It's October Already?

I really thought I would be better at updating this blog, but I guess I'm not that great about it. I really need to just set aside some time every week to write out what's been going on. I'll work on that.

Next week is Fall Break! I'm so incredibly excited that I've already been in vacation mode since the beginning of this week. It's been hard to get the motivation to do my work, and even more so to actually go to class!

Last time I updated, it was before my birthday. Thanks to all for the cards and love on Facebook. It was a truly great day filled with laughter, memories, and friends. Of course, I cried, just because the girls gave me a great day that I'll remember for the rest of my life. Here's a quick synopsis of my day (from another diary):

My birthday was a blast! I woke up to a wall of toilet paper and balloons spilling into my room from the doorway. Some very michevious hallmates got up extra early (and I'm a fairly early riser, too!) to put that all together. I was so surprised and it was a great time as they laughed their heads off watching me trying to figure out how in the WORLD I was going to get OUT of my room.

Then some friends surprised me with lunch at Olive Garden (YUM!), where a friend of mine wore her "pirate teeth". I wasn't sure how our waiter was going to take it. He definitely looked at her, and then his mouth fell open in horror before it settled in his mind that it was fake. Oh, the hilarity. He then proceeded to ask several other waiters to talk to her just to freak them out. It worked.

After that, my roommate and another friend had me jump in their car and drove me to a surprise location: Adventure Times (or something like that) where I've been dying to go to since arriving here. There we played mini-golf, hit the batting cages (no pun intended), drove in the go-cart race, played some arcade games, and played laser tag. It was SO FUN!! Yeah, I know I'm a dork - but I love to have fun and be silly on my day!

We made it back "home" around 5ish, where a group of friends from church treated me to dinner at Chili's. It was a good time, since it helped me to become better friends with some of the people at church. Then I was invited to an apartment to watch a college football game. Apparently, here in the south, college football is a HUGE DEAL. It's more popular than the NFL (weird!!). So, that was good, too, since there were a lot of people I didn't know. They had cake and ice cream for me, and it was a lot of fun.

Sunday I had to spend recovering, since all the "partying" wore me out! Haha. So, I'm incredibly thankful for all the good times and good memories - and even some good new friends!

Since then, it's been classes, classes, classes. And lots of reading. I've also joined a group on campus who is trying to plan a mentoring program, with seminary students being the mentors and college students being the mentees. It's been a lot of work, but it will be interesting to see how everything pulls together.

As far as church goes, I still miss EBC immensely, and no church will ever compare, but each week I'm getting better in homesickness. EBC will always be my "home" church, but right now I need to focus on a local church where I can get plugged in and serve to glorify God.

I think I'll end there. With all the time off next week, I'll have another blog post planned out in no time. So, forgive me for being to broad and vague in this entry. I'm working on posting on a weekly basis so that I can write more about what's been happening on a deeper level, rather than just "this is what I'm doing".

One thing I will say as I end this, is that I'm learning so much about God. I know, I know... how cliche. But truly, it's been amazing as I've been challenged in my thinking and in my perspective of the world. It's uncovered so many fears that I didn't realize I had, and it's firing up passions that have just been smoldering over the past few years.

More on that later....