Oops

I was doing so well with blogging every day! I don't know what happened but I think I'll start again!

Church

Church was awesome today. I also got to see a friend of mine who I haven't seen in a while so that was nice :) - I'm too tired to make any more comments on today.

I'm Old

Today is my birthday and I turned 20. That's the end of that :)

Today was also part two of Claire's Hen Party and it was so much fun!

My first job of the day was to collect balloons for the dinner table so I went to the local party shop and chose pink and silver balloons as well as an L plate balloon to tie to Claire's chair. Apparently I'm incapable of carrying eight balloons ten metres to my car and somehow managed to burst one on the way!

When I got home I got a quick visit from my sister and her family so they could give me my birthday card and a gift. It was really nice to see her because I haven't seen her since we met for the first time a few weeks ago (I'll explain that one another time!) The gifts they got me are just what I love! They got me a beautiful smelling candle with a little porcelain lampshade which sits on top of the candle to make it look like a little lamp! It's sooo cute! They also gave me a really beautiful bracelet which has two rows of black beads which are joined with a big black heart! It's really lovely :)

After they left I had a bath and got ready for going out for dinner. We got t-shirts made for everyone which said "Hen Party" with little stones. They looked great on everyone! I travelled to the cute Italian restaurant with my friend Ali and met my friend Emma outside. We went upstairs and decorated the table with the balloons and with table confetti. Emma also brought pictures of Claire when she was younger as well as a beautiful cake which we place in the centre of the table :) Claire loved it all and dinner was amazing.

After dinner we headed to the cinema to see "The Time Traveller's Wife" which was really confusing. My friends, Ali and Laura, and I sat discussing what was happening the whole way through cause we didn't really understand why the guy time travelled and why he was stuck in the year that he was and also why he could come back when he was dead or travel past the date of his own life. Who knows? It was a good movie if you don't think too much about the plot... ooh and I love Rachel McAdams. I think she's a great actress :)

Pamper Night

My friend Claire is getting married next week so tonight was part one of her hen party. We had a pamper night at her house with just a few friends and it was so much fun. I got my toenails done with french paint and they look lovely.

My friends, Ali and Emma, and I had been into the city centre today to buy items for Claire's party bag that we decided to make her... full of "essential" items that she would need for married life. Let's just say it was interesting to say the least.... I think it terrified Claire a bit though!

I'm tired now and tomorrow holds part two of her hen party so I'm going to sleep :)

Uni

I had to enrol for the second year of my university course today and I'm really excited about it.

Last year enrollment was really crazy because I was a first year student and everyone needed to verify who they were, their grades and all their other details. It took forever and included a three hour long wait in a small, stuffy corridor surrounded by hundreds of people who didn't know each other and were equally as annoyed and confused by the process as I was. Thankfully a couple of us found solidarity in that! I'm overjoyed that registration for this year was all done online and was much simpler!

I'm studying German with Theology at Queen's University in Belfast, which is also where I live. I major in German which means that I four classes each year in German and only two in Theology. I really love my course! I started off at uni studying German and Spanish but I dropped Spanish at Christmas because I was really bad at it and picked up Theology. I thought Theology would be simpler and easier to follow... which in some ways it is because it's in english at least but it's a bit hard to get your head around!

Because Queen's don't have their own Theology department they run the course through lots of different, smaller colleges. I chose to study at Belfast Bible College which is a Christian college. It's in a really nice setting and I really like it there but sometimes I wonder what it would be like to have class with people who didn't believe the same things as I did. Sometimes being in a bit of a Christian bubble is a bit annoying.. but anyway! They give us free tea and cake every morning so that's a bonus!

Last year for Theology I took a class which studied the gospel of Mark. That class was really interesting to sit in but very confusing when it came around to the big assignment and the exam because I didn't really know what was happening. It all worked out alright though!

The second class I took was Introduction to Theological Thinking which I found extremely interesting but most of the time I found it difficult to follow and diffcult to remember what all of the different theologians thought because I had no background knowledge in church history and nearly everyone else did. I was a bit disadvantaged but I did alright in the exam and the assignment so it all worked out okay too!

I didn't really try at all to get anything out of Theology last year because I found it difficult starting a new college and trying to meet new people as well as starting a subject that I'd never studied before so I'm going to put in way more effort this year to actually learning something useful. Grades for last year didn't count anyway!

Sooo... what does this year hold? I'm taking four classes in German, two of which are compulsory language modules which include a bit of history and business, reading, writing, grammar and oral stuff which is usual with language courses. I didn't really mention much about German from last year because I just loved it all from start to finish. I love everyone doing the course and the classes were really great.

So yeah... I'm taking the language modules and I'm also taking two other modules. I don't know much about them yet apart from their titles. The first one is entitled "Religion in Modern Day Drama and Theatre" which sounds like it will be really interesting so I'm excited about that one! The second is about German Cinema and I know nothing about that. I don't study that one until after Christmas though so we've plenty of time to figure out what it's about.

As for Theology I'm taking a class called "The Christian Doctrinal Tradtion" which is compulsory I'm not very excited about it. It sounds like it might be as confusing as the theological thinking module from last year but I'll go in hopeful! The second module I'm taking is a church history module for the 16th century period which I am looking forward to more than I can tell you! It's going to be all about the Reformation and that's my favourite church history period.... maybe it's something to do with my love for German ;)

So that's what I'll be doing this year and once this year is over it's time for me to go off to Germany for my year abroad! I'm looking forward to it SO much but at the same time I'm terrifed :) but hey... we've still a while to go until that!

Oooh and I'm also taking a course in Modern Greek on Thursday evenings.... just for fun!

Breakthrough

I love those moments when life just seems to burst open the jar that it's been contained in because something new and exciting has happened and that jar that you've put life in just can't contain itself anymore.

:)

A New Adventure

Today I start something new and I'm really excited about it.

At church I'm part of a Bible School course that they run through the year. I started the course in January and at the time I had to make some major decisions. The decisions weren't really life or death but they would dictate how the next period of my life would look. I'd been helping out on Thursday nights with a group of kids in church and I'd also been attending a church youth group on Tuesdays. The course was taught on both Tuesday and Thursday nights so I didn't know what direction to go... to stay with the kids and the youth or to start attending the Bible School course. I chose Bible School because it seemed to make sense. What could be wrong with learning more about God? In retrospect, I think it was the wrong decision.

While attending the course in the first semester I struggled with paying for petrol to even get there and God's hand didn't seem to be upon my attendance. Usually I soak knowledge up like a sponge... I really love learning but every time I sat in the classes I couldn't take it in. It was like my mind was somewhere else. Which it was.... it was with the group of youth.

Bible School took a break at Easter and right through summer and I went back to attending the youth group every week. I didn't really talk to anybody but I just went there to meet with God and just to see what He was doing and I just knew that I should be part of that. I decided to seek His face some more before I made a decision because I didn't want to make any more mistakes.

Nearly six months have passed since then and I'm now taking a step in the direction that I feel I'm supposed to go. I'm really excited about how God is going to use me there and I'm really excited about imparting what I've learnt to them and also learning more from everyone else there. I dunno.. I just feel like I'm on the edge of something and I don't know where it's gonna take me.

Needless to say, I'm not going back to Bible School at this moment in time and I guess I just wanted to put a reminder for myself to not just choose the path which seems to make sense at the time but to seek God's face in everything.