Let's chat and catch up a bit

So! Summer is great!  I've starting working, enjoyed lazy days, went to Sasquatch music festival, witnessed my little brother graduate and spent time with my family. Excellent!

After school was out and all of our friends departed, Amber and I were left to chill and find things to do in the fine city of Spokane.  I began work, as did she, and pretty much we sat around Wes' house (where we temporarily stayed since we lacked a home) and cooked bacon.  Dandy :)

Then I bid my lovely companion in mischief to attend Sasquatch music festival, aka music heaven.  3 days of incredible concerts and friendship.  Holy moly, after the last show I was so sad!  I definitely wasn't ready to go back to the real world where one's routine for the day doesn't include 12 hours of music euphoria and jumping around in a massive crowd of people. Let me just tell you, IT WAS AWESOME.

Then it was time to go home, recover from dehydration and 4 nights of sleep deprivation.  That Friday was my brother's graduation.  He's all growed up!  I must say, I'm very proud of him but it is quite odd to think in one months time he will be at basic training for the Air Force.  He's a stud and I'm so lucky to have him as my caring little bro. 

I don't have a ton of photos from that weekend, but here are two good ones. I had so much fun with my family this weekend!  Ty's grad party will go down in McClelland history, for sure!

In a house near Whitworth campus, an empty room patiently awaits it's new tenant. (that's me!!)  That's right! My roommates are already there, and tomorrow I'll drive up to my own house for the very first time!! :)  Can't wait!

Spain preparations: things are getting going definitely.  Last night my mom and I set up an appointment with the Spanish Consulate in San Fransisco to go get my student visa, which is really a big step I hope to get right on the first try!  As we speak/type I am selecting housing (again) since the choices I requested last time were no longer available.  Hopefully this time I'll get an apartment!

I'll blog more this month, promise.  This past week was absolutely nuts, which I loved, but once I'm settled in my casa I'll certainly be able to update all of you more frequently/consistently.

Excitement grows...

What's up everyone!

Here's the obligatory I-don't-wanna-study blogpost that comes around twice a year.  I took one final today (cake) and turned in my 8 page Spanish ensayo (yipee).  I've got two tests tomorrow (not easy), one at 8am and another at 1pm.  Then Spanish on Thursday.  Then done/packing/finding somewhere in Spokane to put all my stuff. It'll be ballin.

Saturday I went to orientation for studying abroad, wooo!  My excitement is exponentially increasing... ah!  Oh, don't worry mom and dad, I got a few brochures from our coordinator titled "Parents" that I'm sure you're pour over once I peace out.

What else am I excited about, you ask? SUMMER!!!
In 3 days I will be done with school! So here's the low down: we don't have a house until June 1st.  Amber and I are couch surfing til then since we both have jobs here (more on that in a second) and we love adventure.  I included that last part because it's a well known fact that vagrants have more fun (or is it blondes...)  So what I'm saying is Amber and I are going to have a blast chillin in the sun, hanging out with friends, visiting the TC and all that good stuff.  CAN'T WAIT!  Then we'll have a house, then it'll be graduation party time when all my family comes to Tri-Cities, then it'll be U2 concert time, then swimming, then visiting Seattle aka the greatest city in the world, then boat races, then having a blast...
This is going to be great :)

So yeah, I've got a job!  Meet me at the mall, it's goin down.  You can't find me at Victoria's Secret doin my thing for sure!  I might have another job come July, which would be so great.  At this point I'm thrilled that money is going into my bank account.  Spain is a spendy place to be!

(no photos this post... I'm at the library)

Alright!
I'm done procrastinating!
Back to work!
I want a cookie!

Accepted to la Universidad de Murcia!

Hello all!

Great, incredible, mind-blowing news!

I'm going to Spain!

Isn't that awesome? I received the email today while I was in core, and I was so excited! I cried in class, twice!
It feels so great to know, officially, that in 5 months I'll be "across the pond" enjoying everything España has to offer.  I can't stop freaking out, and I've been hugging everyone I tell (cause that's what I need right now)!  So to all reading, I extend a warm abrazo (hug) via the interwebs!

So I've been holding off blog posts til I knew officially I'd be in Spain.  Mind you, this news has arrived a bit after the expected time.  This month has been great, but I'll skip ahead to now so this post isn't nine years long.

This past weekend was incredible!  Last week I had 3 tests and a hefty Spanish essay, then Friday after my last test I scooted over to Seattle and had an excellent time!  Brent and I experienced a great Mariner's win at Safeco, garlic fries included.  On Saturday I went to a baby shower with the fam.  Oh man I can't wait to see baby Brianna! 

In other news, Nikki, Sara, Amber and I have found a place to live for the summer!  We met with the landlord for a neat duplex really close to campus.  At this point we move in the first of June, but perhaps we'll get lucky and be able to come a tad early.

Now I'm looking forward to this week, which should be laid back since tests were raining down last week.  It's 80 today (yessssss) so I'm going to go enjoy that.  Fam and friends: I love you all and miss you!

Laura, Delsey, Nikki and I on a roommate-date.

Brent and myself getting entirely stoked at Safeco!

keep truckin

The following is an email I received on Friday while printing a paper right before class.

Hi Lauren:

This is to let you know that you have been placed at Murcia for next fall. Your placement still has to be confirmed, but this is a great first step.

Bahhh!!! Oh my gosh!!  It may not seem like much, but I almost cried.  I definitely yelled, and most certainly hugged people near me (that I knew... I'm not that weird) til they couldn't breathe.

But yeah, that was neat. Things are pretty much stellar beyond that.  Classes are rad.  I think I dominated my first Core test, radio show is extremely ballin' and we're learning a sweet routine in my ballet class.  I have overflowing amounts of reasons to smile right now.  Oh and I get to go home Thursday (3 day weekend, word app!) and it will be awesome.  I haven't seen my mommy since before Hawaii!! Yippee!

Here's a few iphone photos of life/babysitting.

Oh and this is a photo from a Richland High basketball game.  Bombers vs. Blue Devils.  That's my brother dressed up like Jesus, with a pack of angels.  It's possible I've never been more proud.

being back

So I'm back! No more references from Hawaii-I may end up crying if I think about how much I miss it sunshine and beach on the daily!

The weekend I was back the fam and I took a quick jaunt up to Seattle. My dad and I rocked matching shirts at the WSU-UW game. Yeah, that was a trip but we ended up winning. GO DAWGS!

After that I hung out with Brent and we sauntered over to the Jemina Pearl concert I'd been crapping myself to see. IT WAS AWESOME. I hugged her, told her I love her, then her and the rest of the band signed my iphone case. Yes I cried. Embrace that fact and love me more because of it.

That's her signing my phone, and that's my hand shaking uncontrollably. Rad.

Now back to school! Classes are pretty neat. I love theories of human communication. Da best! Also, radio started back up so I can stop gushing to everyone how badly I miss it. That's Adam and I getting hyped and being mega queso-y.

That's a huge dog I met this week. His name is Grant and he's cool.

Other than that things have been pretty laid back. My passport came this week (woo) but 8 more weeks til I hear back from foreign exchange people. I WANT TO GO SO BAD! I cannot wait. The new Vampire Weekend CD is getting me through this for now, so I'm hoping I'll be fine.

Salutations and I hope everyone is doing well! I miss everyone a ton right now, so imagine a great big Valentine's Day hug from me. Muah!

lots of stuff

Aloha!

Alright this is a big'un. I haven't blogged in a while and it's time to get all caught up. Assuming you're interested, that is.

Oh, here's a photo from the Buddhist temple I forgot to post on the last one, I really liked this bench. It's not everyday you are given great advice from a chair.

TUESDAY: Sunset sail! And cake for my birthday, as well as Matt's birthday later in the month. We all had a grand time :)

WEDNESDAY: My birthday! I'm twenty! Thanks to all who called, and to those who sang happy birthday! I was really happy to hear from you all. Yay!

So we went to Hanama bay! Here's a photo of the sunny shine, before it rained us out of there.



Haha, so we caught the bus back, got ready and hit up Cheeseburger in Paradise. Yes, red eye is considered beautiful in some cultures... aka mine. Alright alright, I'm too lazy to fix it.



WEDNESDAY: Shangri La, Honolulu. Collection of Islamic art within Doris Duke's Hawaii home.

This was absolutely incredible. Doris Duke inherited money from her father, a lot of money. She grew up and found herself falling in love with Islamic art and acquired priceless pieces and brought them to her home in Hawaii, creating her own personally sanctuary and incredibly impressive art collection. She also built her house from the ground up to follow the Islamic style, which is why it is so architecturally breathtaking.


They didn't allow photos inside, so I took as many as I could documenting the insane beauty outside.

Guest house + pool + view = Me + gaping mouth + complete awe

FRIDAY: Polynesian Culture Center. We learned about Tonga, Fiji, New Zealand, Samoa, Tahiti and of course, Hawai'i.

Ps: we were really hot.

SATURDAY: Bishop Museum. Super cool exhibits, too much for me to handle! Sensory overload with all the artifacts, art, presentations and everything in between.

Oh, then we went to the kids part and tried on Hawaiian bugs/animals costumes on. We're cute.

So that's it for now! Yes, I've been having a blast and yes, we've been super busy! We had our last lecture today and our exam is on Monday morning. Until then we'll be cramming in all the fun stuff we can, I mean... studying our brains off. Out to dinner tonight, snag bubble tea tomorrow on the way to the beach, eat some legit pho before we go (my plans span far and wide, you can see a food trend...)

But I'll be flying out Tuesday, which means I'll be seeing you soon :)

jib-ney

Jib-ney is my english phonetic interpretation of how you say "cheese" in Arabic. Our teacher Raja always says it when he takes our photo, it's neat.

Aaaannywho. Our Monday was jam packed. Here goes:

Here's Pali lookout, so pretty! Even with the clouds its pretty amazing.

Then we went to a Buddhist temple, it was rather breathtaking as well. I got 6 mosquito bites that morphed into giant ouchies, so it was a successfuly visit overall.

People feeding the birds were cute.

We continued on our trip over the island, stopping by the North Shore to say "waddup brada" to a sea turtle. Its name was Kaipo, meaning Sweetheart :)

So we also visited the Dole plantation... pineapple ice cream! Yum yum yum. Then we had EXTREMELY good sushi for dinner. Man oh man, it was a grand day.

Love love love it.