Sorry for the terrible pun :P But that's kind of how life feels right now! We're definitely getting into the more intense part of the semester, and almost 3/4 done! Next week I think I'm going to start to feel a crunch, but I've been trying to do a better job this time of working ahead on projects and preparing for papers and tests. I also have two group projects, which I'm not a huge fan of, so that's a challenge.

One thing that's been a lot of fun lately is my time volunteering at a local elementary school, Parkside. I have to do eight service hours for the Ethics and Morality class, so for part of that time I've gone to help out in a first grade classroom. Most of the time they don't have anything concrete for me to do, so I read with them, help them with math and spelling, and sometimes just control the rowdy ones. :) I can't imagine that I'd ever teach in an elementary school, but it's fun to visit and play with the kids for a while at least!

Lots of things have been happening this month at GC! Last week, Shane Claiborne visited for a few days. I really enjoyed reading his book, The Irresistible Revolution, and was glad he could come speak more to new, alternative ways of living in the world, focused on following Jesus and loving people. Last weekend was the Earthtones choir concert, which was a lot of fun to sing in! Also, one of my friends, Patrick Ressler, organized an Hour After, full of wonderful music. It was one of the best I've been to.

I've been enjoying participating in my local church, Assembly Mennonite, in small group every week as well as in other opportunities, like a recording project we did recently. I'm also looking forward to song leading later in April or May. Also, we had a potluck today, so I'm now quite full from all of the good food! :)

Enjoy the spring season!

It's kind of hard to be back in Goshen this week... Florida was so relaxing and awesome and warm! :)

So there were 13 of us that drove down in three cars (18 hours to Tampa)! Six of us stayed with a friend's relatives, and the other seven stayed in a rental house 20 minutes away. It was interesting coordinating everything with 13 people (especially food), but it worked out really well!

We were about an hour from a beach, so we went one day, and the other days we hung out at the houses - there was a really nice pool, so that was a lot of fun. Some of us also went to a local park a few times. We even found a Steak and Shake (which I didn't even know about until coming to Goshen)!

Even though Florida was great, I'd have to say the best part of break for me was the last weekend when I flew home to PA from Tampa and completely surprised my parents. My mom's 50th birthday was Saturday, and my parents were having a party then, with lots of friends from the area and even out of state. They were completely shocked when I showed up! It was so perfect!

Sunday night when I got back I went to the chamber choir home concert, after their spring break tour. Now it's right back into the rest of the spring semester! I'm not too busy this week, but starting this weekend things are going to get crazy!

Stay warm, and enjoy the pictures from sunny Florida :)