And holy cow, it's February.

I guess it's just because school didn't start till the second week of January, but I don't feel like it can be February already. I think life just moves fast. But then again, there was a lot going on this month.
I'll try to break it down for you and fill you in on the main events, and I'll even try to use pictures. :)

1. I bought a tree.
 It was a Wednesday night. Katie and I were doing our weekly dorm shopping, pushing a loaded cart through the empty aisles of the local grocery store when I saw him. He was on a shelf by himself, just above the lone cactus plant. His tag said "Mondo Verde, Ficus Ginseng." His other tag said "Auktion: 2,98." He was beautiful, he was on sale, and I knew he had to be mine. Pets aren't allowed in the dorms at BFA, so I had been looking for the next best thing: a plant. So I brought Alejandro (my ficus tree) home and transferred him into a pretty pot, filled it with soil, sprinkled the dirt with water (and coffee grounds, because someone told me that was a good idea), gave him a home on my windowsill, and waited for him to explode into glorious health. Sally (one of my girls) told me he was cute, but wouldn't last through February. Well...Sally may be right. He's been losing leaves by the day, and I'm just not sure he's happy. So as you may have noted, purchasing a tree was NOT actually a main event of this month. But I don't have much confidence that he's going to last till my next blog post, and I needed to immortalize him on the internet while he was still around. Here's to you, Alejandro.

2. Melodie went home.
I don't know if it's something  in the water, or if it's just one of those transitional years for our girls, but we had a third student move out of the dorm to be a home student this month. Melodie is one of our juniors. She's artsy, poetic, impossible to pin down, and she lights up the room as soon as she walks into it. Her mom just moved back into Kandern from home assignment in the States and so Melodie will be spending the rest of this school year at home with her mom. This is a really great opportunity, and I'm happy for Mel. Of course it's best for the girls to be with their families if it's possible. And I expect we'll still be seeing a lot of her around the dorm that's been her home for a year and a half.
But forgive my selfishness--I wish she were still here.

3. I've taken up knitting. AND running.
I know. I don't know what's gotten into me. But my job has really strange hours, as I have my 3 hours off in the afternoon while the girls are at school. And as much as I enjoy kicking back with a good book or taking an afternoon nap, I think I've been itching to be moving and to be productive while it's light out. So I'm almost done with a really awesome scarf. And as soon as I'm done with this blog post, I'm going to go run for a few kilometers. There are some really great paths through the woods. Some lead to llamas, others lead to sheep, and others just lead to really muddy spots that ruin my shoes. But I like it. And some of my girls are runners. So I have hope that one of these days, I'll be able to keep up with them and tag along on their jogs.

4. A weekend with no homework.
That's right. Last week, after the students finished their final exams, the teachers rewarded them with an entire weekend where no homework was assigned. That meant that from Thursday night to Sunday night, the girls were free. So Katie and I decided that this would be the optimal weekend to cram in all (ok, not all...but some) of the fun weekend activities we'd thought of but not many of our girls had time to do. So in the course of the weekend, we watched Psych (this is a weekly Thursday night tradition), had a Lindsay Lohan movie marathon, and had a dorm-wide sleepover on Friday night, dragging blankets and mattresses into the common room.
We had an EPIC game tournament on Friday night. It included Pit, Mario Kart, Twister, and Extreme Spoons (like the regular card game, except the spoons were at the end of the hallway, beyond a mountain of pillows and mattresses that the girls had to climb over). It was a great success, and we passed out prizes to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners.

Extreme Spoons Aftermath

Holding up their spoons victoriously! Incidentally, only three of these girls actually live at Palm. And to confuse you even more, the one wearing the Palmgarten shirt is NOT one of them.

Preston, Rachel, and Marissa (not a Palmie) with their prizes!

 On Saturday night, Katie took most of the girls to the baths (a naturally heated pool and spa) while I hung back and watched a movie and played Mario Kart with the girls who didn't want to go. Note: I've never been so consistently bad at anything as I am at Mario Kart. I think a three-year-old could beat me.

Mario Kart Party!

On Sunday, we had a dorm-wide film festival. We split the girls into groups and instructed them to make a five-minute movie. They could spend as much time and energy as they wanted in editing and filming, but they had to incorporate the theme: "Why is it green?" We had ice cream sundaes and watched all the movies later for dorm fellowship. I was so proud, and my sides hurt by the end from laughing so hard. I love my girls so much. Period.



There's been more, of course, but I think it'll suffice to say that there are very few dull moments around here.
And I covet your prayers as we try to be effective as a staff, as our girls start a new semester of classes, as our seniors start to look beyond June, and as we all try to reflect Jesus in this dorm and in this community.
Thank you for your support and your prayers.

Till next time,

Amanda