/karen/

First year houseparty

Sunday, 13 February, 2005

College is already taking its toll but perhaps it's just the accumulation of lack of good rest for the week. On Friday we learnt prepositions and engaged in a little kinaesthetic learning to help us remember them. After college, we drove home and I went to sleep for a good couple of hours. Then I ran around cooking dinner, packing and preparing for the houseparty.

It was being held down at those Anglican Youthworks centres (Deer Park, Chaldecot, Telford, Rathane—I remember them all vaguely from past camps I'd been on). We discovered that having an amp and a keyboard in the back, combined with poor suspension, made for a very slow journey on those dirt roads. People with much better cars (with much better suspension) kept overtaking us. We were also surprised to find that we had a room together—we thought that they had split up all the married couples with no kids and make them sleep in single-sex dorms like normal camps. But it seems that Moore has a very high regard for marriage and where they could put couples together, they did.

Friday evening was just supper and chatting. There was a competition running to design the best Mintie wrapper (except the concept was changed to “It's times like these that you need ... Ministries”) but only five tables participated. I spent most of the evening talking to one of the many Andrews before calling it a night and going to sleep.

The following morning I woke later than intended and rushed breakfast (pancakes). Ben and I were staying at Chaldecot and we set off way too late to get to music practice on time. Fortunately our band leader was also late and offered us a lift in his car (which he drove while trying to shave). The band was pretty together anyway and needed little rehearsal to perform the four songs for the morning. We heard an interview with one of the couples in first year (the kind where you send the wife out of the room, ask the husband a bunch of questions, and then get the wife back in to check to see if what he said was right) and a talk by one of the upper-year students on 1 Corinthians 2. Morning tea was in the dining room at Rathane. There were stacks of people around—not just first year students or upper year students on the Orientation committee but also wives, kids, Moore faculty, etc.

We split up into Chaplaincy groups following morning tea. Our chaplain is Philip Kern whose American accent may well cause my Canadian one to come out with greater frequency. Most of the first years in our Chaplaincy groups are Asian and can speak Cantonese or Mandarin which will give them a distinct advantage when we go on Mission in may to a Chinese church in Campsie. I wasn't feeling too good because all the talk about speaking Chinese was bringing up bad stuff from childhood which I didn't know how to deal with and might blog about later.

There were quiches and salad for lunch and we sat on the grass by the water (avoiding the deer poo), watching the boats go by. Free time started from this point onwards and we were invited to go on a little walk by the water. It was nice meeting new people throughout the day in a very leisurely manner and making connections between them (for example, Ben realised that the wife of one of our classmates is Bedhead's sister, and I eventually worked out that the blonde-haired Miriam is Erin's friend). We also went to a marriage enrichment seminar which was given by Keith Condie (Dean of Students who is currently on study leave). He split us up into same-sex groups and got us to write down the things that we wanted from our spouse. Then we compared lists and the similarities and differences between the genders were quite interesting. Keith went through some of the main Bible passages on marriage with us and just gave very practical instructions on how to make marriage work and keep on working, which cast a lot of insight into what life is like for married MTC students, whether their spouses are also studying or not.

Ben and I spent a bit of time just lazing around on the grass in the sun before getting our picture taken for Societas (they like doing these things early). He played around on his keyboard for a while and then we walked back to Chaldecott just in time for dinner. Then it was time to get ready for the evening's school-themed entertainment—Ben got dressed up in clothes akin to his old school uniform and I wore my Year 12 jersey (yes, such things do become useful, even ten years on in the future!) Huong graciously put my ridiculous hair in pigtails for me (it just gets all tangled up if I attempt to do it myself). The pigtails really accentuated the ridiculousness of the length of my hair and I got brownie points for them during the uniform inspection in the evening's competition.

Each event was based around a “subject”—the first being Textiles and Design (dressing up one member of our team in newspaper and sticky tape), then Physical Education (move five paper balls to a spot on the other side of the room one at a time with your entire group who all have their wrists taped together—scarier than doing the Hokey Pokey in St. Michael's hall, methinks), Music (one representative from each team had to eat a marshmallow every time Sting sings “Roxanne” and drink some red cordial every time he sings “red light”) and Physics (a raw egg blow-off between two people using a clear plastic tube). Sounds like youth group? Makes me glad I never went to one.

However, things got a bit scary during the egg blow-off—one of the guys, upon taking in a mouthful of egg, fell straight backwards from a standing position, hit the floor and must have lost consciousness. It was like seeing Uncle Derek's body being dragged from the pool all over again. Thankfully there were a number of medical professionals in the room who bounded over to help and then others calmly ushered everyone else out of the room and told them to go off to supper, and little groups of people gathered around the place to pray for the guy. (Thank God for Christians.) I think a good many of us were quite shaken up about the whole thing and so were relieved to hear, later in the evening, that he was on his way to hospital, he was now conscious and that friends were with him. And, in the Lord's graciousness, he was back with us again the following morning, scoffing down bacon and eggs for breakfast. I'm glad; I remember what it was like being in first year in International House when a guy who lived there who was also in my year got electrocuted and died while working at McDonald's. I didn't know him but I was there for his memorial service and it was so sad to see everyone grieving and it really affected some of them for quite a long time.

Anyways, I slept quite well last night despite being woken up in the early hours of the morning by what sounded like a kangaroo hopping past our door. We had another music rehearsal and the band really impressed Steve by saying they could play “My Hope is Built” (the Nicky Chiswell version) without sheet music. We heard another couple interview from Jo and Josh who are doing the opposite to us (living in Petersham and going to church in Blakehurst) and another talk from an upper-year Moore student—this time on Galatians 3.

During morning tea Ben and I packed the car. After morning tea, John Woodhouse spoke to us again about “Moore College and Knowing God”—reminding us that we are at MTC to know God—that knowing God is not purely about knowing facts about God, but also that knowing God means that God has made it possible for us to know him and that he has given us intellects so that we may know him. Though he may seem so much greater and unfathomable to us, it doesn't mean that we shouldn't try because he has made it possible for us to do so. John also spoke a fair bit to the wives—how their sacrifice and generosity for the sake of their husbands is acknowledged and appreciated. He took pains to stress the right perspective that we are to have on college—that it's not purely an academic exercise and that straight A's will not earn you brownie points in heaven. It was very helpful to hear.

Lunch followed, then a group photo (at point which my camera batter conveniently chose to die), then we took our car to traverse the incredibly bumpy road home again. MTC is also a firm believer in rest so tomorrow (Valentine's Day) we get the day off and don't have to be back at college for Greek weeks until Tuesday. At which point I hope to have grasped prepositions ...

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