|
arielle_myst
|
read my profile
sign my guestbook
Name: Jeska
Birthday: 4/5/1988
Gender: Female
Interests: the smell of a soft leather journal, the crinkling noise of a fresh sheet of paper, the expanse of space that begs to be written upon... the thread of sound that begins a melody, a tremulous voice that means what it sings, the culmulating storm of sweet music that sweeps my mind off concentration and into what comes naturally... and most of all, getting to know God, because without Him, the world holds no meaning.
Expertise: daydreaming, closing doors on my own face, laughing at my own mistakes, loving my brother with the fierce sort of protection you really don't want to get in the way of, being scared that my life is this one, gigantic, cliche.
Occupation: Student
Industry: Entertainment
Message: message me
AIM:  sweetsongarielle
Member Since:
4/25/2003
|
|
| Wow. That was a bit too fast. Even though I brought a diary (and gained two more as presents) I managed not to write anything...
I have all my finals and papers this upcoming week, and I know that I won't have time to do anything tomorrow, so naturally here I am, wasting time.
I know! Let's do an "impressions of college" recap, alphabet style.
A. is for
Awkward: I think it's my new favorite word. It started with the turtle... and then expanded into a way of life. It's an adjective used to describe situations, atmospheres, and people (esp those of the other gender).
Adoremus: It's my life now, esp with the concert coming up this saturday. If i'm not in practice, i'm in sectional. If i'm not in sectional, i'm working on the powerpoints or skits. If i'm not doing that, I'm practicing the music on my own. I have two groups of friends: glc pple and adoremus pple. I practically live with the latter.
Allergies: another newly defining factor of my life. I can't eat things. Everywhere I go, someone inevitably asks me to list out what I can't eat. It gets inane after a while. So I just eat it, and get sick. Carpe diem!
A: the sixth tone of a C major scale. The note I can hit, but not really sing (an octaveupfromtheA above middle C)
Ai yah: a phrase I use obsessively, for everything.
That's all for now! More to come (next study break)!
| | |
| As we all know, I can't cook.
That bread? Turned green.
That popcorn? Burnt, with smoke pouring out of the microwave the the fire alarms going off like crazy.
Mom's get-well meal? Amazingly salty, peppery, and enough in quantity to feed a small country.
So why am I cooking so much in college?
It's Megan's fault. The blame lies with the girl and her skills and how bored the rest of us are. There are only so many nights you can watch a movie or play taboo until you get sick of doing the same things every weekend. So, we cook. Last night, we handmade dumplings and pot-stickers with our expanding group of friends . There were 11 of us this time, so we didn't crowd into my kitchen/hallway. We 'rented' out a kitchen instead. Megan played head cook, telling people what to do and sampling the raw meat. Some people were really good at making authentic looking dumplings. Some weren't. I made this long roll of one. And then a tiny one about the size of half a fingernail. Michael made a huge dumpling which filled up half the frying pan (and then refused to cook all the way through). Elliot made sphere-dumplings, cube-dumplings, and russian roulette dumplings with nothing inside but dough. The two unfortunates who bit into those got laughed at later.
It was pretty awesome- the laughter, the good-natured teasing, the fact that Megan kept forgetting to speak english cuz she got too immersed in the food- and I loved the fact that when it came down to it, we all sat around the table and prayed as a group. That was fellowship. Unorganized by any church, not out of obligation or with uncomfortable resignation, but out of something so natural...
I love how God is at work in this campus. I love how He's here guiding individual lives and building up families within and outside of the church. We're in college- without parents, without teachers, without most authority that genuinely cares about you. So, we care for each other. I can't count how many times people have called me to remind me to pick up something cuz they knew I would forget. There's always someone willing to tutor someone in any subject, free of charge, on their own time. And then there's the living, breathing network of prayer-lines which stretch across the campus, dorm to dorm, bookstore to library. We take care of each other as best we can, and on top of that, we know that God has got it in His hands.
| | |
| Lately, I've been going to sleep really late. When I first entered college, I went to sleep at 11:30, 12 o'clock, and then woke at 7. Now? Not so much. It's so incredibly strange... Daddy and Mom aren't here, making sure that I eat right, or go to sleep early, or stay at home to do schoolwork. I haven't exactly been going crazy... but this past week, after I finished midterms, it was like I turned my brain off. "The 4" (Megan, Stephanie, Melinda and I) hold movie nights or just hang out talking at each others dorms. Adoremus spends a lot of time together too, esp the GLC portion (those that go to Grace Life Church). Thursday night, after church small group, I went home for a bit, and then left again to watch movies with some of the guys. We started "Little Giants" at 12am, and then watched "Mary Poppins". By the time I went back to my dorm, it was 5:20am. I have never, ever, in my entire life stayed up that late. =P So movie watching is fun, I guess. I think the point of it is in the running commentary we have, and the way we sing along to songs. I just like... being with people. I've never had this sort of experience before. Don't get me wrong- I have friends- I have you guys... but it's not the same as this. I eat with this people at practically every meal. When I don't have class, I'm either on the phone talking to one of them, or IM-ing them. Every free moment during the weekend is spent with them... It's so odd. I guess I was a loner before this. It wasn't an intentional thing. I would like to blame my parents (they generally believe hanging out should not occur unless it's a holiday or a birthday party), but maybe I was consumed with school. Maybe I followed the rules a little too strictly. Maybe I didn't try to live... after all, I was doing enough living vicariously through books. Last night, I couldn't stop smiling. After we performed at Hope Chapel, Adoremus attempted to eat at Chipotle. We ended up splitting up here and there until it ended up being the core group of people I usually spend time with: Jack, Megan, Jeff, Dan, and Eshin. Everyone can play guitar, so we crammed into Dan/Jack's dorm room with four guitars and arranged ourselves so that we could all see the monitor, where the chords and lyrics were. Then, we "jammed". Haha. It's a phrase they use a lot, actually, but I hadn't truly experienced it until last night. Picture this: the majority of people playing, everyone singing, and then in the pause between songs, a swap of guitars. It was so much fun... the music, the laughter, the overflow of love... oh, just inexplainable. People were harmonizing, people were doing fancy tricks and teaching each other different chords, and best of all, just worshipping God. We weren't playing or singing for an audience. We weren't standing in a darkened room with a powerpoint, mood music, and people crying and lifting their hands. We were just playing around... singing to God on our own time, out of our own will... cuz it was fun, cuz He deserved it, and cuz, well, we love Him! It's nice to come to Christ every now and then without feeling the need to be heartwrenched or broken into pieces. Humbling ourselves is important, and being in awe of God is crucial too. It's just... you know, it's not wrong to come to Him with pure joy. I'm a child of God. I'm sure He doesn't like to see me cry all the time when I come into His presence. I think... if we laugh and love... God will smile too. | | |
| I don't understand some things about college. Take, for instance, the condom obsession. As I walked into the front doors of Wolman (my dorm) a few minutes ago, there was a huge neon green sign hanging off the front of the security desk. It read: "Come play poker tonight at AMR I. Kinky prize! Free condoms!".Why? Why would people bother? I mean... there's a bag of them stapled to the bulletin wall on my floor, complements from my Resident Advisor. Obviously, there isn't much of a shortage either. Last weekend, we accidently left our suite-door open, and some idiot threw a pink water balloon into our hallway. I went to throw it out, but the water inside was warm, and the balloon itself was strangely sticky. (After I popped it in the sink and threw it out, my suitmates told me it wasn't a water balloon). When I went out into the common room, voila- in corners, on sofas, on windowsills, slung over the TV- it was like party decorations... but not. The last straw was when I went into the elevator to find that there was a handful rolling about in there as we went up and down. The condoms were the harmless part. You would think, as this is Hopkins and all, people wouldn't be stupid enough to do destroy their bodies. Yeah, yeah, I know, actually the percentage can be higher? I mean, look at Yale- when I visited them last year, the tour guide in the closed room (no parents/staff) discussion spent the majority of the time going on and on about how the police didn't really care if you used drugs, and how he could tell us where to get them if we wanted. And IMSA... but I won't even go there. =P jp, kinda. People do have crazy parties here, and its not just in the frats. Apparently some parts of the AMRs (freshman, traditional dorms with the shared floor bathrooms) are rather sketchy. My dorm is really quiet, esp. my wing and my floor. People go out to do things, really. The do come home crazy drunk though. The effects of it can be seen, again, in the elevator (where someone lost control of there bladder everywhere). I hate it when they have to close down the elevator to clean though, considering I live on the 7th floor. It's a long walk. My friend Jeff can explain the drug scene. As usual, I'm still unaware of what's going on, but he's unfortunate enough to have the suitemates that he does. They apparently smoke... some substance... that amazingly doesn't set off the fire alarm... but is terribly pungent... and wafes into Jeff's room... which is bad, because he would rather be drug free. Megan, who lives in the Substance-Free housing, (in on of the AMR houses) says that a small percentage of the kids there do go out and get drunk. Strange, considering that they choose it... As for me, I'm doing fine. No fear, the only thing i've ever drank out of those infamous giant red plastic cups is water. For communion, we still drink grape juice. ^_^ Someone actually bakes the bread though, which is cool. It's kinda weird how we go up and pinch a piece off the loaf. | | |
| so, quickly- I have class in 10 minutes, but I feel the urge to write- JHU is such a lovely campus. I mean it! I'm constantly walking around looking at the sky and scenery, and thinking, "wow, God. The world is so beautiful today. Thanks." Like every other campus, JHU has a "beach", which is really just a lawn. I went out there the other day to do hw (of course, I couldn't concentrate) and just breathed. It smelled like freshly mown grass, someone's coffee, and... autumn. Did you know, autumn has a distinct smell? It's not like spring, which is sweet and wet, or summer, which is hazy and melting, or winter, which is crisp and almost biting. Autumn is like... Oh my. Am I actually writing about nature? The poetry I'm reading for IFP class must be getting to me. | | |
|
