Finals Week

I love finals week. I was so stressed about all of the stuff I had to do for this week last weekend, but now it is all done and I am just relaxing with my friends and getting to spend a lot of time with my friends and Scott before we all go our separate ways for a nice three week break.

Monday of this week I went to a Christmas party with all of the other hall directors at our director of residence life’s house and we had dinner and a gift exchange. It was so much fun to just take a break and laugh with some wonderful people. Monday night and I worked a lot on all of my papers and my radio documentary that was due this week.

Tuesday was a lot of fun – Scott and I had a date day where we went to lunch, then on a long walk and went to the park and the movie store. Then we watched a movie and just hung out until dinner. It was such a nice and relaxing day right in the middle of all of the homework that had to get done. Tuesday night I went to another one of my professor’s houses for a Trinidad reunion party. It was so great to get the cross cultural group back together and laugh about all the good times we had this summer on our trip to Trinidad. I love getting together with this group – we always have a lot of fun. Tuesday night was also the finals breakfast. At the end of each semester there is a finals breakfast where faculty and staff come and serve the students breakfast at 10pm… it is so much fun and a great way to see a lot of people and take a break from the exams and stuff due during finals week. Yesterday I just finished my last paper (woohoo!) and just hung out most of the day. I had a final in the morning, but all I had to do was listen to radio documentaries, which was no big deal. Scott and I hung out a bit in the afternoon, then I spent the whole evening just hanging out with the girls. We laughed a lot and had a great time bonding. I also had the MCB Christmas party last night (most of my friends are on MCB too!) and that was a great time. We had a fun gift exchange and played games for a couple of hours. After that me and some friends went and looked at Christmas lights and came back here to just chat for awhile. Today is another lazy day just like yesterday. I literally have nothing to do today except go and hand in my paper. So, basically I’m just hanging out all day, which is so great. I love finals week because there is just so much time to catch up with people. It seems like it would be stressful, but it is really such a great week.
Anyways, I think that’s about it for now. I’m really excited for Christmas break… lots of family time with my family and Scott’s family and lots of traveling, but it will be an awesome break. I will try and post a couple of times to keep you updated!
Here’s to hanging out and loving finals week,
Mary
Pic: me and Scott at the park during finals week

Serving

So, last weekend was a little stressful, but good overall. There's always a lot to do when it's the last weekend before finals and this was no different than in previous years. On Friday I had a bit of a freak out session as I realized that I had 4 take home finals (three papers and a radio documentary) to do in less than a week! Scott and I had the chance to hang out quite a bit this weekend, though, and he helped me to realize that everything always gets done, and all of this stuff will get done too. (As I'm writing this, I actually have three out of those four things done and am working on the fourth!) Despite having a lot to do, me and the girls I live with had the chance to do some great service this weekend.
Me and the girls got up early Saturday morning to head down to Cincinnati to work at a food pantry/homeless shelter. We drove down there bright and early at 6:30 in the morning and met some of the other girls that went down Friday night to spend the night at Carol's house. We left from Carol's house and worked at the shelter for about 3 hours and it was a really great experience. We had such a good time chatting with the people coming to the pantry and working to help keep it running smoothly. We took the shoppers around and helped them to pick out items because not all of them could read or speak English and weren't sure how much food they were able to receive from the shelter. Some of the girls are social work majors and even got to go around with the shelter's social worker and learn about their processes. We also sorted clothing and books, got a tour of the homeless shelter and talked with a lot of the regular volunteers. It was so neat to have the opportunity to do that and we were blessed by the people there. We took a lot of food down to donate to the shelter and we were so happy to be able to do that. It is amazing how doing something like that can really change my perspective on things. I get frustrated with myself when I complain about little things, then realize that having food and shelter are basic needs that not everyone has and I should be thankful for that. I feel as though we were helped by being there more than we could be of help to the shelter.

After we left there we had lunch at Carol's house and headed back here in the evening. The rest of the weekend most of us just hung out or worked on homework, but we were definitely touched by Satuday and the people we met that day.
At Bluffton there is always a lot of service opportunities and it's a great chance to grow and definitely learn a lot. I am so thankful for those opportunities and was blessed this weekend with the chance to learn and grow so much from our time in Cincinnati.

Here's to serving, and almost being done with the semester,
Mary

pic: all of us at the pantry/shelter

stress!!

Sorry about the major delay in this posting... it was supposed to be up last Thursday and I am just getting around to it. Don't worry though, I'm going to write one both today and tomorrow to catch you up on life at Bluffton!

Last week was pretty stressful. This coming week is finals week, which is awesome. It may sound like it would be stressful, but it really isn't - all that is going on is finals and Christmas parties - there are no classes, no meetings, etc., so it's actually a really awesome week full of time hanging out with friends and just being lazy (and maybe a little bit of studying too!). So, since this week is finals week, that means last week was the last week of classes, which is always a really stressful time. All of the papers and projects are due so everyone is always scrambling around trying to get stuff done. I have no tests during finals week, which is really nice, but I have a lot of papers due. I freaked out at the end of the week last week realizing how much I had to do and wondering how it was all going to get done. Everyone was kind of in that same boat at the end of last week, but luckily this weekend has been nice and productive (I will write more about this weekend in my next post!). It's weird being a senior because there are so many more projects and papers, but very few actual tests (at least in my major) so it's kind of a crazy feeling to feel this switch in things to do. It's nice to feel things winding down, even though I still have a paper and major project to do - I should have plenty of time to do that this week.
One of my close friends has three tests tomorrow, which is just crazy. They are her three hardest classes too, so she's going to be studing like crazy tonight. Most people are on study/homework lockdowns in their room today just to get caught up.
As stressful as it is, I love this time of year on campus because everyone is just getting so pumped for Christmas break. There are Christmas lights and little trees up all over campus as everyone is ready to head home on Friday for a three week break.

Well, on that note, I feel like I should get back to homework.

Here's to stressful weeks and homework (and finals week - the best week ever - being here!!),
Mary

Christmasy Weekend

Well, only about a week and a half left until Christmas break – man, this semester has flown by. I just can’t get over the fact that I am almost in my last semester of college… it’s just crazy.

This weekend was another really great one. Friday night me and my four best friends went to Jill’s house for our annual Christmas gathering. We have done this since freshman year and have a blast every year. We go to Jill’s house, her mom cooks us an awesome dinner, we decorate their tree, have a little gift exchange, then just sit around and laugh all night long. This year was no different in that we had an amazing time. I love these girls so much and we have been through a lot together the past four years – it’s so awesome to be a senior and have great friends that have been there through it all. We had a great time talking about memories and good times over the past four years and were all up late laughing together. I came back to my room on campus to sleep because I am the Hall Director on duty this week, so I couldn’t sleep off campus, but I went back in the morning. We just hung out some more all morning, had lunch at Jill’s, then came back here to get cleaned up for a fun evening.

Saturday night we went to the Dayton Bombers (minor league hockey) game with MCB. There was about 23 people that went and we had such a good time cheering on the team. We were even on the giant screen in the middle of the rink… being on a jumbotron has always been a goal of mine, so that was really great. After we got back Scott and I just hung out for a little bit and relaxed.
Sunday we went to Sunday Morning Worship, then Scott had a Christmas date day all planned out for me. It was such a great time – we made Christmas cookies, delivered them to random people, ate and had great conversation at Common Grounds (the local coffeehouse) and watched “Elf”… one of my favorite Christmas movies. It was a wonderful day of Christmasy things, and getting to spend the day with Scott was great. We’re so busy right now that it was really nice to just get to hang out for a day.

So yeah, needless to say, it was another “best weekend ever.” I’ve had so many of those this entire semester… I love it! Life is really great, and even though it’s busy with finals and end of semester projects, I am surrounded by amazing people at Bluffton and feel so blessed to be here.
Here’s to wonderful weekends and wonderful people,

Mary

Picture: a few of me and the girls at Jill’s house for our Christmas gathering!