"I cannot talk about it, I have to sing about it"

It is only Tuesday.
Hard to believe, especially because I am sure I have lived a couple lifetimes in these past two days.

This week I got to start working with Eric on photo shoots around campus.
And we did three on Monday and we have one tomorrow [Wednesday].

I have made my final decision about rowing.
I will not be continuing it after this Fall season.
Instead I am going to devote time to the Prayer Team on campus and violin.

There is a women's retreat coming up too.
http://www.northpark.edu/umin/06/misc/womensretreat.html
There is a link to more information.
It is $20, but $20 well spent.

On Friday I have a Math test, and I have two papers due this week.
AND a group project tomorrow.



At the Homecoming soccer game.
Abbie, me, Kate, Catherine.



That was taken while I was downtown waiting for the Metra.

Now Erin and I are listening to Counting Crows-"Mr.Jones".

Chapel tomorrow will be featuring Lauren Winner: http://www.laurenwinner.net/

I received the most amazing piece of mail today, from a very special lady in my life.. Rosie.
It was perfect to be sitting outside on the bench in front of Old Main reading it.



On that bench on the bottom right. :)
I look forward to the moment I have to write back.

Rosie and Ike now sit above my desk on my bookshelf.

Another day is done, and another day is ahead.

Hannah Joy.

"I cannot talk about it, I have to sing about it"

It is only Tuesday.
Hard to believe, especially because I am sure I have lived a couple lifetimes in these past two days.

This week I got to start working with Eric on photo shoots around campus.
And we did three on Monday and we have one tomorrow [Wednesday].

I have made my final decision about rowing.
I will not be continuing it after this Fall season.
Instead I am going to devote time to the Prayer Team on campus and violin.

There is a women's retreat coming up too.
http://www.northpark.edu/umin/06/misc/womensretreat.html
There is a link to more information.
It is $20, but $20 well spent.

On Friday I have a Math test, and I have two papers due this week.
AND a group project tomorrow.



At the Homecoming soccer game.
Abbie, me, Kate, Catherine.



That was taken while I was downtown waiting for the Metra.

Now Erin and I are listening to Counting Crows-"Mr.Jones".

Chapel tomorrow will be featuring Lauren Winner: http://www.laurenwinner.net/

I received the most amazing piece of mail today, from a very special lady in my life.. Rosie.
It was perfect to be sitting outside on the bench in front of Old Main reading it.



On that bench on the bottom right. :)
I look forward to the moment I have to write back.

Rosie and Ike now sit above my desk on my bookshelf.

Another day is done, and another day is ahead.

Hannah Joy.

"Be holy because I am holy."

"Let what we do here, Fill the streets out there.
Let us dance for you."



I am delayed on writing an update.
So I will recap briefly my current events.

Friday night I watched Cars! for the first time since I have been away from home.
It was magical.

Saturday I left bright and early to head to Wheaton.
Despite my delay on getting there, it did not make it any less sweet of a weekend.
A get away was just what I needed.
Seeing relatives was what really satisfied my appetite.
With all the random stress the opportunity could not have been timed better.
I feel so blessed to finally live so darn close to grandmother and grandfather.

This week is homecoming, which means there has been some exciting events.
We had sushi one night for dinner, it was excellente.
We had a comedian group come to campus last night.
Our homecoming is in Shedd Aquarium.
Now we just have to beat Wheaton in soccer on Friday! Ah ha!

I am going to give Angie a call here when I get out of the library and hopefully see her tonight.
And her boyfriend, name slips me.
Tonight I have nothing going on!
I did have a rowing meeting, canceled!

Rowing has been great.
Minus the fact that I was running late and I was running and fell down concrete stairs and my legs are pretty scratched up.
I have some serious "concrete rash".
Coach told me I get to row the first novice boat.
And I think I have seat one pretty warmed up for myself, and being a starboard.

Classes.. are fine.
Math and Dialoge were canceled yesterday and Bible was canceled today.
German is still my favorite.
Dzejna is my pal in that class.
She is from Bosnia.
And she lived in Germany for like seven years when she was young.




What do I want to be when I grow-up?
And how can I learn the answer?

Psalm 139

¹ O Lord, you have examined my heart

and know everything about me.
² You know when I sit down or stand up.
You know my thoughts even when I’m far away.
³ You see me when I travel
and when I rest at home.
You know everything I do.
⁴ You know what I am going to say
even before I say it, Lord.
⁵ You go before me and follow me.
You place your hand of blessing on my head.
⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too great for me to understand!

⁷ I can never escape from your Spirit!
I can never get away from your presence!
⁸ If I go up to heaven, you are there;
if I go down to the grave,^[a] you are there.
⁹ If I ride the wings of the morning,
if I dwell by the farthest oceans,
¹⁰ even there your hand will guide me,
and your strength will support me.
¹¹ I could ask the darkness to hide me
and the light around me to become night—
¹² but even in darkness I cannot hide from you.
To you the night shines as bright as day.
Darkness and light are the same to you.

¹³ You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
¹⁵ You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,
as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
¹⁶ You saw me before I was born.
Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out
before a single day had passed.

¹⁷ How precious are your thoughts about me,^[b] O God.
They cannot be numbered!
¹⁸ I can’t even count them;
they outnumber the grains of sand!
And when I wake up,
you are still with me!

¹⁹ O God, if only you would destroy the wicked!
Get out of my life, you murderers!
²⁰ They blaspheme you;
your enemies misuse your name.
²¹ O Lord, shouldn’t I hate those who hate you?
Shouldn’t I despise those who oppose you?
²² Yes, I hate them with total hatred,
for your enemies are my enemies.

²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
²⁴ Point out anything in me that offends you,
and lead me along the path of everlasting life.

That is how.

Hannah Joy.

Luke 15:32

"who was dead and is alive again, was lost and is found"

I don't like it when I am in the library, on the quiet floor, and people insist on using their outside voices.
...In French


Just wrote paper #1, and about to start paper #2.
But first, pictures.



We were told we had an hour to leave the dorm...



And we went down to dinner, and they told us we had to get out in five minutes.
Lovely.
[That is Erin, my roommate.]



Between our building and Magunsom.



Ditto.



Not normal.



I give them the excuse of "he is from Alaska".



Day two of pouring rain.
That is my dorm.



FYI: Chicago River has raw sewage.
There was a deer carcass in it... and a shopping cart..
And a lot of things you cannot see with the naked eye.
Yeck.

And that building had sixteen feet of water in it.
Hence why it is not open and there are construction workers on campus around the clock.



Our basement, this is not good.



Refugee night numero uno.




Night as a refugee numero dos.



My sleeping arrangements for night numero dos.



On Erin and I's reunion night, we kicked it off with fruit by the foot tattoos on tongues.
Haha.




I think they have "White Noise" playing in the library.
Because it sounds like coffee is brewing all the time in here.
And there is NO coffee...



The weekend is almost here, and tomorrow is a breeze now that I have finished my paper.
The plan is to go to grandparents this weekend. :)

I got to talk to RJ and Derek yesterday!
Oh it was wonderful!
I miss Topeka just for that reason.
[Also for Darby... and mom and dad.. And Jonathan..]

There is a sense of relief when you can finally wake up at 4:50 with confidence.

We decorated our lounge on our floor last night.
It was all plain white walls with just a couch.
But now the walls have quotes, pictures, lights, etc etc etc all over them.
It is like walking into a dorm room now. More comfy.

I should go.
Gute nact.

Hannah Joy.

Rag&Bone

There is a lot of water on our campus.
If you haven't heard.

This is the second night I haven't been able to go to my room to sleep.
It isn't too bad.
Other than the huge inconvenience it is.

I "created" this last night.


There also is no school tomorrow because the buildings are not "safe".
Because of all the water sitting in the basements.
We got something like eight inches of rain.
And the north branch of the Chicago River runs through our campus.
Intense!

Tonight at CollegeLife the speaker spoke on being holy.
And that we will never be unholy, because God will forever take our hardships for us.
And Jesus died for us, for that very reason.
Holiness is just something we have to reach.
In order to be holy you must not look at the people around you or look at your past.
Always be comparing yourself to the holiness of God.

I am always comparing myself to my past.
And using it as an excuse for how I am "doing better".
But really, I am not even close to the right standards I should be setting for myself.

New ideas are always so exciting!
And new ways to grow spiritually, and grow stronger.

I did this too last night.



I am having a hard time with a friend of mine here.
There is no confrontation going on, nothing like that.
But it is a view that I know she has, and makes it very clear.
She will not be friends with non-Christians.

Where in the Bible...
How does she justify it?

She also has a difficult time accepting people if they made poor decisions in their past.

How do you open up to someone like that?
Or draw near to them as friends?


I did more German homework today.
And I did some brainstorming [really think about that.. brain-storming, weird] on a paper for English.
Tomorrow will be more of the above, plus reading for bible.

There are so many concerts I want to go to.
It is hard to turn them down.

Here is a recent picture of Nico.
This was while he was in Berlin visiting his dad and younger half brother.

65%

Gute nacht!

Hannah Joy.

Druck

Hurricane Ike stresses me out, increases my heart rate, and makes me sick to my stomach.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid823425597/bclid877032950/bctid1785349252

Click that link for a video about Ike.



We went to the soccer game tonight and it was raining the whole game.
It was a great game, our first home game!
Vikings won!

My math test was not so bad today.
I would say I missed maybe two out of the ten.
I am pretty positive that this was the hardest I have ever studied for a test for.
Hopefully it will reveal the fruits of my labor.


German class is always fun.
I have all the determination in the world to speak semi-fluent German by the end of this year, because of the ridiculous amount of money I have paid for these books.
And Coach Tim did the math and it is approx. $67 a class.
So every time we miss class, or slack off we are basically throwing away that $67 into the eternal abyss.
Talk about another means of determination.


On Friday's we have a lecture for all the English classes.
Today's was a billion [yes, a billion] times better than last weeks!
It was about Augustine and how to interpret the book as an 18 year old, 20 year old, and then 33 year old.
And how when you are 18 you see how most of it is about lust and prayer.
But a 20 year old sees it as a philosophical read.
Where as a 33 year old reads it as a book of love to God, and sees it as a means of conversion.
--There was a bunch of other stuff, but I am not going to get into it.

The first thing I wrote in my book was "Is this book all about love?"
The lecture today really tied into the way I interpreted it.
His goal must have been to try and get everyone's view into one lecture in order to please the masses.


Spinning class tomorrow morning at Northwestern.
For now, I am going to stick around in my room and stay updated on the weather.

Hannah Joy.

You are not worth the expense.

"For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs"

Senor Scollon used to always tell us that the love for money was the greatest evil.
And the one thing we should always be looking out for.
He could not have been more right.
And today I feel it.


I received a care package from Brookwood, [specifically, Marilyn Asklund].
It could not have come at a better moment in my day.
I was upset and getting to pick up a package from the mail room was some what of a relief.
And I realized that maybe the whole world was not out to get me.



First math tomorrow, and I have my doubts about it.
I have gone through all my homework assignments and re-did all of them.
And I don't feel comfortable about any of them.
Math is not, and will not ever be my niche.


Rowing is still going well.
I have a meeting tonight at eight, to fill out NCAA forms and get a jersey.
And a hat.
We get shirts in a couple weeks, long and short sleeves.

Next to my desk I have a bulletin board that always makes me smile.
On it is a picture of Ike that Rosie gave me, Polaroids of Melissa and I, and Adam and I, a picture of Dan, Zakk and I, Matt and I and Nico and I.


Abbie and I.

I just have to keep telling myself that this particular struggle is only temporary, and happiness is mandatory.

Hannah Joy