Finished up Tyler's registration process at his new school. My "baby" is off houseboating and waterskiing and wakeboarding and possibly flirting somewhere on the Sacramento River Delta. Our home church's version of Camp. 13 houseboats. 200 kids. You can call in a number everyday and get an update from the youth pastor. Today he reported that they'd tied the boats all together to make "Water World" with a big open space between them to jump off the roofs of the boats into. SO, in honor of how I'm feeling, I'll post a picture from about 10 years ago:
Today I also went over to to MY new school: Pasadena City College.
Prayerfully wandered around the music department, theatre dept, foreign languages, bookstore (where I overheard 2 students speaking Chinese), and administration. You can learn a lot about the ethos of a school by doing that...and reading what's on the bulletin boards. After a couple hours there, I feel less nervous...more at home.
Spent more time looking over my class options and figuring out how a schedule might work. The person from the technical theatre department was not able to meet me today afterall, so I'll go see him at 10 tomorrow a.m. I've asked to meet with him to prioritize my classes and give advice about what will be offered next semester.
Took to admissions the copy of my CA tax returns and copy of driver's license (the original got packed to storage in Singapore). Good thing i took one of those emails seriously....you know the one that says, "Stop what you're doing right now and go make a copy of all the items in your wallet." Only I scanned the items and that act, and the resulting copy of my CA driver's license is saving me $150 a unit because it's spirit-of-the-law 'proof' of my CA residence.
While waiting for the theatre teacher, a young woman who'd driven from hawthorne wanted to borrow my course catalog and my pen. She's going to have another go at trying to take some college classes. She's tried before, but had to drop. Before she left I asked if I could pray for her. She said yes so I prayed right there for her: to be successful in her time management of work and school, in helping keep up her motivation and dedication to sticking with the work, and in knowing God's great love for her and his guidance for her future. It was kind of fun. She walked away grinning.
(A few weeks ago I decided that I'm going to be actively looking for opportunities to pray with people, strangers or not. And especially every week at church - do my part in making sure that at least one person's effort to get there is blessed by a personal caring touch of a prayer. I know it sounds a little kooky, but I'm comfortable with it, people seem to like it, and it's about the only thing lately i've sensed that the Lord is truly calling me to do.)
Disappointed by my discovery that the Chinese Department teaches the Taiwanese traditional script (and not the easier script used by 1/4 of the world's population!!) I wondered what we're going to do as a family to keep up with the language if taking a class here is not an option. Then I saw 3 Chinese speaking students in admissions who were obviously a little lost as to what to do next. I was able to come alongside them and help them out by translating the instructions about ESL placement. That was fun too. Give them some real help and encourage them too as we left the building together, "i've been in your shoes in Kunming, so I know what it's like to be confused and unable to read!" and "Just think, in 2 years you'll be able to speak English better than I speak Chinese!...But, that will only happen if you don't hang out only with Chinese friends!" we parted ways as they headed toward the ESL dept.
and then i had an idea: 1 for 1 hours of tutoring for all of us with a Chinese national, then having them stay for dinner. OR hosting an "English Corner" in our home once a week. It would be pretty easy to get students out just by posting a notice in Chinese on a bulletin board in the ESL dept. Something to definitely pray about! Will we do it or is just one of the many ideas that enter my mind in a day?
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