Have you ever had a time in your life where it feels like someone sat on the remote and hit fast forward? And kept sitting there for about a month and a half? Because that just happened to me. How in the world is it the end of March?? February and March were a blur...but I'll do my best to recount the most memorable events for you.
We held our own Palmgarten Olympics!
As you probably know, there was recently an event in Sochi, Russia called "The 2014 Winter Olympic Games." As you can probably guess, we had students rooting for a wide variety of countries, which made the events fun to watch. And we thought, "Hey--if these events are fun to watch, imagine how fun they will be to play!" But you may NOT know that Kandern hasn't seen snow since late November. (I know I risk incurring a great deal of wrath by writing that. I'm not trying to rub it in, for all you Snowpocalypse survivors.) Thereby making it difficult to bobsled in the backyard. So we hosted our own indoor version of the Olympic Games. We had speed skating (scooting around on pieces of paper around our common room), ski jumping (flinging yourself as far down the hallways as possible onto a pile of mattresses), snowboarding (okay, not like snowboarding at all--it was basically sliding as far as possible on slippery socks), and curling (in which one girl lies on a skateboard and pushes a ball down the hallway, which her teammates try to knock into a duct tape target. This one was hilarious.). It was a grand evening, and we even had medal ceremonies with 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place cookie medals.
Valentine's Day Hot Lunch
I'm sure you've noticed from the pictures you've seen that my seniors are pretty good at choosing awesome spirit days and themes for our hot lunch days at school. Well, February was no different. Since hot lunch fell on Valentine's Day, we had a Pick Up Line spirit day. All the girls printed out different cheesy pick up lines and wore them around their necks. Cheesy. And hilarious.
High School Retreat
Each year, BFA organizes a retreat for all the high school students. 300 students load onto buses and head out for a weekend of worship, rest, adventure, and sessions. This year I got to go along as a substitute small group leader for a group of freshman girls. It was so fun! We went to Nuremberg (home of all the Nuremberg Nazi rallies and later the Nuremberg trials, for all you World War II buffs) and stayed in--get this--a CASTLE! It was awesome. The speaker walked through Colossians, focusing on the identity of Christ and being rooted in him. It was excellent, and it sparked some neat conversations. I'm always praying that God will break through to my girls in new ways, and I think he really did for some of them. Then the prayer becomes that it sticks. :) We made lots of fun memories and I got to have some sweet discussions with my small group--and we also got to pull a prank on another small group of freshman boys. So I'd say it was a successful weekend.
Awesome weekend off in Italy!
This isn't a dorm event, but it happened, and this is my blog. So I'm going to tell you about it. :) For one of my weekends off this year, I got to take a trip with three of my RA friends (Katie, Jessica, and Sarah, if you wish to know :) ) to Cinque Terre, Italy. Oh my gosh. It was so beautiful. WELL worth the 8 hour train ride to get there. It's a group of five picturesque Italian villages along the Mediterranean. And I just don't know how to describe it to you. Except that I was FREAKING OUT the whole time!! I felt so lucky and so overwhelmed that I got to see a place like that. It was a wonderful weekend of hiking and walking and eating gelato and just staring at the scenery. It's the kind of place that you only get to see once...and I'm so glad I did.
Palm Hosted a Great Gatsby Party
Our annual Valentine's Party this year was postponed to March, due to some busy schedules. But it was still a great event! Our seniors picked The Great Gatsby as the theme, and so we styled the decorations and costumes to be as "Roaring Twenties" as we could. Lots of black and gold, lots of feathers, and lots of sparkling apple juice sipped from champagne glasses. Katie and I dressed up as waiters...but you can see from the pictures that we mostly just looked like pirates. Oh well. The costume was thrown together in about 10 minutes, so I don't feel too bad about that. :) Each girl invited a date for her roommate, and we played games and had a dance party and played with sparklers. It was a lot of work and a lot of fun.
We are beginning the mad rush to the end around here--Spring Break is next week, and after that there are only eight weeks left. Can I make a confession? I don't want this year to end. I'm going to be a mess at graduation. And I try not to think about it...but I think about it all the time. Every time I have a conversation or watch a movie or play Smash Brothers with one of my seniors. I have to stop typing about this. But man. I'm really really going to miss them. Ok. I'm done. Let's move on to something else.
Prayer Requests:
Please pray for intentionality and the ability for me (and my staff) to make the most of our time left with the girls this year.
Pray for safety for our girls as they head out on mission trips or to their home countries over Spring Break. And for rest, too. I'm sure it comes as no surprise that with the rise of spring sports and school events and end-of-the-year projects my girls are getting tired. So I'm praying that God would refresh everyone (staff and students alike) over this upcoming break.
Pray for my seniors as they make decisions about next year...and for patience and peace as they play the "waiting to hear from colleges" game.
Thanks so much for your prayers and your support. Don't let my lack of updates fool you--I thank God for you and pray for you regularly. :)
Happy Springtime!!
Amanda
We held our own Palmgarten Olympics!
Valentine's Day Hot Lunch
High School Retreat
Each year, BFA organizes a retreat for all the high school students. 300 students load onto buses and head out for a weekend of worship, rest, adventure, and sessions. This year I got to go along as a substitute small group leader for a group of freshman girls. It was so fun! We went to Nuremberg (home of all the Nuremberg Nazi rallies and later the Nuremberg trials, for all you World War II buffs) and stayed in--get this--a CASTLE! It was awesome. The speaker walked through Colossians, focusing on the identity of Christ and being rooted in him. It was excellent, and it sparked some neat conversations. I'm always praying that God will break through to my girls in new ways, and I think he really did for some of them. Then the prayer becomes that it sticks. :) We made lots of fun memories and I got to have some sweet discussions with my small group--and we also got to pull a prank on another small group of freshman boys. So I'd say it was a successful weekend.Awesome weekend off in Italy!
This isn't a dorm event, but it happened, and this is my blog. So I'm going to tell you about it. :) For one of my weekends off this year, I got to take a trip with three of my RA friends (Katie, Jessica, and Sarah, if you wish to know :) ) to Cinque Terre, Italy. Oh my gosh. It was so beautiful. WELL worth the 8 hour train ride to get there. It's a group of five picturesque Italian villages along the Mediterranean. And I just don't know how to describe it to you. Except that I was FREAKING OUT the whole time!! I felt so lucky and so overwhelmed that I got to see a place like that. It was a wonderful weekend of hiking and walking and eating gelato and just staring at the scenery. It's the kind of place that you only get to see once...and I'm so glad I did.Palm Hosted a Great Gatsby Party
Our annual Valentine's Party this year was postponed to March, due to some busy schedules. But it was still a great event! Our seniors picked The Great Gatsby as the theme, and so we styled the decorations and costumes to be as "Roaring Twenties" as we could. Lots of black and gold, lots of feathers, and lots of sparkling apple juice sipped from champagne glasses. Katie and I dressed up as waiters...but you can see from the pictures that we mostly just looked like pirates. Oh well. The costume was thrown together in about 10 minutes, so I don't feel too bad about that. :) Each girl invited a date for her roommate, and we played games and had a dance party and played with sparklers. It was a lot of work and a lot of fun.
We are beginning the mad rush to the end around here--Spring Break is next week, and after that there are only eight weeks left. Can I make a confession? I don't want this year to end. I'm going to be a mess at graduation. And I try not to think about it...but I think about it all the time. Every time I have a conversation or watch a movie or play Smash Brothers with one of my seniors. I have to stop typing about this. But man. I'm really really going to miss them. Ok. I'm done. Let's move on to something else.
Prayer Requests:
Please pray for intentionality and the ability for me (and my staff) to make the most of our time left with the girls this year.
Pray for safety for our girls as they head out on mission trips or to their home countries over Spring Break. And for rest, too. I'm sure it comes as no surprise that with the rise of spring sports and school events and end-of-the-year projects my girls are getting tired. So I'm praying that God would refresh everyone (staff and students alike) over this upcoming break.
Pray for my seniors as they make decisions about next year...and for patience and peace as they play the "waiting to hear from colleges" game.
Thanks so much for your prayers and your support. Don't let my lack of updates fool you--I thank God for you and pray for you regularly. :)
Happy Springtime!!
Amanda
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