Overload

This is how I feel right now. Last full week of class before finals start next wednesday. Finishing a round of papers so that I can actually study. My brain is indeed very full. 

But keeping my eye on the prize! 

MAY 3!!!! 

Frozen Peas

Yes the title of this post is relavant to its content. kind of..

Tonight I had the pleasure of playing in the UNCA coed basketball championship game. I actually ended up on a team this year after a crazy string of events. The season was short but I had so much fun and definitely made me wish i still played regularly.
I am not the best player but I can still hit my shots and make some passes and hold my own. I have been playing basketball every since I could walk. My dad was pretty much a 5 ft. 5 super start in high school. I was never an all-star but I was constant, extremely competitive (still am) and I actually had a LOT of fun playing. The one thing about me playing basketball is that I tend to always walk away from a game with a multitude of bruises and scrapes. To me, that means it was a good game. If I didn't walk away with something hurting I knew I hadn't played hard enough. I think my knees are permanently purple from diving out of bounds and trying to scrape up a jump ball or four. My size has always worked against me so I have had to learn how to play smartly. One of the things about being short is that you are always at elbow height or being smashed into a pick if your team isn't watching out for you. Posting up isn't really an option. I swear to you that I lost a contact lens every game. I would have to pick it up off the deliciously clean court and put it in my mouth to 'wash it off' and pop it back into my eye so that play could continue. It is amazing that I don't have a disgusting eye disease.

I have always loved the after a game feeling of being exhausted and feeling a little beaten up. Tonight I got my money's worth in minor injuries. I walked away from the game with a bloody lip and knee, a bruised elbow, two slightly jammed fingers, court burned knees BUT with a championship t-shirt. Please hold your applause, this is big time stuff..

It has been so good to be back on the court again and almost makes me regret giving up basketball. But just almost. It has been so great to be able to play for fun. Hopefully I will continue to do so.

Oh, I forgot one small detail. I can get pretty fired up on the court. In high school I learned to channel it into playing harder. But sometimes an alternate me just kind of slips out and heated exchanges can happen. Especially when playing with guys. Tonight, my fiery side came exploding out after being intentionally elbowed by a guy on the other team after we were both going for a ball. In response I may or may not have just intentionally fouled him. To me, that is just lazy basketball on my part but sometimes you have to let them know that you refuse to let them walk all over you. In the end we made up and I apologized for everything and we walked away smiling.



heh heh heh. You thought I forgot the frozen peas. Nope! Right now, I am no attempting to ice my lip and elbow at the same time. Ice cube for the lip and frozen peas for the elbow. Peas are the best. It is a special scene really. My roommate asked me if I had been at a boxing match. Kind of feels like that but definitely worth every bit of icing.

So there is my random blog about intramural basketball and my weird injuries.
I am not fragile, I just play hard.

Oh, and you will be pleased to know that I received my first shirt with the outline of North Carolina on it. For our win, we received shirts that say Intramural Champion. Underneath the lettering is a small outline of NC with a star for Asheville. If my camera wasn't broken I would have posted a beautiful picture of me in my shirt. I will spare you this one time

I know, it was big time. I am proud (of the shirt)..

Granada!

Well. I have waited for some time to actually do this post.

Spain. This is where I will more than likely for the entirety of my next year in school. I turned in my application to study in Granada, Spain yesterday. Everyday I get a little more excited about the idea which will hopefully be a reality soon. I am a Spanish major at UNCA and have been talking about it for months trying to imagine what it will be like. I am hopefully going with a program called Granada Sur Experiences. It is a smaller program, which I like, and is in connection with the University of Granada.

As you can see from the above map with Granada circled in red it is a city in southern Spain close to the ocean but it is also at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains. I really don't have much reasoning for picking this particular place. I spent a fair amount of time talking to a few of my professors and friends who actually studied there. I also seem to just 'run into' a lot of PBS specials on Spain and in particular, Granada. So I have decided to go there. I hope to see lots of this:

and maybe some of these:



And then stare at this view for awhile:




I think I could also be ok with being less than 45 minutes from this:

All this to say is that I'm going to start reading all I can about this fair city of Granada. From what Wikipedia tells me it is a great town for university students (check), has a great night life (check) and is a wonderful city (check). Who knows, maybe I'll even meet a cute Spanish boy... (don't worry Mom and Dad, I make sure he checks out).

Also, it will be great opportunity for me to take a few side trips. That being said, I am starting a list of all the connections I could possibly have in Europe while over there. So, if you know of anyone that wouldn't mind a surprise visit (planned of course) from an American college kid trying to see Europe, by all means let me know!!

Stay tuned for what will be more fabulous posts on this new adventure I may be having in the life of mine!

Life is Like a Roll of Toilet Paper

I am a Spanish major. Every time I say this out loud the responses vary widely. I have received "Oh. that is neat." to "What the hell are you going to do with that?" I say this because I have chosen not to pair Spanish with a minor. Probably not the smartest decision but I will figure that out later. I feel like if I know a foreign language I'll be ok somewhere. That being said it has given me lots of room to take some interesting classes at UNCA. Last semester was Portuguese and Political Science. This semester is peppered with Meteorology and Media Ethics. Yep. Kind of weird. This post is dedicated to my Meteorology class.

I have actually always been interested in weather. It fascinates me how much it can control our lives and how it is THE constant variable in any conversation between people. Always. So I thought I would try it out. Only two weeks in and it has been a very special treat. My professor has already become my favorite I have had in my time at UNCA. He is a small Asian man with a very thick Asian accent. This proves difficult at times in class but he is very good at writing words on the board so we know what he is talking about. He also gets off on random tangents in class about life and life lessons. Today it was toilet paper.

He had brought in a plunger to talk to us about air pressure and vacuums. This also means he brought in a roll of toilet paper just for fun. After completing the demonstation he gave the class a five minute speech comparing our lives to toilet paper. Even within that speech he spent 30 seconds talking about how ugly new borns are. Back to the toilet paper. He held up the roll and said it was a metaphor for our life. Of course everyone giggled. He then talked about how the roll starts out big and becomes unwound. Slower feeling at first and then when you get down closer to the core it seems to go faster and faster. Then he broke a piece off and told us we were all fragile and our rolls can break at anytime. He then told us to go out and live a good life and ended by raising the roll high above his head and saying "cheers to you all." We then casually went back to talking about air pressure and jet streams.

Yeah. That basically sums this class up. I learn a whole lot about weather and whole lot about life. He is a very smart man and I enjoy his musings very much. I have yet to leave that class without a smile on my face.

And as funny as it is...

Life IS like a roll of toilet paper. Lot's of different kinds, sizes, patterns, textures, and opinions about how it should be unrolled. But in the end it is essentially toilet paper with one supposed to be Ultimate purpose (insert assertions here) and when it is used for other things like cleaning up spills it doesn't work out so much...so..

Cheers to toilet paper!

side note. I actually strongly dislike the Charmin commercials. They are what you would call a def awk sitch (definitely awkward situation for those who don't do abbreviations) but since these bears had no toilet paper I gave them a second chance.