so many pictures to show you...!

I'M DONE WITH FINALS!!!!!!!

And now that the craziness of studying for finals etc is over, I can finally, FINALLY update you on things that have happened since my birthday!

...Unfortunately, because of the craziness of studying for finals etc, nothing really exciting has happened. Huh.

Well, first of all I remember that ages ago I told you I'd upload photos of that turkey pot pie that I made... Well, I never got around to taking a photo of a slice taken out of it, but here are a couple photos of the whole pies!





They were so good! You probably don't remember because it was so long ago, but those were made for JEP's Pie Day, where people brought pies in to work at JEP and we all shared pie with each other. That was a lovely day. :D

Also, Grand Canyon photos! I told you I would upload them, so here you are!


This was the FIRST thing we saw driving up to the Grand Canyon. Really shocking, really gorgeous stuff. Seriously, the only thought that my mind could process when we drove up was pure awe. It is really fantastic, and I think everyone should go see the Grand Canyon at least once in their lives.


Right around our campsite, we saw this guy! HUGE elk, he was gorgeous! He was surprisingly calm, even around cars. I was vaguely concerned that he was going to walk on us or something while we slept, but he didn't bother us at all, and left a bit after sundown.

Speaking of camping, if you were wondering, here's what we looked like camping:

This was really the only photo at the campsite that came out clear and bright enough to actually see what's in it and included my face. It was really fun, even though it was pretty cold. Thankfully we all came prepared with lots of clothes, blankets, and extra fluffy sleeping bags, so we weren't cold at all! The night sky was absolutely beautiful, you could see so many stars and the night air was so crisp and clear... If only my camera were good enough to take photos of the night sky. But really, the last time I saw a night sky comparable to that was when I went hiking up some pretty tall mountains in high school in the French Jura and we woke up at 4am to see the sun rise. That sky was ridiculous, we saw two or three planets and countless shooting stars, and the entire arm of the Milky Way soaring above our heads. The sky that night camping at the Grand Canyon wasn't quite like that, but I saw three shooting stars, and the sky was so densely packed with stars that standing still and just looking up was in itself a mesmerizing experience. The clarity of the air was truly spellbinding.

Also, while we were sitting around talking, a herd of around twelve deer walked through the campgrounds, about twenty five to thirty meters from where we were. There were a few babies and their mothers, and a couple of males. I tried to take a photo of them, but it was way too dark and my camera didn't have enough exposure to get an image of them. It's a shame, I've never seen so many deer so close up. It was great!

There's what the photos looked like. You can't really see anything, except for what you can barely make out as a deer's legs, if you look really really closely, heh.

We started hiking the next morning at around 5 to 5:30, I don't remember exactly when... We wanted to get down into the canyon, find a spot to rest and watch the sunrise at 7:16, and then go back up.

It was REALLY dark when we started!

But once we got to our spot three miles down into the canyon and got settled, it was fantastically quiet and wonderful. I loved every second of it. The air was deliciously brisk, and the silence was really, REALLY deep. It was just marvelous, I couldn't get enough of the sheer SILENCE! I think people sometimes forget what true silence really sounds like, and once in a while, it's just the best thing in the world. My heart was happy to sit there and soak in the sound of silence. ^_^



... So, we sat in silence and watched the sun rise over the Grand Canyon.





























Fantastic way to spend a couple of hours, just meditating and watching the sun rise over the vast serenity of the Grand Canyon.

The hike back up to the rim was pretty fantastic as well! It was really nice to be able to see what was actually around us, haha...


The sun was slowly rising over the horizon, and the effect of the sunlight hitting the opposite wall of the canyon was truly dramatic.



























...Fantastic place. Really. Everyone should go.

We'd left for the Grand Canyon on my birthday, 23 November, and got back on Saturday 26 November, which was just in time to see the USC v UCLA football game! It was kind of sad, to see UCLA lose so badly. They didn't even stand a chance. USC won 50-0.

On Tuesday 29 November, my French professor offered me a part time position in his organization, Yellitaare! Yellitaare is an organization that works to better the lives of people in West Africa, through working to stop human rights violations in public health and environmental justice. There are other aspects to the organization's work as well, but I'm pretty sure these are what most of their work is fixated upon. Feel free to browse their website for more information!

On Friday 2 December, I taught my last PHE (Peer Health Exchange) workshop of the semester, to a class who was extraordinarily receptive to the lesson! Even though this year I'm teaching tobacco, and not even one of the more 'interesting' workshops about sexual relations or relationships etc, the kids were still super involved and showed a ton of interest in the material. That made me really happy!

On Saturday 3 December, JEP had a holiday dinner at a local restaurant, called "El Cholo". It was great food and it was lovely to see the people I work with outside of the work environment, but something in the food made me feel pretty bad; I was super nauseous and dizzy for the rest of the night, which was kind of unfortunate. Thankfully, it was just a temporary thing, and when I woke up the next morning I felt just fine. ^_^

The next week of my life, literally, was all about studying for finals.

Tuesday:


Wednesday:


Thursday:




... I was going a little crazy by Friday, so thank goodness I had the perfect interlude to studying for exams! That night, I went to the "Improv Comedy Club" at the Irvine Spectrum (a really nice open-air mall in Irvine, California) accompanying a friend for his work's holiday dinner type thing. The comedians were fantastic! I laughed so hard for the entire two (I think?) hours that they were performing. On top of that, the food they were serving was actually pretty great! I had a steak with garlic mashed potatoes and asparagus, and tiramisu for dessert. All were very well made, and the perfect accompaniment to the dinner show!

...Well, after that, nothing really happened over the weekend. Just the usual studying and whatnot. I'm going to spend this week packing, cleaning the townhouse, potentially meeting my french professor to talk about Yellitaare some more, and reading some books that I've been wanting to get to all semester.

Whew, this was a really long blog entry! Time for my two random links, and then I'll let you go about your life!

Tetrabox: Liquid to Light
A great idea! I love recycling and finding new uses for things that would otherwise be thrown away... This guy used empty cardboard drink boxes to make absolutely gorgeous lights! Wonderful, I love creativity and functionality, so when the two come together to create such a masterpiece, it's just fantastic.

Jigidi Puzzle
This is actually hilarious! I suppose it's a fantastic way to kill time at the computer, if for some reason you are ever compelled to do so. (Protip: GO OUTSIDE.) However, if you're stuck indoors and the computer is really the only thing you can think of to entertain yourself, try this website out! It's a puzzle that you solve to create the full image. There are a ton of different puzzles on that site, and you can upload your own image to make it into a puzzle as well, if you want!

Alright, time for me to go make dinner... Tonight, I'm making Shrimp and Mushroom Linguini with a Creamy Cheese Herb Sauce!

Until next time,
michelle. xx

GRAND CANYON HERE I COME!

Hey guys!

I'm about to head out to go to the Grand Canyon for a few days! It's going to be absolutely amazing.

In other news, today is the anniversary of the very first airing of the very first Doctor Who episode, EVER! This was back in 1963, but it still makes me extremely happy that I share a birthday with Doctor Who, which is my favorite television show of all time, probably.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DOCTOR WHO!

Alright, I'll let you know how the trip goes...

Until next time!
michelle. xx

very delayed post!

written Thursday 17 November 2011:



I can't believe the last time I blogged was on Halloween! I feel like such a slacker.

Well, since Halloween, a ton of stuff has happened! Sort of. On the first of November, I registered for classes, so now I know my schedule for next semester.



You can click on the image to make it bigger! The course titles are also in the image. "WRIT340" is a writing class that's a requirement for graduation from USC.

2 November and 4 November were obviously huge days for the family! Happy Birthday to my wonderful brother, and Happy Anniversary to my fantastic parents. I miss you all, and can't wait to see you again!

Every week on Monday, the employees of JEP - which is where I work - have a staff meeting, and for the first five minutes of staff meeting, we do "First Five". First Five is essentially free lunch for us, and every week, a previously assigned pair of people will bring in a lunch that's big enough to feed 20-30 people. So on Monday 7 November, I brought in 30 servings of ravioli in a GIGANTIC tin, and two rotisserie chickens for staff meeting. My partner brought in thirty cupcakes, and we decorated them with pictures of poppy flowers and the american flag. Our theme, if you haven't guessed, was Veteran's Day! Not everyone has a theme for First Five, but that Friday was Veteran's Day, so why not, right?

Apparently when US veterans were coming back home from World War 1, Woodrow Wilson invited two thousand of them to the White House and gave them a ravioli dinner, as a way to sort of say welcome back home, and to give them the first home cooked meal they'd probably had in a very long time. Good guy! I wonder how they picked the two thousand veterans though, out of the doubtless hundreds of thousands who must have been returning.

On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday 8, 9 and 10 November, three of my friends had birthdays, all in a row! Haha. On Tuesday my really good friend Jordan turned 21, and he took a group of his closest friends to Geisha House in Hollywood. Geisha House is an absolutely fantastic japanese restaurant, although it is doubtless overpriced. Which can be expected for a fancy restaurant like that in Hollywood. Apparently Ashton Kutcher was there while we were, but he must have been in a private room, because we didn't see him.


Good food, great people!

The next day was my friend Sahil's birthday, and he didn't do anything special, but I gave him a Slanket, because he always complains that his room is cold, so now he can wrap up in his Slanket and be warm while sitting around in his room! ^_^

The NEXT day was my friend Curtis' birthday, and he's a super relaxed guy, so a group of his friends all went to Fatburger together and that was about it, actually. Haha.

On Saturday 12 November, USC played a home game against the Washington Huskies, who barely beat us last year. It was a super tension-filled game, and you could tell the Huskies were really going all out; they got at least ten flags throughout the entire game! But in the end, USC dominated them, utterly and completely, and beat them, 40-17.

Woohoo!

This week, not much has happened really. Just the usual routine of work, school, studying, etc.

Today though, I...



Donated blood! Just in case you couldn't guess from the picture at the top of the post, hehe.

I ATE SO MUCH PROTEIN AND IRON OVER THE PAST TWO DAYS TO PREPARE FOR THIS.
Yesterday for breakfast, I had a three egg omelette, and inside, I put filleted lean steak, a ton of spinach, a ton of onions, and mozzarella cheese. I accompanied this with a tall glass of berry juice (high vitamin C content) and a multivitamin.
Today for breakfast, I had another three egg omelette, except inside, I put lemon-garlic chicken, corn, SO MUCH SPINACH, and again, mozzarella cheese. This I had with a tall glass of mango juice, also with high vitamin C content, and a multivitamin.

So, today when I went in to donate, I was sort of super nervous and super excited to see my measured blood Hemoglobin levels. My pulse was 74bpm, blood pressure was 116/68, so all good, and... My hemoglobin level was 13.3 (I'm not quite sure what the unit is), where the minimum for blood donation is 12.5. YAY I'M HEALTHY AND THE FLOODING OF IRON INTO MY BODY WORKED!

I'm so, so glad that I finally got to donate blood again. There are definitely a lack of donors out there!

... Well, I started writing that in work today, and then put my laptop on standby without posting. So now it's almost 23:00, and I still haven't posted this blog entry. Shame on me!

Anyway. Recently I found this track, and I've been enjoying it quite a bit...
Hey Jude, I'll be there
It's a mash-up of The Beatles and Michael Jackson, the guitar is a little jarring because it's slightly off-key, but as a whole, the track is pretty well done, in my humble opinion.

And I have no idea why, but Sweet Caroline has been stuck in my head for the past week or so! What a classic. Absolutely brilliant. Also, it reminds me of the beach, for some reason...

..........

IT IS NOW MONDAY 21 November 2011 and for some reason I've been continuously forgetting to post this. Terrible!

Well, today is Pie Day at work, where those who want to can bring in a pie to share with everybody else. I don't have the photos of them on my computer yet, but I baked two enormous, DELICIOUS turkey pot pies; one for work, one for home. Ehehehe. ^^

I'll show them to you later, when I put the photos onto my computer!

Oh by the way; this past Saturday (19 November 2011) USC played a stunning game against Oregon at their home stadium in Eugene, Oregon. It was definitely one of the most thrilling games of American football I have ever watched, down to the very last second! We won by a mere three points, out of luck; if Oregon hadn't missed the kick for a field goal in the last seven seconds, it would have gone into overtime, and then who knows who would've won! So this year, the Trojan football team broke the streak of losing to Oregon that's haunted them for the past two years. Congratulations, USC Trojans! ^_^

In other news! The random links I have for you today are as follows:

A dog and a cheetah who are friends! SO CUTE! :D

For something with a bit more substance, though, you can check out these index surveys by the BBC. They're really interesting quizzes, and all relate back to some significant psychological concept or another... So if ever you have a lot of time to kill, check it out! And read up on the associated concepts, if you want, they're all really fascinating classical ideas and theories that helped shape the field of psychology. ^_^

That's all I have for now, guys! Until next time!
michelle. xx

happy halloween! ^^

Let's see, last time I blogged was 23 October, which was last Sunday. Good stuff! That was a good day, I got a lot of work done, and that night I went to a friend's place and we made stir fry for dinner. It was fantastic!

Since then, not very much has happened, but life is life, so something is always happening, right?

Running regularly has been great, though I really have to make sure I put aside time for it, and get my work done super efficiently so that I have free time to go run for an hour a few times a week. It's too easy to let time get away from me and not have that hour available! When I do run, though, I feel great! Woohoo. ^_^

On Thursday 27 October, I went to go see Cirque du Soleil IRIS at the Kodak Theatre with a friend. It was legitmately so beautiful and fantastic, I could hardly believe it, as cliche as that may sound. People can do unbelievably wonderful things, with enough physical training and feats of engineering. My mind was legitimately blown away. I seriously think that was one of, if not the single finest masterpiece of theatrical art I have ever been privileged enough to witness. It was the perfect balance of dark and light, humor and seriousness, fantasy and realism. It was like crawling into the ear of an artistic genius and doing cartwheels in the shadowy recesses of his brilliance for two hours, before emerging from the other ear as a new person who has just seen a phenomenally new and wonderfully twisted paradigm of the world. I loved it. I loved it so much.

There were no cameras allowed into the theatre, understandably, but here's a trailer for the show... There are other youtube videos online, so check those out as well if you're very curious!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGVVypUMG3c

On Friday 28 October, I did some volunteer work at a local elementary school, where some teachers and students had set up a 'haunted house' in the school cafeteria... It was definitely really scary! I was told to wear a costume, but didn't have one to wear, so I just bought a hat for five dollars from the local grocery store, wore it with as much black as I could find in my wardrobe, added some face paint, and hoped for the best. One girl who came to the haunted house said I reminded her of the Mad Hatter as a zombie; so that's what I called myself.

Me:



The Mad Hatter:


Yes? No?

On Saturday 29 October, a friend came over to my place and we made some FANTASTIC Coconut Tofu Keema for lunch. It's so amazing! The best part of it is, we made a TON, so I had a lot of leftovers after that day. Ahhhh I love good food! And I love cooking! :D

That evening was the USC vs Stanford American Football game, which was a big game because:
a) It's Stanford!
b) Stanford is ranked fourth or something in the nation right now, and USC is down at 21st or something along those lines.
c) It's Parents' Weekend at USC, so everyone's parents were at the game watching!

Considering that Stanford is so highly ranked right now, USC put up an amazing fight. The score in the end was 56-48 Stanford, but to get to that score, the teams had to go into THREE overtimes, and the score was really neck and neck for the entire game. USC played so well, they've really upped their game from last year and the beginning of this season! I'm very proud of them. :)

A lot of people criticized the team for losing because of fumbling a relatively easy pass that would have led to a fourth overtime. However, I'd really prefer if everyone chose to congratulate them for the great game and they played and fantastic effort they put in against Stanford, instead of focusing so much only on the fact that they lost. Here's a video of the highlights of the last bit of the fourth quarter, and the overtimes (up until the fumble at the end of the third overtime), if you're interested:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9DxxvP-RtI

Today, I made a presentation in my Neurobiology class based on a super interesting research paper about what happens in the brains of zebra finches when they learn songs during their critical period of growth and development. When I was done, I asked the TA what she thought my score was, and she said I got a solid 19/20! YAAAAAAAAAAAAY that makes me really stupendously happy. Seriously. Good grades are a blessing!

Tomorrow is my registration date for making my schedule of classes for next semester! I'll let you know what my schedule ends up looking like... Hopefully the classes I want aren't filled up!

That's all about my life that I have to say for now... Now, two interesting links for you guys!

Silk
A beautiful way to create art, it reminds me of dropping ink into a slowly flowing river... Please try it out! It's so gorgeous and sensual, I love it.

Paper... Thing.
THIS IS SO AWESOME! Just watch, and see what kinds of things really creative people have done with a simple sheet of paper! :D

Alright, that's all for now, guys! Have a safe and happy Halloween!

best,
michelle. xx