my boss suggested pole dancing as a good way to excersize
Rafa is dancing with her sparkler. Ah, the joys of a slow shutter speed...
At the city fireworks display, the girls were willing to stand in line for about half an hour to purchase cotton candy, so here they are, returning with their prize. Thankfully, they shared with us less-patient folks!
My camera died before I could get any impressive fireworks shots, but the fireworks show itself wasn't bad at all. The dead camera gave me the opportunity to better focus on the display.
After the public display, we went home to light sparklers and set off our own fountains.
One of my coworkers recommended Inhale, a daily, televised, instructional yoga show to me after griping to her about being unable to find a suitable yoga class in the area. Bright and early this morning, my VCR taped the show, and I excitedly lit my candles and unrolled my yoga mat this evening, ready to try yoga yet again. As my mother put it, Inhale seems to be yoga for New Yorkers. The instructor cracks obnoxious jokes and shouts, "Hurry! Hurry!" thus breaking any meditative silence that might exist. Loud, obnoxious, upbeat background music played in the background, ranging from Caribbean beats to something that would be more appropriate in a revival tent than in my living room. I have no clue how anyone is expected to calm themselves with the aid of this program, as I pushed "stop" a little while after the first commercial break ended.
Foreign Movie Night was early this week, and we watched one of my favorite movies, L'Auberge Espagnole, a story about the adventures of a Frenchman studying abroad in Barcelona. While in the car on the way home, my own study abroad plans became the topic of discussion, and another can of worms was opened. My residency requirements allow me 2 semesters spent studying abroad, yet I want to go to Dublin, Paris and Tokyo. On one hand, spending the entire year in one place would be beneficial because of the improvements to my language skills and the depth of culture I would experience; in that case, I would spend the entire year in France. On the other hand, it would be exciting to experience multiple cultures, especially if they were from different continents, but I think just as I would be finally settling in, it would be time for me to leave. This fall, I will be starting Japanese classes that would allow facilitate my time in Japan, but I am starting to wonder if I shouldn't add Spanish on as my third language instead. My mother brought up the point that Spanish would be a more logical career choice since there are a lot of environmental issues in which to become involved in Latin America, and she countered my arguement that Spanish can be learned anywhere by pointing out that Japanese classes are not difficult to find in Seattle. At this point, I am starting to sway toward switching my additional language to Spanish, but I really don't know. I wish I could just take all three... why can't I just be a language major?