pictures from this semester

I love my roommate!The Best Roommates Ever

Homecoming PartyLobbying CongressEtown goes to DC: At the Washington MonumentSara & I destressing with a good old bow & arrow fightSome of the girls from my freshman seminar

Being crazy with the roommates

Out at the bar

Change of Plans

I visited UPitt about a week and a half ago with my former roommate, Liz. I really liked it. The professors I met were incredibly nice and caring and seemed really great. Pittsburgh is also not very 'big city' ish, which I love. There are all these residential neighborhood like areas around it that are nice to live in and fairly inexpensive.
That being said, I've decided not to go to grad school in January. I've felt so overwhelmed by the whole idea and yesterday and today were the worst. UPitt starts Jan 3, so I would have about 2 weeks transition time. I would also have to take out a whole lot of loans. I looked at job openings on the chester county intermediate unit site and on monster.com and found a school called the malvern school. (www.malvernschool.com) I'm going to apply for a teaching assistant position working with infants or preschoolers. As of right now, I'm planning on going to grad school in the fall, but we'll see what happens. The Malvern School offers tuition reimbursement and professional development, so if I really love it, I might go for early education certification, and put off grad school for a few more years.
So that's the major stuff that's been going on with me, other than an insane amount of work.
Don't worry, I still have time for a little fun. Lisa and Nate came up Saturday to visit, which was really nice. Wednesday night Liz and I are going to meet at a coffeehouse and do work together just b/c we haven't seen each other in forever. Then this weekend, Alicia, my roommate in Greece from Kansas, is flying out to see us. That will be really nice. Friday I'm working a huge fancy schmancy Board of Trustees dinner in Lancaster all day, which will be fun even though it's work.

Northern Uganda Lobby Day & conference

The Northern Uganda Lobby Day & conference was amazing. I learned SO much. Monday was panels and discussions about what's currently going on in Northern Uganda, then Tuesday we went and lobbied senators and represenatives for the US to actively support peace talks in Juba and to dedicate much more humanitarian aid. It was definately a great learning experience. I actually talked to aides of our representatives! and I am so uncomfortable doing things like that. I was really proud of myself. I think the 2 biggest things I got out of this experience are 1: the people organizing the event and a lot of the grassroots humanitarian organizations are like 25. These people are just a few years older than I am and doing so much. It was really inspiring. The other thing was that even actresses are terrified of public speaking. One of the people lobbying for PA was Melissa Fitzgerald, from the West Wing. She is such a nice person and has done a lot of advocacy for Uganda, but she said she is terrified of public speaking. Made me feel so much better. lol.
I think our funny story from the trip was we went to speak with Michelle Hart's aid and asked him what her position was on what's going on in Northern Uganda and how she feels about the issue. He told us he was not at liberty to disclose that information. We were like that's funny. She's a publicly elected official, that should be public knowledge.
Another really awesome part of the trip was hearing Betty Bigombe speak. She's been the primary person leading peace negotiations for almost 20 years, so that was really awesome.

I can't believe it's the end of September already

This is our lovely little kitchen

This is our living room/eating area. We have a futon, loveseat, 2 chairs, and a table with 4 chairs.

This is my half of the room. The artwork/decorations for anyone interested, from left to right: tapestry/scarf from H&M, b&w 8x10s of Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, and Rhett & Scarlett from Gone with the Wind with hanging votives in between. Then above my desk at the top is an assortment of artwork from Greece and Italy. On the bottom is some quotes, prints i like, and project lists of things to get done.

Amanda & my room from the door.

In other news, the GREs went pretty well. I should get my official scores within the next week and a half or so. They give you part of your score when you finish, and I was quite happy with that. Grad school applications are due October 15 (Denver University) and November 15 (University of Pittsburgh) so I won't know where I'm going for quite a while.

This past weekend was a lot of fun. Sara and I relaxed at her house Friday night and watched V for Vendetta, which was a great movie. Saturday, her parents took us to see Godspell at a playhouse near them. That was very enjoyable. Then we hung out with one of her friends from home. Sunday was the big party for her great uncle's 80th birthday party, so I got to meet the rest of her big crazy family. It was a lot of fun. I'm glad I went with her. It was nice to get away from school and work for a weekend. She might have some pictures, but I haven't seen them yet, so they may or may not be forthcoming.

For anyone wondering, I am not dancing this semester. I'm a little upset about that, but it's beyond my control and is probably better anyways since I have so much work and projects to get done. The club got a new advisor this year who apparently decided to cut the show in half. Last year, there were 30+ numbers in the show. Yeah, that makes for a long show, but there are 300+ members in the club. So pretty much what that means is that the dances this semester are intermediate to advanced numbers with tryouts b/c there are 50+ people signed up for most of them and they only take from about 10-20 people. I auditioned for a few, but obviously have no real dance experience and didn't make it.
BUT I decided to try out photography club this semester instead, which I think will also be a great experience. Tonight I'm getting dark room trained. We also have use of cameras, chemicals, developing paper, photo quality color printers, photo programs, etc. It should be a lot of fun. I'm excited!

Hope everyone is doing well!

My Upcoming Tour of Major Central Eastern Cities of the US

Hey everyone, how's it going?
School's going quite well. I'm having a wonderful (albeit very hectic) final semester here in good old Etown.
Classes are interesting (except for History & Systems of Modern Psychology, which is required).
I should be starting research for my senior thesis sometime in the beginning of October, pending approval. My other major project is an advocacy project to raise awareness and/or support for a major social issue. I'm thinking about a benefit concert if I can get started on that soon. (still trying to decide if it will be too much to handle). My Leadership course also has to design and implement a service learning project for freshmen honors students. Thankfully, that one is a larger group effort.
We did a high ropes course for my Leadership course this past Saturday, which was a lot of fun and a great work out. I couldn't lift my arms above my chest Sunday.

Big scary news: Friday at 12 I take the GREs. Wish me luck! (a way to instantly remember high school math would be fantastic also...but don't worry, I have been studying a lot)

Now on to what you've all been waiting for: Mary's current travel plans for the semester.
*Next weekend, I'm going home with one of my roommates, Sara. Her family is having a big picnic/party thing and told her she could bring a friend...me! Anyways, she lives outside NYC so we're going to take the bus in for a day.
*Oct. 8-10, I'm going to a conference in Washington DC. There are a bunch of panels on peacebuilding and crisis in Uganda, as well as sessions on doing advocacy and lobbying. It costs $5 for students to register, some meals are included, and my friend Nate goes to UMD and is close to a metro station to get into the city. He's going to go with me and said I can crash on a couch at his place so I don't have to get a hotel room. Cheap is definately good =)
Check it out here: Northern Uganda Lobby Day
*Over fall break, my former roommate Liz and I are going to take a road trip out to the University of Pittsburgh. We are both interested in attending grad school there and would like to check it out. I'm glad I discovered she is looking there too because I didn't want to go by myself. She also knows someone out there who's place we could potentially stay at.

Well, I think that's the major news in my life right now. Hope everyone is doing well!

important dates as of right now

Percussion Ensemble Concert: Nov 12 @3:00 (?)
Band Concert: Dec 3 @ 3:00
Emotion Dance Show: Dec 8 & 9 @ 7:30

i survived my 1st week

i guess it's been a pretty busy week.
all my classes but one are pretty good. history and systems of psych is going to be awful, but i'm looking forward to everything else. (although the reading for my leadership course is pretty bad, but the class should be good). i think my international social development class is going to be really good. i feel kind of dumb though b/c i'm really new to the whole field and don't know too much yet, but that's what i'm in school for, so i just need to stay focused and stay positive.

i haven't really done anything with my research which i wanted to start within the next week or so. my advisor wants me to do a lot more research, but i did a lot over the summer and just want to get started on the actual research. so we'll see what happens with that.

i started grad school applications and sending out requests for letters of recommendation. i got a letter the other day from the school letting me know all my requirements will be fulfilled by the end of the semester so i can indeed graduate in january. right now i'm applying to the university of pittsburgh and the university of denver. i'm debating applying to columbia and my prof just recommended george washington today, but they're both pretty expensive and application fees are ridiculous, and the cost of living is really expensive, and i don't know if i'd like living in a really big city like new york or dc. i'll probably just stick with pitt and denver.

friday night, mom, dad, and michelle stopped by on their way home from taking mike to penn state so they could see the apartment, and took me and 2 of my roomies to olive garden. that was a lot of fun, and of course, delicious.
i love having an apartment, being able to cook, having a living room to hang out in, etc. it's so nice. maybe i'll post pics one of these days.

here's my one of my roomies...jills and i about to go to the bar for her 21st birthday














and here are my other 2 roomies, sara & amanda

Florida

Florida was wonderful. I had a great time, got to get to know my grandmom's new husband Jim better, and got to relax. Perfect vacation.
Got up bright and early Saturday morning...4:30am...to go on a hot airballoon ride. That was so nice. It was very peaceful, and not at all scary. I greatly enjoyed it and highly recommend one if you ever get the opportuniy. Sunday morning I lazed around the pool while Grammie and Jim golfed. Gotta love old folks communities...there's a girl walking around the pool getting you drinks. What a life. So I swam about one lap b/c i was feeling lazy and partially to cool off, then laid on the deck and read for about 2 hours, then Grammie and I did some shopping in the afternoon.
Monday morning we went to the largest Greek community in America. That made me really happy...and miss Greece a lot. (my roomie is there right now so I'm living vicariously through her) but I had a cheese pie, one of the foods I most miss. We also went on a nature cruise into the Gulf of Mexico looking for dolphins and manatees. Didn't see any manatees, but we had dolphins following us and playing in the wake of the boat a good portion of the trip. It was incredible. They are so beautiful and playful. We even saw a baby and its mother. So cute! I managed to get one ok picture, but it was really difficult b/c you never know when they're going to jump out of the water, and my camera is kind of slow.
but here are the pictures from the balloon ride and of the dolphins.

I'm an artist...

So I've been told some of my photography is better than art school students so I've decided to try to sell some.
Go check me out .

Ireland Pictures

enjoy

Ireland

when Irish eyes are smiling

*warning...long post*
I learned so much on this trip.
I guess I'll start with the history. You always here about the fighting in Ireland, but actually seeing the cities and hearing peoples stories about how much they are affected by it made it so real. We went to 2 big cities in the north, which is part of the UK and not part of the republic of Ireland. There are walls and barbed wire fences separating the Catholic and Protestant sections. There are murals about the fighting everywhere. The one city we were in, Derry (or Londonderry depending on where you're from) just had it's military occupation leave this past October. My prof's husband lived in Ireland for a long time, and he didn't think we'd ever be able to get into that city. Hearing people's stories was really sad. Our one tour guide is a professor now, but out of 3 other families on his block where he grew up...the kids he was friends with...one family was killed in an attack, one kid became a member of a paramilitary group and went to jail for killing people, and another girl is now president of the republic of Ireland. He said out of the kids on his soccer team growing up, only 5 of them are still alive. Our bus driver had his best friend die in his arms. I can't even imagine growing up in a situation like that.

Teaching
We taught 2 classes while we were there, one in the south and one in the north. There was a huge difference between the 2 classes. The school we taught at in the south was in a very bad area and the kids were really poor. Their teacher told us that one of the girls had been found under a bridge as a baby, abandoned by her drug addict mother and was now in foster care. My group taught a learning support class of 8 and 9 year olds who were so adorable, but we didn't even get through half our lesson. They were all over the place. They weren't bad, just out of control...asking questions all the time, not sitting down, wanting to take a million pictures with our cameras. When we got to the north, it was a much more upper class school. The kids were incredibly well behaved and we got through everything, which was nice since we had it prepared...lol.

Social problems
Drug abuse and related issues as well as homelessness are the biggest social issues in Ireland. We visited a women's reform prison. Definately nothing like a prison in this country, although it is the 1st kind of this type of prison. It's pretty much a locked down dorms type of thing. They see the loss of freedom as punishment enough so the women aren't stuck in cells with nothing to do all day. Also, most of the women in prison are there for drug related reasons such as theft or prostitution. Being in prison gives them a safe place to live so they're not on the streets. We talked to 2 of the women there, which was heart breaking. The one girl started doing drugs at 13 b/c her father taught her how to administer drugs to him when he was too fucked up to give himself more. One of the girls cut herself so much it looked like she should've had stitches. The other girl was supposed to get a 3 year sentence but her mother told the judge she wouldn't be alive in 3 years b/c of all the damage her body had sustained due to her heroin addiction.
We also visited a homeless agency, and they told us about how they're set up. Their type of homeless shelter would never be allowed here. They look at from a harm reduction perspective (yeah, I know, social work talk...sorry) which pretty much means what is the most harmful to these people and how do we make them safer. So providing food and shelter is the top priority, not making sure they're not doing drugs or drinking. The shelter has a wet room for people to drink alcohol and lockers where people can keep their drugs. They're not kicked out for doing drugs as long as they do it safely. They have a clean needle program to help ensure that the drug addicts at least are using safely. I think it's a good idea. Why deprive someone of shelter b/c they're an addict? They need help, not to be kicked back out to the streets.
So yeah, those visits were really eye opening.

Now on the the fun stuff. We did so much of that too. Hopefully I'll remember the best parts at least. Let's see...we toured the Guinness Factory. Yes, I did try some Guinness, and no, I do not like it...lol. (bad pic at Guinness factory) We went on a musical pub crawl, which was kind of interesting b/c they expained the difference between reels and jigs, etc. and played some for us.
We went to see the Hill of Tara, but it was pouring so didn't really go outside and look around.
Newgrange was pretty awesome. It's the ancient passageway tomb - a huge mound of earth with a passage and room in the middle surrounded by these stones with megalithic art. It's older than Stonehenge and the pyramids. Also, there's this window box and during 5 mornings of the winter solstice, the rising sun enterse through the box and illuminates the passage and room. We saw a pretty rough simulation, but it was pretty incredibly.
Giant's Causeway was beautiful. It's this rock formation of about 40,000 perfectly formed hexagons, octagons, and even 1 9 sided stone, formed by lava...or as the myth goes, a friendly Irish giant who was to fight a Scottish giant, built this passageway to Scotland for the giant to walk across. He then realized the Scottish giant was even bigger then him, so he had his wife dress him up as a baby. When the Scottish giant got there, the wife told him not to wake the baby. He got scared and left b/c he thought if the baby was that big, he didn't want to meet the father...haha. I liked that story.
We crossed this rope bridge that was 85 feet about cliffs and water to this little island. It was pretty scary, especially since I'm really scared of heights, but definately worth it. I was shaking when I got to the other side though. The island was gorgeous. Luckily it was a really clear day, and you could see across the sea to the coast of Scotland, 30 miles away.
We saw a bunch of castles...very awesome. We even had dinner in a restored castle, A medieval banquet type thing, very touristy, but fun and cool b/c it was actually in a real castle.
This is the part where I'm a total dork. My friend and I had milk cravings one night, so we went to the pub in our hotel and asked for a pitcher of milk. The bartender goes and gets us one and walks away. So we're trying to catch his attention and finally do and ask him how much we owe him for the milk. He gives us this look like we're crazy (which we probably are) and goes it's just milk, nothing. It was pretty funny. Then Peggy (one of my profs) walks in and asks us what we're doing. We tell her we're drinking milk. She's like aww, wouldn't your parents be proud of you. lol.
We also took a ferry to one of the Aran islands - Inis Mor - and rented bikes for the day. I think that was my favorite part of the trip. We did 7 mile round trip bike ride up to this fort on top of cliff...well, you rode to the bottom and hiked up...it was amazing. There are no safety barriers in Ireland...you can go right to the edge of the cliff. If you slip, you're dead. It was about 250 feet high I think. Crazy. Beautiful. Incredible. I really enjoyed riding too. The island is gorgeous. It was also a nice work out...lol.
Our last night, we went to this pub that's been continuously in operation since 1620 (the year the pilgrims landed in america). that was pretty cool. hung out with my profs and talked to them for most of the time there which was nice.
I also discovered my favorite potter/pottery...haha...I'm such a dork. Go check it out. Colm De Ris Pottery is going to be my present to myself from now on, until I get it all...lol.

just another entry

1st of all...I won a $1000 psych scholarship that I applied for. That was exciting to find in my mailbox yesterday.

But now onto the weekend...
Friday was Liz's birthday, so Lisa came out and so did their friend Tim, and we went to a bar in Harrisburg and met up with a bunch of Liz's friends from Messiah. It was a lot of fun.

Liz, Lisa, & I


Saturday, Lisa had to go to her grandfather's funeral so she couldn't hang out with us =(. Liz & I did homework all day.
Saturday night we went to Harrisburg and slept on the street to raise awareness for the Invisible Children in Uganda. These kids are kidnapped by a rebel army and forced into being soldiers, which has devastating effects on them mentally & emotionally, and later economically b/c there is a generation of kids growing up in fear and having no skills other than to kill. The girls are raped or used as sex slaves. So every night these children walk sometimes hours to a town center that is "safe" to sleep and do their homework so they won't be kidnapped. They sleep packed together like sardines. The guards that are supposed to protect them don't always care. They rape the girls, get drunk, etc. but it's better than being out of the town where there's a much greater risk of being kidnapped. Anyways, people in major cities all over the United States and in I think 5 or 6 other countries participated in a Global Night Commute Saturday night to raise awareness. I think there was about 250 of us in Harrisburg. It was a really awesome experience. I met some cool people, and it was neat talking to people walking by who wanted to know what we were doing. It was freezing, and we didn't sleep much, but it was good.

Liz & I at the Global Night Commute


us freezing cold around 6am



This morning I went to York to meet with the director of Bell Socialization Services about an internship for next semester. I'd be working at their drop in center for mentally ill/mentally retarded/homeless people just kinda interacting, building relationships, and maybe teaching some classes (possibly cooking and/or basic computer skills). I need to think about it. I really want something paid so i can save a little money for when i graduate, and this wouldn't be. Plus, it's 45 minutes away and gas is wicked expensive. If it wasn't for that, I'd definately do it b/c it would be a great opportunity.

schedule update

add one more class:
international social development
A study of global issues focusing on social issues affecting the Global South. Issues to be examined include AIDS/health care, modern slavery, human rights, and discrimination. The history and development of these issues, how culture of individual countries or regions affect the development and response, as well as future possibilities for resolution will be examined. Students will be actively involved in projects of their own design to help create solutions.
tues/thurs 2-3:20

i am more excited about this class than any other class i've taken in the past 3 years. =)

Birthday Weekend

This weekend was fun. Friday night, Sara, Kimmie, & I went to a bar in Mount Joy for a little while. Saturday a bunch of us went out for dinner. Most of the weekend Sara and I lounged around relaxing and having an OC marathon. It was nice. I don't remember that last time I just sat around doing nothing. Sunday was the orchestra concert, which went well. (I was only playing in the first song so I didn't stick around). I then did work for most of the afternoon and evening. Tonight was the percussion ensemble concert, which also went well.
The rough draft of the research article for the first part of my research is due tomorrow. I was talking to my prof, and I need to test about 10 more people this week to see if some of the marginally significant results are actually statistically significant. The final draft is due next week.
I still have a lot of work to do, but only 2 more weeks of classes, a week of finals, then off to Ireland. I'm really excited about that!

Here's a few pictures from the weekend:

Kimmie, Sara, & I at the bar


at the bar


eating pizza & watching the oc


Me & my girls at dinner (Sara, Amanda, Mel, me, Liz)
(and that big fishbowl in front of me is the 60oz voodoo juice
Rockwells is famous for that they got me)

almost official schedule for next semester

Mon 3:30-6:20 Leadership Development
Tues 12:30-1:45 History & Systems (psychology)
6:30-8:30 American Sign Language
Wed 11-12:15 Leadership Development
Thurs 12:30-1:45 History & Systems
8-9 Percussion Ensemble

Mondays & Fridays I will most likely be doing fieldwork at Bell Socialization Services. I just got in contact with the woman there today about placement opportunities for the fall.
I am also doing an independent research study to continue work on my thesis. I will be meeting with my professor at least once a week about that.

total credits: 18 + percussion ensemble which i'm taking for 0

Etown Jr/Sr

Our Jr/Sr Formal was last night. It was lots of fun. Everyone gets a hotel room. You go around 4 to get dressed and hang out, dinner was around 7:30 except we didn't eat until almost 8:30, but it was delicious. Then we went and visited people and went to the dance around 12. I went with Amanda, Mel, & Sara. Here's a few pictures:

Amanda & I


Kristi & I


Sara, Me, Mel, Amanda


Sara & I at dinner


Jared & I


Gary & Liz, Me, Elise & Bill


Elise, Liz (my roomie from last year), Me


Me & my hot date Sara

it's been a while

not too much has been going on.
The EPA conference was a good experience. It was nice seeing how it's set up and what other people are researching and getting to know people in the department.

The Thailand trip filled up almost immediately, so I guess I wasn't meant to go to Thailand next year.

I'm looking into doing a directed study next semester, which is kind of like an internship 2 days a week, but I wouldn't get paid and it would be for credit.

The Emotion Show (dance) went very well last weekend. I'm a little sad it's done, but someone's offering jazz classes once a week so I think I might do that.

Tomorrow is the Jr/Sr Formal. Amanda, Sara, Mel & I all got a room together, so that will be lots of fun. I'll post pics of that sometime next week.

Other than that, nothing big has happened lately. Lots of work as usual, but nothing out of the ordinary.

hope you're all doing well!
<3



*birthday present hints =)*
-scrapbooking stuff
-gift certificate to Michaels so I can get scrapbooking stuff
-snapfish gift certificates (if they even have them) to get prints of my hundreds (a thousand+ ?) of pictures

scheduling for the fall

It looks like next semester will be at least a little less stressful than this semester. I meet with Dr. Price tomorrow to talk about my schedule, but here's what it's looking like so far:

Mon 3:30-6:20 Leadership Development
Tues 12:30-1:45 History & Systems (psychology)
6:30-8:30 American Sign Language
Wed 11-12:15 Leadership Development
Thurs 12:30-1:45 History & Systems
8-9 Percussion Ensemble

Possibly Research in Perception Tues/Thurs 11-12:15, but I'm looking into doing an Independent Study instead since perception really does not interest me at all. That would give me an independent research project as well as finishing my thesis, so a lot of research, but more free time to work on it. I'm also hoping that in having a lot of open time I can get sexual assault hotline training and certification at the YWCA, something I wanted to do last year, but did not have time for because I think it's Tues & Thurs afternoons.

I really want a more relaxed schedule next semester because I'm feeling incredibly overwhelmed this semester and want to be able to focus on my thesis and research.

Another thing I'm looking into is a winter break trip to Thailand. I went to the informational meeting today, and it looks like a good trip. We'd be going to Bangkok and Chiang Mai (northern Thailand) for about 2 weeks, Dec 27-Jan 10. We'd be touring some of the more famous sites as well as visiting students at Thammasat University to see what college is like in Thailand, a "monk chat" program at a temple where we learn about Buddhism and the lives of monks, we'd spend a day at an orphanage, an elephant training facility, and possibly an agency dealing with sex trafficking. It's about $2400 plus most lunches & dinners and spending money. I'd like to go, but really can't afford it, so I'm praying about it. A friend of mine knows someone who works at a sex trafficking agency and might go on her own to help out there. I think a more hands-on trip would be more of what I want to experience, so we'll see what happens.

quick update

I just got back from a meeting with the honor's director for my thesis prep class, and she suggested presenting my thesis at the National Collegiate Honors Conference in November. (I presented research at this conference in New Orleans sophomore year) Their registration form definately needs to be improved. You need to register in March, and they want a presentation content description for the program and visual elements description. I haven't even started researching yet. How the heck do I know what's going to be involved? And even what I intend to research now could drastically change over the next 8 months. They should ask those types of questions in September or October. Oh well. I'll just make something up.

spring break

break was good. i hung out with kim a lot which was really nice even though we were just doing homework together most of the time. (yes, i spend half my break doing homework) i almost caught up on my reading for one of my classes where getting the reading done on time really doesn't matter, and did a lot of research on my thesis. alice came over one afternoon and we scrapbooked together which is always good fun. friday i went to amanda's house in nj to meet up with her and dimitri (our friend from greece who was visiting for the week) we then went to northern nj to meet up with sara and catch a bus into nyc where we met courtney. we just wandered around for a couple hours, pretty much times square, rockefellar center, central park (near the zoo), and all the designer stores. we even saw something (tv show? movie?) being filmed which was cool. it was a really fun day and of course wonderful to see dimitri again. here's some pics:

Sara & I on the bus


Sara, Amanda, & Dimitri walking down the street


me, Sara, Courtney, Dimitri, Amanda in front of the Rockefellar Center


Sara & I in front of the Rockefellar Center


Dimitri & Amanda in front of the Rockefellar Center


Sara & I in front of Tiffany's (Sara showing off her Tiffany's bracelet)


Dimitri & Amanda on the bus


Sat night I went to a St. Patrick's Day party which was a lot of fun. It was nice seeing people I haven't seen since New Years. We all just kinda sat around and chilled all night =)

Matt & Lauren's son Dylan


Lauren & I


Me, Amanda, Steph, Matt



this week is another crazy week with too much work and not enough time (i had to stop reading tonight b/c the centers of my visual field were getting gray and blurry) don't worry, it'll all get done somehow, and i'll try to take care of myself a little too. thursday afternoon i head to baltimore for the Eastern Psychological Association conference. if no one wants to meet up sat evening to go salsa dancing, i'll probably head back to etown to see the mr. etown contest since joe is in it, then head home for gretchen's bridal shower =)
so that's what's going on in my crazy life. hope everyone's doing well.
<3

2 more days until spring break

life is pretty hectic...here's my schedule for today
9 breakfast
9:30-10:50 theories of personalitly
11-12 ireland meeting - presentations & working on lesson plan
turn in scholarship application
breathe
1-1:30 working the emotion table for shoutouts in the program
1:30-2 study
2-3:20 thesis prep
breathe/get changed for dance practice
4:30-6 band
6-7 dinner/study
7-9 psych club movie & discussion: kinsey
9-10 dance practice
10:15 floor meeting
10:20 - 11 watching the rest of rent w/ amanda & mel
11- 12+ study for neuro midterm

spring break will be a lot of research, reading, and paper writing, especially since michelle will have the car some days. tuesday i'm probably scrapbooking with alice, and thursday or friday i'll probably be in nj. give me a call if you want to do something.

an update

not much to say. i'm going to the Eastern Psychological Association (EPA) conference march 16-19 in baltimore. i'm excited for that. mr. etown is that sat night, and i'm going to miss it. that makes me sad since joe is in it this year. oh well. that sunday is gretchen's bridal shower (jeff is finally getting married!) so i'm going to try to come straight home early sunday morning to go to that then head back to school mon morning so i can go to the bridge sunday night and see kim and whoever else is there. i might see if liz wants to meet me in baltimore fri or sat night so we can hit up the latin palace for some dancing. we'll see.
one more week of school then i'll be home for spring break. i'm probably going to go to nj for a day b/c dimetrios is coming from greece to see amanda, and i want to see him!!!!!

<3

the percussion ensemble conert

is no longer april 9, it's now monday the 24 at 7:30 in zug

Valentine's Day...

...was lots of fun. I got candy from Tom, mom & dad, and my friend Jills. Roses from mom & dad.
Then Amanda, Sara, Jills, Mel, & I had a glass of wine while watching American Idol and the olympics, then watched just like heaven and ate a ton of snack food.


Amanda, Me, Sara & our sangria while watching American Idol


Sara, Me, Jills...ready with our popcorn for a nice chick flick















Sara, Mel, Me, Jills

important dates as of right now

Emotion Show - March 31 & April 1
Percussion Ensemble Concert - April 9
My 21st Birthday - April 21
Band Concert - April 30

update

so...what's been going on in the life of me lately...

*i performed brain surgery last week
(and by brain surgery i mean dissected a sheep's brain)
that was kinda cool once i got past being really grossed out

classes are going well so far. for the most part they're pretty interesting.

all my honor's stuff is going to kill me. i need 4 credits for my honors thesis/honors in the discipline thesis. the psych program doesn't have a course for a senior thesis unlike most departments. so i'm contracting my research course for this semester to do extended research into next semester, which means i'll most likely take an incomplete for this semester and finish next semester since i have until october to complete an incomplete. after finishing the extended research portion of my thesis, i'll have another month and a half or so to finish the thesis which needs to be formally presented before finals in december...yeah that's a little scary. my thesis also needs to be judged excellent/honors quality by at least half of the faculty in my department. the formal presentation aspect is just an honors program requirement, not honors in the discipline req. my prof for my research class seems pretty cool so i'm kinda looking forward to working with her. i'm looking to combine positive psychology with developmental psychology since my research course is in developmental psych, fortunately, they go together pretty well. also, while talking to the honors program director, also the prof directing my thesis prep seminar, she suggested getting in contact with dr. seligman, the founder of positive psychology, about possibly meeting him and visiting his lab since he's a prof at upenn. i'll have to look into that.

dance is going well. i really like the number i'm in although it's a little rough on my knee. my water aerobics class was cancelled for this week b/c my instructor had to go to a funeral then this weekend is MACs, some big final competition thing for the swim team, so i got to the gym monday and hopefully will tomorrow if i have any free time during the day.

i think that's about it for now.

<3

pics from the semester

Me & Bethany


Amanda & Sara

Sara & I


I was hungry...


Kristi

i'm a postcard addict

i brought back some stuff to decorate a little since our walls were so bare

it's about 4'x4' at the moment and that's maybe half my postcard collection i also have a couple small paintings from my world painting collection near my bed...1 from new orleans, 1 from santorini, and 1 from rome. my one from france is at home, i'll have to bring that back to add to a wall.

ps. feel free to send me more =)

military ball

I had a lot of fun last night =)
and I'm sure this is what you all really want...
Tom & I


me and my lovely little sister =)

my 1st week and a half

well, let's see. the 2 things i've learned so far...FYI:
the word hysteria comes from the greek word for uterus. originally used to descripe what are essentially the symptoms of pms, maybe hysteria too, b/c they thought the uterus could wander around your body then they later learned it's not an animal, it's a body part.

chicken pox is caused by the herpes virus.

anyways, classes are going well. they're going to be a lot of work, but should be interesting. i really enjoy my water aerobics class. it's a nice way to start off my day.
for emotion (the dance club) i'm doing a jazz # to the techno remix of o fortuna from carmina burana. so far, i really like the choreography, so that'll be fun...and a good work out.

probably the most stressful thing this semester and next will be my senior thesis. i'm supposed to come up with at least the beginnings of a proposal by spring break (the 1st week of march). as a psych major, my senior thesis/honor's thesis/honor's in the discipline project is an original research project, which will be evaluated by the members of the department, and for the honor's program, i need to formal presentation open to the campus and local communities. i have no clue what i want to do so i'm researching potential ideas for that. i'll probably do something with positive psychology.

grad school...looking at liberty for my masters in counselling. not sure about that yet. and getting licensed as a school psychologist requires at least a masters before you can get certified as well as lots of hours of fieldwork. one of the founders of positive psychology is a professor at upenn so i'm looking into that. they don't have a masters program though, just a doctoral program. and they only accept about 10 out of 500 applicants so i have almost no chance of getting into that program. on the plus side, they give you at least $20,000 a year for the 1st 4 years so you can focus on your studies and research.

lets see...fun stuff in my life...saturday night liz (my roomie from last year), elise, bill, jurgen, garry, and i hung out at liz's apartment and played taboo. that was a lot of fun. amanda (my new roomie), sara, and kristi having been hanging out a lot watching sex in the city and movies. last night we watched moulin rouge...great movie. i loved it. go watch it. (it's kinda random and pretty artsy so don't watch it if you don't like that kind of thing)
this friday night i'm going to a military ball in downingtown with tom (he graduated last year and we were in band and percussion ensemble together). i'm really excited about that. (anyone around p-ville, i'll be home sat if you want to hang out, but i won't have a car b/c it'll be getting repaired...call me if you want to meet up) i'm going back to etown saturday night b/c i work sunday morning.

well, i hope you're all doing well.
<3

scheduling makes my life very difficult

I just found out today that my honors leadership seminar is cancelled for the semester. On the plus side, I can now take band and get one of my social work reqs out of the way. I guess there really isn't a downside unless they don't offer such a course in the fall...which hopefully they will since they cancelled it for the spring. Here's the updated schedule.

Mondays: band 4:30-6
Tuesdays: water aerobics 9:30-10:20
neuroscience 11-12:15
research in developmental psych 12:30-1:45
abnormal psych 2-3:15
Wednesdays: theories of personality 9:30-10:45
honors thesis prep 2-3:20
band 4:30-6
Thursdays: water aerobics 9:30-10:20
neuroscience 11-12:15
research in developmental psych 12:30-1:45
abnormal psych 2-3:15
percussion ensemble 8-9:15
Fridays: theories of personality 9:30-10:45


This semester's going to be insanely busy/hard. And I'm almost positive I have to take the GREs in April or June or something so if anyone wants to get me a GRE prep book, that would be fantastic.

pictures

Pictures from my last days in Greece, Amsterdam, and Paris are all up under the 1st picture link. Enjoy.

my last adventures

amsterdam is a very lovely city. i wish i would've had more than 24 hours there. we went to the van gogh museum wednesday morning which was pretty spiffy. then they had this "kids" exhibit downstairs about animals. they had this thing where you could draw your own virtual sea creature then send it to this virtual pool and they would eat each other and grow and have babies and die...it was pretty awesome! then we went to the anne frank house. that was interesting. there was really a lot more room in their secret hiding place than i'd always imagined. at the end of the exhibit they had this room and they presented different controversial topics then specific examples and then you could vote for whether it should be allowed or not and it showed you the % of people in the room and total % of what people thought. there was stuff like the patriot act, should irish protestants be allowed to march through catholic neighborhoods, should the japanese government be allowed to make a directory of all citizens names/age/sex/etc, all kinds of stuff. i wish we'd had more time to see more of the issues. it was really interesting and well done. they had this cartoon character at the beginning of each overall topic that was pretty funny too. unfortunately...or fortunately...not really sure, we didn't have time to check out the red light district. although we walked down this one street toward the outskirts of the city that had a couple store fronts with hookers in the windows. they were just chillin in their underwear, looking pretty bored. no, we didn't even go into a cafe. didn't have time for that either. one of them had a sign that said you had to be 18 to enter then it said "and don't fuck around" i thought that was pretty funny

ok, paris...that was amazing. thursday we spend 7 hours at the louvre. amazing. that's all i can say. friday we did the sacre coeur - beautiful cathedral, arc de triumphe...that was cool. we saw a couple other famous buildings there too - the trocodero, hotel des invalides, some other ones. then the eiffel tower. went to the top, which was pretty scary. it was cool though b/c they had the distances to major cities all over the world. then they had free ice skating on the 1st level. that was pretty awesome. i iceskated on the eiffel tower. then we went to the rodin museum. (rodin is my favorite sculptor) but it closed before we could go through the whole thing. i think that's about it for friday. saturday we went to notre dame. that was amazing. it's such a beautiful cathedral. the gargoyles are awesome. loved those. it's 422 steps to the top of the tower. we saw esmerelda's room from the hunchback of notre dame and the bell quasimodo rang. that was cool. then we spent a few hours at the centre pompidou, one of the modern art museums. they had an exhibit on dada (an art movement) which was interesting. the building itself was pretty spiffy although it's very controversial b/c of it's incredibly modern architecture in the midst of all the older buildings. then we went lingerie shopping. =P
saturday night we went out for a really nice dinner. it was kinda funny. friday i had roast duck for lunch and it was amazing. so they had some duck thing on the menu, of course it was all in french so i wasn't sure exactly what it was but i was like duck was good yesterday, i'll get it again since i never have it at home. so the waiter brings out my plate and it's 2 pink squares of meat. i was like courtney, please just tell me i'm not eating raw meat...please...and she's like no and i was like courtney, are you lying to me and she said she really didn't know. so she asked her mom when she called her parents that night and...i ate duck liver! it was gross. i foreced myself to eat part of it then i just couldn't anymore. EEWWW!!

anyways...i've done the ninja turtule art tour - leonardo, michaelangelo, raphael, and donatello, and seen probably every major artist in the world which is pretty awesome. (yeah, i'm an art museum nerd)


just in case you need a last minute christmas present idea: gift certificate to michael's so i can get scrapbooking supplies, scrapbooking supplies, money to get prints of pictures, etc.

Say Goodbye

My finals are done. I have a presentation in an hour, then I'm done for the semester! Woohoo!
Tonight our whole group is going out for one last dinner together. That'll be nice =)
I'll be home in 10 days, so see you all hopefully that week. (Steele City 2 weeks from today!)
I don't know if I'll get online any more before I get home, so if not, have a wondeful next 10 days and I'll update when I get home.

<3

let us pause in life's pleasures and count its many tears

friday i bought a much needed winter coat, and wonderful sweater that was really cheap. at the store i bought the coat from, you got a rose for shopping there. that made me very happy. saturday i took at least an hour long bubble bath and listened to norah jones. *delightful* then we had breakfast for dinner and it was yummy.
sunday was a good day. i went to church for the 1st time since i've been here which was nice...although i still really miss my church. then i sat on the couch for about 5 hours and read a book, listened to music and sang. then amanda's bf demetrios came over and told us we were all going out. so he took us out for coffee, then courtney and i walked arm in arm almost the entire way back. it was fun. then we all had dinner together, then sat around and took a zillion pics of him and amanda that are adorable. then we started talking about art cuz courtney's an art major so then she drew my portrait which was cool. it was a very delightful evening. and thanks demetrios for making us leave our apartment. lol.

tonight is going to kinda suck. i have an 8-10 page paper to write, and a ton of greek hw to do since i skipped class. yuck. i have 1 1/2 finals tomorrow, 1 wednesday, and 1/2 a final and a presentation thursday. (our greek final is split between tues and thurs)...it's going to be a fun week

*the italy pics are all posted now*

13 days til i get home

Italy

Rome was great, despite a cold rainy start to the weekend. The highlight of my weekend was definately seeing the Sistine Chapel and the Pieta. I also saw the Colosseum and a ton of other beautiful fountains, statues, buildings, etc. I of course had some pizza and some really good pasta. I started putting some pictures up. I'll get the rest up next week. I deleted all the pictures from the beginning of the trip, so the ones from Italy should be under the first link.

Thanksgiving

Dad and Michelle got here yesterday. We haven't done too much yet b/c it's been pouring the entire time. We walked through the National Gardens, saw the Parliament Building and the tomb of the unknown soldier with the guards, and walked around some of the city.
This morning we had a ton of people over for a big Thanksgiving breakfast. It turned out really well. I got up around 7 and made pancakes for about an hour. We also had french toast, scrambled eggs, bacon, pumpkin bread, some kinda pastry type thing, and baklava (yeah, i know, it's a dessert, but who cares)Today we're going to some art museum with my Humanities class then are having Thanksgiving dinner at Aphrodite's. We'll probably go to bed early since we have to get up rediculously early to go to Rome in the morning.
I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Be back next week.

i love my church

For those of you who don't know, the Bridge is the church service for young adults I go to at Calvary Fellowship Church in Downingtown. Their band is amazing and they're playing at World Cafe Live in Philly. That's so exciting! I know most of you don't really care, but too bad =P
Go check them out
The Bridge Band
Grassroots Magazine

i come home in less than a month

just to let you all know =P

anyways,
this week has been pretty good. i got 3 tests back and did well on all of them. not that it's a big deal since my grades don't transfer back to etown. i just have to pass.
we had a roomie weekend since none of us went anywhere. friday night we went to hard rock athens and saturday night we had a little absinthe that alicia brought back from prague and played truth or dare. that was pretty funny.
saturday afternoon i went shopping. i'm glad to say i am all done my Chrismas shopping and some birthdays as well. of course if i see anything else that i just have to get someone i will. you can never get someone too many presents =)
i also did my scheduling for next semester.
Mon: 5-6:20 Honors Leadership Development
Tues: 9:30-10:20 Water Aerobics
11-12:15 Honors Neuroscience
12:30-1:45 Research in Developmental Psych
Wed: 9:30-10:45 Theories of Personality
2-3:20 Honors Thesis Prep
5-6:20 Honors Leadership Development
Thurs: 9:30-10:20 Water Aerobics
11-12:15 Honors Neuroscience
12:30-1:45 Researh in Developmental Psych
8-9:15 Percussion Ensemble
Fri: 9:30-10:45 Theories of Personality

Unfortunately, band doesn't fit into my schedule =( It's going to be a busy semester, but it should be good.
This semester has flown by. I can't believe I come home in less than a month! It's going to be a busy couple weeks.

Istanbul was Constantinople

Now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople
Been a long time gone, Constantinople
Now it's Turkish delight on a moonlit night

gotta love They Might Be Giants

Anyways, Istanbul was beautiful. I wish I'd had more time to spend their and in Turkey. All the leaves were turning colors and falling. It was gorgeous. I miss fall b/c it doesn't look like fall at all in Athens. We stayed in the old part of the city. The streets were all cobblestone (sp?). We visited the Blue Mosque which was beautiful (I'm going to use that word a lot in this entry...sorry). We also went to Haghia Sophia, another gorgeous religious building which was both Muslim and Christian. That was really interesting to see the integration of the 2 religions...and kinda weird seeing Christian symbols in a mosque.
I'm not going to lie...we did a lot of shopping instead of visiting more historical sights. I got a lot of presents for people so that was exciting. And of course, a few things for me =) I got 2 beautiful scarves and a leather jacket. Yes, I got a leather jacket (sorry all you vegetarians/animal rights people). Selena talked me into it. She got one and a fur coat and I was like I really don't do leather or fur. And she was all happy and excited and told me she's buy me one. And I was told her I wasn't letting her buy me a leather jacket so she told me to just try one on. And I was finally like fine, but something simple. So I did and I loved it. And she talked to guy down to $90 which was how much she owed me for our hotel room so I told her she could buy me the jacket and I'd cover the hotel. I'm really glad I got it b/c I don't really have many warm clothes. Now I'll at least have a coat. Let's see...what else...the people were all very friends. I was a little scared it would be like Cairo and I definately couldn't handle that 2 weekends in a row, but it wasn't.
This one guy told us this joke they have about Americans. He goes "What's the difference between Americans and yogurt?" And we're pretty confused and he's like "yogurt has more culture" so we were a little indignant and stuff, then as we're laying in bed watching MTV Europe every night for about 4 hours we just look at each other and go "yogurt" it was kinda funny. It got dark early so we went back to the room and watched MTV to try to catch up a little on what's going on. Of course it was MTV Europe so they had some really weird commercials and stuff. But we got to see the MTV Europe music awards and if we have no culture, why are American bands winning most of the awards? lol.
I definately want to go back to Turkey again. I never realized how much is there. Troy is in Turkey (definately thought it was in Greece) A bunch of the churches Paul visited (Ephasus, Smyrna, Philadelphia, etc) are all in Turkey. They had a 3 day tour of the 7 churches that I would've liked to do, but we didn't have time since we had to get back for class.
It was just a great weekend and pretty relaxing.

flying back we flew over lesbos which was really awesome for me...quick history lesson...lesbos is the home of sappho, the first recorded female poet. it is also where the word lesbian came from b/c sappho was supposedly a lesbian

walk like an egyptian

this weekend was insane.
first of all, it was the end of ramadan so everyone was celebrating, the streets were full of people, etc.
we got to our hotel in cairo around 4am friday morning, slept til around 10, then went to the national museum. we saw all kinds of stuff from the pyramids. we saw the mummy of Ramses the Great, all the King Tut stuff...including his underwear and condom (yes, they had condoms thousands of years ago) anyways, the museum was pretty cool. we stayed there for about 4 hours, then took a nap. on our way back from the museum, we had these girls come up to us and point at our chests...i guess b/c our shirts were too low cut (and we were dressed pretty conservatively) so the rest of the weekend we wore sweatshirts. friday night we went to pizza hut for dinner. foreigners aren't supposed to drink the water, eat fruits and vegetables, etc. there b/c you'll get sick. our hotel turned out to be pretty decent which i'm glad of. i was a little worried b/c it was only $8 a night for a room with a bathroom and that included breakfast.
saturday was our big day. we got up at 4:30 and went to Giza. We wanted to ride camels, but our guide said "you ride camel all day your bum hurt and you walk like an egyptian" so we got 1 camel and 2 horses and rotated. and yes, he was right. i'm still a little sore...my thighs hurt, my bum's a little sore, and my back hurts from all the jolting. running on a camel is pretty scary. i felt like i was going to fall off. especially b/c there's no stirrups on the camel. riding a horse was better. anyways, we went out to this big hill in the desert and watched the sunrise over the city and got some pretty cool pictures of the pyramids, then went to the pyramids and went inside the biggest one. that was about a 4-4 1/2 hour trip. then we drove through memphis and went to the saggara step pyramids and a couple tombs. we took a nap in the afternoon, then went on a nile river dinner cruise. the food was delicious and then there were dancers. it was a lot of fun. sunday we didn't do much, mostly b/c we ran out of money and were exhausted. we slept in, then laid around and read. we went to the hard rock cafe for dinner and ended up staying there for 4 hours. on the door of the bathroom stalls was a sign that said "no drugs or nuclear weapons" it was pretty funny. (i have a picture) on the way back to our hotel we had this one guy say "you want for husband...i give you 200 camels and maybe even a horse" we all burst out laughing as soon as we passed him.
all 3 of us ended up getting diarhea. that was fun. sunday afternoon i got sick, then alicia started getting sick sunday night, and amanda got sick yesterday. i had it the worst b/c we ran out of toilet paper at our hotel, so we stole some from hard rock, then at the airport you had to tip the attendant to get toilet paper so i was trying so hard not to.
anyways, it was a good weekend, and i got some great pics =)

why every girl needs a little black dress...

b/c you just may randomly get free tickets to some expensive benefit concert which a bunch of very important people (like diplomats, ambassadors, presidents of big non-profit groups, etc) are attending.
it was a benefit jazz concert sponsored by the Athends Friends of Habitat for Humanity group and their women's rights group. The 1st half was awful. My high school jazz band was better than the 1st group that played. The lead guy played decent sax, the drummer had no rhythm and the bass player was ok. But then the lead guy sang. Capital OXI! (oxi=ohi=no) he was really bad. Then this chick came out with a pianist to sing. DO NOT SING JAZZ OPERATICALLY (yeah, i dunno if that's really a word) she was horrific. Then she tried to dance and tripped and almost fell into the drumset. It was almost comical.
After intermission, the bass player came out to set up his bass and I was like thank God it's someone not white. Maybe we'll get some good jazz now. And we did. It was amazing, wonderful, etc. After that group, they set up 2 grand pianos and i got really excited. These 2 guys did some improv on Autumn Leaves, Rhapsody in Blue, Summertime and another one i didn't know. I was in heaven. It was absolutely delightful. Great night.

I still can't believe I'm going to Egypt in 12 hours. That's insane! (mom and dad, I'll call Sunday night probably...I think we get back around 3 or 4am so it'll be at night)

more random stuff

toga party pictures are posted so go check those out.

stuff i forgot about my weekend:
i saw my 1st plate breaking at the party we were at thursday night. it was funny. they started out just throwing plastic plates that cracked, then someone threw a real plate. amanda and i were going insane b/c we wanted to clean up the mess.

last night our room had a collective mental breakdown. i threw my greek book & workbook & notebook across the room we all screamed. we played with fire and candles. courtney was trying different therapy methods on me. i was like i need therapy for a freaking greek class. it was pretty amusing.

i'm going on a last minute trip to egypt this weekend. alicia found cheap plane tickets and a cheap hotel/hostel room so we're off to egypt thursday night =)


current travel plans for the rest of the semester:
Nov. 4-6: Egypt
Nov. 11-14: Istanbul
Dec. 13-14: Amsterdam
Dec. 14-18: Paris
Dec. 18: HOME!

thursday night: aphrodite made us dinner. it was delicious. then we went to my rommie's bf(?)'s name day party (a lot of greeks are named after a saint and celebrate their name day). that was fun. his friends danced for us and showed us traditional greek dancing. we ended up staying til about 3am even though courtney and i had wanted to leave by 2 at the latest b/c we were really tired.

friday was oxi (ohi) day. it's kinda like our 4th of july. we thought there was going to be a big parade and stuff but apparently the big celebration is in thessoloniki so i just went to the beach all day. it was gorgeous. i think it was in the 80s. the water was cold, but it felt quite refreshing after laying in the sun. friday night we lost our electricity, but amanda, courtney and i were going to bed anyways so it wasn't a big deal. we all brought blankets and pillows into the living room and had a little sleepover. it was cute. we started telling a scary story each of us doing a line at a time...it was pretty funny.

saturday the temperature dropped about 20 degrees. it's now cold. and by cold i mean 60s. lol. saturday night was our toga party. that was a lot of fun. i'll have pics up soon.

other random stuff:
i don't like that they sell porn on the street, just hanging up or sitting on a shelf at the kiosks. some things, i'd rather not see.
courtney and i found a ninja kiosk down at the port the other day. there was a case of knives and throwing stars.
i got plane tickets for istanbul today!
my dad and sister are coming for thanksgiving!!!!!
i'm going to go buy knitting needles and yarn today. i'm excited =)
*edit* the yarn store is closed so i'll have to get knitting stuff tomorrow =(

Relaxation

This weekend was wonderful. Friday morning, Courtney and I got up around 7, went to the produce market a few blocks from our apartment. It was great. I got 3 potatoes, a lemon, an onion, and garlic for 1 euro! Definately going back there on Fridays to buy my produce. Then we went back to bed for a while, and went shopping all afternoon. We found a yarn store near school that has knitting classes on Saturdays, so we might check that out one weekend. Friday night we went to TGI Fridays. It was amazing. It was so good to have American food! I had steak and cheddar mashed potatoes and a strawberry daiquiri. mmmm...yummy!
Saturday we slept in, studied/did some homework (we had a Greek quiz today) and did pretty much nothing. Sunday, we got up at 7 and went to a flea market, but it was all random junk, so we came back and took a nap. Did some more studying/homework. Got some kahlua and icecream to try to make mudslides. They didn't turn out quite as well as we had hoped. Oh well. We ended up only drinking about half of our drink and dumping the rest. Maybe next time it'll be better. And I think we need to not let our wine sit in the regridgerator so long. It gets pretty bad after a while. (we only have wine maybe once or twice a week, so it lasts forever) Sunday night we got a phone call around 3am from one of our roommates who was away. Thankfully it woke Courtney up b/c I didn't hear it. She said it was an emergency and she needed a phone # and she'd call back in a few minutes b/c her phone card was almost out of minutes. So we're really worried that something terrible happaned. After about 10-15 minutes, Courtney goes downstairs to the front desk to get the phone # b/c they have caller ID i think, but right then she called back. Apparently she had lost her aunt's phone # who she was meeting in Rome today. Definately not an EMERGENCY. We were pretty annoyed that she had woken us up at 3am and told us it was an emergency when all she needed was a phone #. Yesterday we again got up at 7 and went to the port to look for some more markets, but didn't find much so we were disapointed b/c there was supposed to be 4 there, and one of them was supposed to be an artistan's market which would've been cool. Oh well. Took another nap, studies, read, went grocery shopping...nothing exciting. Today we had our quiz. It was really hard, but I think I passed and that's all I need to do.
I'm putting up some more pictures, so go check that out.
I think I have all my travel plans pretty much set. The 1st weekend in November I'm going to Cairo, Egypt. The weekend after that I'm going to Istanbul. The weekend of Thanksgiving, dad and Michelle are coming! Hopefully we can go to Italy that weekend. Then, at the end of the semester, Courtney and I are going to fly to Paris Dec. 13 take the train to Amsterdam, stay there for a night, then stay in Paris until the 18. We're really excited now that we have definate plans!

looking forward to the weekend.

2 of my roommates are going away, so courtney and i have the apartment to ourselves! tomorrow we're going to this open air market to get fresh fruits and veggies, then we're going shopping...she wants boots and a scarf (scarves are the big fashion trend here, but i've always loved them...and by always i mean since last year) and i want to get new heels b/c mine broke, a belt, and another scarf. then we're going to TGI Fridays for a nice American meal. she's probably going to cut my hair (i'm a little nervous about that...lol) and we're going to RELAX! it's going to be fantabulous =) we may or may not go out. apparently the guy who owns our hotel, mario, invited us to go out with him. he's such a sweetheart. he's like our big brother. he's always telling us where good places to go are and warning us about greek men and making sure we're dressed warmly enough when we go out at night. so we might do that.
yesterday i made pancakes and bacon for breakfast and it was so yummy. it made me very happy. lol. a box of pancake mix is like 3or 4 euros, and it's not even a big box of pancake mix, there's 3 little packets of mix that make about 6 pancakes. i was quite disappointed, but it was still delicious. i really miss having lots of dishes and nonstick pans and various other kitchen equipment. we have one frying pan, that's not a nonstick pan and 2 pots. and there's nothing really to flip stuff with. it makes cooking quite an adventure. after that i laid around all afternoon and read a book (yes, an entire book) it was a kind of weird book called the Eyre Affair, so now I want to go read Jane Eyre.
anyways, that's the plan.

my week

let's see...
wednesday night a bunch of us went to see the russian superstars gala ballet. that was beautiful, amazing, greatly enjoyable, etc. it was a medley of a whole bunch of different ballets...don quixote, romeo & juliet, a chopin number, a japanese #, sparicus, and a bunch of others. i loved it.
friday we went to theatre of epidaurus, napfthlion (sp?) the 1st capital of greece after they overcame turkish occupation, and mycenea (not sure what exactly that was) it was fun, but everything just looks the same to me now.
friday was also courtney's birthday so we went out for a late dinner. that was nice.
saturday we just relaxed all day. sunday we went to aphrodite's beach house. it was good to see another side of her. she made us 2 really delicious meals and we laid on the beach for the afternoon.
i think that's about it for me for now. we're planning a trip to cairo and a trip to istanbul for the 1st 2 weekends in nov. so we'll see how that works out.

Santorini

so umm how's the weather in PA? cuz i just spent the weekend on an island in the mediterranean it was amazing. i didn't get any sleep, but it was definately worth it. we left around 5:30. it's about 45 min to the port, then an 8 hour ferry ride to santorini. i sat up on deck the first half and it was freezing and i was trying to sleep on this little bench which didn't really work. after lunch i went in and slept a little. friday afternoon was spent on the beach. then a couple of us went out to this really nice restaurant on the beach. i had veal in this santorini wine sauce...it was delicious! and we had a bottle of local wine which was good too. then our waiter gave us all free shots of ouzo before we left (i'm definately bringing a bottle or 2 home for you guys) saturday morning we spent at the beach again then went shopping in this touristy town, fira, that has the most amazing jewelry ever. if anyone ever wants to propose to me, tell him to go to santorini to get the engagement ring =P. we then went to the western-most point of the island, oia, for sunset b/c it's supposed to be one of the best sunset locations, but the horizon was pretty cloudy so it wasn't as spectacular as hoped for. after that we went back to fira for dinner then went to happy hour at one of the clubs then one of the other girls went to this jazz club, which was no longer playing jazz. but they were playing salsa music which i really like too, so it was still fun. i met this british guy who works for a publishing company and ended up talking to him for the rest of the night about books and music so that was cool. we went back to the hotel around 4. then 3 of us decided to go sleep on the beach and watch the sunrise so we brought a ton of blankets b/c it got kinda cold at night. then i decided to go swimming so 2 of us went for a nice early morning swim around 4:30/5am in the mediterranean. the water was really warm, but we were afraid to go out too far b/c it was really really dark. lol. good times. we got about 45 min of sleep then watched the sunrise and went back to the hotel and slept for a few hours, then went to the beach and back to the port for another 8 hour ferry ride.
so that was my weekend. tomorrow night, some of us are going to see the russian superstars ballet. that should be good.
i have a ton of pictures from this weekend that may or may not all get up today. we'll see.
you all are slacking on the whole sending mail thing! i think i'm the only one who hasn't gotten any =(

classes

I started classes this week.
Learning Greek is ridiculously difficult.
International Studies seems like it will be ok. The guy explains things very well and simply which is good since I know absolutely nothing about anything that goes on in the world/politics/economics/etc. I have my Humanities class in about 1/2 hour so hopefully that will go well too.
Tomorrow morning we're leaving at 5:30 am for Santorini so I'm sure I'll have a bunch of amazing pictures to put up next week.
I'm starting to get information about Ireland. I think it's going to be a little under $4000. They need a deposit in December so I'll have to think about that and see if it's going to be doable.
That's about it for me. Be back next week!

Meteora

Friday and Saturday we went to Meteora, which is these big cliffs jutting out of the land that have monastaries at them top. The 1st monastary we went to was on this one point and there was another one in front of it was a big valley in between and there were these wires between the 2 cliffs and Aphrodite told us we had to walk across the wires and me and Allison were freaking out b/c we're scared of heights and the wires were kinda rusty, but she was just kidding. The monastaries were nice, but I felt kind of bad being there. Those men go there to get away from the world and focus on God, then there's all these tourists all over. It seems kind of disrespectful, but I guess they help support themselves with money from the tourists. I didn't really do anything yesterday. My roommates and I just sat around. We were going to go to an island, but the weather was supposed to be bad so I didn't go. Today I'm staying here in the computer lab all afternoon to catch up on email and upload more pictures.
I got my schedule all messed up, so here's my real schedule:
Tuesday: 10:30-12 - Modern Greek
4-7 - Intro to International Studies
Thursday: 10:30-12 - Modern Greek
1-4 - Intro to Humanities
I think Amanda, Natalie, and I are going to join a gym. It's only E80 for the whole semester and they have a bunch of classes that look good.
I started doing laundry today in the bathtub. (That's why there are clothes all over my bed in the pic of the room) It costs E12 to do a load of laundry at the laundry mat. They do everything for you, but still...that's so expensive! I figure I'll do it in the bathtub every other time and go to the laundry mat every other time.
I don't really have much else to say. This weekend I think almost all of us are going to Santorini so that'll be fun.