Okay, so since I last wrote I have attended football games, done multiple super-boring chemistry labs, watched Bourne movies, eaten a lot of dining hall food, read two books about monsters, and dropped a class (Linguistics).
In more detail:
The Thursday before last, I was learning to waterski jump off of ramps. I wiped out, the handle got caught on my arm, and the boat kept going. I had to go to the ER, the muscles in my right arm are torn, and my arm has been in a sling ever since. Fortunately, I had awesome friends (Julia and Lizzy) who waited in the ER with me, and the arm is really getting a lot better. I should be able to take it out of the sling and start using it again soon.
I had my first test today. I had to go to the disability office and have someone there write the essay portions. It was my Peoples of Africa class, which, by the way, is amazing, and it was really easy. I'm 99% positive I got an A, and there's even a chance I got a 100 (the test had bonus).
RUF fall conference is this coming weekend. We go to Camp Greystone in Tuxedo, NC, and that should be fun. I'm enjoying RUF a lot. It's been really good and challenging.
I have my first chemistry test tomorrow, and sometime during the next few days I have to schedule my first Swahili test (I got an 85 on the first quiz, which is okay, but hopefully this'll be better).
Unlike Atlanta right now, the weather here is gorgeous. We had just enough rain last week for me to enjoy wearing my rainboots, but other than that it has been really sunny and really nice.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Classes and Clubs and Christians! Oh my!
I joined Club Waterskiing. We've been out once, and I dropped a ski and cut the wake on one and stuff, but I didn't get up on one, so I guess that's the goal for today. I don't have chem lab this afternoon, so we're taking off around noon, and I am so ridiculously pumped.
Classes are pretty good. Chemistry, rather than being hard like I expected, is just boring, plus every week the teacher posts a webassign on Friday night and makes it due Monday morning. Very, very uncool. And I'm talking 50 point webassigns (one point per question), not just a couple problems. I like Swahili. It's kind of a fun language. Linguistics is fairly interesting. Peoples of Africa is absolutely fascinating. I love it! And I'm really enjoying my fiction class. It involves a minimal amount of work, good reading, and great discussions.
Lizzy (friend/RUF intern) took me to the Fresh Market yesterday, where I stocked up on fruit and trail mix. It made me so happy. None of the dining halls here ever have any good, fresh fruit.
I've been going to RUF events a lot and really bonding with the people there. The preaching is really solid, and all the people are just so loving and Christ-focused and encouraging. I'm still looking for a church. I've visited two, and both were pretty good. The first was a little too formal for me, and the preaching was okay. The second was better in both regards, but I'm still not sure. I'll just keep searching, and if I need to I can always come back to that second one.
Classes are pretty good. Chemistry, rather than being hard like I expected, is just boring, plus every week the teacher posts a webassign on Friday night and makes it due Monday morning. Very, very uncool. And I'm talking 50 point webassigns (one point per question), not just a couple problems. I like Swahili. It's kind of a fun language. Linguistics is fairly interesting. Peoples of Africa is absolutely fascinating. I love it! And I'm really enjoying my fiction class. It involves a minimal amount of work, good reading, and great discussions.
Lizzy (friend/RUF intern) took me to the Fresh Market yesterday, where I stocked up on fruit and trail mix. It made me so happy. None of the dining halls here ever have any good, fresh fruit.
I've been going to RUF events a lot and really bonding with the people there. The preaching is really solid, and all the people are just so loving and Christ-focused and encouraging. I'm still looking for a church. I've visited two, and both were pretty good. The first was a little too formal for me, and the preaching was okay. The second was better in both regards, but I'm still not sure. I'll just keep searching, and if I need to I can always come back to that second one.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Classes? In college? What?!
So classes started on Tuesday. Swahili is crazy hard already. The words are just so different from anything we have in English. The words don't really sound like words; they just feel like random sounds, so they don't really stick in my head as well. I'm really having to work at it. But maybe it'll get easier. I've only been through one class period of it.
All my other classes seem okay. Chemistry is easier than I thought it would be, and People of Africa is ridiculously awesome. It looks like it'll be a lot of work, but I think it'll be fun, too.
Praise. I haven't made a lot of friends since I got here. I mean, I talk to people and everything, but then I just don't see them again because my schedule is still inconsistent and my classes are so big. Anyway, I was about to go eat dinner by myself (lame), and I was praying that God would give me courage to introduce myself to people (which I normally don't do) and that He would provide the right friends for me. Mixed in with that prayer was a request that He would show me what Bible study group I should join, because there are about a million on campus, and it's kind of overwhelming.
Anyway, I went to dinner that night and just walked up to a table with three girls and asked if I could sit with them, and they turned out to be really awesome! They're all sophomores, and they started this Bible study last year that they invited me to join, and the topic this semester is Romans, and I'm really pumped. They've been really nice, and we've hung out some, and it's just been a really cool answer to prayer.
All my other classes seem okay. Chemistry is easier than I thought it would be, and People of Africa is ridiculously awesome. It looks like it'll be a lot of work, but I think it'll be fun, too.
Praise. I haven't made a lot of friends since I got here. I mean, I talk to people and everything, but then I just don't see them again because my schedule is still inconsistent and my classes are so big. Anyway, I was about to go eat dinner by myself (lame), and I was praying that God would give me courage to introduce myself to people (which I normally don't do) and that He would provide the right friends for me. Mixed in with that prayer was a request that He would show me what Bible study group I should join, because there are about a million on campus, and it's kind of overwhelming.
Anyway, I went to dinner that night and just walked up to a table with three girls and asked if I could sit with them, and they turned out to be really awesome! They're all sophomores, and they started this Bible study last year that they invited me to join, and the topic this semester is Romans, and I'm really pumped. They've been really nice, and we've hung out some, and it's just been a really cool answer to prayer.
Friday, August 21, 2009
3 Days Down, 4 Years to Go :-)
Good news: I called the number that the Swahili professor gave me, and I will get to take the class. At the time I want. Awesome!
I moved in Wednesday morning and started SLI. That first night we just chilled, got ice cream, and met each other, but between Thursday and today we did nine service hours.
Orange Country Domestic Violence Prevention Center: We basically just did odd jobs -- cleaning windows, painting, changing lightbulbs, etc.
Arts Center: Woodshop! I stood on a ladder and handed very large planks of wood to people below me. Then I built a shelf!
Central Elementary School: cleaned classrooms, pulled weeds, and manned the wheelbarrow.
All the places were pretty neat. I don't think I'll keep volunteering at any of the places I went to, but some of the other groups went to places that I think I'm going to look into, like the Arc Center (for disabled kids) and the Boys and Girls Club. There's also the Hope Garden, which provides jobs and food for homeless people, and I might sign up for Big Buddies, which would have me being a "big buddy" to an underprivileged kid.
We had reflection sessions, and I wasn't expecting those to be much fun, but I actually really enjoyed them. They were really mature, intelligent discussions, and they got me really excited about all the opportunities I'll have for talks like that while I'm campus.
Bad news: I found out that my meal doesn't start until the first day of classes. Paying for my own food every meal = Lame!
I moved in Wednesday morning and started SLI. That first night we just chilled, got ice cream, and met each other, but between Thursday and today we did nine service hours.
Orange Country Domestic Violence Prevention Center: We basically just did odd jobs -- cleaning windows, painting, changing lightbulbs, etc.
Arts Center: Woodshop! I stood on a ladder and handed very large planks of wood to people below me. Then I built a shelf!
Central Elementary School: cleaned classrooms, pulled weeds, and manned the wheelbarrow.
All the places were pretty neat. I don't think I'll keep volunteering at any of the places I went to, but some of the other groups went to places that I think I'm going to look into, like the Arc Center (for disabled kids) and the Boys and Girls Club. There's also the Hope Garden, which provides jobs and food for homeless people, and I might sign up for Big Buddies, which would have me being a "big buddy" to an underprivileged kid.
We had reflection sessions, and I wasn't expecting those to be much fun, but I actually really enjoyed them. They were really mature, intelligent discussions, and they got me really excited about all the opportunities I'll have for talks like that while I'm campus.
Bad news: I found out that my meal doesn't start until the first day of classes. Paying for my own food every meal = Lame!
Monday, August 17, 2009
So the last couple weeks have been pretty busy. I finished packing everything for college, said goodbye to my awesome friends (almost all of whom start class a week earlier than me), and spent this past weekend at a family friend's lakehouse alternating between water skiing and tubing. I'm beyond sore right now, but it was so ridiculously fun!
I e-mailed my Swahili teacher to see if I could join the class (wait list period is over and I didn't make it), and he said it was more than full, but he gave me a number to call to see if somebody could work me in. I left a message, so we'll see how that goes. If it doesn't work out, I'm taking astronomy, which I think would be really cool anyway, so if I don't get Swahili it's not that big a deal.
I leave for school tomorrow and move in Wednesday :-)
I e-mailed my Swahili teacher to see if I could join the class (wait list period is over and I didn't make it), and he said it was more than full, but he gave me a number to call to see if somebody could work me in. I left a message, so we'll see how that goes. If it doesn't work out, I'm taking astronomy, which I think would be really cool anyway, so if I don't get Swahili it's not that big a deal.
I leave for school tomorrow and move in Wednesday :-)
Monday, August 3, 2009
Tarheel Born
Orientation was awesome.
Class Schedule:
Anthropology 226: Peoples of Africa MWF 1-1:50pm
Recitation R 12:30-1:20pm
Chemistry 102 TR 9:30-10:45am
Lab T 2-5:50pm
English 123: Intro to Fiction MWF 10-10:50am
Ling 101: Intro to Language MW 2-2:50pm
Recitation F 2-2:50pm
And I'm #4 on the Swahili waitlist, which would be 9am MWF.
Okay, cool story:
I was in the 2nd last group to register for classes at the last orientation of the summer, so basically nobody in my group was getting any classes they wanted. I was praying about it beforehand and really trying to trust God to get me into the right classes, so I was wasn't freaking out too badly, but the only classes I could get were English (6th on my list of English classes I wanted to take), linguistics, and Physics 116. I tried literally thirty different classes for the other subjects, and I couldn't find any open, not even when I tried pointing blindly at my book and trying for whatever class my finger landed on.
So eventually everyone gave up and just accepted their crap classes. (I met a girl who wants to be a physical therapist, and the only science or math she could find was marine ecology). So I kept working and was the 2nd last person in the room when one of the orientation leaders finally came over and tried to put me in Intro to Women's Studies, which was (thankfully) full. Then they put me in an American politics debate class (ugh).
So anyway, I was really bummed by the time I finally printed, and I was even more bummed when the adviser told me that I couldn't take physics without Calc. II, which was full. Then he handed me off to another adviser who was just ridiculously awesome. He pulled up my file on his computer and manually placed me in all the classes I needed. He put me in Chem II (gulp), found me an African anthropology class, and took me out of the American politics class to put me in Chem. lab.
He spent a good ten minutes helping me out, and he was really nice about it. He said he totally didn't mind doing favors as long as the whole student body didn't know that he enjoyed doing them.
Awesome answer to prayer. I have a really sweet schedule. Keep praying that I get into Swahili. Wait list runs until Aug. 12, and after that all I have is drop/add time and (if all else fails), beg the professor to let me in.
Class Schedule:
Anthropology 226: Peoples of Africa MWF 1-1:50pm
Recitation R 12:30-1:20pm
Chemistry 102 TR 9:30-10:45am
Lab T 2-5:50pm
English 123: Intro to Fiction MWF 10-10:50am
Ling 101: Intro to Language MW 2-2:50pm
Recitation F 2-2:50pm
And I'm #4 on the Swahili waitlist, which would be 9am MWF.
Okay, cool story:
I was in the 2nd last group to register for classes at the last orientation of the summer, so basically nobody in my group was getting any classes they wanted. I was praying about it beforehand and really trying to trust God to get me into the right classes, so I was wasn't freaking out too badly, but the only classes I could get were English (6th on my list of English classes I wanted to take), linguistics, and Physics 116. I tried literally thirty different classes for the other subjects, and I couldn't find any open, not even when I tried pointing blindly at my book and trying for whatever class my finger landed on.
So eventually everyone gave up and just accepted their crap classes. (I met a girl who wants to be a physical therapist, and the only science or math she could find was marine ecology). So I kept working and was the 2nd last person in the room when one of the orientation leaders finally came over and tried to put me in Intro to Women's Studies, which was (thankfully) full. Then they put me in an American politics debate class (ugh).
So anyway, I was really bummed by the time I finally printed, and I was even more bummed when the adviser told me that I couldn't take physics without Calc. II, which was full. Then he handed me off to another adviser who was just ridiculously awesome. He pulled up my file on his computer and manually placed me in all the classes I needed. He put me in Chem II (gulp), found me an African anthropology class, and took me out of the American politics class to put me in Chem. lab.
He spent a good ten minutes helping me out, and he was really nice about it. He said he totally didn't mind doing favors as long as the whole student body didn't know that he enjoyed doing them.
Awesome answer to prayer. I have a really sweet schedule. Keep praying that I get into Swahili. Wait list runs until Aug. 12, and after that all I have is drop/add time and (if all else fails), beg the professor to let me in.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Alrighty then, high school chums (and Grandmother). I'm trying this blog thing so you'll know what's going on while I'm at UNC.
I leave for orientation tomorrow, and because the strange mixture of subjects that I do have AP scores for and ones that I don't, my schedule is going to be awesome (I hope). At any rate, I'm exempting freshman English despite the fact that UNC takes Lang. instead of Lit. (lucky juniors) because they do take ACT scores (34 English section, 35 reading section). I'm ditching German and desperately hoping they'll let me retake Calc. I instead of bumping me to Calc. II. The idea of taking advanced math absolutely terrifies me. I have no idea about science courses except that I probably won't get astronomy, and thanks to AP scores again, I don't have to take a single normal history class (insert celebratory dancing), so I'll probably end up in some sort of African history class or linguistics.
I got into the Service Learning Initiative (SLI) program, so I get to move in three days early (Aug. 19). It's basically a community service program. Theme: discrepancies in education. I'm pretty pumped. It looks really cool because we'll get to be working with kids a lot, the topic is interesting, and I'll get to see what kind of community service opportunities are close to campus. It's also good just because I'll get to meet people who are into that stuff.
I can't wait to just get to college and start making friends and getting involved in all sorts of things that I couldn't do anywhere else. I'm excited. This is going to be great.
I leave for orientation tomorrow, and because the strange mixture of subjects that I do have AP scores for and ones that I don't, my schedule is going to be awesome (I hope). At any rate, I'm exempting freshman English despite the fact that UNC takes Lang. instead of Lit. (lucky juniors) because they do take ACT scores (34 English section, 35 reading section). I'm ditching German and desperately hoping they'll let me retake Calc. I instead of bumping me to Calc. II. The idea of taking advanced math absolutely terrifies me. I have no idea about science courses except that I probably won't get astronomy, and thanks to AP scores again, I don't have to take a single normal history class (insert celebratory dancing), so I'll probably end up in some sort of African history class or linguistics.
I got into the Service Learning Initiative (SLI) program, so I get to move in three days early (Aug. 19). It's basically a community service program. Theme: discrepancies in education. I'm pretty pumped. It looks really cool because we'll get to be working with kids a lot, the topic is interesting, and I'll get to see what kind of community service opportunities are close to campus. It's also good just because I'll get to meet people who are into that stuff.
I can't wait to just get to college and start making friends and getting involved in all sorts of things that I couldn't do anywhere else. I'm excited. This is going to be great.
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