Hace mucho calor

Once again, I haven't blogged in awhile, but come on..it's summer!  I don't want to be cooped up inside writing a blog.  I want to be cooped up inside watching television shows like the Bachelorette, So You Think You Can Dance, and a new ABC family series called Bunheads.  Okay, so that's only half true.  I obviously do want to watch all of those shows, but I get time outside, too!!  I've been biking a little bit lately and I found a really cool bike path that leads to Racine and then around Racine.  I haven't been able to explore the paths in Racine, but I have ridden to Racine and back which is about 12 miles!!  That path is quickly becoming my favorite one to ride, even though it's not the one on the lake.  I'm really excited to keep exploring all of the bike paths around because there are sooo many!  Also, my dad provided me with a very subtly vibrant large orange vest that I've been wearing around on my bike so that cars see me....not really!!  I feel like if I wore it, cars would DEFINITELY see me and they would be so attracted to the orangeness of the vest that they would swerve into me and hit me!

You get the point, right?...

Other than biking and watching T.V. shows, I have also been working, obviously-that's the whole reason that I stayed in Kenosha for the summer.  It's still going great, I love all the people I'm working with and the days go by pretty fast!  The only semi-negative thing is that I get very cold in the office, but that's okay by me because it's SOOOO hot everywhere else, which brings me to the title of this post - Hace mucho calor meaning It's very hot!  It's summer!  Of course it's hot and humid and muggy and sunny and hot!  And the dorm rooms..with no air conditioning...are hot!!  However, while every other person on this campus is non-stop complaining about the heat of the rooms, I'm taking the positivity route and saying "It's not as hot as the Amazon!"  Haha, which is sooo true!  I guess it's true that miserable things can make you appreciate the things you have!  It was unbearably hot in the Amazon, but I'm so thankful for the lake breeze and my two fans that I have now! :)  Anyway, moving back to the subject of work...I've been hanging out with my coworkers a lot so far this summer outside of work.  Last night, I went to a bonfire with them, I've been out to dinner with them, and to the beach!  It's really great!  We also have a summer checklist of things to do.  For example, "Go to Scoops" (supposedly the best ice cream place in Kenosha), which we will check off our list after tomorrow! :)

Also, I've got to see my family a couple of times.  I was grateful to have my sister take me to the ILS closing ceremony this year and shopping.  As a reminder to those of you who have been reading my blog since the beginning, you know that the title of this blog came from a speaker at ILS (Illinois Leadership Seminar), which I attended as a sophomore in high school and returned two years after to be on the staff.  You also should know, after I begged you countless times to vote for ILS in this years Pepsi Refresh Challenge that ILS (and the people involved) is something that I hold close to my heart!  So when the opportunity arose for me to go to this year's seminar closing ceremony (and to see my sister), I took it!!  I was so glad I did, too, because it reminded me of all of the great times I always had with my ILS family!  I was soo happy also to see that many of the people from my original group back in 2007 are still involved with ILS today!  It's such a great non-profit organization and if you want to learn more about it go to their website:   http://www.illinoisleadershipseminar.org/ 

Me with my senior coach and 4 other leaders from my 2007 ILS group

Anyway, I was also able to see my family on Father's Day weekend.  We had a big family reunion and, to be honest, I didn't know a lot of the people because a lot of them were cousins, aunts, and uncles of my dad, but I was able to meet some of them and I did get to see my family that I'm closer to.  It was great, however, a storm did roll in pretty quickly, but it was SO cool to watch it.  As we quickly took a picture outside right before it came, the storm passed over us and then started to rain.  It was the coolest thing I had ever seen.  It was raining about 10 feet from us, but then in the other direction (where the storm was still coming from) there was no rain.  And then it started to pour!  So, we finished the reunion out inside, but that's okay because we got to watch a cool video of old pictures that my uncle put together and I was able to look at the family tree (also from my uncle).  Overall, it was a great weekend, I got to see my family, go to my church, and I also got the chance to see my boyfriend's family. :)

Although it's been an awesome summer, unfortunately, I haven't done anything yet that I planned to do this summer: choreograph, work on my education portfolio, and apply for the Fulbright scholarship.  Summer is going by fast, it's already been a month since graduation, so I need to start working on all of these things soon!  So wish me luck!  Thanks again for sticking with this blog and I hope you have a wonderful week!!!

Trabajo

Okay, so it's been a little over two weeks since classes have finished and so far I'm having a great/busy summer!

Workwise, I have been working full-time in the Alumni Office on campus.  I've had this job since freshman year, but this is my first summer staying here.  It has been great so far and I'm excited to be here in the summer.  Kenosha is already turning into a great summer city! :)  The big events that we have had so far are commencement weekend and a reunion called the Illinois campus reunion.  Commencement weekend was great as always and it was extra special because Carthage's president and his wife "graduated" this year as well.  After 25 years President Campbell is retiring.  He's been a great president to the college and has improve the college immensely throughout the past 25 years.  Speaking of President Campbell and his wife, Barbara...my boyfriend Tim and I got a picture with them at the annual alumni convocation and senior dinner. :)

Unfortunately, it's not actually them, it's a cardboard cut-out and the picture quality is bad because it's a picture of a picture.  Although we didn't get a picture with the real life Campbell's, we still had a great night at the dinner!  It was a blast and I probably ate more food than I should have.  This past weekend, my office hosted the Illinois campus reunion meaning that we had alumni on campus that attend Carthage when it was still in Carthage, Illinois.  Carthage College moved to Kenosha in 1964, so let's just say that there were many elderly people on campus this weekend that shared fabulous stories!!  I got to hear many stories about Carthage.  For example, the girls had "late minutes" when they returned after curfew to their dorms.  The boys had a contest to see who could drive the fastest to Macomb and back for pizza so that it would still be warm.  And I got to hear many "I met my spouse at Carthage and we kissed at the kissing rock" stories. :)  Not only were the stories and people wonderful, but I also made an amazing connection!  I was almost always asked, "What are you studying?" and when I answered Spanish education I usually got a "That's nice."  However, I said this to one man and he immediately started talking to me in Spanish.  Come to find out he lived in Peru for two years while he was in the Peace Corps and he is now a professor at a college.  He sends students to South America all the time to study and to teach English, so I was VERY excited to make that connection!!!

Milwaukee boat cruise

Other great things that I have done this summer so far have been visiting home for Memorial Day, watching the show So You Think You Can Dance (my favorite!), watching the movie Fracture which is a really GOOD movie!  In Kenosha, so far I have gone on a few bike rides (it will soon be many bike rides), had a picnic on the beach, hung out on the beach, gone to Big Star (a drive-in food place), and witnessed a kite festival in downtown Kenosha! :)  I also got to go on a boat cruise for work in Milwaukee. :)  I'm loving the weather and the summer-y atmosphere of Kenosha!  I hope you are enjoying your summer so far too!

Lake Michigan :)

Kenosha's Kite Festival

Es verano!

Okay, so yesterday was the last day of school, meaning that it is officially summer and I am officially a senior in college!  Crazy!!!  I'm sorry I didn't blog last week after my thesis presentation, but I will tell you right now that it went really well, I think!  My final grade isn't in yet, but I do feel good about it and I looked good in my cute new JCPenney outfit, too. :)

My thesis presentation outfit :)

Anyway, classes are all over.  I finished my thesis!  YAY!  I had my Choreography final yesterday  which was fun!  I passed a very important telephone exam, which just made my year!  I had my last Iluzion performance at a middle school last Friday which was really fun, because the kids always love watching us dance. :)  We spend a lot of time giving them our autographs because were celebrities to them, which is just adorable. :)  And now I'm continuing my usual job here on campus as a full time worker for the summer!  I'm really excited for the summer because I like my job plus a TON of my friends are staying here for the summer also, however. I am going to miss being home for the summer. :(  But, I will get to visit occasionally, which will be very nice!!!  However, since my sister lives close now, hopefully I'll see her more than occasionally so at least I'll get to see some family. :)  Like just last weekend!  I was able to see my sister, which was awesome!  Love her! :)  You want to know something that's cooler than seeing my sister though?  Seeing a deer swim in Lake Michigan!!  Not joking!  Did you know that deer could swim...I didn't!!!  Don't believe me?  I have pictures!

Deer swimming in Lake Michigan...still don't believe me that it's a deer?

Here's a picture of it getting out.

This was probably one instance when I said, "I wish I was my dad, because he would have binoculars right now." :)

Anyway, also because it's summer I have picked up my cross-stitching because I have the time to now!  Which is great!!  I actually have a lot on my summer to do list, including cross-stitching, choreographing, working on my education portfolio, and filling out an important scholarship.  It should be a fun and productive summer!  I'm excited!  Also, I'm sitting here watching the finale for Grey's Anatomy and freaking out that it's going to be over this season.  But don't worry!!  So You Think You Can Dance starts next week!!!!  Have a great summer everybody!  I will keep you posted!!!

La semana final

So, this week is the last week of classes here at Carthage, but before I talk about what is coming up this week, let me tell you what I've been up to.

This past week, I've been going to tutoring, working, dancing, and doing homework.  I have finished everything excluding the final draft of my thesis and its presentation, which is great because it means that I can focus on the thesis this week.  For my jazz final, which is this Wednesday, two other girls and I choreographed a dance to the song Domino by Jessie J.  I don't have our dance recorded, however, the song is good so you should still listen to it. :)

I had my practice thesis presentation in class last Tuesday and it went pretty well..I think.  We were only given 10 minutes, but our final presentations will be 15 minutes.  It's funny because I could actually talk for a half hour or about my thesis, so it's going to be kind of hard to shove it into 15 minutes, but it's do-able.  I also had a meeting last week about ways to market studying abroad on a résumé and ways to study abroad after graduation.  There are really good opportunities to teach English in another country after graduation and they are really appealing, however, I am going to research those more this summer.

Last Thursday, I went to the Milwaukee Art Museum for my Choreography and Repertory class.  It was really cool!  They had dancers there from the Wildspace Dance Company based in Milwaukee performing in one of the exhibits.  It was really cool to see dancers making art in front of art. :)  Our assignment while there was to observe the dancers and write a short review and also we were told to choose a piece of art in the museum and choreograph our own dance based on the artwork.  I chose a painting called It's Raining Anita Huffington by Larry Rivers.  It's actually really funny that I chose this painting because I googled the name Anita Huffington out of curiosity and it turns out that she was a sculptor who studied dance under Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham, who are two very well known choreographers that I have learned about in several of my dance classes.  Anyway, it was a fun assignment and I'm really happy with the painting I chose.

It's Raining Anita Huffington, Larry Rivers

Anyway, on to the non-academic things I did this past week...

I went shopping to buy a new outfit for my presentation and if I do say so myself, it's adorable!  Thank you JCPenney!  Also, I watched Iron Man and Iron Man 2, which are both fantastic movies and I love Robert Downey, Jr.  And no, I haven't seen The Avengers yet, however I heard that it's really good and worth seeing!!  I also went bowling where I got my butt kicked.  Well actually, I didn't do too bad for not bowling in awhile.  I bowled a 102 the first game and a 99 the second game.  Although when you compare my score with the 257 bowled by my friend Ian, who brought his own shoes and two bowling balls with him, my score is pretty pathetic.  However, it was still REALLY fun!!!!

Tim, Ian, and I after bowling!

Anyway, on Saturday, I spent the evening hanging out with my roommate.  We watched the Kentucky derby, where both of our horses lost, we watched The Lion King on T.V., which is just a classic, and we watched Project X, which was showing here at Carthage.  It has recently become a tradition for Taylor and I to watch the Kentucky derby.  We did it last year, so when I heard it was on, we just had to do it again this year, meaning we will probably do it again next year. :)  And The Lion King, well like I said it's a classic and the last time I saw it, I was watching it in 3D in Perú and although I loved it in Spanish, I still don't think it compares to the English version.  And finally, Project X.  Well it was an interesting movie to say the least.  It wasn't too bad, it's your typical party movie to the extreme and to be honest, it's rated R for a reason.  Definitely don't let your kids watch it.  It has horrible morals and not a good lesson.  The lesson of the movie is pretty much that if you throw a party for 1500 people, your dad's car ends up in the pool, and your house gets burned down, then your dad will actually be impressed by your actions and you will receive little consequence and you will be the cool kid in school.  And we all know that that's not true!  However, it was a good non-thinking movie.

Okay, on to this week, like I said, I finished my written paper for my thesis tonight, which is a huge accomplishment!!  I still have to proof and revise it, but I will be meeting with a tutor to do that and then it's due on Sunday!!  My thesis presentation is scheduled for Thursday and that's practically all I have to work on this week!  So I have a couple more days to prepare that and then my semester is practically over!!!  It's soooo exciting!!!!  Well, I will probably talk to you next week and let you know how everything went!!  Wish me luck!! :)  Happy Tuesday!

Mucho!

I don't even know where to begin this blog post.  It's been too long and so much has happened (including the formatting of Google Blogger :/) and I have a few people on me about writing a blog.  So here it is.  Let's start with about four weeks ago, right before Easter... :)

My mom, dad, and I on Easter Sunday

Okay, so nothing really happened right before Easter except I started another class called Concepts of Physical Fitness, which is a required one credit course.  Pretty much it's a class that promotes fitness and wellness after college.  So far in that class, we've walked a mile, did an Insanity workout (which is similar to P90X, if you know what that is), and learned about stress, nutrition, and sleep. :)  Also, we got to see Coach Boone (the coach that inspired the movie Remember the Titans) speak because he came to Carthage.  My favorite thing that he said was this:  "If day breaks and you don't plan to make a difference, take your butt back to bed."  That's a good quote to live by if you ask me!  Anyway, then I went home for a short Easter break!  I got to see my family and go to church and just be home, which is always great!

Once, I got back to school, things didn't slow down at all (hence, me not writing a blog in a month).  I'm still working on my thesis.  I now have 13 and a half pages out of 15 written and the final draft is due in exactly two weeks.  I have a practice presentation this week and then my final presentation is in 11 days.  I can't believe it!  I've been working on this thing all semester and it's almost over!!!  I'm going to be so relieved when I'm done with it.  It really is going well though I think.  I'm becoming more and more prepared as the days press on.  I had a project in my education class that involved making a unit plan (5 days worth of lesson plans) and I knew that I was in the right profession because they were soo fun to make.  I really liked being creative with the assignments, projects, etc. and it makes me excited to be a teacher.  However, we did have students who are student teaching right now come into class and they told both good and bad stories from the schools they're at.  Student teaching is definitely going to be an adventure.  I can't wait until this blog turns into a blog where I tell you all about my crazy student teaching experiences.

Also, I've had a lot of meetings and tutoring sessions lately.  I found out that all of my credits from Peru transferred back to Carthage which is REALLY good news and means that I will graduate on time!  Also, I decided to stay at Carthage this summer to work which is both good and bad.  I'm soo excited for the summer because I will be making money and a lot of my friends will be here, too, but also, I know I will miss being home.  Anyway, I also had a meeting for everyone that plans to student teach in the spring of 2013, which was crazy.  We got our student teaching applications and it all became a little more real that this time next year I will be in a classroom teaching students Spanish!!!  Also, speaking of teaching Spanish, I went to observe at a middle school here in Kenosha and who would guess that the teacher I would observe was Peruvian!!!!!!!  I was SOOOO excited!!!  I couldn't hold my excitement in that day!  It definitely was a highlight of the semester to meet my first Peruvian in the United States!  Anyway, she of course asked about my experience in Peru and the food. :)  And it was my pleasure to share that I love her country!!! :)

For fun lately, I've been hanging out with friends and watching movies.  The "recent" movies I've seen are How to Train your Dragon, Hercules, and I went to see Titanic again in the theaters!!!  First of all, How to Train your Dragon is such a cute movie, so you should see it!  Hercules is just your classic kid's movie!  And Titanic, well..it's a classic, too!  I was probably a little to excited to see that in theaters, but when it first came out (in 1997), I saw it in theaters.  I specifically remember it because it was exciting to be 7 years old and going to see a PG-13 movie in theaters.  It was a part of history and it was supposed to be a great movie, so my family went together to the theaters to see it.  It was so cool to see it in the theaters again also because the big screen and sound just makes it that much more remarkable!!

Tim and I at the International Dinner

Also, for fun I went to an International dinner held here at Carthage.  It's a dinner that consists of different international foods and entertainment.  It was my first year going and it was really cool, plus all of the proceeds went to a cause called The Girl Effect, it's a really good cause and if you want to learn more about it, click here.  Also, I went to Georgia for a family wedding.  Yep, that's right, Georgia!  That's the first time that I've been to Georgia, so I can mark that state off of my list.  Also, it was really nice weather so I was happy to get that for at least a weekend.  However, the drive down and back was long, obviously.

On the River Walk in Savannah, GA

Okay, a few last things on my fun things I've done list are celebrate a few of my friend's 21st birthdays, I went to my first real sushi restaurant (which was good!), and last night I went and saw The Drowsy Chaperone, which is the musical that was put on here at Carthage this semester!  It was soo good!!  All of the actors did a fantastic job!!!!  Also, Iluzion (the hip hop dance team) started having rehearsals again because we are going to perform at a local middle school in a few weeks.  Obviously, I've been busy, but don't worry because as you can see I've been having lots of fun, too!!! :)

Anyway, I'm really sorry that it took me sooo long to write another blog and I'm sorry that it's long, but I hope it was worth your while to read it!  Hopefully, I will talk to you in less than four weeks!!  Happy Spring!!! :)

ACDFA

So, I got back to Carthage last week after Spring break, but I only had two days of classes last week!!  What did I do for the rest of the week, you ask?  I went to the American College Dance Festival Association (ACDFA) in Madison, Wisconsin, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison!  I was so excited to go not only because I was going to be dancing for four days straight, but also because I had never been to Madison and I was going with my friends!!!  We got there on Wednesday and registered and pretty much had the night to ourselves, but starting on Thursday morning, we were all dancing our hearts out.  I started my Thursday with a Pilates class then went to an awesome hip hop class!  Because I was nervous for the weekend, starting out with hip hop (something that I am pretty comfortable with) was a good idea.  I learned a routine to the song Good Feeling by Flo Rida, which I love so I'm going to put it here so you can listen to it. :)

I also took a jazz class, which really challenged me and a pretty relaxed modern class.  The modern class had live music (a piano and drums), which was a new and cool new experience for me. :)  There was also a series of concerts that all the schools participated in so we saw two shows on this day.  It was amazing to see choreography from other colleges and it really got my choreographic mind thinking as well.  We went out to eat that night and then we watched this Spring's dance show. :)

Out to eat at the Nitty Gritty :)

On Friday morning, I started the day with taking a warm-up class.  The class taught us how to warm up before rehearsals and performances.  The one thing that amazed me about that class was the very first thing we did, which was rub our feet.  The instructor had us rub one foot and then stand up and walk.  The difference in feeling between our rubbed foot and the non-rubbed foot was amazing.  Dancers know to stretch/warm-up our muscles, but I definitely take my feet for granted and didn't realize that they needed warmed-up too.  I then had a rehearsal because our performance was scheduled for the next day. After that, I took a modern partnering class with my friend Amanda and it was AWESOME!!  Probably one of my favorites of the weekend.  We learned a short routine and we lift each other a lot in it. :)  We were both excited about it because we've never choreographed for partners so it was nice to learn some lifts.  We then took a class titled "What is your personality type and how does that fit into dance?"  I learned that I'm a type C personality and that 70% of dancers are type Cs.  Our instructor then told us how to teach dance for the different personality types, so not only did it help with dancing, but it will help me learn how to teach in my future Spanish class. :)  Again, this night, we went out to eat and then watched past dance shows from Carthage. :)

On Saturday, I actually didn't get the chance to take any classes :(, but don't worry, I still got to dance!  I started the morning with a tech rehearsal on the stage.  It was actually kind of hectic because we had to set lighting cues, but we were limited in time, but we got it done and then headed to a coffee shop to relax and eat breakfast.  We then had our performance and in my opinion we did really well, it felt good doing it anyway.  The judges seemed to really like all the little gestures we did along with the music. :)

Before performing

Another really exciting thing is that I met up with a girl who I met in Peru!  She attends UW-M so I texted her when I was there and she came to see the performance!  It was great seeing her and catching up with her shortly.

Katie (Girl I met in Peru) and I 

We then all went to a Mediterranean restaurant and ate gelato and the best thing about this was that Carthage paid! :)  Yum!!!  We then went back to the theatre for the final concert, which was a concert put on by the faculty.  It was really cool to see some of the instructors that we had had in class actually dance on stage.  On the way back to the hotel, my friends, Seles and Amanda, and I took a ton of photos just playing/dancing around on the UW-M campus!

Fun at UW-M!

Unfortunately, we didn't make it into the Gala concert, however, I did see several of the dances that did and they were well deserving!  On Sunday, I took my last three classes:  ballet, contemporary master class (one of the adjudicators instructed this class), and an Afro-Latin fusion class.  My feet were killing me by the end of the day and I was happy/sad to head back to Carthage.  Overall it was an amazing time and I hope that we go next year, although it's possible that I won't be able to due to student teaching.  Other than ACDFA, I ended the weekend back at Carthage and working on my thesis.  :)  I now have 10 of 15 pages of my thesis and the due date and presentation date are coming up fast.  I hope you all have a great day!!  Happy Easter!

Carthage at ACDFA!!!

Las vacaciones de primavera

Well, spring break is coming to a close!  I'd say my break was pretty good.  I didn't really do much of anything.  Just relaxed, saw some family and friends, and did some homework! :)  From my last post, you know that I started off my break by going to a Lady Gaga cover show.  It was so good and the perfect way to start out my break.  On Sunday, I got to go to church with my family and then I went to my grandma's for Sunday dinner, which I have been doing ever since I can remember.  It will never get old. :)  My Monday was great as well because I slept in, sat in the sun, and worked on my thesis.  I actually got a lot of research done on my thesis.  I probably didn't do as much as I should have, but I'm still happy with the work I did get done.  Every little step counts, right? :)  I'm also pretty proud of myself because I ran twice this week outside and I did a small daily workout with stretching, too!!!  My dance instructor always says strength and flexibility is important! :)  Also, I'm going to a dance conference this week (which I'm SOO excited for) so I figured I should at least do some sort of activity to get ready for it! :)

I also was able to go to lunch with some friends from high school!  We always enjoy being around each other and we always get some good laughs in. :)  Also, I watched some good movies with my mom and dad:  Mr, Popper's Penguins, The Blindside, and Courageous.  All good family movies and, of course, I am going to suggest them to all of you! :)

Okay, so this is going to be a short blog, but I just wanted to tell you that my break went well!!  I know that all of you adults out there don't get week long breaks from work, but just remember to take time for yourself every once in awhile! :)  You should be hearing from me next week about the amazing dance conference I'm going to!  Can't wait to tell you about it!  Have a good week!!!!