Semester at Sea

I am SO doing this. I will sell everything I own to be able to afford it, but it is happening! Canada, Turkey, Croatia, Egypt, Morocco, Japan, India, China, Vietnam and Hawaii... imagine how interesting my blog will be then!!!!!!! You can check out the website at semesteratsea.org. Nothing is official seeing that I still have to get accepted into the nation wide program and find out a way to pay but I couldn't afford Santa Clara and I made my way here so I've got luck on my side!

P.S. anyone wanna buy a waterbed:)?

A much needed beach night

After a long day of laziness and nothingness we (the gang shown above) decided to spice things up with a midnight drive to the beach. We got there and there were five bon fires already going... but no people. Not a person in sight, just five huge bon fires in the fog. Probably the creepiest thing ever. But we stayed anyway... ya know like the smart wise decision making college students we are. Don't worry dad the Mace's safety was off and it was in my hand the whole night, despite paranoid comments from my friends:)

Thank You Mom

for taking care of yourself
for my christmas present finally happening
for our beautiful home
for all the unconditional love
for the really nice blue water bottle that I stole from you before I left for cali that you didn't know about till just now....
for my stud earrings that I wear everyday
for letting me wear your spinny ring since mine was lost
for the pictures you sent in the mail
for talking to me on the phone even when your tired
for teaching me how to be a kind, generous person

o....and for my cushy rug and screen that were pictured in an earlier post:)

Update

So blogspot hasn't been letting me publish anything which is the reason for the long break then overwhelming amount of posts. Here is a brief update of what I would have wrote about had it been working...
1. Classes have gotten harder... much harder.
2. Nov 4th could not come soon enough.
3. I love my new church!
4. I have no pants left without holes!
5. Going to bed at four AM is fun!
6. I bought some new pants!:)
7. Spider Solitaire consumes my life
8. Going to bed at one is a lot more fun.

L PARTY!!!!

It was Laura and Laura's Birthday party and for once I actually decided to go out! It was an L party... everyone had to dress up as something that started with L. I contemplated Loser or Lazy but ended up getting into the spirit as a Librarian complete with book and glasses! I probably only stayed forty minutes tops but it counts as a social life right?

Lady in Red, Librarian, Life guard, Leprechaun, Leopard, and Lindsey Lohan (Lindsey Lohan's Lesbian Lover is not pictured but was at the party)

Lady in Red and the Librarian (who did impersonations of Sarah Palin the whole night)

Ali, my Roomie (who went as Love) and Sarah and me having a bathroom party at the party!

Jimmy Buffet Concert!

Who knew about this HUGE Jimmy Buffet Nation!?! Well I got a chance to find out on Tuesday when my friend Alex and her parents invited Kelsey, Mikey, and I to go to the concert at the outdoor ampitheater. It was absolutely AMAZING! So much fun, so many song I had no idea were Buffet's, so many pirates, and fins, and PARROTHEADS!

Here are some pirates we met... they were pretty nice...after they stole our booty of course

This is us girls rockin out to Cheeseburger in Paradise!

Yeah thats Mikey getting interviewed by a news station. He talked, he laughed... he SANG.

Look Jazz I'm sitting on your blanket! It doesn't smell like you anymore though... don't know whether to put a smiley face or a sad face there:)(

So we were a little far away. . . who cares man! I'm officially a Parrothead!

Family

Everyday I realize more and more how amazing my family is. How important they are in my life. How much they've supported me. How much they believe in me. To everyone who I'm related to, by blood, by marriage, by love; Thank you. I love you all so much.

ALBA

This past weekend nine other people in my dorm and I went to ALBA, a farm where immigrants can learn how to organically farm. They are given half an acre and can buy more. They grow their own plants, sell them at markets, and eventually move up the ladder gaining more land and more skills until they are ready to go out and farm on their own. We got to go and spend the night in their class room and then wake up and help them during a U pick day. They needed help weeding, harvesting, and communicating with the families trying to buy things since most of the farmers only speak Spanish. It felt really good to work outside; it reminded me a lot of my mom and made me miss her bunches. After only half a row was weeded and the aftermath of hundreds of nettles burned on my arm we called it a day and went back to our warm dorms with comfy beds where we can access good food any time we want.

The fabulous ALBA girls rocking the COW gang sign. You can thank Carnation for that gem.

We slept on the floor in the classroom, this is Mike. He didn't snore.
This is me being safe at night time with a ginormous tractor.
This is me being REALLY safe.
This is the only shot Kristin got of the actual work we were there for. My nettle picking didn't make the cut. The strawberries were AMAZING though.

Camera Broke:(

I have so many fabulous pictures to show you but my camera my mom just bought me before I went to school won't turn on:( Soooooo..... untill I hit a best buy, looks like my blog will be....wordy.

Town Hall?

I don't know if you've been to a Town Hall legislator meeting but I have. It doesn't look ANYTHING like what I just watched on NBC. The purpose of the town hall debates in my mind is to have a more open forum with the people. That's why there is no podium, just chairs. No dark, invisible audience, just people in the light sitting up close and personal surrounding the candidates. The candidates can look in the eye of the questioner, walk to them, talk directly to them. This is the idea, not the reality. The questions seemed scripted and could have easily been read by the moderator. It was not an open discussion like the town hall meeting I went to where if you asked a legislator a question and they danced around it, you could raise your hand again and hold them accountable asking them to clarify or I don't know actually answer it. I'm glad we made Senator McCain comfortable since this is his "style" but I wish we could have held true to the actual purpose of a town hall style debate.

Who knew I missed math!?

So I haven't had math since Junior Year at Cedarcrest. I thought I was glad to be rid of such a nasty concept that everyone loves to hate so much. The fact that my math brain was so rusty gave me extra nerves coming into my statistics class which is extremely.... mathy. Turns out I LOVE math. I had forgotten all the reasons why, but now I remember! Math is learning at its very best. You learn how to do something and you are tested on the application and whether or not you can DO it. It's not memorizing facts, or comparing concepts, or even giving your own insight. The reason I chose a social science major is because I'd rather learn how to think than a bunch of facts I'll forget later about a specific subject, but I forgot how much fun both types of learning are. My stats class is challenging in a way I haven't experienced in a while. If your an avid Morgan Clare's Most Excellent Adventure reader you'll remember fall quarter last year when I had biotechnology. Same thing. Hard, but AMAZING.

P.S. got my first stats quiz back today. 100%:)