About a week and a half I took off on an airplane to move to sunny California! To tell you the truth, the flights were horrible. There was lots of turbulence on the first one- nausea is not good! The second flight was smoother, but there were two screaming children in front of me and a lady who puked across the aisle from me. To top it all off, the man who sat next to me was about 35, barely spoke English, was married, and offered to give me his number so we could meet up sometime. I would like to make some new friends out here, but I passed on this one.
Ashley and her mom picked me up from the airport. We drove to our little apartment complex in Pasadena! Our apartment is small, but livable. We have little kitchen with a refrigerator that rocks forward when you open it. Ashley's mom bought us some cockroach hotels to decorate the kitchen with- no mice or ants yet though! We have two walk-in closets (who puts two closets in a studio apartment?). All of the storage is really high up, but the shower head is about at my eye level. Our toilet has almost overflowed several times (I am not sure why toilets hate me...oh, life in DeVol 214), but maintenance is coming to look at it. So, the gist is that the apartment is small and old and kind of quirky, but it is home. I feel contented with that.
Last week was orientation. I felt like I was back in junior high. Who do you sit with? Will these people like me? Am I wearing cool enough clothes? Will anyone notice the pimple on my forehead? But, I met some nice people who seem like they could be good friends in the future. It feels super overwhelming to meet all these new people, but I try to remember that making friends takes time.
Classes started yesterday. I had a class called Urban Evangelism with Ralph Watkins. The class is going to be fast paced and thought provoking. Today I went to New Testament: Gospels with Marianne Thompson. She had sent me an email last week because she and her husband went to Duke with Duane Watson, one of my profs at Malone. It mad me feel welcomed and connected to something familiar. Right after Gospels, I went to Systematic Theology 1 with Dr. Kirkannian. He is from Norway and has an accent. It was hard at first to understand him when he was going over the syllabus- which happens to be the most complicated syllabus I have ever seen, but once he started into the actual course material I was able to understand him much better. I loved how he was talking about us approaching theology with humility and as finite humans. I think I am going to learn a lot in that class.
In other news, my computer almost died this weekend. But a new friend, Adam, was able to look at it and get it moving faster! It was super exciting to not have to buy a new computer right now!!!! Plus it was super super hot here the end of last week and weekend, over 100 degrees! Our apartment doesn't have air conditioning. Ashley's aunt kindly put us up in the Westin across from our complex for a night so we could sleep well for a night! It was fun to watch movies on the TV and get California Pizza Kitchen (by the way, to those in the Midwest the stuff in grocer's freezer aisle is no where near the real stuff).
Last night, our new friend, Grace, invited Ashley and I over to watch Dancing with the Stars. We took snacks and had lots of fun. We think we are going to make it a weekly event. It is nice to feel like there is a real connection beyond the "hi, what's your name ?" conversations I have been having for the last week or so!
Well, I have reading to do; so, I am going to go and try to chip away at the mountain of reading!
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