12 Months, Hundreds of Memories!

So here's the thing. I have been meaning to blog since I got home from school. You know, update people on the end of semester and finals, then Christmas came, and then New Years, and still no update. So sorry about that! But since this is the start of a new year I thought I would take some time to review the year we just completed. (Actually, I was just on a different blog where she did 12 pictures from 2011, one for each month of the year and I thought I would try to follow suit. However, I'm not sure I'll be able to narrow it down to just 1 picture from each month! So many to choose from!) Anyways. Here's 2011 in picture review!

January:

(Daniel LaBelle took this great photo during our weekend in Door County!)

Started off 2011 with a weekend of hanging out with friends in the DoCo! I don't get to see my friends from the greater Zion area a ton during the year, and so it was great to get to spend some time with a lot of them! (This year too!) The rest of January I spent at home, doing some work for camp, and finding ways of otherwise enjoying time without school work to do. At the end of the month it was back to school for second semester.

February:

A picture from our annual soccer banquet with my dear friend Jenny. February was mostly filled with school, but check out the exciting adventure that also occurred during February here! Ok. So Greenville isn't the most exciting place in the winter... :)

March:

Came home for Spring Break in March. My family got tickets to a Buck's game, and though we don't really follow the Bucks much it was a pretty fun time and cool experience. I celebrated my 20th Birthday over Spring Break. And I started coaching my first soccer team made of four and five year olds! I had so much fun with my itty-bitties, and was hopefully able to teach them a little about the beautiful game.

April:

Over Easter weekend some friends from Greenville and I packed up Rachel Irwin's little car and drove to Tennessee for a weekend of camping. We spent the weekend at Land Between the Lakes campground. I had a blast camping with my dear friends, even if we had to cut the trip a day short due to intense winds destroying our tent.

May:

In May I finished half of my college career! But let's back-up a bit. This picture is from our soccer team's trip to St. Louis to help with tornado relief. St. Louis experienced some huge storms and tornadoes this past spring, and we drove in to help with the clean up one day. The destruction was incredible, and it was a good reminder of how blessed I am. *Note: The lady in the middle of this picture is not part of our group. She had NO clue as to what was going on! May also marked the summer of weddings, the first of which was my cousin Joanna's wedding.

June:

June was a remarkably busy month, but the most exciting event of this month was the wedding of my best friend to the love of her life! (Read about the whole wedding weekend here!) It was such an amazing, and surreal weekend. I'm so very happy for my dear friend, and so glad I got to see her this past week! It had been far too long. Also in June I flew out to Phoenix to spend some time with my grandpa, uncle and roommate as well as attend the wedding of Joel and Kim Robinson, two dear friends who graduated from Greenville a few years ago.

July:

Thanks Laura for this picture!

July continued the Summer of Weddings with seeing my other best friend married to the love of her life! Anna and Drew's wedding weekend was such a beautiful and fun time. The whole wedding party was some of my closest friends and we had a great time hanging out and being a part of our friends' special day.

August:

After a busy summer of work I headed back to Greenville in mid-August for soccer preseason. Gotta love Southern Illinois in August! And you gotta have a picture of the four soccer Rachels!

September:

Took an amazing trip to Texas with my soccer team in early September. Spent several days playing soccer, shopping and walking around the Riverwalk area, singing and fellowshipping with my teammates.

October:

October was filled with soccer and school. But we did manage to take a break from all that and have some fun at the Homecoming dance. Love me a chance to get all dressed up and dance the night away with my girls!

November:

Meeting Mario Vargas Llosa! Some members of various Spanish classes traveled to St. Louis University to "meet" and listen to Mario Vargas Llosa speak (Spanish author and political figure, and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature). It was a unique experience that not many people will ever get to experience. In November I also was able to spend Thanksgiving with my dad's whole family at my grandparents house in Zion. It's always good to be with family!

December:

What would December be without an Ugly Christmas Sweater Party? Amidst studying for finals, finishing up classes, pulling some harmless pranks, and packing up my room to head back to Door County before studying abroad next semester, we were able to have some fun at Emily Rose's house in Springfield at an Ugly Christmas Sweater Party. And let me tell you, we were ROCKING our ugly sweaters!

Well there you have it! 12 pictures, 12 months, hundreds of memories. Here's to the next 12!

Candlelit Memories

Last night at Vespers we had a candlelit service, and as I watched all the little candles being lit one row at a time I started to think back to all the previous candlelit services I have sat through. Or stood through, because I guess typically by the time the candles are lit, you're usually standing. Anyways. I have several very clear memories of these services that really show I and my siblings and cousins got the most out of the candlelit services we attended.

Most of the memories I have of candlelit services come from my grandparents' church out in Phoenix, where I spent roughly half of my childhood Christmases. My mom's side of the family met at my grandparents' house every other Christmas, and every Christmas Eve we would all walk the couple of blocks up to their little church where we would join in the singing, and Bible reading, and of course, the candlelit service. After singing hymns and listening to others in the church sing their prepared numbers we would take the little candles we had been playing with all service and watch as one by one, row by row they were lit, making the whole sanctuary look like a little fairyland, with seemingly hundreds of dancing lights. After everyone's candles were lit we would march out to the lawn of the church where we would sing Silent Night and Joy to the World. And then as if on cue all the candles would be blown out...well not quite all. The Finger clan (with all 16 grandchildren) would still be running around playing with our candles as we tried to keep them lit as long as possible.

Memories I have of candlelit services:

1. A random kid blowing out one of my cousin's candles and the rest of us turning to glare at whomever would dare to blow out a candle that was not their own.

2. Using the candles as swords. The paper guards they put on so wax doesn't get all over you makes for a perfect hand guard in sword fights.

3. Trying to keep our candles lit the whole walk back to my grandparents house. (Only to blow them out as soon as we got back in their yard.)

4. Getting wax accidentally on our hands, and then proceeding to cover our hands with wax so that it could be pulled off later (we were weird kids.).

5. Seeing how small we could let the candle burn down to before it became too hot to hold.

Like I said, we clearly got a lot out of the candlelit services we attended as children. :)

Mario Vargas Llosa

So yesterday I had a really cool and unique experience that I want to share with you a little bit! I'm taking a Latin American Literature course for my Spanish course this semester, and as of late we've been reading some of Mario Vargas Llosa's work. Mario Vargas Llosa is a pretty famous writer in Latin America and in Spain. He's been involved in the political scene in Peru (ran for president in 1990 and lost to Fujimori) and has recently re-become involved in Peru's political scene. Vargas Llosa also won the Nobel Prize for literature last year. And yesterday, he was in St. Louis! SLU (St. Louis University) awarded him their literary award, and my classmates and I got to go! It was pretty cool to get to see him, get his autograph and listen to this guy whose works we've been reading speak about some of his experiences! Not many people can say they've had that opportunity. So here's a few pictures from this unique experience!

Here he is signing someone else's book! 

And here he is signing mine! SO cool!

Being interviewed!

So anyways. That was my cool experience yesterday! Not many people can say they've heard speak/ pseudo met a Nobel Prize winner! It was pretty exciting, to be sure!

“I learned to read at the age of five, in Brother Justiniano’s class at the De la Salle Academy in Cochabamba, Bolivia. It is the most important thing that has ever happened to me. Almost seventy years later I remember clearly how the magic of translating the words in books into images enriched my life, breaking the barriers of time and space...” 
― Mario Vargas Llosa

Fair Trade

For my Social Theory class ( haha I don't know what it means either...I'm partially kidding...but seriously...) we have a paper due this week. For this paper, we had to pick a global issue and apply a specific social theory to that issue (exciting stuff, I know.). Anyways. The topic I chose to research and qualify from a structural functionalism perspective (Don't worry. You don't have to understand that to understand this post. :) ) is the how fairly traded products are helping to combat the issue of unfair wages and working conditions. I thought I'd share a bit of what I've found with all ya'll. I'll spare you the boring theory parts of my paper, but the gist of it is that throughout the world the working poor are exploited by the wealthy upper class. In order to provide cheap products to consumers (namely those consumers in the United States), millions of people are forced to work for wages that are barely enough to survive on (We're talking people living on a dollar or a couple of dollars a day. And we want to complain about our financial situations??). The idea behind the fair trade movement is purchasing products that have been traded in a way that gives the farmers and workers that provide these products a fair wage for their labors. It cuts out the middlemen involved in the selling process, allowing the farmers and workers to receive top dollar for their product. It's a movement that has been gaining ground in recent years, and has the potential to change the lives of the working population all around the world. And it starts with us, the consumers.

In researching for this paper, I came across some information via the largest certifier of fair trade products in the US (Many stores or church groups sell products that are based on fairly traded principles, but they may not have the certified label on it. This just means that they haven't gone through the certification process. It doesn't mean workers aren't receiving fair pay for their product. You just have to be careful because sometimes stores will try to say something is fairly traded, even though it hasn't been.). This certifier is called Fair Trade USA. In order for a product to be technically considered 'fair trade' it needs to have a label on it that looks something like this:

As I said, Fair Trade USA is the largest certifier of fairly traded products in the U.S. This means that most likely, for a product to be considered fair trade it has to get the stamp (or label) of approval from this organization. I've found a lot of information on Fair Trade USA's website, and I'll post some of their videos on this post to help you become more informed about your purchasing power. One of Fair Trade USA's key points is that every purchase we make matters. When we make informed choices in our purchases we can be making a difference in the lives of workers all over the world. By purchasing a product with this label on it over a product that hasn't been fairly traded, we can be assured that farmers and workers are getting the most money for their product (because they don't have to go through middlemen, brokers, exporters, and all these other people who would be taking profits from them). We can also know that the higher profits these farmers receive will be used to build better communities, as well as used to make better products. And who doesn't want to be buying a better product for their dollar? So take a minute (or many minutes) to browse through these videos and others on the site, and become aware of the power we have as consumers.

And there's a bunch more on Fair Trade USA's website. I'm not saying Fair Trade will completely revolutionize the economic disparity much of the developing world finds itself in. But it could help for sure! And think about it. Products such as coffee, tea, sugar, chocolate, and bananas are some common fair trade items. We buy these things every day! Why not make a conscious effort to look for a fair trade certified label and directly impact someone's life for the better? You're already going to be using these items, so why not look for a fair trade certified label and help improve someone's life? Yes, it may cost a little bit more, but honestly I think it's worth it. I fully believe in the power of Fair Trade. Sometimes it's not always realistic to buy everything I need fair trade (especially being a college student), and not everything I purchase is fairly traded. But since I started researching for this paper, it's made me think about how easy it would be to just look for that label when I go out and buy coffee, or whatever else. I don't have much money, but I for sure have more than a lot of the people who work to make the products I buy all the time. It's really important for us to be able to make informed choices about what we purchase, and I know the next time I go out to get groceries or whatever else, I'll try to find certified fair trade products. Every purchase matters. And we can make a difference in the lives of so many people. Seems like the right thing to do, yeah? Just take some time to become more informed on this movement, and I hope you will consider starting to purchase fairly traded items! How about starting with that cup of coffee you drink every morning? :) Ok. That's all I have for now.

Long overdue update

I sincerely apologize for my inconsistency in posting lately. I have been so insanely busy, and even now I have a hundred other things to be doing, but I'm taking a minute to post, for therapeutic reasons :). So here's just a little update on life.

I've now been in classes for a month and a half or something crazy like that, and am down to the final five games of regular season soccer. Time flies! And let me just tell you, it's been so busy. Good, but busy. I feel like I hardly have a chance to breathe! We've been traveling a lot for soccer lately, which tends to mean missing classes. I enjoy being a student athlete, but it can be hard to balance everything and stay up with all I need to get done. I'll be grateful for some time to just focus on classes when soccer is done for the year. That being said, I do really enjoy having the opportunity to still play the game I love, and love getting to spend time with my teammates on our trips out of Greenville. Our team has been improving steadily throughout the season, and I'm excited to see what all we can accomplish with the remainder of our season. We've been attending an all athletics Bible study that Rachel B and I have been leading the worship for. It's been really encouraging to be able to worship and grow with my fellow GC athletes. My classes this semester are challenging, but in a good way (for the most part). I feel like I've had a lot more homework, specifically reading, this year than in semesters past, but at the same time I find the subject material interesting. It makes it a little easier to do the work when I find it enjoyable. Save for a few classes, I am enjoying the material being presented to me in class. It's starting to turn into fall here, which might possibly be my favorite time of year. Of course, I say that every time the seasons change. I love it when summer turns into fall, fall into winter, winter to spring and spring to summer. Just that little change to break up the monotony. But I really do love fall, with all the trees changing colors, the air getting just a bit cooler and crisper, when I can pull out and wear sweaters and boots, and of course the appearance apples and pumpkin spice lattes. Mmmm. Yes, I love fall indeed. It hits a little later down here than it does back home and I've been ready for the seasons to change for awhile now. Case and point, I sent all my shorts and tank tops home with my parents when they were down here thinking it was about time for fall to start, and then it stayed in the mid 80s that whole next week. I'm hoping it starts to cool down for good soon. Fall just isn't the same when it's constantly hot. Gotta love Southern Illinois weather. At least in Wisconsin when it gets cold you know it's going to stay cold. None of this changing back and forth stuff. You know when you wake up it will be cold, it's just a matter of how cold and how many layers you need to put on. :) So yeah. That's been life since my last post, which was shamefully long ago. Sorry bout that!

Soccer Blog

Check it out! I'm going to be blogging for the Greenville College Women's Soccer team this season! Stay up on what's happening on my team by following the blog and liking us on facebook. Here's my first blog post. Enjoy!

Texas!

I am privileged to be a part of an amazing soccer team. I never dreamt of playing soccer at this level, but I am so glad that I still get to play the game I love. I am also glad that the team I play for gets to take super fun trips like the one we just took to San Antonio, Texas. Though the trip wore me out beyond belief, and though I missed a bunch of school right off the bat, I had a great time with my teammates and coaches and made a ton of awesome memories.

We left Thursday after our morning classes to play a game against Lindenwood-Belleville, which is just about an hour from Greenville. Put a win on the board from that game, woo woo! After the boys played (and showered!) we piled onto our bus and started the long trek to Texas. Well, I guess we technically started the long trek to Oklahoma, since we spent a few hours in a hotel there. Now as fun as all that time on a bus sounds, let me tell you. It really isn't all that fun. But at least that first leg of the journey wasn't too terrible. Friday morning we got back onto the bus and started the next leg.

She looks so good. ;)

This time...not so fun. Who knew Dallas traffic could be so terrible?! Turns out it can. And was. After a looooooonnnnnnnngggggggg time on the bus we finally got to our hotel in San Antonio, and it was straight to bed! (I don't think anyone was complaining.) We got up Saturday morning for a whole day filled with soccer. Girls played Mary Hardin-Baylor in the early afternoon, and it was so hot. My northern blood doesn't know how to handle heat like that...and I didn't even play in that game. Kudos to the girls who did! Though we didn't play well, we were able to pull off another win after going into double overtime. After our game the guy's team played Trinity. Trinity is a very good side for both guys and girls. Our boys did so good and held them to 1-0. Disappointing to lose, but they stayed competitive through the whole game. After the guys game (I told you it was a whole day affair) we were able to watch the Trinity girls play the Hardin-Simmons girls. Holy cow. That was some good soccer. Not only are these two teams huge rivals, but they are also two of the top teams in the nation. Hardin-Simmons won the national tournament last year, and as we sat there we watched Trinity (who we were about to play on Monday) beat Hardin Simmons 3-2 in double overtime. So stinking good. Even though watching that game made us slightly terrified to play Trinity on Monday, it was an awesome game to watch, and was seriously some good soccer. And that was basically Saturday.

Sunday we had the day off from soccer. We started off the day by going to church as a team. It is still awesome to me that I am part of a team where we can openly worship together. Once again I am reminded of why I chose a faith-based institution. We went to the Alamo United Methodist Church, and it was a different service from what I'm used to, but I think it's always good to be able to see how other people worship, and get out of our normal Sunday routines. After church we headed to check out the historic Alamo. I have to admit, I thought it would be a little more exciting. ;)

There it is. 

Alright, so not a super impressive building. But the history is still cool. After we took a picture in front of the Alamo we split off and had the rest of the day to walk around and shop at the Riverwalk area. I had so much fun with my girls. I seriously have the best teammates.

Gotta have a picture with all the soccer Rachels. Classic. :)

She's a little feisty sometimes. :)

Best shirt ever: Relax, Gringo. I'm leagal!

After a day of shopping, taking pictures, and otherwise enjoying each other's company we headed to dinner and then back to the hotel. Sunday night was perhaps my favorite part of the trip. We played games as a whole team (guys and girls) and then had a worship session. And here's what was so cool. B and I led the team in some worship songs, and then we had asked Dan Taylor to pray when we got done. But instead of just pray he took a moment and completely laid out the gospel for the team. I go to a faith-based institution, and am part of a "Christian team" but that doesn't mean everyone is on the same spiritual level. And it was SO awesome for him to spell out, in clear and simple terms, exactly what it means to be a Christian. I don't know if anyone's lives were changed that night, but I hope and pray that some seed was planted. And I know we didn't get together that night to have the message of the gospel spoken to us, but God is so good. And he can move in any situation. He can take a simple team meeting time and turn it into something so much more than that. As the Trinity girl's coach would tell us later, there is no greater victory than salvation. In the end it's not about score boards and wins and losses. It's about the love of Jesus Christ, and accepting that gift of love he so graciously offers. So yes, we did get up the next day and play Trinity (remember how I said they were stinking good? I'll leave it at that. ;) ) and yes, we did get on a bus and drive straight through to Illinois. But honestly, that's not what is most important. What is important, is the victory we have in Christ Jesus. There is no victory, no wins after a soccer game that could ever be more important than that. Amen!