Currently Listening
Our Little Corner of the World: Music From Gilmore Girls
By Various Artistssee

The move has commenced.

So, as you know, I went out with Laura and her friend Brian last Friday night. At least, I think you know.... Anyways, we had fun, and she and Brian were getting very friendly, sure whatever. Who am I to talk. So apparently he called her up and wanted to take me out on a date. Too bad he reminded me of bad Ryan and also said I wasn't a true Jayhawk (nor did I apparently graduate from KU) because I hadn't ever been to a basketball game. Funny though, very flattering.

So the new place. The carpet is slippery because it's still wet from when they cleaned it. Ick. The apartment is kinda smelly because of the previous resident's bad cooking skills aparently. And the entire building smells like food from different cultures. So that's kind of ikky, those of you who were my roommates will laugh because you know how I get about food smells and how they really do linger on clothing. But, it's a nice place and my bedroom (with it's own lock) is very large (and the closet is bigger than the one I have at home). My goal is to get everything moved in by Friday afternoon.

Saturday is Wicked with Sam and then potentially my cousin Matt's family birthday party. He'll be 23, or well, he actually is. He could use some prayers, but that's besides the point.
My friend Naomi who had to evacuate from her home in Beaumont, TX should be in town for the next few weeks. I guess she won't be able to go back to work on her oil rig for another 2 weeks so decided to just come home. Thank God that she has that option. I'm excited to be able to see her!
OH, and I love church, seriously, it's amazing how supportive the right church environment can be. I love the people who attend my church... most of them are a bunch of older extremely liberal people, very active in our community and in the church itself. The college group should be neat, we have some interesting ideas, like leading our own church service some weekend in a completely different style. Last Sunday Laura came to church too, and that was great to finally get her there. She said she'd like to come back too:):)

Next week I'm going to start going to a Spanish lunch that's run by the Center for Protected Area Management so I can work to improve my conversational skills and vocabulary. Hopefully I'll make it every week and then I'll really get picked for PC in Latin America.

I'm really beginning to learn a lot more about the expeiences of international students in the US at schools because of a friend I'm making from Japan. Her name is Akiko. Today we studied for her test on Friday (I'm just sitting in on the class for the info, but helped her study today) and also were joined by Aviram, a forester from Israel who is just here to take some classes and work on continuing and updating his learning. They were both discussing how it can be very frusterating to communicate in English when they are forced by lack of skill to use a more basic vocaubulary than they are used to using in their own native language. Inherently I knew this... I've felt the frustration when trying to communicate in Spanish. But this is (again!) another one of those things that wasn't in my realm of understanding or realization till today. It makes me glad that Aki and I are getting to know each other so that I can help her... I'm sure other people she has/might have met are not as willing to be understanding and helpful. I think we are going to go hiking this Sunday.