I SIGNED at TIU!!

christine and I visited TIU this weekend and we ABSOLUTELY FELL IN LOVE with it.



thursday night we were picked up by Val and Wendy, our hosts for the weekend. Right away I caught the accent - im just hoping it doesn't rub off on me too much next year. we stayed in the Johnson dorms 2c. its definitely the typical university dormitory set up - a floor of double rooms with community showers and a living room. the other female dorm was called Madsen - it was apartment style - a living room with a kitchen and bedrooms. Christine and I are getting the hook up by a fellow future teammate, Ashleigh, who will be our RA in the new dorms - they will be finished for the fall semester.

valerie throwing the thumbs-up wendy on the guitar - the tiu girls are talented musicians and bring their guitars everywhere they go and play worship songs every chance they get

we got in late, 9:30ish, and the tiu girls needed to study for finals, so stiner and I roamed the campus in the dark. we found the rec room, dubbed "the Lew center", and kicked it in there for most the night, watching the Lakers/Suns game. later that night when everyone was sick of studying we became accomplices to a water balloon fight in the middle of war between two of they guys' dorms. christine nailed "Aaron Coffman", football player and biggest guy on campus... she was our hero for the weekend.

after running around the campus with our heads cut off during the wee hours of the morning, we woke to a full day of appointments: breakfast, meet coach, chapel, class, lunch meeting with advisor, campus tour (they didn't know we got one the night before =), admissions counselor meeting, NAP, soccer banquet.

the soccer banquet was amAzing. it sold Christine, she was undecided about her decision to attend TIU until that very night. the coach is not only a phenomenal leader but an incredibly humble guy... and the girls - each one of them would die for the other. the sense of family was so prevalent that it penetrated Stiner and I both, we were touched. i experienced in one night what i have been missing for the past two years.

Saturday morning was game time - 9am. we explored competitive territory this weekend - the 4th game of a series of K5 vs R5 (Coach Kelvin's team vs Coach Ryan's team). All of the TIU girls were drafted to either, one all black and one all white. Christine and I were drafted to the Black team, K5, while Coach Kelly played for the white team, R5. The black team had reigned victorious in the competition with a record of 3-0. We dominated most of the first half, but were killed in the shots taken stat - the half ended 1-0. We then took a bigger lead in the second half 2-0, but it was quickly matched by R5 who tied the game 2-2 with about 15 minutes remaining in the match. Ashleigh, forward and 2005 leading scorer, set me up and pretty much handed me the ball on a silver platter in front of the goal and it took me two attempts to make sure it reached the back of the net. We held R5 scoreless in the remaining minutes of the game, although there were some close calls, to secure the victory.

The team met up at Panera, a bakery, for lunch to fellowship (I learned that they use this term overwhelmingly instead of "hang out" or "kick it" or "visit"). After we had been fellowshipping well after we had finished our meals, Coach Pat asked me if I was ready to sign, and if I would want to in front of the team - previously I had told him that I wished to wait until I visited and played with the team. I was more than ready to scribble my John Handcock - He pulled out the contract, signed it, handed it to me, I signed it, we shook hands, everyone cheered and I gave Kelly a huge hug - and of course they documented everything... TIU girls take pictures and video of EVERYTHING - perfect fit for me, huh? Coach gave me the pen I signed with - it was a sweet moment - its sitting on my desk next to me right now.

these fools were lauging at me for reading before I signed...

coach kelly and I hugging

how christine felt about me signing

The rest of the afternoon and evening we went to a local park and fellowshipped with the football team who were grilling and playing a friendly, but very competitive, slow pitch game. deerfield is a beautiful place to live in the spring and summer (i haven't experienced the winter yet).

TIU is closer to Lake Michigan than HIU is to the beach (and HIU is only about 15 min from newport or hungtington). The area reminds me of Washington and the Puget Sound.

there were a handful of us girls who kicked the ball around and played frisbee. at about the 5th or 6th game the guys asked if any of us would play because they needed more numbers, so Wendy and I stepped up. It was a good time, I pitched - which takes absolutely no talent in slow pitch i might add. My team happened to win, but by nothing I did. The guys were really nice and one of them, Masaki @ first base, was born and raised in Shoreline so we had the WA connection.

masaki and heather

Christine and I both got burnt from hanging out at the park all afternoon - the girls got a laugh out of the fact that two california residents were sunburned on a weekend trip to Chicago - and when we got back to Johnson we chilled in Wendy's room with Val and shared our testimonies. It was a sweet time. Later that night a bunch of us went to a Mongolian Grill, bd's, for dinner. There was a plan to go to Lake Forest park to play flashlight tag at midnight, but our group had already wasted ourselves all day so we headed back to the dorms, played pool at the Lew - where I learned the exact location of Minnesota (in my head i didn't know where MN was from Illinois and Wendy thought we were the most ignorant californians in the world and gave us a geography quiz... when she showed us a blank map we successfully pointed out the state, but she was still amazed that we couldn't do it without one) - after we fellowshipped we watched a movie and passed out - only to wake up to catch the 8:13am to Los Angeles - i boarded, blinked, and then we landed.


interesting tid-bits...

there are around 800 undergrads
the student-professor ratio is 17-1
the girl to guy ratio is 1-1 (@ hiu it's 3-1)
there's a baseball and football team
there's intramural paintball
Michael Jordan lives 5 minutes away
the city to the North, Lake Forest, is ranked #3 as the most affluent in USA
chicago is a short train ride or 30-40 min car trip
the closest mall is under 5 miles away
there is cable tv in my room!!!
minnesota is to the northwest
there is a chipotle =)