It seems like this week is going to deal with extremes. After that lovely burning heat wave, yesterday the fire alarm got pulled twice. Have I mentioned that it was freezing out? I was just getting back from class the first time, and I was only wearing a light jacket. The second time I was in the dining hall getting ready to drink some hot chocolate, only to get whisked outside into the frozen tundra devoid of warm anything. Without a coat. :P The second time was for a "legitimate" reason; some smokeguard didn't work and set off the alarms in Rollins. Of course, then overreacting people pulled the one in Gillett too. Thankfully the Black Culture Center across the street let us take shelter there, although I'm afraid we were a rather noisy influx of people blocking the hall and foyer (not me, I was reading a book).
Other news of a frozen kind:
We had some snowflakes today!
In the middle of last night, one of my friends and FIGmates heard her air conditioner making weird noises (she had it on cuz of the annoying heaters which are right next to her room, not to mention the one in her room). So she got up to look at it and turned it off. In the morning she saw that it was covered in ICE! Like everywhere. Weird, huh?
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Monday, November 28, 2005
Hot As Hades
I must have a homing device that draws misadventures to me. Riding back to college, I was kinda tired, but I figured that things would start off smoothly with a quiet evening before starting my last two weeks of classes. Ha.
I enter my dorm room to a blast of heat so hot it would put a volcano to shame. I wince, and suggest to my roommate that we turn the heat off now (it was required to be left on over break). "It is off," she replied. "I've had the air conditioner going for the past four hours." It is really impossible to discribe how hot and miserable our room was/is. My roommate had it much worse. When she got here,
the knob almost burned her hand
the temperature read 104
and six hours later it's still over 90.
I hope you're getting the picture of how miserable it is in here. I reached into my can of chocolate and nuts, and found all the chocolate completely melted. Our walls are actually hot to the touch. I got a shower and the shampoo was extra liquidy and annoyingly warm. My clothes felt like they'd just come out of the dryer. You sweat just sitting on your bed. In other words, it's completely-totally-beyond-hellishly-miserably-Mount-Doom-like-hot.
Oh, and it's not just our room. The whole building is like this.
I enter my dorm room to a blast of heat so hot it would put a volcano to shame. I wince, and suggest to my roommate that we turn the heat off now (it was required to be left on over break). "It is off," she replied. "I've had the air conditioner going for the past four hours." It is really impossible to discribe how hot and miserable our room was/is. My roommate had it much worse. When she got here,
the knob almost burned her hand
the temperature read 104
and six hours later it's still over 90.
I hope you're getting the picture of how miserable it is in here. I reached into my can of chocolate and nuts, and found all the chocolate completely melted. Our walls are actually hot to the touch. I got a shower and the shampoo was extra liquidy and annoyingly warm. My clothes felt like they'd just come out of the dryer. You sweat just sitting on your bed. In other words, it's completely-totally-beyond-hellishly-miserably-Mount-Doom-like-hot.
Oh, and it's not just our room. The whole building is like this.
Friday, November 18, 2005
Cleaning
I think I'm allergic to dust.
At least, dust that attacks in rampant masses of evil armies when I sweep my dorm room.
At least, dust that attacks in rampant masses of evil armies when I sweep my dorm room.
Friday, November 11, 2005
I Love Fridays
It's Friday!!!!!! Yes!!!!!! Only one week till thanksgiving break and Harry Potter (LOL, you know what I'm looking forward to). I'm way tired right now; I'll probably crash this afternoon and nap (I still have a big paper to do this weekend--blech!) Last night was crazy. I went to a play ("Under the Shadow of the Sword") with my friend Libby, which was a ton of fun, then got back a little before eleven to finish writing *another* paper. Just guess what happened next--yup! The fire alarm went off. This time the fire truck didn't even bother coming; there was only a police officer and he said that the next time it gets pulled they are going to go through the building room by room. None of us are sure what that will accomplish other than to punish us and keep us outside for several hours. (Note to self: create a fire alarm emergency kit of everything you need) Yeah, so I was up late and had an 8 o'clock class this morning--which I actually went to for once (and they didn't even take attendance--which they did last week when I skipped :P). I swore I wasn't going to pick one next semester, but then I found out that there was a 3 credit course on "The Theology of JRR Tolkien" that I have to take. It was full, but I just got a seat yesterday! I'm excited.
This week in the reader's theater of narnia for sunday school I get to play two parts: the Wolf, and Creature #1. I did mention that I'm helping out with the kids' sunday school at my church, right? Normally I'm in the Krazy Kindergarteners room--25+ kids and only a few helpers. So, life is just dashing along at a quick pace-- I can't believe the semester is almost over! There's only like a total of 3 weeks of classes left! Wow. . .
This week in the reader's theater of narnia for sunday school I get to play two parts: the Wolf, and Creature #1. I did mention that I'm helping out with the kids' sunday school at my church, right? Normally I'm in the Krazy Kindergarteners room--25+ kids and only a few helpers. So, life is just dashing along at a quick pace-- I can't believe the semester is almost over! There's only like a total of 3 weeks of classes left! Wow. . .
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Life
Wow. For once I am at a loss. I can't think of anything hugely misadventurous that happened to me lately. Well, except. . .
I went on the RUF retreat this weekend, and I forgot to pack:
any long sleeved shirts (yes, it was cold)
soap (I had shampoo though)
my contact case (and I had my contacts in)
my medicine
cds or a book
I actually packed ahead of time, too (rueful grin). No, I'm not at all spacey.
This week I've been busy as usual writing papers, drawing pictures on Bebo, and going on my first date.
I went on the RUF retreat this weekend, and I forgot to pack:
any long sleeved shirts (yes, it was cold)
soap (I had shampoo though)
my contact case (and I had my contacts in)
my medicine
cds or a book
I actually packed ahead of time, too (rueful grin). No, I'm not at all spacey.
This week I've been busy as usual writing papers, drawing pictures on Bebo, and going on my first date.
Thursday, November 03, 2005
Heterosexism
Where to start? So much has happened. I need to write a ton of papers before I leave on the RUF (Reformed University Fellowship) retreat tomorrow afternoon. Let's see. . .
Today my FIG (freshman interest group) class went to a special interactive theatre sketch called Heterosexism. It starts off as a group of students (actors) working on a project, when the topic of homosexuality comes up. There's the obnoxious Christian, an African American girl who loses her temper at the said obnoxious Christian, a guy who is accused to being gay all the time but isn't (he's also nominally Christian), a girl who's a Christian but ashamed by their reactions, and a reserved Hindu girl who's lesbian. Anyhow, there's a ten minute skit, after which the audience gets to ask the actors (still in character) about their reactions, and they interact together or alone based on the questions the audience raises. The point was that everybody responds wrongly, so it wasn't just picking on Christians, but I still winced because none of them really seemed to have a true Biblical perspective.
Anyhow, this is were it gets really interesting. There's one student actor "missing" from the group; they start the skit over again and anyone from the audience who wants to try to fix the scenario before it escalates into the shouting match can call out "Stop!" and go down and take the place of the missing student. The audience member then interacts in the same skit, only with a (hopefully) different ending.
So. Understand that I'm with my FIG, two of which are bisexual, and I'm sitting next to one of them. The last thing I want to do is have them hate me, because then I'll never have a chance to reach out to them. Anyhow, first replay starts, and one of my figmates jumps up and goes down to join the club, and just announces that she's bisexual, which shuts all the actors' characters up pretty effectively. Another girl from my FIG goes down and tries a conciliatory approach. (Yes, there are other students in the audience besides just our FIG). I know that they're probably only going to go through this one more time, and I really can't just sit there with not a single decent Christian response but plenty of straw men floating around, so I of course open my big mouth and go down to the stage. (It's not a large stage or anything; it's really small and it's a small audience). Still, I wish I could ever stop my legs from shaking when I get up in front of people. I can't remember everything I said, and I don't really want to, because chances are it was disjointed and very flawed. But I did my best to communicate that Christians can respond in loving ways, affirming that every individual is an imagebearer of the Living God, even while standing firm on their convictions. Mostly I tried to show the "obnoxious christian" how his approach (screaming cuss words and acting hypocritical) is not the correct response.
Anyhow, I did what I could. I just hope that I said the right things. But we don't always know, do we?
Today my FIG (freshman interest group) class went to a special interactive theatre sketch called Heterosexism. It starts off as a group of students (actors) working on a project, when the topic of homosexuality comes up. There's the obnoxious Christian, an African American girl who loses her temper at the said obnoxious Christian, a guy who is accused to being gay all the time but isn't (he's also nominally Christian), a girl who's a Christian but ashamed by their reactions, and a reserved Hindu girl who's lesbian. Anyhow, there's a ten minute skit, after which the audience gets to ask the actors (still in character) about their reactions, and they interact together or alone based on the questions the audience raises. The point was that everybody responds wrongly, so it wasn't just picking on Christians, but I still winced because none of them really seemed to have a true Biblical perspective.
Anyhow, this is were it gets really interesting. There's one student actor "missing" from the group; they start the skit over again and anyone from the audience who wants to try to fix the scenario before it escalates into the shouting match can call out "Stop!" and go down and take the place of the missing student. The audience member then interacts in the same skit, only with a (hopefully) different ending.
So. Understand that I'm with my FIG, two of which are bisexual, and I'm sitting next to one of them. The last thing I want to do is have them hate me, because then I'll never have a chance to reach out to them. Anyhow, first replay starts, and one of my figmates jumps up and goes down to join the club, and just announces that she's bisexual, which shuts all the actors' characters up pretty effectively. Another girl from my FIG goes down and tries a conciliatory approach. (Yes, there are other students in the audience besides just our FIG). I know that they're probably only going to go through this one more time, and I really can't just sit there with not a single decent Christian response but plenty of straw men floating around, so I of course open my big mouth and go down to the stage. (It's not a large stage or anything; it's really small and it's a small audience). Still, I wish I could ever stop my legs from shaking when I get up in front of people. I can't remember everything I said, and I don't really want to, because chances are it was disjointed and very flawed. But I did my best to communicate that Christians can respond in loving ways, affirming that every individual is an imagebearer of the Living God, even while standing firm on their convictions. Mostly I tried to show the "obnoxious christian" how his approach (screaming cuss words and acting hypocritical) is not the correct response.
Anyhow, I did what I could. I just hope that I said the right things. But we don't always know, do we?
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