sandyeggo !

I am here in the beautiful land of San Diego and I'm lovin' it! I arrived Wednesday, early afternoon, and became introduced to my new home, Condo G! (I'll have to put up pictures so that while you're thinking about me you can accurately visualize where I sleep and eat!) The first few days have been extremely hectic! Yesterday morning was an extended meeting, and then in the afternoon we did soul-to-souls with our training groups. There are (sorry, I know you aren't supposed to start a sentence with 'there are') six girls in my group--including me and my trainer. We started a little before 1:00 and ended around midnight! A little side note here, a soul-to-soul is where you share the ups and downs and key moments of your life; situations, people, and events that have shaped you and impacted and influenced you. They tend to be long. It was really good, though. Of course, I cried. Not only at mine, but whenever the other girls started crying in theirs! :) I talked for an hour and mine was not the longest one! Soul-to-souls are a great way of bonding really fast. Vulnerability does that, you know?!

Today was spent on the UCSD (University of California San Diego) campus. The full-time staff at that campus spoke to us about what to expect, what had been done, etc. Then... we went sharing. In the morning I went with my trainer which was FANTASTIC! She is so enthusiastic about initiating spiritual conversations, loves talking to strangers, and has a huge heart for the lost. It was INCREDIBLY GOOD for me to finally have a staff person coaching me and teaching me in helping me share my faith. I learned so much, and this is just the first day! The two significant conversations we had were with an atheist and a Catholic. Talk about great conversations--and sad ones. I could go on and on, but that might get lengthy for a blog.

UCSD is a very intellectual modern campus. The picture is of the library, called Geisel Library, because Dr. Seuss, from the UCSD area, donated several of his original sketches, books, and writings to the library. Yes, I was ecstatic! I saw them last summer! SO COOL! Anyway... the library is in the shape of a tree, representing the the tree of knowledge from Genesis. The library is considered a source for higher learning. In back of it, there's a winding path in the shape of a snake that leads up to it. I walked up it today and towards the beginning there's this big statue in the shape of a book and it's called Paradise Lost
Anyway, I'm loving it here. Growing and learning and trusting. Oh, and here's my address for all of those packages that you have waiting to send me:

Lindsay Dorsch
3696 Bayside Drive
Unit G
San Diego, CA
92019

You know you're overtired when...

Based on recent events, I have compiled a top-ten list of how to tell if you are overtired.

You know you're overtired when...
1. You forget to take your contacts out before going to sleep for the night.
2. Your roommate tells you things you said the night before when you were awake, but you have no idea what she is talking about the next day.
3. Sleeping in means waking up at 6:30 AM.
4. You portray bi-polar systems (more frequently than normal, anyway).
5. Everything suddenly becomes hysterically funny. And I mean everything!
6. You sleep talk at night.
7. You drop your super heavy backpack crammed to its fullest on your foot.
8. You wear your shorts backwards for most of the day...accidentally of course!
9. Your personality suddenly changes.
10. Your friends compare your actions to those of Mr. Bean.

We're just a bit different, that's all!

Dear faithful blog readers---all five of you!

Please accept my sincere apologies in not keeping you up-to-date on my life. It is unfair of me to treat you thus! Finals are looming before me and therefore I will need a nice distraction, such as blogging, to keep me sane. I apologize in advance if my writing comes out sounding incoherent and convaluded. Believe me when I say this is not my intent, but merely the result of sleep deprivation!

I would say today's blog is devoted to spelling out how different Sherlynn and I are from most other college students, but this would take quite a long time, and time, as you well know, is extremely precious. Let me just give you a glimpse of our schedule today and that will be proof enough of our counter-cultural lifestyle.

As the picture indicates, our alarms were set for 4:30 AM! Yes, it is possible to be awake at that time. We went to bed around 11 the night before, completely wiped out and incapable of getting anything accomplished. So...we went to bed, and got up early the next morning to keep working! I feel like this experience has taught me many new things. For instance, when you eat breakfast at 4:45 AM, you are hungry for lunch at 9:30. My 8:00 class felt like a 10:00 class. By 6:00 AM, I was ready for a nap! I highly recommend trying this new approach to life. It can be a thrilling experience.

The picture with the glass bottles is our accumulation of coffee drinks over the course of the school year. We can get those drinks as part of our meal plan!

The first picture are vitamins that my mother recently gave me to take every day. I think she is concerned about my health. They look like fish eggs.

Mk's reunited at last !

This past weekend, my best friend from Ouaga (Ouagadougou, BF) came to spend a few days with me! Her name is Rebekah (Beka) Joyce. She currently goes to school in Springfield, MO. We have not hung out (but have seen each other) since I left Ouaga four and a half years ago. God blessed us with such a great weekend together. It was so encouraging to know that after such a long time, we could pick up where we left off. Sometimes it felt so weird to have someone from my past, and might I add a completely different world, merge into my present world. Wherever we went, I always introduced her as the person who helped me socially develop! haha! We spent the first night looking at old pictures together, re-living the memories, trying to remember everything we could. I showed her pictures of my last two years of high school and tried to catch her up on what my life was like those first few years in the US. One fun aspect of having her come was being able to show her things that I never could have overseas: my baby pictures, my house (she especially loved the attic), etc. I brought her to Emporia and showed her my campus, dorm room, church.... We had a GREAT time together. We laughed a LOT, talked even more, took lots of pictures, and created unforgettable memories. (I guess, memories implies that they would be unforgettable!!!) Finally, I was with someone who knew my history and my past without me having to explain. It was hard to say goodbye again, but not NEAR as hard as last time. I miss her a lot already, but cannot wait until the next time we are together!

--This is just a side note, but I was thinking about how each of my developmental stage took place in different countries. Elementary - Central African Republic ; Middle School and early High School - Burkina Faso ; Later High School and College - Kansas. No wonder my personality is like it is!!!

--A few of the pictures are from 10th grade year at ISO. Have we changed at all?

Tomato Rice Soup !

I thought I would share one of my new favorite recipes with you. I made this for the first time last week and LOVED IT! Absolutely mouth-watering. And super easy for a dorm room.

Ingrediants:
- 1/3 jar of Mom's delicious home-made canned tomato soup
- 1/4 cup (1 serving) of Uncle Ben's brown rice
- 1/2 cup of water
- parmesan cheese

Directions:
- Mix water with rice and cook in microwave for 5-10 minutes (or until rice has absorbed all the water). Let it sit for another 3 minutes. Remove from microwave and set aside--covered, so as not to cool. Pour 1/3 jar of Mom's delicious home-made canned tomato soup into a microwave safe bowl and place in microwave--just long enough to heat. Only about a minute or two. Remove from microwave and pour the rice into the bowl of soup. Sprinkle on top some parmesan cheese and VOILA!!! You have yourself a yummy rice and sauce. Or as I like to call it: Tomato Rice Soup.

Eat while still hot. Serve alongside 6 cherry tomatoes and 8 baby carrots. Adding 5 whole wheat ritz crackers is yummy as well.

ENJOY !

Valentine's Weekend = A Series of Unfortunate Events

Sherlynn and I could not wait until Sunday to celebrate Valentine's Day, so we started Friday evening. We set out to hit up the thriving metropolis of Emporia! We were on a quest to find Sherlynn a pair of new running shoes. It was not a hard quest, we found some at our first stop: JCPenney. One of our friends works there, so we chatted with him, distracting him from his work, and nearly got him in trouble. oops! We felt so bad we offered to buy him a coffee.....another time, when he was not at work!

Our next stop in our Valentine expedition was, I hate to admit it, Wal-Mart. There we stocked up on strawberries, dark chocolate M&M's, and other essentials. Before heading back to the dorms, we OF COURSE had to make a stop at Starbucks. (It is conveniantly located close to Wal-Mart!) With a bit of heaven in our hands, we swung by Family Video to pick up a couple of movies. Here is the list of the honored three we were looking for:
1. An old Disney Princess movie (hopefully Beauty and the Beast or Aladdin)
2. Moulin Rouge (a girls-only movie that would fit the theme of the evening)
3. Cool Runnings (in honor of it being the opening evening of the 2010 Winter Olympics)

To our dismay and chagrin, Family Video did not own Cool Runnings. The two copies they did own of Moulin Rouge had been stolen. The Disney Princess movies we did find were all checked out. We spent a good deal of time roaming the rows of movies and found none to our liking. We left in great sorrow and with no movie. (The only joy I found was that the man working there was extremely attractive. I think I told him "bye" when he told me "hi"! haha!)

We finally made it back to our dorm room, tired and vexed, but excited for the upcoming festivities. We ate chips and dip, chocolate covered strawberries, dark chocolate peanut M&M's (my weakness), and pretzels dipped in chocolate. We had rented a projector from the school and used the reverse side of some wrapping paper for a big screen. We watched an old American classic, The Bandwagon, that I had received for Christmas, but had never seen. It was terrible--virtually no plot. Another disappointment.

And that was the end of our Valentine's Day.

P.S. The first picture was my Valentine's gift to Sherlynn!

Facing Fears !

For those of you who are unaware of this fact, this semester I have embarked on a new and bold adventure of a having a personal trainer. (Emporia State provides them as a FREE service to all students. So why not?) For the sake of keeping the identity of my personal trainer confidential, let's call her 'PT'! (Original, I know!) Once a week, I meet with PT and she assesses how I'm doing, trains me in new ways of working out, and provides invaluable tips on exercise and diet. Now, you need to know something about the Rec where I workout. It is a great place, but there is one room where I have never ventured more than a few steps into: the weight room. Typically, this room is full of guys who look like they could all be offensive linemen. They scare me, therefore, I refrain from entering. Last night, PT decided she wanted to introduce me to a new weight machine in the just-mentioned weight room. I panicked, but meekly followed. What else could I do? (PT works out every morning with the ESU football team, therefore, she was not intimidated.) The designated weight machine was located all the way on the OPPOSITE side of the room, so we had to meander our way through. The machine that she placed me on was extremely close to another machine where this man was doing some sort of pull-up. To make matters worse, the two machines faced each other. I tried not to make eye-contact while I pushed myself up this little pulley. All of this to say, PT made me face my second biggest fear. (My first fear is falling off of the treadmill while I'm running, which actually happened to a guy next to me the other morning.)