I love my school. I love my friends.

"BEFORE I CAME TO UNIVERSITY I WISH I'D KNOWN... that it didn't matter how late i scheduled my latest class i'd still sleep through it that i would change so much and barely realize it that you can love a lot of different people in a lot of different ways that university kids throw airplanes too that if you wear a skirt everyone asks why you're dressed up that every clock on the campus shows a different time that if you were smart in high school, so what! that i'd go to a party the night before a final that chem labs take more time than all my other 18 credits combined that change is a very positive experience and shouldn't be avoided that you can know everything and fail a test that you can know nothing and pass a test that i could get used to almost anything i found out about my roommate that home would be a great place to visit that most of my education would be obtained outside of my classes that friendship is more than just getting drunk together what i was getting into that i would be one of those people my parents warned me about that free food served at 10:00 is gone by 9:59 that sunday is a figment of the world's imagination that psychology is really biology, that biology is really chem, chem is really physics, physics is really math, math is really... and english sucks that it's a good idea to go places alone and not always rely on group support it's possible to be lonely even when surrounded by friends that friendships are what make this place worthwhile"

Sev runs, Tim's runs, Walmart runs, 3 hour Dutch Blitz games, heated discussions about Harry Potter, Apples to Apples, Lacombe, weekends of absolutely nothing, 4 consecutive movies on a Friday night, the entire first season of Scrubs in three nights, Skins, drama, sharing books and movies, music (loud, annoying, pounding, entertaining, amazing music), 937, hilarious youtube videos, bowling, masquerades, sports games, everybody watching the soccer game in the freezing wind just to see Alex do a handspring throw-in, 1.5 hour bus rides just to get to West Ed, messy roommates and their friends, pranks, dirty bathrooms, allnighters, H1N1, endless tea and hot chocolate, losing textbooks, rearranging rooms, and even a little bit of homework.

too many plans

Next year is just a mess right now. I have too many things that I want to do! It's funny, because in grade 12 I was like, "I have no goals. I guess I'll go to King's cause it looks like my only option right now." When I dropped chem, I checked my courses against the King's admission requirements to make sure I could get in, and of course I did. But now I'm thinking of so many other things I want to do: -Karen has made me want to travel. So badly. -I want to do missions! This includes Honduras trips through either King's or the church or a DTS to Guatemala or South Africa. -SFU? UFV? -Kings??? -part time school? work? AHHHH! Karen's travelling makes me want to go places! I want to backpack Europe, go to Africa, go to Asia, go to New Zealand. And the thing is, doing it all may be a little unrealistic at this point, but doing any of it is totally within reach in the next few years. King's is looking extremely unlikely at this point, as much as I love it here, which means the Honduras water project is out. However, I could still go through the church if I am home (so, working or at SFU or UFV). And if not that, Ethan has gotten me excited to go to Guatemala on a DTS like he did last year. He told me about it. First semester, you start in Winnepeg and travel west across Canada. You do urban whatchamacallums where you basically live on the streets for a while (not overnight though). You do theology classes and stuff. Second semester you go to Guatemala, so you do six weeks of Spanish learning and you go to Guatemala and go to the mountains where they don't even speak Spanish, they speak the native language that's named something I can't remember and it seriously sounds so intense and so amazing. If not DTS, I'm looking at SFU or UFV, probably. If I go to either I need to look into filling a missing grade 12 course (courses like band and Bible 12 don't count at either school, although both counted towards my grade twelve courses for King's), and if I can do that in the summer I need to see if I can still apply at these schools when I can't complete the course yet. Even then, I need to decide what to do there (such as ed program, English program, general studies, part time, etc) so it's like every decision sparks a hundred more decisions and factors to work through, and I feel pretty overwhelmed by it all. I guess I need to pray. On a lighter note, I'm 1/4 for roll up the rim. I won a donut!! Which, when Alida's journal makes its rounds to me, I'm going to paste in there, along with pictures of King's friends and some notes about what I loved best about this year. When I leave, I am going to miss this place so much. That's a good sign of a good year, good friends, and a good school. So, when I cry at the end of the year, I am going to take it as a good thing. And come visit.

health

So, my giving up facebook for Lent absolutely failed. I had too much to do via facebook at the beginning, trying to arrange a ride back from the airport, and then it just felt pointless. So on Wednesday I decided to give up the elevator. It sounds stupid, but seriously. I take the elevator EVERY DAY. When I have my laptop or when I'm by myself, I even take it going DOWN, which is SO easy to just walk down the stairs. I'm kind of paranoid about dropping my computer, since I already tripped once on the stairs with it (going up, thank heavens). Besides, I never work out or anything and while I'm not gaining weight, that is only because I'm losing muscle mass and gaining fat. I know, I'm not fat. But I'm definitely living quite unhealthily. So besides taking the stairs, I'm gonna try to get better stuff at the caf (not gonna be easy, since hardly anything is "healthy" aside from a tossed salad...). And speaking of health, I'm kinda mad at myself about my eyes. I love my eyes. They are probably my favourite feature. I think that I have really nice eyes. And yet I've been staying up SUPER late and spending WAY too much time on my computer (and yesterday I did both, spending literally almost the entire day on my computer, working on a soc paper until probably midnight). And it's seriously so bad for my eyes! They hurt and itch a lot, and every night when I go to bed they're pretty red. So, that's another thing to fix in my life. So I guess for now I'll focus on my physical health...and then I have to try to clean up some of the noise in my life and work on my emotional and mental health. Besides, both should start to improve with physical health =P Yeah, just a couple thoughts.

Olympics!

Alright, I confess. Even though I spent two weeks in the same place as the Olympics, I haven't been keeping up super well. BUT I'm currently watching the Canada vs Slovakia hockey game and we're winning 3-0, yay. And they just showed the standings. Canada has: 9 gold 7 silver 4 bronze And I honestly don't know how many people actually read this blog. Odds are everyone who reads it already knows about Goat for Gold. BUT here's the link anyway. And the hyperlink's not working so here: http://www.goatforgold.com/ They're not doing so hot right now! 169 goats, compared to the 1073 from last year's playoffs. I suppose any goats is good, but I figured I might as well advertise some more for them. Anyway, keep an eye out and get a goat!

BATB

I Love Beauty and the Beast. It's one of Disney's best movies. I love the story of Cinderella, but Disney's version is SO boring. Likewise, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White both suck. Sword in the Stone seems kind of pointless...there isn't much of a story. But Beauty and the Beast... The story is so well told. I love the humour too. "There's the usual things...flowers, chocolates, promises you don't intend to keep..." And how the Beast tries to eat with a spoon. I DIED laughing. The music is awesome too! I love the opening, and the music at the transformation just blows me away (I'm not even sure why, cause I'm pretty sure it's not as amazing as I think it is). And I love the song "Something There". That's my short rant. I'm playing it in the background as I try to study...cause I need to study...cause my paper is due in two days! And my poli letter is due, and I have Bible study tomorrow afternoon so that's gonna eat up a bunch of time (I forgot about it, and it'll be good, but it is time that I can't spend working...like this time I'm spending blogging...). Yeah gotta work now. bye!

maybe I'll start numbering my posts too

Moments just whiz right on by. I'm noticing that more and more, as I struggle to get back the ones I loved most. But then, they'll come around again. And homework is a pain.

lent

So, everybody seems to be giving up facebook for Lent. I think it's a good idea, and I wanted to join the facebook fast party. I realized, though, that too much of my communication is based around facebook these days. For example: When I was in high school, the only people I had on facebook were family (siblings, cousins), people in or who went to my highschool, and people from work. And to be honest, I didn`t need facebook to talk to them. In fact, I didn't even talk to most of them. NOW I'm in university. I have a whole bunch of new friends, all of whom I communicate with through facebook when I am home. Hardly anybody uses msn anymore these days and I know i don't have a lot of people's emails anymore. Nor do a I have a phone (another social necessity these days) so I don't have a stock of people's phone numbers. So if I don't want to cut off communication entirely between King's people (when I'm at home) and people at home (when I'm at school), I can't give it up. So rather than give it up entirely, I am going to instead limit the amount of time that i let myself spend on it. Now, I don't even know how much time I spend on it in a day. I do know that even when I'm not using it, half the time it's open in my web browser anyway, sitting there waiting for messages, notifications, and so on. Ridiculous. So I'm cutting that out entirely. If I'm not actively using it, it's not logged in at all. I'm also going to limit how much I actually use it, to maybe half an hour every day. This might in fact limit how long I am on my computer all day, period. I'm going to make sure that every time I close the window, I log out first, so that I have to actively log in next time I open it (this will hopefully make me more aware of how often I automatically click "facebook" in my top sites). Anyway, that's my plan. Before you folks all go "Hey, Lent is about fasting, you can't cheat and half-fast!"...just think how much it sucks to not talk to people for over a month. And I dont' have the option of phoning people up, all the time, what with long distance and all. And besides, I'm still giving up facebook, if not entirely. Just giving up most of the time I spend on it. And hopefully giving it to something more worthwhile, like family, friends, homework, reading, writing, sleeping, and all that good stuff. Good luck to all the rest of you who are giving it up!