Spring is here!
It was almost seventy on Sunday. The day before was even nicer. Everyone was outside just relaxing, some studying, some jamming to some music.

The end of the semester always brings lots to do. But, since it's been so long since people have seen sunshine, everyone tends to head outside to get their fair share of vitamin D before getting to work.

Here are some pictures to show you what spring is like around here!

This week is crazy! Easter weekend was a breath of fresh air. Thursday night, several of us were quite bewildered at the thought of having no school the next day, so we spent some time relaxing and hanging out.

On Friday, I was quite relaxed. I slept in quite late, and then went out with a friend to do a photo shoot. Later that night, I ventured downtown to New World Arts, to see the Vagina Monologues, presented by several Goshen College women. This was my first experience with the production, and it was very intriguing to hear the stories woven together into a theater piece. After the show, I went across the street to hear a friend from a band perform at the Goshen Theater. Unfortunately, he had already performed, but I was able to catch up and talk to him for a while.

Saturday morning I woke up and went to Chicago on my own for a fun day. I did some shopping and walked around the city to shoot some pics.

Easter Sunday I woke up and went to the church I've been going to. It's an Evangelical Free Church and a more contemporary service. When i got to the street that connects to the driveway, there were so many people going to this service (the second of three) that there were officers out directing traffic. The sanctuary was overflowing from so many people. It was quite awesome to be worshipping on such a wonderful day surrounded by so many believers.

After church I went home and ate lunch with my family. Mom cooked a great meal, and I had a chance to do some laundry too! Unfortunately, I had to go back to campus before too long because reality of projects, presentations, and papers was setting in.

Today I've been sitting here researching, planning, and organizing all of my numerous academic thoughts into an attempt at some sort of order or plan of action for all that needs to get done. Its quite overwhelming to look at each and everything, but I keep nibbling away at it one step at a time.

Here are some pictures from the wonderful spring weather we've been having, the relaxing weekend, and some random fun stuff that goes on around here.

Hope everyone is doing well. Feel free to email me timb@goshen.edu if you have any questions! :-)

Exactly want I needed.

Break could not have been better. I was with people I enjoyed, we stayed with a friend's wonderful grandmother who made us wonderful food, and of course, we had wonderful amounts of sun.

My car of five guys drove down to Sarasota, Fl on Saturday the 22nd and got there on Sunday around 4 in the afternoon. As soon as we got to Tyler's Grandma's house, we were treated to fresh popcorn, soda, and fresh squeezed Florida orange juice! After showering up, and settling in, we were treated to our first meal of the week which set the bar high for the rest.

Later that night we played some cards with Mary (our host) and her sister and then finally called it a night. The next day we packed up and lathered up and headed to the beach to get our first dose of vitamin D. We caught up with some other G- Towners and spent the majority of the day swimming and basking in the sun.

That night we were treated to a great Amish meal. I was pleasantly surprised to know that there is a large population of Amish and Mennonites in the Sarasota area. The buffet was amazing and we all left the restaurants feeling like we might just fall over from how much food we had eaten.

Tuesday we continued our day long visits to the beach. We packed up sandwiches every day and enjoyed lunch right out on the sand. By the way, the sand in Siesta Key is as white and as soft as powdered sugar. It was amazing! The ocean wasn't too cold, but the pool back at our house was much much warmer!

We made use of the pool on Wednesday after deciding the beach was much too cold and windy for us that day. We traveled to the mall after the beach to walk around for a while, and on the way there, a van pulled up next to us and the driver proceeded to tell us he was originally from Elkhart. What a small world!!

Wednesday night we piled in the car to go watch the men's baseball team play about an hour away from Sarasota. The game looked grim for the first few innings, but towards the end the guys made a huge come back tying it up. One of the umpires though, negated one of our runs due to a discrepancy, and we weren't able to make another comeback in the time left. They guys put up an amazing effort though. Though we were in Florida, the cold weather that day made us feel right at home and we all bundled up for the night.

Thursday was still a bit cool, but warmed up throughout the day. The 20-30 of us out on the beach joined up for some sweet games of volleyball. The guys I was with played some of the girls on the Goshen volleyball and won both times. In their defense, they had been out in the sun more, and I'm sure that the heat was taking its toll. :-) On our way out of the beach that day, I stabbed my foot on a stick in the sand. It went in between my sandal and my foot and I stepped down on it. It's still healing, but unfortunately I've been walking with a limp now!

Friday was our last day at the beach. We spent time cleaning out the car in the morning, then took off for some last hours in the sun. I ran out of suntan lotion and probably got a bit burnt from those last few hours. Once it was time to leave, we grabbed our stuff, cleaned off and hit the road for home.

Car travels aren't necessarily my most favorite trips to take, but both trips to and from weren't that bad at all. It was dissappointing to be back in the snow when I got back, but its been nice to hear people say "you're tan" especially because I never tan at all!

Anyway I've got bookoo amounts work to do, and a meeting in a little bit. Hope you enjoyed the update!

This last weekend was a great example of one of the reasons I came to Goshen College. Since being built, the music center has helped a music program flourish immensely at GC. Not only is the campus and its facilities a great incubator for such success, but the Mennonite musical routes of many who go here also engulfs the campus on a regular basis.

Friday's festivities started with a Performing Arts Series concert by John McCutcheon and Carrie Newcomer. John, a folk performer and friend of the Mennonite circles, put on a rising performance with many different instruments, and messages. His songs proved to me that music is one of the best ways of portraying a message.

In the second half of the PAS show, Carrie Newcomer, a GC grad, brought more folk music to the sold out crowd, also debuting her new music, and new quartet in a place where she comfortably referred to as home.

During the PAS show, one of my friends and fellow floormates was putting his musical talents too good use in a coffeehouse type setting down town. While I wasn't able to attend the event, it was something that I had been to before, and knew from experience that it was another classic example of people using music in very positive ways.

Right after the PAS show, a group of student's who had been preparing for a little over a month began performing their own set of music in the old Chapel across campus. This venue is frequently holding these "hour afters" sponsored by Campus Activities Council as a way for a large group of people on campus to get out of the dorms for an evening and again, hear some music. These are always a lot of fun and tend to be a good time for people to sing and dance and just enjoy themselves. (pictures will come soon)

Saturday night was the Concerto-Aria concert. Having been in orchestra during high school, it was easy for me to appreciate the magnificence of such a performance, without needing to attend. Instead, I opted to head of campus with some of my friends and venture into a church in a local town to hear some Christian Rock done by some different bands from the Atlanta area. Again we sang (or screamed) and danced to the loud music and had quite a good time.

The weather has been just as pesky as usual. Lots of snow on the ground now, and the roads were iced over when we attempted to make it home from the concert on Saturday night. That trip's travel time was doubled due to those hazardous conditions. Spring is getting closer and closer, and I can't wait to dawn the sunscreen and shorts and feel the sand under my feet, instead of the fluffy white stuff, even if it's only for a few days.

That's all for now.
-Tim

Wow, about three weeks into school already this forth semester of my college career. So much has happened and I've been keeping quite busy. It's hard to find time for everything. Time management seems to be the plague of the college student, and it doesn't seem to get any easier the farther along we get.

On January 18th and 19th the Resident Life team left for Malone College in Canton Ohio to do some training exercises and some meet and greets with 100+ other leaders in the region. Our RA team had a great time hanging out with one another, and the fellowship time was not only refreshing, but appreciated.

On the 23rd (Last wednesday) a group of my friends traveled to Chicago for a chance to see Wyclef Jean in chicago at the house of blues. It was probably one of the best nights of my life for many reasons. The performance was full of powerful messages, abounding amounts of energy, and memories that will never be forgotten. Highlights of the trip were, having one friend get a "old school" cassette from the 90's autographed during the show, having another friend invited on stage to share his talent because Wyclef took note of it, being the first ones in to the concert and standing front and center, and getting tons of haitian flags, as well as several other gifts thrown from the stage from the performers. To this day, I still get an adrenaline rush thinking about that awesome night we had.

This last weekend was a fun one for the guys on my floor. On friday night, a bunch of us went ice skating in Elkhart (about 30 minutes away) with Yoder 3 south (a female floor). For many of us, this was our first time skating, and everyone walked away feeling really great about the time we had. After that we went to a coffee shop, and warmed up with some discounted drinks, especially for our group.

Saturday morning, my roommate and I woke up to make the guys breakfast. We made pancakes, sausage, bacon, and eggs. Turns out I bought too much food, but, it was a lot of fun and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

Last night, I had to opportunity to go out with a couple friends to Olive Garden in Elkhart. Eating out is always an enjoyable experience, because its one less meal we have to eat in the cafeteria. :-)

I've begun to see that my academic load this semester is a lot more intense than I'm used to, so I'm constantly trying to keep up with homework, and studying for my classes. My Spanish skills are slowly starting to build back up, and hopefully will be acceptable by the time next fall rolls around and I head off to Peru.

Hopefully I'll be doing a better job at keeping you all updated. Thanks for reading!

-Tim

Christmas break was a great experience for me. I found much needed rest and relaxation away from the business of school and all that I'm involved with. For those of you who don't know me, I'm a second year Communications Major focusing in multimedia. Currently I'm living in the Yoder Dorm and am a Resident assistant for the first floor.

Speaking of jobs, I have three other positions on campus. Those are, ITSMedia Technician, Public Relations Web Assistant, and Yearbook Editor. So with all of my employment, as well as classes, and keeping up with friends, my first semester was fairly busy!

I was the first person back to the dorms on move in day. Even though break was relaxing, the extra time did get (dare I say it?) boring after a while. So, I was quite excited to be back to school and see everyone again.

Funny for me though, the day after I moved back in, I registered for classes and then left with a group of people interested in theater to go to the American College Theater Festival in Milwaukee Wisconsin. The trip was a lot of fun. The actors from the fall main stage (Step on a Crack) performed a ten minute scene on the opening night and were greeted by a thunderous applause from a very pleased audience. The rest of the week we spent going to workshops and watching scenes or productions done by other college students from around the midwest. The whole trip made me grateful for the training in theater that I've gotten, not only in high school, but in classes and hands on work in our theater here on campus.

Come the end of the week, I was again, ready to come back to Goshen and finally start the semester. Today I had my first day of classes, Spanish and Audio Production and tomorrow I will have Multimedia Concepts and Transforming Conflict and Violence.

I'm pretty excited about all of my classes this semester, though some of that excitement can be translated into nervousness as I am realizing that it is my last semester of classes before SST next fall. Several of my close friends left for Peru this semester, so it is hard not having them around, but an excellent excuse for me to prepare myself to be away from here for a longer amount of time too.

Well, that's enough from me now. Talk to you all soon! P.s. I'll soon be uploading some pictures of friends from my break and from ACTF. -Tim