Inspired.

It keeps slipping my mind to update my blog and I am disappointed in myself for not being a better blogger. I will continue to try my best. As for my time in Africa a lot has been the same. School is still kicking my butt. This week has been a lighter week, workload wise. Something that has been getting me through the school week is that they don't grade as hard here. Which is awesome! I am hoping for a 4.0 this semester. Which will boost my GPA. Life and Teachings of Jesus has been such a great class in boosting my knowledge of the bible. I continue to learn several new things a day that I never knew was in the bible. I am loving my art class, well beside the whole theory part. That is quite boring but when we get to draw it is so relaxing. For our History and Culture of South Africa class we get to go on field trips every Saturday so for this week we went to the Drakensberg Mountains. These mountains hold the oldest bushmen paintings. The thing is that it holds the paintings but they are surrounded by absolutely breathtaking scenery. It's like your in the middle of a movie, specifically Lord of the Rings. We actually found out later that Tolkien had lived in South Africa and was inspired by the Drakensberg Mountains. Of course many of the boys were having the times of their lives on this field trip being able to frolick around where the hobbits would of lived. It was a 45 minute hike up to the caves where the paintings were held and I took that time to just take in the view and to spend some alone time with God. It crazy to think about how someone could make something so beautiful. Luckily I had learned about the San Bushmen paintings in art class so I was able to appreciate the paintings and understand what was depicted. It is so crazy to think that people once lived in those caves and the environment around them was there home and all they knew. We celebrated Valentine's day on campus a day early and had a dinner and dance. It was an absolute blast. Everyone got all dressed up and we got to have dinner in the conference center with tables decorated and sparkling cider. It honestly felt like a mini prom. The dance was a success and overall a fun night. For me Valentine's day is a holiday I usually try to skip over but this year I had a pretty good one. This coming week has been a hard one in that living with 54 other people can be daunting. People start to get frustrated with one another and little things annoy one another. I can even find myself falling to this and joining in with the frustrations. I continue to pray for the group we have here and that this group can be one big family. I hope that I will be able to invest in as many people as I can. All I can hope for is that I learn as much as I can from as many people as I can. It has almost been a month being here and I am already sad knowing that time is just flying by. Today as I was running throughout campus I just had this realization that I have taken this place for granted. I have taken South Africa for granted. It just kind of woke me up from this daze I have been of just going through the motions. I only have three and half months here and I begin to realize that I need to embrace every moment, every person, and every chance I get here. One thing I have learned is that I have been so inspired to just focus on myself and my family this summer. I almost want nothing to come in the way that I simply do not want to waste time working. Which of course my dad hearing that ask well how are you going to make money. I know that I will need to work but I just have such a desire to soak up every last second with them. I begin to realize that my summers at home are dwindling and that this most likely will be the last summer I will be at home. I would never like to admit that I am actually homesick while being in South Africa but I am. Not to the point where I am not loving Africa its more of being surrounded by family. So call me crazy that I would rather spend my whole summer with my family but I do. I am starting to see how God is opening my eyes to things that I never thought were important or that I would struggle with. I came into this trip with expectations and God is just destroying them. I hope to keep learning and having my eyes be opened.