жизнь чудесна

Why helloooooooo everyone! How are you? I hope all's well, and the transition into cloudy gloom has been a good one :) I personally love the rain, as I'm sure most of you Westsiders do (to an extent), and walking to and from school in the foggy drizzle has become like a treat to me. There are some days that I think "really?! REALLY?!", but it quickly passes when I remember, "hey, you have air in your lungs and a beat in your heart, shut up and enjoy it" :)

Well, I still don't feel like a senior except for the senioritis problem. You'd think I would have figured out how to study by now, but NOOOO it's going steadily downhill. Thankfully, I have learned how to manage when motivation was lacking, so I've still been doing okay :) my Genetics class is a bit of work, but I actually understand it pretty well (not everyone in my class can say that, so thank goodness I can still be a functioning, motivationless member!) and Evolutionary Biology is basically a recap of the three other classes I've taken with this same professor (his lessons don't vary much... most of the time my classmates draw on my paper and we make faces at each other... mature, right?! Would it surprise you to hear that one of the culprits is one of the smartest and most promising pre-Med students Whitworth has? I hope that brings you comfort) so the class is basically a wash. Kinda nice though, it being my senior year and all... Most of my education classes are easy peasy, and some are a wee bit of a waste of time (one of those situations where they take three hours to teach what could be taught in 45 minutes to make the class meet credit standards) but one class, Leadership Democracy and Schooling, is probably my favorite class this semester. It's awesome! A three-hour night class that breezes by thanks to a very passionate area of content and a great, humorous and interactive professor. Most of the things we read are painful and, a few times, I've had to put down one of our textbooks and walk away to decompress and calm down. The beautiful thing about hearing these tough situations, though, is that it ignites a fire to take care of the kids that go through these situations. I'm learning a lot in this class, and I'm so thankful...

Other than that, I stepped away from Feminight this year, allowing the reigns to be given to someone who can continue it when I'm gone. This basically leaves volunteering with my Sudanese kids (who are phenomenal... especially Sara, the daughter, she's such an amazing kid. So mature, so helpful and mindful of others needs, she'll be a big force in the world :) ) and choir! Choir tour dates have come out, by the way... we'll be in the Seattle/Bellevue area from December 3-5, singing at the First Presbyterian Church in Bellevue Saturday the 4th at 7pm and singing at the First Presbyterian Church in downtown Seattle Sunday the 5th at 3pm. I believe the cost is still $15 dollars for tickets, I'll keep you posted, and I understand that the travel and price and time of year may make this difficult, so PLEASE never feel as though I am pressuring you or will be disappointed in your absence. Just wanted to let you know when they are, and that this year is going to be a great year :) there are a lot of Freshman in the music department this year (because there are a lot of them in every department this year), but we're still singing some great songs. One of the pieces we're singing this year that I am particularly excited about is Mary's Magnificat, which is the Virgin's response to the angel that told her she was to give birth to a son immaculately. It's stunning, unbelievably complicated, and therefore super cool! The choir itself doesn't have a ton of returners, so the dynamic is of course very different from the closeness of last year, but my director has asked me to help in making the group socially cohesive through activities and such. She says "I know you're not an officer, this is a personal favor" :) officer elections should be soon though, and I apparently need to decide if I'd be willing to be President, says my fellow choir-ers... I'll let you know :)

So my house is still pretty good! My housemate, Katie Seevers, is still in the dining room, and is rightfully fed up with it and has even considered moving out. I decided to take a picture of how things have changed so that you can see her and our situation:

The dining room, as you can see, is partitioned off by the tapestry closest to the back wall...

This is Katie's hut. It basically fits a bed and a small bedside table/dresser. Most of her clothes are in the coat closet by the door or are in Winco paper bags by her bed. We all feel terrible, she wakes whenever people come and go or get up for a glass of water... it's pretty rough. Causes unnecessary tension that we thankfully recognize as being frustration with the living situation, but it's still hard. Other than that, we're all so busy with such varying schedules that we don't usually cross paths. But it's all good, that's part of the growing process :) Hopefully Katie's room will be done in about a week, but we're doubtful when considering that there's a possible leak from the upstairs bathroom into the new room and our landlord, once thought to be competent, has whipped out his Sheet Rocking for Dummies and we still hear him saying "umm... I think we screwed up somewhere..." We also haven't had light in our staircases going downstairs for about a month now, a serious issue for a house full of clumsy girls without night vision, and we have issues with the locking mechanism on our front door. Other than that though, it's all golden! Haha...

I've changed a few things around in my room, like pictures and a new bedspread and such, but I won't bore you with those pictures. Instead, meet my new friends!

Many of you remember a fish named Phoebo that I had my freshman year... awesome fish, followed my finger and got excited when I got home (he wagged his fins, I could tell... maybe...). Well, I decided that I missed him and wanted another awesome fish, so I fell in love with the fish above. His name is Phoebo Jr., but I call him P.J. :) he's a lot like my original Phoebo, but in some ways more interactive. I know, you're probably thinking that I'm getting WAY too excited over a fish... but he's cool... I swear.

I also used to have a super cool cactus with three thallus' (plant talk for bodies) that I named Alan, Phil and Stu after the characters from The Hangover, but I had a Chelsea moment and accidentally knocked him over (with flips and everything!)... the three-man wolf pack weren't the same after that, so I had to find a new plant friend that I presumably couldn't kill (I gave Steph a cactus that we named Doug, obviously, and she almost killed him... but she's special :) ) I decided to name my new cactus Nacho, after the greatly respected Nacho Libre and his self-inflicted exile to the wilderness. I know, I name my plants... I don't judge you if you judge me.

A few things about the future... I bought my tickets to Kazakhstan not too long ago! Found a great deal (saved almost $1000, including travelers insurance!) and have a 9 hour layover in Frankfurt, Germany on New Years Day :) Basically I'll be flying out from Seattle on New Year's Eve, have a layover in Frankfurt followed by a very short layover in Moscow, Russia (big mess to figure out if we needed a visa for that... usually we would but we think our circumstances excuse us thanks to helpful and knowledgeable resources :) ) and finally into Kazakhstan early morning of the 2nd! We start teaching on the 3rd in a public preschool (yay!) and after a three day weekend at the end of the week (during which we'll be going to Almaty, the former capital of Kazakhstan and former hideout for Soviet officers) we'll be starting teaching in Astana's QSI (or Quality Schools International), teaching the sons and daughters of international oil tycoons and politicians... quite the difference between the two, but I feel like I'll be seeing a good variety in socioeconomic class and the cultures they have. I've been reading this awesome book called Apples are from Kazakhstan instead of doing homework that's been teaching me a ton about the history and culture of Kazakhstan... I can't begin to explain how excited I am!!! Also, if there's anything in particular that you would like from Kazakhstan, please let me know :)

Also in the future besides student teaching at Northwood Middle School (which I am visiting this next week to help in Dave Gamon's classroom and scope out my students :D), I have made some big decisions about what I plan to do after graduation. Of course it all depends on where the jobs are, but I feel as though God and other circumstances have been pulling me towards the Eugene, Oregon area. I absolutely love the climate and that it's so close to both ocean and mountains, but isn't as crowded as the Westside of Washington, and the fact that my sister, niece and brother are all there and that the University of Oregon has the 4th best Masters in Education program in the nation makes the move natural. It would make life easier for my parents, I could see Payton all I want (don't mean to get all gooey and weird on you guys, but most days I watch the videos of her a few times over and some days it makes me cry... I can't be away from her anymore, which is strange because I hardly know her but she's family...) and teach while I gain residency for a year (which I already wanted to take off from school) to have instate tuition. That and it also feels right, I feel like God is pulling me there and keeping me excited about the change/move. I love new situations, and Spokane has served its purpose to me, but I need a change; I can't stay here. So that's the plan! I can't wait, I feel so blessed and fortunate to have an idea of what I'm doing at the end of this roller coaster... as much as I'll miss Spokane and the people in it, it's because of Whitworth that I love it and the people associated with those memories will be leaving too. Time to take a leap of faith :) these plans might change, but as far as I know this is the most likely outcome.

Wow, I've rambled for a while haha... sorry! I guess I'll leave with some pictures of the last good weekend that I think we'll have over here for a while... Richard and I both had Saturday off, a rare treat, and so I planned a big day for us full of hiking followed by a fancy dinner and dessert in Coeur d'Alene. Here are some pictures from the hike:

We found a cave! So cool, not very deep though...

Here's the view from the cave, zoomed a wee bit of course :)

The Mineral Ridge Loop Trail lookout over Lake Coeur d'Alene... stunning day, creepy family hogging the bench where I planned a picnic lunch. Don't worry, we found some good rocks!

We hiked a little more along the river and found a wonderful little beach that we played on for a while, looking at cool rocks and walking barefoot on the jagged ones :) it was a perfect day!

Okay, I've rambled enough... I hope life is good for you all and that you're loving this wonderful life we have. If there's any way that I can support you, even from over here, let me know!

Love,

Chels