Sunday

Yesterday was a great day for several reasons. First of all, I was off from work so we could go to church! YAY! We went to a Presbyterian church right on main street. The building is really old with elevated pews, and even a balcony all around! The congregation seemed pretty diverse in age, and a little in nationality. We liked the preaching, though it wasn't the senior pastor (he's on sabbatical until November). The music, well, I thought I was in Heaven. I've been to a number of churches in all my life, but this was unlike any choir I've ever heard. The choir sat in the middle of the balcony, and they must have been professionals, or secretly angels. I wish you could've heard them, Mom. Mostly, we sang hymns, but they were so vibrant! All parts were sung, which is something we don't always hear, but how the songs are supposed to be sung. We'll definitely go back there, but we also want to visit more.

For lunch, we attended a graduate student Christian fellowship cookout on campus. We met some cool people, ate some great food, found out who else lived in our apartment community and left happy! We met several couples, and singles, and "Granola people" as our friend Esther likes to call them. They are the ones who buy everything fair trade and organic, ride bikes exclusively, sometimes go without shoes (there was one without shoes!), listen to NPR only, and live uber simple lives. Don't get us wrong, we love these people, in fact, we are part Granola ourselves, but not to that extent. Matt wanted to get rid of our car, but how would we ever visit family and friends? We couldn't do it. And as for food, I never understood where the line was between buying organic and regular, because for some products (I read in a magazine and saw news segments about it), there is no difference but price. Where it counts is for produce that has no peel (I think?) like peaches, grapes, spinach, lettuce, tomatoes, etc... But what about things like bagged rice? potatoes? beans? cereal? peanut butter? nutella? We try.

We met a German couple, let's call them Franz and Katrina von Deutschlandensprikkenburger (Matt wanted to name her Hilda). Anyway, they just got married a month ago and just moved here with nothing! We got to talking and found out they needed some items. It just so happened that we needed to get rid of some things, so we met up later that evening and exchanged the goods. They are officially our friends because borrowing has occurred. We both agreed we would get together for dinner sometime, and Katrina offered to help me paint the walls since they just did theirs green. Franz said he was homesick for Germany and Octoberfest.

Matt and I also visited the university library. They don't let you inside without an I.D. card. The library has 3 floors underground and 2 above. It's crazy big with millions of books, easily. Matt says he's gotten lost already, and often sees lost freshmen. I think if I was an undergraduate here, starting research for my first paper, I would just crumple onto the floor, lost, and melt into tears, and possibly drop out. Just walking through the library put dread in my gut, like old times. I was told half of the library still follows the old system, while the other half uses the Dewey decimal system. The "old half" reeks of old books and the aisles are all dark until you flip a switch that's on the end of the bookshelf. Sheesh! I asked Matthew how to find a book and he laughed. I didn't think that was very nice. I didn't realize that this library carried everything (not just academic works), so I asked Matthew what to do if I found a book I wanted (supposing they have an up-to-date section of Curious George (says Matt)), and he said he would find it for me. :) What a guy!

I discovered something else terribly worrisome. I found what looked like walk-in lockers (with built in lock pad) that had a table, chairs and mounted shelves in them with fluorenscent lighting. Apparently, you can rent them for a year. This, in my opinion, was a torture chamber. Here is proof:

All I can say is that I hope I never find one labeled with Matt's name... Dun dun dun!!