Krissy's Visit

Sorry I've been a little absent from this blog lately, it's been a crazy few weeks. Krissy came to Portland last weekend and we had a lot of fun, so I thought I'd share about our visit. I am making up for my absence with A LOT of pictures. :) She came on Thursday, and we had a relaxing afternoon. We went to lunch, visited my school, mapped out our weekend plans, and went to the mall with the ice skating rink. (See here for a pic of the rink.) Friday we went to lunch at Chicago's Brewpub:

... and then went to Washington Park, which is one of the prettiest places I've ever been. Truly. At the park, we visited the Rose Garden:

The Holocaust Memorial:

And walked a trail through the Arboretum:

Then we went on to Powell's Books (sorry, no pic this time) and then went to the Mission Theater & Brewpub:

...where we had a brew, snacks, and watched Coraline. After that, we went to Urban Fondue, (where I went with Adriana on her visit) and had some delicious fondue:

Saturday morning, we went to Saturday Market downtown:

We walked around, saw the sights and had some lunch. Then we continued on to Oregon Museum of Science and Industry:

...where we had fun with science...

...watched a movie about oceans at the IMax...

...and watched a light show at the Planeterium set to music by U2. :) Also, we had licorice sodas!

Saturday night we met up with Krissy's friend Rachel, and went out on the town:

and after a long day, I drank Red Bull to stay awake (can you tell?)

Sunday was my favorite day, because I did not know the gloriousness that I was in for. We took a little road trip down the I-84...

...stopped a few times to take in the scenery...

...and then hiked a beautiful trail...

...to Multnomah Falls! GORGEOUS!

Seriously, a piece of heaven. We had a nice lunch up there, and then headed home and rested a bit before heading to:

...for dinner. It's on the 30th floor of a bank building downtown, and this is the view:

While we ate we watched the sun set and the city lights come up. It was pretty fabulous. Monday morning I took Krissy to the airport, after a pretty amazing weekend. We obviously took quite a few pictures, and this is only a sampling. There are more on my facebook page, if you're interested. Anyone else want to visit? :)

P.S. My friend Rochelle is getting married in September, and I posted some of her amazing engagement photos on my other blog.

Your Thoughts

Well, I'm back in the world of self-discovery. ;) My Social and Cultural class is challenging my views on a lot of things, some of which I'm sure I'll share later. One thing I read that caused me to think, is a question that the author of my textbook asked of many people, and the responses were interesting. So I decided to ask you.

What does it mean to be white?

If you don't have and answer to the question, you can also tell me your reaction to being asked - in counselor terms - how does it make you feel? :)

I don't think I have a lot of readers of other races, but if you are not white, please feel free to answer the question too. And be honest.

Back in Class

Well, classes started up again. So far, so good. I'm taking a counseling class called Social and Cultural Foundations, and a bible class called Epistles, where we'll be studying Acts through Galatians. It looks like the classes should be pretty interesting. My favorite thing about the bible class is that the professor has been to Israel several times, and as we read through the bible, he shows pictures of places I've been! It's pretty neat. So I decided to share some examples with you. :)

Acts 1:5 - for John baptized with water
Me getting baptized in the Jordan (where John baptized)

Acts 1:12 - Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet
A garden on the Mount of Olives

Acts 1:13 - When they had entered the city, they went up to the upper room
The upper room

Acts 3:1 - Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer.
The wailing wall (where the temple was before its destruction)

Acts 9:43 - And Peter stayed many days in Joppa with a tanner named Simon
Simon the Tanner's house

Acts 10:1 - Now there was a man at Caesarea named Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian cohort.
The hippodrome at Caesarea

Acts 12:19 - Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and spent time there.
The theater at Caesarea, where Peter preached (and Paul, too)

Pretty fun, huh? I may post more later. So... school is good. :)