Orientation Week

I've been SO BUSY being here! Sunday was a full day... Mary and I got up and went to breakfast with my family - Panera Bread has really good bagels, by the way - and then, after taking Mary back to campus, we headed to Grace Evangelical Free Church for their service. I loved the service. I mean I got in there, looked at the bulletin, and right there in the bulletin, it had all the numbers for the finances... like what last week's tithe was, and what the budget was. So, crazy concept, the church actually has a concept of what's going on! Well, that's how it appeared to me at least. Who knows. So I liked that, and I like that there's 3 pastors on staff, and, as far as I understand things, they all kinda trade off with the preaching and the administrative stuff.. I liked that. The pastor who taught yesterday was the professor of the Theology class I sat in on last October when I toured BIOLA. He's actually the reason, or his class rather, that I decided to come here. So it was really cool to hear him again. He's a great teacher.

After church, I had lunch with the family and then had to say my goodbyes... :( It was sad, but I didn't cry or anything... I had a event with my SOS (Student Orientation Services) group right after, so I didn't really have time to think about it. The SOS event was great :) We got together with three other groups and then piled into random cars (all going to the same place of course) and headed to Downtown Disney for a scavenger hunt. Such a great time :) We did some fun, random things... (see picture) like making a pyramid, and having two strangers join in, jumping in one of the disney fountains (we found an undercover security person that way... whoops!), etc. I met some more people - everyone here is so nice - including another person from Washington! Turns out he, and the other Seattlite in our group, both know some of my friends back home.. weird the connections you'll find with people! We got back and had dinner in the Cafeteria, then went straight to some orientation thing (it was kinda.. odd. Mary and I felt very awkward about the whole thing... we "joined the circle") and then had "singspiration" which is basically a worship service. After that we had hall "mixers" and met people in the dorms.. met lots of people that way. :)

Yesterday we had ANOTHER orientation meeting at 8:30 AM, then had a few hours of "free time" before the next meeting, and the next meeting... ahhh they are sooooo pointless! I'm very ready to be done with orientation meetings. Actually EVERYONE is ready to be done with orientation meetings! I think there was one part of ONE of them that I actually appreciated having them give us the information.... other than that ya could've just asked and had a 5 minute conversation with someone and found out all you need to know. Ew. But then beach day was yesterday at 3 :) My new friend Anna and I rode in the buses together - turns out she's a kindred spirit - her favorite movie is the same as mine.. BBC version of Pride and Prejudice. =D So we had a nice chat. The beach was great and BEAUTIFUL just like a vacation spot, and Anna, her roommate Hannah (yeah, the three of us have fun standing in circles together and introducing ourselves... "Anna, Hannah, Anna..") Mary, and I played in the sand, felt like little kids, and just talked and talked. I loved it. Big worship time as well - it was a good night. :)

Today - more of the same. 4 freakin hours of orientation meetings (again, mostly pointless), then lunch... now just trying to organize my thoughts and books and notebooks for THE FIRST DAY OF CLASSES TOMORROW!!! Been praying for Shanna - she heads to Austrailia TOMORROW! I'm so proud of her. Proud of Arthur too - he finally got his car! And it was the one he wanted... he looked for a long time and found a good one :) I can't wait to actually see it and drive around with him in it! :)

I just realized my birthday weekend is gonna be a long weekend, and I'm really excited about it! I'm not a big birthday celebrator (I actually don't like birthdays), but it'll be nice to maybe relax or do something fun on it. :) I don't miss Seattle as of yet... just a few people in it. I love you guys. Thanks for the emails and such! I really appreciate it! It makes my day :)