Last day of Class!

Yay! but wow. It's starting to sink in that I am a senior in college. Goodness - how did that happen? Some of my friends (and one of my roommates) are graduating this semester.. and others are education majors and will be student teaching next semester... so this was their very last day of class. In celebration of that, in one of my classes (where at least two students will never take another class here at Maryville) we played a prank on our professer. Dr. O'Gorman has a very strict rule about cell phones and will take up (and answer if he can) your phone if it rings in class. So, we got friends from outside our class to call at different intervals, starting out slow and leading up to several going off at once. Much fun.

It is finally cold here in east Tennessee.. not the unbearable kind of cold but the crisp and clear kind of cold that is uninviting (and cold!) but still, walking to and from class you can't help but appreciate the weather. The point is: today would be the perfect day for a cup of hot chocolate, a good book, and a fire in the fireplace. That would be lovely. Sadly, I don't have any of that here - not even the hot chocolate! But that's okay - only one more week to go and I'm home! Granted only for two nights... but I am certainly not complaining! I will get to go see little sister (who's now more worldy than I with her office job and, you know, the little part about living half-way round the globe!). How exciting.

However, I still have a paper to write, a lab to finish, and exams to study for so I'd best get to it. But let's be serious, first things first: Nap Time!

oh, and ps: My Thesis is Finished! (unless I made some grave error that the editor cannot let slide - but hopefully that won't happen)

short and sweet:

Happy Birthday Daddy!

My Roommates

It has been a while since I have posted anything... so I figured I should. But I had nothing interesting to say - no news, no insights into the world, no quirky thoughts to share with the world - so, I thought, what could I write about? Well, most people have not met my roommates - so why not post a picture and talk about them a little bit? Genius! (Actually, courtesy of facebook, most people have probably already seen pictures of them, but some haven't.)

I live with 5 girls in an appartment on campus - it is a great appartment: a living room, kitchen, bathroom, and two bedrooms downstairs and 4 bedrooms, a bathroom, and a little common room area upstairs. It's quite lovely.



Okay, from left to right: Danielle, Sarah, yours truly, Courtney, Cara, and Reba. Let's see... some history. I met Danielle, Sarah, Reba and Courtney freshman year. Danielle's room was right next to mine, and Sarah and Reba lived on the same floor. I didn't really get to know Courtney until second semester when we all went skiing together. Sophmore year, by some lucky chance, Cara was placed in our room when Reba, who was going to room with us, decided to be an RA in a different building and so we had a vacant room. We're all so glad. And so there we are. Danielle is loud and crazy and mean ;). Sarah is so sweet and involved a lot on campus. Reba is training to be a teacher (meaning she only has a few more weeks of real school 'cause next semester she'll be student teaching). Courtney rides in rodeos and is usually quite frank, but never mean. And Cara is a psycology major but will be leaving us in December because she is graduating. With 6 girls all together life is not without drama, but luckily there is never drama between us. What a good group of girls. Oh, and I should say - they ALL have a southern accent. Cara a bit less so than the others, but the others' heavy accents make up for her slight one. So funny.


Anyways, there's a tiny peek into my life. I love living with a big group of people... just like at home there's almost always someone there to talk with.

I need a new book.

I am in the mood to read... a good book would be so perfect right now.

Happy Birthday Jesse!

Today, 12 years ago, Jessica Danielle Wolfe (goodness she has a beautiful name) was born early afternoon on a Monday. Daddy picked us up from school - and as soon as we saw him we knew the baby was born because he didn't usually pick us up. So, we all got in that big blue van and went to the hospital to meet her! I was 10 and having one more little sister totally changed my life. She taught me responsability and patience. She taught me how to care for others before myself. I complained about changing diapers, of course, but I absolutely loved taking care of her. And she taught me a skill I value highly: how to put a baby to sleep (though, as she got older she fought me on that one :).

Now Jesse is 12 years old! Throughout the years watching her grow up, I was always impressed with how independent she was. If she wanted something, she would get it herself or figure it out even though she had plenty of people who she could have gotten to do it for her. I have missed so much by being away from college but every time I come home I am amazed by how much she has grown. I love you Jesse!

I'm back in the game

Ever since I stopped playing soccer I have been wanting to find another way back into the game. I thought I would make a good little soccer coach for young ones so I went to the rec center here in Maryville, TN and offered to be a coach. However, they had enough parents to fill the spots so I thought, oh well. Luckily for me I attend a small college. My statistics professor saw my shirt that said "Maryville soccer" and asked if I played. I said, "well, I used to play." He told me that his daughters played AYSO. I think next I said that I had wanted to be a coach but it didn't work out. He then said that because the season already started they already had the teams and coaches set but that the AYSO league really needed referees so if I was interested I should go get certified. So, I did. It's not coaching, but this will still be fun. And, I'm pretty sure that, now that I know some people, I can get a team for the spring season!

Oh, and they gave me all of my gear - and my yellow striped referee jersey is only about 13 sizes to big :).

I can't close until I have acknowledged the actual special event of the day:
Happy Birthday Brian!

It's the little things.

These aren't the meaning of life,
but they help to remind me of the meaning of life.

blowing out candles
sunsets
listening to music
perfect coffee mugs
the sound of a library
late night conversations
leisurely early mornings
rain
finished projects
all things Jane Austen
making music
hot chocolate in summer
'happily ever after'

More pictures from Mexico

Both of the villages we visited welcomed us with a presentation by their children. The children in the first village danced for us, and the wild children in the second supposedly sang for us (why they are in crepe paper costumes I'm not really sure). The dancing was so cute! The singing, well, we got to know that that group of kids liked to be very loud. The school is where we slept - on a blanket on concrete floors. There were no showers. We played lots of soccer and they taught us some new games. The game where we are holding hands in a circle is a really fun game - kind of like duck duck goose with partners. The other is where a kid repeats a rhyme and gets people out when she lands on them. I didn't catch the meaning of it all but at least one rhyme had something to do with sending people to either China or Japan. The little girl I'm sitting down with (I'm afraid I don't remember her name) had a few conversations with me - if you could call them that. She would say something, I would respond and she would look at me like I'm crazy. But we did finally learn how to communicate properly on the soccer field - she is quite a good little player. I'm not sure you can see, but there is one picture inside of one of the kitchens. The homes of these villages are made up of many buildings. One for the kitchen and usually a couple more separate one-room buildings for sleeping (i.e. one for the children, one for the parents, and one for the grandparents). I have a picture of one of the smoky kitchens where we would take our food supplies to be turned into supper (or breakfast, or lunch). And the last few pictures are of the ride home. We got up and left before sunrise - there we are loading the truck getting ready to leave. And then there is a beautiful picture of a mountain as we were driving down the mountain (which takes an hour). And the last waterfall is a park where we stopped to make lunch on our way back to Monterrey.

Some pictures of Mexico

I didn't take many pictures of Mexico myself but I have finally taken some from others who went with me... so here are some of my favorites. I'll try to give a brief description of each.

This is Sra. Estella Manchaca, the lady who hosted me in her wonderful home for the duration of my stay, and Gina my lovely roommate who made the whole Mexico experience so much fun and completely unforgettable.




Below are pictures of the UDEM campus and some sights along the way. Notice the amazing mountains! I could not get enough of them! -of course, Gina thought that was pretty amazing because she lives in Idaho right next to the Rockies. :).


















The international program at UDEM offered a service project - so, of course I signed up! But it wasn't quite what I expected. In previous years it had been something done in the afternoons during the week. However, this year they decided to take us to a couple of villages up on the top of some mountains (5 hours away!) on the weekends. All we did was play with the children there - and beg for the ladies to cook us food when we got hungry! It was hard for us to understand how it was service, but they assured us that the villagers enjoyed it and so that's all that matters.


To the left is the small town of Zaragoza at the foot of the mountains where our villages were.

And below are pictures of El Refugio, the village where I stayed.








So much for the places I stayed in Mexico. This has taken much longer than I thought it would and it's getting late so I'll write again soon to post some pictures of more people I was with and some of our activities.

TGIF

Whew! This has been a long and tough week - but now that it's over I feel so good! When the week is full one tends to get a lot done and (I'm so proud of myself) I did. I have finished two papers, and figured out the topic of another, I am finally confident in my inferential stats abilities and - best of all - I have an outline for my thesis! Finally it seems manageable. I still worry that I won't be able to find enough of the data that I need, but my advisor assures me that this is more about the process, so if I do all that correctly it is not really necessary to have the perfect info.

I've also organzied my room a bit more and that always makes me happy. I found a bookshelf that fits perfectly between my bed and my window - though it's a bit taller than I had hoped for, and that will help me out a lot. Also, I'm about to make a big calendar so I have everything I need to do in one spot and that'll make life easier. All in all, I'm feeling quite good. Now I have a nice, rather empty, weekend where I can do homework without the stress of eminent due dates.

Oh, and I bought a shirt today :).

Yay for weekends!

Enjoy Your Present

So, I've been telling my siblings to start a blog so I could see what they're doing in their amazing lives across the world... and I figured it's only fair for me to keep one so they can keep a tab on me too. So, here goes.

I came across this quote a while ago and I cannot remember where I found it or who said it... and although the college trained plagiarism bell is ringing in my head, I think it is a beautiful thought and the desire to share it surpasses my learned behavior of needing to properly cite any thought that is not my own. So, here it is:

Every day is a gift...
That's why they call it the present.
Enjoy your present.



And most importantly for this day, Happy Birthday Mom!!

I cannot say in words how wonderful a person and mother she is, but think of all the complimentary things you can think of and apply them to her - they all fit. But I cannot leave it merely at that so... I figured I would show the world one of the most flattering pictures that will ever be taken of my mother and I. :).