Tuesday, January 27, 2004

Well, I guess I can take a few minutes to post an update. Especially since WE HAVE'NT HAD A CLASS THE LAST TWO DAYS!!!! That's right - it is snow day heaven here at PHC and we are loving it. 6-8 inches Sunday night, a couple more Monday mixed with freezing rain and more snow this evening has made for a cold and wet class-less paradise. Yippeeee! I should start from where I left off, though.


Last Monday, 16 of us went into DC for sightseeing. We got the standard tour of the capitol, had lunch at Union Station, and took the metro to the National Archives. It was pretty cold outside, though, and the line to see the documents was out the door and down the street. So we decided to pass on. Trudging all the way down Constitution Ave, we saw about all of the White House we could see, and then walked to the Lincoln, Vietnam, and Korean memorials. It was wonderful, but cold. Then we walked back to the Smithsonian and spent about an hour at the Air and Space Museum before taking the metro back to our cars and heading back to school. I'm glad I went - it was the first time since I've been so close. We resolved to do it again soon.


Tuesday night was the President's big speech, and ten of the students here were selected to help with the White House comment line. We ended up at 1800 Pennsylvania Ave. and they had staffers answering the phones most of the time. We did get to stuff envelopes while watching the speech, and the best part was about a third of the way into the speech when our supervisor handed us hardcopies of it! So we read it as he spoke it. That was fun and I liked most of the speech - except for the new domestic spending proposals. :( I did get to listen to a few calls. A couple of crazies and crank callers were interspersed with two general positive comments.


Friday, after lunch, I skipped my afternoon classes to attend CPAC that night and most of Saturday. The major speakers on Friday afternoon were Ann Coulter and Oliver North. Coulter did not impress me in the least - I wouldn't mind it if I never heard from here again. North was inspirational as he shared war stories from last year. Friday night Aaron got us into the Ronald Reagan banquet for free and we saw Senator Bill Frist speak - I like him. We stayed the night at the same hotel that the conference was being held at. In the morning I heard Alan Keyes - wonderful as always - and Rep. Chris Cox, a conservative congressman from California. Can you conceive of it? Hehe. In between the speakers, I walked around and saw the booths of just about every conservative organization you can think of - from the RNC, Heritage, and FRC, to the ACLU. A bunch of conservative leaders and supporters were there. I even saw Randall Terry; I was right behind him on the escalator. It was a great weekend, although it caused me to get behind on my schoolwork. But that was no problem come Sunday night...


So I've spent the last two days getting caught up and having fun too. We filmed a little Hitman last night in addition to watching the first half of Ben Hur. The two impromptu morning chapels led by students have been very good - maybe it's just me, but I'm sensing an increasing desire to glorify God in everything and keep our focus where it should be. It's encouraging and I hope it continues, in me at least. Well, it looks like we'll get a bit more snow tonight but I'll be surprised if I'm not in Latin at 11am tomorrow. It will be good to get back, I'm starting to miss the teachers - and the meals that don't involve cheese between two pieces of bread. Until I get another chance to post, thanks for reading. Semper gaudete in deo atque iterum dico gaudete!

Sunday, January 18, 2004

I realized this week that I have a very busy schedule for the next four months. This became especially clear after I decided to join the debate team in addition to the 6 three-credit classes that I'm taking. Lord, help me to make it. The weather has been really cold. Yesterday we had snow and freezing rain. Brrrrr... We went to the store and I got all stocked up for the semester. And we bought a $30 microwave. Last night I watched Bruce Almighty. It was good. While I certainly wouldn't call it a "family film," I appreciated the message and enjoyed the humor used to convey it.


This week is going to be crazy. Tomorrow is a holiday, so a bunch of us are going sight-seeing in DC all day. Tuesday night, I'm working with 9 other PHC students at the White House phone banks during and after the State of the Union Address. Friday night and Saturday, I'm attending the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) put on by the American Conservative Union. It looks like it's going to be a lot of interesting conservative speakers. After that, I just have Latin, Rhetoric, History, Algebra, Western Lit, Theology, Debate, College Republicans, Hitman, social life, spiritual life, physical fitness, etc. for a few weeks. Not a problem. :-}

Monday, January 12, 2004

I'm back to school now. My break was relaxing, and as you can see by the date of my last post I didn't spend a lot of time online, which was good. The first week I spent recovering from tooth extraction while celebrating Christ's birth with my family. The second week I went to work at AOP. It was fun getting back into the code again. Last week I worked for three days and then played. On Thursday, Naomi, Julia, Paz and I went to Six Flags Magic Mountain. Dad drove us over early in the morning and we spent all day on extreme roller coasters. X was a thrill! We came back home that evening and then slept for a long time. Friday night we hosted a party and I got to see a lot of old and new friends. Saturday night Mom, Naomi, and I went to see Return of the King at the Cine Capri. It was a really big screen and I enjoyed it much more the second time.


I flew out of Phoenix at 6:30am yesterday morning and arrived at BWI around 3pm. Jeremiah drove us to school and I spent the evening unpacking and going over my schedule. I got my grades, finally, and I am very happy about most of them. This morning I bought my books, and just realized that I will need a calculator for my math class tomorrow. Ooops. I wonder if it needs to be graphing... I guess I better get started on reading all this literature I just bought.