The Wonderful, Yet Somewhat Odd, World of Heidi!

Well since I haven't posted anything for forever and a day I thought I'd post. As a note I probably will not update this as much as I used to. The novelty is finally wearing off and I've gotten tired of updating the world about all the trivial little things I do. That said I will sum up what's been going on for the purpose of temporarily avoiding more futile efforts to prepare for my ancient greek quiz. Apartment life is simply lovely and we seem to have gotten most of the kinks of it worked out. With the exception of those stupid little ants. My schedule is now pretty full, the really nice thing about it though is that all my classes are either in Turlington or the MUB (music building), and of the 4 in turlington two are in one classroom and the other two in another. Also having breaks in my schedule that are too short for going homehas resulted in my studying more than I otherwise would. Probably a good thing. I'm also going to be taking clarinet lessons again, for free! Well at least free for me, not for the state. Haven't decided yet if my decision to take them was a wise one.

here is my shameless plug for Snakes on a Plane. It can only be described as quality art. It should be watched. And this song (the music video is shown at the end of the movie) should be listened to. http://www.myspace.com/cobrastarship
I myself have recently committed the lyrics to memory, yes including the rap

K, i've lost interest in this update which means it shall now end

Current Mood: tired of studying
Current Music: Snakes on a Plane (Bring It)- Cobra Starship

And I live in an apartment now :) So far it's as perfectly wonderful as I knew it would be, with the exception of an ant problem in my bathroom. Ant killer seems to be working pretty well though. Oh and before we moved in someone apparently stole our living room furniture, can't think why. And I won't have internet in my apartment for a few days. Anyway if you're in G-ville lemme know and you can visit me :)

Current Location: Rietz Union
Current Mood: happy

I'm back in the USA! Got back the afternoon of the 4th. I was glad to be home for that particular holiday, went next door and set off fireworks with Amanda and Brad. Fire is fun.

Greece was inexpressibly awesome. I'm very glad I did the study abroad and hopefully some day I'll be able to go back. I've started posting pictures on facebook for the interested/curious

I never paid tribute to my trip to Santorini last weekend so let me discuss it briefly. Met up with Renee on that trip and did a bunch of shopping that night. Also ran into Cassie and Evan (people from my previous course). The next day included henna tattoos and a donkey ride up a cliff face. The views from Santorini were simply breath taking. I highly recomend the island to anyone with an opportunity to go.

The sun is beginning to rise out my window, proof that i'm not quite over my jet lag.

I'll be in Orlando until August 11th when I move into my super cool apartment with my super awesome roommates

I think that's it for me

Current Location: Orlando
Current Mood: hungry

Santorini was awesome so i'll wait to up date that when I have more time. I just took my exam and I feel that I did well on it, I'll know in about an hour. I leave tomorrow for Athens where I'll stay for two nights and then Monday I fly back to the States. Not sure what time I'll be back in Orlando as yet since my parents will have to pick me up from Renee's. I'm a bit more excited about Athens than I was before because I plan to do lots of replica shopping and Renee and I will probably try to hit some more museums. I excited to be going home as six weeks in a foreign country is about long enough for me. I've loved the experience though. If you ever have the opportunity to study abroad, do it. Don't know whether or not i'll be able to do it next summer, but i'm definitely glad i did it this year. Time for me get off the internet

Current Location: Alyki, Paros
Current Mood: content

Tonight in Alyki they had a fire jumping festival. They made a bonfire and whoever wanted jumped through/over it. i jumped around the edge twice and through once. Super cool, how often do you get to jump through a fire?
Alas no one got good pictures of me, but the timing of that is rather hard

Current Location: Alyki, Paros
Current Mood: feeling like a pyro

Quick update using my limited internet time. I started my modern greek course last week and have been enjoying it thoroughly. We are staying at a really nice hotel in the little village of Alyki on Paros. I learning the language relatively frequently, but being constantly exposed to it and having it deliberately pounded into your head for hours a day will do that. I'm going to Santorini on Saturday which is quite exciting, unfortunately i'll only be there one night which really isn't enough time at all. Well I don't want to use up more internet time on this so I'll end this here.

PS- to the curious, I return to the States July 3rd. That's a week and a halfish away

Current Location: Alyki, Paros

Hello again everyone, I'm back in the civilized world where there is more than one internet cafe in the town. I'm currently between courses. For those who don't know I was taking an archaeolgy course the past three weeks while traveling Greece and I'm taking modern Greek here on Paros starting Monday. I'll warn ya'll now that I'm not sure the town the greek is in will have internet. I only got to excavate two days and I liked them, but I'm not sure it was enough to get a true feel for it. I've been to Mycenae now and that was really cool (took amusing pics with the Lion's gate).

I almost missed my ferry here. Actually I was about 5 minutes late, but the boat left 20 minutes late so I was ok. I really like my hotel here the owners are some super friendly Brits and I'm quite pleased there's no language barrier. I'm not sure what I'm gonna do tomorrow, but I'm inclined to go to the beach for starters. I don't think I'll travel far though as I've had more than enough traveling the past couple days and will have a bus ride Monday.

That's really all I can think of for now. I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer, and I'll see ya'll (well some of ya'll) in 3 weeks when I'm back in the good ole US of A

Current Location: Paros
Current Mood: tired and sore, but happy

Pylos doesn't have an internet cafe so don't expect to hear from me again for about a week

The only other thing I will say for now is that being sick in a foreign country really sucks, try to avoid it if you can

Current Mood: tired, but not sick anymore

I know I said ya'll would get updates while I was here, but I have ten minutes left to use and gosh darn it I'm gonna use every last second I paid for! I'm in Naxos now (we leave for Ahtens tomorrow and arrive in Pylos the day after (where we're excavating)). Greece is so amazing, I've seen so many sites already. Delos is my favorite so far, but then i'm quite partial to Artemis. The water is so clear and blue, I don't think I've ever gone beaching so frequently. I'm getting quite a work out here cuz there are an insane number of hills that one must climb to get anywhere. Although considering how much we eat here it probably a very good thing ;)
We just got first exam as we are finishing the first part of my first course. The excavation is quickly approching. It'll be really hard work and long days but i'm excited about it. Basically it will determine whether or not I become an excavator. Then will come the modern greek which i'm really looking forward to learning. I know a few words already, literally I know three words. Please, thank you, and yes (and I mean three greek words for all you smart alecs).
Well I'm about out of time so I stop now

Current Location: Naxos, Greece!
Current Mood: stuffed
Current Music: some wierd greek techno music

Alright I got 8 minutes left, i'm at an internet cafe, so i gotta make this quick. Got to Athens Friday and checked into our hostel. Interesting experience, i may elaborate when i have more time. Saw all the important touristy stuff, but Athens is definitely not my favorite city. Got to Paros yesterday and started the course. Thus far I love Paros. The peoleare great, the food is divine. The hotel is nice, especially after 3 nights in the hostel. I really wish I had more time to go into detail, but I've only got 4 minutes left and this keyboard is hard to type on so I'll go now, but now you all know I'm alive and well in GREECE!

BTW it's 12:50 PM here :)

Current Mood: excited

Well I said i'd update again before I left for Greece, but I really don't have time for a good update. The cruise was awesome, but as i still having packing to do and am leaving for Renee's house in the morning there's really no time to do it justice in an entry. Some of the pictures are on my facebook profile and if a picture's really worth a thousand words that should do. If you're not on facebook and still want to see the pictures...umm find someone who is on facebook and is my friend and look that way :P

Due to limited internet access in Greece this may well be my last entry until July. For the curious, my flight leaves Thursday and I arrive back in the States July 3rd.

Time to finish packing :\

Current Mood: tired of packing

Well I finished finals yesterday, Amber just left, there's an echo in our (my) room so I suppose it's time for that obligatory end of the year update. I'm not depressed about leaving like I was last year, of course the knowledge that I'm leaving on a cruise Sunday and will be in Greece with my "Sam" in less than two weeks does much to console. I think I've grown a lot this year. Spiritually I'm more mature than I was a year ago and I've got an idea of what I'd like to be doing with the rest of my life. Tonight will be my last night in the dorms which is very exciting. Next year is gonna be so awesome. Four super cool girls living together with the boys close by, they could make a TV show about us! ;) The second half of the summer will be more boring, though I do still have some frineds in Orlando to hang out with.

Well this was a shorter summing up than I'd anticipated, but I can't really think of more to say. Today will be boring as I no longer have a TV nor any studying to do. Maybe I'll read outside or watch a LOTR with a commentary on my laptop. If anyone's still in town and wants to do something, lemme know. I'm hungry so I'm gonna find something to snack on until me and mi hermana go to find food (as we both seem to be lacking in that area). Everyone have a great summer, stay safe, etc. See ya'll in the fall!

Current Mood: hungry
Current Music: "Rent" soundtrack

I would just like to note
1) How much i hate it when i'm dead tired but can't fall asleep
and 2) How insanely annoying it is when one's neighbors insist on watching movies at 2:38 in the morning when they know their TV is next to my wall and I can hear it. Yes, Pride and Prejudice is a good movie, but I know for a fact they've seen it more than once in the past month
Maybe i'll bang on the wall again, when I did that last week they seemed to take the hint. Either that or I wait for the second half of the movie to end

Current Mood: angry
Current Music: Pride and Prejudice

Friday was my b-day so i'm now in my tweens! And by tweens i mean the Tolkien definition: the irresponsible twenties between childhood and coming of age at thirty-three :) For those wanting to know how it was, it was quite nice. Skipped my first class in favor of sleeping in, ate lunch at the Reitz with Pam, skipped my other class in favor of a dress rehersal, got out of that early so I continued my rereading of Lord of the Rings (i've lost count of how many times i've read it), then I ate dinner at Don Pablos with homegroup people (plus Wendi and Dave). Oh and Thursday I went with Amber and James to Ben and Jerry's cuz Amber left me on my real b-day. What kind of roomate does that? ;) Amber got me Coldplay CDs which made me happy as they have now become my current favorite band :) And Renee got me a Barnes and Noble gift card which made me quite happy as well as I wanted to get Pride and Prejudice after having seen the movie and rather liking it :)

Saturday I read outside at Norman library which made me happy cuz the weather was gorgeous and Norman is beautiful and it's my favorite place to read on campus. Then I had my last concert of the academic year (clarinet choir) and people came which I always like. It went quite well i felt.

Today is Easter!!! Yay for Jesus! Service was quite nice and I went to the New Group/FLU/Boo-ya! picnic which was fun. Good food, adorable kids, nice weather. I left my dish there though so i'll have to look in to getting that back...

In other news I got a scholarship for studying abroad! Yay! Only one and a half weeks of classes left which makes me happy. I'm going home for reading days weekend. That'll be good since i'll get to see family and friends i won't see otherwise until July. 22 days until the family cruise and i'm very excited about seein some Mayan ruins :) :) A month and 3 days until Renee and I leave for Greece, which is super exciting and a bit scary at the same time. This is one of those times when i wish i had a fast forward button on my life so i could get straight to the exciting stuff. Oh well, at least my work load is relatively light for being so close to finals.
I think it's time to do my lab report now, or maybe it can wait till tomorrow...

Current Mood: happy
Current Music: "White Shadows" by Coldplay

It also seems appropriate as the very day is tomorrow. I probably should have waited till then, but i'm not a patient enough person :)

"Go to Wikipedia and type in your birth date (not the year) and copy 3 interesting facts, 2 births, and one death."

April 14

Events:
1865 - Abraham Lincoln is shot by John Wilkes Booth; he dies the next day.
1846 - The Donner Party of pioneers departs Springfield, Illinois, for California, on what will become a year-long journey of hardship, cannibalism, and survival.
1912 - The British ocean liner RMS Titanic strikes an iceberg in the North Atlantic on its maiden voyage, plunging beneath the waves and taking with it over 1,500 lives at about 2:20 a.m. the following morning.

Births:
1827 - Augustus Pitt-Rivers, English archaeologist (d. 1900)
1866 - Anne Sullivan, Helen Keller's teacher (d. 1936)

Deaths:
1759 - George Frideric Handel, German composer (b. 1685)

Current Mood: chipper

First things first
GO GATORS! NATIONAL CHAMPS! YAY!!!!!!!!

It was pretty crazy last night. After watching the game and hearing all the honking and yelling outside our window, Amber and I decided we had to join in. We went to the intersection of University and 17th and it was awesome. People packed in like sardines, police at hand, fireworks, crowd surfers, toilet paper hanging from the traffic lights (I unfortunately missed seeing the people climb the poles to put that up there). Ah a night to be remembered. The noise didn't die until about 3ish

In other news, since I haven't updated in approximately forever, I registered for classes yesterday and got everything I needed and my music classes will fit in quite nicely among the academics. Alas, archery was full. I had decided to try and take even though I didn't think I'd be able to drag myself out of bed early enough to make it to class. Hopefully it'll open up again. Until then I'm signed up for Greek history instead, which would be great except it's taught by Dr. Hartigan and i don't know that i can handle taking her class the first semester i'm also taking two languages at once. I may post my schedule later, but that'll be friends only cuz i don't feel like telling it to random people.

I got new glasses! They're very different from anything i've had before, and that makes me happy. Katie claimed they make me look like an "urban librarian". I haven't decided if that's supposed to be a good thing or not

Turned in scholarship applications for Greece. Should hear back on that in about a week

I realized recently that I'm nearly half done with my undergrad education. Time's been going by so fast since high school ended. I guess I'm just getting old so time seems to go faster ;) I suppose if I want it to seem slower I can just remember how much school i'll still have to go after undergrad...
I believe I've started rambling so this will end my entry

Current Mood: tired, but happy for our team!
Current Music: The gator fight song!

So I just got back from the Boo-ya! mission trip a few hours ago. It was an awesome trip and i'm definitely glad I went. So much happened i'm not quite sure where to start. I'll describe our accomodations first. We were at a FEMA camp. We had to wear badges at all times, there were guards every where, and we weren't allowed to take pictures on the camp. yeah, it was pretty hard core. The tents had air conditioning which we thought was cool, at first (i'll explain later). There were port-a-poties (is that even spelled right?), a few flush toilets, and shower trailers (those didn't run out of hot water which i thought was nice). The food was great, mmmm food. k, time to switch to chronological order

Went up Saturday. I got sick that afternoon/night. Hoped to feel better after a good nights sleep, but we didn't know how to control the AC yet so i (and the rest of the Floridians) spent the night mostly awake shivering. Sunday morning i felt like complete crap and would have gone home if i could have. I recall saying to Katie "I don't think I can do this", to which she replied "Well you don't have a choice". i later learned she and Pam were using a good cop bad cop strategy to keep me going. I'm fairly Katie was supposed to be the bad cop. But I sucked it up and went to church with everyone else. The church was in a school cafeteria and was the remnants of a few churchs that had combined. Then we caught the end of a parade where they were throwing out beads along with carrots, potatoes, and cabbages. Then we headed to New Orleans to see Billy Graham. We spent a little too much time wandering around in the French quarter so we didn't get seats, but Katie, Matt Gordon, Tim and I stood/sat against a wall and Jon and Pam went to the overflow section. Pretty cool though i was about to fall asleep due to still feeling pretty crappy.

Monday I awoke completely better when i most needed to be. yeah, God's pretty awesome like that. Our first house wins the most muddy award. It would take forever for me to write out just how bad the damage/smell/all the conditions were, but the work to be done made World Changers (repairing houses) look like pansy work. Our job was to completely "gut" the house (take out everything down to the concrete and studs). That day we were with a team from Indiana and MSNBC new was there to do a story on us. I was on live TV briefly by accident, hehe. That night we figured out how to make the tent slightly warmer and layered up so we could sleep.

The next day we switched teams and were matched with the Pura Vida home group. Though the the Indiana people were great i think this was one of the best things that happened all week for me. See with the Indiana people i might have made friends with some of them, but i'd never see them. This way i got to know new people and will actually see them all again and they are pretty awesome people :) For times sake i will sumarize this house and the others by giving them "awards". That day was the most random stuff we had to dig out, quite literally (928 also helped us finish that one so that was cool). We also encountered a rather large snake in that one that we were fairly certain was venomous. Then there was the most mildewy/cockroach infested. Friday we thought was gonna be easy cuz there wasn't much stuff, but it turned out to be the hardest cuz the dry wall was really hard and we were all tired from the week.

We left Friday night and stayed the night in Niceville with Tim's family. i can finally say i've visited this wee little town i've heard so much about ;) That was great cuz we got to sleep in beds, meet his cool family, and eat monster pancakes in the morning his dad made for us. Mmm, pancakes. Then we drove the rest of the way today.

I haven't really had enough time to really organize exactly what i learned yet, but i definitely think God stretched my limits. I feel more self confident in what i can endure physically and it was awesome to be able to use my time and efforts to encourage the people affected by the hurricane and show them God's love. I've also come back with a slight farmers tan, some new muscles (i'm very proud of those), and and odd desire to gut my room...

Now i need to finish my laundry (my clothes have never before been so foul smelling), figure out what i need to catch up on school work wise, and watch my recorded Sci-fi Friday finales :)

Current Mood: thankful for the experience
Current Music: "Breathe" by Anna Nalick

i need to slaughter some time before band so i think i'll update this thing for real. The most important thing is...
I'M GOING TO GREECE THIS SUMMER!
That's right i got accepted and will be doing an excavation on Paros and taking modern greek. the courses are from May 22nd to June 30 but i'll get there a few days early. But wait there's more, Renee's going with me! Greece had better get prepared cuz who knows what'll happen with us there... I'm soooo excited. Still need to figure out our flight plans and apply for scholarships though. I'm sure you'll continue to hear more from me on this topic...
Hmm, still have 25 minutes to kill...
Spring break plans, going to Louisiana with some of the homegroup to work with Samaritan's purse. Should be a pretty awesome experience
I've gone to the gym twice this semester, which (when you consider those are really the only times i've been in my life) is a lot for me. I don't think i'll do gator funk again though as it completely wore me out for the next two days and i pulled something resulting in me not getting to go to kick boxing sculpt monday as i'd intended. I think i will go try some other classes though (belly dancing wasn't bad). I guess i just feel like i should do a better job taking care of my body or something. i've never felt like i needed to before cuz i've got that naturally high metabolism and all and therefore don't have to worry about losing weight. That and i'm just plain lazy. But as Katie so eloquently put it a couple weeks ago "If you were being chased by a serial killer, you wouldn't be able to run away and you'd die". So in case i ever find myself in such a situation this whole gym thing will be good. Of course it's also quite likely i'll get bored with the whole thing and stop. Oh well
What else... oh, i talked to the classics department adviser about double majoring. And apparently i almost screwed up really bad by taking a year off my ancient greek. But as i like to say, almost doesn't count except in horse shoes and hand grenades. So basically i can still major in the civilization track for classics, but i have to take a lot of latin and greek and get good grades in them to be able to get into grad school. Yipee.
I've been debating with myself on whether or not to take archery class next semester. On one hand i really want to learn archery, on the other it's insanely early (to me at least). I have a feeling i'll end up not taking it cuz i have a hard enough time making it to my 9:35 class this semester. And i live on campus, which i won't be next year.
That leads me to another thing. Amber, Liz, Carolyn, and I are definitely living at The Landings next year! Signed the lease and everything. Yay!
I'd also like to state that i love this weather :) :) :)
K, I think i've wasted enough time on here. To band!

Current Mood: excited