day 294
Hey guys! Long time no see! It's been a busy week, but never fear, I have a ton of photos and stories to tell you. The reason I haven't uploaded was mostly because of a psychology test that I had on Monday, and I'm happy to report that I got a 93% on it! And then on Tuesday I might have gotten carried away in the pottery lab and spent the entire evening making a freaking teapot. It took three hours and many components and much sitting around waiting for everything to dry, but I'd say it looks pretty good so far.
But on to the blog post at hand. Because I really love all my 365 photos that I was too busy to actually post, I'm going to stretch out posting them so that each one gets the credit it deserves. These photos in particular were taken on Saturday. My friend Ivy and I bought tickets to go see Bombay Bicycle Club in Portland and man oh man, it was the best concert I've ever been to.
Portland itself is so gorgeous and it feels like every street is alive with music. Ivy and I ate dinner at a random street corner restaurant and I felt like if my parents knew what I was doing at the time, they would have killed me. Probably not actually, but I mean, Ivy and I were in a strange place eating dinner and then going to a concert surrounded by random other people. Okay, even when I say it like that it doesn't sound that bad, but at the time, I felt like such a rebel and it was an awesome feeling.
Then we stood outside for the doors to open, then we waited inside another hour for the concert to start. The opening band was Vacation and they were super chill (they would be proud of me for using that word, because the lead person said it a lot throughout the night). All the colors were so magical (actually, the whole show was magical), I just wanted to bathe in them all night long (and take them home with me for awesome pictures).
Finally Bombay Bicycle Club came on stage and everyone reveled in the music. After the event was over, Ivy made the statement that she felt God in the midst of the music, and it was so insane because I had that exact same thought. It's so beautiful to feel God even in a place where you wouldn't be looking for Him or expect Him to be in, and that night it was such a potent feeling I just wanted to laugh and cry and dance around because of it. To be honest, before coming to Oregon, I had all but given up on the idea of God just because I was tired of the whole Christian thing (our chapel topic today was about this too) and tired of God. But He knew that going to a building every Sunday morning wouldn't bring me back to Him. It's been through people and nature. We have been learning in our Bible class that to be a righteous person is to be in right relationships, and I have made such beautiful relationships in the short months that I've been in Oregon that I have fallen back in love with God just a little bit. And the same goes with Oregon itself. Who knew I could fall so madly in love with a place? The very ground I walk reminds me of God and I am constantly in awe of the beauty of the land. That beauty has made me fall in love with God too. I am so thankful that He is bringing me back slowly through people and through nature; it's as if I didn't even notice I was falling back in love with Him. It's a slow process though, but I'm not so tired of the whole Christian thing anymore.
But anyways, back to the retelling of events ... after the concert Ivy and I decided to drive to Washington just for the heck of it. It totally baffles me that it only takes a few hours to drive through the state. Alaska has rubbed off on me in the fact that we truly are secluded from the rest of the United States and can't just jump in a car and drive to a different state. Well we drove over the bridge into Washington--and then turned right back around to drive home.
It was an unbelievably, fantastically magical night, to say the very least.
