Meet the 80s: A Dance and a Day in Portland

"Plumber... flowers... candygram. I'm just a dolphin ma'am."

 Another FANTASTIC week at George Fox!! First of all, I got this fantastic package from my mom and Leslie Romman! You can tell my mom helped pack it... I'll give you one guess how I knew.










Second, there was an 80s dance this week! I've spent my whole life preparing for this dance... 19 years listening to the music, practicing the hair, studying the fashion... all with my mother's guidance, of course. 4 hours, a billion bottles of hairspray, some mouse, and a lot of teasing later, and you have these two visions of beauty.

Aren't we dolls?

The DJ was fantastic, playing great songs that everyone knew, like "Jump on it", "Jump Around", "YMCA",  "Play That Funky Music White Boy", "Livin' on a Prayer", "Safety Dance", and "Fresh Prince of Bel Air", so everyone had fun, but no Def Leppard! What's up with that!? It's a disgrace I tell you, a disgrace.

But it was still so much fun. Amy and I had a total blast weaving through the mosh pit, helping people body surf on inflatable surfboards, rocking the hair, and slowly going deaf.

Two and a half hours later, and you have two very tired, very happy girls.

Jump On It!! Jump On It!! Jump On It!!

This brings us to the next turn of events, which is Portland Day. Since Welcome Weekend, my friends and I have been trying to make a date to go back to Portland and do it right, taking our time and exploring it all. We picked today, which worked out well since it was a Saturday, so the Saturday Market was going on, and we got to experience the Portland life. It was pretty fun. 

Megan Fox-ing it. This is how everyone fixes cars, right?

Before we could begin our journey, we had to stop and put oil in Michelle's car, so we pulled into a parking lot. While she and I were helping Andrew put the oil in, I said, "I feel like Megan Fox in Transformers," so of course we had to get a picture of that.

 Then we headed over to the mall for some wandering and adventure, and I finally accomplished one of my life's goals: to find a bunch of ALL Banana Runts. It was so beautiful. I consumed them with much pomp and circumstance, and got photographic documentation.











Then we hopped on the Max and headed downtown for Saturday Market and fun.

We eventually made it back to Powell's Bookstore, where I found the Batman section. Needless to say, we were there for quite some time. It was a life defining moment. 










After all of the adventure, we headed back to Fox and now Andrew, Lexi, Mikayla and I are watching Lord of the Ring: The Two Towers, because Andrew has never seen them. Rude.

Anyway, that's all for this week, and my last post as a 19 year old.

More to come!

Meet the Hunger Games: GFU Olympics and Blanket Forts.

Another eventful week at GFU!

First things first, I had my first missing class day, because I got sick. Sick days are no fun. But what was fun, was getting to see a Broadway show for free, courtesy of the George Fox Theatre Department.

Me with the poster for Memphis.

 It was a great show. I laughed, I cried, and the music was amazing!

The next great thing about this week was blanket fort movie night with my wonderful and lovely roommate Amy.

The housemates were all out at a beach bonfire, so we commandeered the living room.

Our amazing blanket fort, complete with pillows, tv, and ice cream.

We had a great night watching Miss Congeniality and Wayne's World, something Amy had never seen before!


We ended up staying up until about 3:30 AM, but it was so definitely worth it, especially since it was a Friday, so we could sleep in tonight.







And then we arrive at Saturday: the big night. Every year at GFU, we have what is called the "Main Event," known this year as "GFU Olympics" and by some as the "75th annual Hunger Games."

Each housing area teams up and competes in a series of games against the other housing areas, while wearing their team's colors and chanting their cheers.

We were HAW: Houses and Apartments West.                              

The flag for HAW.

We were competing against HAE: Houses and Apartments East, The Freshman Dorms, The Coed Dorms, and HMS. Our color was black.

 

Our T-Shirts.

Amy and I getting pumped.

 

I talked Amy into coming with me when I found out she has never attended this momentous event. We had a great time getting ready... especially with the war paint.

Our housemates also had fun getting all painted up for the games. This picture to the right is just the getting READY to paint. 

The got a little excited with the paint. Especially when I came over to take some pictures. My arm was officially decorated in the team colors

 (against my will).

 

Ready to battle, we headed for war! I got pretty into it, but some others got even MORE into it. 

Here are just a few of our unofficial "mascots". Gorrila Boy, Green Man, and Connor (who painted himself all black.) That's commitment.  The games began, including a torch lighting ceremony, judges, a cheer off, medal counts, a chariot race, and music ranging from Pirates of the Caribbean to Kung Fu Fighting.

 

 

Andrew and I celebrating after the games.

 

It was a great night with a lot of laughs and fun with friends, and HAW took second! We were in first until the final round, a chain gang balloon game. But silver is pretty good, and the freshman didn't win, something almost unheard of at GFU.


I leave you with my newest gift from roommate. A glow in the dark Pteranodon. I love that girl.

Meet the State Fair, Serve Day, and More!

Boy I've been busy!

I was so far beyond excited! I love camels!

Sorry about the lack of posts lately! Things got busy once classes
started, but I have managed to have some fun in between!
For example: going to the State Fair with Lexi!

The first thing I did was find the booth where you could ride camels. This little beauty's name was Stutter!

Stutter and I posing for the camera.

After that we wandered around, checking out whatever caught our fancy. We had lots of yummy fair food, sno-cones, kettle corn, scones, $8 hamburgers, the works.







Lexi and I then headed over to the games and rides section to see if there was anything we wanted to do there, and we stumbled upon these little mini stuffed elephants you could win for $3. Worth it.

His name is Beauregard. 

 One of the very special things about the Oregon State Fair, is that they have a wildlife display to advertise the Oregon game park. My roommate Amy and I have been discussing getting a turtle, and we happened to stumble upon an Alligator Snapping Turtle. 

I found our new pet Amy!

But the best part of the whole fair, without a doubt was that we got to hold a BABY LION! His name was Jarombi, and he was absolutely tuckered out by the time we got to hold him, but we got to pet him and play with his little paws. SO cute!






And that brings us to Serve Day. Once a year at George Fox, we do a school wide event called "Serve Day" where you go with your living area out into the community and do community service for areas that need it.

Riley House went to Zion Lutheran Church to do some maintenance and painting for the church and their preschool. The church also serves as a homeless shelter. It was a pretty cool day.

Kat, (our adviser) Vikki, Kelsey, Mikayla, Taryn, Emily, Amy, 

and I getting ready for serve day.

Amy and I got to work in the preschool area, and we were super psyched about it, as shown below.

Roomies on Serve Day!

The majority of our day was spent painting bookshelves for the classrooms. It was very hot, but a total blast.

Emily was taking action shots all day, which I am glad for, because then I can share them with you. Especially the really attractive ones like this one. 

This would have been a great picture if I could see. But I can't. Oh well.

At the end of the day, we took one more group photo with all of us before we went home and crashed, or, in the case of my roommate and I, had a Burger King/Lizzie McGuire night, THEN crashed.

(Back Row): Emily, Yali, Me, Amy, Vikki, Kelsey, Mark, Hank (Front Row): Abby, Mikayla, Taryn, and Kat.

And there you have it! That (and homework) is what has been filling my time since last I posted! Enjoy!

Meet the Country: Hoedown and BBQ

 Howdy, ya'll.

Andrew, Lexi and I posing with a John Deer.

Tonight was another great night at GFU, with a country BBQ and a hoedown on the quad. There was so much fun to be had.

There were tractors

Lexi, Allie, Tori, and I. (Allie and I couldn't stop laughing.)

There were great people all around to eat and laugh with. 

Group Dance

And there was square and line dancing for all to enjoy!

After a full country meal and an hour of do-see-doing and swingin' your partner, my friends and I were exhausted, so we all headed off to our living areas to rest for a bit before Grocery Outlet GFU Night, where we are all going to stock up on groceries.

Tomorrow is the first day of classes, and I can't wait! Yahoo!

Meet the Family: Jammin' with Jesus and the Rest of the GFU Community

Today has been absolutely incredible.

As you already know from the last post, it was Slip-N-Slide on the Quad day. It was wet and cold and muddy and soapy but it was a total blast.

The big thing today, though, was our All Campus Worship Session, or as I call it, "Jammin' with Jesus". We all gathered at the amphitheater, where the campus pastors and Spiritual Leadership were waiting with the Worship team. I sat with a few of the great people I have been blessed to get to know over the past few days.

(Left to right: Heather, Tory, Jerika, Allie, Cheldon, Lexi, and Andrew.)

A few people spoke, and we had a time of worship, and I realized, not for the first time, people saying things that are so fitting to my situation that it can't be coincidence.

Since I got here, the speakers have said things like, "Some of you are here because you've been dreaming about it, but finances haven't worked out until now," or, "Some of you are here because you need to be a part of a family, and you didn't get that wherever you were."

It was the most amazing worship session I've ever been a part of. Several hundred people, singing, worshiping, crying, taking communion, and praying together as part of a family. 

What pushed me over the edge was taking communion. I took it, and the staff member who gave it to me said, "Welcome home."

Then we did this ceremony where we all put our thumbprints one by one onto a painting of a tree with no leaves, to symbolize that we are here to grow and learn together as one. I turned around and another staff member, and a student, said, "Welcome to the Family."

This is where I am supposed to be.

Afterwards there was a club fair, and I signed up for Gospel Choir and got some cotton candy. Follow that up with some roommate bonding time, and you have a happy girl.

Meet the Roommate: Mystery Bus Tour and Making Friends

Last night and today have been crazy!

Last night, we said goodbye to the parents and then ran over to the field, where we danced, had a rock paper scissors showdown, grouped up in our birth months, and played all sorts of group games.

After that, we went to dinner at the lower field, and had huge snow cones, dinner, and Voodoo Donuts!

Then the buses arrived to take us to our Mystery Bus Tour. I was on the Transfer Bus (Bus 8!) with all the cool people, including but not limited to my new friends: Andrew, Lexi, Allie, Jerika, and Tory.

They dropped us in downtown Portland and gave us a few hours to wander around and explore, so we headed over to Powell's Bookstore. This store is a BLOCK long! A whole block of books. I want to live there.

Here's the map of the bookstore I got.

This place is HUGE. We made it through maybe two rooms before we had to leave, so we are making plans to take a Saturday day trip and check it out.

They were also doing Festival Italiana there, so we got to listen to some great music and dance. Then we hopped on the Max and took it down to the buses, which took us to Oak's Amusement Park, which was shut down just for GFU!

Here's some of us on the Max. It was super crowded, but everyone had a total blast, as you can see.


I went on rides that I would NEVER have gone on, but since I was with my new friends I had a total blast! We went on The Scrambler and had a jolly old tea party, though we sloshed quite a bit. Then we went on the Carrousel and rode side saddle, because we are ladies! The greatest challenge for me, however, was The Disko. I thought I was going to die.

 

 (That's not the one I was on, but it is the same ride.)

The whole night was a ton of fun, except for the end, which was us getting back to school at 3 in the morning, and having to get up for breakfast at 8. I skipped that whole eating thing in favor of sleep.

Which brings us to today, when I got my roommate! Her name is Amy and she is fabulous. We both love theatre, reading, and 80s music, and I can tell this is going to be a beautiful friendship.

Off to eat!

Meet the Housemates: Moving In and Getting Started!

It's my first day here at George Fox!

We drove down last night and after a few hours of sleep, headed over to the school to move in! I'm in a two story house with a front and back porch, a kitchen, a living room, a dining room, a study nook, two bathrooms, and four bedrooms.

Right now I have a room to myself, but we are supposed to be getting more girls on Sunday, so we'll see!

So far I've met a few of the housemates: Taryn, Katherine (Kat), Abby (Qipeng), and Mikayla. I know Emily and Kelsey are coming tomorrow, and Amy is supposed to be coming at some point, but the house holds 10, so we'll see if the rooms are all filled when we are done!

I can tell we are going to get along well, mostly because first thing when you walk in our house, there is a sign that says, "Hey I just met you... and this is crazy... but here's my number: GET IN THE VAN." 

We got my stuff all set up pretty quickly, and spent the rest of the day doing some scheduled activities and touring campus.

I heard the final news on doing work study in the theater department today,and it's a go!

Last but not least, we had Fred Meyer night. The local Fred Meyer shut down for us from 11-1AM and everything was 20% off. There was a DJ, free samples, and a dance floor. So much fun!