No, I’m not talking about football or basketball or any other sport.  I’m talking about the fact that I HATE the semester system.  When I was still on the quarter system it was fast-paced enough that it kept my attention, though it didn’t help me slack off any less.  Meanwhile I am here in the semester system, 4 weeks to Christmas break, and I just don’t have it in me to keep going!  For example, I’m seated in the Samson Center study room, I’m supposed to be finishing a translation due tomorrow morning (technically tonight since that’s when I have to e-mail it to my professor) and I forgot the original text on a paper in my apartment.  The logical thing to do is to get off my duff, walk the 2 blocks home and get the paper.  But instead I’m sitting here writing about it, because I just don’t want to work on anything!!!!  I want to be lazy!!!  I would say that this 4-day weekend coming up will help, but the fact is that for most of the semester I’ve had 3 day weekends EVERY WEEKEND and it hasn’t helped.  I don’t do anything constructive on that extra day.  I usually spend it sleeping in or experimenting in the kitchen.  The fact that the sun is now setting at 4:45 in the afternoon doesn’t make it any better.  I’m ready to turn in by 7.

Okay, enough whining, go get your paper….

I’ve been WAY too busy.  It’s hard to believe that the semester is almost over… And I’m alive!!!!!  I made it!  I know there are going to be a lot more crazy adventures before I finish, but after this semester, I’m feeling a little more prepared to make it through.

Especially after my encounter with one of my teachers.  We had our midterm in written translation a few weeks ago, and when I got it back there was a comment the professor had made that totally destroyed me.  I mentioned it to another teacher who I’m a bit more comfortable talking to, and she said I should talk to the other teacher.  I found myself in his office the next day.  I truly think that God gave me the right words, because the professor got surprised and said, “Wow, I’m really sorry, you’re right.  I didn’t mean for it to come out like that.  Please don’t hesitate to come talk to me about this stuff if it ever happens again.”

I was shocked.  I had completely been prepared to hear him say that I was being overly sensitive and to just suck it up.  But I accepted his apology and thanked him for being understanding.  He then said, “I suppose I can be a little harder on the students in whom I see talent.”  That made my day.

I’ve been way more energized to det into my studies since then.  I’ve been staying on top of it (for the most part) and feeling a little less intimidated by my classmates.

AND (drumroll please…) I got into the Bach festival chorale!!!  And so did Marla!!!!  YEAH!!!  We decided that on the weekends when we had rehearsals she could come over and we would make a sleepover out of it.  :D  I don’t have the money to get to my dad’s place for Thanksgiving, so Marla invited me to her house.

Off to class.  I’m going to make baklava afterwards for a party at Elsa’s.  What, Lauren going to a party?? will wonders never cease!  :)

I only realized today that I forgot to write about the audition.  Marla came over a little bit before the audition, and her parents drove us over, even though it was still a bit early.  But it turned out to be a good thing, because the person going right before me had just stepped in.  Apparently there was nobody signed up between my time and Marla’s, even though technically there was 40 minutes between our times.  I got up and chatted with them for a bit, and one of the judges was particularly glad about the song I had chosen because it’s one of his favorites.

Too bad I couldn’t live up to it, because I was okay until I had to open my mouth.  However, I do think I managed to redeem myself on the important part at the end where there’s this nice little jump up to an A5.  That made up for it.  Marla went directly afterwards, and we walked out hanging on each other for support.

I think the worst part of this audition is wondering if I’ve chosen the right song to audition with…  ack!  3 hours and counting….

I took off this weekend to PUC.  I was getting super stressed and needed a break to see family and friends, especially before exams this week.  At the last moment before leaving, I called up Marla and asked her if she wanted to come, so she and Tamara and I arrived at PUC Thursday night.  I stayed at Auriel’s house, and Friday got to see everyone.  It was actually kind of draning, being a natural introvert according to Marla, but it was so good to see everyone that I just about burst with joy!  Mr. R let me sing with the choir on Sabbath morning, and then in the evening, after having a Sabbath walk with the Helmer family, he invited me to sing with them again in the concert (thankfully I already knew two of the 4 songs and had read one of the others, so it wasn’t too hard to sight read the last one).

There are a lot of great things going on right now.  I just got my audition spot for the Carmel Bach Festival, so I have 2 weeks to prepare a piece.  Heidi told me that I could come and sing with the choir for the Christmas concert at PUC, so I already have another weekend at PUC planned.  Last week I was asked to sing in a trio for our Christmas concert here.  I’m feeling fulfilled musically.  And after relaxing this weekend, I feel a little more prepared to face exams!

I’ve always been confused as to why this figure of speech is in any way positive.  I hate shots.  But supposedly a shot in the arm is a good thing, because it refers to something that makes you feel good.  Which is what I had today and it made my week.  But I don’t equate a shot with anything positive.

Anyway, the good thing that happened was that one of my teachers found me in the student center and called me over.  Last week I felt really down when I did really bad on the translation I had to turn in, but she let me do it over, and told me today that I did MUCH better.  Further, she said that I did really well on a sight translation that I turned in for a different class, and she thought it was funny that in sight translation I don’t commit the errors that I do in written translation.  She then proceeded to tell me that she was chatting with my interpretation teacher who said that I didn’t miss anything on my interpretation test I took last Monday.  She asked me if I like interpretation better than translation.  I told her it interests me more, but I wouldn’t say that I like it better.

One of my classmates gave me the idea of doing sight translations for my written translation assignments, which would help first for sight translation practice, and second to catch mistakes that I otherwise wouldn’t catch.

The power was out ALL yesterday afternoon, until sometime this morning.  I know it was after 2 a.m. when it came back on, because I strangely woke up around that time, and for as long as I was awake (maybe an hour and a half) it still hadn’t come on.  I’m saddened about the thought of the food in the fridge that I’m going to have to throw away…

I’ve decided to put last week behind me.  It was not kind to me.  It’s probably mostly my fault.  Monday and Tuesday were great because I did really well on my interpretation assignments, plus on Tuesday I got contacted about scheduling a job interview.  So the week started promising.

It started going downhill on Wednesday when I got an assignment back from Maria Sierra (written translation teacher).  I did pretty poorly on it.  Which even surprised her because the last translation assignment I turned in I did super well on.  So she gave me a second chance to do the assignment over, and I spent the rest of that day and most of Thursday trying to figure out what was wrong with it, plus sent it to a friend so he could look over it.  I turned it in on Thursday evening, hoping and praying that it would pass the mustard.

Also on Thursday in my sight translation class I choked.  I was up in front giving a sight translation of a speech and just messed up completely, to the point where I didn’t know how to fix it.  The teacher was fine, didn’t criticize, didn’t even act disappointed or anything, but I was disappointed with myself.  I just felt like a failure.  I’ve gone back to wondering if my Spanish is good enough for this program.  I told this to Maria Sierra and she said that she doesn’t think that is the case, especially when there are people in class who are worse off than me (for the life of me I can’t think of who that would be, everyone else seems to do just fine) and I’m one of the ones who actually works, because she can tell who works and who doesn’t. (Although, this morning I did receive a feedback sheet from her that said that I actually did fairly well, not fantastic, but passable, even though she did critique my pronunciation of the word “stabile” and said it should be “stable”.  I’ve always been taught:

Stabile – constant, steady, not prone to fluctuation.
Stable – where a horse lives.

Anyway….

Also that morning as I was chatting with Juan, he asked me if I had read Andy’s e-mail.  Andy is a mutual friend who is currently a missionary in India (only arrived a few days ago) and I said that I hadn’t received any e-mail.  Juan was like, oops, he might not have sent it to you.  Which kind of hurt, because it made me feel like Andy doesn’t think of me as enough of a friend to include me.  Which made me depressed, but then I realized that I am pretty sure that he doesn’t have my e-mail, because whenever we write to each other it’s over Facebook.  Plus he posted the letter later onto Facebook for everyone to see.

Friday I realized that I had let the entire week go by without figuring out what I was going to make for dinner, (you’ll have to check Friday Foods to hear the end of that story) but I had errands to run so I had to get on those first.  I rode my bike about a mile to a bike shop to buy a bike lock, and they didn’t have the kind I was looking for (we’ve had a string of bike thefts and I wanted to get a lock that would hold up against cable cutters), went to Target, went to school to take care of a few things, etc.  I came back, tired, but feeling a little better after having that exercise.  Tamara was in the kitchen, I walked in to get a drink, and we chatted for a bit before she said, as kindly as she could, “I don’t want to nag, but there have been a few times that I could have started the dishwasher but you had left your dishes on the counter.  Could you start putting them in the dishwasher when you’re done with them?”

Now, to start, I usually do put my stuff in the dishwasher, and if I’ve forgotten, it’s not been because I’m a slob.  Second, and part of this might be just because I hate being told what to do (I really don’t know where this trait came from), but she hasn’t always put her stuff in the dishwasher (she usually does, but like me, there have been a couple of times that she’s forgotten).  So the first thing that popped into my head was, For all the times that I’ve put your dishes in the dishwasher and not thought twice about it, are your arms suddenly broken that you can’t put them in there yourself?  Not only that, but I have never once seen you start that dishwasher.  It has ALWAYS been me, and I don’t ever complain about it because I DON’T CARE.  Why do you?

But I didn’t say any of that.  I instead said, “Oh, sorry, I usually do.  I guess I forgot a few times.  I’ll be better about it,” deciding that I’m going to start taking my Grandma’s advice and just being agreeable and just not caring (my grandma is definitely one of those old ladies who just doesn’t give a rip, but she’s always very sweet about it).  But even so, that day I was the one who ended up starting the dishwasher.  I’ll be over it by tomorrow, though, no grudges.

So I’m here at school right now, sitting in my car in front of the school simply to have internet, downloading my homework assignments, and by the end of the day I’ll be ready for a new week, looking to make it the best and most productive yet…

That and on Thursday Tamara and I are going to PUC for the weekend, YAY!!!!!!!

Had my first official breakdown yesterday, shortly followed by another one today.  Don’t know how to fix this…. school’s getting to be too much.

Just got out of an interpretation test/quiz/idontknowwhattocallit.  We had a recording of about 2 minutes, and we were supposed to interpret.  Lucky me got to go first (darn last names near the beginning of the alphabet!!!).

Anyway, I shouldn’t complain because my professor said that I remembered absolutely everything, which considering I’ve been having a hard time with memory made me feel like crawling to the top of the building and shouting VICTORY!!!!!  So I think I did good.  Maybe I’ll get through interpretation after all….

OOOOOOHHHHHHMMMMYYYYYYYYYGOOOOOOOOOSHHHHHHH!!!!

No, I seriously lol’d for this one.  Especially at 1:27-30.  And if I weren’t sitting inside the part of the student center where your breathing can’t even make noise, I probably would have stood up and applauded too.