From Cross 'til Now

Sooooooooooo... I figure it takes at least that long of a "so" to express my utter shame at the fact that I have not written on this blog in what, at least 5 months? perhaps even longer? I'm sure my much loved friends will be more than willing to clarify that little detail ;).

So, I'm going to give my little recap and "take" on this semester and all its shenanigans, and perhaps this will remotely begin to make up for my past failures? Hey, a girl can hope... Anyways... as you've seen from said friend's past and recent posts, it has been a very, very interesting-jam-packed-eventful-off-your-rocker-betty-crocker-kinda semester. School itself kind of really sucked for all of us this semester... but that's okay because it rocked in other ways that more than made up for it! We made tons of new, aweseome friends, including Dillon and Austin from the tunnel adventure, Kathy, Alyssa and Megumi from our floor, Jason, Raquel, Gillian, Tiffany, Rachel, and the list goes on :). God blessed us so much with all of these people this semester, and thankfully, with their help and jojo and brenna's help, I somehow made it through this semester without losing my mind and everything else along with it.

I've been through a ton this semester, from awesome things like the cross and tunnel adventures to not so awesome things like my grandfather dying. But through it all God has been so gracious and SO good in teaching me what I can take from all of these starkly contrasted experiences. I am so thankful for my friends and even the simple little joys they bring to my life :). You have all heard about the tunnel adventure... so I will relate to you the cross adventure, the brilliant start of my semester!

Right off the running blocks my semester was admittedly pretty darn bomb... First weekend I got to go with a large group of friends to the John Williams concert in Hollywood! And if that didn't make the night epic, what four of my friends and I did afterward more than made up for that. Jason Leith, Christine Fuchs, Christopher Girard, Riley Gilmore and I piled into a jeep and went on an hour's search for the base of the hollywood hill that has the giant illuminated cross on top of it... for what reason you might ask? What else but to climb it and go to the cross! As Jason put on the song "lead me to the cross" by Hillsong, we drove the confusing one-way streets of Hollywood at 11 o'clock at night, searching for the infamous hill with the giant glowing cross. After failing one attempt and being warned by locals of the hill's danger, we finally found a sketch backroad that led us to a hill that we were sure was at least close to the one we wanted.

And then we climbed... in dresses and sandals and dress slacks we climbed the less than pleasant terrain (i.e. extremely steep hills covered in dirt that slid right out from under us, various cacti, prickles and pointy grasses) until we finally had to resign ourselves from shoes and just go barefoot. Let me tell you, that trip was friendship and character building... we had NO idea where exactly we were going, and we had to help each other the entire way up, else I'm pretty sure we never would have made it. As we climbed, we realized that the hills just kept going... pretty soon one hill turned into five or six, and after passing by a camp of sleeping homeless people and being scared out of our minds by a jack rabbit, we came out on top of what really ended up being more of a mountain than a hill (well... it would definitely be a mountain if we were back east... lol).

There we saw it... on the hill BELOW us... As the five of us descended down a rocky pathway, all of us were blown away by the scene before us: a 200 foot tall, illuminated cross in the foreground of the still entirely lit city of Los Angeles stretching as far as the eye could see! It was one of the coolest things I have ever seen. When we reached it we took a moment to observe our surroundings, and after a few minutes of recooperations from minor injuries, we decided we should do something worthwhile after all of that effort. For some stretch of time the five of us took turns praying over the city so conveniently laid out before us. Then we sang a few worship songs that we all knew and prayed for each other and the semester to come.

After we had remenisced about how crazy we were and how our recent journey and its difficulties perfectly mirrored the realities of a Christian's walk with God, we made our way down a different way so that we wouldn't die... and after walking down the same sketch road we drove in on, found the jeep. We high-tailed it out of there, hit up some Tommy's for 2:30 am chili burgers, went home, showered all of the caked dirt off, and nesteled into bed around 3, 3:30 in the morning.

It was freaky, it was daring, and I can't deny that there were times that we all got pretty freaked out of our minds... But all in all, what is an adventure without all of those things included :)? And now we can say, whenever we think about that night or see that cross, that we didn't just go back to Biola and hit up some Inn-N-Out after the concert... No, my friends... we went to the cross.

~Kendall

The Wait is Over! (Tunnel Adventure)

Well, I guess I had better write about our tunnel adventure like Brenna promised I would. (Or else she might beat me up...hahaha! Riiiiiiight.)

It was a dark and stormy night. Not really. But in honor of one of my favorite "great" writers, I figured I would begin this tale in that manner.

To be honest, it was a California night like any other: a little chilly, no matter the daytime temperature. Dillon and Austin met us at Hope shortly after we ambushed them in Horton with our Nerf guns. We were dressed warmly in clothes that could withstand the unknown dirty dangers that lay in wait. Dillon was the only one who had previously explored the dark depths of the drainage tunnel to which we were headed, and because of the recent inundation of rain, even he didn't know quite what to expect.

We began our adventure by exiting the lower end of campus, sliding under a walking bridge that crossed the stream that runs through campus. A couple steps later, we spotted a large pipe, also spanning the waterway. Dillon informed us that we had to shimmy across it. He led the way, followed by myself, Austin, Brenna, and Kendall. The pipe wiggled under our weight as we slid along, which wasn't exactly a comforting sensation. We managed to traverse the pipe successfully, albeit slowly, without major mishap (i.e. falling about ten feet into the stream below).

After Dillon's menial mental capacities allowed him to recall the specific location of the drainage tunnel, we cautiously crept down the steep embankment to its mouth. Since Kendall had lost the "nose goes" game earlier, she was the lucky adventurer selected to lead the expedition into the darkness.

We shook hands and exchanged grim looks, fully aware of the perilous course we had set for ourselves. I fixed my comrades with a firm gaze and murmured, "The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted. It belongs to the brave." The beams from five flashlights cut through the inky darkness as, one by one, we entered the cavern. Five began the voyage. We didn't know how many would complete it. But with courage in our hearts and shakiness in our knees, we set out to conquer the mile-long tunnel.

Ok, maybe I embellished that last bit, but if I had been calm enough to think clearly at the time we entered the tunnel, it might have wound up looking something like that. As it was, I could hardly stop the adrenaline shivers that raced through my body.

Long story short, the tunnel was awesome. There was some "interesting" graffiti on the walls, our feet got wet from accidentally stepping in the trickle of water running through the tunnel, and a multitude of less-than desirable companions joined us (i.e. cockroaches and spiders), but the journey was well worth it. We explored a side tunnel, which led to a rectangular room with a drain at the top, but quickly returned to the main tunnel when we saw a suspicious spider. Dillon hid and tried to scare us, but failed because we were expecting it. I had no trouble standing up straight in the tunnel, and it wasn't too short for Brenna and Kendall either. The guys weren't so lucky.

When the tunnel finally reached its end, we found ourselves in a small triangular space, covered in a pool of water a few inches deep and surrounded by 5.5 foot cement walls. Dillon and I had little trouble scaling these walls and standing on the top. The other three found this a little more difficult. Dillon pulled Austin up (with a little help from Kendall and Brenna down below?). That just left Kendall and Brenna. I hopped back down, and with the guys lifting from above and me pushing from below, the girls scrambled their way to the top of the wall. Lastly, the guys lifted me up by my arms. A few chain-link fences later, and we were in the La Mirada park, ready to walk back to campus.

After a couple valiant attempts by the guys to catch some water fowl in the park (they came pretty dang close) and running across a street (during which I had the grace and nimbleness to trip over the curb and fall flat on my face), we returned to campus. We were tired and dirty, but in high spirits. No adventure could have been more epic.

We finished our night off with an appearance at Study Break in the Caf, where we fed our weary bodies. Then we parted ways with the guys and went back to Hope, to savor hot showers and comfy, warm beds.

So there you have it. Easily the most monumental escapade of our semester. Hope you enjoyed living vicariously through us. We're all home now, and perhaps we'll have stories to relate in the near future. Check back and see.

Merry Christmas!

-Jojo

Surprise Attacks, Tunnel Adventures, and Wishing Upon A Star[bucks]

Brenns here.

And it's Finals week!!! Jojo and I are currently studying at the Starbucks on the corner of Biola. Well, Jojo is studying. I'm finishing a paper and taking a break to blog about our awesome night last night!

I just decided that I'm going to let Jojo tell all of you about the tunnel adventure, since she is the story-telling extrordinaire.

But the rest of the night went like this!

Church- Epic... see my blog to hear just how epic I think it was

After church we stopped by Target so I could pick up my Nerf gun!!! Woot! After much practicing we then decided to go to Horton and attack our friends. But not until after my Chess game!

I was a White Knight. I got to kill a pawn, a knight, and the QUEEN!!!!! Muahahaha!!! The entire time I was singing "I'm in a box!" to the tune of I'm on a boat. I was also recreating this video. And singing the song "my white knight"from The Music Man.

After that I went on a McDee's run with my 4D peeps, since we were STARVING!!!! Then we got back in time to go massacre our friends in Horton, along with others in Emerson and those we met along the way back to Hope.

After that was The Great Tunnel Adventure! You'll hear about that after finals week, when Jojie has time to write.

Now we're in Starbucks. Kensington joined us.

How Jojo feels about studying:

Papers!

All of Jojie's French flash cards:

Me, hiding behind my comptuer, per usual:

and Coffee!!!! the thing that gets us through:

That's all for now! I'm sure the next post will be much more enjoyable. I saved the best part for the best writer.

Good luck on finals and such!

-Brenna Kathleen