It’s 62 degrees today. Definitely not the type of weather I expect around this time of the year where I’m from, especially since last week it was in the high 90s. However, I really do enjoy the wind at the moment. If I wasn’t still sick with a cough and all I think I would walk around outside for a bit. It’s awesome weather.

Anyway, I was on babysitting duty again from 9am-12pm this morning so I put Toy Story 3 on in the background… and man, the ending always gets me. One of the best animated movies ever. Also, whenever I finish watching it I always want to get a Woody doll, hehe. “There’s a snake in my boot.”

…and because I thought this was awesome I will share the link Your Toy Story 3  Egg Guide : http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=67118  

Well, I think it’s now my nap time.

Before leaving to Davis last Monday I decided to grab whatever novel I could find in my room to take along with me for the ride and for any free time that would come up during my stay. Three Weeks with My Brother happened to be the book I grabbed. I didn’t know what to expect from the book but I figured since it was Nicholas Sparks that I would end up enjoying it.

I did in fact enjoy it quite a bit. It wasn’t the typical Nicholas Sparks novel like I was expecting, this is because it was actually a memoir. As I began to flip through the pages I found that within this novel I would learn so much about Nicholas Sparks and his family. It was fascinating to learn about his childhood and the struggles that he had to deal with growing up. I’ve always enjoyed knowing what shaped someone to be who they are now and by reading Three Weeks with My Brother I felt like I was able to do that.

I’m glad I had a lot of time to read during my stay in Davis…on the train, during visits to Starbucks as my friend studied, at the pool, etc. 

Today was an eventful day. Carolina and I woke  up and immediately got ready so we could go have all you-can-eat sushi with Julian. Oh man we ate a ton, there was some really delicious cripsy sushi…mmm.

Afterward we prepared to go play ultimate frisbee with TJ and a couple of other people at the Davis Community Park. We got there early so we played on the playground for a bit. There was a super awesome playground there! Once everyone arrived we snacked on otter pops and white cheddar popcorn before getting ready to play Ultimate. It was 3 versus 3 and then half way through we mixed up the teams so it was TJ, Carolina, and Elizabeth versus Julian, Ashley, and me. The game was super intense and fun. There was a lot of running, blocking, laughing, interceptions, etc. We did not mess around. I even got a huge bruise on my foot—I think from getting accidentally stepped on during our game.

After getting all hot and sweaty we headed back to Carolina’s apartment so we could get ready to go country line dancing. We went with her roomie Caitlin and her friend Naomi so that was nice having them come along. I always enjoy line dancing so this was a good night. Although my foot was a bit sore since I had a bruise on the top of my foot from frisbee and another bruise on my ankle from dancing the previous night. So my foot is kinda all bruised.

So once we got back home Carolina made me put some ice on it and now we’re watching tv with Caitlin.

So yesterday Carolina took me to the Grad to go salsa dancing. First off, I am a beginner so I have no idea what to do during Latin dancing besides the very very very basic moves. So every time someone would ask me to dance I would try to avoid it or I would make sure to warn them that I had no idea what I was doing.

The good thing is that most of the people there are really good at teaching because they’re either part of the salsa club or have a ton of dancing experience. So the first person to get me dancing was one of Carolina’s friends from the Salsa club who she said was a very good teacher. So he taught me the basics to salsa and told me that I had to spin at the same pace as the song. Next, an older buff asian man decided to teach me how to dance. I think he taught me merengue and bachata. He told me how to place my hands, how to make it so I could put distance between myself and a guy, and he kept on reminding me not to look down at my feet (hahaha). However, he did say I had good rhythm, He was a really good teacher although he made me a bit nervous with the movement of his hands. Next, I had an extremely tall person ask me to dance salsa. He danced at a really good pace for me, which I was grateful for since most people tend to dance at a fast pace with a lot of flare. Also, any time I would lose my rhythm he would slowly lead me back into place.

Next, I had a guy ask me to dance but I can’t remember at all which dance it was. I just know that at times he would let my hands go so that we could both do our own little moves or spins and then continue with the together moves.

After that, an older man asked me to dance to some song which he spun me a lot to. Oh my goodness, I would get so dizzy. Also, I would constantly lose my footing because he would shift me to different spots and spin me a lot and I really don’t know more than the basic steps. He would do this one move where he would hold onto my hands and then kinda shift me in an arc motion to the opposite side…except I had no idea what my feet were supposed to do during this motion…haha, so that must’ve looked funny.

Next, there was this one guy who asked me to dance and I think he sorta fancied me because he kept on wanting to teach me. He would constantly make me giggle because he kept on saying that I was lying to him when I said that I was a beginner and didn’t know what I was doing. I really am a beginner but by the time he had asked me to dance I had already gotten more of the basics down from all the previous partners. He practiced the turns with me a lot and helped me to spin on beat and to watch for the signal of when I should turn. I must say that I felt so bad because I hit him about three times in the face during turns, woops >< But either way, his spinning lessons were really helpful. He also told me to not pay attention to the other dancers and just to dance to my own feel. At some point he kissed my cheek when I did a really good job at a move O_o and then later on asked me to give him my number so he could continue to teach me how to dance but I refused to give him my number because I don’t give it out to random people. So eventually, my friend Julian noticed my uncomfortableness and saved me.

So I got to dance with Julian next. He’s really silly when he dances so that’s fun.

Next, the Asian man asked me to dance again. He taught me how to dance another latin dance and also had to keep on reminding me not to look at my feet >< He also said  that for that particular dance I have to give some pressure with my hands to the other person. So that was another good lesson even though I kept on forgetting to do it.

Next, I had Julian and Carolina dance with me. Once I finished dancing a cumbia with Carolina and was walking off the dancefloor one of the guys who is really good at dancing stopped me and asked me to dance merengue. Carolina has told me before that he’s a really good teacher too so I didn’t mind and I made sure to give him my beginner warning haha. He kept on reminding me to relax my hands and to do smooth movement and after a bit I got that down even if I was still a bit hesitant. He also said I had good rhythm. There was a part in the song where it went into a sort of hip hop section and he laughed and said a silly thing when he realized that that was the kind of music I was more comfortable in dancing. He was fun to dance with.

Then for the last song the super tall guy asked me to dance again. I enjoyed dancing with him because he was super respectful, kept a really good distance, kept a really nice slow pace for me, and was good at teaching me at the same time without having to say anything.

So that was my salsa night :)

…my luggage has been traveling without me for about 13 hours. We left at 6:50am and arrived in Davis around 10:30am and then we got the news that my luggage never got put onto the bus. Apparently the Amtrak people forgot to transfer my luggage from the train to the bus on one of our stops. So now we’ll be picking it up around midnight from the Amtrak station in Davis once they finally bring it back to me from whatever voyage it’s been on thus far.

I was doing a bunch of reading for a paper I have to finish tonight when all of a sudden I get a knock on my bedroom door. It ended up being one of my cousins who just wanted to ask me if I would be able to help him on a school project later on this week.

Well anyway, what led me to thinking was this: whenever family members visit and knock on my bedroom door and I respond they still don’t come in, they just wait till I open the door…it never made sense to me why they didn’t just come in once I responded.

I took a moment to think about this and then something seemed to click… I realized that usually whenever anyone knocks on my door my first response is, “Yes?” but it sounds something more like a slow, “Yyyess”

hahahha….hmmm, so after some contemplation I think I understand now why that might cause someone to wait for me to open the door.

I guess next time I’ll just say, “You can come in.” :)

Okay, enough procrastination for the moment…back to finishing this paper.