Welcome Back frenzy!!

So it is the middle of the second week of classes and we have had 3 welcome back events with 2 more on the way!! Whew!! It's been a little tiring but it's also been really great! Been able to meet a ton of new folks which has been a joy :)

Starting off we had a Dessert & Games night the Sunday before classes started. It was directly after a Christian group fair from 12-3 so this party started at 3:30 and went past 7pm!! We had TONS of desserts, everything from cookies and brownies, to red velvet cupcakes and rice krispies and if all that wasn't enough one of our guys brought root beer floats!! And all those desserts I mentioned? Yeah, there were at least 2 if not THREE trays of each of those!! Some store-bought, some homemade, all delicious. I had a couple of them myself and oh man they were good!!

We also got to meet a lot of new freshmen because we had a great location, right by some of the dorms with a huge lawn perfect for the guys playing football, then frisbee and finally wiffle ball!

do you see those yummy desserts?? Oh man, salivating just looking at them (haven't eaten in a few hours, it's getting near my dinner time!)

Students hanging out at the food table (obviously, where else would you be?) and Elizabeth and Makena were super excited about it :)

So then we had our annual Pizza Party Bash on the first Thursday of classes. It was in a park right by the bookstore so it had maximum visibility which was very helpful! We had around 20 boxes of pizza and they were all gone by the end!! It was awesome meeting tons of people there, and usually after dinner time students tend to not stop by anymore but this year we had a steady stream trickle in and ask us what Christian Challenge was all about! It was great :) Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures, but I'm pretty sure one of our seniors did so I'll try to get some from him later! In the meantime:

Oh, and funny fact. I met a freshman guy who is half-Armenian (like me), grew up in Pasadena (like me) and even goes to the church that a lot of my extended family goes to - United Armenian Congregational Church (UACC)!! How weird is that?!! Small world right??

The very next day we had a bonfire at Dockweiler Beach and it was great - another TON of students were there, so much so that a few of our drivers had to pull double-duty and take a car to the beach, drop them off, come back to USC and get another car full! I am so grateful for our students' servant hearts - I heard no complaining or grumbling!


ok, so that bring us up to this week! We have a tailgater this coming Saturday for USC's first game of the season (Beat the Golden Gophers!!) and we're having it after the game. We're calling it a "5th Quarter Party" which I know doesn't make mathematical sense, but it's a fun name though right? (One of our student leaders came up with the title, she's a screenwriting major so she has major creativity!)

I'll let you know how it goes!! Here is the funny for the day:

Recap of the summer

So I have about 2 weeks left until stuff for USC begins to start up again, so I thought I would reflect on this summer so far and give you some highlights:

- starting it off with a week in Lake Arrowhead, totally alone, as a personal retreat of-sorts and it was amazing. Even though the ride up there cost me about 5 years of my life (free tip: don't drive up a mountain late at night with really bad fog - it's absolutely terrifying)

- been raising more support and almost to my goal so please pray that I will reach my goal by Aug. 12th!!

- I've been able to meet up with a few of the girls in my small group from this past year and even found out that one of them turned from being a vegan to an all-out carnivore because, as she says, "being a vegan was just too hard" so now I don't have to look up vegan cookie recipes anymore!!

- I've seen Harry Potter 7.2 (twice and it was great), Midnight in Paris (surprisingly fun and good), X-Men: First Class (twice, really liked it!), Bridesmaids (ehhh, had some really funny parts but the raunchiness factor was a bit too much) and Pirates 4 (ehh, it was entertaining but nothing to write home about)

- went surfing once and it was amazing and fantastic and all sorts of wonderful. I hadn't been in almost a year due to my stupid RA coming back and being all unpredictable and I went with 2 good friends of mine and it was absolutely lovely. I couldn't stop smiling because it felt so great to get back out there and enjoy the waves!! Surfing is seriously becoming my favorite sport. I love Volleyball and all, and it's a heck of a lot easier to include people with a volleyball, and surfing is a somewhat expensive sport for all the equipment that is involved, but holy cow it is crazy fun and exhilarating, like woah. My dad loves the fact that I am getting more and more into it and he even got me a wetsuit! So now all I need is a board, so I'll be searching craigslist for that :)

- went to a beach bonfire for one of our fellow staffers, celebrating her 10 years being in California and with USC Christian Challenge :)

- attended the Hollywood Bowl and the theme was "Michael Feinstein and the singing stars of television" and while the host, Michael Feinstein, was a bit of a tool, the guests (Florence Henderson, aka Momma Brady, Cheyenne Jackson, Wayne Brady and my personal favorite, Dick Van Dyke!!!!) I love the HB, simply love it, I think it is bar none one of the coolest and most fun things to do in LA, to hear music under the stars :)

- Caught up with "Bones" season 5, now I just need to watch some season 6 and find out what happens next!

- had some good crying moments with God over my RA

- worked on assignments for my boss

- slept!!

And now the summer is officially over because tomorrow is USC's move-in day!!! So I'm hoping to get a chance to meet and get to know some new folks and help some of the older ones move in too :)