The Jukebox of My Mind: Getting Oriented

Well, Orientation is almost over (1 more day), and classes start on Monday. A lot has happened since the last time I updated, so I'll give you the abridged version :-)

Fun Fellowship

Project Bridge (that's the pre-orientation program) did a great job of combining serious historical and ministry information with laid-back fellowship time. One of these great times was at the Durham Bulls game last Saturday night! It was really fun to just hang out with people in the program, and to bond with the roommies. The Bulls are a AAA baseball team that feeds into the Tampa Bay Rays, so it was fun to watch them. They lost horribly though, after an inning where the Braves scored 8 runs. Oh well. Every time a homerun is hit at the ballpark the big bull in left field lights up- the eyes are red and it breathes smoke. Pretty entertaining. The sign also says "Hit Bull Win Steak"... we don't know if that means the player that hit the homerun wins steak, or if the whole ballpark does. But it seems to be the slogan of the park (all the t-shirts say this)! Here's a picture:

Trust me, the Bull says "Hit Bull Win Steak" and the grass says "Hit Grass Win Salad" haha

Another fun fellowship idea was the night before at a place called Reality Ministries. Reality does a lot of great things for people in Durham, but one of the ministries we were involved in was Real Friends. This is a ministry for developmentally disabled people, and it is quite simple. People can come and volunteer to be a friend for a developmentally disabled member of Durham. Basically you just have to be a friendly face, and treat them the way anyone would want to be treated. It doesn't require any previous experience in special education, you basically just show up and are nice! What an idea. :-) So we had a dance party with the Real Friends and met so many awesome people who were just there to have a great time and meet some fun Div School students! Twas a wonderful night. As my friend Jessica said, it could have been very awkward, pairing awkward Divinity School students with people with developmental disabilities, but it was a great evening!

Team Awesome

During Bridge, our small group was lovingly referred to by our Team Mom as "Team Awesome." I must say that this is the best name to describe these people. Spending the last few days without them has been kind of sad, but I'm sure we'll continue to be friends :-)

Team Awesome also had a great final testimony at the closing ceremony which involved understanding how we were blind [to the injustices around Durham] but now we are beginning to see. I want to share my little story here.

When we were volunteering at Urban Ministries, an emergency homeless shelter, food pantry, and clothing closet, I saw a woman who was crocheting in one of the shelter common rooms. Since it's basically a law for any knitter/crocheter to inquire about a project, I started up a conversation. At that point I had no idea that this woman was in a drug/alcohol abuse program. I had no idea that she was going to live there for three months to detox. I didn't know anything about her history, and it didn't matter. All that mattered was that we were bonding and having a conversation around a common interest. I wanted to sit and chat (and knit) with her all afternoon.

That was my "eye opening" moment I chose to share. We are encouraged to volunteer while we're here, and I think Urban Ministries is somewhere I would like to go.

Furnishing

After Bridge ended (on Monday) we had Tuesday off! Wow, a day off. So all three roommies went shopping for furniture. Here are some before and after photos :-)

Before. Notice the air mattress as the main seating option.

After. Loveseat, coffee table, and curtains.

Before. Barely a breakfast nook.

After. Adorable breakfast nook that we use for dinner too!

The place is definitely starting to feel more like "home" which is really great. And I love the roommies so that's awesome too! :-)

Orienting

Regular Orientation for the Div School has been fairly uneventful but at the same time very overwhelming. There is a LOT of information and a lot of people. There are about 160 new first-years (or juniors, as we are sometimes called) and there hasn't been much time to get to know other people. You know how at HWS there were a ton of ice-breakers? I kind of miss those. I would like to get to know new people, but there isn't really much time. There aren't any small groups (except our spiritual formation groups, more on that later), so it is hard. I really am grateful I did Bridge because at least there are 30 familiar faces.

I was able to register for classes today! I am in Old Testament, Church History, Biblical Hebrew, and (wait for it) Local Polity to Global Vision: The Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion. Mouthful. But I'm really excited despite the fact that I already have homework for the Episcopal class. grr. I have to go buy those books tomorrow. I'm also going to sing in the choir (YAY!) and will be in first year spiritual formation. I'll be with the same group all year, and we meet once a week to talk about God in our lives. And we write spiritual autobiographies (good thing I'm no stranger to that!). I think all in all I will have a well balanced schedule.

I like my advisor, he's British and beautiful. :-) Also we have Ellen Davis as the Episcopal House advisor and she seems amazing, I'm really excited to get to know her.

Random Things I Want to Share

~We had people over and we played Bible Apples to Apples. We're the coolest Div students around.

~I got to meet my friend's grandmother. Her name is Marge and she may be my favorite person I've met here (even if she did severely judge the fact that I live with a guy).

~We are thinking of calling our house "The 504." TJ and Kat both call interstates/routes "the #" (like "the 9" or "the 5 &20"). Since we live in unit 504, we're going to call it THE 504. Because it needs a name. haha.

~Andrea is going to visit next weekend and I'm really excited!!!

~I am nervous for classes to start on Monday.

~I'm still "church hopping" but I'm planning on going back to St. Luke's Episcopal Church on Sunday. I went to a Presbyterian Church last Sunday with Team Awesome, and it was a nice service but definitely not my style. I went to St. Luke's two weeks ago, so I'll try it again. Luckily there are a lot of Episcopal choice in Durham!

Jukebox Time

This version of this song is amazing. Better than the original. Thank you TJ for introducing this to me! It's a Gotye cover of "Somebody that I Used to Know" by Pentatonix. Wabam.