Up to this (I am)

So, now that we've been here almost three weeks, I'm thinking I'll let you in on what I've been filling my days with.

The first few days were full of new people. It seemed we met new people wherever we went. There were the fellow court people to meet (other people who live in on-campus apartments), there were seminary faculty and staff to meet, there were off-campus people to meet, there were people at church to meet. LOTS OF PEOPLE.

A week after arriving here, I was officially "peopled out." I just laid low for a couple days and did stuff in our house. There's not much to do with white walls, limited furniture and not much of your own stuff, but I did alot of cleaning and baking. We did alot of shopping the first couple weeks here too, and now, though it's still fairly bare, our apartment is feeling much more like home.

Classes started after we'd been here about a week. I came here thinking that I would be able to audit one class per semester for free because Nathan is a student. I found out once we arrived that I can audit as many courses as I want each semester for free. I started out registering for one course, but enjoyed it SO MUCH after the first day that I went ahead and attended another class with Nathan the next day. I really liked that one too, so I registered for it as well. This semester I am auditing two courses (both with Nathan) and am trying to keep on top of the homework for both of them too, though when you audit a course it means that you don't have to do any of the homework. It does help to know what the class is discussing and if I don't do any of the readings there's not much point in going to class!

Because I have so much less class time and homework time than Nathan, I was finding myself in need of a bit of a project. So the other night I went to Wal-mart in search of something to fill my time with. I wandered around Wal-mart by myself for an hour, looking for things that would be fun and productive to do that I could fill some of my time with. After an hour, I walked out with a ball of yarn for $2.50 and a stick of deodorant for another $2.50. I wasn't thinking that the deodorant would fill my time so much as make my time more enjoyable and the yarn was so that I would have something to fiddle with in the evenings. I had no idea what I would make when I bought it, but it's pretty open, especially when there are so many ideas online these days. My ideal "project" would have been a quilt, but with no sewing machine here, it would have been a bit more of a project than I was looking for...at least I think it would have been. The thought of hand-stitching a quilt from scratch hasn't completely left my mind...

Nathan and I also have a job here on campus. Every weeknight we clean the student center (classrooms, lounges, bathrooms). It takes us about an hour to an hour and a half each evening, but because there are two of us there, we get paid for two or three hours a day. It isn't much, but at least it will cover groceries.

Other than that, there really isn't much that I fill my time with. I can't say, by any stretch of the imagination, that I'm busy. Life is a relaxed pace for both of us right now. There is always homework to do, especially for Nathan, but that isn't quite like always being on the run from one activity to the next. It's been a nice break...I'm already not looking forward to going back to the "real world" in two years and having to say goodbye to Nathan in the morning, go our separate ways, and not see each other again until evening. We're going to get spoiled while we're here. Oh well. I'll take it. :)

So that's my life as a student's wife. As McDonalds always says, "I'm loving it!"