So many things gained

I am at home now. It is a rainy day outside so most of the day I have been sitting in here sorting through all the stuff I brought home from school. Over the course of the past week I have been home, I realized how much I learned this past semester. It seems like these are things I didn't realize until I was taken out of the city for a few days.

Things I learned from this semester:

1) Independence is awesome. I don't need other people to eat with me every meal and I can decide what I want to do everyday with my time. I am perfectly capable of doing what I need and want to do without the help of others.

2) Be yourself and stand up for what you believe in. I think this one is fairly self-explanatory, but it just came from realizing that I don't need to go with the crowd to fit in. (sounds like a high school thing, but it really was something I dealt with this semester)

3) It is important to take time out of each day to read/journal/pray and spend time with God. It really helped to slow things down a bit when I was go, go, go all the time.

4) I have so much. I spent so much time working with children and meeting many people that opened my eyes to the struggles in the US. I didn't need to go to another country to help out, people are everywhere in need of the kindness of others.

5) I had never really experienced diversity. It was cool to be exposed to all different cultures this semester. Going to all kinds of restaurants, different churches, and even just walking to class I learned so much about people. I guess this one is kind of hard to explain, but I would not have thought that I would have come across so many differences in the short time I was there.

6) Community is wonderful. I had heard about the idea a lot at Grantham, but I think growing close to so many people at MCPC this semester I realized how great it can. Having people you can trust and talk to anytime after just meeting a few months before is great. It is crazy that we all came from different groups at Grantham and formed a new group at MCPC. I will miss it.

Overall, MCPC was a great experience for me, and I will take all these lessons plus everything I learned about teaching and head back to Grantham happy to have spent a semester in Philadelphia :)

The hardest part

Alright, so i have just two and a half more days here in Philly. It is so crazy to think about when i first got here and was driving with my parents into the city. I was so nervous inside about living in the city and making all new friends... I have come so far from that.

Now I don't want to go. I feel like I am just starting to get comfortable with the city....of course, I still don't know all the directions to different places because it is a large city, but i can see myself living here in the future.

I have made so many good friends this semester. i hope we all stay in touch when we get back to grantham! i should be studying for finals right now, but i don't want to because it makes me think about how i am going home once i take the test :/ i mean i do want to be home, but it is hard because everybody else lives so far away and even as much as we say we will get together over the summer, there's a big chance we will not see eachother for about 4 months.

For some reason, i have been fortunate enough not to really cry about leaving. I feel like it's going to happen soon though. Everybody from campus is gradually dissappearing . We said our goodbyes at the church- Epiphany- this morning. I think it made me realize that I will most likely not be attending that church again for a long time. I also realized how nice it will be that i can visit next semester and go there, visit south street, and pretend i still live here.

This semester has been a great experience and i wish i could stay here for the rest of my college experience, just as it was this semester. Celebration weekend was soooo much fun! dance parties, zoo excursions, and eating at an ethiopian restaurant. It has just been one great day after another.

I know that i would like to stay here, but i am also ready to go back to grantham. I kinda just want to skip summer so i can reunite with the girls! The first week back on main campus will be full of stories! it will be great to be back.

I just can't believe the whole semester went by already.

Peace out Philly

Look! I remembered to post!

So it's getting down to the end here, only three more weeks of classes..and then the extended final schedule... i definitely like it a lot more now that it has been warm. Although this past week my allergies have been really annoying.

Let's see...lately i have been going to dinner a lot. A couple of weekends ago I went to a chinese place one night and a vietnamese place the second night. They were both delicious.

Most of the time though, i have been spending writing papers because that's the only assignment for my classes here. I actually have 3 more to write, but then i think i am actually done with papers! only a few tests after that.

i have been getting used to the city life, but i also haven't been going out into the city much with all my hw. Today PSAB is taking us to the Eastern State Penitentiary which will be great for taking pictures of. and after that maybe ill go shopping and out to dinner? we shall see... but sometime i have to start my new 3day paper writing process. should make these last three less stressful.

i sign up for my fall semester classes on monday, which i will be taking all in a row on MWF! i will have class at 8 9 10 11 1 and 2! its gonna be intense! but i am really excited to get back to Grantham!

also in the next couple of weeks, some friends should be coming to visit! so exciting! :)

Rainy days are good for the studies..

Sooo I guess it has been too long since i wrote on here, we had immersion weekend which was interesting. ice skating always terrifies me, but i made through with the help of some kind friends.

I went to Body World! So amazing. Andrea and I met up at city hall to go over there. If you ever get the chance you should! really cool. I would have liked to see the horse but i guess camels are cool too.

Then we had spring break and I went to England! Pretty much the best trip I have had in a while! You'll have to ask me about it and Ill get into more details :) I am pretty sure that we saw most of London is just 2 days. The double decker bus tour really took us all over. Next maybe Tara and I will head to Barcelona?? haha who knows

Now here I am trying to get back in the swing of everything...last week the weather was soo nice i hardly did any homework and here I sit with 3 things to write for tomorrow...let me just be thankful it rained the passed two days so i could work on some assignments. haha

well i wrote that first part a couple of days ago, but here I am trying to write my paper in the qdr and obviously failing. haha. last night a bunch of us went to China town and ate at a place called Ocean City Chinese.

I came back and picked my classes and stuff. watched Notting Hill which was pretty much a lame 90s flick..

tomorrow ill be out all day and then headed to a concert so i guess i should get back to work

No white streets around here...

Today I had my morning class cancelled and the school i help in the afternoons was closed as well. I am not sure why anymore because there is no snow sticking to the roads... i was hoping my night class would be cancelled but im thinking i am gonna have to go to that now...

Of course, a free day is always nice. it would be a lot better though if it wasn't putting me 4 hrs behind on my service hrs! well now i just have to miss lunch a few more times. bummer.

this past weekend was pretty decent. I spent friday afternoon watching my own personal Friends marathon on youtube. Then i decided to watch confessions of a shopaholic...wasnt so bad, i kinda liked it! After that a bunch of us watched the olympics in the basement..it was ice dancing that night which actually looks pretty interesting. oh and there was a dance party later too.

saturday i had planned to do hw and somehow i wasted time all day and didnt get any work done. At night we all went out to get cheesesteaks at pats or at genos. I went to genos but apparently i should have gone to pats.. mine wasnt that great but i liked it.

sunday morning i tried out a quaker meeting in old city with a few others. It was interesting sitting in the silence for an hour. defintely an experience, but i think i will probably go back to epiphany this weekend.

this weekend is an immersion weekend which means we have planned activities to go to all weekend. There is ice skating on saturday night...but i will probs cling to the side the whole time like last year, especially now that i don't have Deanne to hold my hand! haha

well just figured i would check in since i have so much free time today :)

Yes! Its Wednesday!

Let me just say that I love when the week gets to wednesday. Although I have four classes, my day still finishes by 3 which is earlier than any other weekday. Plus, for those of you that know me well, I still continue my tradition of eating ice cream on wednesday like i have since umm senior year? These things combined with Psych now having new episodes on wednesdays..(although tonight of course i am ready to watch some more olympics!) are the reasons why wednesdays are the best. =]

So i haven't updated in a while..my bad. I have been pretty busy though! I left off during the first snow storm I believe. Since then, we had two snow days and so my schedule was great last week with plenty of time to catch up on school work. There was a snow ball fight in little grantham..but i can't say I really participated..I kinda just stood in the little alley and watched. but i like watching so it was still fun.

This weekend I went to Millersville to see Tara so I took the train for the first time! It was a close one, we almost got on the one to NY...but we made it on! and it was a lovely ride. All the snow along the way made for some nice scenary and I ate my little sandwich. Before I knew it, I was there!

It was a great weekend =] We watched tons of movies and made a valentines day cake like my mom always does. We went shopping and ate at Denney's like always. The waitress there was especially kind and always asked Chelsea if we needed anything. She remembered her name! haha

The one thing I realized being there was how quiet it was. It was very peaceful, and yet I still needed a fan on to fall asleep haha. Another thing I noticed was how much I have changed in the way I cross streets. Here, you have to wait for the traffic light of course. While we were out, every place was where we had the right away and I would be standing there and Tara would be like come on, theyre gonna stop. haha

Who knew little things like that would be the biggest things I noticed. =]

Well its about time to go to history class! i'll try to check in more often!

It just keeps on snowing!

Well today and last night it has been snowing here. My roommates and I just measured it on the roof and there was about 19 inches so far...but it is supposed to keep going until 9! even Septa is closed today..well except for the subway of course..

I decided to take advantage and spend some time just chillin and making my blog look cooler..well try too. haha. but anyways..they even have little plow things that clear the sidewalks its not so bad.

So last weekend a bunch of us went to a fairly expensive restaurant because it was restaurant week so its a lot less...we got four courses..and the steak was soo good!

Saturday we went to the reading terminal market. It was a lot like the Allentown farmer's market but with a lot of cheese steak places inside. I ended up getting a sandwich and some chocolate covered raisins. After that, a few of us went around the city exploring and saw the comcast building and love park.

This week was really tiring..I started my service in the school around the corner. I got assigned to a 3rd grade class. I went there 7.5 hrs this week..only 82.5 more to go! haha

It was really nice to get a lot of sleep last night and just do nothing all day today =] Next weekend i am taking the train to millersville to visit Tara! wahooo

Thanks for reading! Maybe ill get in the habit of updating more soon..and maybe ill get some pics onto facebook!

Week 2

So I have been here for about a week and a half, but it feels like a long time already...im already pretty good with navigating the subway system and i know where all my classes are now too. I guess i do feel like a real temple student in my classes now..

this past weekend i watched movies like we always did in grantham haha, but i also went to south street to see the shops there on saturday!! in the morning we went to a church to help them with their renovation of a warehouse to classrooms---our job was to pull the wire thing down from the little holes they made in the ceiling..its wasnt so bad once i realized my hand fit in the hole so i was able to reach up and find them better...course it was still weird cuz i didnt know what was in the darkness i was putting my hand into.. haha

on south street we mostly went into consignment shops and thrift stores..we made a stop at phileo yogurt which was super good even though i only had a sample...then a couple of us were tired and headed back successfully!

i am taking 19 credits this semester so i have had a lot of homework but i think i am keeping a decent balance...last night i went to see Avatar 3d which turned out to be awesome!! i decided i had to see it because a bunch of my profs talked about it...and today when my history prof talked about it i was like wahooo! i know what he's talking about this time haha

in world music we broke into groups and played the glockenspiel for the whole class and had to perform a little tune which was fun..next week is the African drums! wahoo!

well i think im going to watch an episode of friends now =] laterrr

Fewer nerves around here

Now I have been here for a few days and many of the nerves i had about coming here have gone away =]

I guess i left off Saturday so a quick update because apparently i am not the best at this blogging thing...

Sunday morning i went to a church down the street and it was great. Right away the music made me feel like I was back in the gospel choir in Grantham. Then they started sing Son of Man..a song we sing in the gospel choir even! so i liked it a lot there

When we walked back..ooh whoops i forgot to mention it was raining =/ didn't plan my shoes very well...next time i will look out the window before i go outside..but i did have an umbrella! anyways..we came back and had pizza before heading out to the bowling alley..

This bowling alley was called lucky lanes and it was the sweetest one i have ever been to i think. They had couches to sit on while you bowled and giant tv projector screens all along the front of the lanes.. of course i am the greatest bowler but it was really fun too

we got back on the subway to come all the way back to the cafe for dinner and had another meeting i think?

then we got to go to the Naked Chocolate Cafe! went back on the subway to get there and i split a fondue and aztec thing.. soo good! of course we were all thirsty afterward but i was okay with that haha

so yesterday morning was service in the city and i ended of going to the church across the street and we dusted and set up the area for their youth ministry to start up which was pretty cool to be a part of.

in the afternoon, a bunch of us went around to find our classes and get the rest of our books before another couple meetings. it made me feel a lot better about the campus realizing it won't be hard to get to my classes.


soo TODAY i made it through my first class already! most of them are tomorrow, so i just have one mcpc class here this afternoon.. i was soo glad to know where i was going even though i still felt like everybody knew that i was new..my class only went for 20 minutes to go over stuff so i had plenty of time to update! wahoo! =]

check back soon!

I'm really here!

So today i finally got to move in! It is really nice here, I am in a triple but we have two separate rooms that are really spacious and our own bathroom..plus enough furniture for a fourth person to live here! who wants to come visit? haha

Its been a very long day. I got up really early so i could finish packing..and i made it here by about 11. I had a little time to get settled in then go to get my temple id card.

The rest of the day we had a couple of orientation things and a tour..which was nice to see what exactly temple campus looks like for the first time..

For dinner we got to sign up to go to all different restaurants..my roommates and i signed up to go to banana leaf which is a malaysian restaurant..it was so great! I got thai pineapple fried rice and we got some pancake thing that was sooo good too!

after that out group went around china town and looked in the little shops, they had so many cool things in there! haha one day i will have to buy some things there. =]

well we finally made it back about 830 and now i just got done unpacking and hanging pictures...too bad i forgot all of my posters at home =[

tomorrow we have a packed schedule of orientation stuff but it includes bowling and going to Naked Chocolate Cafe for dessert! wahoo!

Less than 24 hrs

So I leave tomorrow around 9 to go and move into the philly campus..

i guess i should have started packing sooner because I really have a lot to do tonight but the family will all be here for some pizza and to watch star trek. (gotta love netflix)..My problem is that I am typing up this blog instead of finishing packing before everybody gets home which is in about 20 minutes..i have a feeling its gonna be a late night packing job?...well maybe it won't take much longer... whoops =]

pretty excited though! get to write some real updates next week! haha

Almost time!

So i made this blog because a bunch of us are leaving Grantham and going different places, of course I am not going far to philly..but it will still be necessary to keep my friends updated around the world =]

i don't leave until the 16th, but i am pretty excited..actually a better word now may be nervous just because i keep hearing some frightening storied about the area of philly...but other than that i am sure it's gonna be awesome!!

i look forward to updating again once i am there~