Back at it...

I'm pleased to report that I've finally returned to Seattle and all it's rainy glory. School started this week and so far classes are going great! I am taking Christian Formation, Beginning Figure, Intro to the Fashion Industry, and Composición y Conversación. The titles are fairly self-explanatory. In Christian Formation we are not only exploring Christianity's roots but also our own personal convictions and spiritual journeys.
Beginning Figure is going to be challenging but no doubt rewarding. It's a night class and sometimes it can be difficult to draw for two hours but I know from my drawing class last year that I'll get used to it. Understanding the human body will definitely be useful in upcoming Fashion Illustration, draping, and pattern making classes. And just because you're probably wondering; no, we do not have naked models. All our models are clothed as per Seattle Pacific policy. So far, that is one of my frequently asked questions when talking about my classes to other people.
Intro to the Fashion Industry, my most interesting class so far, covers the entire fashion process- from a designer's idea all the way to the consumer. We have a big group project to do in that class where we will study fashion forecasting by promoting a line of clothing to a particular demographic. Our group has chosen to do Women's Winter 2011, working particularly in mass-merchandising. We'll meet once a week for the next seven weeks to work out the details of our promotion.
My final class, Composición y Conversación, is entirely in Spanish. So far this has presented no problems. My professor is very engaging and class always moves right along and most of it is just conversation. Our usual assignments will involve present 3-5 minute monologues and engaging in dialogues between classmates and the professor.
Last but not least is some very exciting news! I have a new job working at a daycare. I am a substitute teacher which means I will be called in as needed. It will involve working with the same age range of children that I worked with this summer. This daycare also uses the same positive discipline techniques. I won't need to adjust too much because I already spent eight weeks this summer in a similar environment.
The picture is of a squirrel that was spying on some friends and I during a picnic this summer. He was quite close to us and climbing all over the tree branches above our heads.

Cutting Edge Children's Wear

I work with children for my summer job and have noticed an interesting trend in children's wear- light up shirts. I remember light-up shoes and I can sort of understand light up backpacks but light up shirts don't make much sense. It definitely wouldn't be comfortable to wear and little LED light lighting up a princess shirt doesn't do much to enhance its aesthetic value. It is interesting to see such an impractical trend take root. It's probably a good idea to leave this one at the store and hope it doesn't last long.

Stranded in a Storm

Just a week and a half ago my cousins and I were struggling to keep afloat on the great and mighty Ross Lake. We headed out on the little fishing boat to see a waterfall and it was a beautiful, but cloudy morning. By the time we were a to the waterfall and a half hour out the weather took a drastic turn for the worse. We started back but waves were crashing over the boat and with too few lifejackets we decided we needed to stop. We stopped at a place called Little Beaver, where there are places to camp but you can only get there by boat. When we arrived there was a larger boat just leaving in the other direction who promised to call the ranger to rescue us. Shortly after a young Canadian couple in a canoe joined us to wait out the storm for 2 1/2 hours. It turned out to be a great adventure! We made a brush fire and dried our soaking wet clothes. After the storm began to calm rangers came to rescue us! We returned to our campsite across the lake shortly thereafter.

Crazy Cousins' Campout

Well, it's been awhile but that's mostly because I wasn't sure if I would be writing on the metropolitan blog if I'm currently living in the country. And also, I just don't always feeling much like doing anything besides eating and falling asleep after working all day. That may sound lame, but my cousin Janine and I wake up at 3:15am every weekday for work. Right now, I'm living with my aunt and uncle and their family plus my cousin Janine because her and I found jobs up here in Washington.
Just a few days ago the three of us girl cousin went on a campout. We went to Larrabee State Park for one night. Before we settled into our beautiful campsite for the night we met a motorcycle camper (the best kind of camper there is) who was going all the way from Florida to Alaska! He was also kind enough to exchange us quarters for dollars so we could shower in the morning. It was good to go camping and relax. It was a very nice campground for tent campers, which we were. Most of the RV and trailer spots were not as scenic and beautiful as the tent spots. Overall, I would definitely recommend the campground to you but hopefully you're a heavy sleeper because a train runs just outside the camp. I'm told that the train went by during the night but I didn't hear a sound. Our campout was complete with a campfire s'mores, a delicious breakfast, and some good campfire songs. Our favorite is:

Catalina Madalina, Hoopin Stina, Walla dina
Hogan, Bogan, Wogan was her name.

She had two hairs on the top of her head
One was alive and the other was dead.
Catalina Madalina, Hoopin Stina, Walla dina
Hogan, Bogan, Wogan was her name.

She had two eyes in the front of her head
One was green and the other was red.
Catalina Madalina, Hoopin Stina, Walla dina
Hogan, Bogan, Wogan was her name.

She had two teeth in the front of her mouth
One pointed north and the other pointed south.
Catalina Madalina, Hoopin Stina, Walla dina
Hogan, Bogan, Wogan was her name.

She had ten toes like me and you
But all ten toes were in one shoe
Catalina Madalina, Hoopin Stina, Walla dina
Hogan, Bogan, Wogan was her name.

Then one day a truck hit poor Madaline
The man had to buy a whole new machine!
Catalina Madalina, Hoopin Stina, Walla dina
Hogan, Bogan, Wogan was her name.

San Francisco and the Space Needle

I have been so amazingly busy! Over Memorial Day weekend I went on a giant road trip with about 100 other SPU women down to San Francisco. It was a service trip called Quest. On Friday we drove 18 hours in 19 cars, through the night, to San Francisco. There were several stops to use the restroom, switch drivers, eat some food, dance, etc. We finally arrived Saturday afternoon in SF. We ate lunch and had an hour or so to see what we wanted to see before we headed over to the Rescue Mission in the Tenderloin district. We spent about a day at the Tenderloin with everyone doing a variety of things- office work, cooking, organizing the donation closet, teaching Sunday school, and cleaning. We slept in the Rescue Mission on Saturday night. The most interesting thing that we did was bring meals to various apartment buildings in the district. In the apartments we went door to door offering free food and prayer to people. We also enjoyed In-N-Out while in California. A lot of people were very excited about that. Sunday night we stayed in a church gymnasium and headed back to school early Monday morning! It was quite the trip!
On a different not, this last Thursday night we had Ashton Hall Ball (the dorm where I live this year) in the Space Needle. It was a lot of fun!

Finally, in a week from Tuesday I will have completed my first year of college. So much is happening in such a short amount of time!

When the sun shines...

Seattle is so beautiful this time of year! All the rain makes everything green. It's a big difference from Southern California, for sure.