Dance Dance Dance...

Three things.

1. Christian girls have more fun.

2. Christian guys are more fun.

3. Christian Universities= fun

It's just a fact.

Since the Catalina dorm is the best, guys are allowed on our hall 11am-11pm every day, and are allowed in our lobby 24/7. They can only be in our rooms certain days, though.

The other evening we were in our dorm just hanging out and we heard a sound down the hall: loud music and stomping or something. So we went out there and this is what we saw--

Huntington Hall (the guy's hall) practicing their dance in OUR hall. Why our hall? Because they can, I guess.

Last night we had our all school party. "Survivor" was our theme :)

Anyway, here is just some more dancing...

VANGUARD FOREVER!!!!

More Vanguard fun....

At our beach bash, we played a game called Buck Buck, which is lethal and extremely amusing. Here are the guys doing it.

That night after the beach bash and beach worship, we had karaoke...

Our Catalina RA's doing their dance at Rez Rally

More blogs to come!

First Update from VUSC!

Hey everyone, I am in California!!!

I have been SOO busy moving in and doing all the new student events that I haven't had any time to write.

But I have some time to kill now, before the beach, so I'll give you all an overview.

VANGUARD

Ok so my school is summed up in a couple of statements.

1 was said by my RA last night- "School is just something we do on the side." ;)

It's sooo true. This place has so many activities that school isn't even the biggest part. I'm looking forward to all of the things to do.

So far with my frontline group (kinda like a link group from LP) we have gone to downtown disney, played games, had meals together, all kinds of fun things.

The 2nd statement was said by the campus pastor last night-

"Vanguard is a place where we want you to belong before you believe."

I think that's an awesome goal for a Christian University, especially considering the wide range of people who come to Christian Universities. Some are searching, some are already there, some don't care, etc.

But let me tell you, I ALREADY feel like I belong and I am making new friends left and right!

ROOMMATES/DORM/CATALINA HALL

Holla! I am in Catalina Hall, which is an all girls dorm for sophomores and transfers. It is awesome. Our rooms are nice, we have our own bathrooms, air conditioning, and super cool RA's and events.

My roommates are named Selene and Vanessa. We all get along pretty well. We haven't done much together since we are in different frontline groups, but we seem to share our space quite well and I am looking forward to getting to know them better!

Here are some pics of my room:

My bed is the top one

My desk area. (Obviously, clutter)

Bittersweet-ness

It was sad to watch my parents go today (Monday.) I know I'll be okay, and I know my friends here will be supportive. Right after they left I was crying and my Frontline group friends just hugged me and started making jokes and it was really cool.

It'll be a while before I stop being so homesick, but I know that God stayed with me, and yet he stayed with my family too.

I had a "vision" when my parents left--just thought about the image of them driving away and Jesus holding me as I cried.

Like, he's staying with me, so I'll be okay.

I am scared to enter this new season of my life. But on Sunday I went to church with my group and the pastor quoted 2 Timothy 1:17 For God did not give us a spirit of fear and timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.

EVENTS

You name it....we did it or are going to do it.

Last night, our frontline groups went to the houses of different faculty members and had dessert and played games.

Our group went to the off campus Vanguard apartments, which are run by this girl named Bethany and this guy named Matt. So they're seniors, actually.

We hung out in Matt's apartment and had cheesecake (homemade!) and played spoons--well forks, actually, because they didn't have spoons ;)

and we played mafia.

And seriously, it was SO MUCH FUN. I can't even describe it. Here is a video of us playing Forks. It seems pretty generic, but really we had a blast. The girl in the green dress is Bethany and the guy in the glasses is Matt. Fun fact- if you've seen iCarly, Matt is just like Spencer, the older brother.

And it was cool because he's like my new Vanguard older brother. He's only a few min off campus and he said we can all come over whenever.

Here is another video of Matt and Robert....as Matt explained a game we're going to play at the beach. Very random, but a good depiction of the fun we've been having. :)

And THEN last night, we had a PJ party for our Floor (2 North Catalina) And we watched the notebook, played games, ate chips and Salsa and just hung out. Here is a video of us playing gestures :) My RA, Heather, is the redhead on the couch. She is awesome. Just an older sister we can all go to whenever.

So this is a rough update but I will update more! We have a big beach event tonight so expect pictures on facebook and more posts on here.

Pray for me!

Skintimate...or not?

Let me be straight up before I go on a rant.

I DO shave.

I am not against shaving.

Shaving my legs/underarms makes me feel feminine.

I go long periods of time without shaving sometimes, but it's usually because I am too lazy.

That being said, I am neither for OR against women having to shave.

But I do have a problem with the principle of it.

Let me give you some history. I found it interesting, maybe you will too.

-People began shaving 1000+yrs, B.C. Razors were invented centuries B.C. and men and women alike shaved the hair on their faces, heads, etc.

-Alexander the Great made shaving popular in the Greek times, he even shaved before a battle.

-Eventually, cultures adapted the trend as a way to groom themselves. And so on and so on and we still see shaving today.

OK. SO.

Let's look at America.

In 1915, women were browbeaten into shaving underarm hair by a sustained marketing assault. (leg hair came later.)

The aim of "The Great Underarm Campaign" was to inform American womanhood of a problem that till then it didn't know it had, namely unsightly underarm hair.

To be sure, women had been concerned about the appearance of their hair since time immemorial, but (sensibly) only the stuff you could see.

But as fashion changed, dresses became sleeveless and showed leg, companies told women that they needed to shave when wearing those things.

The leg shaving campaign caught on much quicker and was more successful, as it was more practical.

Still, blaming fashion isn't consistent with history, because Greek women shaved EVERYTHING. (Notice how no naked Greek statues of women have pubic hair?) So it's more of a feminine statement, I suppose. Interestingly enough, Mediterranean women today don't usually shave. In fact, America probably puts the most emphasis on shaving.

So why not in Europe? It is, I suspect, just a matter of taste in Europe. Body hair can also be interpreted as a sign of adulthood, and body hair distinguishes women from girls.

(Alexander the Great made himself look younger, which men wanted to do, I suppose.)

All of this brings me to my age-old questions:

1. Why are women expected to shave their legs/underarms, always, but men with facial hair (if trimmed/kept well) are accepted?

2. Do we, as women, really shave because we WANT to, or because cosmetic companies (run by men) tell us that we have to?

3. Why is underarm hair and leg hair "unsightly" on women but not men?

See, we are socialized to do certain things and believe certain things. We see hairy legs on a woman and feel uncomfortable/grossed out. But why?

I argue with my mother on this issue a lot. She is appalled that I am even considering taking a stance against shaving.

She argues- "It's gross. It's dirty."

My response- "If leg/underarm hair is unclean, then why aren't you telling Randy and Richie to shave theirs?"

She argues- "Girls are just supposed to."

My response- "WHY?"

No one can tell me why. Even if they say it's just a feminine norm, I still must ask WHY is it feminine?

Is it just a way for men to keep us down?

This sounds really paranoid, but think about it.

Women in china have their feet bound at a young age. It makes it so their feet grow disfigured, the goal being that eventually, women cannot walk long distances. They stay put.

Think of how much of a hassle shaving is sometimes. We have to do it very often, we can cut ourselves, it's time-consuming, and alternatives like waxing are extremely painful. But if we don't, we are thought of as "hippies" "crazy feminists" or lesbians.

Remember, I do shave. But I don't shave often.

And I shave with bitterness.

(That sounds like a good Melissa Ethridge song title. I shave with bitterness.)