Guess what! I signed the lease to my apartment starting in June. I am so excited! The three other girls I am moving in with are fantastic! I think we are going to have so much fun! It happened very quickly. We went apartment hunting yesterday and walked to a few places. But all of us pretty much fell in love with the first apartment we looked at. Four cozy bedrooms, two bathrooms, a beautiful living room with a huge window, and finally our own kitchen!

We did look at one apartment that had three small rooms and one room that was huge! We all just mutually agreed that we would fight over the bigger bedroom so we didn’t even take that apartment into consideration.

Did I mention how fast everything happened? I didn’t think I would find three others so quickly and already signed the lease.
Yikes!

Next semester is going to be so much fun. I heard that four other guys that we all know might move in to the same complex. Okay, that would be like living on campus all over again- but with our own bedrooms! I know two of the girls love to cook-this might be dangerous. But I am definitely going to cook healthy. Two of the girls were/are dating Indian guys so they love curries and rice. So this summer I have to learn to cook with my dad so I can cook them some dishes. Something simple and healthy.

Everyone must visit me!

I asked my dad a question this weekend.
Why can’t LTTE go the Mahatma Gandhi route-Non-violence?
My dad answered that it was tried for a few years but there was too many killings that happened that it was better to start fighting than wait to be killed.

I been watching the second season of The Office and it is fabulous! So funny! OMG, laughter never felt so good! A story of a boss, wants everyone to like him, yet in attempting to do so, becomes a big goofball and a little bit of a jerk. Love it!

I think people with British accents are so attractive especially the men. So, it’s no surprise to me that I started up a conversation with an older man just because he had the accent and he seemed like a nice man. Not like Simon from American Idol-whom I will never find attractive. If this man didn’t have the accent then I probably would have pretended like I was reading when he came down to wait for the taxi that I previously called for him.

He was so cute. I told him about the one day trip I had in London (yes, one day) and how I wanted to go back one of these days for a longer time. I asked him what he thought of his trip to the States so far.

“It’s nice…but I miss home” he said.

In his opinion he said American restaurants give way too much food! He couldn’t believe the size of the lasagna he ordered was the size his family eats for dinner! He pointed to my computer speakers to represent the slice of the lasagna. With the lasagna came salad and ice cream. The waitress kept asking if there was something wrong with the food because the UK group still had a lot of the food left. They were in amazement and frankly he seemed disgusted by our American way. And he said if anyone really finishes all of it….I said *ahem* “yes, yes, people do”

One night he forgot his passport in his hotel. Few friends and he went to a bar for a few drinks. This man clearly looks about early to late 40’s yet they would not give him an entrance to the bar because he had no way to identify he was 21+. He said that it was ridiculous! Finally, his friend had to give a bribe to have him inside the bar.

Now, I don’t know why these stories stand out for me. They are the usual stories-- nothing particularly interesting. Yet, because of his accent and for being a patient man (taxi was late...little bit my fault for this) I like his stories. He was straight forward- when I feel that I would have told more of pleasant stories. Okay, maybe I am thinking too much into this---maybe I just simply again liked his accent. There was something genuine about his tone – critical yet…

Is that time in my life.
Time to make resumes; get the experiences of a lifetime, and grow up!
Yea, I am actually excited to get out in the world.
I love embellishing the details of my past jobs and experiences.
Embellishing every mundane details to some extraordinarily heights.
When I twine words together that are just right to make it all sound super important....it felt a little weird.
But the more I read my resume...
It actually feels really good.
I feel important.
And
I am excited to see how my resume will be in five years.
I can’t wait!

I had so much fun today! I attended an event that had different halls competing at different sports for the title of All-Stars. There was a color theme for each of the halls (pink for me), prizes, and huge banners. It was SO much fun! Few of us, including myself, got extremely bored waiting for all the different sports to be set up. So we had to make some fun. We got whole bunch of pink bandanas, tied them together, and made ourselves capes. We were pink superheroes for the night. When I was playing kickball and needed to run one base to another, my cape would fly in the air! I felt powerful. I laughed so much that my stomach hurt by the end of the night. I stole a bag full of goodies that was free (whistles, ice scrapers, Frisbees, band aids with cool cases, gum etc.)

By the time, all the events ended it was about 10 p.m. and few of us were starving. Since it was beautiful weather outside we decided to walk about 6 blocks to Perkins. OMG, I haven’t been to Perkins for years and their menu has changed so much. They give you a ton of food for only about seven bucks. The dish I ordered came with three pancakes which I had for breakfast the next day.

I was exhausted by the time I got back.

I have been laughing A lot. Laughing where your stomach is in pain. Ahhhh….it feels so good!

I was watching a show on BET (Black Entertainment Television). While flipping the remote I heard something that disturbed me. This particular show had some rather, I guess well-known people in the black community (comedians or those who are willing to speak about black people). So this black guy said something to this affect… “The fear that once was seen when a black man enters a room/bus has been taken over. Now we got our Muslim brothers fighting that fight for us.

I don’t know what to think of it. I am just thinking if I am playing into this.

So I bought these flowers for my mom……and ME! I just love all the pink. Ohh and I love the red on the kitchen wall in these pictures!!

My day was so busy. I didn’t realize I had planned so many things. I forgot actually. So, my day started with receiving a beautiful, handmade, valentine card from my friend in the mail. It was HANDMADE and pretty! I hopped to class instead of the usual slouch.

As soon as my classes were finished, I attended the Vagina Monologues series. It was definitely an unique event!!!

I didn’t stay for the closing speech of the vagina monologues because I was running way too late for a get together. I met up with a few girls and had ourselves a small party (single and happy…). We ordered too many pizzas, bread sticks, and ATE way too much! For our movie selection we watched The Notebook.

Wangari Maathai

I went to hear 2004 Nobel Peace winner Wangari maathai speak. Maathai founded The Green Belt Movement that helped women plant more than 30 million trees across Kenya. This helped these women improve the quality of life and conserve the environment. She was the first women to earn a doctorate in East and Central Africa and the first environmentlist to be awarded the Nobel Peace.
It was a packed auditorium; people were given permission to sit behind her on stage and when that wasn’t enough, a live feed of her speech was transmitted to a second auditorium!
She mentioned one thing that stood out for me: As she travels across the globe many often complain that the United States did not sign the Kyoto protocol treaty. She told the crowd that she is impressed with the United States on the efforts they take to reduce global warming. She has not visited one country, even the countries that signed the treaty, where individuals are aggressively involved in recycling and being aware of global warming. United States is number one in that.

We don’t have to wait until we can do big things. We can do little things like planting a tree. Anybody can do that. But if so many of us in the world did it ---and especially in areas where trees are needed---we can make a difference,” Maathai said.

Avocados ANYONE?

Currently we have about forty avocados at the house. It all started with my parents seeing a cooking show on SunTv and in that particular episode, they discussed nutritional benefits of avocados. So they told my brother and I to buy it for 29 cents each. My brother was not sure if he can buy it before the coupon expires so I went and bought it. When I came home my brother had twenty and I had twenty!

They are high in calories but they can lower cholesterol.

Today I blended one in milk and sugar. Too good. Must stop!

Yet to be Beat by Little Girls!

If time permits, I could get really obsessed with soccer. Our team is called: Little Girls. The reason behind this name: If we beat a team then they have to say “we got beat by little girls.”
Okay. Someone thought it would be funny.
I have yet to miss a game. We are not doing that well so far but it is just fun to be aggressive and competitive (two of my favorite things…most of the time). It’s definitely a stress reliever. I SO enjoy team sports.
Let’s hope for a win next time.

I run from one end to the other end getting the ball away from the other team as much as possible. That is my job. And I do my job to the best of my ability.

The entire team. can't all be on the field so we take turns. Two girls have to be in the field at all times.

Limited Visibility!

My drive this morning was the worst! I am just glad I got to my room safely. Most of the drive I felt like I was on a plane. All the snow that continuously fell did not settle on the ground but was flying around which gave the impression of --clouds. All I could do was stay behind other cars that SOMEHOW managed to see where they were going. With all this difficulty I still made it back here by the usual time-which surprised me.

I didn’t see a “Limited Visibility” sign until right before my exit! That really helped!

Great Call!

Youn called me from South Korea! It was so great to talk to her...I miss her so much. Damn! I wish we had more time!