spring break and cooking

Finally, a break from school! I haven't been able to write very much lately because I have been so overwhelmed and I still have so much to do! Ahhh!

I did want to write about something I discovered the other day, though. I was flipping channels while resting and I came across this cooking show called Sam the Cooking Guy. It's aired mostly on local SD channels, and it's basically just this guy who made a cooking show right in his own kitchen. He makes recipes that sound really good and not very simple but are extremely easy to make. When I watched it for the first time, he made some really yummy looking chow mein in just a few minutes with a cup of noodles, steak, tomatoes and a really simple sauce. His BBQ chicken pizza was as easy as putting a couple of ingredients in a container with leftover chicken and shaking it up, then putting it on a prebaked crust. It's like the stuff that is so easy and not gourmet, so that the chefs that you always read about or see on Food TV won't do it, but it's so much more practical for the average person without much time or money and tastes almost as good! I love it.

There are so many details for my trip to Paris that I am going CRAZY trying to figure everything out. My mom is trying to plan out down-to-the-minute departure details while I am still trying to get my flights arranged and figure out how I'm going to keep in contact and what to bring and where to go...and I still need to learn French! I'm starting to get very nervous, but there is no way I'm going to let myself back out of this. I feel like I need to go new places and see new things, and Paris is one of the places I have always wanted to go to. A month away from everything familiar is going to be...weird and uncomfortable, but it's nothing I can't take. But I'm trying to focus on how exciting it's going to be! I'm toying with the idea of buying a small video camera to bring with me to make little videos I can post every day of the places I go! That would be a fun way to keep in touch.

weekly update

Crazy week this week was...and it will only get worse.

Most of my attention at the beginning of this week was on the France trip. I applied for my passport, bought a few books on the language, paid my trip deposit and tried to make a list of all the things I need to consider before leaving (for example, the fact that I should try a VoIP client instead of using my cell phone so that I don't spend a lot of money trying to call my folks & boyfriend).

My attention was quickly transferred to this nightmare of a programming project, which I JUST finished at 3am this morning, and I had to have several people help me. I don't think I want to be a programmer...it just stresses me out way too much. Whenever I'm doing something other than programming I can't think of anything except for the fact that I have no idea how to do the stuff that I need to do to my project. I'm not really like that with writing papers or playing music because I know that regardless of whether the end product is 100% the way I want it to be, I know I can churn something out and it will probably be successful. With programming, I know that my program won't run unless everything is exactly 100% in place, and if I don't know how to implement something in my program I start to really panic and feel the pressure if the due date is near.

I have three killer exams next week, so I went out and hung out with a few friends last night. We went to some Candyland themed party at SigEp, and even though we spent about an hour trying to actually get into the party and I couldn't stay for very long because I had said project to finish, I'm glad I at least got to spend some time with them and take some fun pictures:)

I'm not sure that it's been exactly a week since I set my goals on keeping in touch with people, but I am still beating myself up for not writing to my work. I did, however, write to my grandmother and she is apparently estatic that I sent her a card and that I am going to France and might go visit her country of origin (Luxembourg). I'll try to take some time out this weekend to write to the other people, and then report back. I think I'll make a big laundry list of people I need to write to after my midterms are done on Thursday so that I can work on that over spring break, since I know I'll just procrastinate on studying and write to people if I do it now.

Additionally, I have this really cool membership to ACM that allows me to enroll in all kinds of online copmputer classes, and I've never really utilized it. I'm going to try to complete at least one class over spring break. I have not decided which subject yet-- probably ASP.NET or one of the Microsoft certification classes.

Oh! One more goal before I complete this entry: I have GOT to catch up with what is going on in the world and politics. I don't really have time to read the paper, and most of the time I only know when something big is going on because my boyfriend will see it on the news and call me up and tell me about it. I've been talking to some people about the contenders for the '08 elections, which I'm kind of looking forward to-- I enjoy watching the primaries for each party --and I'm pretty sick of Bush.

what a yucky week

I am so glad that this week is over. Next week and the week after sure are not going to be fun either, but I'll take them one at a time. I had 3 presentations this week and a project (which got postponed at the last minute, thankfully) and I haven't had very much time to myself just to sit around and think about the way things are going. I also have acquired a cold, which probably became worse by going to bed at 6am and getting up at 8am on Tuesday...

I am about 80% sure that I am going to do study abroad in Paris this summer, which I am very excited about, and it looks like I am going to be on vacation with my family the week before that in Hawaii. The boyfriend is going to try for an accounting internship up in the San Fran area-- I hope he gets that, because it is something that he really wants. I myself am not sure what I will do about working this summer. I'll be unable to week for about 6 weeks straight due to all this vacation stuff, and it's pretty hard to go job hunting and tell people you'll need 6 weeks off! I might just try temping again if I can't find anything, since that seemed to work out well last summer.

I went and saw the movie 300 today, and was really impressed with it. I honestly thought it was being overhyped and that I would be let down, but it was not the case. I recommend seeing it, but I also would recommend watching the program on the history channel about 300 before seeing the movie. I watched it last night and I believe the movie was much more meaningful as a result. We went to Mimi's Cafe afterward, which I had remembered as having pretty good food, but nothing we ordered tasted that great.

I was going to write some other things here, but I can't really recall what...I guess I'll just take care of it later.

just stuff

Today was a day of rest, mostly! I slept in until 10:30 (unintentionally; nonetheless, it felt wonderful.) My roommate woke me up to tell me that she talked to our apartment manager about renewing our lease but switching apartments. I then headed over to Bloomingdales in Fashion Valley to buy some more foundation and a makeup brush I needed, then spent about an hour in Target picking up miscellaneous things I needed. An old lady who seemed to be a few cards short of a deck came up to me twice and asked me if I had a dollar to give her. I gave her the response I give everyone-- I do not have any cash (I'm a college student-- we don't really carry cash, just plastic). The second time she pointed to my purse and said "But you have that." Made me realize how much I hate people who ask for money.

I then spent the rest of the day napping and working on a large project for my consulting class. Boring stuff.

Study abroad has been narrowed down! I can't do Japan because I'd need to write an admissions essay in Japanese, which is pretty impossible for me. I know a few words of the spoken language (incredibly basic things, like "arigato" for thank you and "doshde" is why) but I have no idea how to write that stuff out! France and Ireland are sounding better and better. My dad thinks that Ireland would be the more fun one. But I'm required to submit like seven writing samples for it! I think France might be more interesting. I have had this big burning desire to visit Paris since...forever. So I am leaning towards that and am looking to make a desicion in the next few days.

My random thought for the day:
I have this professor who is probably the single most professional professor I have ever met, and is the best teacher too. Sometimes I have professors who come to class looking like they rolled out of bed, or they are all out of breath and in a hurry, but this guy is never like that. He never comes wearing anything less than a collared shirt and dockers and looking polished. He is very knowledgable about his field of study and although his class is challenging, it is one of my favorites because I feel like I get so much out of it. The curious thing about this person though, is he never ever talks about his personal life. A lot of students tend to think of him as a robot actually-- there was a joke going around about how he probably goes home and plugs himself into the wall to update his software every day. I visited his office this afternoon and it was kind of boring looking. Most professors have pictures of their families or friends, or at least something indicating their personality or personal life. His office had a few paintings on the walls, and his desk had a few stacks of files and IT periodicals on it, but looked professional and plain. I kind of wonder about those kinds of people, I guess, who try to create a distinct barrier between personal interests and professional life. There certainly needs to be one, but I don't think it hurts to put a little bit of personality in your workplace.

Anyway, I ordered some software that I am waiting for so I can start a project, and I ordered a bunch of shoes from Urban Outfitters that I am waiting for too! But right this minute, I am relaxing and trying to forget I have 10 hours of classes tomorrow. Ick.

wet

It's been really hot the last few days, and all of the sudden there's a downpour and the temperature drops 20 degrees! I went out to Starbucks (when the sky was a little dark, but it wasn't raining) and ended up getting drenched on the way back.

I have a lot going on right now-- my first midterms of the semester are this week, I have projects due and a seemingly endless list of homework to do and emails to return. I also just decided a couple of days ago that I am going to stay in school at least one more semester, and possibly two and pick up a minor or another major. People tend to think I'm insane for trying to enter the job market as a 20-year old, and this is only my third year of school anyway... so I'm considering minors. Two more classes would get me a minor in Economics, which is a pretty sweet deal. But do I want a minor in Economics? It is fun, but it's not something I can foresee myself using in the future and I don't really feel compelled to study it more extensively than I already have.

At the moment, my top three contenders for a minor are:

1. Computer Science- a minor in Computer Science would complement my Information Systems degree nicely, and it seems like it would be a lot of fun. I think it's only five or so classes, which makes possible to complete in a year. My only concern is the math requirement; I am definitely not strong with math and have literally no knowledge of calculus. Working with computer programming apparently requires at least some math, since there are a lot of calc. requirements for the major, and I might have to pass some kind of calc. proficiency examination. So I'm not really sure how that would all work out.
2. Human Biology- I have always enjoyed Biology, and it was one of my top choices when I was selecting a major. I would have taken Bio in college but I managed to knock out my science requirement by using the credit I got in high school for passing the AP Biology exam. Which means I'm at least sort of good at it. I think the human body is fascinating, and I have a lot of admiration for scientists pioneering in genetics research. It would also be a great combination with my Info Systems major, because the IT Health Care field is really new and I find it so interesting and something I would love to work in. Being familiar with the body and common medical/chemistry lingo would be a major asset should I end up working in that field. The minor is 6-8 classes (but the catalog is really confusing, so it's hard to tell). But that still makes it a possible minor to have.
3. Art with an emphasis in Graphic Design- I am really interested in graphic design, but this school doesn't offer a minor in in. I looked into it further and found that I could just get an art minor and take most of my classes in the graphic design field to make it sort of the same thing. I love working with web sites and graphics, so this could be something really fun, and if I ever decide to go into a web related field, having the graphic design background could be beneficial. It is 7 classes, which is a bit much but would probably be manageable in a year's time.

So there's that. Also, I'm strongly considering studying abroad over the summer. I was practically sold on this one program to study abroad at Oxford, but then found out that I was given the wrong financial information and that particular program is ridiculously expensive. So I'm looking at other programs, mostly ones in London or Italy. It would be so much fun!

And I need somewhere to live next year. I'm really overwhelmed by thinking about all this stuff...but my midterms need to take precedence over all these other things right now.