How we celebrate a 21st Birthday on the Mountain

My roommate celebrated her 21st birthday with a surprise birthday party, only the people who were invited were the ones surprised. We ate sweet potato pancakes with lots of toppings including fresh strawberry sauce.
We finished it with sparkling grape juice because we are classy that way.

I might be going to study in Oxford!

I was flabbergasted when I learned I had been accepted to a summer program at Wycliffe Hall, one of the colleges within Oxford University. I applied over winter break and then waited anxiously for their decision. It was a relief and a source of more anxiety! Oh joy. I have a slew of paperwork to complete by the 15th of March. More concernedly, I also have to raise/ find around $8,300 dollars. Suggestions on how to do that would be appreciated. My main two approaches are 1) apply for scholarships and 2) ask people for money, which I really don't like to do, but I'm not sure why.  According to this article, even bank robbing isn't that lucrative.

When I get there, I'll be taking two seminars and a lecture series, as well as 4 field trips that are built into the program. After the program, I'm planning on taking some time in the UK and the Continent. I can put my pitiable French to the test.

All this is assuming that I get the funding, of course, so prayers for peace and funding would be greatly appreciated. I also broke my camera, so good suggestions on where to get a new one would be appreciated.

Matthew 6
In all this, I pray that I am seeking first the Kingdom of God, and not just the treasures of this world.

Snow! So much snow!

Down here in the South we had a monstrous blizzard! We must have gotten 2 inches!

My camera broke at the beginning of last semester so I have not been able to share any pictures here. Since that tends to shape what I post here I have had little motivation to create any content. I'm wondering whether I can justify buying a decent camera but that is neither here nor there.

Since I can't show you what it looks like here, I'm going to share a selection of photos I took when I was back home on break with my parents' camera.

 We got two significant snow falls while I was home. This and the following one were taken then. The camera's batteries died shortly thereafter.

 This one is looking upstream at the grill created when the water level falls after a time of freezing. The river iced, which created a base for the snow. You can see that the water fell in two main stages. I won't say how close I came to falling in a few times trying to get this shot.

 The following photographs were taken after the second snowfall. We got a deep layer of powder. While it was very sunny out, there was a bitter wind, and the batteries froze up a lot more quickly than I would have liked.

 This reminds me of a caravan of camels marching head to tail, though perhaps Hannibal attacking Rome from the north with his elephants would be closer.

 Snow Dromedaries.

A sycamore tree. You can see how the snow has stuck to the sides from the wind when it fell. 

 The house, framed by the Castle's door. 

Two more weeks!

It's hard to believe, but school is starting up in two weeks!

I've ordered most or all of my books, and they are slowly piling up at the college. One of the funnest days at college is gathering my packages from the mailroom and opening them all. I suspect I am going to have close to 17 different boxes at least.

I have a number of things to do before going back. I just bought 4 yards of a dark navy, almost black, wool suiting that I will use to make a dress. I figure it's about tine I went and made a Little Black Dress, a la Audrey Hepburn. Right now it's drying in the middle of the living room. Today I'll go start work on the pattern. I might have to draft one, or I might use the Jackie pattern from this book: http://www.amazon.com/Famous-Frocks-Instructions-Recreating-Dresses--10/dp/0811877914/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376498175&sr=8-1&keywords=famous+frocks
Here is a picture of the pattern: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7129/7052935533_7de9831064_b.jpg
I'd like to rotate the top darts to point more at the shoulder, and make the top have more of a bateau neckline, but we will see what I can do.

I'll be in the Student Apartments with three girls this year, which will be very interesting! I'm looking forward to the various things that come with running our own house.

Classes are going to be really fun, and I'm toying with the idea of setting up a independent study for creative writing. I'll have to figure that out.

Bloglovin', and the Death of Google Reader

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/9599947/?claim=acdrrxs78by">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

I'm in the process of moving over to Bloglovin' because Google has discontinued my beloved Google Reader.

Things haven't been terribly busy since my May Term ended. I've come back home and been working. I can't believe it's July already! only two months before I go back! So much to do until then.

More details to be filled in soon.

Semester's End

The Spring Semester is done, and commencement is today at 3. I will be going down and cheering for all of my friends who are walking. So many of them are leaving, but I'm going to have to get used to that. Two more years and that will be me.
It looks like the May Term that I wanted is actually going to happen! I didn't find that out until I had bought the books for both that class and the backup class. Why did I buy both sets of texts? Because the campus bookstore is closing for the first week of may term, and won't reopen until the very last day that I can return the books.
I'm staying about a mile from campus at a house with some friends. It looks like I will be walking to campus. Turns out, I am going to get into shape this summer after all.
Only have three of my six classes have the grades in, and they are the three I am the least concerned about.
I discovered a new favorite video game called Artemis. It's really simple, but more fun than any multiplayer game I've played before. While it's not actually a Star Trec game, it lends itself well to the canon for its spaceship bridge simulation. Each person plays at least one different part of manning the ship, and there's a captain to tell everyone what to do. If there are enough people, he doesn't even touch a computer, but looks at the main screen that we set up in the center. I will be introducing it to my family this summer.

Thoughts on the Past Few Days

Why, when I had 10 extra days to work on a paper, did I leave a very rough draft to be completed the night before it was due?

I do not like staying up until 2am.

I don't know how I feel about this, but I think I broke Godwin's law while writing said paper.

Founder's music video night was fun, but I will never make a fool of myself on camera ever again, thank goodness we didn't win.

I still have no idea whether my May Term is going to happen.

I am totally ready for this semester to be done.

I might have a summer job. This job may have me using Facebook professionally.

Faculty Quotation of the Day:
"You ladies are strange and wonderful."-Dr. Morris