The End of September

     The first month of school is drawing to a close, and boy has it been a busy one for me!  The way my schedule worked out, much of the work for the semester is already done.  The weather has been quite good for the past week, but the occasional cold day has proven that winter is on its way.
     One of the most positive influences for me over the past while has been Wednesday night worship, as well as doing my studying with other people in their rooms.  I've been going to my friends' apartments a lot to escape the business of dorm life - I'm sure I'm not the only person who cannot spend much time in their dorm room!
     Sports has been a very important thing for many CMU students at this time of year.  A lot of people are involved in the soccer and basketball teams, and we have been doing quite well.  The womens' team has won their first two games in the Manitoba College Athletic Conference tournaments with some very competitive schools.
      Now, it's time to delve into autumn leaves, Halloween, and Pumpkin Spice Latté's.  Bring on fall!


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Retreat!

     I really appreciated the retreat this year.  The weather was less than cooperative, but all we needed was a little bit of flexibility and it turned into an awesome weekend.  The weekend opened up with a worship session.  The theme was "All Things New" and I'll admit I was a little skeptical at first that they would be able to get past the clichés.  
     They did.
     Someone put a LOT of thought into these three worship sessions.  I particularly enjoyed the first one because David Balzer talked about the risks involved in forming new connections and how it makes us vulnerable to do so.  I remember my first retreat when I hardly knew anyone and I can't think of a better speech for the first year students.  Owning the fact that meeting new people and making new friends can be hard, David encouraged us to take the risk because God has created us to be social and God has created us to be in community with each other.  I stayed up late into the night at the campfire, and then spent some quality time chatting back at the cabin.  
     The next day was packed.  After the morning we had some free time.  There were a lot of activities that people could choose from, including trail rides and wall climbing.  I appreciated the hot tub!  
     One of the main highlights for me was another coffee house that evening.  Now people had had more time to prepare.  I wasn't going to do anything, and then a good friend of mine suggested that we sing the classic Veggie Tales song "Cheeseburger".  Yeah we did!  The main thing I remember about Saturday was how good it was to have a whole day to chill with my friends in a place that wasn't CMU campus.  
    Oh, yeah.  And that night around the second camp fire, we definitely spent half an hour belting out Disney songs at the top of our lungs.  And had several theological discussions taking place partially IN the fire pit because the fire pit was so large that we could have a few people inside without problems.
     Our school puts an intense amount of work into these trips and I think it really helps to set the mood for the year.  Now all we need is a hot tub at the school...!

Life!

     Most of us have been at CMU for about two weeks.  The small amount of time we've spent together has already been packed with welcome week activities, first classes, meeting each other and making friends.  Here's what's been going on at the CMU residence this week:
     1. Classes.  By this time everyone has finished their introductory classes and are settling down for the real work.  The first part of a semester can feel more relaxed than later, when papers are all due at the same time.  There's more free time for getting involved, chilling late into the night, and pranking our friends (more on that later...!)  Course change period continues for a few days, so classes are still shuffling, but soon that will be settled as well and we will be able to sink into what we're learning.
     2. Community.  Since the beginning of September, we have developed some close connections among different floors.  Over meals, late night craziness, and common experiences (what was that prof thinking?) we are already growing together.  One particular area where we get to be a team is with pranks.  There's some intense rivalry between the first floor men's and second floor women's residences.  These fun competitions allow us to vent our capacity to cause havoc and keep the atmosphere from becoming too tame.
     3. Camp Arnes Retreat.  This past weekend most of us went to Camp Arnes, a retreat centre, to have fun together.  The theme of the weekend was "all things new".  I enjoyed having some conversations with people I haven't talked to in a while, playing crazy outdoor games, and chilling in the hot tub.  We also witnessed the second talent show, which was even more interesting than the first.  As always, I got back relaxed and ready to work.  
     Twelve page essay, here I come!

Welcome Week 2011!

We celebrated the new year by basking in the excellent weather at the outdoor BBQ yesterday!

     Well, it's that time of year, folks!  Here at CMU we are in the middle of Welcome Week, when the campus transforms into an endless party to meet all the new students and get psyched about the year.  Some highlights:

1.  Go-lympics, which pitted the different residences against each other to win the Gerbrandt Goblet (a name which has my personal support, based on our illustrious president, Gerald Gerbrandt).  In order to do so we had to participate in challenges like careening through a tiny hula hoop in a potato sack during the sack race, and attempting to pulverize our opponents in a massive game of tug o' war. 

2.  Orientation, which lasted for three and a half hours, and included a massively detailed discussion on academic integrity and several very informative skits detailing community guidelines.  We look forward to this morning every year....

In this photo, Rianna Isaak represents a very strong scent which is just too strong for the onlookers on the left.  Moral: it makes sense not to use scents!

3.  Friends!  I have missed my friends SO MUCH since I left in April.  Several evenings have already been spent on long walks and just chilling in this place we call home.  Last night we definitely pulled out the Monty Python.  I had to work allllll the way until after the move in day, but this was made up by the fact that I covertly moved in a day early so I could spend an evening chilling with buddies before the dorms opened (which was probably not allowed.  ooooppps!)

4.  Coffee House.  The usual performance madness, now run by Clare Schellenberg and Coby Friesen, our Arts and Entertainment Directors.  We chilled, drank sweet free coffee and listened to music, poety, and drama.  Our ever-present hosts, Clare and Coby, were New Yorkers who just thought everyone was "faaanntasic!"

Two of the most developed Coffee House personalities I have ever seen.

     Welcome to CMU 2011.   Friends both new and old, crazyness, pranks, studies, challenges, weather (!), unplanned events, fellowship groups, sports, worship, and more are in store for us this year.  Time to GO!