Oh the Irony!

So, I complained in my last entry that some people hadn't been updating recently. Weeelllllll...I realize that I haven't updated since then. Oopsy!

Well, it's mainly because I have a test at 8 in the morning, and until an hour ago, I was FIVE chapters behind because I couldn't get the book because Isaac decided to visit New Orleans, and screwed some things up...anyway, I just finished typing 22 pages of notes, and this is my mini break.

Extremely busy here and I had a sort of mental break down over the weekend because of everything I had to do, but I bought a chocolate cake mix, and even though I haven't baked it, it made me feel better. :D

I'll have a longer post soon, I hope. But for now, I need to get back to studying.

Until the next post!
<3 Amber Marie

Where is everyone???

So my instructor in my second class today made a very interesting point. He said that no one blogs anymore, and when I heard that, I immediately disagreed. There are 4 of us on here that still blog--3 pretty regularly, 1 note so much...*coughs* Ash! But then I realized that the last update from any one of the three regulars was 6 days ago. WHERE ARE YOU GUYS AT!? I miss you! How am I supposed to keep up with your lives from 950 miles away if you don't update??

Anyway, I say that to say, I do miss you when you aren't updating about your lives. Some of us rare bloggers do care about what you have to say!! :)

<3 Amber Marie

p.s. I look forward to reading your posts SOON okay? Got that? SOON!! ;)

*sniffles*

WARNING: This is basically just a rambling post about missing my best friends right now. You can just ignore it if you want. I promise my feelings won't be hurt.

So sorority recruitment started at my old school last night, and tonight is the first night that the actives get to meet the PNMs (potential new members, if you don't remember my post from a year ago). And my best friends are texting me and sending me pictures. And I miss them so much right now! I know that I'm supposed to be here in Chicago, but I really wish I was with my best friends right now getting ready to meet girls who want to be our sisters. I really didn't think that I would be this bummed about not being there right now. I thought that I was lucky because there's SOOOOOO much involved with recruitment and it's a little on the expensive side, but I think it would have been worth it to be with my closest friends right now...

I guess that's all...

-Amber Marie

A Different Kind of Church

(I started this days ago, and I got really busy. I didn't go back on Sunday because I had to work, but as long as I don't have to work on Thursday, I will be going back. Also, I'm not saying the name of the church because I don't want to just yet; just in case it doesn't work out. Anyways...)

So, I just realized that I never updated about the church hunt, so here it is.

Last Saturday night, my roommate and I spent about an hour and a half Googling churches in the Chicago area, and let me tell you, the are way too many of them. I really didn't think we were going to be able to find one before Sunday morning, but we did.

Now, as I mentioned before, my roommate, Anna, went to a Methodist church for a while, and her last church was actually a house church with about fifteen members. For those of you that know me, you know that that is completely different than what I'm used to. My old church is on the larger end of the spectrum and it is a non-denominational evangelical church and the BCM was, well, Baptist based. Now, I'm not going to go into detail about how Methodism and Evangelicalism are different other than, Methodism is similar to Catholicism and Evangelicalism is not like Catholicism. (Use Wikipedia, that's what I did. lol) Anyway, so I was a little concerned that we wouldn't like the same church, and while I know that we don't have to go to the same church, it makes things a lot easier if you go into something new with someone else.

So we found a church that looked promising, and we were really enthused because it had one thing we were really looking for. We really wanted was a college/university ministry, so we could get to know other people our age in the church we went to. So Sunday morning we took the bus to church.

Now this church is considered a megachurch. It's average congregation on a Sunday morning is between 4,000-6,000 people. It's about 4 times bigger than my old church. (But it's also not the largest church I've ever been to either. In the summer of 2005 when I spent the summer in Florida with my aunt, I went to a church that had a weekly average attendance of 15,000 people per Sunday.) But one thing that separates it from other megachurches is the sanctuary. It actually looks like a cathedral on the inside with stained glass and everything. It is truly beautiful. It's kind of weird to see the contemporary band in that sanctuary. Anyway, I've gotten off topic.

So we were late by like five minutes because Google Maps told us that the bus would be the fastest and the easiest, but it wasn't. When we walked in we were given a program. Now, I'm not talking about a list of announcements and other service times. It was a program, complete with what songs would be sung and what scriptures would be read and in what order they would be sung and read. Also, it began promptly at 9:50 and had to end by 11:30 because they have Sunday school classes, which they call communities, that start at 11:30. I am definitely not used to that kind of structure or that short of a service, and the three of you that know me know exactly what I mean ;) . It just doesn't seem like there is any room for deviation from the schedule, and I still don't know how I feel about that.

After the service, I had to run off to work, so I couldn't really explore. I had to wait until Thursday when I would get to see what the college group was like.

So Thursday night Anna and I made our way to the college service. This time we took the train, which was soooooooo much better! Anyway, we were kind of prepared to be asked our names, where we went to school, where we were from, etc. But we weren't prepared for how loud it was going to be when we were trying to answer all of the questions. The band was still practicing, and to be honest, there were a lot of people there. I was kind of nervous, but also very excited about how many people were there. I think it was close to 50. Of course it was the first week they were meeting since summer ended (They work on a semester basis from what I gather.), so there were obviously going to be more people than normal.

Anyway, so the night went like this:

First thing we did was eat. They have dinner together every Thursday before the service. (It was bacon mac & cheese that night, and it was amazing cheesy, bacony goodness! Oh and there was a salad with strawberries in it. Just wanted to make sure you knew it was a balanced meal! lol) Then it transitions into a worship service, and then the college pastor started the message. This semester is going to be a walk through the book of Galatians and after Thursday night, I am definitely looking forward to next week.    {Let me just say that the pastor is AMAZING! He is funny. He really knows what he's talking about. He was asking questions, and he could feed off of any answer one of us gave him. He kind of reminded me of Bro. Jonathan from when I was in the youth group at my old church.}    Anyway, after the message we broke up into small groups. Now Anna and I didn't end up in the same group, and that kind of made me nervous. But the group that I was in turned out to be great. There were only four of us, but we got along great. And after the small groups, it's kind of like you're free to go, but they do go out for coffee or whatever sometimes.

So yeah, I still don't know how I feel about the main worship service on Sundays, but I am loving the college service. They also have a service on Sundays at 11:30, so whenever I don't have to work I will definitely go.

Comments, questions, insight? Please feel free to comment. I am sort of looking for an outsiders perspective.

Until next time,
<3 Amber Marie

The Week the Storm Came...

So, if you live in the US then you probably heard that Hurricane Isaac visited my friends and family in New Orleans this week. For two days communication was hit and miss between my family and me, and it was hard. It was hard, not only because I'm 950 miles away and completely safe, but also because it was my first full week at Roosevelt, and I found it extremely hard to concentrate in class when I was constantly checking my phone for any sort of update at all.

Just so you know, my family is safe. After almost three days without power, they got it back at around 7 pm. The house is fine. So compared to a lot of others, we were lucky.

I'm seriously glad that Isaac has moved on and plot twist: he's headed to visit me now. Though, he's not as big of a threat now. But yeah, don't feel like I'm lucky and missed Isaac completely. He's making sure I don't feel left out.

Anyway, I saw something occurring on Facebook that really irked me. There were people who were saying that Isaac wasn't a big deal. They were saying that they couldn't believe that people evacuated for such a small storm. And one person even said it was the Lousianaians own fault for living there in the first place, so they should stop being upset about the storm. This is completely and utterly unacceptable. Now, I'm going to take these one at a time.

1) Isaac wasn't a big deal.
I'd like to see you say that to the face of someone whose house flooded. I have a friend from elementary school who got about three feet of water in her house, and her family lost a lot. Three people that my mom works with lots practically everything. Isaac was a huge deal, and anyone who thinks otherwise is ignorant and should probably just keep their mouth shut.

2) People didn't need to evacuate.
Again, tell that to those whose homes flooded. And it's not even just the water. There were wind gusts up to 130 mph. And people lost electricity. It's not a huge deal at night in regards to it being hot, but once daylight breaks, and it's not raining anymore, it gets hot. And Louisiana heat can be very dangerous. All of these things mean no one was really safe. I wish my family could have gotten out of there.  And again, maybe you should just be grateful that you didn't suffer like others and keep your mouth shut.

3) It's the Louisianaians' fault because they live there.
So, is it the people in Oklahoma's fault that their house was hit by a tornado? Is it the Californians' fault that their homes were destroyed by wildfires? And I guess you'd blame the Floridians for living in hurricane central too, am I right? Weather is everywhere. Stuff happens. Anywhere you live, there are things you have to live with. Also, after living in Louisiana for 17 years, you learn something. The majority of people who were born and raised in Louisiana, and whose parents and grandparents were born and raised there, are so connected to their heritage and Cajun culture that they will never leave. Louisiana will always be their home. So how about you take your ridiculously bad attitude, AND KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT!? Because that sounds like a great idea to me.

Okay, I'm stepping down. I had my little rant. :)

I'm glad to know that my friends and family are okay. It'll definitely be a better week next week simply because Isaac is gone. :)

<3 Amber Marie