My reading time is the highlight of my day~I have 4 areas of reading. I try to keep up with the news on a few different websites each day. I have just started reading the Old Testament in chronological order and taking notes to what God illuminates during my studies. I have a textbook called La France contemporaine; this is so I read in French and learn more about my current home. Lastly is fun reading. I have a whole bookshelf full of books that have been scavenged from the GTL communal library. In the past month, I picked up 10 books... a bit ambitious, but I'm optimistic.
Social time has been the best. I'm sort of a homebody, and I was seriously bad about spending time with our friends on school days. In the past week, Kyle and I had Bible study (like always) on Monday night. On a lovely sunny afternoon Lauren and I sat lakeside and knit. We met a funny French fella who chatted us up for a while (or should I say, "il a drague un peu avec nous"). Lauren got a bad sunburn on her legs except on the parts where her project (a cute angora sweater) covered her fair skin.
On a brief tangent, I had once been an amateur knitter as a young girl. My aunt Pam decided to take knitting classes at a local Michael's craft shop. Somehow or other, I was volunteered to be her knitting partner. It was quite fun because there were limitless resources in the store. I never completed any project; I was very bad at following through on things I started without the proper motivation (i.e. my mom's reminders). Anywho, my great aspiration to make a knit cover to a pillow was never achieved, but I did successfully decorate a wicker basket with fake sunflowers to hold all my knitting materials...
Back to modern times~this is what I achieve on our knitting and sitting outing:
The color seems a bit muted in this picture~it's more of a Kermit the frog green (or lime green if you are my old step-mom Lane. I mean old because she no longer is my step-mom, not because of her age....). I call it Squiggly Rectangle. It's still on the needle because I'm out of yarn and don't know how to terminate the project. Help me Lauren!
Lauren and I ended our delightful afternoon with some bitter lemon beverages and cartoons! Then there was a cookout at GTL for all the undergrad students as a sort of Independence/Bastille day joint celebration. The food was fantastic, but those undergrads are certainly unruly and rude. It's a bad batch-o-kids. I didn't socialize again until Friday. Rocky invited us to a super secret surprise birthday party for his wife, Maria! A big group of us were scheduled to meet at la Winstub (a Hamilton favorite). It's an Alsacian restaurant, and the food is marvelous~I had scalloped veal in a muenster and mushroom cream sauce and a huge side of roasted (hashbrown-like) potatoes. There was also some Kir & Riesling involved. We had a lovely time with a huge group of friends.
Kyle, me, Rocky, and the birthday girl!
You may say to yourself, "Self, this does not a whole week make." You'd be correct in assuming that I didn't simply do chores, read, and hang out all week long. I have found a new weakness. Cartoons, cartoons, cartoons! I spend a good amount of time on Cartoon Network's website watching episodes of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends and clips of Adventure Time. On top of that, Making Fiends on Nicktoons is a hit~I remember watching it when it was just an online thing. Lauren also indulged my new obsession; she and Michael have Netflix. In the online library is a whole host of old Nicktoons~we watched Aaahhh! Real Monsters and Ren & Stimpy last week. I'll leave you with a clip from Adventure Time~it makes me so so happy.
