What Life is Like Here

In answer to the title, life here is like Network (the homeschool co-op school I did for three years) and church camp all rolled into one.  It's delicious and crazy busy and so much fun and I feel very comfortable here.  It's a Christmas miracle :)  Just kidding, it's been about 100 degrees every day for weeks and I'm sweating in my dorm room (the new norm), but let's pretend it's Christmas.


Obama would be doing this if he was in my dorm room.


Last night, I watched "Beetlejuice" (a Tim Burton movie) with some wonderfully nice and also witty people, and then we went for a midnight walk around the amazingly manicured town of Orange City.  This town is like a Disney World resort, it's just that scenic.  Their town square's park looks like a mini golf course, I haven't seen a single run-down house, and any and every business has a Dutch architecture-themed storefront.  It's just idyllic.


"Beetlejuice"= Like everything else Tim Burton, it's weird and funny


And really, my life mostly involves doing homework.  Which is just like senior year all over again, only THIS time I get unlimited free tutoring and unlimited socialization and I make a little more money than I used to by working at the Hub.  And I haven't felt homesick yet!  (knocks furiously on wood).  Yep, Christmas miracle.

Sounds like things are finally looking up for Kara... I can't wait to hear about her classes.
Billie seems to be taking to things like a fish to water... I like that girl :)

Happy Saturday night!  Imma play some Nancy Drew computer game and study for an Anatomy pop quiz (200 plus flashcards, here I come...)

The Top Five Things You Learn Your First Week At College

The Admin Building shows striking similarities to a castle. (courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

I've been here at NWMSU for a week now. Granted, I haven't actually taken any classes yet because I came down here early for band camp, but I've still definitely learned some things about college life (and in my case, college marching band) that weren't things I would have even thought of. Here's some discoveries I have made:
1.Profanity is widely spoken and, as a whole, is not disciplined. Maybe my naïve self was just being naïve, but I was pretty shocked as how many people will just drop a d*** or a f*** into whatever activity or difficulty they might be undertaking. And it's not just the students, folks. Both professors (who are both very nice, by the way) that I have come in contact with have cussed at some point, mostly to make a point. The only exception to this would be our very nice band director Dr. Strickland, who explicitly (haha, no pun intended) stated that profanity was not allowed. Of course, some of the members of my drumline do not pay any mind to this rule.
Let's be clear: I'm don't live under a rock. People cuss, and they have every right to. I personally do not, so hearing all of it was a bit odd at first, and really still is. I don't judge you about your cursing unless you find it necessary to insert an f-bomb in to every sentence you speak. Then I think that you lack tact, creativity, and self-control.
2. I can understand how the Freshman 15 is achievable. There's good food at the Union, there are yummy snacks at most activities, and people are always hosting mixers and BBQs etc. Delicious food is everywhere.
3. I don't understand how I could gain 15 hypothetical pounds. Sure, it's not all about eating lots of food. There's also a second, mini growth spurt going on, but check out #4 and you'll understand what I mean.
4. College Marching Band is awesome, tough, fun, crazy, tiring, strenuous, and rewarding, all rolled into one big bundle that, by the end of our long days of practicing has put me close to tears a couple times. Let me just be real with you: I have been here since Sunday at 1p.m. By the end of Sunday the 25th, a little more than a week later I will have spent 50 hours practicing marching band/drumline. That is 50 out of 171 hours that I have been here. When you figure that I spend 8 hours sleeping each night, you're down to 115 total waking hours this week. Basically 44% of my week has been devoted to band. (26% of that time was spent outside between the hours of 2 and 6 p.m., marching and carrying our instruments in the hot hot sun.)
Now this is all not a pity party. Yes it's hard. Yes, I get back to my dorm soaked (and that is not an exaggeration) with sweat. Yes, I have to lug around a bass drum. Yes, it's hard. Yes it's hot. But you know what, it's also super rewarding, and in two key ways: First, the end result is sweet! We get to play cool songs (which this year include Moves Like Jagger, Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting, We Are Young, and lots of other fun filler songs too) and we get to put on a slick, awesome looking performance at the football games. Second, it's a great workout, and a hard one. Bass drummers get core work, arm work, and a lot of leg work because all of our movements are done on tiptoe. As I said before, our marching practices have been between 2 and four hours daily. Feel the burn! When school starts on Monday, we will have marching practices M-F, Saturdays that we perform, and then our performances at the games! I get in a good workout all throughout the week!
In short, marching band is HARD work, but it is very rewarding.
5. My roomie and I get along great! Great in a totally God sort of way. We hit it off great, and the first night she was here, we went to Wal Mart together and then to Sonic for half price shakes! At Wal Mart one of the things we got was a landscaping brick that we are using as a doorstop!

We also have a Beta fish named Herman. Our door stop will be decorated, and its name is Frans, (suggested by my dad) which corresponds to our RA's doorstop that is painted like a turtle and is named Hans. We enjoy many of the same things, like organizing, Disney, the TV show Bones, and other things we are discovering day to day. We both go to church; her to a Catholic one and me to one that is yet undecided. Overall, I am super happy that Miranda is my room mate, and I think we'll have a great year! (We even have a Stats class together!)

So there you have it: 5 things I've learned. This list was originally going to be 10 things, but it's late. Maybe I'll make a sequel later.

 

On Iowa!

Whew. These past few days have been a huge whirlwind of activity. And sweat. It's been hot and humid, and I know I'm not the only one who is sweating like a person who sweats a lot, and I'm tired of the sticky feeling. I can't wait for it to cool off.

In other news! My floor is amazing, and I've made tons of friends, to sound like a typical new goody-goody college student. The best thing is: a TON of my floormates are fandom nerds like me. I feel pretty confident that I'll have a ton of fun with these people, and I can't wait to get to know them more.

A word of advice: I recommend the use of a refrigerator and microwave. My roommate and I both decided (kind of) to forgo the use of those two appliances. Most of our neighbors in the dorm have them, and I can tell we'll be making the adjustment sooner or later. It just makes life simpler. You can keep your water cold, and make ramen noodles if you don't feel up to leaving your room for dinner. You can even keep fresh produce! How's that for avoiding the feared freshmen fifteen? Say that five times fast.

Getting Settled at NWMSU

Well, here I am. I moved in on Sunday afternoon and it's been a weird, "thrown in head first" experience. You see, orientation activities for Freshmen begin tomorrow. Until then, you're kinda on your own. That's a bit tricky when you're like me and have almost no clue about what's going on! Also, there are only 2 other people on my floor, one of whom I've never seen, and the other who is veerryy extroverted. And I mean very. That's fine, I'm not at all an extrovert, but she definitely is! As in popping in approximately 6 times while I was moving in to talk about all her stuff in her room, how she brought too much stuff, and practically demanding that I come see her room. When I was coming back to my room on a break yesterday, she was lamenting about the lack of instructions for her loft. Then she immediately brightened up and said, "Hey! Wanna help me put it together?!?!" I'm sorry, chica. Not to be mean, but I've been doing 9 hours of drumline for the past few days, and now that I am on my lunch break, all I really want to do is sit down and eat.
Needless to say, I can't wait till my roommate gets here. We seem really similar!  I think we'll hit it off great!
Now about the past few days:
Sunday thru today have looked exactly the same: 8:30-11:30 drumline practice
                                                                          11:30-1 lunch break
                                                                          1-4:30 drumline practice
                                                                          4:30-6 dinner break
                                                                          6-8:30 drumline practice
Needless to say, it's been pretty draining. Unfortunately, it's only supposed to get hotter as the week progresses.
Well, I'm pretty much completely moved into my room. It's a bit more cozy now with some familiar things. Here are some pictures!

The view from the door looking left and my desk area. Once Miranda moves all of her things in, it should be pretty cozy!
More posts to come, of course, but right now I want a smoothie, and I have absolutely no access to one! Luckily, that will change tomorrow when the Student Union begins staying open for regular hours!

 

Eliza Finishes Orientation

It's over.  All the events and activities and get-to-know-you times.  The goodbyes and the unpacking.  The wandering around campus learning to find stuff.


(Beside the chapel.  Photo from rdgusa.com)


Northwestern has totally blown my mind.  I am literally overwhelmed by the love everybody here has shown me.  And I do mean everybody.  So far, this place is just unbelievably Utopian.  'Course, classes haven't started yet, and the nursing program is notoriously difficult.  But there are tutors and there is time management (a.k.a don't procrastinate or spend all your time socializing).  God's gonna help me.  It'll be okay.

Praying for Kara as she's reached NWMSU.  Hopefully, Billie has a terrific last few days with her family and is feeling all prepared and not real nervous.

I'm just feeling excited and a little apprehensive and very at home.
If you think of it, please pray for my Mommy who misses me.
My brother is a very cool guy who will be running the house this year.  I hope he has a good time :)

It's 11:30 p.m.  Time to grab some Triscuits and get some sleep before an early morning class.  Hasta la pasta!


(Just some people on the internet in their cool pink dorm room being all friendly.  Oh look, Audbrey Hepburn poster!  
From talknerdy2me.com)

Food! Om Nom Nom!

College=Freshman 15.
College students eat like animals who haven't seen food in weeks.
College students only like eating junk.

Let's face it, my goal of staying fit, eating moderately, and (ok, fine, totally honest moment here) not gaining copious amounts of weight in college is laced with the grim dubiousness and skepticism of the general public. To speak bluntly, I am not athletic. I am not in tip top shape. I just want to not slip into the whole "shove my face full of food just cuz it's there" mantra. It's easy, I like food. Food is yummy. And prevalent in college cafeterias. I'm just trying to keep the thought in the front of my mind that all of the food that is available in front of me will be available again. It's not as if I am not going to see food again for long stretches of time.
End of that little shpeel.
On to other things.
Like exercise!
Well, I'm in drumline in the marching band, and let me tell you, that's a work out. We practice 1 hour a day M-F, and practice and perform on Saturdays. Heck, when my mom was in marching band in college (playing trombone) she lost weight instead of gaining the "Freshman 15"! All I'm saying it, it'll be a good workout. A good thing to do daily, basically through November.
Also, I won't have a car at college. (Really, it's fine. I haven't had my own  car at home either.) Honestly, I don't foresee a real problem (at least until the winter. Snow makes biking hard.) because Wal-Mart/Hy-Vee/the farthest shopping place is a slick 2 miles away. So doable.
Next, there is band camp. I will be moving in on the 18th to do band camp/drumline from 8-11, 1-4, and 6-8:30 daily for a week. Since I am in band, and my room mate isn't, I will have a microwave, but not a fridge (until Thursday, when she arrives.) The cafeteria will be open, but my meal plan for the year won't start working until Thursday at 11am. I didn't want to shell out money for each one of these meals/food, so I got to thinking and acquired some food that doesn't require refrigeration. Hey, it means peanut butter and honey sandwiches for 4 days straight, but could it be worse? YES! Today, I got some things that I think will last me pretty well through the week.

So here's the breakdown:

Peanut Butter (a gift from my aunt)

Oatmeal (a gift from a friend)

Strawberry Applesauce

1 Instant Kraft Mac 'n Cheese (not the best, but cheap, and better than Ramen)

Dark Chocolate Raspberry Granola bars (I had a coupon for $1 off!)

Kashi Go Lean Crunch (I had a coupon!)

1 Barilla Italian Express meal (I had a coupon!)

1 loaf of bread

(I also have honey)

Between all of that, I think I'll be pretty set. All of that cost about $9.50. Not too shabby! I'll continue to use coupons! Hopefully I can get my hands on some newspaper ones while in college!

My Summer

Hey guys!  Wow, look at the uber cool posts from Kara and Billie!  I have taken off my construction boots after getting home from that summer-long mission trip.  Time to share some highlights with you!

First, two weeks of "Boot Camp" in muggy Merritt Island, Florida (near the Kennedy Space Center).  An obstacle course for team building, sleeping in tents, mosquitoes, bathing and doing laundry using buckets and swamp water, classes, eating outside on logs, nightly worship rallies, a 500 gallon milkshake... these are all things I experienced during my second year at camp.  And by the end, our team was ready to hop a plane to Ireland.

(Our team about to run the obstacle course)

After touching down in Dublin, we lived in tents again and did some construction work for two weeks at an evangelistic outreach center.  We dug trenches, did some extensive weeding, and mixed and poured concrete using only shovels and wheelbarrows... I felt like a stud :)

                                                                                         (With Mike, our leader)


Then we spent two weeks in Belfast, Northern Ireland, a gorgeously gorgeous city.  We slept in a Presbyterian church's sanctuary using pew cushions as mattresses, and during the day we did Vacation Bible School for adorable Irish children.

(85 kids on the first night!! Whoohoo!)

A word on sightseeing: We toured the utterly jaw-dropping Titanic museum in Belfast, the puzzling octagonal rocks of Giant's Causeway, a medieval castle, the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge over the cliffs of the Irish Sea, and the Belfast City Hall (kind of their D.C.).  And man, were the fish and chips yummy!

                                     (The Rope Bridge.  Sheer drop below us into the ocean!)

At the end of things was a week of debriefing back at boot camp.  This involved more classes (but this time in the air conditioning), going to Wet 'n' Wild and Cocoa Beach, and an end-of-the-summer banquet.


God answered SO MANY prayers for me on that trip, and gave me the most wonderful team I could possibly imagine. I feel blessed to have gotten to be a part of the work that went on. Now our leaders have recommended me to be an assistant leader for a team next year, and I think that's what God wants me to do.  Stay tuned, sports fans :)


So yeah, now college! What a crazy whirlwind time!  Got a job at the "Hub" cafeteria and have been offered another way to make some extra money by making phone calls for the Alumni department.  My classes sound fastastic, and my roommate is super nice.  Time to become a "Uni", as one dear Northern Irish friend calls university students.  This is Eliza, signing out.