Now officially a freshman

Greetings, Friends and Family,

Marhaba, or to those who don’t know Arabic, hello. I am finally back in school (yeah, I love school!). I’m a freshman and everything is exciting and new and the possibilities are endless. Everything is perfect, except for the fact that I’m paying through my nose to go here. Don’t feel sorry for me or anything, the Lord had provided for me so far and will continue to do so for as long as he wants me in school. Now I suppose you want to know what has happened this past week, so here we go.

Sunday Mom, Serena, and I drove up to Columbus and they helped me move in. After a goodbye, slightly teary in the case of Serena (love you twit!), they left and I was on my own. Oooo, scary thought. Only, wait….oh yeah, I was on my own all summer, so of course it was no big deal. It kind-of took all the fun out of being a freshman, but c’est la vie (or if you don’t speak french, it means ‘such is life’).

My roommate is Suzanne Van-Horn. She is from Ohio and is hasn’t decided on a major yet. We have gotten along very well so far, and I love her to death for bringing a printer so I don’t have to run out to one of the libraries every time I want to print something. It took a bit to get my computer set up right, but it all worked out in the end thanks to years of computer fiddling with my dad and a bit of on the spot phone help from him. My room is a double, big enough for my needs, and has an east window, so I get the rising sun. The down side is that our hall, Bradly hall, doesn’t have air conditioning. So, as much as I like the sun, as long as its hot (which it was been) the morning sun makes it super hot.

Monday and Tuesday were settling in and settling affairs days. I went to convocation where lots of scholarly professors made speeches meant to make us freshman feel patriotic, excited about classes, and glad to be going to Ohio State despite however much we were paying them. I read my book most of the time and just kept my ears pricked for anything of import, of which there was a small amount. The OSU marching band was there too, and that was pretty cool. They are very good, and I like loud music with lots of drums and trumpets. That afternoon was the Student Involvement Fair where all the organizations at OSU set up tables on the Oval (big grassy oval in the middle of campus) and try to get students interested in them. It was packed! You could hardly move. On the plus side there was free food, ice cream, and a band playing.

Wednesday classes started (yeah!). I have Arabic at 8:30, Chinese speaking at 11:30, Chinese writing at 12:30. Those three classes are MTWRF. On MWF I have an honors survey class at 3:30, and on TR I have a Religious comparative studies class from 1:30-3:30. Arabic is very fascinating and it’s nice to be learning a phonetic language again. Chinese is just continuing where I left off, though definitely getting harder. Next Friday I have to give an oral presentation in Chinese, fun fun. Rel. comp. studies class is fascinating, we’re learning about Scientology at the moment.

Saturday I laid back a bit in the morning, did some errands, and then did homework for the rest of the day until about 7pm. At 7 I happened to find a Chinese movie playing on television and decided to watch that for homework (;)>) since it was all in Chinese and I could understand some of what they were saying. It was very cool.

I hope all of you are doing well, please tell me if you don’t want to get this update, I don’t want to bore you with blow by blow accounts of my college life. For prayer requests, I just need strength to work hard and get my homework done. Also, to get enough sleep, eat healthily, and not do anything stupid as freshmen are wont to do. Love you all.

Lydia Thomas

“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” I Corinthians 1:

“Age is foolish and forgetful when it underestimates youth”–Albus Dumbledore