I'm going to AUSTRIA!!!

Well, duh. I've been planning this for at least 9 months now... but I finally got my Visa in the mail last Saturday and I have started to make sure that I have everything I need (and if I don't, then I buy it). And I am leaving in 49 days (but who's counting, really...???)!!!

So now there are a few things that I need to do before I can get on the plane on September 10th:
1. Practice/relearn German
2. Pack
3. Tell my bank that I'm leaving the country
4. Read all of my books that I wanted to read this summer
5. Work lots to make lots of money
6. Decide what bags to take & WHAT to take in them...
7. Email-introduce myself to the 15! new girls on the Cal Lu swim team (hopefully they will all still be there when I get back...)
8. Pack
9. Pack
10.Get out of here ASAP.

Haha. I have spent the past 3 days cleaning the house for my mom, since she is hosting bible study here tomorrow morning. The nice thing about that is that she's paying me for it (because I had 3 days off work). Los Alamos just isn't that exciting... and no one is here, really. I went into town today (big trip!) and sat outside at Quizno's while my parents went to lunch at Lemongrass & Lime. I didn't see a single person that I knew. I saw one whole person that I knew when we were leaving... and she informed me that she is going back down to ABQ at the end of this week. Boooooo.

I did get a chance to go to the Opera last night with Lisa (dress rehearsal... for FREE). Besides that, I got to see Robin & Amy in Santa Fe on Friday, since mom and me went shopping there... they met us for lunch! Also on Friday, I got to go see The Dark Knight. GOOOD MOOOVIE. Oh. And I got a microphone & skype. So now I can talk to people for FREE (or at least for CHEAP).

:)

Training for the Triathlon

I decided that I am going to do the triathlon this year, but that means that I need to train for it. I made myself a schedule so that I would train hard for all three components and be prepared for August 16th... but I have been having trouble motivating myself to actually do the training, especially when it comes to running. I think that I just need a training buddy.

The only problem with that is that I don't know anyone who lives in White Rock who would be willing to train at odd hours with me. The triathlon is less than six weeks away, so that means that I need to get on it.

I also need to find someone who is about my speed at everything... because I was biking the other day and a couple of guys sped right past me while I was struggling to make it up a small hill... that was kind of depressing, but I got over it pretty quickly.

So things to do:
1) Find someone to train with
2) Train with that someone.

:)

Home sick???

So I was sitting at the pool today, lifeguarding like I do every single day of my life (and for the rest of the summer) when I got that random jolt in your stomach that something was missing. I realized that I really miss Cal Lutheran. Not necessarily going to class or living there, but I definitely miss working at the pool there. I have no idea why. It's not like it's a glamorous job, or even any different than what I am doing right now. It was just really weird. I started thinking about all the great (or not so great) times that I had there...

I guess I just really enjoyed lifeguarding with people who were close to my age who all had the same kinds of concerns that I had too. Here I am one of, oh, NO other college kids working at the pool. They are all still in high school (or just graduated) or all out of college and working full time at the pool... It's rather strange. I guess it all might have something to do with the fact that all I do is work, go home, go back to work, and then come home again. I have no life outside of that... and that makes me sad. Most of my friends have moved away (all the way to ABQ...) but I still don't really get to see them much... especially now with gas prices so high :(

I don't think I really realized it when I was in DC because I was with people that I could relate to very easily. We were all (pretty much) the same age and we were all doing the same thing at the time with our lives. And even though I never really went out after work, I still got to socialize with people my own age. And now I can't go out and make new friends because, well, let's face it... I am leaving in 7 weeks and I am at the wrong age to be able to find new friends in Los Alamos.

Thisis kind of a depressing post... so for some cooler news... I applied for my visa last week & should hopefully be getting it by the end of this month (if not, we might have some problems...). Oh. And I found the facebook group for my study abroad peoples! So now I can start to make friends over facebook! woot!

:)

Inside Jokes

Jessica, Jillian, and I came up with a list of inside jokes and other random happenings while we were in DC. We had quite a blast (as you might be able to see...).

-Hanging refrigerators
-Hissing Geese
-Attacking (evil) squirrels
-Nothing to say
-Hi, Hi! I'm so glad you're here!
-Broken A/C
-Friends (2, 6, 10)
-Whitney's apartment & pool
-Rainstorms
-Bumper sticker (I blame facebook for everything.)
-Random trips to bookstores
-Grocery shopping w/ Jessica
-Firefly & Robinhood
-Anjuan, our local restaurant guide
-Old Roomies
-No lights
-COOKIE DOUGH
-$1.25 laundry
-I hate Lauren Brady.
-Chest bumps & fist pumps
-VP & J. Lo
-Sleeping in on weekends
-Creepers (they're EVERYWHERE)
-Metro:
The breeze
Sprinters
Early risers
Standing on the left... & tourists
-Baseball & trains
-AM coffee party @ the Senate Chef!
-Dane
-Bike ride
-Conference room lunches
-Angry Constituents
-Poop in the hall
-Sunday Funday!

I have only been back in NM for 4 days and I already want to go back. As much fun as it is to get paid to watch people swim... I really wanna be able to go out and do something whenever I want to, even if it's just as simple as going to hang out with good old Lincoln at sunrise... Instead I have been working every afternoon/evening since I got back while getting rudely awakened by roofers early in the morning :(

The one thing that is nice about Los Alamos... is that pretty much every afternoon, there is a rain (& maybe thunder) storm, so it cools off nicely (since I don't have real a/c and my room gets SUPER hot). I am already looking into jobs/internships in DC for next summer! But for now, all I have to do is survive 7 1/2 more weeks here before I head off to Salzburg!!!

And speaking of Austria, I spent all morning working on my Visa application (pain in the you-know-what...). Not only do I have to send in a bunch of stuff to the Austrian Consulate in LA, but I also have to make sure that my student loan money makes it to AIFS before the 15th of this month (which I'm not so sure that that is going to actually happen...). Other than that, I am super excited! I just need to finish unpacking/doing laundry from DC so that I can start my packing for Austria!!!

:)