October has been a very busy month! My parents visited me the first weekend of the month, and we had a lot of fun roaming around McMinnville. Choir had our first performance at First Baptist church to raise money and awareness for homelessness in the community. We had our first concert the next weekend, and we sang the national anthem at the Homecoming game as well. I don’t really understand football, but I watched the first half of the game with friends. Linfield dominated as usual. I never went to football games in high school because I went to an all-girls school, so it is kind of fun to go to games even if I don’t know what’s going on!
Also this month I had my study abroad interview for going to Costa Rica. I thought it went well, and I am really excited to start taking Spanish again next semester. My classes have been very busy and I was about to implode with stress before the Greenfield Retreat last weekend. The retreat was an amazing experience, and I got to spend a lot of time just hanging out with old friends and new friends. We went to camp Westwind on the coast, a beautiful, protected natural area. We had a couple of awesome, interactive presentations on community organizing and making changes in our world. A storm hit Saturday night and we could not leave on Sunday until a fallen tree was cleared from the road. No one was too upset about having to spend a little extra time enjoying the beach and the forest!
This last weekend in October brings our first swim meets! Friday is the Sprint meet at Willamette and Saturday is the Relay meet here at Linfield. These meets are with all the conference teams, and I am so excited to race! Unfortunately, a lot of my teammates have recently been or are sick, so we are all hoping for them to feel better. Halloween is also a fun time at Linfield, and this is “Halloweekend” as my friend calls it. I am dressing as Dobby from Harry Potter. I am sad to be missing the trick or treat time when kids from the community come to the dorms to trick or treat. I missed it last year because of swimming as well. I miss the little kids on my block at home a lot!
This last week of October I went on an all-day field trip with a small group from my Human Ecology class to the McMinnville watershed in the coastal mountain range, and also to the sewage plant here in town! It was really neat although I felt sick all day from trying to take notes in the middle row of a school van while going up the curvy mountain road. Professor Love could only attend the first half of our trip, so I took the driver certification class and got to drive the 12-passenger van! I’m not a huge fan of driving, but it was a fun experience. I would not want to maneuver that van in Seattle traffic though! I’m greatly looking forward to November, a month jam-packed with swim meets, and, of course, Thanksgiving!