Jamestown

Jamestown is where America started.  Jamestown Island is where there is excavation going on and they are finding the clues to jump back in time and understand history as we know it

an ariel view of the scale model of Jamestoen Fort

Dr. Day with Dr. Kelso (the guy who wrote our book and is the head archeologist on the Jamestown site

The first church built in Jamestown (which makes it the oldest protestant church in America)

Me in a well...

Sifting through the bucket of dirt brought up from "the first well"

Dr. Shay encouraging us to stay off the beaten path

Group Shot with John Smith

Me and Beth off the beaten path

And beyond closed fences

Us inside the pub clinking our glasses

And drinking them down

A replica of one of the ships that brought the first 104 settlers

The cargo hold

Ready to go and waitng on our professors, what else is new.

Airport Fun

So I got up very early this morning and drove to Little Rock National Airport where I am now sitting at gate 7 waitng for a steel bird to take me to Richmond, VA.  We all arrived before our professors and took funny pictures that will be posted shortly after arriving in Williamsburg ,VA.

Graduation Pictures

G-Day (Graduation Day)

I have this cool littel tool on my phone.  It is a counter that tells you how many days until a certian date.  So about two months ago, I put May 15, 2009 in and labled it graduation day.  This morning when my alarm went off and I rolled over and turned it off, my phone said Days till Graduation-0.

Thats right everyone, in just over three hours from now I will be starting a journey that I don't even think that I could have seen coming five years ago.  But it is all surreal.  I am sitting in my dorm after completely packing everything (well almost everything) and it is so bare, btu as I was packing I began to think of everything that I have learned since being at the University of Arkansas at Monticello...here are just a few:

1. Be careful when trying to trick someone, it could backfire.

2. Wisdom can come from anywhere...you just have to have your ears tuned in.

3. I want to boil...not just be hot water.

4. That I became old way to early (at least thats the way I saw it).

5. No matter how many times you hear a story, something can always surprise you.

These are just a few of the many lessons that I have learned here.  Many more can be seen in my archives.  Now its time to get ready...

Graduation...Is it Really Happening

It is official! In two day I will be a college graduate.  It is all so surreal, because I feel like it was only yesterday that I stepped onto this campus as a freshman.

 

It was a hot August day in the Fall of 2004 and I was checking in for summer band to start.  I was only three days from returning from Kennewick, WA where I had spent the past three months.  We had a day full of meetings and then woke up at 6 the next morning for some PT (which is a tradition that I am so glad the abolished in the proceeding years).  After three days, and being away from home again and not knowing anyone, I was ready to go home and told my grandparents that I would give it to the end of the week.

 

On Friday, we were out on Spirit Field having sectionals going over our music when Mr. Meggs called me over to where he was.  There was a man there that I had never met before in the circle of band directors.

 

"Amanda I was to introduce you to Rob Leonard, "Mr. Meggs started, "He is the director of the MBSF and I was telling him about your mission trip.  He would like to hear more about it"

 

Well he did want to hear more about it and I was more than willing to oblige.  Since that day was only a half day for us in the band, Rod invited me to go eat lunch with him and a few of the members of the MBSF.  I went and was able to tell about my trip and hear about the trip that they went on to Belize.  It was at that moment that I knew I was exactly where I needed to be and I decided to stay.

 

Now, five years later, I see that moment as a pivotal point in my collegiate career.  Thank Rob for being willing to open the door to someone that you had never met.  Thank you Mr. Meggs for introducing me to Rob (because without doing so, I probably never would have stayed).

 

I'm graduating!