A Boardwalk, A Band, And More

This weekend--my first full weekend back at school--was filled with a lot of fun activity with friends. I'll admit that the beginning of my Saturday was quite lazy, but hey, it's nice to sleep in after the first week of classes!

The day picked up when I went to the opening of the art exhibit Up Routed For with two of my friends. First, we heard the artist talk about her work. Then we were able to look at it all in the gallery. I'm far from an art expert, but the exhibit seemed fun and unique to me. It featured video scuplture, a medium that I wasn't very used to seeing. One of my favorite things, at least in terms of experience, was the boardwalk that we were encouraged to walk on. It incorporated a video of the word "foreigner" being written in sand. Another fun video sculpture was called "Jacob's Ladder;" it was a tower of televisions playing video of escalators going up. There was also some really great photography that included houses and bridges made of postcards set against architectural backdrops.

Later that night, I met with those same friends to head over to TRAX, where the band Kingsfoil played a show. They had performed as an opening act at the fall semester's Neon Trees concert which I hadn't been able to attend, so this was my first time seeing them. They were good and super nice when we met them. Overall, it was a lot of fun! After they finished playing, TRAX kept playing music so we stuck around to dance.

Sunday was also a busy day. It started out with a chapel service honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. The music was especially great. Some of his favorite hymns had been chosen for the service. Afterwards, I had a long brunch with friends; Sunday brunch is one of my favorite meals of the week. Later that day, I helped my friend Karen cook dinner for a young adult service we go to at the Selinsgrove Church of the Nazarene. I am not much of a cook, but I was happy to help; the meal ended up being delicous. That night, friends and I met in the student center lobby to have a homework party.

Now the school week has started, and I am still feeling really great about my classes! My religion classes, I think, are going to be the most interesting this semester. I feel as if I'm learning a ton in Intro to Asian Religions. Right now we're learning about Hinduism, which I knew a bit about from World History classes; however, this class is totally expanding my understanding. I am also completely interested in my Luther: Life and Thought course.

So far, this semester has been off to a great start, and I'm hoping things continue that way!

Part of Your World



Bev and I over the summer

My friend Beverly, who goes to the University of Pittsburgh, commented on how Susquehanna is very much a different world from her big, urban university. We concluded that basically every college is its own world, with its own culture, and how her visit was taking her into mine.

When Bev arrived Saturday afternoon, I gave her a campus tour with her other friend she was visiting. It was fun to be able to show her all the places on campus, including my beloved freshman dormitory (though we didn't get the chance to go inside). One place we explored with her was the library. Then we ate lunch with her at my favorite place to eat on campus, Benny's. During this tour, I was able to introduce her to many people, like my roommate from last year Sarah who I called to meet us outside of Smith, where she RAs, my Big from Alpha Phi Omega, and one of my friends from my residence hall last year, Kathleen.

Saturday she went to stay with her other friend, but on Sunday we spent the day together. A cool aspect of the day was that it differed from the norm but I also was able to include her in many of my Sunday routines. We met at chapel, then had Sunday brunch in the cafeteria, one of my favorite SU meals. We decided to spend a lot of our day outside. We walked into downtown Selinsgrove which Bev found adorable; of course I agreed. There wasn't much open in Selinsgrove on a Sunday afternoon so we walked over by the river and found a gazebo where we could chat. I had never actually been to that spot before, but it was nice and I want to go back. Following our outdoors adventure, we returned to my dorm, where we spent time with my friends, and then went to Benny's for dinner. This Sunday happened to be a week when the Selinsgrove Church of the Nazarene was having its young adult service. I was able to take her to that, and she got to see many of my friends from InterVarsity who also attend Plugged In. Afterwards, we ordered Domino's at my dorm.

We ended the night chilling in my room and staying up talking way too late.

It's so awesome that she has been here and experienced some parts of my Susquehanna world. Now I can talk to her about my college life and the people in it, and she will have at least some idea about what I'm saying! It makes me want to visit here even more at Pitt--though I know that world will be extremely different from Susquehanna.

Flood Clean-Up

There has been some horrible rain in Selinsgrove since I’ve returned to campus—and some terrible flooding.  The Isle of Que, an area of Selinsgrove that is right by the river, was one of many affected areas in Pennsylvania. Some students live there in off-campus housing and had to evacuate along with the Isle’s other residents. This weekend the Isle of Que became open again to its residents, and clean-up began.

Susquehanna students have definitely been involved in helping out with the flooding. The Center for Civic Engagement banded volunteers together. I heard a lot from Alpha Phi Omega about ways to help with the flooding, and I know a lot of my APO brothers were involved in clean-up and deputy duty down at the Isle.

I ended up going down on Sunday with the Selinsgrove Church of Nazarene. Every other Sunday, they have a worship service for young adults, but we used some of that time to help clean up and dispose of debris for a few families.

College is supposed to be a time for new experiences, and this certainly provided new experiences, like slogging through the mud to grab trash or planks of wood or feeling mud splatter into my hair as I helped heave something into a dumpster. I’ve found out something interesting about myself through all these new experiences at college: I’m not too afraid of getting dirty. I always think I’ll be more nervous, but as with my pledge class’s service project at the Campus Gardens, I found that I didn’t really mind—though I really did enjoy taking a shower afterward.

I knew there had been flooding, but it had been much worse than I had anticipated. It made my own problems seem tiny in comparison and my life seem very fortunate.