back to school, back to school, to prove to dad that i'm not a fool....

It's that time again - the most wonderful time of the year! In all honesty, though, I really do enjoy school. It's the whole 'getting up early and still going to bed late' part that I don't particularly care for. So far I like all of my classes. I have quite a smorgusbord.....orgusbord orgusbord....oh how I hate that movie, but I digress - I have some pretty random classes. 8:30 MWF mornings I have Intro to Animal Science. My teacher, Dr. Gentry, is very country and very bubbly and it's obvious she has passion for the subject. Besides teaching, she studies reproduction in horses and cattle, which can lead to some pretty entertaining stories during her lectures. Even though 8:30 is pretty early for me, I don't think I could ever fall asleep in her class. Then I head on to World History since 1500 at 9:30. Two of my friends from church are in there as well. Our teacher, Dr. Stater, looks just how you would picture any college history professor - glasses, balding, dry sense of humor, and cup of coffee always nearby. I think he could pass for Bill Murray's brother. Anyways I like him so far. At 10:30, I have to rush to the Military Science Building for my marksmanship class. My teacher, SFC Allen, said that he closes the door at 10:40 and we can knock until our knuckles bleed but he won't let us in. He sounds harsh, but he come on, he's a military man. We haven't started anything yet because he's waiting for people to stop adding and dropping the class, but I'm really looking forward to learning more about guns. Mondays will be lectures and Wednesdays we'll be in the range, using .22 pistols and .22 rifles. Look out Annie Oakley!

TTh I have Intermediate Cajun French at 9 am. I have a different teacher this year, Madame LaFleur, and I have a feeling that I'm going to learn more than I did last year. Earlene was a great teacher but we talked more about the culture and traditions than we practiced our French. Mme LaFleur said the class will be about 98% French, which is kind of intimidating but I know I'll learn more that way. I've spent the last two semesters with most everyone else in the class, so we're all good friends. There are a few newbies, including a girl who did immersion programs in Canada and France - so much for being the teacher's pet this year. The main focus for the class is Cajun folktales and stories, which will be fun. At 10:30 I head to the ginormous gym auditorium in the Cox Building for History of Jazz. I think it's the biggest classroom on campus, holding about 1000 students. I really like my teacher, Dr. Grimes (pictured to the right). He plays the stand-up bass in a jazz band, has composed arrangements for the Beach Boys, and is conducting the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood this weekend. Pretty impressive, huh? And suprisingly, he's not high-falootin' like so many music professors and musicians can be. My last class is at noon, a history class focusing on WWII. The first day my professor spent about 45 minutes talking about the syllabus (which I had finished reading in 2 minutes) and I was just thinking, "Great, this class is gonna stink!". Fortunately he proved me wrong on Thursday with a very interesting lecture on Hitler's beginnings. Apparently Hitler was born with only one testicle and he kept a small pistol in his crotch, something I don't find historically relevant, but a great attention-grabbing tidbit nonetheless. So yeah, it's definitely going to be an interesting semester. (PS - while searching for pictures in my boredom, I came across a few humorous ones................)

end of summer blues

The last Saturday (8/23) before school started we had a little pool party at my friend Brittany's apartment. The party consisted of swimming in her pool for about two hours and actin' a fool. Here are a couple of pictures of our shenanigans. Erica, Brittany, and I are sporting the 'Martha Washington' hairdo and Adam being goofy as usual.

still standing

I know, I know it's been like two weeks since I've posted. My best excuse is that school started this past Monday and I have been super busy! And getting used to waking up at 6:45 every morning has not been fun, especially because that's about 3-4 hours earlier than what I'm used to. Sigh. I would love to write more but already I have homework and LOTS of reading to do (courtesy of my history teachers). I promise I will make time to write away on Friday evening when I'm at work. Until then, toodles!

my favorite scotsman

I have a new favorite show - the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. I'd heard of it before but always had better things to do at 12 in the morning. Not anymore! This guy cracks me up sooooo much with his dashing good looks, charming personality, and adorable Scottish accent. This is a short clip from the other night:



Anywho, he's been talking a lot about the Olympics lately and he's had me laughing my butt off. I'd put the clip on here but it's like ten minutes long and I know y'all all have better things to do with your time, unlike me. My favorite thing that he said went a little something like this, though (don't take this personally, Dad and Ben):

"France's swimmers are really fast cause they want to get out of the water quick, obviously, in case someone throws a bar of soap in it! You've got to respect how the French swimmers keep their cigarettes lit during the race - now that's a technique!"

way togo!

Yesterday I was watching the men's whitewater kayak competition and I saw Benjamin Boukpeti win his country's first Olympic medal EVER. He is from Togo, a small country next to Ghana in West Africa. Even though he only got the bronze, everyone was cheering "Togo, Togo" and didn't really seem to care about the gold (Germany's Alexander Grimm) and silver (France's Fabien Lefevre) medalists. He was so happy he broke his paddle over the front of his kayak. You can see from the pictures his pure joy at accomplishing such an honor for his country. It was a really cool moment and I almost got emotional. Who knew the Olympics could get me like this? ps - I am very proud of the cleverness of my title.

favorite olympics commercials

Since I have been watching the Olympics nonstop, I've seen a lot of commercials - I mean A LOT. I've decided to share my favorites with y'all. The gold goes to NIKE, for an inspiring collection of images and videos set to the chorus of "All These Things That I've Done" by The Killers. The silver goes to GE, featuring a VERY ATTRACTIVE discus thrower and what really happened to the Parthenon. And the bronze goes to VISA, for their multiple inspiring, unbiased commercials narrated by none other than Morgan Freeman that almost bring me to tears every time I see one (I've only posted three here but there are quite a few more - you can see them on youtube or at http://usa.visa.com/microsites/goworld/?ep=v_sym_goworld). On the other hand, I am SO tired of seeing all of the Coke, McDonald's, and Budweiser commercials, talking about how they are proud sponsors of the Olympic games and all of the athletes consume their products regularly. In what universe could a person who eats McDonald's and drinks Coke and Bud all the time ever be a real Olympian? Not this one. Enjoy, and let me know what you think.

GOLD


SILVER


BRONZE

way to go lezak!

Since Friday night, I've spent just about every waking moment watching the games. The best event that I've seen so far was the men's 4X100 free final in swimming. Alain Bernard, a swimmer from the French relay team, said before the games, "The Americans - we're going to smash them. That's what we came here to do." Now I love the French, but when it comes down to the Olympics and they're smacktalking on the States, I'm going to be cheering for my fellow Americans. Especially when we win by the closest margin ever in the Olympics (8/100 of a second) and smash the previous world record. Loren and I were jumping up and down and screaming when it came down to the last 50 m. Once again, our retarded commentators kept saying, "He's (Lezak - our final swimmer) not gonna make it, France is getting the gold" and other crap like that - are these guys even American?! Whatever, who cares, WE WON!!! The best part was seeing Michael Phelps' reaction and the sullen looks on those Frenchies as they played OUR national anthem at the medal ceremony. Priceless.

let the games begin!

Yes, I know it's been quite a while since I've posted. I went to Florida and then out to Utah and Wyoming in the last couple of weeks and I spent last week recooperating. Don't worry, I will post about my adventures sooner or later, but I can't when I'm at work because I can't download my pictures onto my work computer. So, you'll have to settle for my thoughts so far on the 2008 Olympics being held in Beijing. I wasn't planning on really getting into the Olympics this year, because I never really have in the past (probably because I didn't get NBC before I graduated high school), but Loren suggested that we have an 'Olympics party'. We (Loren, Erica, Adam, and I) ate Chinese food and watched the opening ceremonies on Friday night - and now I'm quite the avid fan. The whole show was just visually stunning, to say the least, and I was quite impressed by it all. I loved the whole thing, but my favorite part was the 2008 drummers at the beginning - WOW!

And when the Chinese athletes came in, led by Yao Ming and the little nine-year-old boy who had saved some of his classmates after the earthquake in May, my eyes got a little watery.

And the whole torch-lighting part was awesome, too.

Unlike most people, I really enjoyed watching the March of the Nations. Loren and I were on the look out for some hot mens! We've decided we're definitely going to the next Olympics in hopes of finding our husbands - I think I can wait four years for that! Besides scouting out menfolks, I loved seeing all the different countries and the looks on the faces of the humble athletes. I thought it was very rude of the NBC commentators to make remarks like, "Oh, this country isn't good enough, they're not going to get any medals" and stuff like that. I'd like to see Bob Costas try to compete in any of these events - what a jerk! Just making it to the Olympics is such a great honor. It was cool trying to find any of the 16 athletes there who are past or present LSU students. We have two swimmers, twelve track and field athletes (Loren knows all of them!), and two women's basketball players (Sylvia Fowles is pictured below), so that's pretty cool. There are also 18 Mormons competing in the Olympics this year. Check it out at http://famousmormons.net.