Hola Festival

Yesterday, I went to the Hola Festival with Taylor Holcraft (She came for a visit!!), Karlee Ervin, and Shivani, a girl in my Spanish class. The Hola Festival celebrates Latino culture with food, dancing, crafts, a parade of nations, and tables with information on each country. I've been looking forward to it for awhile, and I was not disappointed.

What must first be said about the event is the food. Seriously, the sheer amount of it would be noteworthy on its own, not to mention the variety of flavors and options. What most shocked me though, was the fact that everything looked good. Everything! And that's coming from me, someone who only grudgingly accepts Mexican food. This was different, though. Everything was authentic and unusual, and I was feeling adventurous! I wish I had taken pictures of the food I ate, but I only thought about that until afterwards. Regardless, my menu that day consisted of:

• empanada de yucca-  a pastry turnover filled with cheese and yuca, a starchy vegetable
• platanos fritos menos los frijoles- fried plantain with mayonnaise, hold the beans
• horchata- a rice-water drink sweetened with cinnamon
• morcilla- Spanish blood sausage

The empanada de yuca was good when it was hot, but once it cooled the texture was not very good. The platano frito was amazing. It was so good, even when I expected not to like it. The plantain tasted surprisingly starchy, kind of like a french fry, but much more interesting. The horchata was great, but I already knew I liked that. The morcilla grew on me. I got a sweet salsa to go on top, but I liked it better plain. It had rice inside to help keep the meat together, which definitely added to the flavor.

I also bought a few trinkets (of course). I came home with a bracelet, necklace, and handcarved ornament made by women in Peru, and a string bracelet with Bernadette's name on it. They didn't have Christie or Chela (my Spanish name) but they had Bernadette?? I will never understand this.

  

They had tables set up where you could learn about every country. Seeing all the flags and the different artwork from each area was really intersting. Some of them even had costumes. For the kids, they had "passports." The children would take their passports up to each table and get a sticker from each one. Eventually, they'd have it complete filled out. I thought it was a cute idea to get the kids to learn about each country.


The last thing that must be mentioned is the music. There were different live bands playing all throughout the day, which was a perfect touch. Everywhere you went, you could see people dancing to the music. It was infectious. They showcased all different styles too, so you got a taste of all kinds of Spanish music. It was great.


 On an related note:

Today, I'm going whitewater rafting!! While, I'm very excited to do so, it doesn't give me a lot of time to study. Oh well, I'll find some way to. I'll try to check in again today or tomorrow about the whitewater rafting, but I haven't been very good so far at posting when I need to.

Fireworks go BOOM!

Alright, so Boomsday was this past weekend, and it was a lot of fun... eventually. Bernadette and I arrived at Donnie's apartment to pick him and Jon up around 6:20. Well, Jon hadn't even showered yet, so he and Bernadette showered, but Jon took FOREVER. So we finally leave there, and we get to Morrill around 7. At which point I remembered that due to my lack of internet access while driving, I have to finish and submit my English essay. I do so and we leave around 7:30-7:45 to go to BOOMSDAY. WHOOOOOOOOO. So we're all in a great mood until Jon starts being stupid, and Donnie, already understandably annoyed about the lateness of the hour and also extremely hungry, gets mad. So now two people from our group our annoyed at each other while we are traipsing over hill and dale through the rain to get there. We finally arrive around 8 and grabbed Zaxby's and start looking for spots to see the fireworks from. (After the arrival of food, the mood significantly improved.) After finding a spot on the street, we chill until the show begins. It does, and it's awesome for about 5 minutes. At which point the smoke is so thick that you can't even see the ginormous explosions in the sky. Although they do turn the clouds different colors, which was awesome in itself. The smoke cleared. The show went on. Yay fireworks! We were just about to leave when all of a sudden... *dramatic music plays* THE BRIDGE CATCHES ON FIRE!!! No, this was not planned, and it was pretty dang exciting. They were trying to put it out from the river, but the water barely reached. Eventually they did appear to be winning the battle against the inferno, and we grew bored. We then ate at The Cookout (extremely cheap and surprisingly edible eats) then went home. Fin.

Unrelated Things:

My computer blue-screened not once, not twice, not even three times today. Yes, that's right, ladies and gentlemen. This stupid piece of machinery did its macabre dance of death a total of FOUR TIMES today. Hurray! A record!   I'm taking it to Best Buy this Wednesday, and it better come back fixed goshdarnit!

On a happier note, I GOT THE PART!!! The Russian part, to be exact. The role of Grand Duchess Olga Katrina shall be played by none other than yours truly. (Obviously, I've decided to take it.) So, that's all grand and exciting even though I will have no life for 6 weeks. Couple this with the fact that I'm trying to be on two intramural volleyball teams, do Freshman Honor's Council, blog, be involved with some Christian organization, and hang out with Donnie, and it get's slightly ridiculous. Oh and study. I guess I should probably do that too.

Also happy news, now that I have The Phantom of the Opera, I'm gonna hold a TPOTO movie night on the floor at some point this week. Yay for awesome music and popcorn and hanging out and Gerard Butler!!!

I can't really think of anything else notable... Hmmmm... Nope, still nothing. I'm gonna go more. Might do more homework or I might just sleep. Either way, please excuse any typos or ramblings. I don't really feel like proofreading right now. Ciao!

Pretty much the norm.

Okay, so I'll work backwards for right now. Aka, I'm just gonna post about today.

Today started out pretty normal. I woke up at 7:10 to finish some homework, ate some Greek yogurt, then went to Geology. Afterwards, I headed to Spanish which I finally made it to on time. (She likes to start 5 minutes early which is a problem since my Geology class is right before it.) I went to the library to read for Political Science and English (both of which are tomorrow). I've found a spot I like for reading on the fourth floor: super comfy red leather armchairs right in front of a wall of windows. So sumptuous! Unfortunately, the chairs proved too comfy and 7 was just way too early for a college student to wake up. I totally fell asleep while reading my Poli. Sci. book. Twice. After that, though, I was super refreshed and did actually finish my reading.

Slightly related note, my Poli. Sci. professor TOTALLY reminds me of Meghan. It's pretty crazy.

After that I ate lunch, walked back to the dorm, wasted some time, and then went swimming at the Student Aquatic Center (SAC). Today was actually the first day I went swimming this year, and I LOVED it. It's a thousand times better than running. I swam 1100 meters, which was a lot more than I expected to, but I felt like pushing myself. When you actually enjoy the activity, it's a heck of a lot easier to do it for 40 minutes.

So then I went back and showered and everything. I was gonna go eat dinner with Donnie and Jon, but I didn't have enough time. I had to get ready for SPEEDFRIENDING. The eighth floor teamed up with our buddy floor (the 7th) and had a speedfriending event, which was basically just like speeddating just not for romance and there was free pizza. *Note, if you want to get college kids to come to any event, offer free pizza* It was really fun, and afterwards, Bernadette, Tyrell (I know him from one of my classes), Justine, and Nate (both of whom I just met) ate at Morrill. Bernadette and I made handmade milkshakes which were really good, and we got really super hyper, which is always fun. Especially since Tyrell just egged us on. Haha.

That's pretty much everything major that happened today. Swimming, an awesome nap, free food, milkshakes, and great music thanks to Pandora. All-in-all, a good day.

Alright, alright, already!

So after much poking and prodding and reminding, I finally got a blog! Too bad I have an appointment with an academic coach in 20 minutes and therefore don't have time to write a proper post or customize my blog right now. I'll try to get it done after my appointment.

Before I leave, here's a short summary of my day today:

• 9:05-9:55, Geology. Finally met my Geology professor (he's been in Prague). This class is gonna be really easy.
• 10:10-11, Spanish. Absolutely adore my Spanish class. Right now it's basically review, which is really good. I know all the basic stuff we're learning, and I'm getting a lot of practice speaking which is exactly what I need.
• 11:10-12ish, Lunch with Bernadette. Had to use a couple Dining Dollars. I'm not thrilled with how meal equivalency is working out. I might wanna change meal plans, but I'm not totally sure yet.
• 1:30, Appointment with Academic Coach. The office of Disability Services can basically not help me out with my ADHD at all. All they do is classroom accomodations (i.e. extra exam time) which I don't need. So I'm meeting with Julia, who can hopefully help me with time management.
•  5, Dinner with Donnie at the UC
• 6, Killer Core with Bernadette at the TRECS. Dreading, but I know I need to.
• 6:45-whenever, Homework, blogging, and hopefully some knitting.

That's my day in a nutshell. I'll recap my life at college thusfar within the next couple days.