more catch up....

Sunday, September 13
That morning one of the churches in town was doing a community service day, so I decided to pitch in. When I walked out of my dorm building, I realized it was raining...I probably should have gone back in to get a jacket, but I didn't. My group was picking up trash around the town for two hours. It was fun...I even found 60 cents worth of coins! Thankfully it wasn't raining very hard at all, just an off and on drizzle. My feet got really really wet though, and I didn't have anything to change in to.
After we got back to the church we had the church service (they had been hoping to have it and a picnic at the park, but didn't because of the rain). I really enjoyed the pastor's message and I may end up attending that church. I haven't really decided yet. Afterwards, we had a potluck.
I took a nap that afternon because I had gotten up early. When I got on Facebook after my nap, I saw that Nathan was on...so I asked if he had time to try out the web cameras Dad had bought, so we did! We had kind of tried it a couple times before I left, but it didn't work right. It did this time though! So I had my first web cam "call" home :D It was nice to be able to "see" everyone again, including Bluebonnet! I'm pretty sure the little guy recognized my voice (which he doesn't seem to do over the phone), because he got REALLY excited. Sadly, I had to get off after about 30 minutes to go to dinner :(

Monday, September 14
I don't think I was overly smart that day.....I had kind of had a scratchy throat when I went to bed Sun. night, and I still had it all day Monday. I think I was kind of coming down with something from having sat in wet clothes (especially my socks/shoes) for two hours in an air-conditioned building Sun. morning. I decided to go running anyways (mistake #1), but only went a short distance.
Had classes and such...tried to drink lots of water. That afternoon there was a blood drive on campus, so I decided to go donate blood (mistake #2!). I didn't have a fever or anything. I had donated last September and been just fine, so I figured it would go fine this time too...not. Just as the nurse came over to unhook me, I just about passed out. So they lay me down and put me feet up and all that...I felt better after a little while so they sat me up, but then I felt like I was losing it again, so they put me back down. The nurse said I was really pale, so they gave me something to eat and drink and all. It took about 20 minutes after I finished before they would let me leave...and I still felt a little lightheaded.
That night we had our "Women of Walker" night. A JBU alum who now lives and works in India came and talked to us. It was really neat to hear her story. She ended up marrying a man in India and now has a daughter. They work with orphans and have 8-10 staying with them at any one time. Later that evening we all got to meet our Passion group (small Bible studies on campus), so I was really excited about that! A couple of the girls I kind of know from the Dallas area, and one of the girls is in my Gateway class, so I think it will be a great group!

Tuesday, September 15
Had my first homework freak-out that day........in the morning I started typing up my notes from Saturday about the block for the essay that was due on Friday. Then, when we got to class (English Comp.), the teacher spent several minutes talking about what a tough grader he is and how we have to take time to revise and we'd better not wait until the day before it's due to write it and so on so forth....so I freaked out. Got back from class and spent most of the evening (from 4-11) writing the essay. I didn't get much of my other homework for the day done because of that...but at least I finished up the rough draft for the essay and that made me feel much better!
I still kind of had a scratchy throat for part of the day, but by the evening it was gone and I was pretty sure that I had escaped without getting completely sick.

Wednesday, September 16
I tried to go running that morning....but it did NOT work. Between being kind of sick and giving blood on Monday, I just didn't have enough energy! I went one mile, but was feeling like I was just going to go to sleep running...so decided to quit!
Classes went well. For Mass Media we started watching some of the first silent movies...it was pretty funny to see what they would pay to watch - movies of people jumping into the ocean, of people crossing a street in New York, etc. For News Writing, we wrote our first story in class and I really enjoyed it. Writing news stories seems kind of easy...you have all your facts and parts of the story on a sheet of paper and you just reorganize it to tell the story...I got an A on that assignment, but the professor was going around looking over our shoulder suggesting changes we should make...so it seems a little bit like cheating...but not really.

[Well, now I need to head for class.......I have my first test this morning. Thankfully it is my first class (Mass Media and Culture) so I can get it over with. The teacher has basically told us exactly what's going to be on the test about five times, so I feel decently good about it. My family is headed to see me...I am SO excited to see them!!!!!!!!!]