I don´t know what the weather at home has been like lately but here it has been positively PERFECT (think beach weather!!). I´ve taken to sitting in Parque García Sanabria in the shade of a palm tree to read and study.
Speaking of studying, I´ve been doing a LOT of that. Next year I plan on applying to MIT, Stanford, and UW (at least, probably one or two more...) so I need a super good SAT II score in chemistry and math. Therefore, in addition to the normal (rediculous) amount of studying, I also am studying for the exams at home :O.
It´s pretty crazy, living here now just feels like regular life. None of the things that happen suprise or shock me like they used to (ok, guys with shaved legs still makes me furrow my brow but...:) ). Even though I´m in Spain I realized that I should probably start planning my next year at hom ei fI want ot graduate and then go on to an Ivy league school! Silly SPSCC doesn´t have the current course catalog online, making it a bit difficult to decide which courses I want to take there in the fall (and registration is sooonnnn!).
Also, I decided that as my culminating project next year I want to start a robitics club at Jefferson Middle School. If anyone has any tips, ides, sugestions, etc that would be fabulous (especially if you know about finding funding? It´s possible that the OSD has the necesarry supplies, but I don´t know, and with a bit of a budget we could build a lot cooler robots, and there fore that the kids more excited and interested xD!).
Ok, thats my update for now, A bit run of the mill I know but I still have 100 pages of Mararía to read TODAY for my lengua exam on the book tomorrow,
Peace everyone,
Molly
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Mango Juice
It really is the small things in life that count. Knowning that someone thought about you matters more than whatever it is they give you. Of course the fabulous jewlery I got for my birthday is gorgeous, but I swear the Mango Juice abuelo (one of the grandpas, abuelo is granpa in spanish) has for me whenever I visit him makes me feel just as special. I´m not really sure where the idea came from (probably something I said about mango´s when I first got here, A very typical exchange student experience, the one word you know becomes your ´favorite food´, one of the girls I know now has her family thinking she´s CRAZY abotu strawberry icecream jaja!!).
I´ve had a few very serious revelations lately. First of all life is fragil, seeing Tita (my great aunt here, who lives next door and has parkinsons) slowly loose her ability to walk alone, to dress herself, and now even to feed herself makes you realize that even getting up in the morning is a privelege. The other thing i´ve realized is that there are no rules. Meaning, the only thing which is obligatory in life is to eat sleep and drink water, money is a societal concept as are all of the behaviors we do besides those which are directly fufilling a physical need (even the WAY we fufil them is cultural!!).
For instance sleep, there can´t possibly be very many variatons on something so normal right? Wrong. Here, even in spain where the beds look just about the same as at home, and everyone sleeps at night (everyone is an exageration, but you know what I mean) the hours of living are different. It literally makes my host counselor and her family giggle when I go to bed at 9:30 or 10pm on a school night! For them that sthe time to start the videos before going to bed. And it´s not just because they don´t ahve to get up very early in the morning. Most of the kids in my class have the same late to bed schedule (except that they all also have to but up by 7 to be to school by 8!!). I really don´t know how they do it!
What I think we should take away from these fabulous revaltions of mine is that the world is our playground. It needs to be taken care of, of course, but there are no limits on what is possible.
Peace out and happy easter!,
Molly
I´ve had a few very serious revelations lately. First of all life is fragil, seeing Tita (my great aunt here, who lives next door and has parkinsons) slowly loose her ability to walk alone, to dress herself, and now even to feed herself makes you realize that even getting up in the morning is a privelege. The other thing i´ve realized is that there are no rules. Meaning, the only thing which is obligatory in life is to eat sleep and drink water, money is a societal concept as are all of the behaviors we do besides those which are directly fufilling a physical need (even the WAY we fufil them is cultural!!).
For instance sleep, there can´t possibly be very many variatons on something so normal right? Wrong. Here, even in spain where the beds look just about the same as at home, and everyone sleeps at night (everyone is an exageration, but you know what I mean) the hours of living are different. It literally makes my host counselor and her family giggle when I go to bed at 9:30 or 10pm on a school night! For them that sthe time to start the videos before going to bed. And it´s not just because they don´t ahve to get up very early in the morning. Most of the kids in my class have the same late to bed schedule (except that they all also have to but up by 7 to be to school by 8!!). I really don´t know how they do it!
What I think we should take away from these fabulous revaltions of mine is that the world is our playground. It needs to be taken care of, of course, but there are no limits on what is possible.
Peace out and happy easter!,
Molly
Saturday, April 11, 2009
The Parents visit :)
And here is some visual proof! We also took a trip to fuerteventura, although my parents have all those pictures, i´ll post some when I get them.
The other picture is the view from teh roof of my host counselors house, amazing eh?
Ok, I dont´really have time to write a long post write now, but this is 17 year old Molly checkin back in with olympia, I´ll try to write a longer one later!
P.S. I passed all of my classes for second tri too!!
Whoops, Due to technical difficulties the promised images are not currently availible, check back sooN!
The other picture is the view from teh roof of my host counselors house, amazing eh?
Ok, I dont´really have time to write a long post write now, but this is 17 year old Molly checkin back in with olympia, I´ll try to write a longer one later!
P.S. I passed all of my classes for second tri too!!
Whoops, Due to technical difficulties the promised images are not currently availible, check back sooN!
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Oh my goodness, How long has it been without an update!
I guess you all can take that as I sign that i´m doing fabulously well though :). I´m passing all my classes, enjoying hanging out wiht my friends and family, and having an all around good time :). Also my parents came to visit for the last coulpe of weeks (they went home on thursday) and I had lots of fun introducing them to my life here (even if it is quite tiring having to translate all the time!). We also had an amazing mini vacation in fuertaventura (another of the canary island) which is known for having the longest crazy cool beachs out of the carribean xD. Snorkeling there was defintiely one of hte coolest things i´ve down in my life! I´d seen pictures of all the crazy cool colored fish there are in the world put seeing them inches from your face playing in the rocks is something different all together.
This week i´m staying at Elo´s house becuase my host parents just left for the united states and on either the first or the second of this month I get to go try out windsurfing and lots of otherwater sports on a school excursion :).
The weather changed to warm here for a few days, but now its back to collld and raining (cold meaning like 60...jaja).
Try not to freeze to much my olyites!
Molly
This week i´m staying at Elo´s house becuase my host parents just left for the united states and on either the first or the second of this month I get to go try out windsurfing and lots of otherwater sports on a school excursion :).
The weather changed to warm here for a few days, but now its back to collld and raining (cold meaning like 60...jaja).
Try not to freeze to much my olyites!
Molly
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Very cool Spanish Gas Natural add :)
Watch it!
Here is another cool one from christmas time that I never put up (it´s a phone add)
Here is another cool one from christmas time that I never put up (it´s a phone add)
Saturday, February 14, 2009
My Chemistry Teacher has a Soul :)
It´s valentines day, and I have to go get ready to go to Loro Parque (like sea world, actually from the makers of sea world, and with the largest penguin thing in the world :D) but I have a few things to share with you all first :).
So my class at school is one of the worst behaved groups in the history of the universe. And my chemistry teacher yells and is very nervous nearly always (I didnt´realize the two were related though!). Yesterday (prompted by a staff meeting for primer de bach B, my group) she decided that we weren´t goin to have class, instead we were going to talk about what goes on in class, and how to make it better. She explained that she is putting in as much as she possibly can, and it isn´t working, and it makes her very sad to see so many kids failing, because her goal as a teacher is to have as many kids as possible understand and pass the course. She explained that she´s been going slower than the department says because thats what our class needed. And while she was CALMY explaining all of this and we were having a discussion abotu what to do everyone was CALM, and LISTENED. Gasp right? No, not so much of a gasp, in Lengua class (spanish lit) everyone is like that, and the same in philosophy most of the time. I think the teachers atitude when they walk into the class is really what determines how a class will go more than whatever things they do to try to control the class (niether lengua nor philosophy teachers have to do anything to control the class, its just their presence in a calm, we´re goin to learn now and thats it way that does it.)
From this I think anyone who is sometimes in a leadership position can learn (and we all are at some point!). The people your leading will follow your example, so therefore, no matter what is happening being calm and collected is the most imoprtant thing to do.
On a lighter note, I found a very good sign that my spanish is improving. People now tease me when I say something wrong. Yes, that seems like a bad thing, but then you think about it. In order to be teased for saying something wrong, that has to mean that the majority of the things out of my mouth are CORRECT :), and that it suprises them when I say something funny to their ears. Yahoooooo :). I still have some issue with the whole where to put articles, using mi or yo, speaking in the past tense (there are SOOO MANY to choose from :O), and the whole making whatever your talking about thats feminine have the feminine adjective, but thats OK, progress is progress :).
Lots of Love for Valentines Day to all you back in O-Town (and those in other places reading my blog :) ),
Molly
So my class at school is one of the worst behaved groups in the history of the universe. And my chemistry teacher yells and is very nervous nearly always (I didnt´realize the two were related though!). Yesterday (prompted by a staff meeting for primer de bach B, my group) she decided that we weren´t goin to have class, instead we were going to talk about what goes on in class, and how to make it better. She explained that she is putting in as much as she possibly can, and it isn´t working, and it makes her very sad to see so many kids failing, because her goal as a teacher is to have as many kids as possible understand and pass the course. She explained that she´s been going slower than the department says because thats what our class needed. And while she was CALMY explaining all of this and we were having a discussion abotu what to do everyone was CALM, and LISTENED. Gasp right? No, not so much of a gasp, in Lengua class (spanish lit) everyone is like that, and the same in philosophy most of the time. I think the teachers atitude when they walk into the class is really what determines how a class will go more than whatever things they do to try to control the class (niether lengua nor philosophy teachers have to do anything to control the class, its just their presence in a calm, we´re goin to learn now and thats it way that does it.)
From this I think anyone who is sometimes in a leadership position can learn (and we all are at some point!). The people your leading will follow your example, so therefore, no matter what is happening being calm and collected is the most imoprtant thing to do.
On a lighter note, I found a very good sign that my spanish is improving. People now tease me when I say something wrong. Yes, that seems like a bad thing, but then you think about it. In order to be teased for saying something wrong, that has to mean that the majority of the things out of my mouth are CORRECT :), and that it suprises them when I say something funny to their ears. Yahoooooo :). I still have some issue with the whole where to put articles, using mi or yo, speaking in the past tense (there are SOOO MANY to choose from :O), and the whole making whatever your talking about thats feminine have the feminine adjective, but thats OK, progress is progress :).
Lots of Love for Valentines Day to all you back in O-Town (and those in other places reading my blog :) ),
Molly
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Happiness is good company and a bowl of soup
Or at least thats the best version of a definition I came up with (the freedom from pain and fear, and the ´name for all good feelings´were taken by Epecurus and modern physcology respectively :) ). So why the soup you may ask? Because in all my research (yes I´m doing a project on happiness for philosophy, so this blog ALMOST doesn´t count as procastinating...more brainstorming in english :) ) the thing besides friendship, etc, that is extremely important to have happiness is a basic level of living, food, water, heat and some sort of shelter. Also, soup is warm and satisfying :) (which actually isn´t part of happiness acording to most philosophers, its a source of pleasure which is like happiness only its temporary and not as good, the ´static´pleasure from being ´happy´with your life is better says everyone).
One thing I found really interesting in this study is that the one thing all the philosophers agree on is that finding happiness is the goal of living (OK, its true the early christians didn´t think that..but starting with artistotle, and what we usually refer to as philosophers ). So if the goal of life is to be happy, and now we have some idea what happiness is, how do we get it you might ask?
That depends, basically there are two schools of thought (which doesn´t actually matter in the situation most of you reading this blog are in, but for the debate whether someone dying of hunger in africa can be happy it does) one is that happiness comes solly from strong moral character and a live with a reason, the other is that moral character and circumstances (where you are born, what happens in your life, etc) effect your ability to be happy.
To put it simply, if you want to be happy lower your expectations. Really, forget the idea of having more money, that nice car, finding the perfect boyfriend, etc. If you have enough money so that you have a roof over your head, and food on the table, according to physcological studies and ancient philosophers alike more is not going to make your happy. In fact, according to Epecurus it might even through off your balance and cause you pain, which is the enemy of happiness. He also has this whole theory about how fear of death is the root of most problems on earth, but personally I think thats majorly bogus :). Back to the example and practical advice, if you have friends, and people who care about you, be thankful for it! If you spend your whole life searching for something perfect, you´ll never get the chance to apreciate what you have before you die!
One last thought, SMILE. Yes, even if your not feeling particularly happy, a smile has been shown to cause happiness. It´s worth a try at least because :
“It was only a sunny smile and little it cost in the giving but like morning light it scattered the night and made the day worth living.”
Peace to all (because tomorrow is peace day :) ),
Molly
P.S. This is a pretty darn cool video on CBS about Happiness
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=1773887n
One thing I found really interesting in this study is that the one thing all the philosophers agree on is that finding happiness is the goal of living (OK, its true the early christians didn´t think that..but starting with artistotle, and what we usually refer to as philosophers ). So if the goal of life is to be happy, and now we have some idea what happiness is, how do we get it you might ask?
That depends, basically there are two schools of thought (which doesn´t actually matter in the situation most of you reading this blog are in, but for the debate whether someone dying of hunger in africa can be happy it does) one is that happiness comes solly from strong moral character and a live with a reason, the other is that moral character and circumstances (where you are born, what happens in your life, etc) effect your ability to be happy.
To put it simply, if you want to be happy lower your expectations. Really, forget the idea of having more money, that nice car, finding the perfect boyfriend, etc. If you have enough money so that you have a roof over your head, and food on the table, according to physcological studies and ancient philosophers alike more is not going to make your happy. In fact, according to Epecurus it might even through off your balance and cause you pain, which is the enemy of happiness. He also has this whole theory about how fear of death is the root of most problems on earth, but personally I think thats majorly bogus :). Back to the example and practical advice, if you have friends, and people who care about you, be thankful for it! If you spend your whole life searching for something perfect, you´ll never get the chance to apreciate what you have before you die!
One last thought, SMILE. Yes, even if your not feeling particularly happy, a smile has been shown to cause happiness. It´s worth a try at least because :
“It was only a sunny smile and little it cost in the giving but like morning light it scattered the night and made the day worth living.”
Peace to all (because tomorrow is peace day :) ),
Molly
P.S. This is a pretty darn cool video on CBS about Happiness
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=1773887n
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Subscribe To
Posts
All Comments