Todo en Tiempo

Obama wins the Potomac Primaries!!

2008-02-12T22:09:00.003-05:00

Awesome. Spectacular. Wonderful. What more can I say, I'm thrilled - Obama has done it again, winning Maryland - 67%/30%; DC - 75%/24%; & Virginia - 63%/36%; primaries this time too not "just more caucuses" as Hillary said about his other recent wins this past weekend

Delegate tally's:

Clinton: 944 won + 234 supers = 1178

Obama: 1046 won + 156 supers = 1202

So yeah, Obama is now in the lead with delegate counts for the first time. Only slightly so if you add in the "super delegates", but much more so if you just count those that they have actually "won".

Obama won a lot of the groups that were voting pretty heavily for clinton before - women, whites, latinos, 65+, etc. Its pretty amazing, pretty fantastic. I'm just so psyched... I can't wait for the Wisconsin primary in another week, and then Ohio and Texas on the 4th and Pennsylvania on the 12th. So exciting!!

Swimmin

2008-02-11T21:52:00.000-05:00

So, today we got up early and went in to the Tuscarawus YMCA. I did 30 laps (down and back), in right around one hour. It was a blast. I love swimming, love being in the water, and just swimming... We got signed up for First Aid, CPR & Oxygen, and I got signed up for Lifeguarding too. Kevin ran on the treadmills and did some other strenght training stuff. I went in and was first riding one of the reclining bicycles. One lady came up and was like "good for you!" then some guy came up an was like "YOU CAN"T DO THAT! OMG!!" and so... I stopped, and walked around the track (cause' Andros just wanted to be doing SOMETHING), an then he was like "OMG you can't be in here with him!! He's a BABY!!" So... I left. How stupid. I meant to ask someone else and see what their response was... but meh, didn't feel like it at the time. They do have childcare... but I'm just leery about leaving Andros with them, especially today as they were packed (cause' no school, cause' tis "too cold"), and it costs money ($2 a day or $12 for 10 visits), not a lot but, still. So, I just wanderd around the place untill Kevin was done an then we went grocery shopping an came home.

I made Lentils and Potatoes with curry and basmati rice and indian flat bread for dinner, and it was very good. Definetly the best thing I've made from How to make Everything Vegetarian so far. Overall just a really good day..

I'm a black belt!!

2008-02-09T21:10:00.000-05:00

Well, I did it! I passed my black belt test today... its pretty incredible. Charlie went back in his records and figured out that I started on September 24, 1989!! So, it took over 18 years, probably longer than just about anyone else... but I did it. I got through all the board breaks, though the only one that I got on the first try was the back fist (2 boards)... I broke 2/3 of the knife hands, but it was wierd cause' the didn't come apart at first... And then the ridge hand one of the boards just feel/slid... and then I jumped off of the wrong bloody foot for my flying side kick an so missed it the first try :boggle: And then I felt like an idiot when I put the black belt on backwards... and couldn't remember how to bloody hold the stupid belt or certificate!! But... somehow or other, I got through everything, and in anycase I passed :D

The bong sool test was also quite cool, although also very different. Basicly it was all fighting, which was pretty interesting and fun to watch. If my hand hadn't been soo bloody sore I'd probably have sparred at least too. It was very cool though to watch Jarrod cut the apple with the sword. Mr Braumberger showed them 'how to do it' first - which was pretty lame - just tap, tap on either side and then tap it and cut it in two... Jarrod however didn't 'follow directions' ;) He pulled it out swung it around and then cut it and put it back, just like Charlie had told him he had to. I hope that we really do start doing bong sool though, that would be very cool and fun to do tournaments.

Overall, the differences in the schools was kind of obvious and bit wierd - Brock for his second just did one two-board break (palm attack), while Jarrod did six different single-board breaks (front snap kick, roundhouse, sliding side kick, backfist, knife hand and ridge), and then of course my 4 for first degree, which even though I semi-botched I still got through...

Anyhow, I'm excited and elated as can be. I kind of never thought it'd actually happen... Now I just have to keep going, and start teaching and helping out. Overall, its really quite cool.

Its Super Tuesday!!

2008-02-05T23:10:00.001-05:00

So, I'm feeling pretty good about my black belt test, which is good cause its coming up in just 4 days!! I've got all of my stuff down pretty good, mostly concentrating on getting all the old stuff down again. Especially all the old fighting steps. Tommorrow I think I'm going to teach Kevin 1-10 so that I can practice 31-40 (counter attacks). Other than those, and the take downs I'm pretty confidant about most of them. So, mostly its remembering them, going over the take downs... and memorizing/learning all the Korean terminology. So, yeah. I guess its actually a good bit... but not too bad!

I'm sitting here at the moment watching CNN as the polls close around the country and they try to "predict" who's going to win where. I really hope Obama does well - its looking like hes doing OK, not wonderful, but OK anyways. I'm honestly very surprised at how well Huckabee's doing on the GOP side. Really, I didn't think he had much of a chance at all, so its pretty surprising that hes actually winning a couple states. As much as I really, really hope that we have a democractic president (and I hope thats Obama;) if I had to pick a republican I like McCain the best by far. So, good to see he's still doing super well.

In any case, here's hoping for good results for Obama & McCain both.

Super what?

2008-02-03T21:13:00.000-05:00

Well, today I went in and went through my fighting steps and forms with Jarrod and some other folks, trying to get ready for my black belt test. I'm feeling pretty confidant about them. I just need to start going through all the *old* fighting steps and remembering them.

I've also been playing around with blogger, and have added Google AdSense, so who knows maybe I'll be able to make a little money off this. (OK, so thats not likely in the least, but hey, its worth a try, right??)

DH has been sitting in the other room watching the Super Bowl except now, since my Dad's gone to bed, he's moved in here... so I'm watching football for the first time in... years. Personally, I'm rooting for the Giants. The Patriots don't deserve an undefeated season. I don't know why not, but it just doesn't seem right. Specially since they cheat. Not that I really care either way...

It occurs to me of course that I'm like one of the only people in the US that just couldn't care less about the super bowl. I mean, the commercials tend to be really good, but other than that its just another football game... and, yeah. Whatever floats your boat, I spose...

Food Fun

2008-02-02T18:32:00.000-05:00

Ah, what a long, but good day. I had co-op so we went up to canton to work and pick it up. I really enjoy working coop, though I’m not really sure why. Its just a nice, semi-relaxing hour or so every few weeks I suppose. And its fun to see what everyone else is ordering/eating and what came in (and thus what we get to eat for the next month or so;). Sometimes I’ll see something that I didn’t order but that looks good, an then order it the next month (or the next time it comes up on sale/on the split list).

One of the folks who runs the co-op was telling me and another lady about Juice Plus+ and how great it is. She actually gave me a DVD about it by Dr Sears. I haven’t gotten around to watching it yet, but have searched about on-line a bit and am not impressed so far. There just doesn’t seem to be all that much science backing it up, and quite a bit that seems to indicate that any help its giving is probably most attributable to the placebo effect… but who knows :D

We also stopped by the Raisin Rack after coop and I picked up some other random stuff we’d been needing. For dinner I made Spicy Red Lentils with Spinach, out of Nutrition Action. Nutrition Action is a really neat little newsletter that comes, I think, once a month. Its put out by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, who are totally independent. There’s no advertising, and they don’t take any funding from any corporations, so they don’t have the big conflicts of interest that so many publications do. In any case, the lentils came out very good, which makes me want to try some of their other recipes now too :D Its also made me very excited to get my new cookbook… it looks like it should be showing up here around the middle of this week (Tuesday/Wednesday). I can’t wait!!

Pictures!

2008-01-31T17:48:00.000-05:00

So, I just realized that I never did link some of the super cute, recent pictures of Andros sled riding and playing outside and just generally being super duper incrediably cute :) So, here you are!

Andros & I on January 17, 2008 Andros & I on the 17th of January, 2008. Aren’t we cute??

Andros on his rocking horse on the 18th

Andros & me sled riding

Andros & Kevin Sledding

Eating Less Meat

2008-01-31T08:32:00.000-05:00

So I just ordered How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman. I’ve been trying to learn to cook more vegetarian recipes and thereby eat less meat. So far though, I’ve been pretty much stuck on about 4 recipes - spaghetti squash, black beans & rice,vegetarian stir fry,tostadas… So, after seeing this at borders yesterday I came home and read lots of reviews on amazon. Most of the complaints seem to be along the lines of ‘hes not a vegetarian and talks about meat’ - but since we aren’t either, it doesn’t really worry me. In anycase I’m excited to get it and start cooking 2 or 3 or 4 meals a week vegetarian, and saving meat/fish for the weekends and special occasions. I’ll post about how I like it when it comes!

Tae Kwon Do class last night was very good. We did the usual stuff and then take downs and how to get OUT of take downs at the end of class… and then left the mats down so that we could actually practice our fighting steps after class. I’m feeling slightly better than I had been about testing on the 9th, though its still more than just a bit nerve wracking. I’m excited to go again tonight though, and practice some more. Its just very hard to do so here at home what with Andros running around, and the simple lack of space…

We went up to Canton yesterday, so we stopped and got Grandpa a longer printer cable, which made him very happy. Now he can actually pull it all the way out and not have it get caught or anything. We also found out that my Aunt Carol was in the hospital and got her appendix removed! Which got us wondering how you get appendicitis anyways. I mean, is it like a virus/disease or does your appendix just randomly quit working properly?? Maybe I’ll look it up and figure that out sometime…

hmm

2008-01-28T16:15:00.000-05:00

So, today I went in to New Philadelphia, just me and Andros, for the first time in a while. It was pretty nice to get out of the house (even if it was just grocery shopping, mostly!), and away from everything just the two of us.

The first thing we did was stop by the Verizon store to see what is up with my phone. The guy there was super nice. He updated the phone somehow (thought I did that before, but apparently not…), so we’ll see if it works better now. If not, he said to just come back in and they’d get me a new phone. So, we’ll see. Hopefully it works now.. I’ll just have to see.

Afterwords, we went to the grocery store and went shopping. Andros did wonderful, just riding around in the cart smiling and looking at everything. Its so cool watching him notice different things and be OK with things for the first time. Its so cool that he’s really starting to “play” with some of his toys - especially his cars/trucks/etc pushing them around, and even making little sound effects!

I also dropped off our application for Financial Assistance to the YMCA. So, hopefully they’ll give us a call here soon and set up an appointment. I really hope we get a discounted membership. I’d love, love, love to be able to go in and swim once or twice a week. Swimming just makes me feel soo good, makes me so happy.

Sled Riding!!

2008-01-27T17:29:00.000-05:00

So, today we went sled riding over at Atwood Lodge’s golf course. It was a lot of fun, and really the first time that Andros went sledding. We’d gone outside last week and played outside and done a tinsy bit of sledding, but nothing like today. It was a lot of fun, and I really think he had a good time. We got a couple good pictures… I’ll try and get them up tonight or tommorrow.

We saw Stardust the other day - Kevin got it through Netflix. And it was amazing! Such a good movie - definetly one of the best I’ve seen in a long time. Why don’t they make more movies like that? Just good, interesting, fantasy. Some special effects but not the entire freaking movie! Such a great film. We also saw Sunshine, which was also really good. Almost made me cry a couple times, but, again, great movie. Those are definetly two of the best movies I’ve seen in a long time.

Hopefully tommorrow Kevin will hear about an interview (or two?) for a job at McDonalds or Dairy Queen for a couple months. Just something to hold him over till his job starts back up at Atwood Lake Park in March. I know it’d make him feel super good just to be working again, and so will I. It’ll be nice to have a little bit of “alone” time again, though at the same time, I’ll miss having him around!!

Swimming at the Y

2008-01-26T06:26:00.000-05:00

So strange, last night after tae kwon do, I was freezing cold. Seriously, the room couldn’t have been more than 55 or 60 degrees, and it was just a slow class, so I was *COLD* by the time it was over. It didnt’ help that it was like 5 degrees outside and in the car… by the time I got home, I was SOOO cold, I layed under two blankets on the couch shivered for like an hour… and then I puked :( Had a little fever, just felt horrible… but by 2am I was fine. So weird.

In other news, I think I’m going to apply to Baker College, for their Computer Programming associates degree, so I’ve got one option good and open. Then we’ll see what Oregon State says (should hear from them by the 1st of February), and go from their. I’m still pretty torn…

We went to the Tuscarawas County YMCA today, and got info on how to get a discounted membership. Its a very nice Y - two pools, one standard for doing laps in and then a smaller one thats super warm where they do classes thats nice and shallow. I did 20 laps (down and back), while Kevin & Andros played in the small pool - they had a lot of fun, and Kevin did like 6 laps in the pool. Then we went and worked out in their weight/fitness room which is also super nice. I walked around the track carrying Andros (walked a mile;) and then he fell asleep. Kevin ran a couple miles and did some other random stuff… not really sure what all he did. Overall it was a very nice day. I hope we get a membership one way or another, and end up going at least once or twice a week. It took me a couple laps to get back into the rhythm of swimming, but it was super nice. Almost forgot how much I love to swim!!

Training

2008-01-23T05:12:00.000-05:00

So I’m going to call some colleges today and make a decision by this weekend, on what exactly I’m going to do. I’m leaning towards Baker College’s online Computer Programming associates degree right now. Though, I’m also considering Westwood’s Software Engineering associates, and Oregon State University’s Bachelor of Natural Resources. I’ve pulled out my old copy of The C Programming Language and am working my way through the first chapter right now. Its going pretty good, and I’m enjoying it so far, which is a large part of why I’m leaning towards computer programming. We’ll see though..

Andros is so close to walking, its incredible to see. He’ll pull himself up, turn around, balance, and turn around and grab something as he takes a step. Its absolutely amazing. Any day now he’s going to just stand up and start walking around… I actually dreamed that he did so the other night.

I’ve stated trying to exersize more now too. I rowed for 15 minutes-ish today, did 40 cruches and 10 pushups along with some other random exersizes. Hopefully if I really start exersizing every day, I’ll be able to get into shape and loose the last 15lbs ish of pregnancy weight. That’d be awesome, so, we’ll see if I can really stick to it. Plus, it’d be nice to be in decent shape for my black belt test on the 9th…

Going back to School

2008-01-18T16:50:00.000-05:00

Today I spent looking for a college where I can get my bachelors degree. The only place that sounds reasonable/practical is Oregon State University. They have an e-campus option, and I should be able to get my degree in Natural Resources… I’ve been trying to figure out how many credits I have that would transfer and I’m just not in the least bit sure. Its so hard to try and match up whats what, you know? Plus I might have to take a year of Biology somewhere around here - depending on whether or not they accept classes I took at hocking for that, which its sounding like they aren’t going to do.

My other option I suppose is to just get a bachelor’s degree in “general studies” and then go for a master’s in environmental science or whatever I really want to do. And for that, I think I’d have a lot more options… although I think I’d much rather have a degree in *something*…

Andros seems to be back to himself again, finally. He had me pretty worried yesterday, what with pooping 5x in one day - which he hasn’t done in *MONTHS*. It was just… wierd. He’s been sleeping a lot lately, or at least, it certainly seems like it to me. He slept nearly the whole time we were driving both down to and then back up from West Virginia, plus all night long. So, its been kind of a relief that he’s back to himself.

The Future

2008-01-17T16:43:00.000-05:00

So, we turned down The Mountain Institute. It’s a beatiful place, rugged and wild. With the 6+ inches of snow that they had while we were there, it was even more so. However, its also very remote. In a lot of ways thats nice, and very cool. But, its also just a tad bit on the scary side - what if something happend? Its about an hour from the closest “decent grocery store”, so how far to real emergency medical care? Its also quite rustic - we’d be living in, basicly, a hut. Thats not bad, but it’d be a big change. Currently, most of them don’t even have elctricity, let alone a bathroom, kitchen, stove, etc. We’d have to share those things with the rest of the center. Thats not neccarily a bad thing, it’d just be… different. In anycase though, we turned it down.

Which, leaves us back at the question of “whats next?” After a good bit of discussion our plan for now is to stick around here at my dad’s place untill next fall/winter. Kevin will either go back to work for the MWCD or get a factory-type job with a temp agency. We’ll save up as much as we possibly can, and then in the fall/winter Kevin will go down to Hall’s Diving Career Institute and take their Professional Diving Instructor course… and we’ll move down to Florida or similar and go from there.

So, thats our plan for now.

West Virginia

2008-01-16T17:10:00.000-05:00

Well, we drove down to Spruce Knob Mountain Center on monday - it took right around 5 1/2 hours to get there, and Andros did wonderfully. We got there right around 5pm, and met Dave Martin. He took us up to the dorms and the main yurts, and so we just ate dinner and hung out and then went to bed. Its a beautiful area, and was especially so with the snow.

Its very remote - the closest town being 9 miles away (six miles down 28/10, a forest service road, and then 3 miles up 28), though it doesn’t even have a post office. The next town, 3 miles up the road, Circleville, is where they get their mail. But the closest place with a decent grocery store is Franklin, an hour away, or Elkins 1.5 hours away. In between are several tiny towns, Seneca Rocks, and miles apon mile of national forest.

The mountain center itself though, is pretty cool. Most of the buildings are yurts, including the main one which houses the the kitchen, dining area, library and a “bubble” at the top from which you can see the night sky. Its also connected (via a short walk way) to the other big yurt which is just one big open room where they can have lectures, classes, whatever. Its pretty cool. From there, there are two dorms, each of which can house aprox 20 people, as well as several small yurts which are usually indivudual residences for field staff and/or visiting “dignitaries” over the summer. Some of them have had wood stoves in them in the past, which is how most everything is heated (except for the bathrooms which do have a gas heater). Theres also a few other buildings, including a geo-dome, several sheds, the main office and another all-season residence.

Overall its a pretty cool setup, very rustic but cool. The only thing that bothers me at all is just how remote it is. Andros wasn’t feeling very good while we were there (and still seems a bit more fussy/upset than usual), and it kind of made me worry about what would happen if he were to get really sick, or hurt or something. Other than that… its awesome. I’m not sure I’d really want to stay there over the winter, but during the spring/summer/fall? I think it’d be very cool.

The drive back took about 2 hours longer than the drive down, due to very, very bad weather. It took over two hours to get to Elkins. When we left they hadll like 6-8″ of snow and it was still snowing. So, probably a good thing we left when we did. The roads were horrible till we got to Elkins and then pretty bad through till we got to 79. So, its good to be home again. Very, very good to be home.

We still haven’t decided if we really want to do it or not. I think we probably will tell them we’re interested. But we’ll see. It’d be a change thats for sure… one heck of a change!

Africa's Holocaust

2008-01-14T13:27:00.000-05:00

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a civil war which supposedly ended over 5 years ago, goes on. Over six million people have been killed during the past six years. That’s the equivalent of the entire population of New Zealand - or New York City - dead. Its also the approximate number of Jew’s killed in the Holocaust, the first major genocide. Like every other genocide, it is being largely ignored. Half of all deaths are of children under the age of five - a quarter of all children born in the Congo today won’t make it to the age of 5.

The worst of the violence though, is being committed against women. Rape has become the weapon of choice of the Congolese military, as well as the “Mai Mai” militias, civilians, UN Peacekeepers, and perhaps most telling of all Hutus who fled Rwanda after committing genocide against the Tutsis their and who have taken up residence here in the Congo.

Some of the Hutus have become known as the Rastas, who wear shiny track suits and LA Lakers’ jerseys. They have become notorious for burning babies, kidnapping children and killing any and everyone who dares to get in their way.

There is one light of hope though in all the killing. At Panzi Hospital Dr Mukwege, an OB/GYN does six surgeries a day on women who have been raped. Most who come have fistulas - holes inside of their bodies. Many are the result of having had various implements - guns, bayonets, bottles, sticks - shoved inside of their vagina’s and rectums, literally ripping them apart from the insides. Others stem from birth complications. A mother who cannot give birth due to militias, who has no time for labor and whose child dies inside of her. One carried her dead child inside her vagina for a week before arriving at the hospital.

Because of their woods, they are unable to control their bodily fluids, and so their urine and feces literally leak out of their bodies. Many are shunned by their communities - and yet in some villages over half the women have been raped. Few are spared - Dr Mukwege says his oldest patient was 75, his youngest just 3.

Why is this occurring? That is the question, that no-one can answer, although it is clear the purpose of the attacks to terrify. Why else would women be raped in front of their families - husbands brothers, sisters, children, communities? By doing so they are raping not only the women but everyone around them as well. Showing them, proving to them, that they are powerless and helpless before such as them.

I’m still trying to figure out what I can do, what we can all do to help, to end the violence. Perhaps the best option is to write the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Joseph Kabila Kabange, and urge him to take action to stop the violence. Write your representatives, and urge them to start proceedings to take action. Or you can donate money directly to Panzi Hospital where Dr Mukwege works, print out posters, and sign up for email alerts at http://www.vday.org/contents/drcongo.

But, perhaps most importantly, you can speak out to your family & friends. Tell them about the conflict, and keep it fresh in your mind. The perpetrators would prefer that we forget, that we pretend its not happening. But it is. And the least that we can do for those who are being hurt is to not forget them, and their struggle.

Climbing

2008-01-13T01:28:00.000-05:00

Well, today we drove back up to Kendall Cliffs in Peninsula, OH and went rock climbing again. It was a lot of fun… we went, I have to admit, mostly because we forgot *all* ov my climbing stuff their last weekend.

Anyways though, it was a very fun time. Plus, Sue, Brad, Christian & his friend Micheal, Jenny & her boyfriend Tim all came too, so we got to see and climb with them, which was very cool. I managed to climb one route that I hadn’t been able to finish last weekend, as well as a couple of others, so that was cool. I think the hardest one was probably around a 5.8, which isn’t too bad.

Our plan is, to drive down to The Mountain Institute’s Spruce Knob Mountain Center on monday morning and check it out. I really hope everything goes well and we like it. It *sounds* very cool, almost too good to be true in fact. We’ll spend the night there, and then on tuesday drive down to Seneca Rocks and check it out, maybe climb a little and then drive back home. I really don’t know what time we’ll get back home, so I may very well not make it to tae kwon do on tuesday night… but thats OK. I’m just very excited to check this place out… the pictures of it are beautiful. And it would be super cool to get back to doing what we love, especially for Kevin after everything he’s been through this past year.

First Steps!

2008-01-11T21:31:00.000-05:00

So, today Andros took his first steps! Pretty incredible. He’s getting so big, and so amazing. He’s learned how to climb onto the shelf infront of our windows now. Just has to have something to use as a stepping-stool, and up he goes.

I’m also totally shocked at our sudden change in fortune. I posted a little blurb about Kevin & I on Google’s “Outdoor Education Jobs” group the other day. And have so far gotten two responses. One from a couple of camps up in Massachuesets somewhere, the other from The Mountain Institue’s Spruce Knob Mountain Center.

The Mountain Institute sounds awesome. Theres no other way to say it. Up in the mountains of W. Virginia, just 25 miles from Seneca Rock. They’re surrounded on 3 sides by the Mongahala National Forest. During the spring & fall they mostly do environmental education with schools, but in the summer its much more of a mixed bag. So, in the spring/fall Kevin would be mostly doing EE stuff, and in the summer just random odd jobs (cooking, maintenance, trail maintenance, etc).

Thinking

2008-01-11T21:25:00.000-05:00

Well, ok, try again. I just had a nice long well-thought out post and its gone now! Bah. Not a good start :( So, here goes, again!

I really wish I would have started writing last year about this time. So much has happend in the past year. I got married last august, my son was born in March, Kevin got in a motorcycle accident in June, and then his step-dad in a motorcycle accident in October (insane, I know). Our lives have changed so much, and I have basicly no record of it. It really makes me quite sad when I think about it. But, oh well. I suppose we all have regrets...

Kevin is basicly back to "normal" now, which is absolutely amazing. I was so worried for so long that I would never have him back... and he is now, mostly. His brain's still not quite where it was pre-accident, but its getting better, getting closer every day. And, at least he realizes it now, somewhat. Which, wasn't true just a couple months ago. Whether he's actually getting better or just hiding it well (which implies that he IS in fact better, I suppose?), I'm not entirely sure. But, either way at least it seems like I can talk to him and hold a decent conversation.

Physically hes probably 90% back. He actually went and ran today for the first time He ran about 1.5 miles in just over 11 minutes! Which is just awesome, especially since its what he'll have to run to pass the OPOT (Ohio Peace Officers Training), course in 8 months :D I really hope that it (the OPOT) goes well, and he ends up with a decent job doing something he likes. Even if we do have to move out and get our own place.

Andros is amazing. Theres no other way to say it. He's gotten so big, so fast its pretty hard to believe that 9 months have already gone by. It seems like he was just learning to roll over yesterday. And, now he's up crusing along the furniture, learning to stand unassisted, crawling around and opening cupboards and getting into just EVERYTHING!!

I'm trying to learn to cook more different things. Stir fry and pasta are good, but something different is always good, you know? So, I've been trying to make at least one or two new things every week. Its been pretty hit & miss, but lots of fun. I find that I'm making fewer and fewer things exactly as the recipe calls for them and modifying stuff more and more. Plus, now that I have deer and lamb to cook with its opened up a whole new area of cooking... I'm a huge fan of AllRecipes.com partially cause the recipes tend to be pretty good, and partially cause of the community's super helpful reviews... I have so many cook books that just sit on the shelf though, its really pretty sad.... probably should ebay them (along with a bunch of other stuff).

I'm also thinking about going back to school, possibly for something with computers. Both my Dad and Kevin keep telling me I should, so maybe I will. I just have to figure out how I'm going to do it with Andros. Online classes would be nice, but some part of me doesn't know how I'd really do with just online classes.

Anyhow, thats been our year in a nutshell.

It's Snowing!!

2007-12-15T21:16:00.000-05:00

Its snowing again here… though I don’t think we’re going to get near as much snow as they were saying a couple days ago. But who knows, we shall see.. We did get a good inch or two yesterday, though then it rained so a lot of it melted:( But, its snowing again pretty good, so maybe we’ll get another couple inches. Which would be super cool, as I love snow. It at least makes everything look pretty vs just being icky and cold and muddy.

On another note, our house is now decorated - or at least, its as decorated as its gonna get :) We have a nice little tree ontop of the old icebox, up and out of reach of Andros - which was the whole point… Some ornaments, lights and garland. What more do you need? At least the log cabin looks festive though, which is nice.

I made chicken noodle soup yesterday for the first time, and it realy turned out pretty darn good if I must say so myself, which is awesome, cause’ I basicly made it up as I went along. We’re going to have it again for lunch today, hopefully its at least as good as it was yesterday - soup usually is!

He Hates his Carseat:(

2007-12-13T21:20:00.000-05:00

I really don’t understand why Andros dislikes his carseat so much… he screamed for most of the ride home from Lehman’s today, and it was just horrible :( While we were there he was great - happy as could be, just looking around at everything. But, just as soon as we got in the car he started just screamingi and screaming. I was really thinking we were kinda past that last week because he was so good in the car! But, obviously not. Well, I’m very pleased to say that we have finished our holiday

Anyways though, we went to Lehman’s and got all the rest of our holiday shopping done! Which is awesome… now I just have to start baking :D I think I’m going to make mostly buckeyes & chocolate covered pretzels this year, with just a couple batches of cookies. Supposedly Kevin wants to help… I’m somewhat suspicious on that count, but who knows.

I think tommorrow we’re going to go look for our tree… we just want a small one to go ontop of the icebox… I haven’t been keeping an eye out for one though, so I can’t think where theres any off the top of my head, hopefully either Dad or Kevin will have some ideas.

Finally!

2007-12-11T21:24:00.000-05:00

Well, I really did not expect to spend all day long working on my grandpa's new iMac... but I did. About half the time was spent on technical support... because it didn't come with OS X pre-installed, I was trying to upgrade it. And, apparently the CD with Leopard that came with it is faulty. Which, was my guess after 15 minutes. But, of course, it took 2-3 hours on the phone for apple tech support to figure that out!!

But, after that it was (mostly) smooth sailing :D And, in anycase its up and running nicely now. iChat, Mail, Address Book, Safari - everythings working, with all of grandpa's stuff. And, I got him OpenOffice for writing his papers and such :) I chatted with my aunt for a big chunk of the day, while getting everything set up... we even did a three-way chat with her and her daughter, which was pretty cool.

I just really, really wish that I could figure out a way to video chat with everyone else... I still can't quite believe that there is absolutely no AIM vidoe chat client for linux...

Anyhow... I never really made it shopping while I was up there, so now I'm shopping (as usual) online! Probably cheaper this way, anyhow;)

Computers & Shopping Hurrah!

2007-12-09T21:24:00.000-05:00

Ugh. So today we went up to visit my grandparents and get their new iMac set up. It came like a week ago, but between us being sick, them being sick and their trip down to the Biltmore, its just sat in a box since then... In anycase, I figured it'd take me about a half hour to get it all set up and then another half hour or so to show grandpa how to work it. I figured that sounded fairly reasonable. Don't you?

Well, it wasn't. For starters, I could not figure out how to install their cable modem (Motorola SB5101) from Time Warner on the Mac. I had the install disc, but it simply did not work. I read the instructions and it just was *not* working. I'm not sure if it was a windows-only disc somehow, or if I'm just totally stupid. Who knows. Of course, Motorola's site is totally unhelpful. Lots of info on how to install the damn thing for Windows 95, 98, ME, XP, Vista... but not a word on OSX!!

The other big hang up was (is?), that they have been using AOL for the past several years, and there is apparently just no good way to get ones contacts, email and bookmarks off of AOL. I mean, I understand *WHY* AOL makes it soo hard to do so... but that doesn't mean I have to approve. Ugh. Mind you, its just made me all the more determined to figure it out, one way or another....

And, finally, I could not get it to upgrade to OSX Leopard. Since its so new it came with the install disc (although it wasn't pre-installed)... but, when I put it in the drive, and it started restarting the computer... it'd just lock up. I didn't share this with either grandpa or anyone else as I figured it'd just piss them off. I found it both bizzare and obnoxious, but don't know what I can do, really.

In anycase I'll probably be driving back up either tommorrow or the next day to finish up, and then go holiday shopping some more. We did manage to find gifts for both my brother and his fiance' and Kevin's sister and her family though.... Which basicly leaves just my mom, and his (Kevin's), mom & stepdad, and his grandparents... Hopefully we can make it over to Lehman's sometime here soon and figure them out

Ubuntu

2007-01-20T23:12:00.000-05:00

Well... I had the bug the other day to play with Linux again - something I haven't really had the chance to do in going on two years now... So I went ahead and started the 3-day long process (yes, you read that right - 3 DAY process, I'm on dial-up. Still.) of downloading the newest version of Ubuntu (6.10) - After all, 3 days of no phone calls is better than waiting 4-6 weeks, right??

Anyhow. I finally got it downloaded, at which point, it occurred to me that I inexplicably did not have any blank CDs - so I ran to town, and bought 20. Got home, burnt it, got it installed. OK, all good so far.... only I couldn't figure out how to get wvdial to configure for the life of me, so I figured I'd just reboot to windows... and realized that my boot loader had gotten changed, and I was thus locked out. So I started trying to figure Grub out, gave up after a bit an figured I'd just throw College Linux back on, and all would be good, right? Wrong. Long story short, after (trying to) install various old Linux flavors I realized I'd somehow accidentally formatted my Windows partition... So I re-installed Ubuntu. And after a bit more effort... figured out wvdial. And am currently loving Ubuntu.

Now, when I say that, I really mean it. For the first time, I've successfully gotten my modem working, my sound card working... hell, even my iPod's up and running (I'm listening to it right now!!). In short, I really don't think I'll bother to re-install windows... I can't think what I need it for. Now, its always possible that at some point in the future I'll want/need it... but, for now, meh.

I think it all boils down to the fact that I've been living off of other people's computers for the past 1+ years. As a result, most everything I actually use on a day-to-day basis is online to one degree or another - pictures (smugmug), email (gmail), documents (google docs), and of course all my mp3's are on my iPod, so not even they have been lost this time around (and even if they hadn't been, my wonderful brother burned them all to CD when I formatted THAT in Spain!!)

Anyhow, its just a really strange feeling to be totally free of Windows for the first time, well, ever. And not the least bit worried/unhappy about it. As I think about it... my computer probably needed a good format anyhow - its been a good 4+ years after all.

and... its a...

2006-10-18T20:02:00.000-04:00

Well, its been a while since I posted on here, but thats OK. Anyhow, the big news is that I'm now nearly 20 weeks pregnant, and just found out on Monday that I'm having a little boy!! Its pretty exciting... Kevin's happy, and so am I along with just about everybody else (the exceptions so far being my mom and his sister). So yeah, its pretty cool. We're thinking about naming him Andros, after the island we met on in the Bahamas a couple of years ago... but we'll see.

Anyhow, thats pretty much all thats new so far... I'll get around to scanning the photos and posting them on here sometime soon... They're pretty detailed... you can see little feet/toes, hands, nose, eyes... everything. Its really quite cool!

We still aren't sure where we're going to go when we get done here in December. Possibly Indiana, but who knows. Time will tell.

2006-08-31T12:11:00.000-04:00

Well, we've been back from Ohio for just a little over a week now. It was a nice trip, a bit on the short side though, really. Six days sounds like a lot longer when you don't realize its split into two. Then it becomes really and truely rather short. Especially when you have to drive hourse between those two. But, overall it really was nice to see everyone again. And we got married.

The whole wedding thing was actually (in my mind at least) rather humorous. See, we originally ran into the Findlay courthouse on Friday and bought a Marriage License. We really hadn't thought we'd be able to get one that easy/quick but we did. They didn't even ask for our drivers licenses. Anyhow. We went back to his Mom's (Amy) house and talked to his step-dad (Tim his step dad is a preacher) with the assumption, that he'd be willing to marry us. But, he kind of balked. Wanted us to go through all kinds of marriage counseling, christian vowes, promise that we'd raise our kid(s) as christians, etc.... Needless to say, that isn't what we wanted, and I for one was a bit taken aback. We asked if it'd be better to just do a secular thing at the courthouse, and he said (I'm paraphrasing here), 'Well that'd be great, but its really quite hard to do. Only clergy and judges can marry people in the state of Ohio....' Which, I for one found odd... after all there've got to be a lot of athiests and such that don't want ceremonies, right?? So, I called my grandpa up and asked him. And he said that, well, no, its not that hard to do, and would I like for him to call around and see if he could get something lined up for like, Sunday. I said sure, and 4 hours later it was confirmed that we'd be married on Monday by the Mayor of North Canton.

When Amy and Tim found out, they were a bit upset, mostly because Amy really wanted to see her son get married (understandable, but still...). Tim then offerred to marry us on Sunday, but I didn't want to do that because a: I then wouldn't get to see *my* family untill Sunday or Monday (and we had to drive back on Tuesday), and b: we'd already agreed to Monday with the mayor. So in the end we settled for him "blessing the relationship" on Saturday at 5pm. Then we drove to my Dad's house and hung out there untill Tuesday. In the end Amy & Tim ended up driving over for it anyways, which to my mind kind of nullified the reason for the blessing on Saturday. But, then again, at least it all worked out in the end and everyone was happy.

Since we got back last Wednesday, we finished up Staff Training and since then Kevin's been working, and I worked the weekend. Its been pretty nice, and I'm enjoying it here... I have another doctors apointment on Friday with the OB/GYN so hopefully everything still looks good.

Stuff

2006-08-12T17:29:00.000-04:00

So, Summer Camp's been over for a week now, and family camp is over now too (technically I have one more pony ride tommorrow morning, but I'm doubtful at this point that anyone will show up...), so life's slowing down. Happily slowing down.

Pregnancy is going OK... after a horribly sick, nasuea filled July, August has been WAY easier. Got in to see a doc finally a few weeks ago, and everything is looking just fine. All the blood work they took (and boy did they take a LOT), looks normal/good, and the ultrasound I had about 2 weeks ago now, looked good too (I should be around 10-11 weeks pregnant now.. I think. Something like that.). My due date is for around the 9-11th of March. So thats pretty crazy.

Kevin & I are planning on getting married sometime here in the next week or two, mostly (ok, only) so that we can live together here at camp, on-camp... And while up untill earlier today it didn't look like we'd be getting our own place, that is suddenly, quite possibly changin. Which means that we just might be getting to bring Loki back too! Which is awesome. Life would be great if we could live together with our dog. That would just be too good.

In anycase, we're driving back up to Ohio on wednesday (16th of August), for a week. Going to go to his parent's place first, and then on to my Dad's. It should be a nice, mostly relaxing trip. I'm going to trade my truck for dad's accord. Which is pretty cool, although I'll be sad to say 'bye' to my truck. ::sniffle:: Tis been a good truck.

Thats about all thats new here, my horses go back tommorrow afternoon ::sniffle:: I'll miss them. It'll be wierd not getting up and feeding horses every morning. Really, really wierd. But, then again I'm sure I'll slowly get used to sleeping in again =)

2006-07-04T19:09:00.000-04:00

Hmm. Wow. Crazyness has ensued here at camp for the past several weeks. Its nice here... but my staff has changed completely since I started. Which is a good thing, not a bad thing... One may be coming back... we'll find out one way or the other later on tonight. Overall I really like what I do here, I've rememberd just how mcuh I love working with kids and horses both. Its a great job, and I could totally do it forever (just so long as I have staff that I can trust, that is...). Which is very nice to know.

Kevin seems to like doing the rock climbing thing still, though he's unfortuantly hardly ever here. He only sleeps on-camp 3 nights a week, which kind of sucks, but is mostly OK. I don't see him as much as I'd like, but its enough to get by.

But the crazyiest part of it all, is that I am, once again, pregnant :) And its wierd, we both agree, because we're both totally cool with it, totally OK, happy, excited about it. Its a totally different feeling than it was two years ago. And the handful of people who know, here, have been (thus far) super supportive and awesome about it. So who knows, maybe we'll stay on here for the fall at least so that we can save up some money and such, and then figure out where to go. Kevin was telling me today, that, the way he sees it... he really didn't have any idea what to do - was just kind of drifting, wandering around the world. And so now, at least, he knows what he'll be doing for the rest of his life - which he's really excited about. So thats awesome.

Anyhow, I just wanted to post about all that crazyness, so that I can remember how I feel right now, forever. Its exciting, it really is.

Camp

2006-05-26T20:41:00.000-04:00

Well, first of all, I did not realize it'd been SO long since I last posted. Crazyness has ensued since then, starting with the Tae Kwon Do Tournament in Spain, and the exhibition there that I participated in (on my birthday!!), which was quite cool... The following day, I flew home from Spain to Pittsburgh, where we (dad & I) stayed at a friends house for the night. Got to see my old friend Jessie, which was very cool.

Then on the 15th of May I drove down here to S. Carolina to start work.. The camp is beautiful. Way up ontop of a mountain in the Blue Ridge, it has some amazing views. And, of course, its simply awesome to be with/around Kevin again.

My horses finally got here this Monday (21st), and so, ever since I've been riding and taking care of them. Which is awesome. They're all pretty good - both looking, and fairly well trained. I'm actually extremely impressed with their overall quality (especially for camp horses!!). Went on a trail ride today, did some crazy exploring and getting lost (which was, as always, fun). Tommorrow is the first time we'll actually give rides, so I'm kind of nervous about that. But it should be OK. I hope...

The kid I'm working with (the "assistant director"), seems pretty clueless. Apparently, he didn't realize that you need to clean the barn. Apparently, I have to tell him such things, or he just doesn't know. He also gives me the impression that he's scared of horses (takes 3-5 minutes to catch one in a box stall... and another couple to kick each one out after feeding. But, then again, I'm not really surprised about this, just highly disappointed. Was hoping to have somebody with a clue. The other kid is apparently a bit slow. Supposedly they also just hired a girl from Spain, though it sounds like she'll only be here for the first half of the summer. Which sucks. But, you'll have taht I spose.

Anyhow, thats about all thats new with me... We saw the DaVinci Code, which was pretty good, and then yesterday we saw Over the Hedge, which was hysterical. Hammy kicks ass... I think thats about it.

No more textbooks??

2006-05-04T09:20:00.000-04:00

Working for Change has a cool article up about how Allegheny College in PA is trying to do away with text books. The first class (logically, I suppose), to do so was the Intro to Enviromental Science class. Instead of using a textbook, they developed a website with "readings" which linked to sites all over the web like the US Census Burae, the EPA, and the National Park Service. Its a really quite cool idea. As noted in the article, in the end it provides three things that textbooks do not, can not provide:

1 Saves Money. Average Enviro Science textbook cost? $100 Cost of the site? $0
2 Saves Trees. Apparently 20% of the paper the US uses every year goes to, you guessed it, text books. So thats 5 million trees annualy.
3 Accuracy. No textbook can possibly be as up-to-date as a website. Its just not possible.

Anyhow, check it out.
http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=20743

Legos & Blackholes

2006-05-02T13:12:00.000-04:00

Right nifty news on the lego front - LEGO has finally gotten around to opensourcing the MINDSTORMS firmware, which means that lego mindstorms will be that much more fun to mess around with in the future. Thats to say, you can now not just mess with the robotics/building part, but also with the software itself. Which is cool.
http://mindstorms.lego.com/press/2057/Open%20Source%20Announcement.aspx

As for blackholes... its mostly, actually, about the new LIGO "telescope" which is just now opening up - its cool, because maybe, with a bit of luck we´ll be detecting black hole mergers here sometime soonish. Which is cool, cause´with that knowledge, maybe we´ll figure out more about the universe, life and everything =)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/02/science/space/02hole.html

Language; starlings, monkeys and us

2006-05-02T13:00:00.000-04:00

So, its looking like starlings have the capability to create/understand language. Which is really cool. Scientists created an artificial language, and then played it back to people, monkeys (cotton-top tamarin monkeys, to be exact), and starlings. People got it (80% of college students could figure it out), the monkey´s didn´t, and the starlings did.

Of course, everybody´s not in aggreement that this equals language, or that starlings aren´t just cheating, but you´ll have that. Here´s a couple of the comments =):

Dr Chomksy: "It has nothing remotely to do with language — probably just with short-term memory,"
Dr Gentner: "Chomsky may find this trivial, but that is a bit like saying apes use tools, but only the trivial kind that lack the sophistication of a tri-square or a laser level,"
Dr Hauser: "This shows a capacity that goes way beyond what we showed with tamarins. That's what makes it an important paper."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/02/science/02song.html

Spain!!

2006-04-28T10:56:00.000-04:00

Wow. I really don´t know what to say. I´m going to be coming back to spain in the fall, sometime in September for another year. I´m soo incredibly excited, I can´t even begin to explain. Its amazing.

On other notes, I´m now going back to the states on the 8th of May, so that I can particpate in the World Tae Kwon Do Championships which are being held in Caceriz, just a couple hours away. I´m not going to be competing though - I´m going to be in an exhibition!!! How cool!! SO yeah, thats pretty amazing. I can´t wait.

Also, FC Barcelona (the soccer team of Barcelona), is in the finals, playing Arsenal in Paris, for the league cup. Which is awesome. Its like the World Series of soccer, more or less. So thats pretty amazing. I totally want to see it, but as they´re playing on the 17th, I don´t know if I´ll get to. But I really hope I get to see it, and that barça wins. It´d be amazing. Absolutely amazing.

Thats about it, really. Lots of crazy cool news. Lots and lots of awesomeness. Totally excited to get home for the summer - but absolutely thrilled that I´ll be coming back. It´ll make the summer just that much better. Now I just have to figure out how Kevin can come here to spain too (or at least, to europe!!)

Two more weeks...

2006-04-22T11:54:00.000-04:00

Wow, I can´t believe that I only have two weeks left here in Spain. Spain, Salamanca more specificlly, has become home, something that I really wasn´t sure it would be. But it has... I now feel more at home here, wandering around Salamanca, then I ever did in the 2.5 odd years I lived down in Nelsonville/Athens. I know that I still haven´t fully realized that I´m leaving in two weeks, and not coming back for who knows how long. I´ll come back to Spain, to Salamanca someday I know... I just don´t know when.

There´s also a growing realization that of all the things that I want and do not want to do... I really just don´t want to go back to Ohio, go back to school in Athens... it just doesn´t sound like fun to me anymore, at all. So, I´m looking around at other schools, trying to find something that would/could be interesting, fun even. I still don´t really know what I want to study, though I´m leaning farther and farther away from the whole biolgy/natural resources thing, honestly. Am thinking more and more about International Studies or somesuch. It´d be a good bit more buisnessy (which sounds boring), but at the same time, could lead to a job in which I got to travel more. I don´t really know. I´ll just have to wait and see... see how this summer goes.

Prague

2006-04-04T10:37:00.000-04:00

Well, I loved Prague. I absolutely 100% mean that. Prague is awesome. All of the important buildings have steeples of one sort or another, and it truely looks like the "fairytale" city that it claims to be.

The people are overall pretty nice, although I really wish I could have figured out a little bit more of the langauge {more than thanks (deek), thank you (dick-y), beer (pivo), no (neh), bridge (most) and castle (hrod, me thinks)}... Czech is apparently a very hard language to learn, which I can totally see. It took me a couple days to figure out the names of the tram/metro stops that I needed to know to get around correctly... (and even so, I still totally missed tram stop once, late at night...).

In anycase, my favorite building in Prague is definetly the Church of Our Lady of Tyn. Its on the Old Town Square, in the center of the oldist part of town. And the two towers totally, truely look like Gargamels Castle from The Smurfs (a picture of which I can not seem to find online...). But yeah. Anyhow, its very very cool. Well, at least it looks cool... I didn´t actually go inside as its "only open for services" - and I just really didn´t feel like attending my first church service, by choice, ever.

But yeah, the rest of Prague was also very very cool. I really liked Petrin Park/Hill where they have an observatory and a 1/5 scale "model" of the Eifel tower. Which is cool, and from where you can see ALL of prague. There´s also the "Mirror Maze", which isn´t much of a maze, but is still quite a cool place... mostly just a mirrors-only funhouse, but still cool.

Anyhow, I´m going to try and get my pictures up here sometime in the next few days. About half my pictures from Granada are now up... but that still leaves roughly 550 to go...

London

2006-03-28T14:35:00.000-05:00

Well, London is a pretty cool city. I've been having a blast the last couple nights, just hanging out here at my hostel - its a very very cool hostel. There's a bar basicly inside of it where you get discounts... last night they had karaoke.

Yesterday I went and saw the Tower of London, and the Tower Bridge - both very very cool, and also just wandered around being lost. The Tower of London is very cool, and definetly my favorite place. The free guided tour by a Beefeater was, quite surpisingly very good. Quite a funny guy, really good at his job.

Today I went to St Paul's Cathedral, Westminister Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben/House of Parlimant, Harrod's... I think that was it. In anycase basicly all day was spent wandering around. I even managed to find a tourist info place and got a FREE guide-book/map!! Oh. And I found a bookstore. So I now have 3 new english books to read! Woot!!

In anycase, London's been fun... though I definetly like spanish cities better. They're just more interesting, somehow. London just seems a lot like any other big, oldish city in the US. It's lacking the little twisty one-way, cobblestone streets that cities in most of Europe seem to have. But, its been fun. Also been very, very, very expensive.

In anycase I'm looking forward to getting to Prague tommorrow. Everyone keeps telling me that its very cool, so thats nice to hear...

Travelin'

2006-03-26T14:27:00.001-05:00

Wow... what an incredible past few days.

I went down to Granada on Tuesday getting in there around 2am on Wednesday morning. Long train ride, but totally worth it. The next day (Wednesday), I went and saw La Alhambra, and ended up having an absolutely awesome day. Right away I met a couple who had just graduated from some college out in Portland, Oregan. They were/are traveling with his parents, little sister and two of her friends. I ended up hanging out with them all day long and having an absolute blast.

It was, really, the first time I'd spoken much english in a long time, and whats more about really geek/environmental stuff. It was just really cool. They totally reminded me of my old compu-high friends.

In anycase, we spent the better part of the entire day (from about 11:00am-7:30pm), wandering around and seeing all the palaces, gardens, mosques-converted-into-churches, actual churches, etc. Then in the evening we all went out for tapas for a couple hours together. Twas lots of fun.

Then the next day and a half I spent wandering around the city of Granada itself, checking out the other churches, parks etc which are not actually inside the Alhambra. On Thursday night I ended up going out with a some old English guy, and another guy from sweden... we met some other old Scotish guy who's actually a poet (apparently he used to have a buisiness, but he sold it, and now just 'write poetry and drink beer').

On Friday I took my Uncle Elfego's advice and went to see Ronda - what an awesome little city!! I totally wish I'd had a good 2 or so days to really explore it better. Definetly a place I wouldn't mind going back to. That night I then took the bus up to Sevila...

In Sevilla yesterday I just wandered around for the most part, seeing the sites, etc. My favorite places in Sevilla are definetly the Real Alcazar and the Parque de Maria Luisa. The Real Alcazar is the old muslim palaces/gardins and is just really really pretty. The Parque de Maria Luisa (or something like that), is the botanical gardens which were donated to the city by (you guessed it), Maria Luisa. Or something like that. In anycase, its huge, and very very cool. They have all kinds of different trees and plants from ALL over the world, all labeld with both common and scientific names, what the name means/where its from, and other random, general info on the species. And theres a little island with ducks, peacocks and chickens in the middle of a pond which has lots and lots of fish - mostly goldfish, but I think there were some carp or something in there too.

In anycase, I'm now in London. I took the bus from Sevilla back to Salamanca last night, got into Salamanca at 4:30, woke up at 8:30, got a shower, and ran off to the bus station to fly here. Long day. But its been fun.

I'm going to goto Prague this Wednesday, so that should be good... Tommorrow I'm exploring london though =). When I finally get back to Salamanca for another quarter in a week or so I'll start uploading pictures...

One quarter done!!

2006-03-19T14:18:00.000-05:00

I can´t believe I´ve already been in Spain for another whole quarter, already. It seems like this quarter went super super fast - although thats also true for the one before. In anycase, I´m done with school for a couple weeks. In case anybody´s wondering, I got a C in Spanish Grammar (its grammar. its hard.), and B´s in Spanish Literature, Communation and Oral Skills. So I´m pretty happy overall. In anycase I have another 6 or so odd weeks to perfect my spanish, so tis all good.

In anycase I´m looking forward to these couple weeks off I have before April. I´m gonna travel around Spain, though I think I´ll just "play it by ear" as such - not really have any plans. I want to visit Granada, Sevilla & Cordoba, but aside from them, I really don´t know. Ask around and see what little cities are cool to visit.

I have a job!!

2006-03-14T11:09:00.000-05:00

Wow. Well, I officially have a job for the summer now! I just took a job as the Horse Barn Director at YMCA Camp Greenville, for this summer... So pending them receiving all my reference forms thats what I´ll be doing this summer. Making $300 per week, living in a house with other staff (not campers!!).

Pretty exciting. I didn´t initially expect to be offered/given a director´s job at a Camp... but hey, I´m not going to complain. Make more money =) So yeah, thats my news for today. A nice feeling, not having to look for a job anymore. Knowing what I´ll be doing this summer!! So cool. So very very cool.

Spanish Stuff

2006-03-10T10:16:00.000-05:00

Just thought I´d let everyone know that I finally got around to creating a little site where I´m uploading all the random little essays, reports, speeches, etc, that I´ve written for my classes here in Spain.

There´s a perma-link on the right ("Essays and Reports in Spanish"), or else you can just click: http://emilyyrose.googlepages.com

New species!!

2006-03-08T13:02:00.000-05:00

Wow, nifty. Awesome!

Scientists have discovered a new species, a new genus, a new family of crustaceans in the South Pacific. They´ve named it Kiwaida (after the Polynisian crustacean god =)...

Its covered in "sinuous, hair-like strands"... Quite nifty. We´re always finding new species in the oceans, but new genus aren´t all that common, let alone new family´s!!

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/03/08/furry.lobster.ap/index.html

Gen. Robert L Scott, Jr

2006-02-27T10:45:00.000-05:00

Well, one of my personal hero´s passed away today. Gen Robert L Scott, died this morning. He had a huge impact on my life - something I´m sure he didn´t know. Something I was thinking about just the other day actually.

I´ll never forget how I first got interested in so much - in flight, history, travel, the world. So much of that was because of him. His stories about traveling the world have inspired me to do the same. He followed the old silk road as a young man, through europe and parts of the middle east before the second world war, on a motorcycle. Years later, in the 1980s, he went back to roughly where he´d stopped and followed it the rest of the way to China, and then somehow managed to see most all of the Great Wall of China - something that probably no-one else ever has done.

In between, he was a pilot - a fighter pilot to be exact, though to get into the second world war, to meet Claire Lee Chennault, as he said in The Day I Owned the Sky "I had to lie cheat and surely steal." What´d he steal? Why a Boeing B-17E, Flying Fortress of course. He flew it across the Atlantic, and North Africa to India - where he, along with the rest of the contingent was held up (originally the were to team up with Dolittle on the raid against Tokyo). There he flew supplies across "The Hump" into China. Eventually he convinced Chennault to give him just one P-40, with which he became "The One-Man Airforce", accompanying the rest of those flying supplies into China. Later, he became Chennault´s second-in-command, of the 23rd Fighter Group.

Together they helped to keep the Burma Road open, despite the efforts of the Japanese and some of the top-brass of the US Army Air Force - namely old "Vinegar" Joe Stillwell. Eventually they were both forced to leave China, and Chennault was thereby denied the right to stand on the USS Missouri when Japan surrendurred. But their stories live on, and enspire those of us who know them.

Scotty was a hero, and more so for me than most. He took the time to write me back, and to send me The Day I Owned the Sky, along with a poster and a couple of pictures - all of which are still hanging on my wall, along with other posters, and pictures of that time. One of the pictures is of him getting into his P-40 all those years ago, another is him getting into the cockpit of an F-15 Eagle, "About to fly an F-15 at age 89, but that makes me feel 18. Bob Scott" it´s signed. I hope your still flying Scotty. I for one will always remember you.

Robert L. Scott Fan Club Association

RIAA

2006-02-16T11:11:00.000-05:00

So, now the RIAA has a new novel idea about how to infringe on our rights when we buy CDs etc. It now claims that you do not actually have the right to back-up your CDs via your computer and then put them onto your iPod etc. Apparently, it thinks that if you want a digital copy of a song you ought to buy it off of iTunes or some such, and if you want it in the form of a CD you ought to buy the CD too.

Somehow, I think this is a bit contradictory seeing as Mr Don Verrilli just told the Supreme court that:

"The record companies, my clients, have said, for some time now, and it's been on their website for some time now, that it's perfectly lawful to take a CD that you've purchased, upload it onto your computer, put it onto your iPod."

So yeah, now we get to re-buy everything. Oh right, and they also aparently think that if a CD is damaged "replacents are readily available at affordable prices"... So yeah. We now get to pay for things truely multiple times - we must pay for it on CD, in digital format, and if something gets broken, we have to re-buy... because they are "readily available" and "affordable"...

Anyhow more info below:

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060215-6190.html

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004409.php

Opera for the DS!!

2006-02-15T10:19:00.000-05:00

Now this is cool! My long-time favorite web browser Opera is going to release a version of the browser for the Nintendo DS!!! There´ve been rumours of an impending browser for the system, but I for one never imagined it´d be Opera!! Soo exciting. I´ll definetly pick this up when it comes out... Awesome. Absolutely awesome.

Link: http://www.opera.com/pressreleases/en/2006/02/15/

Of Wasps and Cockroaches

2006-02-15T08:34:00.000-05:00

Recently I stumbled on Carl Zimmerman´s blog and have been reading it daily to see what he posts, its really quite cool.

My favorite story so far (and the one which brought me to The Loom originally), is The Wisdom of Parasites, which is about a wasp that hunts cockroaches - and basicly turns them into Zombies. Its really quite fascinating. The wasp stings the cockroach in a very specific part of its brain and then leads it back to its nest... where it is put into what amounts to suspended animation - it doesn´t die but its body functions are greatly slowed down. Its crazyness.

Here they are!

2006-02-14T15:30:00.000-05:00

Right, so seeing as probably most of you folks have not seen the cartoons which have caused FAR more controversy than they ever deserved, and have sparked international protests, riotings, kidnappings, etc... Here they are.

These are the original images printed in Jyllands Posten. Now, call me crazy but while I see how at least a couple of these pictures are offensive... I really don´t see how anyone can possibly justify the crazyness thats going on over them. I just really don´t get it. But maybe somebody does. If so, please, clue me in ??

For more info directly from Jyllands-Posten go here: http://www.jp.dk/udland/tema:fid=11328/

And this is the picture printed on the front-page of El Pais February 5 or something. I have the issue =)

Oh right, almost forgot, this was actually orignally printed by Le Monde (French), and the lines say "I must not draw Mohammed" =)

But personally, I´m a fan of this one. Yay for Filibuster Cartoons!!

For more info check out Mohammed Image Archive

MySpace nomore!

2006-01-22T12:51:00.000-05:00

Well, I am officially changing my blog over from myspace.com to blogger for one simple reason: it turns out that myspace is little more than farce of a site setup so that they can collect demographic info and such like. So yeah. As a result, I am no longer posting on myspace, nor having Any of my biographical info for them to see. Bastards.

ANYHOW, I´m still having a blast over here in Spain. Barcelona was awesome, and if you like you can checkout pics (at http://emilyrose.smugmug.com, as always). I could still go back and hang out there for hours on end, its just such an amazing city, especially with all the Gaudi and other modernist architecture... Park Güell, La Sagrada Familia, Casa Batállo, La Piedra, La Palacua Musica, etc. They´re all amazing works of art.

Classes are going overall pretty well, like my teachers (2 out of the 4 I´ve had before;), so that always helps.

Meh, thats about it. I´ll post more when/if something interesting happens=)

Crazyness

2005-12-07T12:50:00.000-05:00

Well, its a crazy feeling right now - I have less than 2 weeks before I come home for christmas. I can`t in all honestly quite believe it. But its true. I`m still having a blast here in Spain, and am absolutely amazed at how much I`ve already learned.

Lately I`ve been hanging out with a couple of guys from Morocco (sp?), who are all very cool - Omar, Sidi & Alli. They all speak 3 languages - Arabic, French and Spanish. Crazyness. But its a blast to hang out with them, since they`ve lived here in Salamanca for 6 years now and so know it better than I ever will... Going to bars with thems great, since they know just about everybody=) But, whats probably best of all is that since they don`t speak english, I *have* to speak spanish... which is super good for me (though occasionly it makes for difficulties...). Still, generally its a blast.

Whats most crazy at the moment though is that I now only have 1 or 2 more days of class left before my exams (today and friday for Art History, Communications and Culture, and today, friday and monday for grammar!!). We`ve gone over SOO much stuff, as my grammar teacher says, we`ve apparently covered basicly every part of the spanish language... crazyness.

But... yeah, I can`t wait to get home and see everyone again.

Snoopy

2005-11-20T12:48:00.000-05:00

Well, I guess I should have known that such a good few days couldnt possibly last forever... Just found out that snoopy died last night. Which really really sucks. Was the last thing I expected when Dad called... I mean... I know she is, was.. old but, still. Just... yeah. Wish I could see her one last time... thats all. She was a good dog... I´ll miss her.

Tapas

2005-11-06T12:47:00.000-05:00

Well, friday night was quite fun. Went out for tapas (apetizers), with my entire grammar class. Was quite fun... we went to two different places, both of which are very close to where I live... the first one (El Lechón), I have been to before, but the other one (Mares del Van Dyck), I had not... and it is both very good and cheap (just 1.50€ for a tapa and small beer or sidra (cider). I personally opted for sidra, as I love it... and its very good there. Also, its tapas are apparently typical of Galacia which means that they´re almost all seafood related (mussels, clams, calamari, shrimp, etc)... quite yummy.

After tapas, we ended up going to a Salsa bar. Which was tons of fun. I ended up dancing with some guy from Argentina who was very good, which made it quite a lot of fun as I just kind of had to "follow" as it were... got tired after awhile.

Also I finally found a book to read. Imagéns en Accion (Moving Pictures), by Terry Pratchet. Its pretty good, and I am happy to say that I understand it well enough to understand at least some of the humour=)

class, class and more class

2005-11-03T12:46:00.000-05:00

Well, this week was back to normal (almost) here in spain... Except of course that monday was Halloween and Tuesday was well, I´m not honestly sure what the holiday was, the day of the dead, or something. Which meant that we didn´t have school... which was nice. But, whats not been so nice is that today, and yesterday I have/had 8 hours of class. Ugh. 4 hours in the morning, and 4 hours in the afternoon. And after class? Tae Kwon Do=) Makes for long days...

On the bright side, apparently, as long as the music is in spanish, you can listen to music in at least one of my classes. Which is super cool. So, now I´m on the hunt for good rock music in spanish. Should be interesting... Whats cool though, is that one of the little shops that sells music will let you listen to different CDs before you buy them, so that you can decide if you actually like them or not. Tis quite nice (so, yeah, I broke down and bought one CD, Jarabe de Palo "Depende." Now I just have to get it on my iPod ).

Anyhow.. thats about all thats new/exciting around here. Mostly just lots of class atm. But yeah. We have/are starting Subjuntive conjugations... which are actually, thankfully, pretty easy.

Venice, Paris...

2005-10-27T12:45:00.000-04:00

Well, its been a pretty crazy couple of weeks. Thats for sure. Nearly two weeks ago now, I left for Venice, and had an absolute blast. Venice was/is a beautiful city. All the little tiny streets - many, if not most are no more than 4 or 5 feet wide, along with a ton of bridges, just makes for an absolutely beautiful city. San Marcos Square (or Piazzele I should say...) is absolutely beautiful. All light up at night, with the Basilica and Tower looming over everything... Music from 3 or 4 different little bands playing. Its just amazing.

For most of the time that I was in Venice, I was lost. Didn´t even have a map for the first couple days (they all cost at least 3 or 4 euros...), and then I finally found one, along with a guidebook. Made exploring a bit more interesting since I actually knew (or could at least figure out), what I was seeing/had seen. Also stumbled on a couple of nifty museums my last couple days. One was the Naval History Museum. It was very very cool... lots and lots of model ships from every time period - from the old Venetian vessels with oars all the way up to modern Italian ships. They even had one whole room dedicated to Oriental ships and such. Was just a very very cool museum.

Then of course, just this past weekend, I went to Paris. I was only back in Salamanca for barely 2 days, before leaving again. Insane. Paris too was quite cool, and very pretty. The Eifel Tower was cool, but I definetly liked Notre Dame the best. It was just soo amazing. Went up in the Towers my last morning there, and got to see all the chimeras (gargoyles) up-close, as well as an absolutely spectacular view of Paris. Its just such an incredible, beautiful building. Inside, all the rose windows, with stained glass... Its just incredible. Absolutely incredible.

So yeah. I´ve had a pretty crazy past couple of weeks. Can check out all my pictures of Paris/Venice online now (they´re all up... all 500-600 of them =). http://emilyrose.smugmug.com

Fun Stuff

2005-10-12T12:43:00.000-04:00

Well, its been a kinda crazy past couple of weeks... I´m now (after some class and level changes/additions) taking 5 hours of school a day (25 a week)... including taking both Art History and Spanish Culture. They´re both great, and espcially nice after so much pure spanish communications/grammar for the past month (and don´t wory, I still have 3 hours of that every day too=). I´ve also managed to move up to C2 (the next to highest level of intermediate)... so I´m really learning a lot now. Next week we start on past imperfect and futuro and conditional tenses/conjugations. I´m really excited... and I absolutely love art and culture both... they´re both taught exclusively (or nearly exclusively, as occasional the teacher will use english so that you know what a new word is...) in spanish, and are very cool.

Whats honestly most exciting though (and a bit scary as well), is that tommorrow, I am leaving Salamanca for 5 days to travel - by foot, train and aeroplane to Venice, Italy. All by myself. I´m really excited about going. I´ll miss a day of school (and most upsettingly a two days of Tae Kwon Do.=(, but by doing so I save nearly 200 dollars. So I figure its probably worth it. So yeah. If anyone has any suggestions as were I should go in Venice, feel free to suggest away for the next couple of days (I come back on Monday).

And yeah, thats about it. Still taking Tae Kwon Do here, and I absolutely love it... take a total of 6 hours a week (2 hours monday, wednesday and thursday each). Helps me to practice my spanish, and also gives me something else to do in the evenings. Anyhow though, I´ll post again when I get back from Venice...

Santander

2005-10-03T15:42:00.000-04:00

Santander. Wow. What a beautiful city. Beautiful beaches, with waves plenty big enough to surf on (proved by the fact that there were literally dozens of people out surfing on Saturday night, untill it truely got too dark to see!!).

I hung out on the beach for most of Saturday evening and night - ate a boccadillo (sub) sitting up on a rock overlooking the ocean, twas beautiful. Got up kinda early on Sunday and ate breakfast, which, quite happily was very good... all kinds of food for breakfast, including lots that we used to make sandwiches with for the ride home.

After breakfast I wandered around Santander a little bit, and then back down onto the beach again =) Around 12:30 we left the hotel and went to the ´down town´ section of Santander... wanderd around there for a while as well, and found a little market.

The markets here are kind of funny... Some of the stuff is blatantly obviously stolen. Like the table that seriously had nothing but VHS movies and DVD´s... which were obviusly from a movie rental place (as they were in the funky cases, complete with numbers...), or the other table that mostly had silverware and a remote control and other random stuff.

Then we went and visted some gardens and saw the royal palace/mansion which was pretty cool... They also have three ships that apparently crossed the Atlantic at some point on display, and they are absolutely TINY... maybe 30 feet long, at absolute most.

There was also a mini-zoo, which had penguins, sea lions and seals. It was kind of cool... penguins are awesome=)

Other than that... just the 5 hour busride back to Salamanca.

And then this morning... I had my second placement test to see which level I get to study in for the next 3 months... I really think I´ll be in Intermediate though I´m not entirely sure.. will find out here in a little bit.

Tae Kwon Do

2005-10-03T07:40:00.000-04:00

Well, the past week sure has been pretty cool and exciting.

I started taking Tae Kwon Do classes on Wednsday and Thursday of last week, and they went very well... Everyone is both very nice and understanding.

On Friday night we all (everyone from Tae Kwon Do), went out together, first to dinner (we went to some nice place down the street where we ate tapas and drank wine for 3 hours... was very very good. Tapas are awesome!!), and then out to a couple different discotecas. The first place we went to I´d never been before, but it turned out to be very very nice. It was really cool too, cause everyone, including the instructor went out with us... I ended up going home around 4:30 or so, mostly cause´ I had to get up at 8:00 to go to Santander the next morning=)

On the way up to Santander the next morning, we stopped by the Museo de Altamira where we saw replicas of 15-18,000 year old cave paintings as well as some of the other stuff that they´ve since found in the cave (flint knives, bone tools, jewlery, etc). It was kinda cool... they also have a complete full-scale model of the cave that we got a tour through, so that was neat as well, though I wish that we could have seen the actual cave and cave paintings, but oh well. In anycase though, it was pretty cool...

=)

2005-09-27T12:37:00.000-04:00

Well the past few days have been quite good... Had exams on Monday and today (tuesday), and they all went fairly well... haven´t really gotten results back, but I feel pretty good about most of them (one not so sure about... but we´ll see).

I also am now planning on taking Tae Kwon Do here in Salamanca. There´s a really good looking class just 10-15 minutes from my house, and its not too expensive... Went and watched a class on Monday and it looked pretty good, so I think I´m planning on going back and starting to take classes on Wed (three times a week, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday).

Also, Kevin finally found a job, so thats super exciting... a YMCA Camp in the blueridge mountains of South Carolina. It sounds beautiful!! I´m actually kind of jealous=) Hope that works out, I´m sure it will... he´s just happy right now though, just to have a job=)

Ferias de Toros!! Awesome!!!!

2005-09-22T12:32:00.000-04:00

Wow. Yesterday was soo amazing. I went to see the last bull fight, the one with horses... and it was just sooo cool. The horses were some of the best horses that I have ever seen... They were doing western reigning tricks (including some that I´ve never even heard of before, like the horse would rear and leap forward off its hind legs... it was just amazing), but while fighting/being chased by a raging mad bull. The riders were soo cool. I totally wish that they had more bull fights. It was just too cool.

I can´t even hardly explain how cool... one horse seriusly spun in circles while being chased by the bull... it was incredible. I´m uploading what pictures I have just now... they´ll all be up soon on smugmug, though I don´t really have any super cool pictures as I was just too amazed to even take pictures of the coolest stuff!! It was, seriously though, some of the best riding that I have ever ever ever ever seen.

Then last night I went out with friends and had a blast... didn´t spend hardly any money, but had tons of fun. We met some old tourist guy from Chicago who was just traveling around Spain for 10 days taking pictures and such. He was really really cool... I think he was mostly thrilled to meet people that he could talk to... Not that many people here speak english.

But yeah. I´m still amazed whenever I think about the bullfights yesterday... the riding was just soo spectacular. So, oh so so so awesome, and amazing. If only I could see more =) But, alas, only one of those fights here in Salamanca per year =( But, at least I got to see one...

Ferias de Toros 2

2005-09-19T12:30:00.000-04:00

Ugh. Well, I currently feel like crap. Didn´t even goto class today... throat hurt like all hell, though I think its mostly cause´ its soo frigging dry (and also cause´ the weather changes here, more, faster, than anywhere I´ve ever been. Seriously. Yesterday it was like 50 degrees. Today? Its like 80.)

Anywho... Went to my second bullfight yesterday (where I froze, since when I left it was nice-ish and the temperature proceeded to plummet like 20 degrees while I was sitting watching... ::grumble::), which was, once again quite cool. The people sitting on either side of me broke out awesome looking sandwhiches about half way through. What genious. Bring food. Who woulda thunk it?? Awesomely though, guys here in spain are super nice.. and one of them gave me like half his =). Anyhow though, theres more pictures up of the bullfight... and if I can remember my tripod password I´ll upload the couple of movies too in the next couple of days.

Fiesta, Bullfights, Circus

2005-09-17T12:29:00.000-04:00

Well wow, its been a while since I posted on here.... Just been a pretty crazy, exciting week.

I´m learning a lot of spanish right now... we´re moving along pretty quickly in classes, and so its kind of hard, but mostly just lots of fun. I´m still hanging out mostly with the kids from my class, although I´ve been trying to go out by myself again so that I meet spanish people and speak spanish... its very helpful to have a buzz while speaking a foreign language - somehow you just don´t feel nearly as stupid=).

Went and saw a bullfight on Thursday, it was pretty cool... I kinda couldn´t (and still don´t) believe just how much I really, truely liked it... but yeah. I´m going again tommorrow, but I got a better seat this time (not looking straight into the sun, thank god=).

The Fiesta seems to have mostly ended on Thursday with one final blowout concert, though there continue to be random other events going on (like the circus performing in the plaza for an hour, totally randomly at 1pm just after I got out of class... 3 elephants in the plaza!! Just standing around!!=)... So it will be interesting to see what Salamanca´s like when its not a huge week-long party going on.

I spent a good hour or two online yesterday uploading bunches of new pictures (mostly of the circus... which, I´ll be honest... mostly means elephants, and the bullfight). So go check´m out.. http://emilyrose.smugmug.com !!

Fiesta de Salamanca!! WOOHOO!!

2005-09-08T12:26:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was incredible. Thats all I can say. It was the first day of a two week long festival. Which meant that at one point shortly after posting yesterday, like every guy between 8 and 18 in all of Salamanca was LITERALLY running down the street!! There was also a band and a bunch of guys in huge masks hitting at them... it was pretty insane.

Then last night there were fireworks which were actually very very good. And then we went and drank beer in the Plaza Mayor and listend to some band from either France or Hungary (no-one´s really sure... some programs say hungary some say france...).. and then we went dancing untill like 5am when everything finally closed.. and then we went and found food. Which meant that, by the time I got back to the house and went to bed it was at least 6:30am. What a crazy night it was. Absolutely crazy. But tons of fun.

Oh. And I´ve decided that I really want to go to Austria and learn Austrian/German. Because I´ve met soo many people from there, and they are all SOO cool. I really really want to go to Vienna. Definetly going to have to go there sometime. Just cause´.

Pictures!!

2005-09-07T12:24:00.000-04:00

Well everybody I finally have pictures up online... http://emilyrose.smugmug.com so go check´m out!! School´s still going pretty well... Planing on going out tonight with Stephanie and Kristine as well as some guy from Pakistan who´s in our class too. He´s pretty cool... works for there ¨ministry of foreign affairs´or something like that... so he´s here for 9 months learning spanish. Should be fun... tonight I expect will be a huge night for partying as nobody has class tommorrow (tis the Fiesta de Salamanca)... so yeah. Should be lotsa fun. Sposed to be fireworks tonight too. Plus they built yet another gigantic stage (the 2nd one this week!! Built one for last Saturday/Sunday, then tore it down and painted a chessboard on the plaza... then got rid of that, and started putting up another stage!! Tis crazyness!!)

Sup

2005-09-05T12:23:00.000-04:00

Well, still lotsa fun here in Salamanca. Started classes again today, went fairly well. Also found out just how much we´re being totally overcharged by API - by about 3 thousand odd dollars!! 1 month at the university costs a total of 450 euros. Plus another 400 for the host family per month. So yeah. Basicly... I could stay for another 6 months for half what we paid for 4. Makes me sick. Especially since I´m totally *not* happy with API at this point at all. Between the director being a bitch to me, and them just really doing absolutely nothing other than setting everything up for you... yeah. Kinda sad. Oh well though. Might try and come home for christmas and then come back (but just through the university) for another few months. It´d be no more expensive thats for sure!!

Anywho though... Planning on going out tonight with a couple of super cool Austrian girls - they said that they´ll teach me some german/austrian while we learn spanish too, so its quite cool!!

Classes, Salamanca, partying... fun-ness!!

2005-09-03T12:21:00.000-04:00

Well, today is saturday and in a little while I´m going to go to some play-type-thing (i think thats what it is anyhow... ´teatre animado´) about Don Quiote (sp?)...

Yesteday was also our first day of class, and it went pretty well. I´m in the ´beginner´classes, of course, but thats Ok. Theres a couple other girls from the US (though they came via different programs or whatever, so I didn´t know them beforehand), as well as two girls from Vienna, Austria who are super super cool.. meant to meat up with them last night, but it just didn´t happen. Theres also one guy from Norway, two from Japan and another guy from somewhere else (can´t member where exactly... somewhere in europe, I think).

Spain is also, apparently, one of only two countries in all of europe (the other being france...), where like nobody speaks english (or at least, refuse to do so..). The girls from Austria speak EXCELLENT english, and were super surprised that nobody here does.

Mostly having a blast though... I think I´ll bring my camera to the plaza on monday (when I have my backpack with school stuff), and take some pictures, then try and get them online for everyone to see.. My classes are all in the same building and its beautiful, gold colored sandstone with all kinds of crazy ornate stuff around it. But yeah. Lots of fun...

Salamanca

2005-09-01T12:20:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was our first full day in Salamanca and it went quite well.. we had a tour of the city and then time to hang out and do whatever.

Last night we all ended up going out together around 11:00pm... The bar we went to, was absolutely awesome. Thats all there is to it...

Girls drank for FREE all night long - "open bar" - at least as far as beer, sangria and some other drink were concerned. None of us planned on getting wasted... but man, we just couldn´t pass up free alcohol. As for the guys, they had to pay a whopping 4 euros (about 5 bucks), and then drank as much as they wanted too. I couldn´t believe it, none of us could. And, whats more, this is apparently the case at this bar EVERY tuesday and wednesday!! So yeah, we all now know when we´re going to be getting totally wasted... ::grin::

Then this morning at 8:30am we had our placement test... don´t know how it went, but will find out here very shortly (like 15 mins actually...)... I´m guessing I´ll be in the "beginner" class. But, yeah. I still can´t quite believe I drank so much (had at least 8 drinks) for FREE. Pure crazyness. I wonder if other bars have the same deal on other nights... God bless Salamanca, god bless spain... where beer is cheaper than frigging water!!

Salamanca, the hurricane... crazyness!!

2005-08-31T12:19:00.000-04:00

Hmm.. I just got done reading about the Hurricane, of which I have not heard (or at least understood) much, until now. I don´t know what to say. Its, its just frigging crazy.

Anyhow though, I´m in Salamanca now, and so have finally been able to unpack and settle-down, which is very nice. Tommorrow we have our placement test and find out what classes we are taking, and when they are, and get our books, and all of that kind of stuff.. So thats kind of exciting.

Other than that though haven´t been doing too much... Mostly just haning out, sleeping and eating. (the food is qutie good, incidentally).

Toledo, Madrid, Spain!!

2005-08-29T12:18:00.000-04:00

Well, Spain is quite cool. We´ve been doing some site-seeing these past couple of days... Finally got our cell phones today, so now I can finally call people/be called.

Today we went to Toledo, which was a pretty cool city. Lots of big, old buildings... The Cathedral was pretty cool/amazing, and definetly beautiful.

Can´t wait to get to Salamanca tommorrow night. Should be interesting. Apparently, the house that I´m living in is pretty nice, so thats exciting... though I think its one of the farthest from the University, but thats OK, just means I´ll get more excersize..

I can´t quite believe how much money I´ve spent in the past few days. Spains much more expensive than i initially relized, kinda scared. Hopefully though, once we get to Salamanca (and stop having to pay for meals..), it will become a bit cheaper. I guess you could say that right now, at least, we are kind of on ´vacation´and then as of tommorrow night we´ll be ´home´. Or something.

Madrid

2005-08-27T12:16:00.000-04:00

I made it to Spain just fine yesteday, and have been wandering around the streets of Madrid ever since (well, except for a few hours when i went to bed, obviously=). Turns out I´m rooming with Breana, who´s from Colorado. At first, this was super cool - I didn´t in fact have to wander around by myself. However, as the day/night progressed... I decided that I wasn´t quite sure.

See, she´s a bit of a well... a wimp. Seems a bit scared to cross streets, if theres a car coming (even if its like 1/4 mile away!!) for some strange reason (this being despite the fact that shes lived in/around DENVER her entire frigging life...). And then, last night, after dinner when it was just barely starting to get dark around 9:30... she said, and I quote ´´I don´t realy like walking around after dark, especially in Madrid...´´ so, we went back to the Hotel, and guess what? She went to frigging bed. Obviously, this is WAY to early for bed for me (I´d be up around like 6:30, at the latest...), so I stayed up and read for a little while, before becoming bored and going out to wander around Madrid, at night, by myself. It wasn´t bad, but I couldn´t really find much to do, so in the end I settled for a beer at a random bar and then went back and read an listend to my iPod for a while untill I finally went to bed around 2am (and, you know what?? I *still* woke up before here - at 9:30am.. I just don´t know how people can sleep for sooo frigging long...).

In anycase though, so far Madrids been pretty cool. Lots of people (really, too many for my tastes..), and I think I managed to find the ´´happenin´´ section of town a little bit ago, so hopefully tonight will be more fun than last.

2005-07-18T08:24:00.000-04:00

Been back from Canada for just over a week now, and am in terrible turmoil still. Up untill Saturday, I thought things might be, overall, OK. Kevin was calling me his girlfriend, even told me that he loved me a couple of times. And then I asked the hard questions.

Do you love me? Are you still mad at me? That sort of thing... and the answers were painful, he still doesn't know if he loves me. He's confused. He's 'not happy' with me... still mad, in other words, but doesn't want to admit it. But at least he still wants to be friends. So, I guess I'm just going to have to accept that, for now. Have to be OK with that... though I really don't want to be. I just want to be with him, to feel his love again. Want him to hold me and tell me that he loves me, thats all. But he won't do that... can't, something. I don't know.

I think he's scared, scared of loving me. Scared that he's going to drag me around the country and make me unhappy... But, I'll do anything in the world to be with him, to be by his side. I guess I am going to Spain this fall... four months away from each other. I'm scared to death what that will do. Maybe it'll be good... maybe just one month (Canada), wasn't/isn't long enough for him to see how much I mean to him. I just... I just hope that someday we're together again. Thats all. I love him, I miss him, and I want to be with him, always and forever.

Because I've always loved him, always. And I always will... I know that, there's no question in my mind. His dad says he just 'needs to grow up'... I hope he hurries it up, because I just want to be loved. And nobody else in the world, means anything to me, besides him (and my family, of course). I have zero desire to be with anyone else, ever. I just love him too much. I want to hear his voice everyday, lay beside him every night, hold him in my arms, rub his back. I just love him.

Caring

2005-06-08T11:19:00.000-04:00

How can he not care, at just a snap of a finger, just all of a sudden not care. He says that he still does, but obviously he does not. Just a stone cold face, never smiling - not at me. No emotion at all, not a hint of sorrow. Just this is how things are, and fuck you.

I love him to death, to the point that I don't know what to do. All I can think about is him. And whenever I do, its all I can do to keep myself from crying, crying because I miss him. And its all my fault. Every little bit of it, and nothing I can do to make it right.

Nothing in the world that I could ever do, to make it one tiny little bit better. All I want to do, is hug him, and be hugged, held, kissed. Forgiven. Apparently I never forgive people. And apparently I'm a horrible person. Everyone says thats not true, but thats what he said, and I hate to admit it but I value his opion more than anyone elses. Hes my world, and hes gone... and so too thus is my world.

What am I going to do now... Now that I'm living alone. I feel like an empty shell now, just going through the motions. Can't eat or drink, hardly sleep. I feel sick inside, and all I want to do now is cry. I love him too much, can't believe that I've lost him.

I just dont' know what to do now. Don't have the slightest clue... All I want to do is lay down and die... make it all go away... Just make the pain stop, make it stop hurting.

Pain.

2005-06-07T13:04:00.000-04:00

Its over, its all over. Today (well, last night really), Kevin broke up with me. It hurts more than I can ever possibly describe. I don't know what to do, I really really do not. I am going to Canada on monday, leaving at 6:00am. On the 25th of august i am flying from pittsburgh to spain. I won't be back untill December. God knows where Kevin will be by then. I hope somewhere, where I can get to though, hopefully somewhere here in the states.

I will follow him for the rest of my life, begging for forgiveness, and for him to take me back. I really don't know if it will ever happen though.

I feel so incredibly stupid and retarded, so ashamed of myself that I can't even describe it. I don't know what to do or to say, I don't know who I can talk to. I have to stop begging him to take me back though - as is its only causing him more pain and hurt. I have to grow up, I have to move on, but I just really don't know how to. I feel much like I did when I came home from camp to my parents getting divorced - only, somehow this is even worse. All that I want to do now, is curl up in some dark, damp corner and die. I don't know how to live without him, I don't know what I'm going to do, who I'm going to be. He was - is - my world. And without him, I have nothing, nothing at all. No reason to keep going, to keep trying to better myself. I will go to Canada, I will go to Spain. But I doubt that I will have much fun there. Depression like I haven't felt for a year and a half has taken its hold on me again. And I don't know how, when, or if I will ever shake it again. I wish I could make him trust me again, wish that I could show him just how sorry I am, and just how utterly determined I am to make things right between me and his friends. How determined I am to win him back, to make him see that I can, will, and, indeed already have, changed.

Kevin, you are my world, the only reason I keep living. And now, through my stupid reactions, and actions, words and just utter stupidity, I have lost you. All that I want is to be loved, to be held and kissed, and I will do anything in the world to regain your trust. Name it and consider it done. Please, find it in your heart to forgive me, to take me back and to trust me again. I know I have done you incredible harm, and for that I will never, ever, forgive myself. I will always love you. I always have.

2005-05-03T15:08:00.000-04:00

Hmpht. I hate fighting. Most of all I hate fighting with Kevin. It happend again last night. This time because I told Corey's mother that her son does coke (and, if, as she claims, she doesn't give him enough money to do so, he probably sells weed in order to have money to do coke), sue me. He fucking leaped on top of me, and tried to punch me in the face as hard as he fucking could. And then, when *I* went back to try and apologize for kick/pushing him in the back with my foot and telling him to shut the fuck up, he slapped me across the face. And then proceeded to punch more holes in our walls, and in our door. And hasn't said a damn thing to me since then. But I'm supposed to be just all happy happy joy joy about it, as if nothing fucking happend. Fuck off.

I love Kevin to death, I really really do. But I can't put up with this shit forever. There comes a point where I just can't, and won't up with it anymore. If shit doesn't change, and change big, in the next week I'm moving out. I just can't deal with it anymore.

2005-04-25T10:14:00.000-04:00

So this Saturday was my grandparents 50th Wedding Anniversary. And it actually went remarkably well. Got to see basicly my Dads ENTIRE family... both sides!! Including several people that I haven't seen in years... And of course everyone wanted to hear about Peru, and where I'm going next (Canada. Then Spain.). So yeah, twas quite nice.

2005-04-16T15:11:00.000-04:00

Bah. A week later, here we are.

Yesterday was Kevin's 23rd Birth Day. So guess what happend? I finally couldn't take it anymore and blew up at him over the entire past weeks BS (Corey STILL hasn't spoken a word to me, shocker). Its the maddest I've ever been at Kevin. But at least now he knows how I feel, and maybe next time one of his friends decides its their right to talk shit, he'll say something, instead of pretending nothings going on and even laughing from time to time.

Anyhow though, eventually everything worked out an we went to a party together (minus Corey and Mark).

2005-04-09T14:07:00.000-04:00

Another night, another fight. This is why I quit drinking.

So yeah. Last night, I got drunk super super early an passed out happily on the couch around 8 or 9pm. I woke up at 11pm to having shit thrown at me and lots of other crap being thrown around the room as Mickey and Corey (and to a much lesser degree, Mark) went insane. Honestly, the smart thing for me to do at this point would undoubtably been to have just gone to bed. But, of course, seeing as I was still drunk (and no longer tired. It's amazing how fast you can wake up when people are literally THROWING things at you...), I couldn't think rationally enough to do so. This is why I quit drinking.

Eventually one person left, leaving one of the main instigators of the problem at our house w/o a way back home (Mickey)... and she kept trying to get others to drive her home (and EVERYONE was drunk). So, I took all the keys I could find/see and hid them. Sue me. I just didn't think that anyone else needed a DUI.

So then, Kevin (my boyfriend) starts begging me to give him his keys back so he can drunkenly drive Mickey home. I wouldn't do it, so Corey started calling me names - cunt, hoar, slut, etc for no good f'ing reason, other than I wouldn't let a drunk drive another drunk home. Once again, sue me. So eventually I got tired of being called names and kicked him in the back an told him to shut the fuck up. He wouldn't so I kicked him again, an he attacked me - literally. He seriously got up and leaped ontop of me an tried his damndest to punch me in the face. I blocked, an kicked *HIM* in the face, apparently breaking his glasses in the process. Not much else important happend after that except a lil more fighting here and there.

Only now, he's saying its against the rules to kick people in the face. Excuse me, I'm sorry, I must have missed that part of the "Rules of Engagement" lecture. F' Off!! If your going to jump on me and try to pummel me in the face, I, personally, am going to KICK you wherever the hell I can to best get you off of me. If your face happens to be that location, then thats where your going to get kicked. F Off.

So then, my boyfriend was pissed and dissapeared for something around 3-4 hours. I cooled down went out tried to talk to him (where I got slapped a couple of times, an laughed at him, cause he was being SOO f'ing stupid an retarded at that point). Then, I went to try and find my boyfriend. Didn't succeded (as it turns out, he went WAY farther than I thought he did...), came back and what do we have here? But like 3 or 4 more holes punched in the walls. Curtesy of Core. I went to bed, an now here we are the next day. Don't know what to do. Kevin is apparently mostly mad at Corey but also mad at me... so yeah. I get to sit back here in our room, while they all do their thing in the family room. Stupid f'ing drunk bastards.

2005-04-05T13:09:00.000-04:00

Wow. So I don't think I've ever wandered around Hocking College for SO long looking for so many different random people (most of whom I've never spoken to before), in order to be able to graduate this summer. So yeah. Think I finally have it (mostly) all figured out... am gonna do an internship/practicum thingy with Norm Fox down at Robbins Crossing working with lil kids and interp students:) So that should be fun... Only thing that sucks is its at 9am on fridays. BAH! But, meh, you win some an you lose some... so whatever.

2005-04-04T23:44:00.001-04:00

I don't know what it is. I really really don't. What I *do* know is that my roomates have made it very clear that they do not want to hang out with me. How do I know this? Well, see we have two rooms in our house with TV's that are 'public' along with a tv back in me and my boyfriends bedroom. Normally everyone watches TV out in the main room, instead of in the tiny cramped music-room with the lil itty bitty TV. Unless *I* happen to be watching TV in the main room. In which case, everyone evacuates to the crappy lil room. If I'm not home, (or am back in my room on the compter (like now) watching tv) guess where everyone is? The main room.

SO yeah, I've decided that its just far too stupid. I really don't care anymore. But it still fucking hurts. What did I ever do to the bastards?

2005-03-30T13:12:00.000-05:00

So, once again, I'm going to be limited in what I can do in this world - because of *one* incident 14 odd years ago. First, it was the realization that I would never be able to fly an airplane. Then it was finding out that I will never be able to scuba dive. Now, I realize that I will not be able to get my Red Card. I wonder how many other fun/cool things I will never be able to do in my life because of one stupid seizure when I was six.