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| I haven't had too much homework in the past few weeks and it's been great. I've been having a lot of fun getting to know people in my apartment building (Robbins) and hanging out with them. In other news, I'm going to Colorado for spring break!! I'm so excited! I'm going to see my aunt and uncle and cousins, my friend Janie who I grew up with in France, and my friend Sarah who I went to Bible school with in Costa Rica. All these people are so dear to me and I haven't seen them in a very long time, so I'm really looking forward to this trip!
Here are some pictures to explain more of what I've been up to lately:
My roommates and I gave our apartment a makeover and we're quite pleased with the results :).
Meredith turned 20, so a bunch of us went out for Thai food in celebration of her birthday.
Good times :)
This is still Meredith's birthday. We came back to Robbins and the party continued.
My roommates and I hosted an open house on Valentines day eve and invited everyone in Robbins. It was a huge success and a lot of fun! I had no idea so many people could fit in our apartment :P.
After the open house, a few of us walked up to a park overlooking Seattle (at midnight!) and I got this shot, which I'm quite pleased with.
On Presidents day we had the day off, so Joshua, David, Sabrina, Leslie and I took a jaunt around Seattle. We went everywhere from Volunteer Park to Pike's Place to the waterfront. It was such a wonderful day!
Leslie, David, and Joshua playing Dutch Blitz in my apartment (These people consume all my time, but they're wonderful!)
Again, another event with Joshua, Leslie, and David. We went to WOW, our favorite bubble tea place.
David and me (laughing a lot)
That's all :).
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| I have been so busy lately! I am constantly running around doing things. Between class, work, and social stuff, I am always doing something. It's nice because I'm never bored, but I really hate the homework load I have this quarter. I am so tired of writing papers every week. Next week I have two midterms. Every week passes by so fast for me!
Besides homework, I am really enjoying college life :). Everywhere I go, I see people I know. SPU doesn't feel so big to me anymore. Coming from a school of 35 students, I was quite overwhelmed to be at a school of 3,000 people at first! I also really love the community in my apartment building. We're starting to do a lot more activities together now.
Please pray that...
-I will be able to balance my time wisely and get everything done.
-I will figure out what to do this summer (hopefully find a job and somewhere to live, preferably in Europe so that I can be close to home).
I'm also looking for something to do during spring break, although that's not too big of a deal, because I can stay in my apartment during that time. It's just that everyone else is leaving!
I hope all my xanga readers are doing well! :)
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| Oh my dear goodness! It has been too long since I've updated this. I think about updating it a lot, but I don't really have time to. I also have tons of pictures to put on Facebook still, so be on the lookout for those!
A quick update about the rest of my Christmas break: It was a wonderful time, yet it was difficult to reconnect with people after being gone a year, then have to say goodbye again, not knowing when I would see them again. It was really hard to leave, not only because of the goodbyes, but also because I miss Europe so much!
The Evans hosted a BFA class of 2007 mini-reunion for those of us who were around during Christmas break. It was so much fun!
My family went to Luzern for a day. Luzern is a beautiful city in the heart of Switzerland.
I took this picture in Basel, Switzerland one lovely afternoon. I love the ice on the fountains!
My dear friend, Déliciana, who I have known for nearly a decade, got engaged during Christmas break! This is her and her fiancé, Jonas, who I had the pleasure of meeting. I am so happy for them! :)
I spent New Years' Eve with some girls at Avisha's house. We had Indian food, then went to the Blumen Platz in Kandern to watch the amazing firework display. Then, 7 hours later, I was off to the airport and back to Seattle. I got here a few days before school started and Jillian got here a day after, so she stayed with me in my apartment for the weekend before she could move into her dorm. That was really fun! It was a really relaxing weekend.
Winter Quarter Thus Far:
The first week back at school was filled with much excitement. It was exciting to be reunited with friends and start new classes and make new friends. This quarter I'm taking a bunch of not so fun classes (for which I have to write many papers), but I'm also taking French. Why am I taking French? Well, I was insecure about speaking and writing in French, because I haven't done my schooling in French in years. I was way out of practice and every time I tried to speak French, I could only think in Spanish. My French class is pretty easy, but it is accomplishing exactly what I hoped. I am feeling more confident with my French and finding that I know it by instinct. All I had to do was awaken what had been dormant for so many years. Now, I'm starting to think in French, wanting to write in French, speak in French, etc. It's great! Especially because I'm studying to be a French teacher.
I also enjoy my French class because the people who are in it are really cool. Most of them have been to France and they all are very passionate about France. My friend Rachelle went to a seminary school in France last year and she lives on my floor, so we're becoming really good friends. We are starting a French Bible study together... between the two of us :). She also has a raclette machine, which is pretty exciting. A few weeks ago, we celebrated Epiphany (Three Kings Day) together by making a galette des rois, then having a bunch of people over to eat it with us. It was so much fun!
Here are some of the people who participated in eating the galette des rois with us
Holly got the févre in her piece, so she got to be queen :)
There was supposed to be a picture of Rachelle and I with the galette, but it didn't turn out. Oh and if you don't know what a galette des rois is, then Google it. L'Epiphanie is pretty much one of my favorite holidays!
I also went to a mini-BFA reunion (plus spouses of BFA people) last week. Chris Adams was visiting, so we all got together for sushi.
Charles and Rebekah Forman with Chris Adams
Patrick and Lindsay Nygren, me, and Meredith
In other news, I have been regularly attending First Free Methodist Church and I am most excited about their college group, which I go to every Tuesday evening. It's more like a small group, because less than 10 people go every week, but I like that it's small. The leader is really cool too. The church is going on a mission trip to Costa Rica in September and I am hoping to go on that. I miss Costa Rica so much and I miss going on mission trips. If it's not too expensive and I think I can raise the money, then I will for sure go. I am also hoping to get involved in some ministries through FFMChurch.
I want to find a hispanic church around here too. I miss being in a latino community!
I have regularly been attending MuKappa and that has been fun. I'm becoming pretty good friends with people in that. They're not even all MKs, so I don't know if it's technically still MuKappa, but it's super awesome.
I'm employed now! Yay! I'm working at the cafeteria at SPU. I serve food, clean, greet people, and sometimes I get to be cashier and swipe cards as people come in. I also get free food when I work! I have friends who I work with and I'm making friends with people who I work with, so it's great.
I am super busy this quarter. I have written at least 5 papers so far, and I will be writing at least 3 every week. Most of them are 2 page papers, but still, those take a lot of time for me! I'm slow. Anyway, on a week day I go to class, come home and do homework, somedays go to work, come home and do more homework, then go to bed. I have had to shut myself in my room with the doors closed, while my roommates are partying and having a good time in the living room. It's really sad! Also, I go to bed later than them and wake up earlier. What's wrong with this picture? The way I described it to someone the other day is, "Normally, I am very French. I take things slow and enjoy my leisurely time. In the past week, I have become an American." Hanging out with people now is finding 30 minute time slots for us to have coffee together, sometimes early in the morning before I go to class. I also don't know what to do when I have free time now. I'm like, "Wait... there must be something I should be doing right now!" It's alright though. I'm surviving and appreciating my three day weekend.
Goals for 2009:
I'm trying to find a nanny job in Europe for this summer. I'm still looking and waiting to hear back from some people. I've had some job offers, but they wanted me A.S.A.P. and I was like "I told you, I can only work June-September, because I'm in school."
I've decided that I want to learn Russian. It would be so useful, because Russian is widely spoken in Eastern Europe and a lot of languages are so close to Russian that I would be able to understand them. If I have room in my schedule at SPU, then I will take Russian here.
Have a fabulous week, everyone!
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| So I made it to Europe okay! It's funny how right after I wrote that entry about how much I love traveling my flight got delayed from Calgary to London, causing me to miss my flight to Basel. Therefore, I stood in line for customer service for 2 hours with everyone else who missed their flights because of a late flight. I was able to get to Basel at 9:30pm though (5 hours later than expected, but it was alright). It was quite miserable traveling for over 24 hours and I nearly fell asleep in Heathrow, but I still love traveling! On my flight from Calgary to London I sat next to a nice Russian lady who didn't speak a word of English or any other language I know. I should learn Russian.
Being back at my parents' house and around BFA has been weird and overwhelming, but good. I knew it would be even harder to go back to BFA with this being my second year away, but I stopped by briefly yesterday to say hi to students and staff who I still know and to meet some of my sister's friends. Today I stopped by BFA again and it was better this time because I saw 5 people from my graduating class. It was good to see some familiar faces! Yesterday was good because I spent a lot of time with the Loves, who left this morning. I also visited Taelyr and then Deliciana.
I never got around to updating about my last couple weeks at SPU, so I will write about that now. Finals went well. There were surprise questions on some of my exams which no one was prepared for, but oh well... it's over now and I think I did alright. I really feel at home at SPU now. I now have good friends there who are not only at SPU, but also in my apartment building, so that's nice. I really bonded with people the last couple weeks and it made life at SPU even better! Here are some pictures...
Lizzy, me, and Karl (we all worked at camp together last summer) at SPU's Christmas festival, called "Tradition." Everyone's supposed to dress all Christmasy and a lot of people wear crazy Christmas sweaters from second hand stores.
Holly (one of my roommates) and Rachel (who lives across the hall from us and is practically another one of our roommates) at Tradition.
Dinner party! We made enchilada casserole :). From left to right: Meredith (another friend from across the hall who pretty much lives with us), Holly, Sara (friend who I met at camp last summer), me, Rachelle, and Leslie (who lives below us) took the picture.
Meredith, Sara, and Leslie playing cards.
The Warm Beach Lights of Christmas (this is the camp that I worked at last summer)
So cool
I hung out with Angel at the Lights of Christmas. Here we are with Santa Claus... haha.
Brielle (I met her at camp last summer too) and me on a bus. We hung out a few times before I left Seattle. I was supposed to meet her downtown after she got off work, but my phone stopped working and we didn't have a meeting point yet, so I prayed that either my phone would start working again or that I would find her. Well, I found her! We found each other at a bus stop!
I'll update with pictures of my European adventures later. I hope everyone is doing well!
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I am currently at the airport in Calgary on my way home. Yay for free wi-fi! I love traveling. It is always an adventure. I have certain "traditions" whenever I travel. I always get a frappuccino at Starbucks right before I fly out of Seattle. I always get gingerale on the plane. I'm not sure why. I rarely ever drink frappuccinos or soda except when I fly. I also watch movies on the plane sometimes. A good portion of the movies I have seen I saw on a plane. Normally I watch about one movie per month, but when I fly long distances I might watch 3 movies in 9 hours. Either that, or I will sleep.
(There's a bald guy sitting across from me and whenever I move, he looks over at me. What a creeper.)
I love traveling because I always meet such interesting people. I run into people from many different countries and everyone has a story about where they're flying to or where they're coming from. For example, the girl I sat next to on my last flight was on her way to Calgary with her ski racing team. Sometimes I have long conversations with the people next to me and sometimes we don't say much more than "hello."
I like airports because I like people watching (not like the creeper sitting across from me). Sometimes I even see people I know! I kid you not. Today I went to Tim Horton's. It was pretty exciting. I might hit 6 countries today: the U.S., Canada, England, Switzerland, Germany, and France.
I do not like the check-in yourself and print-you-own-boarding pass machines. They confuse me. I think I'm just getting old and I'm like "No! Not change! It was never like this in the days of my youth!" I also had to check-in twice today. When I arrived in Calgary from Seattle I had to get my bags, go through customs, take my bags upstairs to check-in, then go through security again. The guy at the counter was like "They seriously made you check-in again?!" It was pointless.
Once again, my carry-on is unbelievably heavy. My check-in bags can only be up to 50 pounds, so I have to put all my heavy stuff in my carry-on. I'm also carrying two laptops (one for my mom). Last time I traveled with my green duffel bag it was a little more than 30 pounds. I'm not sure what it's at this time, because I didn't weigh it. All I know is that it kills my shoulder, so I drag it and slide it across the floor. I'm sure people-watchers find it very interesting. If it is on my shoulder and I set it down, it falls with a big "thump!" Here's a picture of me dragging my duffel bag through the Dallas airport last June:
I feel very relaxed when I travel. A lot of people get stressed or impatient, but I see traveling as an opportunity to slow down. It gives me a lot of time to reflect on my life and do things like write long, boring updates on my xanga  .
I decided to dress up a little today. Normally when I travel I wear casual, comfortable clothes (like in the picture above), but then I look like I'm 16 and people treat me like I'm 16. So today I decided to wear some of my nicer clothes. Plus, I look more European this way. I got the idea from a friend who always wears a suit when he travels.
I'm about to board my next flight, so I'll wrap this up now. Only 2 more flights to go!
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Keep an Idiot Occupied
Freak Test
