Oh to be a Hayes....

This Holiday weekend was pretty great. There was a lot of family, a lot of amazing food, and a lot of down time...just what I wanted.

I knew I was home when in the middle of "family is coming over- finish cooking and getting ready" on Thursday morning I was disrupted with a phone call from my uncle saying.."Kathy. I trust that the football pool is taken care of.. see you in 15 min." Now that is Thanksgiving.

We lazed through the afternoon, talking, joking, laughing... touching base with everyone and how their lives are going... only a breif road bump when we got to what i've been up to. I haven't talked about anything I did with NY or the Gala with my parents...thinking, I'll tell them at thanksgiving when i'm home and can really explain it, show pictures..etc. Well the conversation never happened, and now i'm pretty sure it won't ever to tell ya the truth. I couldn't explain what i did really so the scrap book betsy made for me got glanced through..and that was about it. With a knot in my throat my brother asks me when i apply for study abroad. I reply with "it's due in February." The study abroad question was followed with...Now what did you say you are you doing this summer? My extened family looks at me as I say.."I'm not sure yet, I might do an internship somwhere but I'm not sure yet... We'll see".
My dad : With UW?
Me: well, it would be through AIESEC...
Dad: well that's scary.
Me: (turningred)...(me thinking...why am i red? mad? embarrased?)

It all was kind of akward and I got the feeling the less I said- the better this conversation was going to go... I sat there in silence trying to figure out what the hell just happened as the conversation slowly turned away from me and back onto this afternoons familly football game..and who made the best catch...

The rest of the weekend I spent many needed hours with my younger sister, watching movies, pleeeenty of ridiculous tv shows (3 hour long marathon of "I shouldn't be alive" on the discovery channel??), catching up with old friends, LOVING the new Bond...seriously love it.... all in all it was pretty sweet. There was a lot of hayes time...awkwardness and all.....but it was needed.

elevator speech anyone?

i've been at work for 2 hours and the only thing producitve i've done is tell my coworkers who i never see (since i'm filing in a shift i normally don't work) all about aiesec. It started with me telling them why i was calling places to have a banquet..into places where my friends have been, to what we don on campus..to what i've done so far...

gotta love it when people keep askign questions...

5 more hours to go...

who needs mariposas?

It's 2am and I have been working on my spanish presentation for 5 hours now. I still have to make a power point to accompany my presentation... shit man. I sooo underestimated este presentacion...

hurrays and aw shits of the day

1) my throat hurts :(
2) i just found season 6 part 2 of sex and the city :)
3) my schedule next semester is choppy and not what i want:(
4) the holidays are coming :)
5) i have a spanish presentation on wednesday:(
6) SUCH a good weekend :)
7) i wasn't able to enjoy thanksgiving din tonight :(
8) my love is coming to visit :)
9) I have no more clean socks :(
10) No geography this week :)

It's 4pm

and i'm still not fully awake. Hell week...okay really 2 weeks.... was done as of noon yesterday~ and with only one spanish presentation looming in the semi near future, i was feeling great last night and decided to celebrate with the roomies. Unfortunatly a few people had unexpected exams today~ and could not be present for the evening...A few guests came over around 9:30pm to find me bouncing around the apartment with excitement and joy.

The night proceeded on becoming crazier by the hour... and ended at 4am with some tired bodies. We declared today a "Mental Health day in #201" and have not left the comfort of our cozy living room.


I sigh with a smile on my face.... love it.

que bueno?

I'm officially a Spanish Major as of today.

Scary.

if it's not working- fix it. but how?

Leading without having your hands all over everything. Something I tried working on this semester and I don't know how it is working out.

Giving the opportunity to others to take ownership, take risks, solve problems, and create something is one of the most crucial ways our organization helps pull people in and start the road to developing their skills, confidnence, and self.

Coming into this I asked...do you have any advice on how to do this next semester?...and I got the response.... Honestly? know everything... I took it at face value. Yes, know everything. Got it. But was it meant... Do everything?

I refuse to believe that doing it yourself is the way to run this team. However, i'm having a harder time than I thought with all of this~ sometimes doing it yourself just seems easier, but I know that that's not right. What happens when you see something crumbling- when do you step in? Do you step in? Do you do it yourself? I still am not satifised with myself, or my thoughts right now. I need to change my thinking~ or I need a new system.

too many thoughts for a night before a spanish exam.

You know your mind

is somewhere else when you are sitting in the library writing a paper on the immigration into Miami, Florida- and you end up typing...

"the flow of Cubans into Colombia..."

I gotta go.

sleep now. worry later.

The next seven days are going to be interestingly intense. Next Wednesday at Brats I'll need a pat on the back and a drink in my hand if I'm still alive.

Planet of Slums: Urban Involution and the Informal Proletariat

The world's highest percentages of slum dwellers are in Ethiopia (an astonishing 99.4 per cent of the urban population), Chad (also 99.4 per cent), Afghanistan (98.5 per cent) and Nepal (92 percent). The poorest urban populations however are probably in Maputo and Kinshasa where (according to other sources) two- thirds of residents earn less than the cost of their minimum required daily nutrition.

gimme me some of that

After the game yesterday i met my uncle at Lucky's for a drink with my roomates. There were two sheriff's at the door checking id's so i called him and he came outside. I told him it's fine and we'll just head back, but it was nice seeing him.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw one sherriff leave his post, and the other follow him to ask him a question. Without saying a word I did a dive and roll through the front door and without looking back made my way to the bar. My roomates followed suit and 3 hours of instanity and old men buying us drinks unraveled. oohhh gamedays i love you.

Family roots

Every first Saturday in November the ladies in my family get together in the kitchen of my grandma's house and spend 4 good hours pumping out some delicious lefse.

Made with riced potatoes that my grandma prepares the night before by hand, flour, salt, and shortening; it is one of my favorite foods to enjoy around the holiday season.

It's an assembly line production. I usually mix the ingredients and make dough balls, my mom then roles out the dough on a large white cloth using a rolling pin with a men's sock covering it. Once its large and flat, a stick (like in the picture) is used to lift it and unroll it on to a large griddle. My sister and aunt are then in charge of flipping it, and my other sister is in charge of moving it over and putting it in the bathtowels for them to cool. (okay it sounds weird but i swear it's the only way to do it...men's socks and all).

We switch roles once and while, trying out the rolling position, but my mom is the only one who can roll an awesome piece of lefse.

The best way to eat it is with butter. My mom eats it with butter and white sugar. My dad eats it with butter and ham.

mmmmm....lefse.......

Change of pace

I made the decission last week that I need to refocus more of my energy on my classes. My grades weren't what I expected when i got my first round of midterm tests back.... so i'm trying to revamp.

I guess my classes decided to revamp as well. I went to classes on monday, and found 2 of my 4 TAs (spanish and geography) had changed. Geography I was okay with, but the unforseen amount of work he gave us I was not okay with, but i'll deal.

Spanish on the other had threw me for a loop.

First 9 weeks of class:

Monday- review a story (5 pages) that we read over the weekend, and discuss outloud...knowing that it would never be covered on any exam
Wed- Go over our grammer assignment out loud and never have to turn it in.
Friday- Write an inclass essay

New TA? hm, well she greeted us with a spread sheet for the rest of the semester detailing every detail of hw, all of which will be turned in and corrected for grammer.....oh great. Then today she introduced us to a group assignemet presentation project where we have have to pick out a spanish movie, get it approved, and give a 20-25 min powerpoint presentation to the class.
Last night I read 10 pages in a text book about globalization and proceeded to answer 18 long answer essay type questions. I would have had a hard time with it in english.

All in all as weird as it sounds, try to find it through my bitching, I'm glad and excited for the rest of the semsester (spanish at least...) I think I was dumbed down for 9 weeks, and now i finally will get the kick in the ass i need to take this seriously and learn this frick'n language that i've been "speaking" for seven years.

That's all.