30 October 2007

And now, the much anticipated...

Fall Photos!!!

I'm sorry it took me so long to remember to bring my camera out on a day that wasn't raining, but I did it today, and snapped several beauties. Nature itself is just beautiful this time of year. Sometimes, it even compensates the biting cold at 8am on the way to class. Soon enough, though, I'll be posting snow pictures.
But let's not think about that yet!
Here you go, enjoy!
outside the dorm - even the parts that aren't trees are pretty in this weather!
down the hill from Tommy, looking towards the fields.

Some are still green, I don't know why.

by the stairs. It's the light that does it, I think. Just gorgious.

The oaks by the JC just drop brown crunchy ones that get all soggy when it rains.

The chapel from the circle.

The statue in front of the chapel.

This is the beautiful view I get on the way to classes.

Hope you like those.

God bless,

-Rebekah

They're Done!

I wanted to post this over a week ago, but here it is...

I finished my knit socks a while back!

Here's a photo...

Ain't they purdy?

-Rebekah

Let's get together!

On what could be called a whim, I added a chat room to my blog!

<--The link is on the sidebar.

So, in honor of fall break, anyone who is available is invited to a live chat this weekend. Come by on Saturday, November 3 at 1:00 pm EST (that's 10:00 am PST)

Just click the link on the sidebar when it's time. I don't think it works with Mozilla, but it does work with Internet Explorer. You may have to install Java. OK, see you then. I look forward to talking to all of you!

(Don't worry if you can't make it, we can have more appointments later.)

God bless,
-Rebekah

22 October 2007

Scare

I know that most of the people reading this blog already know about this, but I wanted to let you know to pray for those effected by the wildfires in San Diego.

I've been scared and preoccupied all day, worrying about my family and our house. As the day winds down, my family, with the Cunninghams and Johnstons, are making their way up to Palm Springs. I'm relieved that they're at least physically safe, but our house could still be in danger.

There are/were fires in RB, so I'm worried for the McCabes' house. I'm rambling a bit.

Anyway, the fires are showing few signs of stopping within the next couple days, so please keep everyone in SD in your prayers!

And to all my friends in California who are being effected by the wildfires:
Know that you are all in my constant thoughts and prayers. I'm asking all my friends here to pray. Let me know how you are once you're safe!

God bless you,
-Rebekah

21 October 2007

The Great Escape

I hadn't been in a car since the first day of school, and I'm telling you, whoever invented the horseless carriage, he was brilliant!!!

We had a lovely day at the Mall at Robinson, which is a suburb of Pittsburgh.

As per Request of Mom, here's a picture of the four of us:
yes, we took that in the restroom.

So, there's me, on the left is Erica, the right is Mary, and in the front is Tessa.

We had a great time just doing the girl thing. It was wonderful to get off campus!

Well, that's it for now, but I have a couple more posts to make soon, maybe tonight. For now, I'm off to a talk on St. Max and Mary!

God bless all,
-Rebekah

P.S. More photos on facebook! (if you care)

20 October 2007

Proof!!!

OK, I found this illustration of the asterisk issue we discussed several entries back:


See? People do put asterisks just cause they think they look cool (or something). And on a University bathroom door, too! It's outrageous!

[Click the picture to see the large version, and scroll down to the bottom to see the lonely asterisks.]

Gotta go, have a great day planned!
-Rebekah

18 October 2007

*Sigh*

It's over.

Two weeks of painful non-stop studying, and my midterms are finally over! I got great grades in some classes, and didn't do as well as I would have liked in others. But I don't have anything big due for about a week. So I can finally relax a little.

Of course, this weekend will be the real test to see if I have the self-control to get ahead in some subjects. Plus, I have no excuse to not do really well on my Honors paper.

Erica's mom is coming to campus this weekend for some conference, so she gets the use of the car for the weekend, so I think a few of us are going to get to do something fun off campus for a change! That will be fun.

Anyway, Uncle Mike can stop complaining now.

-Rebekah

14 October 2007

Correction

I just realized that way back in an earlier post, I accidentally gave my roommate's phone number instead of my own. I still got the voice-messages from Grandma and Uncle Steve, but only cause Sonya told me about them. Anyway, my number is:
(740) 283-4215
Please change that in your address books if you ever plan to call me. If not, then it's no big deal. :)
OK, God bless,
-Rebekah
You'd think, considering how many people sing at Mass at FUS, that the liturgy people could have the RESPECT to wait till the recessional song was over to start clearing the altar. It just bugs me.

10 October 2007

Happy Autumn!

Seriously.

The "Fall Festival" was today (loud music, free food, mechanical bull riding) but I'm not sure whether to blame the weather on that.

Yesterday at noon, it was 78°, Today at noon, it was 53° and raining. Here comes fall, and my are we having strange weather this year. Maybe people will stop complaining about the heat now. I'll be complaining that I spilled hot cider on the sleeve of my sweatshirt.

God bless,
-Rebekah

09 October 2007

Glossary of Terms

I realized that the Homecoming post was fraught with jargon, so if I post a list here, then I can use the terms without feeling guilty...

In order of use in Homecoming post:

LLC - Language Learning Center (The Language Lab) where I work!

Cosda - What the lab assistants call Cosmos and Damian Science Hall, so the "Cosda Lab" is the "Computer Laboratory in Cosmos and Damian Science Hall" nice, huh?

Port - short for the Portiuncula Chapel on campus. Named after the one in Assisi that St. Francis built (I get the feeling ours is bigger) it's the adoration chapel.

Troub - short for Troubadour, the school paper.

FOP - Fellowship of Praise, the monthly praise and worship event. My French teacher likes to say "faire du fopping"

Fieldhouse - a weird name for a gym.


Some others I didn't mention in the post:

Tommy/Tommy More - St. Thomas More Hall, my dorm!

Caf - cafeteria, pretty self-explanitory

JC - J. C. Williams Center, like a student union building, where the mailboxes, coffee, snacks, etc. are.

The Pub - (in the JC) just to clarify, this is "Pub" in the more Italian sense of the term.


OK, God bless,

-Rebekah

DISCLAIMER: I didn't find this on my own, I don't waste that much time on youtube

Referred by a friend. It's hillarious, and I feel slightly guilty about posting it, cause I know what will happen. But I don't live with the Cunninghams, so they can just deal. :) Sorry guys, but this is too hillarious to pass up! Enjoy:

Homecoming Weekend

I've been avoiding this entry cause I know it will be really long. So I left off Thursday night...

FRIDAY
Classes Friday morning from 8 to 10, fun fun fun! Then I work in the LLC from 12:30-2. Walking back from work, I watched the families arriving and heaved a sigh. But then I checked my mail. The timing couldn't have been better for those three dozen snickerdoodles and letters and things to show up. That bit of family cheer was enough to carry me through the whole weekend! The rest of the day included the household life Mass, Life of St. Francis drama, and student talent show. That was the tame day.

SATURDAY
The Renaissance Fair started at noon, but I only got to attend the first hour cause I had to work at 1:00. Booths, food, games, much of it aimed at families and especially little siblings. It was fun. I got one person in the Cosda Lab the to hours I was there. Then I fulfilled my hour's commitment for the 40 Days for Life. The Port finally opened for several hours each day for the parents and alumni. [ rant ] I guess I never told what happened, mostly because no one's telling me much. Here's what I'll do: There's a scanner in the LLC, I'll bring the Troub into work and scan the article and post a link here so you can read it. EDIT: Dad was kind enough to find the article online here. Thanks! I couldn't tell you more than what's there anyway. Only that I makes no sense and ticks me considerably that they didn't even bother to even give us a rough estimate of when it would open again. I don't think there's one student here who isn't upset that the port was closed and I would appreciate knowing when my holy hour commitment starts, if it ever will. [ /rant ] At least it's open during the day now. So, where was I?
The FOP was from 7 to 9. The Notre Dame game started at 8. The inter-hall party started at 9. I missed the game, BUT I got Dad to text me updates. So I kept pulling out my cell phone and cheering for the blue and gold while jumping, clapping and generally partying insanely at the hottest, loudest, most exciting concert I've been to I think ever. (maybe I need to get out more, but hey.) That was a crazy party. Held out in the courtyard I told you about. Except they're calling it "Piazza dei Santi" I guess it has to have a name. Oh, the band was Scythian. Irish fusion stuff, lots of fun.

SUNDAY
Only one Mass, which was, thank goodness, the last one in the Fieldhouse, at 11:00. Lunch quickly (relative term, the caf was pretty busy all weekend.) Then we gathered for the Life Chain at 1:15. Unfortunately, due in part to unfortunate coincidence of the large mumber of parents still on campus with whom to spend time, and the large numbers of midterms this week for which to study after spending the weekend with said parents, there were only 6 or 7 students at the Life Chain. I was surprised. I guess I always figured that if there was a huge Life Chain anywhere, it would be in Steubenville, OH. Fortuanately, we weren't alone. We joined the group from the local parish. We got mostly positive responses. Don't know if that's good or bad. Anyway, we had to walk from the hill down to near Kroger, and it was humid out, so there was a fair bit of redemptive suffering going on. Good times.
Then 8:00 Sunday night was a movie! And not the kind in French with no music, or the kind in Russian with no editing, either. The kind you see outside of Sundance! Like Bourne Ultimatum. Now, I didn't see the first two, and all I knew was that this guy was trying to figure out who he was, but I thought it was great. Intense action scenes from the very beginning to the very end, counter-balanced by an intricate plot line. Every time Bourne knocked out a gang of thugs, or did something particularly cool or spy-like, the whole gym would break out in applause. Somehow, movies are more fun when watched from the gym floor with a couple hundred of your closest friends.
I didn't go to swing cause I figured I'd had enough fun for one weekend and I ought to get some sleep.

So now it's midterm season, so I probably won't be posting a lot till late next week. OK, Thanks for your patience both in waiting for and reading this post. God bless you all.

-Rebekah

04 October 2007

Happy Feast Day!

The good new is, when your day doesn't start out too hot, it can only get better.

It wasn't so much that I had a bad day, it was just busy and stressful. My 9:30 class usually gets out at 10:45, but he had to let us out early so we could get to the St. Francis Day Mass at 10:30. That let out about noon, and I headed off to get some lunch. Most of the campus was trying to do the same thing, so by the time I had my food and a table, it was 12:30 and I only had 15 minutes before my Spanish class started. That let out a 2:00 and I went down to the library. As I was searching for my book, I realized that I had left my new sweatshirt back in the classroom. So I ran back up after checking the book out and stepped in on a random class and was quite embarrassed, etc.

But I'm OK now, as in not stressed. However, I'm quite homesick and will only be more so after this weekend. *sigh!*

OK, I few pictures. It's been a while, but I've managed to snap a few over the last couple of days.

Here's the sweatshirt I bought yesterday. I've been wanting to get some school spirit from the bookstore for a while. I finally got someone (Tessa) to come with me and help me pick.

Here is the courtyard between the dorms under construction. I should have taken a photo before the day before it was done, but it went so fast that there's still so much that got done just today! Below is the finished project, taken this evening:
Isn't it beautiful? Trees and bushes and benches and tables and chairs and fountains. And there's an area you can't see in the picture with barbecues! And it was all lit this evening by a beautiful sunset:
OK, that's all for tonight. Enjoy the photos. God bless,
-Rebekah

01 October 2007

Swing Night

As parents' week gets nearer, almost everyone on campus is getting excited. And I'm starting to feel homesick.

I finally went to the Brothers Swing Dancing tonight. It's every Sunday, but I just haven't gotten around to doing it. I'm glad I did, though. Even the parts where the girls stand around the edges talking and waiting for the guys standing around the edges to stop talking is fun when you have friends there. We were trying to perfect the art of hanging out together while making it look like we we alone. (cause guys are more likely to ask a girl who's standing by herself to dance) I learned some neat moves and only got stepped on twice, though the one time was a girl's heel and it still hurts an hour later, hmmm, we'll see. So, all in all, I'm glad I took the time away from Honors homework to have some fun tonight. It was worth it.

-Rebekah

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since 12 Sept. 2007