Merry Christmas

Hey all! Hope everyone is having happy holidays!

I'm still writing here from California. I've been really busy as of late because in high school I had a job as a wrapper at a small local high end chocolate shop in my town and ever since then I still go back and help out whenever I'm back in town. Since the holiday season is one of the busiest times for chocolate buying (who doesn't like chocolate, right?) I have been working eight hour days since I got back.

But now it's Christmas which is really exciting. My family always celebrates Christmas on Christmas eve so last night we went to an aunt and uncle's house. It was so nice to see my extended family. I have so many cousins, it's ridiculous. On my dad's side alone, I have sixteen cousins. It was really fun because since I am only one of two of the cousins who live outside of an hour from where we grew up in California (the other being my cousin Kelly who lives and works in Hawaii) everyone wanted to hear about how life was in New Orleans (which was fun telling them about school and my friends and such).

Even though going to school far away from home can cause homesickness sometimes (I really love my mom's cooking and not being able to see my brother and cousin grow up is kind of sad) I wouldn't have it any other way. Your friends become your family, and it's fun to be able to realize that you are a responsible person on your own. Anyways, below are a few photos from my family Christmas.

My cousin, Shaun, who opened up my Christmas present. I got a Save Nola shirt!

Me with my little cousin Gavin (whose present is bigger than he is)

My cousins Rachel (left) and Vivian (right)

(From left to right) Brian, Nick, and Shaun.

Brian and Rachel and me

Happy holidays everyone!

Snow Day

So, I'm home now from school and have been for the past couple of days. Finals went okay although I didn't do as well as I would have liked to. Life moves on, though.

Now that I'm at home, I get to wake up to this...

(my dog, Milano)

Before I left Tulane for a more domestic setting, it snowed last Thursday! That's right. It snowed in New Orleans! Now I know that admissions talks about how the weather is beautiful all year round (which for the most part it is)... but we were so excited to wake up to snow outside our window!! (I got at least ten text messages/phone calls at eight in the morning that said "SNOW!" It was really exciting.

Anyways, here are a few pictures:


Some captions:
Picture 1- Snow on the UC quad (right outside my window)
Picture 2- Snow on the palm trees. A rare sight.
Picture 3- Me walking through Brown field (which was definitely white)
Picture 4 - The quad melting with a lone snowman still sitting there.

It was exciting. Trust me.

Finals

Here's the latest:

It's finals period so basically I've been swamped with a lot of work. Want to know what I did all weekend? Here is a photographic representation:

This was the view from my table at Starbucks (the top photograph) which I was basically been glued to since Friday afternoon. In all seriousness, I think I spent more time studying organic chemistry this weekend than anything else combined (my book, white chocolate mocha, and notebook at in the bottom picture). It was a little sad.

On the plus side, though, I took the test this morning, and it wasn't as horrible as I thought it was. The thing about organic, though, is that you never really know how you do until you get the test back. Anyways, I have a public health final tomorrow and then a physics final on Wednesday and then I'm free!

So, here is a short list of things I am looking forward to after 5 pm on Wednesday:

-Not having to look at an orgo/physics/public health textbook for a whole month

-Christmas shopping

-Taking a nap

-Indian buffet at Nirvana with friends Thursday night

-Just hanging out with friends for a few days with nothing to worry about

-Good-bye-for-a-little-while hot chocolate on Friday night
-And, of course, I go home on Saturday.

Even though I'll be sad to leave my friends in New Orleans, I'm really glad to see be able to see my family and friends from high school.

Okay. Enough procrastinating from my end. Wish me luck!