My Adventure at College For a Weekend - Day 1

Hey all!

So, you read my last post, in which I talked about my college plans, and how I was going to College for a Weekend (CFAW) at Liberty University this past weekend (6th to 9th).

Well, I'm currently chilling out during the first free time I've had since Wednesday, the night before we made the journey to Virginia and Liberty. (Edit: I started writing this post then, but now I'm back home, curled up on my bed with my laptop, after watching the second half of The Desolation of Smaug: Extended Edition (!!!!!), and enjoying some Owl City for my background music.)

This has been one of the most exciting, busy, and learning-filled weekend of my entire life -- and it's not over yet! And you know, even if I don't end up going to Liberty, I'm so happy I went to CFAW. It was such an incredible experience, and I'm so thankful God made it happen.

This post will be a recap from memory of Day 1 of the weekend (Thursday) -- Day 2 and 3 will follow soon! :)

Also, just to let you know... this is long. Sorry 'bout that. It's kind of serving as a journal entry as well as a blog post. Still, I hope you enjoy reading serious details of my first day of CFAW. ;D

CFAW Begins: Thursday, November 6th

4:00 AM - There is only one good reason to wake up this early, and that is for travelling purposes. The following hour consists of making myself presentable, shoving down a quick breakfast, and finishing all those last details of packing that I somehow always forget the first time I pack my bags.

5:15 AM - We're out the door and on the road to the airport. *Cue all the things that I forgot to bring to come to mind.* ;)

7:00 AM - After check-in, security, and boarding, we're on the first flight that will bring us to the much-larger-than-our-own Atlanta airport.

9:10 AM - A brisk walk across the airport terminals brought us to the continuation of our journey - our next and final flight, to Roanoke, VA!

11:05 AM - We've disembarked from the plane to Roanoke, picked up the bag we checked, and gotten our rental car (a black Nissan Sentra, which was quite nice ;D), and started the last leg of our journey to our final destination -- Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA!

11:30 AM - The hour-long drive to Lynchburg is absolutely gorgeous. The landscapes are beautiful, and they're only made better by the amazing Fall colors and perfect weather!

12:00 PM - Arrived in Lynchburg, and have navigated across Liberty's huge campus to find the building where I'll be sitting in on a film class, "CINE 202: Intro to Motion Picture Directing" - which is the fancy name for "Directing." ;D The cool thing about this was that the friend-of-a-friend who I'm staying with in the dorms recommended me to visit it, even though it wasn't on the official CFAW schedule as it's before the 3:00 PM start time. So it's a neat opportunity that most CFAW students wouldn't get to have!

1:15 PM - The directing class is over, and it was amazing!! I got to watch as the students did an exercise in directing, where two of them were actors and one was the director. The whole class participated in creating the characters, scene, and background story (I even threw something in that the professor liked.. xD)

After the student "director" tried her hand at the scene, and did pretty well honestly, the professor re-directed it himself, changing and adding little things here and there, which completely brought the scene to life. It was so neat to see how much good directing can make or break a scene!

After this, the class broke up into sets of 3 students, and practiced the same sort of thing in each group, with an assigned scene. And then, finally, when the class was over, I got to talk with the professor a bit, which was really neat. He was a really cool guy, super smart and talented, and definitely loved Christ.

First experience at Liberty = awesome!!

2:00 PM - We (me + mes parents) check into their hotel to drop off luggage and such. This is also when I WATCH THE NEW/2ND/FINAL HOBBIT: BOTFA TRAILER WHICH WAS SO AWESOME I JUST CAN'T CAN'T CANNOOOOT EVEN AAGDKLFJDSKLJFDKSLFJKDLS:JFDKSL: okay back to business. xD

2:30 PM - Next up is CFAW check-in, which is seriously crazy due to the number of people here. I heard there are somewhere around 2,000 other CFAWers here. Luckily, we're early, so check in isn't nearly as busy as it gets later.

3:30 PM - Time to get settled in the dorm. The room is apartment-style, with three bedrooms off one large living/dining room and kitchen. I'm the first of the three CFAW girls that are staying here, and no one else is here currently. Which is a little odd, and kind of confusing for me, as I don't know exactly how I should set up my sleeping arrangements and such. So, I place all my things, save my backpack, in a corner and head back to the car to get to our next activity.

4:00 PM - After texting my hostess friend-of-friend, she suggests we come over to where she's putting in a few required work hours at, "the vault," which is where the film department keeps all their equipment. Needless to say, I'm completely down for this. Film equipment?? Yes puhhhlease!!!

4:10 PM - I meet my host, Sarah, and she's super sweet. After chatting for a bit, she offers to give us a little impromptu tour of the vault - which is INCREDIBLE!!! The best are the literally shelves and shelves of Red cameras and all their accessories... *swoon* ;D

I also meet another professor, who seems seriously awesome, and Sarah's film group from classes, with whom she makes their weekly film assignments for class.

So, this is another really neat opportunity that your average CFAWer wouldn't be able to have! I'm so glad God worked it out for this to happen; such an awesome experience.

6:00 PM - Now we're off to the dining hall. This is going to sound a little strange, but Liberty's cafeteria is amazing. xD

Here's the kicker: they have about 15 "stations," each with different types of food, from a salad bar to coffee-and-smoothie station. One of them is especially for people like me who are on crazy healthy diets and such. Aside from the occasional rice or quinoa that they serve, I can eat that station's food with no resulting pain or problems! Pretty awesome, right? I thought it was kinda a God thing. :) So, my parents and I have a lovely dinner, the best cafeteria food *I've* ever had.. ;)

6:50 PM - Heading up to the top floor of Liberty's football stadium club thing, we get to walk around an expo-style event where all the different departments at Liberty have tables at, where you can chat with professors and other representatives of the different departments. Of course, I spend most of the time at the Cinematic Arts table. ;)

My mom and I talked quite a bit with one guy in particular who I haven't met before, whos specialty is audio. The convo we have is quite interesting, and he gives us a lot more info about their film program and himself. So, it's neat to get to know one of the professors some more. :)

9:35 PM - The "Welcome Rally" for CFAW peeps is just ending at the Vines Center, Liberty's humongous (like, I'm talkin' 10,000 seat) auditorium, where they have their thrice-weekly Convocation meetings (basically chapel) for students, and where they host concerts and also basketball games I think. It was quite exciting! They had one of their student bands do some great worship music, and then we got a more detailed introduction to Liberty's academic, spiritual, social, and athletic opportunities.

9:50 PM - Back to the dorms! This time, all the girls living in the dorm apartment thing are here, so I get to say hello and chat a bit with them. There's a total of seven girls staying in the quad, but two of them are staying off campus for the weekend. There's also two other CFAW girls who are staying with us, which I mentioned before. We three are camping out in the living area with our air mattresses and sleeping bags.

12:30 AM - I'm exhausted from waking up at 4:00 AM this morning, so after getting ready for sleep and having my personal devotions, I close my eyes and drift off to sleep... classes, Convocation, admissions sessions, and more await me the next day! :D

Continuation: Day 2!