Last Semester!!!

Now, we finally come to the moment I've been waiting for!! The moment my life will begin.... graduation! But before we can come to that I must finish my last semester of torture. And when I say torture, that pretty much describes my classes, or at the very least, one of them. By it's title 'Issues in Computing' those who know me shouldn't be too surprised that I didn't enjoy it. However, it was so much worse than expected. I've never used Matlab before and this class required a lot of programming in Matlab. But I have to say, this semester was the first semester I kept bumping into people I knew in all my classes. I ended up only taking three classes, but the guy who crashed into my car at the end of the Spring semester was in two of my classes. Sadly, he didn't fall in love with me and he barely helped me in either class, but it was an extremely funny coincidence. I continued to work at the Math Emporium again (my fifth semester of work there) and in the process I met and became friends with a new employee, as well as getting to know one of my other co-workers, who I met during the Spring semester, better.

The rest of summer :)

I have a lot to recap you on since that wedding in the summer....in fact, way too much. Therefore, I shall give you a brief synopsis of my life over the summer following my trip to Nebraska. The rest of the summer I spent at my grandmother's house on the water, where I took care of both her and the house. Each time I agree to take care of my grandmother (which I am always very glad to do, since it may be my last time I have to spend with her), there is something new she needs help with. This past summer it happened to be shots. I don't know about most people, but I have this thing about needles...sharp and generally painful. Anyway, my Aunt, who had grandma under her care when she started needing shots, taught me what I needed to do to help me get started. I was surprised at how quickly I got the hang of it. Of course, grandma always denied it when I asked her if the shot hurt. I almost feel like it hurt me more than it hurt her....(there's definitely something psychological going on).

    At the beginning of the summer, I got to go to Busch Gardens with my cousin's family and my little brother Jesse. My cousin had married a woman who already had five young kids, the oldest being 7 years, and at this time he now had his own 4 or 5 month old baby. Hence, we didn't end up riding many 'grown-up' rides, but it was still fun. There was, of course, one point where my cousin and his wife left me with the younger kids while they waited in line to ride the whitewater Rapids with the older kids. That was exciting!...until the baby started crying...
    Zooming to the end of the summer, since I had ended up getting passes to Busch gardens for Jesse and I that lasted through August, I went to Bush gardens again with just Jesse. That gave me a little brother/sister time together. It was very nice, and for the most part, Jesse was a little angel.

    My grandmother also has two adorable cats named Duskey and Hazy. The only problem is that they tend to runaway from all souls living or dead, especially ones that create loud noises. One of the cats (the one I consider by far the braver of the two) has an even more interesting fear. You may be scared of spiders, the dark, snakes, robots, etc, but cats also have certain irrational fears. This cat is deathly afraid of cameras. If you even reach for your camera, the cat disappears quicker than you can say 'Duskey'... After all, those cats seem to think all humans are out to get them. But I promise you! Other than the occasional young child, we have not done them any harm! What's really funny is that they seem to fear my dad the most out of all the humans they run into, yet it is he who has taken the most care of them with respect to their food and litter in the past.

    It has taken me years, but I am now at the point of having both cats come to me when I call their names, because they know I will dote on them, pet them, and veritably become their slave. In a sense, this makes me feel a little special, but then I feel really guilty if they refuse to go to someone else, especially if that person is grandma who is technically their owner. However, thank goodness, they rarely choose me over grandma. In fact, they try to be fair and go back and forth between the two of us. Anyway, as I was saying, Duskey who is deathly afraid of cameras, gave me a challenge over the summer. I made it my mission to sneak off and try to take some good pictures of her. This was incredibly hard because, even as I tried to take pictures through the windows, zooming in to get a closer view, Duskey had a sixth camera sense and would immediately move further away, to the edge of my visibility range. I literally felt like a spy trying to catch that cat. The other cat, Hazy, who is much more scared of humans, is, oddly enough, not scared of the camera. I was able to catch some very cute pictures of her, but not many pictures of Duskey were in focus. [Duskey is on the left and Hazy is on the right]

      

My brother's girlfriend happened to have a job at a park near my grandma's house, so I got to hang out with her often during the summer. Hence, I am ready for a sister-in-law now! And it was with her that I tried and experimented with many different types of Miscato. There is still no Miscato I dislike as-of-yet. I even met an awesome co-worker friend of hers and I was able to attend a couple concert activities she hosted at the park. The park was beautiful and had a perfect picnic area by a lake, giving a nice relaxed family time during those informal concerts. My brother and his girlfriend are still going strong!

The last thing I MUST mention that occurred this past summer is that one of my dear college friends and roommate, visited me at my grandmother's house for a day in August (also going with me to one of the concerts at the park my brother's girlfriend hosted). She drove five hours with her soon-to-be husband, in order to see my grandma's beautiful property which I have been bragging to her about incessantly. .

But then again, I brag about it only in the hopes that someone with feel enough curiosity to visit me there while on vacation. Therefore, I must brag again, if you are reading this and you know me, you MUST take a vacation in order to visit me and see what I keep talking about. Also, I wouldn't mind your company! :)

Another wedding...and more

    I haven't written for a while so there's quite a lot to catch up on...if I can remember it all. After our short vacation at Chincoteague [discussed at the end of previous blog], we got back to our humdrum lives. I helped out with my family where I could and most likely spent some time hanging out with friends. One of my friends from high school was getting married on June 22nd in Arizona, but since she went to high school here, a mutual friend arranged to throw her a wedding shower in the area. I, of course, attended that party and reunited with those few close high school friends of mine. Us four girls (the girl getting married, myself, and two others) spent the most time together during high school and hence, we try our best to remain in touch, despite the fact that we all went off to attend colleges in different states after high school. For the most part, we were able to get together and discuss life about once or twice a year since high school. I always want to keep in touch with as many people as I can, but as my life moves on, I'm finding it more and more difficult. It would be so much easier if everyone around me would just stand still while I moved forward, but I suppose that would be a trifle unfair.

    Anyway, as I was saying, we all got together for the wedding shower, which was a very pleasant affair as you would expect. However, before the wedding shower, I had already made a plan with Rebecca (one of the girls from high school) to fly to Arizona for our friend's wedding. I can't help wanting to go all out for weddings; one of the biggest days of a person's life, even if they happen to be too distracted and happy to notice my existence. So I figured we would go to the wedding and have a mini-vacation at the same time, lasting for about five days in all. We reserved a hotel room near the wedding location and used Rebecca's gps to help us find out what attractions might be around that area. As it turned out, the wedding was held at a camp that both the bride and groom had worked at previously which was pretty much in the middle of nowhere. Therefore, we had a couple very lazy movie/tv days, since there was not many places to go. But fortunately, we were able to spend an entire day walking through the national Omaha zoo which was only about an hour away from our hotel. I have never been to a zoo I liked as much as this one. They had such a wide diversity of animals. These are some of my favorite pictures, just to show the variety of animals exhibited at that awesome zoo.

    Well, aside from the zoo, we didn't do much accept attend the outdoor wedding and indoor reception. It was a beautiful wedding. (It seems like I've been going to many weddings lately, as if my friends have decided all at once that it's high-time they get hitched. Therefore, I am taking careful note of what I would like to do for my wedding...if I ever have one) I was already thinking about having my wedding outside surrounded by nature, but this wedding was the first outdoor wedding I've been to, so it gave me a taste for what I pictured for myself. It was lovely and my dear friend the bride looked so happy and beautiful. They had a small group playing music for the actual wedding outside and then everyone went to the camp dining hall (cleared out and decorated) for the reception. This was also the place I first had Miscato wine, a delicious sweet wine. Truly awesome wine, and I totally recommend it. However, I have since discovered that this wine is typically favored more by those who do not generally like the taste of alcohol. Clearly, I must not be a huge drinker for this to be the case. Ever since that wedding I have been trying numerous types of Miscato, all of which I like.

 

Conferences

So much has happened this past month. I will have to discuss the bigger events, because my memory fails me on many of the smaller incidences. The last weekend in May I went to a five day international leadership conference in North Carolina. From the very first moment of that retreat, I knew I would enjoy it immensely. I met many amazing people and had such a thrilling time. We played numerous fun and silly games that were to help us exercise teamwork and leadership skills.Mostly, the people attending this conference were from China, but we also had a couple people from Germany, South Korea, Ghana, Malaysia, and a couple other places I can't recall at the moment.

For example, we played the simulated volcano game, where we all (in our separate groups) had to reach certain locations with various injuries and then return to the starting point. We played minute-to-win-it games every day which were silly, but very creative, racing games our chosen teammates only had a minute to accomplish. Near the last day, our team activity was to construct a bridge and practice our communication skills between a building crew and a designing crew. Of course, we also had lectures on the various components of good leadership every evening and morning. Amidst these activities, games, and lectures, we had several hours of free time in which we could choose to do whatever we desired. I had a good time canoeing and kayaking on this lake, especially since a skink chose to join me in the canoe. I went with a group to the zoo also, but I was a little disappointed since we went to the North America part of the zoo and thus, most of what we saw was fairly normal to me. The very last day, I actually tried playing paintball, but I spent my entire time hiding and shooting. Both teams only had three people, so when both my teammates were shot I simply surrendered. But it was a good experience. However, I didn't try the high-ropes course which people kept recommending me to do, so I suppose I can try that some other time. My balance is embarrassingly bad.

Now, all of this was fun, but the primary desire of this conference was to introduce the Spiritual aspect of good leadership. And at one point, I was surprised that my group's discussion actually turned into a Bible discussion. Well, it was more like a debate, but we tried to explain certain things, such as how God is like a father and we are like children. I'm just hoping and praying that this conference answered certain Spiritual uncertainties and questions.

Immediately upon returning from this conference, I visited my Great Uncle Gerald before his flight back to Chile. He was so romantic with his wife, even at that age. I want a relationship that, for lack of a better word, perfect. However, I know nothing is perfect, but by human standards, it's as perfect as it can get. He was awesome! My Oma, Jesse, Uncle Gerald, and his wife Helga, walked around Lake Ann, went to a used bookstore for a while, and then visited a bakery in which we were allowed to sample different breads. My brother, Nathanael, was at the Bakery with us, but I can't remember where he was the rest of the time, and my mother had a couple meetings in town so she was only with us half the time.

A couple days later, my mom, Jesse, and myself, all left for a wedding a few hours away. My dad met us at the wedding, since he had left several days earlier for a business conference. My friend, Rebeka, who I've known for many years, was getting married. She had an absolutely beautiful wedding. The only slightly embarrassing part I had, was when Rebeka's brother, Jonathon, tried to get me to dance. I felt pretty  clumsy and stupid, but it went over okay. I spent most of my time at the reception talking to Jonathon, since I knew very few people there.

Directly after the wedding my parents took Jesse and myself to the place dad was having a work conference, because it was near an absolutely gorgeous beach; Chincoteague, to be specific. I decided it may not be perfect for a honeymoon, but it's paradise for a family vacation. We saw many birds there and a few other critters. My favorite part was biking to the beach, playing on the beach for an hour or two, and then biking back to the hotel. The bike paths were beautiful and the beach was not very crowded at all. In fact, there were moments when we had the beach to ourselves (at least the portion we were visiting). Also, this area had the best homemade ice cream as well and the best outdoor restaurant, called Woody's. I just fell in love with this place!

Summer's beginning!

I have finished off another semester of school! Just one more...and I will finally be able to move to some remote island somewhere, most likely not discovered yet. Until then, I shall remain with my family, catering to their every need :) . It has been almost a month since my last blog, and honestly, not much has happened during the interim. I had to study my few classes, work in my math tutoring lab 20 hours a week, and go to my few weekly activities which include an international Friday social, church, and Sunday bible study. Currently I am at my parent's home for the summer, awaiting my final grades for my classes. I had to pack most of my things from college so I could take them home and decide what is necessary for me to use next semester, for it will be my last semester and I will be living in a new and somewhat bigger apartment. So far, I rearranged my room in order to find the perfect place to put my work desk, which my brother very kindly disassembled and packed. In fact, he came to my university with his truck to help me pack my things. (Sometimes it can be very advantageous to have an older brother). Anyway, all that rearranging has made me awfully tired today.

In addition to that, the day before yesterday I went shopping with my mom again (never a good idea if you want to save money). We got trapped in a dress store and kept going back to the fitting room to try on more dresses...there seemed to be some sort of magnetic force pulling us away from the exit. However, both my mom and I have an iron will and we were determined to break free! Thus, we did not end up buying the entire store this time...  Yesterday, believe or not, we went shoe shopping. (I know, first dresses and then shoes...) but this store had only a very weak magnetic force, so it was very easy to walk away. In fact, I spent my time doing my very best to frustrate everyone. I kept trying and discarding shoes left and right. I wanting to be absolutely sure the shoes would be comfortable, since the store was not really that cheap. We eventually found what we were looking for, but I'm sure the salesperson who was following us around and giving us shoes to try on, was extremely relieved.

My little future roommate (the cute one) is getting bigger and will probably not remember me next semester, but at least when I room with him he'll have to get use to me. And before I left my university I had dinner with Zhe, the Chinese friend who went with me to China last summer, and her parents. Her parents came on a visit because Zhe just graduated with her phd. Then she will be leaving in June for Ohio. I just wish all my friends would remain in the same place, but they seem quite determined to leave me...

As for my future plans...I'm still considering teach English in China. What I really want to do is go on a five-week teaching program next summer through a Christian organization and see where God leads me. At least, God may make some things more clear during the international leadership conference in a couple weeks. That's what I'm praying. 

Join the music!

I’ve been pretty busy of late, but let me catch you all up to speed. After my wonderful, peaceful, amazing time with my family over Spring Break, I had to return to my university, the place of stress and work. However, this semester I can’t very well say I’ve been all that stressed, because I am only taking three classes, but still, nothing compares to being home. A week after I arrived here, I had to find a way to get back home to attend a wedding. This wasn’t too difficult, though I’m not going to say it was cheap either. I had to rent a car for the weekend and, since I am still relatively young, being less than 25 years old, I have to pay a higher price in order to rent a car. I asked the rental agency if all the cars they had were brand new, and they affirmed that all the cars there were one or two years old. Figures…when I first drove the rental I received after the accident, I was mesmerized by the bright, clean exterior and the spacious interior. Little did I know that it would only take a few days for me to realize I disliked many of the new automatic features of that car. Unfortunately, as I found when I rented another car to go the wedding a week later, all new cars are being programmed with the same ridiculous features. You see, I tend to want to control my technology, not for my technology to control me. Yet, having no choice, I dealt with the frustration and made it home. My fake cousin (part of my family extension) was getting married, so the next day I went to the wedding followed by a very pleasant reception. Since we were not actually blood relations to this family, they ended up being the only people we really new there. 

The following week, after the wedding, it was Jesse’s eighth birthday and my dad’s ___ birthday. Sadly, I was unable to go and celebrate with them, but I gave them a phone call to wish them the best. They must’ve had so much fun surfing! Or maybe this picture my dad sent me recently was not genuine? …

Now I’ll zoom forward to last weekend, since most of the intermediate time was spent tutoring math, reading, studying, taking tests, and doing homework. Last weekend I went on a mini-retreat which was to prepare me for a leadership conference during the end of May. I volunteered to be a coach on the retreat, and the purpose of a coach is to lead discussions within a small group and be a Christian witness. I have rarely ever been in a leadership role and, to tell you the truth, it scares me a bit. However, I know God is with me and will give me the wisdom I’ll need. I would appreciate prayer for this upcoming leadership conference. In the past, I have heard that this conference has seen a number of Muslims and others of different religions being saved. So, this mini-retreat I went on was specifically for acquainting the coaches with their responsibilities and to give them an over-view of the conference. We had several fun leadership and teamwork activities. One in particular that I thought was rather new and interesting, was a simulated emergency, where a volcano erupted causing everyone in each group to have a different injury; including loss of both arms, loss of one arm and one leg, paralysis from the neck down, mute, and blind. We, as a group, had to go on a mission to get a couple supplies, have one person healed, and return back to the starting location. We stayed together by holding onto a rope. The person who was paralyzed and the person who was missing one arm and one leg needed the most help, being carried or needing someone to lean on. I, on the other-hand, was unable to be much help because I was blind. Someone was very thoughtful and gave me a stick, so the stick helped me feel out the terrain, but I still needed someone to warn me of steps or roots. It was a very interesting experience, not having the sense I valued the most. Although, when we gathered together to un-brief the activity, I realized almost everyone else was able to use their disability to help others. We had other similar fun activities requiring teamwork. At one point we walked around that campus praying for the conference. During this time, I ran across a frog on the side of the path. Naturally, I could not resist picking it up and thanking God for His glorious creation. This camp, Camp Caraway, was extremely peaceful and beautiful, the ideal place to commune with God. 

Today was a day I had been feeling a little nervous about since my big car accident; I was issued a subpoena to go to court as a witness today. I had to wait an hour for our case to be called and dealt with, but the judge seemed very reasonable and just when dealing with the other cases, so I wasn’t scared of him at all. When we were finally called, I was only asked to confirm that there were no injuries and that the officer’s statement was accurate. As I told my friend, Reese, who was so kind as to drive me to court and back, I was a little disappointed. I was expecting to be a little more involved (similar to court cases on many of the mystery shows I’ve seen). As it was, I’m relieved it’s over. Now I can resume my inconvenient, car-less (as opposed to careless) life. I feel bad having to depend so entirely on others, making them have to change their schedules around me if I ever need to go anywhere. Perhaps I should get better acquainted with the whole bus system.

My comfort zone

 

The insurance company was very kind in letting me keep the rental car for the rest of my Spring Break so I would be able to return to school, although I could wish that they refused to help me out so I would be stranded at home (my comfort zone). However, the sad truth is that my family would probably have figured out another means to get me to college. I guessed I'm doomed to stay there until graduation...whenever that will be...

Speaking of graduation, over my break I made my final decision in regards to when that would be. I was in a complete state of indecision whether I would prefer to graduate in the summer or the fall, so I naturally hoped my parents would decide for me, but after all our discussions on the various pros and cons they ended up bouncing it back onto me. "What would make YOU the happiest?" Stuck with that daunting question, I had to say that taking my last classes over the fall wins hands down. I look forward to living with my new roommates and their beautiful baby boy!

That decision was made within the first half of my Spring Break because my dad was going to leave for a business trip the rest of the week. I stayed with my grandmother at her house for a couple days where we immediately decided how much fun it would be to visit the hospital. I gave grandma leftover Chinese food and she had an allergic reaction, so we ended up calling the rescue squad to check her out. They told us we should probably go to the hospital just to make sure nothing serious is wrong (mainly because they didn't want to be called back to her house again later). After several hours she was back to normal, but this whole episode happened at night, so we finally got back home around 2 or 3am. Due to rainy and nasty weather, we spent most of the remaining time at her house watching old movies. We returned to my parent's house a couple days later to be greeted by beautiful Spring weather. What impeccable timing!   

I naturally got no schoolwork or studying done while I was home because I wanted to spend all my time with my wonderful family. The night before dad left for his business trip we played scrabble and chess simultaneously. It was very interesting trying to concentrate on two games that both require a lot of thought. In the end, we practically tied in scrabble (dad was ahead of me by a few points, but nothing to signify) and dad beat me in chess (which hasn't happened for quite a while). I enjoyed it very much. Next, we'll need to attempt to play chess and scrabble simultaneously with four players. We have a four-player chess game which is diamond-shaped and looks very complicated.

A couple days later, my family, all except dad, went bowling. It was a lot of fun, though I definitely lost that game. Nathanael was still recovering from his knee surgery so he couldn't put his all in the game and thus he technically lost. However, he ended up leaving early, so mom, Jesse, and I helped play for him. Somehow I don't feel very victorious by beating him (the only person I was ahead of). We love this bowling alley because we can conveniently order and eat food while we bowl. It's also right next to a movie theater, so we were considering going to a movie afterwards, but that particularly theater wasn't playing what we wanted to watch.

I did a lot of bird watching during this break and mom, who is usually the photographer of the family, was impressed by a number of the pictures I caught. In fact, it has helped me to slow down and observe nature. Life tends to move too fast, making us too busy to observe the beauty of nature. This break gave me the perfect opportunity to take it all in.

 

 

Tribute to Lightning McQueen

    I was only joking when I said 'who needs cars?'! I have quite a story to share, but next time don't take me seriously! Last Tuesday night, after I tutored for five hours (though not many students came, so it wasn't a particularly successful day), I got in my car to go pick up dinner at Taco Bell, all the time thinking that today was going to be just like any other day. "Little did I know" (those ominous words from Stranger Than Fiction) that my life would be turned upside-down. Slight exaggeration, but nevertheless, it did cause some irritating complications to my life.

The last picture I will ever have of Lightning McQueen...

   [If the following account contains more detail than you would ever wish to know, keep in mind that I need to remember the events accurately for when I go to court] I was driving in the right lane, thinking about the delicious double decker taco I would have for dinner and groceries I needed to get for the rest of the week before Spring Break, when suddenly I get slammed by another car in the middle of an intersection. Totally unprepared. However, I did not black out, so I could easily see that the light in the middle of the intersection was bright green. It took me a minute to gather my wits, realize what happened, and put my car into park. I was a little worried at first that there was a fire, because the air was reeking with a foul stench due to the airbag being deployed. That was really what made me abandon my car in a hurry. Then I noticed who was in the other car; four guys. They were probably my age or younger. By God's grace, no one was hurt and the guy driving the other car could not stop apologizing. I just tried to joke around with them in order to while away the time, since the police came and collected our car registration and license for inspection. It was around that time that I realized my glasses were missing because they flew off during the collision. However, I found them perfectly intact on the floor of the driver's seat. The weather was wet, cold, and dark (being around 9:45pm), so we were left to stand around in the cold while we waited for the police to finish up. The guy who hit me had failed to yield at a left turn. Even though it was his mistake, I feel pretty bad for him, because this may cost him a lot. I'm sure the weather had some effect on his driving and visibility too. Well, when the policeman finally gave us back our registration papers and licenses along with a copy of his accident report, the towtruck had arrived to removed our cars. I watched, with saddened eyes, as my car was connected to the towtruck to be taken away. The driver of the towtruck gave me a ride back to my apartment where I made sure I got everything out of the car.

    Now, I must have a proper fair-well for my car. My car was named Lightning McQueen by my little brother because his favorite movie for years was Cars. Thus, all the cars my family owned were characters out of the movie and since mine was red it became the main character. It had a few quirks that gave it personality. Of course, I am probably the only person who loved these quirks...but then again, I'm a rather strange duck. Quirk #1: CD player was broken, Quirk #2: Radio was broken, Quirk #3: Backseat window on the left was broken and had to be closed manually, Quirk #4: Driver side window had it's own issues opening and closing so it was well on its way to being broken,  Quirk #5: Car keys automatic locking, unlocking, and opening the trunk was broken, Quirk #6: Car keys could only manually unlock driver side door (thus, there was only one way to unlock my car). Yeah, it was quite a nice car and I will miss it, but life must go on. 

The Rental

    After the accident I was a bit dazed, but I was determined to do my grocery shopping and have dinner. So, I called my friend to see if she could give me a ride to Kroger so I could still buy what I needed for the week. Well, we went to Kroger and did some quick shopping, but when we left I forgot my cellphone. Considering all the insurance business I would need to take care of, it was crucial to have my cellphone at hand, so I had my friend drive back to Kroger to pick it up. The next day I ended up walking all over the place. The main things I ended up accomplishing was going to the campus health center to make sure I was okay from the accident and to have dinner with my cousin who I have not seen since Christmas. I also gave my statement to the other guy's insurance company so they might start the process of paying for a rental car for me while I wait for a decision to be made about my car. Now we come to today. Today I finally settled the insurance stuff and was able to check out a rental car. It's such a nice car that I will be sad to part with it when I have to return it, but I will now be able to drive home for Spring Break as I had planned. 

That's enough for now, but stay tuned and you just might find out how I will be able to return to college after I have returned the rental and have no car! 

My doors are open!

Blessed be the Lord God who doesn't change his mind every time the wind blows like us humans...me, in particular. I'm generally too quick and impulsive to wait before I make up my mind. So, after discussing the issue with my parents, I decided that perhaps graduating in the Fall rather than the summer would not after-all be the best choice. However, instead of jumping the gun again, I am going to make my final decision (with no turning back) on March 16th. How I hate to leave you in suspense...but now you will need to return to find out where I'm heading (is this my midlife crisis already??).

Two weekends ago I had a surprise visitor!! It was so last minute that it was a complete surprise...though a very pleasant surprise. Carolynn and Brian, the happy married couple who had a wedding last November, came to Blacksburg. I was apparently the only one of their friends with time to spare that day, so we hung out with bubble tea and yarn. In fact, I look forward to learning how to knit from her. Then maybe I won't ever have to shop for clothes again! :) Dreams...

Grace and I: Fare-well visit...

Last weekend I had a not-so-surprising visitor! Oh, these are the days! I rarely have any visitors and two weekends in a row I was able to play hostess! Well, Carolynn and Brian just came and kidnapped me to have bubble tea, but at least I had the perfect opportunity to play hostess with Grace. She arrived Thursday night and stayed until Saturday morning, whereupon she left early to go to a celebration in North Carolina. She figured she should visit a couple friends before she leaves the country to teach English in India for five months. I was ecstatic to finally have someone to offer my best to while she stayed with me. We had a very enjoyable time. There happened to be an International Spring Social that Friday, which was perfect, because I had to leave in the middle of it to go take a test about spiders and insects. I'll have to write her while she's in India.

Now, some family news again. My cat, Tiger, who has been in the family for around 18 years (his whole life) was getting increasingly sick the last few weeks and finally died this past Saturday night. It will feel so different and weird not having a pet in our house since all our cats have run away or died as of now. Our family may get another cat later on, but not for a little while. His death was sad for everyone except Caleb, who was never much of a cat-person. What Caleb really wants is a dog, but unfortunately we have never owned a dog. My grandma had one once, but a number of years ago he had to be put down since he was getting too old. Since then, we have only been surrounded by cats. That may be why I'm both a cat and dog person, leaning much more on the cat side.

That's all for now! Keep in tune!

Cars...who needs them?

    Well, this week began in the usual way.....went to class, had lunch, went to my job, left my job, discovered my car wouldn't start, called my friend to help me jump-start my car, called triple A when my car still failed to start, and went home to have dinner...oh wait, there's usually a lot more variation (location, for instance). Just kidding, but my friend (roommate as well) had only just said that morning that she was wanting more adventure and excitement in her life. So therefore I simply provided her with some out of the goodness of my heart. I bet most people would not go to such lengths for a friend :)

Oh! The adventure!!

    If only my memory was not quite so bad, I could lead you on the trails my thoughts travel throughout the day. It would be vastly interesting, I'm sure. However, as it is, I can only relay a snip-it of my daily wanderings. Today I had my Philosophy class. This class appears somewhat subjective considering that we are studying ancient philosophers, long since dead, and their writings. I would dearly love to ask some of these philosophers questions, so as to gain a much better understanding of what they truly believe. For the most part, my professor is probably correct in his interpretation from these writings of what their views are, but we have been recently reading a number of Christian (or Judaic) philosophical writings and it's on that subject that my professor doesn't quite seem so adequate. My idea is that to truly understand Christian philosophers you would probably have to understand Christianity......strange, isn't it? And to truly understand Christianity, you would probably have to have a real relationship with Jesus......I know, the crazy ideas I have. The problem is, so many people (true and pretend) misrepresent Christianity and God, as well as the fact that non-Christians have not received help from the Holy Spirit to understand God's Word. Therefore, even though I find my philosophy class extremely interesting, I don't agree with all of my professor's interpretations. I certainly hope this doesn't effect my grade.
    My other classes are moving along, but I still await the day of freedom...maybe with a loving husband and a spoonful of children. Yeah, some would wonder what kind of freedom I'm talking about, but I consider it infinitely superior to that of education. Oh, and I can't forget my pets too, since I am sadly unable to own pets in my current apartment. Speaking of pets, my 18 year old cat is slowly dying. My parents take care of him and leave me updates, but he's not expected to live for more than another week. In fact, we are all now prepared for him to meet his end sometime soon. I will miss him terribly when I visit our home, for he has been with us his whole life.
    Ah!! Now we can talk about Valentine's Day!!! I bought myself a Valentine's Day present....books and movies.....I'm sure my guy would get me the same thing, if he existed......Next, I'll have to give myself chocolate and flowers.
   

New plan... (will it ever end?)

I have some shocking news! I changed my mind again! I think I would be much better off without my mind, since it can never stay in one place for too long... I no longer think finishing up my classes in the summer would be wise, even though it would technically speed up my graduation time. Therefore, as I had originally planned (if only my mind would stopping shifting!), I will try to take my last courses this fall instead. There are a few benefits to this proposal, as I will show you. The one desire of my heart is to be a housewife and mother, so naturally I will be ecstatic for anything that might come close. Last semester I met Xiaorong and her husband, who were about to have their first child. I spent some time with them and gradually it came out that they were going to move to a bigger, two-bedroom, apartment when they have their baby. This was back when I planned to graduate in the fall, so they very kindly said I could live with them for my last semester. About a month ago they had their little baby boy. In fact, when I visited them recently, they let me hold their treasure and I was so excited and, admittedly, rather envious. I would absolutely love to room with them, because then, not only will I get to know this awesome couple better, but I will have many opportunities (I hope) to help watch their kid.

 

However, I do not mean to indicate that I don't love my current roommates! (Juan, you will have to visit me after I graduate!). The other benefits would be time and work related factors. It would probably be a nightmare if I took two classes each summer session. Especially since one of the classes I have to take was only offered once during the summer at only one time (8am everyday). I figure I'm too young to die (especially from work overload). 

I am almost done reading the Hobbit again, although I don't know if I'd be brave enough to watch the movie when the book is fresh in my mind. I would probably as critical as my mom could ever be, which is saying something. However, the main difference is that my memory is deplorable, so I wouldn't stay very critical of a movie if I don't remember all of the book. 

Last year I went to an awesome international Bible Study taught by the sweetest couple, Bob and Sandra. This semester they changed that Bible Study to be focused on helping Christians work on their relationship with God by strengthening their leadership and improving their self-discipline. This is exactly what I have been needing. I feel that my walk with the Lord has weakened recently and I have felt a strong need for restoration. A big part of this is that I have not had very much fellowship with other believers since my first couple years here. Well, what can I say? I'm a work in progress.

Temperary thrill

Skiing on a Bunny Hill (I'm in the center)

    Well, I had a very nice mini-vacation skiing this past weekend. I drove down to Massanutten to meet my parents, Caleb, and Jesse who were staying in a resort there for the weekend. It happened to be Nathanael's birthday while we were there, but unfortunately he decided not to drive down there as well. I really can't blame him, considering that his knee (where he had surgery last year) has not recovered enough to allow for him to go snow-boarding. He would've been somewhat board hanging out with mom all day while everyone else was on the slopes. Mom doesn't know how to ski yet, although she made a promise this time to take lessons when next she gets the chance. I plan to hold her to that :) ; However, generally while we ski mom signs up for some sort of spa treatment to while away the time. This trip Jesse, Dad, and I took a lesson to help us in our endeavor to ski the correct way. I fell down several times this trip, which I rarely ever did, because I was attempting to keep my skis parallel while zig-zagging down the hill. My skiing level would probably be considered Expert-Beginner. I have a long way to go. My family tries to make skiing trips a couple times a year when we can. Ever since we starting playing Settlers of Catan we seem to always bring that to the resort so we can all play when we return from skiing for the evening. Right before I left for the weekend, that very same day in fact, it snowed for hours producing a few inches of beautiful, white snow. I would've made some snow ice-cream, but I found out I no longer had condensed milk. The snow almost delayed my trip, but my dad informed me that the highways would probably still be safe so I left for Massanutten despite the snow and had a wonderful time with my family.
    I believe I must be coming down with an acute case of super-senioritis. I have to work on my time-management skills all over again to overcome this terrifying disease. What I really want is the courage to make friends in my classes so we could work on the classes together. However, I've never been able to do that successfully as of yet, so I guess it's too late to try now. What I simply want to spend my time on now includes all those projects I want to do that I kept putting off until later. 
     As for my Oma, who went to the hospital earlier last week because of unexplained pain, she had to have surgery but everything went smoothly and she's already been released. 

A new start... again...

    I have only 8 courses left to take before I graduate!! I can't wait to leave this incessant education in the past. Yesterday (my first day of classes) was fairly rough. I printed out my schedule and started out going to all my classes on Monday despite the fact that the day was actually Tuesday. Therefore, I walked to campus in the freezing cold, going to the wrong classes. It didn't get much better as the day wore on and I realized my mistake. However, today I feel much more motivated to get on with my classes because I finally fixed my course schedule to be more convenient.
    Aside from the obvious (reading my textbooks and studying) I also want to spend ample time during the week relaxing. I relax by curling up with a good book after a hard day or working on a complex puzzle. Since I know I should not isolate myself too much, I have to have weekly fellowship with other believers and meals with friends. It's rather depressing when I forget the real reason I am here, which I do all too often. We are here to glorify and love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and mind. Unfortunately, it's easier to say than to do.
    I plan to take pictures more often of my life here so I can write a blog about things of more interest than simply work. My mom has always loved taking good quality pictures of nature. I only wish to follow in her footsteps and do likewise.
    Family news: I have only two living grandparents, both my grandmothers. My grandmother who fell a month ago and is in the rehab center is my maternal Grandma. I recently found out that my paternal grandmother has gone to the hospital due to unexplained pain. I would appreciate prayer for her. I refer to her as Oma (this means grandma in German) because she is a German Chilean. As for my grandma in the rehab center, she should be able to live with my family again in a little more than a week. 

It'll hit me sooner or later

 

    It's funny that I only ever started really shopping with my mother in the last couple years. I use to detest shopping to the extent that, given the choices of sky diving and shopping, I'd rush off towards the nearest airplane without a second thought. I always considered clothes shopping, above all else, to be worse than torture. Come to think of it, I probably grew up averse to all this girlishness because I was surrounded by brothers... Well, because of my attitude toward shopping and the fact that I never payed much attention to my appearance, my mother very rarely shopped with me or gave me any sort of fashion advice (not that she was any sort of fashion expert, but a toad would have more fashion sense than I had). Thence, my very first successful clothes shopping spree with my mom was only a couple years ago. Well, to be honest, I wasn't even with her when she went shopping, but she had gotten several cute dresses she thought I might like and I eagerly tried them on (which is something I never did before). After that day, my mother finally knew what clothes I liked (we had similar taste in dresses) and I started to enjoy this aspect of being a girl. Haha, and I used to think I was so frugal... However, I have done a lifetime of clothes shopping (among other things) since then, so now I plan to never, EVER shop again. Unfortunately, when I hang out with mom to have wonderful "mother-daughter" time we tend to shop, which is rather dangerous. What's happening to me?? The reason I bring all this shopping up is because I have had a couple crazy shopping days with my mom this break, which I enjoyed immensely of course. My poor roommates will have to deal with a lot more random things around the apartment :)
    One of those trips took place this afternoon, after I spent the morning listening to my mom's second lecture on epidemiology. She's a part-time professor at George Washington. She did a wonderful job and is always so nice to her students. I was glad to finally be able to critique how she taught her class, but apparently I wasn't as encouraging as she would've liked... I do try! I'm great at bragging about my parents to other people, just not to themselves.
    On our way home tonight my mom and I wanted to get a movie to watch, so we looked in vain for The Avengers, but sadly it was sold out. Thus, we decided to buy Captain America instead. Great movies. When we got back home my brother Nathanael was there with his very good friend Sara. After mom and I ate dinner, we all watched Captain America.

    Here comes the sad part (to some people at least), I have to leave my hometown Saturday morning since my semester begins on Tuesday. This trip will entail quite a bit of driving and adventure, because I plan to first travel to North Carolina in order to visit an old friend from my university and then go to Lynchburg to visit a couple of awesome new friends, and finally head towards the land of hard work and study. I can't wait to see all of them, but I will miss my family and friends I leave behind. In any case, these are my last days home, packing up my things, and preparing my departure.
    To give a brief update about my grandmother; she seems to be recovering from her fall slowly. I confess, I am worried about how well she will be able to do things when she returns to our care. She will no doubt be in much worse shape where walking is concerned. However, a physical therapist is coming in everyday to help her regain some strength while she is in the rehab center, and very likely she will still have a physical therapist when she moves out of that place into our house. I will miss her. She needs constant reminders that we love her when she is alone, surrounded by other invalids. It breaks my heart when she has nightmares and says terrible and depressing things about no one caring about her. All I can do at this point is pray for her. God needs to show her His love and peace. What she needs most of all is His peace that passes all understanding.   

It's all about the history...

    Well, on our way to the rehab center where my Grandmother is currently staying, my mother and I ended up driving through something that smelled like manure which spilled across the road right before a stoplight. While we waited for the light to change we had the perfect opportunity to practice breathing through our mouths. Mom called our county sheriff's office to notify them of the spill, though they haven't done anything about it yet. Anyway, I just want to keep everyone informed of the strange and unusual occurrences happening in my isolated hometown. Okay, if this is the strangest thing to happen here, I think we need more excitement. I did recently find out that James Madison may have been born here, which would give our county some small historical significance.
    As far as grandma is concerned, her broken bones are healing in due course. She should hopefully be back with us within a week, I hope. It's really not all that cheap having her live at the rehab center anyway. However, last night when I visited her with my dad, she was in a very messed up, emotional state. I was surprised that she apparently didn't remember much of that visit at all this morning except that it was bad. I was very relieved. I love grandma very much, but we (my family) have learned certain things to look out for when we get to be that age. The most important thing is not to hold grudges, becomes it contributes a lot to bitterness during old age. I'm not saying I'd necessarily be better in my old age, but I'd try my best. It helps a lot to have confidence and assurance as to where you might go after death. That's the scariest part in getting old.

    I am also starting my search for a good job in which I can utilize my mathematical knowledge. It's harder than I expected, because I haven't a clue what non-teaching mathematical jobs I would really enjoy. I'm not much of a writer so that's out of the question, though it is a fun hobby to have. And I still have quite a few books to read this break before I have to go back to work. I am way past having senioritis......I can't say how ready I am to get off this roller-coaster. I'm not as excited about getting a job as I am about having my own living quarters though. I strongly desire to have my own place in which I can decorate, furnish, and arrange as I want, as well as finally having a few cats and dogs.... (mostly cats)

    Jesse and my father went out this morning to race in the Pinewood Derbies. That's where they can build their own cars to race against others. I hope Jesse wins :) I remember when I was younger and got to race. In fact, I still have a couple cars I made with dad.
    And aside from reading, I'm getting into origami. I'm not all that artistic so I never previously tried much origami because I assumed I would be terrible at it. Well, it's not as hard as I thought it would be, though some of the directions are confusing. 

Christmas of 2012 is over :(

Every year during Thanksgiving I would help my mother decorate the house in preparation for Christmas. Our house would be covered with many Christmas candles and other oddities found over the years. And, of course, we would always have our Christmas tree decorated with lights, candy canes, beautiful ornaments, and tinsel. However, my family is stubborn and sentimental about change sometimes. We have never used artificial Christmas trees and I doubt we ever will (even as we may move away to celebrate Christmas with our respective new families). We would always go out to buy and chop down the Christmas tree of our choice. One year we even used a tree from my Grandmother's yard, which happened to be my personal favorite due to my extreme sentimentality. In fact, Grandma's house is where we would almost always spend Christmas. She lives in a beautiful area off the water which you would have to see to believe. This year, because of everything that has happened, we were unable to go there for Christmas. Under normal circumstances, my family would also decorate my Grandmother's house for Christmas as well, but this year we had no need since our Christmas plans were drastically changed when Grandma fell. Also, during this very unusual year, I wasn't able to help with the decorations as I normally did.

The tree's just walkin' right outta there!

[Now we get to the exciting part!] Maybe I missed out on the decorating, but now I get to help take everything down and pack it all up again! My favorite part in all this is cleaning up the confetti, because it makes such a big difference in how our house looks. When I was younger I would look forward to trimming all the branches off the Christmas tree with a pair of shears, but as you can see, I'm not as destructive nowadays (I think).

So that's our current project; fixing up the house. However, we are very lax in our cleaning so I have ample time for other activities. For instance, two days ago I got to go skiing with Jesse and my dad. Even though we mainly remained on the bunny hills (beginner slopes) I had a wonderful time. My dad and I would usually go on the intermediate slopes, but Jesse refused because then he would have to actually zig-zag down the slope. Zig-zagging down the slope helps you regulate your speed so you don't keep getting faster and faster until you can't easily stop or slow down. Well, Jesse didn't practice that very useful skill because he wanted to go as fast as he could without slowing down. Therefore, going on the harder slopes was out of the question. He certainly had a need for speed :)

I also had the opportunity to read the book my mother recommended for me; Poetic Justice by Alicia Rasley. As I knew I would (since my mother and I have a very similar taste in books), I enjoyed it immensely. This book is a regency romance. One of the things I love about regency romances is that they rarely contain anything over-the-top that you might find in modern Harlequin romances. I've also read, earlier during my break, And the Shofar Blew by Francine Rivers. This book is Christian fiction, as all her books are. So far, however, none of the other Francine Rivers books have even compared with the Mark of the Lion trilogy she wrote. That trilogy is so well-written, containing so many real problems and troubles people struggle through, that I immediately denoted it as my ultimate favorite. It has my highest recommendation (but, of course, other people may not feel the same way as I do about it). Getting back to the book I actually read this break, it was primarily about dealing with hypocrisy and always sticking to God's Word for answers and comfort. 

Greeting the New Year; 2013

Me, random bear, and my mom, all enjoying the festivities

    A new year has dawned....and as always we have begun it by trashing our house with confetti. Even the bear joined in! However, unlike past years, our home was not filled with the joyful sound of young kids having confetti fights all over the house. The only young kid attending our annual New Years Celebration was my seven year old brother, Jesse, who had no choice in the matter. A couple old friends, who have been coming for years, managed to make it here and give us company. Their children being all grown up and on their own, they brought only themselves, along with delicious mint brownies (which was okay by me :) ). If no one came, we had the backup plan to play Settlers of Catan to call in the new year, which we had started while we waited to see if anyone would showed up. My family lives in a small county where almost everyone has no concept of time, in which case we never know at what time someone will arrive (if they decide to come at all). So, all we could do is wait and hope. And we were not disappointed. Once that couple arrived we set up the confetti on the balcony and got ready for the count down. My older brother, Caleb, along with Jesse and myself, commenced throwing confetti down our balcony onto our living room rug and having a mini confetti fight. When there are more kids participating in the fight it can get quite exciting at times. I have fond memories of the years past with many little kids and teenagers all coming over for the New Years.

    Unfortunately, the start of this year has not been entirely without defect. This past month was one of the hardest my family had to deal with. One thing after another kept piling up. To give some background info, my other older brother, Nathanael, tore a ligament in his right leg early last year, so he is still in the process of fully recovering from that injury. Now, to begin our litany of misfortunes, my grandmother, who is 94 years old and has been staying in our house off and on during the whole of last year, had another fall a few weeks ago. Nathanael was nearby at that time and, rather than notifying mom or dad, lifted her up and carried her to her bed despite the fact that his leg was still recovering from surgery. This naturally made my parents very upset. It wasn't until that night that they discovered that Grandma was experiencing extreme pain and wasn't able to move. Immediately, upon discovering how serious her condition was, they called an ambulance to transport Grandma to the emergency room. It was at that time, while everyone was waiting for the doctors to figure out what steps to take (and Grandma was not in as much agony), that Grandma informed mom about the most recent news. It was that same day that the horrific, devastating, and tragic murders happened in an Elementary school in Connecticut. Nothing can even compare to the pain those families are going through. We need to remember to keep them in our prayers and that God is in control. Directly after all of these events, my mother contracted the full-fledged flu, putting her out of commission for several days. This entire time I was not capable of offering any help, being in Blacksburg finishing my final exams. However, I had plenty of time to worry instead.
    Fast-forwarding to today, my Grandma left the hospital almost two weeks ago with a couple broken bones that need time to heal and is now residing in a very nice rehab center only five minutes from our house. Someone has gone there to visit her, comfort her, and remind her of our love pretty much every day. In fact, the nurses are probably well acquainted with her family by now. And as far as I know, Nathanael suffered no ill-effects from carrying Grandma after her fall, but I'm sure he wouldn't tell anyone even if he had. My mom has recovered from the flu, passing a bit of the virus to my dad before it completely vanished. Currently we all have fairly good health except for my Grandma, who suffers ailments mainly due to her age. Her mind is not effected in the least, and for that we thank God.  

    On a more pleasant note, I have gotten many new dresses for 2013! I am excited to show them off to all my wonderful friends who don't abandon me because I left Facebook! I don't get a chance to go shopping with my mother too often, so admittedly we splurged a bit. See how fortunate it was that the world did not end on Dec. 21st?
    On another amazing note, I figured out a way to lay out my final classes so I can graduate after this summer!!! Seriously, I am dead tired of school and ready to live my life......