Pace, Amore, e Armonia

And here is a picture from SAAC formal. It’s rare that...

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 12:20:53 -0500

And here is a picture from SAAC formal. It’s rare that all of us roommate are in the same place so I figured this was worth sharing!

Some of these pictures are pretty old. Marissa came to visit a...

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 12:18:00 -0500

Some of these pictures are pretty old. Marissa came to visit a few weekends ago, it was nice to see her. We also had our sophomore formal. Brian and Nick made dinner for Sarah and me. It was so good! Nick ripped his pants at the dance…that was weird. The next morning we got up early to go watch Mary and Alice run the Earth Day half marathon. They both finished which is more than I could do. It was also case day, but our entire house decided to take naps instead of participating.

Sarah is now a senator! I went to her inauguration as her surrogate mother. Since she is the sustainability representative, we decided to take pictures with the trees.

The triathlon is now completed! It was pretty successful if I do say do myself. The weather was wonderful and people said it was one of the smoothest ones yet. Woo! I got up at five to get ready to go set up. After it was over, we hung out at Marmion for a bit and then did the obstacle course. I have multiple bruises from the course, but it was fun. Then Joey and I went back to shower (oh yeah, Joey was here. He did the triathlon!) We spent the evening back at Marmion and had a nice little jam session on the roof in typical eco-house fashion. From the looks of it, Joey really enjoyed himself. The paint dance was also that night.. It actually should have been called a chalk dance because it was just powder that washed off. Oh well. We ended the day off with a pancake breakfast. It was an extremely long day, but very worth it.

We woke up early this morning to have a house breakfast. We sat outside on the front steps and just talked. It was nice. Sarah and I didn’t have class until one so we spent the next few hours at the blend.

Mom called and told me that Joey wants to major in triathlons. I thought that was cute and worth remembering down the road.

Now we are starting our last cycle of classes! I can’t believe the year is almost over.

More pictures. I put captions on some of them, so just click on...

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 12:04:00 -0500

Everyone

Lauren stubbed her toe pretty bad.

Joey's birthday dessert

Soaking up the sun.

He wanted me to take this picture.

Out to dinner.

Top view of some of the pools.

The three amigos.

Beach volleyball.

More pictures. I put captions on some of them, so just click on the picture to see what they say.

Here are the Cabo pictures, finally. It’s been awhile...

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 11:59:00 -0500

Our first day.

So relaxing.

Evening view.

The kids.

The restaurant that made Nick sick.

Whales!

Yummy organic food.

Family.

Ready to swim with the dolphins.

Here are the Cabo pictures, finally. It’s been awhile since spring break but I’ll try to do a little recap.

My family and Nick flew in to Cabo on Tuesday. We spent the first day driving around town trying to find a restaurant and Costco. It was stressful. Lauren and Mrs. Bradley met us the next day. We did a lot of lounging at the pool and swimming, and a little volleyball, too. Later in the week Mr. Bradley flew in. Once everyone was there we went to an organic market, swam with dolphins, went out to dinner, went to some crazy beach in Cabo, had an Easter brunch, celebrated Joey’s birthday, jumped waves, so so many whales, got sunburnt…and heat rash…and weird blisters, played beach volleyball, met up with Amber, and relaxed. Nick ended up getting sick for a few days, but we managed to get him down to the beach for a bit.

My favorites:

Swimming with dolphins: they were so cute, like little puppies but with no fur.

The market: it looked like a Waldorf holiday fair but outside and warm, and with more food.

Watching Thomas, Joey, and Lauren: they were almost as cute as the dolphins. They basically just giggled together the whole trip.

*Click on pictures for captions.

And here are the pictures of what the rest of my snow day...

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 12:05:56 -0500

And here are the pictures of what the rest of my snow day consisted of!

Snowball fights, snowmen and acro-yoga

Snow Day #2 So, I’ve really been trying to not post until I was going to write about spring...

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 14:16:00 -0500

Snow Day #2

So, I’ve really been trying to not post until I was going to write about spring break (so that everything could be in order)…but I don’t have access to Cabo pictures yet so I’ll have to come back and do it later.

I woke up this morning to Mary jumping in my bed squealing “April snow day! Yay!” What the heck…a snow day in April? A few days ago in was almost 40 degrees out! I suppose if it’s going to snow though we might as well get a day off out of it.

Sarah and I planned to just watch a movie but then Nick and Nate ended up picking us up to go to the Local Blend (that’s where I am now). I don’t come here very often but I probably should, it’s nice, I just don’t want to start spending lots of money on coffee and whatnot. Brian joined us now too, and Alice is here at a different table. It’s relaxing since I don’t have a whole lot of homework to do.

There really hasn’t been very much exciting going on recently, just a lot of homework and meetings. Kevin and I taught our youth ministry class last night and it actually went pretty well. It was a group of ten ninth graders, five guys, five girls. They were a lot more interactive than I expected them to be which was helpful on our end. Now I only have to give that speech on more time!

In a little bit we’re going to leave the blend and meet up with a bunch of people on the mall for a snowball fight.

I’m not sure if it’s because this was part of my lesson plan last night or just because, but this prayer has been in my mind lately:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference.

Snow Day! I woke up at 6:30 this morning to find out that...

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 12:40:30 -0500

Snow Day!

I woke up at 6:30 this morning to find out that 8:00am classes were cancelled. I don’t have any 8:00ams. I studied until 8 and then decided to nap for 15 minutes before getting ready for class. When I woke up all classes were cancelled. SNOW DAY! Sarah and I wanted to go back to bed but Mary wouldn’t let us. We made a pancake breakfast instead. Then we finished putting fabric on the lids of our Ball jars that we’re distributing to the West Apartments (to promote bulk food and whatnot. They have a Quinua recipe in them, too). We’re using the extra fabric to patch up our couches. I love my house.

St. Patty’s Day Okay, so scratch the whole Sammy Adams thing. Our school canceled him...

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 00:19:00 -0500

St. Patty’s Day

Okay, so scratch the whole Sammy Adams thing. Our school canceled him because his lyrics don’t align with our Benedictine values, but they already paid him $30,000 that we won’t get back. I don’t want to say that’s dumb because I’m sure they did it with good intentions…but I can’t say I agree with their decisions. Actually, it was a pretty dumb thing to do. We could do a lot of cool things with $30,000 but instead we spent it on a performer who they won’t even let us see (also, we’re basically all adults here and can handle some vulgar language). But, oh well, people have complained enough so I don’t need to add to the pile. Moving on.

I had a pretty great St. Patrick’s Day weekend. We had a little get together at Rainbow. It started out pretty slow and we played a lot of Bananagrams, haha. Then people started showing up and it got a bit more rowdy. Sometimes I get stressed out when a lot of people come over because I feel like I need to keep an eye on everything and make sure that people are okay, but then I remember that I have four other roommates who can do that, too. My favorite part of the night was when the guys were playing their instruments and singing Irish ballads. Most college parties don’t include guitars, mandolins, penny whistles, violins, and drums but sometimes ours do. It’s pretty cool. I went to bed before a lot of people left but apparently they ended up ordering pizza at 2:00am and didn’t go to bed for a few hours after that (for some people that’s normal but for me it’s really late!!) The last bus to SJU is at 2:00, so a handful of people ended up sleeping on our couches, which is always fun. It’s nice to wake up to a full house and eat breakfast and drink coffee with everyone.

Amber and Ben both came over for out St. Patrick’s day shindig. It was nice to hangout with them for the whole nights since I don’t get to see either of them as often as I’d like. It’s weird to think that Amber and I won’t see each other for an entire school year because we’re studying abroad different semesters. I’ll have to get used to Skype. Thank goodness Ben and I will both be gone in the spring.

I studied in Lottie with MC and Kelly today. I get more done when I’m not at home. Maybe I should start going to the library…but I don’t like it when it’s completely quiet so I probably won’t. They’re also both studying abroad a different semester than I am so we’ll have to get our fill of wine and cheese nights in before next year!

We had our joint OLC/PRP triathlon meeting tonight. I think it went well. It looks like things are finally coming together! I know I’be said this before and I’ll probably mention it a lot in the next few posts but I’m really excited to see how everything turns out. It’s my baby right now, haha.

We get to pick PRP newbies on Tuesday! We’ve been interviewing people all weekend. I hear it’s a pretty long and stressful meeting but hopefully it isn’t too bad.

I need to go to bed now so I can wake up early and study for my bio test.

Peace.

Little sibs weekend was fun. Thomas, Joey, and Katya came up Saturday morning. We hung out at...

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 14:45:00 -0500

Little sibs weekend was fun. Thomas, Joey, and Katya came up Saturday morning. We hung out at Rainbow for a bit and then went climbing. It was really crowded so we didn’t stay long. We went to a potluck at Idzerda that night and then just hung out at home with Nate and his little sister. A lot of people ended up coming over throughout the night so it kind of turned in to an impromptu party. It was random but fun, and Thomas and Joey finally got to meet more of my friends.

This week has been pretty busy. I’ve either had a quiz or some sort of paper due everyday. Actually, that’s how it’s been for that past few weeks. I have a chem and a bio test next week so I should really start studying for those. So many things seem to get piled up right before break, oh well. It’s almost time for Cabo!

Also, I’ve been working out! Sarah and I have been going to the gym together a few times a week. It’s nice to have a workout buddy. We’ve done Nick’s P90X ab workout video a few times too. It’s quite fun. Six-pack by spring break…? Yes.

Uncle Carlo is in Italy right now so I talked to him via Valentina’s facebook. He told me he’d take me to Italy in six months. The likely hood of that happening is slim but it got me exited to study abroad. I’m hoping to do some pre-traveling there before I go to South Africa (even though it’s out of the way). I’ve also been reading people’s South Africa blogs which have been making me even more excited. It’s a little nerve racking since I’ve never been away form home for that long, but I’ll have some good people with me so I’ll be fine.

Sammy Adams. I just found out that Sammy Adams is performing here at the end of April! Thomas...

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 22:20:00 -0600

Sammy Adams.

I just found out that Sammy Adams is performing here at the end of April! Thomas and Joey are going to come. It will be fun.

I don’t have a whole lot to write but I felt like it had been awhile since the last update. I’ve been pretty busy lately. The triathlon is coming up and I’m one of the co-co’s so that has been taking up some time. I think it will be fun this year, though. The theme is “Get Juiced”. I know I’m going to get overwhelmed as it gets closer but it’s also going to be really fun to see it all come together!

I had a wine and cheese date with MC and Kelly last night. We watched Say Anything. It was fun to just have a girls night. After the movie we chatted and it ended up getting late, so I slept on the extra mattress in MC’s room because I was too lazy and tired to walk all the way back to Rainbow. I really enjoy hanging out with them. We seem to have enough in common but are also different in just the right ways, it works. Yay for friends.

It’s almost Friday! Thomas, Joey, and Katya are coming up on Saturday for little sibs weekend. I haven’t seen Katya in awhile so it will be nice to catch up.

Long Weekend! Wednesday after class Nick, Jon, Kelly and I...

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 12:00:00 -0600

"I dreamed a dream of time gone by"

Long Weekend!

Wednesday after class Nick, Jon, Kelly and I headed up to the island. Brian, Cole, and MC met us there later that night. We ended up making it to the ice road before it was dark, so that was good. Even though it was open for public use I still had to call Arnie and make sure we could cross, and call him again when we got to the other side #smalltownprobs. Once we got to the house we made mac n’ cheese and played cards until the rest of the group got there.

We spent most of the next day outside having snowball fights and digging snow caves. It was great. I’m glad that a group of seven nineteen/twenty year olds are still able to have so much fun playing in the snow. Eventually we wore ourselves out and went inside to nap and play some more cards. MC and I made pasta for everyone that night and we had a lovely family dinner. Also, the ice road close that day so we were stuck for a little bit!

A few of us went in to the coffee shop on Friday so we could get internet and download some homework. Yuck. When we got home Jon tried to make some homemade snow shoes (they didn’t work). I tried to make maple syrup candy in the snow (also didn’t really work). Then we spent the rest of the day playing cribbage, Rummikub, and Scrabble. We cooked brats for lunch and then had some lovely lasagna that mom left in the freezer for dinner.

Throughout the weekend, there were also multiple Les Mis sing alongs. It was great. It was a pretty low-key trip. Everyone that came was really helpful with cleaning and whatnot, I feel like I hardly had to do any extra work that usually comes with hosting. I’m glad it worked out with them all coming.

On Saturday we got up earlyish to head to Hayward for the Birkie. Ronnie had to come plow our driveway first since we had gotten so much snow. We ended up not leaving til a little later than we planned on so we didn’t get to see many of the CSBSJU ski team actually racing. After the Birkie, Brian, Cole, MC, and Kelly drove home. Nick, Jon, and I debeted going back to school or spending the night in Trego with the ski team. We decided to drive back to school until Per called and told us to turn around. I’m glad we did. It was nice to hang out with them since they’ve been gone every weekend of the semester.

That was my long weekend!

Valentine’s Day! “I love Valentine’s day. I...

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 22:52:19 -0600

Valentine’s Day!

“I love Valentine’s day. I know no one is going to buy me anything, but I love it ’cause it’s about love!” That is a direct quote from one of my roommates. I think she definitely had the right idea. So many people see Valentine’s day as only for couples, which originally I guess it was, since St. Valentine performed illegal marriages. But in today’s society I think it makes a lot more sense to celebrate love in general. I don’t really understand it when people hate Valentine’s day because their single. I was single for almost every Valentine’s day that I’ve been a live for, but I also loved every one of them. I made cards for my friends or sent them $1 roses that were sold at school. Love and appreciation is something that should be shown every day, but a lot of times it flies under the radar. Valentine’s day is a perfect time for people to pay special attention to the people they love, whether it be a significant other, friends, or family.

Nick was sick and we were both busy so we didn’t do much today, he did get me flowers though :)

Ah!

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 17:19:10 -0600

I have to give an evangelization talk in Youth Ministry on Monday. Basically I have to come up with a main message, tell a personal story that relates to that message, and then tell a story about Jesus that also relates. The point is to foster conversion to Christianity among youth. This will be interesting. I literally have no background in this sort of thing…religion or speaking…oops. It kind of makes me think though, and definitely brings me out of my comfort zone. That’s what college is all about, right? Hah. We’ll see how it goes.

#love It’s Alice’s half birthday today!...

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 08:57:00 -0600

#love

It’s Alice’s half birthday today! It’s Rainbow house tradition to make a pancake breakfast for people on their birthday. Alice’s birthday is in August so we had to do her half birthday instead, which they’ve never done before. We woke up at 7 and made pancakes, then went to wake her up. We all jumped on her bed yelling “Happy half birthday!”. Then she started smelling the food and asked us who was cooking. When she finally realized what was going on she started crying and said, “It this real? I’ve always wanted a birthday during the school year!” It was precious. One of the many reasons I love living here.

It's Time for Safrica

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 00:31:40 -0600

I’m going to South Africa next spring! So are Nick, Cole, and Maddie. I can’t wait!

Biology-life

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 23:21:00 -0600

So, I think it’s really cool when you’re able to learn things about yourself in a class that doesn’t seem to be related to the matter. Obviously, biology has to do with me in the sense that it is basically the study of organisms, but that’s not the point. I talked about my bio professor a bit before, but here’s a little more. At the beginning of the semester, Mani said to the class, “This is your class, I’m just here as a facilitator to give you the tools you need to learn”. First, I thought this was cool because it’s basically PRP’s motto so I’m used to being on the facilitator side of things. As classes went on, I realized how beneficial it is to be “facilitated”, especially in a classroom setting. I feel a lot more comfortable than I do in other classes and I am actually interested in the subject. The class is geared towards nutrition majors so I’m actually learning things that I’ll need to know. Mani gives us packets with notes in it and goes through them, then leaves it up to us to tell him where to put more focus. He has a “tentative schedule”, because he knows things may not go as planned, or we may want to spend more time on one thing and less on another. Then we do case studies. I love case studies. It’s a chance to actually apply the information he gives us. I’ve actually been able to use a lot of the stuff I learned in EMT classes as well. We just had our first test last class, so today he was talking about our next “block”, which made me smile. I haven’t heard a teacher refer to a chunk of material as a “block” for awhile. It brought me back to Waldorf years. I guess calling it a block doesn’t really make it any different than calling a unit, it just sounds nicer to me.

Basically, the whole point of this rambling is that I think I finally realized how I learn best. I’ve always known it but jave never really paid attention to it. Obviously, I learn best when it’s a subject I’m interested it, that’s how most people work, but I think there’s more to it than that. I like having a bit of control over what is being covered in class, and I like having the opportunity to involve myself in discussion but not an obligation to answer questions. I like being able to have even just a little amount of creativity mixed in with the hard facts that I am learning. I liked being able to teach myself things when I home schooled and was at Waldorf, or having my classmates teach me. I think it actually prepared me for college. From 4th through 8th grade I basically learned what ever I wanted, on my own time. I guess it was a little different starting in 6th grade, but the important stuff (like math) was still completely on my own/with a group of students. When I got to high school I was a little behind with the whole computer/taking notes/sitting in classes thing, but I was completely caught up when it came to content that was covered in class. Now, being in college, I’m realizing that being able to learn on my own time with my own techniques is helping me a lot more than any material I learned in high school. In biology, I’m able to pull things from real life situations to help me understand what Mani is talking about. In my history class I’m using a lot of the creative writing skills and imagination combined with historical facts to write my papers (something I never did in high school but did a lot of at Waldorf). Being able to mold what I am being taught into something that I am able to understand is something that I definitely learned form Waldorf. Great as Catholic high schools are, they really don’t teach anything that meaningful (in my opinion at least). Trust me, Waldorf has it’s issues too, but I think the way classes are taught gave me an opportunity to take away lessons that I’m not sure I would have been able to anywhere else. This kind of turned into a tribute to Waldorf, which I did not intend on doing at all. But whatever. Point is, things are presented to me, I take from them what I want. I learn little to nothing sitting in a 70 minute lecture. I realize everything I just wrote is probably true to a lot of people, it was just interesting to me that I realized it all from sitting in a bio class.

Knowing how you learn is really important, I think. For some people it’s reading, for others it’s listening an taking notes. Some people just need to see things drawn out, and others need a combination of methods. I need flexibility, the opportunity to be creative about a lesson, and the time to think about what I just learned and make connections.

That was fun. Over and out.

Random The top pictures are from our first Rainbow house...

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 23:48:00 -0600

Mom, Lucca, and Joey

Mom and Joey

Lucca and I

When I first learned to ride a bike.

Random

The top pictures are from our first Rainbow house party. The theme was “below 0”, so basically we dressed as anything that could survive in the cold. I was a musher and Nick and Jon were my sled dogs. Brian was supposed to be a dog too but he ditched and became a reindeer. Katie and John ended up coming which was really nice. I’ve hung out with them every weekend since we’ve been back.

The other four pictures are ones that my cousin in Italy just posted on facebook. They are from when we visited a longgggg time ago (some time around Joey’s 3rd birthday). I didn’t even know these pictures existed so it was a nice surprise. I learned to ride a bike when I was there. The guy in the pictures is Lucca (my mom’s cousin).

Other notes on my life: Study abroad application is submitted and I had my interview on Monday. The nun who interviewed me (and is the South Africa program advisor) seemed really cool and easy to talk to, I just hope I came off that way too! We find out if we got in on February 6th…so soon!

Thomas, Joey, and Matt are coming up this weekend, so that should be fun!

Coldness I was noticing how it is not uncommon here for people...

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 14:23:00 -0600

Coldness

I was noticing how it is not uncommon here for people to add, “stay warm”, to the end of their goodbyes. We have a wind chill warning today. It’s only -8 right now but I think it’s getting colder. There is apparently going to be a wind chill of -35 to -45. So cold! This is what I found when I looked up the weather…

“A Wind chill Warning means the combination of very cold air and strong winds will create dangerously low wind chill values. This will result in frost bite and lead to hypothermia or death if precautions are not taken”.

Hah, great. I’ve made it through two classes though, only one more to go. I bundled up so it wasn’t unbearable. My face was freezing though. If it gets any colder my nose will probably fall off. Oh, and in weather like this it apparently only takes five minutes to get frostbite #minnesotaprobs. Oh well, I’ll get over it. Some professors cancelled class today, but not mine.

Anyway, that’s the weather. It’s the second week of the semester and besides the fact that my notes and worksheets are a mess because I haven’t organized my notebooks or folders yet , I feel pretty settled. I really like most of my classes. I’ve only had Youth Ministry once but I’ll have it tonight so we’ll see how it goes. I think it will be interesting. We have to give a speech to the class, a youth ministry group and a group of other students about the story of our faith. It’ll make me think a lot. As far as my other classes go, my bio prof is great. The first day his insulin pump and his t-shirt were the exact same pinkish color. My chem prof is a nun and kind of old so she talks really slowly. My history prof is great too and I think she’ll make the class pretty interesting. I’m also taking French Cuisine just so that I keep some sort of nutrition class in my schedule, it’s basically just 20 minutes of lecture and then cooking for the next hour and a half. Should be fun.

So, a large portion of my friends are studying abroad this semester It’s weird. We went to Marmion the other night and with the whole ski team gone for a meet I realized that I really didn’t know anyone there. Forster was there though which was a pleasant surprise. It weirded me out at first because I thought he was in Ireland already but turns out he doesn’t leave for a few days. I talked to Betsy the other day and she updated me on her life in Spain which was nice. It’s crazy that she is so far away! Also, every time I walk by Johnnie Java I look to see if Molly is working and then I realize she’s in India. It will be nice to have them back as roommates next semester, and Izzy too. Speaking of studying abroad, applications are due tomorrow. Mine is done, I’m just waiting to hear back from one person and then I’ll submit it. I’m applying to South Africa, and from what I hear, so are a lot of other people. I really hope I get in, but if I don’t it won’t be the end of the world. I’d probably end up going through a different school or something.

I’m at work right now and should really be reading my book, but I don’t want to. It’s going to be an extremely slow day here because of the weather. We’re trying to figure out what to say in our email but all of our gear that we rent out requires the weather to be at least tolerable. Oops. Ok, going to read and finish my application!

Photo

Sun, 20 Jan 2013 22:40:27 -0600

Photo

Sun, 20 Jan 2013 22:25:04 -0600