Okay, so I'm leaving for Costa Rica in like 3 weeks!!! I am soooo excited! And what's also super exciting is that I am going on a mission trip this summer with my youth group. We're going to Pasadena, California to run a VBS program for innercity kids. It's going to be awesome.

So I spent the weekend at Topsail Island with the mission team, prepping for the trip. We spent most of the weekend democratically deciding on our team covenant, including objectives and team verse(s). I'll try to give a brief run-down of the weekend.

We got to the church at 5:30 (the specified time) only to find that none of our adult leaders had shown up yet...so we waited. And at about 6, they showed up, one by one. We didn't leave the church until about 6:40pm, or so, even though we were supposed to have left by 6pm and arrived by 8:30. We finally got to Topsail at about 9:30, and we wandered around in the dark trying to find our condos. We found them-- one for the girls and one for the guys. There were 7 female students, and three female leaders, plus my youth minister's 10-month old, Elisha. There were three bedrooms (2 double beds, 1 set of bunk beds and 2 pull-out couches). I ended up, much to my delight!, in the room with my youth minister and Elisha. The guys (seven guy students and 3 guy leaders) had their own condo, but we congregated for meetings and meals in the girls' condo. Elisha woke us up (and by us, I mean the two of us in our room) at 5:30am, and his mother didn't find it all that amusing. I, however, thought the situation delightful and enjoyed being up at dawn with this darling little baby.
We spent the day writing our team covenant and playing games. We only went down on the beach once, because it was so cold. I did wade into the water until it was just above my knees. My jeans were unmistakably wet after that. Dinner Saturday night was homemade spaghetti and meatballs, compliments of Carlye, Cameron and me. I was in charge of the pasta, and Cameron of the sauce (and meatballs). The boiling water splashed onto my hand once, but Cameron said I only got 1/2 point for that injury (we get points for injuries-- its a game-- based on creativity, though they can't be purposeful, and seriousness), but but when the Ragu sauce splashed onto her hand, she got 1 point. I told her that wasn't fair because the Ragu sauce was at least 100 degrees cooler than the water, but she didn't listen. Oh well.

The car ride back to Chapel Hill was one of the most interesting and most fun experiences of my life, and I would tell you about it, but you wouldn't understand half of what was going on. You really had to be there. Let' s just say that between Ben, a youth leader, and Emma, Cameron, Tim and me, (and Brownie, the teddy bear), the screaming, music playing, shutting-windows-on-people-who-stick-their-heads-out-the-windows, spanish-speaking, stupid-joke-telling (and more) never ends. It was quite the adventure, and quite the bonding experience. (In fact, I think I'm all bonded-out with these four people...but there's still 16 others on the team I need to bond with! I'll update you more as we get closer to the dates of our trip!!!!