The Flight of the Devil

I have returned.

But the flight was absolutely horrendous. Delays galore, adolescents at the airport screaming their heads off, small children kicking airplane seats and using your head as leverage, amongst other issues that I will not mention here. My flight got delayed 3 times though, and we didn't even catch the right flight. They took someone else's inbound flight, bad for them...lucky for us. I wasn't even sure if i was going to return home last night. Thought I was going to be stuck in Minneapolis for the night, or at least for most of the evening. Thank goodness I made it back, even though it was 3 hours later than I needed to.

Anyhow, the house looks different. It's a little weird, walking into your house expecting to see what you've imagined for a long time. But everything is different. Including my room. Oh well, only 3 weeks right? Then back to the suite...I should really clean my place though. Ugh, strawberry juice stains on my carpet. I really should have found some stain remover before I left...and now it'll just set in for the next 3 weeks. Ah, we're going to have to pay for that. Can't wait...

But I am home...and I will relax as much as I can.

Thanksgiving comes in boxes

alright, so it's been long overdue for another blog. lots has been happening since that Jack's Mannequin concert. Thanksgiving for one! :-D so for those of you who didn't know...I went to Portland, Oregon for Thanksgiving. I stayed at the University of Portland with Denise, Marcy, Tyler, and Kelly. The first day I came in, we just hung out at the university, but the second day we cooked a full blown Thanksgiving dinner! We walked a mile (in the cold and drizzle may I add), to Fred Meyer (a local supermarket). Then we started cooking! During dinner, we had a lot of fun watching Jeff Dunham videos on YouTube, and pretty much just hung out and had a good time. Friday morning, we woke up bright and early to catch the bus all the way downtown. Then we transferred on the train, and rode to two malls. Yay for Black Friday and all the sales! :-D i didn't spend too much money at all though. i'm proud of myself. haha. but i had fun anyway. that night, they made a cake with sugary frosting, and we pretty much ate half of it. OH MY GOODNESS! we sure were hyper that night!!! taking pictures in the dark, nearly blinding us, and recording videos on webcams. It was so much fun. :-) saturday was time to go home though..:-( so sad...but I'm really glad that my Thanksgiving was spent in Portland.

To all the turkey eaters out there, I raise my glass to you.

November 6, 2008 @ Sokol Underground. Openers: Treaty of Paris, and FUN. Most amazing band in the entire world: Jack's Mannequin. :-)

That concert was absolutely astonishing. Andrew McMahon, the piano, lead vocalist, and songwriter of the band is my hero. He is even better live than on his records. Ah....so good.

(In the second picture, Andrew walked in my direction, and totally looked at me! I was raising my hand, and he looked straight at me. I was so shocked that i only remembered to take a picture as he was walking away.)

The concert was so crazy though. At one point, Andrew got up onto his piano, and was stomping on the keys! Hahaha...his piano playing is amazing though, and he seems really into his music. I will never forget this concert.

Who Doesn't Love a Tablet Laptop? :-)

alright, so i'm just gonna post up some stuff that i've been drawing online. hope you enjoy! :-)

(Top: I drew this one 73 days ago. It was my 2nd drawing

Middle: drawn 38 days ago. 3rd drawing

Bottom: drawn yesterday. 4th drawing)

Hiro's Sushi is the best thing to have ever graced Omaha

Yay for sushi in Nebraska!! :-D last night my friends and I drove over to Hiro's Sushi, and we ordered about $131 worth of sushi. which is not bad considering there were 9 of us. mm, it was so good...i really like the tempura deep fried, with soft shelled crab inside. ah, that was so yummy! the only thing was, because we ordered so much, they brought out 2 huge plates, and AFTER we were done eating and paying, they brought out our last plate. haha...we thought it wasn't ours, so they took it back..then after we thought about it, we realized that we were missing 2 extra rolls...so they boxed it up for us, and that's what mary and i ate for lunch! :-D mm...it's 1:40 in the afternoon though, and Tam still isn't up. she planned to wake up at 10:30 this morning. hahahaha...oh dear. well, we do sleep in quite late on Saturday's anyway. but...it's almost 2! maybe i should go bother her. hehe.

well, that's all i have to say about that.

So i just realized

adding to what i just wrote...my laptop is no good. GAAAAAAAAAH. stupid people set it up wrong, so the connection to my display monitor does not do what it's supposed to do. grr...and the buttons to change all that doesn't work either. ugggghhhh...i'm getting frustrated.


i'm ready to explode.

Someone doesn't like us apparently..

so a number of things have happened in the past...week, couple days, whatever. First things first...I GOT MY LAPTOP BACK! yay! :-D only problem though...is that when i went to go pick it up, it wasn't finished...so i had to wait another 2 hours. geez. but whatever, i'm glad that i have it back now. it's just weird looking at a smaller screen. secondly...i swear our room is cursed. cursed with bad luck that is. oh my gosh...so apparently, someone left a cheesecake factory bag in our living room at the beginning of the school year. but all of my roommates and i thought it was one of ours. so we left it there thinking that there wasn't any food in it (seeing as there was a bunch of bubble wrap in the bag also). but a couple days ago, we started smelling something AWFUL! so we searched around...and what do you know. it's the bag. GAH, whoever it was who left it in there...oh my goodness. they just caused a load of problems for all of us. because, it wasn't as simple as just throwing the bag out..the smell refuses to leave our room and carpet. so Tam and I got down on our hands and knees last night trying to scrub the smell out. we disinfected the place too, and i even sprinkled hawaiian salt for good luck. nope. then, Tam finds out that the smell is on her shoes, so she sticks all of them into the washing machine...and 20 minutes later i get a call, "rachel..uh oh." AH! the washing machine had overflowed with soap...so we had to clean all of it up, and the dryer would not cooperate either...what a night...and now, i'm sitting here...still smelling a hint of bad luck.


we are cursed.

Hell week is OVER! sort of...

I'm so glad this week is over. :-) It's just been a week full of stress and tests. Gah! So let's do a short recap...There was a Biology, Chemistry, Japanese, Chem Lab, and Bio Lab test this week. ahh..not to mention getting sick on tuesday. so i missed theology class, and a quiz in that class too. grr...which means i need to make it up next week. and then i had to write a resume for my personal statement workshop class which started today. really helpful stuff, but i was stressing about that too. well, at least on the bright side, this week is over!! but now..the weekend, which means, STUDYING! haha. i have a bibliography for my biology paper due on monday. ahhh...>.< hahahaha. oh so funny. sophomore year is gonna be great.

adieu

Bio Tests do NOT rock my socks...

Soo...as you could probably guess, I had a Biology test today. WOW! that's all i can say. haha...I studied really hard for this exam, read all weekend, re-read the chapter and took some great notes (if i do say so myself)..they were even color coded. took 2 practice tests, and reviewed with my friends. and even, come time for the test..it seemed more difficult than the practice tests, but it was decent. then...they posted the answers online, and that was all downhill. ah...just marking off all of the answers I got wrong. that wasn't any fun at all..let's just say, i learned a little something about college tests. they are unpredictable, and just plain EVIL!


good luck to all you test takers.

Legal in Nebraska!

yay for September 20th! i know i shouldn't be conceited and just talk about my birthday, but it's been a good day, so i'm going to do it anyway. haha. woke up at 10:30 this morning, got a lot done! i studied for my biology exam that's on monday, and i'm nearly done reading. I just have a couple more pages to go. then, i made slow cooker chicken with potatoes and carrots with Tam. it smells amazing! we still need to cook it 3 more hours for a total of 8 hours though. after that i made some crab dip...it's really yummy with golden tortilla chips! and now, i'm relaxing and taking a little break. my brain sure does hurt, but at least i'm getting things done today. :-)

last night i went to Old Market (this small shopping area with a lot of places to eat) with my friends. we went to Spaghetti Works, kind of like The Old Spaghetti Factory, and after we went to Ted and Wally's, an old fashioned ice cream parlor that makes their own homemade ice cream. i ate a strawberry sundae! YUMMY! then, my group of friends and i were hanging out around old market, and exactly at 12:01 they started singing "happy birthday"...>.< hahaha, so embarrassing, but the gesture was GREATLY appreciated. :-D ah, yes. this was a good birthday indeed. :-)

R.I.P. my dear.......computer

Just a short re-cap today...I'm having internet/computer withdrawals. So, for those of you who don't know, my laptop is completely dead. I had a funeral and everything; just I wasn't sure where to bury it so I couldn't see it. Oh well. So in any case, my hard drive crashed, and they're ordering me a new one, but it's going to take at least 1 and a half weeks. But then the time it takes to set up and everything, i'm not too sure how long that will take. For now, I'm just going to be borrowing Tam's computer, and living down in the computer lab. Thank goodness for that. As "green" as I am, I still can't live without technology sad to say...

There's been some new goings, but that I'll have to save for later. I probably won't post it online, but you're free to ask me. Then I'll be the judge if i should say anything or not. :-P haha, I know unfair. But that's the way it goes.

I know some of you are having a hard time posting comments. I made it a little bit easier, so all you need to do is type up your comment in the text box, and click on the bubble with the "Name/URL." Then, type your name in, or whatever you choose to be seen on the site (you don't need to leave a URL either, just leave that area blank) and click, "Publish your comment." Easy as that. So, no problems right? However, if you do have any questions, just email me. (For those regular readers, you should have my email.)


Until next time...

So long

ok ok, it's probably time for a new post. this one will probably be a quite a bit shorter since nothing exciting has really been happening. first off, the fixed the gas leak. i think. :-P it's not affecting our room anymore (then again we still have towels stuffed under all the windows), except i swear i can smell it when i walk past the building. well, we'll just keep an eye out for that one.
Secondly...our sorority! It's kicking off to a great start. We had a phone meeting with the national board of Alpha Phi Gamma, and they interviewed us, drilled everyone of us, and pretty much made us squirm in our seats. In spite of the uncomfortable experience, they sent us an email to let us know that....we're accepted! :-D We need to fill out a bunch of applications, but we still need to go through pledging and all that good stuff. I think they still might be considering if we're going to stick with it though.
Other than that...nothing else has been too exciting around here. Although after experiencing a gas leak and going to the emergency room, nothing seems quite as exciting as that. hahaha, it's all relative i suppose.

adieu

Those Fools.

alright...more updates about that gas leak incident. so, as some of you have heard, but most have not...i went to the Emergency Room 2 nights ago. yah, not too fun. i was feeling pretty junk again, so i went outside with Tam to get some air, but i ran across the Resident Adviser on duty as i was walking out of the building. Good thing too, because i started blacking out and my hands, feet, and stomach were getting numb. then, one of the other executive directors for another dorm passed by and she tried getting in touch with public safety. boy did they take long...we called one of the school's student EMTs, but it was against policy for her to come and check on me. Instead i had to wait another 10 minutes for public safety to come. I was walking back into the dorm (with the help of the two Resident Advisers) and someone apparently called the ambulance. This wasn't part of the plan because an ambulance costs about $600 for a 3 minute ride to the hospital. I was pretty confused by this time, so I ended up going in the ambulance anyway.
Well, the hospital didn't do much for me either. Except scare me by telling me that i had traces of carbon monoxide in my blood (they did blood work, but didn't find much), and give me some nausea medication that didn't work too well (I threw up as they were releasing me). Oh well, my friends were there at least. Joe, Tam, and James were all there to keep me company, so the experience wasn't as scary. Still...
So the Resident Director doesn't believe us though. Public safety and our RA told us that it was a good possibility that they would find us another room to live in. But the RD came into our room, and all she could say was, "You can't have a coffee maker in your room." Wow...what a way to change subjects...But she came back again today...spoke about the coffee maker again, and pretty much told us that we have no proof that the natural gas affected any of us. However, student health had a meeting about what had happened to all of us, and the lack of responsibility taken the first time...so they are trying to change certain policies. Thank goodness for that. No one should ever be told by an imbecile (the same man that called the ambulance) that you should stay in your room when there is a gas leak. And it's ridiculous to be told, "Don't worry about your health. It won't combust."


That's all I have to say about that.

2 fire alarms + 1 gas leak = 1 horrible day

Alright, so quite a bit to update you on. Yesterday was NOT a good day at all...It all started with the fire alarms going off at 6:45 in the morning. EVERYONE was grumpy, not to mention the fact that it looked like it was about to rain any minute. So my sleeping pattern was all thrown off, because I had planned to wake up around 10:30 (my class started at 12:30), but because of the unexpected wake up call, I was tired all day. After classes, I went back to my room to sleep until 6, and Tam and Joe brought me some dinner. We had our floor meetings with the Resident Advisers then we went to a speaker on the other side of campus. After trucking back to my dorm, Tam says, "wouldn't it be weird if the fire alarms went off again?" 10 seconds later...*BEEP BEEP BEEP*! OH MY GOODNESS! I don't think i've ever heard that much swearing and cussing ever. Everyone was so mad...BUT, that wasn't the only thing that happened last night. So I was sitting in my room for a good hour after the fire alarm, and kept smelling something strange. So i went to the living room to ask Tam. It was gasoline...Apparently the gas pipe right outside of my window was leaking, and I had been breathing it in for a good hour or so. Great. Not only was I sick before, but now I felt even worse. It took a while for public safety to get everything together, and they didn't repair the leak until this morning. Lovely. So i moved to my friend's room in an entirely different dorm, and spent the night there. So now i'm back in my room in need of some rest and a shower. What a night...What a night...

See ya next time.

Hello Omaha! Again..

I'm back!!! And boy is Nebraska different from Hawaii...Well, I got here on Saturday, so I've had time to settle in and such. My dorm room is SIGNIFICANTLY larger than last year's, so that's a lot better. :-) It's basically two larger rooms connected by a living room, and the bathroom...ahhh, thank goodness. we get our own bathroom! Overall the room is just a good size. Not to mention that my roommates are some of my good friends, so we should be having some fun this year! (I'll probably post some pictures up later).

So...what else is new? Today was my first day of classes for those of you that didn't know! I started at 9:30 am with Psychology, then had Japanese, Biology, and Organic Chemistry till 2:30. Not too bad. Then tomorrow I only have one class at 12:30, which is Theology. Hopefully theology won't be nearly as difficult as the first class i took. :-P I'll see, and tell everyone all about it later!
As for tonight, I'm planning on just taking it easy. My stomach has been a little queasy (yuck!) so I haven't been eating too much of the solids. It seems to be getting better though. So I have a short story to dazzle your day...

Today was the first day i went to eat at the school cafeteria. I thought I probably should eat soup, so I went to go see what they had. Hmm...Cream of Tomato, or Beef Vegetable. Ugh..cream..no thanks to pus milk. (Jill will explain if you don't get that reference.) Hmm, beef? Well I'll chance it, at least it has vegetables in it. So I lifted the lid to the soup....OH NO!!! Shoot shoot shoot...the lid fell in!!! what do i do?! alright alright...calm..calm..alright, now the lid won't go back on the pot. geezus...great. lovely. eh, i'll put it on the side. ok ok ok..walk away, no one saw that. Heh. Well I soon found out all that trouble wasn't even worth the prize. The soup was amazingly HORRIBLE! What did they put in it? A billion cups of salt?! Yuck. That made me thirsty.

Well alright. Enough for today. Hahaha. I'll blog you all later!!! :-P

today is the 14th...which means only one more week to go until i leave for school.

A Secret Unveiled

so, i think it's about time to share my little secret that i didn't write about last blog. well here it goes....

i'm going to be a founder of a brand new sorority here at Creighton!!! :-D

yes i know. sorority?! rachel? those two things don't go together!!! but, actually, now they will. our sorority will be called Sigma Pi Theta. it is a sorority to spread Asian awareness and culture within the Omaha and Creighton community. we will also specialize in raising money for 3rd world countries. it is basically a social sorority, and we already have 15 members wanting to join. :-) that is a major feat considering that many people who wanted to join sororities are already a part of the pre-existing ones. it's going to take a lot of work to build up a sorority from scratch, but we already have the constitution written, and all we're doing is getting it approved right now. If we're approved, then we can start planning for recruitment i believe. Tam is doing a lot of the work, and i give her credit for doing it. It was her idea after all :-). but there will be 4 co-founders including me. Tam, Mary, Evelyn, and I. It should be really fun, and hopefully we'll get Sigma Pi Theta up and running by the time next year rolls around! Summer is going to be busy.

however, i am in the midst of finals week, and i actually have a chemistry final in an hour and a half. :-P i'm done studying of course (otherwise i wouldn't be writing on this thing)...but still, stressing out a tad bit. and tomorrow i have a Biology final at 8:00 in the morning. eh...i'm going to need to get a cup of coffee or something...so early!!! but after that, I will be done with school, and then my dad comes up to Omaha on thursday, and just a couple more days until i return home! May 5th, around 2:00 pm..so mark your calendars! hehe. just joking. But i'm definitely excited to come home for a good 3 and a half months! :-) well, i should get back to a short review of everything.

farewell

short update

hey, so i haven't written in a very long time so i thought i'd drop in for a bit! not much has been going on in the past couple of months since spring break ended. I'm still keeping up with being environmentally friendly, and green though. For about a week after I came back from my service trip, i actually became a vegetarian. It was mostly to become greener and help the environment, but it was also for my health. Been getting sick a lot lately. Nothing to really worry about though. But in any case...all my friends are doing well, James is doing well :-), and college has just been college. This past weekend i studied for a chemistry lab final i had today, but i also went rollerskating with this sorority (Kappa Kappa Gamma) and went out to eat with some friends at Old Chicago (pizzas, pastas, calzones, and the like). but nothing too exciting. :-P

however...i do have some other news that might be quite exciting to some of you. I shared it with a couple people...but still haven't told a lot of people yet. but, that is just going to have to wait until next time! :-D until then...

adieu.

the most important blog you may ever read

well as you all might know, i was on a spring break service trip this past week! i went to Terre Haute, Indiana to work at this place called St. Mary of the Woods. It was a college, but i stayed at the convent side of the campus where there is an alpaca farm, orchards, and vegetable plots amongst other things. We basically had our own house when we stayed there, it was a house/dorm place for visitors (called Marian Hall). there were 8 rooms which was perfect for our group of 8, and a kitchen, and living room area. really cozy house :-). anyhow, let me talk about my trip. keep in mind that i chose to go to this site because of their interest in eco-justice and environmental justice. i'm actually very interested in those things now. so...some of the first things we did there was learn about how to save the environment and the world! :-D perfect right? but yah, their main goal was to educate us about the dangers and threats of certain factors that affect the world. They are really involved in the "green-movement" and i think i'm about ready to jump on their bandwagon. This place is amazing. They run everything economically aware and safe...for example, all the cafeteria food is prepared mostly with the organic produce that they grow on site. Also, they compost the waste products (extra foods, paper napkins, and the like). this compost goes to their piles of green products, waste, and manure from the animals (alpacas and horses) and it all goes into gardening their produce. the entire process is so amazing...also..get this. they heat their buildings with "biomass." Biomass is another absolutely amazing process. let me explain. buildings are heated with fuel..most buildings are heated with fossil fuels such as gases and coal that release Carbon Dioxide products into the air contributing to the greenhouse effect. so...no good. but St. Mary of the Woods uses Biomass! this is fuel from wood..not chopped down trees destroying forests..no..but instead, fallen branches and trees, donated wood from carpenters with surplus resources (that they would otherwise throw away), and scrap wood from other sites. then..get this next part. they take it to their on site shop where they have a boiler, and they create steam (clean products, no toxic gases) to heat building units. it's quite impressive when you think about it, because it's just as effective, costs less, and burns clean! that's not all i learned about. they also make their own biodiesel. what's that? well...you know how diesel trucks run on regular diesel, but also contributes to the greenhouse effect? biodiesel burns clean, but works just like regular diesel. and some of their buses actually runs on their biodiesel that they make. i didn't get to learn about the whole process of how biodiesel is made, but basically, they make it not with fossil fuels, but again with wood chips, and recycled wood. such an amazing thing to actually see that there is another substitute for oil and fossil fuels. because i know that the world's resources are going to run out soon, and we need something else to meet our needs. this is it. i thought while i was there...that this is our future, of clean and resourceful fuels. it's exciting to know that there's something out there :-).

but continuing on with the trip. that's not all that i learned. in order to really be involved with the green movement, we need to eat green also. and they taught us about foods. most of our foods are really quite bad for us. america doesn't know what we're consuming. ever heard of "Genetically modified organisms?" imagine this...a corn plant that grows naturally is susceptible to certain diseases or insects that eat and destroy the plant. along comes a scientist who looks at a bacteria or virus such as E. coli, and sees that it has a trait to ward off disease. "hmm..." thinks the scientist..and then takes a bacteria gene and injects it into the corn plant. sure, now the corn plant works fine with warding off insects..but the really disturbing part is...we don't know how this affects humans who consume the corn plants. do you know what's even more disturbing? almost all of the foods we eat are GMOs. High fructose corn syrup...90% comes from genetically modified corn. people have all kinds of weird allergic reactions and sicknesses...but they can't trace it back to genetically modified organisms because...hear this...America does not label their GMO foods. it's scary. i also learned about this huge company "Monsanto." look it up. they are the devil. they have patents on living organisms. they have patented certain GMOs such as the corn plants that i was talking about earlier. they are able to sue many smaller organic farms if they find one of their plants in their fields. Crazy thing is...corn can cross pollinate through wind currents and such...but does that matter to Monsanto? nope. they sue those farms anyway. i can talk about Monsanto for much longer, but that's just the gist of it. Genetically Modified Organisms aren't natural...and they may be making people sick, but we don't know it. Most of America doesn't even know what GMOs are. well..now you do. i'm just saying to be aware..because you never know how it might affect you. all i've learned is that..organic foods and naturally raised animals are a healthy substitute, and even though they might be more expensive, you know exactly what is going into your body, and you know how it's going to affect you. plus, there are more nutrients in organic foods (also look for "natural foods" [but be careful because some naturals contain GMOs] because some companies can't afford to get certified for an organic label). there is a way to shop for foods, and i will share it with you:
Seasonal
Local (farmer's markets. know your farmers!)
Whole foods (whole grains for example)
Meats...as in less of it
Organics
Education (become educated about GMOs and unhealthy foods)
follow SLWMOE and this will lead you to a healthier lifestyle.

hah...so i know most of this blog entry was me ranting about the green movement and all of these new things. but you know what? in order for the green movement to grow, it needs to spread. so that's what i'm doing. you are now a bit more educated about this issue, and it would be great if everyone else was also. you don't have to become a hippie to be green. but just be smart about things. i learned not to be wasteful, and how to conserve the Earth. just wanted to say thanks for reading this important blog, and don't worry...i'll write more about my trip later!

some extra things to be "green":
1. instead of using www.google.com, use www.blackle.com (it's the exact same thing, but because the background is black you save a ton of energy. set it as your home page and help to make a difference!)
2. when shopping for groceries, shop at the perimeter of the store. this is where most of the produce and organics are found. the inner portions of the store contains more processed foods and GMOs.
3. bring your own canvas bag (can be bought for only $0.99 at a grocery store) to store groceries instead of taking plastic bags all the time.
4. Use energy saving lightbulbs
5. Take shorter showers (something i'm working on! :-D)
6. Eat less meats. If each person gave up meat for one meal a day it would cut down on the slaughtering and over excessive grazing.
7. drink organic milk, hormones in cows are unhealthy for you, and for the cows. did you know that a cow on hormones to produce more milk only lives for a couple of years, while a cow naturally milked lives out the proper lifespan of 25 years.

just thought i'd spread the green! :-D

(pictures: left-albert(left) and loc(right) in front of what was left of the 3 plates of sushi that we got from Hiro's restaurant. right-the whole gang in a lecture room before we had our study session. (from front to back, left to right: mary, albert, loc, evelyn, tam, joe, and me!) we're nicknamed the "Joy Luck Club"...you can see why.)


so, i haven't posted in a while...since December!!! well, i think i should start up again.

so i'm back at creighton after the short winter break. it's pretty cold, but still handling it well enough. today however was -7 degrees in the morning, and it warmed up to 8 degrees now. still pretty darn cold if you ask me. anyhow...what's new at school...this semester i don't feel as stressed, so i'm going to take on a couple more tasks. i'm applying for a pharmacy volunteering job at the Creighton Medical Center. Hopefully, by the time i start volunteering, i'll be able to walk there without freezing to death. what else...oh right. so my new goal for this semester on is: Saving the World. in order to do this, i have set up a recycling bin in my room, i'm going to Indianapolis during Spring Break on a service trip to do environmental justice work (as well as tutoring students, cooking, working at a hospital, entertaining the elderly, and looking after llamas), fund raising for the American Cancer Association, and also working at a hunger cleanup. it sounds really fun, and i can't wait to start all of these projects. :-D