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.

Toutes les choses de ma vie... sont extraordinaire!

Translation: Everything in my life... is amazing!

School is going great. I LOVE my language classes. Portuguese has proven to be really easy to learn, and I am also doing really well in my French class. We have to write essays for every chapter in French, so that is fun and interesting, but also challenging! Accounting is the worst thing of my life, but I am surviving and not doing too poorly in the class. Although, I do have to try a lot more than I've ever had to for any other class, so that is a change. My Spanish Lit. class is awesome! We just finished reading Gabrielle Garcia Marquez's El coronel no tiene quien le escriba (The Colonel doesn't have anyone to write to him). I love analyzing literature. Yes, this is because I am a dork.

I miss Spain terribly! It's really bad. I just miss everything about life there, and I miss my friends and a few people in particular. :( But having my friends from America back is awesome. It's hard because I know eventually I am going to have to choose between the two, and I just feel that I could never stay in America after I graduate.

But we'll see. At least for now I can just focus on doing school, enjoying Boulder, working, and know that when the time comes, I'm sure I'll know where I'm headed.

p.s. everyone needs to listen to Sarah Bareilles. She is amazing. Absolutely amazing.

Adjusting to American Culture

First of all, it is definitely not acceptable to spend the majority of your time sitting in coffee shops talking in America. This, I have come to learn. Although it doesn't mean that I still won't try!

Second, there is this thing called a time schedule in America. Haven't quite gotten the hang of how that one works either. It seems that even though I have more time than I normally do at school in Boulder, I still have so much homework and so many things to get done and I do work a lot, but I still feel like I need to manage my time better. Oh, and being 15 minutes late to everything is also not acceptable in America.

Third, I think I have turned into this slightly creepy person where if you speak Spanish, I can't help but stare at you and want to talk to you, know where you're from, etc. I know, it's slightly creepy. But I can't help it! I just love speaking Spanish!

I have found a job. I am working at the front desk of the Best Western Golden Buff Lodge in Boulder. It's off of 28th and Canyon, so it's really close to where I live. I love the people, and especially all the mexicans that work for us, so I DO get to speak Spanish fairly frequently.

I am also a substitute teacher for K-5th grade Spanish. I work for the Elementary Spanish Program, which is a non-profit organization separate from the school district that teaches Spanish to kids who want to learn it! So far, I have subbed three classes, and they were all great. It's amazing how good some of them are and they are so little! It's super cute.

Portuguese class has been looking up and getting a lot easier. I am also getting better at French as the days go on, and I practice and try to listen to the news in French or something like that. However, accounting is starting to kick my butt. It is really hard, and I feel that I have to work so hard to understand everything. Maybe I haven't been putting enough time into it. We have our first test a week from Tuesday, so before that, I will be sure to ask for lots of help so I can be prepared.

School has Begun

Coming back to school in America has been an experience. It is intense. First of all, I feel like I have forgotten the entire French language, making my French class a little terrifying at the moment, but I'm sure it will come back to me. My Portuguese class is... well, they assume that if you are fluent in Spanish that Portuguese should be a piece of cake. This, I have found, is not the case. My Management class is sure to be amazing. Our professor is awesome, and the second half of the first lecture, we watched The Office. Nice. Accounting is going to be scary. The first thing out professor said was, I'm not going to lie to you - this class is HARD. We'll see how that is going in a couple of weeks. I know I will need to study a lot for that one. Then I am in Analyzing Spanish Literature. FINALLY. An easier class. In Spanish. Our professor is from Spain (yes!), and I love literature. But he seems like he is a tough grader, so I will still have to work hard. It looks like I have my work cut out for me this semester.... still on the search for a job as well...

The States

Life back in America is... amazing. I love it. Christmas was awesome, New Years was even better and I'm looking forward to what should be a fabulous 2008. :) and I love all of you that read my random thoughts and get a chuckle now and then. xoxo