In the Midst of Change

Well, my life lately has seemed somewhat of a dream... it seems to be moving and changing so quickly. It's hard to believe that summer's nearing an end already. I guess summers are always like that. I've had good friends move away, I've seen friends get married, and in between the big changes that are happening (moving, weddings, getting ready to leave for Spain), there has been the normal and comfortable stuff of life... STUDYING, doing yardwork with the family, having my brother come to visit, cleaning my apartment (it never quite feels completely clean), church, hanging out with friends here and there... I'm glad that life remains somewhat constant, even in the midst of big changes. I think if everything changed all at once, we all might have heart attacks.

I've had a lot of friends get engaged, married, or begin their families this summer... three of my closest friends are having babies in the next sixth months, which is hard to believe. Seriously, 5 years ago, we were all finishing high school, and now their married and they're going to be parents! Whoa. I guess we grow up quicker than we think sometimes.

I'm going out to California in about two weeks for my BYU roommate Whitney's wedding. I'm excited to finally meet Ian, the guy she's been telling me about for so long... it's hard to be away from close friends when our lives are changing so much. I was talking with my friend Jeannette last night, and we agreed that it's incredible how spread out our friends are across the country (and world!), which sometimes makes keeping in touch a bit harder. However, I think it's pretty sweet that I have friends everywhere from Milwaukee to Senegal to Chile to Utah to France to California and everywhere else inbetween... I'm just glad to have them in my life, even if blogs and emails sometimes have to replace late-night talks in person :-) Friends are friends, wherever they are... and I want to do better to keep in better individual touch with them all. I guess this blog is one step into keeping them in on the little parts of my life, but it's certainly not a replacement for that.

So, a toast to all my friends and family, all over the globe!

Summer is moving fast...

The next two weeks are crucial. I was telling a friend of mine, summers are always busy, but this year, I may be setting personal records. Haha... in the next month, I need to finish my Marquette psych class and my BYU independent study statistics class, move out of my apartment, travel to CA for my BYU roomie Whitney's wedding, and get ready to leave for Spain for the semester! So, I might be in hiding for the next couple weeks until these things get done... I'm starting to get really excited for Spain! I still feel like I have a lot to do to get ready to go... but luckily, since I have been there before (albeit briefly), that should help in speeding up the packing/preparing process.

I'm bummed out that I'm missing out on the ward whitewater rafting/camping trip this weekend, that's something I was really hoping to do this summer... but priorities must be kept, and knowing that I'm going to one of my best friend's weddings and to Spain next month makes any sacrifice seem pretty tiny.

Onward, ho!

Cultural Awkwardness...

I'm sure a lot of you have heard about President Bush and his "massage" incident. For those of you who haven't heard, President Bush gave German Chancellor Angela Merkel a quick friendly neck massage in passing during the G-8 summit in Russia this last week. I whole-heartedly believe President Bush was just trying to be nice and show support to the lady, who might have been stressed with the work of the conference. However, I know from personal experience, that Germans are not the touchy-feely types, especially in a professional setting (I would imagine). Poor President Bush. He thought he was making a nice gesture, when in reality, he was weirding out poor Chancellor Merkel. The pictures of it are pretty funny, as she raises her arms and shoulders to signal him to stop the massage. Uh... awkward!

This incident of cultural awkwardness is something that is a fact of interacting with those of different cultures... people just don't act/do the same things in one country that they do in another. For example, when I went to Spain in high school and kissed about 30 people in one day when I met my host family and the host daughter's friends (the custom to kiss on the cheek upon meeting new people), I felt slightly weird for the remainder of the night.

Another incident that comes to mind is when my family was out to dinner in Munich, Germany with a former exchange student, Oliver, and his family. We were excited to meet Oliver's family after Oliver had stayed with us in Wisconsin for a few weeks. The dinner was nice, although a bit ackward trying to make conversation in German/English with people you don't know, but then came a slight slip of Dad's tongue. Dad had forgotten German Social Rule #11: "Don't call people by their first names if you are not previously acquainted and are not familiar." Dad said something to Oliver's dad like, "So, Dieter... it's Dieter, right?" Dieter nodded his head, looking slightly confused. Oops. Oh well, you can't take offense at that stuff... I hope he realized that Dad wasn't trying to be rude.

Anyhow, I'm sure I'll have plently of cultural awkwardness upon going to Spain this fall as I try to get the hang of everything... so I'll be sure to keep you posted of my cultural findings! If you have any cultural awkwardness stories, I'd love to hear them!

The 8K run

So I did the "Port Fish Day" 8K run this last Saturday. Lots of fun! I'm not really much of a long distance runner, but I signed up in hopes that it would motivate me to start running more. So, I paid my $17 and then there was no turning back. I figured if anything, I get a cool t-shirt out of it (admit it, we all like getting the t-shirts when we do charity runs). The training started out decently, and I went about 3 times a week. Then, I got busy with summer school and had about 2 weeks where I didn't run at all... um, not super helpful to my goal of finishing the race without stopping.

The day of the race, I was a little nervous, since I'd only run once in the 3 weeks before the race, but I was excited to be there with friends to try it out. The first mile was up a steep hill, and I was shocked to see the first mile mark, thinking, "We've only gone a mile??!" At about the third mile, my poor training and extreme heat (it was predicted to be the hottest weekend of the summer so far) began to get to me. I walked for over a mile, drinking lots of water and smiling when one nice local yelled out from her front lawn "That's ok! At least you know when to stop! In this heat, it's better not to push yourself!" I actually felt a little better when she said that.

I ran the last mile and a half again, meeting a couple new friends: an older woman and a girl about my age. The girl and I were running step for step, if one got ahead, the other caught up, and vice versa. By the end, the three of us (towards the tail end of the racers) were friends, chatting it up as we neared the crowd at the finish line. I saw my family at the end, and then suddenly, I saw my three friends, who had left me in the dust long before. They cheered loud, and I suddenly began sprinting to the finish line like I was at the Olympics. My new-found friend began sprinting to catch up. I beat her by a couple steps. I finished in about 58 minutes... not awful considering I walked for about a mile of it.

Despite the slight disappointment of not running the whole race, I had a lot of fun, and poured water all over myself at the end, like in one of those Nike commercials or something. I enjoyed running through the neighborhoods of Port Washington, where the locals had out their sprinklers so that we wouldn't die of heat exhaustion, and little kids set up water stands to hand water cups to the runners. Occasional groups of people cheered us on, not even knowing us, shouting from their lawn chairs or the sidewalk, "You're doing great! Keep it up!"

Next time, I definitely hope to train better so I can actually finish the race without walking. But I enjoyed the friendliness of the runners and the locals, the Lake Michigan view, the fish washing station we saw near the town center, the sprinklers, seeing my 8th grade science teacher Mr. Allen and my Sunday school companion as fellow runners, and just being at a festival dedicated to fish. Sadly, I left before sampling any of the local fish fry, but then again, it was 10 in the A.M. and all I wanted after running was a cooler full of Gatorade.

Later!

New Class

So, I'm done with Shakespeare (for a while) and since that class is done, I've started a new summer class: Personality Theory Psychology. This class is definitely gonna be interesting, which is good, since the class is twice a week for 3.5 hours. Sheesh! But seriously, no matter what you think or know about psychology, you would find this class fascinating. So far, we've talked about Freud (um, interesting, but a little weird, too). I'll have to analyze everyone's personality now... j/k, that would be really annoying, especially since I'm only a lowly undergrad.

Other reasons this week has been interesting:

-I got two flat tires... (we found a nail in one tire and a screw in another). Luckily, they weren't flat on the road... one went flat in the garage, so I finally (thanks to Dad) learned how to change a tire, and the other made it to the dealership before it went flat, but it was starting to deflate! I have no clue what I ran over... perhaps a hardware store? j/k

-I booked my flight to Spain! Espana, here I come... now I just need to remember how to speak Spanish! :-
-I haven't gone to Summerfest once. (Not lots of spare funds this year... plus, unlike 90% of the population, I am in classes right now.)

-We've had 5 people living in our one-bedroom apartment this week. Jess's siblings and cousin are in town, and our house is a little cramped. Luckily, they're really cool and it's been a lot of fun.

Well, that's all I got right now. Peace ya'll!

Lobster yumminess...

My friend Ben called me up one night recently and offered to take me out for dinner to Mocean's, this really nice seafood restaurant in Milwaukee. He told me to try whatever I wanted... and suggested lobster! I decided, why the heck not? I've never had one! So... I got one... the waitress told me that it had been alive about 10 minutes before she put it on my plate and that they fly in 6 live lobsters a day from Maine. Whoa! I felt a little bad knowing that it had just been alive right before I ordered it, but I guess that's the life cycle of nature. Anyhow... it was really good!! I had to crack it open (and got some lobster juice on my shirt in the process) but after squeezing on a little lemon, it was all good. So, this is a picture of my first lobster dinner! Yum. :-)