Friday, September 18, 2015

My Homely Abode

** Long Post Warning!**

School will be in session for 6 weeks coming up and I realize that it has been pretty quiet from the Omaha area.
Since everyone else has posted about their living conditions, I decided that it'd be best to show off my apartment!

First, I live on campus at Josie's Village. It is an apartment complex that the college bought to use for "Student Housing". I would not call it dorms, in the slightest.

http://www.methodistcollege.edu/student-life/housing/gallery

This is the outside of one of the apartment buildings. It's not mine, but they are all identical, so you get the point.... 
Fun Fact: There are balcony railings, but no balconies. I have no idea, something about insurance..... I don't have worry about all that, because my apartment is underground! 

As soon as you step into my apartment, you run straight into the closet. The thing is, there is literally nothing in it except a vacuum and empty boxes..... not very exciting.

Carrying on!

Take a hard right, and you are in the living room!
Much like the "closet" there is nothing in here either. It has been used 4 time during the almost two months I've lived here. Two of those times were a friend sleeping on the couch.

To the left of the living room, we have the dining room!
Now this room I use much more than the living room!
There's nothing much to it other than the four chairs and a table, but they do the job!
To the left of the dining room, there is the "one-butt kitchen"!

Although it is small, it has lots of importance all shoved into it! I have a full sized range, fridge, and dishwasher, microwave, along with decent cabinet space! 
This has been extremely nice because I am responsible for all my meals. I made a goal with myself at the beginning of the year that I did not want to eat microwave meals for every meal. I have a full sized kitchen, so why not use it? And use it, I have! To stay away from the oh-so-easy grab and nuke meals, I try to make one big meal every weekend and divide it into containers for throughout the week. To microwave them takes just as "long" as a microwave meal, but it is SOO much better!
So far I have made myself spaghetti and meat sauce, lemon chicken and rice, chicken and broccoli "hot pockets", components for breakfast sandwiches, and guacamole! Don't worry though, I've still got a bag of chicken nuggets in the freezer, because who doesn't like chicken nuggets?

Ok, back on the tour we go......

Going down the hall, you will see our bathroom. Its a bathroom. Nothing special, like Kara's window, but the AC does blow right into the shower, so that's interesting....

Continuing down the hall, you'll run right into my bedroom.

Its a tiny bit cluttered, but I'm cool!

One might ask, "What's in that black box?" 
Snacks. Snacks are in the black box. They are a necessity.

My room is very big compared to basically anything. I'd say it is bigger than a dorm room that would be shared at any other college.
I spend many many hours in my room everyday, mostly studying. I do this mostly at my desk.
Like I said, its a bit cluttered..... but it works great!

What IS cluttered in a good way is my calendar!
I have everything color-coded along with my daily to-do lists and coupons!
I was given this as a graduation present, and holy cow has it been helpful! All of High School, I never used a planner. I relied on my memory. Obviously you can't rely on your memory in college, and being able to see everything laid out everyday has been sooooooo helpful in keeping afloat in my first couple months of college!!


So that is my apartment! If you would like to see it in person (and me!), come to Omaha! I'd love to see you!
Also, as you probably noticed in many of the pictures, my walls are pretty bare..... Letters and drawings are very appreciated to fill up the empty spaces!

Sunday, September 6, 2015

Here

After a wonderful two months of leading a Teen Missions team to Zimbabwe, I'm back in cute little Orange City, Iowa.  I have less college left than college already under my belt, and our dorm wing truly feels like home more than ever.  We have a new crop of freshman and transfers who (whom?) I adore... such "wonderfuls" as Peace (who dreams of helping deliver babies in Uganda) and Annika (likes dehydrated peanut butter & documentaries).

Some of my wing friends by one of Orange City's tulip murals.  Annika is in the cute print dress and leather jacket, whilst Peace is doing the splits.  I am "eating" the foot of dear Ashley, a freshman, and Ellen (a fun new Spanish major) poses in the middle.  

It's a Midwest heat wave apparently, which is just fine with me.  LifeLight, a Christian music festival in South Dakota, was a barrel of fun.  I saw Rend Collective, Tenth Avenue North (for the third time), and Switchfoot.  Mother came this weekend, and we bawled over Inside Out (miraculously still in the town's theater).  Been binging on the U.S. Tennis Open and enjoying my new classes (sociology, psychopathology).  Glad to have Kelli on the blog and to have a more flattering photo of myself up on the blogger profiles!

I did have this thought.


I would end this post with a "#Blessed", but that's just too much cheese for this chica.  Still, I'm feeling cozy, loved, and happy... and what could be better than that?

Saturday, September 5, 2015

4 Housemates, 3 Bedrooms, 2 Couches, 1 House

I have some different living accommodations this school year, and I'm pretty happy about it. I am definitely a homebody, so having an actual house is perfect for me! Now don't get me wrong, as far as living on campus goes, I had it pretty nice for the 2 years I was there. I enjoyed my res. hall and I had great roommates both years.
I've been here almost 3 weeks and let me tell you, it's been SO great! I share the house with 3 other girls, and I share a room with one of them. There is lots of space to spread out because it used to be a full sized house, and to make it into 2 separate places. So basically we get the whole first floor. I've taken pictures of it before, but they don't really show how BIG it is, considering I pay less than $200 a month! (Sharing = lower rent!). I decided to just take a video of it so I could pan around explain things. You get to hear my lovely narrations. They're better than usual.
(And yes, I understand the irony of my vlog within a blog.)