Long awaited updates

I realize that it's been almost two weeks since I've last posted anything, so I figured it was about time for a quick update...

I leave on Thursday after work to go to Virginia Beach for the weekend for my graduation! That is the most exciting thing on the horizon this coming week.

Today was a beautiful sunny day. I wore flip flops and carpis and spent part of the day down at the beach with Reine. It was lots of fun.

On Wednesday night, Reine and I had a dinner party here at our place. She invited some of her friends and I invited a few of mine (of course I had to do a lot of narrowing down, since I have SO MANY friends here in Vancouver ;). Deric and Amber came too. In total we had 16 people in here. I didn't think that we could cram so many people in our tiny apartment at one time, but we managed, and we had an awesome time! Her friends got along great with my friends. Everyone had fun... it was a big hit! I think we'll definitely start entertaining more often.
I spent a great deal of the evening talking with one of Reine's friends about an exciting job opportunity with his company (it's not exactly counseling related, but it's something that I think is definitely worth looking into). I'll fill you guys in on more details when there's more to share. In the meantime, continue to pray that God would give me wisdom in making decisions about jobs.

I've been enjoying volunteering with Urban Promise after work on Tuesdays. It's nice to be around kids. This past week the director was having some problems with the older girls in the group. Knowing that I have a counseling degree, he sought me out for some help dealing with the situation. The events of that day led to a conversation at the end of camp. The result of that conversation is that I will be taking the older girls (grades 5-7) on Tuesdays during homework time and running a group with them. I'm going to use the curriculum that my group created in our group counseling class which deals with various life issues for girls that age. I'm excited to have the opportunity to run a "counseling group" and excited to get to use the materials that my group and I put together. I'm a little nervous though about how these four girls (I think there will only be four participating) will respond. I don't expect a great reaction from them... and I'm not even sure that they will be very active participants. I also need to figure out how to take the eight week curriculum and condense it into six weeks, since that's all the time we have left for the after-school program. I could just choose six of the sessions, but there are valuable things in all eight, so I may try to do some "cutting and pasting". I think that this group could be very valuable for these girls. So, if you think of it between now and Tuesday, pray that God would give the girls receptive minds and hearts and that in the next six weeks, God would use this group in positive ways in each of their lives. Pray that He will give me wisdom and discernment in preparing for the group and that He would give me all that I need to relate with the girls and lead this group effectively.

I've decided to learn Chinese. I realize that it's a huge undertaking... but I want to try it. I guess now that I'm done with school, I'm feeling the need to take on some sort of academic challenge. I've always thought it would be neat to learn more languages, and since Chinese is the second most commonly spoken language in Vancouver, it made sense to me to learn it first (Roughly 30% of Vancouver's population is Chinese). I signed out a few books and CD's from the public library this week, and I'm ready to get going. Self-discipline. I need more if I'm really going to do this. There is a neat website for language exchange. Once I've learned some Chinese on my own, I might check out that site more. Basically you can post what language you know and which you want to know and find someone in your city who is looking for the opposite. So as a native English speaker wanting to learn Chinese, I could connect with someone my age in Vancouver who is a native Chinese speaker wanting to learn English. You both help each other with your skills, and neither have to pay for a tutor or language lessons.... and the best part is, you might make a new friend in the meantime :)

I recently went and printed a bunch of my digital pictures and got to work on my scrapbook. It's been so long since I've had time to work on it. It's nice to get back to it. I've also been reading a little more lately and thoroughly enjoying it.

Work has been going well... still enjoying eating all that soup :). I've been getting to know more of the mall staff and regular customers as time goes on. I know more people by name and have lots of people that I regularly talk to. I have friends at the mall. I find that very fulfilling... it makes my day so much nicer. It amazes me how much connecting with people really does make a difference in our lives.

The Canucks won their game last night! I am excited! This city is just buzzing with hockey excitement... it's great (except for when that excitement turns crazy and destructive). It seems like everyone has either a flag on their car or a jersey. Even the city buses say "GO CANUCKS GO" on their flashing signs. In fact, this week I saw one of those orange flashing construction signs that between flashing bits of info about sewer work on the road, read "Go Canucks Go"! Yeah Canucks!

Well, I should probably wrap this up and head to bed. For all those of you in VA Beach... I look forward to seeing y'all in less than a week. For the rest of you... I wish I could see you in a weeks time too :(. Pray that I'll have a safe trip to VA Beach and that I won't miss my bus to Seattle or anything crazy like that.