Theme Verse

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go."
-Joshua 1:9 (NIV)

"Ya te lo he ordenado: ¡Sé fuerte y valiente! ¡No tengas miedo ni te desanimes! Porque el SEÑOR tu Dios te acompañará dondequiera que vayas."
-Josué 1:9 (NVI)


Saturday, January 29, 2011

Winter in Chicago

You know it's cold when the inside of your nose freezes and you have bits of ice in your eyelashes when you get to class. And you know it's been really cold when the mid-20s feels balmy...
But surprisingly I haven't minded the cold too much. I don't know if I'm just used to it after two years, or if I'm just so happy to be back at North Park that I don't really mind the cold. Plus my apartment is often a million degrees, so sometimes the cold feels really good. :)

Other than surviving the cold, I've been busy with classes. Several of my books STILL have not arrived in the mail, which has been frustrating. Thankfully I've been able to find the readings online, but I'll be glad when they finally get here. But I'm enjoying my classes thus far and the homework load hasn't been too heavy yet.

Last weekend a group of us went downtown to Giordano's for pizza, which was really fun. Last night we (my roommates and I) surprised our roommate Marlee for her birthday, sort of. Technically her birthday is in July, but we don't see her then, so we were going to celebrate her half birthday, but it was actually last week. Needless to say, she was pretty surprised. So after grocery shopping, she and I ran to Target to get a couple more things while Abby, Melissa, and Sara made smoothies and chips and salsa stuff. Then when she came in we sang Happy Birthday and ate and talked. Later we watched "Failure to Launch," which was a funny movie. She wasn't quite as confused as last year when we surprised her with cake. We meant to do it on her half birthday but missed it, so when we started singing her Happy Birthday she looked really confused and kept saying, "Guys, it's not my birthday."
Today has been pretty laid back: I slept in, did my laundry, made cookies, and did some homework. Tomorrow promises to be a full day, with us making lunch at church. Overall a nice, uneventful weekend, which in my opinion is the best kind.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Back in Chicago!

I'm back in Chicago! I've actually been here since late Friday night, but I haven't gotten around to updating this yet. But since I'm sitting desk right now, and have no homework yet (which will change very soon) I figured it was a good time to write a post.
It's really nice to be back in Chicago, even though it's freezing (it's snowing... again). I love our apartment, and I'm slowly but surely finding a place for all my stuff. Last night one of my roommates, Marlee, made vegetarian chili for dinner, one of the few things all of us can eat (everyone but Sara has at least one food allergy, which makes cooking kinda tricky) and we had a great time eating and talking and laughing. Kyla, my friend Bekah's sister, and another friend, Zach, joined us for dinner too, which was fun.

I think this semester is going to be crazy busy, but I'm looking forward to it, for several reasons:
1. I think I'm going to like all my classes. I'm taking two lit classes, both with professors I've had before, and I know at least one of them is a fabulous lit professor. I'm also taking a writing class, which should be good. I'm taking a couple education classes (one each quad) which I don't know a lot about, but will hopefully be good, or at the very least interesting.

2. I'm really excited about living with the girls in my apartment, and spending time with them and other friends. I'm also looking forward to spending time with Drew, which we finally get to do without any phones or computers. :) One thing I want to really work on this semester is balancing my time between homework and people.

3. Did I mention all my classes are in English? :) I do miss speaking in Spanish though, and I want to find a way to speak it more, so I don't lose all the Spanish I learned last semester.

I think there are probably more things I'm excited about for this semester, but I've been up since 6 and my coffee wasn't quite enough to fully wake me up, so that's all for now. Running around campus for a couple hours in the snow should be enough to wake me up a bit more, hopefully before I have class this afternoon.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

New Year, New Blog

Hello again! After some thought, I've decided to continue with this blog. As you may have noticed, I changed the title and the description, as well as the background and theme colors. I hope you like it! I really enjoyed writing in my blog while I was in Costa Rica, and I've kind of missed it since I've been back. And of course, the adventures don't stop just because I'm back home. I may not be swinging through the jungle, but that doesn't mean my life is boring.

So far, since I've been home, I've had Christmas with my family, traveled down to Houston to visit more family, read a few books, and made several trips to Starbucks. Two weeks from today I'll be starting classes at North Park, and I'm super excited for that. I'll also be "teacher aiding" (as part of the education program at NP, I go into a high school classroom and observe throughout the semester), which might be an adventure in and of itself. I'll also be living with four other girls in an apartment, and hopefully seeing a bit more of Chicago than I have in the past two years. So all in all, this looks to be a good semester! We'll see how often this blog gets updated, what with all the classes I'm taking and working and everything else, but my goal is to write once every week or two weeks.

Well, I hope you all have had a good Christmas and New Year's and are looking forward to going back to school or work or whatever.

Bendiciones (blessings)
Holly