A Little Summary For My Own Amusement

It’s 12:30 at night, but I don’t feel like sleeping and I don’t have class until noon, so have a blog post.

It’s been a while… Almost a whole year, in fact. Will anyone even read this, who knows? This time last year I was a freshman settling into college dorm life. Now I’m sitting in my apartment with three other roommates, planning a pre-halloween brunch. Are we real adults yet?

Since the last post, oh gosh. What all has happened? Our horse, Doc, was sold to a wonderful young girl who will love him to death. I still miss him. The bearded lizard finally died after an impressively long time (RIP Jeriya). On a happier note, me and my mom got our first tattoos!

 

Mine

Mine

My mom's!

My mom’s!

We also got an exchange student from Korea!

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On the school end of things, I sort of switched my major after two weeks of classes. If anyone’s still reading this, then you probably know that, but I’m writing this for future me’s enjoyment, so hey. So long english major, hello film major. That part of my life has been awesome. I don’t think I’ve ever been happier. I have awesome friends, classes that tell me to write an essay comparing Guardians of the Galaxy and Star Trek, and even cooler projects.

Filming our final last year - "After Life"

Filming our final last year – “After Life”

"After Life" again

“After Life” again

Our wonderful cast

Our wonderful cast

I officially stopped work on a book I’d been struggling with for four years, and after a short break started a new one, which inspired this fun mess.

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Then, in the blink of an eye, my first year of college was over. Summer didn’t go any slower. Three major things happened, each one pointing out that adulthood is more than just a threat. First, I got my first job. Second, I got my first car. Third, my cousin got married! Her wedding was gorgeous and I’m so happy for her! It was kinda weird that we were both nineteen on the big day, but nonetheless the entire experience was a wonderful, stressful experience. And then summer was over and college was back. I’ve already had so much fun living with Chloe, Emily, and Francesca and it’s only the beginning of the year! I’m taking a lot of film classes (scriptwriting, editing, camera and lighting, & history of us cinema), working, and making more new friends!

Hiking with high school friends over the summer

Hiking with high school friends over the summer

I named him Oliver :)

I named him Oliver 🙂

My fellow gorgeous bridesmaids and the even more gorgeous bride!

My fellow gorgeous bridesmaids and the even more gorgeous bride!

So concludes this public letter to my future self. It’s been a crazy year, and I hope this one is even crazier.

September-October

All I really have to say is whoops.

It’s been two and a half months since I started college, and it’s been a whirlwind! Highlights include a trip to the pumpkin patch, making it look like I killed someone in the sink dying my hair, having awesome Halloween costumes, getting late night curly fries, exploring Newberg, giant spider slaying, and walking around the island that will never be removed.

Fire safety day was fun.

Fire safety day was fun.

Re-dying my hair and making a mess.

Re-dying my hair and making a mess.

A mysterious pair of legs in the hallway... Still not sure what was going on there.

A mysterious pair of legs in the hallway… Still not sure what was going on there.

Chloe's amazing costume! Meridia!

Chloe’s amazing costume! Meridia!

And me as an obscure book character.

And me as an obscure book character.

Yes, the island is still here.

Yes, the island is still here.

At the pumpkin patch with our floor!

At the pumpkin patch with our floor!

They had pumpkin canons! At one point they yelled "Aim for the geese!"

They had pumpkin canons! At one point they yelled “Aim for the geese!”

It's never too early for Christmas, right?

It’s never too early for Christmas, right?

And, I suppose, a lot of essays and homework. Actually, that’s most of what we’ve been doing. I don’t understand how those people lucky enough to find a job keep up with it. November is an exciting month, however! I decided to stress myself out some more and take on the NaNoWriMo writing challenge — 50,000 words in a month, which works out to 3-4 pages a day. So far so good, but 30 days is a long time. So while I’m frantically writing between homework sections, Chloe will be frantically doing homework between rehearsals (working as a lighting tech, yay!). Did I mention we have two prospective students staying the night tomorrow? Life is crazy. College is cool though. It’s also very random. We walked to the store last night and passed a few guys shaving their friend’s head. Outside. On a bar stool. At night. Just, whatever. It’s a lot of fun.

Moving In

I have never felt more drained or excited in my life. We were out of the house by 6:45 in a frenzy of stuff-grabbing and double-checking. We ended up being one of the first people to get there, which meant the entire football team was on hand to unload the car in a frenzy of shouting and 6 foot tall guys lugging my boxes around. But the chaos only lasted a minute, and then I was left by myself (everyone else went to move the car) and stare at my room. More specifically, the bunk beds pushed near the window instead of the futon-like beds I was expecting. I only came out of my shock when the RA stuck her head in and told me that Chloe (my roommate) and I had the only room in the entire building like that. She hadn’t even known until earlier that morning. And so the next few hours dissolved into confusion. The top bunk had no railings and was almost a foot away from the wall: neither of us wanted to sleep up there. But the room isn’t big enough for two twin beds, two desks, two closets, and two surprisingly huge dressers. It turned out to be an impossible jigsaw puzzle that was only solvable if we removed a piece. Luckily, and kindly, Chloe decided that she didn’t need a dresser. We ended up with an arrangement both of us are really happy with!
Our room from the door. The dresser in the middle is the one that doesn't fit anywhere, but it won't be taken away for a while. So it's our island :)

Our room from the door. The dresser in the middle is the one that doesn’t fit anywhere, but it won’t be taken away for a while. So it’s our island 🙂

The door

The door

My bed

My bed

Tack board

Tack board

And my desk!

And my desk!

After that turmoil, I’m not really sure what we did. My parents went home while Chloe’s stayed and help her settle in. After some stuff that fell into the black hole in my brain, we headed out to the first of many many ceremonies.
The Opening Ceremony was full of speeches from the mayor, police chief, university president, and many others. Afterwards they herded us all out onto the brand new football field for an hour of talking to random people for fifteen seconds, otherwise known as “ice-breakers”. But they were all fun until the last game. I don’t know if any of you have heard of Dance Commander, but it is probably the most awkward thing it do. You form up into groups of six, assign each person a number, and when that number is called, you have to lead the group in dancing for at least a minute. It was exhausting, hot, and beyond awkward. Everyone in my group (including me!) were bad dancers. So bad it’s not even funny bad. The random collection of music was entertaining though. Daft Punk, the Chicken Dance, Gangnam Style, Fall Out Boy, Rick Astley…
Afterwards, we went back into the gym (where the Opening Ceremony had been held) for the Dedication Ceremony, which was really emotional. The worship team (A guitar, singer, double bass, and drums- very different) led a few songs before the university pastor got up and spoke. This led into a time of prayer for the parents over their students. I’ll admit, I cried when my roommate’s parents prayed for me too. A few more songs concluded the ceremony.
There was a late night trip to Fred Meyer, but I sat that one out: I didn’t need anything, and I was already curled up on my bed when the shuttles left.
Today was a lot more relaxed. After breakfast, we had a student life seminar (information about community life) before the rest of the parents were sent away. Our First Year Seminars met this afternoon for the first time, going over the basics of the class and doing yet more icebreakers. But that was it for the afternoon! Tomorrow is another long day, so the evening off is welcome (plus you guys get a blog post).
There’s been a lot of talking going on, but one thing stood out to me. At our student life session this morning, one of the speakers said to “Go beyond Z” in reference to the Dr. Seuss book “Go Beyond Zebra”. Make your own way based on your experiences. Adapt to the world. Always been openminded.
Until next time!
(P.S- Website update)

Last Days at Home

This is it. My last night at home, my last day before I move into the dorm. I know millions of people have done it before, but that doesn’t make it any less exciting or scary. Or surreal. I’ll admit, I’ve spent most of the day acting like I’m not going away tomorrow.

The last few days have been a lot of fun. On Sunday I got to see Guardians of the Galaxy with my family, and then on Monday I went up to a lake with my best friend and her family.

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It was so gorgeous up there. A perfect break from all the craziness of trying to get everything sorted out at home. Unfortunately, their boat had a leak so we couldn’t paddle around in the lake 🙁 But we got to talk for hours about all sorts of nerdy writer stuff, which was a lot more fun in my opinion.

Yesterday was a bit torturous with a dentist AND doctor’s appointment… But they’re both out of the way for a long time and dad took me out for dinner to our favorite Vietnamese restaurant.

And of course today was a bit frantic. One of my closest friends came over and helped me finish packing, which was a huge help. (Thank you! <3) The car is mostly loaded up and ready to go!

DSCN8901 The hardest part of today was going out to visit and ride our horse for probably the last time.

Avoiding looking at the camera as always.

Avoiding looking at the camera as always.

He’s been such a blessing this last year and it’s going to be hard to see him go.

Tomorrow morning is the start of a new chapter of life; one I’ve been looking forward to for a long time. The face of change is always a little scary. But at 6:30 am I’ll be on my way to college. Hooray!

Until next time!

College Bound!

This is no longer a travel blog.

Maggiegoeselsewhere: elsewhere is college now. I created this with the intention of using it beyond our trip if I enjoyed blogging, and I really did enjoy it. So now it’s more of a life chronicles. I can’t tell you to expect regular updates: certainly not the daily posts you got before. Besides, who wants to read about me studying every day?

But as the title says, my life is consumed with getting ready for college. I leave bright and early Thursday morning (August 21st) for George Fox. This time last year, I didn’t even where I was going and what I was going to study. It’s been a wild year. I could fill a book with everything that’s changed… I’m thrilled to be putting high school behind me. I’m thrilled to be moving out and taking the first steps towards living completely independently.

That’s the general picture. On the more immediate note, I feel incredibly broke and a more than a little stressed about getting everything. I’ve got two (both of which went to Europe with us, actually) suitcases filled with most of my clothes and a duffle bag of shoes. There’s also two cardboard boxes: one stuffed with books, textbooks (two of which haven’t arrived yet- ack!), and notebooks and the other full of decorations. I’ll show those off when I’m all moved it. With the pile of general living stuff from my Bed Bath & Beyond raid, I have a lot more than I thought I did. And I’m not done packing yet!

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I thought I’d show you guys how I’m getting all my jewelry to school since I never could find any information on how girls do it.

For my necklaces, I re-used a little chocolate box from Harrods. I don’t wear a lot of necklaces, so they all fit in there very nicely!

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Bobby pins went into a playing card box.

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And hair-ties stayed in the glittery green box they’ve been in for years.

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For my earrings, I debated finding a cute little box to put them in, but decided to just leave them on their rack. It’s cute, plus it’s a lot easier to find matching pairs!

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I found this box at Michaels which holds almost all of my makeup and will look great with the other little boxes.

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And that’s all the girly stuff taken care of.

Until next time!

I Lied About There Only Being One More Post

As the title says, I have something more to add before we head for home. We just got back from our final meal in Europe and the differences between our first meal and our last. We made an effort to eat traditionally in both cases.

Our first meal in Paris was exquisite. Traditional cafe on the sidewalk, fancy cooking, everyone making polite, quiet conversation while nibbling at oysters and sipping wine.

Tonight, we ate in a pub. Dark, crowded, noisy, exactly how you’d imagine it. We got fish and chips and bangers (sausage) and mash. Very stereotypically British. Everyone was drinking beer and laughing raucously, especially the 15-man, bar hopping bachelor party behind us. I even finally took advantage of being in a country where I’m old enough to drink and had a glass of hard cider.

It was just so different. There’s been some massive cultural changes over the last five weeks.

Last Day!

It’s hard to believe it’s all over. Nothing left to explore but the airport, no sights to see, museums to visit, no languages to cope with, no money to exchange and figure out the equivelent in dollars. I think we’ve all gotten use to constant change at this point. Going back to white-washed, American English life is going to be strange.

Our main goal today was the National Gallery at Trafalgar Square. It’s a free, stunningly beautiful museum bursting at the seams with da Vinci, Monet, Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Ruben, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Van Gogh. Of course, I’m a deranged child so this was my favorite painting (butt warning). Speaking of butts, if you’re ever in a museum wondering if the painting is Italian, there is a very simple way to tell. Is everyone completely nude and dramatically posing for some biblical scene? If so, you can be 120% sure it’s Italian.

But in all honesty, it was amazing to see all those works by famous artists, even some super famous paintings.

Van Gogh "Vase with Twelve Sunflowers"

Van Gogh “Vase with Twelve Sunflowers”

Monet "The Water-Lily Pond"

Monet “The Water-Lily Pond”

Van Dyck "Equestrian Portrait of Charles I" or as I like to call it "Derp Horse"

Van Dyck “Equestrian Portrait of Charles I” or as I like to call it “Derp Horse”

Once we were done in there, we walked around Trafalgar Square and then up to Leicester Square where Guardians of the Galaxy is premiering tonight. Like, world premiere. Walking around the camped out, dressed up people and watching them roll out the carpet was a shocking reminder that, “Oh yeah, we’re in a major world city”.

Trafalgar Square

Trafalgar Square

Michael really wanted to go to Chinatown, so we found some lunch down there (yuuuuuuum), bought a beautiful pair of chopsticks, some bubble tea, and hit up the M&M store before heading back home to pack.

I’ve had an incredible time these last five weeks. It’s so hard to believe it’s ending, although you won’t hear me complaining too loudly. I’m ready for the comforts of home. (Also it’s less than a month till college starts ack)

See you all Stateside in a few days for one final post!

London – Day Something or Other

Hello and sorry. I know it’s been a long time, but we’ve had a very busy few days without break from the heat (inside and outside, ugh). There’s been a heat wave in every city except Amsterdam this entire trip, so if you’re not a fan of the heat, don’t come traveling with us, I guess.

The day after mom and I went to Buckingham, we took the day off (I slept until 2 pm, whoops) and hid from the hottest predicted day. The next day (Saturday) we decided it was high time we went to Harrods. If you’ve never heard of it, it’s a single store the size of a city block and five stories high (plus a few basement levels). The outside is gorgeous, but my hands were full when we got around to the front of it, so here’s one from Google.
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There’s a full grocery store inside, and they used to have horse gear and puppies for sale. They also installed the first escalators in the world there. The inside is gorgeous as well, with painted ceilings in the food areas reflecting what’s sold there.

Mom and I… might have gone a little overboard. We reasoned that we’d been careful the rest of the trip, and ended up with a huge bag and several smaller bags to take home on the crowded and boiling Tube. It was so much fun. We stuck more to the souvenir side of the store, but we couldn’t resist looking at the luxury home sections. Some of the prices completely blew our minds. 589 pounds (over a 1000 dollars) for a bathroom soap dispenser?! Even if it was crystal… Imagine being able to afford something like that.

My absolute favorite part of the day was having actual afternoon tea in the middle of Harrods. I ordered an English rose tea and was stunned to see real roses in the teapot when I peeked inside. It was delicious.

The boys came back Saturday night. On Sunday, we did the first of two extremely long days. The British Museum.
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Remember when I mentioned that a lot of the other museums had replicas, the original of which were at the British Museum? Yep. It’s even bigger than Harrods.

It took us a good 10 minutes to sort out what all the museum had and where to go to see it.

The center room of the museum.

The center room of the museum.

A tourist standing nearby told his friends that “this makes the Smithsonian look weak”. I’ve never seen the Smithsonian, but I’m inclined to believe him. I mean, at the entrance to all the exhibits is The Rosetta Stone.
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It’s more like the Rosetta boulder, but absolutely surreal to see. Of course, this was the opening piece for the Egyptian exhibit. I would have screamed if they’re weren’t 3000 other people in that room (how I wish I was exaggerating the number of people). It was unreal to see real Egyptian stuff that they dragged up from Egypt. And most of it dated back 1000 years before the Vikings!
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There was also a section on Assyrian temples.

Temple wall

Temple wall

And this crazy set of Middle Eastern doors.

Made from cedar and bronze from somewhere in the Middle East (didn't recognize the location)

Made from cedar and bronze from somewhere in the Middle East (didn’t recognize the location)

Oh yeah, and stuff from the Parthenon.
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And mummies. Lots of mummies.
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Child's sarcophagus

Child’s sarcophagus

Mummified baboon

Mummified baboon

Not to mention the huge collection of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Celtic, Viking, and Medieval artifacts that I forgot to take pictures of. It was spectacular.

Unfortunately, (and surprisingly, considering the stuff they have there) the British Museum wasn’t air conditioned (save the Korean and Japanese exhibits). The heat coupled with the sheer masses of people wore us out far quicker than I would have liked. We ended up seeing almost everything, but the last hour is a bit of a haze. Dad and I were using each other as backrests on a bench when I realized that the massive painting I’d been staring blankly at for the last few minutes was an original Rembrandt. Surreal.

But that was nothing compared to Monday. We were out of the apartment by 7:20 to catch a bus on the other side of town. The tour bus was… incredible. The bus tour took us to Windsor Castle first.
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Top of the list for favorite castles. And here I must correct myself. Here, I say that the Queen was in while we were at Buckingham. That’s wrong. They fly the Union Jack when the Queen is out. They fly this flag when the Queen is in (The royal standard). So we still did get to be in the vicinity of the Queen, after all.
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After a tour of the State Apartments (no pictures allowed), we caught the changing of the guard, which was cool but surprisingly frustrating. It took them a good fifteen minutes of marching back and forth and occasionally shouting and marching in formation for a bit to replace a single guard. Is that my Americanism coming through?
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Our next stop on the tour was Stonehenge. Stonehenge. Imagine I’m screaming again. I took over a hundred pictures, but I’ll spare you.
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It was actually pretty rushed. By the time we walked around the whole thing, we had only 10 minutes to rush back to the bus. It may have been partially my fault… Stopping to take pictures every ten feet… Yeah…

But our last stop was Oxford. It’s truly a gorgeous city. The Paris of England. I was too busy staring and thinking (see below) but luckily mom took a few pictures.
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Tolkien studied there, and parts of the first few Harry Potter movie were shot there. Unfortunately, the hall they used for the Great Hall collapsed a few days ago during all the thunder and lightning, so we couldn’t see it.

Something that the tour guide said really struck me. Hitler considered Oxford such a beautiful city that he wouldn’t bomb it. Instead, he promised to make it his capitol when he conquered England and bombed Cambridge instead. Says something for the city.

Now about the thinking. I don’t know how many of you are aware of this, but my college offers the ability to study at Oxford for six months as an international student. And while I’ve been planning to do it… I don’t know. It didn’t feel like someplace I could be comfortable in. It may be the heat, or the exhaustion, or my never-ending headache (Yes, I’m drinking lots of water, it just sucks to be allergic to Advil), but the prospect of studying there just didn’t… Oh, you guys don’t really care about this and that decision is two years away.

Oxford was our last stop, so we headed back for London. It was my first time doing an all-day bus tour, and it was a lot of fun! I wouldn’t want to do it for any longer than a few days, but it was a great way to see England. Besides, the tour guide was super helpful from getting on, to seeing the sights, to where we should get off to get home easiest and where to get the best Indian food (yum, by the way).

And when I say all day, we left at 7:20 and didn’t get back until 9:25, when we passed out.

Which brings us all, at last, to today. Dad left very early this morning to visit a friend in Ireland, and Michael was tired, so mom and I headed out on our own again. Our first stop was Westminster Abbey, where all of the coronations are hold, as well as the most recent royal wedding. Unfortunately, I couldn’t take pictures. It was beautiful, and most of it was used as crypts for various kings, queens, lords, dukes, knights, children, and poets. There was also a shrine to Shakespeare and Charles Dickens’ grave. Very cool.
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We then trekked over to a botanical garden. And I’m very serious about trek. We rode the Tube for a bit, then walked and walked and walked and walked some more before finding a map that said the garden was only five minutes away, at which point we walked in the wrong direction. But we did get there eventually. After an expensive, but delicious lunch, we explored the small garden before giving up and getting a taxi back home.

Tomorrow we need a day off to recover from the last few days and attempt to fit all our souvenirs into our bags. Wow that was a long post. Only two days before we fly home!

Venice

We promised the kids that they could have special week with dad the summer before they started high school. Maggie and I went to McCall, Idaho and had great fun horseback riding through the mountains, playing golf, exploring the area and generally hanging out.

This year it was Michael’s turn, but we had the big Europe trip planned. We went through several idea iterations and Michelle came up with the brilliant idea of us going to Venice Italy. We has been to Venice 7 years ago when Michael was 7, but he only had some memories so it was time to make some new ones.

Early Thursday morning Michael and I headed out to Venice via the Tube, a train, a plane and a boat! Turn out the Venice airport is on the mainland so you have to take a bus or a boat to get there. Who would turn down a boat ride.

The boat dropped us off at a nondescript little dock and we followed a couple of locals who seemed to know where they were going. There were only some twisty little alleys for a bit, but we finally found what seemed like more of a main path along a larger canal.

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If you’ve never been to Venice you need to put it on your list. It is a truly beautiful and surreal place.

Thanks to Michael’s young eyes we found our tiny little backpacker hotel (one of us had to leave the room so that the other could change his mind).

Next on the agenda was Michael’s number one memory.

Lemon Gelato

Lemon Gelato

Our plan for the day was wander, so we did. Eventually we did see Rialto Bridge and St Marks Square.

View from the Rialto

View from the Rialto

St Marks

St Marks

We also saw many beautiful canals and bridges.

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We decided to have a nice dinner at a street-side cafe with a great view of the Rialto.

The next day Michael wanted to explore a bit on his own, so I gave him some cash and we set up a meeting time and off he went. Amazing how quickly they grow up.

I wandered through the Jewish quarter and found a lovely necklace for Michelle.

Feeling a bit peckish I was trying to decide if I should sit down for a full meal or just find some interesting snacks along the way. The snacks won out. Nothing crazy, a tiny little pizza from the bakery and some interesting little open face sandwiches from another shop. While ordering my sandwiches who should show up but Michael. He had spent all but 1 euro and was looking for some water.

Tasty

Tasty

Michael showed me all his shopping treasures then we headed back to our room. Michael wanted a break from the afternoon heat (it was in the 90s) but I was interested in wandering. So I headed back out exploring the side streets. Eventually I ended up on the edge of the island looking at Murano the island where they make all the famous glass. I had suggested to Michael that this might be interesting, but it didn’t hold much interest for him so I bought a ticket a headed over.

Visually Murano is very similar to Venice except that every store sells very cool art glass. Every store also has signs saying please don’t take pictures…

In any case I got to see a bunch of cool art glass and Maggie ended up with some new earrings.

For dinner that night we decided to keep with the snack theme which went reasonably well although nothing exceptional. We also took a stroll around the neighborhood after dark to see if was any different from the day time, but it was basically the same.

For our last day we headed towards the edge of the island again as we had to catch the boat back to the airport after lunch. We lucked out by visiting a couple of cathedrals as they were much cooler than outside (towards 97 and very humid).

We found a great little cafe right on the water and watched the boats buzz up and down the liquid highway while enjoying clams, mussels, pizza and pasta.

A satisfied customer

A satisfied customer

From there we worked our way back to London to reunite with the girls.

Overall a highly satisfying mini-trip.

London – Day 4

Oh man. You guys must have sent your heatwave over here because wow is it hot. Mom and I are on our own now, but the heat is absolutely exhausting, so we didn’t get around to much. Our first stop was the Royal Mews, where they keep the Queen’s horses, carriages, and cars. It was so cool to see all of the super ceremonial harnesses up close!

Beautiful carriage made for the diamond jubilee

Beautiful carriage made for the diamond jubilee

Different angle

Different angle

We even got a glimpse of a few of the actual horses they use to pull the carriages. Apparently the Queen personally names all of them.

Right next to the Mews was the Queen’s Gallery inside Buckingham Palace. So cool! It was full of extraordinary art, furniture, decorations, and solid gold tea services on public display. The small part of the building we were in was beautiful as well, and not super crowded with tourists.

After lunch, we decided to walk over to Buckingham Palace and then to Westminster Abbey. It was so surreal to stand at the gates and look at the Palace!
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The Queen was there while we were!

The Queen was there while we were!

The Mall!

The Mall!

We wandered through St. James Park and stopped for a break in the shade.
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All the trees were giant

All the trees were giant

View from where we sat

View from where we sat

While we were resting, we looked at our guidebook and realized that the latest time they would let people into Westminster Abbey was in five minutes! So we rested some more before taking the long Tube ride back.

Red telephone box outside Westminster Underground station!

Red telephone box outside Westminster Underground station!

Tomorrow we’re going to take the day off to give our bodies a break and avoid being out in the predicted 86 and thunderstorms. Hopefully the boys will get up to something exciting in Venice!