Weekends?

I thought I would get a break. Hah. Definitely not the case.

Instead of relaxing a bit, I talked to a couple of professors, went to the Anatomy of Peace workshop here on conference for four hours each Friday and Saturday, had some of the African Club over to cook for the opening social, went to the opening social, wrote my response paper to the workshop and then decided not to work on homework anymore. Instead of continuing to be responsible, I watched a movie and ate half of an extra large pizza.

Also, my current irritation is that the school isn't offering classes during spring and summer that are supposed to be available, so I have to rework my map. Admittedly, I spend more time than the average student looking at my map and moving classes around, so it isn't tooooo terrible, but unless I can rearrange everything just within the terms, my semesters are going to be crazier than they were going to be already. We'll see how this goes.

Lessons from EXS 177

My required gym class was definitely not one of my favorite classes, but I did pick up a couple of useful things from it. Throughout the six weeks of the term, I went to the gym at least four times a week, making me spend more time specifically on exercise than I have since I graduated high school. (I keep planning on starting that up again, but I have to find my expired student ID in order to get a new one in order to go to the gym. It'll happen some time.)

The thing I'm thinking more about in terms of helping me survive this semester is the principle of spending at least half an hour a day doing something I enjoy, as a stress reliever and a break from work and school. Yesterday, that extended a little beyond a half hour, into say... eight hours, but holidays are meant for breaks, right? Besides, those eight hours of fun will neutralize the eight hours I'll be spending at work tomorrow.

A few friends and I headed up to Waimea and spent a lovely couple of hours watching the waves pound, listening to the lifeguards tell unexperienced surfers, body surfers and bodyboarders to get out of the water at least every ten minutes and trying to still get some school work done. Reading Tolstoy has never been more enjoyable than it was there. After a while, we headed back down the shore a bit to grab acai bowls in a little place that used to be a secret little hole in the wall, but is now frequented by every BYUH student and their mother.

Our last stop before hopping back on da bus was Pupukea, which may be one of my favorite beaches now. Observe:

White sandy beaches and palm trees get a little old after a while, it's nice to have some variety.

And there was a pretty little garden just up a little bit.

A sun-BEAM, a sun-BEAM!

During Primary (Sunday School for four to twelve year olds) singing time every week, the three most energetic songs were always "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree," the Snowman song, and "Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam." All three usually involved lots of jumping around and more yelling than singing, which probably explains why they were, and still are, so well loved among Mormon youngsters.

A day or two before the semester started, I woke up at o'dark thirty to go watch the sunrise at the point with a friend and took a series of pictures of the sun moving up in the sky. It was slow, and I was cold and tired but still so glad I decided to get up. It felt like it took forever and a day for the sun to come over the horizon, but once that giant ball of gas was up, it sure moved quickly.

I've been trying to put into words what looking back at these pictures made me feel, but after having this post sit as a draft for several days, I don't think that's really going to happen as well as I would like it to.
Basically, we all have the opportunity to bring light into the lives of others, through big ways, but I think, more importantly through small ways. A smile goes a long way, a genuine caring conversation to see how someone is doing, spending a few minutes helping out by reading over a paper or saying I love you are all easy things to do, but I know personally that I spend far too little time doing those things than I should.

Chances are...

...the dang kid won't even see this, but I wanted to let the world (or at least the three people that read this blog) know how awesome I think my little brother is. He found out yesterday that he'll be spending the next year as a Rotary Youth Exchange student in Taiwan. To do that, he's graduating high school a year early and already went through a series of club and district interviews. On top of taking advantage of one of the coolest opportunities presented to a high schooler, he has his black belt in kung fu, is almost done his Eagle Scout (okay, so maybe he's been "almost done" his Eagle for like a year...) and is an all around incredible person. Generally, I'm pretty happy living on this lovely rock in the middle of the Pacific, but if there were one thing I would go back to the mainland for, it'd be this dude and the rest of my family.

My year as an exchange student in Hungary has had a huge impact on my life. If we're looking at it realistically, I probably wouldn't have been accepted here without it and who knows where in the world I would be right now. The things I learned through the application process and the year itself, as well as the time since then have taught me so much about myself, the world and what I want to do to make this a better place in whatever way I can. It was definitely one of the first really pivotal decisions I made in my life and I am forever grateful to my families, Rotary clubs and everyone else who made it possible.

I'm excited to hear about Samuel's adventures over there and hope he does a better job of keeping in touch than I did.

Love you bunches.

I've been less than diligent.

And for that, I extend lots of apologies.

I had two and a half beautiful weeks of break, filled with work and adventures galore, and experienced living all by my lonesome for that short time. I can't lie, I liked it a lot- the house stayed clean and I could curl up in my bed and watch movies until two or three in the morning without disturbing anyone, but having the roomies back is delightful, even if the counters are dirty and I have people around to remind me that consistent sleep patterns are a good idea. We laugh and make fun of each other and watch movies that I always fall asleep during.

Now the semester has started up again, and it's going to be wonderful, yet incredibly busy. I'm taking eighteen credits and working as many hours a week as I can. My classes are going to be awesome and I'm going to in talk to one of my professors about a student research associateship when I have time this week. This semester, along with the necessaries, I'm taking classes for the teachers, and think those will be well worth the extra hours and inevitable stress come finals time.

While I was enjoying some balmy seventy degree weather, Maryland was experiencing quite the snow storm, and so keeping them in my thoughts, I built this one day at the beach:

That's the closest I can get to a snowman right now, sorry folks. Hope you had fun shoveling! (You might be able to tell, but one arm is significantly more tan than the other, she forgot to sunscreen, whoops!)

Also, I got to shoot real engagements for some friends. (Why do I clarify real, you ask? Because last year I shot some fake ones, for an April Fool's joke of epic proportions.) We caught a gorgeous sunset up at the point and got some shots that they're happy with, so we'll call that a productive shoot.

I would make a promise to post daily again, but that may be less than realistic, so we'll go for weekly at this point.