Bored

So I'm pretty much bored out of my mind right now. I got about 3 hours of sleep last night. (about 4:00 a.m.-7:00 a.m.) After classes today, I took a 3-hour nap. I feel better than I did earlier, but I'm still physically tired. My eyes have been burning all day long due to the lack of sleep. I have no homework due tomorrow, so I decided to work ahead by doing some work for Monday. And now it's still fairly early in the evening, and I have nothing to do. It's times like this that I wish I had a roomie again. How in the world am I going to kill another 3 or 4 or 6 hours before I go to bed for the night??? It's frustrating to say the least. Boa noite.

Neve!!

It's snowing here!!! Yay! I woke up this morning and walked over by my window to turn the heat up. As I looked out the window, I got a wonderful surprise.... There is tons of snow here! It's so beautiful. I had no idea it was even supposed to snow. Here are a few pictures...

Dealing With the Hard Stuff

Tonight I went to a benefit concert/dinner/auction for a man at my church who has brain cancer. He had brain surgery to remove the tumor, but his condition is getting worse. Nobody is sure how much longer he is going to live. He went on a mission trip annually for the past several years to Haiti, which automatically puts him in a special place in my heart. After he was diagnosed with the cancer, he came up to me one Sunday night at church. Apparently, someone had been telling him about my love for Brasil, and my passion for mission work/my interest in becoming a long-term missionary one day. I'll never forget what he said to me: "I heard you've got that mission blood in your veins. I know all about that. When I'm on that mountain in Haiti, there is no place I'd rather be. I wish I could wake up there everyday." I have prayed and prayed and prayed that God would allow him to go back to Haiti just one more time before he passed away, but it doesn't look like it's going to happen. It absolutely breaks my heart because I know what it's like to long for a place that you have truly fallen in love with. I do have faith that God can heal him at any point if it is His will; but I also know that not everyone who is diagnosed with cancer is healed. As I watched the man being wheeled around in a wheelchair tonight, I saw the condition he is in. At one point, the people singing asked if he wanted to say anything, and he just shook his head. I almost cried right then, because this is a man that in the past, if you asked him if he wanted to say anything...before you could finish your sentence, he was standing up, talking about what God had done in his life. This has become a difficult time for everyone involved, but especially his family. Please keep him, his family, and all of his friends in your thoughts and prayers.

Music....Brasilian/American Opinions

My friend, Fleda, (being the thoughtful girl that she is) found a cd of a Brasilian singer at McKay's bookstore, and she bought it for me. Sweet, right? The singer is a guy named Sandro Coelho, and the cd is called "No Sul Do Meu País". (In the South of My Country) I have found that I actually really like his music. So as I was talking to André a couple of days ago, I mentioned that Fleda bought me the cd, and I asked if he knew of the singer. He said he didn't, but he looked him up online and started listening to one of his songs. He then informed me that people in Rio do not listen to that kind of music, and that this guy is not famous in Rio. Ummm, what? So, I asked if he had any suggestions on what I should listen to. Why, of course he did! He sent me some videos with Samba and Funk music, and I did like them. However, that does not mean that I can't like the other guy too. André then proceeds to tell me that he hates country music, and that he thinks it sounds funny. As a fan of country music, I had to argue this. And it didn't go so well. I was not going to give up so easily, so I decided I would start sending him videos of country music singers; telling him that I am going to teach him to appreciate country music. I think it is going well so far! He did tell me that he has a hard time understanding Kenny Chesney's accent sometimes. I informed him that I have no trouble at all. haha. I just find the difference in opinions interesting. This is somewhat of a generalization, but what is it about Sandro Coelho that makes him unappealing to Cariocas? I think he has a nice voice, and I like his songs. And as for country music, clearly not all Americans like it, but I do. Oh well, I suppose it is a difference in cultures, and so forth. Even though I am pointing this out like it's a problem, it's not of course. It's actually just one more part of Brasil/Brasilians that I love. Até logo!

Living Alone

My roomie moved out today. She just decided that she didn't want to go to school anymore, and that she was moving out, as well as, withdrawing from the university. So I helped her pack up all of her stuff and load it up. I'm sitting on my bed looking around me, and it already looks and feels so strange. I'm gonna have to rearrange everything to make it look like a one-person room with a lot of space, rather than a two-person room that is half empty. It is kinda sad to me, but at the same time exciting to have something a bit different. I'm not sure how I'm gonna handle the whole living by myself thing. Of course I live in a dorm, and there are people in the rooms next to me and across the hall. But most of my time on campus is spent in my room, which means I'm gonna be spending most of my time alone. There are pros and cons of course. I guess I will just have to spend more time thinking about the pros of it all. Plus, I'm moving home after this semester, so I only have a little over two months of this. I'm sure I'll make it. Now I'm gonna start moving stuff around. We'll see how it goes. Até logo.

Blah

Today, I'm feeling very "blah". I guess that is better than what I was feeling yesterday, which was a million of the most negative feelings ever conceived.....all combined into one. I'm not gonna go into all of that; mainly because I don't want to re-live it all again. Today, however, has been neither terrible, nor great. Not even "good" really. It has just kinda been a haze. I stayed at home last night, so I woke up pretty early this morning to drive to campus. I got here around 7:30 a.m. so I could make it to my 8 o'clock. I went to all of my classes and then I sat in my dorm doing absolutely nothing. I decided to take a nap, and I only slept for about 45 minutes. I woke up, and then tried to go back to sleep, but unfortunately, no luck. It's too late to go to the cafeteria for dinner, so I will be having a bowl of ramen noodles. Exciting, huh? I did bring a two-liter of Guaraná with me, so I just might have to open it up. I'm definitely addicted to it. I drank a glass of it while driving to school this morning. It was very refreshing. Well, I have nothing else exciting to say. Actually, none of this was too exciting anyway. Sorry for being so boring today. Forgive me. Até logo.

Studying and Guaraná

I just realized that I have not written in a while. There are good reasons for this. I had four tests this week. Four. Is that really necessary? I had one on Monday morning (at 8 a.m. by the way) which I'm certain I did not do well on. Then, Monday night, I spent 5 1/2 hours in the library with a study group for my test on Tuesday. I was pretty confident for that one. Wednesday night, I spent another 4 hours studying for the test on Thursday....I totally aced that one! Yay! And, Thursday night/Friday morning I spent a couple hours studying for my test on Friday. Basically....I have studied too much this week. And I'm definitely over it!
On a lighter note, I'm going to be doing some cooking today......comida brasileira! Yummy! I'm super excited about it. I'm making chicken stroganoff, with rice and beans. I have only made it once, and I keep saying I will make it again. Soooo, today is the day! I'm also going on a search for Guaraná today. I found two international grocery stores, so I'm gonna check them out. I called one of them last night, and the lady on the phone had no clue what I was talking about. That could be due to the fact that I pronounce Guaraná like a Brazilian. I don't know any other way to say it. Anyway, she finally just said "no". I was thinking, "yeah, you have no idea." So, I'm going to make a trip out there to check it out today. Hopefully I will find it! I've been craving it for an awfully long time now. (sigh)



FYI: I found Guaraná today! I only had to go to one store. (Not the one with the clueless lady.) I was ecstatic to see the green can! I can assure you that I will be frequenting that place :)

Translating

As I have mentioned in my blogs, I am learning to speak Portuguese. (Brazilian, not European) All of my friends and family know this, but if you are reading this, and you didn't know....well, now you do! So, last night my friend from Brasil went to church with me, and several of us went out to eat afterwards. One of the my friends in our group had his "evangecube" with him, and someone asked my Brasilian friend to use the cube while speaking Portuguese. Oh, and he thought it would be a good idea if I translated! At first, I declined. haha. Of course, he asked me again, and after considering it for a few seconds, I decided it would actually be really good for me. So he started talking, and after he got done with the first sentence, I looked at him, and said, "Uhhh, you're gonna have to slow down." He repeated what he said at a somewhat slower pace, and then it was up to me to tell the other 9 people in our group what he just said. The first three or four sentences were kinda rough, but after that, I picked up on it fairly well. Oh sure, I missed a few words here and there, but I expected to do much worse. And, surprisingly, I really enjoyed doing it. It was actually a lot of fun. My friend said, I'm going to email my boss and tell her that I have found a new translator! (He works as a translator in Rio with mission teams.) I laughed when he said that. hahaha. It was a cool experience, and it definitely motivated me to work harder to improve my Portuguese.

Catching up

I just realized that i have not written in a few days because I have been rather pressed for time lately. I am unbelievably tired right now. I went to a get-together/game night last night. Some friends from church invited my family and I over to their house. We ate dinner there, and then spent the next 7 hours playing different board games. I'm not exaggerating. We left their house at about 2:30 a.m. I went to bed sometime after 3. If I went back to bed right now, there is no doubt in my mind that I could easily fall asleep again. However, I will feel like I have wasted the day if I do that. I've got some studying to do for school. I also need to study/practice my Portuguese today. I can read and write it fairly well, but I have to improve my listening skills. They pretty much suck. After all, I really don't hear Portuguese spoken too often. Listening to any kind of spoken Portuguese helps. Songs, television show clips, church services, etc. I've found that youtube is a great source for this. Also, my friend told me that the University of Tennessee is having a Brasilian film series, and she asked me if I wanted to go on the 17th. My response: Oh my gosh! Definitely! I've never heard of the movie they are showing, but it is in Portuguese. (With subtitles, of course.) I'm super excited about it. That was a long explanation for why I can't go back to sleep. Nice. Anyway, I am going out for dinner tonight. A friend from Brasil is in the states for a work-study program, and he works at a restaurant. So, I'm going there tonight. I'm looking forward to it. He is also going to church with me Sunday night. Should be fun. Well, I'm off to study Laboratory Diagnostics/Portuguese. Tenha um bom dia! Até logo!

Procrastination. And, by the way, "How is the weather there?"

I'm a procrastinator. I know this; my family knows this; my friends know this. It's no secret. In fact, by writing right now, I am procrastinating. This is how my day started......My alarm went off at 7:10 this morning. I immediately hit the snooze button. No surprise there. Nine minutes later, it goes off again. I hit the snooze button again. Somewhere in the back of my head, I know that I have to be in class at 8 o'clock. It's 7:19 at that point, and I very easily convince myself that I can make it through one more snooze cycle. When my alarm goes off at 7:28, I hit the snooze button first. (To silence the unbearably loud version of Simple Plan's song, "I'd Do Anything") My roommate says in a very mumbled and sleepy tone "I'm not going." So, I contemplated not going to class. It was like a war inside my brain. The good side, you know...the one that cares about homework, grades, and actually getting a degree in college...said, "You know you have to go to your Diagnostics class. Today is the lab. You actually really like the lab! Think about all of the blood smears, hematocrit tests, and white blood cell counts you will get to do today! Plus, you really don't want to miss something, and then have to play catch up next week, right??" This was a very good argument. The bad side....the one that cares about sleep, and...ummmm.....wait.....no, just sleep...said, "8'clock is an ungodly hour to have a class. They can't expect you to get up that early and actually make it to class every time. Isn't your bed really warm and comfy right now? Forget about being behind in class, you can figure it out next week. Your roommate isn't going, you can be behind together!" While my brain is having this fight, at 7:32, my cell phone starts ringing. This is also an unbearbly loud volume. I grab it, and see that it is a text message from my mom. It reads..."How is the weather there?" I know what you are thinking. I was thinking the same exact thing. It was something to the effect of...."It's 7:30 in the freaking morning. Not only do I not know how the weather is here, due to the fact that I haven't been outside yet, but I also do not care what the weather is like here." I closed my phone, dropped it back on my desk, and began to doze off again. At 7:36, my cell phone starts ringing yet again. This time, my mom is actually calling me.

The conversation....
Me: (sigh) Hello?
Mom: I sent you a text message.
Me: I know. (yawn)
Mom: Well you didn't answer me. What is the weather like there?
Me: I have no idea.
Mom: Are you still in bed?!
Me: Yeah (long yawn)
Mom: Don't you have class at 8? Do you know what time it is?
Me: (sigh) Yeah
Mom: Well there have been tornadoes touching down in Tennessee. The wind is really bad, and they are calling for more storms. So you just need to beware of the weather.
Me: uh-huh. Ok.
Mom: I'm serious, Julie. Be careful.
Me: Ok. Bye.

I hang up the phone and then lie in bed for a few seconds, when yet again, my alarm goes off. I turn it off and then sit up. I get out of bed and stumble to the bathroom. I get ready, and throw some clothes on; grab my stuff and then walk out to my car. Once I got into my class, and we actually started doing things, I enjoyed being there. I did a really nice blood smear. (My teacher said it was perfect! yay!) Overall, it was a good lab. Well, I screwed up on a white blood cell count, but it was no big deal. My teacher told me that she and I would work on it together next week. So, now I'm out of class and I am sitting in my dorm room. I thought of all of the school-related things I should be doing. Studying for my history test for tomorrow; finishing my quizzes and questions for Laboratory and Zoo Animals on Blackboard; studying for my diagnostics test for Monday; studying for Anatomy/Physiology test for Tuesday; etc. It was at that moment I remembered that I did not write yesterday. All of the other stuff quickly seemed less important. I gave in to my undying commitment to procrastination, and wrote this.

Last Semester of Life in the Dorm

That's right.....I'm moving back home after this semester. Yay! Clearly, I'm very excited about this. I have been talking to my mom about wanting to live at home next year for a little while now. Finally, I decided to talk to my dad and step-mom about it last night. I must say that I was very prepared for the conversation. I had a list of pros and cons in my head, and as soon as I was asked for them.....I quickly layed them all out. I had an answer for every question they had. Overall, it went really well, and I was successful. My parents could see that I put a lot of thought into the whole thing, and it is something that I really want to do. In preparation for the switch, I have been spending the night in Knoxville on Sunday nights. (In addition to the Wednesday nights that I also spend there.) I have 8 o'clock classes on Monday mornings, so I wake up at about 5:30 a.m. to allow plenty of time to get to school. I left my house at 6 this morning; stopped to get gas; and still made it to school at 7:05. And, I really didn't speed excessively. (I always drive at least 5 mph over when I am on my way to school anyway.) I really have been trying to control my speed. After getting that one speeding ticket, I toned it down some. Anyway, I said all of that simply to point out that I was very happy with my travel time this morning. It definitely reassurred me that commuting to school won't be as bad as it can seem. I'm definitely happy with my decision.

I Think I'm Addicted

I was feeling the urge to write, when I remembered that I just started a blog! How convenient, right?! I have been thinking about "Carnaval" starting this weekend in Brasil, which is a huge event, particularly in Rio. It is a time of festivities, music, the Samba Parade, elaborate costumes, and crazy people. The four-day celebration begins on Saturday and goes through "Fat Tuesday"; marking the beginning of Lent. This brings me to the real topic I want to write about: Lent. Most people know that Lent is a 40-day period before Easter, during which some people choose to fast or simply give up something that they enjoy. This is also supposed to be a time of commemoration of the death and ressurection of Jesus. I did not participate in Lent last year, however, I did in 2006. I gave up a few things, but not really for the right reasons. Shock! It was interesting, and I guess it was a good experience. But, I'm definitely going to observe Lent this year, and I've decided to take it to a different level. I haven't decided exactly what I am going to give up yet. I'm going to have to think about that. However, I have decided that during the time of Lent, I am going to start doing more for other people. I would like to think of something on a large-scale, but even if I don't come up with that, I am going to do simple things. Things like: holding the door for someone, smiling a little more, sending cards to people, being nicer to my brother, helping someone at the grocery store, etc. Just easy things that will hopefully brighten another person's day. My main focus is to be less selfish, and in a sense, more of a servant for others. My hope is that Lent will be like a "kick-off" for this, and I will integrate these things into my everyday life. After all, we could all stand to be a little more selfless.