update on cali-

Hey Everyone,
Here's a little update: 

We arrived in California at around 11am on Thursday, Sept 1st.  The weather was/is perfect around here.  It's averaging about high 70's during the daytime and high 60's at night.  It's perfect beach/coastal weather!  For awhile, I've been getting settled and getting familiar with the area.  The first day I got here, we just started out by finding out where I was going to live and where the church and school was.  We managed to get lost many times due to the lovely road signs that were stuck in the grass rather than put on a higher pole (just like IL).  It was definitely a funny, but yet stressful situation all at the same time.


We managed to find the town-home I am staying at.  I got to meet my host-mom briefly and she seemed very nice just from talking with her for about 5 minutes or so.  I'm very happy with where I ended up.  :)  (at this point I hadn't seen the room yet)).  Honestly, I've been losing track of the days and what I've done on all these prep days.  So bear with me as I try to remember and track down what I've done so far.  At the end of the day, we ended up eating at some awesome fish shack downtown Huntington Beach along coastline.  It was very cold that night but the food was well worth it!  I had smoked fish for the first time (I can't remember the type of fish it was but it was sooooooo good.  I definitely spoiled my appetite for my main course which was shrimp on a skewer).   I ended with skyping my friend Leah from back home at around 11pm her time.  What a trooper!  :)
  It was a great day.
Sept 2nd (yesterday):  I had orientation for the School of Worship.  We arrived there and the first thing that they did was take pictures of all the student individually with a dry-erase board (with our names on it).  it was a cool idea.  Then we all had some time to just meet and greet other people and I met so many cool people.  i think it's going to be a great year for all of us!  I'm super excited to see what God has in store for everyone!  Overall, the orientation was  about two hours and it was nice to hear from the director and all the teachers.  I have class 9:00am-12:00pm (Mondays through Fridays).  It was very refreshing and comforting all at the same time.  I have different classes that range from music theory to a 1st Corinthians class!  It's going to be a very busy semester with all these classes and all the readings I have to do for them!  I'm looking forward to being on a strict schedule!  I am also required to do three hours of some sort of ministry involving volunteering or getting involved with a bible study!  I'm very excited to explore that and see where God wants me to go!  Meanwhile....after the orientation, my parents and I went shopping for a lot of things for my room.  It was a very LONG day for both my parents and me.  We slept well that night!  :) 

Sept 3rd:  This day was going to be devoted to the beach, but we still had to buy more stuff.  Ultimately, I had to buy gluten free stuff due to my new diet.  Before leaving for california, I was able to go to a specialized doctor involving diets and stomach problems.  They did a lot of blood work on me and I will soon find out whether I have celiacs disease or not.  People who have this disease need a specific diet.  I've been using the diet and it's been improving everything about my body!  I'm very grateful for the change of diet!  :)  So this day was devoted to finding a place with gluten free food.  Check!  Found it.

After all that, we were able to drive to Huntington Beach (after 30  minutes of getting lost).  We ate at Ruby's out by the pier and it was so beautiful!  Plus, they had gluten free options on the menu which was great!  :)  It was really good food I enjoyed!  We proceeded to go back to my host mom's home and get everything put into place for the last and final time!  I was planning on stay that nigth because my parents had an early flight the next morning.  I said goodbye to them and all was well!  I called my friend from back and just talked for awhile till I had to go to bed.

Sept 4th:  I woke up late this morning due to the hectic schedule the weekend prior.  It was a very chill day and I didn't go much!  I slept on and off and just let my body adjust to the time difference (2 hours behind midwest).  I made this my "alone" day.  It was good to finally have some peace and quiet.

Sept 5th:  (today):  I woke up at around 8:30.  Took a nice shower.  Got ready.  Had some lovely gluten-free cereal and coffee.  Then made a list of what I was going to do today. 

List included:

1. Bike to church/school of worship (this was intense...I had sweat coming down my neck and shirt.  GROSS). :(
2. make a friend
3. Bond with the little girl Noel (host mom's daughter)
4. Start conversation with family in general
5. play some piano
6. Skype sister

The only thing that I didn't accomplish was making a new friend.  However, I was able to watch Tangled with Noel and do some coloring all at the same time.  We talked about what she liked to do and what she thought of school.  It was a good bonding moment for both of us.  It's about 6:15pm here and it's dinner time!  Gotta go.  This update was so brief but I'm sure they will get more in depth as time goes on.


Helene