God is so great.

Hurray! Everything with the class worked out! After a night of very restless sleep, I woke up to an email saying that the class does count towards what I need it to count for, so I am good to go! This is going to be a really great experience, and look amazing on applications to grad schools.

In other news, today was semi uneventful. I pretty much sat at work all day minus leaving for lunch with my dad (Togo's not El Cholo today, Maya, although I wish we had time for that! Mmm). I also had my NGOs in global civil society class today which was pretty interesting. We talked about the role of the Catholic Church in international relations. For having such a dry title that class has yet to be boring. Anyways, then I had my short Thursday night church service, "Evening Prayer" with Pastor Dan. Usually I am somewhat in charge of leading this but today he did a quick recap of his sermon that I missed on Sunday because I got wrapped up in football (which God clearly punished me for by having the Jets lose. I learned my lesson and will be taking a break from the Superbowl next weekend for church lol). So it was nice, just me and Pastor Dan and we talked about how awesome our dad's are. I don't think he reads this, but if you do, love you daddy! After that I came home to eat pizza with friends, went to the gym, came back and played War with Laura, then one on one go fish. I started a game of the Oregon Trail (in the game my name is Chad, wife-Starfish, daughter-Madonna who got taken by an eagle and was never seen again, and sons- Firenze and Sharquis). We also had a very stimulating conversation on why we don't get goosebumps on the top of our feet and hands and came to no conclusion other than that goosebumps make no sense at all. Thrilling night, right? That's how we spend our Thursdays. PARTY ANIMALS.

I am heading home to Lancaster this weekend to visit my brother who said he is never going to talk to me again because I am not home. Sad, but very funny. I'm looking forward to seeing him, my mom, hopefully Xander and a few other friends. Then back to LA for church on Sunday. Fun fun fun!

Dear God, Please let this work!

Well hello there. Overall it's been a pretty good week. I spent the weekend at my dad's house which was great, although the Jets lost and will not be in the Superbowl. I picked up my new glasses and it's wonderful to see the world clearly, although somewhat scary but that's an entirely different level of conversation we don't need to have right now.

Lets start with the good news! First, my friends and I are signing the lease to an apartment on Friday! We will be able to move in on August 1st so this is for the fall semester. Seems so soon to be signing right? Well that's how student housing works. We are actually lucky so get this one, most other places have filled up already. Crazy.

Second, my dad is coming for lunch tomorrow! Random but exciting.

Third, and probably most exciting of all, on Monday I received an email from my stats professor from last semester, Professor Emeka who looks like Rick Fox, informing me of a very small class he is putting together, sociology 490x. What it is, is a directed research class. He's is basically putting together a group of a few students, no more than about 5, to help him with the research he is currently working on. It's a class so it requires a few reading assignments and a research paper at the end, but other than that we would meet for an hour once every other week or so to discuss our progress. What progress? The progress we would make on the research he would direct us on. Pretty much this is the opportunity to work one on one with Professor Emeka on his research on race/ethnicity and unemployment across the 298 metropolitan areas recognized by the census. How awesome is that? In order to add this 'class' I had to drop Families in a Changing Society which was bitter sweet because I had been trying to get into that class for 3 semesters and finally did, but sweet because it is being replaced with something so amazing. (I forgot to add that the research project could potentially run into being a paid summer pseudo internship). Obviously I jumped at the opportunity and did not hesitate at all to make these adjustments to my schedule, especially considering that the add/drop date is this Friday, I didn't have much time to mess around. Well I did all of this today. Tonight I was sitting here and all of the sudden realized that this 490 class may not satisfy the requirement I need to be satisfying this semester. To graduate I need to take 3 more what they call "theme" classes in sociology and there is a list of about 20 to pick from. I looked it up and 490 is not on that list but as it is not really a listed class, it's kind of made up as professors have research, I am praying that it will be able to supplement one of the 3 theme classes I have to take. If not, I'm pretty much screwed because I have no time to take extra classes since I am graduating early. Super screwed because they closed the Families class I just dropped and all the other theme classes are already closed. I hope the sociology department will work with me on this because this is a great thing I am very thrilled about doing. Pray pray pray this works out!

Goal Accomplished!

So I found out today that I finally, FINALLY reached a 3.0 GPA! I know that sounds like nothing, but having been bio/pre-med for my freshman year... it really kicked my butt. Ever since I changed my grades have been significantly better, nothing lower than a B+, and my GPA has been crawling back up but even getting all A's, it can only climb so fast. Last semester I was up to a very frustrating 2.99 but now I have a 3.12 and I am pretty stoked. Since it is too late for me to graduate with honors I am going to just join Phi Sigma Theta which is a National Honor Society. Not a frat or sorority so don't worry... anyone who knows me knows I would have nothing to do with that. Phi Sigma Theta has no meetings, no rush process, no hazing, nothing. You literally just send in a form and as long as you keep your GPA above a 3.0 you are in and have access to their scholarship opportunities, and it looks really good on grad school applications and resumes. It's too late to graduate with honors because here it is not just GPA based. You have to have a 3.0 GPA and (at least for sociology major's) your last semester here you replace one elective sociology class with an honors class where you work with a professor and do research and create a big final paper and whatnot that usually goes on to be published. Problems with this for me are one, I won't be spending my last semester here as I am graduating early so the class isn't offered, and two, I would have had to apply by now but my GPA hasn't been high enough until now. Dumb biology had to ruin everything! I would never have had below a 3.5 if it hadn't been for that year. Oh well! What can I do? Nothing. Which is why I'm so happy about my 3.12! I bounced back and still have 2 semesters to get it even higher.

Installation

Today I was installed into my new position in LCM, Prayer Minister. It was really exciting. Pastor Dan had us come to the front of the church and accept our new roles and we had a prayer for the three of us. It was really nice. My mom, dad, Sharon, Cailla and Bradley came to support me which was great. Then I went to dinner with my dad, Sharon, Laura, Simi and Jackie to celebrate. None of them are in my church group, they are just my best friends here and are really happy for me. It was a great experience! Here are a few pictures...

Back to School, Back to School...

to prove to dad I'm not a fool. Good movie. Anyways. Spring semester has officially begun and let me tell you, I have my hand full. None of my classes so far seem too hard, just mainly annoying and full of dumb busy work. 2 of my classes consist of your typical paper, midterm and final. Another one requires 2 hours of volunteer work per week on top of lots of reading and journal entries, etc. The final class that sounded awful (NGO's and Global Civil Society) actually seems like it may be quite interesting. If nothing else, the professor is awesome. He ended class by saying "What is the last thing a fish would notice? Water... and that is the point of this class." Like what? How much more cool can you get? Not much.

Apartment life is the same, roommates could be worse but could definitely be much better. I've been spending most of my time in my friend Jackie and Simi's apartment. Today I plan to spend some time in the Luther Lounge, our room on campus for LCM, just so I don't have to be in that apartment too long.

I don't have much new to report other than classes have started so I'll keep it short! This Sunday is my installation as Assistant Prayer Minister, and Payton and Anjali's as Peer Ministers so that should be exciting. My mom and dad are both coming here for that. I'll write again when I have something to say worth reading :)

Thanks be to God

I just got an email from Pastor Dan, the Pastor of my church group on campus (LCM). He was writing to tell me that I was chosen as the Assistant Student Prayer Minister for the coming semester. I am really excited about this as I have been wanting to become more involved in the group. I was hoping to be chosen as a Peer Minister but Pastor Dan chose two younger students who will be able to hold that title for longer, but also wanted to assign me a leadership role so he chose me for the Assistant Student Prayer Minister. The installation for Payton, Anjali, and myself as the new members of LCM leadership is Sunday, January 16th at Saint Marks Lutheran Church near campus. I am so thankful for this opportunity.