Wanderlust Wednesdays

 

Moraine Lake, Canada

"Travel. It leaves you speechless, then turns you into storyteller." - Ibn Battuta

The Artistic Mind

Another semester under my belt. Lets just say if feels good.

Today I finished up what is the end of my finals. If definitely was a crazy two weeks to end the semester but so undeniably worth it. I can finally say I finished up my Entrepreneurship minor which truly has wore me down the past two years. Now I can just focus on my Communications classes as well as my regained love of art classes. Plus lets not forget about my beautiful sorority sisters. Spring semester consists of pledge, new freshman, double the bonding and even more love to go around. Let us not forget about the endless Coffaro's Pizza runs that will also arrive to the doors of our hall next semester.

Today my last final, aside from a presentation, was a Civilization and the Arts final. This class is a required class by the school that looks at the history of art and applies it to the Christian mind. These humanities classes are the things students grown about. Absolutely dreadful to take.

This class, even though the lectures itself were not my favorite, continued to open my heart once again to the world of art. As I studied my enormous stack of note cards into the wee morning hours, I found myself at such a sense of peace. The fact that God has given his creation the ability to create beautiful art astounds me. Just looking and listening to all of the art and music of the past five centuries, I fell into such a sense of awe. Gods incredible plan for these artists was to create beauty. 

I only hope and pray that is my plan. I want to create beauty, but a beauty that will honor God. 

Here is some Debussy to float your boat this week.
Alyssa.

A New Love: Ceramics Edition

As most of you know, I love art. Crafts, Painting, Ceramics, basically I love it all. Well in the midst of projects and sorority events this semester, I have found a new love.

Ceramics.

Pottery, pueblo art, mugs, pots, abstract clay pieces. Literally anything that you can make with clay I have fallen in love with. I took a few pottery classes in high school and had the chance to take ceramics again this semester. A few of my pots are pictured below. More to come!

In my class we had three hand building projects as well as some time to learn the wheel. Lucky for me, since I knew a great deal of the intro stuff already I was ready to go. I found myself going into the studio everyday just wanting to be surrounded by the walls of pots. I loved looking at past students projects, pieces in the development stage and just being able to get my own frustrations out on the wheel.

To say ceramics is an obsession is now an understatement. I have legitimately looked into ceramics studios in Pittsburgh for the summer. I now only search ceramic artists on my pinterest. I even have dreams about ceramics (pretty embarrassing but true). My goal within the next year is to open my own etsy shop selling beautiful ceramics creations.

Have you ever gotten so hooked onto something that your obsession never fades?

When Life Drives You Crazy

Well it has definitely been a while.

Seeing that my last post was an update on Nepal, the typical Alyssa business has set in with being back at school. It is crazy to see how I have been trying to cut out so many things in my life to be more free and functional, yet the pressures of day to day college life have dragged me down. Booo. 

However, in spite of all of the craziness, God has revealed his incredible faithfulness and the importance of placing my full trust in him. Truly, I would not have been able to get through the past couple months without his presence constantly there, even when I was not seeking it. 

Here is the classic life update that I so often revert to when I do not have time to actually post anything significant:

My August/September were characterized by my ability to go absolutely insane for a week as a part of my college's Orientation Board. This also included catching up with friends, my sorority sisters and getting back into the daily school grind.

September 5th was by birthday! The best present? Getting to go see the Avett Brothers for the third time with the boy. He is a champ and is the best at getting presents (even though he will avidly deny it).

School school school school homework exam school test school kill me. This stream of endless business and activities streams into today.

Also as social chair of my sorority, I had the privilege of planning so many wonderful events from our homecoming float, to fall party and our charity event Battle of the Bands. They were fantastic. Plus I love event planning. However, to say I am exhausted now from all of this planning is an understatement.

Also for Halloween Josh and I went as an old resort couple...so there is that.

I am working on some writing in the midst of internship searching and finally getting to the million things on my idealized to do list. Any creative writing, art or photography projects on your to do list? Let me know.

Keep it real. Expect to hear from me soon.

That time I went to Nepal

Long time no post right? Story of my life. I have no excuse for the semester. I guess just busy with life, trying to keep investing in friends, people, my undeniably complicated schedule, oh yeah. I also was preparing to leave for weeks to travel to Nepal for missions work.

I cannot begin to explain how impactful and incredible this summer was. Truly a transformative time where I realized more than I can ever describe. Here is a small summary:

• God is so good and so much bigger than we understand
• Missions is hard. I do not care who tells you otherwise, but sharing the word of God and figuring out how God wants you to minister wherever he has called you is hard. Yet it is so worth it.
• Nepali fashion is incredible. Why do we not wear baggy pants/tunics everyday in America
• My passion for human trafficking has been made so clear. It has always been there, but I have found such a reignited passion for this cause.
• I love America, but I kind of hate America. I am so over our materialistic, burdened culture
• Tea is almost as good as coffee. Almost.

This is only a small summary of everything I have been able to realize in the few short weeks I have been back. I cannot describe how much I miss my incredible team and the beautiful people of Nepal.

Below are a few links pertaining more to my trip if you want to check them out. If not, I guess that is ok too. Also question of the day: tell me about your experiences with eye opening trips or missions experiences. Aaaaaand go. 

New Wilmington Missions Conference - group I traveled through/best week of summer

Summer Service blog - the blog I worked on with my team