Blogger's Block

I have stuff going on in my life, for sure, but I've just not been able to sit down and collect my thoughts enough to add a significant entry. I'm sorry about that.

You're my sunshine

Friendship has become one of the most important parts of my life.

I was reminded of this when I checked my cell phone this evening after class and discovered that I had missed a call and I had a new voice mail message. As I listened to the message I was comforted by the concern and love that was easily expressed by a dear friend of mine. We haven't seen each other since before I left to go to England, and my friend spent all of last year in Mexico, so we haven't really been able to spend a lot of quality time together. It seems unreal, but somehow I still felt extremely close to my friend even when we were an ocean apart. We were able to stay connected through the shared experience of studying abroad, although our experiences were far different.
What prompted the phone call this evening is why friendship means so much to me. Merely the gesture that my friend took the time to call me and make sure that I was doing alright meant so much to me tonight. I love you, Nicolas.

Nick is just one example of how friends of mine impact my life. I am so blessed to have such amazing people in my life.

How I spent my summer vacation...

Anyone that heard about what I went through this week would not imagine that so many things could happen in one week.

I got locked out of the house I was dogsitting at 4:30am and thus slept in my car for five hours before having my youth pastor's husband help me break into the house; there was a fire in my house; someone charged over $700 from my banking account, so I had to spend a lot of time at the bank and filed my first police report; my room has not cleaned itself nor has the book I'm supposed to be reading read itself; I haven't really slept a whole lot; my tan isn't what I want it to be; I haven't heard from many of my friends in far too long, and time is running out on my summer.

I am ready for a semi-relaxing week now. This week is the last week of my history class, so I really need to bear down and do well on my paper and on the final this Thursday. I know a lot of these things aren't really that stressful, but it just seems that everything piles on and sneaks up on me and then I'm totally overwhelmed. I'm just praying for patience and understanding this week.

School Daze

My friend Mandy grew up in the town where I now attend college. I told her this evening that I cannot wait to go back, and she most definitely laughed at that. It is strange that I have fallen in love with a tiny town just fifty minutes away from my home, but it is true. There isn't much to the actual town really, but it's the campus that makes me long to be back there as soon as possible! It's going to be so strange going back knowing that this will be my last year there, but I'm hoping it will make me make the most of opportunities and not dwell on the sadness of another phase of my life coming to a transition. As the Newsies so wonderfully inspired me as a child, I will remember to seize the day.

Shower time!

Another bridal shower!

Me and my future sister-in-law, Melissa


This one was quite a bit different from the last one, but it was definitely fun! First, this was my future sister-in-law's shower, so when we got there I got to be introduced to each table as the groom's sister, which was just fine. I met most of the bridesmaids, and they are all lovely girls with a wide range of personalities. It was really good to meet them and get to know them a little bit.

My traveling buddies: Sheri, Mom, Myra and Betsy


The shower was in Chicago, so that meant that for the 1pm shower we left Fort Wayne around 9:30am. The ride wasn't too bad, but the accelerating and stopping for so many stoplights was getting to my stomach before too long. We stopped for lunch which turned out to be entirely unnecessary because they fed us some amazing stuff at the winery. The ride back was a little better, but I took some Dramamine just for good measure.

Kyle stopped by the shower to help open gifts and load up the gifts, and I got the task of taking pictures with his camera. I hope that some of the pictures came out, because most of the pictures were turning out blurry. I took a lot, so I'm thinking there will be some that will be okay.

The fam at the shower: me, Kyle (my bro), Melissa and Mom


So that's two showers down, one to go for the rest of this calendar year. I'm hoping I won't pull camera duty at Jenny's. I'll be getting to know her bridesmaids too, since I think I only know a few of them. 'Tis the year of weddings!

The Politics of Education

Quick question: Why is there so much political process involved in the institutions of higher education?

I'm getting sick of it. That's all.

Name Change

I've been home for a full month now, so I decided it was time to change the name of the blog. Since I am no longer on the "across the pond" I figured it would be a little misleading considering almost all of my readers are from the USA. So now it's "Beyond the Pond" and I'm beginning to discover what that is going to mean for me.

So far beyond the pond hasn't been too horribly challenging. I've been able to spend some quality time with close friends, sort out some of my academic frustrations, AND I finally sang at church with one of the praise bands again. It's been over six months since I had sung with any organized group, but somehow singing at church isn't quite the same as singing at MC. I've missed choir so much, so I'm really hoping that it will feel like I haven't missed out on too much.

I'm still nervous about adjusting to campus, but there's definitely some exciting things to be looking forward to by the middle of August. There's RA training, everyone moving back to campus and off-campus housing, and of course, the real football season! No, I'm not talking about MCs quarterbacks and runningmen. I'm talking about the men that make awesome tackles and have impressive footwork. My time in England just increased my love for soccer, and I can't wait to go to the home games this season!

Just for old time's sake, a pic of me at Wembley stadium at the USA/England football friendly!