Transitioning into Transitions

It has been over 6 weeks since I transitioned from OCBP to home. It has been over 4 week since I transitioned out of home to college for Senior Year. In other words, within 2 weeks I did 2 transitions.

Transition from OCBP to Home:
At first, it wasn't that bad. I know I am going to see them again soon. I was determined not to cry though, even though I knew that it might be challenging. I cry quite a bit to be honest. The more people left, the more upset I felt to be without them. 

Transition from Home to School:
We are officially Jefferson (They changed my email even. Last year was just a trial run. I still had my PhilaU email. Now it's real though.). Coming in, I was so excited. I'm a senior. It's almost time for me to graduate. Instead, I found my week fueled with frustration. Move in was Saturday and classes started Monday. That left me 2 days to: prepare for classes, get the books I needed, make sure Human Resources (HR) had my student work study worked out, fill out NCAA paperwork, and get another physical. None of it went as planned though. The book I needed was in the library and HR were closed for the weekend. The NCAA paperwork took me hours to do and in order to train and compete in Rowing, my paperwork had to be done first. I even had to pay to have High School transcripts and SAT scores sent to the NCAA (which is amusing because I graduated High School 3 years ago). Senior year was not going as planned. Things have calmed down a bit now. I'm constantly busy, but I am learning to take a deep breath and enjoy my senior year. Before I know it, it will be time to graduate. I know, scary. 

What I miss:
-Sharing my room with all the girls. I have no roommates at school, so it is always quiet in my space, which I am not used to. 

-Walking around the house and always finding someone to do something with.
-Random pictures and random faces. We all managed to let our personalities shine through in pictures. I was always fond of the pictures with the weird expressions. 

-Sleeping in. Rowing is practicing midday for now, but as of Monday, practice will begin at 5:15 am. Yes, that is really early. I started transitioning into that wake up time. Whenever I try to sleep in, I can't seem to sleep past 7 am. We have a cool boathouse though and I will get to see a lot of sunrises, so I guess it's ok. 

-Being able to catch up every day. Now we have school, work, etc. Our lives are busier and catching up every day is difficult. We still keep in touch through texts, letters, phone calls, Snapchat, Groupme, and more. It's not the same as seeing everyone in person though. 

See You Later...

It's not a goodbye. It's a see you later.  Goodbye's have always been challenging for me. It's not something I particularly like and it makes it final. So here are a few moments that I will miss and some that I won't...

What I won't miss:
- The key fob system thing. The original one, everyone just got in, even if they did not live in the building. Then they replaced it to make it more challenging. Suddenly it took five tries to open the door and you dare not breathe incorrectly or it won't open. 
- Sunburn. I only got burnt twice this summer, which is a record low for me, but I got majorly burnt on the last day (Sorry Natalie. Sunscreen was already packed in the abyss I call a suitcase.).
- Sleeping on a cot. I am so excited for an actual bed!

What I will miss:
- All my loves in the house.
- Coming home to screaming and knowing that John was definitely home.

- Stephen running to give everyone a hug.

- Family dinner at 5:30 sharp(ish).
- Lipgloss playing at full blast every chance we got. 
- One on one's.
- Trinity and Hope's alarm working together, so every morning we would hear "It's 7 am. Time to wake up."
- Heading off to work with Tessa (for that one week we worked together in the Henna Shop in Ocean City).

- Crying (and at times dancing) in the rose garden. Also known as our go to crying area. 
- Worship, Bible Study, Lifegroups, Triad, and all our other "mandatory" events that we would have gone to willingly no matter what... probably. 
- Going to the beach pretty much every day (and singing "Let's go to the beach, each. Let's go get away. They say, what they gonna say.").
- Nothing ever running on schedule and having to learn to avoid clocks, phones, watches, or whatever else I could tell time with after 5:30 pm. 
- AbbyGrace's ever-growing warmth and ability to eat my portion of salad on top of hers. 

- Everyone loving me and being willing to speak some really hard truth into me. 
- The passion for Christ I see in all of my housemates and forever friends. 
- Trinity saying family (if you came and visited or stayed in the house, you know what I'm talking about).

There will be more yet to come. I am sure of it. It's just too much to list right now and one goal I set for myself once I got home was going to bed at a reasonable time and learning to stick with a set sleep schedule. I guess that gets to start tonight. 

Favorite Moment:
It was our last house dinner, not in the house, but as a banquet. We got all dolled up and got ready to head to Ove's for dinner. The guys even ironed (and got help as needed) ironing their dress shirts and pants. Meanwhile the ladies had their own fashion show going on. You could hear us cheering throughout the house as everyone tried on a different dress (I tested this by going to iron Katie's dress). I loved getting ready with all our lovely ladies. We were super supportive and slayed every last moment. 

Strange House Concern:
This is goodbye. Now, it isn't actually a goodbye. It's a see you later. We still have this community. It doesn't go away as we went back home today actually. We get to continue to build our community from a little further away. We have an extra support system. A simple phone call, text (that we take forever to respond to), letter, email, facetime, or whatever method we use away. We are all a bit spread out, but that's okay. It means we just have to do a little more traveling and savor every moment together. 

Featured Places of the Week:
Monkey Bread- Now, I did not pay to eat here, but I found a way to work the system. So, late at night when Monkey Bread goes to close, they give all the leftovers to Henna Shop employees, so I just went late at night when to the Henna Shop (where I work) when I knew Monkey Bread was closing. It was actually pretty good. I think I would have enjoyed it more first thing in the morning when they are just making it, but it was free food. 

Stainton's- This is a store filled with mini stores that supports local artists and small businesses. You pay for everything all at once at the front counter. They have everything ranging from jewelry to handcrafted wood furniture to locally grown honey and pretty much any reasonable small business item (that's for Kyle because I know that if I said anything you would think of then he will ask if they sell something ridiculous like yachts and I will tell him now. He will then proceed to tell me then they don't sell everything, so there, I covered my bases.).

Favorite Quotes of the Week:
-"2 packs of Ramen instead of one."- Tessa(In response to the teacher saying that we should aim to push our food budget once a week and treat ourselves.)
-"I'd rather watch the Bachelorette, but that's in the bible too... Esther." -Jamie (our guest speaker for the week)

What happened when I got back home:
Mind you, I have yet to unpack. I haven't had much time to start. I got Saturday night dinner with my family (as we usually do). As we were eating dinner, I had to keep my one dog, Chai, away from Comet (my stuffed reindeer). My dad kindly moved Comet higher up so that Chai would not get it. It was at a higher height than our kitchen table. Now, one of my other dogs, Java, got to it. He is currently a 5 month old teething puppy and losing teeth. He managed to snatch Comet from the bookshelf and lost a baby tooth in the process, turning Comet into a bloody mess (as you can see below). Don't mind my mother laughing hysterically in the background, as my entire family took amusement in this moment. Apparently, Java was not happy that I was gone for two months and I had to miss out on some of his developing months. 

Staff-less Week

The staff were gone this week, and I can say without a doubt that I loved every moment of it. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy having the staff around, but the dynamic is so much different with them not here. We get to be more open, more vulnerable. We had the opportunity to talk about things that often got pushed to the side because talking about class was classified as more important. Class is important, but I can't tell you the amount of times that I said we needed to process our emotions on top of that. I'm big into analogies, so the one I often use is when you put a pot on the stove. It can sit there for a while and the water will begin to boil. We are often told that a watched pot never boils. The problem with this is that an unwatched pot can go from boiling to overflowing quickly. On Sunday, as a whole, we overflowed. All the emotions we weren't able to work through finally boiled over. The problem was, I saw it coming for a while, but I couldn't do anything about it. 

This week in class, we talked about academic faithfulness. The most important aspect I pulled from class was that there is nothing outside of God's design. So often, we feel that there is this perfect design for our lives, but there are just some things that cannot possibly fit into his design. So great a wrong was done that it has to be outside the design. The thing is, God just changes his design a bit. He doesn't take away our free will for our lives. We are human and we are going to mess up again and again and again. God still loves us in those moments. We didn't have to do anything to earn that love. We simply exist. That's it. The teacher even drew a nice picture to show what he meant. It looked like this:

There were some great aspects brought into the class, but that wasn't what was on my mind this week. What was on my mind most of the week though was the difference between leading and controlling. We came here to become better spiritual leaders. The problem is, what happens when leading turns into controlling? I looked up the definitions for the two, thinking it would help. This is what I found:
 -leading: providing direction or guidance
 -controlling: to maintain influence or authority over
They are similar, but there is also a big difference. With leading, the other person (or party) still has free will. They still have the choice to agree or disagree with what the other person (or party) wants said or done. The opinion can still be taken into consideration, but it does not necessarily have to be the expected way. With controlling, free will feels as if it is being taken away. What says, goes. There is no say. Control isn't necessarily a bad thing; it just depends on how the control is being used. 

Favorite Moment:
While the staff were gone, we pranked John and Randy. All of their belongings were gift wrapped. Hangers were taped to the ceiling. Broccoli was hanging from the ceiling (that's tied to a previous prank where we hid pieces of broccoli around John's side of the room, putting some under his pillow, under his sheets, on the shelves, pretty much anywhere we could think of). Over 1,000 cups of water were filled and put by the door, so that in order to get in, he had to pretty much overflow the room with water. It was beautiful. (I'm still trying to find pictures and videos, so I will add them once people send me some).

Strange House Concern:
What if we are unprepared? In two weeks, we head back home. We need to take what we learned here and implement it wherever we end up, whether that be at home, school, our local church, or somewhere else altogether. We don't want to be in a depressed mood, where we want everything to be exactly the way it is like here. That's unrealistic. We need to use this opportunity to grow and reach others. 

Featured Places of the Week:
-Jilly's T-Shirt Factory: I like this place mainly because it is one part of an ongoing chain. There is Jilly's Arcade, Jilly's Ice Cream Factory, and Jilly's T-Shirt Factory. When you spend $25 at Jilly's T-Shirt Factory, you can get a free lemonade. It is realistic to spend $25 because a custom t-shirt is about $19 (after tax). Many people in my group have gotten custom t-shirts from here. It's a good price and it doesn't take long to print. 

- The Wear House: This is one of my favorite places to go shopping. They have some fantastic deals. It reminds me a bit of Ross or TJMaxx, but the contents cycle through more frequently. Even if I don't buy anything, I look to see what is new. I found a new brand that I really like, called Silence+Noise (It's part of the Urban Outfitters brand). They have some really nice pieces. There was a pair of pants that I fell in love with and they were the right length, but they felt too tight. It was a sad time, but I'll live.

Favorite Quotes:
-"Mind Blown." -Harrison (every time he hears something he is surprised by during bible study or class

What I missed back home:

My sister just came back from her birthright trip to Israel. From what I've gathered, she had a lot of fun, filled with lots of adventures. She got to join an active archaeological dig, explore the many civilizations that called this land home, and discover what the past teaches us about our present.

Shooketh.

What kind of personality do I have? Am I patient? Am I stubborn? Do I feel strongly one way or another?

Now, I know that is quite a bit of questions to ask, but this week was spent examining our Predictive Index (we had to take a quiz and then they analyzed what we said). Here's some of what mine says (I'll type up the complete thing later):
"Emma will most strongly express the following behaviors... Formal, reserved, introspective, and skeptical of new people; requires 'proof' to build trust in new people. Detail-oriented and precise. Operationally, as opposed to socially, focused. A relatively private individual; it takes her some extra time to connect to and trust new people. She's serious and reserved."


Now, this sounds a lot like me. Casey, who was next to me in class, told me that it sounded exactly like me. Reading this though, you would think I have high or low qualities (of dominance, extroversion, patience, and formality- these were the qualities measured). Actually, I don't. Everything was towards the middle of the spectrum, falling into the ranges that included: unassuming, unselfish, agreeable, peaceful, reserved, quiet, serious, sincere, introspective, relaxed, patient, stable, calm, methodical, accurate, careful, thorough, self-disciplined, dutiful. Here's the general chart:

Oddly enough, I am not super stubborn/ domineering. I actually fall on the opposite side of the spectrum, but I gently remind myself that some things are situationally based. Oh, and shocker, I am a subjective decision maker. I will make choices based on what I have presented to me and go from there. 

Favorite Moment:
The staff left on Friday afternoon for staff training, so since we still had the fire pit at the house, that night we set everything up and had a bonfire. We even went to the store and got ingredients for s'mores too. We definitely went past island quiet hours (yes, there are quiet hours for the entire island and it's 11 pm). Thankfully, we don't have neighbors. We did still try to be courteous though. It was a lot of fun. I ate way too many s'mores, but we all had the opportunity to sit and sing together without really being in a hurry to go and do anything.

Strange House Concern:
Will the house fall apart? The staff left on Friday and return next Friday. This means we have a week to ourselves without them (cue the fireworks and applause). This also means that we are in charge of everything that goes into this house running. That means grocery shopping, worship prep class, bible study prep class, getting the guest speaker acquainted, etc. We have to do it all. Will one of us get injured? Most likely. Will we fall apart? Probably not. We'll just have to wait and see. I think we can do this. 

Featured Places of the Week:
Roma's Pizza- I decided to do a me date and take myself out on an adventure. The problem with this is that I have FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). I ended up meeting up with a group and going to Roma's Pizza. They have really good food. I got a gyro (which was absolutely amazing. It was better than the place I tried gyro at last time.). I also got to try Jamie's pizza (which was also delicious. Plenty of toppings and just the right amount of sauce.). I even tried some of Tessa's calzone (that's an inside out pizza. It was a great size for it's price and it was extra cheesy.). Overall, I would completely recommend. There is one on the boardwalk and there is one off the boardwalk. 

Seaport Village Golf- The same night I went on a me date (and didn't seem to spend any time alone), I went mini golfing with a group. Our goal was to find the one with the least amount of little kids. We ended up at Seaport Village Golf on the boardwalk. It was kinda crowded and our group wasn't great at mini golf (we weren't the worst either though), but we had a lot of fun. It took over two hours to get through all the holes, so the $7 per person was worth the money.

Favorite Quotes of the Week:
-"Randy's a great stepping stone." -Me (when I was trying to explain that I was going to try and have more one on one's with the guys and decided that I would start with Randy)
-"So what would I be good at?" -Stephen (in class when we were discussing our Predictive Index. All the letters were close to the middle.)
-"Shooketh." -Unknown (but it is becoming used more often throughout the house. I don't know how I feel about it.)
-"Is there someone playing guitar in the bathroom?" -Hope (while hearing my speaker playing in the shower. It's a JBL Flip 4 and the sound is incredibly clear.)

What I missed back home:
My brother got a job this week! I am so proud of him. He was really looking for a job and he ended up getting one at Petsmart. I'm just waiting for my parents to take advantage of my brother's employee discount. 

I'll just be a Twizzler...

This week has been a week filled with many joys and much reflection. Reflecting on how we define ourselves. Reflecting on what others define us as. Reflecting on how perception varies. 

The questions that has been stirring through my head all week is... How much does my past define who I am? How much of it is me letting it define me and how much is it actually defining me? We did an activity in class, where we had notecards on our foreheads that were meant to define who we are. Four of the notecards were people that were disempowered and 2 were people that empowered. It was a strange activity, but it played greatly into the questions I asked myself. Honestly, I don't have the answer to my questions. I may never have the answers. It is something I still have to think about though. 

We started the week with having a bunch of the Philly Project people coming to visit. They enjoyed a beach day and we got to enjoy dinner with them. This is us outside our house:

Halfway through the week (on the 4th of July), we had Encounter Philly come visit and a bunch of people from last years OCBP spend the day with us. We bonded on the beach all day, stopping briefly to enjoy dinner at the house. This is us on the beach:

Favorite Moment:
As you may know, this week was the 4th of July (cue fireworks, cheers, and celebration of our troops both here and overseas). For the holiday, we had a ton of guests come and visit. We even had the opportunity to host Encounter Philly for the day. (Note: Encounter Philly is another CCO sponsored summer opportunity. It is similar to OCBP, just in Philadelphia.) We had a wonderful time together from spending time by the water to worshipping on the beach and watching the fireworks together. Hopefully, we will get to spend a lot more time together. They are a wonderful crew and we were blessed to have them. 

Strange House Concern:
This one deserves two, mainly because one happened Saturday and one has been an all week kind of thing. 
The all week kind of thing is: Many people seem concerned that I will somehow manage to find a way to get injured again and are working to prevent that from happening. While I appreciate it, I also realize that I am extremely clumsy. When I say extremely, that is an understatement. I tried to get back on the longboard on Tuesday (even though I am still healing from my longboard injury last week) because I don't want it to stop me. If I stopped doing something I wanted to try because I got injured before, I would never be able to do anything. Just think back to when you were a kid learning to walk. I'm sure that most of us don't remember that time, but bear with me. When you are learning to walk, you struggle. You fall down time and time again. The incredible part is that you get back up and you don't stop until you got it. Now, although I am grown and what I am trying to learn may seem bigger than learning to walk, the same concept still applies. I will inevitably get injured again, but I can't let it stop me every time I get injured. 
The one that happened Saturday: We lost the key fob to get into the building between 6:10 am- 9:30 am. Now, I was blissfully asleep until 1:00 pm, but imagine my surprise to having to wake up to that. If we don't find it, then we have to pay to get a new one. Hopefully it shows up because we don't want to buy a new one. UPDATE: We were not the ones that lost the key fob. The Tabernacle lost it, so none of us were to blame and they got us a new one. 

Featured Places of the Week:
Brown's Restaurant- This is located on the boardwalk. Now, the only food I have tried there so far is the donuts. I tried one of the cinnamon donuts and it was fantastic. It was warm, fresh, and delicious. It is a plainer donut than I was used to, but it was fantastic still the same. It reminded me a bit of Krispy Kreme, simple, but classic. 

Ocean City Coffee Company- I often go here to do my reading and to get away from the house for a little bit. They sell a variety of coffee and tea. I tend to get tea when I go, but sometimes I go just to go. It's a great escape in a wonderful place filled with wonderful people (and of course free wifi).

Favorite Quotes of the Week:
-"I'll just be a Twizzler for 24 hours." -Hunter (He was a guest from Encounter Philly. He said this in response to me telling him to put on sunscreen, since he was pale and a red-head.)
-"You smell like fried chicken." -Stephen (when he went to take some pictures with Chrissy)
-"I think they spelled immigrant wrong." -Stephen (in response to reading migrant workers on his homework assignment)

What I missed back home:
This section is new, but it's something I thought I should add. Part of being here means missing things back home. 
This week I will talk about my dogs. I have three dogs. All of them are part of the Cane Corso breed(a type of Italian Mastif). Chai is the oldest at 6 years old. She is in the top photo, lounging on the right side. Her daughter, Espresso (a.k.a. Essie), is 3 years old. She is in the top photo, lounging on the left side. Java is the latest addition to the family and is Espresso's 4 month old son. He is in the bottom picture. (I know, he is big.) On July 4th, he went swimming for the first time. Espresso acted like my parents were trying to purposefully drown her son. He was perfectly safe! Essie was just being an overprotective mama bear. Essie then proceeded to inadvertently cause others to worry, since my mom tried to calm her down by stating that she was not trying to drown the baby. (Although, I do understand why others nearby would be concerned by that statement. Context definitely matters.)

Who I have met with so far:
-Seirra
-Christin
-Stephen
-Abby Grace
-Lilly
-Casey
-Jamie
-Harrison
-Sarah
-Tessa
-Molli
-Noelle
-Emily
-Katie
-Mikayla
-Lydia
-Adam
-Essence

He is still my God.

Honestly, it was a rough week all around.

I started the week off by bruising the bone in my right arm trying to longboard. I ended up in a sling for a couple days and I am still working on building up the muscle strength. I have learned to ask for help though because I have learned that I can't do it all. It's good to ask for help, even when you want to do it on your own. Sadly, this was not the first injury of the summer. I injured my shoulder learning to surf. Many people seem to try to stop me from doing certain activities, but I am constantly getting injured. They are just going to have to learn to get used to it. The potential of getting injured is not going to stop me from doing anything fun.

This week was also a sleep deprived week. My arm hurts every once in a while and needs to be slightly elevated, but I twist and turn a lot in my sleep. I wake up often because it just irritates me. With not getting much sleep, I was getting easily irritated. It was irrational, but it also encouraged me to take more naps and think about self-care more often.  

Favorite Moment:
One of the students, Katie, works at Dockside Kitchen. There was a soft opening this week, so friends and family were able to eat for free. I got Eggs Benedict with lobster and bacon, Lobster roll, and old bay mac and cheese. It was delicious (and all free). 

Strange House Concern:
Are we actually seen? I know that sounds strange, given that we live in a house with 28 people. There is honestly no space to be away from anyone. If you want quiet, your best bet is to go outside. Really, there is no escape. We are physically seen, but what seems to be the bigger concern is if we are seen as we truly are. We focus so much on our physical health, but avoid our mental health. We are learning to ask not only about how we are doing, but how we are REALLY doing. The one word in the middle makes a huge difference. There is no way to lie, since people in our house tend to see right through the lies. 

Featured Places of the Week:
Yianni's- I went there for girl's night dinner. When we got there, they brought us fresh hummus and pita from right off the grill (so it was warm and super soft). It was delicious. On top of that, I still got an entree, so I chose gyro of course (since it was a Greek/American restaurant).

Frank Theatres- We went to the movies to watch Incredibles 2 as a group. It was a fantastic movie. I will make sure not to spoil the movie. The mini movie in the beginning was incredibly weird, but the movie was well worth it. I just hope we don't have to wait another 14 years to watch Incredibles 3. 

Favorite Quotes of the Week:
"My God can. My God will. Even if he doesn't, he is still my God." -Geraud
"For shame." -Me (I've learned that I say this quite a bit. I said it the other day when my boss' son did not want to help with inventory. Understandable though because he doesn't get paid to do it.)

Who I have interviewed so far:
-Seirra
-Christin
-Stephen
-Abby Grace
-Lilly
-Casey
-Jamie
-Harrison
-Sarah
-Tessa
-Katie
-Emily
-Noelle
-Molli
-Mikayla
-Lydia
-Adam

Bed. I need bed.

Captains Log: Week 3
This week was a bit tough. Sleep exhaustion has kicked in for many. There is not enough coffee in the house to get some of us through it. I don't drink coffee, so I am stuck running on a steady of dose of ice cream and chocolate. The couch and the hammocks have become more comfortable than the beds (or in my case, cot). People can be seen napping from time to time in the hammocks or on the couch. 

My days have blended together. Nothing runs on time. Clocks have been covered up, so no one stresses about whether or not classes run late. We have begun learning to tell time by sun dial. 

Work is in full swing (and not just housework and cooking). I started work at the Henna Shop and have managed to keep track of when I work. One day I was scheduled to work for one hour (and yes, I am serious). It's a great place and I have a fun time every time I work. 

Favorite Moment:
We had a couple birthday celebrations so far. Casey's was last week. John's was this week. What I have learned about our house is that we go all out for birthdays. The house was fully decorated. We bought a cake and a ton of gifts. We even bought a confetti cannon because John loves confetti and glitter. What can I say, he is an equal opportunity impossible-to-clean-up mess maker. 

Strange House Concern:
We have yet to set official names for the Hermit Crabs. John has started calling them Poop and Soup. I refuse to let them be called that. Names definitely need to be picked. Even though John and Natalie are in the lead, some people are afraid they may have an identity crisis. I think the bigger concern should be that they keep destroying their cage. 

Featured Places of the Week:
Bennie's Bakery- I found this place on accident. A woman and I were talking at church about thrift shopping, since a bunch of the ladies in the house would like to go somewhat soon. This woman told me about a great thrift store on Fifth and Asbury. I biked there later that day to discover that there is no thrift store there, so I biked around a couple of blocks hoping to discover what I went on my adventure for. Instead, I found an Italian Bakery at Fourth and Ocean. I was still content with my adventure because I got a cannoli out of it (and I am a sucker for sweets).

"The Nest" and "Hammock Forest"- We joined couches together and made a little nesting area where people relax together in, complete classwork in, and nap in. There's the family nest and the little baby nest next to it. I have taken many naps in the family nest. The hammock forest is this area we cut through to get to the Loft. All of us have our hammocks hanging up from the rafters. It's great. Mine sits the lowest because for some reason I think that I will fall out and somehow manage to injure myself (knowing my track record when it comes to weird injuries).

Favorite Quotes of the Week:
"It's as elegant as ballet." -A woman at church (in response to watching me sign)
"Bed. I need bed." -Me (When I was super tired and fell asleep in "the nest" with some of the people in the house. Of course, I was convinced by someone that there was no need to go to bed when I already managed to fall asleep on the couch. Seemed logical.)

Who I have met with for a one-on-one so far:
-Seirra
-Christin
-Stephen
-Abby Grace
-Lilly
-Casey
-Jamie
-Harrison
-Sarah
-Tessa

We dated for half a Kit Kat

This week was the first full week we were here, so many of us had a set schedule and had to stick with it, but oh my goodness... nothing runs on time. It seems to drive me a little crazy, but I am learning to just accept it. Classes, worship, etc. start at whatever the time the leaders choose and go until whenever. This means that there are times that we are in class until 11 or so at night. After classes, we tend to watch movies and do bonding. This leads to a little bit of sleep deprivation for some, but I always seem to be well rested. It may have something to do with the fact that I don't have to get up as early as some of the other people in the house. I am definitely hopeful to see more sunrises on the shore, but so far that is not happening. 

Our House Pet(s):
We got pet hermit crabs. Don't worry, we waited to tell the leaders until after we bought them. When we went to the store, we intended to buy one hermit crab, but apparently they get lonely, so of course, we needed to buy two. They are still awaiting names, but so far John and Natalie are in the lead (yes, they are the name of two of our leaders, but I think they will grow to love them). And no, I will not be the one taking them with me when it is time to head home. I will entrust someone else with their care. There will eventually be pictures, but for now, they are sleeping and I really don't want to wake them. I'm afraid that I will somehow traumatize them, but I haven't dropped them, so I am doing better than one person in our house (it was an accident, they just panicked).

Favorite Moment(s):
It is a tie between two moments, both revolve around group bonding. One of the guys in the house, Stephen, tried to teach a couple of us how to surf. More power to him because I am not all that skilled at anything athletic. Surprisingly, he is willing to keep training me. More power to him. My goal is just being able to sit on the board by the end of summer. His goal seems to be for me to stand on the board and ride a wave. The next favorite moment is when we played duck duck goose as a house. Of course it is a house full of college kids, which makes it that much more exciting. 

Strange House Concern:
There seems to be an ongoing concern that one of us will get arrested for jay walking. I am definitely the biggest offender when it comes to jay walking. Realistically, you would only get a ticket for doing so. John reaffirmed us by reminding us that if we get arrested and we call him to bail us out, he will go, take a picture, laugh, and leave us there. 

Featured Places of the Week:
Bungalow Bowls- For the base, I got Ocean (blue majik, pineapple, banana, almond milk blend) and Pitaya (pitaya blended with banana, pineapple, and almond milk). For the fruit, I got Strawberry, Mango, and Pineapple. As the drizzle, I got almond butter. It tasted as good as it sounds. There is a picture of the beautiful creation below. 

Crew- Mind you, this is a place to get haircuts. I did not go here and get a haircut or do anything all too crazy (I might by the end of summer, you never know). I just really like the signs they have outside the store. 

Favorite Quotes of the Week:
"We dated for half a Kit Kat." -Seirra
"I made a colossal error." -John (when he accidentally called Essence, Seirra)
"Click it or ticket." -Mo (in response to Ande not strapping her sandals before she walked)

Who I have met with for a one-on-one so far:
-Seirra
-Christin
-Stephen
-Abby Grace

They Smells Like Turtles

Random. I know, but for a moment it made you question whether or not you read that correctly, right? You thought, who would know what a turtle smells like? I'll get to that, but for now, I thought I would try and keep everyone updated on my Ocean City Beach Project (OCBP) trip. This is the first of (hopefully) many weekly updates. As some of you may know, I moved in to Ocean City Tabernacle's Youth Center on Wednesday with 23 other students. There are 5 guys (7 including the staff), which means they are completely outnumbered. They are surprisingly fine with being outnumbered. So far these are the main things I have done... Move-in! I got to meet my new family for the summer and we were blessed to have the Tabernacle provide dinner for us. After meeting everyone, we did small group bonding by going on a scavenger hunt, ending with worship on the beach. After the first night, we were able to relax and get ready for a new jam-packed night, that included making our covenant for the summer. Our house "motto" is 28:1. This demonstrates the 28 of us continually working together to become 1 family. We support each other in the good times and the bad times, we share in each other's joys and hardships. At Jubilee, we were all told a saying during one of the main sessions. It goes something like this "grief shared is half grief and joy shared is double joy". We want to be living this in our daily lives while we are here. So far, I am truly enjoying Ocean City and the intentional community we are creating. I am excited how God uses all of us in the weeks to come.

Favorite Moment:
We had our first #fam meeting. It went on for about five hours, but it was amazing. We all shared our biggest worry for the summer and we were all able to be super vulnerable. It allowed everyone to see where we were truly at.

Featured Places of the Week:
Hobby Horse- They sell amazing ice cream (not as good as Tanner's, but it will work for the summer)
Fractured Prune- They sell donuts in town and I ordered a Strawberry Shortcake donut. It was warm, fresh, and the glaze was fantastic (I am still a bigger fan of Yum Yum Donuts, but I have more donut shops to check out in the weeks to come)

Favorite Quotes of the Week:
"There is a difference between Christian Boys and Godly Men." -Unknown
"They smell like turtles."-AbbyGrace (in response to smelling my Salt and Vinegar chips)