And the pictures begin

Here are the long awaited photos.  They are ridiculously out of order because of my camera restarting the time and date all the time, but whatever.

Me at graduation.  I have a diploma!

Most of the family at my graduation.  Nikki was home with the girls, and she was missed!

My friend Amy and me.  We danced together for a couple of years.

The physics department.  Well, actually most of us.  A few students missed the photo.

Here's me hugging Yuki.  I nannied for her family for about six months.  She's adorable and extremely smart.

Here's Sarah and Yuki and I.  Such a loving family!

This is quite a bit older.  This is my 21st birthday in the Netherlands.  We were at a bar and saw a leopard print hat hanging on the wall.  The bartender let me wear it the rest of the night.  Eric and I are acting like typical American cowboys.

This is Simon.  He was Eric's supervisor.  We were on our work retreat.  He's driving one of the three boats we used to go around the rivers.

And here's my supervisor, Martin.  He's a lot more outgoing, if you can't tell.

And here's a great picture of my boss.  He's also a little crazy.

Here's a lot of people from my work.  We were playing a trivia game.

And here's Eric and Martin on a two person swing.

We were playing Farmer's golf.

Here's my two bosses in a very animated conversation.

Here are Alex's friends from Apeldoorn.  They were really nice, and kind of excited to have to use their English.

Not sure how to get this right side up.  But this is Halloween.  Eric happened to me making an extremely attractive face. haha

And here's Martin in his favorite pink chair getting ready to watch the Blair Witch Project on Halloween.

My boss and her kids carved pumpkins!

Here's the room I stayed in when I took the GRE in Brussels.  It was kind of nice

And here is the school I took the test at.  It's so pretty.

This was a random piece of artwork in Brussels.  Not sure what it is though.

And a clock with the 12 Disciples.

This is one of the Zwarte Pete that helps Sinta Klauss.

Me with Alex's family.  A little weird to put that up now, but they're cute.

A huge Zwarte Pete.  Note it's about a story tall.

Sinta Klauss's white horse.

The Musee d Orsey.  I don't think I spelled that right.  Deana and I were visiting Susannah.

The Eiffiel tower sparkles every hour.

Notre Dame

And here starts Rome, and less captions.

Now, we've gotten to playing with the girls last Christmas?

My old roommate Carol and I all dressed up for the president's ball.

Melissa and I dressed up for a funny party.

And now the road trip!
This is Maitland  

Pistachio near the Sinclair Dino. lol

The graduation party at the end of the road trip.

And the pretty dogs!

Vegas.  With the fake effiel tower.

Me with Miss Atomic Bomb

Basically a slide rule, but for radiation.

More of the graduation party.  This is my fave pic of KaeLee.

The best picture of my parents.  On our road trip in AZ.

New Apartment, New school, New lifestyle

I know it's been forever since my last post, and I truely was going to put up pictures this time.  I just downloaded all of the pictures on my camera and organized them.  There were upwards of 2000 pics and I've been working on this for almost an hour.  So, you will just have to wait.  But in the meantime....

I love almost every aspect of being in AZ.  It's warm, sunny.  The people are great.  My classes are super interesting and I have a good mix of easy and challenging classes.  Pistachio is happier than ever.  I just really hate my apartment.  I did not realize how much of a rip off this place is until I got here.  My friend pays less than have of what I do for a two bedroom triplex.  I'm in a dinky little studio apartment.  I'm so sick of my bedroom, kitchen, living room and dining room being the same room!  Another one of my friends has a two bedroom house, that is gorgeous for slightly more than what I pay.  Let's just say I will be happy when this lease is over.  Also, I make about $25 less a month than my rent is.  Thank goodness I get an extra $3000 a term as a stipend, and I have some savings.  Needless to say.  I'm finally living the poor college student life.  It's a good experience though.  It forces me to budget and really look at where I am spending my money.

On an entirely different note, I know that mom and grandma Loretta will ask about boys.  So, I suppose I can indulge the two of you.  The boy I met on the first day I was here who gave me a tour around campus is still in the boyfriend running.  He's very sweet, and we are good an entirely different things.  We compliment each other really nicely that way.  If we never date, he will still be a really great friend.  He's one of those friends that you never really want to lose.  It may seem weird that I can tell that already, but it just fits.

I went on a trip to Prescott last weekend and represented the U of A at a fair celebrating AZ's centennial.  Shelby (one of my new friends) and I had some people really excited about girls in science and telling us how proud they are of us.  It was pretty cool.  We were one of the few science groups with girls, and we were the PhD students in our groups and all of the boys were undergraduates.  It was pretty funny to have a group where the smartest people in it were the ladies.  It was a nice change to be respected over a man in science.

As for classes, I really like my math class this term.  It's taught a lot differently than what I am used to.  Usually the professor will lecture for the entire period and take questions, but this is totally different.  We watch the lectures online and do our homework before each class.  The homework is never turned in, but instead we discuss it in class.  Then we do challenge problems and have a mini quiz at the end of each class.  I really think I learn better this way.

I still haven't found a research group yet.  So far, I have talked with five groups and three of them will not work out.  But only a handful of my class has actually found a group yet, and most those that have did their undergraduate here and already knew which professor they wanted to work with.  Fear not.  I will find a group as soon as I can.  I have to tutor until I do.  It's super boring.  I'm pretty sure they do this as motivation to find a group. haha.

Wow, I have been awake for an hour and a half, and I have yet to start homework.  As I have my first midterm on Tuesday, I'm going to cut this shorter than planned.  Look forward to pictures, hopefully this weekend I will get most of them up.