Tuesday again

I'm procrastinating right now. I should be writing a paper, and I should be doing Spanish vocabulary, and I should be reading chapter 9 of my book for my LAS (I read it last night but I was sleep-deprived to the point of silliness at the time and don't remember what I read) but I need a break and Mom and Dad have been after me to tell them things about how college is going, so here I am, blogging.

Well, I suppose I should talk about my weekend at the Y-camp in Boone. It was relaxing and soothing, for sure. We had a fireplace and a fire, and cushions so we could lay on the floor in front of the fire, feeling it warm us. That in particular was so relaxing. We had LOTS of food. I pigged out a little bit. Sun Chips, fruit snacks... Yum!

We had worship and talk time, a lot of both. We sang Prince of Peace so many times that I think I have it memorized now, both the male and female parts. I enjoyed singing with the people who were there. There were 20 of us, 14 girls and 6 guys. We did a lot of talking about ourselves, and about God, and how things were in our lives. It felt good to talk. We played a game called the Un-Game, which basically was a question and answer game, and it helped us talk about things. I learned that approximately half of the people who were there have divorced parents. That's not something that people just tell you. It was eye-opening and made the statistic that about half of all marriages now end in divorce so much more real. It's just a number until you connect people to it.

It was so wonderful to be in nature, hearing the wind rustle through the trees, seeing the colors of fall, watching the peaceful river rippled by fish, breathing the clean air. Even hearing and seeing a train go by was peaceful in its own way. The experience made me miss Aldersgate... On Saturday morning I discovered a beautiful outdoor chapel, high up the hill, 147 steps up. My legs hurt when I finally made it to the top, but it was beautiful and serene. Buxton Park, here outside my window, is "natural" too, but it's too groomed and doesn't have any water to stare into, so it's not as peaceful.

I learned a lot about the other RLC people this weekend and I liked the chance to get off-campus. I got to watch one of the guys be silly and climb up the fireplace, and I got to watch people make a beat band (they all had their own "instruments" and made a song out of it). We got to play a game where we had to think of and sing as many songs as possible that fit a theme. For example, "sky" yielded "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds", and "Singin' in the Rain". That was pretty fun, especially when the song theme was "Songs that have a dance, and you have to do the dance, too". :D

We ate at Hickory Park in Ames on the way back to campus. Needless to say, the food was delicious BBQ and ice cream (they serve Blue Bunny, woohoo!). Sunday afternoon around 1:30, we were back on campus and I was procrastinating on my paper that is due Wednesday. I spent much of the afternoon "catching up" and hanging out with my girlfriends. Roomie had her boyfriend here (apparently all weekend??) and so I didn't want to be in my room to work on my homework. Not because they were doing anything, it's just that they were distracting.

Monday I was tired, and I went to classes. In LAS we discussed the nature of God because we are starting to get into our large arguments of the semester: "How does the idea of God square with all the evil in the world?" and "Does the existence of the world mean that there is a God?" It's basically a creationism/intelligent design argument. It woke me up to listen and contribute to the argument.

Psych was about learning and conditioning. Thanks Mom for the advice that a child should be in time-out for about a minute for each year of age- it made me sound smart in class! :) The professor showed us videos that I saw in my high school Psych class, but they had cute kitties, so it was okay. Haha. :)

Spanish was fun. We got to teach the TA/Fulbright Scholar from Argentina about America's educational system, and she was surprised by some of it, particularly the length of the school day. Apparently, in Argentina, the students are in school for longer periods of time than American students are.

English was funny because there was a spider on the wall, and I made the 'mistake' of pointing it out to my girlfriend who hates spiders (she was sitting next to me) and the look on her face... Absolutely priceless. She watched that spider all through the lecture and note-taking. I thought it was hilarious, because said spider was about the size of a regular fly and it was on the opposite wall from where we were sitting.

I ate lunch at the Grill Express, which was pretty decent- tacos. I had a nap, because I was sleep deprived. I tried to work on my brain-breaking paper. And then, I went to Spanish table. Oh was that entertaining! The TA from Argentina is the leader of it. We were talking about how it has gotten cold here, and she said she went to Jordan Creek Mall this weekend for clothes, but the sales weren't for cold-weather clothes yet. She asked "When are the sales?" and we told her about Black Friday. She was appalled and amazed. It was funny. Her: "I don't want to get killed!" Us: "Just don't go at 4 AM when they open, you'll be fine." Her: "Are you sure?" Us: "Yep! You'll be fine."

I came back to my room to work on my brain-breaking paper and ended up having a mini-breakdown. Don't worry, I'm fine. I was just so tired of writing and sleep-deprived I ended up being EXTREMELY silly. I said stupid stuff, like this exchange between me and one of my girlfriends.
Me: "I have two shoes to throw at you. That's a lot."
Her: "Two is not a lot."
Me: "Well, there are four more shoes here. That's... SIX! I can do BASIC MATH!"
Her: "Your basic math skills cannot help you now!"
Me: "Really?"
Her: "Really."
Me: "Aww man... Ooh! I can spell too!"
Her: "Spell... antidisestablishmentarianism."
Me: "a-n-t-i-d-i-s-e-s-t-a-b-l-i... (a pause to think) m-n-o-p! *hysterical laughter*"
Her: *shakes head*

And then I cried because my flash drive appeared to be extremely RUINED because I picked up my computer and accidentally folded the flash drive against me. I realized it looked broken and wham! instant tears. Hysterical laughter to instant tears. I was NOT in a properly rested state despite having had a nap. My girlfriends forced me to go to bed and I feel much better today.


Today I went to the doctor for yet another check-up on my ear, and he said it was much improved" and I am wearing my hearing aid again. Yay for being able to hear again!

I am going to go check out the CASA presentation on Argentina given by the TA and a buddy of hers. Should be interesting and I am looking forward to it- tonight at 6.

I am also going to check out a Hindu temple in a couple weeks with InterFaith. That too should be interesting.

There are a lot of really cool Forum events coming up- more about them later.

As for my brain-breaking paper, I HAVE to finish it tonight or I'm going to be doomed. What would you write when given these questions? "What facts are most certain and why? Is there anything more certain than facts?" OW MY BRAIN HURTS. It doesn't help that I don't see a point to this assignment, either. Facts are facts are facts... Update: Paper is finished, and coherent. Woo!

All in all, a very good weekend, and an odd week so far.