Beach Vacation '09

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Summary of Summer (so far)

So, long time no blog. Today is vacation prep day so this won't be long:

• The Ignatian Silent Retreat was amazing!!!!!!!! Though, I guess I missed talking more than I realized since I stayed up till 3 a.m. chatting and hanging out! :O I hadn't stayed up that late all semester! Then I woke up around 6 a.m. to say my last farewells to two friends.
• My roommate, another friend, and I had a safe drive (despite the fact that we were all a little sleep deprived) from school to N. Fl. where my dad met us and picked up me and my friend.
• My friend visited me for a week and we had a great time! We did everything from make-up to mountain climbing, movie watching, costume designing (she's going to sew me a 19th cen. gown!), shopping, visiting the Civil War Naval Museum, Dim Sum eating, Farmers Market exploring, and a driving tour (thanks to Gowasack & Co.) of the downtown and Decatur. It was wonderful to spend so much time with her! She is an amazing person!
• Yesterday, I got my hair cut. Short. I won't say more than that; you'll have to wait for pictures.... ;)
• Now we're preparing for a beach trip with the paternal side of the family. I've got my swim suit and reading list ready!
• Off to pack!

That's all there is, there isn't any more!....or is there...

I'm done with Finals!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So that means........I'm a JUNIOR!!!!!!!! :O And I still feel like a freshman! :P

So my Latin final on Tuesday went not well. It was totally different from what I had expected. But I rather enjoyed taking it (even though I think it was GPA suicide) and I am now inspired to master Latin. I plan to brush up over the summer; I can't wait! I'm so excited!!!!

Yesterday morning, my oral final for Creation & Grace went very well. I really knew the material. After the test I went and got a celebratory iced mocha and chatted with a friend at the coffee shop.

After noon Mass and lunch, I packed up my college life in various boxes. I was so grateful to one of my friends for her help in putting everything away! Then my roommate and I loaded up her little toyota celica and headed for the storage unit. My stuff looked so small in that empty room....

Now it was time to party!!!!! Ok, not for me, but there was a joint surprise party for two couples who are to be married this summer, and two graduating seniors who have applied to enter the Dominican Friars (they won't know until mid-May if they have been accepted to the Order, so pray for them!!!!!) And a great time was had by all: cards were signed, cake was eaten, Tomism lauded, and the Archbishop of the Gulf of Mexico was installed (the "Sea" is no longer vacant!) by the papal nuntio to the Atlantic.

This weekend I do random cleaning and setting up for the various receptions following graduation (it's going to be so sad to see the seniors leave!) and then on Sunday I go into Really Great Silence as the 6 day Ignatian Silent Retreat begins that evening. Thus, I shall not be blogging (or e-mailing, or answering my phone etc.) until Saturday evening/afternoon. As one of the priests put it: "you're going to the mountain."

So much more to do!

This is Final!

So finals week is now upon us. Several of my friends took exams today. Some even have an exam tomorrow (which is rather a freak occurrence, definitely not the norm). But just to bring everyone up to speed and because I am somewhat in coherent from working on my final ethics paper, I shall use bullet points in no particular order.

• The last weekend of April I went home for the weekend for my sister's Confirmation. Praise God!!!!!! It was wonderful!
• My American Civ. final consisted of three take-home essays which I completed upon returning to school. Hurray!!!!!!!!!!!!
• I should have started studying sooner, but I don't know what's wrong with me; I'm just not motivated
• This past Thursday the Women's Discernment Program had an end of semester party which included pizza, ice cream, Irish fiddle (courtesy of yours truly by popular request/compulsion ;) and traditional Filipino dancing. It ended with Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. The perfect end to the semester
• in Creation and Grace we watched an awesome documentary about Mother Teresa (everyone should watch it!)
• Storage unit issues are all worked out and everything is all set except the insanity of packing
• Supposed to be studying but having a really hard time focusing
• Latin commentary looks pretty good ( when my prof. thought some of the comments were particularly good.) I am very pleased. :)

I have my Latin exam from 7-10 p.m. on Tuesday. I am dangerously indifferent to my performance....Creation & Grace exam is at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday. All the information is bouncing off my head....Ethics Exam (which is really an 8 page take-home essay) is due Thursday at noon.

I CAN'T WAIT TILL FINALS ARE COMPLETED!

WYD Bake-off!

So the World Youth Day Club had a bake sale fundraiser this Sunday....that means we did Walmart at midnight on Friday and baked like crazy on Saturday. Ok, so maybe the Walmart run was from 9-11:30 p.m. but still that's pretty crazy. ;) The description of Saturday, however, is pretty accurate. Baking began at approx. 6:30 a.m., took a break for morning Mass and breakfast, stoped in the early evening, resumed at approx. 9:30 p.m. and ended around 1:15 a.m. Many delicious things were made which will hopefully contribute to our sweet trip to Spain in 2011! (Can you tell I was up late??? ;)

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!!!!!!!! Good thing Easter season lasts for 50 days! And technically it is the equivalent of Easter Sunday because it is the last day during the octave of Easter. I love being Catholic! :)

I spent Holy Week and Easter Sunday at my friend's house in northern FL. It was great to meet her family. And her mom cooks amazing Philipino food! YUM! I was very happy! We had a very prayerful Holy Week which culminated in the Easter Vigil. It was wonderful! After the vigil, we baked bread and she opened her really late Christmas gifts. :) On Sunday we went to the beach with her family and their friends. It was too cool to swim but it was great just to be on the beach and to walk in the waves. He is Risen!!!!!!!! ALLELUIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A Birthday & A Seder Meal

Yesterday, for my friend's 20th birthday, a group of us piled into a '94 van and left on a shopping excursion to the outlet mall. It was great fun! Since no one was looking for anything in particular, we just wandered around and had hunting for good sales and trying things on. I succeeded in both activites and bought a hat from GAP for $3! ;) This is my "I am too cool to smile" look! (JK)

After scouring the stores we loaded up and made our way to the house of another friend's Aunt and Uncle to have a Seder meal with them.(this link has the prayers used for the meal; everyone should do it! http://www.wf-f.org/Seder.html) It was beautiful and profound. It was an amazing meditation on the Exodus from Egypt, and resonated with the Mass! It was great fun to spend time with such a wonderful family (and their pets)!

Fried Fish, Films, & Cocktails

So, Friday was crazy! At 3:45 p.m. the World Youth Day Club began setting up for our second Lenten Fish Fry Fundraiser. It was really windy, and it looked like it might possibly rain, so we set up under the breeze-way of the Student Union. It was a great success! And it was really fun! A lot of families came to have dinner. :)

After the Fish Fry (approx. 6:30 p.m.) and a quick change of attire, I went to a cocktail party hosted by one of the philosophy professors. Some of my friends and I had beseeched her to have said party because she would often preface interesting (if not unusual) philosophical points with the statement: "And this is what you can say at a cocktail party...." So we finally had our party, and discussed contraception, being, and abortion.

Quidquid recipitur ad modum recipientis recipitur! (Whatever is received is received according to the mode of the receiver)

However, the symposium ;) adjourned early as the majority of us trooped down from our lofty pearch atop the Student Union balcony to attend the Ameture Film Festival. I am amazed at the talent on campus! There was a moving silent film about the heroic sacrifice made by our soldiers, and a poignant movie called "Second" (written by one of my classmates) about a mentally confused woman. They were excellent! "Second" won the official award of Best Film and the popular vote. It also received the award for best technical work.

Good times were had by all!

We're back live!

Ok. So it's been a looooooonnnnnnnnngggggg time! I had a good spring break in Nicaragua. I got to know a lot of different people, and do a lot of new things. For service work we: did door-to-door evangelizing for the purpose of supporting Catholics (a lot of Latin Americans are converting to various Protestant denominations); put on a "Faith & Fun" program for children at an orphanage and a soup kitchen (i.e. singing, games, & skits); and led an afternoon retreat for local high school students. On the second to last day we helped the Ave Maria Latin America (AMULA) students to put on a mission. The AMULA Mission Club has one mission per semester. The Mission activities combined all our experiences from the preceding week: door-to-door evangelization, children's program, and talks about the Faith.

In addition to mission activity, we also did some sight seeing (hosted by AMULA). We went to two volcanos; one had a cave, the other a rain forest; visited Cuapa, the only approved sight of a Marian apparition in Central America; swam in a lake which was almost as big as El Salvador; toured the islands in the lake (we saw monkies on one island!); and sawm in the Pacific Ocean!

It was a good to experience a different culture, to see poverty close up, and to realize the universality of the Church. It pulls you out of yourself and into the service of others.

Getting back into the routine of classes has been hard. I've really had a problem with procrastinating and not studying. I've also felt bored and in need of something diverting to plan/organize/daydream about.

Today I went out to breakfast after 7 a.m. Mass with a group of my friends to celebrate one of my friend's birthday. Then we all went to an abortion mill to pray for a few hours in spiritual warfare to defend the babies and the mothers. NO ONE CAME FOR AN ABORTION!!!! Praise God!!!!!! And thanks to Our Lady of Guadelupe whose image we brought with us!!! We returned around lunch time. I went to a study session for Ethics, and have been doing homework ever since. Consensus regrading homework: the Holy Spirit is ineffably AWESOME, and Andrew Jackson was mean.

Spring Break: Voy a.....

Guess what I'm doing for spring break.....................I'm going on AMU's mission trip to Nicaragua!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This past Saturday, totally out-of-the-blue, one of my friends mentioned that a student had her plane ticket double booked (turns out that she had signed up for both of Ave's mission trips - Ecuador and Nicaragua - so both groups bought her a ticket). Between Saturday night and Monday afternoon everything fell into place for me to go in her place. I'm exceedingly excited! I do not know what God has in mind for me during this trip, but if He went through all the trouble to surprise me with it I know it will be good! :)

Needless to say, I have been rather distracted during midterms. My two biggest tests (Latin poetry and American Civilization) are on Thursday so I would appreciate prayers. Praise God, my second ethics paper is done and I've printed it off to turn in tomorrow. I can't wait until Thursday evening when this is all done and I can focus on packing (so much fun!)

Midterms approaching...

So, I only have a couple of minutes before beginning intense midterm prep (it wouldn't have to be so intense if I had studied more this past week, but oh well). I have one for Golden Age Poetry (Latin), for Creation and Grace, and for American Civ. The latter two I'm not terribly worried about as it will be multiple choice. But the study guide for American Civ. consists of a list of 100 significant places, persons, events etc. that I need to be familiar with....I think I know how this morning is going to go....

The retreat was good. It was really edifying to be with 140 other young Catholic women from all over the country and various circumstances. One really gets a feel for the universality of the Church! It was also fun to be around the Dominican sisters. Their joyful witness is remarkable. Oh yea, and it SNOWED!!!!! It was beautiful!!!!!

The World Youth Day 2011 Club has been collecting nominations for the Refiner's Fire Award which is awarded to the professor whom the students vote (by putting change into the professors jars) as the one who gave them the most time off Purgatory. As VP of the WYD club, I sent the nominations to the professors and thus far all who have been nominated have accepted. Some of them seemed pretty excited about it. I hope the students get into it too so that this fundraiser is successful!

Leavin' on a jet plane...

Pray for me! I fly out at 1:10 for Cincinati. From thence I shall proceed to Detroit. There will be several young women other than myself whom the sisters shall fetch between 6:50-7 p.m. Our Lady Queen of Peace, and St. Dominic pray for us! :)

Ah life....

So life is going on. The silent retreat was wonderful, as usual. It's always somewhat bitter sweet to come back to the world, but I've jumped back in. Just trying to keep my head above the homework, and starting to feel the pressure to study for midterms.

I received a good mark on my first Ethics paper, and was much encouraged. The next paper is assigned this Thursday so I guess I get to do it all over again. This one will be harder as we have been discussing the relationship between metaphysics, anthropology, and ethics. This includes such things as conjoint-disjuncts, moral equations, an ethical wedding cake, and the funnel concept of the human person. Not to mention a survey of moral methodologies and world views (ex. deism, postmodernism etc.)

I'm getting really excited about this weekend! I am going on another retreat, but this time it's with the Dominican Sisters of Mary Mother of the Eucharist in MI. So lots of flying will be done. :) I need to be sure I pack light so that I hop on my connecting flight with ease. Funny thing is on Sunday I have a layover in Atl (extrapolate emotions here)... Anyway, Please pray for me this weekend!

Tonight is the first officer's meeting of the World Youth Day club. I was chosen as VP so now I get to see what this entails. We have TONS of fundraising so that we can go to WYD 2011 in Madrid. Viva el Papa! :)

P.S. Weather is finally warm! Though not miserably hot.

Into Great Silence

Ok, so the silence isn't that great just from Friday evening - Sunday afternoon. But still, silence is golden. Especially when it is spent with Jesus! Please pray for me and the other 80 young women attending the Women's Spring Silent Retreat this weekend! God has been very generous to me as I do not have any big assignments this weekend! I'm sooooooo excited! I'm all packed, spiritual reading, new sleeping bag (which I can't wait to use ;) and all! I even brought some home work for Ethics to read on the drive (a presentation of moral methodologies written by two Dominican priests).

Obtaining this reading was quite the event. You see, the teacher scanned the chapter from a book and then e-mailed the chapter in several installments. So I spent at least an hour printing all of this out. I read American Civ. when my direction was not needed by the computer/printer.

I am some what consoled after reading American Civ. Apparently politics has been a vicious game from the beginning. However, early on it seems that the majority of politicians, although far from total selflessness, were seeking what they thought was best for the country. And they had a more sound philosophical foundation to stand upon. Now it's just a messy relativistic power struggle. Ah well. We pray.

Random info: we're finally having FL appropriate weather :) (some students went swimming today!) I'm learning American sign language sporatically from a classmate; it's really fun! I'm trying to ward off a cold which involves taking Robitussin (:P) and cold-eez. But, Praise God, I don't have any symptoms other than some congestion. Classes are still enjoyable. The Aeneid is much easier to read than either Caesar, Cicero, or Horace, Ethics is life changing, and Creation and Grace is contemplation inducing. American Civ. is more tolerable now that I know that the short research paper is due after spring break.

Please Pray for me and my friends and for two special intentions! Into great silence I go....

Ramble

So I 've started researching for my American Civ. paper. We get to chose a president and write a brief bio/critique of his presidency. I chose Millard Fillmore (1850-1853) because I knew I wouldn't have to sift through a vast collection of resources and because I thought it was funny that there was a president named Millard.

Saturday I went shopping with two of my friends. We left campus at 7 a.m. and went to 8 a.m. Mass at a parish in town. Amongst other things I bought new running shoes with insoles, sweat pants (on clearance!) and necessities. :)

So I've got to go pray vespers with my roommie!

FREEZING!!!!!!!!

Just thought I'd let you all know that it is currently 33 degrees Fahrenheit outside. Can you say unusually COLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, off to the races. I have forty lines or so to read of the Aeneid before class, need to work on my Ethical wedding cake, must start a research paper on an American president...I'm thinking Millard Fillimore.....

Say Yes to the Dress!

19th Century Ball

19th Century Friends

An Elegant Repast

19th Century Ball: The Preparation

Procrastination and Papers

So I got no homework done on Thursday and really no homework done today...This is not good. I have a 4-6 pg. Ethics paper due Feb. 12, and a 1 pg. Theology paper due this upcoming Friday. I have a lot of reading to do for Latin and American Civ. It would probably be smart to start researching for an American Civ. paper on a president. I am on the verge of trouble...

Tomorrow is the 19th Century Ball. I hope I can enjoy it with all of this looming over my head...

It's going to be 40 degrees F tomorrow but the weather web site said it would feel like 32. Needless to say, my roommate and I will be using the treadmills at the gym tomorrow instead of running outside. I'm starting to believe in global warming it's been so cold here this semester! ;)

Went on a Target run with some friends today. It was very fun. :) I bought crackers (so that I can actually eat my peanut butter like a spread as it was intended), laundrey detergent, and soap.

Sunday I'm going to a friend's house for some cooking fun. I'm going to show her how to curry potatoes and she is going to teach me to make something (I'm not sure what...)

Blood, poems, and clubs

Hey! I'm really excited because I gave blood for the first time in my life! :) It wasn't bad at all! I'm also really happy because I read 4 of the 5 Latin Poems due for today. Yea! Tonight was the activities fair. There were several clubs I was interested in and signed up to receive more info: the World Youth Day Club, the Women's Outdoors Club, the Running Club, and Fencing (RANDOM!). But soon prudence and homework will kick in and I probably won't end up pursuing any but the first.

The Events and an Accident

So school is going along. In theology we're reading some excellent excerpts; I hope to read some of the books in their entirity over the summer. In Ethics we have "The Daily Depredation" which involves reading recent articles or blog comments to controversial issues and then identifying the flaws and contradictions in the arguments and statements. In Latin we are reading Horace. Yesterday Horace was going on about how he would make a perpetual name for himself by his great skill as a poet. Rather prophetic considering that in 2009 people are still reading and praising his poems. Had to drop schola because of schedule conflicts, but this means I have more time to study. :) For American Civ. I'm just trying not to fall behind on the textbook readings which are rather long.

Last night my friend and I witnessed a horse-back riding accident. The horses were galloping on cobble stone and (it all happened very fast) I guess one slipped and the rider fell. Miraculously (and I am not speaking hyperbolically) the rider had no broken bones or serious head injury. Praise be Jesus in Mary! Praise be Mary in Jesus! So please offer Rosaries of thanksgiving to Jesus and Mary for the preservation of the rider's life and health!

Taxpayers should not fund abortion

Please sign this petition to chairman Obey of the House of Appropriations Committee to ask that taxpayers' money does not fund abortion. Our Lady of Guadelupe, Pray for us!

https://www.frc.org/get.cfm?c=CHECKOUT&dmy=F40B01FA-9DD4-EB90-4ADEFA3CC005B3CD&CFID=10622944&CFTOKEN=bce45adf6c709e2d-F4096FA0-93C9-C630-2CBFC27805DC1864

Fun with Fake Snow....