Excercise

Today I found an online gym class website that's free. You login, then have access to work out videos that you can do from home. The site is www.wobics.com, and though they don't have a lot of videos, they do have a few. This morning I did a 25 minute beginners aerobic work out video, and although I felt really weird doing it, it definitely did work me out.

My arms and legs are starting to feel tired and all I want to do at the moment is hop in the shower...but of course, as I was grabbing my clothes to go shower, someone else went into the bathroom.

Oh the joys of living with roommates.

Six Flags Over Texas

Yesterday was the day that the other intern and I finally went to Six Flags over Texas in Arlington, Texas for the day. We did our few morning chores before taking off, and got to the park at about noon.

The day was so much fun. We started by going on a pirate ship ride, which just swings back and forth in the air. Afterwards it was on to La Vibora (seen below), a bobsled type roller coaster. The cars you sit in aren't on a track, but rather move through the track freely, like a bobsled or alpine slide would.

Once that ride was accomplished, we went on to ride the log chute, grab some cheesy french fries, and then headed over to the Titan, one of the large coasters of the park. When we got to the line, a sign let us know we'd be waiting 1.5 hours to get on, but we gladly hopped in line to wait. Towards the end of our long wait, which actually went by quickly, we were so thirsty it wasn't even funny. Once we got on the ride though, all complaints about waiting forever or being thirsty flew out of our heads as we held on for dear life. The ride went so fast, that even though I tried to lift my hands into the air, I was unable to keep them there for long because they were forced back into my lap. My eyes began to tear and I laughed so hard. The Titan was definitely worth the wait! There's a picture below:

After the adreniline rush of Titan, we went over to a house, where we took a tour. The house is one of those that messes with your head and everything is wrong. Water flows uphill, balls roll uphill, you stand crooked not straight - all in all, just really weird. I do know the secrets of places like that, thanks to the lovely world of the internet - but I won't spill the beans here.

Now, after all this, we were still going strong with a lot of energy and enthusiasm and excitement. Kim had been talking about a ride she went on at a six flags once, where they got pulled high into the air, and then dropped. It was a bungee cord thing, so they went arcing through the air and she said it was so frightening but so exciting. She told me already on the way that she might have to do it if they have one, and I told her that she'd just have to go and I'd watch her from the ground! Well, as we turned a corner and found Six Flag Over Texas's version of it, "Divebomber", she got excited and decided she just HAD to go. And what did I decide? That I just HAD to go with!!! We had to pay some money to do it, $25 each which is really cheap. They hooked us into the harnesses and then we went up. We were lying with the our harnesses hooked together, lying on our stomachs, strapped to bungee cords and hanging in the air. When they picked us up from the ground, it caught me off guard and I screamed bloody murder. I laughed it off, and found the hanging in the air not so bad... until they lifted us up. I closed my eyes the entire way up, except when I opened my eyes two times. I held on to my one arm so tightly that I cut off all circulation and I just laid there, eyes closed, face white, going - "What did I do!?! Kim - What did I do?" Kim just laughed, told me about the great view, told me I'd be fine, and tried to console me..which wasn't working. Then I felt us stop at the top, and they said "3 - 2 - 1 - FLY!" and Kim asked if I was ready? I screamed at her to pull the cord... and suddenly she did! We were falling, our feet went a bit over our heads, and then we were swinging through the air. We reached the other side, then swung backwards, and I opened my eyes. On the first drop I had screamed so loudly, you could probably have heard me in Minnesota. After the first drop it was sooooo much fun, and I laughed a lot. Here's a pic of a dive bomber ride at a different six flags, to give you an idea of how high up it was (150 feet!):

I don't know if I'd ever do it again..but it was soooo much fun!

All of these things took our day up until about dusk. We still made it on Mr. Freeze, which was GREAT and another roller coaster which was complely inside a building in the dark - and unforunately wasn't so good.

We left the park at about 9:30, so out of energy it wasn't even funny! After Dive Bomber, we didn't have much energy to do too much more. I'm proud that I got the courage to do something I never thought I would and I recommend it to everyone to try once - it was really a blast!

Old Friends

A few hours of my evening tonight was spent going through my scrapbook from Germany and finding ALL (yes all!) of the pictures I'm missing! This is quite a feat, since I previously thought I was missing several pages of pictures.





Not only am I relieved to have found them all, and be that much closer to finishing my scrapbook, but I also came across several wonderful photos that I've forgotten about, which I really love. Of those, is this one, of my friend Kasia. Kasia is from Poland and we met at the University in Germany one day, when she just up and asked me a question about something. I answered and we started talking. By the end of the conversation we exchanged numbers and hung out from time to time. She spoke broken German, and I spoke pretty fluently, so we were able to talk well enough. Though there were times when we had difficulties understanding eachother, we got along really well and both of us nearly cried when we said goodbye. This picture was taken in town when we met up for a few hours one day after Fabian and I got back from Mallorca. If I remember right, it was the day before I left for the United States.

Finding this picture fits into my week, as I've found myself missing all my old friends and realizing how many people I have been blessed to meet and know over the past four and a half years since high school, and how many people I have lost contact with, even though we always swear we'll keep in touch.



So here's to you, Kasia (pronounced Kasha by the way), and everyone else who I've lost contact with: I wish you well..wherever you are.

Lessons

The news of today is that... I GOT A HAIRCUT!! WOOT!

Okay, so at about 3:15 today, I decided that I desperately need to do something with my hair. It was dull, grown out, and boring. So, Kim and I went online, searched through an online yellow pages for salons in the next town over from us, and found Richard's Hair Salon. All reviews written were great, so I decided to give it a chance.

When I called the place, they told me they could fit me in right away if I could come. After getting the okay from my boss to go, we headed into town and searched for the place. We got a little lost, but were able to find it in the end. I had told them that I have no idea what I want to do with my hair, and I got an appointment with the owner of the salon.

Right away Richard took charge and asked what I wanted, then gave me some great ideas. He went ahead and cut it...and this is what turned out!

Once the haircut was over, I got my eyebrows waxed from a woman at the day spa portion of the salon. She told me my eyebrows grow weird and that I need to get a facial to fix my face, because there are a lot of things wrong with it. Um...okay. She isn't native to America, and though her English was good, what she said came out wrong - but it was still a bit of a downer after my hair cut.

After we were done there, Kim and I decided to go to this Chinese buffet in the same town that we had been meaning to go to for a while. I was excited to go, and when we walked in all seemed okay. The workers didn't talk much, and it was really quiet in there, but that was okay. We got our food right away, and when we bit into it we were...disappointed. After trying several different dishes, and bypassing the brown bananas in strawberry sauce, we came to the conclusion that it was the worst chinese food we've ever eaten. Also a bit dissapointing after a good salon experience.

Hey, at least my hair looks better :)

Weather

The weather down here has been in the upper 80's and 90's every single day since I got here and it is almost always sunny. If it isn't sunny, it's cloudy and going to rain - which means that it's really really humid and even more unbearable than a sunny day. The leaves here don't change colors and fall from the trees...they just fall from the trees.

On the bright side, I'm tanner than tan. I love my internship, but I miss fall in the north and would LOVE to have weather cool enough to wear jeans all day long. I forgot how annoying constantly beautiful weather can be, and have learned that I am a northern girl, through and through.

I do really like my internship though! :)