Bipolar weather!!

My dorm room: anywhere from 55-75 degrees
Classes: somewhere around at least 80... miserably hot!
Last week mornings: 31 degrees
This afternoon: 84 degrees

I never know what to wear!!! It's FREEZING in my room, nice outside, blistering hot in my classes, then freezing the next day!

Dear Texas, it is FALL here in Texas. Please get down to the 60-70s and STAY THERE please :)

Thanks and gig'em :)

Dear 4th Floor...

Dear 4th Floor Residents,

Your floor is not a trampoline. It is in fact my ceiling. Please stop jumping NOW!! Seriously, I don't want to meet you by you falling through my ceiling.

Thanks and Gig'em!

One Very Irritated, Frustrated and Tired College Student

Nac-a-NOWHERE!!!

I now understand why Nacogdoches is nicknamed "Nacanowhere!"

On Friday once classes ended I ditched campus as fast as I could and headed off to Nac to visit my best friend Carley who attends SFA there. By 4:30 I was pulling into her school, and was shocked at the fact that they had FREE parking! That's an unheard of concept here at A&M!

Friday night consisted of dinner with Carley and Taryn (Car's friend who is applying for Cho-Yeh!) on campus. Then we went to their campus' movie theater where we saw a $1 showing of The Help (SO GOOD! And funny! Although I think Carley and I might have been the only girls not crying...). We then went back to Carley's dorm and had girl time talking about anything and everything under the sun. It was fantastic!

On Saturday we woke up and were lazy. We went to Hobby Lobby and got materials for craft projects. We each created a super cute canvas with the words "Seek Justice, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly" on them (from the song "Courageous" by Casting Crowns). That evening we went and got dinner and went to the SFA/Southeastern LA football game. Football is SO lax there, it's GREAT! I got to see one of my supervisors from the summer, and enjoyed meeting everybody Carley talks about. That night after the game we played Ultimate Frisbee (on the football field... I definitely don't think that is legal here!), and then went back for a movie night.

This morning we went to church and then met another girl from Cho-Yeh for lunch at Quiznos. After that I headed off to Livingston and spent the afternoon helping Laura in her classroom and just chit-chatting. I made the drive back to cstat tonight, and walked into my room that had turned into a disaster zone. But, it's all been cleaned up, and I'm ready for another week!!!

Quick note... I only have 2 more full weeks of class!! :)

I have class November 14-18, Nov 21-22, Nov 28-Dec 2, Dec 5-6, then I have 2 finals on the 9th, a final on the 12th, and then I'll be DONEEEE for the semester! It's CRAZY! I'm so excited :) That is 32 classes! How crazy?!

"Is Your Hair Stuck That Way?", Academic Successes, and Weekend Plans

This weekend at Chovember, some of my 5th grade girls from my last week at camp ran up to me, and after hugs and more hugs this is the conversation that happened.

Katie: "Do you want to know how we knew that it was you from all the way across the field?"
Me: "Of course...?"
Kelly: "YOUR HAIR!" (My hair was in a french braid)
Me: "What?"
Catherine: "Your hair. It is always in a braid. It's like your hair is stuck that way"
Me: *laughter*
Anna: "They are right you know. The only time your hair wasn't in a braid was when somebody was re-braiding it for you!"

It was so funny! The girls did have a point, my hair was always in a french braid at camp. And because my hair is crazy, it would ALWAYS fall out, and so everytime I saw Laura, she would use the excuse of re-braiding my hair as a few minutes for us to talk about our days. You would be shocked at how much those 3 minute conversations meant everyday in the midst of a crazy camp schedule! I definitely miss those girls and the camp experience. Everytime I braid my hair (which is essentially daily), I will forever think of these four lovable 5th graders!!

This week has been pretty blaaah for me. It has taken so long and nothing exciting has happened. BUT, on the plus side... I didn't fail the polisci test that I thought I did (I got an 82!! 20 points higher than the class average! WHOOP!). I also got a 97 on my HUGE semester long education presentation/project (the 2nd highest grade was an 84). It was sooo rewarding! AND... I'm essentially DONE until finals! WHOOOOP!

I am SO looking forward to this weekend! Tomorrow after class I'm heading to SFA in Nac-a-nowhere (aka Nacogdoches) to spend the weekend with Carley. I'm excited to spend some time with her and have real conversations in person (as opposed to over skype). I'm also looking forward to getting to meet all of the people that I hear SO much about from her! On Sunday I am driving through Livingston and stopping at Laura's to spend time with her and talk with her. Even though I saw both of these girls on Sunday at Chovember, we were surrounded by a bunch of other staff and plenty of kids, so we didn't get to have "real talk". It is much needed and I'm excited to relax away from Cstat!!

Pure Joy

Pure (adj): Free from any contaminating substance
Joy (noun): a source or cause of keen pleasure or delight; something greatly valued or appreciated

Today I realized, that I am purely joyful when I am surrounded by kids and sharing Christ's love. I was looking through pictures from Chovember Fest and camp, and I realized that my smile is more genuine and of sheer happiness when I am surrounded by God's beautiful children and getting the privilege to teach them about their Heavenly Father and show them a Christ-centered love. The feeling that I get when pouring into these children is unmatched when compared to anything else I have ever experienced. It is then that I am at my true high and where I believe I am at my best.

This makes me excited for the road that I have ahead of me. I will be in Honduras in January sharing Christ's love to the orphaned children, the poor, and the homeless. Next summer I will hopefully be back at camp participating in a ministry that I have a love and deep passion for. I am pursuing an education degree where one day I will have my own classroom and will get to live out St. Francis of Assisi's saying "preach the gospel at all times; when necessary, use words." I will have the opportunity to love on kids and show them a caring that they may not get at home (this is where my passion for the poorer school districts comes into effect). If I ever have the chance to go into children's or camp ministry I will still more than likely jump on it, as I believe that is where my true passions lie and where I can fulfill what God has placed on my heart to the best capacity. Until then though, I am satisfied loving on kids every chance I get, and sharing Christs love wherever I go! Because it is these 2 things that bring me PURE JOY!

Polo and Camp... what a weekend!

This weekend was one of my favorites so far!! Maybe because it included water polo AND camp? haha :)

On Saturday we hosted a tournament at A&M. I was excited to play, but kind of skeptical about the entire thing because I didn't really know what to expect. We had been practicing for about 10 weeks, and so I knew the girls on the team pretty well. I don't hang out with many of them outside of the pool because how we spend our nights and weekends very CONSIDERABLY, but in the water they are great people to be around.

The tourney was a BLAST! I was thoroughly exhausted by the end of it, but I loved it! I had so much fun playing on the A&M team (not to mention that a girl I know from camp who graduated from A&M last year was coaching us). I never realized how much I missed getting to play. Definitely makes the time commitment worth it!

Then on Sunday I had a camp event all day in Houston! It is called Chovember Fest, and essentially it is just a huge fall-festival type camp reunion. I had 9 campers of mine show up, and it was a lot of fun! I got pied in the face 4 times by my girls (they would win tickets for playing games that we had set up, and then could use the tickets to pie us), and I think I still have whipped cream in my ears...

There was also a fundraiser for the Honduras mission trip there. People could buy tomatoes, flour, eggs, and water balloons to throw at us while we ran through an obstacle course. Somehow I made it through the obstacle course pretty clean... that's because all of my girls then chased me around the entire site throwing things at me. I was DISGUSTING by the end of it... but I think we made somewhere around $500 to put towards the mission trip! WHOOP!

I also got to see Carley and Laura while we were at Chovember Fest. I hadn't seen Carley in about a month, and hadn't seen Laura in about 6 weeks. Seeing them was also a major bonus. I miss those two like CRAZY!!

I got back to College Station (WITH MY CAR!!) around 7:30 last night and then studied for a while. But overall, it was a great weekend!!!

Endurance? Strength? Agility? Nerve?

I ran across this quote on ESPN earlier and LOVED it! It makes me laugh when people don't consider water polo a sport. :)

"Endurance? A water polo player swims 1.5 miles a game, with another player dragging and climbing all over him, pushing his head under the water and saying unkind things about his mamma when he comes up for air.
Strength? These guys egg-beater their legs for 32 minutes in nine feet of water, muscle each other for position and rise up into the air like they’re jumping off a trampoline to shoot and block shots.
Agility? They work back-cuts and spin-moves like Kobe and Marvin Harrison.
Nerve? They take 50-mph shots in the face and breathe in lungs-full of water. And they keep coming back for more."
-ESPN

I can't wait to play some real polo this weekend!!!