Quick Comments

I'm typing this quickly, becasuse I'm going home soon. Thank you God for the weekend!

This week went by really fast. In fact, it feels like it hasn't even started yet! In comparison, it does feel like I've been at NWC for months!

Yesterday Shantry and I went for a walk in downtown OC. It was a really nice day (think room temperature outside) so we walked past the library (Shantry works there and wanted to see how long it would take to walk there) and than we played in the park. Who says that the playground is just for children? Unfortunatly there are no pictures, because it was a spur of the moment decision to take that walk.

I had my first memorized speech for Public Speeking today. It was awful. I "memorized" an excerpt from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. After the first sentence I started shaking, and forgot where I was, so I had to ask Professer Barker to tell me where I was. The rest I kept forgetting too, so I paraphrased a lot, but he only caught me doing it twice! That being said, I only lost 2 points for paraphrasing and 5 points for the "obvious loss of memory," which left me with 93/100! I was dreading this class all day, and actually spent the hour before in the park next to Hospers going over it out loud, but I guess it didn't turn out too bad...

Slime Fights and D-Groups

Friday was the beginning of the Clash of the Classes. The activity for the day was the Slime Fight, which, according to Heidi, is the best part of the entire school year. Basically, it was every class against each other, all fighting for the privilege to fill a water trough full of slime using only small plastic cups and childrens' sand pails with holes punched in the bottom. (whew... that was a long sentence...) It was extremely messy. One time after dumping the slime from my cups into the tank I turned around and found myself facing to guys running right at me with a bucket dripping between them. I couldn't get out of their way, and they couldn't get out of mine, so I ducked down and let them go over me. This of course led to the slime coming out of the bottom of the bucket to cover my head. It was fun though... I was actually envious of the students inside the troughs where we had to transfer the slime from. There were three troughs in the center of the field, and each had a member from each class inside it. They were the only ones who could fill up the cups/buckets, so their always was a line to get slime. Funny moments occurred when people would wipe out because much slime got on the grass making it very slick. All in all it was very fun... Even though the freshmen only got second place...

D-groups (discipleship groups) started last night. D-groups are the bible study groups accross campus every tuesday night, with each hall having their own leaders. It was pretty fun. We had a 'get to know eachother' activity that was very enjoyable (if you were stranded on a desert island and could have only three things, what would they be?). I think I'm going to have fun with this.

New Room

Well, its not exactly a new room, but Shantry and I finally moved the furniture to where we wanted it. The top picture is my area (bed on top of the book shelves which are on top of the dresser and desk) and the bottom area is Shantry's stuff. We moved it all ourselves, and it only took us about 15 minutes. Which, incidently, is about the same amount of time it took for me to remake my bed...

Is There a BAT in Here?!

Last night we had the All Hall Meeting and Fire Safety Talk. This means everyone from all 9 halls showed up in the gym to listen to all of the rules of dorm life. Because the actuall information was boring, the RA's tried to make it interesting. Some ways they did this was to have 3 RA's write a Hall Anthem and sing it to the tune of O Canada. Than all the RA's rapped all the rules.

Than Lisa (our RD) went through some other rules and than she started reading us a divotional: "...and carrying the yoke of service is there a BAT in here?!" Somehow a bat got into the gym and spent half of the hour meeting flying over our heads.

Apparently Lisa is very into dress up days. No, you don't leave those behind in High School. In about a week, we are having an all hall picknic. The theme: pirates!

Happy (Late) Birthday

Yesterday was James Marster's birthday. Because of the internet problems I was unable to post my best wishes. So anyway, Happy Late Birthday!!!

O-Serve and the Evil Internet

Yesterday we had O-Serve, which was a volunteer service project. Shantry and I signed up for picking up trash on some city park path. For half of the time it was almost like being in Wisconsin again (trees on both sides of the path)! For the rest of the time we looked at corn fields (we were on the edge of town). It was kind of fun. We had too many people walking down the path looking for trash, so I didn't have to pick up a lot of stuff. I met another girl from Whitewater (between Eau Claire and La Crosse). I aslo talked to a Laura from Blue Earth (about an hour from Worthington), which was exciting because I actually know where that is. The two of us actually left before everyone else. They were just standing around looking confused, and we got bored and took off. It was ok though, I talked to Shantry after she got back 45 minutes later, and she said they didn't do anything else after that.

The internet here is not the greatest. Yesterday I tried to get on but it wouldn't let me. About 2 hours later, I tried to get on and it let me for about an hour. Than it didn't work the rest of the night. I thought it might have just been my connection, but Shantry's worked/didn't work at the same time mine didn't. Grr.

Shantry

My roommate Shantry.

Roomate, Internet, and Rain

Well, I am officially a resident of Fern Hall. For those of you who don't know Northwestern's campus very well, thats the dorm attached to the Caf. And for those of you who don't speak Northwestian, the 'Caf' is the cafeteria. People here do not like to waste time, so they abreviate everything! Examples: VPH, RSC, TAC, Caf, etc... By the way, if anyone knows what TAC stands for please tell me. I have a class there and I'm clueless.

My roomate's name is Shantry. She and I are very much alike. We're both the quiet, introverted type, and we are both the messily organized. So far the only complaint I have is that she is a night person while I am a morning person. Oh, and she got the bottom bunk before I could claim it. I think we will get along pretty well.

Internet. At home you think nothing of opening up your internet, here the connection is confusing. EVERY SINGLE TIME you want to log on you have to type in your NWC username and password AS WELL AS their anti-virus carrier's username/password. It took me multiple attempts by myself and a trip to visit the computer geeks before I was able to get online. Grr...

Last night, all freshmen participated in what was called the 'Ultimate Game.' Basicly we broke up into groups and each got a different clue. We had to figure out that clue, and go to where it sent us. For example, one of the clues was a sudoku puzzle (I did pretty much all of it) with boxes highligted. Those numbers made up a phone number that we had to call. That person (one of the people in charge of the game) gave us the next building to go to. It was pretty fun for the first few buildings, but than it started pouring. We all got soaked. And than there was the fact that our group ran everywhere. And one clue sent us all the way across campus. And the next one sent us back to the other side... We ran back and forth for 40 minutes. And than we were told that 4 groups had already finished before us. On the plus side there was this really big boom from a lightning strike that shook the whole building.

On Traversing The Big Siouxer

Saturday was the first time in two years that I have gone canoeing here in Iowa. Unless you count last year, but I don't because when we got to the river we found out that New Life stole our canoes for an event they were having. Side note: Mike did decide to wade in the river and ended up getting stuck in the 'mud' so Randi went in to try to get him out. She succeeded, but ended up getting stuck herself. We had to use Euge's tow rope to pull her out. Unfortunately there were no pictures; water and electronics do not mix.

Saturday was perfect weather for canoeing. It was over ninety degrees, and the water was the perfect depth (probably about 5 ft deep on average). Like the last time I actually went canoeing, Mitch was in the front of my canoe. Unlike last time we didn't capsize and almost die. It was fun though; we splashed Randi and Cal, didn't really interact with my dad, Heidi, and Mike, and avoided James, Gene, and Dillon like the plague. Also (for the first time EVER) Sarah and Rebecca were not 3 miles ahead of the rest of us the entire trip, but actually stayed in the back with Mitch and I.

I am also happy to report that while steering, my canoe did not get stuck on any sandbar or log. We did scrape a log that was underwater, but I blame my lookout man for that. You need glasses Mitch.

The Japanese Bell Choir at the Sioux Center Mall.