Survivor

I did it. I made it. I completed exactly half (1/2) of the infamous accounting junior core. Sorry, no speech. What will I do next? Complete the other half of course. Not a super exciting prospect, but it’s looking to be a more exciting/interesting semester. The first half of the core consisted of accounting information systems (basically, my least favorite class ever – although Professor Burton was awesome), financial accounting one (yay!), and auditing (what I’ll start my career in). The second half consists of tax (could be interesting), financial accounting two (double yay!), and managerial accounting (tough but fun). I realize I am not a normal person, since I just used ‘accounting’ and ‘fun’ in the same sentence (or afterthought), but the world needs people like me. Clearly, I have a personality (I am NOT the 99% - haha), or you wouldn’t be reading my blog because it would be really boring. Or maybe it is? In that case someone should probably tell me. Thanks in advance for being gentle.

Juusssssst kidding! I know you guys love me so much!! And just for that I’m going to talk about accounting for a couple more sentences. I want to relate the ordeal that finals week is. We have a partially comprehensive final in each subject – Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, at 7:00-FREAKING-AM. Campus scheduling hates us. So I was stuck there all week. Usually I take all my finals within the first two days and then get the heck out of there. Instead, I had to stress the whole week about tests. And we don’t even know our grades yet. We won’t know for like another week. I know, my life is sooo hard.

I was looking back over my blog and realized that my last post was over a month ago. You’ve probably been dying to know what kind of trouble I’ve been getting myself into. Or not. Either way, I don’t have some great excuse for why I’ve been negligent.

Ok, if you’ve kept up on my blog you’ll know that sometimes I like to go off on tangents. This is one of those times. Maybe you’ve noticed, but I tend to use some bigger words on here than I do when I’m actually speaking. This is because I like to think in big words. Seriously, sometimes my mind is like a Jane Austen novel. But when I talk, I use smaller words, because who really wants to sound like they’ve come straight from Pride and Prejudice? This little complex of mine tends to lead to my spoken sentences being all jumbled up and the sporadic changing of topics. If you’ve ever noticed this, now you know why! My brain is thinking too quickly and in big words, so I’m frantically trying to translate into smaller words, and by the time I’ve done this my brain is already on to the next topic. For example, my brain is thinking “I am disinclined to acquiesce your request” and my mouth is trying to say “No.” Please tell me I’m not the only one that does this!!!

Now back to what I was talking about before. Yes, I’ve just been negligent. Or lazy. Or both. I mean, nothing grand has happened or anything, but I could have afforded my readers the courtesy of a little update to let them know I hadn’t forgotten them. I say that like I’m a big deal with thousands of readers, hahaha. To the dedicated few, I thank you. To sum up what I’ve been doing for the past month: school, more school, Heather’s (my roommate) birthday (the big 2-4!!), even more school, Thanksgiving, and hot chocolate parties. If you haven’t been to one of our hot chocolate parties, and you live in Provo, COME! This was all Heather’s idea, but I’ve definitely jumped on board and dare to call myself a co-host. She had this tradition before her mission with a bunch of Spokane buddies, and they called it ‘Cocoa Chat’. Well, it’s technically still called that, and she makes all these hilarious signs for it. Anyway, it’s now open to the public and we’ll start back up after the break. It’s at 9:30 every Sunday and BYOM (bring your own mug). Get in touch with me for directions.

So the only other thing I’ve been doing is finally getting around to editing my Spain photos. Since I work for the on-campus computer labs, I got to download the entire Adobe Creative Suite 5 – FOR FREE!! Basically, the greatest perk ever. So now I can do some pretty sweet stuff with my pictures. I’ll post a link to the Flickr album they’ll be in eventually.

One last thing before I go. This past weekend I had the privilege of seeing one of my best friends of 13+ years, Miss Jessica Jeske, be married in the Bountiful, Utah temple to a very lucky man, Mr. David Howard. Congratulations to them both, again. I’m so happy for them, and so glad to see how happy David makes her. They are a beautiful couple. And, you guessed it, I was there to take some great pictures. Coming soon!!

Thanks for sticking all the way to the end! Someday I’ll learn that if I regularly blog, I won’t have to spend so much time writing such long posts. Well, until that day…

P.S. (I know you're thinking will this ever end??) I can't believe I'm just mentioning this now. I'M HOME!!! Yes, I'm j-chillin' in beautiful Coeur d'Alene for the holidays. And I'm in heaven. I love this. Don't worry, I'll let you in on all our crazy family traditions later. But that's a post for another day. Ciao! 

¿Tengo que estudiar?

What?! You mean, I actually have to study on my STUDY abroad? I really thought this was a vacation abroad, or a party abroad. I guess this day had to come sometime.

So how did I spend my last week in Spain? On Monday, I had kebabs for the first time. Dang, I have been missing out this entire time. I think the best way to describe them is they are similar to gyros, except they come in round panini-type bread and have cucumber sauce and a tomato sauce. Delicious.

On Tuesday we went to see Los Miserables in Madrid, put on by Stage Entertainment España, the Spanish equivalent of Broadway. Yeah, I just don’t have words to describe it. It was soooooooooo good. I’ve never read the book or seen the musical before so I was a little lost during the first half, but thanks to my good friends Emily and Courtney, I was up to speed at intermission. Now, this was a three-hour show that started at 8:30, meaning it ended at 11:30, and the last train to Alcalá left at 11:50. That gave us 20 minutes to get to the train station via metro. We booked it through the station to the train platform (imagine a group of 40 people charging toward you. I’m sure we were a frightening sight) only to have the train pull away just as we got there. It was the bus for us, which meant another round of confusing metro changes and a bus that didn’t leave until 1:00 AM. So we finally got home at 2:00 with finals the next day at 9:00. Typical. Luckily, they really weren’t that bad and we had a little time to study before Les Mis.

I took both my finals on Wednesday and graduated! I got a little certificate and everything. Does that make me a college gradiate now?? (Yes, I know that is spelled wrong.) I guess not quite. We went to our final dinner at a fancy Italian restaurant, where I ate baby octopi and eels and steak. Definitely more Spanish than Italian, but they can think what they want.

The last supper.

All that was left to do was eat churros and chocolate for breakfast the next day and finish packing. It was weird packing everything up. I felt like I was just taking another side trip somewhere and I was going to come back to Alcalá in a couple days. It was sad saying goodbye to Mari and Abuelita. They have taken care of me for the past month and a half. They are like family now and it’s going to be a long time before I see them again. I definitely plan on mailing letters, and hopefully I’ll get some back.

Mari, nuestra madre.

Maria Jose (Mari's daughter) and her son Hugo

Abuelita

After waiting on the tarmac for 45 minutes, I left Madrid for Rome (more on that to come). So what all have I accomplished while in Spain?

• Gained 15 pounds (I wish I were kidding)
• Ate around 40 loaves of bread, by myself
•  Breathed enough secondhand smoke to give me lung cancer
•  Learned how to identify the style of every cathedral in western Europe
•  Traveled to and saw some of the most amazing things/cities (La Sagrada Familia, País Vasco, La Mezquita)
• Made some awesome friendships

I’d say, based on that list, this past month and a half has been a success. What a great experience. I would recommend that everyone spend time abroad if they can. It really is an amazing opportunity for growth, and I feel like I have become a better person because of it. I’m saving my description of exactly how I’ve grown for my return post. I’m not done yet. It’s time to learn a little about Italy, oh and eat some gelato of course.