the castle

I'm writing this right now, before I unpack or go and take a shower or continue checking peoples' rooms, so that I don't blow it off later when I get tired again. So there.

Yesterday morning we had a lecture on drug and alcohol policy. The campus po came in and burnt incense tablets that simulate the scent of marijuana and they passed around beer so that kids who don't drink (or work in bars) could smell it. And then they passed around a crack pipe and told us all manner of things that people can do with drugs...things I didn't even know people did or were physically possible. It was crazy. Then we had fire safety (we're so ready now Mom) and they lit a fire out on the lawn and let us shoot of fire extinguishers at it. Pretty neat if you ask me. Then I went to Rite Aid for a couple things and then we left for the castle.

The castle was more like the single biggest mansion I have ever seen in my entire life. Seriously, I didn't know residences like that existed - it was originally the house of some uber-rich guy and then when he died they made it into this hostel-like place for Christian retreats and whatnot. It was ENORMOUS. It took me about a minute-and-a-half (I timed it) to walk from the front door to my room. It was so cool. We played team-building games like human foozeball and a blind walk, and then we had dinner (pizza) and then we had free time (during which I joined an impromptu soccer tourny), and then we were going to play capture-the-flag, but by that time it was pitch-dark outside and I'm afraid of the dark so I opted out. I wasn't the only one who did this, so we sat on the back porch and played board games for like three hours.

Then, as we're playing board games, we hear this enormous explosion. And we look over and way off over some distant mountain (we also were on top of a mountain - GORGEOUS sunset, btw) we see some puff of smoke. And we're all like "is there an air force base around here?" There wasn't, somebody said, so we kept staring to see if it would happen again and wouldn't you know it they were setting off some FIREWORKS DISPLAY about 10 miles away for like 30 minutes and we could see every single one. So cool.

This morning we got up for breakfast, then had devotions as a group, and then we had alone time. We could take only a Bible and we had to find someplace on the grounds with no other people and sit for 2 hours to pray. It was a little daunting at first, but it ended up being a really cool experience. After that, they had worship time. There's just something so cool about seeing 70-some college kids singing at the top of their lungs about God.

Then we had a box lunch and cleaned up the building and came home, which is where I am now. Two girls are moving in on my hall currently, and my project before five (which is when I have to do something next) is to finish room inspections and take a shower, which I really really need. A nap is apparently out of the question at this point.

K that's all. Till next time...