Quoi?

So today was perhaps the craziest first day of school I've experienced. However, before I delve into that, I have to promote Little Miss Sunshine. It's a great movie, and I saw it with several of my favorite people. I haven't laughed that hard in a theater since Napoleon Dynamite. But it's not primarily a comedy - it has a great plot. I even cried at one part. I'll leave it to you to figure out which one. So, go see it and then talk to me about it.

Okay, so Day 1 of fall semester. I woke up around 8:30, had breakfast, took a shower, and headed to campus. It took about 20 minutes to get there by bus. I walked over to the RUF table in Turlington to hang there for a few minutes with some of the RUF crew. Then I walked with Will H. over to Matherly to sit in on a Chinese class. That was a fun experience - particularly when I had to take a placement test and left the entire thing blank. I would absolutely love to take Chinese. Why? For several reasons: I love China, I love missions to East Asia, it's the most spoken language in the world, and China is going to be the one of the most influential countries in the world very soon. Hopefully I can switch into a section that works with my schedule. We'll see.

After Chinese I met up with Chris, Sean, and Emily. Chris, Sean, and I had some good old fashioned Krishna Lunch (regrettably, Emily did not join in the fun). All was right with the world at that moment -- except that we were caught in the middle of a freaking monsoon. From there I headed to the CSC to hang out with Pat Sell. What a guy. We had a great conversation.

I traveled in the monsoon to Matherly, where I went to a Medieval Latin class. I don't know whether I'm going to take this one either. The first few weeks sound pretty interesting, but after that...I don't know. However, my friend Katie (who rocks my socks off) is in it, so I may be persuaded to stay. I just don't know.

After Latin, I headed to Anderson to sit in on a French class - FRE 2200 I might add (NOT FRE 1130). This was the most humorous part of my day. I walked in and realized that the entire class would be in French. I will say, proudly, that I understood about 30% of it - at least enough to know what was going on (which was just explaining the syllabus and such). Then she started having people introduce themselves. At first it was just voluntary, but then the professor decided to have everyone do it. So it gets to me. I blink a little bit, think, "Pull yourself together man" and bust out with "Je m'appelle Sam. C'est mon troisiemme anée. Mon...(insert professor helping me)...specialization est religion." It was pretty funny, but I think I pulled it off. However, she then had an activity for us all to do. You know the type: everyone has to get up and find a person who has done something on this list that she gives everyone (gone to a French country this summer, took a French class this summer, etc.). I could read everything on the sheet, but the jig was up whenever some happy girl would bounce up to me and say, "Bonjour! Avez-vous...?" I would have to lean in and mutter, "I...can't...speak...French...." But I left with a smile on my face. Tomorrow I'm going to take the SAT II and try to place into some sort of class.

So then I walked to Little and attended a linguistics class. This was extremely interesting, but I don't think I'm going to be able to take it. Then it was time to begin the trek home. And I do mean trek. For starters, I waited a good 20 minutes under Little until the torrent of rain eased up. Then I walked to the Hub and got on the bus. Little did I know what was in store.

The bus ride took an hour. Seriously. An hour. On the bright side, I made a new friend. Her name is Jessica. She is cool. I somehow managed to invite her to both RUF and Krishna Lunch in the course of our conversation. It was fun.

I stopped at the apartment to eat some dinner, then Chris and I went to Bagel Bakery to see our friend Melissa (who records with Justice Road) and the infamous Mo Leverett from Desire Street Ministries do an acoustic show. It was great. Melissa is such an amazing musician (and an amazing woman, for that matter). I was sad she didn't get to play piano/keyboard, though. Oh, and of course Mo was awesome.

So that was the first day. Pretty fun. I need to do some serious schedule altering, though. Pray/think happy thoughts that things would work out. I may be dropping the history minor - I am pretty in love with languages and feel like I need to invest more time and energy into them (Chinese and French in particular).

Oh, and here's a CSN update for those interested: Chris, Matt, and I met up yesterday for several hours and hammered out lots of details, content, and logistical things. It's starting to really look good. I'm excited. We're going to meet again soon.

Peace,
Sam
P.S. Does anyone else feel like there is a Rachel-shaped hole in their heart? She really needs to be in Gainesville. Bah.