Catalina Island: Campus By The Sea April 15 - 18, 2011 2011

I went to Catalina Island with the Lake Ave Church college group (Pastor Jeff, Kirsten, David, Saudia, and Steffenie) and the InterVarsity group from PCC on April 15th and came back on April 18th. That was an awesome weekend! We studied the first 14 pages of Mark from the Bible, which was a little difficult for me because my mind wanders off sometimes, well, a lot of the time.

Before we were at Catalina, Jeff drove the 5 of us to the Long Beach Terminal, which is where we got to meet the InterVarsity group. Steffenie and Saudia, who I hung out with most of the 4 days, wanted to see what was at the snack booth... and guess what? I bought some cheesecake which was about 330 calories... whoa! and it was a little slice of cheesecake... but it was good :)(:

Then we had to go to the Catalina Express which was awesome. We sat next to Jennifer who is from the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. Behind us is Pastor Jeff making a funny face :)(:

Then when we got to Catalina, we had to take another boat to Campus By the Sea. Catalina Island is so beautiful... I could just stare at its "beautyness" all day...

When we got there, the person in charge told us that our cell phones would not work up there. So the whole time I was up there, my phone was turned off... and it died anyway :)(: It was very peaceful :)(: He also said that the cabins do not have bathrooms attached to them, which would be scary if I woke up in the middle of the night and needed to use the restroom because our cabin was about a 5 minute walk down wood stairs and sand. The girls slept in these little cabins and the boys slept inside tent cabins... wow.

On the second day on our break-time, which was at around 1 pm - 4 pm, Saudia and Steffenie really wanted to go kayaking, this was going to be my first time! WaHoooo. To get to the kayaks you had to walk on so many rocks and pebbles... which was a no no for me because I could break my already weak foot, without my brace of course. So I kept both my shoes on. Afterwards, my feet were soaking wet... which was a bummer, but luckily I brought sandals. That meant I had to walk slowly and point my foot outward. Sometimes, people had to help me walk, which was okay in the beginning. It felt like I was slowing everybody down.

I saw a buffalo everyday, which was so awesome. Let's name the buffalo Wanda. Wanda was in the volleyball court just sitting down, relaxing, watching all the people taking pictures of her. She was a nice buffalo :)(: but what she left behind was stinky... you know what I mean.

On Sunday night, there was a bonfire. Most of us had smore's, which were delicious. Then we were playing a game that had to do with memory... It was never my turn so I didn't need to remember anyones name. You need to add hand movements to the name that you choose. Mine was JRow... I only remembered 2 names out of about 20... Gus the Bus and Jenn Zen. Mymemory is horrible.

On Monday morning (around 1 am) some of the InterVarsity members and Steffenie and Saudia went for a 10 minute hike up to a cliff which had benches on it and a cross... to just relax and reflect on what was learned. I wasn't wearing my brace, which was a no no for me, but luckily nothing happened to my foot :)(: Well, I started getting into my testimony... I think a girl who is in the InterVarsity group asked me about my problem. It's kinda emotional for me so I started crying. They stood in a circle and prayed for me. Then Saudia gave her testimony, which was great. We shouldn't bottle our problems inside ourselves. Then Bryan (who was in the InterVarsity) told me that he had cancer at a young age... He's in remission now for 4 years... wow. So many miracles. I know that me surviving my surgeries should be a miracle for me, but it really isn't. I know that I shouldn't look at my disability as something that'll hold me back from doing what I most want/meant to do. God made me the way that I am for a purpose.

Then at around 3 am (I think), we all hiked downward, and they said goodnight and we went to our cabin. If we went inside the cabin, everyone would have woken up... so we decided to walk to the cafeteria, where almost everyone who went on the hike with us was. We all drank hot cocoa and coffee. There was this guy, Gus, there who said something along the lines of "afterwards can I speak to you and Saudia?" Sure. He's from another group that came to Campus By The Sea on Sunday. He said that he was there when Saudia and I were giving our testimony's. We talked for a little while, then we said goodnight to him. We were going to go into our classroom, but we saw a red light inside and we heard mens' voices coming from inside... which was a little scary. It was still dark outside by the way. Steffenie opened the door a little bit and it slammed shut.

The 3 of us were terrified, so we went to the shore and just sat there looking at the beautiful ocean and smelling the salty breeze.

We didn't go to sleep at all. Then at around 7 am we went into the classroom and took a 30 minute nap... and I'm not sure I took one or not. We had breakfast at 8 am and class I think started at around 9 am. Natalia (InterVarsity's leader) was surprised that the 3 of us stayed awake during the Mark 1 lesson. I stayed awake because I was nibbling on goldfishes. Thank you food for keeping me awake... haha.

I felt so depressed at the end of our stay at Campus By the Sea though. All these (bad) emotions started getting in my head again, and it partially was because of all these small things all rolled up into one humongous thing. I started crying at the dinner table, so like always, I couldn't help myself. I excused myself, and Jeff went over to where I was to talk to me. Then we went back up to the table and finished our meal. When I was finished, I left to go to the bathroom, and when I came back, Gus was walking towards me. We sat down while he was talking to me. He prayed for me right before I had to leave for the boat. He's very sweet; he doesn't even know me and it's like I've known him for a while. God has many plans for our lives. I know that I should not worry about what other people think of me. If I didn't, then I probably wouldn't get depressed most of the time. I should leave all my problems and all my pain in the safest place possible, God's hands.