Update

Today I bought my ticket to Scotland and it was very anti-climatic... but that's ok I'm still very excited. I am slowly setting every thing into motion. It's as if I've started a giant jigsaw puzzle and I've been working on it for a while and I finally am starting to see small parts of the total picture but it still needs a lot of work. Yeah that's exactly how I feel.

Last weekend was a very exciting weekend. On Friday, I consider Friday the weekend, I got to see His Holiness the Dalai Lama. I attended a lecture he gave at my school about ethics in modern times. He's a very funny man and it was hard not to smile when you are in the same room. It was a wonderful lecture where he stressed the importances of compassion in our lives and that really compassion can solve so many conflicts that are in the world. The lecture raised over $64,000 which has been left to His Holiness to distribute to charities. I only wish I had been in a better mood going into the lecture and I may have enjoyed it even more.

Saturday night I went to a Zach Gill concert. He is an UCSB alumnus and has played with Jack Johnson, another UCSB alumnus, and other fairly famous artists. I had so much fun at this concert. This wonderful man is so talented and so full of energy it was amazing to watch him play. He even busted out the accordian for a couple of songs that was very fun to watch and listen to.

But even with all these fun activities I really wish I could have been in New York with the rest of my family for my Mommer's funeral. I hope that I will get to spend some time with the family soon... I've unfortunately missed the last two opprotunities, and feel like a twit for it.

I have so much going on right now I absolutely can't wait until the summer so that I can settle a little before I have to leave. I'm actually heading down to Ventura this weekend in the hope that I can secure a job for the summer. Times are hard but I'm hoping my age and well intelligence and hard work will get me a job over the high schoolers in my town.

The spring quarter is nearly half way over and I don't know where the days have gone. It seems to be moving so fast I can't keep up. Finals are a little more that a month a way and that thought is daunting. Sorry it's been so long. Love you all and keep in touch. By September this blog will be full of Scotish pictures and stories.

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Now playing: The Weepies - Not Your Year
via FoxyTunes

Everyone's at It

The new quarter has started and I'm slowly getting back into a schedule that allows me to get little to no sleep and still function. I decided this quarter to take a little break from my required science classes. I am taking a philosophy class on the theory of knowledge which is proving more frustrating than interesting. My professor constantly attacks scientific logic... just doesn't jive with me. For all I know I could just be a brain in a vat being fed signals to trick me into thinking the external world exists. ha ha philosophy is a trip. I'm also taking a writing class which is teaching me how to put together a resume and how to write research proposals, so that no doubt will be helpful when I apply for grad school and jobs.

The last three months have been an emotional roller coaster. Yesterday my Mommer, our Mommer, my great grandmother passed away and forcing myself to go to class has been tough. I really just want to spend time with my family, especially my dad and my sister. Just really want to sit around and bake and play rummy 2000. Losing two family members this year has really put a lot into perspective for me, but I don't know quiet how to act on this new out look yet. I know in time I will know exactly what to do and when to do it.

Edinburgh is absolutely official now. I turned in all the paper work and looking to buy my plane ticket soon. Emotionally though, next year is sitting on the back burner. I have little spurts of excitement but generally speaking there is so much more on my mind right now. I'm sure as September approaches more and more excitement will build. I have made the decision to try out for the club soccer team while I'm there.

Life has been pretty mellow and drab for me lately. Nothing too exciting to report.

Love you all very much,
Liesbeth

Long Weekend

Happy Presidents' Day everyone. The long weekend has been a nice break!

Good news! Friday I learned that I got into my study abroad program at Edinburgh and next year will be studying there for nine months. I'm terribly excited and can't wait for all the amazing adventures I am going to experience. But first things first I need to finish up this year on a good note. Unfortunately on the same day I heard the exciting news of getting to go to Scotland I heard the news that my Opa, my grandfather in Belgium, had passed. I am very sad that I didn't get a chance to say goodbye and have spent a lot of the weekend remembering the good memories. I think that Jessica and I may try and make a trip out to Vegas, one of his favorite places, some time next year. I am just grateful that Jessica and I will both have a chance to visit with family sometime in the next year. I just really want to be with my mom and sister right now but I can't so that hurts a little.

I spent the larger part of last week studying for my organic chemistry midterm that was also on Friday. I think I did really well but I wont get the test back until Wed. so I guess I will find out then. My goal this quarter is to really improve my grades and enjoy my classes again. Electromagetics are kinda hindering both of those right now in physics, but I know that I will do fine if I really work at it.

I am about to start the seventh week of the ten week quarter and I am definitely looking forward to the end of this quarter. This quarter will be my last ever of college physics! YES! Not that I don't enjoy learning but it's really hard and I have enough on my plate with chemistry.

Recently I've discovered that I have over 2000 songs in my iTunes library that I haven't listened to. This made me chuckle a little. I made a playlist of all these songs and I'm trying to listen to some of them each day. It's like a little present everytime I put my music on.

The picture was at my friends birthday party. The girl with me is her roommate Kim and her boyfriend Jason. She always bakes cupcakes and gives me one! They are always delicious!

Hope all is well. Love you all so much.

peace-
Liesbeth

New year, new quarter

It's now three weeks into winter quarter. This last week mother nature forgot what month it was and it was getting up around 78 degrees everyday which was more annoying than nice. January is the month I'm allowed to wear a sweatshirt every day and it's ok. When it's 75 degrees that can be pretty uncomfortable. I got to go to the beach on Friday and saw a fair number of people sun bathing... in the middle of January. But alas it rained to day so all is well again.

Jessica came up to Santa Barbara for my birthday last weekend and I had a nice pot luck dinner with my friends. The small size of my apartment, which I was a little worried about, actually made the get together very homey and fun. I baked a chicken and pineapple upside-down cake and Jessica made yummy lasagna. I have turned twenty and I have found myself thinking a lot of what I do to be a little immature and then realizing I don't really care.

Tuesday night I went over to my friends house for a BBQ and we watched the rerun of the Inauguration of Barack Obama from that morning. I'm very interested in what will happen over the next four years. One of my close friends from high school joined the Navy last year and was in front of the Capital Building but I didn't see him on the TV. I was just happy that someone was cooking for a change and those burgers were GOOD!

Other than just getting into the swing of the new quarter my life has been pretty quiet the last couple of weeks with nothing overly important happening. What I am most looking forward to in the next couple of months is seeing if I got placed in the Scotland program for next year and seeing His Holiness the Dalai Lama in April which will be truly extraordinary.

I being registration for spring classes in two weeks, this year seems to be flying by. Recently I have gotten really into doing yoga and have been try to do it evey day. It's something I have never tried before and I really enjoy it. I have started up with soccer again but I really need to get a new pair of cleats especially if I go to Scotland. The ones I have right now are being held together by electrical tape and I get a little embarrassed everytime I pull them on.

Love you all and I hope all is well!

Peace
Liesbeth

Happy Holidays

I have been spending a lot of time trying to find new music. There is something so gratify finding a new song that just talks to you. It's really amazing. I've found a few new bands/singers across the genre spectrum that just are awesome. I know that my music taste can be... unique sometimes though. One of my favorite artists is a UK rap artist name Mike Skinner (aka The Streets). Randomness!

The music really helps though. Whatever mood I'm in can be changed or enhanced simply by putting on a song or two. "Music is the only thing that makes sense any more. Play it loud enough, it keeps the demons at bay." Great quote from the movie Across the Universe.

Because of the holidays Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and all the Christmas classics are coming back into my play list. I also got this really great Celtic choir Christmas album which I'm enjoying. The picture you see is a peace sign I made on our wall out of Christmas lights and I thought was kinda how I have been feeling lately.

Finals are over after a grueling week and I am so happy. Unfortunately I am not getting a break from the stress because I am trying to finish up the application process for Scotland and it has been meeting after meeting with advisors, professors and the like and email after email just trying to get information to make everything work out. When all is said in done I will be able to relax ... well until next quarter starts.

Next quarter is going to be tough I am going to be taking 19 units. Mostly math and science classes and an art history class. I have learned a thing or two about my study habits this quarter though so I think I can do it and do well.

Other than the new music things around here are pretty plain and boring. My flatmate Tim is moving to Mammoth so I will have a new flatmate David when I move back for winter quarter. I have talked with him a few times he seems to be a good guy and he has three younger sisters so he knows how to live with girls haha.

I have read some really great books this quarter and have shifted my extra money spending lately from DVDs to used books online or from a bookstore downtown. It's almost as exciting as new music. Reading used books is so fun. Someone before you read this, read what you are reading and that underlined sentence meant something to them. And the date in the cover is when they felt what you are feeling while you are reading it now. Very exciting!

I hope every one has a great Christmas full of love and happiness. Listen to Happy Christmas by John Lennon just once and you get that happy bubbling feeling inside.

Peace and Love-
Liesbeth

Oh November

I started out the month with a real nasty cold, which turned into bronchitis. Not fun at all. Other than that Santa Barbara is settling into it's fall weather of 60 degrees or so. Fall Quarter is more than half over and finals seem just around the quarter. YIKES.

Work is in full swing and I'm reffing more than 10 games a week and getting paid fairly well. I'm always making new friends through work so I never complain when I get more hours than I expected.

I have officially lost 3/4 of the weight that I put on in my freshman year which is pretty exciting. I am missing not having practice like last year though and have been finding it rather difficult to find time to hit up the gym. But on a lighter note old clothes are starting to fit again which always keeps me from having to spend money on clothes for the "winter". :)

Halloween in Isla Vista this year was INSANE. Over 40,000 out of town idiots flooded out little square mile of college utopia to get drunk and get arrested. The county spent $1 million this year on protecting and controlling our community. The police presence was more comforting than anything this year when I had to walk two blocks sober while everyone around me was a drunken mess. My costumes were anything but original but I had to go cheap. Hot Lips from M*A*S*H* (or something along those lines) and a referee. My flatmate (that sounds so much more hip than apartment mate) Liz, in the picture with me, invited me out with her friends and we had a blast. I am always happy when I get to meet new and fun people. She is 22 and definitely has a great group of friends up here in Santa Barbara.

Some of the costume that people come up with are just great. Unfortunately I didn't get any good pictures of them. Our neighbors were the Jamaican Bob Sled team from Cool Runnings complete with a working bob sled which they somehow maneuvered down Del Playa (the "party street" adjacent to the ocean). My friend from high school, Allie, and her teammates all dressed up as the Power Rangers which I thought was pretty clever.

The process of making my M*A*S*H costume got me completely obsessed with a new hobby of stencil making. With the help of adobe photoshop I have been taking pictures and turning them into stencils for the last couple of weeks. I have only physically cut out about three but I am looking into investing in a few more colors of spray paint and maybe some more materials to make some neat shirts for the holidays... or just for fun.

Election time around campus was pretty hectic. You couldn't walk anywhere without getting some sort of voting material forced on you. It was really annoying. I was very relieved once I turned in my vote and got it over with on the fourth. We shall see how everything plays out from here I suppose.

Fall Quarter

Fall quarter is well under way and I'm really feeling it ever day... and I had no intention in making that rhyme. I think I can officially say that Organic Chemistry is running my life. I have yet to decide if that is a good thing or not. If anything I can honestly say that this year is at least five times more challenging academically. I'm actually happy about that. Last year I got bored with school a lot... this year there is no time to get bored. :)

Even with all my classes I have still found time to play soccer. Mostly when I get a forfeit while I'm reffing. I spend the hour playing instead of going home. Sorta neat to think that I'm essentially getting paid to play. This year I'm a "senior ref" because I have been there for a year. I still remember last year when the older refs would take all the good shifts because of seniority so naturally I have pulled that card with the freshmen a few times. One of the guys said he's going to keep tabs every time I call a "senior ref" forfeit. haha.

I tried out for the club soccer team this fall as a goal keeper. It was three days of intense soccer but I didn't make it. I wasn't that upset about it. The try-out kicked jumped my need for some serious soccer time and the girls are all really nice so I have become a big fan. I have gone to several of their games. They are a great team and fun to watch! My friend from high school is on the team and I get to cheer her on for another four years.

Over the last month I have made a big decision about next year. If all things go as I want them to, which does not happen as much as I would like, I will be studying at the University of Edinburgh all of next school year. A year in Scotland is exactly what I think I need. Actually I have no idea what I need but the idea of being in the UK for the premiership league play has me absolutely giddy over the prospects of studying abroad. Why Scotland you may ask? Well they have really amazing chemistry programs and I picked Edinburgh just because of that. Amazing chemistry.

That's really what's new right now. I'm sure in a months time or so I will have more to tell.