Reality is setting in... homework is piling up... assignments are due... I am back in school!!! :D
I arrived here last Sunday in a whirl of boxes, suitcases, and bags. I had woken up that morning in a daze, with this strange sense that something was different about that day... something... Oh DUH! I was going to Southern!... and I hadn't packed a THING YET! So the morning progressed in a flury of packing, and around 3pm. we were on the road.
We pulled into the parking lot at Thatcher Hall (girls dorm), and were met by a cheery faced Allen Parker, sporting his We-Haul shirt, and a dolly. :) We were very thankful to have help getting all that stuff up the stairs to our third floor room!
Now seeing as my poor harp had been baking in the back of the truck for the past few hours, we next ran over to the music building to see if we could find where it needed to go. After unsuccesfully locating a single person, we eventually decided on leaving it in the orchestra practice room, with a note attached to it. (little need to fear that anyone would run off with it... ;)
The remainder of the afternoon was spent unpacking, and setteling into my new residence for this next phase in my life... my dorm room. Upon entering my room for the first time, I was greated by my roomate... ALLIE!!! I am SOOOO thankful to be rooming with her! (she was one of my best friends on WFL)... and to make thing even better, our suite mates are my friend Lindsay Smith, and my sister Audrey!!! :D We're going to have a blast... :p
That evening I went to the New Student Dedication. We were exhorted to study hard, learn lots, and date lots of guys/girls. As I pondered this bit of sage advice, I decided dismiss the latter... I mean, who has time to study hard AND date lots of guys!!! (never mind the fact that I don't care to date lots of guys...) :P
Monday and Tuesday were all more orientation stuff. We had the Presidents Prayer Breakfast, and Acedemic Success Sessions, and Acedemic Department/Schools Orientation, and The Amazing Race, and New Student Residence Hall Orientation, etc... (fancy, after all that "orientating" I still felt somewhat lost...) On Wednesday we had Community Outreach. That was really neat. We split up into groups of between 10 and 15, and each group went to work at a different place in the surrounding area. My group went to the Collegedale library where we dusted book shelves, washed windows, cleaned the flowerbeds outside, etc...
That afternoon was the Organization Showcase. All the different clubs/organizations at SAU had a booth set up in the gym (it reminded me of the booth halls at ASI and GYC). They had everything from kayakers and running clubs, to health and outreach clubs. As Allie and I were standing at one of the booths, they announced over the speakers that the Student Learning Success booth would be giving away a Japanese Fighting fish as one of it's prizes. I didn't think much about this, seeing as I had tried the fishy thing four times before, and failed miserably... (they all passed through the porcelain portals within a week of my possessing them...) Well, Allie decided that a fish would be nice to have in our room... so we made our way over to the booth. We took their learning quizz, and were then given a ticket and told that the drawing would be at 5:30. So we wandered around, and made some new friends until they announced that it was time for the drawing. They drew three other winning numbers, and then on the fourth one, of all the absurdities, who's number should they call but MINE! I went over to the booth, and was informed that the first three people to get their numbers drawn hadn't wanted the fish... so guess who got mr. fishy... poor fellow... maybe I'll have better luck this time... :) I did find that he made for a great conversation starter... guess it's not ever day you see a person carrying a fish tank around campus...
Thursday was officially the first day of classes... and I had NONE! :P So I caught up on some e-mails that morning, went to convocation, did some last minute shopping, etc... Then that night was the department welcome parties... so I headed over to the Allied Health/Biology pary... sounds fun huh? :p Someone had it rumored that it was going to be a lecture... so a bunch of people didn't show up... but in actuality it turned out to be just what they said it was... they had banana splits, popcorn, fruit, punch, and games. The extent of the "lecture" was an introduction of the different teachers. :)
Friday was my first REAL day of classes... I had Anatomy & Physiology from 8:00 - 8:50, on one side of campus; and College Comp. from 9:00 to 9:50, on the absolute opposite side of campus! (so nice of them to give us all of ten minutes...) I did some of my homework right after class, and then after lunch I was free for the remainder of the afternoon... so I did my weekend food shopping at the Village Market, and came back to my room to do... I wasn't sure what... (I ended up taking a two hr. nap... :P ) Sabbath cleaning didn't take too long, and then it was time to get ready for Vespers.
As Audrey and I were walking to Vespers, the cord to my student ID card was swinging from my pocket... and unbeknownst to me, somwhere along the way it fell out. We arrived at the church, and not long after, I disocvered that it was missing. My first reaction was to panic... but Audrey told me that it was no big deal, and that someone would most likely turn it in at the girls dorm, after Vespers. So I sent up a quick prayer, and enjoyed the rest of the program. Gordon Beitz (the president) spoke on our purpose/focus/drive as students here at SAU, and the strings section of the orchestra performed Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 ... (I can't find word to express what it was like hearing that performed live...)
After Vespers we went back to the dorm, and my ID card hadn't been returned yet... so we had someone let us into our room (your ID card is you room key as well... and Audrey had left hers in the room.). I sent up another quick prayer, and got ready for bed... then, just after I had gotten into my PJ's, the phone rang... and it was the front desk, saying that someone had returned my card! I was so happy that I just threw something on, (not sure it really matched....), and flew down to the front desk, hair all askew. :P I'm so glad that God cares about the little thing too... :)
Sabbath was an awesome day. We went to the North River church in downtown Chattanooga. This is a church plant, meeting in a Methodist church, that was begun just last year; so it is still fairly small. I think yesterday was the largest it has ever been, with a bunch of the returned SAU students. Sabbath school was a lively discussion of Job and his wife, and then for church there was a young missionary couple that did a slide presentation of the work in Africa where they are. After church there was potluck, and then some groups split off to do different things for the afternoon.
Audrey, Luke, myself, and a few of their friends went on a bike ride near some big river that I've already forgotten the name of. Boy, was that quite the ride... I hadn't been mountain biking in a while, and this was some trail! Stick, logs and stones scattered the narrow path, and there were multiple times when you couldn't even see the trail due to the think brush! lol Thankfully I only wiped out once, (and it was very minor). I won't soon forget the thrill, though, of racing through the woods, sweat pouring down your body, not having a clue what lies around the next corner. :) It was great. Now just so long as we all don't break out in poison ivy all over are legs...
When we reached the car we quickely loaded everything up, seeing as we were supposed to be at a birthday party about then... but we weren't stressing too much due to the fact that the birthday boy (Jonathan Renolds) was with us! lol We called ahead and told them that we were running late, but that we would be there asap... Well, we made it within a minute of their house, when the car started sputtering... and stopped... we had run out of gas. :) Luke, Jonathan, and I got out and started pushing, while Audrey drove. We got it a little further before deciding to just push it over to the side of the road and leave it there. Then what should we see coming down the road, but a truck full of guys from Jon's house! Jon had called home and told them right when we had stopped, so they had loaded up all the guys that were there for the party, and come to our rescue! :D They made quick work of pushing it the rest of the way to the house... :)
The party was a blast... Mrs. Renolds had made Thi noodles that were awesome, and there was fruit salad, cookies, muffins, cake, and popsicles. After eating we all went around the circle, saying how Jonathan had been a blessing in our lives... it was neat to hear how many lives he had touched in just 22 years. The rest of the evening was spent chatting and having a good time with friends.
As we drove back to the dorm that night, we passed the SA Welcome Back Party on the lawn by the duck pond... there was smoke and hazy green lights and lots of people... Luke suggested that I run over and check it out... :p I declined... I was more than happy with the small party that I had been to... and besides... I was sore and ready for bed. :P
So... thus ended my first week at Southern... Tomorrow begins a full week of classes... Today... lol... well, seeing as it's nearly 3:00 and I'm still in my PJ's... maybe I'll go get dressed and do some studying now... :D
-Shannon
