Integration

As of today I have successfully integrated tofu into my diet. I am trying to expand my repertoire of "good-for-me-foods" I eat regularly. Since I have a spongy brick of the soy paste in the fridge I would say its here to stay. Actually I really enjoyed the texture of the extra firm tofu. I never thought I would be converted. Thats two healthies in one week since I recently became a Hummus addict and even created my own mushed chickpea concoction of edible proportions. Another fairly recent addition is natural peanut butter. I will never go back now. While its all fine and dandy that I like these new foods I think the next goal may be to shorten the number of 'crap-foods' i enjoy regularly. Next on the integration list....I'm open to suggestions. I'm thinking maybe fish, but i dont' know if i'm that daring.

Where the French Are

Back in Guelph and feeling less and less bilingual. I have now officially been in 3 provinces, my most recent excursion being to Montreal, Quebec. I spent three days there with Becky, Christine and Lisa in the aparment of a Montreal CCC staff. Big thanks to her for sharing her apartment for two with an additional 4 people and a clogged toilet. It is a gorgeous city, with incredible shopping. Half price shoes? I'm there! Our day spent in Old Montreal was fantastic as we browsed art galleries with all types and styles of art. Some of it just drew me into the colours and the flow of it. I recommend checking out Claude Bonneau, excellent usage of line and just a few colours.
I was introduced to the kicked-in-the-shins reality that the Canadian public school system has failed me; I am entirely monoligual and can no longer hold onto the illusion that I can make myself understood in french. While I was successfully taught basic verb conjugations and a disproportionately large number of nouns, the ability to string them together in a coherent thought has alluded me. Hopefully this experience will further increase my drive to become fluent in Spanish and fulfill my dream of being bilingual. A grammar wiz in two languages?
PS. The notre Dame cathedral was amazing. Gorgeous and ornate beyond what I could have guessed. Its so sad the state of the actual churh, the Body of Christ in Montreal. A beautiful church like that goes half-ful at best on most Sundays of the year.
With all that traveling I still found time to endlessly go over the pros and cons of a second undergrad in the near future. My biggest fears of money and age have be somewhat alleviated over the past few days, I dont' mind finishing my masters at 30, who cares if all I own by that time is a laptop, a good suit and some crackers when I finish? This would be a good chance to learn about storing up treasures in heaven and having an eternal perspective....

A day to remember

Only the second school closer in the history of the University of Guelph and I got to benefit from it! I had one midterm and two assignments today so the excitement of the day was not lost on me. Geekily, I still trekked to the school at 9am to hand in two assignments that were creating a burden on my heart. It paid off as my professors were thoroughly impressed with my concern for punctuality; 10 Brownie points! Basically this is a sign-out. Tomorrow (weather permitting) I will be swept away to Belleville and on Sunday make the harrowing journey to Montreal where I will enjoy the richness of Quebecois culture. Have a wonderful break!

Wasting Away

Today I had my first leaders DG, and let me say, shout out to a really great bunch of girls. I had a great time discussing the word and sinus infections with all of you! We did the inductive study for 1 Thessalonians 3. One thing we really got hinged on was v.5 (i think or one near it, i'm really full so i won't bend over to get my Bible). It (paraphrased) Paul saying he had heard they were strong in their faith and he was overjoyed because it meant that their work hadn't been useless.
Useless? Wow, thats a pretty dramatic statement. (He can be a pretty dramatic, black and white kinda guy). Can our efforts really ever be useless, for nothing? If we take the time to invest in someone and they fell away tomorrow, or in a year or in 30 years, would we see that as effort wasted? I don't know, we are encouraged to believe that God will use every thing we do for the kingdom and I do think he works through us. It does put an importance on being prayerful and careful about who we choose to invest our time in.
That got us talking too....when it comes to initiative evangelism, do we always pick the 'safe' people. The ones who look like us, who seem quiet, maybe not as opinionated, the bookish white girl? I think I do. I'll zero in on the safe person, the one I think I can relate, who's toes I won't be stepping on as much. Still thinking about it.....

Going a little deeper

Two in one day? yes, sad but true. This is just an exerpt from a conversation I had today.

"i mean you envy other people, and it must be because some part of me actually believes I will get to be someone else....it frees us from the responsibility of this life, of being us"

Talking about conviction from last night, and how at least me and this one other lady, have a small part of us that hold out for the day when we get to be someone else, when all of our envying and jealousy and cattiness pays off.

A future worship-team leader!

It is true, I held, for just a few hours, a tantalizing spot on the worship team. My career as a soloist started *innocently* enough pulling a prank; a harmless prank really. Somehow it resulted in me singing Amazing Grace (on key nonetheless, which was most surprising to me!) into a answering machine. This is my official thank you but I regretfully (?) must refuse the offer to be trained up as the next worship leader. I have other passions in my life and I just do not have the time to commit to it.

Green-Eyed Monster

I was convicted today of being a ravenous monster with my time. Maybe that was for effect but to be completely honest, I value my time highly and I am often wary of parting with it. But I see you in the clubs office! Yes, thats true. That really hit me where my priorities are. I have friends in other things I'm involved in, but to just sit and chill, I'll always veer for the clubs office. I don't see myself living out my faith because I am greedy. God has given me time, given me life, and I should be using it for His glory. Hopefully this isn't a one day revelation. Lord, keep convicting me.

I luv Language structure, don't u?

This week has been one of a little self reflection and finally productive splat in a drawn out process of finding a passion and wondering what in the world I will be doing when I graduate and (maybe) start my real life. Over the last few years I have grown more and more into a love for language and linguistics. Which got me thinking, why not do my second undergrad in that? One thing that holds me back is that I don't want to pay for another undergrad, of slightly less importance, an issue of pride.
Throughout school I always had great marks in math and science, people said smothering things like "She's the next Prime Minister" (ok, I get the "encourage the child" but what?) or "Maybe you'll be a Neurosurgeon". I bought into it all and now I still have pangs of failure whenever I realize that I'm not either of those things. Somewhere in highschool I lost myself and lost my goals and my passions and I am still finding my way out. I have this part of me that needs to prove myself by taking some ridiculously difficult degree. But linguistics, now there is something to be passionate about!
I found a way to spend two semesters in Spain (or Mexico) once I finish my 4 years at Guelph. It would be without the pressure of taking 5 classes (just 3 per semester!) and plenty of time to travel, not to mention my life dream to become bilingual (geeky? likely)

Which directs me to one of my favorite books. I have read this book twice and I NEVER read books twice. It is called "Spoken Here" by Mark Abley. It explores languages that are threatened and endangered. Languages like Yuchi that have only 13 fluent speakers left, all over 70. One of the most fascinating things about the language is that there is "man talk" and "woman talk". Not hockey vs. nail painting but actually different words for the same things depending on whether the speaker is male or female!
There is also a tribe in Australia that does not have a separate word for blue or green (just one word) because they don't distinguish between the two, but have 5 words for yellow! What we call yellow would actually 5 very distinct colours to these people....

This is getting long, read the book, inevitably I'll indulge myself with some reading tonight and mention a few more facts tomorrow!

A new month, Hello FebRuary

Lets just say that February 2006 unintentionally started earlier than most days. I awoke at 5am, only to find that I would not be sleeping any longer. As ridiculously early as it was, I am thankful for that time, it gave me a chance to spend a little extra time in the word and prayer. I ate breakfast earlier than my eyes usually open and my tummy unexpectedly accepted the food offering of oats and apple-goodness without complaint.
Out the door I made it to prayer, sort of. I happened to be the only one, fair enough, I think Wednesday morning prayer is now a relic so I had yet more time with God (ok and the cool map, i love maps...and my eyelids)
Groggily I sped to my first class in MACS to watch a video about a fancy pants British hotel and how they do ensure quality. My free paper went unread until later, with the face of the now late Corretta Scott King staring off to my right. My Spanish class was enjoyable as usual, where i learned to destinguish between "I am falling down" (ya me caigo) and "I am crapping myself" (yo me cago)....at least that prof really looks out for us students.
Promptly i proceeded to the Cherry grey bus to ride (freely) to RIM for a job fair. Nothing of note except I got lots of free pens, chips and m&ms...most of which I ate on the free bus ride back.
I then had some time to chill in the Clubs office...great place. DG was good today, we looked at James and the concept of trial. How the ultimate goal of it is not perseverence but to Glorify God through perseverence that leads to spiritual maturity. Are all trials suffering? I wouldn't say so, challenging yes, not always suffering. Shout Out, my girls are great!
Project night was tonight with a wonderful turnout. Although my crappy jokes were an expected bust I enjoyed emcee'ing. I would never win any awards for it but since it happened to be the first time I did something in front of a group that mattered without feeling nervous I'll give it a "S" for satisfactory...or snake. Free pizza helped too.

I also, to my shame, watched an hour and a half of TV tonight. I have two channels (only two channels!) and it has sucked me in. What a waste...well the half hour of a American Idol was worth it.

There...my day, I just typed some notes, did some personal admin stuff and into my 18th hour of consciousness I bid you adieu. I promise never to talk about my day as indepth as that again.