A quick re-cap of the past couple of weeks:
The first weekend was really quiet. Students back from Christmas break came trickling in on Saturday and Sunday, most arriving on Monday which was when classes started. My roommate didn't arrive until Monday so I had spent most of the weekend getting to know Hayley and Heidi, twins from Georgia that I had met online through the Regent's student housing office back in December. We moved in the same day (they are my "next-door" neighbors and we're back and forth a lot--or at least I am, haha!) and spent the weekend unpacking, shopping for a few random things we needed, and just hanging out and chatting. I think my first weekend would have been really hard if they hadn't been here! Heidi is a cinema-television major like me and we have two of the same classes, which is SO nice!
(Here's a pic of us with Rebecca St. James, who spoke on campus just last Friday. Hayley is on the left and Heidi on the right).
The whole first week was strange, getting used to a new schedule, finding all your classrooms, trying to make some friends, etc. Typical transition stuff. I've learned that a lot of times you just have to go out of your way to meet people and get to know them. There aren't necessarily "hang out spots" that everyone goes to on campus that give you a chance to meet people (and of course all the fun get-to-know-you activities were in the fall at the beginning of the school year and I missed them) so your interaction is limited to classmates and people you pass in the halls, unless you have the nerve to literally go knock on people's doors to introduce yourself. Everyone here is SUPER nice, which is wonderful, so taking the initiative to talk to people gets easier and easier and stopping to chat with a total stranger in the hall is not awkward at all anymore.
The highlight of my first week was Tuesday when two of my good friends I met in the Dominican Republic, Ryan and Caroline Holloway, came over for a visit! They are both from the area and were home from the Dominican Republic for their Christmas vacation. They took me out to lunch and then gave me a quick tour of Virginia Beach, complete with a lesson in the local lingo and phonetics. You don't want to sound like an outsider, you know!
The real breakthrough with friends for me came that next weekend. Hayley's and Heidi's family just moved up to the area from Georgia in December and live about 40 minutes from campus. The girls like to go home and spend time with their family on the weekends, so that Sunday I was going to have to go "church shopping" (pardon the term; it's kind of flakey, isn't it?) by myself (gulp!). I had seen a flyer in the lobby about a church in Norfolk called Harvest that would pick students up if they needed a ride. I don't have a car, so Harvest was a convenient first choice.
In the lobby I met a sweet girl named Nicole who was also new to campus, didn't have a car, and was visiting Harvest for the first time. And it turns out she's my other next-door neighbor! What are the odds? Anyway, we hit it off really well.
Harvest was very nice! It was VERY different that what I was acustomed to growing up, but it was genuine and real and the people there were amazing! Our driver introduced Nicole and I to some other Regent students there who live in my building--one of which turns out to be the person living directly above me.
Harvest has a heart for student ministry and this school year has been working to connect with students at Regent for discipleship, mentoring, and general Christian growth and support. They echo Regent's vision to create Christian leaders that will influence the world in which we live. That Sunday Nicole and I had the privilage of having lunch with and sitting in on a planning meeting with the college group leadership team. It was a great time of prayer and discussion about the best ways to connect with students and encourage them in their walk with Christ and challenge them to be leaders. Harvest college group has a Bible study on campus every Friday night that's growing like crazy, so this meeting was also about how to accomplish these goals in a larger group.
L t0 R: Jason?, Jesiah, me, Brian, Nicole, Dan, Jonathan, Zach, can't-remember-his-name, Danielle, Rebecca, Christian.
Since that Sunday I feel like I've been well-connected. Through these friends I've met a bunch of others and had the chance to hang out a lot. One of the funniest times was I think later that week. Our apartment building is shaped like a U, and one evening some friends and I were chatting with each other from our windows. People across the way saw and opened their windows and joined in! In about 10 minutes there were students everywhere leaning out their window sills and chattering away. A couple of guys pulled out a guitar and started serenading the group with their halarious version of a Taylor Swift song--until a grad student stuck her head out and told us to be quiet. I guess I can't blame her; grads pay a lot more for classes than we do!
The next night the party moved indoors. Dan the guitarist was strumming and walking the halls looking for something to do, ending up in our wing outside my door. Long story short, he took me, Hayley, and Heidi on an adventure to go meet other students and go see Christmasland on the fourth floor (room 401 was famously dubbed Christmasland in December because of it's extravagant holiday decorations). It seriously deserved the name! The walls were covered floor to ceiling with brightly colored wrapping paper and a few bows while lights and garlands hung over every doorframe and were also strung across the ceiling. And a GINORMOUS stocking that I could probably sit in was tacked to the wall by the kitchen table. It was overkill, but halarious!
On our way to Christmasland and afterward, Dan would just knock on his friends' doors to introduce the "new girls." More often the not, those students would then join our little troup as we continued on. It had a pied piper effect; what started out as just four or five of us turned into almost twenty students trapsing down the hall. When we reached the end we ending up just standing around chatting for at least an hour. Other students would hear the commotion and just come out and join us (Hayley, Heidi, and I met LOTS of people that night!). It was so much fun! I think the most we had in the hall at one time was about thirty. We three girls finally headed to bed at around midnight; I have no idea how long the others stayed there.
I guess the point of this story is that that evening was the time when being at Regent stopped being intimidating and just starting being fun. And the more I'm here the more I love it. There are quite a few homeschoolers here, so I have a lot in common with many of the students. They may goof off every now and then, but for the most part these kids really know how to study. And I love the fact that most of the ones I hang around with are passionate about--and talented in--what they are studying. It makes a great support group.
Some recent highlights:
--Ice skating with Harvest college group/Regent students in 60 degrees and sunshine:
--Attending the Harvest college group Bible study. I love being surrounded by other people who are passionate about the Lord and who are intentional about making Him the heart of all they do.
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