In the bleak midwinter, frost winds made moan
Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow
In the bleak midwinter, long ago ...
(Paul Coleman Trio does my favorite version)
Back in Pullman! Sorry it's been a while since I posted last, but things get pretty busy! We've had a great start to the semester at the INN, as well as a good Student Leadership mid-year summit. I also had the opportunity to try my hand at making a video to promote the Winter Retreat (next weekend!), take a look and see what you think ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iH_NFs4YiT0
We have also been pretty excited about sign-ups for Nicaragua - I think we are near 17 students! Our goal is 21, so we'll see if that works out. I'm pretty excited about the trip - I'm not too certain how it's going to go, but from what we have worked out of what the week will look like, I'm pretty stoked. So far it sounds like helping to build a bakery, run a sports camp, and really immerse ourselves in the community of Sandino, just outside Managua. Only a little over a month until take off!
As for personal excitement, I have had some fun over the past weeks. I realized that being in Pullman shouldn't completely revolve around my job, that I should find something to be a part of that isn't work related. So I joined the WSU Gospel Choir - God's Harmony. They are fantastic, and so much fun! You don't have to be a student, and they were so willing to have me join, I'm so excited to see how this semester is with them. I've already practiced with them a couple times, and I simply LOVE gospel music.
This weekend was actually pretty fantastic. One of my students boards a hoarse between Moscow and Pullman and offered to take me for a ride on Friday - and so I went! Along with my friend Jesse, who had never been on a horse before, and that was hilarious to watch. My friend Kari came and visited from Whitworth this weekend, and we had some fun! We saw 'Across The Universe' on Friday for free in Todd Auditorium on campus (weird but AWEsome movie) with some friends, and had dinner at pizza hut. We also spent about 3 hours at the Daily Grind (local coffee shop, also AWEsome) playing Scrabble - well actually that involved reorganizing the word tiles from 5 separate games because Kari was able to play the word 'Buzz' in the first game, which shouldn't actually be possible.
5 boards, 467 word tiles, and 1 cookie shaped like a word tile later, we were done. I may be a nerd, but I sure have fun being one. Later that night after watching the Hunchback of Notre Dame (it's been a while! Disney did a good job with that one) we found out the toilet in my basement flooded.
Grrreeat. Here is where I'd like to have a picture, but we were ankle deep in some places scooping out buckets of water. It was rather hilarious - I felt like we were on a sinking ship trying to get the water out in order to save the boat. So I also felt like we should have sung some sort of seafaring songs whilst swabbing the deck. Unfortunately for us Kari only knew one and it was in Latin, so we refrained from any sailor songs.
So, eventful weekends make for good stories. I'm glad it's a 3-day weekend, and I hopin' to do some crafts and watch musicals. Nothing like it. Winter Retreat is coming up - nothing like a 6 hour road trip to Olympia.
