Updates, Part 1 - Photos

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:

Hannah and happy Dad!

Hannah and happy Caleb! (they're married now!!)

Hannah and happy roommate (me)

Me and Malia

Malia and her best friend David

So there you go. Some photographic highlights from the past semester. Up next on the updates: Hannah's wedding!

Grace and Peace,

Suz

Updates, Part 1

The last time I blogged was in December. The last time before that was October. I'm not very good at this whole keeping-up-with-blogging-on-a-regular-basis thing. Unless I do keep up with the months of silence at a time, which I suppose could be considered a "regular" basis.

My last post was a recap of the rest of fall semester. I was on Christmas break, and enjoying the month of vacation I had. Maybe I enjoyed it too much. Maybe I was burnt out (yes) and didn't recover properly (very likely). When I started classes again in January, I had no desire to do anything. I didn't want to read for classes or go to classes or study for tests. It wasn't just a "I don't really feel like it right now" feeling, but a complete apathy towards school. I have never in my life experienced something like this before. I have always been quite motivated and even excited for school in the past, but spring semester was a completely different story. It was weird. I contemplated that perhaps it was depression. I had a daily battle with the desire to drop everything, drop out of classes, hop on a plane, and move myself back to Europe to find a job in a coffee-shop. That was the only thing I desired. Seriously. To be a barista somewhere in Europe, preferably the in United Kingdom or Germany.

Well I didn't drop out of school. But I did finally go see a campus pastor at the end of January to start talking through what the heck was wrong with me. I met with Pastor Jannet about eight times, and I probably cried through our meeting five of those times. It was humiliating at first, but so necessary. We came to the conclusion that my desire to leave APU and return to Germany was stemming from a sense that when I was in Germany, I felt like it was where I belong - a feeling that has apparently been lacking most of my time at APU. The main reason for that has been that, because I have been dividing my time between science and music for the last four years, I haven't been able to really invest in relationships with people in either department. I didn't really fit in the science department because, well, I wasn't a science major, and was simply taking basic science classes to get into med school. But I also didn't really fit into the music department because, while music is my major, it's not my plan for after I graduate. It's a means to an end, almost like a hobby-major to get me a bachelor's degree so that I can apply for med school. So there you go.

So I basically pushed through the semester as best I could. I was taking the second semester of Organic Chemistry, which I still hated with a fiery passion that burned deep down inside my soul, but I did my best, and even pulled a B on one of the tests, which was a happy surprise, since I was sure I failed that test. I was taking 19 units again, although I was technically registered for 18. I didn't really have a choice. It was either take 19 units, or risk getting in trouble for not taking a class that my entry-year's catalogue says I don't have to take, but later catalogues say I must. Although, an actual 18 units would have still been way too much with Organic Chemistry contributing almost a third of those units.

One of the hardest parts of the semester, perhaps contributing to my desire to leave, was the looming fact that all four of my roommates, two of whom I lived with for all four years of APU, were graduating without me come May. Awesome. Don't mind me crying in the corner over here. Plus, another friend in the area is planning to move to France with YWAM sometime soon (originally it was the fall, but that may have changed now), so there go all my friends. Gosh, I need more friends. Good for me, God thought of that (or course he did!), and while I was letting go of my roommates all semester, I was making new friends, several of whom are in my major and I will be graduating with. Those friendships blossoming in such a hard time have been and will continue to be such a blessing to me.

So graduation came. It was a hard couple of weeks (dead week and finals week). I was a mess. Motivation was difficult. I was exhausted and burnt out. Each day I was hanging on until sleep-time. When finals did come, I had five, almost non-stop, on Monday, beginning at 7:30 in the morning and ending at 10 at night. I had three more after that, spread over the next three days, and I was finally finished at 8 PM on Thursday night. Finals were over, but the emotional roller-coaster of the week was far from over. Friday I had to pack my life up to get ready to move everything home with my parents on Saturday, while simultaneously packing for UCO tour, which began on Sunday afternoon. Friday I went to my roommate's pinning ceremony for nursing. Saturday, UCO sang for both the graduate and undergraduate graduations, which meant standing in the heat for about two and-a-half hours each time. Saturday our apartment was full of family members pretty much all day while my roommates and their families got ready for graduation. I did get to stay for the undergrad graduation after we were done singing, and I'm glad I did. Saturday night I was emotionally and physically exhausted. Sunday I said a very emotional goodbye to my roommates and then dragged my wheel-less suitcase to the trolley stop to leave for tour.

I made it through the semester with my GPA intact, if nothing else. It was sooo difficult. The circumstances of the past year and-a-half have led to where I am now, which I will go into more in the next post (hopefully tomorrow). And hopefully I'll add photos tomorrow as well!

Grace and Peace,
Suzannah

Finally A Light

I haven't blogged since October. Wow. A lot has happened since then. A lot of life. Good things, wonderful things, and not-so-fun things.

Remember back in September when I said I thought I was getting into a rhythm for school? Yeah, that was a lie. As I mentioned in October, 19 units is WAY too much for me. I feel like I have been played catch-up since October. And the past four weeks have been nearly hell. Nonstop. Assignments, reading, papers, projects, tests, performances. Yuck. So much. I went home for Thanksgiving this year for the first time in several years, because I knew starting the year that there would be no way I would be able to go to Mexico. I was so right. Wednesday night before Thanksgiving I was lying in bed, honestly thankful that I was lying my bed and not in a van driving to Mexico. I had so much to do just over that break (most of which didn't get done), because the week after Thanksgiving (last week) was Dead Week. 

Dead Week is the week before finals. It's called that because students are nearly dead by the end of the week trying to get new material and assignments taken care of for classes. And then we are plunged into finals, ready or not. But wait! THERE'S MORE! Not only did we have Dead Week the week after Thanksgiving break, but Celebrate Christmas was on the weekend following Dead Week! (In between Dead Week and finals).That means two rehearsals during the week where the concerts are held, and then a performance on Friday evening and two performances on Sunday. Which means Sunday was basically my only day to study for finals. Not TOO bad, right? Wrong! I took 7 final exams this semester, and had one project. One final (my O-Chem lab practical) was on the second day of Celebrate Christmas, so I was a bit late getting to Pasadena for that). The other SIX were on Monday and Tuesday. YAY. Ok, so six finals, two days, and then a project, and THEN you're done, right!? Nope, wrong again! UCO has three performances this week! Last night, we performed at the University Club in Pasadena, today we performed twelve flash mobs at LAX (which was SO much fun! I can't wait until next year!), and tomorrow we have a concert in Torrance. 

That's a lot. This has definitely been my hardest semester, and my hardest finals week. In the past I have had ten or eleven finals, but this semester's end has been so much harder than those semesters. But tonight, I finished and turned in my last project, so I have finally reached the light. I can go to tomorrow's concert without having to worry or think about anything that needs finishing. And Saturday I am going to Kristen's (my Heidelberg roommate) graduation party, and reconnecting with a friend I haven't seen in probably a year. (And going ice-skating for the first time in my life!). Saturday will be good. And then I will go home on Sunday. Hallelujah. I have a MONTH for Christmas break this year, and I'm going to enjoy every minute that I don't have an assignment or a test to prepare for.

Grace and Peace,

Suzannah