Things I love about Biola || The Jesus Mural.

For those of you who are not from Biola, we have a 30 foot tall Jesus. The shadows in the mural represent the Trinity. The pages of the Bible are the same color as the skin, representing how the Word became flesh.

This is the side of the science building.

There has been a lot of controversy surrounding the mural, but I am glad that we are keeping it. It’s a nice reminder as I walk across campus.

The Classic Crime // House of Heroes.

The Horton stairwell is covered in little signs. They tell of a concert that night. The two biggest bands are The Classic Crime and House of Heroes. As it would happen, The Classic Crime is one of my favorite bands. I was stoked.

I talked to some friends later that afternoon, and I found three other people that wanted to go. We made plans to eat dinner and leave for the concert right afterward. And that we did.

The concert was held at a church in Brea, definitely a pretty small venue. But those are some of my favorites. The show line-up was The Workday Release, Abandon Kansas, The Classic Crime, and House of Heroes.

The Classic Crime was the biggest excitement for me. I know their first two albums in their entirety, and I’m familiar with their most recent album. They played some of my favorites: “Headlights,” “The Coldest Hard,” and “Salt in the Snow.” It was fantastic. I just wish that they had played “Who Needs Air?” because it is amazing.

At the end of the concert, I bought a Classic Crime t-shirt and got the band members to sign it. The lead singer wasn’t going to be coming out, though, so I was bummed about that. We did get a picture with the rest of the guys from the band, however.

Photo credit: Sarah, Editing credit: Gabby

We ended up talking to the lead singer of Abandon Kansas for a while, and he was really chill. It came up that I was from Minnesota and he eagerly asked where. Since it seemed like he had some knowledge of Minnesota, I told him that my home is near Duluth. “I dated a girl from Duluth!” he replied. I found this rather comical, because Duluth really isn’t that huge of a city.

As we were leaving, we were all bummed that we hadn’t gotten to see the lead singer of The Classic Crime. It was then that we saw him sitting in the driver’s seat of their van. We waved and walked toward the window. He rolled it down, and we asked if he would sign our posters and t-shirts. He was more than happy to. We told him how much we enjoyed the show, and he was really grateful for our positive feedback.

During the concert, the drummer for House of Heroes had made a joke about using the word “titanium” as a hip new adjective.
As we were leaving, we decided that we had experienced a titanium Tuesday night.

Homework and other ways to spend your time.

For my Old Testament class, we do work packets for the storyline books of the OT. They take quite a bit of time, and I’ve found that I spend more time than most people on them. When I’m working on them, I have four Microsoft Word windows open on my computer, each for one of the parts of packet we have to complete. I open whatever book we’re working on with multiple highlighters on hand, each color representing something different.

I needed to do some work on my Judges packet, but I was itching to get off campus. I asked Charlie if he wanted to walk to Panera with me. I really love Panera. A lot. There’s something so delicious and wonderful about that place. Plus, it’s not too long of a walk from campus. Charlie and I headed out, and it was nice to just chat on our way. Panera is connected to Starbucks, so it’s really double the fun. I got my favorites from each of them: a white chocolate mocha and a cinnamon crunch bagel with cream cheese.

$2.93 Panera bagel + $3.50 Starbucks white mocha = $6.43 of perfection while doing homework.

Tackling Judges.

Yogurtland.

Last June, my sister’s good friend and former roommate—Raechel—came up with Liz for my grad party. As part of my gift, Raechel gave me a five and a thank you card addressed to her, thanking her for the money to go to Yogurtland. I had previously been told that I had to go there, and now I had no choice.

My card and money from Raechel.

Well, my RA and I were trying to think of something to do, and when she heard that I hadn’t been to Yogurtland yet, she decided that we had to go. We got two of my other friends, Charlie and Kyle, to come with us. We hopped in my RA’s car, and it wasn’t long before we were in La Habra outside of this beautiful building:

Beautiful.

Once inside, we got out taste-testing cups and started to decide what we wanted. Now, for those of you from Minnesota or somewhere else were buying fro-yo is a completely foreign concept to you—please allow me to explain how it works.

First, you take a cup. Once you’ve decided what flavors you would like, you put as much as you would like into said cup.

Step One.

After you have your fro-yo, you head to the topping counter. You can take as much as you would like of any of the toppings that they have to offer.

Step Two.

Finally, you set your fro-yo on the scale, and they weight it for you. Most fro-yo places are 30 cents an ounce.

Step Three.

And there you are. Now you can enjoy your fro-yo. I had New York Cheesecake fro-yo with some fruit toppings on one half of my cup, and the other half had coffee fro-yo with some chocolate fixings. It was delicious. This final photo pretty much captures the whole night. I had so much fun.

I love Charlie and Kyle in this picture.

Things I love about Biola || The Walkway.

Right outside of the library is this lovely walkway, right next to Metzger lawn.

The landscaping is pretty impressive.

The trees are beautiful. And, if you can tell, all of them are covered in Christmas lights. It’s just such a pleasant place to walk through.

Oh, citrus.

There’s something really beautiful about having some citrus sitting on your desk.
It’s like sunshine in a fruit.

I would highly suggest putting fruit on your desk to brighten your day.

The orange is one of the five that we picked the other night. The two lemons are from the caf. They’re both gifts from my dear friend Sarah. I almost don’t want to eat my orange, because I’d hate to split up the trio. However, that time alway comes.


POSTSCRIPT: Shortly after I took that photo, I did, indeed, eat my orange. It was amazing. It was dripping with juice. Arguably, that was the best orange I have ever had.

Things I love about Biola || Metzger Lawn.

For the first month or so of the semester, Metzger lawn was being redone. I was so excited when they took down the fences.

The grass is so inviting--makes you want to run through it.

The first day it was opened, I walked across it and just soaked it in. It’s beautiful. The grass is just so green, isn’t it?

Things I love about Biola || The SUB.

The Student Union Building—the SUB—houses a number of offices. These include the Student Missionary Union (SMU), Associated Students (AS), and The Chimes.

I think the reflections of light really add intensity.

There are all kinds of sweet leather chairs and couches throughout the SUB. I often go there just to chill on my computer for a little bit. Also, there are two pool tables.

Pool is a very serious game.

A few of my friends and I play pool rather regularly.  Since the SUB is open 24-hours, we sometimes play pretty late. It makes for a rather fun time. 

When friends buy you coffee.

As I believe I have mentioned in the past, my brother floor is Mosaic. I just realized, however, not everyone knows what I mean by “brother floor.” For me, it’s a common term, but this isn’t so for everyone. I will explain what this means in the simplest way possible. Basically, one guy floor and one girl floor are paired up and labeled brother/sister floors. The guys take out the girl’s trash every week, and the girls often bake them cookies. They do other brother/sister floor events throughout the semester, as well.

On Mosaic, this month is “Nonsense November.” Each day there is a different task or activity all the guys do. Some of the days include being overly-chivalrous, going barefoot, and not using facebook.

One of the days was “buy someone coffee day.” A friend of mine made a comment that he had thought about surprising me with coffee, but that I was way too specific about how I liked my coffee. I laughed, and told him the easiest route was to go with a white chocolate mocha.

That night there was a basketball game, but I had way too much work to do. I made myself at home in the Horton lobby in order to get my work done. After the game ended, two of my friends came into the lobby—one of them holding a large coffee cup. It was my white chocolate mocha. I was delighted. I have awesome friends.

I love the bokeh.

Horton Tradition Week.

This week was Horton Tradition Week. The week started by wearing black—our dorm color. After various events throughout the week, it ended with a cookout. We ate burgers in the grass as music bumped in the background. Then there was the main event: the slide-n-slide.

Basically, the Horton slip-n-slide is a number of giant tarps that cover an incline. I didn’t take part in the madness, but I certainly enjoyed witnessing it. People tried to pull all kinds of stunts, many of which failed completely. I took a number of pictures, but I’m going to leave you with just two.

I love all the drops of water in this shot.

This was as the madness was winding down.

Things I love about Biola || Mailboxes.

Coming from Minnesota, it’s so crazy to me that you can have things outside. Back home, that’s just too cold in the winter. Thus, I find it fantastic that our mailboxes are outdoors.

Getting mail just became more exciting.

It’s nice to have a combination instead of a key, too. Not to mention, I love checking my mail. It’s so exciting to get a note from back home. Or even better, one of those colored slips that says you received a package. Oh, the thrill.

YoungLife Retreat.

Earlier this semester I got involved with the YoungLife program in the Tustin area. There are seven different clubs that this program runs, and I’m going to be a Wyldlife leader for one of the middle school clubs. This last weekend all of the leaders were invited to go on a retreat to a beach house in Oceanside. It was going to be a time of bonding, learning, and fun. And that it certainly was.

We got there on Friday night, and went and got pizza at a cool pizza place in town. Back at the house, we ate our pizza and just hung out for a bit.

Someone suggested that we play the game “psychiatrist.” Now, I don’t know if you’ve ever played the game, but I had never done so before. Basically, it goes like this: one person leaves the room, and everyone else decides on a “symptom” that they’re all going to have. The symptom comes into play when the person comes back in, because they can ask anyone any question. Some of the symptoms we had were: pretending you were your mother, answering in exactly five words, and girls had to lie and boys had to tell the truth. The person in the middle then has to figure out what that symptom is. I laughed so incredibly hard that night; I loved it.

The next morning we got up and had pancakes and then spent time doing personal devotions. When we met back together again as a group, we went over the schedule for the day. We had two small group sessions before lunch, each having to do with a different aspect of being a leader.

We had a block of free time that afternoon, and it was filled with all different shades of fun. We played ultimate frisbee and football on the sand and in the waves. The sun beat down on us as we competed and laughed oh so much.

Toward the end of our free time, I got to try something I had always wanted to: surfing. The whole concept of surfing has always intrigued me. Maybe it’s the physics of it all. Perhaps it’s the adrenaline rush. Or maybe, for me, it was simply the act of trying something that is so unlike anything I know. Whatever the case, I gave it a go. Let me tell you… surfing is difficult. I managed to stand up (!) and that was a huge accomplishment. Surfing is definitely a sport that requires resiliency. You inhale all kinds of seawater and fall and get tossed around. And you just have to have the determination to get back on that board. Surfing is also addicting. Once you gain a little ground, you just want to keep going. In the end, however, it was nearing dinnertime and I was absolutely exhausted.

A selection of surf boards.

We ate in the sand as the sun was setting. The sky was painted the most beautiful hues of orange and purple. A huge line of birds flew across the sky at one point. Surfers took to the waves in the magnificent lighting.

The colors were so brilliant.

A friend of mine had brought his guitar, and he sat and played for a few of us. He played a couple of Jon Foreman songs. So good.

Once everyone had finished eating, we headed inside the beach house. We had a time of worship and one of the leaders closed us in a word. The night wasn’t over yet, though.

We split up into girls and guys and played charades. Oh my, was that quite the event! Both teams had written down ridiculous movie and TV show choices. Somehow, we both managed to get some right, with so much laughter involved.

The night ended with a beach fire and the making of s’mores. We wound down and all headed our separate ways. Some people headed to bed. I, however, stayed up for a while longer. I worked on my Old Testament homework, listening to the ocean waves. It was beautiful.

The next morning, we all got up and had a spot of breakfast. After a commissioning in which we prayed for each of the YoungLife groups, we packed and cleaned. Just before we left, I set up my camera for a group picture. After that, one by one, cars began to leave.

This is one great group of people.

I had an amazing weekend. There was so much joy and laughter in one place—two of my absolute favorite things. I got to know many of the other leaders, and it truly is a wonderful group of people. I can’t wait to be a leader this year.

Things I love about Biola || Posted Signs.

At various spots throughout campus, there are designated posting spots.

The greenery really makes them pop.

Much like the bulletin boards, the posted signs are rather colorful and informative. They are strategically placed so you always see them. And they jazz up campus quite nicely.