for the beauty of the earth

wow. ok, so much has happened. we had lab reports and midterms these past couple weeks, so i have been really busy. then this past week was terribly stressful for other reasons that i won't taint this blog post with...

but now i am feeling much happier. and i have been keeping a list of things to tell you all about, so here i go!

a few weeks ago my roommate, cara, had to go back to campus one tuesday night to teach a class. i accompanied her on the drive and got to visit some friends while she was teaching. my friends are so awesome! even though they were all swamped with work, they took time out of their busy schedules to hang out with me on one crazy tuesday night. it made me feel so special :) if only i had had more than a couple hours to visit with them.

speaking of awesome friends, that weekend alex and anthony came to visit me! we toured around hopkins (i think they liked the lamps in the library the best... of all the things we have at the marine station?) but wading in the water with the seals was pretty fun too. we had dinner in a nice italian seafood restaurant with a lovely view. while i was washing my hands in the bathroom, there was a little girl waiting for her mom to finish changing her brother. she stood by the sinks, staring at me. i looked at her and she squeezed some soap into her hands then looked back at me. i said "rub them together" as i motioned with my hands. she followed then looked at the sink. i turned on the water for her as she tiptoed to reach the faucet. i grabbed her a paper towel and smiled at her as i left. she never said a word to me, but she totally made my day. last night i was really missing jessica, danny, and francisco (the kids i tutor). i love working with kids so much and i think missing out on that is the hardest part about this quarter. but hanging out with alex and anthony was so much fun! after dinner we went to ghirardelli and had delicious chocolately ice cream treats. yum!

sunday and monday mom and dad came to visit! we went to the carmel mission - it was fun to see the history. since it's an active parish they were having mass while we were then. instead of shutting it off to the public, they worshiped with the doors open so tourist could observe. it thought that was kind of strange. as we were wandering around the courtyard out side, dad ran into their "please be quite while we are worshiping" sign and knocked it over creating quite a clatter! haha, i love you dad :)

later i gave them a tour of hopkins. we were watching some seals and their pups on a beach when suddenly one rather large seal started squirming and out popped a seal pup! it was so cool! they same into the ocean to rinse off, then came back up on the beach to nurse. the wildlife here is so cool!

the next weekend i had an orthodontist appointment so i went back to the bay area. i stayed at school thursday night and went to the library to study with alice! just like old times :) we had fun catching up by passing notes the old fashioned way. friday i went to bio and sapolsky's class. both were good. it was kind of fun to be back in the huge bio lecture hall - especially since i didn't have to pay attention this time :) sapolsky's class was fantastic! even though we were sitting in the last row of kresge and he lectured for two hours straight, i was never bored! i can't wait to take it senior year. (it's on behavioral biology - only like my favorite subject)

friday afternoon i got to see sophia even though she was really swamped with millie. it was fun to just hang out. she said it was the first time she's been to manz all quarter - wow! she practically lived with us last quarter (which was really fun). i miss swimming. julie went to stanford's intramural swim meet - i can't wait to do that next year! then friday night was castaño's screw your roommate. it was really fun just hanging out with all of my friends from the dorm. my date and i were both terrible at minigolf, which made for a hilarious round of golf in the dark. i did get one hole-in-one! i think i ended up about 18 over par in the end, but that's because you couldn't get more than 5 on any hole...

on saturday i went to davis with my family to see jenny and go to picnic day! the past week i had been in monterey, jen in davis, em in hawaii, kat in dc, and mom and dad in utah. so it was really nice to have all 6 of us in the same place for a few hours! we were all pretty tired and the wind wrecked havoc on our allergies, so we sort of just chilled all day. we saw some cows and i hung out with my friends in the band for a little while. (they were there for the battle of the bands). then mom and i feel asleep on jen's bed as em, kat, and jen's friends played rock band. the tv is above the bed, so we must have been really tired...

sunday morning i went to church with mom and dad. that was nice: not going to church by myself for once. plus they sang john rutter's for the beauty of the earth, a song our choir in louisville used to do :) it was so sweet. then i drove back to monterey and switched back into school mode. and yes, i am driving on the highway all the way from monterey to stanford and back by myself! i'm so proud! tomorrow night i will be driving to and from the cachagua store, so i'm glad my driving confidence is growing. the cachagua store is mike, our chef from soco's, store/bar/restaurant. we're going to monday night dinner for a soco reunion. although i think we are bringing equal amounts of non-soco friends from here, too. i can't wait!

last week of classes was exciting. we did another lab on snails (did i mention i really don't like them!) this time we picked the smaller snails off the rocks, measured and weighed them, painted them with nail polish, and threw them back into the water just below where we found them. we were simulating being knocked off the rock by a wave. two days later we went back to collect the ones we could find. we measured those again, then compared before and after to look at how natural selection acts on them. it was pretty cool. i just don't like snails. mine had the prettiest shells though - silver with green sparkles!

tuesday was earth day. in that spirit, dani, cara, and i decided to bike to the farmers market downtown. it was awesome! we tried their delicious food - i had a crepe for dinner - and bought some fresh produce for future dinners. we got artichokes, potatoes, broccoli, gratefruits, and oranges. it was all really yummy! we will definitely be returning their on future tuesdays.

this weekend rachel came to visit! we went to see 21. it was so much fun to see a movie just cuz i haven't done that in so long. plus 21 was really good! and it was fun to see with my stanford friends because we totally discussed the math problem over ice cream after the show. then we went home and i taught them how to play blackjack and count cards. i love being a dork! yesterday we took rachel downtown for brunch and shopping. after a really rough week, it was nice for me to take a break. i got this really cool jacket - handmade cotton from nepal. we also got some really neat earrings. i miss shopping. i also miss working --> having an income...

this summer will be fun though. i'm going to the rockies for 10 weeks to study butterflies. i get to be outside playing with nature, studying science, and getting paid. all i could want, right? i will miss working with kids, but i'm sure this will be a really good experience. i know i will be lonely since i won't have cell phone service or (much) internet access, but at least i'll get a chance to catch up on all the books i've wanted to read for years. this is the first summer i haven't had required summer reading since 5th grade!

i guess i should end my vacation weekend and switch back to school mode now. i have to try to figure out about 4 weeks of statistics... but i'm already excited about next weekend when alice comes to visit!