Bria's Blogie

Adios, I'm off to Spain!

I am leaving for Spain in about 27 hours.

*FREAKS OUT* 

I'm not even done packing yet! The reason being my cats decided to make a bed out of my back pack and so it smells a little on the funky side. It is currently hanging out to air on a plant hook on the front porch. The rest of my stuff is pretty much ready to go, with the exception of toiletries I will need tonight and in the morning. I'm sure the people I sit next to tomorrow will appreciate my leaving those out for now so I don't smell nasty and have food stuck all in my teeth.

I'm going to really REALLY try to pick up my room this afternoon. Trying meaning probably won't because I just don't feel like it. I need to though  because it will make coming home and packing up to move to my new apartment so much easier if everything is where it is supposed to be. Oh the proverbial rock and a hard place-- to clean or not to clean; that is the question.

Good news! I made my funds goal for my trip yesterday!! The eleventh hour miracle, I'm calling it. I was getting really scared because I signed up last week to go on a trip to Pampalona the first weekend we are in Spain to see the running of the bulls which added some expense. On top of that, I hadn't met my goal anyway. But with the work I did the past 2 weeks at tennis camps, I am all set! God's still in the miracle business! I really can't believe I'm going; never in my wildest dreams did I really and truly think that raising all this money was possible for me with no real job this semester. I am so incredibly blown away by God's working in mine and others' lives to make this possible.

For those of you that regularly peruse my blog, there will be a few guests in the coming weeks to my blog. I have invited everyone I know to read my blog here as I record my adventures. So I suppose... be nice. Or else. ;-) On that note, in place of the donate button in the right panel-- since I don't need that anymore :-D -- there will be a static link to where I will be uploading all the pictures I will take while traveling. Enjoy those, if you will.

Well, that's all I've got for now. I'll be back with another post in a few days straight from Spain! Until then, keep me, my companions and our travels in your prayers and adios!!

Church Camp in Review

Well friends, I returned from church camp yesterday feeling refreshed. I don't feel like I helped much; all I really did was make sure the 4 high school girls in my care were where they were supposed to be at all times and kept the hoard of boys following them around on a tight leash.

We'll start with the "churchie" part of camp since it is church camp. Sean Dunn-- http://championministries .org... -- was our speaker and he was absolutely amazing. He held my own and the students' attentions so well I was amazed. By the end of the week, the kids were even commenting on how interesting he was, so I highly recommend him if you might be in need of a youth speaker. He spoke on getting out of the center of the broad road and jumping over to the narrow path by letting go of whatever chains you to the road. Out of that apparently many of the campers came to him with serious issues-- self-mutilation, very dysfunctional families, etc.-- and so he spoke on those too. He also spoke on dating relationships, which I think high schoolers need instruction in so desperately. I know I did then; given I wouldn't have listened if taught, but at least I would have been exposed.

The Bailey Band-- http://www.myspace.com/bailey... -- lead our worship and gave a concert on the last night. They weren't half bad for a small time band. The bass guitarist and I have a bit of a past. Well, our dads grew up together and grandparents are still good friends. Haha. You thought I meant something else didn't you? Sorry. Upon mentioning my meeting him to my grandmother, she revealed that I've been promised in marriage to his cousin... ok, not for real, but she and his grandmother have been hoping to get us together. She says he's tall, dark and handsome... I may have to look into this. lol. And if he doesn't work out, there's always his bass playing cousin that's blond and not half bad looking either and can sing. Shesh, I have more set ups thanks to my grandmother than I care to count. I am SO glad that American society frowns on arranged marriages these days.

When not in service, the rest of the "churchie" activities were seminar type classes. Their were several to choose from; I attended some too, topics of which included prayer, how the church has lost it's focus on loving others, devotionals, and writing. I also did crafts. I made a purty painting; ok, I thought it was a masterpiece but no one else did because mine wasn't even nominated for best work of the week. :-p Learned some good stuff. In the prayer one they were teaching to agree in prayer when you're not leading, like saying "amen" or something when the prayer leader says something you agree with. I kind of liked it; I had always thought those people that did that were being rude interrupting the prayer like that, but doing so made me feel more connected to those that were praying with me and helped me to concentrate and focus during prayer too. I'll probably keep that up. In the one of the church we were challenged to get out there and actively love others like Jesus told us to. In devotions, the instructor gave some guidelines; he suggested starting with 10 minutes of silence, followed by a prayer for understanding, reading a Bible passage-- not necessarily with a study guide or a set amount, just until you feel like you've read what you're supposed to have read--, thinking about and analyzing what you've read, prayers of requests and praise and then of course not leaving what you've learned behind but applying it. I like that too. Then in writing we wrote and were encouraged to use the gifts God gave us for words. There were some amazing writers there.

Beyond that, we played some games. Had a basketball and volleyball tournament and ate some really nasty food all week long.

My girls were an interesting bunch. One had a very over bearing personality and kind of pushed the others around. They didn't seem to mind though. She has a boyfriend but flirted mercilessly all week with several boys. There were a couple nights that pebbles hit our window and I had to step out with a scowl plastered over my giggles and tell the boys to go to bed. One was a tom boy and challenged the leader of the bunch but never took it too far. A third was pretty reserved but such a sweetheart. The last is probably the biggest girly girl I have ever met. She wouldn't fart in our presence; she would excuse herself the bathroom. She also wouldn't go "#2" while at camp. That can't be healthy. She looked cute the whole week, even though the rest of us were in t-shirts and shorts.

Well, that was my week and I'm about to start another week of camp, this time a tennis camp. Wish me luck! These campers will probably be younger and I'm the only female counselor they have this week. This will be an adventure.

Oh, in case you don't have your volume up, I took off the old, non-working music and added a whole group of various songs I like. Hope you like something on the list!

NEWS FLASH

Men should not wear junior girls' jeans.

It seems to be a prerogative of every rock star, but please refrain; this makes me throw up a little.

Outdoor Ed. Camp in Review

As you may or may not know, I have been at Outdoor Ed. Camp the past week. It was quite the adventure and surprisingly not as terrible as I first thought it would be.

Upon arrival, I was reminded that I knew absolutely no one at this camp. I quickly made friends with my cabin-mates. One is a Bio major, the rest of us are in the Sports, Fitness department and required to take the class. One was a soccer player and the other a non-traditional student with a husband and son awaiting her return home. We were put in a group with four guys that were also sharing a cabin down the way. One of them plays baseball and apparently I went to high school with him but never met him prior to this camp. (Oh, the bio major cabin-mate I mentioned earlier also went to high school with me, and I know her sister.) Another used to play baseball and recently transfered to HSU. Another is recently married and expecting his first child in November. All of the guys are in the Sports, Fitness department and the last guy has changed his major so many times there's no telling if he will remain in the department. Besides that, he's a personal trainer at the local country club. My group was great; we became a family of sorts and worked really well together. Our only blip was that we all got really frustrated at each other on the last day but we pulled together in the end to win the sailing and canoe/kayaking competitions. Hooray us!

Alright, since you've met the cast of characters, here's what we did this past week. We rotated everyday between 5 different activities-- canoe/kayaking, riflery, archery, sailing and rock climbing. I rather enjoyed kayaking and rock climbing. I'd like to think I'm at least some what proficient as a beginner in both. I wasn't half bad at that gun either, especially since that was the first time I had ever fired a gun. (Guns scare me to death, and had hoped to get through life without ever firing one. Oh well.) Sailing and archery were a different story.

In sailing, I didn't really understand the basic concepts and had 2 different partners, neither of which understood either on the particular days I was with them. I was with the baseball player on the first day and we muddled through it alright. The rest of the week I was with the non-traditional student who also happened to be afraid of water. (A well founded fear given how disgusting the lake we were on was.) The non-traditional and I managed to get ourselves stuck in the middle of the lake and in some trees and flip our sail boat over. On the last day, the personal trainer felt bad that I didn't get it, I guess, and took me out on the lake in an effort to teach me. In that excursion I managed to t-bone another sailboat and crash into the shore. I don't think I will be sailing willingly for a while for the safety of myself and all others on the water. At the end of the week I got the "Little Mermaid" award for being the wettest camper. Hooray for me!

My lack of skill as an archer is rather sad. I came into camp probably being the most excited to learn about archery, but upon discovering that I am right handed and left eye dominant, I basically threw my chances of being o.k. at archery out the window. In riflery I just shot left handed and that fixed the aiming problem but in archery I really don't even have the strength in my right side to pull back the bowstring, much less in my left side. As a result of the lack of strength, I couldn't get an extremely predictable shot and so couldn't adjust my aim accordingly very well. I wanted to be good, but I just couldn't. *tear* As a result though, I am definitely hitting the weights again. 

Overall, camp was a lot of fun, a lot of hard, physical work and I made lots of new friends.