Law School

I am finally graduating in May. At last! It really does seem as though these past four years have literally flown by. I can hardly believe it. But I am happy and relieved to almost be finished with school. I have decided that I want to go to law school. I am planning on taking the LSAT at the end of September and applying for early application in October/November.

Since I want to incorporate Spanish as much as possible with my career, I have chosen DU (Denver University) as the school I want to attend for law school. They are the only law school in the nation that incorporates Spanish into their curriculum for all three years of law school. There are also various opportunities to study abroad, which I plan on taking advantage of.

The thought of law school is intimidating, but I will have an entire year off of school, so hopefully if I get accepted, I will be motivated to give up regular life for three more years and be an intense student again. Wish me luck!

Lawyering in Spanish Program at DU

An afterthought

.: music used to be my entire life. i spent my days singing, playing piano, writing music, constantly having a tune in my head. i miss that. when i graduate, one of my goals is to renew my passion for music and especially for piano. every time i go home i sit down at my piano. my fingers resting lightly on the cool keys. it is an indescribable feeling. to sit at your own piano when you have been away from it for so long. maybe a few days. maybe a week. maybe even a couple of months. but the return is always just as magical. i sit and breathe in the still quietness of that room with its arched ceiling and constant humming of the humidifier, books upon books scattered upon and underneath and around the piano. books of beautiful music. beethoven, mozart, chopin, pachelbel, and the notebooks which i feverishly scribbled in for days during my youth. those books hold memories, symphonies, and each has its story to tell. soon they will come back to me :.

Pondering Life

The start of a new semester is always daunting. That first week of class when the chaos of campus is not familiar and waves upon waves of students pass by, headphones blaring, minds blank, just repeating steps they have taken millions of times before. It almost seems surreal to tread the path I have become so accustomed to all these years knowing that there is only one semester, a few months, and then I will be gone. Forever.

I often think about what life holds in store for me. What sort of adventures and mishaps I am about to experience. What country will I be in next? What language will I endeavor to learn? What people will I surround myself with? What time will be spend in solitude, pondering life's questions and what purpose I will fulfill.

I suppose in a way I can be very introverted, focused in my own world, drinking in the experiences of life.

It has been almost a year since I have left the country and I am starting to feel anxious. Desperate for a taste of what I have come to love about new cultures, new places, new people. I am spending Spring Break in Cancun, Mexico thanks to my parents, with a bunch of friends. I have actually never been to a nice part of Mexico, so that will be interesting. But mostly I am excited to get out of America, speak a different language and immerse myself in sun and sand for a few days. Use that time given me to think about all the possibilities upon graduation. I want so badly to just pick up and leave, travel the world without a care, and worry about a job when I have to. Easier said than done.

When I think about all the places I haven't been to, all the things I have yet to see, and what is out there in the world, I just want to get on a plane and leave everything behind and just... live. Experience the beauty of the world again. I feel as if I have lost touch a bit with the person I was living in Costa Rica, then Spain. I love that person. I want to be that again. Maybe I will just pick up and move to Europe. But who really knows. For now, I will attempt to immerse myself in studies. I love my classes this semester!

Spanish 3040 - Spanish for Business II
Spanish 4070 - Spanish - Problems in Business Translation II
Spanish 4010 - Advanced Rhetoric and Writing in Spanish
Geography 4712 - Political Geography
International Affairs 4500 - Critical Thinking - Post Cold-War Economy of Europe
Business Law 3000 - Introduction to Business Law

All of my professors are great, and the best thing about last semester of senior year is that I'm actually very interested in all the subject matter of my various classes. To be sure, a lot of work will be involved in order to get through the semester alive, but I think it's worth it. I suppose it's all part of the plan.

Well, I'm trying to update this more than I have been lately. And you all will definitely get a post about how amazing Mexico and the beach are. Until further inspiration reaches me...

A New Phase in Life

These people keep telling me I don't blog enough. I know. But the thing is, how much is there really to blog about when one is simply attempting to complete this thing we have come to call 'university'? Oh well.

Anyways, surprise! I am actually going to graduate on time (well, I do need to finish up a couple of classes in summer school, but mostly on time). Graduation is in May, and to be perfectly honest, I have no idea what i am going to do after that. I suppose I should start applying for a job. But there is really only one that interests me. I can't tell though, it's a secret. ;)

Next semester will be filled with all sorts of Spanish fun. MWF I have Spanish classes from 9am to 12pm in addition to others. Three hours of Spanish three days a week should do me some good though. At least, I hope! I also hope that I will be able to spent a sufficient amount of time up in the mountains, because I have come to miss them during this long bout of nice summery weather. Most people would love it. I just want some SNOW! It will come. Eventually.

It is a weird thought that there is only one more semester at CU left for me. What happens after that will surely be life-changing. I don't really know if I'm ready for that. I might be. But it's so easy to have the security of needing to finish 'just another year' here in Boulder. My future for the last four years was somewhat certain. I knew where I was going. I had a goal, and now as I approach it, I wonder how I got here. I wonder if I spent my time as wisely as I could have.

I suppose it's somewhat meaningless to ponder these things, because solace will never come. I will always think there was something I could have done better, and yet, the power to change those things is lost on me.

I know I have always wanted to live abroad, and the funny thing is, now that I can, I'm not sure if I want to just yet. I would love to live in London, Barcelona, New York, D.C., but I really do love it here in Colorado. It's so beautiful. I love the way the air smells here, like crisp water from a lake in the middle of winter. And I love the mountains. I honestly feel lost in places that don't have them. And then there's snow. I love it when it snows.

So who knows? With graduation fast approaching and the neverending questions about what I am going to do with myself looming around the corner, I think I'll leave those questions alone until I find some inspiration. :)

More School, More Languages

Fall semester has started and it seems that I didn't even have much of a summer vacation. Summer included: having foot surgery (which went well, although highly unrecommended due to the pain and duration of the healing process), and more class. This summer I took Introduction to Business, Business Statistics, and Accounting. I have come to the conclusion that business is not exactly my forte, although I did manage to come out with an A- in Accounting, which was not easy.

This semester is looking a lot more promising. I am taking: French, Italian, Spanish for Business, Marketing, Black Holes, and a Linguistics course named World Language Policies. The only class I am not too thrilled with is Black Holes mostly because it incorporates a lot of physics (which is not something I am particularly interested in). However, I am enjoying my Italian class. I enrolled in a third-semester Italian class although I have never studied the language before. It is going pretty well since there are many similarities between Italian and the other languages I have studied. My Spanish for Business class is also very interesting. We study how to do business in different Spanish speaking countries and we also learn a lot about the geography and politics of each Spanish-speaking country. I am in fourth semester French, which is going to be difficult, but I enjoy it.

Currently, I have no new plans for traveling anytime in the near future, but I hope to save some money so that maybe next summer I can afford to go somewhere out of the country. We'll see.

My brother Jeremy and I are living together now in an apartment really close to campus, which is nice because I can always walk there and I don't have to drive.

Nothing too exciting has been happening lately, except for the fact that I am finally a senior, which means I am very close to graduation (upon which I will officially have no idea what to do with myself, but I'm sure I'll figure it out). I won't be graduating in the Spring though; I have to postpone graduation until December of 2009, which is not a big deal since I do have two majors and a minor (International Affairs, Spanish for the Professions, and a Business Minor).

I am still not really sure what I want to do upon graduation, but among the list are: traveling (of course), working in another country (possibly Spain), or moving to New York or working for a U.S.-based international corporation. I'm not really interested in translation or interpretation, although I would definitely enjoy doing something which enables me to utilize the languages that I have been working on in school. When I graduate, I hope to be competent in speaking English (obviously), Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Italian. Apart from that, I think I have my options open!

Almost There...

It seems the older I get, the faster and faster life seems to go by. I am almost finished with my junior year of college, and I have a slight idea of how I got here.

It seems that so many things have changed for me in the past three years, it's insane! I am really excited to be finished with classes in a week, and starting on my Summer. Unfortunately, that will be filled with surgery (I am having surgery on my foot May 14th - come visit me while I'm in bed for two weeks!), Summer School (I am taking classes from June 2 - August 8), work (still at the Best Western), and trying to enjoy a little bit of sunshine.

Here's some highlights that I'm really looking forward to:
May 14: Foot surgery (not really looking forward to...)
June 2: School starts
June 3: Dad's birthday
June 26: Jeremy's birthday
July 11-13: BGBD 2008 Green Building Summit (click here for more info!)
August 8: End of school
August 17: Jack Johnson at Red Rocks
August 25: Fall Semester starts

Intellectually, I am going to try and crack down on my book list. I love books. I buy them all the time. And I never have time to read them. Hopefully, this will change in the summer. I am also going to be teaching myself Nepali (there is a lady I work with who is teaching me a bit right now) and Italian, so I can test into a higher level in the fall. At the moment, I am enrolled in three summer school classes as well: Introduction to Business, Business Statistics, and Introduction to Systems. Hopefully, I will not get too bored in these classes. I am also thinking about taking Macroeconomics and International Economics as online classes, but we will see if I have enough time for all of these... :)

Unfortunately, I don't believe there will be any room in there for any international travel, however, I am trying to organize a few trips around here in Colorado. I'm thinking sand dunes, Estes Park, Moab, the natural waterfalls in Boulder, Yellowstone (possibly), and maybe a trip to Vegas for my last friend to turn 21! That would all be exciting... I'll let you know. :)

An American Update

I thought an update on my life was due since I have been asked about my blog three times in the past 24 hours... haha.

I just got back from another amazing trip to Costa Rica. I was good to be back and see some friends, kick it on the beach, and just relax again. Never underestimate how amazing it is to spend the entire day in a bikini. It's the best. Unfortunately, this seems to be the last international trip that I can afford to go on for a while. Future plans include a family trip to Italy (next March), a trip to Japan (one of my friends is moving there) possibly summer 2009, and when I graduate (tentatively speaking, December 2009) I will most likely hit up all of South America with my friend Lisa. My world travels will have to be put on hold until then. :(

In other news, school is still going great this semester. I am loving Portuguese and still doing well in French, trying not to get too confused, and all the while still speaking Spanish almost every day, actually. The other day at work some Spaniards came in (imagine my excitement) and I ended up talking with them for about half an hour, giving directions, talking about Spain, and all the things they could possibly do in Boulder. They left, I had a huge grin on my face, and my boss walked out and said, "Wow. I'm impressed. I had no idea you could speak Spanish that fluently." Yep, best day ever. I should have asked for a raise. Oh well...

My April Resolution (yes, starting in April) is to read more. I bought three books the other day: Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (think, the Enron scandal on a country-scale), Blessed Unrest (an amazing book about the environmental movement that is sweeping the world), and Common Wealth (discusses economics in the global economy). I have recently become very interested in learning about sustainable development and alternative energy sources, and in what better place than Boulder to inspire me? Life is great sometimes.

Summer is fast approaching and it is going to be a big one. I am planning on doing four classes in summer school (only two at a time), no traveling (despite my never-ending desire to), and working a ton to save money (which we all know will eventually go to more traveling, what else?). This will be my first summer spent in Boulder, and I'm actually really excited for it! Boulder is beautiful in the summertime. I can imagine that when I'm not in class or at work I will be laying on the quad, reading, studying, at the Boulder Creek hanging out, hiking the Flatirons, going to Red Rocks for movie on the rocks night, attending concerts, and basically being a Boulderite. I love it. Oh, I also will probably take up hot yoga classes with my friend Lisa, she swears by it. Other than that, at the moment, I'm just living life in Boulder, studying my life away.

Also, my parents just got back from a trip to Cambodia. We have friends there that were getting married. Unfortunately, I was not allowed to go because I would "miss too much school." ::sigh:: It would have been an amazing trip though. I can't wait to see pictures! What else? Jeremy (my older brother) is coming back to school next year, so we are going to live together, and I'm so excited! Well, I think that is about all for the moment! I'll try to keep updating if anything interesting happens in hippie-town America.