Adulthood

Yes, it is true. I am finally an adult (as of yesterday).

My birthday was wonderful. I told everyone I wanted food and money, and that is what I got. A total of 370 dollars, chocolate from Cristina, Corey, my parents, and Sarah, pretzels from Rebekah, a coupon to the fish house from Cristina, and a cake from Calvin (well, my parents told Calvin to give it to me). I got some other presents but I'm just listing off the food bc I think it's funny. My roomie says my present is going to be chocolate cuz she thinks it's funny that so many people got me chocolate.

How did I celebrate? Well, I went out to dinner with Brandon. Aimee was supposed to come but she has mono so she couldn't. Then I came back and shared my cake with some wonderful people, and then I knitted with Stina. On Sunday the girls and I might to to the spa and dinner, if we can find a spa.

So... it's interesting being an adult. I can now legally smoke and do other raunchy things if I so wished. But I don't wish to so none of you have to worry about me.

Anyways, my friends are pretty freaking awesome. Yay!
:)

OOPS.

It's been quite a while since I updated. My bad ("Mah b!"- that was for you, Stina).

The past few weeks have been eventful. Corey came out to visit last weekend. I missed him. You have no idea how much. And now I miss him even more than before he left.
:(

Also, last week was midterm week, aka hell week. The beginning of the week was okay but I had three papers and a midterm for Friday. I'm glad that's over, but I have two papers due Monday. HOWEVER, next week is advising/reading recess so we have Tuesday and Wednesday OFF! That makes me incredibly excited.

The next few things I have to look forward to are my birthday, and Thanksgiving when I come home. Yes, tomorrow it will be only one month until I get to see Corey again!

I have also once again been reminded of God's grace and mercy. I really need to start reading the Bible more. So please pray about that.

That's all for now! Blessings everyone!

Espadeas.

So the past couple weeks have been funnnn!

Last Friday, Cristina and I were going to go to Robinettes (an apple cider place), but when we got there it was closed. So then we went to Meijer. That night we were going to go with Rebekah to hear a speaker for Prelude credit, but... we couldn't figure out where to go. So instead we decided to go see Across the Universe. But the problem was it wasn't out yet. SO we decided to see Wild Chipmanzees on the Imax but it wasn't playing at the right time... which led to us finally seeing Sydney White. It was really really funny but I'm still trying to figure out why the dork who was supposed to be Happy, the dwarf, wasn't really happy. He was just horny. Haha.

Errr anyways, Saturday we went to Robinettes and it was super duper amazing and yummy and awesome.

Sukkoth ends tomorrow :( But I'm spending the night at Stina's again and we're playing Pass the Etrog!

I don't feel well right now so I'm going to stop writing but I'll try to update again soon. Hope all you Californians are doing WONDERFUL!

Splash Gum, Michigan Winter, and Zebras

First off, I would like to start by saying that Trident Splash gum is absolutely amazing. It's like, SPLASH! And then a burst of fruity goodness.

Also, Cristina and I have officially discovered that the Fish House (which, contrary to popular belief (actually not popular, I'm the only one who thought this) does NOT serve fish). Iced Zebras and Michigan Winters are delicious. I'm drinking a Michigan Winter right now and it's mmm mmm good!

I also realized that out of my three pairs of jeans, two are sort of tight and one is way too big. Maybe I should buy a new pair.

Well anyways, classes are going pretty well. International Development gives a crapload of homework, but other than that, my assignments are mostly reading.

This weekend is my dorm retreat. It should be interesting because I'm not super tight with anyone on my floor yet. I mostly know people in NVW and KH. But alas, i'm sure it will be a good time... just so long as they don't try to get me involved in any games of Ultimate Frisbee cuz the last time I tried that on a dorm date it was disastrous.

Hope everyone else is doing wonderful!
:D




It’s the song of the redeemed
Rising from the African plain
It’s the song of the forgiven
Drowning out the Amazon rain
The song of Asian believers
Filled with God’s holy fire
It’s every tribe, every tongue, every nation
A love song born of a grateful choir

It’s all God’s children singing
Glory, glory, hallelujah
He reigns, He reigns
It’s all God’s children singing
Glory, glory, hallelujah
He reigns, He reigns

Let it rise above the four winds
Caught up in the heavenly sound
Let praises echo from the towers of cathedrals
To the faithful gathered underground
Of all the songs sung from the dawn of creation
Some were meant to persist
Of all the bells rung from a thousand steeples
None rings truer than this

It’s all God’s children singing
Glory, glory, hallelujah
He reigns, He reigns
It’s all God’s children singing
Glory, glory, hallelujah
He reigns, He reigns
It’s all God’s children singing
Glory, glory, hallelujah
He reigns, He reigns
It’s all God’s children singing
Glory, glory, hallelujah
He reigns, He reigns

And all the powers of darkness
Tremble at what they’ve just heard
‘Cause all the powers of darkness
Can’t drown out a single word

When all God’s children sing out
Glory, glory, hallelujah
He reigns, He reigns
All God’s people singing
Glory, glory, hallelujah
He reigns, He reigns

A message from Jever (my friend from South Africa)

This is a message one of my friends who I met when I was in South Africa sent me on facebook. It was really special to me because I'm going through a lot right now (like... a lot a lot) so it made me feel better. It's cool how God gives people the perfect words to say to you, especially because I hadn't even told him anything that's been going on.

Don't Quit
When things go wrong as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and debts are high,
And you want to smile but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit…
Rest if you must—but don’t you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about,
When he might have won if he’d stuck it out.
Don’t give up, though the pace seems slow
You may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than
It seems to a faint and faltering man;
Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victor's cup,A
nd he learned too late, when the night slipped down,
How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out,
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are.
It may be near when it seems afar.
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit,
It's when things go wrong
That you mustn't quit.

with love
Jever

With the windows down when this is guiding you home

Sorry I haven't really posted a lot lately. College is kicking my butt.

I basically drowned in IDS homework last night. It was horrible. But now that I've finished that, I'm slightly more relaxed and hopefully tonight I will get more than three hours of sleep. Yay for sleep.

So... the past week was a little hard bc two very special people in my life died. The first I was not very close to, but he was a member of my church community and I worked with him some in Little Lambs. Tyler Verkaik died earlier this week. I believe the funerals tomorrow. I know it must be extremely hard on his parents and on a lot of people in my church/high school bc I know everyone was really pulling for him. Also, my grandma died yesterday. I guess it was for the best bc she suffered for many years but it's still really hard. She is part of what inspired me to travel and she was just an amazing, funny, kind woman.

Yeah... the past few days have been pretty rough. BUT my mom sent me a plant to remind me of my grandma today... and CHOCOLATE. Yes, it was very exciting. I also found out that pretty much everyone in my IDS class had a really hard time with the assignment (some people even moreso than me) so that was pretty comforting.

I am just freaking exhausted.

Hope everyone is doing well! there should be a video tour of my room on here tomorrow. Hooray!

College?

Well, I've been here for a while now (but classes haven't started yet) and so far it's pretty awesome.

Passport was kinda boring. I guess it was sort of fun though? Well after passport, we had Quest. Quest was pretty interesting. We got split into like fifty groups. GO GROUP SIX! Anyways, our group was pretty cool. We played lots of get to know you games, got lost many many times, played the great ball challenge, had a cook out, and did many other things.

Calvin is a pretty cool school. I really miss California though. And Corey.

Today I went to Mars Hill. For those of you who don't know, that is Rob Bell's church. It was very very amazing. He spoke about having child like faith and had all of the children up on stage coloring for the entire sermon. It was a very good sermon but I'm too tired to go into much detail.

There is also a lot of other stuff I'd like to talk about here, but I'm tired and we're going to the beach tomorrow so I'm going to end this now.

I hope everyone in California is doing wonderful. I miss all of you!!!