almost there!

This week has not been too bad. I got the bulk of my work done before Easter so as long as I pace myself well I should not have any more stressful days the rest of the year! I'm on duty this weekend so I have to stay in the building tonight and all day tomorrow. However, we do have our Triad (the area in which I live) Palooza tomorrow afternoon. We will be having tacos, games, and live music. It should be pretty fun! Also tonight I will be spending several hours with some other girls cooking all the meat for tomorrow. Then tomorrow night we have our Mi Familia Gala. The Gala is the end of the year banquet that includes the Hispanic organizations from UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke, and NC State. We all get dressed up, eat yummy food, and have awards. It should be pretty fun!

I also had a small scare this week when I called in to Stone Ridge Tavern to line-up summer work. The manager I talked to told me that they had been having so many college students just come back and pick-up random nights here and there but then not be availabe to work when needed. She said that since they needed more consistant/relaible staff they were requiring all college students to "reapply" and interview in order to get hired again for the summer. She also said that they were not hiring very many people. I THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO HAVE TO LOOK FOR OTHER WORK! So, I called my dear friend Hannah who works there full-time, prayed about it...maybe God had other summer plans for me..., and waited. Hannah called me back today after talking to the other (more "normal") manager and the owner and since I will be coming back for the whole summer they are fine if I want to work there and I don't need to reapply. WHEW! Glad I have that into place!

I believe...

Here's how the "I believe" game goes: write 5 beliefs or rules you live by. You can't be preachy, serious, religious, or political.

1.) I believe in setting goals and then striving to achieve them, whether they are daily to-do list or life long dreams.

















2.) I believe in dancing like people ARE watching.


















3.) I believe in taking naps (sometimes even when you're not tired).















4.) I believe in being tan (there's no excuse in the summer).











5.) I believe in letting you hair air dry and just being natural (but NOT greasy).









WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE IN????

The whether is nice these days!

I am really enjoying the whether. I have been increasing my running time and it is much more enjoyable to do long runs outside as opposed to the indoor track or treadmill.

This weekend I am quite busy... Today I had my Sigma Delta Pi Xi Omicron (National Spanish Honors Fraternity) Initiation Ceremony. Then tonight I will be working on Destino "stuff" for Latino Visitation Day. So, tomorrow morning is Latino Visitation Day is tomorrow morning beginning at 8am. All Latino's that have been admitted to NC State University are invited to come and spend a Saturday, their families included, with the current Latino students on our campus (...and, well, me!). All the Latino organizations, including Destino, will have tables with information (which is what we have to work on tonight), etc.


Tomrrow night we have a Destino movie night and we will be watching "End of the Spear"...a movie about missionaries in Ecuador (two being Jim Elliot and Nate Saint) who were martyred by the Auca Indian Tribe. The tribe later became a Christian tribe due in part to the missianaries' sacrifice.


I will spend the in between times doing some homework and such. On a happy academic note, I finished my history paper on Mexican Immigration two weeks early (it's due the Monday after Easter) and turned in a "first draft" to my professor to get feedback....Ah, I LOVE being ahead.

Enjoy the day; it's beautiful!

Destino

Tonight in Destino we had a guest speaker. Pastor Gabriel (form Silvia's Hispanic Church) came with his wife Claudia to have an open "forum" where we could ask any questions we had about faith, religion, God, life, etc. Pastor Gabriel is from Mexico where he has planted several churches and is currently pursuing his doctoral studies in theology, while simultaneously pastoring a Hispanic church here in the US.

It was such a treat to have them come an share! Also, four Destino members made public confessions of faith after being challenged by Pastor Gabriel's talk.

God is working on NC State's Campus.

Bill Santiago

Mi Familia, NC State's Hispanic organization, had their culture show last night. We flew in Bill Santiago, a Puerto Rican Comedian from New York to host our show. It cost us $2000 for him to agree to the gig.

Cory, Ekaterina, Me, Bill Santiago, and Melanie

After the show there was an after party with Latin dancing at a local restaurant. To my surprise Bill Santiago made it to the after party (I hope we were not still paying him!!). I figured it was a one in a life time opportunity, so I asked him to dance. He said yes.

So, it's official. I have now danced THREE Salsa songs with Bill Santiago.

(you can Google him or click on the link to his NAME above to hear some of his stand-up)

Today is a warm day! I think I will sit outside to do my homework.

Thursday's are my favorite day because I only have one class. This morning I woke up and ran 45 minutes, ate breakfast, and now I am about to go to my one class of the day. Later this afternoon I might go and visit Heather (my friend with the 5 children, 2 of them the new little twin boys), work on homework outside, and then I have community group with my church. Community Groups are just small groups from church that meet bi-weekly to discuss, encourage, and pray together.

Last night I went to a program called Breaking the Beauty Box. Rosie Molinary, author of "Hijas Americans" (American Daughters) was the speaker. She is a Puerto Rican lady who writes and speaks on growing up Latina and dealing with body image. She talked about media influences and how we as the future generation can begin to change the way our society views beauty. She was a facinating speaker and I especially liked her because she and her husband just adopted a littly boy from Ethopia....he was precious!

I am also reading Passion and Purity by Elizabeth Elliott and enjoying it very much. (Remember my New Year's Resolution was to read more for fun!)

The days are just packed!

So, Spring break was a great and much needed break....however it is OVER!...and I have hit the ground running without stopping since I've been back.

Let's see....

Strangely enough I am nearing the end of the semester, or so it feels, as I have been given details for all of the thousands of final projects and papers of the semester. I have started working on them and my goal is to get the done way ahead of time.

I have recently increased my running days and distance. I was feeling as though my in-shape-ness was dwindling and since the weather was nice I figured it would be a good time to pick up the pace. So far this week I have increased my schedule to a 5 day a week plan (previously only 4) and increased my cardio time (mostly running) from 30 minutes to 40 minutes...and hopefully will continue increasing as I get into better shape.

I am really on a nutrition kick! This is mostly due to the fact that I am taking an awesome nutrition class. We recently did this awesome computerized food diary project and it was super eye-opening. A few (but not all) of my new additions are: literally half my plate at dinner is comprised of veggies, drinking 3/4 cup of grape juice each day (not old enough to drink wine yet...but I still need those anti-Occidents), and eating a VAREITY of foods. The best way to get in all those macro and micronutrients is variety. The rule in our class is NO food is bad. Granted moderation is key, but it has been fun learning how to incorporate random things into my diet to increse my nutrition...like potato chips?!?!?...that's right! (check out MyPyramid.gov it's the new and improved PERSONALIZED food pyramid website!!!).

Destino takes up a lot of time, but I love it. We continue to grow each week!! and I am currently meeting weekly with both Gladys and Berenisse for disciplship... they are fun girls!

I am tutoring a sweet ESL girl every Wednesday morning. She is in the 11th grade and can't read English well at all. This week we worked on her English homework and it took us 35 minutes to complete one question. The book she was reading was WAY over her level and just helping her understand the question (without just telling her) took 10 minutes. We have to break down each work individually!

I have a little bit of a tan from Spring break!!!....WHAT WHAT!

I got a 100% on my most recent School, Politics, and Society Exam....which is great considering I got a 75% on the first exam in the class (thankfully she drops the lowest exam grade!).

This Saturday I am doing Breast Casting with the Women's Center. Yes, you read that right...Breast (and adomine) casting. It's to raise money and awarenss for breast cancer. A few other RA's, some of our residents, and myself are going to do it together. ...what better way to bond and get past insecurities!...haha.

...well that's probably enough schocking news for now. Thanks for reading.