It's a crazy time of year...

Yes, it's Christmas time once again. Life gets pretty crazy around DCA during the Christmas season.
Monday night, we had our dorm party. We walked up a big, icy hill to the pastor's house. There, we played some crazy games--including a white elephant gift exchange (aka "yankee swap"). Mrs. Emberley gave us a short challenge, and then we went back to the dorm. (Oh yeah--and we ate a lot of food)
Tonight, we are planning on going Christmas caroling, even though the weather report is calling for snow. Tomorrow night is our annual Christmas banquet (the gift from the DCA faculty and staff to the students). And then Friday we have a Christmas vespers and then we go home!
Time flies, but it's good fun...

More Pictures

Here is a recent picture of the school's "backyard." Mount Monadnock is about a five minute drive from campus and we have a great view of the mountain from our pond. It is very beautiful at this time of year. (As always, you can click on the picture to see a bigger version.)

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

I'm sure many of you have heard the reports of this great winter storm coming through our area. Just so you know--we are in a funny area with Mount Monadnock in our "backyard." Usually, we end up getting mostly snow in these kind of storms.
Today was no different (or, should I say, "Last night was no different."). When we woke up this morning, there was about 4-6 inches of snow on the ground. The guys had been up shoveling since about 5:30, and one of the maintenance men was up earlier to plow the roads (eventually, they'll send the town plows out).
Here is a picture of the front of Miss Miller's apartment about 6:30 this morning.

First Snow

Today, we are experiencing our first snow...of course, we're only supposed to get a couple of inches and then rain later on. Funny how the snow comes on the day everyone is leaving for Thanksgiving break...

Anna Michal's first New England snow!


Geli and Seyun also stopped for a quick picture.

Harvestfest

This past Friday, we had our annual Harvestfest. It is a social activity put on by the student body officers.
Most of the dorm girls attended or were helping run things...

Seyun and Anna Michal sure had a good time!







Activities included apple bobbing, toilet paper statues...

Gaga ball (dodgeball in a hexagon-shaped box--played with a tennis ball; you are out if the ball hits you from the knees down.)Bowling with Cornish game hens...













...and a super cool Spook Walk.
The spook walk started in an old trailer and then went out into the woods. It included chain saws, people banging on metal, and all sorts of other things. Here are some pics of inside the trailer...

Leadership Conference

This past week, about half of the dorm was gone to leadership conference (9 of the 21 girls are seniors--and all of the seniors are required to go).

Those who went had a great time of fellowship and learning more about God and His Word. One lesson that really impressed us and that we want to impress on others is not complaining. Complaining doesn't please God and we shouldn't do it. One of the speakers mentioned using the code "10:45" to remind each other not to complain. Hopefully we can implement this with the student body.

(Click any images for a larger version)

During one of the sessions, David became an example of bearing burdens.

It seemed that he became an example in several messages--I guess that's what we get for sitting in the front!








Free time activities included basketball, volleyball, Settlers of Catan, ping pong, Scrabble, and many other games.









And don't forget the great view of the lake!

A Trip to Boston

Those of us who stayed in the dorm for teacher's conference had the opportunity to go to Boston with Miss Miller. It was an adventure--we got lost a couple of times and met some interesting people, but it was still lots of fun.

We walked up and down the Freedom Trail--from the Boston Commons to just past Copp's Hill and then back to the Quincy Market for supper. From there, we took the subway back to the car.

On the way, we met this guy who claimed to be Benjamin Franklin. It was kind of random, but we had our picture taken with him anyway (after he spoke to us in Japanese).






Behind the Old North Church, there was a small door. We weren't sure what it was used for. Miss Miller and Yoony both tried to get in (of course, we would have needed the key, so we just pretended).





It was a fun, exhausting day. Maybe we'll go again sometime!

November...a month with "no" school

November is an interesting month here at DCA. During the first full week is always teachers' convention so there are no classes and most of the students leave for the long weekend. The following week is Leadership Conference where all of the seniors go to camp and the rest of the students stay in class. The week after that is Thanksgiving--all of the dorm students have to find a place to stay (it gives our dorm supervisors a chance to relax a little). Then when we come back things get in full swing for Christmas and before you know it, we're at our two week Christmas vacation! Time certainly flies by up here!

Welcome!

Welcome to the DCA Girls' Dorm blog! Hopefully, there will be an update every month or two to let parents and friends know what we've been up to! Please check back regularly.