In the past when I was a student at Dickinson, my family would come down for Easter weekend because my sister would have at least one day off of school while I did not so it made more sense for them to come here. This year it just didn't work out with my family's schedule for them to make the drive, so I was on my own (which happens to be one of my favorite songs from Les Mis).
As it turns out, I wasn't own my own :) I actually ended up having a couple options! This couple I met through one of my connections to a church in town had me over for dinner this past Wednesday, let me use their washer and dryer (I usually go to the laundromat), and when they heard I had no plans for Easter invited me to their family's brunch. It was very kind of them, and I almost took them up on their offer. However, the next day at the Maundy Thursday service I got into a conversation with a couple students who were also going to be in Carlisle for the weekend without any family visiting and wanted to do something special for Easter. They had been thinking of having dinner with the other girls from their small group, so I invited all of them over to my place for a home-cooked meal and Easter egg coloring.
So Easter Sunday I woke up around 9am, made dough for what are internationally known as "Zwink rolls" (delicious yeast rolls that my grandmother originally got the recipe for from a Sears Roebuck catalog) and put it in the fridge to rise. I went to the 11 o'clock service at my church, where the pastor commended us for being the ones who took the advice to not come to the 9:30am service which was jam-packed with visitors on top of the regular attendees and preached on resurrection power. The worship experience is always a good one, but I found myself a little sad being without my family despite the hopeful message of Easter. However, I had ended up sitting near a couple from the small group I attend at church and was able to chatted with them a little bit after the service which was nice.
After church I went for a walk. It was an extremely beautiful day in Carlisle, at least in the early afternoon. It was sunny with a few pretty clouds and about 80 degrees. Flowers and trees are in full bloom, and I decided to walk to the academic quad where I sat on a bench, spoke with my family and did my devotions. After reading my Bible passage for the day, I decided to also read the book of Ephesians since it was Easter and Ephesians definitely contains the Good News. It is one of my favorite books in the Bible. It speaks, among other things, of what we have received as an inheritance through Christ. I walked back to my apartment very encouraged.
Back at my apartment, I turned on the Buffalo Sabres vs. Philadelphia Flyers playoff hockey game, which my family (along with probably every other person in Buffalo & Philly) was watching as well. During the first intermission and most of the second period I made pasta fagioli, rolled out the rolls and set them out for a second rise. Pasta fagioli for Easter??? Well, traditional Easter dinner in the US seems to be ham, which I do not like at all, and students who were coming over weren't picky so I decided to go with my mother's suggestion and made her pasta fagioli, which is really good and easy to make in large quantities.
Around 6 o'clock, 6 girls braved the pouring rain (the weather turned during the course of the day) and walked over from campus for our Easter dinner. We finished watching the game and preparing the food together (well, they sat and chatted while I tensely watched the end of the game). Around 7 we sat down to dinner, which they all enjoyed and were very appreciative of. Afterwards we colored Easter eggs, which some of the girls hadn't done in years. It was a lot of fun and a good break for them from normal campus life and the mountains of homework students tend to have at this point of the semester.
Overall it was a very good day- I definitely missed my family, but had a good time spent with other members of Christ's family :)
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