Niagara

americani

horseshoe falls, canadian side

frankenstien loves BK, you should too.

hand blown glass ornaments

lemon drops

Butterfly Conservatory

Ashlee was the best at it

mr. frog outside of the conservatory

Louis Toussad's

we were graced by his holiness

we're bffs now

my, harry, what tight gleuts you have...

no go on W

i don't even like star trek

Maids of the Mist

she was just the little maid

yeah we wore them

up close

favorites

beginner's hiragana

goodbye columbia hello shady

we signed a lease yesterday for a new place on shady ave ^_^, pics when we get them. we move in july 1st, come for fun and moving furniture (all the cool kids will be there)!

in about two weeks me, maria, janet, and ashlee will be heading up to niagara for a couple days of relaxation and canadianization. i'm looking forward to it and hopefully we won't spend too much money.

i'm off to learn more hiragana then out for beth's birthday festivities.

i'm going to become a SEAL.

ringing in spring with updates.

yesterday was the last day of classes for me this term. i had only two:historical linguistics and syntax. i enjoyed both of them thoroughly (much to my surprise with syntax... it's not as scary/boring as i had previously imagined). monday will be my final in syntax, then i'll be officially done. i am also finished with my historical term paper on Hawai'i Creole English which has opened my eyes to the world of sociolinguistics. i picked the topic rather arbitrarily, but ended up learning a lot and becoming really interested in it. <3

james is officially the president of pitt's Student Auto Racing Team. i'm really proud of him - he really has .no. time to be doing all of these extra-curricular things, but he's taking everything in stride. everything with the racing team is still primitive. that is to say, the boys are working on campaigning, sponsorships, awareness raising and the like. there is currently no garage, but a couple offers of cars already. i'll help them in any way that i can. so far this year, the biggest car-type involvement i've had was purchasing two Kumho's for the car to replace worn out summer tires. ah, well... i'll learn more as time goes on...

on april 11th, i was able to participate in a Amnesty International Write-a-thon in pittsburgh. christen invited me to come, which i'm thankful for. i wrote 5 letters to leaders all over the world about: women trafficking inMontenegro, border crossing shootings on the China/Tibet/Nepalese boarder , night commuters in Uganda, genocide in Darfur (in eastern Sudan), and to US General Attorney for atrocities in Guantanamo Bay - disobeying international law and Geneva Conventions. christen also gave a lovely speech -impromptu style- about trafficking. this is sparking the bug in me to become more involved on activist issues, and we'll see how everything turns out. i'm excited to go to a meeting by christen's organization about trafficking next week -- and convinced Em to join me - yay! i have a secret - i think those two would get along great so i'm trying to bring them together. if they read this i'll be found out! <.< >.>

on the same vein of thought, em showed me an article about photography in politics. it was also wonderful. (i'm thankful for friends who are actually well informed. i feel like we all have so much to contribute to each other <3). She showed me Salgado a Brazilian photographer and American photographer Nachtwey - i highly recommend clicking around their galleries, they're wonderful.

tessa revealed how much she enjoyed speaking spanish. she suggested spanish get togethers! ^_^ i'm definitely all for this, but i'm really shy about my ability to speak (or lack thereof) spanish...

on a final note, this summer, i'm dedicating to learning. i'm still debating what exactly i'm going to delve into. current prospects are: japanese or german, java (or some other programming language), re-learning spanish, or possibly other ling courses such as semantics... we shall see!

(i stole this idea from Christen <3, the map is interactive)

i really need to update... finals are next week, once everything is finished i'll come back to you little blog!

me and my (other) love.

birthdays and bowlings

thats the way i roll.

we did it.

mat in action.

we were share buddies that night.

Beth.

it was just a little guy.

i love these guys.

recent listenings: The Decemberists - Castaways and Cutouts ; The Arcade Fire - Neon Bible (thanks to my friend Hale)
recent watchings: proud to be from district 17 in Ohio, Congressman Tim Ryan's Iraq war Resolution debate
recent happenings: pitt canceled classes for early wednesday morning
recent celebrations: valentine's day was six years for us.

i think i have a new girl crush.

here's some of what i've been up to:

Jordan and James

The Gang

Beth Being Amy

Tessa and Shoes

Maria and I opening Gifts.

Apples to Apples

Vader Cake

Tessa's Chimara.

winding down

i. first semester of non-nursing based courses completed: 2 As
ii. christmas shopping is almost complete (one more elusive gift to buy)
iii. completed six months on the "weekend program" at work, and loving the schedule still, which i wasn't sure if i was going to at the time of the switch
iv. first season of x-files veiwing finished with james
v. registered for next semester - a little late and attempting to get into a closed class

the thruth is out there.

last night i rekindled my love for this man.

frustrating.

constant miscommunication i hate you.

my guilt(free) pleasure these days.

finals

it's december and it's 60 degrees... in pittsburgh. i'm loving it. ridiculous.

finals are this week, so thats what i've been up to mostly these days. reading this was way more helpful than the actual text book ordered for my class. hopefully it will actually do as it is advertised and make me understand morphology. other than the obligatory study routine, i'm not worried about over-doing it this semester. i am going to miss Claude and David, though. they both were class acts, in their own ways.

scott isn't coming in, now, i don't think. which is a huge bummer. i was looking forward to having him here for a few days. we could've gone skiing and whatnots :(. garrett is still coming and staying with steve and nick, though so there will still be some new faces this winter.

finally, i recently realized feta is amazing in everything. that is all.