Twenty

Today is December 14th. It's the third Sunday of Advent, and also happens to be MY BIRTHDAY!!!

So, Happy Birthday to ME!

After Mass, Soo and HJ surprised me with a cheesecake and candles in honor of my turning 20! As I told Soo yesterday (it was her birthday), even though our birthdays are in the middle of finals week, they can still be fun!

Tests

Since it's now finals week, I've been thinking a lot about tests. Especially since one of my finals was to construct a final test for my education class. I have to say that after completing that, I have much more appreciation for teacher-made tests. They take so long to make!

As for my finals, I now have only three left! Two of them are my hardest finals, French and Psychology, but my health final will be a piece of cake, especially since it's an online test. On Wednesday I head "home" to Kentucky with my sister; my Korean roommate, Soo; and another Korean friend from down the hall, HJ (Hyunjeong). They'll only be at my house for about a week and a half, but it's going to be a blast! It's also the last time I'll see them before I head off to Europe for a year (excluding summer).

Le Weekend Passe

The past weekend I went on a trip with some of the members of Newman Club up north to the Notre Dame campus.

While there, we got a tour of the gorgeous basillica and part of the campus by two Brothers of the Holy Cross, Brother Vinny and Brother Chet. Unfortunately, the weather was fairly abysmal as it was rainy and freezing cold. However, this only made a lunch of hot chocolate and chili that was way better than Sodexo's, all the better.

Exciting News

Excitement! I just discovered that I can get an ENL (English as a New Language) degree while doing all of my other crazy plans for my double-major and a minor! It'll be a lot of work, but I'm pretty sure that I can do it, especially since I'll be getting so much credit for my French major while I'm off in France.

I already have my French major halfway done (being in 434 and all). I only need one 300-level class, and three more 400-level classes, all of which I can get credit for while in France. The only other class I'd have to take would be the senior seminar (which is also the senior sem for my education major).

I'll also be able to take the ENL practicum while in France through an independant study with my internship.

The best part is I can still spend another semester in Japan. Of course, I'll still be a fifth year senior, but at least I can still do everything I want to!

So, naturally, this makes me EXCITED!

October

So here's an overview of October for you since I haven't been writing lately. I think you'll see why after reading this post!

School has been picking up quite a bit, and not just academically, either! As of the end of this coming week I wll have two months left in the country, as January 8th I'm flying overseas to study abroad in Grantham, England at Harlaxton College. Because of this I've been attending orientation meetings, two of which were in this past month. Not only am I preparing to go to England, I'm also applying for CIEE's program in Rennes, France, which is complicating quite a few things in my life. Then, of course, there's all the clubs I'm involved in. I'm an officer for Japanese club, and I'm co-leading a small group for Newman Club on the catechism. And with the International Bazaar coming up on the 21st, I've inadvertantly added more to plate!

The International Bazaar is put on every year by the International Student Club (ISC). Every country on campus (except for the US) has a booth where they have food from their country and display their culture. It's a great event and a lot of fun, but it's also a lot of work, as I'm finding out all too quickly. This year, French club wants to put up a booth, and I got dragged into leading the booth when I told ISC that we wanted a booth and when other leaders within the club fell through on their commitment to getting things done. So now, in addition to my 19-hour class load, my work-study job, and my leadership positions in other clubs, I get to put the whole booth together, and if I don't get enough people to help out, I'll be doing pretty much on my own, too.

Other than busy, October has been a pretty awesome experience because I have my practicum at Washington Middle School every Monday and Wednesday morning. For the practicum, I'm observing, and occassionally teaching, in a French classroom. I love it, well, except for the half-hour walk it involves. My co-operating teacher is a very nice lady and I get along great with her. I've taught the class completely on my own only once, but I have led them in correcting their homework on several occasions. This coming Wednesday, I will even have the opportunity to teach my teacher! Her class just got a projector, so she needs help figuring out how to hook it up and everything. Hopefully I can get it to work!

Of course, this past weekend has been a lot of fun, it being Halloween and everything. Although the Student Activities Board Halloween Bash definately wasn't as exciting as last year's bash. However, Student Christian Fellowship's bonfire and hayride was a lot of fun, and not nearly as hot as last year! But not only was there Halloween, but today was a friend's birthday so we celebrated it Saturday night.

Other weekends were equally as fun, though. At the beginning of October, Talk Time, an English conversation group that's held by Christian Fellowship Church, had a trip to the Garden of the Gods in Illinois. The trip was amazing and the hiking actually wasn't half bad, not as difficult as I'm used to, but still very pleasant. And just before that was the Fall Festival, which is apparently the second largest street festival in the US. And this year was a heck of a lot better than last year!

So that's what I've been up to in the past month. Hopefully Novemebr won't be quite so crazy and I can actually write more!

New Blog

I realized that I talk about religion a lot in this blog, so I thought I'd go ahead and create a blog for my Journey in Faith, dubbed "Faith." So if you like my musing of a religious nature, go check it out at http://okamifaith.blogspot.com/!

Theology of the Body

So this past weekend, I had the opportunity to go to a Christopher West seminar with the campus Newman Center here at UE on Pope Jean-Paul II's Theology of the Body.

Theology of the Body is really hard to put into simple terms because it encompases so many different Christian teachings and tries to further explain and, in a sense, re-evaluatem them. The theology is mostly focused on explaining "how the Christian sexual ethic corresponds perfectly with our deepest yearnings of our hearts for love and union." (Christopher West, http://www.christopherwest.com/). The theory really attempts to reverse the negative connotations that our modern Western world has about sex.

Anyway, the talk was really very interesting and it helped me learn a lot more about my religion. However, there are still some things that I don't totally agree with, and there are, of course, many things about the whole theology that I don't understand. The theology is just so vast, that it's nearly impossible to fully comprehend it--just like with any theology, really. I mean, Christopher West has been studying the Theology of the Body for 15 years, and he's still finding things that he never understood before!

Really, the biggest issue I had with the whole theology was the deal about contraception. I'm not saying that someone should take contraceptions lightly or anything like that, but there are people out there who might medically need to be on contraceptives. If a person has thin blood, for example, but heavy periods, would you really want them passing out all the time due to blood loss? Wouldn't the Pill be an acceptable answer? And if a family really cannot financially, emotionally, etc support a child, wouldn't the Pill be an okay answer instead of the woman having to take their temperature everyday and check their fluids everyday so that they know which week to avoid having sex? How acurate is that going to be? Honestly, I'm all for people having kids, I just think that the world would be better off if the kids came into famillies that could support them, instead of having over-run orphanages and children suffering from the foster care system, which really isn't all that great of a system.

Anyway, if you want to find out more about the Theology of the Body, which I suggest you do because it's worth taking a look at, even if there are some thigns you don't agree with, then Google it, or head to Christopher West's homepage: http://www.christopherwest.com/ or http://www.theologyofthebody.net/.

A Typical Sunday

So, I thought I should give people an idea of what a Sunday generally looks like for me.

First, I sleep until around 10 if I'm going to mass on campus. If I'm going to church over at the Christian Family Church or at St. Ben's, then I have to get up earlier (8 for CFC and 9 for St. Ben's).

If I'm not going to CFC, then I get brunch over at Dunnigan Dining at about 11:00. When I go to mass here, I usually sing or participate in the greeting of partitioners. For that, I need to be at Neu Chapel at about 12:15. Mass starts at 1:00, and is usually done at around 2:00. Then, I head back to my room and clean and study, because generally this hasn't gotten done yet.




So, there you have it. A typical Sunday. Saturdays are even more uneventful.

Home Again, Home Again

Yesterday my mom and I moved my sister in to Brentano,which is the female residence hall on campus. I was so excited to be back on campus that I was practically shaking when we checked her in!

Today, we moved me in to my room. It's a little bit empty since Soo isn't here yet (and neither is a fridge or microwave, since we forgot the microwave back in the garage), but everything I brought is now put away. Right now I'm the most organized I'll be all semester! I'm not sure if I like having the movable furniture yet. My desk surface is wider and it does have more drawers, however, it doesn't have as many shelves, so there's not enough space for all of text books and notebooks and the books I brought from home to read. Plus, there's not as much storage [or room (never thought I'd say that!)] as when we had the built in stuff.

Thw bathrooms are nice, though. There's only two toilet stalls, but I don't mind the renovated showers! Especially since there is no longer that disgusting tub....and shower curtains. Having all new stuff is certainly a plus.

Anyway, I'm really glad to be back at UE. It's like being home again!

Coming to a Close

Well, for me anyway, summer's almost over: I start classes in one day short of a month (I move back to campus in three weeks), and I move to Kentucky in less than a week (yikes!). My last summer in Boulder has just flown by all too quickly.

As for all those goals, I really haven't accomplished very many of them.

FIND A JOB: Well, unless you consider gardening for my Dad off and on a job, then I didn't accomplish this one (sadly). To me, odd jobs don't exactly make enough to count as actual jobs.

LEARN TO DRIVE: Nope, not even the slightest dent in getting this one done.

START RE-DOING MY SOC BOOK: Well, I did start, but I only got about two pages done.

BEGIN A SCRAPBOOK FOR MY JEP EXPERIENCES: Another nope.

LEARN TO SEW: Nada. (Thanks for the link, Leena. Jenn, you'd like the site, too)

So I guess my summer was pretty lazy. But I have gotten to see quite a few of my friends before I'm off for KY and a new school year (which I'm totally psyched for, buy the way).

By the way, thanks to Josh and Judy for the comments on my last post. It helped me a lot (as did Mass yesterday). I'm not back to my usual confidence, but I'll get there!

Religious Struggles

So lately I have been struggling with my religious path (liberal Catholicism). I guess you could say that I havent felt the same religious "high" that I had while at UE. Maybe it's the fact that the church I used to go to has undergone many changes since the Paulist Fathers left, or mybe it's because I didn't have a regular group to attend any more, or maybe I just no longer fit in as well, the same way I don't quite fit in to Boulder any longer. Who really knows? No matter the reasons why, I'm struggling a bit with my faith.

I guess one analogy that could work to describe my situation in a completely unsatisfactory manner, is riding a bike up a rather rocky hill. Only it's a hill that you can't see the top of and therefore you feel as though you're getting nowhere.

This very bad analogy came to me while I was walking the half-hour hill from my dog-sitting job back home this morning. Along this uphill walk of mine, I pass by a Methodist church along Gillaspe. Along with various signs advertising a Korean service (in Korean, of course), was the English sign with a little saying on it:

Confide in me

I have all under control

-Jesus

I almost cried! Of course, it didn't exactly help my mind from trying to battle out the struggle, but it did help me to take a step back and stop worrying about it so much. It also made me think of a tandem bicycle, which I have to give msot of the credit to Father Kevin for that one!

So I guess I'm going to try and let loose a little more and trust that I'll end up where I'm supposed to be. (And boy do I sound like a Boulderite).

お数珠 (ojuzu)

So when I went to Japan about a year ago, I picked up some juzu beads at one of the temples I visited. I've worn them ever since, and now that the elastic is kind of going, I thought I would look up more specifics for possibly making a set of my own. So, I did a little bit of research.

The first thing I found out is that the version I have is actually fairly small. A basic strand has 108 beads, while mine has 31 (27 small beads in a light green color, 2 small clear beads, 1 large bead with a buddha image inside, and 1 bead on top). The beads are supposed to represent the number of worldly desires that must be subdued, and usually they're used to count prayers.

Most of the other facts I found out are a little hard for me to explain, but a Google search should be sufficient. (Wiki doesn't comeup with anything of any use).

Zodiac Junky

Well, this morning on my facebook I had an invite to add an application for my "real" zodiac sign. After I entered the usual birthdate, palce, and time (December 14; Westlake Village, CA; 2:00 PM), my "real" sign turned out to Ophiuchus, or the Serpent-Bearer. So, that naturally got me intrigued, and I ended up looking up this mysterious 13th sign. Anyway, here's some of the stuff I found out.

First, the websites I looked at:
http://www.livescience.com/strangenews/your-astronomical-sign.html
http://www.lunarplanner.com/siderealastrology.html
http://skepdic.com/astrolgy.html
http://www.love-astrology.com/13th-sign-of-the-zodiac/ophiuchus-13th-sign/
http://www.hipforums.com/newforums/showthread.php?t=183231
http://home.ptd.net/~myth1313/grimzodiac.html

Anyway, the first thing I found out is that the whole thing is actually pretty controversial in the world of astrology.

You see, the whole got started because astronomers determined that there are actually thirteen ecliptic constellations (constellations that the sun passes through). These are: Aqaurius, Capricornus, Sagittarius, Ophiuchus, Scorpius, Libra, Virgo, Leo, Cancer, Gemini, Taurus, Aries, Pisces. One reason why I can see the whole thing being controversial is because if you look at a chart of the ecliptic constellations (http://www.geocities.com/astrologystations/images/eqmapwhite.gif) you can see that Ophiuchus actually "overlaps" the boundaries of Sagitarius and Scorpius. This completely disrupts the even boundaries for the zodiac signs, as well. If you were to include Ophiuchus in the zodiac, Scoprio would only last about nine days. It also makes it extremely hard to determine other aspects of the sign, like its element, planet association, birthstone, and characteristics.

Some astrologers have been able to come up with specific chracters of the sign:

interpreter of dreams, vivid premonitions; attracts good luck and fruitful blessings; serpent holder, lofty ideals; a seeker of peace and harmony; doctor of medicine or science, natural-pathic; adds, increases, joins, or gathers together; poetical, inventive nature, expanding qualities; seeks higher education and wisdom;overseer, supervisor of work; fame - either grand, or completely misunderstood; longevity, aspirations of healing the ills of man; architect, builder, reaches for the stars, figuratively and literally; tax assessor, or levys taxes; astrological talents, intuitive; large family indicated, but apt to be separated from them when young; the number twelve holds great significance; foresight and good fortune to benefit from hard times; has secret enemies in family or close associations; many jealous of this subject; notable father, apple of father's eye when young; high position in life expected [depending on aspects] highest fame and legend comes after death; feelings of granular, wise, genius mentality; likes to wear clothing of vibrant colors, and plaids in particular; receives the favor of those in authority (http://www.hipforums.com/newforums/showthread.php?t=183231)

Many people are envious of this subject as he progresses well throughout life. A seeker of wisdom and knowledge. Many people are jealous of this person. Tends to go for the more flamboyant in dress sense, favouring bright colours. Authority looks upon him well. Would make a great architect or builder. Number 12 is this persons lucky number. This person will have a big family but leave home at an early age. (http://www.love-astrology.com/13th-sign-of-the-zodiac/ophiuchus-13th-sign/)

But honestly, I think it's almost a little bit riddiculus for the sign to have a completely separate set of attributes from the two signs it overlaps. To me, it makes much more sense that the sign would share characteristics with Scorpio and Sagittarius. Of course, most people are going to want to have their "own" attributes and not just a conglomeration of Ophiuchus' next-door neighbors.

Personally, I much more agree witht he author of: http://home.ptd.net/~myth1313/grimzodiac.html. "Ophichus (or Serpentarus)- the Serpent Holder or Serpent Wrestler (November 30-December 17) the "thirteenth" Zodiac Sign- Not too many people who are aware that there is a 13th symbol in the Zodiac that for the most part has been overlooked. There are many reasons for this, but it would be novel in size trying to explain everything. For the most part, Ophiuchus has been left out because of our modern calendar (12 months, 12 signs). Supposedly Ophichus (known as Asclepius) was the Son of Apollo and a mortal woman. He was given the power by the goddess Athena to resurrect the dead including the more famous Orion, the hunter. He was killed by a bolt of lightning from Zeus who had been requested to do so by Hades. As Asclepius was resurrecting, Hades was worried that the Underworld was not getting as many dead as he should be. He was turned into a constellation to appease Apollo. Not much is known about Ophichus as a Zodiac, except that those who were born under him share the attributes of both Scorpio and Sagittarius, the Element is spirit, or Akasha. The Birthstone is Unknown. His symbol was also the Caduceus."

In any case, I think the whole idea is pretty neat, as I've always felt that I'm more of a mix between Sagitarius and Scorpio; however, I doubt that the 13th sign will ever make its way into our "accepted" image of astrology, as 12 is a much nicer number, plus people tend to be set in their ways (especially when the ways have existed for over 2200 years).

This whole thing actually reminds me a lot of the "13th" sign of the Chinese zodiac.

Anyway, if anyone is interested in the subject, feel free to check out the links I've posted and add your comments. I would love to hear your opinions!

Jealousy

So I admit it. I'm jealous. But, hey, I'm human, right?

I'm jealous that my high school orchestra is in Europe. And I'm not. My class was supposed to go to Spain and Portugal, but no, the stupid guys from Al Quaida had to go and blow stuff up! So, instead, I didn't get to go to Spain and Portugal. And they get to go to Vienna. Of course, the ones who are going will probably end up travelling to Europe again, or maybe they've already been there several times.

I guess the only satisfaction I can get out of this is that when I'm in Europe, I'm be in England for an entire semester and then in France for another semester. Plus, I won't have to take my instrument. More souveniers for me! Also, I'll be making new friends. They're stuck with each other!

It still doesn't make my jealousy disappear, though.

Goodbyes

It seems like my life is filled with goodbyes. Maybe they aren't always emminent, but they're always there.

Today, I said goodbye to six more Japanese students. Tuesday, I say goodbye to the rest of the guys from last summer, and later this summer I say goodbye to all of my friends here in Colorado.

But, you know, goodbyes aren't really all that bad. I mean, sometimes it's good to say goodbye to people, especially if said person(s) aren't good for you. And when you say goodbye, a whole new world opens up. It's with saying goodbye that one can change. How boring would it be if you never broadened your horizons through the process of saying goodbye?

I have to tell you, I'm glad I said goodbye to Boulder last year when I decided to go out-of-state for college! If I hadn't, I wouldn't have become the person I became.

Same goes for saying a temporary goodbye to America last summer, too. That trip to Japan pushed my boundaries in a lot of ways, and I'm sure glad it did!

So, here's to goodbyes! May they always reside in this world! (Just maybe they can lighten their approach a bit).

Summer Time!

It's already been a full week of summer and right now it feels as though it's just inching along, but I know that soon enough those long, lazy summer days will go by all too fast. In fact, I've already lined up several projects for myself:

1. Find a job.
2. Learn to drive. That's right, I still don't have my license and I'm 19.
3. Start re-doing my soc book. What's a soc book? The long name is sociology book and it's a big project we had to do for Billington's sociology class my senior year. Basically, he gave a long list of questions that we had to create pages for. We also had to have our friends create pages about us. The reason why I want to re-do it is because my pages look like crap, especially when you compare them to the artistic talent of Beau's page.......
4. Begin a scrapbook for my JEP experiences. It'd be great to have all of these memories compiled into one book. However thick it is!
5. Learn to sew. I know how to sew the basics, but I'd really like to learn how to sew more complicated things, like a dress, or skirt, or bunny hat!

So as you can see, I'm going to keep myself busy this summer! Not to mention the fact that I have to help pack up everything and I want to take a dance class at the rec center......

Travel-worn

It's amazing how tired one can be after sitting in a car for two days. Even when you're not the one doing the driving.

Needless to say, that's what my past two days were. Sitting in my Dad's dog-hair-filled jeep packed full of boxes and bags of my stuff from school as we drove across Kansas. Not exactly my idea of fun. Especially since I only had one CD with me, so I had to listen to my Dad's music most of the way. That and my Maroon 5 CD. I like the band, but hearing the songs over and over and over again gets a little annoying. I think I have some of the lyrics memorized. And never realized how many sexual references are stated rather blatantly in their songs.

Anyway, driving across Kansas is taxing.

Boxes

Since I am in the midst of packing to head home for the summer, I've been thinking about (or, rather, frustrated with) boxes. For instance, what's the point in a box that can only hold about one normal-sixed book? And why does nothing ever seem to be able to fill up the box perfectly? It would be so much easier to pack things if boxes were able to hold everything just so. Personally, I'd much prefer a Mary Poppins carpet bag to a box.

Another funny thing about boxes: in a way, they represent life. Just think about it! We pack much of our material objects away in boxes that I'm sure everyone thinks of as associated with their life in some way or another. And all that food in the grocery store first came out of a box.

It's kind of sad seeing so many filled boxes lining the hallway as everyone prepares to go home. It means that some of the girls and guys I've gotten to know over the past year I may not see again for a very long time. Some I may never see again. And otehrs I'll see at the end of the summer. Still, the boxes look a bit forlorn in their shades of brown lined up in waiting to be carried out to a car or to sit across the way in Schroeder's storage.

I personally hope to not have nearly as many boxes this coming fall.

Sunset Concert

Alright, so this actually happened about three weeks ago, but I've been so busy with end of the semester papers, etc that I haven't been able to be online very much.

So...Sunset Concert.

Every spring, UE puts on a free concert for its students and brings in some fairly large bands. This year we had Hellogoodbye! Needless to say it was a pretty awesome concert, even though the singer was most definately drunk. Point and case: he licked a girl on the forehead. Maybe he was high, too. Oh, well. Nothing bad happened, and it made for an entertaining performance.

After the show, my friend Jenn and I ran around to the back of the "concert hall," a.k.a the large gym in Carson Center and got a photo with the guitarist.
All in all, it was a pretty good night, especially since I went with a bunch of friends to a Japanese restaurant for dinner before hand. (The meal cost me $23, but it was worth it).

UESO Tour Photos

A few photos from the tour with UE's Symphony Orchestra:

A tour while on tour

Chilling by the fountain

The Recording Angel

G-Clef bike racks

Well-fed college gals

On the bus.

Schermerhorn Symphony Center

Fountain

The city of Nashville as seen from the bus.

Tour

Today, at the most un-Godly hour of the morning (7:30), I loaded my violin and duffle bag onto a tour bus for UESO (UE Symphony Orchestra). At 1:00 Eastern Time we played for a high school in New Albany, IN and then we were back on the road and heading for Indianapolis. We got to our hotel in Indi at 5:00 and were left on our own to get dinner.

Tomorrow we have to get up at 5:30 so we can load the bus at 6:30 and go to our concert location here in Indi. Then, we head for Nashville.

So far, not having classes hasn't been all that bad, but at the same time, most of us are a bit stressed since it's so close to the end of the semester and we have papers, etc, due when we get back.

Countdown: 5 Weeks

So the count-down to the end of the school year has officially begun. There are five weeks left of my Freshman year.

I guess I have mixed feeling about this. I'm glad that there won't be school for three months, but at the same time, I'll be away from all of my good friends here for three months and I'll be working (and possibly taking a summer class). Also, we're moving. My mom, my sister, and I, I mean. Come August, the van will be stuffed full of boxes and we'll be driving across Kansas, Missouri, Southern Illinois, and Souther Indiana to make a new home in Lexington, Kentucky. I'm not so sure I like this. Yes, I'll be closer to school and to many of my new-found friends, but I'll have to leave my beloved mountains behind, not to mention friends I've had since kindergarten and my two beautiful dogs. I guess that's an idicator that I don't really want my life to change. However, change is inevitable. In fact, that was one of the reason why I chose UE. I wanted something new. I wanted new faces and a chance to be a new me. But I still wanted to have my "base of operations" in Colorado. Besides, Kentucky will never really be home to me. I spent my formative years in Boulder, not Lexington.

Pourquoi je deteste le violon...

I detest the violin because, in my opinion, it, as well as other stringed instruments (witht he exception of the harp and its family members), is one of the most difficult instructments to play when it come to the technical stuff. Pianists have it easy: the notes are all layed out right there; no guess work involved in that one! Just plunk down your finger and....GASP! It's a miracle! I played a perfectly in tune fourth octave C!!!!! (If any of you who read this are pianists, please don't take this personally). I understand that wind and brass instruments are hard because you have to breathe in order to make a sound and if you don't breathe in the right way then you only receive a considerably awful sounding squak for your efforts, but you still only have to press down a bunch of keys inorder to get the correct notes (I know it's different for brass, but, frankly, this is my rant so I'm not going to acknowledge that. No offense meant). With us wonderful stringed instruments there's so many things you can do in order to sound like a dying cat. If you play too far over the fingerboard, if your finger doesn't have enough pressure on the string, if your peg slips (and that, by the way, is one of the most annoying things to happen), if you play too close to the bridge, if you apply too much pressure on the bow, if there's not enough pressure on the bow, if you don't use enough bow, if you use too little bow, if our fingering isn't correct, I could on and on and on and on. So that is why I detest the violin, especially when I have to play fast extremely high notes.

One and a Half

So there is officially one and a half months left in the school year. Spring Break has been over for a week. Easter Break is next weekend. It's amazing how time flies, huh?

I've signed up for my room next year with a Korean girl from Schraeder. We'll be on the GLC! Yeah! It should be a blast as a lot of my friends are going to be on the GLC too! (GLC stands for Global Living Community).

I've also registered for classes. I'll be taking Introduction to Schools, Teachers and Learners; Teaching Strategies in K-12 Schools; French Civilization; Adult Health and Wellness; Intermediate Japanese I; Child and Adolescent Psychology; and Intoduction to Sociology. This makes a total of 19 credits. It will be a busy semester, but much of what I'm will be taking I need to take.

And with all of this comes the added pressure of a ton of homework. With six weeks left I have a test nearly every week, and at least one paper due every week as well. Joy? I think not.

Ice: La Glace

After the past two weeks, I have determined that Southern Indiana doesn't get snow and that Colorado doesn't get ice. This will strike many as odd, "Of course Colorado gets ice!" However, I answer them, "No, it doesn't." You see, ice in Colorado is the result of melting snow. In Indiana, ice comes straight from the heavens. Some might tell me that that is hail, not ice. However, they are still wrong. If it was hail, you wouldn't be slipping and sliding all over the place fifteen minutes after it starts icing. It makes for some gorgeous scenery, but it's a pain in the butt.

I came to this conclusion about a week and four days ago. February 11th. The day had begun fairly pleasantly, although pretty darn cold. But by noon, it was snowing. It was actually pretty neat 'cause they were really big fat flakes. Well, in any case, it snowed for several hours, and then the snow turned to ice balls. Not hail. This were ice/snow pellets raining from the sky (which was the usual February gray). By 7:00 PM we had a good four inches of snow (why S. Indiana doesn't get snow) plus another three inches of solid ice and it was still snowing. So, evening classes had been cancelled and all classes the next day were cancelled as well. The stuff stuck around until Sunday when most of it melted. Then, yesterday, it iced again. Afternoon and evening classes were cancelled, and so were 8:00 classes today.

Hence, Colorado doesn't have ice.

Moore Kitchen Hours

Twice a month, my friend Jenn and I cook dinner down in the basement of Moore. Normally, it's just for us two and a couple more. However, tonight we cooked dinner for a whole slew of people. We made a double batch of the Asian Beef Noodles, the andagi, and some chocolate cake-like cookies. We invited all of our Asian buddies, and of course we didn't exclude our American (and English) friends either. The results were wonderful.

We ate all of the noodles, and the andagi turned out wonderfully. The last bit were a little bit oily, but it's pretty good for my first time making them!

Overall, a great time and a meal that was way better than the food in Dunnigan!

Asian Beef Noodles

This is a receipe for Asian Beef Noodles, a simple dish that is often cooked in Moore Hall basement by Jenn and I.

Ingredients:
2 pkg oriental flavored ramen noodles
1 pkg frozen vegetable stir-fry (szechwan seasonings are good, but so are other oriental style stir-frys)
1 lb beef
2 C water

Instrutions:

1. In a wok or large skillet, brown the meat. Don't make the bits too small if you want to be able to pick them up with chopsticks.
2. Crunch up the noodles, and add the stirfry, the noodles, the flavoring packets, and the water to the beef.
3. Cook until the noodles and vegetables are cooked, about 12 to 15 minutes.

あんだぎ (Andagi)

Here follows a receipe for Andagi, or Okinawan Doughnuts.

Ingredients:
4 C flour
.5 tsp salt
1.75 C sugar
4 tsp baking powder
4 eggs
1 C milk
1 tsp vanilla
4 C vegetable oil

Instructions:

1. Sift together the dry ingredients.


2. Mix with sugar.


3. Beat eggs and mix with milk and vanilla


4. Add egg mixure to dry ingredients


5. Heat oil in deep pan to 350 degrees**


6. Use small ice-cream scoop and drop batter into the hot oil (use caution). Andagi should be golden brown when cooked, about 6 to 8 minutes.

**If the oil is too hot, the andagi will burn on the outside and not cook on the inside. If the oil isn't hot enough, the andagi will cook, but it will take longer and the andagi will come out oily.

February in Indiana

Apparently, Indiana has been dubbed a "female" state. Especially during February. To give an example of "her" moodswings, I will describe the weather of the past few days. The first few days in February were cold, as is to be expected for winter. And then, the weather took a sharp turn. The day before yesterday it rained a lot in the late evening so that by morning it was 53 degrees with a humidity of close to 100%. Today it rained (and by rained I mean poured) most of the day. In fact, I was woken up at 4:30 AM because of the thunder clashing right outside my dormroom window. I also had to walk to my 8:00 AM class in the pouring rain and thunder, as well as through several very deep muddy puddles. Good thing I was going to do laundry today anyway. There was also 94% humidity. Goregeous, no? And tomorrow the winds come in and the tempurature drops to the low forties (but is back in the fifties on Friday), with mid-forties forcasted for the weekend as well as sparse showers. I guess I should get used to this rainy weather; I'm stuck with it for four more years, and even when I study abroad I'm going to places where it rains.

So it's now a month into the new year as well as the new semester.

So far, things have been both pleasant and busy. With the exception of the two tornado warnings, that is. My classes aren't bad at all, in fact I find several of them exciting. These would be Japanese, French and my Romantic English Literature class. Psychology hasn't really started to be interesting yet, but I'm sure it will be later on in the semester. Orchestra is, well, it's orchestra. If you've been in a musical ensemble, you understand what I mean by that short and sweet sentence. World Cultures is just plain boring. I thought I was done with high school level English classes. Sure, we go through books faster, but other than that, we don't do anything different than you would in a high school class. We even went over how to format things in MLA today! I should have been in the honors class. Too bad my grades weren't good enough for that.

With the coming of a new semester is the coming of new students, both entering "freshmen" and exchange students. I have a new I-Pal (a program where American students pair up with an exchange student and they hang out and do stuff together) and I think she may be from Korea or China or some other country over in that area (but not Japan because her name is most definitely not Japanese). So, I'm excited. I swear I'm going to do a better job at hanging out with her this semester that I did with Haruka!

I'm also continuing with the belly dancing classes and we're going to do a performance in April for the Spring Banquet. I'm keeping up with Yoga, too. I love having a fully functional gym so close to my "house."

So much excitement and it's only the first month of the spring semester!

The New Year and a New Semester: La nouvelle anee et un nouveau semestre

Well, here we are, 2008. And what a new year!

Resolutions: get out more, try talking to more people, worry less.

Reflection: why waste word count on that? It's just be too darned long. Overall, a good, but challenging year. And filled with some pretty awesome luck.

Well, this year has started rather interestingly. Let's see, I dyed my hair black, saw several old friends within a four day time period, was almost in a car wreck coming down from Keystone with Dad, and had a sticky situation about getting back up to UE from Lousiville. Let's just say that Lady Luck (or God, depending on how you look at it) is still with me. So thank you to the powers that be!

Anyway, I'm too tired to add in all the details.