Amazing races and zombie apocalypses of Olympic proportions

Let me just say that it has been one of the most eventful weekends on campus in Biola's history. Well, okay, maybe that's a gross exaggeration, but it has been the most eventful weekend of this semester, and it's not even over yet people! We will see what Sunday holds... but back to the reason I'm writing THIS blog...

The weekend really started for us yesterday (okay, duh, it was friday...) when my roommates, I, and two of our guy friends, Dillon and Austin, went on our floor's GYRAD (aka "Get Your Roommate A Date"). GYRADs are an old Biola tradition, where you go out for a night and usually do something awesome and random... I will leave it at that. What we ended up doing for this one was going on an Olympic themed Amazing Race along Beach Blvd. which ended with a bonfire and Taco Bell at Huntington Beach.

So the five of us dressed and yellow and decked ourselves out as team China, met in the lobby, and got going on our first challenge and clue. It was cut-throat, exciting, and fairly dangerous (due to some crazy... yet still somehow safe driving *cough cough*), but worth every gasp, leap, and running step! We couldn't have asked for a better team ^_^.

But, I must say that before all of the riddle-reading, clue-solving, lane-cutting, Dizzy-bowling, Pyramid-making, frisbee-golfing, face-painting, line-dancing, taco-eating, and whatever else you can hyphen together, the best and perhaps most exciting thing about the entire shenanigan occured. This, my friends, would be the way in which we asked our dear friends to tag along with us on this grand adventure!

About a week before GYRAD, the three of us dressed in the garb of a made-up character of our choice and traversed campus to go meet our friends in their dorm

room. Little did they know what was coming when we asked if they were currently in their room. Brenna dressed as a french man named Jaques, complete with a smashing french mustache, Jojo dressed as a slick beatnik named Claude (she had a gotee), and I was a dang awesome cowboy named Charlie (I got to sport a nice handle-bar). Together, we called our little band "the Tashes". Brenna played the Uke, I played the guitar, Jojo was on spoons, and we all sang in order to serenade and win the aquiescence of our potential GYRAD dates.

What did we sing you ask? None other than our very own rendition of the hip-hop song "Replay" by lyaz. We revamped it to fit the occassion,

and thought it turned out pretty well. I'm guessing it must have been pretty sweet, because they ended up saying yes... but they may have only said yes because our ridiculous outfits and mustaches were so awesome that they could hardly handle it... the topic is up for debate. Anyways, our time and effort payed off and it was probably the most awesome and original way to ask someone on a GYRAD... or anything for that matter ;).

Now that you've heard that heartwarming story, it's time to talk about the zombies. Last night when we got

home from GYRAD to find out that the power all across campus had gone off while we were out on our adventure. We figured all we'd have to deal with was the alarm that followed, but when we woke up the next morning, we noticed that the power kept surging on and off for about an hour. We thought "hey, whatever! This could be fun"... but then it didn't come back on for 11 hours...

We felt like we were in a movie or some freaky, psycho social experiment. Campus-wide we had no power, yet everything surrounding us did. As the rain fell hard outside and rumors of earthquakes and tsunamis swirled in our minds, we watched the sun gradually set outside our window, wondering what was going to happen when the entire campus became pitch black. In the course of the night it came back on once, for maybe an hour, ruining all plans we had of sneaking around campus fighting a zombie apocalypse with our nerf guns.

When it went off again, Jojo and I dropped what we were doing and ran back to the dorm to come to the aid of a very distressed Brenna. We grabbed our nerf guns and flashlights and picked up a friend of ours as we were walking out of the dorm. We travelled across campus, under the pitch black parking garage, and took our friend Grace back to her dorm room. We explored various different floors of her dorm, and then the lights sadly came back on... for good this time. So we dropped her off at her room, seeing to it that she was safe from all threats, and proceeded to the dorm next door in order to check up on our good friend Dillon (yes, the very same Dillon who went on GYRAD with us the night before). We figured we might as well not let our ammunition go to waste (seeing as we didn't run into any zombies. ), so we hid in the lobby and called poor, unsuspecting Dillon down.

Shots were fired, laughs were enjoyed, conversation was made, and then we made our way back into the night, with joy in our hearts at the fact that we saved our campus and dear friends from a zombie apocalypse. I do wish the power was still out... but hey, I guess I can't complain too much that the luxuries of Biola life have returned once more... though I can't deny I felt totally BA running across campus in the pitch dark with a nerf gun! Well, that's all for now! Stay safe all! And if the power goes out again, keep your flashlights and nerf guns nearby!

~Kendall :)

Hello New Year, New Decade, New Semester!!

WE'RE BACK!!

*and there was much rejoicing*

Ok, ok. I should be honest.

*and there was a head nod and a few grunts*

Wow. We can hardly believe 6 weeks went by so quickly!! It seems like we just left school and now we're here again! Totally. Crazy. But we all had a great time on our respective breaks.

Speaking for solely for myself, this was the best break from school (counting Thanksgiving, spring break, summer, Labor Day etc.) I've had in a while. It was so good to see my family, friends, boyfriend, and dog. The boy and I celebrated our one year dating anniversary. He took me out to dinner and to see The Beauty and the Beast at the Ordway, which was fantastic! We also both celebrated our 20th birthdays, though he had to be at school for mine, which was rather a bummer.

I also got to have a lot of other fun adventures, with him and with others, such as sledding, ice skating, playing board games, going swing dancing, baking, seeing The Christmas Carol at the Guthrie Theater, shopping, watching movies and tv shows, etc. Let's just say I kept busy.

But now that's all over and here we are again!

Last weekend, before classes started, we had fun just hanging out and having a good time. On Sunday, after church, Brenna and Kendall blindfolded me and took me to an outdoor mall in Irvine for my birthday. It was really cool for me, since chilly ol' Minnesota doesn't have outdoor malls. It just wouldn't be practical. Anyway, we poked around in a few stores and Kenny and Brenna both bought some cute things. I kept my money in my pocket.

But the best part, by far, was the carousel ride! We were like little kids again, except we rode side-saddle because of our skirts. It was very fun. I hadn't been on a carousel in years and it was great. Normally, I'm more of a roller coaster/intense G's sort of ride person, but carousels are still thoroughly enjoyable.

We ate an early dinner at Red Robin and then headed back to campus. Kendall and I played frisbee later that night, and it was great to see all the old frisbee friends again.

Our first week of classes went fairly well. It was a rather long week though, and it's hard to readjust to doing hw all the time, instead of what we want to do. But we've got three semesters under our belts, so I'm sure we'll be just fine.

That's all from the First South girls for now. Gotta do some hw.

*EDIT*

Well, my roomies are officially the coolest and most crafty people I know. They just surprised me with a birthday party and cleverly arranged everything without me even getting the tiniest bit suspicious. Ladies and gentlemen, I live with brilliant people. A ton of my friends jumped out from behind couches when I walked into our floor's lounge tonight. I had been totally oblivious up to that point. We had cookies and cupcakes, played Guitar Hero, and watched THE DARK KNIGHT!!! (Only my most favorite movie ever.) It was lovely, and I am in awe of their deviousness. Kudos to them all.

-Jojo