Answers!

Merry Christmas!  It's December now and the holiday season is in full swing- equipped with decorations, Christmas music, cheer, and...o wait, finals.  Well, those will be over soon enough too.  Now to get to the important things; the questions I finally found time to answer.

My classes this quarter have been pretty interesting.  I have Spanish, University Seminar (Usem), and Drawing.  Spanish has been mostly review so far and so I'm looking forward to next quarter.  My Usem is on "cross-cultural encounters: Latin America" and is my honors class.  It just involves a lot of reading and some paper writing.  I enjoy that class and the professor is very good. I'll be in classes with the same group of people from that class through the next few years.  I have learned so much in my drawing class.  It involves a lot of outside work- I just turned in my sketchbook for the quarter.  Next quarter I am planning on taking Spanish, Texts and Concepts, Public Speaking, and Career Exploration.

Hopefully these pictures of my room help give a feel for how it really is.  There is no good way to take a picture of our whole room but at least now you can see my desk, bed (bottom bunk), and our lovely couch!  

I had Thanksgiving with Nick and his family.  It was a lot of fun, there was just a lot of holiday traffic on the way there and back.  I rode with two other girls from my floor so the drive was actually not too bad because we made it fun.  

I'm looking forward to being home for Christmas in just eleven days!! 

Bountiful Busyness

Well, the title may not make too much sense.  Bountiful has such positive connotations and that contrasts with the 'busyness' connotations.  Bountiful though is a wonderful Thanksgiving time word and so I needed to use it to alliterate with busyness.  

Yes, I am busy right now and it is exciting but mostly overwhelming.  You see, homework interferes unpleasantly with important things like socializing and sleep and events but somehow it all fits in (actually not all, but the most important things).  In order to accomplish this I have utilized our library facilities, coffee, and my alarm clock.  Being busy definitely has a positive side- it helps time go faster for things I'm looking forward to- eg. Thanksgiving and Christmas break.  

I plan on putting some pictures up of the latest rearrangement of our room.  I think it is the best so far (it's our third floor plan).  If you have any questions, comments, etc. about my college experience so far let me know somehow and maybe I"ll blog about it.  It's hard to know what my huge fanbase actually wants to hear about.

Fabulously Fall

It is beautiful here!  There are so many trees that changed colors, the leaves fell off, and well...a picture speaks a thousand words; so check it out.  This is last Sunday, in the front of campus.

Birthday Love

First, thank you all for making my birthday so wonderful!  I love getting mail and as you can see for yourself in the picture I got a lot of beautiful cards and notes in the mail from you.  I put them all up on the inside of my cabinet.  My friends sang to me in the cafeteria too and then on Saturday we went shopping downtown.  It was a little strange to be away from home for my birthday but it was still a very good day.  Other than that life has been pretty normal- school, work, and a little bit of sleep here and there.  

O yes, I voted!   That's about all I can say about that, now I can only await the election results and watch the polls on our free tv.

Workout

What have I been up to?  Let me tell you.  I did the most amazing ab workout video with some girls from my floor.  It was quite intense and now we will all have washboard abs.  Workout videos are very entertaining (and useful).  Other than staying in shape, I've been doing the usual stuff: class, work, friends.  

Lunch was pretty amazing too.  I ate a pumpkin bagel with pumpkin shmear (cream cheese) and a pumpkin muffin.  I worked at Noah's Bagels today so that's where I got my lunch too.  And yes, it was delicious.

Out and About

Last weekend our hall went to Whidbey Island for a retreat.  We were there just one night and we stayed at Camp Casey.  It was a good time to get to know more girls on my floor.  Mostly freshmen went and as you can see, it was very beautiful there.  

Bonding Time!

Tonight we have Fusion which is basically every amazing thing rolled into one event.  Actually not exactly, it's really just where each floor performs something in the main square.  Beforehand we eat together as a floor and after we do floor traditions... which should be ridiculously fun or embarrassing (whatever we make of it).  We are doing a dance for our performance and we have been practicing it the last two nights and still have one more practice till showtime.  If I could describe it in one word I would just say, "fantastic" or "exceptional" or "wonderful."  So good thing I can use more than one word to describe it.

Parks!

Seattle has some really amazing parks! Here are some pictures from Kerry Park, Gasworks Park, and Olympic Sculpture Park.  Gasworks (the middle two pictures) has a really good view in addition to the actual "gasworks" that you see in the picture and it has picnic area, lots of grass, and is just very cool.  There were knights there!  The sculpture in the last photo is by Alexander Calder who has made some other really fascinating sculptures and mobiles.  I studied about him in my high school art class so it was great to actually see his work in real life.  This piece was called "Eagle."

Rain, rain, don't go away!

I have wonderful news! It is finally raining! Up to this point it has been sunny which is nice, except it can sometimes get pretty warm walking uphill (more like hiking up to my dorm).  This morning it was just sprinkling and it was nice and refreshing to walk to work (which is across campus from where I live) in the rain.  Then I stood outside for awhile on the phone earlier this afternoon when it was lightly coming down...and now its coming down steadily and beautifully.  The weather is still warm enough that I wore a dress today, which is very fun because I love dresses. 

I am so stoked that it is Friday! I went to class this morning and worked for an hour and now I'm done until Monday at 8am.  I'm sure this weekend will be amazing, I am probably going to an art gallery for my art class and who knows what else.  

New People, New Places

Just chillin' at the men's soccer game (we won, thats right!) and on the 6W lounge balcony, where there is a beautiful view of the canal and the city.

Here

I'm all moved in and everything exciting! It has been great.  We've have activities all weekend so I'm staying crazy busy. Also, I'm getting into good shape walking up a huge hill about 5 times a day and then going up and down 6 flights of stairs when I decide not to take the elevator.  I want to take the stairs all the time but I think I might have to work up to that. I know, it sounds so weak but that hill is really killer, try it sometime.  The weather has been really great, it has hardly rained at all and I just go the t-shirt and sweatshirt route because that is sufficient.  

Surprises, Yreka, & Weirdos

I had quite the eventful weekend.  I moved out of the house Saturday, had a surprise party for my mom Saturday night (correction: Tante Irene really threw the party, I just answered her questions), and now am in beautiful Yreka, on my way to my new place of residence.  Yreka is very small yet still I've seen at least 5 weird people and I was only out of the hotel room for just over an hour.  I don't think I have an exceptionally strong weirdar either  but maybe it is heightened from being away from home.  Also, someone tried to get into our hotel room which was frightening until I realized it was a little old lady.  Supposedly they told her that it was her room number but what she said was a 9 looked suspiciously like a 4 to me.  

"You say goodbye and I say hello, hello, hello!"

So, it's officially my last day at home before I head off to the great unknown, to the land of rain and greenery. Unfortunately I was sick on Wednesday and yesterday morning but I am recovering quite nicely now. What a way to spend my last days! O well, it gave me a good excuse to sleep on the couch all day. I just have a few things to do before I leave, like finish off the pita in the fridge, pack a few more items, and some other miscellaneous (yet equally important) tasks. I said a teary goodbye to Kali and Becca yesterday. Actually I wasn't too teary because I am much too excited to cry about anything right now but it was sad. Goodbyes are just a part of life though (definitely not the fun part) and for every goodbye there are usually many more hellos.

"Hello, Goodbye"
the Beatles

You say yes, I say no
You say stop and I say go, go, go
Oh, no
You say goodbye and I say hello
Hello, hello
I don't know why you say goodbye
I say hello
Hello, hello
I don't know why you say goodbye
I say hello

I say high, you say low
You say why, and I say I don't know
Oh, no
You say goodbye and I say hello
Hello, hello
I don't know why you say goodbye
I say hello
Hello, hello
I don't know why you say goodbye
I say hello

Why, why, why, why, why, why
Do you say good bye
Goodbye, bye, bye, bye, bye

Oh, no
You say goodbye and I say hello
Hello, hello
I don't know why you say goodbye
I say hello
Hello, hello
I don't know why you say goodbye
I say hello
hello, hello
I don't know why you say goodbye I say hello
Hello

Hela, heba helloa
Hela, heba helloa

lyrics courtesy of www.lyrics007.com

I'm leaving...

Now that I am soon to begin college, I realized it was time to also to begin my own blog. This is largely thanks to the suggestion from Josh. So, hopefully I can keep track of my whole experience of living in the big city of Seattle and being far far away from home. And it also means all of you concerned for my welfare (and curious about what I'm up to) can try to check up on me by reading this. I depart in about two days and am very ready to go, once I finish the ominous task of boxing up my possessions and saying goodbye to everyone until Christmas time. Unless of course you come and visit me.