How I spent Spring Break

Hurricane cleanup in Texas

The 2nd semester is well underway

and I haven't posted anything in months. Sorry. Mostly. I've been busy, and also, I really don't have too much to say.

I'm working a ton this semester, and of course going to classes. My classes aren't as difficult as they were last semester, or they are, I am just used to it. I don't know. Maybe a little of both. I start working in a classroom in an are pretty soon, but I don't know any details about that yet.

Also, I'm going to Texas at the end of the month, and then Alabama in May. It is pretty positive of both. I got the time off and everything. I will let you guys know how those trips go.

Cheerio.

Faithful readers, I apologize.

I know I haven't been writing very often, and I'm sorry.

Mostly, if I did write all the time, it would all sound the same. I would talk about procrastinate, and how busy I am. This time, however, I will give all of the one of you that still read this and update on my vida.

I got a new job. At a bank. No more Fastenal. Can I get a huzzah? Thanks. It is working out alright, though I've only worked two days. I'm not really looking forward to working on Saturday mornings, but I will deal with it, since I don't have to work Tuesdays and Thursdays, which means I can sleep in and be lazy all morning. Uh, I mean...get homework done and be productive.

My classes are insane. Insane. I'm so busy with homework and stuff, and most of you know about my obsessive need to succeed, so you can imagine how I'm holding up. I am trying, and will try harder to not let my closeness to mental breakdown affect anyone else.

I still manage to have a good enough time. I don't watch much TV, and almost never live TV, but it looks like I will keep up with the Office, at least this first semester. I also managed to watch the Twins game last night, while I made these stuffed pasta things that I was looking forward to enjoying, and turned out to be really disgusting. The Twins won though, which puts us at .5 games back. A win tonight will put us in the lead.

So there you go. My life, ahora. See you in a month or two!

Weekend before classes

So on Friday I hung out with the international students at orientation, and it was really fun. We played Frisbee with the kids from China, which was definitely an experience. I think that most of them have never thrown a Frisbee in their lives!

On Saturday one more of my roommates moved in, leaving it almost full. I went kayaking with Hayley, which was pretty fun. Patrick came over later with his friend Caleb, and we and Hayley had supper and watched TV.

Today mostly I've don't nothing. Probably am going to watch a movie later, and maybe we will go watch the boys ride BMX later. Can't do anything to late though, seeing as how I've got to be at work at 7:30 in the morning!

I am, however, quite excited for classes to start.

Busy and Bored

Bible school finished out well. And it turns out I'll be teaching 3rd grade Religous Ed on Wednesday nights.

This week I become an orientation leader for international students. I haven't met any of the students yet, but they are all from either Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Kenya, China, South Korea. No Spanish speaking places, unfortunately. It should be interesting, to say the least. I don't know how much English they will know, but I do know how much of any of their languages I speak, so communication could prove difficult.

Anyway, I was excited about doing it, but now I know a little bit more about it, and that excitement is quickly diminishing. My job mostly consists of me getting there at 7:30, standing around a lot, leading the students to different buildings on campus so that they can spend an hour listening to a presentation here, and two hours taking a test there. To top it off, the leader seemed a little ungrateful to me. This is a volunteer position (yes, unpaid!), and I am already spending more than 8 hours a day doing this, and she still wants me there for the night activities, so the students see a familiar face. I understand the intent, but when I told this lady that some people have other obligations such as paying jobs, she grudgingly let me off, but I could tell she was pissed off, like I was inconveniencing her. I was outraged!

So that's about it for now. One of my roommates, as far as I know is moving in on Wednesday, which will there by end my summer basically solo.

OCD and gaint puddles...and freaking spiders

Okay, hey guys. I know I'm not out of the country anymore, but I figured I would try to keep you all up to date on my life if you are still interested.

So anyway, here it is. I'm sure most of you know I'm living in Winona for the summer, working at Fastenal, and loving every minute of that. Next week I will be teaching 5th and 6th graders at Vacation Bible School, so that should be fun.

I will tell you about my day today at Fastenal. It was pretty boring, to say the least, but I ended up working on a kit with this girl. We had a pretty good conversation through a few hours of putting the kit together, which had about 14 parts. In the end, the kits were missing something like 7 parts, unfortunately not all the missing parts were part of the same kit, or even on the same side of the order, and that made everything go haywire in my brain. Well, we searched for more parts, walked across the warehouse to get them and came back. There were still two parts missing, but we got enough for the rest. Here is where my OCD kicked in.

Now, some of you already know about my OCD (my obsession with 90 degree angles, anyone?). Well, I had to stay 20 minutes late today, on my own free will because I had to fill all the compartments so that there was some order. Otherwise I probably would have went crazy.

AND THEN, when I went out to the parking lot, I fell in big pool of rain water. I didn't like fall on my face, but I definitely got a little wet, and my shoe is soaked through.

AND THEN, I came back to the apartment. I noticed on my way in how after the rain it had cooled off pleasantly outside. "Hmmm," I thought to myself, "I should open up my windows." Great idea, only I went to open the window and discovered a TON of spiders on the screen. Like at least 10! I made Patrick get them all (I can't kill spiders,its a long story) and then we made sure the window was securely fastened. I hastened to email the RA because in my eyes this is a serious problem. I glanced at the window we had just rid of the creapy 8 leggeed creatures, and I noticed two more! And then after that, I saw two more on the wall! One the wall, INSIDE the apartment! My skin feels like it is crawling.

Yeah, it does suck, I know.

Well, until next time!

I saw someone get pick-pocketed!

Hey Everyone! I'm home, finally. Yay!

Here is the low down on my last few days abroad. On Saturday in Madrid, I spent some time wandering around the various plazas and then caught a late show of La Bella y la Bestia (The Beauty and the Beast) at a theater across the street from my hostel. It was pretty good, and the music was all the same mostly, except for in Spanish. It was interesting to see the way they manipulated the words to make them for to the original melody. On Sunday, I enjoyed (enjoyed isn't the right word, since it was raining and I was soaked) a morning of walking around, I happened across a big orchestra concert in front of the Royal Palace and I toured the Palace. I spent the afternoon and evening in the Prado art museum.

On Monday it was off to Dublin. I got in in the evening and was greeted with rain, rain and more rain, lucky me. I walked around by the river and the main street and just people watched for the rest of the night and then did the same most of the next morning. I headed over to the Guinness brewery and saw it, but I didn't do the tour. After that, I needed to warm up and dry off. I ducked into a corner cafe, got a cup of coffee, and took a seat at a counter that looked out onto the street. I opened my book and enjoyed my coffee and out of the corner of my eye I saw something unusual happening. I glanced up in time to see an old gentleman walking down the street followed my four young hooligans. They swiftly lifted his wallet from his back pocket and turned and walked away. I was floored. It happened too fast for me to grasp what was happening, too fast for me to pound on the window or cry out. I tried to go after the guy, to at least tell him he lost his wallet, but by the time I got outside, he was nowhere to be found. I have never seen anything like that! I felt like Oliver Twist. So after that I walked in the rain to the Irish Writer's Museum and spent the early afternoon walking around the exhibits.

I headed to Liverpool Tuesday evening. I got in, spent some time exploring the city and wandering around the docks and then called in a night. The next day I headed for the Beatles Museum and spent quite a long time. I had the intention of going to the Maritime Museum, but while I was in the Beatles one, the fire alarm went off. Me and about 30 other people were quickly ushered outside, where we stood in the rain until the fire department showed up and inspected the building so that we could return to our previous areas. That was fun. It did mean however that I didn't have time to go to the other museum before I headed back to Dublin.

That night in Dublin I did a semi historic walking tour of O'Connell street and some of the area, and then headed back to the hostel to pack up and get ready to head home.

The flights were uneventful, thankfully. There was no sudden drops or heavy turbulence, so I made it home safe and sound!