When I decided to spend a semester up in Alaska, I was told about the different stages that a person would go through while on exchange. The honeymoon stage where everything is great. The hostility stage. The home sick stage. And then the happiness stage. I wasn't super worried about that because I've been up here a bunch of times and I would be with family. No home sickness for me. What I didn't expect was how much I would miss USC. In case y'all didn't know, there are no Chick-fil-A's up in Alaska. No Chick-fil-A. No Moe's. No Poke. If I want to go to Target or Kohl's, I have to make the 6-hour drive to Anchorage. We lack what I consider "basic necessities." But back to my point. I miss USC and all that it offers. I miss walking around campus and seeing the new restaurants in Russell. I miss going to football games and Five Points. I miss being surrounded by people that I know even if we don't hang out. Like just seeing a familiar face in class is a luxury that I don't have up here, and I miss it. I miss seeing my criminal justice teachers face-to-face and listening to all the crazy stories they have to tell. I miss my friends. I miss the horseshoe. It's rough. That all just kind of hit me this week and it really sucked. I'm very happy and thankful to be up here, but I do miss South Carolina. Also, if I were in South Carolina right now, it would probably be warm. I might even be able to wear shorts. I still have at least another month, if not two months, before I can even think about wearing shorts. It's still 20-30 degrees up here. I don't have to wear my huge poofy jacket, but I do still need to wear a jacket. Here is my obligatory comment on my classes: meh. I'm still fairly behind in my work because of my work schedule (which has finally straightened out, at least for this week). I'm hoping to play catch up this week. I have two exams that I have to take tomorrow or Monday. Guess who's not prepared? Me! But I plan on changing that. I did turn in an assignment super late but the teacher thought my paper was so wonderful that he didn't mark off the full amount of points that he should have. He wants to use my paper as an example of what to do for the assignment for next semesters students. Very interesting. I was surprised. Back to my work schedule, I am in the bakery all this week, which is super awesome and my sleep schedule should sort itself out. I no longer have to switch between leaving at 1 am, leaving at 6 am, or leaving at 8 am to get to work. I just leave at 1 am. The shift is actually scheduled to be a 2 am - 8 am shift, but it takes me a while to make the cinnamon rolls, so I go in an hour early. My manager has said that he doesn't care what time I come in, as long as everything gets done. I like that. It's nice. I can basically do what I need to do whichever way works best for me and no one can tell me otherwise. I don't have a manager standing over my shoulder. This morning I actually got done baking and cleaning before ANY of the managers even came in. It would be nice if I could stay in the bakery. We will see how that goes. They are still training new counter people, so I'm not sure if I am going to be asked to step in and fill in some of the blanks on the schedule since the new people aren't fully trained yet. I hope not but whatever. I have two days off this week and plan to use them to sleep, get homework done, and do my volunteer stuff for Capstone. Capstone is a program that I am in at USC, and each semester we have to do some community service and some form of personal challenge. In the past, my challenges have been donate blood, stick to a diet, and regularly exercise. This semester, I was going to go skiing, but that fell through. I might put "try a new job that I don't qualify for" as my challenge. I have no previous baking skills aside from baking cookies at home, so I really didn't meet the qualifications for my bakery position. For my community service, I have helped sort trash from the stadium and helped incoming students move into their dorms during move-in week. This semester I will be volunteering with a non-profit organization that benefits veterans. My uncle's fiancée works there and said she has a list of things that I could come in and do to help out. So that is my plan for this week. Let's hope it all goes well. I will talk to y'all next week!
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Tired is not even close to being able to describe how I have felt this week. I slept for 8 hours yesterday for the first time in like 3 weeks. I slept from noon to 8 pm and then made Mac and cheese at 10 pm. Then I went to work at 1 this morning. Super fun. But I have tomorrow and Tuesday off. I'm gonna sleep. And sleep. And sleep. And do homework. And sleep. I finally started working in the bakery on my own! My cinnamon rolls are getting better, which is nice. I really do like the early morning shift. No human interaction and I can blare my own music. Freaking awesome. The only downside: it's hot. Soooo hot. Apparently it turns into a sauna during the summer time and the fan that's in there doesn't help. But I still enjoy the job. It's fun. And challenging. In other news, classes started back up. I have lots of chapter reading that I have to do. Lots. Sleep sounds better than reading the chapters, though. Moving on. Serious note. My grandfather went to the hospital Friday for a hip replacement surgery. Everything went well. The surgery was a success. He is recovering and should be out of the hospital tomorrow. He had his other hip replaced several years ago and had a very speedy recovery. We are hoping that this one is the same way. Aside from work and class and my grandfather's surgery, nothing major has gone on. I found a nice bakery that sells really good bread. My uncle and his fiancée are going to Anchorage this week to visit a friend. I get to dog sit. Lots of time to catch up on homework. Woohoo. I should probably get back to that. I will post again next week. Bye.
Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!! I worked all day :/ but whatever. It's fine. I am making that money. I have a bunch of overtime pay that's about to go on my next paycheck so that's freaking awesome. Big bucks right there. I'm definitely making overtime this week. I have a seven-day work week this week. Super fun. But I asked for. I'm working four days in the Front of the House and three days in the Bakery. I love the bakery. It is phenomenal. I come in to work and no one is there. I can do my own thing. I can listen to whatever music I want to listen to. It's great. But I'm about to be exhausted. Not like I'm not already, but I will be even more exhausted. This past week I worked 6 days, had one day off, and am super behind on my homework. Classes start again this week, so we will see how much sleep I actually get. Woohoo. My room is clean, which is good news. It honestly aggravates me when my room gets messy, so I'll spend like an hour cleaning it. Hopefully, next weekend I can deep clean the bathroom. Now, the reason that this hasn't been done yet is because I was sharing that bathroom with someone that already lived here. I didn't want to go and mess up all her stuff. BUT... She just moved out!!! She is coming by next weekend to pick up the rest of her stuff, so I should be able to deep clean the bathroom after that. I was fine with her living here, it was just that I wake up at 5:30 to get ready for work in the morning, and I would have to be super quiet because her 6 year-old daughter would still be sleeping. Now that they are gone, I still have to be quiet because my uncle and his fiancée are asleep, but they won't wake up grumpy and come downstairs to yell at me because now they will have a bad day. They just end up sleeping in a little later. So, that bathroom, now, is pretty much mine. I can redecorate and deep clean. I'm very happy. It's gonna smell like bleach :) Weird thing about her moving out: she took the shower curtain. I went to go take a shower and realized that the cloth shower curtain was gone but she left the plastic one. I went downstairs and looked at my uncle and said "so ummm I'm missing a shower curtain." He looked at me and said "well ok then." He gave me a new shower curtain and all is well. Friday night I did something super fun. I saw a hockey game. It was the Ice Dogs versus the Jets. There were at least three fights on the ice and the refs just kinda stood there. They didn't interfere until someone went down. At one point, two guys threw down their sticks, took off their gloves, squared up, and started throwing punches. It was great. And the Ice Dogs won 8-3. Whoop whoop. I loved it. I might go to another game this Friday, but who knows. I had a really great time. I should be mailing out some postcards this week, so be on the look out if you are one of those lucky few. I'm about to go eat some jambalaya so peace out. Look for my next post later this week or on Sunday if I get lazy!
Wow. What a week. I don't think "roller coaster" is even an accurate enough word to describe it. If you're from Virginia or have been to Busch Gardens, this week is kind of like Tempesto. Yeah. That's how crazy it has been. The week started out pretty chill. I didn't have any on-campus classes this week except for my Saturday class because my teacher was down in the states for a conference. So this week was like my pre-Spring Break week. I was hoping to get caught up on a bunch of homework (wishful thinking), but there are many circumstances that changed that. To put it in perspective, this past week I worked 50.5 hours. Fifty. And a half. Hours. A normal work week is 40. But there is a reason for my overtime. On Monday I decided that I wanted to take matters into my own hands. I was aware that there was a position open in the bakery. I thought, "Hey, this would be cool." Well, no one was moving on the idea of me getting trained in the bakery. So, I took matters into my own hands. I went in an hour early one day and sat in the bakery. I watched our early morning baker make cookies and I asked her a bunch of questions about working back there. The next day, I expressed my desire for the job to my general manager. He knew that I wanted the position but we would need to train someone to take my place as hostess before I could get back there. That was Tuesday. I go into work Wednesday morning to open the restaurant like I usually do. I got there a bit early so I could get some stuff done, like deal with catering orders and roll silverware. Normal stuff for me to do. The head chef comes up to me and asks me if Mark talked to me. Mark is the kitchen manager. I told him no and asked why. He said never mind and walked away. Super weird. I was very suspicious. Well, 15 minutes later, Mark walks up to me and says, "Be careful what you wish for," then he walks away. What is going on? Why is everyone acting so weird? Mark comes back later and says there has been an immediate opening in the bakery and the position is mine if I want it. I said yes, obviously, and I started the next day. 2 am to 8 am. That was my shift. Then I had to go back to being a hostess to make sure that everything ran smoothly. I left work at 10:30 am. The next day, I ended up working a full double. I went to the bakery from 2-8 and then counter from 9-1:30. I was supposed to work until 3:30 but it turns out that management is not fond of me working doubles. I'm fine with working doubles. It means more money. And let me tell you, that paycheck is about to be beautiful. My schedule for this week is mainly counter, but next week should be mainly bakery. As soon as we get someone trained, I can go back there full-time. Hopefully. Right now, I am trying to get some homework done. My assignments are done, but I am not caught up on my readings, which is my main objective for this week. It would be really great if I could get ahead on my readings, but again, wishful thinking. Side note, yesterday, my uncle and I decided that instead of playing video games, we were going to bake. He made a Crown Apple coconut cheesecake and coconut raisin chocolate chip cookies. I made bread in the shape of a turtle. It is super freaking cute. I love it so much. I was so proud of myself because that was my first time making bread from scratch. It came out super yummy. I am in love. Definitely going to do it again. I might make a different animal next time. Alright, back to the homework. Wish me luck!
Other potential titles for this post: Killer Workout; How to do a Full Body Workout in One Easy Step; My Criminal Justice Teacher is Awesome; Killing my Midterms; Ice Ice Baby.
Today has been a very eventful day. This week has been an eventful week. I got paid, which meant that I was able to pay rent, buy a parking decal, and put gas in my truck. My parking decal is super cute. It has polar bears on it. Sorry USC. You got nothing on cute polar bears. With my decal, that means I have been able to drive myself to school, which gives me more driving experience around the Fairbanks area and out on the main roads. I am getting better. Granted, I did slide through two roundabouts. Do not ask me why Fairbanks decided to implement the use of roundabouts. I, too, agree that roundabouts and ice are a perfect combination. Fairbanks, what was the thought process on that one? Sliding through them is not fun. But I am getting better. They plowed the street into the neighborhood this week, so now I don't slide in and out of the neighborhood like I used to. My uncle and I decided to shovel all of the snow and ice off the driveway today. I have pictures. There is one of my uncle standing next to the pile of snow and ice that we have removed this winter. Keep in mind that he is 6 feet tall. Let's just say that I will probably sleep like a baby tonight. That was a lot of work. Definitely a full-body workout. I just took my midterms for my two online criminal justice classes. My teacher is awesome. He let us use our textbooks for the exams, which was great. I got a 91 on my Principles of Corrections exam and an 86 on my Juvenile Delinquency exam. Midterm grades are an A and A-, respectively. I am very proud. These online classes have definitely been somewhat of a learning curve, but I think I am doing really well. Work has been work. I'm not sure that the restaurant business is for me. I think that in the future I need to find a job where either customer service doesn't matter or I just don't have to interact with other people. I am not much of a people person. Today is one of my days off, so I have been doing homework and the family is coming over tonight to play Cards Against Humanity. I'm super excited because I love that game and it always makes me laugh. Tomorrow, we are going to go bowling after I get off work. Also very excited for that. Hopefully this upcoming week goes well. My sociology teacher cancelled classes because she is going to a conference somewhere in the Lower 48. The week after that is Spring Break. That means I only have Intro to Philosophy next Saturday. I'm hoping for a pretty lax week, aside from work. But we will see. I'm gonna go make dinner. I will talk to y'all next week! Well, this week has been...a week. This week has just been up, down, up, down, up, down. Work has been a big down. Just about every shift I had this week, something went wrong. The good thing from work this week is that I get paid, hopefully, tomorrow. I just won't get to see any money from the paycheck because I have to buy new work shoes, purchase a parking decal, maybe put more money into the truck, and I would like to be able to pay rent. School has been another big down. I ended up missing a deadline for two assignments, and I really didn't want to do that. I'm working to get stuff done earlier, but it's a struggle. Good thing from this week: we moved some stuff out of my room, brought in a heater and a blu-ray player, and I vacuumed. My room looks good and feels more home-y. We might paint it, but that's dependent on future events. Everyone has been having personal issues this week, and it's just been very tense. Everything was going well and then we all got hit by life. It kind of sucks. We were supposed to go see some ice sculptures today, but the sickness that has been going around has reared its ugly head a second time. Liz woke up feeling like she had razor blades in her throat again. I just hope that it doesn't hit me a second time. I don't like being sick. That would just make everything worse. Another good thing: I love the snow. I woke up this morning and opened the curtains and was ecstatic. There were huge snowflakes outside, and it was beautiful. I could definitely see myself living somewhere where it snows in the winter. It's absolutely gorgeous. Well, that's really all I have to say about this week without going on too big of a rant. Hopefully next week will be better. See ya next week.
Happy Valentine's Day! I know it's a day late, but whatever. I had a very exciting Valentine's Day. I woke up early and FaceTimed my boyfriend, who apparently had a surprise for me. I call him up and we have breakfast "together." He finally decided to tell me what the surprise was after we ate: He bought a plane ticket to come visit me in May!!!! I'm so excited. I honestly thought that I wasn't going to see him until I flew back to the states in August. But I get to see him in May! And we get to go to the Gabriel Iglesias show! I'm so excited. After we got done FaceTiming, I ended up falling back asleep until it was time for me to go to class. We had a quiz. I got a 100. Pretty usual stuff. I'm still fairly sick and by the time I got out of class I had a massive migraine. I ended up having to go to work as soon as I got out of class and didn't get off until 9:30. It was rough. But I made it through. Today is my first day off from work this week. Going in to work at 6:15 in the morning is rough, but I'm getting paid to do it, so I will suck it up. I might actually be getting a second job. Now I know that sounds like a lot, but I would get paid to sit down and do my homework. I would be working at a tanning salon and all I need to do is show people to a tanning bed and then clean it once they are done. All my free time can be spent doing homework. It would only be for like two days a week, so it won't be too much extra work. It's honestly just something to make a little bit more money and get out of the house. Another perk: free tanning. Artificial sunlight makes me happy. It's still fairly dark here most of the day, and it is a struggle, especially for someone from the South where it's sunny most of the time. Back to today. I woke up, did homework, and showered before we had to leave to go do some running around. We took Liz to work, grabbed food, picked up Avi from school, dropped me off at my exam, and then went grocery shopping. The exam was for my Social Psychology class and I got an 85! Whoop whoop! Once I finished my exam and while I was waiting for John to come back and pick me up, I walked around campus taking some pictures. Apparently we have a polar bear made of ice sitting on a bench that you can take pictures with. I think it's cute. So go check out the gallery for my new pictures from the campus. Lots and lots of polar bears. I need to get back to my homework, so I will post again next week. Have fun!
First, I would like to apologize that this post is a day late. This should have been posted yesterday but I procrastinated. Anyways, onto the real stuff. Sweet tea and "y'all." Everyone who reads this knows I'm from the south. I mean, my blog title says I'm a southern girl. Whenever a group comes into work, I address them as "y'all." How are y'all doing today? Are y'all doing okay today? Can I get y'all anything from the display case? I also worked at Chick-fil-A for a period of time, so it is ingrained into my brain to say "my pleasure" when someone says "thank you." Now, Chick-fil-A doesn't exist up here, but it does on the east coast. I was talking to a customer at work and mentioned that I was from Virginia and go to school in South Carolina. She thought that was cool, and I walked away. I was wiping down tables later, and she motioned me over. She told me she could tell I was from the south. I asked her how, and she said "you addressed me and my husband as y'all." All I could do was laugh. Yes, I use the word "y'all" quite frequently. Another woman came in, and she told me she was from Louisiana. I thought that was super cool. She said thank you and I instinctively replied with "my pleasure." She asked if I had worked at Chick-fil-A, and I started laughing again. It was a very interesting day at work. The job isn't too bad. I like working mornings. I get to see the sunrise and it's not super busy yet. Sometimes it gets busy, but not overly busy. I get to work Valentine's Day, which is super thrilling (please note the sarcasm). I'm still trying to address my procrastination issues. Unsuccessfully, I might add. I'm currently writing this blog post instead of reading the chapters for my Juvenile Delinquency class. Classes are good. I have my first exam this week. For my online psychology class, I have to have my exams proctored. The university has a proctoring service where you just walk in and tell them what class the exam is for. No notes, no food, no electronics. I think I might go in to take it on Friday. Exciting stuff has happened this week. I got a TV for my room. The whole house got sick with either a bug or the flu, which I am still battling. My uncle and I made steak salads for dinner last night, which were phenomenal. My truck got fixed. I fishtailed as soon as I got out of the parking lot. Almost drove into oncoming traffic. Almost. I did not hit anyone. I did not injure myself. I did not damage the truck. Everything is okay. I was just having some traction issues. There was also a considerable amount of snow and ice on the ground because it was one of the back roads. But it's all okay. I'm going to start driving it to work and then eventually to school when I can afford a parking decal. Well, I need to finish my homework and study for my exam. Until later on this week (hopefully).
P.S. I will be adding a gallery of photos to a new tab What's up, everyone? If y'all know me, you know that I procrastinate on EVERYTHING. This blog is no different (haha). I wanted to write this post on Thursday and make it a "Happy Birthday" post. Then I was going to do it on Friday. Then I was going to do it yesterday. So here we are, with a new blog post title because "Happy Birthday: 3 Days Late" just did not sound great. Addressing my procrastination seemed like a better fit. Anyways. This week has been SUPER busy. I started working mornings at The Cookie Jar. Everyone knows I'm not a morning person, but my philosophy has been that I will get up early in the morning if I am getting paid an adequate amount to do so. At The Cookie Jar, I go into work at 6:15 am. It's rough. It's dark. But once I get there it's not too bad. I think I just need to get better shoes because my feet feel like they are on fire all the time. They hurt so bad. My classes are going well. I love my Criminal Justice classes. The teacher, although online, is absolutely phenomenal. I get super awesome feedback on all my work the same day I turn it in (most of the time). He is awesome. This week has been filled with a lot of great food. Monday, my uncle and I made two dishes: banana cream pie cheesecake and goetta. Goetta is a German-American dish that originated in Ohio. It's a mix of ground beef, sausage, and steel-cut oats. You season it, let it cook down until the water is absorbed, then freeze it. Once frozen, you cook it up for breakfast dishes. I actually ate some that we made yesterday and it was wonderful. We also did a really yummy chicken stir-fry that had green beans and mushrooms. Friday we made beef stroganoff from scratch and OH MY GOSH it was so freaking good. I had seen it on the menu at work and just could not stop thinking about it. Finally, last night he made a beef and broccoli dish with some beef that he put in a bag to marinate the night before. That will be my lunch today since I didn't have any last night. I didn't get off work until 10, so I was not super hungry. I was more tired than anything. Good news: We got my truck up and running. We took it into a mechanic that my uncle trusts. Apparently he is really great and will be able to fix all the problems with the truck. So there is one topic that I have not yet addressed: MY BIRTHDAY!!! My birthday was on Thursday, and even though I had class, it turned out to be a pretty decent day. Liz let me drive the truck around all morning while she ran errands so that I could get in some driving experience on the ice. It's honestly not as bad as I thought it would be. I did happen to slide around a roundabout but we don't talk about that. We did a bunch of running around, found this cute little coffee shop that I would totally study at, and that night we did a girls night. We ordered pizza and got movies from Redbox. Hotel Artemis is super good for anyone that hasn't seen it yet. Overall, a super busy and fairly exciting week. As I mentioned in the beginning, I am a huge procrastinator, which would mean that I have a ton of homework that I have been ignoring. Let's see how much homework I can get done today! Talk to y'all next week!!!
Do you know the saying "easy peasy lemon squeezy"? Well that is the opposite of my life right now. My life is difficult, difficult, lemon, difficult. BUT, there are some silver linings, which I will elaborate on. So this week has been a whirlwind of events. Do you remember that job interview that I mentioned? Well, I GOT THE JOB!!!!! Yay!!! I can now make money again (haha). It's my first time working in a real restaurant and not fast food, so it's been interesting. My legs are killing me from working 7-8 hour shifts, but I like the job. I'm kept busy and that's what I was looking for. Aside from that, I have a ton of homework. Like more than I usually do. I thought my time management skills would be better this time around, but I obviously was lying to myself. I actually have a ton of stuff that I need to finish today, so that's what I will be doing after I post this. Taking the online classes is definitely a learning curve. I felt like I knew what I was getting into, but I am definitely struggling a little bit. It's getting better since I realized it this early in the semester. I will definitely plan my time a lot better. Good thing I caught it now before it got out of hand. Another good thing that happened this week: I now have a vehicle to drive! One of my uncle's is loaning me their truck and they got the alternator put back in, so now it's here at the house. The only problem is now it needs a new battery. We are taking it into a shop on Tuesday to get it inspected and make sure that it is safe for me drive. I am very excited. I am also excited because my birthday is coming up this week. Unfortunately, I have class on my birthday, but I don't have work. Woohoo! Exciting stuff. I will probably spend the day doing homework because I am studious and I have a ton of stuff to do. That's enough for now. I have a bunch of homework to do, so have fun! I will post again sometime this week!
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AuthorStudent at the University of South Carolina studying criminal justice, French, and psychology. Archives
August 2019
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