Inspiration and Lately

Hello!

Here is a quote that has been inspiring me lately:

"It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." - Charles Darwin

Responding to change. This is one of the most important aspects to life and, more concrete, to my approaching study abroad experience. Even though the culture and the new things that I encounter are going to be faced with as open mind as possible, there are going to be changes and twists and turns and obstacles all waiting for me when I get to London. I can only hope I teach someone in London something that makes up for everything I know the people, culture and city will teach me.

A few other things that I love:

Making dinner and baking with my roommates.

Hanna's delicious guacamole, eaten with a blue corn chip, of course. (The top three things on every one of our grocery lists are milk, ice cream and blue corn chips.)

An attempt at cookies made with bulgur. They actually tasted okay, but their texture was more like sandpaper than cookies. Apparently "reconstitute" is a pretty important word. See the seeds?

I am also addicted to this girl and her wonderful art and words.

This song by the Ting Tings.

And this song by Ingrid Michaelson.

And I am really excited for this to come to theatres! I loved the books so much I never could put them down. There were many summer nights spent staying up late reading a Sisterhood book. Now, when not doing homework, watching seasons of Grey's Anatomy or Gilmore Girls and eating ice cream with Hanna fill this time. =)

That Home-y Feeling

There is a feeling I get when I finally go home after a long time of being away. It is unlike anything else - I am happy, at peace, not stressed and just living. My heart is so full I can't help but smile and laugh and be happy and just want to play or dance or be outside; just to do something and be present! Sadly, I don't get to go home as often as I would sometimes like, but I found out that the feeling can surprisingly come to me, even when I'm away.

These last few days I have gotten to meet up with two amazing girls. Thursday I spent the night hanging out, making brownies, watching a movie and just talking with this pretty lady and cat.

Meg was such a life-saver when I transferred to my new school. She has this ability to test everything I have ever thought or known and truly make me question things in such a wonderful way - I have learned so much from her.

And we have ridiculous yet amazing conversations every time we get together!
(For Meg: bald, turtle)

I also got to see a familiar face from home!

"Bob" (her softball nickname) and family were at a softball tournament in a nearby suburb, and I caught up with them, watched a game, and got to chat with the girls. It felt like a little piece of home came to visit. It is such a weird thing not being home for the summer. Even though I absolutely love where I am living and who I am living with, I still can't wait to get back home for a little while before heading off for a couple months!

I finally got my camera to turn on again, so I have been loving capturing moments like these. I love how this picture turned out, taken at Bob's (Brit's) game.

Last Lecture

A wonderful man passed away today. Randy Pausch, the professor, the speaker, the author and the family man was beloved by America and beyond after he gave his "Last Lecture." When it was put on youtube, he was a phenomenon. He then released a book while still fighting for his life: he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in September of 2006, and passed early today. If you have not seen the video, click here.

I really recommend reading the book. It is actually the last book that I have read, and it was incredibly inspiring. It is about the speech, but he goes so much more in depth that it really lets you see how wise this man was. I also really love how he professed himself as a "nerd." Nerds are cool too, see?

Here are a few terrific quotes from the book and the man:

- Brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want something badly enough. They are there to keep out the other people.

- If there’s anything I want to do so badly, I should have already done it.

- Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted

- It is not about achieving your dreams but living your life. If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself, the dreams will come to you.

- Never underestimate the importance of having fun. I’m dying and I’m having fun. And I’m going to keep having fun every day, because there’s no other way to play it….Having fun for me is like a fish talking about the importance of water. I don’t know how it is like not to have fun…

- Never lose the child-like wonder. It’s just too important. It’s what drives us. Help others.

- Better to fail spectacularly than do something mediocre.

Puddle Jumping

Who says we are too old to play in the rain?
This last weekend, Hanna, Jake and I went shopping for groceries and came out of Cub to encounter what was practically a flash flood. We drove home quickly, trying to get out of the rain, but by the time we had unloaded our groceries the skies had almost completely cleared, and Hanna and I decided to have some fun.

She had mad splashing skills.

Running through Lake Georgia.

Mid-air in our last big jump!

Sooooo wet after playing. Our little neighbor girls joined in for a little while, too!

Sadly, Jake didn't join in. He did take some pretty great pictures, though!
Favorite quote of the day: "Look! We have the biggest puddle in the neighborhood!" - Hanna

I've always loved running in the rain and puddle jumping. It's fun being a kid again. :)

Coffee

As many of you may know, I like my coffee.

This obsession began innocently enough in the San Francisco airport with my wonderful friend Sammi. We had just landed there from Tokyo, Japan, and were really anxious to get on the next flight to Denver so we could take yet another plane home. I was so lucky to have a friend who shared such a life-changing experience with me and who was also traveling with me all the way back to Sioux Falls, SD.

Well, we had just gotten through customs and I needed to go to the bathroom and Sam spotted a Starbucks. I told her to get me what she was getting, so she did and we met up by the gate. Well, turns out it was absolutely last call for our flight - they were literally saying our names to get on the plane! A caramel frappuccino almost made us miss our flight! Needless to say, it was one of the best drinks I have ever had. I sat by a large man who slept the entire way and I was bouncing off the walls, reading a Japanese magazine and looking out the window at America.

Fast forward 4 years later and here I am again, drinking my morning cup of coffee. There have been multiple times in which I have suspended my coffee drinking. For example, just this last Christmas I wanted a coffee maker so bad, and I got one! As great as that coffee maker is, I realized that I was using it WAY to often. I started drinking much more than one cup of coffee a day and my friends kept joking that I couldn't quit. Me, being me, was of course stubborn enough to show everyone that I, in fact, could quit and switched over to tea for around 2 1/2 months. Then, finals week came back and so did the coffee.

Why am I writing about coffee? Well yesterday, my co-worker Erin and I had both decided that we drink too much coffee and that we were going to quit drinking it for awhile. I had gotten tea and she had gotten de-caf (which to me is the same thing as quitting coffee.) But today, here we both are again, with some of the best cups of coffee we have both had in a long time, fully caffeinated. My world that has involved coffee is a strange cycle, one in which I am so happy started in such a great way as now Sam and my favorite place to meet up is Starbucks. =)

(Here is Sam and me at my graduation.)

Tips to Waste Time, Volume 1

So I, like most people, have a few different websites that I like to frequent when online. Usually these only include MyU/gophermail, which is my e-mail (and website for classes), Facebook, and Quia (para mi tarea en espanol.) However, since I have become a 30+ hours a week working girl with not a ton of responsibility each of those hours, I have begun to love a few other websites. Here are a few guilty pleasures or sights that I like that you may enjoy, too.

First there is the blog "Stuff White People Like." This is hilarious - it pokes fun at all of the stupid things "white" people do, and really, I think we all (white or not) apply to many of them. The author just published a book, as well, which I am probably going to have to buy very soon. If you haven't checked out this, go to stuffwhitepeoplelike.com and look around. The writing is sarcastic and on point, and will most likely either make you laugh/say "I do that..."/or go into a little bit of denial by refusing that you do something.

In preface, this next site is not about Senator McCain, is not funded by his campaign, and is not a reference to anything political in my personal life. (I'm not going to blog about politics; I'll leave that to the big dogs who know what they are talking about.)

The next site I enjoy is the McCain Blogette. It is about Meghan McCain, Senator McCain's daughter, and her two friends who happen to be a photographer and videographer. They document the things they see, experience, and find funny in their lives and while riding along the campaign trail. They very accurately have labeled it "Musings and Pop Culture on the Political Trail." In other words, it is Sex and the City meets politics. Their photographer is amazing, and they have been to so many different states and countries that a visit to the site is worth it just to look through the photographs. An added bonus: they photograph high profile political figures' shoes. And "who doesn't want to know what kind of shoes Dr. Kissinger wears?" See the picture about halfway down on this page: http://mccainblogette.com/arcs/dec_18_31.shtml.

One more site is freerice.com. This website will not only test your word knowledge, but for each word you guess correctly (it is a synonym game), 20 grams of rice will be donated through the UN World Food Program to help end hunger. So when you have a little downtime, test your vocabulary; by doing so you will be helping people.

And, if you like art and just want to have a little fun, head on over to jacksonpollock.org and make a little painting for yourself. Wave your mouse around like you just don't care, and don't forget to click to change colors.

And, p.s. Quia leads to wordreference.com, for all of you who are taking Spanish and need a great translation site.

Let's Get Crackin'

Dear Diary,

Wow, how 5th grade do I sound? Hello blog world and everybody that I have given this website to. If you don't know me, how lucky are you to stumble upon this soon-to-be masterpiece? Haha, just kidding. Actually, you are a little stalker-y. No worries, it's 2008, it's what we were born to do. Ya know, stalk. If anyone has facebook, then you really have no reason not to enjoy and even revel in a little bit of stalking now and then.

Anyways, back to me. My name is Janae and soon I will be heading off for an adventure in a different country. I absolutely love traveling and hopefully, one day, will get paid for it. (We all can dream, right?) Actually, I have been accepted to study and intern in London for a semester of my college career. (I really like how we can call something that we are paying for a 'career.') I have no idea exactly what I will be experiencing in about 2 months, but I am positive that it will be an experience that I will remember for the rest of my life. I can't wait to meet all of the people who are on my program, along with, I'm sure, some "quite brilliant" British gents.

Right now, I am just figuring out how I want to work this blog. I have decided to kind of test-run everything so I can just hop right on when I actually get to London. If you know me, well, you know that I like to be prepared and organized. With as indecisive as I am I am sure you can imagine how long it took me to actually decide that this was the blogging website I should use. Well, that's just me. From now on, though, everybody can come to this place and read my documentation of the anticipation, experiences and maturity that all come with an experience abroad. I can't wait to embark on this adventure, and I hope that the information and experiences that I share will maybe inspire you to venture off on your own, too.

Have a great day! And always remember: If you never did, you should.