Book Addict's Blog

I've been out of school for over a month now, and things have been going pretty well!  The first couple of weeks, I mostly lazed around, though I did work occasionally.  Then, starting in June, my summer began to pick up. The first few days of the month, I visited my grandma with my mom.  It was nice to be able to spend some quality time with her, which I don't always get to do when I see her with a bunch of other family members around. 

The day after I came back from that trip, I left for orientation at the summer camp I'll be working at.  We were kept REALLY busy, being trained in all we needed to know for the rest of the summer! But I still had a chance to start to really get to know the other staff members, both the ones I'll be working directly with, and those I won't be seeing so often. It was odd, though, because all of those staff members who would be working with children had camp names. So someone would introduce themselves to me as Michelle, and I'd have to introduce myself as Azalea (the camp name I ended up choosing, after my first two choices had been rejected because they'd been recently used).  It took some getting used to! Within my specific camp area, we had a rule going on that if you said someone's real name, you had to put a quarter in a jar (we'd use the money to go see a movie sometime during the summer).  I didn't have too much of a problem, because I had never met most of the staff members before, and while I knew their real names, I had never really called them by them.  The harder part was referring to myself by my camp name! At any rate, orientation was packed, but fun.  I still don't know everything I'm supposed to be doing, but I guess there are some things we just have to figure out as we go along.

I left orientation two days early, so that I could go to New York.  I spent an afternoon packing and spending time with my family and my best friend, then left the next morning for Colorado, where I visited with some family friends.  The morning after that, I flew on to New York! I've now been here for about five days, and am having a blast.  I'm here for a history program centered on Abraham Lincoln, so we've taken tours of the city, heard lectures from some prominent scholars, and are working on a mini project. On my free time, I've also walked around the city, visited the Met, seen a free violin concert, and seen the NYC Ballet perform A Midsummer Night's Dream. 

I especially loved the ballet. While I like dancing, and watching people dance, the only full length ballet I'd seen before was The Nutcracker (which I've seen more times than I can count).  So A Midsummer Night's Dream was awesome. Not only was the story fun and the dancing spectacular (or cute, in the case of the really young dancers), but I also loved the music and costumes.  Plus, I only paid $15 for my tickets, because I'm a student!

Another thing I've loved is visiting the Strand Bookstore. I'm staying at an NYU residence hall only a block and a half away from the bookstore, so I've gone to visit it three times. They have so many new and used books, and at such great prices! I've bought 5 books so far, but if I didn't limit myself, I would probably have bought 100.

Well, I have a discussion in about 5 minutes, so I better go now. Hope you are all having as great of a summer as I am!

I'm the most indecisive person in the world, and am having the hardest time deciding on a camp name for the summer! My best friend says it should have something to do with dancing, as that's one of the things I absolutely love doing, but I couldn't come up with anything good. I also thought briefly of rocking the school spirit and being something to do with bears, but didn't have any real ideas for that either (I guess I could just combine the two and be Dancing Bear!). At any rate, here are my top 8 choices at the moment, in a poll because polls are fun. So vote, and if you have any other cool ideas you didn't mention earlier, put them in the comments.

Poll #1391080 Camp Name!
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Which of the following camp names do you like?

I guess this post should have been called A Poll and Two Videos, as the poll came first, but I didn't like the way that sounded as much... Anyway, on to the videos. I've been a part of a Facebook group for awhile called, "And WHY can't my life be a musical?". I'm a firm believer that things would be so much better if people just spontaneously broke out into song and dance all the time. Not that my friends and family and I don't go around singing and occasionally dancing quite a bit, but it's not the same. At any rate, since life isn't a musical, I just watch these videos over and over and pretend like it is! ;) They've been choreographed, of course, but still, I would have loved to be in the audience when they happened!
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So, as I said in my last post, I'm going to be working at a camp this summer! At this camp, all the children's staff members have "camp names" that the kids call them by instead of their real names.  For example, some of the other staff members this year are Sandpiper, Tiger Lily, June Bug, Moonbeam, Cardinal, Timber, and Avalanche. At any rate, this means I need to come up with an outdoorsy name in the next week or so. Anyone have ideas?

In other news, Sing Alliance Formal was today.  As always, it was a ton of fun!  Although I didn't get a chance to hem my dress, so even though I wore my highest heels, I still kept tripping on it whenever I tried to dance...

I finally know what I'm going to be doing this summer!  Last summer, I worked two weeks as a counselor for the high schoolers at a summer camp I've been attending in one shape or form for years.  That was fun, but ever since I was little I've wanted to work there for a whole summer, preferably with elementary age kids.  Well, I've finally got my wish!  I applied to work there as a counselor for the 3rd-5th graders in late January (since I was there last year, my "application" consisted of letting them know I wanted to come back and what job I wanted).  I didn't get interviewed until mid-March, and it wasn't until today  (when I'd almost given up hearing from them) that I heard I got a job.  It's not the job I applied for, but it should still be a lot of fun!* At any rate, I'm excited to finally know which of my several tentative plans for this summer will be actually carried out.

Speaking of summer, in just over two weeks I will be done with this semester! We only have 6 more days of classes (tomorrow is  "Diadeloso", where my school has a bunch of fun activities planned), and then I have all my finals in three consecutive days.  It's going to be quite a push getting through it all, but it's good to know it's almost over!

*Unfortunately, this camp is a non-profit and doesn't pay well at all. But you can't have everything, I guess!

Well, I'm all registered for next semester's classes now!  Things can still change, but for now, I'm pretty content with what I've got. I'm taking the following 7 classes*:

• Computers in Society
• Introduction to Computer Systems
• BIC Capstone: The Once and Future King: David, Jesus, and King Arthur
• World Cultures V: Islamic Culture in the Middle East**
• The Early Republic, 1789-1860 (American History)**
• Introduction to Language and Linguistics
• Ballet I

The BIC*** capstone classes are usually only offered in the spring, but for some reason, they're offering one section of it in the fall. As the topic is the one I've been wanting to take, I went ahead and signed up for it. However, with that out of the way, I only needed one hour of computer science and I'd be done with all my major and minor requirements after next semester.  And then I got to thinking, Why don't I study abroad in the spring?  Originally, I'd been opposed to studying abroad my final semester, but the idea suddenly started to get attractive.  My mom was very supportive of the idea, and so I started to look at the various programs that my school approves.

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So, I'm almost done with all my major and minor requirements. This means that I have a lot of leeway in deciding which classes to take next semester. I'm for sure taking "Intro to Computer Systems", and will probably take "Intro to Language and Linguistics" and "Ballet I" for fun. I also need to take a World Cultures class and an American History class, but I don't know which ones! I'm leaning towards "Islamic Culture" and "Civil War/Reconstruction", but I'm still deciding. Plus, I have space for one more elective. Unless it's a history, math, or computer science class, it'll have to be some intro class, but I don't know whether to take anthropology, sociology, Greek, accounting, or... So, here's a poll, so you can help me decide!

Poll #1379796 Fall '09 Classes
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Which American History class should I take?

Which World Cultures class should I take?

Recommend me a class!

I'm a Gilder Lehrman History Scholars Finalist! Basically, what that means is that I get a week-long, all-expenses-paid trip to New York City in June, where I'll get to study about this year's theme (i.e. Abraham Lincoln) through lectures by eminent historians and visits to historical sites, museums, and archives. The actual Scholars (rather than the Finalists like me) get to go for five weeks during the summer, but I never even considered that I could be chosen for that.  I did, however, think that maybe, possibly, there was a chance I could be selected as a finalist, and I've been on pins and needles this last week waiting for the letter that would tell me the results.  I found out late this afternoon that I was chosen as a finalist, and I've been SOOO excited ever since! I mean, New York City is such an interesting place, and to get to spend a week there studying history?  Awesome!

Now, though, I need to figure out what I'm doing the rest of the summer...

Ugh. I went home for the weekend, and enjoyed the fact that I got to see my family and my brother's soccer game and musical. Unfortunately, however, I ended up spending more time traveling than I spent at home. Friday was the first time I've ever had an airplane take off from one airport, and then land in that same airport. It was supposed to be a short flight into Dallas, but Dallas was experiencing really windy weather, and we'd have to circle for half an hour - which we didn't have enough fuel to do. With other delays and cancellations, my entire trip home took 12 hours instead of the expected 6. Thankfully, I didn't have to spend the night at the airport, because there are several airports in Southern California. I was able to catch a delayed flight to another airport near my house, where my poor dad picked me up from at 2am. We had to pick up my luggage the next day, though.

Then, on Sunday, my flight from DFW to the city where my school is located was canceled. Fortunately, this time the cancellation was due to mechanical reasons, and so they put me up in a hotel for the night. I finally got back in late this morning, having missed both of my classes for the day. I had an exam in one of those classes, too. But I'd e-mailed my professor, and now he's letting me take the test tomorrow.

So yeah, things could have been worse, but they were bad enough as it was!

On a different note, here's a meme from valkeakuulas: Comment to this post and I will give you 5 subjects/things I associate you with. Then post this in your LJ and elaborate on the subjects given.
( My Five Things )

My new obsession? Creating and naming colors, palettes and patterns.

For example, inspired by this photo on flickr, I got this palette and this pattern:


( More examples under the cut... )

So, someone on a forum I'm a member of is doing a survey for a class. I found reading the responses pretty interesting, so I figured I'd post it here. (I'm planning on passing the results on; let me know if you mind.)

Survey
1. What country are you from?

2. Have you been to another country/countries?
Yes / No
If yes, please name the country/countries & when you visited: _______

3. Do you have a desire to visit another country?
Yes / No
If yes, please name the country/countries: _____

4. What would be the most likely purpose of your visit?
Work / Study / Vacation / Other
If other, please specify.

5. Have you been to a non-English speaking country? (if English isn't your first language, have you been to a country where your first language isn't spoken?)
Yes / No

( The rest of the questions, and then my answers )

I've been home for about 2 weeks now, but I've been crazily busy with holiday stuff! Things have finally settled down, but now I have only 5 days before I head back to school. I have so much to do before then! I still plan on posting summaries of my trip to Spain (not sure anyone cares, but they're mostly for myself and maybe my parents anyway), but those'll have to wait until after the next semester starts and I have more time (hah!).

Anyway, every new year, the people over at librarything put up polls to see who else has read the books they read during the previous year.  Since I kept track of some of the books I read this year, I decided to take part.  Not all the books I read this year are listed, though, as I mostly only kept track during the summer (which is when I read the most, anyway.) Also, I didn't include any of the books I didn't finish all the way through, or any short stories.

Poll #1323651 Which of the books I read in 2008 have you read (at any time)?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Can you tell I got hooked on Bujold this year? (I read some of these in compilations, but I'm separating them in case you didn't.)

Here are the rest of the Bujold books, along with the books I read by another favorite author, Sherwood Smith

And here are the rest of the SFF books!

More books!

ETA: Shoot! I meant to add a "None of the Above" option, but since I forgot, please comment if you haven't ever read any of the books on my list!

The mountains, most definitely. I mean, just look at these pictures from the trip to Scotland I took over Thanksgiving weekend:

( Pretties! )

The ocean is pretty, and I wouldn't mind having an ocean near the mountains, but if I had to choose between the oceans and the mountains, the mountains definitely would win.  Then again, maybe I'm just slightly biased against the ocean because the sand and sea irritate my skin (though not as bad as they used to), and I'm allergic to sunscreen so I have to be careful not to get burned.  I do love the ocean at night, though...

So, I have a big paper due tomorrow, as well as a midterm in the morning. But of course, I'm procrastinating instead. Here's a meme I stole from the awesome kalquessa . 

The Rules:
1. Answer each of the questions below using the Flickr Search engine
2. Choose a photo from the first three pages.
3. Copy the URL of your favorite photo into this site.
4. Save mosaic to some form of photo hosting thing and share w/world.
( Meme! )

...but only for the next couple of days. 

Even though I'm at an American school, we don't get a Thanksgiving break here, which SUCKS.  I keep seeing Facebook status updates from people from my university back home, who will be going home for the weekend soon, while I have school on Thanksgiving day. Also, this'll be the first Thanksgiving that I don't spend with my family. My friends and I may do something for the holiday, but we haven't made plans yet, so I don't know if anything's going to happen.

</whining>

On the bright side, I'm going to Edinburgh this weekend. It'll be freezing, but I'm still really excited!  And I can let myself listen to Christmas music soon!

I'm glad that due to my trip to Rome, I didn't know until after the danger was over that the fires in Orange County (which are finally contained) got within 2 miles of my house last weekend.  I'm thanking God even more for the fact that no one I know lost their homes, though some were evacuated and a university some of my friends attend (as well as two high schools many of my friends used to attend) suffered significant damage. Those who weren't as fortunate are in my thoughts and prayers.

Well, it’s been almost two months since my last real update. But then, I’ve never claimed to be good at updating on a regular basis. Busyness combined with laziness just get in the way. So, here’s the first part of a rather condensed version of what I’ve been doing lately. I actually typed it up before I went to Rome this past weekend (which was amazing!), but I didn’t have a chance to put it up. Hopefully, the next couple of parts of the update will go up within the next week or so!


( Cut for length and pictures... )

My parents have been bugging me about updates. I know I'm WAY behind, but I've been busy (ok, and lazy!). October was a crazy month for me schoolwise.  I'm working on uploading pictures to Facebook before updating here, though, since I'm even more behind on that. But I do want to mention that I went to Paris this weekend. I have a friend from high school who's studying abroad in the UK, and she and some other people on her trip had been planning on going to Paris on their free weekend for awhile. So I'd decided this summer that I'd try to join them. Anyway, I did, and had an absolute blast. I was there for 4 days, and it still wasn't enough time to do all that I wanted to do. I'll give more details as well as pictures (I took like 600 of them!) later, with the rest of my update.

Anyway, on to the election. It's election day, and my first time (maybe) voting for a president, so I feel like I have to say something.  As I'm in Spain, I requested an absentee ballot. I meant to mail it in, but it took me awhile to figure out who and what I was voting for. And then I lost my ballot for a week (of course, it ended up being in a place I put it so as NOT to lose it...), and found it right before I went to Paris. So anyway, since California lets you fax your vote in, I tried faxing it in today. I don't know if it went through, though, as the fax machine was a little confusing. So either they got like 2 copies of my ballot (I hope that's ok!), or they didn't get it at all, which is why I said I only "maybe" voted. Oh well, I tried, though I know I should have gotten on the ball and mailed it earlier.

This is a BIG election (as evidenced by the voter turnouts today), and it's interesting not being in the US for it.  Of course, the election is a big deal for the entire world, and so while the fuss is less here (and I'm not all that into politics anyway) I still can't help but hear things about it and talk about it some.  Actually, my teaching partner and I have talked about it in our ESL class, and it was interesting to see how every single person in that class supports Obama. Apparently, a huge percentage of Spaniards feel the same way.

At my school tonight, they're holding a party while they wait for the results to come in, from midnight until 8 in the morning. I thought about going, but I have WAY too much to do, and I need my sleep. I'll follow it a bit online while I'm working, though, and then check it in the morning when I wake up (or if I sleep in too late, as usual, I'm sure I'll hear all about it once I get to class tomorrow).

Here's the group we saw perform in La Noche en Blanco last Sunday.

Well, it’s been two weeks since I last updated, and I don’t really have an excuse! Things were still crazy the first week of classes, but in the last week, things have finally begun to settle into a routine. It’s still a pretty crazy, fun-filled routine, but a routine all the same. 

The Roman Aqueduct in Segovia

 

( I told you it was long... )

 

So, since the first two days of classes are over, I decided it was time for a summer roundup. Over the summer, I kept a list on the "Extended Info" box on Facebook of books I've read, movies I saw in theaters, and places I'd been. I may have missed a couple of items, but it's a pretty good summary of my summer. Since I'm going to remove those items from Facebook soon, I thought I'd post them here.


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Quite a full summer!