livin la vida loca

When is spring break? Wait, you're telling me its already over?! How did that happen?!?!?!?!

Well, I somehow managed to get a 4.0 last term. Even after failing a midterm in one class. I'll take it! Not so sure how this term will turn out though...Its the second day of spring term and I already feel overwhelmed with the amount of work looming on the horizon. Just because I'm sure you're dying to know, this is what I have in store for me this term.

On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, I have Fundamentals of Spanish Literature from 9-10am. This is my only class on MWF, and of course it has to be at 9 am. Oh well, guess it could be earlier! The first assignment for this class involves reading a poem and answering questions like "What is an example of parallelism in this poem?" Or "Where is the decisive point? What is the climax, the conclusion, etc?" Yuck. At least the poem wasn't too bad. This class was held in the "Fourth Avenue Building" on PSU campus. Which is not marked. The outside of the building is called the Something Engineering Building. So after wandering around for a good 5 minutes, I just walked into the building and then found a sign which showed that this was in fact the Fourth Avenue Building. For this reason, half of the class was like half an hour late. And of course they've moved the class since then, so now we'll be meeting in a different building entirely.

Tuesdays and Thursdays start at 8am with a Communication class about Children and Violence. At PSU, you have to take these "junior cluster" courses, and can choose from a list of approved classes. Two of the three cluster classes have been pre-selected because of my Elementary Ed minor. The third was up to me. For some reason I decided to choose this one. The instructor seems like she's in her own little world, but I would probably have to be too if I taught classes about abuse and violence in/towards children. We watched this video today in class. Only watch it if you have no heart. Otherwise you will cryyyyy. Not only is it a really difficult topic, but looks like its gonna be a lot of work. In two weeks time, we have to read a book, write a report on it, plus do a research paper. Thanks, Gisele. I should mention that the book is A Child Called It. I'm not going to lie to you, I couldn't read the whole thing word for word. I had to kind of skim it because it made me sick to read. This is certainly not a book to read for pleasure. It is the story of the third worst child abuse case in California history. (Written by the abused boy himself-when he grew up and was rescued from it). He has since written two sequels, about his life after he was rescued from his abusive mother. I might have to read those so I can read the happily ever after ending to this heartbreaking story.

Next up, Linguistics. The study of language: phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, etc. This class is only 10 minutes after the Communications class. Fortunately its in the same building, otherwise it would be quite difficult! This class is full of what I'm pretty sure are the weirdest students at PSU. Maybe I shouldn't say that since I am in the class...? But let me give you two examples. First, there's the girl who feels the need to share her every thought and comment and opinion on everything. She won't quit talking. Even the professor was annoyed. At one point, she said, "Oh, this reminds me of something I learned in ASL class." And she proceeded to sign something. Uhhh, none of us know sign language. Plus it had nothing to do with what we were talking about. Anyway, then there's example two: We all went around and introduced ourselves. It came to this lady's turn and she says, "My name is so-and-so, but I go by Starlight. I was born in Maryland but my life started here." Okey dokey, Starlight, nice to meet you. Then, later, we are reading an example of a nonsense sentence to show that even if it has no meaning, you still understand the parts of speech. It reads, "Colorless green ideas sleep furiously." The professor is laughing, saying, no one knows what that means!! Starlight says, "I do." Fortunately, the professor ignored her and moved on. Okay, I'm sure these are really lovely people and that they are super nice and great. Maybe they think I'm totally obnoxious.

Last up, Passions and Emotions in Poetry of the 16th Century. Funny story, when I registered for this class, it shows up as "Spanish Literature: Women Writers" (that sounded bad enough). So profesora walks in and says, well, this isn't Women Writers. Soooorry! So, here I am analyzing (I don't like having to analyze anything) poetry (which I don't really get in the first place), from the "Golden Age" (I don't even know when that was), and its all in Spanish (at least that part is okay...until I start reading Looking At Talents for Science...or something like that. The words in the title of this book could all mean like three different things. I don't even know what the title means.....).

So, all that, plus working 20-ish hours a week, will be my life for the next ten weeks. What, I'm supposed to have some semblance of a social life, too?! Well, this should be fun. (?)






P.S. Costa Rica is out, Korea is IN (maybe)! I'm applying for this 5-week program since I turned the Costa Rica one down. Its $400 versus $3000+, and is 5 weeks, twice as long as Costa Rica.

Excited. (?) UPDATED

So I applied for the Costa Rica program even though I really don't have the money for it. Mostly because my professor from Spain wrote a letter of recommendation for me (the second one he's done for me) and I didn't want to not apply after he'd done that. I'm not gonna lie, I was literally praying that I wouldn't get accepted into the program. I showed up for the interview but just didn't really try that hard. Must have tried harder than at least 10 other people though, cuz I got accepted.

Ughhhh what to do now? I have a couple more scholarships I can apply for, but wouldn't know if I got them or not until after the deadline to confirm my participation.

Aaaanyway. That's the scoop. I only have until April 8th to make my decision...!

UPDATE: So I just sent an email to the director of the program withdrawing myself as a participant. I did a lot of thinking and praying. And more thinking. And then more praying. I just feel like it would be an unwise financial decision. There are other Capstone programs available this summer that will be just as rewarding (almost...minus the travel) but will be like 10 times less. Plus, I can always just go to Costa Rica on vacation for cheap. Plane tickets are only like $600 round trip.......

Spain: 1. USA: 0.

There are some things that Spain does better than the USA. To prove my point, some evidence:

Greek yogurt, Spain-Style. Possibly the best thing I've ever eaten.

Greek yogurt, America-style. Nothing special at all.
(not that that stopped me from buying 8 of them since they were on sale...)

I fell in love with Dannon Greek Yogurt when I was in Spain. For the first couple months, my host mom would give it to me for dinner every night. So. GOOD. Then she eventually stopped and moved to (probably much cheaper) weird other kinds of yogurt. But I will never forget the Greek stuff. When I got back to the USA, I was sure I'd be able to find it here. Buuuut I couldn't...until now! I found it at Safeway today and was sooooo excited; not only did they have the Dannon stuff, it was on sale! AND there was a COUPON!! I bought a couple to try them out.

They are both made by Dannon. They are both simple Greek Yogurt. But there is no contest. Spain wins, hands-down. I don't know what it is about yogurt in Europe that is so amazing. I remember absolutely loving it in Italy and buying tubs and tubs of it. But this is a brand that is sold in the US! I figured they'd be the same. So, so disappointed.

The cows in Europe must be just so much better.

phobias. and other news. UPDATED

Whew, life has been busy lately. I don't even know what I've been busy with, but I feel like I haven't had time for much of anything! Wait, I know what I've been busy with. School. And work. And couponing...

Have I mentioned that my sister is the queen of bargain shopping? Well, she taught me some of her tricks. So I've been printing coupons, scouring the internet for sales, and shopping like a crazy woman. And paying barely anything. I love Rite Aid. I've bought probably $100 + worth of items there in the last few weeks but have only paid like $20ish dollars for it all. Lovely. Now I'm running out of room to store my stockpile of toiletries, medicine, etc. Anyway, if you want to learn the secrets, check out the Krazy Coupon Lady, Frugal Living NW and Hip2Save, some of my new favorite websites.

I've also been doing more cooking, although not as much as I had been doing. But with my new bargain shopping tricks, maybe I'll be able to afford to buy a whole ton of food now so I can cook my little heart out. But along with cooking came the realization that I have some really weird, irrational fears. Just because I'm weird like that, I decided I would share them. The first two have to do with food. The rest are just craziness.

1.) I have a fear of onions. I am slowly conquering this fear, in fact I have even bought onions and used them recently. But I can only make myself buy the sweet onions and have to wrap leftover onions in a ziplock bag inside of a tupperware container before putting it in the fridge, for fear that it will contaminate everything else inside the fridge with oniony grossness.

2.) I am terrified that I will give myself food poisoning. Or salmonella or some other form of food-borne illness. For this reason, I wash my hands about a million times each time I cook. And I don't taste much while I am cooking because I'm afraid of...something. I don't even know. So that leads to sometimes under-seasoned dishes. But that's (almost) always fixable. I'd rather have under-salted macaroni (as was the case with yesterday's dish) than food poisoning.

3.) Ants. I hate them. More than any other insect. I know they are tiny, I know they are practically harmless. I also know that they infest my living space in droves and are impossible to get rid of. My roommate found ants inside her cereal a while back. So I bought some ant trap things that are supposed to kill them. Well, they are still around. Not as many as I used to get in my CA apartment (where I would call my parents crying, asking how to get rid of them), but enough to be gross. Sometimes I'll be sitting on the couch studying and find an ant crawling on my hand. Or I will be sitting in class and find ants on my notebook. Or there will be a little parade of them in the kitchen. I hate them. It makes me want to scream. I might have to buy some Raid and go on a killing spree soon...

(I was going to put a picture of ants on here. But I threw up a little when the Google images page came up with thousands of pictures of ants, so I quickly closed it. You know what they look like. If not, come on over to my apartment and I'll gladly let you take some home with you.)

4.) I don't know how my siblings and I have made it our entire lives without ever getting lice. But I am terrified of getting them. Maybe I should rethink wanting to be a teacher...Every time I have to itch my scalp I'm certain that lice are the culprit of the itchyness. And every time I go to the hair salon, I'm afraid they'll be like, uhhh, I'm not going to cut your hair, you have lice. How weird is that?! I know, but I'm still so scared. Probably, if I had had lice before, I wouldn't be as scared because I'd know what to expect. Or maybe I'd be more scared. Don't tell me the answer to that if you have had lice. Also, stay away from me if so. Maybe you still have them and will infect me.

(I didn't even try a Google search of lice. Grossss.)

5.) Now, the previous 4 things are pretty weird. But this one just comes out of nowhere. I have a fear of certain bodies of water. I love the ocean. LOVE it. I will swim all around all day in it, doesn't bother me a bit. But when the body of water has gross plants growing in it, and the bottom is all slimy, and the sea-plants brush up against you, I will FREAK OUT (I get the heebie-jeebies just writing about this). So most lakes and rivers are just out of bounds for me as far as swimming goes. And boating is fine, as long as I'm in the boat. But if the boat starts veering towards the gross plant-ness on the banks, I will start secretly freaking out a little, being just sure that I'm going to fly out of the boat and land in the marshy area and THEN WHAT WILL I DO?!?!?! That may sound like a (somewhat) reasonable fear. But I should mention this also applies when I am in a car. If I am driving by a body of water, and there is no guardrail (or even if there is) and very little land in between my car and the water, I get all nervous. I grip the steering wheel with both hands, palms sweaty, and I can't look at the water or I will probably drive right into it. Or that's what my mind thinks anyway. I have to look straight ahead-but even then, I have terrible images in my head of driving into the murky, gross water, and having to either stay trapped in my car or somehow get out of the car and swim through grossness. Although even if the water doesn't appear that gross, I still prefer to not drive by it as I'm afraid I'll drive in and drown. I don't have any idea where this comes from. Just don't try to talk to me while I'm driving by water. I might freak out and accidentally drive us both into the water and we'll drown in the murky depths. Please don't make this happen.

Ay, yi, yi this gives me nightmares just looking at it!

(On a side note, I really am a good driver. I don't know why I doubt my driving abilities so much that I worry about driving into water. I guess that's where the "irrational" in "irrational fears" comes from. Don't judge me.)



UPDATE: I have recently realized some more phobias. Here you go, just for your enjoyment:

6.) Revolving doors. I don't know what it is. I have a little panic attack every time I have to go in one. The airport, the library at PSU, other random places where they have revolving doors. Why would they put those in anywhere?! Why not just an automatic door?! I am always afraid I am either going to get caught in door while it is revolving. Or I will walk too slow or too fast and get hit by the door. Or something. I don't even know what. But I always feel like that scene in Elf when Buddy is trying to get on the escalator. So scared. Trying to drum up the courage. Just going for it. Fortunately I haven't got stuck or had to do the splits while getting in a revolving door. I'm just waiting for when it happens though. Then I'll feel like Ron Burgundy in Anchorman when he is in the phone booth. Stuck in a glass case of emotion. (I don't know why these movie scenes are in my head. But they seem appropriate).

7.) Bicycles. Oh how I hate them. It has been a few years since I've been on a bike. My mom tried to re-teach my sister and I how to ride a bike a few years ago. We also all tried to learn to rollerblade. We went to the same park where we originally learned to ride bikes and rode around in circles and that was enough for me. I don't know what it is, but it just terrifies me. I just feel certain that I am going to fall off. Or run into a car. Or a tree. Or something horrific like that. I prefer my own two feet, where its not all wobbly. (Usually.) Its been probably fifteen years since I actually rode a bike-like, went on a bike ride. I didn't much like it then, and it never grew on me. Soooo I have avoided bikes since then. Don't try to talk me into a bike ride. Unless you have a grown-up sized tricycle. Then I might think about it.

how coupons saved my life. maybe.

Apparently my eye has a cyst or some sort of growth on it. Soooo I have to go get an ultrasound of my eyeball tomorrow. That doesn't sound at all pleasant. It took me a while to realize that they can probably do that with my eye closed, so that doesn't worry me as much. But still hope that it will be quick, even if they don't have to like tape my eye open or something.

There are two things that led to this discovery. One is that my vision has started getting a little worse. The other is I had a coupon (thanks to my sis) for a free pair of glasses. A coupon code which could only be used on one certain day. I had noticed for about a month that my vision was just a little worse than it used to be. But because essentially I can still see just fine, things are just a little tiny blurry when they are at a long distance, I wasn't in a rush to do anything. Then I realized I could get a free pair of glasses, so I called the doctor and made and appointment for the same day so I could also order my glasses that day.

After being told that my prescription for glasses is "between nothing and the smallest amount," and having my pupils dilated to the size of saucers which meant I could see nothing up-close (finding the right credit card to pay the bill was quite a challenge), she also told me there is something funny on my eye. So she referred me to the Casey Eye Institute (conveniently located about one minute from my apartment) to have an ultrasound of my eye.

Now, I'm sure that it is nothing. But...if it turns out to be, like, a brain-eating parasite that is currently living in my eyeball, then I will have coupons (and my worsening vision...) to thank for discovering it. If I hadn't had the chance to get free glasses, I would have put off that eye exam for a very long time.

See, coupons save lives. End of story.

More to come on the results of my brain-eating parasite test.

another post about food....

I never used to buy sweets. I would eat them occasionally, but just never really craved them. Then I went to Spain. I actually didn't really eat sweets much there either. My host mom never had them in the house. We always ate fruit for dessert. Which I love, usually that's what I'd rather have anyway. But for some reason, while I was there, I started wanting goodies all the time. I'm gonna go ahead and blame that on the 1 euro bags of gummy candies that were sold on every street corner. Anyway, it wasn't too bad while I was there because normally I was too cheap to buy a bunch of sweets.

But then I got back to the US. And then I started getting things for free with coupons. I cannot stop eating. In the last couple weeks, I have bought potato chips, fruit snacks (basically fruit-flavored sugar), candy bars, cookies, more potato chips....and then my roommates keep giving in to the adorable girl scouts and bringing home cookies. I'm surrounded by sugary goodness and I can't resist! Guess that means I'm really gonna have to get better about going to the gym...

All this goodness made me think of something though. I've learned in recent classes that people who live in poverty have poorer health and eat worse than other people. They teach that in poor, low-class neighborhoods, the only kinds of stores that are available are fast food restaurants. Which is true. People who live under the poverty level usually live in a certain area of town where there aren't a lot of fresh food options. Often buying McDonald's for the family is cheaper than buying something from a grocery store and making it.

But I've decided there is another reason, prompted by my recent couponing obsession. You see, you can get a lot of stuff for free with coupons. I mean a LOT of stuff. For FREE. Buuuut, the kind of stuff you get for free isn't really the best stuff. Well, some of it is. I've gotten 8 full-sized nice, name-brand face-washes for free in the last couple weeks. And enough medicine and other necessities to last me a very long time. But when it comes to food, you don't get fresh fruits and vegetables and meat for free. You get Betty Crocker fruit snacks (4 boxes for free...what, am I 10?). You also get Lay's Stax (Lay's version of Pringles. Amazing. And Disgusting, all at the same time. Two canisters. WHY?!). And Snickers candy bars. So these people who have hardly any money and want to make every dollar stretch, use coupons I'm sure. And with those coupons, they get junk. And because its free, they opt for those things instead of healthy stuff. Kind of sad. Why can't they make things easier for people that need help?

Anyway, I usually get the junk AND the fruits and vegetables. So I'm eating the crap, but also good stuff. It cancels out the fruit snacks and candy bars, right?!?!