There's no place like home!

So after roughing it with finals, I'm back home for a long time! School doesn't start for me again until January 20th. SO FAR AWAY! But I'm glad. My classes next semester aren't looking very appetizing right now...

I start out with "Modern Asia" on MWF from 9:10-10:05, followed by Intermediate Chinese II, also MWF, from 10:20-11:15. After I break for lunch, I have a MW class called "Business Communications" from 12:40-2:05. That one's a bit longer cause it's only twice a week.

Then I have two TR classes (That's Tuesday, Thursday. Thursday is an R in college.), the first being Elementary Japanese II from 9:40-11:05. The next is International Economics (ugh) from 2:40-4:05. But that's it! I only have two Friday classes and hardly any afternoon classes, which is what I like!

Since I've been home, I've sent out my secret santa gift, stolen a space heater for myself (ehehehe), and submitted an internship application for FedEx Services... hopefully this all works out! :D

And now, for the picture dump. Not a lot this week, folks.

A picture from finals week: Li You write an email to her friend, Wang Peng. She looks dead inside, like I did that week! Hahaha! HAHAHAHA!

I also tried bubble tea for the first time. Not bad at all, but a little sweet!! Reminds me of milk tea in China. :)

I also tried making sesame chicken. It was really bad. :(

Alex and I on out post-final Kroger trip to buy "college kid food." Read: Diet Coke and bagel bites.

A DIY project from 7th or 8th grade. Really cute! The candy cane on the left is something from intermediate school, I think.

Here you see a depiction of Mackenzie in her natural habitat, applying for things and trying to forget that she has to go back to school in a month.

Mackenzie is ALIVE!

So you might be asking, "Where is Mackenzie? did she forget about her blog again? What's going on?"

WELL. First Mackenzie had thanksgiving break, which was great! Then she had pre-finals... then she had finals! But now she's done and also referring to herself in third.

So I had several projects last week, and in one of them a group member abandoned the class (the week of finals!!!!) and us, his group, so it was really rough. And also a really long research paper.

Gonna do a pic-dump cause I only got a few hours of sleep in last night (tossing and turning a lot :( ) and I'm going to take a nap sometime today but right now I'm just really really tired.

Alex and I at Thanksgiving!!! It was really nice seeing him, gonna miss him when he moves to Florida too. :(

Mackenzie got to decorate the tree by herself. There was helped from a tall-standing guest as well, and a bit from Alex!! It was really fun, if a little... stressful. 

Delilah also took to our guest very quickly... I got pretty jealous. She hardly ever lays like that with me!!

Another picture with a tour group, this time with another unsuspecting student from my Japanese class...

Funny enough, this exact room had problems with people sneaking in last year... And there lies the screen, the proof of the case. :P

HSC did our own version of white elephant, but we called it "White Tiger!" I bet you can guess which gift is mine.... And NO there were no crackers in that box! It was filled with a lot of nerdy goodies... but no one knows. ;)

I got this sweet mug (god I LOVE mugs) and a pepsi. I gave the pepsi to an honors dumpling (aka honors freshman) and kept the mug... used it for coffee later that night!

I'm 20 now. An adult, right? So if I want to make butt rolls at 7pm I can make butt rolls, right?

hehehehe. butt rolls.

DELICIOUS! But not as good as mom and dad's!

I also purchased this tiny yarn ornament. I really couldn't resist. SO cute.

I can make it, I can make it, I can make it...

So yesterday I was GOING to update my blog, but I woke up with a headache that got worse as the day progressed, and then the nausea came! Eugh! Luckily Nathan was over until about 7:30 and he was helping me mope through it.

So now today I'm able to make this post! It's really, because my pageviews go UP down UP down each day even when I'm not posting! This blog is brand new and I'm almost to 500 views! One time I had 25 views from Poland! Now Poland is gone and I have 4 from China! 你好中国！(Hello China!) :)

So this is the last full week of the semester. I have several things to do...

1. MGMT synthesis paper
2. IC synthesis paper
3. IC research paper (kinda excited for this but I haven't start yet... maybe I'll go by the library today!)
4. JAPN final project (I'm doing a lot better in that class than I thought I was-- probably going to be an A)
5. STUDY STUDY STUDY CHINESE! 

And now some pictures...

I thought Papa would like this. Ever wonder how Kroger sets up their displays? I caught this right between Halloween and Christmas..

This one is for mom! I found out this year how EXPENSIVE olive oil was! Like wow! Sow hen I found this in the bargain section (it's ~*~organic~*~ too) I snagged it up!

I also decided that I'm an adult and if I want to make french toast for dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow at 9PM than I can!!

"The day the leaves fell
Small yellow fans spinning down
Autumn's warmth is gone"
This is the day it got REALLY really gold, and ALL the ginko leaves just went PLOOF and fell. It was beautiful and a little sad! I really liked seeing them change with little tinges of gold and green. There were just these puddles of golden leaves ALL over campus!

I have to take a step out and take a second to explain this. As an officer of Honors Student Council I was chosen with maybe 15 other students to talk and interview with potential provost candidates. The last lunch is today! I've had a lot of fun interviewing. One candidate is from the University of Missouri, one is from Wayne State (I think. It's in Michigan!) and the last one if from the University of Memphis here. The first speaker was really good, he came in knowing what he wanted to say but also asked us what we needed to do on campus. He wanted to improve graduation rates and increase study abroad involvement (he said we could potentially DOUBLE the amount of money for scholarships!! Wowza! I'll hold him to that!)

This is the second lunch. I didn't enjoy this speaker as much. The lunch was muddled, we kind of floated from question to question and his goals were very vague. Okay, you want to get to know students and stuff-- great. University of Memphis has a 13% involvement rate (how many students are in clubs/groups/etc.), so how are you going to do that? You're going to cut out gen. eds because many kids don't need them coming out of high school-- what about adult students who are 10-15 years out of high school? Hmmm? HMMMM? Anyway, the lunches were BOTH delicious. A great break from the noodles at the Asian place downstairs... Mom I'll tell you more about this when I'm home! :)

Picture from game night! The turnout was GREAT! We had a few kids from Christian Brother's (CBU, our neighboring university) honors program come over. The CBU honors kids are sooooo great! I wish we could do more with them, but they plan their semester events so rigidly! Argh! But I love 'em! We also had a good turnout of freshman. This was a really chill event to kill stress as the semester winds down. Disney movies, Roger and Hammerstein's Cinderella, coloring, STAR WARS MONOPOLY (I WOOOON!), and some video games.

So I think this semester will wrap up nicely. I'm keeping my eye on Fed-Ex internships, but they haven't been posted yet (so sad!) and I'm keeping my eyes open for study abroad opportunities. I'm so much less stressed now that my CLS application is in. It's done! Over with! All I have to do is wait, and if I don't get it, so what? I'll have an internship lined up! As for studying abroad, if I do make it into the CLS program, I want to study abroad in Japan next, perhaps in Spring 2016. I want to be a well-rounded East Asian student!

That's all for now. Have a great Thanksgiving everyone! It's almost break time, we can do it!!!

Because nothing screams "PRODUCTIVITY" like loud music and ten cups of coffee....

Playing the catch-up game in college can be rough. A lot of times it turns into a horrible cycle.
A. Forget to do something.
B. Worry about thing while you try to do other things.
C. Don't get other things or forgotten thing done.
D. Freak out.
E. Return to A!

Either THAT happens, or you remain in such a permanent state of stress and worry that it's just hard to get things done. Like, okay, should I start on my 15-20 page paper first, or one of the three projects I have coming up, or study Chinese, or Japanese, or do online work for classes, or scholarship work, or HSC work??? I've gotten better at to-do lists but I just have a hard time tackling them. It's like halfway through I get discouraged and wonder how I can finish it all....

...which is why I've hunkering down this Sunday, with music music and coffee, to play catch-up. Right now, this is what I have to do in the order I'm doing it:

1. Finish CLS application (mostly essay stuff-- ugh!)
2. Do online MGMT quizzes (at least a couple)
3. Finish JPN HW
4. Finish CHIN HW
5. Pick a day to go to the library and research (ewwww)
6. Email JPN teacher
7. MGMT book presentation
8. JPN final presentation
9. MGMT group presentation
10. Do more MGMT quizes
11. Do some music appreciation work
12. Finish laundry

(This is me right now)

VERY soon I'm going to submit my application for the 2015 CLS program. I can't even begin to say how important this is to me. I worked really hard on my essays, even when they got critiqued really bad. Here's to hoping!!! 

I think I'll be okay. Just gotta focus. The semester is almost over! Almost there! Just gotta keep goin'!

These are the prettiest trees on Campus, in my opinion. Right outside Nathan's dorm! (That's his building on the left!)

This was Saturday, which was a campus day for high-schoolers... Look at our poor Tom Tiger! :( Might have to zoom in to see the shenanigans...

Autumn is here!!!

My secret project!!! What could I be working on?? You'll find out when I finish! (Look at the size of the needles-- pencil for scale!)

You saw it here first, folks. One of my roommates has purchased -live- lettuce. It is (living?) in our fridge now. This is as fresh as it gets. I'm not sure how it works though, seeing as there is no light unless the fridge is open... there's no airflow, and of course it's very chilly. I don't think it will be alive much longer. In other news, Steve Irwin looks great in the window!

So, uh, I have a toaster now! One of our honors freshman bought a $30 toaster (mom, did you just cringe? :) ) Yes, a $30 toaster. He had no idea what to do with it, so I gave him a 20, told him I'd make him some spaghetti, and now I have a toaster! I would never pay $30 for a toaster, and $20 is still ridiculous (but I can't cheap out a poor (literally) freshman!) but I had some frozen waffles that I needed a toaster for. And this TOASTER guys. It makes PERFECT toast. and anything! everything is perfect. CRUNCHY on the outside and SOFT of on the inside EVERY time. Never burns anything. Dream toaster.

Ah, the low standards of college. :)

Catching up!!

Gonna make a picture-filled post about what I've been up to recently because I've been out for a long time!

This was on facebook; I was on the way to a group meeting and saw a tour group, so, naturally.....

Beautiful sunrise!! I think this was Friday, actually! This is from the third floor of my apartment looking out over the southern parking lot and police services. 

This was my Halloween makeup. Witchy witchy!

Some pretty flowers I passed. There's a rose garden near Jones Hall on campus. Unfortunately, this year there weren't a lot of blooms. I found these pretty small roses though!

Ah yes. This guy... he was... uh... the guy who wrote the manifesto with Marx! Yeah! That guy!

Tom Tiger up in the UC! Halloween was also homecoming day.

Some brownie-cookies I made for the honors student council scary movie night!!

This is REALLY funny but might need a little explaining. I few posts ago I mentioned anime, japanese-style animation. The characters on the SIDE OF THIS CAR are from a kids-teens show called Naruto. It's something I watched in middle school, so I recognize them... These ladies, in skimpy clothes instead of their normal, not-slimpy outfits, were on the side of this car. ALSO ON THE HOOD. ALSO ON THE OTHER SIDE!

This was a beautiful moment at movie night where Rachel (mon amour) got a ball to stop halfway through her goal!

Got a coke, brownie, and BBQ nachos!!!

Nathan and I ready to head home for my birthday!!!

Waiting on the boo to grab some clothes.

A train stopped on the tracks. I don't know what was wrong, but it was pretty cool to see!

About my birthday!!! 

I had a GREAT birthday. I loved all my presents (I got a ton of cool stuff, like USB-heated mittens, a mixer, a panda blanket, an amazon card! It was all great!) but I think the best present I got was something a lot cheesier...

When I got home, I was greeted by my mom and a warm fire and my cat, with snacks. Then we went to lunch and had a delicious dinner that evening! Then when I got back, I also celebrated with Nathan's family.

Something that I never realized when I was little was how much love you receive on birthdays. It was all about the presents for me. But this birthday is different because of all the stuff I'm juggling at the time. I never had time to think about how many people loved me. My friends and my family both gave me so much love on my birthday that I've been glowing since Saturday. Nothing can bring me down! That was the best present, all the love I got. Thank you everyone for that!

Burnt-out Sunday

Who is ready for fall break? This student is! Ugh. I've never had so much trouble waking up in the morning as I am now. I thought I could do this 8AM thing at first, it didn't seem so bad.. now, though, the struggle is real.

NO MORE 8AM CLASSES. EVER.

Anyway, this week has been okay. Monday I had classes. Tuesday I didn't. Wednesday I had classes. Thursday I didn't. Friday I had classes. SAME OLD SAME OLD.

BUT! On Friday, HSC held a lip-sync battle inspired by Jimmy Fallon and Emma Stone. There IS a video of the performance and I will have it up ASAP along with a duet I did with Nathan to Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" as well. But I won! It was really cool, and everyone was just really really into it. Some people did songs not even to compete, just cause! My first two songs were only a minute! I started off with "Hit Me Baby One More Time," which I dedicated to Rachel, and for my second song performed the less-known "First Love" by the Macabees because of the fun play-on-words the song has. For the final song I did the full performance of "Love Me Dead" by Ludo, which is crazy and perfect for such an outrageous event.

Friday night Nathan and I settled in to binge watch a new TV show (Log Horizon-- an anime about people who become trapped in a virtual-reality video game) when suddenly, the TV turns off. Cortana turns off. The lamps turn off. But the ceiling light stays on. Both really confused, we went over to my roommates room to find out what happened. HER outlets were still working, as were the outlets in my bathroom...

So what gives???

We called the front desk and the VERY nice maintenance supervisor walked me through flipping a breaker (???) which didn't work, then one of the apartment managers (I assume that's who she was. She knows me and a lot of other apartment people by name and handles problems) came up in her pajamas, flipped the CORRECT breaker, and found out we had a trip. So maybe that's what's caused it? Not sure.

So the outlet power is back. Maintenance will be here Monday to look at the trip. Thankfully the breaker box isn't in my room!

However, there were a few interesting things this week...

Gorgeous sky outside Sunday evening. Look at those clouds! Beautiful!

Construction on the school's new dorms is under way... I keep hearing rumors about a housing shortage but I don't think I have to worry about that because I live off-campus now, yay! What's funny about this is that when you look closely, you can see the base red color of the building has been sprayed on, yet around the corner there was a worker up on a uppy-risey-truck thing painting the windowsills the same color...

I've started eating lunch at honors hall. It's really nice. Couches. Decor. Plug-ins for chargers. Everyone shuffles in as their classes end, and I usually end up staying here from around 11:30 to 2:00, because I have class at 2:20. Then Rachel and I walk over to our classes cause they're close, and then we meet up and walk right back. It's awesome.

This is what I called "getting trained." It means when you're walking towards the tracks with the intent to cross, from either side, a train appears out of nowhere and lasts for ten minutes. Some people try to run and make it. Some people DO make it. But most of us just sit and wait.

Messy desk aside, look what I made! AND I STILL HAVE ANOTHER TUBE OF THESE IN THE FRIDGE! YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Ready for DnD! We have out sessions every Saturday in a very old room in the front (back?) of South Hall-- the guy's dorm on campus. No one but one kid ever comes in, and he just comes in to use the ice machine. It's pretty great. I got that hat for $3.

Post-McDonald's run. Sessions usually run for a really long time so we break for food. Sometimes it's pizza. Sometimes it's McDonalds. I packed two chicken biscuits to eat but did trade some candy with the group in return for a large fry... yum!

AND VOILA! The infinity scarf I finished last night while two of the other players were locked in a battle-to-the-death with an avatar-of-the-god-of-destruction orc for right to leadership of their tribe! I'm hoping to do a sweater soon, but after looking it up I will probably stick with scarves. 

In other news, I still have to write a book report on a management book about focus. Not complaining, but... UGGGGH SO BORING BOOK REPORTS ARE FOR MIDDLE SCHOOLERSSSSSSSS. Give me a huge paper to write and I can do it, but a book report??? I barely forced myself to write the introduction, and I'm not even done yet!!! do book reports have a thesis??? HOW DOES ANY OF THIS WORK???

ANYWAY. Tonight I'll be heading over to Bartlett to eat dinner with Nathan's family, a Sunday tradition we have. Tonight we're having jambalaya, Nathan's favorite. Afterwards Nathan and I are going to run down to Michael's (craft shop) down poplar and I'm going to pick up more yarn while he looks at craft things.

That's all that's going on here! I'm going to go have a snack.