Debate tournament this weekend at Colorado College. It's going pretty well so far and I'm enjoying myself...

I'm wearing my brown pants, heels and green turtleneck today. I mentioned to the team that I thought I looked like a tree which sparked this conversation from Jeff:

"But a very nice tree!"

"Oh? Thank you, Jeff..."

"Yeah, no, you look like a nice tree or whatever - an oak tree or something."

"An oak tree..."

"Yeah, an oak tree..."

"uh....okay...thanks..."

So much fun.

Yesterday, Jeff totally kicked my legs out from under me and caused me to fall down. It was absolutely hilarious and I laughed for a good 30 minutes or so... I seriously could not stop laughing... Kinda scared the team because of how much I laughed about it but yeah...it was so funny. I guess I seriously wasn't expecting it or whatever so I just started laughing... Good times :D

(and also, laughing seems to be my way of saving myself from embarrassment so I'm sure that was part of it too...)

So...a lot has happened. :)

1) I returned to USAFA on 5 January after a long flight back from Botswana. We stopped over in Senegal on the way for a layover which made me happy as I had visited 3 countries in Africa by that point. When we landed in NYC, the person who did my passport looked over everything and then said "Welcome home." and I just felt so...happy :) And then my luggage was lost...so yeah.

After I landed in Denver, Glenn (my sponsor dad) picked me up and took me to Walgreens to buy some basic necessities like shampoo, body wash, face wash, etc. He also brought me dinner and took me back to the hill. It was really nice to not have to worry about any of that...

I got back and started unpacking my room and trying to find everything for school tomorrow and such. As I unpacked, I started freaking out because I couldn't find anything and basically turned into a huge blubbering mess. It was kinda messed up. My roomie was on the phone and just kind of ignored me...for which I don't blame her. About 10 minutes into my distraught phase, Josh Johnson showed up. He took one look at me, said, "oh, sorry..." and walked out again. Of course, I went out in the hall and invited him back in to my room.

He looked at me and proceeded to ask what was wrong/if he could help. To which I responded that unless he had sophomore rank and a spare ABU belt, no. He then said, "be right back" and disappeared. He returned about 10 minutes later with an ABU belt and told me that he couldn't find sophomore rank but he had junior or senior rank if I wanted that. I laughed (sort of) and took the belt.

He asked how Africa was and I told him it had gone quite well, thank you, but that I was exhausted and had a ton of homework. He left and I did homework, went to bed and slept like a rock. I don't think I've ever slept that well before hahahaha...

2) School was really fun to catch up to - I had a ton of homework, etc to catch up on and was slightly (a lot more than I should've been) behind in Calc 3 right from the get-go. Not exactly the best subject to be stuck behind in, honestly... But I managed it, somewhat, and can't wait to just move on with it all.

3) Debate went well over break and I started doing Parli again now. It's a great time getting back into it but a lot of work... I need to get back into it. The books I'm reading for debate and all are quite interesting but very thought provoking. I actually have to seriously consider what it's saying and such... Lots to consider.

4) Josh Johnson and I started dating. I'm happy.

Life continues.

meh.

Happy New Year!

I know that's super late - like four days - but still... better late than never, right?

I've been in Botswana since 26 December and I leave today. It's been a great experience but it's definitely Africa. If you want to know how spoiled we are in the United States, come to Africa. It's insane... I have enjoyed myself and I've learned to be a bit more "go with the flow" due to the very fluid sense of time everyone here has.

And that fluid sense of time means that no one really knows/cares how long anything takes and things rarely happen on time. It really surprised me that anyone could care so little about being prompt but I guess that happens more often than not in Africa. I posted a super long note about it on Facebook so I don't really want to reiterate the entire thing here...

Anyway, we're off to head back to the US today and back to Colorado. I'm missing the first two days of school but no biggie, I guess...