Honduras Day 3.

Day 3 down, and some interesting occurrences!!

Journal Day 3, May 15, 2013

            Our second full day in Honduras began with meeting in the lobby at 6:30 am, meaning everyone showered the night before this time.  (One interesting tidbit: the water pressure here is surprisingly strong, and we actually have warm water.  Laura and Katie, unfortunately, do not.  But we are also able to drink all the water on campus, which is a good thing!).  We all walked to the cafeteria for breakfast as we did the day before.  This time, the meal wasn’t quite ready for us, but the cooks finally brought out some bowls to us.  They were filled with a warm milk-substance with some random chunks in it, which, the cook explained, was actually cornflakes.  Seemed a little bizarre, and small, compared to our breakfast the day before.  However, before long, we were served scrambled eggs (yellow this time!), toast with cheese in the middle, a piece of ham, and juice.  We found out the milk stuff had cinnamon in it, and although the tapioca-like texture threw me off, it was absolutely delicious.

            We then began our trek to the school, and we passed through what I now refer to as “The Zoo Walkway” because of the variety of animals we find each time we pass through.  There are always lizards basking in this area during the afternoon, but this morning, we had quite the treat: there was a little squirrel running along one of the power lines with a non-poofy tail (and yes, I got really excited about a Honduran squirrel and yes, everyone mad e fun of me), as well as… A CAT!!  Everyone said it was really ugly because it was so skinny and its eyes looked evil, but to me, a cat is a cat, and I thought it was really cute!  So basically, it was a great way to start the morning.

            My day at school started with an hour and a half of Spanish class, where the students had to write stories using derived Spanish words, such as flautist (flutist), futbolista (soccer player), or other words.  Several of the kids were ecstatic about their stories and showed them to me and read them aloud.  It was really sweet!  I also got to practice my Spanish a little with Ana and Caesar, but Cristian kept making fun of me J.

            After that, there was a short recess where the girls in the class somehow roped Becca and me into playing tag.  I also tried a Honduran cookie during that time, which one of the girls so badly wanted to share with me.  PE was next, which was quite the experience.  Becca and I went with the students to the soccer field area for our first taste of Honduran physical education.  Although we did not partake, it looked like a blast!  The kids began with stretches, which were led by their PE teacher, who spoke Spanish.  They then ran a lap around the school and raced Miss Kayla, who was working with the PE classes during our time in Honduras.  The class ended with a variation of Capture the Flag, complete with the old fashioned picking teams, something that is almost non-existent in America nowadays it seems.  The white team won, and chants of, “Ganamos, ganamos, ganamos,” were heard the whole way back to class.

            Before beginning the math lesson, Miss Lacey had all the students sit down on the floor so she could talk to everyone.  Apparently, there had been a lot of drama in the 3^rd grade classroom the past few days, so she gave everyone a talk about the importance of being a good person and that even though you always make mistakes, you have to own up to your mistakes and apologize when necessary.  It was honestly the quietest and stillest the students had been all day!  But I thought it was really neat how real she was with the students.  She told them how they were all a family and needed to treat each other with respect, which I loved.  I think it’s really important for teachers to be able to be honest and open with students and teach them important life lessons.

            Miss Lacey’s math lesson after the talk was really interesting and cool!  She instructed the students to grab a handful of beans out of a bucket with their left hand and with their right hand, find the difference between the two numbers, and then write their strategy for finding it.  I really liked the activity because it was hands-on, personalized since each student got to pick their own beans (it turned into a contest to see who could pick up the most at one time), and the students really had to understand what they were doing since they had to explain how they got the answer they did.  Miss Lacey had me work with Luis Fernando during this lesson, so I helped him work through his bean problem, although he constantly seemed to get distracted and not want to be there.  He was able to finish though, and I was really proud of him!

            There was a “brain break” between the math and language arts lesson, which Miss Lacey puts in-between lessons for about 3 minutes to give the kids a little rest.  They played a game where they all grabbed hands in the circle and had to keep a beach ball in the air without letting go of each others’ hands.  I thought the brain break was a really good idea; not only does it give the students something to work for to finish their lesson, but it also helps to keep the kids moving and avoid getting bored.

            We did a language arts lesson afterwards on contractions.  The students played a game in their table groups where they had cards and had to match the contraction with the 2 words that made the contraction.  They all had to take turns doing it, and again, I thought it was an awesome activity because it was hands-on, and these students are CONSTANTLY full of energy and needing to move around.

            The day ended at 12:20 today because Wednesdays are used as “Professional Development” days for the teachers at ABSS, but we still had lunch at the school.  Again, a feast!  It consisted of some meat, a piece of sausage, tortillas, beans, rice, really good guacamole, tomato salsa, a slab of mozzarella cheese, and a fried plantain. 

We all headed to the pool afterwards to read, because we have to have an entire novel read before Tuesday.  If you looked at the pool, all you’d see would be a line of girls standing on the edge of the pool reading their books.  I got to Skype my friend Christian during this time and tell him about my experience, so that was good.  I got through most of the novel, Don’t Be Afraid, Gringo, while I was at the pool, but unfortunately, because of my habit of wearing a lot of sunscreen, I failed to get a tan.  Oh well.  Several of the students from ABSS were at the pool as well because they had swim lessons, and then my teacher, Miss Lacey, was there later for her adult swim class!  I really like how community-oriented Honduras is!  Everyone seems to know everybody and they all do things together!

But now we get to the best part of the story.  Most of the group had already returned to the hotel, so Laura, Katie, and I were the only ones left.  As we were walking back, we walked through The Zoo Walkway, and lo and behold, the cat from this morning was hanging out by the wall near the Zamorano students’ dorm rooms with gatitos (kittens)!  I basically freaked out and started creeping toward them so I could take a picture of them.  Just as I snapped one, we heard a voice calling out to us, so we looked.  A group of Zamorano boys saw that I was taking a picture of the cats and said we need to get pictures with them!!  So, we walked over, all the while super stoked that we were finally able to talk to some of the students.  We all introduced ourselves, and the guys told us a little bit about being students at Zamorano.  We found out that a lot of Zamorano students actually do internships with Purdue because both are so strong in agriculture!  We asked the guys what they did for fun on the weekends (because my airplane friend, Max, had said there was nothing to do on campus, and also we needed ideas since we have a free day on Saturday), and they invited us to go to Tegucigalpa with them this weekend to the discos, or nightclubs.  We were super psyched about getting invited somewhere, and we exchanged Facebook information.  The guy we chatted with most, Gustavo, teased Katie a little for being so quiet, and said, “Speak, Katie!”.  It was pretty funny.  The guys were flirting with us and calling us pretty, and when we left, they tried to teach us the traditional “kiss on the cheek and hug” way of saying goodbye, which we were all really awkward with.  And for the record, no, we are not going into the city with strangers this weekend.  It just felt cool to be invited somewhere! Afterwards, the 3 of us went to get some drinks: a caramel granita for Laura, a coolechera for Katie, and a Bandera for me, which were these slushy-type drinks, which, when asked, we decided to get “con leche” even though we weren’t really sure what that entailed.

We were on a high from our good fortune of interacting with the students when we got to dinner, which included some meat, rice, tortillas (are you sensing a pattern yet?), tomatoes, a juice bag, and a fruit cup.  After that, the group met to discuss the supplies we would need for our craft projects for the rural schools and to add onto the Megan Quotes list, and then many of us worked on a little homework.  Tomorrow will be an extremely busy day, what with a full day at school, a visit to the orphanage, and class,  but I can’t wait for more!

Photos:

Recess

Brain Break

Roxely

Math with Cristian and Luis Fernando

Sweet Ana!

Caesar

Gabriel

Cristian!

...and again

Capture the Flag

Stretching

Tyra, the modeling lizard

All the students LOVE the Wimpy Kid series

Palmmm trees

GATITOS! (The trap)

Our new Honduran friends

Aww yeahh

Breakfast

Lunch

Dinner

Fruit cups

Honduras Day 2.

Day 2 down!  It was our first day at the school, and it was AWESOME!  Here's the corresponding journal entry:

Honduras Day 2: May 14, 2013

            Another early morning awaited us, much to our dismay.  However, after our long nights of sleep (many of us went to bed at 8:00, but I, being the night owl I am, went to bed at 10), we were rested and refreshed for the awesome day ahead: our first visit to Allison Bixby Stone School!  We all met in the lobby at 7:30 and walked to breakfast, which consisted of beans, plantains, eggs (albino again), some kind of sausage, bread, and juice.  Most of us began to open up a little bit during our meal and we actually chatted a little, compared to the previous day’s awkward, quiet meals.  As a joke, we even started a list called, “Things Megan Says,” because one of the girls in our group has some very random (and absolutely hilarious) phrases she says.  We walked the 10 minutes to the school, and the fun began.

            The day started in the school’s small library, where Julie, the principal, talked with us about the school’s history and some of the things we’d be expecting while being there.  She explained to us that ABSS is a Pre-K through 6thgrade school and is one of the only schools in the world that is accredited and provides scholarships to the students (it’s a private school).  She also stressed to us the importance of the bilingual aspect of their school, and how over 3 hours of instruction each day were entirely in English, even in the Pre-K and kindergarten classrooms!  In fact, some of the younger students’ uniforms had EBABS embroidered on their pants, which, when asked, they explained it stood for Escuela Bilingüe Allison Bixby Stone.  Julie proceeded to tell us about some of the teachers that work at the school, and absolutely raved about them.  We could not be more excited to see what she spoke of so highly for ourselves.

            Our wish was soon granted.  We were given the freedom to tour each classroom for a couple hours to observe and see which teachers and students we connected with so we could decide which classroom we’d like to stay in permanently for the next couple weeks.  So, we partnered up and began our self-tour.  Here’s a slight breakdown of how I spent my tour time:

·         Pre-K: These little munchkins were absolutely adorable!  Although they ran around quite a bit, we got to listen to them sing some songs (including Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Wheels on the Bus and Hokey Pokey) and do little dances.  They were so cute!

·         Kindergarten: Again, absolutely adorable!  The kids were doing centers, so I got to work with some cuties on making shapes out of pipe cleaners.  Also, I’m pretty sure I didn’t know what a rhombus was in Kindergarten…

·         2^nd grade: The teacher was reading aloud to the students and asking them questions that engaged them in the story, like, “What do you think will happen next?” and “What would you do in this situation?” It was really fun to see!

·         3^rd grade: My absolute favorites!  We got to see them working in the computer lab for a little bit, and then saw them do a language arts lesson.  They were so friendly and loved to talk!

·         4^th grade: These students were working on words that indicate whether something is a fact or an opinion, so we got to see them work on those.

·         6^th grade: We got to work with these students in their Spanish classroom as well as in their regular classroom.  I also really liked these students!  There was one girl, Karina, who loved asking questions.  They were really sweet!

After our self tours, we had lunch, cooked by the parent of one of the students at the school.  This meal consisted of some delicious chicken, rice, salad, and tortillas, as well as mora, the yummy red juice we had the other night.  We also got our classroom assignments, and I was lucky enough to be placed in 3^rd grade!!  But more of that in a bit…

After lunch was recess, which was super cool to be a part of.  ABSS has a very large playground and lots of space for the students to run around in.  So, a couple of the younger girls roped us into playing a game where one person stands in the middle of a circle and spins around with their eyes closed and when they stop, the person they’re pointing to has to tell a secret.  It was really funny, especially when they got really embarrassed when spilling the secret that they had boyfriends.  Afterwards, we tried to teach them the game “Down By The Banks,” but the bell rang before we had a chance to finish the game.

      We got our first chance to be with our permanent classroom assignments after recess, so the first thing Becca and I got to do was accompany the 3^rd graders to music class with Mr. Carlos.  Everyone at the school talked about how cool Mr. Carlos was, and I can attest to that!  He was so patient with the students, and the whole lesson was in Spanish which was pretty nifty.  Some of the girls in the class, Roxeli, Grecia, and Ana begged me to sit by them, so I did.  The students got to break out into different instrument groups later on (guitar, drums, recorder/flute, and keyboard), so I went with the keyboard girls.  They demanded my attention as they impressed us with their renditions of “Mary Had A Little Lamb,” and I got to teach some of them “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” as well.  At the end, all the students came together to play a song as one big band.  It was pretty cool!

      We went back to the regular classroom afterwards and worked with the kids a little on their advertisement posters for their Market Day on Friday.  We got to chat with Miss Lacey, the teacher, during this time.  She taught in Texas for about 5 years before coming to Honduras and has been down here for about 4 years.  She said she really enjoys structure, but she is totally willing to let Becca and I get involved in the classroom and maybe even teach a lesson!  Can’t wait!

      I love those little munchkins already.  They love chatting with you and asking questions, and would not stop bugging us about which we preferred, the Barcelona soccer team or the Madrid team.  Plus, they LOVE hugs, which I also love!  They constantly come up and want to wrap their arms around you or hold your hand or things like that, which is totally frowned upon in the States.  Even the students who haven’t said a word to you will come up and embrace you.  Soooo awesome!

      There were several things about the school that surprised me.  First, I was surprised about how nice the facility was!  Even though the classrooms were pretty small, there were playgrounds and desks for everyone, plus a computer lab and a library.  Also, everything was pretty Americanized.  There were posters hanging in some of the rooms that I had in my elementary school classrooms!  Apparently, the curriculum is based off of different states’ curriculums in the United States and mixed with the Honduran curriculum.  However, they have a little bit more freedom because the standards are more individualized to the students’ needs, unlike in the US.  Another thing we learned was that a lot of Honduran schools don’t have much outdoor space to play in, but ABSS had plenty!  I absolutely loved it!

      The school day ended at 3, so the group walked back to the hotel to grab our swim suits to head to the pool.  We made a quick stop at the little store on campus first, where I bought a caramel granita, a frappacino of sorts.  It was delicious!  At the pool, most of us worked on our assignments, which consisted of a lot of reading, but it was so beautiful!  We met for dinner at 6 (chicken, rice, rolls, broccoli, fruit cups) and had our first “class” where we discussed one of the chapters of one of the books we had to read.  We also had to pass out the phones that Eloisa had bought, and the group put me in charge of it.  Hah…

      We also chatted about how it’s totally cool with them if we get invited to go to parties with the students at Zamorano, but that we’d probably get really crazy when we go to Copán, because that’s where the night clubs are!  Super fun, can’t wait J

      Now, a bunch of us are working on assignments and such.  Ready for an early morning tomorrow for our first day with our assigned classrooms!!

Photos:

Check out this gorgeous bell tower on campus...kinda like at Purdue!

Breakfast

Lunch

Dinner

Kinder!

Pre-K song time!

3rd grade música con mi amiga, Grezia!

Una caramel granita!

Buenas noches, amigos :)

Honduras Day 1.

¡Hola todos!

As many of you know, I have been fortunate enough to embark upon a wonderful experience for the next three weeks: I get to study abroad in Honduras!!!  In my last post, I said I would do my best to give updates about what's been going on here.  Well, today was my first day in the country, and already so much has happened!  So, here's what I'm going to try to do. (Key word, TRY.  No promises!)  Part of my assignments for my classes here are to keep daily journals about my thoughts/experiences.  So I figured, why not kill two birds with one stone?  After I write my journal, I'll just post it on here and try to add pictures so you can see what's been happening.  Kapeesh?  So, without further ado, Journal Entry numero uno:

Journal Day 1: May 13, 2013

            An annoying alarm urging you to wake up at 3:15 am is not a pleasant way to start the day.  That is, until you remember that you’ll be in Honduras in a matter of hours.  After staying the night in Indianapolis with my parents and sleeping a grand total of 3 hours, we left for the airport.  I met up with 7 others from the group and said goodbye to my parents.  Despite the 6:27 am flight time, I was ecstatic!  Not everyone gets the opportunity to study abroad, but here I was, on my way to Honduras for 3 weeks.

            We flew for 2 hours from Indy to Houston, TX, where we met up with the rest of the group.  There are 13 students in all…and only one boy.  And naturally, I have to share my embarrassing moment on that flight.  I found my row on the plane, and beings that it was a window seat, the two people already sitting in that row had to vacate so I could climb in.  We all got settled in and were all ready to go, until a man came up and told me that I was in his seat.  Oops.  So, the two people in my row had to get up, as well as the two people in the row I was supposed to be in, so there was a huge hold up in the aisle while some silly little college girl found her real seat.  Other than that, the flight went great. I napped, and the time flew by.

            We stayed in Houston for a short period of time (woohoo, first time in Texas!) before we had to board our flight to Tegucigalpa, the capital city of Honduras.  This time I sat in an aisle seat, so no troubles with making people get up!  I sat next to 2 guys, who both began chatting immediately.  I felt like I was third-wheeling it a little bit and accidentally-on-purpose listened in on their conversation.  Mr. Window Seat said he’s been doing research in Honduras for the past year, and Mr. Middle Seat, who I later found out was named Max, was a student at a small school in Louisiana, but was a Honduran native.  After Mr. Window Seat dozed off, mouth wide open an everything (there’s something so intimate about riding in a plane with complete strangers), Max turned to me and asked me what my business was in Honduras.  Naturally, like all others who have previously asked me, they jumped to mission trip.  I corrected him, telling him about our study abroad program and how we were all education majors from Purdue.  He seemed pretty impressed with that, and we began chatting.  He told me about his school and how he technically just graduated in electrical engineering and was going home for the summer.  He even pulled out his college yearbook and showed me all the people he knew.  (Hey, what else was I going to do for 3 hours?)  He told me about the gap year program he did in London a few years ago, and I pulled out my itinerary for Honduras so he could tell me about everything I would be experiencing the next few weeks.  He seemed extremely excited with all that we are going to do, and raved about Zamorano, the campus we’d be staying at.

            Then, after filling out some paperwork, a little nausea, and some napping, Mr. Window Seat woke me up to tell me I should watch the landing into Tegucigalpa airport.  I learned that it’s one of the most dangerous airports in the world to land in because the pilot has to maneuver between two mountains to get to the runway.  Apparently, the pilots have to have special training to fly there, and according to Mr. Window Seat, everyone on board the plane claps when the plane lands safely because it’s so dangerous.  For some reason, that didn’t happen this time, which I was a little disappointed about.

            We all filed of the plane, got our luggage, and met Dr. Eloisa Rodriguez, the woman who we would be working with while here in Honduras.  She has been working with this program for many years and lives in Honduras, so she acts as our guide, our translator, and basically our life-line while here!  After stepping out of the airport and taking our first glimpse of Honduras, we were faced with…fast food restaurants??  Pizza Hut, Burger King, and even a Little Caesar’s Pizza were staring back at us.  Nothing like a little familiarity to welcome you to a foreign country!   We all boarded a small bus (it was a tight squeeze) and we exchanged our American dollars for lempira.  We all felt a little sketchy just handing wads of cash over and getting a stack of lempira back, but it was pretty interesting. 

            And then, we were off.  It was a thirty minute drive to the Zamorano campus, but it was absolutely wonderful.  I was reminded a little of New York and the crazy driving I experienced while on vacation there.  The roads were narrow, and the cars zipped in and around each other, sometimes narrowly missing another car.  It was frightening and exhilarating at the same time.  Dr. Rodriguez told us that the highway we were on was expanding to three lanes, which was a big deal!

            As we drove, everyone had their cameras out.  It was absolutely breath-taking.  After living my whole life surrounded by cornfields, the hills and mountains of Honduras were a nice change.  We saw so many things on the drive: houses upon colorful houses stacked up on top of each other and near each other.  Street vendors selling fruit and other items.  Children in uniforms walking home from school on the side of the busy road.  Stray animals roaming the street.  It was so neat seeing this glimpse of the Honduran culture, and I couldn’t wait to see more.

            We finally arrived to beautiful Zamorano, the agricultural college where we were staying.  We were staying in the Kellogg Center on campus, which is a hotel, not a cereal manufacturer.  We got our roommates too: I’m staying with a girl named Lindsey.  She’s really nice and cool!   We had about 5 minutes to put our stuff in our rooms before we had to go to lunch.  And by had to, I mean we were running to get to the food because we were all so hungry.  We met in a conference room that would serve as a dining room and a classroom for our stay at Zamorano, and plates of food were already waiting for us.  Our first meal in Honduras consisted of chicken, rice, vegetables, and tortillas, which are served at every meal.  One bizarre thing we encountered was that there was a plastic bag filled with juice at each of our seats.  It brought a whole new meaning to juice pouch.  The trick is to rip off a tiny corner of the bag and pour it slowly in your cup.  Unfortunately, we have yet to master this, and almost everyone made a complete mess at the table.  The food was really good (hey, when have I been picky?), and afterwards, Dr. Rodriguez took us on a tour of campus.

            I don’t know if I’ll ever stop raving about how beautiful it is here.  All of the buildings are so unique and interesting, and the foliage is so different from what we know from back home.  It feels like paradise.  We walked around to the pool, a library, a c convenience store, and a Catholic church that was simply gorgeous.  Many of us are really hoping to be able to attend mass one day.  We saw a lot of college students walking around.  What’s interesting is that they have to wear uniforms!  Many of the people we passed on our walk seemed curious about our presence on their campus, but they were friendly and some even said hello to us.

            We had a couple hours to ourselves before dinner after hanging out by the pool for a little (wait, we haven’t had dinner yet?  It feels so late!).  Lindsey and I came back to the room and unpacked our stuff and got online.  I was able to say hello to my family and to a couple friends via Facebook, but then Lindsey and I succumbed to the pull of sleep and napped.  We were simply exhausted.  We woke up for dinner at 6 and feasted on some meat, beans, a boiled egg with a white yolk, a bag of red juice called mora which was really delicious, and of course, tortillas.  So far so good with the food!

            After dinner, some of us gathered to watch a movie on my laptop in the lobby for a little while.  There were some Zamorano students also sitting there working on a project.  I really wanted to approach them and talk, but I was too timid!  I hope I will muster up some courage to be able to do that before our time is up.  Tomorrow we meet at 7:30 am for breakfast and are off to Alison Bixby Stone School, the elementary school we will be teaching in for the next couple weeks.  Can’t wait for the rest of this adventure to unfold!

Pictures:

The whole group on the bus! (Except for a couple girls who sat up front)

My new friend, Max

The view from the bus

The Kellogg Center

Zamorano

A nifty tree right outside of where we're staying...looks like the tree of life!

The Hangover in Spanish

Despicable Me in Spanish

Our first meal

Juice bag!!

Sketchy exchange

What My First Year Of College Taught Me.

It's been a year.

I spend a summer fretting about what my college experience would bring me.  I moved into my dorm room, met my roommate (and then another), befriended the girls on my floor, experienced my first college classes, ate way too much in the dining courts, braved the cold Indiana winter while walking to class, and met some wonderful (and not so wonderful) people.  I laughed, I cried.  I wanted to pull my hair out sometimes, and I wanted to slap some sense into a lot of people.  I embarrassed myself more times than one human should, and I danced at more dance parties (and not dance parties) than I can say.  I gained a lot, and I lost a lot.

It's been a year.  I have no idea where that time went.  But in that year, I learned a lot.  Things about the world, things about people, things about myself.  ("Cut the sentimental crap, Kasey," said the impatient blog reader.  "No," said Kasey. "I'm being serious here.  Sorry 'boutcha.")

So, without further ado, the list of things my first year of college taught me, in no particular order:

1. Every day brings something new and different.  
2. Homesickness is real, and it sucks.
3. Time flies, whether you're having fun or not.
4. They say you make your best friends in college, but some of my best friends are still from back home.
5. Being sick in college is 10x worse than being sick back home.
6. You need a good set of shoes (and a bunch of pedicures) for all the walking you do on campus.
7. Ice cream is the worst temptress.
8. All the hard work you do in high school truly pays off.
9. Dance parties are SO much better in college.
10. There are so many opportunities-take advantage of them early!
11. You'd think the instructors at a place of higher education would be outstanding...not the case.  My professors this year got nothin' on my teachers from years past.
12. Naps can be the best things in the world.
13. Be thankful for not having 7:30 classes.
14. Free stuff is your new best friend.
15. Not having a car is quite the adjustment.
16. Living in residence halls is nowhere near as bad ad people make it out to be.
17. You learn a lot about yourself in college.
18. Your morals and values can be difficult to maintain when surrounded by others who do not share the same ones.
19. Having an open mind is crucial.
20. Getting packages and letters from family and friends can make your day.
21. Music preferences can expand to include genres you previously despised (dubstep, electronic, etc.).
22. Freedom is incredible, as long as you're responsible with it.
23. Life goes on, even when the good shower breaks.
24. Lofted beds are a pain in the butt.  And it hurts when you trip and fall out.
25. Having random roommates is quite the experience.
26. Some of the most fun things happen late at night, and spontaneously.
27. It really is okay (and maybe even better) to be single your first year of college.  You have to much else to figure out.
28. Trips home to see family, and their trips to see you, are wonderful.
29. Goodbyes are the absolute worst.
30. Your family seems so much more important when you're away from home.
31. Your high school accomplishments don't mean as much when you get to college.
32. There isn't much room to store excessive crap in your room...and it's a pain in the butt trying to move it back home at the end of the year.
33. Purchase a warm winter coat.
34. It's good to get off campus sometimes.
35. It's REALLY hard to find alone time.
36. Write down your experiences so you don't forget them later.
37. It's okay to do things you wouldn't normally expect yourself to do.
38. Always go to dance parties.
39. Get as many scholarships as possible.  Seriously.
40. Go to class.  But also skip just so you can say you did.
41. Do things outside of your comfort zone.
42. Doing laundry in the res. halls is loads of fun...said no one ever.
43. Keep a list of things you want to do/accomplish while at school.
44. You can make new friends at any time of the year.
45. I was always so uptight about grades in high school, but relaxed a little in college.  Still got a 4.0.
46. It's quite easy to be animal deprived. I missed my cats...
47. Sometimes you need a good cry.
48. It's okay to act silly and weird...you're in college, people can't judge you.
49. Make sure you love what you're doing.
50. I can't wait to go back next year!

There are so many more things I learned, but I'm pretty sure you don't want me tell you about magnetic forces that I learned about in Physics or about phonemes from Linguistics...

Here are some pictures from our photoshoot/the last day of school:

Fo' Flo' Hos!

Imma miss this goofball next year

Roomies!

So what's up for me this summer?

I'm leaving to study abroad in Honduras on Sunday and will be back on the 30th!  Then I'll be babysitting for the rest of the summer, as well as visiting a few friends/friends visiting me.  Hopefully going to see Christian in Colorado in July!  But also studying my math book so I can try testing out of the last semester of math :/

I'd like to continue the blog for the summer, but we shall see if I have time for that.  It will for sure be back in the Fall!  

I'd just like to thank you all for your continued support, both of me and of my blog.  I love knowing that people are reading it and that they actually care about what's going on with this crazy kid!  I'm so blessed to have such wonderful people in my life.  THANK YOU!

Happy summer!!