Five Days with Friends

        Well, I'm headed home after spending five days in Newton. It was a SUPER great trip – it was wonderful to see all my friends and professors again (four months apart is a LONG time), and to hang around Newton and Kansas for awhile longer.

        On Wednesday afternoon, Natalie and I drove back to Newton and I spent the afternoon and evening at Bethel, “speed-dating” all of my friends who were leaving for Interterm. I just walked around the mods and talked to people as I met them. I pretty much asked and answered the same questions for each person (“how was last semester/your time in Oakland so far?” “Where are you going for Interterm?” “What are your plans for the future?”) but the plus side of that is that I'm now really good at concisely explaining my volunteer position! So it was really good to see everyone again. I stayed the night in Jenae's room in 9C, so that I could get up the next day and do the same thing with all my professors and faculty friends!

            I went around to see all of my adult friends (Megan/Toby Tyner, Christine, Paul, Francisca) during the day on Thursday. Our conversations were a lot longer, and I still pretty much said the same thing five or six times in one day, but that's all right – they all had different things to say in regards to what I was doing, and it was nice to hear some adult feedback. That evening, I went to Brian's and Nate's house to spend the night. Eric stopped by after work in Wichita, and it was so good to see him again, not only because he's a wonderful person and a very good friend, but also because I seriously needed some computer help. So we spent an hour or so troubleshooting my external hard drive and attempting to copy photos to his computer. It took forever, over a full day, to copy 30GB of photos, which is not how it's supposed to be. Stupid hard drive.   

       Eric and I went on a Druber's run before he had to go back to Wichita, but afterward, I kind of just bummed around the house on Friday.  

SO HAPPY

I had some things that I'd planned to do, but it just didn't happen, but that was ok, because I was super tired from spending time with friends and not sleeping. 

Brian made me quesadillas!

 I went to see my chemistry professor so that he could explain some nuances of organic chemistry to me (it was sort of embarrassing to admit that I didn't understand it, because it was kind of a basic concept, and I just faked my way through class without actually knowing how it worked). But now I think I get it. That evening, Brian and Nate and I headed to Bethel and hung out in the mods, catching up with people and doing typical Bethel Friday night things. That was also really fun.

 Around 130, Evan and the three of us went to Newell's for cheese fries, which are DELICIOUS, but hell on the digestive system.

  

So much regret the next day...

       Saturday was spent getting a haircut from Allison (she is the BEST, and everyone should get haircuts from her, because she is so good. And she's the only one who knows how to work with my masses of cowlicks), and with girls from the mod. I taught Jackie how to make zwiebach and she had an excellent time learning how to pinch off the zwiebach.

We took them to a mod Christmas party at Kylie's house (she has the NICEST house). We all brought food and had a gift exchange. It was really good to see the girls again and to catch up on what everyone's up to and what everyone's plans are. Camille bought me an AWFUL Jesus-head snowglobe, which since it had more than 3oz of water, I couldn't take on the plane with me! So sad. I could have had a lot of fun photoshoots with that thing.    

 

Watching Ellen read "50 Shades of Grey" on YouTube

6B reunited again!

Jesus head snowglobe!

        On Sunday, I went to Tabor and said “hi” to Helen Schmidt (my adorable old-lady friend who writes me letters all the time) and my extended family and cousins, as well as a lot of people who just came up to me and said “hi, how are you?” and I had to pretend like I remembered who they were (or that I even knew in the first place). There was also a potluck, which is a thing that Tabor does VERY well. Afterwards, I headed to my grandparent's house to see them. They haven't been feeling very well for the last week or so, and weren't in church, so I wanted to make sure that I saw them before I left. At 5, Brian and Nate and I went to the Newton theater to see “Les Miserables”, which I have heard rave reviews about. I haven't seen the play or read the book, so I really didn't know what to expect. It was good, and the music was great. The girl who played Eponine was my favorite – she KILLED it. Then we met Jackie and Ben for drinks and half-price apps at Applebees. We annoyed everyone in the restaurant by taking lots of flash photos, which I felt bad about, but only for a bit – it was my last night in Kansas, after all!

8 years of friendship.  One of the good things that came out of Clay Center.

I took all of these pictures.  Next time you're at the 'bee, check out their back wall!

All in all, it was a GREAT trip, and it reminded me how much I love Kansas and everyone that is still in Kansas. It makes it pretty hard to go back to the Bay Area.