Take a Moment to Breathe

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-23T15:21:00.003-06:00

It's about that time of year again! Time for turkey, cinnamon smells, and the giving of many thanks! This year, I will be celebrating 3 thanksgiving dinners with 3 of my favorite groups of people. Last weekend was the first dinner, fully complete with a turkey, all the fixings, and my closest group of friends. Tonight will consist of another turkey with all the fixings, a few local dishes (such as mochiko chicken and some mochi), and another group of wonderful friends! Tomorrow, on the actual day-of-giving-thanks, Jill and I will be off to another dinner full of friends and family, and a couple of smiling children to boot! What a wonderful week to boost the spirits as well as the appetite! Hope Thanksgiving will be lovely for all of you as well!

Merry Turkeyday,

Rachel

More Devilish Tasks

2011-11-12T16:31:00.002-06:00

Grad school applications are the devil's tools...

These applications are the windows to my future. However, what is required for these applications have got to be just as hard as graduate school itself!! Seriously...let's do the math.

There are 5+ applications that are in progress. All 5 of them require a personal statement. All 5 of them require a statement of purpose. So...
5 Personal Statements + 5 Statement of Purposes = A LIFETIME OF PAIN

I have 2 more months to complete most of the applications, retake the GRE, gather together my transcripts, ask for letters of recommendations, and pray that at least one school will take me in. I am hoping this won't be a repeat of my pharmacy applications. If I could just fast-forward my life to Summer 2012...

Stay sane my friends,

Rachel

If you had one wish

2011-11-12T00:06:00.002-06:00

So I guess I missed my most powerful wishing time on 11/11/11 at 11:11 by one hour. Oops. But then again...what would I have wished for?

If you had one wish that would be guaranteed to come true, what would you wish for? Money, cars, and shiny new things? Those are all too materialistic to waste a perfect wish on. Maybe something a little less tangible, and a little more emotional? Love... Way too volatile to predict a perfect outcome, and much too exciting to have love guaranteed. After all, isn't the best part of love the excitement of the courting and wooing? (Yes...yes...we are in the 1950s)

No, if I had one wish...one very powerful "one-and-only" wish I might actually wish to not even have had the wish in the first place. Everything happens for a reason. If we omitted every obstacle in our lives, we wouldn't be the wonderful people we are today. In order for there to be good in this world, there needs to be the concept of "bad." I would not wish the negativity away because then what would my positivity reign over? Life is tough, and life is unfair. But it is in the way we shine our light on certain situations that allow us to grow as decent human beings.

Shine on friends. Shine on.
Rachel

I'm Back!

2011-11-08T22:29:00.002-06:00

Hi All,

I'm back! It sure has been a while, but I think I want to start blogging again. A load of things has happened in the past year...I can't believe that the last time I posted, I was just turning 21 years old! Now I'm 22, a little bit wiser and a little bit more wrinkly thanks to gravity and its "voodoo magic."

This year is all about taking the time to sort out my life goals and taking care of my health. The Crohn's is definitely under control thanks to some hefty doses of Remicade, and boy am I thankful for modern medicine. On the other hand however, medicine as a career path has not been so kind to me. Pharmacy is no longer a passion, but a place where I shall pick up my medications occasionally. :P Perhaps more on this later...

Anyway, I just wanted to check in and let you all know that I am back and writing! I hope to entertain a few in the coming weeks with my midwestern adventures :)

Adieu,

Rachel

Have your cake and eat it too!

2010-09-20T10:01:00.002-05:00

21?! Holy toledo, where did the time go?!

Yup, that's right folks, today I am the big 2-1! Which means...nothing! Hahaha, I have early class tomorrow, so the celebrations will have to be cut to a minimum today. To answer some of those burning questions I know all of you must have :P..

1. Yes, it does put a damper on the mood to have my birthday on a Monday

2. No, I did not drink a beer when the clock struck 12. I have to wake up at 7am. (and...I was studying last night)

3. Why do I wake up at 7? Because of Terrestrial Ecology, silly!

4. What was my first present? Freshly baked brownies (with 21! written out in Peanut M&Ms) and Drumsticks from my friends :)

5. What was my second present? A Terrestrial Ecology exam that decided it wanted to kick my butt.

So it's about 10:15 in the morning, just finished with my exam, and now ready for a full day of proctoring exams and going to class until 5! :) Great day, great day. Well, at least I'm looking forward to spending some time with Kelsey at dinner (the location is a surprise, so I'll disclose that to you all later), and seeing the rest of my friends later on tonight!

I think i'll have my brownie..and eat it too.

-Rachel

College Seniors!!

2010-08-25T14:05:00.003-05:00

Today is the first day of school, which means...I'm officially a college senior! I really do feel old as I walk the halls of campus looking at so many unfamiliar faces. Seriously...I recognize NO ONE! How is this possible?! Freshmen, I understand...there won't be many familiar faces there, but Sophomores, Juniors, and other Seniors...where are you guys!!! Anyway.

My first class was at 8:30 this morning and parking was even worse than I could have ever imagined. I thought I'd get there early, around 8:10, to park in a closer lot...but when I got there, Lo and Behold! no parking. The lot was full?! So I went to the farther parking lot, and started panicking because there didn't seem to be a lot of stalls left. Oh dear...I guess I'm just going to have to get up early every day until people realize that they don't want to go to their 8:30 classes and leave me with the parking! :D Woohoo! Hahaha...well I'll keep everyone updated.

But until then..

-Rachel

White, Fluffy, and the Devil's Tool

2010-02-19T09:18:00.002-06:00

It seems like it snows every weekend. Today is supposed to have 1-3 inches of snow. Lovely. Just lovely. AND! Today...just to mention...is the first day that I've decided to head back to school since I got sick. So i had to spend my wonderful morning sweeping off my car, stressing about the slippery roads and bad drivers, and trudging through this incessant snow. Oh well...all a part of the Omaha adventure i suppose? :P Anyhow...time to get back to the nitty-gritty.

Snow, snow go away. Come again...NEVER!

2010-02-05T10:04:00.004-06:00

Here's my very first post of the new year! And...unfortunately, it will be a rant. :P so please all, bear with me here.

This morning, I awoke unpleasantly to a horrific scene outside. Snow. TONS of snow. Now, I suppose I like snow just as much as the next Hawaii person living in Nebraska (which, let me tell you, isn't very many people), but I especially hate it since I started driving up here. Not only is it difficult to maneuver in 2-3 inches of snow, but it's especially a pain in the you know what to dig my car out first. I started digging around 8:45 this morning and didn't finish until 9:15. Yes. Half an hour to remove some stupid frozen water off of my car. And don't be fooled folks! It looks light and fluffy, but in reality, snow is dense and heavy, and it's seriously just the devil's tool. In any case, after shoveling for 30 minutes (and to add even more awkwardness to the bunch, a school bus was stuck in front of my building, so he was watching me dig the whole time...thanks for helping!!), I finally drove out of my driveway and the indoor car lights turn on. I was so confused, and didn't know why they were on (because apparently my car doesn't like to tell me what exactly is wrong...it just tells me "something" is wrong). Then i looked through my side view mirror and realized..shoot. My back door is swinging open. So i got out of the car and slammed the door. Then i slammed it shut again. And again. And again. AND AGAIN! *$$&%*@*&(@!!!! ok...ok...ok...I did NOT just spend half an hour digging to drive a broken car. So i drove back up to my driveway (bus driver still watching by the way), tried to remove all the snow and ice from the door, and realized that the suction part of the door was warped from the cold and the heat coming from my car. GREAT! So...what did I do?

I stood there. In the cold.

Then I got mad.

So I slammed the door as hard as a could out of pure frustration! and...it stayed. O.O!

I ended up running to the other side of the car, got in, and pushed the door from the inside. YAYAYAYAYAYAY! It stays! So i locked the door, and FINALLY got on my way :).

It usually takes 7 minutes to get to school. Today...and 50 minutes after I left my front door...here I am at school. What a reward. :P

2009-12-17T10:56:00.003-06:00

So I have one more final, and two more essays to do before I am officially on break! My eyes feel like they are melting out of their sockets because I didn't get a chance to sleep last night...but I suppose it's to be expected during finals week. Terrible coffee, tons of studying, and melting eyeballs. Just peachy. Anyway...short story for you all.

I was craving Lunchables Pizza for the last 2 days, so I finally decided to get one yesterday. I was so excited that I got my lunchables, but then...no. No way!!! They ripped me off! I got one less pepperoni than I was supposed to! (The pepperoni is the best part by the way) But for every pizza you're supposed to get 3 pepperonis. But no. 3, 3, 2. What?! It made me so grouchy, and I was telling my friend about it...so he, being the nice guy he is, went and bought another one, just so I could have another pepperoni for my pizza. Anyway...he opens up his pack, and what?! He gets an EXTRA pepperoni?! And guess what...another one of my friends got an extra one too. IT'S A CONSPIRACY I TELL YOU! People are just trying to push my buttons during finals week...But I guess it worked out in the end. :P

Oh you evil lunchables people...

SNOW DAY!!! and yes! for real this time!!!

2009-12-09T00:09:00.002-06:00

Alright, so another update for you all!

Creighton is actually giving us a real snow day tomorrow. OH MY GOODNESS! This rarely happens, because apparently Creighton doesn't like to play nice with the weather, and thinks that they can out beat whatever Mother Nature decides to hand to us. Well...think again Creighton! Because Mother Nature has brought out the big guns, and has decided to pour another 7 inches of snow upon Omaha tonight!!! Not to mention 20-35 mph gusts, and blizzard like conditions all through tomorrow. Lovely. Just lovely. In fact, I can hear the angry winds pounding against the window. Scared? Yes. Very.

But, the fact of the matter is...that there is no school tomorrow! Yet, it is the week before finals...so that means the extra time will probably be used to study and do some major essay writing. Uggghhhh...On the bright side though, around 12:30 pm there is going to be a some major snowball fighting and snowman making :). I gotta take advantage of the snow day right?

Well, hope you all are keeping warm where ever you are! (I wish I was...) And congrats to Greg Long for winning the 2009 Eddie Aikau big wave contest!!! :D Watching online streaming of the event just wasn't the same. Hahaha!

Trapped by mounds of snow,
Rachel

SNOW DAY!!! oh..wait..nope. that's everyone else but us.

2009-12-08T08:02:00.002-06:00

Sigh...no snow day today...how disappointing. It seriously snowed all night, and still going. Yet, our school refuses to cancel. Here are the reasons why I think we shouldn't have school today:
1. 200 schools are canceled besides Creighton. Hrm..I wonder why..which leads me to..
2. It is FREEZING outside!!! The lows are in the negatives today. I am going to freeze. And die.
3. The roads are dangerous! How does Creighton expect people to get to school alive?! With the continuous snow, removal can't be that efficient.
4. My road is not plowed. Hellooo shovel.
5. I want to stay indoors and drink hot chocolate all day, and catch up on writing my essays for finals week.
6. It is just not fair.

:(...Thanks a lot Creighton. Way to show the snow who's boss...
-Rachel

December = Christmas! and finals...

2009-12-01T10:03:00.002-06:00

Today's the first day of December! Do you know what that means?
I finished my Pharmacy Applications!!! Whew, that was a load off my back. But the school year isn't quite over yet. Still have a couple papers to write, and not to mention FINALS WEEK...lovely.

Anyhow...Thanksgiving break was just peachy! Chad flew over from Arizona to spend some time with me and my friends. We cooked a big Thanksgiving feast, turkey and all the fixings of course. :) I was actually very pleased with the way the turkey turned out. It was both flavorful and moist. Overall, very good Thanksgiving.

I also took Chad to the Strategic Air and Space Museum! It's out in Ashland, NE about half an hour from my house. He was so excited!!! Hahaha, that place is actually pretty cool. I'll be sure to post some pictures up later.

But now it's time to get back down to the nitty-gritty...3 more weeks until I get me some Hawaiian Sun (and I don't mean the canned drink :P)!

<3,
Rachel

Today's warm weather feels like a hug

2009-11-01T13:39:00.002-06:00

Halloween was interesting this year. Good and bad. I threw a small party at my house; we had dinner, played some games, and watched half of a scary movie (because the internet doesn't cooperate, and only let us watch 72 minutes...). But I ordered some costco pizzas last night, we made hotdogs, and people brought curry, a pumpkin cheesecake, and cookies. I also had chips and salsa, and lots of sugary sodas. Overall, the party was pretty fun, I had fun hanging out with my friends, and the costumes people wore were fun too. :)

But...now for a different tone of the blog.
I'm gonna take just a little bit of time right now to say that...I am really going to miss her. It's hard being up here not able to say goodbye...but I understand. 20 years old, and I still knew my Great-Grandmother. Not a lot of people have the opportunity to say that. I feel blessed.

I am going to miss you,
Rach

Welcome to our home!

2009-08-30T09:32:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was our first barbecue/party co-hosted by yours truly! Tam and I decided to have a housewarming party so all of our friends could see our house and hang out before school got extremely busy. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures...but Tam made baked teriyaki chicken, I made chicken katsu, we provided rice, and other people brought desserts galore, portuguese sausage, spam, eggs, and a couple other goodies. We were originally supposed to grill the chicken, but figured out later that we didn't have enough charcoal...>.< bad planning on our part i suppose, but the baking of the chicken worked out just fine. We also bought some burgers that we didn't end up grilling, so we'll probably have another small get together to fire those up. Overall, it really seemed like everyone had a great time! After eating good food, we ended up watching a movie, playing some cards, laughing our heads off while playing "Catch Phrase" (a game like charades/taboo/hot potato), and ended our night with some video games. You can't beat good friends having fun. :)
I'm excited to host the next party.

2009-08-18T13:07:00.002-05:00

It still amazes me that I can wake up in the morning and not feel a twinge of pain. :)

Summer Fun

2009-08-10T21:32:00.002-05:00

Hanscom park, teriyaki chicken/mushroom/bell pepper/onion skewers, and the pedestrian bridge from Nebraska to Iowa!

2009-07-30T09:38:00.002-05:00

Just a short update...

I am out of the hospital! :) I got out yesterday afternoon, and still am being watched like a hawk...but at least I get to smell the fresh air and sleep in my own bed. I'm staying up in Omaha for the rest of the summer, but at least I know my physicians here are top notch and will keep me healthy.

I'm ready to embark on a great adventure without any strings attached.

Love,
Rachel

:)

2009-07-26T13:25:00.002-05:00

Hi all! Here's an update...

So lots of good news. :) I am getting better each and everyday. I feel much stronger now that they're giving me nutrients and lipids, and as of yesterday they are even letting sip some water and sprite, and I might even get to eat some jello or clear chicken broth. Tomorrow I get another endoscopy, and they'll be able to see exactly how well the medications they've been giving me are working. Hopefully I'll get more good news!!

But we'll see how it goes. :) I'll let you guys know!

<3,
Rachel

Dear Reader,

2009-07-21T12:45:00.000-05:00

For all of you that read my blog, I'm going to give you the time of day and fill you in on what's happening at the moment.

I am in the hospital.

No, I'm not dying. But yes, I am very sick. My doctor decided that I needed to be checked in immediately after my appointment, and I'm going to be in here for a couple days. Today they're going to get me rehydrated because I haven't been able to keep any fluids or food down since Friday, and tomorrow they will start the testing. There's a lot to be done in the next couple of days, and sadly I can't finish my summer school course that I came here to do. But being healthy is more important right? I trust my doctors, and I trust my parents. I am so grateful that they are here in Omaha right now, because I don't think I could ever endure this without them. It's a world far too frightening, and unknown. I haven't said much to them or anyone, but I'm really upset about this whole situation. I want to be out of this hospital bed and back into my own, studying for tomorrow's morning organic chemistry class. But that doesn't seem to be in my near future. It's alright though...because I have hope that this will all come to a close soon...

So please, whoever you are, wish me the best of luck. I'll try to update again soon.

Much love,
Rachel

10...9...8...

2009-06-28T05:35:00.002-05:00

One and a half weeks left.

This break seemed so short, yet I think I'm ready to head back. Ready to hit the organic chemistry books, and ace my summer school course. The time spent at home was very restful, and I enjoyed going to the beach 2-3 times a week and getting plenty of the Hawaiian sun that I missed out on. I even learned to body board this summer. :) that was definitely an experience that I would never replace. In fact, I think I'm going to head out to catch some waves a couple more times before i leave.

But Nebraska misses me too, along with the people there. And oddly enough...I miss Nebraska. The roads and people have become so familiar to me now; my second family away from home. My friends are definitely different, but they are sorely missed while I'm here. Strangely, I can't wait to go back. And that's a good feeling.

One and a half more weeks.
Let the countdown begin.

"Why do you want to be a pharmacist?"

2009-05-02T11:08:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was the day! The day of my pharmacy interview that is. I got an email from the School of Pharmacy and Health Professions on Wednesday, offering me an invitation for an interview...on Friday!!! I was so ecstatic, yet PANICKING to no end. Only a little less than 3 days to prepare?! Blasphemy! Hahaha...but let me tell you how it went...

So I got to my interview, suit and all, and sat down in front of the room. My interviewers were two associate professors here at Creighton. They were both very nice, and very friendly, so my nervousness quickly subsided. The first question they asked me was, "Why do you want to be a pharmacist?" That I answered without a problem. Next was, "Where do you see yourself in 10 years?" That wasn't a problem either. "What pharmacy experience have you had?" Answered without a doubt. "What do you like to do for fun." Arrange music, and play the oboe of course. I thought at this point everything was going pretty smoothly...then the big guns started shooting.

"If your boss asked you to complete a task ASAP, and you didn't know how to do it, what would you do?"
I would ask him if he had time to teach me, or if any other staff member could teach me, and I would learn quickly.
"There are no staff members available to teach you."
I would ask my supervisor if he could teach me. I wouldn't want to make a mistake in this type of situation as it could be detrimental to a patient.
"That's the thing...your supervisor doesn't know how to do it either."
(Thinking to myself...WOW...what kind of twist is this?!) I would probably look it up, and learn how to do this.

Haha...Quite a twist...But I think I did alright. A couple of the last questions were, "Are familiar with the honor code?" Yes, I don't think cheating should be tolerated. "Since you said your integrity was very important to you, say you caught one of your good friends cheating, what would you do?" This question...I might have answered a little bit too strongly. >.< Hopefully I didn't give off too harsh of an impression.

But that was my interview! Hopefully they'll get back to me soon, I really do hate waiting for these types of things. Wish me luck!!!

A Night on the Town

2009-04-18T16:36:00.003-05:00

I finally made my way to Gorat's Steakhouse last night! I had the choice sirloin cut, with spaghetti, french fries, and a salad. Oh so good! After that, I went to this pedestrian bridge in Iowa, crossing the Missouri river, and the view was so nice. Not to mention the fireworks show to top it off :)

Henry Doorly, you rock my socks

2009-04-14T13:43:00.004-05:00

Pictures: Kelsey and Throck the rock, Me and a rhino :P, gorilla man chillin, and BORIS the fat meerkat! :D

And so Easter Break came and went in a blink of an eye...

I had a good break though :). Did lots of things, went to Hiro's Sushi twice, ate dim sum with the friends, bought PLANET EARTH (!!!!), ate costco hot dogs :D, and I went to the zoo for the first time! :) Oh my goodness...Henry Doorly Zoo is AMAZING! If you ever have the chance to spend an entire day at the Omaha Zoo, it is completely worth it. It is the second or third largest zoo in the country I think...(don't quote me on that though). This break was very much needed after getting sick last week :(. But I'm recovering quickly, so don't any of you fret!

2009-04-03T08:29:00.000-05:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY! :D!!!

April Fool!

2009-04-02T00:57:00.002-05:00

It's finally April. That means...summer is so much closer! I absolutely can't wait until I come home. I am counting down the days, counting moons, counting suns, or I don't know what else you would do...but I'm doing anything to pass the time.

1-2 bedroom apartment, 1-2 bathroom

2009-03-24T12:44:00.001-05:00

3 bedroom, 1 bathroom town house

2009-03-24T12:39:00.002-05:00

these are photos of the 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom town house. :)

"Ooo...I like this one!"

2009-03-22T20:20:00.003-05:00

So I've decided that it's probably not the best idea if I became homeless.

That is why I went to look for some off campus housing today! There was this brochure that was sent to our room maybe a month or two ago, and it was advertising 1, 2, and 3 bedroom apartments/town homes. "Hmm...not bad," I thought as I did some quick calculations of rent pricing in my head. So I called them yesterday, and made an appointment for today. After getting COMPLETELY lost amongst the frustrating one way roads, and finding out that our guide was at another location (we only waited for 5 minutes so it wasn't a problem :D), we got to tour the 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom town home first. All I can say....B-E-AUTIFUL. They are brand new, very nice trimming, washer/dryer included, fabulous hardwood flooring, carpeted bedrooms, and has a basement. Not to mention, they keep up on the landscaping in the outdoor courtyard, and have security cameras surrounding the area. This is my first choice, and I can definitely see myself living here.

We also looked at some other 2 bedroom, and 1 bedroom apartments on the Creighton Shuttle route. These were very nice and also brand new, but didn't strike me like the town homes did. The 1 bedroom apartments, however, were extremely quaint. The trimming was as nice as the town homes, the living room area was very spacious, the bedroom was large enough, not to mention an outdoor patio large enough to grill and have a small garden (:D!)! If anything, I would choose this as my second option, however...parking would be an issue. There isn't any designated parking for this apartment complex, so that would pose as a significant problem...

But moving on...there were some other 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartments that we weren't able to see today. The building is still under construction, and won't be done until the month of June. We shall see...It is in a sketchy neighborhood though..So I'm not too sure how I feel about that. I suppose we'll have some time to think about it. But until then, I guess we'll continue to look for more available housing!

Yay! You got to the very end of my post! I congratulate you profusely, because I realize this was quite a long one. But I hope you all are enjoying your weeks, and I'll continue to count down the days until I fly those 10 hours back home! (This section was me just being a little random :D, hehe)

Adieu.

Spring Break!

2009-03-10T17:39:00.002-05:00

Spring break is finally here! However, nothing special is really happening this break...no Spring Break Service Trips, or no road trips. Just hanging out here at the school. It's alright though, it gives me some time to catch up on my sleep, study a bit, and just relax! :D So far, I've been sleeping until 2 pm everyday, waking up to eat, then hanging out in my room, watching tv, and sitting around. Fun fun fun. hahaha, i can see this becoming very boring very soon though. Time to think of something to do...

Any suggestions?

Punch me in the Rectus abdominis, and kiss my Gluteus maximus

2009-03-03T01:53:00.003-06:00

I'll take a break from the late night studying to post a new blog for you all :)...

So, it's midterms week. Ugh! I absolutely hate tests, and everything similar to them. Especially this Pharmacy Human Anatomy exam I'm studying for at the moment. There are about a million things to memorize, and a billion concepts to understand by Wednesday afternoon. I have no idea how I'm going to cram all this information into my tiny little cranium, but I will sure try. It'll be...fun. :P

Anyhow...after midterms week, is SPRING BREAK! I can't wait for this break to come. It will be the first break where I will be doing absolutely NOTHING. I'm just going to hang out here in Omaha, and relax for one whole week. I'm pretty excited, because I'll have tons of free time to catch up with my studying, and do some extra light reading. There are a couple of books that have been staring me in the eye since the beginning of the semester. But I just haven't had the chance to open them up. I really want to finish up "The Secret Life of Bees," and "In Defense of Food." Not to mention "The Omnivore's Dilemma," and get started on "Forever." Hahah...yah, lots to do during this break. But besides being studious...I have some other plans too! Like, going to the Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo (it's the 3rd largest in the country I think...and I've never been there yet!! GASP!), watch a BILLION movies (the entire Star Wars series, Indiana Jones, the Bourne trilogy, Ocean's movies, and a few old western movies to boot), and maybe see a concert on Saturday (The Academy Is is coming to town, and my friend might be able to pull a couple strings so I can meet them!!!!). Needless to say, I'm SUPER excited for midterms week to be over. :D

But until then...Human Anatomy will continue to kick my Gluteus maximus.

Celebration!

2009-02-18T22:17:00.002-06:00

I dedicate today's post to say...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNCLE SHIGERU!

:-)

And now I can wear the jacket without long sleeves

2009-02-10T13:50:00.003-06:00

Nebraska has been blessed with good weather the past couple of days!!! :-) It's been in the 50's and 40's (which, for all of you Hawaii dwellers is COLD), but trust me...this is really nice weather. It rained a little yesterday, but today the skies are clear and blue, and on a day with no class...everything is perfect.

So nothing too exciting has been happening lately...which explains for the lack of interesting recent posts. Today, no classes, so I went on over to the bookstore. I bought some environmentally friendly index cards to study, a random book called "Forever" (it's about a man who arrives in New York in 1740, and is granted immortality as long as he stays in Manhattan) for only $4, some printer paper, and a pair of Creighton sweatpants. See...like I said...not too exciting.

But this week, nothing too stressful. I have an organic chemistry exam on Friday, which I will start studying for today. Then this weekend is Valentine's, and the week after will be a lot more relaxed I would presume. Well, sorry for the boring post today...I'll try to find something more entertaining to excite you all with! :-)

Have a great week!

Thank Goodness It's Friday!

2009-02-06T11:57:00.000-06:00

Ugh...I don't think I've ever welcomed the weekend as much as I do today. Thank goodness it's Friday..

that's all I have to say.

Everything is just Hunky Dory

2009-01-31T15:40:00.003-06:00

Alright...so i thought everyone should know that computers are evil.

Viruses, spyware, pop-ups...everything..are the devil's tools.

Ok, so my computer crashed again. It's getting fixed. I got a loaner laptop. That computer is full of viruses. It does not do anything I need it to. So i sit here in the library, on a computer that insisted on taking a billion years to start up, and i'm frustrated. Completely and utterly frustrated. I hate technology. Although, it's some sort of love-hate thing. I don't know. Can't live with it, can't live without it.

Oh, did i mention that the technology help center is closed on Saturdays? I'm not even sure if they're closed on Sundays. Lovely. Just lovely.

At least it's a warm day today. 51 degrees and sunny.

Give me a break and cut me some slack for Christ's sake.

Freezing my little tush off...

2009-01-26T20:12:00.002-06:00

alright, so i haven't updated in a very long while. :-P i'm so delinquent..

anyhow...i am back in Omaha! and it's freezing cold! it snowed today, so i was slipping and sliding around while walking to class. however, it's not as bad as last week...where it dropped down to -30 with windchill. THAT was horrible.

classes this semester are a lot better. the load isn't quite as heavy as last semester, and i don't need to worry about pharmacy school applications anymore. however, i hear from them in one week from tomorrow. well...it should be if they decide to give me an interview, they should contact me. if not...well, i told some of you what will happen. :-P hahaha. we'll see. i'm still contemplating.

anyway...i'm waiting for my laundry. it should be done in about 2 minutes. so i'm gonna end my blog with not such a big bang as some of the others. sorry guys! i'm getting lazy with this thing. hehe.

have a good one!

The Flight of the Devil

2008-12-21T11:45:00.003-06:00

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

2008-12-07T20:58:00.004-06:00

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.

2008-11-09T16:36:00.004-06:00

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? :-)

2008-10-16T20:48:00.004-05:00

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

2008-10-04T13:36:00.005-05:00

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

2008-10-01T15:53:00.003-05:00

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..

2008-10-01T14:58:00.003-05:00

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...

2008-09-27T01:01:00.004-05:00

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...

2008-09-23T03:31:00.002-05:00

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!

2008-09-20T18:35:00.002-05:00

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

2008-09-10T17:07:00.002-05:00

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

2008-09-08T15:53:00.002-05:00

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.

2008-09-04T19:27:00.001-05:00

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

2008-08-29T14:51:00.000-05:00

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..

2008-08-27T15:06:00.000-05:00

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

2008-08-14T17:49:00.000-05:00

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

A Secret Unveiled

2008-04-29T14:23:00.000-05:00

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

2008-04-22T01:38:00.000-05:00

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

2008-03-09T16:10:00.000-05:00

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

2008-02-20T16:45:00.000-06:00

(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

2007-12-09T14:14:00.001-06:00

here are some pictures of my snow day!!! this was thursday afternoon. we buried our friend's car, made snow angels, and laughed at the covered bikes. :-D

Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!

2007-12-05T09:31:00.000-06:00

(picture: first snow. not today! but during thanksgiving break)
Well, you can probably guess by now that....it's snowing! yes, indeed it snowed today, or...is snowing. It's really light powder, but still. So i woke up this morning, and i walked outside thinking it was going to be a little on the warm side because last night was warm. (warm meaning low 40's high 30's). but...as soon as i opened the door....O.O oh my goodness. it's freezing. mostly because of the windchill factor, but also because of the tiny little ice particles hitting your bare face, and going into your eyes. that's never fun. especially when you're wearing contacts. but i'm pretty surprised. it wasn't supposed to snow until thursday or friday! what a strange thing weather is. but it was interesting, because as i was walking back to my dorm, the snow was landing on my winter coat and i noticed...snowflakes really do have intricate designs. i wanted to take a picture, but in a crowded sidewalk...hm. not the best idea. so maybe later if i can catch some snowflakes. lol.

but i realize i haven't updated you on anything these past couple of months really. just been so busy with everything, and now finals are rolling around the corner! they're next week already!!! >.< so i'm studying for those. good thing i only have 3 left. Chemistry, Theology, and Philosophy. I already took my Chemistry Lab final, which wasn't bad actually. but i still have to write a philosophy paper, due tomorrow...sigh, the trials of college. but....with finals nearing...that means that...I'LL BE HOME SOON!!! :-D i can't wait to see everyone again, and be able to wear shorts outside! hahaha. just a couple more weeks!!

Christmas at Creighton

2007-11-28T14:40:00.000-06:00

.u
so it's time for Christmas cheer at Creighton University!!! which means, a bunch of lights and decorations galore!!! :-D so i put up a couple videos just to show you what creighton looks like this time of year. the staff spent a lot of time setting up for the light ceremony, where they basically turned on all the lights and said a blessing. it was pretty cool. :-D
so....you might not understand what i'm saying in the second video...so here is the dialogue just in case :-P:
I'm speaking: "This is us walking to Pep Band. Um...Yah, they have the Christmas lights up. Hi James!"
James: "hi."
Me: "and me! um..yah. so it was really nice. all the lights are on the trees. that's nathan. and garret and courtney up there.....I'll have more pictures later."

(i had trouble understanding what i was saying..partially because i mumble a lot, and also because if you notice i'm getting a slight accent. or a sing-song voice. one or the other. i can't tell too well.) :-P

Finale

2007-11-05T15:59:00.000-06:00

(pictures: 1st-pier 39 with all the sea lions; 2nd-sylvia at fisherman's wharf; 3rd-golden gate bridge park; 4th-the steepest road in SF. the road is closed off now.)

so my last day i spent in San Francisco with Sylvia, and then later with Loc, Tam, and Son. so in the morning, sylvia and i went to fisherman's wharf. we got our Singapore Milk Tea first for breakfast, and our spongecake buns, then we caught the bus to fisherman's wharf. it was raining a bit when we got there, so it wasn't all too pleasant. but it soon cleared up. while at fisherman's wharf we saw the sea lions at Pier 39, then we walked alongside all the shops and restaurants. we stopped by at a bakery, where they sold sourdough bread...mmm, my favorite. (i ate it when i got back home though, but it tasted great :-D). we went to some of the nearby shops, and after looking around we decided to go to sylvia's friend's house. We caught a cab (i think my first or second time riding in a cab by the way) and went to Syl's friend, Nathan's house. Nathan designs his own clothing line called, "New Skool" (you can check it out online at www.shopnewskool.com) and he gave me tons of free stuff. i got a jacket, and about 5 shirts. all very nice. i'll maybe take some pictures later. but, we had to meet sylvia's co workers nearby, so we stopped by really quickly, (after i bought a new bag at a nearby shop), and then went back to Nathan's. Soon after we went to go eat lunch at this Mediterranean place, where i ate a vegetarian wrap thing. It was actually pretty good, and i really liked it. who knew i liked Mediterranean food? haha. so we hung out at Nathan's for a while, until my friends came to pick me up. Albert was driving, and Loc, Tam, and Son were all there touring SF. i joined them, and we went the Golden Gate Bridge park again. then, we went back to fisherman's wharf where we pretty much did the same things that i did with syl. oh! but i almost forgot...albert showed us this man who sits by the wharf. he's just on the side of the road, a homeless man that no one notices. except i noticed him, because he was carrying a whole bunch of tree branches. i thought it was really odd. but we walked past him, and albert told us to watch.........the man would hide behind his branches, and as soon as a person walked by, "AHHHHH!!!" there he would pop out behind the branches and scare someone! hahahahaha...it was sooo hilarious. i should've taken video. but if he got enough laughs from the people, they would give him money. hahah...it's weird, but smart in a sense. instead of just begging for money, he would use his...er.......talent? haha. but it was pretty cool. :-P soo, before we left SF albert showed us the steepest road. i mean, it wasn't all too exciting, but just to see how steep the roads could get was alright. haha. so, after saying my goodbyes to sylvia and picking up all of my stuff from her house, we left San Francisco...

mmm, so doesn't that food look good? well, this picture is at Tam's friend's house. this was our going away dinner, hot plate and hot pot.on the hot plate we cooked shrimp, beef, eggs, and i showed them how to eat spam the right way, with shoyu and sugar. haha. in the hot pot we had chicken broth which we cooked shrimp and ramen noodles in. it was pretty good...we ate so much, and i felt absolutely stuffed after. :-) but good food, good company....it was an awesome trip :-)

Japan Town in San Francisco

2007-11-05T15:42:00.001-06:00

thursday night i went back into SF. i got a ride from Sylvia's friend Alana who lives in San Jose, and before we went to pick up syl from work, we stopped by in Noe Valley where sylvia used to live. there's this cute little bakery there, with awesome tasting cupcakes. haha, alana is addicted to them. but i had a carrot cake one(that i brought back home) and a "Hoho" cupcake. but after we picked up Sylvia, and went to walk around downtown and shop a bit. we went to a couple department stores, like Nordstrom where i bought my Uggs! (by the way, Uggs are a brand of winter boots and such. i'll take a picture and post it later). then we went to a Forever 21 store, that was 4 stories high! it was huge...i bought a couple things from there. and also in Urban Outfitters. after we met up with Sylvia's other friend Monica, and we went to eat dinner in Japan Town. We went to this place called Takara. i had the shrimp tempura dinner, and we all shared a mountain vegetable soup. soooooo delicious! (as you can see up there). oh, and we also had sushi, like the Spicy Ahi Tuna rolls. the japanese food was actually pretty authentic. so i was glad about that :-). after we just went to Sylvia's house, and hung out there.

Under the Boardwalk...actually On the Boardwalk.

2007-11-05T15:23:00.001-06:00

alright...so i know i've been a bit behind on the updating. so, i'll try to do all of it today. i still need to finish my trip blogs, and i have even more stuff to talk about after that..so let me start.

(pictures: upper pictures-Santa Cruz beach boardwalk at night; 3rd picture-Loc, me, and Son; bottom-Santa Cruz boardwalk)

so on October 17th, we pretty much took it easy. during the day we stayed at Tam's house, and just hung out. we slept in late, and did some studying...or...well...Loc and Tam did i think. :-P when Son got home, we did a lot more. we first stopped off at Jamba Juice (which they don't have in the midwest!!!!!!!!!!! >.<) so it was welcomed with open arms! hahaha. after that, we drove for an hour to Santa Cruz beach boardwalk! it was pretty late, so nothing was open when we got there...but it was still really nice seeing sand, and hearing the rolling of the waves :-). so we stopped by at the only place that was open...an arcade. we played a couple games, and we left soon after. so before heading back to San Jose, we went to Jack in the Box (which they also don't have in the midwest!!!!!!!!!!!). oh my goodness....it tasted so good. hahaha. but on the way back, we got a call from our friend Albert who also goes to Creighton. he's the one who lives in San Francisco, and he called because he wanted to hang out. so he drove to San Jose, where we met at Son's friend's house. from there we went to grab drinks like milk teas from Quicklys. yummm....

Tofu and Chicken

2007-10-24T19:36:00.000-05:00

so the 4th day of vacation was pretty much food filled. We got up pretty early (maybe around 10:30 :-P) and headed toward Tam's high school, Saint Lawrence. Her school is REALLY small...there's pretty much only one hallway, and that's split up into freshmen to senior classrooms. we saw her old teachers, and apparently my "future husband." so, Tam's friend told her before she left, to find him a japanese girl. when we got there, she introduced me to him, and yelled as he was leaving, "SHE'S JAPANESE!" it was so embarrassing....because he looked back with a bright face and yelled, "KONICHIWA!!" >.<>.< we ended up with double the amount of chicken we wanted. :-P but anyhow....so we went to U. Chicken after church, and bought TONS of chicken. they had their specials on Tuesday, so it was just our luck. U. Chicken is known for their different kinds of sauces. they have sauces ranging from mild, all the way to nuclear atomic or something. then they also have their 911 challenge. eat 10 chicken wings with the 911 sauce and...something, like you get a prize or your picture up on the wall. (they call it the911 challenge because the sauce is so hot, that people are sometimes sent to the emergency room due to burns. :-P) but, i got the mild sauce, which was really good :-). so, i should tell you that we were trying to decide how much chicken to buy....Tam and Son got 60 chicken wings. 60!!! that's crazy....Loc and I only got 15 each. i'm not sure how much Nam bought. but we got our chicken (which we didn't finish by the way...we ate leftovers for the next 2 days) and headed over to the movies. at the movies we saw "The Heartbreak Kid" and "Superbad." they were both pretty funny. after the movies we drove around a bit, and then (i think i mixed this up with the last blog) we went to see the San Jose city lights. :-)

And the 3rd day was pool day

2007-10-22T19:48:00.001-05:00

(Picture: San Jose city lights)
Alright, so the next two days of my trip (3rd and 4th days) i have mixed up. so pardon, but i'm not sure how accurate this will be. :-P

so let's see, i think it was monday we didn't do anything. we woke up late, around 11:30 then ate breakfast (vietnamese food. some pork and quail eggs, and rice) then felt tired...so we went back to sleep. haha, i woke up a while after that, maybe around 3:30, but tam slept in till 5. >.< so it was a pretty uneventful day, but at night we went to play some pool. there was this place in san jose i think called "Edgies?" if anyone knows, it's kind of like Hawaiian Brian's back at home. so we went to go play pool with Loc, Tam, Son, Nam, and Potter. well, first we went to San Jose State University, but they closed early, so we had to move to Edgies. we played a billion games it seemed like, but it was fun :-D! i didn't do so bad either, Tam was on my team, and we pretty much kicked the guys' butts. hahaha. nah, but it was all in good fun. :-)

Hello San Francisco!

2007-10-21T15:55:00.001-05:00

I spent the second day of break in San Francisco. Sylvia and I got up fairly early to eat our breakfast of dim sum :-). it was an awesome breakfast, because i have been deprived of asian food. After breakfast we walked around Chinatown a bit, and looked at all the shops. We picked up a snack of Hong Kong style milk tea (strong, but very good) and a spongecake-like bun. We went to this park in the middle of chinatown and "little italy" where we ate, and looked at paintings being sold there. across the street was a graffiti art wall that Sylvia's friend actually did. we hung out for a while, and then caught the bus to different areas like Richmond. we were walking around, and we saw all of these cable cars parked until it was time for them to start running. i went to go take a picture on the cable car, and it was funny because all of these other tourists saw me, and followed my example. :-P
so tam, loc, and son were supposed to come into san francisco to hang out, and then i was going to meet up with them later to head back to san jose...but there was a slight problem. when they were driving into the city, their car broke down. :-P something fell off, or got disconnected, so they had to call a tow truck...even worse luck...the tow truck took an hour to get to them. fixing the car was easy for them, because tam's brother works on cars, but....he didn't have his toolbox. sooooo, he had to call potter to bring it, which took another hour, because potter was in san jose. :-P...so by the time they finished fixing the car, it was already near 6:00, and we had to head back to san jose for church. we only went to the golden gate bridge, but it was already pretty dark so we didn't see too much..plus, it was FREEZING COLD! so we left after 8 minutes or so. lol.

back in san jose, we went to tam's church and did church things? hah..i was mostly confused because you know i'm not a church person or goer. AND, they sung in vietnamese. :-P but it was pretty interesting anyway. after church was even more fun. we went to In and Out (where i got their burger and animal style fries. i must say it was pretty interesting...), and went bowling. alright...so i should mention that the day before we left Omaha, my group of friends and i went bowling. the bowling alleys in omaha are actually pretty bad. everyone smokes in there, and the atmosphere is a little creepy. so it was a refresher to go to the california bowling alleys where everything seemed a lot safer if you might say. :-P hah, but i haven't gone bowling in probably the last 5 years or more, so i pretty much suck. Potter was trying to help me, but...oh well. :-P i remember before the best i had bowled was a 26. yes, just a plain 26. but my best was 62 this time, so i got much better! haha. still gotta work on it though.

First Day of Vacation!

2007-10-21T14:03:00.001-05:00

(picture: chicken katsu plate lunch from "Hawaiian BBQ Drive-in")
alright, so i'm having a little bit of trouble uploading all of my images onto this blog (there's quite a bit) so i'll split them up by days. if i can remember what i did. :-P

first of all, maybe i should introduce the people that i traveled with. On my first flight i flew with Tam (who's house i stayed at), Loc, and Albert. Albert is from San Francisco (he departed after landing in SJ). So when we arrived at the airport, Tam's brother, Son, and her friends, Potter (his real name is Viet, but he looks like Harry Potter so everyone just calls him Potter) and his sister Vi came to pick us up. we visited Tam's sister's house, and her niece and spent a bit of time there. then we went to go eat some Hawaiian BBQ! i have been craving chicken katsu since i left the islands, so i was really happy to get some in California. it actually tasted pretty good too! :-D
so after lunch i was supposed to meet sylvia for a bbq at her friends house, but it was pretty late and i couldn't make it there...however, after she finished with her bbq, sylvia, jackie and her husband came to pick me up from tam's house :-). i spent the night at her house in San Francisco and the next day there too..but i'll get into that later.
that night sylvia took me to eat Thai food at this restaurant "King of Thai." i had their beef noodles, that tasted like chow fun, but even better. it was awesome! :-D so we went back to sylvia's house, but we caught the cable car. the cable car stops maybe about a block from Syl's house, so it's really convenient. she doesn't have a car, but since she lives in chinatown, everything is so easy to get around to, either by bus, cable car, train, or foot. it seems like a nice way to live.

midterms are over

2007-10-11T15:16:00.000-05:00

and so midterms are over. today i had my last two midterms...philosophy and world literature. the philosophy test wasn't too bad, 50 questions all multiple choice. i studied pretty hard for that one. but the english test...horrible. everyone had a hard time..because it covered so much material, in such a short amount of time. but we'll see how that goes.

today, i'm pretty much relaxing. right now i'm sitting outside on a bench under a tree. it's really relaxing here, and i think that's what i need, just some time alone to gather all my thoughts that have scattered while midterms were going on. i just need some time alone because i realized this week i've become very irritable, and have a tendency to snap at people. depression has been another small factor into this week, but now after i've gotten a couple hours of sun, fresh air, and quiet...i'm feeling much better. as i was sitting on my bench, my friend Nathan came over, so we were just talking and hanging out. he told me that tonight is a "scream-fest." this has been going on all week...at 10:10 p.m. everynight this midterm week, people gather in front of Kiewit Hall, and you scream at the top of your lungs, letting out all your stress and worries. i missed it last night, but i'm definitely going to tonight's one. this might be the last one until finals week. so i'm definitely in on this one..need to let out some stress. can't wait till 10:10 tonight! :-)

so just a couple more days until i'm in San Jose! hopefully things will be better there.

(picture: the bench i'm sitting at)

It's Aloha Friday! or...Corn Friday?

2007-10-05T16:02:00.000-05:00

so today was pretty uneventful. it's friday afternoon, and i'm just sitting around my room. i just finished with my Chemistry Lab class about 20 minutes ago. lab is usually fun, or dull...i'm not sure, depends on what we're doing. today it was a good medium. so the weekend is here! :-D i'm so happy, because i can relax just a bit before midterm week comes. i still need to study, but i have a little bit more time. i should really catch up on my sleep, even though i've been getting on the average 7 hours every night. i still feel tired. health wise...hmm....it's been about a week since i haven't been feeling all too great either. it's probably the stress from all my papers. so we'll see how it goes next week, and the week after that. i can't wait for fall break though! i'll be leaving for california in 2 weeks, and i'm pretty excited! they're supposed to have great asian food. i can't wait. :-D! but i'm leaving on October 13th, and coming back on October 20th. hopefully when i come back, i'll get to go to a concert....Bob Dylan! my friends and i were talking about it, so we'll see. they've been holding a lot of concerts here in Omaha actually. i haven't been to one yet...but hopefully i'll go to a few. and for those of you who know this band....Jimmy Eat World is coming to the campus, and playing in our Fitness Center for "Fallapalooza!" i'm not exactly sure what Fallapalooza is just yet, but i'm definitely gonna go see Jimmy Eat World!!!! so exciting being here. yet...not. hehe, i really miss hawaii, but i'm not homesick. :-)

so if i haven't already mentioned...tomorrow is the Hawaii Club's coat run! this is where the hawaii club takes all of the freshmen to Burlington Coat Factory, and we buy all of our warm clothes for the winter. we're also going to Oakview Mall, and Walmart to buy groceries and such. so i'm pretty happy about that. as much food as i have in my room now, i still need some groceries. but i'll let you guys know how the coat run goes...see ya!

(picture: the lake we went to the other week for the bible study.)

New Asia

2007-10-05T01:41:00.000-05:00

so, i have some things to update you all on. let's start with yesterday. yesterday was pretty uneventful until night. we went to a new dining place, Davis Diner. i'm pretty much sick and tired of cafeteria food, and i heard Davis Diner (which is another eating place in the upperclassman residence hall) was pretty good. they have burgers and milkshakes there. we went there to eat, and it was actually pretty good. i had a "Diner Burger" and a strawberry milkshake. not too bad :-D. after dinner i visited an asian food market. it was called "New Asia" or something like that. i went with my friend Loc, and we bought some food there. as soon as i walked in *wham!* that chinese market smell. haha..it was weird. almost like being in chinatown. but they had all of these japanese candies, and the senbei they have at home :-). i was getting all excited because i found some asian products that i could read. lol. but i bought some candies, and roasted canned unagi which is actually very good on rice. so i'm excited about that :-D!

today....let's see. today was my short day, but it seemed like the longest day of the week. i had philosophy and english. 2 of the most boring classes. but the thing was, i wasn't feeling too well today. i was in philosophy and i felt really sick. soo...as bad as it sounds, i forced myself to sleep in that class. it was between sleeping or throwing up. i chose sleep. but today i finally handed in the last of my papers, including that killer 8 paged one for world literature....so i'm free of that! :-D although next week is midterms, as i mentioned before, but we'll worry about that a bit later. i hope tomorrow i don't feel sick. well...other than that, today i pretty much slept a lot. i tried to sleep off the sickness, which did help a bit, but i'm still a little queezy. let's hope tomorrow is a better day. so i shall leave you at that for now...and i'll update later!

by the way...if anyone knows a different name for the fruit "tamarind," could you let me know? it's been bothering me all day. i know there's another name for it, either in japanese, chinese, or local language. :-P thanks!

Midterm season

2007-10-02T00:11:00.000-05:00

and so midterm season begins...

today i had my first midterm for theology. not too bad, because my professor gave us all of the questions in advance, so we knew exactly what to study. still difficult though, because there were 3 long essays, and 2 short answer questions. all in 50 minutes. not enough time at all. but, i did finish...just at the last portion i crammed a little bit. but i think it went well enough. so after my theology class i went back to my room to rest a bit, then went to chem. although in chem, i wasn't feeling so well....so after that i slept for a couple hours until my meeting with my english professor. after that..i pretty much slept the rest of the time, just trying to sleep this queezyness off. but i guess that's all i needed, because i feel much better now.

so, i should get some rest soon, because tomorrow is when i start my massive 8 page paper for english. fun. later

Homecoming weekend

2007-09-29T16:09:00.000-05:00

hey everybody, haven't written in a couple of days. I've been really busy with pep band, homework and the like, so haven't had too much time to write. but i have a brief moment to update you all.

so yesterday was homecoming. There was a "Getting Blue" barbecue, and a volleyball game. Then from 9-midnight was the homecoming dance. i was at pep band last night playing for the volleyball game (CU won by the way) and it was pretty fun. I was there with James and Nathan, and we ended up taking(stealing) one of the stray Creighton volleyballs. :-P no one noticed or cared i think. so we have a souvenir of the winning game. hah. the dance on the other hand...was off campus, and semi-formal dress. >.< not especially great since i had a dress, BUT no shoes. i ended up borrowing jessica's shoes which were a little big, but nice in any case. once we got to the dance...i swear, dances in nebraska are so odd. the music selection not the greatest, and to be honest...wasn't that fun. maybe next time. but today is the continuation of homecoming. I'm playing again for pep band, and we'll be playing at another bbq, and at the soccer game. so i'll let you know if it was fun or not. hehe. but for now, i should be getting back to my homework. lots of essays due this coming week, so i'd better hop to it. i'll update later...till then, i bid you all adieu.

2007-09-26T21:05:00.000-05:00

"Stop peeing in the pool!"
"Who's peeing in the pool?"
"Oh my gosh...EVERYONE is! it's ridiculous!!"

Isn't college just grand?

2007-09-26T15:48:00.000-05:00

today was pretty much the normal day. I had 3 classes: Theology, Chemistry, and RSP. in chem, i got my test back...and i did MUCH better this time around :-D! for lunch i went to the Skutt center with Jessica, and we ate Ultimate Club Sandwiches from Blimpie. :-) after classes, i came back to my dorm room, and i'm just hanging out a bit. doing a little homework, then going to watch joe and kara play volleyball! so far, they are undefeated! 4-0! should be exciting :-)

so yesterday, i thought i'd just post that i felt very productive. :-) i read the Kite Runner.....over 300 pages, in just the afternoon. but i finished the book! i highly recommend this book! it's GREAT. it's a very thought provoking book with realistic characters, and set in Afghanistan. sooo....READ IT!
pictures: (upper left) there are no cars in Omaha! you can sit in an intersection and be totally safe. how odd. (bottom center) this is me at the Qwest Center Omaha! i walked here from school...about a mile away. after this, we went to the Hilton hotel next door to keep warm. (pictures were taken this saturday September 22nd)

Getting Lost

2007-09-23T17:33:00.001-05:00

alright, so i'll write a quick blog today because i have to go back to studying. today was eventful/uneventful i suppose. i got up early for a weekend, and went right into my day. i grabbed some lunch at Godfather's Pizza at the Skutt Student Center, then went to the library to study. I studied with Jessica, until i got a call from Tam. They were at a lake today, for Loc's bible study group. So I went with Albert, Joe, and Jessica to the lake. the only thing though....we missed our offramp. not the best thing to do here in nebraska, because you'll have a hard time finding another offramp..and end up driving for over an hour. so by the time we got to the lake, we had to leave. it was a very nice lake though...but we wasted too much time driving. i didn't mind the drive too much though, because i had my book for class, and i got a lot of reading done. :-) on the way there, we saw TONS of cornfields...but then again, it is nebraska. now, i'm doing a little bit more studying, and planning to sleep early tonight. because i have a chemistry test tomorrow, and i don't want what happened on the last test to happen again tomorrow...so i'll be blogging later..see ya!

Gonna Party, Like it's my Birthday

2007-09-21T00:33:00.000-05:00

today was my birthday! well....my birthday ended about 32 minutes ago..but i still have that mindset, so whatever. :-P well...today was pretty uneventful. i went to all my classes, and took great notes in class! :-D then i went to eat lunch. so apparently they don't charge you for meals on your birthday. they would swipe my meal card, and the price doesn't show up...then they all wished me a happy birthday! haha...not bad. :-P but tonight i was really bored...because i studied early on in the day. well.....now i'm just chilling...and should be going to sleep soon because i have an early 8:30 class tomorrow morning. >.< not fun. alright...i'll write back later!

New Blog!

2007-09-19T22:40:00.001-05:00

So, I decided to start a new blog! This is pretty much just to let everyone know how the college life is going, and what I've been up to. I'll try and post some pictures up here too, just to show you what the campus looks like, and what kind of stuff i do here. Keep in mind though, that it is Omaha, so to begin with...not much to do. :-P anyhow...let's start with today.

So today was pretty much a typical wednesday. I had 3 classes today; Theology 100, Chem 203, and RSP 101. I started my day on the early side, 8:30 am...wasn't too much fun getting up that early. >.< i went to all my classes (and slept in between every one of them) until my RSP class let out. (btw, RSP stands for Ratio Studiorum Program. it's this Intro to Collegiate Life course). after that, i pretty much stayed in my dorm until dinner. For dinner i went over to the Skutt Student Center with Jessica and Joe, and after, went to the Fitness center to watch Evelyn play some tennis! when we were done at the gym, it was off to play some pool! today was a pretty bad day for me to play pool. i'm really sore from working out the other day, so i couldn't walk too well..much less play pool very well either. maybe tomorrow will be better if i have time...so now, i'm just in my dorm...killing a little bit of time until i hang out with some of my friends again tonight. hah, doesn't the college life seem so exciting? ......not. :-P

anyhow...i'll try to write a little bit whenever i can. i'll keep you updated!

(picture: cornfields in Omaha, NE!)