Girl + Midget

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnjlZBzAAbw

This is mostly for my sisters. Sarah Jane and I were singing Moon doggie's rendition of Gidget and we got caught up on youtube looking for James Darren. This was the fruit of our labor.

rail sliders

I have the rockin pleasure of walking up lots and lots of stairs everyday. As hard as they were at the beginning of the semester, they are kind of fun now. No, I'm not trying to sound super in shape we know that exercise is the last thing I've ever done, but I think of it as a little race up the steps and if you do it quick it really isn't so bad. Anyhow-- because of the so many stairs I have been noticing people's awkward movements and social mannerisms on the stairs. You can pass on either side if you are a boy and you're in hurry. If you are walking with someone it is best if you are on either side of the railing instead of trying squish onto one stair with your backpacks bumping and then everytime you try to make eye contact you trip a little- not good. Also, you shouldn't follow super close to the people in front of you. I hate hearing people breathe behind me, as much as I hate tailgating in a car it is much worse when you're just trying to walk on campus. I have noticed that people only slide down the railings when they are in a group of people. And it makes me mad a little bit because I don't like that people only "really live" when they're in a group. I may just be noticing these things because Malinda is a sociology major now and she really likes it, and so I feel like I should really like it, either way I have noticed. But people of the blogosphere... yesterday within a 30 second time period I saw 2 grown men slide down a section of the railing, and yep you guessed it- all on their lonesome. When I saw the first guy do it I smiled super big and was thinking of the awesome blog post I could write. But then I walked up a few more and I saw another do it! This time I could not contain myself and probably laughed out loud a wee bit. It was the best.

Longest Car Cd experience

So last year for my birthday, my friend Collin gave me the Someone Still Loves you Boris Yeltsin CD- also known as "sslyby" -as if that is easier to say. I think we put the CD into my car on April 14- it was a couple days after the actual day of birth. It has been in there since yesterday. I had never put it onto iTunes because I pretty much listen to it everytime I'm in the car. I didn't even know what the songs were called or what albums they were on, etc. But today I put it on my iTunes making it about 11 months that a CD was in the exact same spot on the disc exchange in my car. Pretty long, must be a good band. Thanks for the tunes Collin!

New tunes

One of the great things I love about having Sarah Jane as my room mate are the great tunes that flow from our little bedroom. She finds good stuff, I find good stuff and we dance and press repeat way too many times if we really like it. I have been making a little list of the artists that I must look into and use my trusty iTunes gift card from my parents from Christmas. But I decided to just post the goodies here. No worries, I did not opt for the songs to automatically begin- that is obnoxious. You have no idea how loud your sound is and then you are not paying attention in economics and you click on someone's blog link and wow suddenly the whole class knows that Becca is not paying attention. Anyway just scroll down a little and click play on the playlist.
Speaking of me calling myself Becca, this is a new thing. In Jerusalem they had Becca written on all my documents and my name tag so it just stuck. Now I think I introduce myself as Becca and I don't know how I feel about it yet. It's not quite comfortable yet. Well now it is super awkward to end blog posts so uh over and out.

maps

Yep. I like map fabric. Any ideas for the couple yards of "Peace on earth" map fabric I got for Christmas? I was thinking maybe a skirt...

An update

I put it off for so long and now it seems like a chore. I think just like homework, it is best to do a little everyday instead of 7 layers of toothpaste on your toothbrush to make up for the days missed. So a story... yesterday I met my mom at Costco after the orthodontist gave my retainer a little tightening. Little Lizzy got glasses- they look great- and my mom bought me some food- bless her heart. She got to the check out and put up some bananas. She was just buying the things I needed first so I could get back to school, but she wanted me to have some bananas. But there were so many, so I had to split them up. We decided that I would split them up and put them under the car on the driver seat side so she wouldn't have them going around Costco and ya know not be able to prove that she had purchased them. I called my mom a couple hours later and yep she forgot about the bananas. So this is my public apology to the Costco employee who will have to scrape up the nanna mush in the parking lot.

Back to good ol' Cougartown

I doubt anyone even reads my blog anymore now that I have returned... but I still think I am allowed to write, even without pictures of camels. :( Tragic I know, I miss Egypt too. Actually today I went to the "opportunity fair" on campus and I talked to the student relations director of the Jerusalem Center. I said, "Hi this is great booth- I just got back, but still it's a great booth, I wanted to stop anyway." She probably thinks I am weird but I just needed some Jerusalem brochures to get me through the day. Right after that I talked to the Washington Seminar booth lady and I thought I had to have some future in politics to be able to intern with that program in DC- but apparently they have two BYU students working at the Hishhorn contemporary art museum. Sweet, right? I could do that as an internship- well I don't know if I could it would take lots of applications and money and desire and passion, ya know. But still- a good option. After that I went to the honors booth. I took a few honors classes for my generals because I heard they were easier (little did I know- that means less work but more thinking... aka rough stuff). So I thought hey I have taken a few classes maybe I should just keep going and do the other honors requirements. Which apparently I am close- all I have to do is take more 12 honors courses, 2 semesters of 200-level language classes, read 12 books from their list, go to 12 plays on their list, 12 concerts, 12 films, 12 "science experiences" -what is a science experience?, and 12 art exhibits... all from their special list. Then I get to choose 2 from each topic and submit a paper about it. Then I must do a thesis project and create a portfolio with a bunch of stuff, documents of some sort. So the lady at the booth went through all that stuff and then I saw something at the bottom. GPA requirement 3.5. I said, "So you're telling me you could do all this work and then your final semester you are at graduation and you realize that you only have 3.49 - then you don't graduate with honors?" She said, "yep that's right." Moral of the story- don't plan on seeing me with honors in a few Aprils from now.

On a more happier note- I really like walking to campus. It takes me longer this semester because I live pretty far from the art building but luckily it is actually enjoyable. I walk past 2 bus-stops, I get to go on two crosswalks of busy roads-- that adds lots of excitement. Best of all- I walk past the duck pond at least 4 times a day! There are probably 30 ducks in the little iced over pond but they quack and waddle and are as cute as ever. Worst part of my walk- no one has classes the same time I do (8 am every morning!) so I end up doing this path by myself most the time. Before you get sad for me- it isn't all bad. Sometimes I get to play games. Yesterday I played one that got a little dangerous. I walked as long as I could with my eyes closed. At first I couldn't go one cement block (from one crack to the next). Plus some pieces are a little off - lower or taller than the next block which causes tripping, tripping is not good to do south of campus. I have done it before and it was way embarassing- not to mention painful. At any rate, I still faced my fears and kept closing my eyes. I got up to 20 steps all with my eyes shut! It was funny because I would go a few steps and then I would open my eyes and start laughing and I bet it weirded out anyone watching. Especially the one time when I was at 13 steps and I was feeling good because it was a pretty straight-way, but alas I came to right as I crashed into a mailbox off the side. I think my body is aligned to the right because I kept going crooked that way. I should probably get that checked out.

Last word: check out this artist dan steinhilber. He is pretty awesome. He came and talked to my class today and pretty much changed my life. Plus he was funny. Then tonight my friends and I went to his opening reception at the MOA. We felt cool because we wore straight leg jeans and fancy coats with little flat shoes. And just as I expected- so was every other college girl that was there. Anyway- He has some things for sell at this website
http://www.artnet.com/artist/190612/dan-steinhilber.html

I think he is most famous for this piece. It is in DC at the Hishhorn and it is made out of hangers. Pretty like birds right?

I would also like to encourage people to listen to Nickel Creek. I am wearing grey pants with a green shirt today and everytime I do this color combo I like to listen to "Green and Gray" and then I remember how much I love Nickel Creek even though I can't tell which part is the melody in the chorus of this song. Oh and thanks Emily for buying me this CD several years ago. Ok I'm done. Happy Thursday.

One of my favorites. He said that he worked in food service and he always had to take out the trash- and these were the kind and color they had. He talked about how much he loves the feeling of opening a new trash bag and lining the container. How fun it is to pop the air into it and see it open up, how it provides a fresh, clean start for whatever may come. So he blew up all these bags and made cool shapes by tying the drawstrings together. Pretty neat.

Last days in Jerusalem

Well I am home back in Utah now. But a piece of my heart is still in the holy city. I am still dealing with jet lag, so I wake up early in the mornings and look at my pictures. I decided to share a few. This is my class. We were in Old Testament and New Testament together and we were all on the same bus for most field trips. We became very close and they feel like kin.

This picture probably isn't very cool when it is this small. The last morning when everyone was still at the center, we woke up at 5:30 and went to the lookout of the Judean Wilderness on top of Mt Scopus. Security didn't want us leaving that early, but they knew it was our last morning, so they came with us! Thanks Hassan!

This is the sign right before the turn into the long driveway of the center, if you keep following this road up it takes you to the lookout from the last picture. Everyone in the city knew us as the students at the Mormon University. It is the only place in the world where this term is encouraged by the First Presidency.

This is the "Arab Costco" as we called it. This was our favorite section with bulk candies. I would buy boxes with 24 Cadbury chocolate bars for only 10 shekels-- Which is less than 3 US$. Pretty good.

As much as I love the deals there, I am glad to be back and to have visited the real Costco in the US. I forgot how blessed that store is. We swung in the other day to get a few things, but I was still able to taste every sample in the store. I am really good at finding those. Merry Christmas!