A California Summer

Well, since it's been a really long time since I last had a blog post, I figured that I would write another one that's more current on what's going on in my life.

The house that was pictured in my last post I no longer live in. Events were put into motion about the house over which I had no control, so I found a fellow Rosemead girl with whom I wanted to live and am now looking for a new place to live. I'm really hoping that we get to move into a condo soon that we've applied for! After we've been approved, we will move and two of her current roommates will move in for the fall semester. Kendra and I are hoping for the best and so far are getting along great as roommates!

I'm enjoying the summer so far! I can't believe that I'm already done with my 1st year of Rosemead! And, now half of the summer is gone too, so time is really catching up with me...or running away from me, I can't decide which. This summer I've tried to have some rest and relaxation time, but it's also been full of doctor's visits and random errands.

One thing that is taking up a lot of my time is physical therapy. I have struggled with headaches for so long and I think I might have finally found my cure! I have been going to PT 3 times a week. They do joint mobilization and manipulate my muscles to release the long-standing tension in my neck and shoulders, which has contributed to my headaches in the past. So far my headaches are improving, which is a miracle to me! I hope more PT and exercise help my neck continue to improve!

Things have also been going pretty great with Tyson. We've been together for 10 months now. I think we have one of the best relationships because we openly talk about everything, even the difficult things that couples like to avoid. We are growing stronger through all of our communication and are learning to appreciate each other's differences.

I'm preparing for a trip home in about a week and a half! This will be my 1st visit back to Missouri since Christmas, so I'm really looking forward to seeing all of my friends and family! I can't wait to get some kisses from my dog Buddy too!

Until then..I'm going to be enjoying my time here and hopefully moving soon!

Craziness of Life

Wow!  I thought I was going to be so good about maintaining my blog, but now that school has started I have gotten unbelievably busy with just getting homework done and spending some time with the people in my life.  A lot has changed since I posted my last blog, all of which have been great changes!  

One of the biggest changes is that I am now in a relationship with a great guy, Tyson.  Tyson is also in my 1st year cohort (class).  I met him the day he moved into the Ranch Apartments and we've been hanging out together ever since!  We've had fun comparing how different our lives have been - with me being from the MidWest and the South and him being from Vegas.   We both share a love for music.  He plays the viola and the guitar and I enjoy hearing him play both of those instruments.  Our favorite thing to do together is go the beach or go to a coffee shop to study.  One of our favorite coffee shops is in Long Beach and it's called The Library.  There are a lot of books in there, along with tables and couches to sit on to study.  And it's only a few minutes away from the beach, so after we've studied for awhile we can head to the beach!  It's been hard to find time to do fun things now that there are so many assignments and tests going on in school.  But, last weekend we found time to go on an awesome date to The Melting Pot in Pasadena! We've now been together two months and I've enjoyed all the time we've spent together.

Another exciting piece of news that has greatly improved my quality of life is that I moved out of the Ranch apartments and into a house.  I had an uncomfortable living situation with my roommate in the Ranch since she was Korean and our different cultural values caused us to continually clash.  So, another living situation presented itself where I could move into a house full of girls, half of which are Rosemead students.  I checked out the place and met all of the potential roommates and decided that it would be a great place for me.  I really enjoy living with all of the girls here!  I have made seven new friends in all of my roommates!  It's also been nice to live in a house because it feels more like a comfortable, permanent home instead of a transient apartment life.  

God has given me some pretty great relationships with people out here too.  I have a huge support system in all of the people in my class.  We all help each other through the stress of homework, classes, and the overall expectations of grad school.  One of my best friends out here is Katie, another girl in my class, who also moved into the house about the same time I did.  She's another MidWest girl who's learning to enjoy the California life!

I do really love living out in California, which is something I'm a little surprised about.  I thought that I was going to be so uncomfortable out here because of the different culture and pace of life, but so far I seem to be adjusting well.  I live in a smaller suburb of L.A., so I am pretty sheltered from the materialistic society that pervades this area.  I did go to a mall last weekend in Costa Mesa that had all these insanely expensive stores in it like Gucci, Lacoste, Jimmy Choo, and other brands that I couldn't even dream of buying.  That was a wake-up call to me being out in California and not in small-town Missouri anymore!  Thankfully, most of the time the difference in status is not even an issue.  

I love the warm weather here!  The temperature hasn't even approached freezing, unlike back in Missouri, where it's dipped down into the 30's a couple of times at night.  It's finally starting to get a little colder out here, but the weather is still great.  I do miss the leaves changing and the feel of fall.  One of my roommates, Evonne, who is also from the MidWest, said that we've exchanged fall for fires.  If you've watched t.v. in the last month at all, you'd know that was very true.  The fires aren't really close to me, but the ash still affects the air quality.  Last week the smog was pretty bad.

I also am only about 30 minutes from the beach!  Since living close to the beach has always been a dream of mine, I'm pretty much in Heaven.  I also routinely go to Disneyland to play with friends because I have an annual pass and we're only about 20 minutes away from there.  

As for school, I'm enjoying most of my classes and learning a lot.  The class that has probably been the most interesting and the most work has been Measurement and Assessment.  I get to learn how to administer intelligence and achievement tests.  I feel like a real psychologist learning these tests, but it also takes a lot of time to learn all these tests, so that's kept me really busy.  Another class that makes me feel like I'm learning my career has been Intro to Psychopathology.  We read case studies and have to give DSM diagnoses.  (The DSM is like a psychologist's Bible, which describes all the mental disorders).  

It's only 3 weeks from Thanksgiving, which I'm really looking forward to!  I will be spending Thanksgiving in Vegas with Tyson and his family.  Then, in another month, I'll be coming home to Missouri on December 20th!  I only get to spend 2 weeks at home, but I am going to make the most of my time there!  And, I'll be showing Tyson my Missouri life for part of the time too!  

It's time to get back to homework!  I plan on updating my blog more regularly in the future!

Play/School

Since I have arrived in California, my life has gotten quite filled with new friends and fun things to do! I had some time to just hang out and have fun before school started, so I took full advantage of being in the Southern California area. I have been to the beach several times already. I'm trying out many of the beaches out here. So far I have been to Huntington, Manhattan, Hermosa, Newport, and Seal Beach. Each beach has unique characteristics that make it fun, like being close to a huge pier with cute shops or being a great beach to watch surfers. I've even been to a coffee shop that had a view of the beach! I have also tried surfing. I wasn't able to stay on the board very well, much less get up to stand on the board. It's much harder than it looks! It was fun trying to surf though and I may give it another chance in the future.

The beach out here is also very different from the beaches I have experienced at the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. The waves out here are much more powerful and the water is a lot colder! I have to let my body go numb in the water before it's actually comfortable. There's also a cool breeze by the ocean, so I don't start immediately sweating as I lay out on the beach, which would be the case on another coast. So, the beach is different than what I was expecting. I'm growing to love it though! It's great to be able to go to the beach and be a perfectly comfortable temperature. I am only 30 minutes away from several beaches as well, so I plan on going as much as possible. This week I have gone to the beach twice to study! I have to make studying enjoyable somehow! And of course, I will take any excuse to go to the beach!

Disneyland is a new favorite fun place too. I have an annual pass to Disneyland, so I plan on reliving my childhood quite a bit at Disneyland. I've been a couple of times now, once to eat dinner for a birthday celebration and then a full day to play with some friends of mine. While there aren't as many parks associated with Disneyland as there are with Disney World, there are tons of fun things to do at Disneyland and California Adventure. I love feeling like a little kid again riding the rides, seeing shows, and just forgetting all of life's troubles...or grad school studies. Apparently, one of the theology professors, J.P. Moreland, came to Disneyland to write several of his books. If Disneyland can inspire such a great thinker, then what better way to follow in his footsteps than go to Disneyland myself? That will be another place I might occasionally take a book to read for class. (Yes, the recurring theme in my life is now reading books).

Classes started for me last Thursday, August 28. I am taking Advanced Statistics, Introduction to Psychopathology, Biological Bases of Behavior, Theology I, and Measurement and Assessment I. So far, I'm really enjoying my classes. I have tons of reading to do for each class, along with an additional lab time for each class, whether it's time in the computer lab or discussing the subject matter for the class. My life now completely revolves around school and my classmates, but as a nerd, I like that anyway. Grad school will be a ton of work, but I'm up for the challenge! I have such a great cohort made up of all my classmates, which I know will make the experience so much more enjoyable. God is going to use grad school as a time of huge growth and change in my life, and as a source of fun too!

My California apartment at The Ranch

Photobucket Album

The big move to California and my birthday!

I'm finally settled into my apartment in California after a week of being here. It's been a long process to get my apartment in a live able condition, but all the hard work has paid off. But, I'm getting ahead of myself...I'll back-track to leaving Missouri.

So, I left Missouri bright and early on Monday, August 4, with my parents. We took Buddy to Lucky Dog, his boarding place, where I said good-bye to him. (I'll really miss having my dog to pet and love on!). Then we took my parents' car to the Tulsa airport parking lot so that it would be there for them when they flew back in. From Tulsa, the long journey continued in a blurred fashion. We drove so fast through so many cities that I hardly paid attention. We all took turns driving and cramming into the backseat of the Mustang. We drove through some pretty areas, like Flagstaff, Arizona, and some really desolate areas in New Mexico and especially in the desert in California. We finally arrived in the L.A. area late Tuesday night.

Wednesday morning we went to my apartment complex so I could get my keys and check in with the apartment manager. After I got my keys, we opened the door to my apartment, and we were faced with the reality of my living situation. The apartment was absolutely filthy! There were cobwebs everywhere, the kitchen walls and stove were covered in grease, the shower was rusty...it was dirty all around. (Another highlight of the apartment was my gas stove from 1957, which is thankfully going to be replaced soon!) We immediately bought tons of cleaning supplies and started deep cleaning the apartment, which took two days. And, this whole time we were sweating to death because..and here's another perk of the apartment..there is no air conditioning! So we finally got it all clean and then the fun of unpacking began.

Thankfully all of my boxes arrived and amazingly only one thing was broken in transit. (The one thing was a gift from someone who is best forgotten anyway, so it was okay.) It took awhile to get unpacked. I realized that I have tons of shoes and clothes! I'm a very blessed person! We also added some homey touches to the apartment. We put a cute tablecloth and place mats in the kitchen and pretty bathroom accessories with a matching rug in the bathroom. We also rearranged some furniture to create a cozier atmosphere. Now it really feels like a home instead of just a place to live. I just hope that my roommate feels the same way when she returns from Korea.

My parents and I worked really hard last week getting me completely and comfortably moved in. After slaving away, we did manage to have a little fun. Saturday night we went to Downtown Disney with my cousin Greg, where we ate dinner at a really nice Italian restaurant, Naples. Then, Sunday I took my parents to LAX. They returned to Missouri, while I embraced my new California life.

This week I've been able to have some fun. I've hung out with my new neighbor, Jackson, who's a really nice guy from Alabama and will be a seminary student at Talbot. And, one of my classmates, Charis, arrived from Malaysia on Monday! Charis and I have had fun spending time together since then. It's been fascinating to learn more about Malaysian culture and introduce Charis to American things like tacos and sunbathing!

Today I thoroughly enjoyed my birthday! This is the first birthday I've been able to spend on the beach!! Charis and I went to Huntington Beach today where we enjoyed watching surfers, taking a really long walk on the beach, and walking along the pier. I also got my iPhone today! And I had some Coldstone ice cream tonight with my friend Jackson.

So, things are going pretty great for me in California. In spite of not having air conditioning, I'm enjoying my new apartment. I'm learning my way around the area and really enjoying all of the shopping centers and restaurants that are close by. The next big thing this week will be finally meeting my roommate on Friday!

Ready to leave?

Although I've had several months to get adjusted to the idea of moving to California, now that the big day is almost here I suddenly feel like I'm not ready. The reality of the move didn't actually hit me until after my going-away party. That night I realized that soon I would be leaving behind the place I have called my home for the past 10 years and many people about whom I care. I realize now that I really will miss Missouri, or at least all the people I am leaving behind. I have been itching to leave Missouri since I moved here in '98, but I never pictured that I would move to California. After visiting California two years ago I thought it would never even be a possibility for me to move there. Yet, here I am, two days away from moving. I guess that just goes to show that sometimes God has plans for our lives that we cannot forsee.

All my things have been shipped off to California and are set to arrive there on Wednesday or Thursday. I will be leaving bright and early Monday morning with my parents in my Mustang to make the long drive in two days so that we beat my stuff. As of Wednesday, I will be moving into my California apartment. All of this seems very surreal to me. I don't think that I will actually believe I'm moving there until I get on the road and start moving into my apartment. Then after I move in, I'll have a couple of weeks to get settled before school starts.

My whole life is about to change! I'm anxious to discover what God has planned for me in California!

Going-Away Party