So, on Saturday, Jeff was having a birthday party, starting at 2. He said, "meet to play soccer at to, and dinner at 7," so for some reason I thought that it was going to be the entire time from 2 til after dinner... Anyway, because of that, and the lack of homework Amy and I did on Friday, we studied quite a bit in the morning on Saturday. Amy had even more homework than I did, plus, she has classes Monday, so she was going to come up to American a little later, after she had gone to one of the Cupcake places in Georgetown, to get him one. They are a really popular thing out here. Georgetown Cupcake is the most popular, and they even have a TV show about them, so the lines are always super long there! Like a block or two long! Anyway, there is another one that just opened called Sprinkles, and a little older one that is even further from Georgetown called Baked and Wired (because they serve coffee too). Anyway, in anticipating the long day of hanging out with Jeffs friends, got a grab and go box from the lunch room and filled it with baked goods, so everyone could have some food before dinner. Jeff had mentioned something about hanging out in the Katzen Arts center after people were tired of playing soccer. At 2, I brought his soccer ball that is in my room, over to the Library to meet him. There were 4 other people there when I arrived, and we headed down to the Soccer field to see if anyone was there. There were people practicing, and technically it is only for Varsity sports, but Jeff still tries to go there. Anyway, we then walked over a ways down Massachusetts Avenue and went to this other field, but it was also being used. We then went to the Quad and found a rectangular patch of grass. Some more people met us there, and we had 3 on 4 most of the time. It was really fun, and I wished that I could play more, but I didn't even have my soccer shoes on. Eventually everyone got tired and left, except for Jeff and I, so we just kicked it around a bit. After that, my feet were sufficiently tired so I had to stop. I then met Amy not long after, just after everyone had left... She had a cupcake, and a little of her homework and was wearing her cowboy boots that she got from her Aunt. She looked mighty-fine, for all of you that care, but the boots had given her rub spots, since she didn't have long enough socks. We ate some cookies and scones in Ward, and then headed over to the library. I then went back to my room, grabbed some homework and socks, and dropped off the Catch Phrase that she had brought to play in Katzen with everyone. We studied for 2 hours, which seemed to fly by, and then got waited for the shuttle to go to dinner.
I saw several of the people I recognized from soccer, and two more of Jeff's friends that are girls on the shuttle. We rode to Tenleytown and met up with everyone else. There were 10 of us in total, I think, and we all walked up Wisconsin Ave to a Japanese restaurant. There was a sushi happy hour, with sushi for only 1 dollar per piece, so many of them stocked up... I didn't however, and scavenged through the menu trying to find something that involved cooked meat. Amy and I shared some beef teriyaki, which was very excellent, but it seemed smaller that what everyone else had ordered... At least it was cooked! Anyway, our dish came about 10 minutes later than everyone else's, so Jeff and JT were having a not eating their food and waiting for us contest. Jeff won:) Anyway, it was a great meal overall, and they were some nice people to be around. Amy and I sat on the side of "Becky" and Yuan (pronounced UN as if slurred), both girls, and we enjoyed talking to them. It turns out that JT had family from Butte originally, so he had been there before. There was also Tory (not sure how its spelled) from Hawaii, but he spoke Japanese. It was a good dinner, and we even tried a bit of the native Japanese food, including some "sweet potato noodles" as UN called them. They did taste a little potato-y, but it might be different than ours. They were see-through and reminded me a little of lutefisk. He opened some of his presents and got several soccer things, a jersey and mini ball, and Amy's cupcake, and I gave him some magnets, but he didn't open them until he got home, so we couldn't watch. There is a tradition in China that on your birthday you are supposed to eat noodles for a "long" life:) Also egg, which symbolizes birth. After dinner, we took a long time figuring out the bill, and then walked back to the bus stop.
On Sunday, both Amy and I had things to do at Church. I read a scripture and Amy did a monologue. She did really good, and everyone was impressed. It was an adaption of the Lady at the well story and she was portraying the lady. I just read, which isn't special really, but I did get up there and do something. After church, we went to American and ate lunch and then I got read for my concert. I was supposed to be there at 2, so I got my Tux on at about 1:30. I dropped off my little video camera with Amy, and her ticket and then headed over to the Arts Center. We warmed up a little and then got off the stage so people could come in to the Recital hall. I found Amy just to tell her that I saw a sign that said no recording:( So, no one will be able to see me. It sounded really good in the recital hall, I think, but we really messed up on one song!
Afterwards, we went back to my room, I gave her my scooter, and she scootered home. We planned that we were going to be very on task, and she had to be, so that she could finish her book by Monday! I was thinking how nice it was to accomplish so much homework and I thought that I could be more productive more often, by not checking facebook just because my laptop is there, and not just browsing the internet. Anyway, both today and yesterday, I have gotten a Lot done. I have nearly finished all of my homework due before Friday, which is totally not fair, because Amy has much more homework than I, but still. I also got out of bed at 8 and went for a 2 mile run in the Fitness center and am getting up tomorrow to to the same, except at 7, because I have classes at 8:30.
That is all for now.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Friday, March 25, 2011
Another 2 weeks
Last week, I got home and then worked for a long time on all of my homework and music things. I started to study for my tests the following week, mostly making study guides for a long time. On Friday, I went down to Georgetown, and we watched Tron:Legacy. It was an interesting movie, and kinda funny. It had some parts like in the movie Gladiator, except it was digital, so when the people or "programs" died, they just shattered into pixels. It was kinda gun, but not a very complex movie. On Saturday, Amy came up to American in the evening, we studied for a while, and then went to eat dinner with Jeff, so they could meet. I swiped them all in to TDR, and we had a good dinner(I over ate as usual). We talked about movies and China/Japan, where he is from. We also talked about his birthday party that is coming up
At church on Sunday, Ed Gleazer gave a speech he had been preparing on aging. IT was pretty interesting sermon, and I liked it a lot. I even have an audio recording if anyone wants it, just send me an email at tv1076a@student.american.edu and I'll send it to you.
On Monday, I practiced my instrument more and did a lot of Homework/studying, and played soccer a bit.
On Tuesday, I took my Physics test (I think I did pretty well) and then studied for the Business one. After calculus and History, Amy texted me about the weather. She said it was really nice, but I insisted that it was cold. She was like< "You need to go out the other side of the building." I then reassured her that it was cold even in the sun, because I thought she thought I was in the shadows. Then, I went over to get a grab and go, and as I was almost back to my dorm, she jumped on my back. I didn't see it coming at all, but it was really nice to see her. Since it was a nice day and she was caught up with her work, she got some exercise and scootered up to American to see me for an hour before she had to go back to Georgetown for ASK at 4. Amy then went to this debate between the PETA president and the Georgetown Debate team about the question, is eating meat ethical. It sounded pretty interesting!
On Wednesday, I took a business test, read a bit for Physics, now we are covering electricity and current/voltage/resistance... etc, and then went to Calculus. I scootered down to Georgetown after that and went to Chi Alpha and something else that I'm forgetting...
On Thursday, I did some homework in the library and then went over to Jeff's apartment for lunch. Lab was canceled today, because we had a test this week. He had something on the stove boiling, and was talking to his mom on Skype. Then, I noticed a smell of smoke and went over to the stove, but by that time it was too late. He was making some spaghetti for us, but the noodles were too burnt! I cleaned out the pan for him with a lot of scrubbing, and he then made some of the dumplings his aunt had given him. He left them in some water after they were cooked and them poured some soup mix on top, or maybe it was just seasoning. It had some flavorings and some seaweed and some very tiny shrimp in it. They were so small, only about 1/8th of an inch thick, and about 3/8ths on an inch long. I have already gotten used to seaweed, so it tasted pretty good:) Then, we played soccer for a while. Oh, and my computer was not connecting to the internet, or getting updates, or allowing other programs such as google earth to access the internet, so I took it to the help place, and a nice old Japanese guy helped me. I could have done most of it it seemed if I had only known what to try, but anyway, he reinstalled the internet access program for American University and then I ran Malwarebytes and it finally got rid of the block, so I can use google earth, and download DirectX for Skype:) In the afternoon, I went to the Arts building and worked for the Choir manager to fulfill my hours required to get full credit for Choir. Then I practiced my french horn one last time before the concert, which is this Sunday.
Today, I went to my first two classes, and then took my last test for the week, a European History one, covering the Spanish/Portuguese exploration, and also the English religious reformation starting with Henry VIII and then all the way through Charles I. I then went down to Georgetown, and studied in the library, while I ate another grab and go that I had brought with me. Then, this janitor rolled up a trash barrel to right next to my chair, and Amy pointed to it, suggesting I should throw away the trash from my meal. I did. Then, a little later, a man wheeled it over to another one and threw out the trash I had put in there. A minute later, a woman retrieved a roll of toilet paper from the trash can. It was a janitor supply thing I guess:S We felt embarrassed. Later, we watched the first half of SPaceballs in the ICC and then went to an Indian dance. They tried to teach us, but we couldn't last for too long, because the large amounts of spinning made us quite dizzy. They had some really good appetizers that were potatoes with what-seemed-hot to-us-spices wrapped in a kind of pie crust type thing. It was really good. Amy also got a henna tattoo, but after we took off the die, it was very faint. A henna tattoo is one that they make by squeezing die from a tube onto your skin and then letting it dry. After it dries, you take off the build up and are left with died skin, but this die was a little less potent than some I guess. After the dance, we finished Spaceballs and then I came home, talking to the Nilsens and my family a bit on my scooter ride back.
Too late to think any more... Good night!
At church on Sunday, Ed Gleazer gave a speech he had been preparing on aging. IT was pretty interesting sermon, and I liked it a lot. I even have an audio recording if anyone wants it, just send me an email at tv1076a@student.american.edu and I'll send it to you.
On Monday, I practiced my instrument more and did a lot of Homework/studying, and played soccer a bit.
On Tuesday, I took my Physics test (I think I did pretty well) and then studied for the Business one. After calculus and History, Amy texted me about the weather. She said it was really nice, but I insisted that it was cold. She was like< "You need to go out the other side of the building." I then reassured her that it was cold even in the sun, because I thought she thought I was in the shadows. Then, I went over to get a grab and go, and as I was almost back to my dorm, she jumped on my back. I didn't see it coming at all, but it was really nice to see her. Since it was a nice day and she was caught up with her work, she got some exercise and scootered up to American to see me for an hour before she had to go back to Georgetown for ASK at 4. Amy then went to this debate between the PETA president and the Georgetown Debate team about the question, is eating meat ethical. It sounded pretty interesting!
On Wednesday, I took a business test, read a bit for Physics, now we are covering electricity and current/voltage/resistance... etc, and then went to Calculus. I scootered down to Georgetown after that and went to Chi Alpha and something else that I'm forgetting...
On Thursday, I did some homework in the library and then went over to Jeff's apartment for lunch. Lab was canceled today, because we had a test this week. He had something on the stove boiling, and was talking to his mom on Skype. Then, I noticed a smell of smoke and went over to the stove, but by that time it was too late. He was making some spaghetti for us, but the noodles were too burnt! I cleaned out the pan for him with a lot of scrubbing, and he then made some of the dumplings his aunt had given him. He left them in some water after they were cooked and them poured some soup mix on top, or maybe it was just seasoning. It had some flavorings and some seaweed and some very tiny shrimp in it. They were so small, only about 1/8th of an inch thick, and about 3/8ths on an inch long. I have already gotten used to seaweed, so it tasted pretty good:) Then, we played soccer for a while. Oh, and my computer was not connecting to the internet, or getting updates, or allowing other programs such as google earth to access the internet, so I took it to the help place, and a nice old Japanese guy helped me. I could have done most of it it seemed if I had only known what to try, but anyway, he reinstalled the internet access program for American University and then I ran Malwarebytes and it finally got rid of the block, so I can use google earth, and download DirectX for Skype:) In the afternoon, I went to the Arts building and worked for the Choir manager to fulfill my hours required to get full credit for Choir. Then I practiced my french horn one last time before the concert, which is this Sunday.
Today, I went to my first two classes, and then took my last test for the week, a European History one, covering the Spanish/Portuguese exploration, and also the English religious reformation starting with Henry VIII and then all the way through Charles I. I then went down to Georgetown, and studied in the library, while I ate another grab and go that I had brought with me. Then, this janitor rolled up a trash barrel to right next to my chair, and Amy pointed to it, suggesting I should throw away the trash from my meal. I did. Then, a little later, a man wheeled it over to another one and threw out the trash I had put in there. A minute later, a woman retrieved a roll of toilet paper from the trash can. It was a janitor supply thing I guess:S We felt embarrassed. Later, we watched the first half of SPaceballs in the ICC and then went to an Indian dance. They tried to teach us, but we couldn't last for too long, because the large amounts of spinning made us quite dizzy. They had some really good appetizers that were potatoes with what-seemed-hot to-us-spices wrapped in a kind of pie crust type thing. It was really good. Amy also got a henna tattoo, but after we took off the die, it was very faint. A henna tattoo is one that they make by squeezing die from a tube onto your skin and then letting it dry. After it dries, you take off the build up and are left with died skin, but this die was a little less potent than some I guess. After the dance, we finished Spaceballs and then I came home, talking to the Nilsens and my family a bit on my scooter ride back.
Too late to think any more... Good night!
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
The Beach and more!
So, for fear of getting even further behind, I will do a quickish sum of the things that I haven't posted yet. Amy and I were woken up fairly early by children noises since I woke up and then the girls came in Spencer's room where I was, and then they wrestled with me on the bed, squealing and all and woke up Amy, who was in the living room. We then played with them a while and Spencer left for school at 9, so we watched the kids while Terra drove him to school. After Terra got home, she printed off some directions so we could drive to Virginia beach. Then she offered us her GPS, and we were on our way. IT was a lot easier to get there with the GPS, and on our way home, all we had to do was hit home, and it calculated the directions back to Terra's house. We found some parking and then walked a ways to get to the beach. It was a pretty nice beach, but was pretty cold, though not unbearable. There were hotels lining the ocean front for more than a mile, and we walked more than a half of a mile down the coast, near the water towards a dock. We went a tiny bit into the water, just enough to get our feet wet, and that was enough, since it was really cold water. The sand was nice and we saw some cool little black things and some shells. It was a great walk along the beach. We made a little sculpture in the sand and talked a long time. Once we finally got to the dock, we realized that it was only some tourist thing and was private property, so we couldn't even walk out on it. Oh well. We then had a nice long walk back towards the car. Then, we went over to the McDonalds and got a little food to go along with the oranges Terra gave us and my birthday candy I had brought. We read in the car, since we knew that there would be little time for it after we got back to the Drakes house. We then drove back and played with the Girls some more. We drew some more pictures on the Sidewalk and bounced on the trampoline some more. While the children were getting ready for bed, Zach flosses each of them. We thought this was interesting, but it made sense since he is a dentist after all. After the children had gone to sleep, Amy and I watched How to Train Your Dragon. It was a pretty good and interestingly animated movie, so we were glad that we watched it.
On Wednesday, we got ready to leave and packed our things. We said good bye and drove the 3 hours back to Charlottesville. After we got home we just did some homework and went to bed early, since we were tired from getting up early 2 times with the children.
On Thursday, we went to Monticello, or most of the way anyway. First we looked up the directions on Google earth and loaded all of the necessary landscape and then brought the laptop just in case we got lost. It is in the mountains a little ways away, and the road getting up to it was pretty wine-dy, not windy, because that just looks like a weather term. We got up there and then went to the visitor center, because we didn't know what was going on. Apparently it costs $17 to get in, and we didn't really want to see it that badly, so we just did what you could for free. We watched the informational Video about Thomas Jefferson and Monticello, and then went to the museum. There were lots of cool models of his house, the first one, and then his second remodeled one. There were several neat contraptions that were in it, and there were some especially interesting double doors that were attached under the floor to each other in such a way that when you opened one door, the other would open also. IT was really cool and made me wish I had come up with something like that. After we had finished looking through the museum, we went back outside and noticed that it was raining really hard. We went under the overhang to as close as we could get to the parking lot, and then, after having forgot where the car was exactly and having been pointed in the right direction by Amy, I ran towards the parking lot. It was actually he wrong one, and I tried to open a car that looked similar, but realized the unlock button was doing nothing for it. Then I spotted the one with flashing lights in the parking lot above the one I was in. This whole ordeal probably only took about 15 seconds, but it was raining hard enough that that had gotten me sufficiently wet. I picked up Amy and then we drove home. The windy road seemed a lot worse on the way back, since the rain was coming down so hard that we could barely see even with the windshield wipers going their fastest. I was happy to see some real rain for a change, like the big storms in Michigan, so I liked it, though it was a bit scary to drive in. Anyway, we made it back to her Aunts house safely and watched another of the Horror movies that she had gotten for Christmas. IT was still pretty cheesy, but more scary than the last one. We did some homework too, as we tried to do every day and then went to bed.
On Friday, we did homework all morning, but then in the evening went on a Date to the Old Downtown Charlottesville. It is a cool pedestrian only mall and there was a good restaurant that she had eaten at with her family previously, so she wanted to take me to it. I forget the name of it exactly, but it had noodles and dumplings. They were relatively cheap and very delicious, so we had lots of the Dumplings. I also bought some hot and sour soup, but it actually was really gross and had tofu and weird flavors in it, but since it was cheap, I didn't feel too badly about throwing it away. Amy didn't like it either by the way. After dinner, we drove back home and watched the first Harry Potter movie. It was really good, but kinda funny to watch after having watched the most recent one recently. The children in the first movie were so small compared to the last movie. Anyway, it was really funny to watch Amy get all nostalgic about it, but it was very cute all the same. She had grown up reading the books and was about the same age as the main characters, so she was really into the books and movies. It brought back old memories for her, and quite often, she would quote something before it actually happened on the movie.
On Saturday, John got to Charlottesville for his spring break, so we all went into town to get him. We then went back to the downtown area and ate a Thai place. It was really good, but quite hot. I guess that was partially because I got 3 out of 5 for spiciness. IT was really good and had some good sauce over rice noodles with chicken and shrimp. Yummy! Sorry, it is getting late, and I just want to catch up and go to bed, so... We went home and went to bed after watching a Seinfeld episode in George and Mary's room with John. It was fun to be with John. He is going to NYU for acting by the way.
On sunday, we got up early and got ready to leave. We said good bye, got on the train, and were back in DC by 2. I played soccer with Jeff for a while, and them some more kids came down to the soccer field, so we scrimmaged with them a while, and that was fun! I can't wait for the soccer to start, but I'm already quite busy... What to do?
Goodnight!
On Wednesday, we got ready to leave and packed our things. We said good bye and drove the 3 hours back to Charlottesville. After we got home we just did some homework and went to bed early, since we were tired from getting up early 2 times with the children.
On Thursday, we went to Monticello, or most of the way anyway. First we looked up the directions on Google earth and loaded all of the necessary landscape and then brought the laptop just in case we got lost. It is in the mountains a little ways away, and the road getting up to it was pretty wine-dy, not windy, because that just looks like a weather term. We got up there and then went to the visitor center, because we didn't know what was going on. Apparently it costs $17 to get in, and we didn't really want to see it that badly, so we just did what you could for free. We watched the informational Video about Thomas Jefferson and Monticello, and then went to the museum. There were lots of cool models of his house, the first one, and then his second remodeled one. There were several neat contraptions that were in it, and there were some especially interesting double doors that were attached under the floor to each other in such a way that when you opened one door, the other would open also. IT was really cool and made me wish I had come up with something like that. After we had finished looking through the museum, we went back outside and noticed that it was raining really hard. We went under the overhang to as close as we could get to the parking lot, and then, after having forgot where the car was exactly and having been pointed in the right direction by Amy, I ran towards the parking lot. It was actually he wrong one, and I tried to open a car that looked similar, but realized the unlock button was doing nothing for it. Then I spotted the one with flashing lights in the parking lot above the one I was in. This whole ordeal probably only took about 15 seconds, but it was raining hard enough that that had gotten me sufficiently wet. I picked up Amy and then we drove home. The windy road seemed a lot worse on the way back, since the rain was coming down so hard that we could barely see even with the windshield wipers going their fastest. I was happy to see some real rain for a change, like the big storms in Michigan, so I liked it, though it was a bit scary to drive in. Anyway, we made it back to her Aunts house safely and watched another of the Horror movies that she had gotten for Christmas. IT was still pretty cheesy, but more scary than the last one. We did some homework too, as we tried to do every day and then went to bed.
On Friday, we did homework all morning, but then in the evening went on a Date to the Old Downtown Charlottesville. It is a cool pedestrian only mall and there was a good restaurant that she had eaten at with her family previously, so she wanted to take me to it. I forget the name of it exactly, but it had noodles and dumplings. They were relatively cheap and very delicious, so we had lots of the Dumplings. I also bought some hot and sour soup, but it actually was really gross and had tofu and weird flavors in it, but since it was cheap, I didn't feel too badly about throwing it away. Amy didn't like it either by the way. After dinner, we drove back home and watched the first Harry Potter movie. It was really good, but kinda funny to watch after having watched the most recent one recently. The children in the first movie were so small compared to the last movie. Anyway, it was really funny to watch Amy get all nostalgic about it, but it was very cute all the same. She had grown up reading the books and was about the same age as the main characters, so she was really into the books and movies. It brought back old memories for her, and quite often, she would quote something before it actually happened on the movie.
On Saturday, John got to Charlottesville for his spring break, so we all went into town to get him. We then went back to the downtown area and ate a Thai place. It was really good, but quite hot. I guess that was partially because I got 3 out of 5 for spiciness. IT was really good and had some good sauce over rice noodles with chicken and shrimp. Yummy! Sorry, it is getting late, and I just want to catch up and go to bed, so... We went home and went to bed after watching a Seinfeld episode in George and Mary's room with John. It was fun to be with John. He is going to NYU for acting by the way.
On sunday, we got up early and got ready to leave. We said good bye, got on the train, and were back in DC by 2. I played soccer with Jeff for a while, and them some more kids came down to the soccer field, so we scrimmaged with them a while, and that was fun! I can't wait for the soccer to start, but I'm already quite busy... What to do?
Goodnight!
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Going to Norfolk
On Monday, I woke up at 7:10, and got ready. Amy and I had to get up earlyish, because we drove George into work on our way out of Charlottesville. He works in the rare books department of the University of Virginia, so he showed us some of the things that they have. He went into the vault to get some things to show us, because we were not allowed to go in the vault. He first showed us some religious text that was written before the invention of the printing press. It was published around 1450 and was all hand written on sheep or goat skin that had been pulled very tight and thin to dry, since they also didn't have paper where that text was published. There were light red lines marking the margins, and small clear text was displayed all over the pages. There were also very detailed pictures outside the margins. In some of the pictures, there was gold, thinly plastered in specific parts of the drawings/paintings. Then, he showed us one of the leafs of the original Guttenberg Bible. It was a huge page, so he said the Bible itself was also really big. I can't really remember the order of everything else he showed us, but he also showed us Shakespeare's play, King Lear, which was printed as a single work, as would have been used for a script, unlike the large collections usually printed. We also saw the original vote of succession for Virginia, it wasn't a blow out, by the way, 80 something to 50 something was the vote. Then he showed us some of Mark Twain's books. The Jumping Frog was one of them. So, apparently, Mark Twain really didn't like the French. They made a translation of his "The Jumping Frog," and then he retranslated it into English just to make fun of their crude translation. He then made a book which had the English and French versions side by side. The original text that was hand written, of the retranslated version was at the Library. They also had the only copy of Robert Frost's first publication. It was called Twilight. He had given one copy to his girl friend and had one for himself, but after a fight with his girlfriend, he ripped up his copy, so hers was the only remaining version. They also have many of Thomas Jefferson's architectural drawings and journals. He was the founder of the University, so many of his works were left to the University. We saw the architectural plans for the Rotunda, a large old building on campus. The graph paper was apparently hand made by some slaves or prisoners in Europe. We had a great time seeing all of the old things, but after he had to leave to a meeting, we left to drive to Norfolk.
The driving is a lot different where there are many cars. You just kind of get sucked with the flow, so I was speeding by 5 or 10 mph almost all the time, because everyone else was. Still though, I was only driving 75 or 80. At one point, I drove on a 6 laned interstate! We made it safely to Norfolk, after stopping at Taco Bell for my birthday:) It was a really delicious meal and I enjoyed it a lot! We then used google earth, which I had pre loaded on my computer, to get to their house. We unloaded our things and were greeted by Rachel and Anna. They are 5 year old twins and are very cute, along with everyone else in their family... We played Princess memory for a while, with the little flip over cards, and then played on the trampoline for a while. Also, when I arrived, they gave me a package that my mom had sent to their house, so I could have something to open on my Birthday. Monday was my birthday, by the way. Abigail and Adam woke up from their naps, and we played for a while outside drawing with sidewalk chalk. Abigail is 2, and can talk some, but seems pretty shy, and Adam is zero as his sisters said. Then, spencer got home from school, and we drew some more pictures on the sidewalk. Terra made me a cake, and I didn't see it until dinner, so the kids were keeping it a secret, what it was like. For dinner, we had some really good potato and bacon soup in bread bowls:) Afterwards, we did something they called Family Home Evening, where the children and Zach would lead different things and they would just be together. It was fun, and then, for one of the activities we had a birthday party for me:) We had some really delicious cake. There was a white cake with whip cream and strawberries and bananas in the three different layers. It was really good!
The Meal was Really good!
Ok, so after eating lots of cake and ice cream, I opened the box from my parents. I got some things to use with the children, like some more sidewalk chalk, and some candy and origami paper. I also got an "Are you smarter than a fifth grader" game book with an invisible ink pen and a BLUETOOTH HEADSET:) Now, I can talk while riding my scooter without a cord. I had been thinking of getting one of those for a while, so I was really glad when I got it:) After dinner, all of the little children got ready for bed, and I tried to do a little homework. Amy and I watched an NCIS episode with Terra and Zach on their computer after the kids had gone to bed. Then, I went to bed too.
Speaking of bed, I think I will head there now. I will finish my adventures tomorrow as a homework break:)
The driving is a lot different where there are many cars. You just kind of get sucked with the flow, so I was speeding by 5 or 10 mph almost all the time, because everyone else was. Still though, I was only driving 75 or 80. At one point, I drove on a 6 laned interstate! We made it safely to Norfolk, after stopping at Taco Bell for my birthday:) It was a really delicious meal and I enjoyed it a lot! We then used google earth, which I had pre loaded on my computer, to get to their house. We unloaded our things and were greeted by Rachel and Anna. They are 5 year old twins and are very cute, along with everyone else in their family... We played Princess memory for a while, with the little flip over cards, and then played on the trampoline for a while. Also, when I arrived, they gave me a package that my mom had sent to their house, so I could have something to open on my Birthday. Monday was my birthday, by the way. Abigail and Adam woke up from their naps, and we played for a while outside drawing with sidewalk chalk. Abigail is 2, and can talk some, but seems pretty shy, and Adam is zero as his sisters said. Then, spencer got home from school, and we drew some more pictures on the sidewalk. Terra made me a cake, and I didn't see it until dinner, so the kids were keeping it a secret, what it was like. For dinner, we had some really good potato and bacon soup in bread bowls:) Afterwards, we did something they called Family Home Evening, where the children and Zach would lead different things and they would just be together. It was fun, and then, for one of the activities we had a birthday party for me:) We had some really delicious cake. There was a white cake with whip cream and strawberries and bananas in the three different layers. It was really good!
The Meal was Really good!
Ok, so after eating lots of cake and ice cream, I opened the box from my parents. I got some things to use with the children, like some more sidewalk chalk, and some candy and origami paper. I also got an "Are you smarter than a fifth grader" game book with an invisible ink pen and a BLUETOOTH HEADSET:) Now, I can talk while riding my scooter without a cord. I had been thinking of getting one of those for a while, so I was really glad when I got it:) After dinner, all of the little children got ready for bed, and I tried to do a little homework. Amy and I watched an NCIS episode with Terra and Zach on their computer after the kids had gone to bed. Then, I went to bed too.
Speaking of bed, I think I will head there now. I will finish my adventures tomorrow as a homework break:)
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Catch Up!
So, as everyone knows, I have been quite busy and have not updated my blog in quite a while. Now, on spring break, I will catch up in as much time as it takes, so be prepared for a long post.
I left off on Sunday the 20th of February. The following day was Presidents day, so Amy didn't have school, and it was her birthday, so it was perfect! We did some homework in the morning at our universities, and then we met at the Safeway at Georgetown to buy some things for her birthday cake. We bought some chocolate cake and cream cheese frosting and then headed to Georgetown to study a while before meeting with some of her friends to make the cakes. We also bought some disposable cake pans, since we didn't know if there were any pans for sure at Georgetown that we could use. I gave her a coupon to go dancing again sometime, since it was recently and it would be better to plan it when she has less homework too. She also showed me the presents that she got in the mail. She got this really cool tea making set and a nice mug and some different kinds of tea. She also got some cool ear rings to wear to the Lady Gaga Concert and the tickets to the concert. She got a nice blue dress, and some baked goods also. They were little bars that seemed to have a lot of brown sugar in them and also almond Roca pieces on top. They were delicious. After attempting to get some homework done, we went over to Reynolds 8th floor to see Amy's friend Rachel. She lives on a Living well floor, so the people there don't drink or smoke, and they seem really nice. We then started to make the cake and got everything ready. We learned about K-Pop and J-Pop (Korean and Japanese Pop). Rachel is Korean, and she was getting into an argument with Joe, this other kid on their floor about which type of music was better. They showed us some funny music videos of the various types of music. We then cooled the cake a long time before frosting it and played Catch Phrase with some of the people that were in their common room. It was really fun! It was a bit fun to try to light the candles, because no one had a lighter, so I lit one on the coils in the oven. It melted the candle a lot too though, before if finally lit, but then we were able to light the other 18 candles for Amy's 19 years! We sang and then cut the cake and ate it while playing more catch phrase. It seemed like a really nice floor. We then dropped of a piece of off cake with another one of her friends that had transferred from the University of Montana. We then went to library and did homework until late, then I rode my scooter home.
The rest of the week was spent trying to do homework while looking forward to the Lady Gaga concert on Thursday. We then got all dressed up on Thursday and I went over to Georgetown and we ate a Grab-and-go for dinner. It was really good, but I was still hungry, since I hadn't had much to eat before that. I had on my black slacks, a black long-sleeved button up shirt, and a black tie with small polka-dots. Amy had on a nice black and white dress and some black leggings. The style in DC, and possibly all around now, is to just wear leggings as pants. They are essentially footless tights. Anyway, they were meant to wear under dresses or skirts, and now, almost all the girls just wear them as pants, sometimes with longs shirts. Anyway, I think that style is ridiculous. Amy had a nice dress though, so they looked great! We left Georgetown at 6:30 and took the Circulator bus that takes us right over to the Verizon center, but the traffic was really bad, so it took a long time to get there, and we were afraid that we would be late for the show that started at 8, but since we already had tickets, it was really easy to get in after we were there. We walked a little way after we got off of the bus. We saw lots of people dressed up crazily and took some pictures. We found our seats, which were in the section 111, about at mid court, close to the floor. They were great seats and we had a good view of the show. We were there a little bit early, so I looked for the bathroom and walked about half way around the entire arena, because first, I passed a women's, and then they had converted a men's to a womens, then there was one more womens, before I finally found it. I think it would have been faster to just turn around after I was half way there and to just go the other way out of the section 11 seats. It seems like it is usually just worth it to go with your gut and keep going to save time, but it was a long way out of the way this time. Then, I finally made it back to my seat. The Scissor Sisters were the opening act and they performed for probably 25 minutes. They danced all around the stage and had quite interesting outfits, although nothing compared to Lady Gaga. Amy and I had looked up some of their songs before, when we heard they were opening, because it is more fun if you know the songs already. They were energetic and fun to watch, but there was a really long wait after their performance until she finally came out.
The Curtains went down and they played some music to keep everyone entertained somewhat. After about 20 minutes, following every song would be applause, because they were hoping that she would come out after that song, but nope. They eventually lowered this large white curtain over the rich blue one, similar in appearance to the type at the Mother Lode Theater. Then, they projected pictures onto it and had some crazy music/ bass noises to get the crowd pumped up. They then went into a count down on the screen and at 0, she appeared in an outline of purple. They had taken up the big blue curtain and then shined with a bright purple light behind her to cast her shadow on the large white curtain. She was up on a platform and everyone went crazy! She then opened with some song that no one had heard, since it was just like a part of the show. The show was somewhat along a story line and had her main songs spread throughout it. There were many back up dancers and they were all over the stage. She then opened up this car that was on the stage and it had a keyboard in the hood. That was the beginning to her first main song, and it was really cool! There were many costume changes and entire set changes, which were quite the feat! The stage was huge, so the entire set changes would take a lot of effort. To do this, they would lower the large white thing and project a video, or possibly have some other act performing on the platform outside of the curtain. The first set was a staircase on one side with huge syringes as the hand rail supports. On the other side was the car, and I'm sure there is much that I am forgetting, since there was so much going on. Then next set had a jungle gym with lights on each of the rungs so they had crazy patterns of lights going all they time, while people were climbing on it. Then she and the other dancers sang and danced.
I could tell you more specifics, but it would probably be boring, so I will just note some of the crazy instruments that they had. There was an electric harp, a normal harp, this bass guitar that was crazy, a flaming piano, and an electric violin. The bass thing had a bass guitar in down the middle and then it had a keyboard sticking off one side and a synthesizer thing off the other side. It stood on the floor like a normal bass would, but she played it like a guitar. The violin was really cool too, because it looked similar to an electric guitar that has an upside down v as the base, except it was a violin. The flaming piano was the coolest though, through my eyes anyway, because first of all, it had a row of flames for its whole length. Then, halfway through the song, a whirl wind of fire rose out of it and had varying heights for the rest of the song. It was really cool! Another interesting part of the concert was when she was dressed up in this huge white dress that had moving parts. The head dress moved and somewhat flapped, along with the back of the dress. Then, it seemed like it was going to be the last song, because I thought she was giving her closing remarks, and then they put the curtains down. I was a little disappointed, because she didn't do the main song that I really wanted to hear, Bad Romance. It just has a really epic beginning and I thought it would have been THE song to do at a concert. Then, they drew up the curtains again, and she was sitting in a ginormous gyroscope type ball. It was really cool. She then did one more song, one from her new album, which comes out in May. It is called Born this Way, and is a pretty cool song.
After the Concert, Amy and I walked out of the Verizon center and attempted to get on the Circulator bus since the Georgetown shuttles wouldn't be open this late. But, just our luck, that specific circulator route wasn't running so late on a Thursday night. So, We walked around looking for a cab. We did a loop around several blacks and then thought that we might as well walk towards Georgetown so it would save a little bit on the cab fare. Oh, I forgot to mention it was raining a bit and was chilly. Anyway, we had a nice walk in the rain for 8 blocks or so and finally found a cab on 14th street. We started walking at 7th street, and had to go to about 33rd street. We then were really hungry, since we hadn't had anything to eat for a long tine and had been wandering around in the rain for a half hour or so. We went to Johnny Rockets and shared a double bacon Cheeseburger. It was very delicious and had potent onions on it, so I still could taste them the next day, even though I brushed my teeth in at night and in the morning as usual. We had a nice late snack, and saw Beth, the one from UM there with her guy friend that is transferring to George Washington University next semester. We then walked the rest of the way to Georgetown, which was probably 5 blocks, and then I rode my scooter home.
The next different/ cool thing we did was to go to the Syracuse Georgetown basketball game. The game was sold out, but the Georgetown students with season passes got an email telling them there were extra tickets available, so Amy bought me one:) It was for seat M19 in the 400 something section which was 5 rows from the top of the stadium. It was not that good of a seat, but I still wanted to go to a game, and it was a big rivalry. The students tickets are first come first served, so many of the students were waiting at the stadium overnight to get really close seats. Amy left at 9:30 am to the game at 12 with some of her friends, and was still way in the 400s like me. I saw her way down there and then went over to see her, but there was an extra seat right next to her, so I sat there and it was a lot better seat. The game was really fun too, and it was much better to be close to people that I knew, Amy, and the other girls from Chi Alpha. The Georgetown Chimes, an Acapella group sang the National Anthem, and then they did the Syracuse lineups and all of the students turned around to show a lack of interest. Then, for the Georgetown lineups, they had spotlights and loud music and the crowd went wild. It was pretty much like a College basketball game that I would watch on TV, so it was really cool. They had lots of commercial breaks for the broadcast games, so they have many random sponsored events. We saw Bill Clinton, and the Geico Caveman, and saw Jack, the bulldog (Georgetown's mascot) rip up a box that had the Syracuse mascot all over it (an Orange). Georgetown lost the game, partly because one of their star players, Chris Wright, broke his hand the game before and wasn't playing. They held in there pretty well until the end, but couldn't pull it off. They also played a really cool video: http://www.georgetown.edu/video/1242667691460.html during halftime or one of the many other breaks. Chris Wright is number 4 here with the arm thing. After the game, the Circulator bus line was really full, and we waited and waited. It took probably 5 minutes to load, and then, all of our group except Leslie and I made it on the first bus. We got on the next one that came in a little bit. The traffic was pretty bad, but we made it back eventually and met up with Amy and then got some lunch.
Later that evening, we went to this thing called Pizza Theology, which doesn't discuss the theology of pizza, but rather we talked about the history of the Bible while eating pizza. IT was really interesting and we learned a history of the compilation of the Bible, and also about the other books that didn't make it in. We also talked about the time frames in each section of the Bible and I thought I learned quite a bit. It isn't something that is every week or anything, but they will do it one more time this semester. It was put on by the same people that do Chi Alpha. John led the discussion and had prepared a little class for us.
On Sunday, Amy didn't come to church, because she had too much homework, but I went for a while. Afterward, I talked with Brian, a deacon, for a while about science and such. He is an electrical engineer and originally had a degree in Math and a minor in Physics. He told me a lot about his work, and we talked for a long time. After church, someone there had an HP slate. I looked at it and thought that it was better than an Ipad. It is about the same size, but not quite as stylish. It has bigger processors and is essentially a netbook in a tablet form. After church, I was planning to go to dinner with Amy and Beth, because Beth was planning a Montanan brunch, but on Saturday night I found out it was only for Georgetown Montanans, so I couldn't go, but I think it was good, because it was just Girls that way. Amy and I met later in the evening at a park down by Safeway on Wisconsin Avenue. It is a nice park, and she had planned out a little date. We sat there and talked for a while, and it was really nice. The park is on a Hill and right next to a library. After that, we walked up to Safeway and bought a couple of doughnuts, which were excellent! They are pretty cheap too, so it is perfect.
On Monday, I signed up for soccer in the spring and also practiced my French Horn and choir stuff for a long time in the evening. Then, as I was practicing a difficult part, I though, "I really hope we go over this at sectionals... Oh Shoot! Sectionals are on Monday, and today is Monday, I hope I'm not late!" Then I hurried over to the room where it was held and I was only 5 minutes late and they hadn't started yet, phewf! My voice was already pretty tired from the practicing, but the rehearsal was fast, since the men know their parts mostly, and We were out of there by 9!
On Tuesday, I saw the American Idol recruiting bus in the Quad and they had a little booth. I didn't sign up, but I saw several people talking to the man that I heard ask, "So what do you do?" The other main thing I did on Tuesday besides all my classes was to go to the housing session in the early afternoon. There is a lottery and I had number 205 out of 2000, so I was pretty lucky and got my request in first. I looked up the floor plans of the buildings and found some large triple rooms in Roper Hall. I then got in line finally after waiting in the sunny hot room with lots of people, and he asked me where I wanted to live, and I said Roper room whatever, and he told me that was Freshman only housing... Dang! He told me that the only triple rooms for returning students were in McDowell, so I said I would go there. They then showed me where to go, and I talked to the people at a table about which room I would like. There was one triple on each McDowell floor, and most of them were taken except the terrace and the 6th and 7th floors. I choose the Terrace, since it has been pretty handy to not have to go up the elevator or stairs often. It turns out that my room is the biggest in the whole building at 203 square feet as opposed to the 185 that my current room is. I don't yet know who my roommates will be, but I will find out when they officially post the results of the housing.
On Wednesday, I went to Georgetown to study and to go to Chi Alpha. We ate a grab and go and had some delicious oranges! They were especially good, so Amy got several of them. We studied for a long time and then got a pepperoni and meatball sub sandwich from Subway before we went to Chi Alpha.
Thursday was rather uneventful for me, but I met with Jeff in the afternoon, and we worked for a long time. I helped him with his homework, since he had a final and paper that he was working on for a long time all week. I ate lunch with him and his friend Becky after our lab in the morning. We talked about politics/government in China and Japan, and we talked about the currency/ exchange rates, since I am thinking about going to China with him next summer. The exchange rate as of now is in my favor, since food costs about $2.5 on average for a meal, and all of the subway costs are less than a dollar wherever you go. The plane ticket is really expensive though.
On Friday, I worked on homework and packed for the short time that I was there. I also got a package from Home for my birthday, and they sent a lot of baked goods which are very delicious. Also a couple of presents, one of which was some spices, so I can cook better in the dorm:) After class, I hurried and got on the shuttle to go to Union Station to catch the train to Charlottesville. Amy was there when I got there, but we were early, so we waited in the food court and ate some of the cookies my family sent and also some delicious and unhealthy french fries with cheese, sour cream, bacon, and green onions on them. We then waited in the designated area until our train arrived, and then we went out and got on. The train was pretty dirty, but it was cool none the less. The seats were comfy and they had power outlets next to each seat. We arrived just on time at 7:20 and found Mary and George who came into town to get us. We then went to a restaurant that had somewhat unique yet very excellent food. I had Chicken Dumplings that were in a Dutch Oven, and Amy had Toads in a Hole, which were eggs cooked into a hole in some toast. We then had some very good ice cream sandwiches that were made with home made ice cream and cookies. One was a cranberry cookie similar to oatmeal raisin cookies, and it was filled with black raspberry ice cream! So delicious! Another fun part about the restaurant were the people. Our waiter had long gray hair in a pony tail and a big mustache. He had quite a charismatic attitude and was always joking with us. There was also a man behind the scenes that we would have been scared to meet. He let out a big yell of, "Up!" whenever the next order was ready, and the waiters always hurried back there as fast as they could to get the food and bring it to the customers. We then rode back to their house and listened to the last part of the Whitehall basketball game. They lost to the best team, but they put up a good fight. Then we went to bed early for the first time in about 2 months.
On Saturday, I woke up pretty early, but it didn't matter since I went to bed at 10:30:) We went into Charlottesville with Mary and she dropped us off at the Hair Cuttery while she went to some meetings. Apparently my "scalp is severely inflamed and that is why I have acne. I should really buy their shampoo, because it helps to sooth the scalp, and... it is 4 dollars or so cheaper than if I went down the road to buy it." Don't worry, I didn't give in, and I only got the haircut. Amy and I then walked around the shopping area and went to GAP. I had never been to that store before, but it was cool, since I learned about that a little in International Business, because they are one of the main competitors of Benetton in the US. Amy bought a pretty dark blue shirt with tiny flowers all over it and I bought a plain T-shirt for an undershirt. After that Mary picked us up and we went to Duo's a new and used women's clothes store near the University of Virginia. Amy had fun shopping with her aunt while I read some of an article for Global Business.
The University of Virginia was founded and designed by Thomas Jefferson. He had this idea of an academical village. There was a large courtyard with dorms and professor housing on the sides with a large rotunda on one end. It had class rooms and larger lecture halls in it too. The whole campus is quite beautiful and very large. Lots of the buildings are old brick ones, while there are some newer ones also. We also visited a large chapel with very elaborate stained glass windows. We went to lunch at a place called Little Johns that was fairly cheap and delicious. They had flatbread sandwiches and subs and salads.
We then went to a make up/shampoo/perfume/all things beautifying. You really spend a lot of money on appearance if you wanted to! Back at the Risers, we watched a horror film from the 50s called Bride of the Gorilla. It wasn't really scary at all, but it might have been back in the day. Amy had received a 40 horror film pack from the 50s for Christmas, so we finally watched one of them. For dinner, we had pork chops, mashed potatoes, glazed apples, green beans, and salad. It was a very good home made meal! We then just sat around, worked on homework and listened to a bit of the Whitehall basketball game on the internet. They won, so they will be going to State:) Everyone went to bed early again, and it was wonderful to get so much sleep.
Today, wow, am finally saying today, it has been so long! Today, I woke up at 7:40, and got ready and read some more of the article for global business called, Chiquita Brands International, a case study. I worked on this for an hour or so after reading, and then we went to the movie, King's Speech, with Mary and Amy. It was a really good movie about King George VI in the 1930s. We first ate pizza at a place called Christian's which has lots of different kinds of pizza and you just choose a slice. They add cheese to it and then stick it in the oven before they give it to you. OK, we then went home and I wrote on this until now. There are 4,317 words total!
Thanks to all of those who made it to the end of this monstrous post, and I hope you have enjoyed it.
I left off on Sunday the 20th of February. The following day was Presidents day, so Amy didn't have school, and it was her birthday, so it was perfect! We did some homework in the morning at our universities, and then we met at the Safeway at Georgetown to buy some things for her birthday cake. We bought some chocolate cake and cream cheese frosting and then headed to Georgetown to study a while before meeting with some of her friends to make the cakes. We also bought some disposable cake pans, since we didn't know if there were any pans for sure at Georgetown that we could use. I gave her a coupon to go dancing again sometime, since it was recently and it would be better to plan it when she has less homework too. She also showed me the presents that she got in the mail. She got this really cool tea making set and a nice mug and some different kinds of tea. She also got some cool ear rings to wear to the Lady Gaga Concert and the tickets to the concert. She got a nice blue dress, and some baked goods also. They were little bars that seemed to have a lot of brown sugar in them and also almond Roca pieces on top. They were delicious. After attempting to get some homework done, we went over to Reynolds 8th floor to see Amy's friend Rachel. She lives on a Living well floor, so the people there don't drink or smoke, and they seem really nice. We then started to make the cake and got everything ready. We learned about K-Pop and J-Pop (Korean and Japanese Pop). Rachel is Korean, and she was getting into an argument with Joe, this other kid on their floor about which type of music was better. They showed us some funny music videos of the various types of music. We then cooled the cake a long time before frosting it and played Catch Phrase with some of the people that were in their common room. It was really fun! It was a bit fun to try to light the candles, because no one had a lighter, so I lit one on the coils in the oven. It melted the candle a lot too though, before if finally lit, but then we were able to light the other 18 candles for Amy's 19 years! We sang and then cut the cake and ate it while playing more catch phrase. It seemed like a really nice floor. We then dropped of a piece of off cake with another one of her friends that had transferred from the University of Montana. We then went to library and did homework until late, then I rode my scooter home.
The rest of the week was spent trying to do homework while looking forward to the Lady Gaga concert on Thursday. We then got all dressed up on Thursday and I went over to Georgetown and we ate a Grab-and-go for dinner. It was really good, but I was still hungry, since I hadn't had much to eat before that. I had on my black slacks, a black long-sleeved button up shirt, and a black tie with small polka-dots. Amy had on a nice black and white dress and some black leggings. The style in DC, and possibly all around now, is to just wear leggings as pants. They are essentially footless tights. Anyway, they were meant to wear under dresses or skirts, and now, almost all the girls just wear them as pants, sometimes with longs shirts. Anyway, I think that style is ridiculous. Amy had a nice dress though, so they looked great! We left Georgetown at 6:30 and took the Circulator bus that takes us right over to the Verizon center, but the traffic was really bad, so it took a long time to get there, and we were afraid that we would be late for the show that started at 8, but since we already had tickets, it was really easy to get in after we were there. We walked a little way after we got off of the bus. We saw lots of people dressed up crazily and took some pictures. We found our seats, which were in the section 111, about at mid court, close to the floor. They were great seats and we had a good view of the show. We were there a little bit early, so I looked for the bathroom and walked about half way around the entire arena, because first, I passed a women's, and then they had converted a men's to a womens, then there was one more womens, before I finally found it. I think it would have been faster to just turn around after I was half way there and to just go the other way out of the section 11 seats. It seems like it is usually just worth it to go with your gut and keep going to save time, but it was a long way out of the way this time. Then, I finally made it back to my seat. The Scissor Sisters were the opening act and they performed for probably 25 minutes. They danced all around the stage and had quite interesting outfits, although nothing compared to Lady Gaga. Amy and I had looked up some of their songs before, when we heard they were opening, because it is more fun if you know the songs already. They were energetic and fun to watch, but there was a really long wait after their performance until she finally came out.
The Curtains went down and they played some music to keep everyone entertained somewhat. After about 20 minutes, following every song would be applause, because they were hoping that she would come out after that song, but nope. They eventually lowered this large white curtain over the rich blue one, similar in appearance to the type at the Mother Lode Theater. Then, they projected pictures onto it and had some crazy music/ bass noises to get the crowd pumped up. They then went into a count down on the screen and at 0, she appeared in an outline of purple. They had taken up the big blue curtain and then shined with a bright purple light behind her to cast her shadow on the large white curtain. She was up on a platform and everyone went crazy! She then opened with some song that no one had heard, since it was just like a part of the show. The show was somewhat along a story line and had her main songs spread throughout it. There were many back up dancers and they were all over the stage. She then opened up this car that was on the stage and it had a keyboard in the hood. That was the beginning to her first main song, and it was really cool! There were many costume changes and entire set changes, which were quite the feat! The stage was huge, so the entire set changes would take a lot of effort. To do this, they would lower the large white thing and project a video, or possibly have some other act performing on the platform outside of the curtain. The first set was a staircase on one side with huge syringes as the hand rail supports. On the other side was the car, and I'm sure there is much that I am forgetting, since there was so much going on. Then next set had a jungle gym with lights on each of the rungs so they had crazy patterns of lights going all they time, while people were climbing on it. Then she and the other dancers sang and danced.
I could tell you more specifics, but it would probably be boring, so I will just note some of the crazy instruments that they had. There was an electric harp, a normal harp, this bass guitar that was crazy, a flaming piano, and an electric violin. The bass thing had a bass guitar in down the middle and then it had a keyboard sticking off one side and a synthesizer thing off the other side. It stood on the floor like a normal bass would, but she played it like a guitar. The violin was really cool too, because it looked similar to an electric guitar that has an upside down v as the base, except it was a violin. The flaming piano was the coolest though, through my eyes anyway, because first of all, it had a row of flames for its whole length. Then, halfway through the song, a whirl wind of fire rose out of it and had varying heights for the rest of the song. It was really cool! Another interesting part of the concert was when she was dressed up in this huge white dress that had moving parts. The head dress moved and somewhat flapped, along with the back of the dress. Then, it seemed like it was going to be the last song, because I thought she was giving her closing remarks, and then they put the curtains down. I was a little disappointed, because she didn't do the main song that I really wanted to hear, Bad Romance. It just has a really epic beginning and I thought it would have been THE song to do at a concert. Then, they drew up the curtains again, and she was sitting in a ginormous gyroscope type ball. It was really cool. She then did one more song, one from her new album, which comes out in May. It is called Born this Way, and is a pretty cool song.
After the Concert, Amy and I walked out of the Verizon center and attempted to get on the Circulator bus since the Georgetown shuttles wouldn't be open this late. But, just our luck, that specific circulator route wasn't running so late on a Thursday night. So, We walked around looking for a cab. We did a loop around several blacks and then thought that we might as well walk towards Georgetown so it would save a little bit on the cab fare. Oh, I forgot to mention it was raining a bit and was chilly. Anyway, we had a nice walk in the rain for 8 blocks or so and finally found a cab on 14th street. We started walking at 7th street, and had to go to about 33rd street. We then were really hungry, since we hadn't had anything to eat for a long tine and had been wandering around in the rain for a half hour or so. We went to Johnny Rockets and shared a double bacon Cheeseburger. It was very delicious and had potent onions on it, so I still could taste them the next day, even though I brushed my teeth in at night and in the morning as usual. We had a nice late snack, and saw Beth, the one from UM there with her guy friend that is transferring to George Washington University next semester. We then walked the rest of the way to Georgetown, which was probably 5 blocks, and then I rode my scooter home.
The next different/ cool thing we did was to go to the Syracuse Georgetown basketball game. The game was sold out, but the Georgetown students with season passes got an email telling them there were extra tickets available, so Amy bought me one:) It was for seat M19 in the 400 something section which was 5 rows from the top of the stadium. It was not that good of a seat, but I still wanted to go to a game, and it was a big rivalry. The students tickets are first come first served, so many of the students were waiting at the stadium overnight to get really close seats. Amy left at 9:30 am to the game at 12 with some of her friends, and was still way in the 400s like me. I saw her way down there and then went over to see her, but there was an extra seat right next to her, so I sat there and it was a lot better seat. The game was really fun too, and it was much better to be close to people that I knew, Amy, and the other girls from Chi Alpha. The Georgetown Chimes, an Acapella group sang the National Anthem, and then they did the Syracuse lineups and all of the students turned around to show a lack of interest. Then, for the Georgetown lineups, they had spotlights and loud music and the crowd went wild. It was pretty much like a College basketball game that I would watch on TV, so it was really cool. They had lots of commercial breaks for the broadcast games, so they have many random sponsored events. We saw Bill Clinton, and the Geico Caveman, and saw Jack, the bulldog (Georgetown's mascot) rip up a box that had the Syracuse mascot all over it (an Orange). Georgetown lost the game, partly because one of their star players, Chris Wright, broke his hand the game before and wasn't playing. They held in there pretty well until the end, but couldn't pull it off. They also played a really cool video: http://www.georgetown.edu/video/1242667691460.html during halftime or one of the many other breaks. Chris Wright is number 4 here with the arm thing. After the game, the Circulator bus line was really full, and we waited and waited. It took probably 5 minutes to load, and then, all of our group except Leslie and I made it on the first bus. We got on the next one that came in a little bit. The traffic was pretty bad, but we made it back eventually and met up with Amy and then got some lunch.
Later that evening, we went to this thing called Pizza Theology, which doesn't discuss the theology of pizza, but rather we talked about the history of the Bible while eating pizza. IT was really interesting and we learned a history of the compilation of the Bible, and also about the other books that didn't make it in. We also talked about the time frames in each section of the Bible and I thought I learned quite a bit. It isn't something that is every week or anything, but they will do it one more time this semester. It was put on by the same people that do Chi Alpha. John led the discussion and had prepared a little class for us.
On Sunday, Amy didn't come to church, because she had too much homework, but I went for a while. Afterward, I talked with Brian, a deacon, for a while about science and such. He is an electrical engineer and originally had a degree in Math and a minor in Physics. He told me a lot about his work, and we talked for a long time. After church, someone there had an HP slate. I looked at it and thought that it was better than an Ipad. It is about the same size, but not quite as stylish. It has bigger processors and is essentially a netbook in a tablet form. After church, I was planning to go to dinner with Amy and Beth, because Beth was planning a Montanan brunch, but on Saturday night I found out it was only for Georgetown Montanans, so I couldn't go, but I think it was good, because it was just Girls that way. Amy and I met later in the evening at a park down by Safeway on Wisconsin Avenue. It is a nice park, and she had planned out a little date. We sat there and talked for a while, and it was really nice. The park is on a Hill and right next to a library. After that, we walked up to Safeway and bought a couple of doughnuts, which were excellent! They are pretty cheap too, so it is perfect.
On Monday, I signed up for soccer in the spring and also practiced my French Horn and choir stuff for a long time in the evening. Then, as I was practicing a difficult part, I though, "I really hope we go over this at sectionals... Oh Shoot! Sectionals are on Monday, and today is Monday, I hope I'm not late!" Then I hurried over to the room where it was held and I was only 5 minutes late and they hadn't started yet, phewf! My voice was already pretty tired from the practicing, but the rehearsal was fast, since the men know their parts mostly, and We were out of there by 9!
On Tuesday, I saw the American Idol recruiting bus in the Quad and they had a little booth. I didn't sign up, but I saw several people talking to the man that I heard ask, "So what do you do?" The other main thing I did on Tuesday besides all my classes was to go to the housing session in the early afternoon. There is a lottery and I had number 205 out of 2000, so I was pretty lucky and got my request in first. I looked up the floor plans of the buildings and found some large triple rooms in Roper Hall. I then got in line finally after waiting in the sunny hot room with lots of people, and he asked me where I wanted to live, and I said Roper room whatever, and he told me that was Freshman only housing... Dang! He told me that the only triple rooms for returning students were in McDowell, so I said I would go there. They then showed me where to go, and I talked to the people at a table about which room I would like. There was one triple on each McDowell floor, and most of them were taken except the terrace and the 6th and 7th floors. I choose the Terrace, since it has been pretty handy to not have to go up the elevator or stairs often. It turns out that my room is the biggest in the whole building at 203 square feet as opposed to the 185 that my current room is. I don't yet know who my roommates will be, but I will find out when they officially post the results of the housing.
On Wednesday, I went to Georgetown to study and to go to Chi Alpha. We ate a grab and go and had some delicious oranges! They were especially good, so Amy got several of them. We studied for a long time and then got a pepperoni and meatball sub sandwich from Subway before we went to Chi Alpha.
Thursday was rather uneventful for me, but I met with Jeff in the afternoon, and we worked for a long time. I helped him with his homework, since he had a final and paper that he was working on for a long time all week. I ate lunch with him and his friend Becky after our lab in the morning. We talked about politics/government in China and Japan, and we talked about the currency/ exchange rates, since I am thinking about going to China with him next summer. The exchange rate as of now is in my favor, since food costs about $2.5 on average for a meal, and all of the subway costs are less than a dollar wherever you go. The plane ticket is really expensive though.
On Friday, I worked on homework and packed for the short time that I was there. I also got a package from Home for my birthday, and they sent a lot of baked goods which are very delicious. Also a couple of presents, one of which was some spices, so I can cook better in the dorm:) After class, I hurried and got on the shuttle to go to Union Station to catch the train to Charlottesville. Amy was there when I got there, but we were early, so we waited in the food court and ate some of the cookies my family sent and also some delicious and unhealthy french fries with cheese, sour cream, bacon, and green onions on them. We then waited in the designated area until our train arrived, and then we went out and got on. The train was pretty dirty, but it was cool none the less. The seats were comfy and they had power outlets next to each seat. We arrived just on time at 7:20 and found Mary and George who came into town to get us. We then went to a restaurant that had somewhat unique yet very excellent food. I had Chicken Dumplings that were in a Dutch Oven, and Amy had Toads in a Hole, which were eggs cooked into a hole in some toast. We then had some very good ice cream sandwiches that were made with home made ice cream and cookies. One was a cranberry cookie similar to oatmeal raisin cookies, and it was filled with black raspberry ice cream! So delicious! Another fun part about the restaurant were the people. Our waiter had long gray hair in a pony tail and a big mustache. He had quite a charismatic attitude and was always joking with us. There was also a man behind the scenes that we would have been scared to meet. He let out a big yell of, "Up!" whenever the next order was ready, and the waiters always hurried back there as fast as they could to get the food and bring it to the customers. We then rode back to their house and listened to the last part of the Whitehall basketball game. They lost to the best team, but they put up a good fight. Then we went to bed early for the first time in about 2 months.
On Saturday, I woke up pretty early, but it didn't matter since I went to bed at 10:30:) We went into Charlottesville with Mary and she dropped us off at the Hair Cuttery while she went to some meetings. Apparently my "scalp is severely inflamed and that is why I have acne. I should really buy their shampoo, because it helps to sooth the scalp, and... it is 4 dollars or so cheaper than if I went down the road to buy it." Don't worry, I didn't give in, and I only got the haircut. Amy and I then walked around the shopping area and went to GAP. I had never been to that store before, but it was cool, since I learned about that a little in International Business, because they are one of the main competitors of Benetton in the US. Amy bought a pretty dark blue shirt with tiny flowers all over it and I bought a plain T-shirt for an undershirt. After that Mary picked us up and we went to Duo's a new and used women's clothes store near the University of Virginia. Amy had fun shopping with her aunt while I read some of an article for Global Business.
The University of Virginia was founded and designed by Thomas Jefferson. He had this idea of an academical village. There was a large courtyard with dorms and professor housing on the sides with a large rotunda on one end. It had class rooms and larger lecture halls in it too. The whole campus is quite beautiful and very large. Lots of the buildings are old brick ones, while there are some newer ones also. We also visited a large chapel with very elaborate stained glass windows. We went to lunch at a place called Little Johns that was fairly cheap and delicious. They had flatbread sandwiches and subs and salads.
We then went to a make up/shampoo/perfume/all things beautifying. You really spend a lot of money on appearance if you wanted to! Back at the Risers, we watched a horror film from the 50s called Bride of the Gorilla. It wasn't really scary at all, but it might have been back in the day. Amy had received a 40 horror film pack from the 50s for Christmas, so we finally watched one of them. For dinner, we had pork chops, mashed potatoes, glazed apples, green beans, and salad. It was a very good home made meal! We then just sat around, worked on homework and listened to a bit of the Whitehall basketball game on the internet. They won, so they will be going to State:) Everyone went to bed early again, and it was wonderful to get so much sleep.
Today, wow, am finally saying today, it has been so long! Today, I woke up at 7:40, and got ready and read some more of the article for global business called, Chiquita Brands International, a case study. I worked on this for an hour or so after reading, and then we went to the movie, King's Speech, with Mary and Amy. It was a really good movie about King George VI in the 1930s. We first ate pizza at a place called Christian's which has lots of different kinds of pizza and you just choose a slice. They add cheese to it and then stick it in the oven before they give it to you. OK, we then went home and I wrote on this until now. There are 4,317 words total!
Thanks to all of those who made it to the end of this monstrous post, and I hope you have enjoyed it.
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