lately… but it’s just so darn early. I just barely touched out another guy at our meet on Saturday to win the 50 free. There was no one really good in the event, but it was still pretty fun to win something and to add points to the team’s score. And I got a personal best time, which is always fun.
Class is going well; we had a test today that was way easier than I expected it would be. Or maybe I was just surprised by my own razor-sharp intellect. Yeah, I’m going with the latter.
Anyways, I think I’ve pretty much summed it all up. As I said before, if you want to hear those songs I recorded (there’s one each with Mom, Emily, Sam, and Katrina), just let me know. And if you want to know anything else about anything, there’s not a lot I don’t know. Haha.. just joshin’.
Love,
josh
p.s. the mysterious aforementioned accountability partner, enigmatically dubbed “KK,” is actually Katrina Kobayashi… who is actually my girlfriend.
Monday, January 12, 2009
You Are Not Forgotten
Hello!
This is just a quick posting to say "hi" and "I'm sorry." It has almost been a month since my last posting, and even though I am back at school now, I couldn't find the time yesterday to write up a posting. I apologize. My negligence is completely unacceptable. If you are reading this, then I feel especially bad because that means you have been checking the page and seeking the usual riveting tales of adventure that characterize my life. And I have failed to deliver.
Right now, I need to run off to class and lunch and everything, but hopefully I can start on a full post tonight.
I have not forgotten you, my devoted readership. Stay tuned!
j.m.b.
This is just a quick posting to say "hi" and "I'm sorry." It has almost been a month since my last posting, and even though I am back at school now, I couldn't find the time yesterday to write up a posting. I apologize. My negligence is completely unacceptable. If you are reading this, then I feel especially bad because that means you have been checking the page and seeking the usual riveting tales of adventure that characterize my life. And I have failed to deliver.
Right now, I need to run off to class and lunch and everything, but hopefully I can start on a full post tonight.
I have not forgotten you, my devoted readership. Stay tuned!
j.m.b.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Having Fun Isn't Hard... When You've Got a Library Card
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
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 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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