Introduction Pt 2: Church | Chicago Pt 1: Ania

Hey, guys! So, I had originally intended to give more introductory/update style posts, but I just went on solo vacation this past week over Spring Break, so you get to hear about THAT in addition to these intros. Wheee~

It’s worth mentioning that I made the MOST of my trip, so I’m going to post and categorize these according to the people I hung out with and spread it out over a few weeks’ worth of sharing, in addition to introduction posts. The people I met with are so important, they deserve their own post :) and you deserve shorter ones lol XD

Wednesday:

For those who don’t know me too well, I’m SUPER type A, according to Heroine (my TX based best friend for those who missed the last post).  This means that I don’t do well with spontaneous, unplanned things, though I can make it work if I absolutely have to. Which means a) the world is ending, someone messed up big time and this is all I have to work with, or b) Heroine happens to be in charge of whatever I’m doing, in which case she’d tell me to woman up and roll with it, so I do. Or…I try. Same difference.

Anyway, I packed everything pretty well, even left room to bring back my sister’s bridesmaid dress for a pending wedding in May. And left my shower necessities. Why? Because I’m a freaking genius who picks things up, puts them down somewhere else, and only remembers the place that I left them in BEFORE. Ask my sister how well I describe where things are when I need her to get stuff for me. She could rant for hours about the failure rate of my memory of where things are and probably list off the times that I actually got it right on one hand (though I’m hoping it’s at least two hands by now). Thank God for friends that have shower necessities to share. lol

Rode the Amtrak train up to see my girl who’s getting married in Aug, Ania. Long story short, the train delayed, and we didn’t get back to her place till midnight (my train was due to reach Chicago at 9:45pm, but we didn’t pull in till past 11pm). There was a chance that I would have had to take the Metra to her suburb, but I’m just grateful that God knew my train would be delayed and freed Ania and her fiancé’s schedules up to have arranged to pick me up instead of the aforementioned arrangement (which would have backfired horribly because I would’ve ended up missing that train due to the delay).

Thank GOD for verses like Psalm 139:3: "You know where I go and where I lie down. You know everything I do." 

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Thursday:

Grocery shopping at Woodman’s and I LOVE this place for one primary reason: Rowntree’s Fruit Pastilles. Hands down, my FAVORITE candy, particularly the blackcurrant flavor. I have loved these things since I was a kid, so not only are they delicious, they’re nostalgic. So if you’re ever stuck on things to give me for no reason, this is a great option :) I shamelessly cleaned out the shelf at that place of these babies and for a brief moment, I wondered if I was just as bad as those overseas tourists from a *cough* certain country that is notorious for shelf clearing brand name items, and decided to ignore my gut and go with my stomach :P

And then we went and saw Beauty and the Beast. Opening showing. IMAX.

I loved it. I cried. The casting was awesome. The music was beautiful. The costumes and period design were so on point that I was stunned. Emma Watson was PERFECT as Belle, and Dan Stevens was epic enough for me to finally watch Downton Abbey, something I’ve been meaning to do for ages, but putting off (for whatever reason). Not going to get into that other debate, so…MOVING ON. But to those concerned about it, just know that the “surprise at the end for same-sex couples” is just a 3-5 second dance scene between LeFou and another (hinted at) gay character.

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Friday:

Given that I'm one of five bridesmaids for Ania's wedding, we had a bridesmaid dress fitting appointment at "A Joyful Occasion" in Naperville, IL. After, we went out for a lovely lunch at Olive Garden, and her mum treated me to lunch. I got a Choose 2 appetizer of calamari (because I freaking love calamari) and lasagna fritta, and then we split a Choose 3 Dolcini. The one pictured above is the one I got, the Limoncello Mousse. Ania got a double chocolate and her mum got the Amaretto Tiramisu (which I liked, actually).

Next bit of Chicago trip updates coming soon!

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And back to introduction posts!! XD

Church updates. This will change as of August of this year to give way to other priorities with my studies, but at the moment:

- I lead worship at our Calvary Chinese Fellowship (CCF), singing and playing guitar (not well, but I manage), or going back to playing the piano if the little sis isn’t available. I also head up our Missions Sunday planning, arranging, composing (when necessary), and other things because all of our valuable music major people left :( I could list them all but I’ll be sad if I do, so I won’t. In addition to this, I function as one of the “leaders”, despite my horrid Mandarin speaking ability. The worship leading confuses some people because they assume I can read, write, and speak Chinese well (I can literally only do pinyin).

- I play the bass part on the keyboard (thank God for acappella bass singers like Avi Kaplan and Tim Foust who have taught me so much about how bass parts actually work) for the church worship team on Sundays, and piano when our pianist needs a break. I also have an Alesis Vortex keytar (recommended by YouTuber Jonathan Young) that I’m waiting to play with come summer ;D It’s very pretty and I’m very much looking forward to it. Fluting makes an appearance on special occasions (i.e. Christmas, Easter, etc.).

- I also serve on the accounting team (the most junior member and I still have no idea what I’m doing), and help to proofread the bulletin for church. I had done an informal graphic design related “internship”/volunteer type thing once upon a time and designed the brochure explaining why our church does worship the way it does and also a few bookmarks as one of the church’s gifts for new students.

This kind of spills over into craft updates, but I was also recently told that I’m evidently in charge of decorating the church for a wedding for one of our most anticipated weddings ever (details as I find out what I’m actually doing).

Whew that was long. I’ve got a few more “intro” type posts on the way, in addition to the Chicago trip updates, so that should all be wrapped up in the next few posts!
 
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