

I have been majorly slacking on the whole blog-writing thing, but it has been a busy last few weeks in Harrisburg! I celebrated the Forth of July, attended concerts, and have been finishing up my time commitments at St. Stephens and my time at Dickinson College. It is absolutely crazy to me that I will be home in Mason City, Iowa a week from tomorrow. I am thrilled, excited, a little nervous, and astounded that the time is getting closer and closer with every second that passes by. I have had a lot of fun the past few weeks, which is great! I have been doing things that I love and I have made the time pass even faster.
Exciting news regarding my art class... I placed in the student show at the Art Association of Harrisburg and was completely and utterly SHOCKED. I placed second in mixed media and am very excited about it! I had so much fun in this art class and I learned so much. I am very grateful that I received a scholarship so I was able to take the class, I definitely hope to continue to do some of the mediums. I thought for sure, I would love charcoal, but I learned I don't. I learned that I really like using ink and pastel. I thought I would hate ink because it is so permanent but I think that is why I like it. I am usually a perfectionist and ink makes me work with what is laid down and I like that idea .
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| Waiting for fireworks to start |


The Forth of July was a lot of fun! My house had a little get together with some of my housemates friends and we hung out in our Bishop's Garden and played Spike Ball (it has the concept of volleyball, where you have to hit the ball the size of a softball on your side three times before it goes to the other side), to get it to the other side, you hit it onto a net and bounce it to the other side.You keep going back and forth with your partner until the ball drops. The net is circular and you can spike it any direction, so you can go around in a circle. I had never played this game before, it is a lot of fun and can get VERY competitive! I am pretty proud to say that my partner and I won, twice. Along with Spike Ball, we had a little cookout and had BBQ foods; hot dogs, hamburgers, different salads, guacamole and chips, and then made mojitos and sangria. We also watched the fireworks, which was great because the fireworks are right on the Susquehanna River, which my house lives directly on. We had prime seats and the show was good. It started very slow but the finale was really good. It was really nice spending time with people my age and we had fun!
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| Kelly Clarkson |
I have been attending my fair share of concerts in Hershey, PA the past few weeks. 2 weeks, 2 concerts. I saw Wiz Khalifa and Fall Out Boy the first weekend. Now, I am not a big rap fan, so the fact that I was listening to rap is a change for me. I listened to Fall Out Boy throughout middle and high school so I was pretty excited for them. Wiz Khalifa is not my favorite, but he did have stage presence and have most of the crowd in the palm of his hand. He is not really my style, he is doing great in the charts right now, so I respect him for that but other than that, I wasn't much of a fan. The second concert I went to this past weekend was Pentatonix and Kelly Clarkson. This concert was more of my speed, it is not really a concert where drunk and high people out number the amount of sober people. I have been a HUGE fan of Pentatonix since they performed on the show The Sing-Off and I saw them and went to a CD signing of them about 2 years ago, since then, they have gone international and are Grammy Award Winners! They are completely A Capella and were even in the movie Pitch Perfect 2. The amount of sound that comes from 5 peoples voices is still amazing to me. They opened for Kelly Clarkson and there were so many people in the 4,000 people in the concert that came for Pentatonix, me being one of those people. I could have listened to them for hours, but they were only on stage for about 35 minutes. Kelly Clarkson was really good as well. She is Southern and is funny on stage. She talked about how the bugs were hitting her in the face and that she swallowed one. She also asked if she could take her shoes off on stage because she doesn't like heels. She has such a powerful voice and she, too, found her stardom from a TV show, American Idol. While in Pennsylvania, I have been able to go to about three concerts, which is great because I love live performances and listening to great music.
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| Fall Out Boy |
Things are really winding down, folks. I have finished my church commitments through St. Stephens at church yesterday. It was my last performance in the cathedral choir, which is a little sad. I really grew to like choir, mostly because of the people I have met. I have gotten close to the choir, especially the soprano section. The choir is full of very sweet and sincere people and I am happy that I had the opportunity to sing with them. They are going to have an exciting fall, they will be performing for the new Bishop in September and will be singing the National Anthem at a Senators game across the river.
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| Concert with my mentor |
I am very excited for this weekend!! I will be going to the ocean for the very first time!! We will be heading to Assateaque in Virginia Thursday-Sunday and will be doing some laying out, kayaking, possible scalloping, looking at wild horses and doing some final bonding as a house because we are all going very different directions. Two of my housemates will be moving to Ashville, NC. One is in Chicago, IL. One will be in Boston, MA. Another will be in Florida, and the last one will be staying in Harrisburg. I, of course, am starting graduate school for Counseling and Student Personnel, College Student Affairs and am very excited but nervous to start!
I am excited to be near my friends and family but I am finding it a little hard to leave the people I have met in Harrisburg. I didn't expect to get so close to some of the members of church, I have been writing every one who has influenced me a small letter of appreciation. I hope they learned something from me, as I have learned from them!