Change of Plans

Thursdays are interesting because the biology class always goes on fieldtrips and the small group of people that are left don't have class until 4pm. We usually sit out on the lawn doing homework or playing soccer and we make trips to the mall. Today I was just going to do homework because we have a trip this weekend and my psychology class is going on a 2-day fieltrip next week. Three papers are due by the end of next week so today was one of the few chances I had to work on them.

There was a change of plans when my friend Bianca told me that a group of people was going to watch the movie Valentine's day and she invited me to go with them. I've been wanting to see that movie for a while so I agreed to go and set off with them at 10:30.

There was another change of plans when I heard Sarah and Staci talking about the psychology class students that were going to go horseback riding today to practice for the fieldtrip. In our trip we're going to ride horses all the way to the top of the highest peak in Lesotho to visit a tribe that lives there. Our professor had told us we were going to practice this week, but he said he would let us know the exact day through email. I obviously hadn't gotten the message. Instead of getting dropped off at the theaters, I rode back with Reagen. When we got back to school Carissa and Jake said they had been searching for me to give me the message and I ran to put on tennis shoes excited that I would ride a horse for the first time in my life.

There was yet another change of plans when we got really lost on our way to the horse-riding place and we had to ask for directions. A kind stranger said he was heading that way and would appreciate a ride so we let him in the buckee (a small truck) and finally found the place. By then it was an hour later than our scheduled time and the instructor had somewhere else to be, so we rescheduled for Sunday.

Our plans changed one last time when Leslie, the student life coordinator that was driving us, decided she wanted to take us out for lunch because we didn't get to ride horses. She agreed to pay for all the drinks if we payed our meal. We went to a small, but fancy cafe in the middle of a nursery where there were pretty plants everywhere. The restaurant was delicious and we all got awesome milkshakes. We hung out for a while and decided the day wasn't a bad day at all and we all ended up enjoying it.

The best part of today was just driving in the buckee with the windows rolled down. I could feel the wind on my face and every once in a while a song would come up that we all knew and we would sing along to it. The sky was a beautiful blue and the clouds looked like they had come out of a picture book. The South African grass was as green as green can be and the weather wasn't unbearably hot; it was the perfect temperature. A couple of months ago I would have been frustrated at the fact that the plans changed so much and that we got so lost and that I didn't get any work done, but today I didn't really care because I felt so peaceful. Carissa said, "you just can't not be happy in South Africa" and it's true because every day is an adventure and every day God shows us what a wonderful world this is.