first day of class and other ramblings

it rained today!!! it even thundered at least 4 times that i heard. woohoo! it apparently won't rain again until dec or jan... boo! it's so weird that the seasons are so much less apparent here, if they exist at all. my street has some trees on it that i wonder about if they'll change colors.

so my first class (ryan bolger's church in mission) was very interesting! i've certainly never had a class like this before, whether in content or structure. he's never taught it this way, either, so we're all playing the guinea pig. the basis of the assignments is that we're working in groups to examine different ethnic and denominational backgrounds. (i'm in the group for white presbyterians.) so we all read the books and listen in class discussions about info that will help us analyze our group, then we all write a wiki webpage for it. so we put all our class notes online, we all write on the same pages about our group and can edit each other's info and refine it (just like on wikipedia), then at the end, there's another resource for the church to use. i'm still a little vague about what exactly we're looking for and learning about, but it'll all be good. (if you're really interested in following along, check out ftsmc500.wetpaint.com every so often, but please don't "join" and start editing stuff. but you can see what we're working on and how it evolves.) then, also at the end, we'll put all this info in a youtube video of some sort. so i'll put up the link for that when it's done, too. pretty cool, huh? it's amazing how technology has become so commonplace like this now...

in other news, i went to venice beach last week! i went with ruth and her friend hana who are both norwegian, 2 other friends of theirs (jonathan and rebecca), courtney (my roommate), and 3 other new students met us there (maura, nicole and tiffany). we had a pretty good time! i'd seen on the movies that there is a gym on the beach at venice beach, but it didn't really occur to me that it's real! it is! so fun! the beach itself was wide, clean, and recently raked/plowed. it was really shallow for a long way out, and the water and waves were like at va beach. there were surfers near the jetty and fog came and went. it was perfect weather - not too hot, but sunny. the water was cool, about what it's like in early june in va beach. i saw a funny sign on a lightpole near where we parked - "no dog pee no this pole thnk you". yup, just like that. i took a picture. :-P i'll put pics on facebook.

i also took my camera when i went jogging last week, so i'll put up some pics of what it's like around town.

i went with some SIS (school of intercultural studies) people on a field trip to chinatown and olvera street (old town/little mexico). it was pretty fun! a lot of stuff was just ridiculously touristy, but we had some good chinese food for lunch and had a good time wandering around. we took the metro rail (gold line) from memorial park here in pasadena to chinatown, one stop short of union station, where the line terminates. as we walked and explored, we ended up next to union station, so the group went home from there. i walked back to chinatown, hoping to find an asian supermarket to get some groceries, but didn't find one before i ran out of energy. i did wander thru a few other markets, bought some coffee candies (not as good as they looked) and bought a finer-mesh strainer for courtney's tea. then i took the metro home myself, going one stop further, to lake ave, which is a hair closer to my apt.

on sunday, i went to lake ave church, which is right on the corner of lake ave and the 210. i can see it from the end of the block where my apt is, so i decided to walk there for service on sunday. i got online the night before to learn about their small groups and saw a sunday school class i might be interested in, so i went to that at 9:15 and then the 11am service. i enjoyed getting to know the people in that class. i have wanted to find a church that isn't all fuller students, and there was only 1 or 2 others in this class. they were very nice to me and invited me to a potluck/cookout they had planned for the afternoon. at least 3 people asked if i needed a ride, which was very helpful! it was neat to meet people who aren't all students! i enjoyed myself as much as i can in a new situation like that, but i didn't really connect very well with them. i may go back to that church and find another group, or i may tough it out, or i may try something else entirely. i dunno.

i bought my plane ticket to go see my sister and her family for thanksgiving! i fly to san fran on thanksgiving morning, then fly back on monday morning. it will be interesting! i haven't met her stepkids yet, ysa and jasper, and they're all vegetarians. but i'm sure dinner will still be yummy! i'm really looking forward to it! actually, elisa flies down here the same day i return - she's going to a work conference. so i'll get to share a little of my life here with her, too!

i looked into plane tickets to come home for christmas. it sure doesn't look pretty! it looks like about $500 or so, maybe more. i don't know what my work situation will be like, so i don't know when i can/should leave here.

speaking of working, i stopped by the starbucks today to talk to the manager. she called me last week but i didn't call her back because i didn't know what to say. i talked to someone over the weekend who works at a different starbucks, and i found out that what i made in VA (after a raise and a promotion) is what starting baristas make here. so it's worth trying to work a few shifts here for income in the meantime, and if i officially get transferred, and then quit later, my vacation pay will come in at the higher rate. which is pretty sweet. i'm not too keen to keep working there, but i need to do something to generate income. (i did apply for 2 on-campus jobs, but i'm not expecting anything to come of either one.)

so that's the update for now! stay tuned!