California Summer

Summer is most definitely here. It got up to 97 today; Jeremy and I finally broke down and put on the air conditioning. Summer also means...well...summer classes. Jeremy's taking a Greek intensive this summer - or, 10 weeks of 12 credits worth of Greek, meeting 3 times a week for 4 hours per meeting. He's doing well, since he took it at Calvin, but he's grateful for the refresher before he takes classes that utilize Greek. I'm taking three classes this summer (also 12 credits) - a one-week intensive and two two-week intensives. I just finished my one-week intensive, Biblical Foundations of Mission, which met from 8:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. - long days, but it was a good class. Then I'll start my other two classes soon. So...summer will be busy! Good thing we like what we're doing.

Jeremy and I also begin our jobs this week. (Finally!) We're working in a church, leading a worship service for the youth. I think I mentioned it in my last post...so you can look at it there, because I don't want to type it all now. But, we start this week...and we're excited.

Not too long ago, we went to a place called Venice Beach, which is basically the hippie haven of the LA beach scene. Here, we learned why pot should not be legalized. The area started off as one of my favorites in LA so far; there were vendors lining the beach, selling their art glass and jewelry and cool clothes. The further we walked, however, the more bong-sellers we passed and the more really bad indie music street musicians we passed, which soon turned into people on bikes yelling "Hey, man, you want a bong?" and a not-so-authentic looking medicinal marijuana clinic. And, it culminated with a guy, who rode his bike in a sort of zig-zag pattern, running over an unsupervised small child. But, hey, the beginning of the street was pretty cool.

Also, I think every Christian should watch the movie Saved. And that's all I have to say about that.

Jeremy would like you to know that Charlie has developed the ability to be even lazier than he was before, which is no small feat.

As you can tell, I'm running out of things to update you on. We're still doing well and we still like California a lot. And we're keeping busy. At this very moment, we're all piled on the couch, Jeremy and I on one cushion, and charlie on the other...with his butt trying to push me further onto my own side. This is in fact an improvement, as usually Jeremy and I are laying on the floor, while Charlie stretches out across the whole couch. Oops.

And, as always, I leave you with a picture. Let's make it a Charlie one: