Arizona

So this weekend I went on a floor retreat to Arizona. About 30 of us went and I got to know some of the girls on my floor so much better. On Friday, we took about 6 hours to drive there....lots of time to listen to music. :D

Once we got there we ate dinner, watched 'The Holiday' (because what do you do on a girls retreat but watch sappy chick flicks), and played the 'sign' game until 3 am!! The sign game, for those of you who were like me and ignorant to the world of the game, is where you throw an invisible ball by making signs at one another and the person in the middle has to guess where the ball is at any given time. It sounds lame, but it was really fun. Thus, playing it till all hours of the night...or morning.

On Saturday, I went swimming, and read Thucydides and Plato in the mall with the 'we need to do homwork group' while the 'let's go shopping' group went...well, shopping. We then went out to dinner and totally swamped the restaurant with girls. It was pretty fun. :D

Sunday included house cleaning and worship before the drive back home. The car ride was...interesting. Turell and I were trying to read for class on Monday all the while Katie and Erin are plotting to kill me, somehow all the sand made Erin want to bury me on the side of the road. And then when I accidentally told them to turn left off the freeway and we ended up in Anaheim instead of La Mirada, they wanted to kill me even more. But in my defense I told them to go the opposite way of what I suggested, but they didn't listen to me.

So that was my weekend, and I'm still alive so it appears that Katie and Erin were only kidding. :D So family, be happy.

And on a side note, I've taken up running with some girls on my floor. We go run and then do sit-ups and other exercises on the track. It's fun and makes me want to exercise instead of read all day. Which is really tempting right now. So I need to go and do notes before class tomorrow--until the next post!

New Blog

Just to let you all know, I'm starting a new blog called Where is the Fourth

The blog is going to be a place where I write down what I've been thinking about and hopefully discuss ideas with those of you who would be interested in talking about them. Updates and the like will still be on this blog. So feel free to check it out, I'd love to hear what you all think.

~Karyn

MoonShadows

This is going to be my first attempt at posting poetry on this blog. Hopefully as time goes by, it will get better, but here it is in any case. Any comments on ways to improve it would be greatly appreciated.

MoonShadows

Moon casts light
But darkness gains
Shadow of the past
Our pain remains

Standing in the cold
Behind me falls
A patch of dark-
My past it calls

The darkness surrounds
Between the stones
The harsh ferns grow
The cold wind moans

Watching specters
Of times gone past
The shimmering light
On water at last

Dimly dancing
Near to me
Then farther on
Brightness I see

Shadows behind,
The light's ahead
Its beckons me
For my past is dead.

Follow the shimmer
The glisten beyond,
And leave all the fears
Of which I'm so fond.

A flower blooms
White like a star
The shadow beneath
Calls hope from afar

I leave the dark
For brightening skies
Moon shadows behind
The sun will rise.

Photoshoot

For my Visual Aesthetics class I had the most amazing assignment... I had to take 16 photos demonstrating 16 different types of lighting. At first I was incredibley nervous about it...the last assignment that involved lighting....not a pretty picture (literally). I won't even post it on this blog it was so bad. I was afraid that this project would turn out the same, but armed with professional lights and the help of some friends (Kaitlyn, Evangeline, Laurie, and Bryant you guys rock!), the project actually turned out to be really fun and I really started to get the hang of lighting after working on three projects yesterday (mine, Kaitlyn's and Evangeline's) and two more today (Laurie's and the rest of mine).

Mr. Yamada gave us the option to tell a story with the photos, so I chose to tell the story of two lonely hoodie wearers who fall in love. So I hope you enjoy these pictures, I'd love to hear you're comments on them!

Hard Day

Hey everyone,

So I'm posting to ask for prayer. I've been having a really hard day today. Actually, it started last night, and now it's worse. I think that I've been riding a wave of emotion that has finally crashed. All the stress of school, and moving, and being away and alone has really hit me and it hit hard. On top of that I'm getting sick. I have a headcold that is making me miserable, so much so that all I want to do is climb into bed and read (even Thucydides is sounding good at this point, which is good because that's what I have to read).
Which leads me to also say that it has been so wonderful being in Torrey, I really feel blessed by God to be here, but some of the subject matter that we are covering in these books...I pray before I read it, while I read it, after I read and at times I still feel this deep heartbreak. I grieve for the people who lived under such lies, and to know that these lies are still at work today is heartbreaking. Also, everything I believe is being questioned. The foundations (and may i say, only the foundations) of who I am and what I believe are still firm, but everything else is is crumbling beneath me. I feel this is good, either my beliefs will be shown to be true and they will be rebuild with a stronger foundation or they will be shown false and fall away. It's a good process, but it's so hard. I feel so unstable, so lost at sea. (and I pray there is no albatross flying by my ship).
I have been learning so much here, but lack the time to really explore it throughly. A friend of mine, has been sharing his love of poetry with me and I am truly learning to love it, too. But I just don't have the time to sit and read...it really frustrates me to no end. The same is true with my film classes. I have so many ideas that I want to write down and develop, but I am lost in the chaos of school to find the time to sit write.
So as you can see, I could really use some prayer. Prayer that I would be able to sort through my emotions, prayer that I would get over this cold quickly, prayer that I could read and learn without picking up a spirit of heaviness from these books, prayer that I will find the time I need to accomplish everything, prayer that I will be able to develop the friendships I'm forming here, and most importantly prayer that I would remain steadfast and faithful to staying close to God as my life is being shaken.
So, sorry that this is not a nicer post, but this is how I am right now. Thank you for reading this and caring to get through it. I love you all.

~Karyn

Coming Soon....

Had my first film shoot on Friday! I came up with the story and directed it with Evangeline (I do the story, she does the shots). As soon as we're finished, I'll post it here. So be on the lookout!

Homer-athon

Warning: the following post contains very nerdy material presented in an incredibly fun and exciting way. So if you don't want to become a nerd or think that nerdy events are fun, I would caution you against reading this post. It is a hazard to your coolness.


Last weekend I went to the annual THI (Torrey Honors Institute) Homer-athon. And may I say, it was AMAZING!!!! The Homer-athon is an event where all the Torrey students (well, the cool ones who actually go) meet at Dr. Reynolds house and read the Iliad and Odyssey out loud. It took about 19 hours, from 1pm on Sunday afternoon to 8:30 am Monday morning. Needless to say, we were Zombies by the end. So on Sunday, I met up with James (see guy with silly expression in picture) at the library and he walked me over to Dr. Reynolds house (i get lost easily, so he was nice and showed me how to get there). We all sat outside in the 110 degree summer heat (we were told it was so we could experience the heat of battle). So each person signed up to read a book (just fyi, the chapters in the Iliad and Odyssey are called books and there are 24 books in each poem). I read book 16 of the Iliad, it was a war chapter so many people died. It was sad. *sniffle* The best part about reading, was that Dr. Reynolds would randomly start singing some silly song about the wrath of Achilleus or "Glory, Glory, Diomedes" while you are in the middle of your reading. You learn to just keep going and laugh along.

So it eventually got so hot, I was driven to the pool. I thought that it would be a relaxing break, but no. I was drawn into the epic battle between Hektor and Achilleus. As luck would have it I was Hektor. Bryant was Achilleus. We fought over the body of Patroklos (a pool noodle). I died. And then Becky (see picture of girl in pool)built me a funeral pyre out of a raft. Chelsea (see picture) took a lot of pictures and they look really cool. Again, check out her blog to see more of them.

The real battle occurred between Josh (Hektor w/ orange noodle) and Tim (Achilleus w/ green noodle). I actually filmed it so i could put it up here, but somehow i don't have the video anymore. Even so, it was a tragic battle as spear noodles flew through the air. Actually, Hektor was doing very well this year. Some of the older students thought he might win this time. but alas, as always Achilleus won. And Josh died. Like everyone in that book. The Odyssey is so much better in that regard.

At about 2 am, James, Nicole, Brian(see picture of guy passed out by morning), Hannah and I got hungry and decided to go to Wendy's. But as luck would have it, it was closed. (yes, i know, it was 2 am, but it was worth a try). So we decided to run through sprinklers instead and sing songs from musicals. It was amazingly fun. After that, we were still hungry, and since Ben (see picture) informed us over the phone that it was illegal to walk through the drive through at Taco Bell. We walked back to Biola and raided our dorms. Fortunately both Hannah's and my roommates were out of town. So we ate in the basement of Horton and played pool.

After that we went back to Dr. Reynolds house and joined back in the epic tale of Odysseus. I was cast as Nausikaa, the king's ditzy daughter, as well as a seductive sea goddess. But at least I wasn't Paris (Strange Man!). hehe :D

So the reading continued through the night. Many people fell asleep, curled up on the sidewalk. Slowly the sun rose and so did our hopes. We were almost done. YAY!!! At seven in the morning, Mrs. Reynolds brought us donuts! She's the nicest lady. :) And then....Odysseus killed the suitors and we were done! We all read the last line together, woke up the sleepers, and after helping the Reynold's clean up the yard, we went back to the dorms. I slept till 5 that afternoon. Yay for me.

So if you actually read all of this, I'm amazed. Hopefully I didn't bore you all too much.