More Bios will come! But for now...

Between classes today, I decided to hit up 1-2-3 Thai for lunch. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they were pretty busy since, a few weeks ago, I had talked with the owner and he told me that they were looking to sell because they couldn't afford the rent. When I talked with him today, he told me that they were gonna give it another year and see how they do. If you like Thai food, and you haven't been there, check it out. It's an unconventional Thai restaurant, meaning that you place your order at the counter, pay in advance, and then sit down where they bring you your meal. It's pretty reasonably priced for Thai, and it's surprisingly good! It's def in my top 5 Thai places to go for lunch. Except for days like this Friday anyway.

Yep! You guessed it! Commuter lunch IS happening this week! WOO! We've been working hard to be able to keep these going, and this week it's paying off. So come on out around 12:30 to the SUB gazebo room and enjoy some free food on Sharpen, and some good company with other commuter students! We look forward to seeing you there!

Before I go, do tell me, what are your favorite restaurants, dives, and homes away from home to go to? Shoot me an e-mail and let me know if you don't want to or can't post a comment here (although comments are open to anyone), at dolimj@spu.edu. I'll have a list of restaurants and credits for who provided them in the coming weeks!

This last Tuesday was GREAT by the way! Chapel breakfast had 15 people come and eat cereal with us between 8:45 and 9:20 at the CBTE house across the street from the Beagle parking lot. We do this every week, and would love to have you come out and join us! There's tasty food and coffee for whoever claims it!

See you Friday!

Annie Mae!

Before I introduce you to my friend, and fellow Sharpen Core member, you should all know that, if you read my previous post, I was VERY wrong. There IS in fact commuter lunch this week! So be there at the same bat time, and the same bat place, and get your grub on!

Annnd, I was right the first time! Sorry for the late update, but there's no commuter lunch today.

Without further ado, meet Annie Mae.

Full Name?

Annie Mae Platter

Date of Birth?

November 15th!

Where do you call home?

The Shire... in Issaquah, WA

Favorite animal?

Polar Bear, Panda, or Elephant depending upon the day

Least favorite animal?

Most Fish

Why?

Cause they're weird

What was your screen name as a kid?

Back when I was a kid they didn't have them there whachtamakallits!

Favorite vacation?

Disneyland!

Favorite superhero/villain:

Batman vs Magneto

If you had one important thing you'd like to tell people, what would it be?:

"Jesus Loves Me" really is what its all about!

Meet Sharpen Core

I just got back from hanging out with the people on the worship team at my church. I play bass, and we all decided it would be nice to go grab a bite at the happy hour at a nearby restaurant, and I'm super glad I went! If you've never been to RAM in Northgate, go check it out. Now that I've told you a bit about myself, I'm going to tell you a bit about Commuter Lunch this Friday, and a friend of mine on Sharpen Core.

First: We are having commuter lunch this week, and just like two weeks ago, it's BYOL (bring your own lunch). We'll have desserty snacks for ya, and a place to eat lunch and hang out! So come see us with a sandwich, and trade with someone if you want!

Now for the main event! A couple weeks ago, a Sharpen Core member put together a list of our favorite coffee shops around Seattle. Now you can get to know her a bit! Everybody, Elyse. Elyse, Everybody.

What's your name?: Elyse K.

What's your major?: French, Spanish, and Secondary Education

Where do you call home?: Grenoble, France

Oh really? That's kind of awesome!

What countries have you lived in besides the US?: France, Germany, and Costa Rica

What's your favorite animal?: Giraffe

What was your screen name as a kid?: Frenchick07

What was your favorite vacation?: Senior trip to Rome, with stops in Venice and Florence. My class stayed in a hotel by the beach and drove into Rome every day.

Favorite musician?: Sufjan Stevens

Favorite band?: Sigur Rós

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be? Somewhere in southern France, along the Mediterranean.

What is one thing you would like to do before you die? Climb Mt. Kilimanjaro

That's Elyse! See you guys Friday!

Wa-Hoo! Chapel Breakfast!

Week five is bringing us to yet another Chapel breakfast! If you've been before, then you KNOW how great it is. There's awesome food that's yummy in your tummy, and even better than the food is the people who show up.

Speaking of Chapel, have you been over to their blog lately? Right now they've got a short bio of one of the Chapel Core members, Becky Jo. She's pretty much awesome, and you should take a gander on over there after you're done reading this.

So here's a question for you! A while back we told you about our favorite coffee shops. Have you been to any of them, and what did you think? Do you have anywhere that you think should have made that list but didn't? Post a comment here with your thoughts.

And second, what has you most excited about the second half of this quarter?

See ya Tuesday!

It's what I call 'The Mid-Quarter Slump'

And man am I feeling it.

You know that point in the quarter where you begin forgetting about homework and start looking for every break you can find because you feel like your head will explode if you don't get it? That's me. BUT! The good news is, we're nearly halfway done with the quarter, just like we're halfway done with the week, which means, we're halfway to Commuter Lunch!

I know last week didn't have sandwiches or anything, and if you read this blog then you knew that before you showed up. So, if you're reading this before Friday, then you'll know that THERE WILL BE SUBWAY THIS WEEK! We got the order in, we have everything we need, and we're just waiting for Friday noon to roll around so you can show up and hang out with us and eat some tasty food!

I'd like to remind everyone also, that the only thing we ask in return for the free food is that you hang around to eat it. The purpose of hosting these events is to help facilitate an environment that encourages community. So come hang out with us and other cool commuters just like yourselves!

I can't wait to see you guys there!

I TOTALLY forgot to post yesterday!

Wow! I can't believe that I forgot to post about this week yesterday! I suppose my weekend was busier than I expected it to be. Ugh!

How about you? How was your third weekend? Was it chock full of fun killing homework (O-Chem students... I know you're out there) or did you get to do something fun?

This week, we're hosting Chapel Breakfast at 8:45 AM at the CBTE house. Come join us!

If you haven't seen it already, go check out the Chapel blog HERE

Coffee and a Lunch Break

Hey everyone! I'm going to introduce you to my friend Elyse here in a moment, but first, I've got some news for ya.

This Friday, we will be having a BYOS (bring your own sandwich) lunch hour at noon in the Gazebo Room. We'll provide the drinks and cookies, so bring a sandwich, get a cookie and hang out! Now my friend, and fellow Sharpen Core member Elyse Klein would like to tell you about our favorite coffee shops in the area.

Looking for a place to hang out, study, and/or enjoy a nice, hot beverage? I asked a few of our Sharpen folks to talk about their top three coffee shops in Seattle, and here’s what we came up with. It's quite a list, but it covers what we think are the best coffee shops in Seattle:

1. Bustle Café – (535 W. McGraw St) This coffee shop is just up the hill from SPU. Bustle offers a wide variety of coffee flavors, including lavender, bacon, chocolate cayenne, vanilla bean caramel, crème brûlée and more. In addition, Bustle serves a variety of delicious authentic French pastries. Leslie says, “The coffee is inventive and creative with their favorite add-ons to your cup of Joe. My personal favorite is adding Nutella to my mocha- coffee, chocolate, and hazelnut: How can you go wrong?”

2. Muse Coffee Co. – (1907 10th Ave W) This little shop is close, but out of the way and provides a bit of respite from the overly packed coffee joints that are popular favorites of other SPU students. The atmosphere is conducive to studying and the prices make it easy to "splurge". (Leslie)

3. Macrina Bakery (615 West McGraw Street) – So this is cheating a little since this is technically a bakery and not a coffee shop, but who doesn't want a warm, fresh scone with their tea/coffee? (Melissa)

4. Café Ladro (Queen Anne Ave. North) – Laura describes it as, “great for people watching.” Her favorite drink there is the blended caramel latté.

5. Vivace (Capitol Hill) – Vivace makes, quite possibly, the best coffee in Seattle. Words cannot adequately describe the rich, bold, creamy flavors found in their lattés. My favorite drink at Vivace is the white velvet. Laura describes Vivace as, “a great place for the basic drinks if you like amazing bold flavors.”

6. Roy St. Café (Capitol Hill) – Laura describes this place as, “a really neat, eclectic, comfortable shop” and enjoys exploring their loose leaf teas. Roy St. Café also serves food.

7. Bauhaus Books and Coffee (Capitol Hill) – Bauhaus serves excellent coffee and has a great atmosphere, with bookshelves lining the back walls and big windows all around the front. There is no better place for people watching.

8. Café Vita (Capitol Hill) – Café Vita is both a roasting company and a coffee shop. They have a few different locations, but my favorite is the one on Capitol Hill. It’s spacious, quiet, and a great place to study.

9. Canal Street Café (Fremont) – Right across the canal from SPU, this is another great walk from campus, especially on nice days when you can sit at the tables on the front porch by the canal. (Melissa)

10. El Diablo (Queen Anne Ave. North) – This place is eclectic and artistic, with vibrant murals on the walls depicting traditional Latin American perceptions of devils, saints, and angels. My favorite drink here is the Mexican hot chocolate. (Heaven)

11. Verité Coffee (1101 34th Ave) – This little place isn't the best for studying, but that can wait with AMAZING Stumptown coffee being freshly brewed at the same place the world famous Cupcake Royale cupcakes are being served. The baristas are friendly and fun, and what's a better way to relax and rewind than a steamy cup of good Portland roasted coffee and a moist cupcake with creamcheese frosting. Ahhh, bliss. (Leslie)

12. The Teacup (Queen Anne Ave. North) – This is my favorite place in Seattle...it's in walking distance from campus and has every type of tea you can possibly imagine! (My favorite is the "Afternoon in the Park"). (Melissa)

So there ya go! Go get yourself some great coffee!

Only 8 weeks till winter break!

Maybe that's the wrong way to count down the quarter, but it works for me. Instead of thinking that we only just finished our second week, I try to remind myself that Christmas break is only 8 week away now! Woo!

So anyone who was there on Friday already knows this, but for any of you that weren't there (which I'm guessing isn't many), the Commuter/CHA lunch was AMAZING! We had somewhere between 120 and 150 people come out to share lunch with us! Because there was such a big turn out we ran out of drinks REALLY fast, and I want to take this opportunity to thank Dr. Stephen Newby and the Office of University Ministries for spotting the tab on more drinks. Thank you!

Keep an eye here for more information about our Friday events.

This week we are having breakfast at the CBTE house again on Tuesday morning starting at 8:45. You can come a few minutes early, or anytime until 9:20. We just want to see you there and say hi! Last week, we had around 25 people show up, and two Sharpen Core members, Julia and Annie Mae, made cinnamon bread, and coffee cake to munch on and we had a great time! So come on out, and meet some people you might not know.

Look down at the bottom of this page, and hit that 'follow' button down there. You don't need to have a blogger account to follow, but you do need either a google account, twitter, yahoo!, AIM, Netlog, or OpenID account. I feel like most of us have at least one of those. Personally, I've got ID's on 3, so picking one wasn't tough. Or come check out the Sharpen Facebook group where I make sure to post whenever I update the blog here. I promise not to pollute your Wall with unnecessary updates.

I hope to see you Tuesday!

Hola! Que Tal?

I'm fresh out of Spanish class, and enjoying this beautiful day! There's a cheesy movie on Syfy for background chatter, and I'm updating all my electronic media before getting down the nitty-gritty of homework. I know that for myself, I'm already a bit behind. How about you? We're half-way through our second week today. Are you adjusting back to school life well?

All this 'getting back into school mode' has me really excited for anything that gives me a bit of a break that still has purpose. (Insert segue here).

FRIDAY COMMUTER LUNCH IS ON FRIDAY!!!! That means free food, good friends, and a great place to come and relax for a few minutes in the middle of a busy school day. At noon on Friday we'll put out a bunch of Subway sandwiches and let you at 'em! So come on out to the Gazebo room in the SUB (that's the room with glass walls... don't throw any stones, k?), and we'll take care of the rest! See you there!

Joshua

Wow! Already starting the second week of classes!

I hope everything has gone well for you during your first week of classes! I'd love to hear from you guys about it! So tell me... in the comment box below... how was your first week?

I had a good first week all in all, and cut it short with a trip to Wisconson to attend my future cousins wedding. It's a beautful state, and the weather is great! I'll be hopping on a plane pretty soon to get back to Seattle before class starts Monday morning, and after that I have chapel breakfast to look forward to! "What is Chapel Breakfast," you ask? "Why, how funny of you to ask!" Please, do read on.

Everyone knows that going to Chapel alone kinda sucks. But going with friends is a lot more fun. Everyone also knows that, when you're new to a school, you probably don't really know anyone. So we're here to be the middle-man that brings you together with other people who might not know anyone, and plenty who do, that all want to go to chapel with someone. I can almost guarentee that if you come, you'll have fun. Just come ready to meet someone!

We'll meet Tuesday morning at 8:30AM, at 303 W Dravus where the CBTE house is. We'll have food for ya, and we're all really excited to meet you guys!

See you Tuesday!

Joshua
Sharpen

Welcome to SPU for the '10/'11 academic year!

If you're here, it's probably because you are a commuter student or CHA resident at Seattle Pacific University, and I would like to be the first (or probably the 15th) person to welcome you to the new academic year here at SPU!

Living off-campus can be tough.  At Sharpen, we know what it's like, and how easy it is to feel disconnected from the community on-campus.  That's why we're here!

I'm sure you already know exactly what Sharpen is about, but for those of you who don't, read on!

Sharpen is a student ministry at SPU that seeks to provide opportunities for spiritual growth by hosting events that connect you, commuters and CHA residents, with other students like yourselves!  The two themes that Sharpen focuses on are 'intentional living' and 'hospitality'.  Essentially this means that we want to model what it looks like to live in Christian community, and to host events that bring you together with people you might otherwise never meet.

Our name is inspired by Proverbs 27:17, "as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another."  We believe that it's important to live intentionally and provide Christian hospitality in order to be one of those people that 'sharpens' the people around us.  We don't only want to sharpen others and be sharpened ourselves, but we also want to encourage you to 'sharpen' the people in your life outside of the SPU community.

This is pretty much what Sharpen is, in a nutshell.

Keep an eye right here for updates and interesting articles and tidbits throughout the year regarding Sharpen and the places we're involved.