Oh, hello there.

Apparently I'm not as good at this as I was hoping, seeing as I haven't posted since February and I promised much, much more. Oh well, what's grace for if not to give myself some.
Here I am, spring quarter, about a month away from finishing my freshman year of college. That's weird, to say the least. The weather in Seattle has tended towards the sunny side, which is more than lovely! I can't explain how delightful it is to have leaves on the trees again, especially on the SPU campus. Grey skies and trees with bare limbs aren't the best for the the psyche, though perhaps less distracting for the academics.

Speaking of academics, if you haven't heard, I'm planning majoring in art history!!!!!! Okay, maybe that's more exciting to me than to you. Of course, nothing is set in stone and all is subject to change (it's been known to happen before), but I sure hope I won't change my mind. I am not quite sure where this path will lead, but it is going to be fun...and artsy...and historic...

A couple of my wonderful friends:

 Caitlin, Heather, Claire, and...who's that girl with short hair?! Oh yeah, me :)

À bientôt!           

When Seattle is Magical... (aka, when the weather is pleasant))

The first pictures is from Kerry Park taken today on a walk after church. I wish this weather would stay. It's so lovely.

The other pictures were taken the other night on a night walk to Gasworks . There was an adorable couple lighting paper lanterns into the sky. Like I said, this weather is magical.

Tragic story...

I've been to Cupcake Royal in Ballard twice and both times they've been clean out of cupcakes. Starbucks cake-pops are just not the same.

Favorites of Fremont

This afternoon/evening, my darling Heather and I took a little study trip, which later became a little study break, across the canal and into Fremont. To study we went to my new favorite coffee shop called Canal Street Coffee. It's adorable, the people are nice, the coffee's tasty, and they play wonderful (but sometimes very random) music.  

While walking back, I took a shot of this Fremont favorite. This is the Theo Chocolate factory. It's the only chocolate factory to be both purely organic and fair trade in the US. I could say so many more wonderful things about it, but you'll just have to experience it for yourself.

We also stopped at this amazing little bookstore. It was my first time, and I am already a dedicated customer. Next time you're in Fremont, stop here and peruse in this lovely shop. You won't be disappointed. 

Adorable and Grandiose

 I started a job dog walking this quarter. Here are two of the great things about this job: 

1. I get to walk and love on this adorable pup!

2. I get to look sneak peaks at the grandiose views like this one from Queen Anne hill! 

Snow days

Picture time! I'm going back to last week with these photos. I suppose I should say week-end, as school was canceled for 4 and a half days, which makes, in essence, a nine day weekend. Pretty awesome, right!? Someone told me recently the irony of college students and our love for snow days: College is the only thing that people pay to get, and then rejoice when we don't get it. 

Here's my dorm in the snow. The window to my room four over and four down. 

On the first snow day, we took a walk to Gasworks park. Many other Seattleites were there as well enjoying the "slopes" on these rare snow days.

I live in such an awesome city! I hope you enjoyed the snow if you had it! Come back tomorrow for some more exciting photos! :) 

Photos...for days...

Hi there friends! I've decided that I really want to be better at this blogging thing, so in order to accomplish that, I'm going to try to put up a photo a day and leave a little comment along with it. Since I'm giving up Facebook for a little while, I thought this would be a good way to stay in touch, it's something I actually want to do instead of staring at a computer screen and then asking myself what the heck I've been doing for the last hour. (If you have Facebook, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about ;) ) Maybe blogging's not all that different, but here's hoping. :)

Falling for leaves

The SPU campus is rather gorgeous in autumn. I unashamedly love colorful leaves! I do wish I had a better camera to do them justice, but my phone will have to do. Enjoy!

By the way, Thanksgiving is in 12 days!

An insider's look at the first month of college.

Hello there blog world. Long time no write. (I love being cliche) :)

College has been my for just over a month. I seriously can't believe that it's been that long! I'm half-way through the quarter! Midterms are happening this week! I'm feeling so collegiate.

I would assume you want some sort of update, so I'll try to give you one. I warn you though, there may be little organization to these thoughts. Someday I hope to be a writer that makes sense, but today is not that day.

Let me give you a list of a few things I've learned:

1) God is good. I already knew this, of course, but it especially shows in the way He orchestrated where and with whom I am living.

2) I'm love learning! I get irritated at times with homework and scheduling, but it pays off. (Of course, I'm paying for it paying off...)

3) It is incredibly important to be present and be content. If I'm in class, if I'm relaxing (or being crazy) on the floor and spending time with the girls, if I'm watching TV, or if I'm studying, I need to be absorbed and invested in those things. I don't need to feel guilty when I'm relaxing (if it's time to relax) and I should be committed to focusing when I'm studying.

4) The walk up to Ashton hurts everyday. Enough said.

5) There must be almost as many squirrels on campus. I have a theory that there is a secret  underground university on campus just for squirrels. I've yet find concrete evidence to support that yet, but we'll see.


Okay, I'm signing out. I'll just leave you with this last comment: Engage the Culture, Change the World. Yeah, that's right.

A humble jazz recommendation:

My new favorite study music: Gilad Hekselman (and the Pandora station I created based on his music). He's kind of like Coltrane, but with a guitar (maybe not as great as Coltrane, but he still has lovely music). Look him up. Feel relaxed. Be inspired.

Thank you for reading my simple word of the day. I hope yours was great.

Split Life

Here I am, sitting at a coffee shop on Queen Anne Hill in Seattle (It's Starbucks, I felt uncreative). Something inside of me feels very grown up, and I suppose I'm getting there. However, there's that other part of me that's feeling very, very young. I suppose that's the part of me that's trying to read and comprehend Tocqueville's writing and the Federalist Papers, and really wordy essays about ecology and theology (it's not quite as impressive as it sounds), and learning difficult piano pieces, and trying to live on a floor with 30 other girls, and the part of me that misses home and my parents (geez, someone should teach this college student about run-on sentences). All of this learning, both socially and intellectually, is actually quite "fun" and interesting, but it's really showing me how someone can feel split down the middle. Split between enjoying school and getting frustrated it, between loving the experience of this new time in my life and missing home, and between feeling so old and very young.

Surreal.

What am I doing right now? I'm eating a cookie. What's so crazy about that? The cookies were made by girls on my dorm floor in my dorm lounge and I'm surrounded by a bunch of college students! Oh, and I'm one of them. Surreal, right?!

For those of you who don't know, I'm a freshman at Seattle Pacific University, and since you asked, no, I don't know what my major is. I live in Ashton Hall on 3rd East with incredibly amazing girls and an awesome PA (Peer Adviser) and SMC (Student Ministry Coordinator). Last, but extraordinarily not least, fantastic room mates, Heather and Libby.

We've had a week of classes so far. There's not much to say a

bout that, at the moment. I mean, college isn't really about school, right?! (Juuuust kidding.) I'll talk about the weekend, then.

Saturday morning, our floor went on a bike ride/run/walk to Gasworks park.

This is a few of us:

and here's my room mate Libby and one of our neighbors Tori

Well, now my first blog post is over. I have to go now and bond with my girlies about cute actors. my next blog post will be more interesting, I promise.

Oh, here's what my blog title means: Let your heart be broken (sorry it's someone else's blog)