Musings of a Bright-Eyed College Student: Updates, Part 1

I thought about simply adding photos to the first update post, but I think I would rather do it this way.

The semester started out hopeful. Kristen and I went to a place in Chino Hills called Color Me Mine, and we painted mugs, which was so much fun.

Inside, it says "Just tea for me," which is an allusion to my favorite show, BBC's Sherlock.

I made Kaiserschmarrn for my roommates, along with homemade applesauce, both of which were sooo good. I found vanilla sugar, which is what they use in Germany rather than vanilla extract, at one of the local grocery stores. The recipe I have for Kaiserschmarrn calls for vanilla sugar, so I was thrilled when I found it.

Valentine's Day was on a Saturday this year, but the day before was actually a holiday for us, so a few girls and I got together and had a Valentine's Day tea party.

It was quite lovely! I made scones, someone made cucumber sandwiches, and someone brought her quite large collection of tea. Best Valentine's Day ever!

At the end of February/beginning of March, one of the worship classes I was in went on a trip to Henderson, Nevada to lead worship for the kick-off service of a church there. It was a wonderful opportunity for our class, and provided a beautiful environment for our class to get to know each other better. Most of us have had several other worship-major classes together, but hadn't spent much time together outside of those classes. Five of us from this class were also in another ministry class together the same semester. Getting together for this project led to us meeting on a regular basis to get dinner, creating more chances to get to know each other. I think all of us in this photo will be graduating together next May, so I'm excited to see how our relationships develop in the coming school year!

At the beginning of April, Kristen and I traveled to Westmont College in Santa Barbara to attend the senior recitals of Nattie and Megan, the other two girls we studied abroad with.

Nattie played oboe and English horn, and I was amazed at the progress she has made since last spring! She will be attending Cleveland State University in the fall to pursue her Master's degree in Music Performance. Megan gave a soprano voice recital, and sang as beautifully as I remembered her singing in Germany. She will be attending Oklahoma City University this fall to study Opera Performance. Remember her name: Megan Silberstein. Someday in the not-too-distant future, she is going to be a big deal in the music world.

The Saturday before finals started, my friends Anna and Chris got married. Finally. They were engaged for two (three?) years while Chris was deployed with the US Navy in Japan. He is now stationed closer to Ridgecrest, and he and Anna now have an apartment there. It was a beautiful wedding, and perhaps the most beautiful part was that their long years of waiting are finally over.

And then were finals. And graduation (hard week) and then tour. Perhaps tour will get it's own post next, but here are a few of photos from graduation: