greetings from green belt-dom

What a full weekend this has been! To imagine that in just a few days, I'll be flying off to Boston... :) I'm so excited!! Anyways, time to play catch-up...

My Biology test went super well! It was on evolution and species, which is one of the most boring things that I have ever studied for. Also, there were some things in there that were incongruous. For example, our textbook teaches us that a reducing atmosphere, combined with the "bubble theory" (which states that bubbles formed on the edges of lakes/water bodies and evolved into simple cells) made the first cells of life. But how can that be, when it has been found that there was no oxygen or ozone in the early life of the earth? How do you make water, except with the combination of two hydrogens and one oxygen? Sounds kind of fishy to me.

As you might infer by the title of this post, yes, I am now a full-fledged green belt in American Okinawan Karate! I tell you, it is so much more awesome to be a green belt. Just going to sparing class today made me feel like, WOW... I am a green belt. And I know karate! And I can kick other people's butts! (Except if they are Rhiannon, Chad, Martha, Amanda, or Dave :) And April, sometimes.)

The Honors Formal was hella-tight, for sure. The music was pretty diverse, which made me happy. Some people complained that there wasn't enough swing, but I personally have a hard time with swing, so I was happy with what we had. The food was most excellent, as well. And having random people look at you like, "wow, you look awesome!" is super cool too.

Time for hall gov! More later...

i don't know how to take this one...

The Dante's Inferno Test has sent you to Purgatory!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very High
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	High
Level 2 (Lustful)	Low
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Low
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Low
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very Low
Level 7 (Violent)	Low
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Moderate
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Low

Take the Dante's Inferno Hell Test

So, I guess this is where I'm destined to end up. Just kidding. Anyways, here's a quick update on my life:
- I guess I'm now the president of the APO pledge class, since no one was volunteering. I hope it's not going to be too much work. Oh yeah, and apparently the first social event is BYOB (bring your own beer) so... well, you get the idea. I'm going to Purgatory anyways ;) (But no, that doesn't mean I'm going to drink. That would be stupid. And I could get arrested for it. And beer tastes bad.)
- Tonight is "How Well Do You Know Your Roommate?" game night, so April and I get to rock out with our awesome knowledge of each other. Totally sweet.
- Both the Honors Formal and the Karate belt test is coming up in a week... yikes!
- And the day before all that, I have a Biology test. (Necessary random interjection: BIOLOGY LABS SUCK! I do not want to draw one more stinking amoeba or mushroom gill!! Freaking A!) Okay, now I'm better.
- April's birthday is also the Wednesday of that week, so I need to figure out a fantastic birthday present. There's little chance that I can beat out Amanda's awesome present to Martha last year (she hung up her bras all over their room and on top of Martha, still sleeping in bed). But, you know, what can you do.

Matt didn't show up for his mentor meeting with me today, so this is why I have a lovely hour to spend wasting time in the Union computer lab. PLUS, I have pretty much everything else taken care of for this week... I went grocery shopping this morning, so I have a new supply of Tootie Fruities, string cheese, and cinnamon apple sauce awaiting my return in my room... and I cashed my paycheck (an incredible $34 for a whole month! golly gee!) and karate monies (this is the power I get as the financial officer of the UND American Okinawan Karate Club... sweet.)... AND the room is so amazingly clean, it's scary. I better get to work making it normal again. Lunch first, though.

Oh yes, pray for me from 4-7 tonight, please... I have Chem lab. :(

applications galore

We have entered the busy season of job applications, scholarship deadlines, and spring break plans. Or lack of spring break plans. You choose. But in this chaotic time, I have had the opportunity to dine with wonderful people who can keep me grounded. This evening's dinner was a prime example of that. We were sitting with some people who had just come from mass at the Newman Center, and the topic of conversation drifted to the origin of man, and who was really at fault for Original Sin. However, what really got my attention is when we started talking about purity. For instance, in the beginning, Adam and Eve had no idea they were naked. When Adam looked at his new wife, all he saw was a wonderful proclamation of God's love. He had no lust for Eve. In the same way, Eve's only thoughts toward Adam were those of the purest love. One person at our table contended that in the same way, we must lose this fascination with lust, with drawing out the "sexiness" in ourselves to please our husbands/wives. I sat and thought about this. So, every time that we submit to seeing our partner for the attractiveness he/she represents, we resist seeing the Godly love within them. How can we truly love one another when we focus on the physical aspect? Anyways, this is something that is on my mind, and will most likely continue to be for awhile now.

Other things on my mind... Well, I put in my application for a summer job today. SMURF, here I come! And I took a Bio quiz online... I missed one question because of pure stupidity. Oh well.

Time for karate! Love, me

... whew

You probably do not understand the mental relief I am experiencing at this very moment. Wednesday, I've decided, is definitely the day which my academic week leads up to. But enough complaining from me.

There are a number of things I'm currently contemplating for next year.

-- vice president for HPSO (Honors Program Student Organization)
-- being a part of the Honors Committee
-- active member in APO (Alpha Phi Omega, a service fraternity)... that's if I make it through initiation ;)
-- being in NRHH (National Residence Hall Honorary
-- remaining a wing rep for J3, treasurer of the UND American Okinawan Karate Club, and Emerging Leader
-- joining HOT (Hall Orientation Team) to help people move in next fall
-- running for Residence Hall Senator (there are currently 2 people running for 3 positions... only question is, how much of a commitment it is)
-- active member in NSCS (National Society of Collegiate Scholars)
-- actually making it to the Undergrad Med Association meetings
-- getting a job with Altru or a research position at the med school
-- becoming more active in College Republicans (don't make that face, Mom ;) )

Now you may have more of an idea what's been fleeting through my mind the last week and a half. Anyways, more update later, time for breakfast!

i truly apologize

I am eternally sorry for the sorrow I have created in others' lives by not updating my blog in a whole week. But understand me, I do have good reason. Part of the reason why I'm leaving a completely sucky blog right now. But I promise, once I turn my paper in tomorrow at 3, life will be good. And you'll get your freaking update, Jos. :) Bye!

sunday morning drive

I promised an update and, alas, it is here. This week could possibly be a stressful one, as I have a Chemistry test this Wednesday (two chapters, of which I've just started the "suggested problems") and a Calculus test on Thursday... yikes! This wouldn't seem so bad in high school, but when a quarter of your grade rests upon a single test, things are a little different. Moral of the story: I probably should be studying instead of updating my blog right now. Ha. But that's not going to happen. Besides, I've done a fairly sucky job of keeping this up-to-date as of late. Is this because my life is that much more boring than usual? Possibly. Nevertheless, it's not an excuse. On with boring the readers of this petty blog! ;)

So, oh yes. It was indeed an interesting weekend. Mardi Gras Night at the Newman Center! I was seriously expecting Jesus to come in and overturn the tables. Heck, but it was all for charity... so... gambling in church is good by those counts? ;) tee hee... Amanda, April, and I decided we were unquestionably too much of poor college students to go in for the complete $5 charge for all that gambling... so, we bought drinks for 50 cents instead and played Trivial Pursuit: Genus Edition. And I made a $1 donation towards their cause. So therefore I'm almost a good person.

Later that night... yes... so, I decided to go out driving with Dan to practice driving his manual drive grandpa truck... However, we were driving in the parking lot of a city park at 2AM, and two cop cars showed up. YIKES! This is the first time that I have ever been pulled over, and guess what I didn't have... yep, you guessed it... my driver's license. To further the horror of the event, the officer had to tell me to step on the brake pedal so I wouldn't keep rolling back into his car. And when he asked me to step outside the truck, it took Dan about 2 full minutes to successfully instruct me how to step on the emergency brake. I spent almost 10 minutes in the back of an unmarked police car as the officer kept trying to look up my name and license on the database. In my opinion, this was definitely not the coolest way to learn how to drive a stick-shift. Stupid manuals.

It really is about time for me to either go to bed or study some Chemistry... but... it looks like I might actually be going to Switzerland this spring break? Yay for Natalie ruining Derrick's plans to go to New Orleans!! Also, April and I have beautifully decorated our room... perhaps I should get a picture of it...


lovely...


and more lovely! and they're not falling down!! which they tend to do every 2 hours! hee hee...

Oh gosh... as I was uploading the pictures of our new room lighting, I came across the wonderful pictures of our melted-ice-cream delights party. Martha had put boxes of fudge bars and ice cream sandwiches outside in the snow to keep cool for her party, expecting (with good reason) that it would most likely stay below freezing. Out of all the weeks of winter, this happened to be the one with 40 degree temps... needless to say, the low-carb fudge bars did not survive well...


umm... I think this picture is self-explanatory.

I love food

So, that was entirely too long of a time to keep from updating. Then again... it was a rather busy week. Here's an attempt to sum up the last five days...

On Friday, I found out that I definitely did not understand intersections of 3-D planes enough to bluff my way through our quiz. Oh, well. At least I can accept responsibility for it. On a better note, I found out that the Honors coordinator thinks that I should run for vice-president of HPSO (Honors Program Student Organization) in a couple weeks... which would be TOTALLY SWEET. That means that I would probably be working with Sarah (as she is the potential prez for next year). I think I have a picture of her somewhere around here... we took pictures in prep for our side ponytail fundraiser, and hers was definitely the best, so I put hers on all the posters :) Yay!

I don't know if I explained the fundraiser ... nope, I didn't. Basically, we're collecting a dollar from everyone we know, and by the end of the week, we'll have a bunch of money to give to the American Heart Association in remembrance of the father of a girl who was on J3 last year (he died of heart disease in September). And in thanks for all the donations, we'll be wearing side ponytails on Friday!

So that's basically been my life the past few days. Friday night was pretty exciting ;) We (Amanda, April, and me) decided that we were way too cool to go out, so we stayed inside, did a little homework, and then invited Jeremy Bold over for some intense speed Scrabble scrimmages. Saturday night... was promising to turn out similarly, but then we received an out-of-the-blue call from Dave and Kurt. Finding out that they had nothing to do either, we ended up watching "Shaolin Soccer" (which, imho*, is an awesome movie)and making some brownies :) Oh, and I guess we sat around in the J3 lounge for awhile (as you can see below; wonderfully decorated by April, Amanda and yours truly). Dave looks like he's on drugs, but you must understand that this was about 2AM.


Chillin' in the J3 lounge at around 2 in the morning...
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After a good amount of chill-age, April did a little gaming over at Kurt and Dave's, while I attempted to better master the skill of driving a manual (namely, Dan's little grandpa truck) :) However, that plan was quickly thwarted by vicious security guards who couldn't understand why I would want to learn to drive in such an open place as the Columbia Mall parking lot. Poop heads. Anyways... I guess some other people could use driving lessons, as well... :)


It's amazing what some people can do with their cars.
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You know, you really have to give this person credit for doing whatever he did to get his car like this. This is what Dan and I saw on our way to church this morning. :) Tee hee hee


Look! Here's proof that there are black people in North Dakota! (P.S. Kurt is super cool)
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After church, we proceeded to have a lovely dining experience at Wilke! This is our friend, Kurt. We love Kurt! In fact, the * above signifies that I used one of his "super cool" 1337 terms (imho = in my humble opinion). Perhaps more tutorials will follow.

Anyways, it is time to celebrate the end of Martha's teenage years (yes, she's turning the big 2-0!) But before that happens, April and I have to run out to Wilke to snag some foodies for our fridges, since our single remaining meal pass would go to waste otherwise. Talking about foodies... we made chicken and pasta with a cream sauce yesterday!! Well, I mostly did it, but everyone was helping with cutting the bread, grinding the cheese, making the salad, buying the groceries (THANK YOU, DERRICK!)... All in all, an excellent production. Oh geeze, that makes me hungry. Food!

something's missing...

No, I haven't lost my keys, camera, or anything else again. What I'm missing is something more... what am I looking for... something more internal, like peace of mind... or peace of spirit... Anyways, the meaning of telling you all this is perhaps to explain why I haven't felt completely "centered" the last week or so. I know that I need to let God into my life more, but it's difficult for me to let him take all that power from me. What can I say? I'm a control-freak (as anyone who has been in the kitchen with me is sure to know) and it's hard for me to let someone else handle my life for me. Even if He knows all the answers. Even if He could do such a better job than I could. Do you get an idea of how hard this is for me, God? Anyways, that's probably what I'll be praying about the next few days...

Biology lab is in about 1/2 hour, so that's kind of a downer. I have a quiz, because aparently being in Hon lab requires you to take a quiz before starting lab each time. Blah blah ...

I'm still in the process of finding a job for this summer. Hopefully Ed will have some suggestions for me, so I can apply for the SMURF program. I don't think I have enough experience to apply for SURF, but I guess I can always apply for it next year. One thing is for sure... fire-hydrant painting is probably not going to get me very far in the med school application process ;P

Time to head off for lab, but hopefully I can come up with something more interesting to add to this post later. Like... how I learned how to drive a manual on Sunday night?!

UND life, in pictures

Dave plans his attack on the unsuspecting April after a long hour of karate class.
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Here, we have a delectible assortment of brains, courtesy of Hon: The Brain class... Look at those girls, what hotties!
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For all you poor souls who haven't had the opportunity to visit my humble abode, here's a taste of what you would get...
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... and the other side of the room. Mom, please ignore the unmade bed; it is a freak occurance that I didn't make it this day ;) tee hee
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a result of getting that camera cord in the mail...

April doesn't look very happy... tee hee :)
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An intense game of Scrabble, as you can see.
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sleepless in North Dakota

So, I haven't made any muffins quite yet, but fear not: I will probably have to cook at least a couple meals for myself this weekend. I guess having breakfast every morning kind of screws up having the opportunity to eat without needing to care if I'll have enough passes to go through the weekend. Oh well. But I guess that's good news, since I'm actually going to be using all my meal passes this week. (Mom and Dad start cheering)

Today is definitely one of those days where you can feel the insides of your nose start to freeze. Wait, let me rephrase that. The insides of your nose freeze as you step out the door, and by the time you are halfway through the quad, your legs have lost all feeling, your cheeks have started to wonder why they allowed you to move up here, and the inside of your partially frozen nose is now fully frozen solid. It's also one of those days where the gas tank is a block of ice and the antifreeze loses its ability to do anything and instead just makes a frozen mess on the windshield of your car. Thank goodness I don't have a car today. Last night, I believe the temperature was around -30. That's without windchill. Yeah. Saturday is supposed to be about -51 with windchill, so I guess I should be thankful for now.

Things are going well scholastically up here. I'm actually doing my Calculus homework, even though we're going through the material at an impossibly slow pace. I may go crazy, but at least I'll get a good grade in the class :) Chemistry'll be coming up here in about half an hour, so for now I'm just enjoying the nicely heated library.

Oh! So, it turns out that I will be tutoring this semester, and even the same two kids. Except this time... it'll be at 8 in the morning! Bah!! Good way to start out a Wednesday morning, eh? That's what I thought.

And... I'll have to get some actual research experience before I send in the application for the SURF (student undergraduate research fellowship) application, since they require 2-3 letters of recommendation from my research advisors... I only have one real experience, and that was in high school. Needless to say, it'll be an interesting couple of weeks leading up to that February 1st deadline!

It's going to be an interesting weekend, what with Martha and Amanda being away at the FOCUS conference until Monday... Maybe I'll talk April into making muffins with me :) Meanwhile, I'm going to totally get started on some of that Calculus homework. Flippin' sweet!

i'm back!

Okay, so I'm finally settled and feelin' the UND vibe again here in Grand Forks. Life is good. Dealing with a little PMS, but that's life too. Break was truly a perfect blend of rest, family, and some crazy times with friends. Especially the rest. I think in that last week of break, I probably got a full 10+ hours of sleep somewhere throughout every day. Okay, so I took a lot of naps in the middle of the day, but I do sort of have the excuse of coming down with some icky virus sometime after New Year's Eve. Recuperation, you know.

Anyways, due to the fantasticity of the break, I think I'm definitely ready to take on my new semester in an academic duel of the century. Just kidding. Hopefully this 15 credit load will be enough. I seriously can't find any classes that I would want to take that are, like, 1 or 2 credits. Maybe I'll sign up for a partial semester "Books You Should Read" honors class. Take that back... umm... I do still have to figure out when I'm tutoring this semester. That'll be difficult, seeing that I don't really have a vehicle, and Dan (owner of a fantastic Grandpa-truck) has flight lab when I have 5-6 hours of no class in the middle of my Tuesdays and Thursdays. AND... I'll have a mega-load of Emerging Leaders stuff (supposedly) this semester. And I should take a CNA (certified nursing assistant) certification class, which will add in a good 6 weeks of additional work into this spring. On top of that, I have to figure out where I'm working this summer? Yikes!

Enough of that jib-jab. It's excellent to be back, forgetting the fact that I have to pay for everything out of my own pocket once again. MAJA is now reunited, and that is good. I get to be made fun of by Derrick again. Yeah, so I know, you don't bury survivors. Poop on trickery. ;) We're in the process of Northern-izing Russ again, as his time in Kentucky has affected his speech. Poor fella.

Well, I think I've blabbered on enough for this blog. Next blog: muffin making? :) April has already made fun of my muffin pans. We'll see who has the last laugh when I take those wonderful bakery creations out of the oven, and eat them... by myself... mwah ha ha




Which Napoleon Dynamite character are you?

staying up late

This is a message to all you younguns out there: Get your sleep.

Personally, I LOVE sleep. But for some reason, other people out here do not. Let's go through the past... week? for proof... We'll see if I can get more days in there; at this point, I haven't a clue how talented my brain is going to be at that.

Yesterday night: Invited Josiah, Wole, and Emily to sleep over... I guess when people know they're going to be sleeping over anyways, they forget that sleep is an integral part in that. Just because everyone else is staying up until 6 AM doesn't mean that you have to do it too. Unless it's your house. My mistake there. I mean, my sister was up taking a shower and getting ready to go to school before we went to bed.

Sunday: Everyone came over here again, but of course we had to pick up Wole (no matter how many times you ask us for rides, Wole, it's not going to convince us to buy a car for you). So we spent some good time sliding down Wole's driveway (COMPLETELY iced over, fun! Except for nearly scraping the palms of my hands off on the ice). That was a fun time, and I got to see some people that I haven't seen much of this break. So, everyone ends up staying around until... 4 AM or so. I nearly convince them to just sleep over, but they were concerned that their parents would worry... aww...

Saturday: Did not have anyone over, and didn't do anything with friends! Weird! Definitely had quality family time, however. Got to watch "Garden State" and "Eternal Sunshine" with Mom, Dad, and Stephie. "Garden State"'s definitely the more excellent of the two.

Friday: New Year's Eve celebration at Emily's house!! Stayed up ALL night long, and then proceeded to go home at 7:30, sleep until 10:30, whereupon my parents woke me up with promises of walking to Dunn Bro's, which we ended up not doing anyways. Really feeling sick this day. Throat was all crappy and yucky... bad headaches... flashing between hot and cold spells... Too bad I didn't have any school to miss, because then all my pain and suffering could have been justified.

Thursday: Hmmm... oh yes... movies at Emily's, where I fell asleep around 1AM, woke up at 2:30 and found out people wrote on my face again with magic marker (yeah, well, they'll go to hell anyways :) j/k). I kinda drove home in a huffy after that. It's sad that this was a good night's sleep (in respect to the other days of this week).

Wednesday: Okay, so this is where my memory kinda craps out... Oh geeze, I completely forgot. We went up to the cities this day! Went shopping at Mall of America, bought a $130 Airport Express for Peter Fritz (which he finally paid me back for, like, yesterday), hung around at Dan's house and watched "Early Edition" (do you remember that show? I love it! I kind of forgot it even existed until we flipped on the TV and it was on. Wonderful television.), and went to Stargate Night Club. The club was pretty fun, except for the drunk creepy guys. And the nasty smoke smell. It was good company at the club at least... Good protection from the creepy guys.

Well, that's about as much as I can list off for now. Today I get my digital camera!! I'm very excited about that!! So, in no time at all, I will get to post lovely pictures of temperate North Dakota on this very webpage. Aren't you excited? I know I am :) Let's see... what else happens today... Emily is leaving for Malibu today (traitor :) tee hee). I'm in the midst of cleaning up everything. So that's pretty exciting... Probably have to take a shower somewhere in the next few hours... I probably should go on a run, if I can motivate myself enough to follow through with that... I guess that's about it for today. I have only 5 more days left, so I should definitely be enjoying every last second of it. However, I'm going to say that staying up until insanely early hours in the morning is not going to be included in that. Cross my fingers for good sleep and family time? :)

questioning where I am

So, as I sit here, two days away from the turn of another year, I wonder what I am doing with my life. Am I making good decisions? Am I hurting the people around me with what I am doing? Heck, why am I feeling bad for what I did?

All of my life, I have based what I believe I should be doing on the actions and direction of others. My parents taught me that it was important to work hard at math and school. Stay away from sex and drugs, and don't become an alcoholic, because that runs in the family already... My friends have always been the really straightlaced ones. Never even contemplating alcohol or "sin" in any way, because, well, we weren't even old enough to get into clubs. But now that we are 18, what should we feel okay doing? We're old enough to go to a dance club, but by going there, does that go against what God wants me to do? In the same thread of thought, I'll probably take the opportunity when I am 21 to drink. But there's nothing wrong with that, even in the eyes of God (well, except for what Mormons and maybe Amish people believe). If I'm legally able to dance at a night club, is it morally wrong for me to do it?

My friends are all (seemingly) okay with dancing as freely as they want at clubs. But where do my own moralities lie? If my whole existence is based on the actions of other people, then where am I? More on this later, perhaps...

merry christmas!

It certainly is wonderful to be back here :) Being done with Christmas shopping is probably a big part of that satisfaction, or at least aids in the realization of it. Anyways, it's been an awesome week in Rochester. We got our Christmas tree the weekend I came back, and then it proceeded to tip over on Monday night (haha, but it can't be blamed on me, because I was out dancing to the "Cat In The Hat" dance-along with Emily until 3:30 :) tee hee hee). Oh, and I also got hooked on thefacebook.com on Monday. I LOVE that site! Tuesday was pretty exciting; had the opportunity to hang out with PJ, Emily, Jess, Josiah, and Peter Fritz (until he lamed out on us and went home... who needs sleep to go to work the next day, pah). And Wednesday... I think I did some more shopping for Christmas presents that day. I tried looking for a present for Dan for about 3 hours in the mall. Highly unsuccessful. Stupid stores. Thursday... Oh yes. Dan came down for the day, although I think we kind of bored him to death with making him walk around Century with us. Haha, oh well. I think it's fun for him to be around people who are near to his height (tee hee, sorry, I'm a horrible person). And a few people came over to watch NAPOLEON DYNAMITE!! Super movie, it's definitely an instant classic :) Kudos to the Mormon people who made it. Dan left after that for the cities, but then we decided it would be fun to watch the super crappy movie "Open Water." (We hate you, Josiah :). Obviously we couldn't leave an evening tarnished by such a film, so we dutifully watched "The Count of Monte Cristo," which we definitely just should have watched instead. Excellent movie, indeed. So now, it is Christmas eve... soon I will be heading off to church, and then going out to eat with my family (I know, weird tradition), and then going to sleep... And waking up to presents! That reminds me, I definitely have to finish (ahem, start) wrapping presents. Merry Christmas, all!

being home

I'm home!! Why is it that everyone wants me to do something now that I'm at home? Yes, I know that we had to get a Christmas tree (haha, which we got yesterday; it's surprisingly attractive for being in such a picked-over lot) and I still have to buy/make presents for EVERYONE, but right now, all my brain seems to be allowing me to do is sleep. I woke up at probably 8:15 today, as my dad was telling me that I should go to church. Then I was woken up again by my neighbor, calling that the heat was out and I was supposed to tell my dad something about it... Proceed to maybe 9:30, when my sister came home and offered to pick me up at 11 so I could go to the second service. In between 9:30 and 11, my mom called about dropping off eye drops at work for her, my dad called to let me know that I should bring the gifts for the Women's shelter with me to church, and suzie called about the heat as well. Needless to say, I was less than eager to stumble out the door once 11 finally rolled around (and my sister sat outside in the car, honking for me to get a clue that she was there).

Maybe this should be a signal for me to get to bed earlier? Nah. I just need to sleep more during the day :) Good ol' college schedule.

Decorated the Christmas tree today, and discovered there isn't quite enough room on top for the paper angel I made in kindergarten. Right now, its position makes it appear to be a sort of "overseer" of the house, though, so that's kind of cool. Definitely. Also kind of gives me the feeling that if I were that angel, I would definitely have some major neck problems. Poor paper angel.

Tomorrow shall be a day of excitement, we shall hope? Shopping? And boot hockey? The rinks are frozen solid, so there will surely be some kind of ice rink usage going on.

And for now, sleep? Possibly...

heading home

Yay for being done with finals and getting to go home!! Yesterday was our end-of-the-semester karate party, and we had OFFICER ELECTIONS... Yes, you guessed it, you are now priviledged to be reading the blog of the UND Karate Club's very own treasurer... neat, eh? April's going to be my assistant in keeping track of money, though. (As if I have a habit of losing stuff or something... pah...) So, today is the day that I get to head home. If everything works out, I'll be getting a ride from my papa in the cities tonight... however, if the trip is longer than expected, I may be back tomorrow. But before people head home, we're all going to eat lunch at Hunan's for an end-of-semester celebration :) Fun! Well, now I really have to get to work on packing my bags. See you soon, family and Rochester friends! Auf wiedersehen, Grand Forks!

contemplations on a semester past

As I sit here getting ready to study for my finals and write my spanish paper, I realize that almost an entire four months have passed with me up here in GF. Definitely some things have changed about my life. Some things I miss, like hanging out with my Destinos buddies... running with the cross country girls at Century... making dinner with my family and sitting around with them in the evenings... friends back home...

But there are also things up here that I would not give up for the world. Most everyone tells me I'm crazy to be up here. Heck, even people here tell me I'm crazy when I walk outside with a sweater and sandals when it is 30 degrees... But honestly, there is only one thing that I would change about this place... well, okay, two things: stinky Simplot potato factory, and a grocery store within a mile of campus.

Even today, I'm not exactly sure what made up my mind all those months ago to come here. I knew no one, except for a select three from Rochester, that would be up here. That's less than WHEATON, which has about 1/10 of the student population here and about 3 times the tuition. With those kind of statistics, it would appear that UND is actually just a really crappy school and no one wants to come here. Well, there are those who wouldn't want to come here, but they are sissies and can't stand a few 60 below days here and there.

Thank you, God, for leading me in this path. Thank you for giving me an awesome roommate and helping me make super cool friends up here. And thank you for finding my student ID all the times I've lost it this semester... and this past week...

Hope everyone's looking forward to Christmas Break!! I have a new cell phone number (well, relatively... apparently some still don't know it yet, tee hee): 701-739-9781... yes, that's a Grand Forks area code :)

Good luck with finals!

for the love of college

FREEDOM!!

Forgetting the Spanish paper due on Wednesday.

But... for the weekend... FREEDOM!!

(Right now, I feel as if I've overdosed on something really strong. I drank a whole 20oz. bottle of diet Mountain Dew, and I think even my pee is now carbonated. I know my brain is... jittery, jittery, jittery... aaahhh!!!! caffeine!!!)

it's time

It definitely is time for me to update on my blog. What a week! Heck, we haven't even gotten to the midway point. Ummm... so yeah... I'm listening to Moby right now. That pretty much sums up how the homework is going. Chemistry lab paper (3-5 pages on nitric acid, for goodness sakes) and English final portfolio (including final draft of our last paper and a 2-3 page analysis) due Friday... CPR and First Aid Test 3 on Thursday... Spanish paper (3-5 pages on "el recado" por Elena Poniatowska) due next Wednesday... and of course, our favorities, FINALS on Monday on Tuesday. Home on next Friday!!!! Ten days!!! I am so excited!!