Please Note

The grand opening for Liberty's very own SnowFlex was this past weekend. Basically, it's a synthetic ski slope, the first of its kind in the U.S., that can be used all year long, regardless of temperature. Looks pretty sweet to me! I guess I need to lug my snowboard here to school with me next time I make a trip home so that I can be a part of the fun! It's also nice because it's only $2/hr for students to ski or snowboard. While it's not a full set of slopes like a ski resort would be, that's still super cheap! My college budget loves it!

It's also Spiritual Emphasis week, a sort of spiritual kick in the pants to start off the year. There are services tonight, tomorrow, and Wednesday night with a special guest speaker, whom I've heard is really great. I didn't get around to checking it out tonight, but I'm thinking about going tomorrow and Wednesday to see what it's all about. Besides, it can't hurt to get a little extra dose of Jesus a few times during the week ;).

Speaking of which, I'm really enjoying being here so far! I had a lot of reservations about everything at first/right before I got here, I'm really enjoying the whole experience so far. I really like my classes, and I love that they're taught from a Christian perspective, even if I disagree with a few of the rules. And even that isn't bad, because many of them are not enforced as harshly as they appear to be on paper. Not bad.

I figured out the Google Reader thing! It's great! If you don't already have one of these delightful creations set up, just click here, and sign in with your Google account (whichever email that's hooked up to your blogger account). All the blogs you follow will be in one place, and you can read them as you go, entry by entry, like one big email account of blog entries. I'm sure that most of you know of/have one of these already, but I just figured mine out and it makes my life a lot easier, so hush and pretend you just found out about it!

I really miss my dog.

These Things I Know For Sure

in no particular order...

1. I love my roomie.

2. I love my boyfriend

3. This is where I'm supposed to be.

4. I love Law & Order.

I'm thankful that I don't have too much homework.

5. I can survive on my own if needed!

6. I never want to live alone.

7. I like college!

5 Best Things About the First Day of School

I decided to do something new (to me) in blog-world today and write on one of Mama Kat's prompts that she provides a list of every week. I chose the "5 Best Things About the First Day of School," since I just had a first day of school on Monday!

Here goes:

1. New school supplies! This might make me dorky or something, but I love new pens, binders, and notebooks. Too bad you usually have to use them for homework (eww).

2. New friends--you know, your fellow classmates, who have to endure the same torture that you do, so you band together as a result.

3. First day of college usually means new furniture (this year anyway...), which I love with every fiber of my being.

4. Learning things! I know this sounds totally lame, but learning is pretty cool when you think about it. Especially since I'm privileged enough to be able to go to college, as many people don't get that opportunity.

5. Fun college-campus activies: sporting events, campus-wide block parties, the list goes on and on. It's never boring!

Other than that, the first week is going well. I'm not sure what I was thinking when I signed up for the 7:40 am class on Tues/Thurs, but I get the feeling I'm going to need a stronger alarm. Otherwise, all is well thus far! Enjoy your week :)

Totally Awkward Tuesdays!

Once again, this Tuesday caught me by surprise. I've been so busy with getting ready for classes and going to classes and trying to get from one side of the campus to another, that I nearly forgot about my TAT! Check out Tova Darling's blog for the full Totally Awkward Tuesday story.

My story was my first awkward college experience. Unfortunately for me, there are probably many more to follow. Anyway, my new roomie and I share the basement of The Dollhouse, as I like to refer to the single family home that the 5 of us rent out. In the basement, there is a large main room that two of us share as a bed/living area, and a smaller, unfinished room that we've converted into a TV/sitting area.

My boyfriend and I were sitting on the couch, watching some TV (and that is all!), when my roomie got home. She had 2 of her friends with her and after all the introductions were made, she announced that it was gross how she always has to come home to my boyfriend and I making out (this has never actually occurred). My roomie is tricky, and very sarcastic (but I love her). Since we had just met her friends, this made for a very awkward few minutes, but thankfully her friends know exactly how she is and just shrugged it off and laughed. Silly roomie...

Tuesday/Thursdays are my looong days for classes, (5, to be exact) so I'm on campus taking a break in the computer lab/library. So far, I really like my classes. Even though there are a couple of the mandatory freshman classes that everyone thinks are really lame and extremely easily (thank God for that), those seem to be pretty interesting as well. We'll see!

I survived!

I have officially survived my first day of classes at Liberty! Actually, that's a pretty overdramatic statement considering the fact that I only had 2 classes today, and they are both those easy but mandatory freshman classes.

Overall, I actually liked the classes/experience today a lot. I think it's awesome that the professors pray to open each class, and they have a very genuine love for their students and a desire to see them succeed. At the community college that I transferred from, this was far from the mindset of many of the professors, some of which visibly hated their jobs. So that's really refreshing.

Things I don't like:

1.Parking is ridiculous. I guess that shouldn't come as a surprise at all, since enrollment at Liberty increases every year, and the first week or so is always frenzied (not to mention the number of parents still lingering around campus). Anyway, as a commuter student, that makes it a little frustrating to get from class to class, but I've been assured that this will die down.

2. There are so many people everywhere! I don't mind a lot of people, but it's a little overwhelming. This will also die down after a few days, I know, but it's sort of shocking after going to a community college with about 30 people (maximum) in each of my classes. I've never felt so small-town!

3. I got $400 automatically from the school as a scholarship to use on books. Little did I know, these expire in October and I sort of forgot to use any of them on my books this semester. So, I can trade them in for a Barnes & Noble gift card since that's what our bookstore is. Big ooops. I definitely don't need $400 in Barnes & Noble money, but the bookworm in me is pretty psyched about it anyway. :)

All in all, it really wasn't bad though. I love being in college!

I think I'll have a better (or more realistic, anyway) feel for everything tomorrow, as I have the more difficult classes then. We'll see!

one day down...err...too many to count to go

So my first full day as an official Liberty student went pretty well. Okay, I'm lying, it was pretty rough. I woke up to a phone call that my dad had to go to the hospital back home and received a call from my own doctor's office letting me know that I have some pretty crazy things going on with my thyroid. Did I mention that this is the first time I've ever been away from home? Needless to say, when you add that to the drama of moving in here that began yesterday, you get a recipe for a pretty bad way to start off the whole "college experience." I'm thanking God that my boyfriend is here with me, so that I had a least one person I know and trust to hug when I got all this crazy news.

Thankfully, my dad is okay and is back at home again after many long hours, my thyroid will be fine, I'm sure, and the Dollhouse situation seems to be worked out as well. And I was feeling pretty good because I found my way around campus by myself pretty well and navigated getting my parking permit, student ID, and picking up the books I'd ordered (all in separate places, by the way). Tomorrow I have to go to transfer orienation, which will likely be a long, boring session of information that we didn't really need to know. But thus is life, I suppose.

The adventure begins

So, it's my first night in the Dollhouse, as I like to refer to the house that I share with four other girls closeby to Liberty. I have to admit, while I did nothing actually Liberty-related today (I didn't even go on campus yet), I am completely exhausted! And I'm not sure that I'm loving it yet. Let me tell you why...

1. I first entered the basement (that I'm sharing with one other girl, who won't be getting her until Friday), and there was water all over the floor. Apparently there have been a few leak issues that are supposedly were resolved right before I got here, so there shouldn't be any repeat incidents, but it wasn't exactly the greeting that I was expecting.

2. My landlord doesn't know about me. In the state of Virginia, having more than 4 unrelated females living together in the same house is legally considered a brothel (explains the lack of sorority houses). Most college kids who need to get around this law just put 4 names on the lease and have one unsigned roommate, and no one's the wiser. Well, apparently the landlord of the Dollhouse stated that if we have a fifth roommate, he wants more rent money. My lovely roommates decided not to tell me this until today, when I move in. So rather than pay the extra money, they elected to try to hide the fact that I'm living here. I suppose that's understandable, but I really wish that I would have known about it ahead of time, especially when you consider that my honest-to-a-fault parents are less than pleased. We'll see what happens...

3. I hardly unpacked a thing. I should probably get on that. Ahhhhh