Tipperary: Across the River and Over the Mountains

Just some useless life events for your reading pleasure

2008-01-26T21:37:00.000-08:00

Wow, so much I want to say because I feel like so much has happened since my last post, but that is probably because I am not as frequent as other posters! But I want to share it all but by the end of this I will be either too bored to write it all or I will just forget, both happen frequently.

Anyways... first would be that I was all nervous about my Jan term class but it wasn't that bad. We have one week left, but it is going to be just research paper presentations, so not bad class-wise. Workload for this coming week is going to be intense, lots to do! But oh well I will survive.

Anyways so I am making plans for spring break (woot! I can't wait! Two months!) with the two people from my class/dorm. It is hopefully going to be amazing. We are planning on going to Canada, specifically Vancouver and Victoria. And I looked up costs and everything and travel and lodging costs for the entire trip is like $280, which is awesome. But I think we are going to try and do some skiing and the like, it should be a blast and I am so excited. We are taking trains, buses, and ferries to get where we want to, so that should be fun! Also it is a foreign country, its gonna be awesome.

Well things with 紫苑 and me are going much better, talking fixes all things, usually! I really miss her though and I can't wait until June when I get to see her, ah though June won't be a good month, that is when my best and very first glenview friend leaves for two years, what a jerk right? haha just kidding! I am excited for him to go because it will be an awesome experience (secretly jealous here) but its gonna be weird not to see him for two years! Well if he goes to some really cool foreign country (or a state, though I will take a boring one) I will go there and just happen to stumble on him, imagine the chances, right?

So today there was supposed to be a swim meet, but we were having freezing rain so the other team wouldn't be able to make it, so it got postponed till monday. This made me really happy at first because I was gonna dedicate today to my research paper but that didn't happen, I ended watching Electra, the movie which was okay at best, and the history channel about inventions of the ancient world, was really cool and also really boring at the same time, but it was full of teasers so before i knew it I had watched tv for four hours! haha!

okay I am so distracted by people on AIM that I have to go, the last thing I want to add is that 肇 finally emailed me back! Yes! Okay bye!

Phew....

2008-01-07T17:53:00.001-08:00

Wow it has been a long time, but I did not forget to post! I was just at home so I saw most of the people that this is intended for and then I came back to school and was so busy being lazy that I didn't have time to post here and keep all of my friends updated on my life. But now that I have work to do and all that jazz I am organized again and fit time in my busy schedule to write to you guys.

Well the holidays were really good to me, it was nice to see family and friends (and the gifts weren't all that bad either!) But I am glad that I am back at school, I actually missed my dorm bed and dorm room. Plus when I was home I basically was run run run all the time between my friends, girlfriend and family. Not that I am complaining I was just really active! So I got back to school a week before classes started for swimming but guess what! The pool was broken, so we couldn't swim! So I got a LOT of down time. It was worth it I guess but being home for a week longer would have been amazing! Oh well, can't change life sometimes, just got to roll with it!

Oh, I forgot to mention. New Years resolutions suck, why make promises that you don't whole heartily intend to keep or to just give up after 3 days? It is such a joke, so that was why a few years ago mine was to never make a new years resolution again. And that is the only one that I have ever been faithful to! WOOT! Anyways just wanted to mention it, and recommend it to everyone else for next year!

So my class started today, and it sounds like it is going to be interesting, it is Dante's Inferno and everyone just raves about it and I skimmed it a bit and it seems interesting. But the class its self is a lot of work: eight quizzes, 4 short essays, 1 research paper and presentation (20-30 min), a timeline and presentation, annotated bibliography for one book, make my own circle of hell using Dante's example and of course reading the comedy! All in one month! Throw in swimming and work and you can just kick out my social life! At least it is only a month!

So speaking of swimming, it is almost the end of the season and it is bittersweet. I am excited for the end of the season because I can feel myself getting burned out, a nice long break will feel great, plus I need some swim meets! Training for long periods of time without meets really gets to me. But I am going to miss the team a lot, but I am sure I will see them a lot because they are pretty much my only friends here at school (my team is a cult!)

Well that is pretty much my life I guess, only new news is really that I am officially addicted to green tea, I drink around 8 cups a day! So I have become an insomniac, fun right?

PS_ Picture is from when my family and I went downtown over break, I miss Chicago

Birthdays and White Elephants

2007-12-09T17:55:00.000-08:00

Well yesterday was my birthday, I turned 19 and I actually had a fun day. I usually have something else going on on my birthday, and I did this year, but it still really was a blast. The day didn't start out great because I had mountains of laundry to do, and really that is no exaggeration, and I realize that is all my fault but it still does not make for an awesome birthday, or so I thought. Actually I knew, because me doing laundry had nothing to do with the good part of my birthday. Though it was surprising that when I opened the dryer to get my cloths a pink thong with a bow jumped out of me, and I was like is this MY laundry? And it was, but somehow a thong was in it, I think it was left in the dryer and I did not see it. So that was funny! But then I went to a the swim team white elephant party, which was a lot of fun. I ended up with a towel, which is good because I needed another one. So that was fun, and it was fun just chilling with the team, laughing and eating. And we were originally going on the roof, which is OUTSIDE, and its december, but luckily that did not happen, and they had a gardenburger, so it was all good. Plus over 60 people wished my happy birthday on my wall on facebook.

Today has been busy, I have been hard at work on my research paper, and I am almost done. Just need to write the conclusion and edit it! That is really exciting, though I really need to crack down and get ready for my Japanese oral exam, I know the grammar and vocabulary, so I am not worried about that. I am worried because I have to talk about what I have heard about Yoko Ono so I need to study her and I have no memorize a mini-essay I wrote and present it. Well that is my up-date, oh and I get to go home in less that a week! Yay!

PS-That is a picture of my laundry, and your postcard for the letter, because that is what I did!

An Intro and the "Arm Swing"

2007-12-06T23:00:00.000-08:00

Hey All,

Well this is my first time I have ever kept a blog so we will see if I can maintain it or if I ever post again after this. Chances are I will

post once or twice after this and then it will fade away, but I am definitely going to try and keep this active because it is so much easier to keep people posted by one blog that they are responsible for checking than to individually call them or send out lots of e-mails and letters. But well if you are interested in me, as all of you should be seeing as you are friends and family, then check back here and read up on my life. I am also going to try and post a picture with each post so you can see me too!

So today was my last Lit class which was really nice because I finished my first college level course! Woot! I got my final paper back, and I got an A so I am almost 100% I will get an A overall in the class. It was really easy but I am glad it is over. Now I only have to get my research paper all finished and get all prepared for my Japanese written and oral exams, doesn't that sounds like fun. And the research paper really sucks, I already did my presentation on it but now I just have to write the sucker. My topic is Noh theater in Japan and how one can use it as a window to see the Japanese mindset. If that perchance does sound interesting to you let me assure you that it is very boring, I like it, but Noh itself is not that interesting. I am just excited for Monday when I get to get rid of that sucker.

So the swimming pool closes tomorrow, they need to fix the pipes or something so it is getting drained, and I am happy about it, a break will be nice, I am feeling a little checked out from it now because we do not have any big meets and break is so close. So it was a good thing, but that made today our last practice and we played games! It was amazing but the best game we played was at the end, we played Gutter Ball. Which is a very intense, high contact, game. It is like water polo but with no rules, anything goes, and is played in the shallow end where each team tries to get a ball into the opposite side's gutter. It was AMAZING! A great last swim practice.

Okay so I went through the intro and mentioned some stuff now you are probably wondering what the heck is the "arm swing?" Well this is just a random little thought that I had today when I was leaving my lit class. I was walking behind two girls in my class and they are both very posh, preppy, very put together girls. And as they were walking they had their purse/backpack thing over one side but the other arm was in a full swing motion, which all arms do, but their arm swing was very exaggerated model type sort of, do you know what I mean? Well anyways it was very funny to watch because not only were they doing this but they were doing it in sync with each other, and I couldn't help it but for some reason I found it so hilarious that I started laughing. Luckily no one heard me. But then I realized that my arm was swinging too, but I became really self-conscious of it, even though everyone does it, and jammed my hands into my pockets. But for the rest of the day I watched everyone swing their arms, it was quite fun. I recommend everyone to try watching it, it is quite funny when you notice it but you will probably become self-conscious of yourself.

Well thats all that is really new with me. I do have somethings to look forward to though like my birthday, the swim team holiday dinner, and going home for break! And of course exams too!