Long-Distance Dance Party

Are you a student?

Do you go to college away from home?

Is calling your family and friends on the phone just not enough?

If you answered yes to any or all of these questions, then you better believe I have news for you!

Okay, okay, enough of that. But don't you feel like an infomercial when you tell people about a product or service that you like? I always do.

But really, I found a really cool new service that I wanted to share with you! Since I go to a school outside of my hometown, I spend quite a bit of time keeping in touch with people at home. Last year, we invested in webcams and started using Skype. Skype is great, especially for times when I hardly get to come home -- I can Skype with my parents to see what's going on at home and church, with my best friend to get some much needed encouragement and chat time in, and even with friends who have moved away to chat about their lives. It has been so handy.

Over Christmas break, a few of us at church decided to try a bible study during the semester. Since we are all over the country during the year, we thought we would Skype video calls. However, unless we paid, having a conference call with 7 of us wasn't going to happen.

Then what? Well, nothing happened at first, I'm ashamed to admit. But when I got down to searching for a great video call provider who would allow the 7 of us to all talk and see each other at once, I finally found a winner. Yesterday, I signed up for tok-box.

tok-box is a video call service that allows you to conference call (for FREE) with up to 20 people. So you can have business meetings, share exciting news with a big group, have a bible study, or who knows what else!? Now that I'm signed up and getting the hang of it, I'm attempting my first 3-way video call with a couple of friends this weekend. I'm very excited.

Now all I can say is: 20-person-long-distance-tokbox-video dance party GO!

Have a favorite new product or service? Share with me, my friends!

Photo of the Week: First Rain

Here's the first real thunderstorm up here at school. But doesn't it look luscious still? I took this looking out my dorm room's door. :)

How is the weather where you are? It's starting to get pretty chilly at night here. Scarf season!

The Kickoff!

Wondering what I've been up to lately?
Well, beginning on Tuesday, Intervarsity hosted their annual Pre-fall Conference, where leaders and staff get together to refocus and plan out the vision for the fall semester. We had a great time together as a group, but more importantly, it's obvious that big things will be happening on the campus for God this semester. It's exciting!

On Thursday morning the bunch of us got together and helped Freshman move into various dorms throughout the campus -- people were super thankful and that was great, but we also got to comfort a few freshman who were a little worried about leaving home. I remember that feeling! Now that they have a few friends in us, our chapter of IV can help them build the community that they will need as they go through school. That afternoon, my roommate Jordan and I moved in to our very new dorm room -- after finding out that our previously assigned room had a leak above that led to full bathroom remodel. (Our third roommate Amy moved in this morning!)

Today? Well, a whole lotta nothin'! The rest of my weekend will consist of regular school preparation things like picking up my books (and for my overly-organized-self, printing my class schedule and also writing it in my agenda). Not to mention our bonfire the day before school starts! It should be a great kickoff to an even better year.

Two funny notes:

• Our new room is wheelchair accessible, because it was the only available room. Meaning that we have a HUGE shower. Cool, right?
• Our new room also has a tiny set of shelves, which we have decided is perfect for books and toilet paper. I'll have to post a photo. It's fantastic!