Amazing Break

Although I have found out I don't really have many friends at home anymore, this break, I realized how much my family and Mike's family mean to me. When I got home on Tuesday afternoon, my mom took Mike and I out for pizza. She always loves spending time with us and my brother. After going out for pizza, she and I went shopping for some Christmas presents. Whenever we go shopping together, we have so much fun and always break out into laughing fits over nothing. Wednesday, Mike and I went shopping, and he somehow got dragged into working with me at Aero on black Friday. We worked for 10 hours...it was a long day! We went back to his house to have Thanksgiving leftovers with his parents, aunt, uncle, and cousin. We pulled up in his driveway right behind his aunt, uncle, and cousin. As soon as we got out of the car, they came up and each gave me a big hug. Mike's family has always been so accepting and hospitable to me. Saturday, Mike and I went to Chicago with his little sister and one of her guy friends. He was incrediby like Mike which made the day tons of fun. We have this program at our school called Natural Helpers. Lisa went at the beginning of November. During it, you write a letter to someone who has helped you or you look up to. She wrote me a letter, mostly because she and Mike aren't really affectionate. It was great hearing how she thinks I have helped both her and Mike. This morning, Mike's mom even made me go along to look at the houses they are thinking about buying. Of course, throughout this entire break, I spent lots of time with my family, and they are always completely supportive of me. It was great spending time with both my family and Mike's family over break.

Chinese or a Happy Meal

When I was between the ages of about 6 and 12, every once in a while, my mom, brother, and I would meet Bonnie Coulter and her daughter, Megan, at this cute little Chinese restaurant. Before each meeting, we would stop at the McDonalds across the street to get a Happy Meal for me. I had never tried Chinese food and didn't want to, but I did want to be grown up. It was always weird having to bring McDonalds into the little restaurant for me. I would complain and throw a fit if they tried to make me eat Chinese food. I wouldn't even drink the tea they served. I would get so upset when they were all enjoying their food while I was eating greasy fries. Looking back, I wonder what I was thinking...blech! They were all so much older and sophisticated (at least, that's what I thought at the time). Finally, I got tired of being the immature little kid. I was going to be brave. I decided to try the Chinese food. Keep in mind that my daring behavior went only so far as to try sweet and sour chicken. Pathetic, I know, but it was a big step back then. After that fateful transition period, I started to eat more varieties of Chinese food and more varieties of food in general. Seeing the older, more sophisticated people eating things other than American food helped me see that different things are ok too. Now, Chinese and Asian foods are among my favorites.

This is a picture of Star of Siam in Chicago. It is my favorite Thai restaurant as of right now!

Spring Break Plans!!!

Ever since the middle of the summer, Mike and I have been talking about going to Tennessee for spring break. Neither of us want to go down to Florida for the whole party scene since there is enough of it here. We decided that we wanted to rent a cabin in the Smoky Mountains. We both love the outdoors, and it is beautiful down there! We figured out that for 4 couples in a 3 bedroom cabin, it would only be around $190 a person for the entire week. That's a good deal if you ask me. Everyone that is going happens to be more Mike's friend, but that's ok because I have known most of them since my freshman year in high school. The cabin is in the mountains and has a great view. There are games and everything. I am really just glad to get away from the party scene of the warm places. As much as I love laying on the beach, I love being cold in the outdoors! Squirreled Away is a cozy little cabin that offers things such as 6 decks, a pool table, a jukebox, air hockey, and a hot tub. So I think that $190 a night is a perfectly acceptable price to pay for a cute little cabin in the mountains!

Born Into Brothels

In the movie, Born Into Brothels, the children were revealed to anyone watching the movie. This includes anyone across the world with a tv and an interest to watch this movie. If you think about the movie in the way that the children's lives were "on display," then hopefully you'd say it wasn't fair. Personally, I don't think that I would want my childhood on display, especially if it was like these children's. If you don't think about their lives being "on display," then you see children who are open to help. The documentary may deceive you by making you think they love every part of being taped. We will never know for sure. Parts have been left out of the movie. As for parts being left out of the movie, I would hope that the children could ask Briski to leave a certain part out if they were really uncomfortable with it being seen. I think that she chose this brothel and this group of children for a reason. They trusted her and were eager to learn. In the end, I believe that the children were appropriately portrayed and ok being in the documentary because it ultimately helped them. I would deem this documentary successful in the sense that it made Briski look like a Good Samaritan and put the problems of the children out into the public in hopes to get support for her organization. The end left you with a good thought to donate to Kids with Cameras.

Wonderful World of Engineering

So, being almost done with first semester, I started thinking about how my classes were going. Oddly enough, I am happy with all of them except for Chemistry. I don't want to talk about that though. Engineering has turned into a class that I am very glad I decided to take. I have learned a lot, and even though I get frustrated a lot, I realize that it will be worth it in the end. My mom and I were talking this weekend about what I will be doing this summer. After talking with her, I am pretty sure I want to try to get a Co-Op position. It is a great program and maybe a good way to find a job for after college. We even went out and got a suit so I would have one for interviews. It's crazy to think that we will be out in the real world soon. Mike is a junior, and I always make fun of him for being old. he is finally starting to think about the fact that he will be on his own in about a year and a half. There are a lot of people his age getting engaged and married soon, which is even weirder. I definitely don't want to get married until I have a steady job and can support myself. Glad he knows that... Maybe that's just me trying to be independent though, I don't want to have to rely on anyone. Oh well, I guess college is a great time to find independence!

Health

Although we have been discussing the origins of our food lately, I have noticed that nothing about my eating habits has changed. I would love to eat healthy, organic foods. I'm sure it would make me feel better about what I was eating. Right now, I don't even have time to worry about drinking enough liquids! With life being so chaotic down here at school, food is the last thing on my mind. It is quite honestly the last thing I worry about when going about my day. Sleep and homework rank much higher! If I were at home, I would be eating much better than I do now. I would eat regular meals instead of at random times throughout the day. I'm sure some of the food would have been genetically modified, but at least it would be a home cooked meal. As for my relationship with food...I've always been picky, and now, I will probably think about what I am putting into my mouth before I do. Even if I think about it, I will most likely eat it anyways just because that's what I'm being fed in the dining court.

Home gets harder to leave

This weekend, I spent some time at home. Each time I get to go back, I become more and more reluctant to leave. It's relaxing to be able to have conversations with my family and not have to get off the phone due to an assignment or group meeting. I love sleeping in my own bed because I feel like that's where I should be sleeping. I love going home and hanging out with my mom. When I'm at home, I'm not stressed or worried. My problems are left here at school, and I always have a great time. There is no drama there that I have to worry about, and I just get to hear stories about other people's problems. I am already looking forward to this weekend because Mike and I are both going home even though we are leaving Purdue again on Tuesday. I can't wait until Thanksgiving. There is a good chance it is my favorite holiday although Christmas is a close second. The thing I am most excited about is having time off from school for more than two days! Oh, and of course, not having engineering is a plus!!!

Food log for two weeks ago... :)

Breakfast:
-Oatmeal
-Hi-C Strawberry Juice box

Lunch:
-Croissant with turkey, mozzarella cheese, lettuce, and tomato
-Rice and stir-fried vegetables
-Glass of water

Dinner:
-Container of Minestrone soup
-Cinnamon apple sauce
-Gatorade

Snack:
-so far just water...
-probably something later

Today, I didn't really eat anything home cooked. I guess you could consider the dining hall stuff that I ate for lunch home cooked, but in my opinion, it's not the same. I'm pretty sure that the vegetables in my soup were probably genetically modified. They would be taken from somewhere with the ability to grow mass quantities. There were red beans, chickpeas, celery, potatoes, and carrots in my soup. I'm sure something out of that list has been modified. I doubt that the broccoli and mushrooms I ate for lunch were organic because they also have to be bought in bulk. Food didn't really have to travel far for me today. Everything I ate was probably from the Midwest...maybe not. I ate fast food the entire day. Nothing took time to prepare, and I didn't get the pleasure of cooking the food myself.

Stubbornness can lead to a career?

The last blog of the week is always the hardest to write. It seems like there is nothing left to talk about, so you just ramble on about nothing and hope to make it to 200 words. It always seems like it is on my last blog that I randomly talk about all of my problems and what's going wrong in my life! I'm usually the type of person that keeps to themselves and doesn't like to let anyone in. That's pretty much me in a nutshell. I consider myself very outgoing but don't trust easily. I also am usually super quiet...I guess that's changed since I've been at school. I know that over these past almost 3 months, I have changed. I feel like I can take more on now and am much more stubborn than I was when I came down in August. Trust me, that was hard to beat. There is no way that I can change my major now. I refuse. I came in for engineering, and I vow to leave with a degree in some sort of engineering. I think all of the engineers received Co-Op postcards in the mail on Saturday. It finally helped me realize that I need to start working on getting an internship. I know there is almost no use in trying for a Co-Op because I don't want to do engineering. I want to work in a patent office. I decided that I would talk to Jim, my academic advisor, about trying for an internship at the U.S. Patent Office. I highly doubt they would want someone without any experience in law, but hey, maybe they will give me a chance!

Spoof Ad to Mortify...

In the foreground, you see a heart monitoring machine. It has two normal heart beats, then you see the "Golden Arches" before it flatlines. On the bottom of the machine, you see the words "Big Mac Attack!" In the background of the picture, you see three doctors working on the patient hooked up to the machine. They are trying to get his heart beating again. The ad is referencing Big Mac commercials and ads in which Big Macs are made to look appealing and appetizing. This spoof has on objective of showing you what can really come out of Big Macs, death. In my opinion, this spoof does a great job of showing truth. Part of our nation's obesity problem comes from eating foods like Big Macs. Seeing this ad would definitely make me think twice about putting that nasty thing into my digestive tract. Would you really want to be eating a Big Mac while looking at this ad. You would have to be thinking about how you could feel the cholesterol in your arteries slowly moving to your heart and stopping it. These foods are so unhealthy! Maybe I was already biased, and that was why I chose to talk about this ad. I haven't had a McDonalds burger in probably over 2 years. They are about the least appealing item to me.

Weekend

Went out Friday night.
Sleeping by 1 a.m.
Woke up at 10:30 a.m.
Messed around on the internet until the Purdue game started.
Quit watching at half.
Put in Meet the Robinsons.
Watched about 20 minutes then slept through the rest of the movie and the second time it played.
Woke up to credits.
Put in License to Wed.
Watched the entire thing and loved it.
Turned to Lifetime.
Watched a movie about a missing kid who was still alive 7 days later.
During all the times I was awake, I was working on math for the week.
Mike came over at 9:30 p.m.
We watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Fell asleep by 12 a.m.
Woke up at 8 a.m. even though I thought it was 9 a.m.
Went to the mall with Mike for a couple of hours.
Came back and continued to do math homework.
Finished all math by 4 p.m.
Watched the Colts game with Billy, Torsten, and Carter.
Went over to Earhart to do Chem Lab write-up.
Came back to Owen did chem homework.
The rest of my week is dedicated to the research paper and studying for my engineering test on Wednesday and Thursday...Wish me luck and sorry if you actually read this whole thing!