tadaima
I'm back from the states! It was a great visit, though I'm looking forward to May/June when I'll be heading back for good. I was readmitted to BYU (!!!!) last week, so once again I'm a BYU student. It's a nice feeling that after two years I'm to a point where I can return to where I left off. Well sort of. I'll have a shiny Associate's degree from UMUC which I wouldn't have been able to get at BYU, so this situation has worked out for the best.
Utah wasn't as cold as Baumholder, Germany, but it was much snowier. Shoveling snow is the mowing the lawn of the Winter. Though it's weird. Even though yardwork is tiring and time-consuming, it was kind of nice to do. I've never lived in a house with a nice yard until I moved to Utah. I get the feeling that when I go back in May my Dad will enlist my help with moving the lawn and all that fun stuff until I get to school. Yardwork is one of those things that makes you feel accomplished, like "see that immaculately clear sidewalk? Yeah I totally shoveled that."
It was a bit quieter in the house as well, since I didn't have my siblings around to make noise, but that was alright because a cat filled that void. Over the years he's become noisier and noisier. If you're not looking at him with attention he will meow at you. He would sit on my bed, meowing, to make sure that I would wake up and give him attention. Aww I missed Friskie. Since being back in Germany, my cat here has meowed twice. It's almost odd.
Even though I was on "vacation" it wasn't really so because my classes were still in session. I had such a better work ethic there however, because my PS3 wasn't staring me down from above with a neglectful expression. I actually finished my English paper two days before it was due. That is unusual for me. Also unusual is that my teacher must be quite easily impressed because she keeps giving me 'A's for work I didn't think deserved it. After I finished the draft I figured "screw it" and turned it in as is and she liked it. Now that I'm back I have a research paper due a week from now and my motivation is lacking. Makes me wish I had a subconscious persona that loved writing so I could black out and come to and my paper would be done. I mean, papers really aren't that hard to do, it's just a huge time investment that I would rather spend doing something else. Well in a week I'll be seven more credits closer to my degree! Only two more classes and I am finished with UMUC:
SPCH125- An online speech class. Basically the easy way out so I don't have to take a public speaking class. This is called "Interpersonal Communications."
CMIS310- Computer Systems and Architecture. My comfort zone :D
I'm excited to be done. Maybe this will be my motivational momentum; the fact that the finish line is within my sight. I'm already feeling motivated to get this paper done.
Back to Utah, visiting BYU was a great time as mentioned in previous entries. I'm excited to go back!
Christmas was wonderful. I got some sweet loot. It was nice to have Christmas with my Dad again. Christmas 2007 was the first time my Dad hadn't had me around for Christmas so I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with him again. A few days after Christmas we went for a 10 day trip to California to visit all the family. Our first stop was in Chino Hills in SoCal, where my Grandma Jensen and Aunt live. If you saw my facebook pictures, this is where the demon cat was. Aww but Joey was still a nice cat even though she hated me so much. Female and Siamese will do that to a cat. When we arrived my stepmom's Ford Explorer was having lovely little rattling noises in the engine, a foreshadow of things to come.
Aunt Susan had a laptop where Windows stopped working and when she called Dell they told her that it would cost 500 dollars to fix. So she just said screw and bought a new better laptop. A day after I got there she asked me if I could try and fix it, because she still had a bunch of files on it that she needed. This is where I first became the family's IT guy. It turns out all she had to do was reinstall Windows. The Dell people failed to tell her that all she had to was boot it from the disc drive with the Windows setup disc and that's where the problem was. So I revived the laptop and she was able to get her stuff back. Since she had already bought a new laptop, she gave the newly revived one to me! Laptop get! It's not state of the art, but it will be good to take to class for notes. And the price wasn't bad either :P She also gave me a copy of Microsoft Enterprise 2007 that she got from her work for $20 where it would originally be a looooot a money retail.
Grandma made tamales and spanish rice for our new year's dinner. They were amazing. The next day it was mandatory for everyone to watch to Rose Parade and the Rose Bowl as mandated by my aunt. Then it was out for New Year's Day shopping in the wonderful southern California weather.
When we left to go to northern Calfornia to see my stepmom's family, the car battery died. Luckily we were still in the city and so we got a new battery. The Ford traveled without event to Napa, thank God. We took it to one of the family's mechanics for a check up and the timing belt on the engine went bad. A nice two grand to fix with a private mechanic shop. So we had to leave it with a Ford dealership to fix it just enough to get it back to Utah. We would end up renting a car for the trip back and my Dad will have to go back to Napa later to get the Ford back. Luckily my Dad works in the automotive industry so he knows his stuff.
Once I arrived to my grandparents house on my stepmom's side, I had a new job to do. Fix their internet. It wasn't too bad, just had to reset a few things and it was done. Then Troy, my stepmom's brother needed help getting iTunes on his computer. He didn't have Windows SP2 on his computer so I just found an earlier version of iTunes and it worked. I'm sure computer science majors get this kind of stuff from their families all the time.
I got to see cousins I haven't seen for quite some time as well as my Jensen cousins! My grandma Jensen was happy that she could get a picture of all three of her grandchildren together all at once.
When I got back to Utah I had bought so much stuff that it was a challenge getting it all in my suitcases. Then another extremely long flight. The old German woman sitting in front of me had her seat all the way back the entire time. I was not a happy camper :)
Now I'm back in Germany and it's back to work. I've got paperwork to do before I can start subbing again and a job opening has appeared in the Student After School services (SAS, at least I think that's what it stands for), so now I will start working pretty good now. I also have to start looking for off campus housing for when I go back to BYU. And a plane ticket. And a clinic for healthcare. I feel like I have a billion things to do. Well, one thing at a time.
Utah wasn't as cold as Baumholder, Germany, but it was much snowier. Shoveling snow is the mowing the lawn of the Winter. Though it's weird. Even though yardwork is tiring and time-consuming, it was kind of nice to do. I've never lived in a house with a nice yard until I moved to Utah. I get the feeling that when I go back in May my Dad will enlist my help with moving the lawn and all that fun stuff until I get to school. Yardwork is one of those things that makes you feel accomplished, like "see that immaculately clear sidewalk? Yeah I totally shoveled that."
It was a bit quieter in the house as well, since I didn't have my siblings around to make noise, but that was alright because a cat filled that void. Over the years he's become noisier and noisier. If you're not looking at him with attention he will meow at you. He would sit on my bed, meowing, to make sure that I would wake up and give him attention. Aww I missed Friskie. Since being back in Germany, my cat here has meowed twice. It's almost odd.
Even though I was on "vacation" it wasn't really so because my classes were still in session. I had such a better work ethic there however, because my PS3 wasn't staring me down from above with a neglectful expression. I actually finished my English paper two days before it was due. That is unusual for me. Also unusual is that my teacher must be quite easily impressed because she keeps giving me 'A's for work I didn't think deserved it. After I finished the draft I figured "screw it" and turned it in as is and she liked it. Now that I'm back I have a research paper due a week from now and my motivation is lacking. Makes me wish I had a subconscious persona that loved writing so I could black out and come to and my paper would be done. I mean, papers really aren't that hard to do, it's just a huge time investment that I would rather spend doing something else. Well in a week I'll be seven more credits closer to my degree! Only two more classes and I am finished with UMUC:
SPCH125- An online speech class. Basically the easy way out so I don't have to take a public speaking class. This is called "Interpersonal Communications."
CMIS310- Computer Systems and Architecture. My comfort zone :D
I'm excited to be done. Maybe this will be my motivational momentum; the fact that the finish line is within my sight. I'm already feeling motivated to get this paper done.
Back to Utah, visiting BYU was a great time as mentioned in previous entries. I'm excited to go back!
Christmas was wonderful. I got some sweet loot. It was nice to have Christmas with my Dad again. Christmas 2007 was the first time my Dad hadn't had me around for Christmas so I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with him again. A few days after Christmas we went for a 10 day trip to California to visit all the family. Our first stop was in Chino Hills in SoCal, where my Grandma Jensen and Aunt live. If you saw my facebook pictures, this is where the demon cat was. Aww but Joey was still a nice cat even though she hated me so much. Female and Siamese will do that to a cat. When we arrived my stepmom's Ford Explorer was having lovely little rattling noises in the engine, a foreshadow of things to come.
Aunt Susan had a laptop where Windows stopped working and when she called Dell they told her that it would cost 500 dollars to fix. So she just said screw and bought a new better laptop. A day after I got there she asked me if I could try and fix it, because she still had a bunch of files on it that she needed. This is where I first became the family's IT guy. It turns out all she had to do was reinstall Windows. The Dell people failed to tell her that all she had to was boot it from the disc drive with the Windows setup disc and that's where the problem was. So I revived the laptop and she was able to get her stuff back. Since she had already bought a new laptop, she gave the newly revived one to me! Laptop get! It's not state of the art, but it will be good to take to class for notes. And the price wasn't bad either :P She also gave me a copy of Microsoft Enterprise 2007 that she got from her work for $20 where it would originally be a looooot a money retail.
Grandma made tamales and spanish rice for our new year's dinner. They were amazing. The next day it was mandatory for everyone to watch to Rose Parade and the Rose Bowl as mandated by my aunt. Then it was out for New Year's Day shopping in the wonderful southern California weather.
When we left to go to northern Calfornia to see my stepmom's family, the car battery died. Luckily we were still in the city and so we got a new battery. The Ford traveled without event to Napa, thank God. We took it to one of the family's mechanics for a check up and the timing belt on the engine went bad. A nice two grand to fix with a private mechanic shop. So we had to leave it with a Ford dealership to fix it just enough to get it back to Utah. We would end up renting a car for the trip back and my Dad will have to go back to Napa later to get the Ford back. Luckily my Dad works in the automotive industry so he knows his stuff.
Once I arrived to my grandparents house on my stepmom's side, I had a new job to do. Fix their internet. It wasn't too bad, just had to reset a few things and it was done. Then Troy, my stepmom's brother needed help getting iTunes on his computer. He didn't have Windows SP2 on his computer so I just found an earlier version of iTunes and it worked. I'm sure computer science majors get this kind of stuff from their families all the time.
I got to see cousins I haven't seen for quite some time as well as my Jensen cousins! My grandma Jensen was happy that she could get a picture of all three of her grandchildren together all at once.
When I got back to Utah I had bought so much stuff that it was a challenge getting it all in my suitcases. Then another extremely long flight. The old German woman sitting in front of me had her seat all the way back the entire time. I was not a happy camper :)
Now I'm back in Germany and it's back to work. I've got paperwork to do before I can start subbing again and a job opening has appeared in the Student After School services (SAS, at least I think that's what it stands for), so now I will start working pretty good now. I also have to start looking for off campus housing for when I go back to BYU. And a plane ticket. And a clinic for healthcare. I feel like I have a billion things to do. Well, one thing at a time.