Christmas break is over

I keep saying it, but this last month has gone by way too fast.

I’m at the airport right now, ever so grateful for free wifi!

I’ve never flown out of the Commuter Terminal before. I’ve always kind of wondered how that over half lives… where they still put out the little staircase to get into the plane…

But then I flew Ryan Air, and now I wish I didn’t have to worry about this suitcase.
I didn’t make quite enough allowance for Christmas gifts when I packed my little rolling carry-on a month ago, and now last night, I had quite the time trying to fit everything in. As it is, Mom and Dad are going to mail me my new unabridged Spanish-English dictionary. In my defense, I suggested to them that they order it and ship it to school instead of wrapping the thing, but it was still cool to be able to open it Christmas morning and learn how to say “Information Highway” in Spanish. Hint: it’s only one word.

Anyway, wish me luck as I leave my tropical paradise and return to the land of snow and ice. I’m not looking forward to getting up early tomorrow morning and going out into the bitter cold. Maybe it will be worth it though, for you, Dr. Williams. :)

My life revolves around my novel

It's November 5th and I'm at 7,152.
Of course, I haven't started writing yet today.
I've just about run out of outline, and I'm having so much fun already. Sure, the characters haven't taken over my head yet, but my novel has already taken over my schedule. I'm a pretty busy person this week. It's Ruah week for household, I had an exam this morning, and I have to finish three papers by Tuesday. And so I'm here to answer the most common question I'm asked by those I tell about NaNoWriMo: "How do you find the time?"
I have time to do NaNoWriMo because it's so engrossing that I just make the time. In a normal month (i.e. not November) I spend a reasonable amount of time doing things that would classify as "chilling" - watching TV, crocheting, etc. Well, this month, all I care about is my novel, and so it's all I do in my free time. It's amazing how much writing can get done in even a little bit of free time.
Sometimes though you have to alternate between staying up late to make your novel a priority and forcing yourself to do schoolwork and using the novel as the reward.
Yeah. I just wanted to blog about NaNo, but I'm really sorry that this post is so dull. I sound like a preachy grade-schooler. It's only the 5th and already my inner editor has checked out.
Yeah. We'll see if blogging happens much this month. But at least you'll know why if I'm not blogging much. And you can follow my progress on...
nanowrimo.org
facebook
twitter
...and eventually here on my blog, if the word count widgets go live any time soon.
Bisous,
-RCS

fall break, fall break, fall break...

It's been a lovely week or so here in Steubenville. It was really cold there for a while, to the point that I actually brought out my winter coat for one morning - something I'd been trying to put off as long as possible. Then suddenly, it was Indian summer for three whole, glorious days. Classes outside, and a general feeling of hope and happiness that permeated the campus. Then it rained Friday and Saturday, and it's dry again today. At least it's never boring. I just hope the weather cooperates a bit for 4-day.

A deadline for a Spanish paper was moved back (thank goodness) to give us more time to work on it, but now it falls in crazy week! Not really. I just have four papers due within three days. I'm trying to get outlines done before I leave for Indiana, then maybe get some of the drafts done over fall break. One of the papers requires me to read a whole book before I can even start, which is just a little bit less than totally fascinating so far. Oh well, I picked it out.

Lately, my Sundays are even more busy than my Wednesdays. Today, I'm busy straight through from 5-10pm. I'm really looking forward to fall break! And now that I've successfully mentioned fall break in three consecutive paragraphs, it's time to wrap this up and go outline my French Lit paper.

Ciao!

Morning Prayer Excitement!

It's been a great morning so far and it's only 10:00.

So, chronologically...

On Thursdays, we go as a household to 6am morning prayer and 6:30 Mass and breakfast.

This morning, it was just as much 5:30am when I woke up as it always is when I wake up at 5:30am.

Near the end of morning prayer, I heard the door open and saw a couple chasubles come in out of the corner of my eye. The number of celebrants often varies from one to three at morning Mass. I figured we had two priest this morning and that they'd gotten vested early...

We finished and got up to go into the main chapel for Mass, expecting to see two priests behind us. Well, there were two bishops behind us, and two friars and a vicar.

That sort of thing is a shock under normal circumstances.

Oh well. Only at Franciscan, I guess...

But the exciting parts!

At breakfast, we got a new intent! Maria. It was a big surprise this time, so I was really happy and excited, and cheerful and awake. (for 7:30am)

Then the Pre-Thes started coming back from morning prayer.

Then one came over and gave a little card with a wooden rose and a Hersheys bar to Kat. The card had apples on the front and said "CONSIDER THIS" on the inside.

Hm. Odd.

Then another pre-the came over and gave me one. My card had green grapes and said "MY FORMAL".

Then Kat and I had to leave frustratingly early to get to class on time, and had to miss the last two cards (which, I was told later, said "INTENT" and "LOVE, CHRISTINA", respectively)

And even though the text message I received a half-hour later only contained an anti-climactic "Christina intented", I was way too excited to pay enough attention to don Alvaro. Poor thing. He'll get his attention tomorrow and Monday so I can have all my homework done.

[1:30 pm - Edited for clarity]

She's alive! She's blogging!

It's been over a month since I last posted a real update. Sorry.

I am still alive, though. And I'll grab my calender here and see if I can't remember a little of what I've been up to...

Yup. Nothing.

We went on household retreat this last weekend. We went to Toronto, OH and stayed at the TOR Sisters' retreat house. It was a nice relaxing weekend and a lot of fun, and we even learned a little something.

We've got two new intents now! One intented on Thursday at breakfast, and the other on Saturday, at brunch. It's exciting because now we'll actually have a household next semester. There were only three of us, and the other two are going to Austria in the Spring, but now I won't be alone. Yay!

As everyone on the semester system knows, it's midterms season. I had two pretty busy weeks, but now it's slowed down for a while. It'll take some real concentration to force myself to work on the papers due in a few weeks so I'll be relatively free come November.

I'm going to Mexico on mission over Spring break! I was accepted to the team two weeks ago, and we've had two meetings since then. It's a big group, so it's taking a while to learn everyone's names. I think it's going to be a good team. I'll probably be posting in a few weeks to let you know how you can help.

Fall break is in two weeks, and I'll be going to visit my friend at Notre Dame. AM, if you're reading this and haven't checked your facebook in a while, there are details there. I should probably email you...

I'll be getting a ride from the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration in Mishawaka, IN. There are two sisters studying here in Steubenville, and they've got extra room in their van.

I'm also planning to go back to Mishawaka for a retreat mid-November. I'm really looking forward to that too.

And guess what? I get to go to Phoenix for Thanksgiving! It will be my first Thanksgiving with my family in three years. (That means I wasn't there the last two years.) Plus, I'll get to see my uncle and aunt again, whom I haven't since summer 2007.

So, you have all heard about NaNoWriMo now. :)

I'm starting some outlining, but I don't want it to get too detailed before I actually start writing. Part of the fun of NaNo is finding out what happens next as you go. I've got a brief synopsis and cover art on my profile page, though. Check it out! Let me know what you think.

And... My keyboard broke. I dropped a book and the R and T came off. The hinge for the T key broke, so now I've got a funky keyboard until the replacement I ordered comes in. At least it still works, though.

All right. That's it for now. Talk to you soon,

-Ganchi

Only at Franciscan...

...can "Be unique, go Greek" be the sorority's recruitment slogan.

Hi ho, hi ho, it's back to school we go...

It's the third day of class.
I've been back on campus five days.
It seems like so much more than that.

In a way, it's like I never left. Franciscan feels like home, I'm picking up old friendships where they left off. Then there are ways in which it's radically different. I'm a senior this year, which means I'm taking mostly major classes, I'm doing a "seminar" with my French advisor as a graduation requirement, which is basically a lot of research over the semester. I'm going to be incredibly busy this year, but I think I feel ready.

Anyway, the title for this post is the way we all seriously look like ant trails as we scurry along various sidewalks to and from class, Mass, the caf, the dorms...

God bless everyone's semesters. They're going to be great. And keep in touch.

I've got a mailbox! ... and a cell phone!

I finally got a mailbox assigned. It turns out, all you have to do is call, and they'll give you one before the semester starts. So...

My mailing address as of August 23 will be

Rebekah Schloeder

1235 University Blvd. #1109

Steubenville, OH 43952

EDIT: I also finally got a cell phone. The number is 858-208-6148.

EDIT EDIT: Room number is 740-283-4142

Write! or Call! or Skype!

Brevity

As I find myself suddenly with a half-hour break in my busy schedule before class and I thought I should spend some of it telling you all about all the things that are making me too busy to blog regularly.

There have been excursions. Lourdes with Maria (a Catholic friend) was a neat/peaceful/moving experience. And the weather was lovely!

In fact, the weather in Paris has been steadily improving over the past few weeks. It's in that awkward place where you have to carry your heavy coat around in the afternoon.

Like when two friends from Gaming came to visit during ten-day. They finally contacted me and it was great to see them.

But I've been too busy with business to enjoy the outdoors too much. (I feel like I could enjoy Paris more if I had internet at home and could do all this work A) when everyone in the USA is awake and B) when the office is closed instead of when the sun is out.

But! My taxes are done. I've all but signed the FAFSA. I've got to run to the post office to mail my houseing deposit. I've got to wait for my study abroad transcripts to come in to be able to register for classes before Apr 17. (Prerequisites) That should probably happen in time, but if it doesn't, I'll have to register for some bogus class to be full-time and qualify for housing. Any suggestions? :)

But fortunately, things are more of less working out on that end, or at least should be able to be figured out by the time classes start. I still feel like it's out of sight out of mind with the faculty and staff of FUS though.

And this last week-end we went to the Loire valley, which included a massive wine-tasting and then a karioke session in the bus. Yes.

And I'm still doing Script Frenzy, which is going on swimmingly, or at least swimming slowly.

Gotta run to class now, Have a blessed Holy Week and easter tout le monde!

FUS's "Port" Named Site for Plenary Indulgences

Monday, March 16, 2009

STEUBENVILLE, OH—The tiny Portiuncula Chapel at Franciscan University of Steubenville has been designated by the Vatican as a place where the faithful can receive a plenary indulgence—an elimination of the temporal punishment due to sin.

Get the story here.

More Gamingness

This is my confession to you. I am only blogging right now because I need something to do while I wait for my 30.9 MB file to download. Darn crummy internet in Gaming!
However, since I last wrote, I have done some interesting things.
On Saturday, we went for a little walk around the town of Gaming. The Kartause, which houses the Franciscan campus, is just on the edge of town, but it's not a very long walk to get around. It's one of those towns that you miss if you blink. We admired the buildings and the creek and the snow. It's really quite picturesque, especially this time of year, with heaps of fresh white snow covering everything.
On Sunday, we went on a hike up to a frozen waterfall a good ways up a nearby mountain. It couldn't have been more than two miles up to the fall, which was quite a sight. It wasn't completely frozen, so there was a little water trickling down part of it, which fed the creek in town. But the parts of the fall that were frozen looked reminiscent of that scene from the Narnia movie. It's a tower of icicles. Really quite impressive.
The problem was that I've been suffering from quite the cold this week. (Though it's really the best week of my trip to be under the weather, while I'm not traveling non-stop.) And I had slept in really late that morning, so I wasn't hungry for breakfast, and then I had to rush out the door when I found out about the hike. We didn't realize how far of a climb it was, all up-hill, and in deep, soft snow. So by the time I got most of the way to the top, I was out of breath, and by the time we were climbing down again, I was lightheaded. By the time we got back to the Kartause (with Tessa and Erica being so helpful and patient) my hands were absolutely dumb all over. It was agonizing as they defrosted, and then they had to force feed me protein and carbs to regain all the calories I hadn't needed to burn. But I still thought the waterfall was great! I've just learned an important lesson about food and hiking.
It's Tuesday night as I write this. Tomorrow morning I'm leaving Gaming to begin the last leg of my journey. Salzburg, Munich, Cologne, Trier, Luxembourg, Brussels, and finally, Paris.
I've got a lot of business done on this week-long break from traveling. The last faxes have been sent and I'm just about ready (officially) for my semester in Paris. It's coming up faster that I had realized.
Well, I'll hopefully be posting soon about Salzburg and Germany.
   Until then,
      God bless,
         Un beso,
-Ganchi

Hello from charming Gaming, Austria!

I am visiting the Franciscan campus in Gaming. (somewhere in the middle of nowhere in Southwestern Austria) Though, technically, I'm visiting my friends here. I haven't seen these people in about 9 months now, and it's been a long time!
So, I'm staying in Tessa, Mary, and Erica's room for the week I'm here. (I arrived Wednesday afternoon and will leave Wednesday morning.) It's so great to see them! It's just like old times, uh, last year, when we'd goof around in Clare.
The campus is cute. It's this old monastary thing from way back or whatever. What I like is that, though there's about two feet of fresh snow on the ground, it's not that cold, so you can go outside in a hoodie if you're only walking to the chapel or the Mensa. (That's what they call their cafeteria. You have to pass an IQ test to get in.)
It's basically just awesome to be around "franciscanism" again. I've missed school a decent amount this past semester, and it's starting to come back again. A little bit.
And the girls may come out to visit me in Paris some time this semester. That would be totally cool.
Yep. That's about it. I'm not doing much this week, which is not such a bad thing. We went and walked around the town today. It's really tiny and pretty cute. But there's not much to see besides the friends who were the reason I came here in the first place. I'm getting a lot of my cross stitch project done. I might finish it soon if I keep up this pace.
-Ganchi

Looking back... 2008's tribute

I did this last year, so I thought I'd make it an annual tradition. Speaking of - look how long I've had this blog! Anyway...

This past year has had it's ups and downs, of course, but the end of the year always makes me wax sentimental about leaving behind another calendar. All in all, I think I'll miss writing 2008 at the top of my school work. This year, as last year did, has brought me many blessings, first, milestones, generally memorable stuff. Some...

-I joined a household.

-I finished my first year of college.

-I learned a lot about travel.

-I visited foreign embassies.

-I learned a lot about taking care of kids. (specifically at camp)

-I visited Canada for the first time.

-I became fluent in Spanish (well, as close as I reasonably can)

-I lived in Europe.

-I turned 20.

-I wrote a novel.

-I spent a night alone in a hotel room.

-I went to my first night club.

-I drank alcohol. (not a lot, but it was legal)

-I grew up a lot.

Wow. Looking back, I can kind of appreciate that I might be a little more of an adult than I thought. I guess I can be proud of what I've accomplished.

Try it. Make a list of what you've done in 2008. Tell me what you find out about yourself.

A whole month in as few words as possible

Sorry for delay!
Weekend before finals, Niagara Falls with Household. Two days. Summer birthday party in hotel.
Finals are fun. Finals are over.
Home now.
Siblings finally done with school.
Wednesday, 5/28, went to "Mulligan's" with family. Go-Karts, Mini golf, Lazer tag. First time lazer tag, lots of fun. We beat Cunninghams!
Got study abroad acceptance packet came last week. Lots of paperwork and stress this and last week. Due June 15.
Going camping, Yosemite, next week.
Working summer camp, June 22 through July. More paperwork.
I'm back blogging!
-Rebekah

I'm home!

It's true! I'm home!

My last final was Saturday afternoon, and we have to leave within 24 hours after that. So my plane took off at 10:20 am from Pittsburgh.

It was really nice to be completely done all Saturday afternoon, and to spend that last little bit of time with my household sisters.

At 3:00, we had our senior farewell ceremony for Julie and Joyce, who are graduating.
Then at 4:00 was Lord's Day.
After that, we ordered pizza for Rachel's birthday on Tuesday and she and Julie and Joyce opened various gifts. Oh, and Molly got squirt-gunned badly by Sr. Ignatia.
Then the FOP was at 7:00. It was awesome in at least three senses of the word.
And then I had to say goodbye! It was some of the saddest goodbyes I've ever had to say. It was worse because several of my sisters I won't be seeing again after Europe, and maybe not ever.

I didn't end up getting to bed until 1:00 am, due to a lot of stressful packing activity. Sara was invaluable in these endeavors. Her help finding a scale and shuffling things between three suitcases kept me sane. And we had to clean a little before I used the express check-out sheet. I would have had an RA check me out, but there weren't any slots available until 2:00 pm on Monday. So slipped my key under the door to the RA office and got some sleep in STM 322 for the last time.

I woke up at 7:30 and had plenty of time to take out the trash and even spend ten minutes in the chapel before I went downstairs to wait for my ride. I got to say a last goodbye to Molly on her way to Mass.

Thank the Lord for that facebook group, where I found a certain gentleman (who happens to also work in the computer labs) who agreed to take me to the airport. The skycap guy was very friendly, and can judge 50 lbs. just by picking up suitcases. I wasn't about to even try to get all that luggage all the way inside.

And all the flights went smoothly. I had a Greek salad for lunch in Chicago, and learned that they say Mass in airports on Sundays.

My dad picked me up from the San Diego airport in the new Taurus, and took my straight to the Brus' house, where there was a party for a first communion and a birthday. Mass was at 5:30, and Michael went with me and altar-served.

So, it was a busy day. I'm missing all my friends back at Steubie terribly, but I've got my family and friends here. So I'm happy.

This post was only going to be a few lines long to let you know that I was home, so I'll stop now. :)
God bless you all!

Love,
-Rebekah

But I have to post this first

I said I would post about our trip to Niagara Falls when I got home, and I will. But first, I had to show you what I found at the bookstore at the Our Lady of Victory Basilica.

It was a little different, but you get the idea. So, I'll leave you with this happy thought... gambling angels... God bless you.

-Rebekah

This is why I hate textbooks

I take a break from studying for finals to bring you this quote from my Psychology book:

With each year that goes by and as new relationships are discovered, a richer, more detailed story emerges, and we suspect that soon students will stop asking why the study of psychology begins with an exploration of the biological basis of behavior. This exploration, in turn, begins with the nervous system and its building block, the neuron.*

This is the kind of all-around poor writing that makes much of modern study uninspiring if not downright distracting. I mean, look at me! Those two words made me stop my reading, highlight the offending phrase, make a snarky comment in the margin, and blog about it. Now granted, I am a geek, but still! "In turn"? That barely makes any sense! It seems like this is the first draft. It takes extra study time just to understand the hastily-strewn-together sentences. Oh well, </rant>

I ought to get back to my studying now. I will probably not post about this past weekend's trip to Niagara Falls till I get home. Oh, yeah. I went to Niagara Falls last weekend.

-Rebekah


*Goldstein, Jeffrey H, and Patricia M Wallace. Introduction To Psychology. 4th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1996.

I got inducted!

Like the title says.
Molly and I got inducted tonight!
I'd tell you more, but I know that Mazel has access to my blog address and I don't want to ruin anything...

Meet and Greet Photo

SQPN Meet and Greet in Steubenville - April 5, 2008
Originally uploaded by rosaryarmywebsite

Thanks to Dad for finding this!
Here's photo proof that Fr. Roderick was at Heavenly Grounds and that I was sitting there too! Now you see why it was kind of awkward. I felt like I was on some strange stage. Everyone was facing us. If you know the layout of the back room in Heavenly Grounds you can picture the situation. It's cool though, because I get a photo of me with Fr. Roderick now!
God bless, all,
-Rebekah

Wonder of Wonders, Miracle of Miracles!

I had an hour-long meeting today with Prof. Engel-Doyle (language dep. chair) about my classes for the next two semesters. Things have been going much too slowly in this process. Part of this is just due to the problems one invariably encounters when trying to work with four different people with different office hours. But part of the difficulty was just the discrepancy between Williams' "It shouldn't be a problem" and Engel-Doyle's "If you place intermediate in anything, you will get no credit, do you understand?"

So, long story short, all of the misunderstanding stemmed from the fact that "Intermediate" in France is considered Advanced here. Once we got that down, we only had half an hour of copying and signing to go!

Tomorrow, I will bring these forms to Ms. Cohen, and I will hopefully be able to mail in the last of my application tomorrow afternoon! Praise God!

-Rebekah