Author: Trish

Things I’ve Learned in Greek Class

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One of my favorite things about the seven weeks I spent learning Greek at The Athens Centre was how we learned both the language and the culture.  The Greek language is rich, and as I came to see, very logical!  Although it can be complicated, there are reasons for the grammatical rules that are often based in a decidedly Greek worldview.  I had so much fun learning from my teachers, Roza and Eleni, who instilled a little bit of Greece into my soul.

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Below are some of my favorite facts and trivia that I learned while conjugating verbs and memorizing vocabulary.   Continue reading →

Letters Between Friends: THE CHART

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My Peoria church is quickly becoming a danger zone – once people start having kids, there will have to be strict NO DATING ANYONE IN YOUTH GROUP BECAUSE YOU ARE PROBABLY RELATED rules!

LettersBtwnFriends

Dear Tricia,

I still can’t see straight.  I’m still exhausted from this weekend’s activities.   Overall, Ashley & Daniel’s wedding  was a huge success.  No one body-checked anyone, the wedding ceremony went off without a hitch, at the reception, the food was great, we line danced, and we all left to go home before 10pm!  The hiccups, though all INCREDIBLY minor, consisted of 6 shout wipes and Ashley’s train before the ceremony, a BLUBBERY matron of honor speech and Ashley’s wallet sitting on my dining room table as they start the drive to Wisconsin.

There was a moment later into the reception where Wendy, Abby, Emily, Ashley & I were standing in a circle arms around each others’ shoulders.  I don’t remember who, but someone said, “We all are really sisters now…”  And it’s so crazy to wrap my brain around that.  I don’t know why, because we’ve talked about it for a LONG time…  Just more real I guess.

So for today, I made “THE CHART!”  I was giggling as I made this…We are one TWISTED group of people.  But no bubbles re-connect so that’s the important party RIGHT!?

I’m so GLAD you are having mental BREAKTHROUGH with the language!  You are pretty incredible.  You know that?

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!  Miss you like crazy!

Love,

Lindsay

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Overcoming a Language Meltdown

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Last week, six weeks of daily Greek lessons finally caught up to me and melted my brain.  It was the weirdest sensation – I could “see” all the information I’d learned, but everything was behind a mental glass wall.  No matter how hard I tried to break through, the wall remained.  I am happy to report that yesterday, everything came rushing back, and I’m actually enjoying learning Greek again.  How did this happen?  Well, I can identify three possible causes:

  1. I did no homework and spoke no Greek on Saturday, Sunday, or Monday.
  2. I skipped class.
  3. I repeated, “I don’t care about Greek, I don’t care if I sit there and say, ‘Δεν ξἐρω’ over and over again, I don’t care, I don’t care, I don’t care.”

Many, many people told me to “stop trying so hard,” and I finally understand why.  It feels counter-productive to stop doing something in order to get better at it, but….at least this time, that is exactly what worked!   Continue reading →

The Young Elites by Marie Lu

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9780147511683WOW, I am in love!  With a book, no surprise.  Short Story Long recently reviewed The Young Elites, and at the end she said:

Recommendation: Buy. If you’re looking for a fantasy story about the villain, definitely try The Young Elites.

I didn’t KNOW I was looking for a fantasy story about the villain, but immediately I realized that of course I was.  And it was SO GOOD.  I enjoyed Marie Lu’s Legend trilogy, but honestly, I didn’t think it was extraordinarily memorable.  Not so with The Young Elites, which fascinated me from the first chapter all the way through the tantalizing epilogue.

Adelina is a mess.  Her mother died young, she suffered through a disease that left her with only one eye, and her father is incredibly abusive – verbally, mentally, and physically.  Her horrific childhood has understandably aligned her strongly to the emotions of fear and rage (which in this fantasy world means she gains power from them).  What made me fall in love with this book is how her past is not something that is easily overcome – instead, I mean, it kind of overcomes her.

The fantasy world is amazing and interesting and engrossing, but I was so especially enthralled by the psychological aspects of Adelina’s journey.  She loathes her father…but she still kind of hopes that someday he will love her.  She desperately wants to rise above his low opinion of her, but she finds a weird sort of solace in sinking to his low expectations.  She wants to be hopeful and trusting, but she is more comfortable with fear and anger, and hey, she can use them AGAINST other people before they’re used against her, so…that’s something new, huh?

Adelina’s not the only psychologically interesting character.  Enzo is a fascinating male lead – exiled prince seeking to reclaim his throne…but unlike most YA heroes, he has no problem murdering innocent people to get there.  But despite his ruthlessness, he seems to appreciate and value Adelina, though their relationship is nicely twisty.

And then there’s Rafaele, who is a more feminine Finnick (from The Hunger Games series) …as in they are both forced into prostitution but play it off like a choice.  He is polite, sweet, and so helpful…which makes him SUPER interesting when he promises to protect Adelina and then immediately tells Enzo to kill her.

Anyway, what I mean is, everyone is a mess!  They could very easily be described as awful people…and yet I love them!  We’re meant to root for them, even while their actions are questionable at best.  I love this kind of story that forces me outside a typical plot and makes me step into the shoes of people I would not want to interact with in real life.  Or maybe I would!  No.  Maybe?   Continue reading →

Social Anxiety Disorder Checklist

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When I took my first psychology class as a junior in high school, I remember hurrying to the computer lab to look up “General Anxiety Disorder” and “Social Anxiety Disorder” because I was pretty sure I had some form of something.  Nevermind actual counselors or psychological tests – I recently came across this list on Tumblr, and it is law!
Totally kidding.  This is, by no means, a comprehensive or even slightly scientific list.  But it does cover a lot of things that make me go “eeeeeaaaaahhhh” on the inside, things that as a child I thought everyone experienced as horrible until I realized they’re mostly, like, no big deal to a lot of people.  So here’s a list of things that scare anxious people, and I’ve bolded the ones that resonated with me.  I also interjected thoughts or stories that I wanted to share.

Continue reading →

Workout Week n/a

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Astute readers of this blog will have noticed that last week, I did not write a Workout Week post.  Those astute readers will also quickly notice that this is also not a Workout Week post.

Here’s the deal:  The last time I worked out in the morning I threw up, so I don’t work out before leaving for class in the morning.  But I don’t get back from my class until 7:00, and after four hours of homework, it’s 11:00 and I don’t want to exercise.

Plus:  I hurt my left foot a couple weeks ago.  Not like, in any big deal way, but it hurts right in the middle any time I put pressure on it.  I think my new shoes, and then my new shoes falling apart at the heel, messed things up for me.  I’m now wearing TOMs all the time and wrapping my foot with athlete’s tape (thanks WebMD and YouTube!), and it feels a lot better.

For a week, I was not working out, AND I was feeling guilty for not working out.  The guilt made me want to eat more and be lazier, which is obviously not great.  So for my mental AND physical health, I’m taking a break from intentionally working out until my class is over.

That’s one more week!  So in two weeks, expect another Workout Week post!

 

Sunday Summary #19: What’s on the Internet

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Articles

1|  I’m still working my way through the list, but this is an awesome compilation of over 60 resources for couples (or interested singles) who want to shape their marriage around mutual submission instead of the more traditional “leader husband/submissive wife” roles.

Videos

1|  Solid gold parody!

2|  This passes the “laugh out loud” reblog rule MULTIPLE times.

A Week in Greece #7: Language Meltdown but Nice Classmates

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Ahhh, this was the week I felt like I moved from “I know cool people in Athens!” to “I have friends in Athens!”  And it was the week I had a mental breakdown, but you know what?  You can’t have everything.

On Sunday, I met up with Tonya and her friend Janet.  If those names sound unfamiliar, it’s because they are pretty new me too!  Tonya was in Level 4 at the Athens Centre, and during one break when our classes were both out, we discovered we had some mutual friends because she’s from Seattle working in Athens with a ministry to refugees.  She’s been here for three years, so she took me to an Irish pub restaurant for fish and chips, then we ate gelato at an ice cream/waffle sweet shop.

When I got back to the school, I met up with Ioanna and Olympia to go out for wine at a hipster restaurant near the school.  There was a cat wandering around, and HE LET ME PET HIM, and it was the first time I’ve pet a cat since I left Rory seven weeks ago.  I guess it was also fun to talk with friends.  Hahaha, no really, it WAS fun, because Ioanna pushed me to use Greek, and when I got overwhelmed, Olympia said, “Hey, it’s okay, we’ll speak in English now.”  They’re a good pair to have around.

Speaking of Greek! Continue reading →

Gender Roles as Taught by a Greek Evangelical Church

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It was my worst nightmare.  On February 14th I entered the church and saw that the bulletin announced that the day’s sermon would be on “Εφεσἱοθς 5:21-33.”  Great.  Valentine’s Day AND the Ephesians passage on marriage.  Always theologically paranoid where gender roles are concerned, I prepared myself to be righteously (and selfishly) annoyed.

Although the pastor taught a differentiation between the roles of husbands and wives, he preached a vision closer to egalitarianism than complementarianism.  In the end, the practical application was “both of you put the other first,” although he never quite said that in such explicit terms.  We had two weeks of sermons on this topic (one addressed to husbands, another to wives), and I wrote down some of the ideas that stuck out to me most.  This is a subject near and dear to my heart, and I was fascinated and excited (eventually) to see another culture’s perspective on the issue.

For Husbands   Continue reading →

Morning Star by Pierce Brown

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18966806Morning Star is the third book in the Red Rising series.  Check out my reviews of Red Rising and Golden Son before reading this one!

Pierce Brown is a genius.  His science-fiction-solar-system-Hunger-Games trilogy about social hierarchy, revolution, and loyalty is SO GOOD.  And so complex, which is why I was grateful that at the beginning of this final installment, he offered a recap of the previous two books and rundown of the major characters.  But even though there were a lot of details I had forgotten, I was immediately sucked back into the drama of Darrow’s life as he tries to lead a revolt against the seemingly all-powerful Golds without abandoning his morals in the process.

That’s what I liked most about Brown’s series, I think.  It’s morally complex, and it doesn’t shirk away from the reality that in order to take down a corrupt system, sometimes you have to become a little corrupt yourself.  Darrow does things he isn’t proud of, sacrifices people he shouldn’t, and makes hard decisions without fully knowing if they were the right choice.  But he wrestles with these experiences, and he let’s himself be hurt by what happens, and THAT, I think, is what makes him so admirable.  He doesn’t try to pretend that the ends justify the means.  Sometimes the means are really, really, awful.  He doesn’t sugar-coat things, but he keep going and trying and doing the best he can.

The other thing I really love about Brown’s series is that I legitimately never know what will happen next.  He is one of the most creative writers I know, and he packs a TON of action into each book.  There were twists that made me excited and twists that made me furious, but every single one had me turning pages faster and faster to find out what would happen next.  Although I HATED some of Brown’s decisions (WHY did *censored* have to die!?) I really admired the fact that Brown created a universe where no one felt safe.  The war felt real and dangerous, and I legitimately didn’t know who would survive until the end.

But there was an end!  And it was a very satisfying conclusion to a wonderfully entertaining and thoughtful series.  I can’t wait to see what else Brown has up his sleeves for future stories.   Continue reading →