South Carolina, Day 1

So yesterday we drove down to SC, about 8 hours. Including the leisurely 45 minute picnic lunch we had at a rest station along the way:) When we got to Janna's house (the lovely friend with whom I am staying - Hope's staying on the U campus) we made dinner, and then drove downtown. We walked to a GORGEOUS park with a waterfall, lots of winding paths, random porch swings (minus the porch of course), beautiful flowers . . . it was amazing. I'll load pictures when I get home, because genius me brought the camera but not the cord to put the pics on the ol' Mac here. So. Then we came back to the house and hung out with Janna's wonderful fiance, Andrew. He's a great guy:) We like him:) The Mother Ship calls him The Boy Wonder. Which he secretly loves, I'm convinced. She's really excited that there's a Mrs. Boy Wonder coming in June:D

Then today Janna and roomie got up early for Easter sunrise services (love these pagan holidays), which Hope and I slept in. The church we wanted to visit didn't start till 9:45 which was really nice after driving all day yesterday. And silly girls that we are, we used MapQuest to find the church. NEVER use MapQuest. GoogleMaps, kids. After an unexpected exploration of the city, we finally found the street we were looking for, and were only ten minutes late. Sunday School was a little . . . random. It had many stories. Seemingly pointless, but the man always found a way to (sorta) tie it in to his point. But the regular service was awesome! Great singing - or rather, enthusiastic singing:) Which to me, matters far more than sound quality. The preacher preached it hard today, although he screwed up Romans chapter 6 like all of them do. People. We DO NOT have a sin nature. You sin because you choose to. I'm going to get off the soap box before I write a whole blog about that. Anyway. Other than that the preaching was awesome and the people were very friendly. They were shouting "amen!" back at the preacher the whole time, haha! It was like a preaching contest there! It's a lot like the churches I remember going to when I was little - you know, back when people believed the Bible instead of giving you that Greek/Hebrew garbage. Pretty cool. I think I'm going to visit a couple others when I come for school in the fall, but Janna says only visit around for like a month and then pick one or you'll be visiting for the whole two/four years you're here! So I will. Pick one, that is. Not visit for two years:)
This afternoon we went to Andrew's aunt's house for Easter dinner. They were very kind and the food was AMAZING. And then I took Hope over to the University to her friend's room (who she'll stay with till Wednesday) and wandered a bit. Then I went to my Uncle Jared's house. He and my Aunt have two kids, Gus and Helena. They are ADORABLE and pretty obedient kids, for the most part. I tried to teach Gus how to whistle on grass but he gave up. And we ate an awesome dinner and then I read Gus stories for a while. Helena had to go to bed earlier, which Gus was very excited about, haha. Gus is only four, and Helena is just under 2. They're pretty cute. I'll post pictures of them too, when I get home.
More to come! Stay tuned!



Leah