Last weekend was a blast. I sailed in Harvest Day regatta at Fern Ridge Reservoir down by Eugene. The first day of racing we (my skipper Evert and crew Nathan) were tied for 1st place! The wind was rather interesting being a breeze from the southeast at first (which is never a good thing). It died after the first race Aw it's always nice to see old friends. I haven't seen my internet roommate; Stephanie for way too long. I got to see her for only a few hours earlier today which is a shame. We chatted about many things, but one theme that I wasn't able to most of my currently college caught friends, stuck. The question was basically do you feel too old/too mature for Corvallis and generally people who are in college? I had been feeling this great unspoken divide recently between those in school (even my close friends) and myself. It was as if some sort of strange switch had gone off in my brain where I was no longer on the same level as those in school. I feel like most of my peers at this point see many insights that I see as common knowledge and expected expectations as something that still needs to be clarified or are not expected as the norm. I'm so confused as to how this had happened. Have I simply had more experiences or have my experiences shaped me in a way such as I have a strict view of how things are typically done? I'm looking to get into the event planning industry. I think that it would be a good fit for me. I've looked into an internship in Bend with C3 that I'm waiting to hear back from. I'm excited for that opportunity though there is another that is even more exciting. Yesterday I decided that I should go to my old academic adviser who I very much enjoy and ask him if I could borrow an internship book that he had. I sent him an email and he said to come in and make an appointment (I wasn't even sure that I could no longer being a student and all). He also said that he thought he had a perfect opportunity for me. I must admit having heard this a few times from other places I was holding my breath a little. So Yesterday I went in to make an appointment with my old adviser and he happened to be in the office. Instead of having me make an appointment he met with me right then and there he told me to come on in and chat. He handed me a piece of paper which had an email message on it. The email was from Nike asking if he knew anyone who wanted to do event planning and would be good for the part. He then informed me that he has already given this lady from Nike my name! So I emailed her yesterday and I'm excited to see what happens. Cross your fingers everyone, if I get this I would get the chance to work for NIKE and be able to do international events! As most of you probably know I have a plethora of mysterious health problems. One night when I was hanging out with one of my friends having my stomach freak out on me the whole time, mentions that their mom is a doctor and is losing patients because they are so good at what they do that their patients dont need to come back!!!!
I had my first appointment the other day and it was amazing. She basically seemed to diagnose me via muscle analysis. She seems amazing and I'm very excited to go back. She even said that I would be able to eat regular food again :D For those of you who do not know I'm in Bend at the moment here for an interview! I will be interview for an internship with C3 which is a huge event planning company here in Bend. If I get the internship I will be able to get a good job in planning; apparently the company has done every well with training their planners, photographers, and others so that they succeed after the internship. Unfortunately in my case I forgot my jacket to interview with so I hope that I still look presentable :/
In the mean time I have been enjoying the company of my friends who live in Bend; Daniel, Beth, and Kira. I got to see Bethany yesterday (4th) before she moves to California for an awesome sounding job! After my interview I will go and visit my dear friend Kira at her new place and meet all her roomies and see how she is doing. I'm staying at Daniels house so I'm sure we will have fun filling the time when we can. He is currently at work, but last night we watched the movie Perks Of Being a Wallflower. If you have not seen this movie I highly recommend it. It is much deeper than the trailers would lead you to believe and for those out there like me it does end happily. I was expecting to stay a little longer, but after reviewing the weather reports I decided that I should leave on the 6th. Turns out I made a very good informed decision because there were a few feet of snow on the pass and as I have no chairs or traction tires I would have been quite stuck. All in all though it was a great trip and it was fun to catch up with people. WOW what an intense trip! Arizona Tour with the Utah Ballroom Dance Co. was so interesting. I was in the group that went down early (there are 22 or so of us total). The group I went down with was only 6 people. It was fun to get to know them and also to get the inside scoop on how the tour works.
While in Arizona we do 2 types of shows; one is The Dancing With Your Stars version where we take "stars" from the communities we are in and teach them a dance routine and they perform for the community they are part of. That is the first half for the second we perform usually 10 or so of the 19 routines we do. The other show we do is what we call a full show. This version is all of the routines that we perform. I had a star and our dance was the foxtrot, which we did quite well in placing 2nd in the competition. As it was my first time teaching a star I was quite happy with were we placed. The rest of tour was a whirl wind with crazy late nights (average of 1 am and as late as 4) while leaving the next day at 8am. I was on technical duty the rest of the time. I learned so much about lighting and sound as well as how to set up all the equipment. With so much to do I was never bored, but I could help but have a twinge (well a full blown) feeling of jealously watching the others dance. I hope I will get to be on team, but if not there are other things to It's now Thursday and already the trip is flying by! Granted I'm only 2 days into tour (including one rather gnarly 22 hour drive to get here) and I feel like I have been here for a week. So far I have done 2 rehearsals with my partner who's name is Mike. I'm very proud of him as he has never danced and was able to get all of the dance. We still need to work on timing and connecting different sections, but all in all we are set to win this thing. For those of you who are wondering what I'm talking about we are not only doing general dance shows, but also a special program that is basically Dancing With the Stars. We have changed it slightly to Dancing With Your Stars. For this set of stars we are getting our stars from a gated retiree community. The way that the program works is that a few "stars" from the community are chosen to dance with one of us. We have learned the routine and get them through it in only 5 rehearsals! Then we do performances with the same people and the judges vote on who they think performed the best. The couple who gets the most votes receives a trophy and infinite bragging rites. We also provide costumes for the stars. All in all it's a really great time. Otherwise it has been a lot of fun getting to know the team better and having fun with them. We have already had many laughs and have been enjoying the hot tub and pool. Once the rest of the team arrives we will be staying with host families. I'm not personally super stoked for that part, but it is free so that is good. I'm also only dancing in the Stars events, which means that I have a lot of down time. I'm going to be filling it with working on the regatta (Emerald Cup hosted by TYC) as well as learning how to do lighting and tech. If I have time and space I hope to get some great dancing photography in and maybe add that to my portfolio :) Now that the shock of being home has completely sunk in I'm neck deep in figuring out what my next move will be. I've found several very interesting jobs. My favorites have been those for planning as that is a passion and included in a long term dream of mine.
I'm also fortunate enough to be dancing again and have been enjoying classes. I have been attending the American smooth class (Waltz, Foxtrot, Tango, and Viennese Waltz) and once Samba is over I will add Latin to the mix. In addition to this I will be performing in Arizona in mid March with the traveling dance team at OSU. I will be dancing in their dancing with your stars event. I'm so excited for the opportunity and to get to know that team better. I leave on the surely ridiculously long, but awesome drive on the 19th :) Wish me luck! Lastly I have been working on my car since I have been home. Thus far I have changed suspension struts, a window controller, an interior blower motor, fixed both the tac and speedometer (needed a new sensor) and have done an oil change. The only thing now is figuring out why the battery keeps draining, get the interior back together and a good bath to make her shiny. :) Hopefully I will be all done by the end of next week :D Then we will take on the roads together. I've been home for a little over a week and have realized how much I missed being in Oregon and doing all the things I used to do. I started thinking that maybe I would prefer to just stay here, but still wasn't sure. Well whether I'm sure or not I guess I'm staying as I found out just late last night that my visa didn't go through. I feel a bit like a failure at the moment. Mostly because I feel like I should have at least a career picked out and going toward getting higher in it, but alas no such advance. Anyway I suppose my adventure in China has ended and a new one will start back at home. Hopefully it will still be interesting enough to hold your attention as I have a year of payed for this site lol. Also if anyone has any advise or
There was not a single point at which I basically gawked at the places we stayed. The first place was quite fabulous with only about 20 rooms. But the room itself had a loft two beds and a huge swanky bathroom. It also had a balcony off the back which looked onto the reservoir for irrigation.
Now I must make a quick note before I forget; These irrigation lakes are huge! Most are as big a Fern Ridge* easily and I was told there was one that was so big that you couldn't see the other side of it! One day for lunch we stopped for lunch at a place that was just off the lake and it was in the mid afternoon. There was the most magnificent breeze going over the lake beautifully capping and consistent wind. It's most certainly a thermal much like we know at home, but even at the beach (basically all over the country) I saw consistent caps. Sailors; I'm telling you Sri Lanka is a totally unknown sailing oasis that is completely untapped. That being said we got up and drove again to make it to our first destination.... which was lunch. The food on this whole trip was also spectacular. Sri lankan food is very interesting. As the vast majority of the population seem to be Buddhist there are a lot of vegetarian options** and most of the starch is made of rice or bean (which for me meant options! well minus the spicy factor) Either way it's excellent food, though if you travel there make sure to get a guide to tell you where is ok for you to eat. After lunch we continued with our driving and arrived at Ruwanveliseya Dagoba*** This place of meditation for Buddhist is awinspiring for sure. The pure stature of the structure alone is incredible rising to 300 feet with a circuference of 950 ft. Each Dagoba has a crystal on the top and to match the size of this structure you can imagine that the crystal must be huge as well. We were not there on a particularly special day, but there are certainly special times. During the months of April–May there is a special time that is considered a very auspicious time for the religion as many important events occurred on. The rest of the area was also quite interesting because it was covered with ruins of the rest of the ancient complex. That night I took a nice swim in the pool and enjoyed chatting with the waiters, who all looked to be about 16. Though they were extremely professional. *Fern Ridge is a reservoir On the outside of Eugene Oregon where I do the majority of my sailing. **http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_vegetarianism ***A Dagoba or stupa (from Sanskrit: m., स्तूप, stūpa, Sinhalese: ස්ථූපය, Pāli: थुप "thūpa", literally meaning "heap") is a mound-like structure containing Buddhist relics, typically the ashes of deceased, used by Buddhists as a place of meditation. |
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January 2014
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