Snow...

It's snowing heavily outside right now. I just had a meeting across campus that turned out to be canceled, so I got to walk there and back in the snow! Its so beautiful. I understand now why we use the metaphor "white as snow" to describe our god's forgiveness. The snow is completely covering everything. Even though the roads and some of the paths were brown slush, now everything is covered in at least 2 inches of snow--unshoveled parts have more like four inches. There might even be five by the time I'm done writing this post!

Things are going pretty well at school right now. It was a bit hard adjusting back to college life. A couple days back in home and I had switched to Florida mode. I hadn't really prepared myself at all mentally for coming back, so when I rolled my suitcases into the room that Saturday afternoon, it felt surreal. After a couple of days, though, things got back to normal, classes started, and I switched back to "school mode."

We've started going full force on the Haiti Project, the service project our chapter of Engineers without Borders is doing. We'll probably be going the first week after finals are done this semester. In between now and then, we need to get travel paperwork approved, some $3000 raised, a maintenance schedule for the factory assembled, and arrangements for travel made. We've got a lot of work ahead of us. Our first group meeting will be this Thursday. We'll introduce the project in detail to everyone that comes, brainstorm funding options, and assign jobs. I'm the most excited about the assigning jobs part, because I really need to get some of the work off my back!
I can tell already that this project will be a great training opportunity for me. I'm having to make phone calls, send e-mails, call meetings, and make sure everything is taken care of. For the most part, I really like everything. Especially being in charge...

I'm about halfway through the book I got for Christmas, Lighting the Way, Nine Women who Changed Modern America by Karenna Gore Schiff. Right now, I'm reading about Virginia Durr, who contributed greatly to the movement that eventually abolished the poll tax. I've read about 4-5 of the subjects of this book, and all of the stories are quite amazing. The thing that strikes me the most is that these women were fighting things that were widely accepted by society. Lynchings, child labor, the brutal efforts of industry to keep labor unorganized, and many other social ills that the US once suffered from, were perfectly acceptable to the majority of US citizens. Often, these situations were ignored or approved of by the general press, the supreme court, congress, and the executive branch. It's heartening to see that despite all of the difficulties these women faced, the cause they worked for was eventually achieved. I think it is an excellent book, and not too hard of a read, either.

Now that I've talked (typed?) your ear off, it's time for some Engineers without Borders stuff then a snowball fight!