Take Two

Well here I am once again. On Thursday I packed my life (or really just clothes) into two suitcases and headed for the airport. And then I landed once more in Hillsboro, Kansas. This time when I stepped off the plane it was warmer (at 10 o'clock at night) then it had been all summer in Vancouver. What great weather we get eh? Anyways, it has continued to be that hot since then, reaching as high as 112 degrees (which for us Canadians means about 45...). I'm still at the point where I enjoy the warmth that was absent for much of my summer, so I'm not complaining. Plus, we have A/C so there is always a place to go for relief. Wow...why do I always talk about the weather?
In other news...this year is going to look much different than last semester did. First of all, I moved off campus! Although just barely. I live like a block of campus so I can still walk every where which is great. And I live with my best friend, who works at Tabor in admissions, which will make it very fun. So I have moved into a basement suite and have been getting settled waiting for school to start...tomorrow!
Which brings me to the second thing that will be different...I am finally taking classes in my major! Since transferring from SFU to Tabor and then switching majors I have not taken a single class that is in my program, just classes that Tabor requires, and so I am very much looking forward to my classes this semester. I am taking one psychology class and two social work classes (and then two that are Tabor requirements) and they all seem really interesting and geared towards what I want to do. Both my social work classes are taught by my advisor, which I am also looking forward to. In the few interactions I have had with her, she seems very nice and open and engaging. It will be nice to get to know her and get taught by her this semester. And probably every other semester from now on. Many of my classes are intro course, which I am not so excited about. There just seems to be something wrong with a senior (aka fourth year) taking intro classes. But that is what you get for transferring half way through your junior year.
The third change for this year is my work situation. Last semester I was doing some on call catering, which was fun but did not give me very many hours. This year I have (kind of) three jobs. I will remain on call doing catering as well as get regular hours in the cafeteria (two nights a week at the moment). And then I will also be working in admissions doing student calling (I will tell you more about it when I know more about it). Between these three jobs I should get a minimum of 10 hours a week, which should be good.
As if 15 credit hours and three jobs weren't enough I am also doing the fall play this year. I mentioned it before, and still don't know much about it, but I am looking forward to it a lot. The play will be happening in the middle of October, so it will be lots of work until then. But it should be lots of fun!
Well, summer is over. But what a wonderful summer it was. I made some great friends working at the church and had some great times with the adorable children that were there. It was great having some of the same kids every week because we really got to know them and they got to know us. It was definitely an experience I will never forget. I miss both the staff and the kids!!
Well that is all for now. I shall try to be better at these updates in the future! Hope you all had wonderful summers!

Summer Time

I know, I know, I really need to get better at this whole blogging thing. I'm working on it. Being July the school the year is obviously over and I survived my first semester at Tabor College. God willing I will be returning in just seven short weeks.
But before I get to that I shall talk about the end of the semester which was perhaps the best of my time at Tabor. I finally got used to being there and began enjoying it a lot more. I hung out with lots of friends, watched as many playoff games as possible (I even brainwashed several friends into enjoying hockey and being Canuck fans), tried out for the for school musical (and got in!), and of course wrote final papers and exams. The school year ended on a high note as I got to watch my best friend graduate from college and get a job (lucky for me, at Tabor college). I am very much looking forward to going back in mid-August and moving towards my degree completion (in two years!).
So what am I doing this summer? Well what any college student should be doing: working. I got a job at Richmond Chinese United Church helping run their day camp program, along with three other people. For me it is a dream come true. I love camps, as many of you know, and am so grateful that I can spend another summer working with kids and telling them about God. And to get paid to do what I love is even better. I just finished our first week of camp which was a bit of a gong show but we got our feet underneath us by the end of the week. The kids are amazing. They all speak English which was a huge relief for me as my Chinese is (obviously) lacking. They are between 7-12, though we may get a 5 year old soon. They are wonderful kids, with lots of energy which we are working on channeling into appropriate things, but I think it is going very well. I'll let you know how the rest of the summer goes...only five more weeks of it! Other than working, not much is happening in my life, which is just fine with me. I hang out with friends, work, relax, and enjoy the summer as it won't last long and then it will be time to learn again.

Spring Break and other things

Wow, it has been awhile since I have written! Sorry! So what has been going on?
Well, two weeks ago it was spring break, which was fantastic! At SFU we never got breaks until the 2 week Olympic break last year. I am told that now that have a reading break, but all through my years there we never got breaks. So spring break was wonderful. For the first half of spring break I went back to Nashville for a couple of days. We went as tourists this time, not volunteers. We went camping at state park about 45 minutes from Nashville and it was lovely. The weather was so nice...it was 80 degrees the entire time we were there and sunny so it was good tenting weather. The park we stayed at had a lot of grandparent types, which was fun. They were all very nice to us and worried about us 3 college girls and whether we could survive in our tent. We had offers to help cut wood for our fire, to give us food, to give us coffee. One couple even gave us all their contact information in case we needed help on our drive. Southern people seem to be very hospitable like that.
While in Nashville we spent a lot of time relaxing at our campsite, playing card games, going on walks, and learning how to cook on a campfire. The park had horseback riding, so we did that for an hour one day which was fun. I don't think I have ridden horses since I was like 10 or something! We also spent one day in the city...we went to some of the places we had gone when we were working in Nashville but spent a little bit more time touring them and taking pictures. We also went back to the Samaritan's Purse headquarters to see the people we had worked with while we were there, which was so good. The supervisors were so good to us when we worked there and we brought them some Tabor wear to remember us by. They let us stay for dinner which was wonderful as always. It was good to see them all again.
After that I got on a plane and made my way back to B.C. (the best place on earth). I have often missed the mountains, and ocean, and mountain air. And of course my family, and friends, and home cooked meals. So that is what I spent my week at home doing: being lazy around the house, hanging out with my family, seeing friends, eating good home cooked food, watching some good hockey, and catching up on everything. It was wonderful to be home. At the end of the week I flew back to Kansas and back to school.
I now have about six weeks left I believe...school starts later here so it ends later than schools in BC. I should be back in BC at the end of May - ready to work!
That is all for now - hopefully I will update more consistently!

School, school and more school

It has been awhile since I have written, probably because nothing too exciting has happened. Just a lot of school and not much else.
So to start with school: it is going very good. I am mostly intro lower level courses that Tabor requires, so it is very different than what I was doing at SFU. The classes of course are very small - I think my largest class has 40 students when everyone is there. The work is also much easier, though there is a lot more assignments than I am used to and they are not too difficult. I am enjoying my classes. I am in one bible class - a general intro to bible that gives a general overview of the Bible (from Genesis-revelation). It has been an interesting class, lots of information, and I think I have already learned a lot in it. The rest of my classes are also going well and hopefully will continue to go good.
Work - I lucked into getting a job the first week of the semester so that was amazing. I get paid minimum wage, but it all counts! I have been working for the catering company that runs the campus cafeteria. They cater many on campus events (banquets for donors, sports teams, etc) so I have worked several jobs in the last month doing many different things. The hours aren't consistent, but the work is fun. I have helped with plating dishes which is cool - learn how things work behind the scenes.
Last weekend I also had a chance to work at the summer camp (Morning Star Ranch) that Whitney is interning at, helping with a men's group that came in. We helped with some cooking, cleaning, and serving food for three meals. It was a great opportunity to volunteer and learn about another camp. We both had a lot of fun - though we were exhausted by the end of that.
Other than that no much has been going on. I have two more weeks here and then it is spring break for us - and I will be coming home for half of it! I am looking forward to that a lot!

One Month

On January 8th I arrived in Kansas, and now it has officially been a month. And what a great month it has been. I spent two weeks in Nashville, which I have written about a lot. But it was a wonderful trip and I miss it a lot. It was also a lot like Vancouver (except for the music and the accents of course) but the city was similar, and when it snowed the city shut down just like Vancouver. Before and after that trip I was at Tabor experiencing cold weather and small classes, which was also good. I have now spent a week and a half in classes for the full semester. I am taking a lot of intro things that Tabor requires all students to take, so that has been interesting. One of my classes is a bible class, and though we haven't had too many classes it is looking like it will be an interesting course. My other classes are also going well.
I finally got moved in. The week before the Nashville trip I was just living in a temporary dorm room with freshmen (that is first years for those who don't speak American).That was actually fun, the girls were all very nice and I enjoyed their company. But, when we came back it was time to move into our permanent residence. I now live in a townhouse, appropriately named Wiebe, where the rooms are bigger and just for juniors and seniors (I am a junior). We have finally gotten most of our stuff moved in and put away...pictures will come when it gets cleaner!
Weather has been the topic here. Last Monday it snowed a lot and was -19 Fahrenheit with windchill. It was not a good day. But it was getting nicer by the end of the week. And before I knew it I was going out without a jacked it weather that was just above freezing. So I was hoping the snow had ended, but yesterday another snow storm came through. We now have 1-2 feet of snow in most places. Tabor was canceled-  the first time in a very long time. And the student body was encouraged to go out and shovel driveways. And so many did. Various sports teams went out with their coaches, and others went out in their own groups, or school groups. Even I went out! It was a fun time of serving the people around us. But never fear, next week it is supposed to be in the 50s all week! (about 10ish C)
One month gone, many to go. And hopefully they just keep getting better!

Putting A House Back Together

For nearly the whole two weeks we were in Nashville, I worked in a single home. When our group got to the home, Samaritan's Purse (SP) had only spent about 4 days in the house. The drywall was done as was the priming.

The first thing we did when we got there was paint the entire house. Priming was done already, so we just had the ceilings to do (once) and the walls (twice)

Next, we had to prepare the floors for the flooring, so we scrapped all the drywall, mud, and paint off the floors. It was a very dusty process

Once that was done, the flooring was going in. We laid a floating laminate floor throughout all the bedrooms, the living room, and the hallways.

We even got to use the saw...I avoided it though

Once the laminate was laid, we moved onto the ceramic tile in both bathrooms, the kitchen, the hearth, and the foyer. We learned how to make the thin set (mud under the tile), laid the tile, cut the tile, and put down the grout (I even helped pick out the colour)

After painting, and finishing all the floors, the last thing we got to do was put up cabinets.

So in two weeks we painted, completed all the flooring, and put up cabinets. By the time we were done the house was really coming together.

The Bedrooms:

The Bathroom:

The Living Room:

And the Kitchen/Dining Room:

We accomplished a lot in the house and we were told soon the homeowner would be able to return!

Rebuilding Music City

I have now been in Nashville for a week, and it has been quite the experience. During the week us Tabor girls did a lot of work on the house we are working on and I learned a lot. We started small - painting the house. We painted the whole house twice in two days. It was a lot of paints (some of it on me) and by the time we were done we were glad. We then began flooring. We started with laminate wood flooring, which went in three bedrooms, the hallway, and a living room area. It was very difficult at first. It was a snap lock flooring and it takes a lot of strength to put together, which was lacking at some points. But as our site manager says, "It's not a  baby's bottom, you just have to get mean with it". And so we did. I got the hang of it, and soon we were flying through the house. We finished the lower floor and the upstairs in two and a half days. The Tabor girls became known as the "Mennonite Thoroughbreds" because we did everything so quickly and surpassed others expectations of us. It felt good to get a lot done and to be recognized for it. Once the laminate was done, we began the ceramic tile in the kitchen in bathrooms. I was in charge of laying tile with some others, while someone else cut the tile and mudded the floor. We got a lot done and in a day and a half had completed the kitchen and moved onto the bathrooms. That is where we are at today. Tomorrow we will finish the tile. Wednesday we should be grouting it. Thursday we may put up cabinets, and Friday we will be done! What a two weeks!
On Friday we also had the opportunity to watch a dedication ceremony during which six houses were completed and the homeowners given keys to the house. We had a large block party as all the houses were on the same block with some good food and good company. Each homeowner was given a bible, and notebook with notes from everyone who had worked on their house in it, and a picture frame of the total costs spent on their house with a "paid in full" stamp on it. It was very rewarding to see people be given back their houses and to take in their excitement. We also had the opportunity to talk to some homeowners and listen to their stories. The destruction of the flood is clear when you hear their stories, despite the lack of obvious outside damage.
Hearing the stories and seeing the joy of people being returned to their homes is the greatest reward for me. It reminds me why I am here - to serve God and to serve these people who lost everything and to give them a little something back. Now one week has passed and the second is beginning. More work is ahead. But I have no doubt that it will be worth the early mornings and the sore muscles in the end.

P.S. Here is a link to a news clip about the dedication ceremony (the clip is called "Flood Victims Get Keys to Rebuilt Homes"):  http://www.wsmv.com/local-video/index.html