Greet we then our Mother

I have been missing Europe a lot this fall. It comes in waves- the one year anniversary of when we left for Florence in September (my good friend posted on Facebook this gem of entry: "a year ago today I was leaving for Italy. Today a man threw-up on me at work"- he works with severe Alzheimer patients), when my family visited me (every one of you reminded me!), on Thanksgiving (which is ironic because I was so homesick in Paris on Thanksgiving I became physically sick), and then on the 1 year anniversary of me coming home. I could not figure out why I have been so homesick for Europe this past week. One of the happiest moments of my life was landing in Chicago's airport and sending out a mass text to pretty much everyone I know telling them I was state-side. When I finally finished a hellish week of finals (plus everything else that happened to me last week which is a blog in itself), I picked up Holly and drove the hour-long drive home which is incredibly shorter than the 10 hour flight just to get to Chicago from Paris. When Holly and I watched Love Actually later that evening, it hit me. The introductory scene and the ending scene is a montage of people hugging each other at an airport. That was it. I gave my study abroad friends fair warning that I was going to cry at the airport. Sixteen hours of traveling and all the emotions of coming home and leaving the people who had been my family for three months was more than I could calmly handle. Seeing my mom at the airport was a feeling I had never experience before. I could not have been happier. After claiming my over stuffed bags, I said good-bye to my friends as calmly as I could. One of my best friends looked at me and just said, "Go home, before you cry." I did. Pulling into the driveway last December with a sign all lighted up just for me, I felt home. After living out of a suitcase (literally- there wasn't ever enough room to actually unpack), constantly traveling here and there (which don't get me wrong was amazing!), and fending for yourself in countries where they laughed at Americans for even trying to speak the native language, I felt like a nomad. I was finally home. In this past year, I've forgotten how good that felt. Don't get me wrong; I am a happy person and I still do love coming home. It's just that, coming home last year was the happiest moment of my life. That moment will forever define pure bliss.

Looks She Proudly Down

I know it has been far too long since I have posted and for that I am sorry. I actually wrote one about how excited I was that Holly was going to be a Jayhawk, but it somehow never was posted. Today, however, I would like to vent.

The other day I noticed that I was just not in a good mood and I could not figure out why. So I go through my normal questions (I know, I am like a child, but sometimes I honestly don't know what's wrong!) Is it the weather? No. Am I hungry? No. Is something changing? (I HATE change). Yes. Sadly as it seemed, I realized that I was so cranky because of this whole Big XII business. My mom has told me for years that I just become too passionate about somethings. One of those is the Jayhawks.

For most things that I just become to caught up, it's my own fault. I want to get something done and don't understand why people are not as involved as I am and so I become extremely frustrated. But the whole Jayhawk obsession, I take no responsibility for. This I blame on who else, but my mom. There is this curse that lands upon most children whose parents attended KU where the children fall in love with the Jayhawks. The more and more people I talk to, the more truth there is to this. We are all given Jayhawk t-shirts to wear before we even have the motor skills to dress ourselves. As much as we try to fight it, it's in our blood. Not that this is entirely a bad thing. I mean, how many people can say their team won a National Championship and an Orange Bowl in one year?? That's pretty incredible. KU is a great school too. You have no idea how glad I am that I chose KU over another school that shall never be named because I firmly believe that I have learned more and had a better experience than the friend I had who did go to that other horrible school. (She even showed up to a football game freshman year wearing a KU t-shirt when we were playing her school- flipping fair-weather fan!!!)

However, I did not realize that not all Jayhawks are quite as passionate about KU as my family. This shocking realization came when I was having "Thanksgiving" dinner (we actually had it on Wednesday instead of Thursday) in France leading me to my little story of the day:

So we all went to Joe Allen's restaurant in Paris to satisfy our Thanksgiving craving and it truly did it's job. Not only was the food excellent but it was nice to share it with a group of people that became your family for 3 months. We gabbed about a variety of things including, unfortunately, how foie gras is made (Thanks Jerry for ruining my appetizer). One of the topics that we spent a bit of time on was how I became the admission's Baby Jay. At one point Nan (one of my professors) asked me if my family liked KU. "Of course! Well, my mom went to KU and if my dad wanted to marry mom he had to convert into a Jayhawk fan." They were surprised to hear that it was my mom since everyone else had said their dads were the big KU fans. "Oh yes, I am pretty much my mom when it comes to being a Jayhawk fan. One year for her Birthday I made a t-shirt that said 'Don't talk to me, the Jayhawks are on.'" This lead to some quizzical faces. "Well, my mom was great about helping us with whatever we need: school projects, getting toys out and other stuff. But we were told again and again not to bother her when she was watching the Jayhawks on T.V." Everyone looked stunned. Like I had been abused as a child or something. "It really was only during games- don't worry she was a great mom!" I started to feel awkward. Then my friend Ashley finally spoke up, "No, no! We don't doubt that! It's just... it all just makes so much more sense now." Everyone nodded their head in agreement. I really never stood a chance- it was in my blood and a Jayhawk fan I would and will always be.

Reared Against the Dome of Heaven

Yes, that line is in a verse of our Alma Mater! I know there are people who think that is ridiculous but you know if something is in a song it is a FACT. He he!
Well, this morning I had another early wake-up call. Only this one was from my big "sister"/"mom" (we are still in transition of switching the terms, each pledge class gets a little better at using "sister") in the house. At 5:15 a.m. I was taken from my cozy bed and to an unknown destination. Luckily for me, however, I was not told that I had to dress up in clothes from the 1980s, wear two different shoes, or wear our wonderful red robes that we are given as gift from our big "sister"/"mom" freshman year. Some of my friends apparently were so for once in my life I got to be the normal one (yay!). We were driven to Kelly's scholarship hall!! I was quite excited when we arrived but then I remembered that stupid Kelly was in stupid Spain so I could not go wake her up at stupid 5:30 a.m. (Kelly- you would have LOVED that I'm sure). Waitkins was not our final stop. After more people arrived, we were lined up 1 by 1 and taken outside to prance all around campus. We played red rover which I had just gone on a rant to one of my 6'4" tall friends about why I don't like the game. Bigger people just don't understand. Thankfully the other team found another short girl they could attack. We sang songs, rolled down a hill, and then were finally taken to our last stop. This is what I found out: I'm in I believe to be a traditionally secret honor society and that's it. I have no idea what it even does! My point in all this is, I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to be the driver that had to stop at 6 a.m. because we were walking across the street, single file, with one hand on the person in front of each of us.

P.S. I'm in the library right now procrastinating studying for the MCAT test (1 week and 1 day-AHHHHHHH!) and the people next to me are not speaking English. I can only understand one word that they have said is the f-word. I'm glad they have learned some English in their American experience.

P.P.S. This is what I worked on at work for a while! I scanned pictures and even help set up the exhibit.
http://www.news.ku.edu/2010/february/8/librarywwi.shtml

Of the Busy Town

It's quite an odd time in Lawrence right now. There are no more home basketball games and while that gives me more time to study, it's kind of odd and disturbing to not be camping. I promised I would explain how camping so here's what I tell people when I give tours:

1. Lottery- this is the worst part about camping. The morning after a home game you have to be at Allen Field House BEFORE 6 a.m. Someone from your group signs your group up on a list. Then at 6 a.m., this jerk who is never going to graduate starts calling of the group names from the list. Once your group is called all of the people in your group line up and for every 5 people, 1 person gets to pull a poker chip out of a box with a number on it. That number dictates where you are in line to camp and to enter Allen Field House on game day.
2. Camping- I may complain about the Athletics Dept., but they do let us actually camp inside unlike other schools. On the weekdays, we camp from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. unless there is another event at the Field House (then we are kicked out) or if there is an away game that everyone wants to watch (then we suspend it). On the weekends camping is from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. One person from your team must be camping at all times.
   
3. To ensure that each group always has a person there, people will sporadically call "roll." Everyone there goes and huddles by a sheet that has the list of groups on it, and the jerk that called roll yells of each name on the list. If your team gets called and there is no one there to answer "here" then your crossed off the list. It's pretty much every person's goal in life the knock off a team in front of them to get a better seat.

That said, I waited through the longest lottery of my entire life for the K-State Game- over 100 teams were there. It wasn't until 7 a.m. (remember it starts at 6 a.m.) that our group at 50 was called. My team lined up and they counted us off. I should mention, I hate being the person that pulls the chip. I always pull the worst number! Well, a girl holding the box of poker chips is counting us off and she points at me and tells me to pull. I wanted to turn around and let the next guy do it, but there wasn't enough time. I grabbed two and dropped one back in the box, hand it to the guy in charge and walk off. I hear him drop it and say "one hundred... no wait, eight." What??? Did I just draw eight????? We went over and asked and the guy said "Yeah, your number 8 in line!" Out of 100 teams we were going to be the eighth group inside Allen Field House for the K-State game. Emphasis on were. Three days later I get a text message saying that we were bumped at 6 a.m. because someone missed roll call and are now 114. I was not happy. I still made it into the game, and had a lot of fun, but still, that would have been a fun game to have good seats!

The Distant Humming

It's 5:14 in the morning and my phone is ringing. At first I thought it was my alarm waking me up to go lottery for seats at Allen Field House (I'll explain that process in a later blog). I answered. It was my friend who lives upstairs. Half awake, I couldn't really understand her and all I could make out was "...we're wigging out....can you come up?" I made sure she was in her room and stumbled out of bed, up the stairs, and into her room. "Frances, is that you?" I responded and opened the sliding door to the bedroom. She and her two roommates were wide awake. One was sitting up and staring at the window- I would have been scared if I was actually awake. "What's wrong?" I asked. "We thought someone was in the room, either that or the window is making noise." It was most definitely the window. The three of them were absolutely terrified that someone was lurking on the other side of the sliding door and instead of opening it, they were absolutely frozen in fear. I ended up talking to them for 45 minutes until they had truly calmed down. It wasn't until after I woke up the next morning that I realized how truly ridiculous the whole event was. First off, with how many people live in this house, someone is always awake. If someone was in their room, it would probably have been a girl borrowing something. Secondly, why would someone wait to open the sliding door? Thirdly and finally, why would you call your smallest friend to protect you??? I know I am kind of crabby before I've had some cereal and coffee, but really?

It reminded me of the absolutely insane night I had in France when we were living in dorms with other Americans. The weekend before we left I was spending the night in my friend's room. We ate at a French Tex-Mex restaurant (we were curious) and I had some tuna salad that was NOT sitting well so I was already having problems sleeping. Then at 2:30 a.m. a very loud argument woke the both of us up. "Give me my #@$#@$ keys!! Come on Lauren give me my keys!!" "No Lindsey! They're mine!" After 15 minutes I went out into the hallway and asked them to quite down. Lindsey was the only one in the hall and responded with a blank stare. I went back inside and heard her stomp away. About 20 minutes later, it happened again. Lindsey left (I only know their names because they were yelling so loudly). She came back again up the stairs. This time crying saying how stupid the whole thing was. Lauren didn't let her in. Twenty minutes later I woke up to what I could only assume was a brick being thrown against the wall next to us. (We figured out the next morning it was Lindsey kicking the elevator.) This went on until we had to wake up at 6:15 to catch a train! Stupid Americans!!

The moral: There is no reason to wake me up no matter what country I am living in.

Far Above

There is never a dull moment on KU's campus! Last week my roommate decided she wanted to start going to the Rec to work-out at 6 AM like we used to do Sophomore year. She never was able to get up so I decided I would wake up and make her go with me this morning. I was successful! But obviously that is not the fun part of the story. I ran on the treadmill and then decided to do some weights while she stretched and did crunches. We were about to go when we ran into another girl we know. She asked if we had been running on the track. "No. Why?" She just raises her eyebrows and says we should stretch over next to the track by the aerobic classroom. There is a spot on the track where you can look down into the room where aerobic group classes take place (the main reason why I don't take them- like I need more people to see how I have no rhythm). Anyways, we wandered over there a little confused to stretch. We sat down, peaked into the room, and started cracking up! It's 7:15 in the morning and still dark out. This is Campus. Most people in the surrounding area are asleep and those who are awake are only kind of awake (including those at the Rec). What do we see? Two people dressed in all black with masks and helmets on doing what I only can assume is Japanese sword-fighting screeching like Jackie Chan on stimulants. KU is always full of surprises!!

KU!

One of my very good friends is on the same study abroad program this semester as I was. She set up a blog too. I tried to read it today but it made me so jealous that I just couldn't. Another girl in my house was accepted to the program (which had so many applicants for this semester that they had to cut people) but she DECLINED. When she told me that, I wanted to yell at her, "You're an idiot!" but that would have only made her feel bad. And that's why I want to tell you Kelly, it's scary as Hell getting ready to go, but you're already braver than her, and I PROMISE that it will be far more fun and far more life-changing than being on Mass Street after the National Championship.

As for myself, I realized on Thursday when I was going to my first class that I was so sad about not being in Europe anymore that I forgot how much I LOVE Lawrence! It is going to be a great semester!

One last thing. I'm having a bowl of cereal and chatting with one of my friends on Friday morning and she asked me if I had gone anywhere over break. "Yes, I went to..." I stopped. Had I gone anywhere? I'm so used to traveling that I didn't realize I hadn't really left Kansas City over break. I had gone to Lawrence. Morgan came from Denver. But I had done so many things! I went shopping, to museums, to restaurants, but I really never left the metro area. "Ha ha! I guess I didn't. It may have been more relaxing if I did!"