Now would be a good time to update...
Tricia and Amanda just left. I had a blast hanging out with them and showing them around JMU!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE having visitors, especially Tricia and Amanda!!
I have a house for next year!! I will be living with 7 other girls about 2 blocks away from campus, in what WILL be a beautiful house. It is currently occupied by frat guys. They don't use the downstairs as living space; it is only used for partying. There is no furniture and when I say I've never seen a house more disgusting in my life, I'm not over exaggerating. You can ask Tricia or Amanda. It looks like it belongs in a third world country, not Harrisonburg, VA. The landlord is AMAZING. He's a Christian and he owns a lot of the Cru/IV houses around town. They are going to completely tear apart the house and make it beautiful. Once I move in, I'll post pictures of the before and after. Until then, imagine the most disgusting house you've ever seen and multiply that by 10, add broken glass/beer cans, cigarette butts, and plenty of other filth! :)
School. It's going well. SO busy though. Classes are tough and taking up so much time and energy. I'm definitely not trying my hardest, probably because I just don't have the energy after sitting in class for 6 hours each day. I'm excited for next semester. I'm only taking 16 credits! Maybe 18 if I decide to take a dance class for fun, wahoo. I'm still trying to coordinate with Kelly when we are going to study abroad. That's been tough but I really want to go abroad. How often do you get to live in another country for a few months for relatively cheap?
OH! I haven't written about spring break. I will be spending my break in the Dominican Republic. I'll be working with at an orphanage with the Alternative Spring Break program at JMU. This is a program that plans international and domestic spring break service trips to give students the option of doing something productive with their break, rather than partying. There is such an interest for these trips that in order to be fair they use a lottery system to decide who gets to go. I looked into this specific trip, prayed hard core about it, and decided to get a lottery number and see if I was picked. My parents said that they would let me decide if I was going to go or not, which if you know my parents and trips to other countries, you know that this was a huge open door for me. My number was picked and I got a spot on the team. I feel very confident that I am supposed to go on this trip, although it scares the CRAP! out of me!!! One, this is not a missions trip. The orphanage is run by Christian Americans, which is awesome, but I will not be surrounded by Christ-loving teammates who are continuously praying for me and for our team. Two, I don't know ANYONE else on our team, yet. So scary, but so exciting. I'm very pumped to be a light for this team. Three, I will miss out on Big Break (actually, BB isn't happening this year, but JMU will kind of be putting on their own BB most likely.) I know that I'm supposed to go on this trip and I know that when I start doubting that it's Satan. Yes, I will miss out on a trip with the other JMU Crusade kids, but they will still be my friend when we all come back from our prospective trips. I'm pretty sure of it. I talked to Tony a lot about this trip, which was SO helpful to get his insight. I'm still looking into a lot of stuff as far as logistics go. I'm going though, until God says not to.
Many colleges have gone here in the past and worked with this orphanage in a similar way that we will.
- Appalachian State University
- California Lutheran University
- Central Michigan University
- College of Charleston
- Depauw University
- Eastern Michigan University
- Grove City College
- Huntington College
- Johnson Bible College
- North Carolina State University
- Penn State University-Altoona
- Pepperdine University
- Plymouth State University
- Rice University
- University of Alabama-Birmingham
- University of Maryland
- University of South Carolina
- University of Vermont
- University of Virginia
- University of Western Ontario
- Virginia Wesleyan College
- Western New England College
- Xavier University
This UVA student wrote an awesome article that gave me a pretty good description of what the trip will look like. I'm SO excited. This will be harder than any missions trip I've ever been on. Bring it on!!!
God is great. Life is good, my suitemates are excellent and such a blessing in my life. I'm currently reading A Book on Leadership by John MacArthur. It's great. He looks at Paul's life and takes principles that Paul displays and relates them to qualities that leaders should possess. Thanksgiving break is soon! I'm pretty excited. I love Thanksgiving, making candy canes the day after with my whole family, the football game that all of the cousins play with our dads, and going to see my very first REDSKINS game with Kathryn that Sunday. I won't actually be in EC very much at all over break though. The weekend after break almost my ENTIRE bible study is coming home with me!! We are going to CpR, probably downtown Annapolis, and then we will stop and make candy canes on our way back to school. oh yeah, AND it's TRICIA BULGER's 17th Birthday!!!
That's a pretty good summary of my life right now :)