Tuesday, December 18, 2007

happy holidays... from 1055B

So I'm pretty sure that we have one of the best (if not THE best) stairwells in all of Terrace. Don't worry, I come with evidence to back up my claim...
1. Stairwell Thanksgiving dinner
We all cooked up a legit Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings: turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, pies, etc.
2. Weekend before Finals week, schedule of events, 1055B
Saturday night: Suprise [M]ocktail party for Kari (hosted by B4)
Sunday night: Christmas Party Extravaganza (hosted by B2)
Monday night: Farewell party for two study-abroaders (hosted by B2 & B4)

So yeah, we've got a pretty great housing set-up.

And yes, Kari's party was a huge success. It was so fun!

And there would be pictures... but it won't upload. Grrr... the internet!!

Monday, December 17, 2007

Finals Week...

Oh man, it's been over a month since I've written. What are the chances that any of you are still checking? I should probably get better at this. Although, I do think that some of it can be blamed on the Wheaton Internet difficulties, but I digress.

I have a problem. A beef. An issue. Here it is: who thought of finals week? And WHAT were they thinking? Does it ever sound like a good idea to confine grade-defining exams, papers, and projects to the space of three days? Ever? I'm going to go with 'no' on this one - but not for my sake. No, my stressful time was last week, but after most of my friends are freaking out, getting 2-4 hours of sleep every night and stressing about an overload of 10+ page papers and weighty final exams, I just have to say that this isn't healthy.

Because I don't have very much schoolwork (comparatively) this week, I played broomball at Seven Gables Park today. On the pond. Which was covered in ice and snow. [SNOW!] It's crazy how much of it is lying around. Every now and then I realize, "OH MY GOSH, there's snow everywhere! This isn't normal!"

Well, it's midnight. And as the rest of the student body is just in the middle of the all-nighter they're pulling, I'm heading to bed. I've got nothing tomorrow. Nada. (see how Spanish has payed off?)

Monday, November 12, 2007

30 Hours in St. Louis





6 am Saturday morning. The apartment doorbell rings. Once. And then twice. Pushing through sleepy cobwebs, I suddenly come to the realization that it's SIX... Trisha and I were supposed to be ready to go at 5:45! And that's how the St. Louis roadtrip began. It was a fantastic 30 hours.

Thanks to the boys and their understanding, Trish and I threw ourselves together in 12 minutes and we were soon on our way. A quick stop at Panera yielded some breakfast and we set off South to the Lou. The 4.5 hour drive wasn't so bad (especially for a Hawaii kid) - the company was great and Ben, Trish, Adam, Paul, and I played some great music along the way, not too mention a few 20 minute cat-naps. woo!

Our first stop was Ben's house in the city. His parents work in and are a part of an urban outreach church and live in the same neighborhood. From the outside, the house looks deceivingly small, but when you go inside, it's amazing how many rooms there are spiraling up through all three stories. The best part is the loft/attic which doubles as LEGOLAND! We had a team pow-wow up there to make our plans for the day. Right from the start we were playing with toys and generally being little kids - it was so great. After lunch with Ben's family, we ran outside into the 60 degree weather (YEAH!) and jumped on the trampoline... more kid activities! Trisha and I laughed so hard we almost wet our pants... good thing we didn't. :)

We set off from there to the City Museum [http://www.citymuseum.org/home.asp], which is really a short way of saying "Huge Big Kid Playground." It's a three or four story building converted from an old shoe factory (I think) filled with places to crawl, climb, jump, and explore. There are huge caves with passageways and crawlspaces, tunnels made from metal, slides from one floor to the next, all of this filling the building from floor to ceiling. I can't really describe it; it was unbelievable. There was a giant "Extreme Dodgeball Pit" outside with places from within and without (?) to throw rubber balls at those inside. One room had skatepark-esque bowls and ramps made for running around on and with ropes to swing onto and off of the platforms. It was pretty much FANTASTIC. Plus, Talitha drove out and met us there so I got to see her! We spent almost 4 hours there before heading back to Ben's to shower.

We headed out to the suburbs next to have dinner at Adam's. Along the way, 5 blocks from our destination, one of the back tires was struck by a chunk of metal and flattened. The boys fixed it all up with the spare in half an hour and we finally made it to Adam's... very ready for dinner. We hung out with his parents and little brother and sisters before heading downtown...

To the Loop! We got some bubbletea, walked around windowshopping, and had fun. Yes, FUN!

Sunday morning we headed to Ben's church, had some lunch at his house, got our tire fixed, and hit the road again. It was another great drive... lots of music, laughter, and dancing.

So that was my 30 hours in St. Louis - which actually includes the driving, so maybe it was more like.... 22 hours in St. Louis. Pretty short? Yes. Worth it? TOTALLY. I laughed so hard all weekend and felt like a little kid - it was just great. Woo!

Sunday, October 28, 2007

A P T part II





there are some things that will always confuse me. one of them is that they always put the smaller size jeans higher on the wall. it seems pretty obvious to me that shorter people will need smaller sizes therefore WHY would you put them up so high?? i have no idea.

similarly, how does it happen that the shortest roommate sleeps in the tallest bed? insert picture of sleeping room here... yep, this is where i sleep.

and then there's the study room. ironically, and i know you'll have a hard time believing this mom and dad, but i don't really use my desk for studying... it's actually more like a storage space. weird, huh? totally not typical ashley. not at all. :) these pictures were taken at the end of midterms week as a little illustration of how stressed out i was. you'll notice that my desk is EXPLODING with stuff. clothes. books. posters. everything. then, you'll see my roommates' desks which are much more highly organized and, well, neat. so yeah, that's our study room. ashley factoid of the day: you can tell how busy or stressed i am by what my wheaton desk looks like. yep yep yep.

welcome to the A P T.






yes, lots of new photos today. you guessed it: i'm finally in a place where the internet is capable of everyday tasks... like uploading. yeah panera! haha, anyway, here are the long-awaited pictures of my apartment! i have a few more showing out study room and sleeping room so i guess i'll add those next. take notice of our sweet chalkboards in the kitchen. we added those and have people sign them or write us notes when they come over. or we just draw pictures when we need a break. other notes... the picture hanging above our couch is lauren's from africa... it's not in any of the pictures, but next to our tv we have a little display of 9 3x3 canvases that we had people paint when they came over. perhaps i'll get pictures of that someday as well.

dress-up photos!



YEAH for pictures! so, here are two photos from dress-up study weekend. woo! you'll find a roomie ghetto picture as well as a "trish and ashley's day at the beach." you may or may not be able to tell that we're sitting in a blow-up pool. but yeah, we really are that cool. :)

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Chapel Faceplant of '07

So... I'm really good at embarassing myself, it's true. Today will go down in the annals of my life as one where I chalked up another "most embarrasing moment."

It all started in Chapel. (Si, en la Capilla, es verdad.) In the Wheat, Chapel always begins with the chiming of a bell five times and I hadn't quite made it to my seat when those bells started ringing. I reached my row and started scooting past all the kids just as the introductory speaker began to expound on the wonders of the urban setting. As I was doing a little fast-shuffle-scoot to my seat, I tripped over a backpack, innocently hanging out on the floor. My feet currently not in motion but the rest of my body very much still in motion, I ended up laying out over the next three (thankfully empty)seats. My face resting on a seat cushion, my upper body atop an arm rest, and my feet very much still hanging out behind me, I rolled onto the floor, tears streaming from my eyes, barely able to breathe because of the laughter bursting out. Yes, Mr. Introductory Speaker was still speaking. Yes, to an audience of 2000 plus quiet students. Yes, I was gasping for breath because I was laughing so hard. And yes, everyone behind, next to, and in front of me, was saying at once, "Are you okay??" I think they might have interpreted my tears of joy as tears of, well, pain.

Needless to say, I missed the introduction to Urban Issues. And my elbow is mysteriously sore. As well as one side of my face. I'm thinking they must be casualties of Chapel Faceplant of '07.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

This Week's Schedule

the plan for midterms week. what's happened and what's yet to come:

MONDAY - success pants day... wear those black pants!
TUESDAY - dress for success... zebra striped flats dressed up four hours of sleep, yeah!
WEDNESDAY - 'stache day... draw a mustache on your finger and be goofy!
THURSDAY - tie/thai day... wear a tie... or something thai!
FRIDAY - aloha friday... self-explanatory i think

Sunday, October 14, 2007

LET'S STUDY!

It's the weekend of studying... hardcore.

I have been working as hard as I know how. disciplining. caffeinating. working. being hardcore. And after awhile, that just grew monotonous and i needed an outlet.

So, i began throwing themed study parties. it started with "gangster night." okay, i know it's funny - and cliche - but go with me. Baggy pants. Sideways hats. White tanktops. Hiphop music. Let's just say it was pretty epic. We took study breaks of dancing (single gender- no worries).

Today was another crammed with workstudyhomeworkhardcore. I threw another party; this time it was BEACH DAY. We set up an inflatable pool in our apartment (minus the water), put on swimsuits (over our clothes), played some beach music, and got down to work.

I'm pretty excited about this whole study-party thing. It makes everything a little more exciting... and a little more hardcore.

pictures to come- woo!