love is

singing to the soundtrack of tarzan with your roommates on a tuesday night.

it’s ok. i’d be jealous too.

…

from cheerios to chicken cordon bleu.

it’s kind of ridiculous how i have become a food-blog groupie.
a loyal reader.
a scavenger.
a slave.

everything just looks so good on here & here. and here.  if i liked cooking more than building models, i’d be in our little college kitchen all. the. time, whipping up concoctions with sun-dried tomatoes and pesto and feta cheese.  and if only trader joe’s sold a slightly larger assortment of spices & baking ingredients, i’d be a smidge happier.  just a smidge.

the funny thing is, I didn’t cook AT ALL in high school.  like nothing.  cereal after basketball practice and microwave-able lean cuisines were my nightly diet (so shameful…i know).  but because my roommates and I have a wonderful system of taking turns cooking dinner, and because all these food blogs grab me by the taste buds, I’ve started experimenting with as many recipes as possible.  our apartment is practically a cafe with new items on the menu every week and friends occassionally come over to indulge with us.  my roommates and I absolutely love it.

so that is why we have decided to share our meals with you.  yes, we are creating a food blog.  and we hope you are expectantly waiting for its debut!

_chappie

colossians 1:17

the start of every year is always so awkward and strange, trying to find a balance among all the obligations, mapping a routine that makes at least some sense, grasping friends in one hand and schoolwork in the other.  the start of every year is nothing short of a puzzle.  and now that it’s week four, i have an idea how this sophomore puzzle is gonna piece together.

architecture is dragging. my older friends weren’t kidding when they said that 2nd year would be way. too. slow. it’s not exciting yet.  my studio teacher does the best he can (or does he?) to not stress us out, but there’s a fine line between kindness and apathy.  i want to learn something, i want to taste something different about architecture, i want to absorb everything i can about design.  so since i’m not getting that knowledge in my studio, i’m relying on materialicious & arch_daily.

campus crusade is encouraging. my apprehension of leading a freshmen study has been quelled by ten extremely insightful and passionate girls who love Jesus and what to know Him more.  God is just too good to me, i’m convinced.  i’m leading in Sequoia, the dorm i lived in last year, and the lessons are going really well so far. i’m super stoked to see how relationships will strengthen this year and where friendships will be sewn.

work is a blessing. i work for the dean of the business college on campus, doing what Andrea Sachs does in The Devil Wears Prada: all the errands, small copy jobs, invitations, thank you notes, etc etc.  fortunately, the women i work for are angels and so fun to interact with on a daily basis. God pretty much dropped this job in my lap, because i could not have searched for a better one with my own two eyes.

discipleship is blooming. meeting once a week with Kristen and Caellin is such a treat because i’m realizing how important it is to be myself around people.  i’m opening up a lot more this year than i ever have in my life (thanks to summer project) and it’s great to see more of who Kristen and Caellin are as well.  it’s exciting to see where God will route our d-ship because even though Kristen and I learned a tremendous amount at our summer projects, we still have so much more to learn about who He is.

friendships need watering. this year is pretty different from living in the dorms where i’d see the same faces every day. friendships take so much more effort and time (as they should), but they’re easy to neglect, especially with a jam-packed schedule.  i only have 4 hours of free time during my entire week this quarter, so i’m struggling to strengthen the friendships i already have and give life to ones i don’t yet.

on the other hand,

roommates are life-saving. together we have such fun. there’s no drama, no quarrels, no stress. the girls are actually stress-relieving, something i’m pretty sure can’t be said of most roommates. we have our apartment all decorated and functioning as it should for sophomore girls.  we even have meals down: each of us cooks one day of the week, which has been quite nice. Falafels & hummus, shrimp stir-fry, chicken cordon-bleu, to name a few…i can already smell your jealousy.

this year seems to be going by really fast though, at a pace i’m barely keeping up with.  midterm #1 is on Tuesday, a trip to San Fran on Thursday, and a 20th birthday on Saturday. the only thing really keeping me sane at this point, is the One and Only.  He holds everything together.

C’est la vie,
Chappie

from sequoia to the canyon

week one: conquered.

well maybe “conquered” is the wrong word…hmm…”completed,” “never again,” “STRESSED.” something like that would suffice.

i didn’t realize how unprepared i was for the first week of class.  the cause? (because Kayla Chapman and “unprepared” are never in the same sentence) i never expected second-year to be so starkly different from the first.  i am still living on campus, i am still a cal poly student, i am still in architecture classes.  but EVERYTHING else is different.

what used to be a five-minute walk to Sequioa Hall is now a 15-minute hassle out to Poly Canyon (so I prefer the 5-minute bike ride).  i no longer have a “just swipe your card” meal plan and paying the high-costs of campus food with real money seems RIDICULOUS.  i have my own key to the architecture studio, which makes my room extremely tidy without drawings and pencils sprawled about the floor.  but the 130’s are over and studio just feels void without Brent, Keith, and 48 other awesome architecture friends.

i actually needed a backpack this year too!  go figure.  see why I was unprepared?

i absolutely love living in Poly Canyon though, with brand new everything and beautiful views, and I adore my roommates Brita, Maleesa, & Erin (who you will get to know piece-by-piece).  what i don’t love, however, is that i can’t see the faces i’m used to seeing everyday. i don’t have the fun conversations with those familiar people from Sequoia and from bible study when i walk down the hall.  our new buildings feel hotel-like, with doors closed and blank walls with their “freshly installed” smell.  so it makes me smile every time i see a familiar face on campus, whether it’s Kelsey who I rarely spoke to two doors down last year or Ross who I no-longer have architecture with.

but even though my first week of class as a second-year architecture student was stressful with class and work and bible study follow-up and studio and making dinners and hanging out with friends and crusade and walking, i got through it.  and that’s what God kept whispering to me all week: “don’t worry, you’re gonna make it.”

God is good, i am stressed, and this wheel keeps turning.

C’est la vie,
Chappie