Rant on education these days

I've come to the decision that I don't care about the color of people's skin or where they come from. If you are smart enough to get into college, you should be able to go to college. Don't whine about teachers being unfair because you are a different race, show them you can succeed. You are able to get scholarships that most kids can't because you are a different race. People think they should get special treatment because they are not white? No. Work hard like the rest of us. I know some non Caucasians get chosen to go to a school before others because they need to be more diverse in their students. That is crap and everyone needs to realize it. If you are smart enough to go to that school, there should be no problem with you going.  And for all the kids failing in their studies because they are to lazy to do their work, you should not be able to continue forward and graduate. The real world isn't like that. You won't succeed in anything with being lazy and not able to figure out how to excel in your studies. The real world is hard, so suck it up, put your nose in the books and LEARN SOMETHING!!!!! that is all.

The Good

                Last semester I had been put through a lot. I lost many dear to me from death and I lost great relationships with people. In my mind, everything was just fine if I stayed with a very small number of people as support. But I should’ve known better. It is like I’m setting myself up to fail some days. You need more support than that. But how can you honestly know in the heat of the moment? What I want to comment on right now is love. Not like lovey dovey we are to marry kind of love, I mean actual love that is for others. To define love you would say to will the good for the other. God wants love for us, to love and to be loved. But when you are told countless times that you are loved, then feel excluded, betrayed, neglected, how can you know what love truly is? I know that I have a hunger for attention. It is something I’m trying to fix, but friends are supposed to understand that, shouldn’t they?

                 Love is patient; some days I don’t know if patience really exists in most people. It takes a long while to learn patience and to master it if that is even possible. We as humans have an uncanny ability to snap at little things on particular days and it can become a chain reaction. Love is kind; one of my favorite ways of seeing love. But when kindness is only given when you are at a low, is it real or just to make you feel better. No matter the day or person, everyone deserves kindness every second of every day. Love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude, one of the hardest ones to follow. We have a knack for revenge, or vengeful thoughts, and we act on them some days. Mercy can be a breath of fresh air some times, and others it can be the hardest thing you ever do. Forgiveness is one thing we always want to know we have from someone, but we rarely hear someone say they forgive us. Being pardoned of past faulty events can change a person’s life around. So why is it so hard to give it to them? Because not only does that one asking for forgiveness have to swallow their pride, but so does the one giving it. I recently was apologized too, and when I told the person I couldn’t forgive them because of how much of what they did affected me and that I most like couldn’t forgive him, I felt horrible. Later on I told them I forgive them, and it brought me so much joy. Love does not insist on its own way. We have all heard or said “it’s my way or the highway,” and what an expression it is. To say to someone, if you do not do exactly what I want you to do, then you don’t love me. When you want the best for someone, it won’t go exactly how you want it to. And it is something you need to understand. Life isn’t easy, and it isn’t in your control, so why try and make people do only what you want? Everyone has their flaws and they will always disappoint you if you have unrealistic expectations for them. We need to accept people for who they are and who they are meant to be. You don’t have to promote really bad flaws, like excessive drinking or cursing like a sailor, but you don’t forget them completely either.

                Love will always be put through trails, endure hardship, and could be stretched. How could life not have moments like this? We will all have evils. But the good we will achieve from the evil is more than the good we would receive without it, because the evil makes us realize how much the love we have for others is important. But more of our love of God.

                One way I have realized to show my true love for someone is by trusting them. I have trust issues because of my past and it is hard for me to trust someone completely, I have joined a household on campus called Daughters of Divine Mercy which has the charisms of Trust and Redemptive suffering. I have come to trust these beautiful women of God with my heart and I have not been let down. Through the struggles of last semester, they have always been there for me. Now in this new semester, I’ve come to expand that trust to others. But most of all, I’m trusting more in God and what He is doing with my life. I came up with a new little prayer for daily use:

          “Oh Lord,
       On this day let my trust grow.
      Let your reasons be known,
        Let your joy be shown

  And let me shine with your Spirit
                Amen.”

                

Merry Duckmas!

 So unlike my original tradition of having about 5 Christmases in season, we had only one. Why? It was mostly because none of the girls could actually make it to the Northwest this year. My sister Bree decided that she wanted a Christmas at home and I couldn't get enough time off of my work to go to Oregon/Washington. So My parents and I flew to St. Louis for Christmas. Them from Oregon, me from Ohio. And may I just say that I truly needed this vacation. I think I like having school with work MORE than just work. After work I feel like I have no time to do anything, mostly because I have NOTHING TO DO! And with how much my family, and me personally, have been through, it was needed. ANYWAYS! You maybe wondering WHY the title of this post is "Merry Duckmas" WELL I'M GETTING TO THAT! You need more back story. My sister is of course married to her Matt (Mattsie [Matt C] as I like to call him) and his family has been very generous to us Whitney girls for a long time. This Christmas they opened their arms, and door, to us Whitneys and even fed us.  Mattsie's father Grant has been a chef in my eyes. If you have ever had his cooking, you would understand. He is like sooooo legit at the cooking. So this Christmas dinner, he took on the challenge of making ever dish of his 6 course meal, that's right SIX COURSE MEAL, with duck in it. INCLUDING DESERT! How is this possible? Well, let me go through each course:

1st Course: Duck Martini
This is a Duck Martini, it is made out of duck consommé, sherry, and a little orange twist. 


Very Delicious, and warm. it was like a soup in a martini glass. yum yum.

2nd Course: the appetizers. 


This is a duck prosciutto, duck heart patty (with sage and garlic), and a duck rillatte which you smeared onto a slice of baguette.  

3rd Course: The Salad.

This was just an ordinary salad... with duck and walnuts on top!. =)

4th Course: 1st entree


It was duck breast with reduced red port wine as a sauce on it. and lentil salad with argon oil. 

5th Course: 2nd Entree

Duck comfit. (Duck leg cured with salt then and then cook sous-vide) With home cube fries, double fried, once in duck fat. 

6th Course: Desert

Bread pudding with a clear whiskey sauce on top (made by me!) and vanilla ice cream. 

Now you may be asking where the duck is in this? Well I can tell you now it wasn't duck eggs in it. We had Cold Duck along with it, which is a Sparkling sweet red wine. =)

So yeah.. I pretty much had the best practical Christmas ever via presents. And the best Christmas ever food wise. ^.^ 

MERRY DUCKMAS!!!!!!!

My Book: Dear East Coast

So I have been writing a book recently called Dear East Coast. It is about this girl who moves from the East coast the the West coast leaving her childhood crush behind. Now several years later, she has a boyfriend a new life and everything she could possibly want. But when her old crush tries to come back into her life, she has to choose between her perfect boyfriend now and her east coast. 


I hope to finish it over the winter break. I'm already 29 pages in and I still haven't reached a climax of any kind. =P 
anyways, it is finals week and I have no idea what to talk about right now. 
<3

Hospitals.....

Well we all knew it was going to happen. I believe almost every semester of my college life has had at least one trip to the ER, how would being in Austria be any different. Right now I am actually sitting in my hospital bed waiting to fall asleep. This time, it was because two nights ago I was laying in bed and I was having some pains. Yesterday It was hard to move: walk sit stand. Everything made my right side of my stomach hurt. I felt warm too so I thought it would be a good idea to go to the ER. BOY WAS THAT A MISTAKE! I have never had so many different tests done in less than 24 hours. blood, urine, x-ray, ultrasounds. They were even thinking about an MRI. and for my first 21 hours there, I was not allowed to eat and I only ate an hour before I got there. so I was STARVING for 22 hours. the food here isn't all that bad, but I have no say. And honestly even if I don't really have to, I get up to use the bathroom, cause they don't want you walking around here. One of the only up sides to this is that there are cute nurse guys on the first floor that I see randomly. =) I know... it might just be me, but seriously. NEVER go into a hospital where you don't know the language. it sucks. so They thought I had an appendicitis, but I'm pretty sure they are mistaken. anyways... bed time!

My Austria Life Part 1: Intro, Melk/Maria Tarfel, Salzburg/Munich

Sorry for the late post, but I've been super busy. Anyways, I have been here in Austria since the 16th of January. I absolutely love it here. It is so beautiful and covered in snow! We pretty much live in a Castle. It is called the Kartause and I only have to go outside ONCE for a class. I can pretty much stay covered for the rest of the time. I'm taking 4 classes, 2 on each day, and I only have 4 days of class a week. I start with Christian Spirituality at 8:40am in the morning on Monday (and Wednesday and rarely Friday) with the next class being at 3:30pm, Intro to Scripture. Tuesdays and Thursdays start again at 8:40am with Christian Marriage. My last class is at 1:45pm with Spanish. I love my classes, I'm learning so much here, I just wish the classes weren't an hour and a half long! but I guess that is the price you pay for having only 4 days of school. As a school, we only have 4 trips that are pretty much paid for: Melk, Vienna, Salzburg & Munich, and Rome & Assisi. I have gone on the Melk/Maria Tarfel and Salzburg/Munich trip. I did not, however, go on the Vienna trip because I was in so much pain from my wisdom teeth coming in, I'm just hoping I don't have to have surgery to get them out HERE! so pray for me on that.

Melk was fun. The bus ride creeped me out, and I got a little trigger happy with my camera. The lunch we had at Hotel Rose was exquisite. This was where I tried my first European beer. NOTE: HERE IN EUROPE THE DRINKING AGE IS MUCH LOWER THAN IN THE UNITED STATES SO I AM OF LEGAL AGE TO DRINK HERE. The first place we went to was an amazing Marian Pilgrimage spot called Maria Tarfel. It was beautiful, it is on top of a hill and for awhile we could not see the ground below because the fog was below us, so it looked like we were looking out into a sea of a gray abyss. The next place we went to was the Benedictine monastery in Melk. And what a church! All the statues were real gold! It was gorgeous. It was actually hard to pay attention to the mass with all of the paintings and statues looking so beautiful. The museum/tour of it was ok, I was just not feeling it like I should have. but the Library was HUGE and had secret doors to let light in. The view from the monastery was breath taking as well, it looked over the town and the river. All in all a good day.

The next trip I went on was Salzburg/Munich. This was this last weekend. This was our first overnight trip. It took us a little over 2 hours to get to Salzburg and I slept through some of it. The put on a movie about a girl who was part of the White Rose. IT was in the time of World War II, and she was handing out leaflets about how the Nazis are bad, but she got caught. We all thought it was a little saddening and weird to watch before trying to have a good time. When we got there, we were herded straight to mass. My friend Sarah Vink and I did not have a particular desire to go to a weekday mass and had a feeling that if we went, we would not appreciate it. So we strayed away from the group and went to Spar to get some energy and just walked around a little more. I found it a little ridiculous to have to pay 50 euro for using the bathroom, but you gotta do what you gotta do. When we guess-timated the end of the mass, we headed back to where it was. All of us were then herded to where we were going to have lunch, again it was very good food. Right after this was a tour of "old Salzburg". Again, Sarah Vink and I were not interested in it too much so we strayed away from the group but this time with a male companion, Brandon Otto (aka Botto). We did our own little tour of the store that were around and struck to go into a Church we found. It was calledthe "Kollegienkirche" or University Church. It was a beautiful baroque style Church, but how it was different, there was no paintings on the ceilings or walls, except for the HUGE paintings in the altars. The one thing that struck us was this glorious white carving right behind the altar. It was like heaven was pushed through the back wall. My words do not give it justice. After this we wandered for a little more and found our way to the Youth Hostel. NOW, when you think about Hostels you pretty much think about a Motel 6 in the States; it is cheap and a little run down, but this was different, it was clean, pretty and sort of modern. My room in particular had a beautiful view of the Fortress on the top of the hill. After we got all situated, my friends Sarah Vink, Botto, Elizabeth Michalski, and Christopher Haas (aka Chaas) decided to go on a tour through Mozart's house and found ourselves at the Augustiner. It had amazing beer was HUGE! We ran into a little predicament when we realized that they were all going to the concert that was in an hour and a half and I wasn't. We spotted on of our RA's named Matt and asked him if he was going, he wasn't and they asked if he could take me in because they had to leave. I felt like I was a kid needing a babysitter, it was embarrassing. He was happy to take me in and when my friends left I fell so quiet. I guess he could tell I was a little shy at the moment and did not know what to do so he started talking to me and soon enough, we were friends. (Side note: I was not particularly liking the fact that most of my friends were NOT here with me and I was telling my boyfriend about it. I was trying to tell myself that I would not have any fun while here because I was dead fix on having my best times be with him. He told me straight out to make new friends while here and have the best experience of my life. I still was reluctant the next day, and the Youth Hostel we stayed at had the words "make new friends" plastered EVERYWHERE in and out of the building. it was quite hilarious) He introduced me to his girlfriend Mandy, and soon enough all of their friends - Kelsey, Danielle, Claire, Joesph, Thomas, Mary-anne, and many more - and we became friends, if not very close acquaintances. After the Augustiner, we went to a little Irish pub (I know, an Irish pub in Austria sounds a little ridiculous) and we had more fun there. I found out that the next day was Mandy's birthday and she really wanted me to go out with her for her birthday the next night. We will get back to this later, because I'm going chronologically. I got back to the youth Hostel and collapsed into my bed. Saturday we were off bright and early to Munich, Germany. This time we went to the mass and the Priest began with "I never thought I would ever wear Papal vestments, but here I am..." HE WAS WEARING VESTMENTS THE POPE HAS WORN! I guess they were a gift to the Cathedral. and not only that, it was the POPE'S HOME CATHEDRAL WE WERE CELEBRATING MASS IN! It was amazing, and the recessional song was Marvelous, hearing it made me so happy because it reminded me of four of my amazing friends that are back in Ohio: Emily Pass, Kathryn Ferrante, Timothy Gleeson, and T.J. Kohlrust. After the mass, I ditched the tour, again, with my friends Liz Gauvin, Sarah Vink, Brian Schnak, and Katie Snyder. We went through stores and found ourselves at the Hofbrahaus. It was better than the Augustiner. We all got a liter of beer. The others got a lite of Dunkle, while I got a Dunkle Radler(A Radler is pretty much half beer, half limonade. Less alcohol and it is much smoother). After I was done, they kept teasing me about being a light-weight. I was not fully feeling the effects of the alcohol, but I was really happy I finished a liter of beer so I was being a little silly. After this, we were supposed to go ice skating, but no one else could because of either their knees or their hips, so we didn't go. We did a little more shopping. Liz and I decided to go off on our own for alittle shopping while the other went off themselves. After Liz and I had dinner, we were supposed to meet the others back in the Hofbrahaus, but we could not find them for the longest time. When we did, they were with Matt, Mandy, Kelsey, and Claire. It was weird because my group of friends were mixing so much. but we all squeezed around this table and I got a half a liter of Radler. I felt a little whimpy with it, but I was content with not feeling any effect from the alcohol this time (this was about 3-4 hours later). We moved places after the check(from a waitress that was rude beyond all imagine, she grunted after she got Liz's order wrong and never fixed it. I guess she did that with everyone else too. that is why the whole check was so spendy.). Soon enough it was time to head over to where the buses dropped us off to go back to Salzburg. It was about 9 or 10 when we got back, and I was not really feeling up to going out again, but I did anyways for Mandy but I did not drink anything except a soda. We went from a cute sophisticated looking bar called Balthazar where Mandy was given a little cake and a shot for free (because of her birthday), then we were in and out of Shamrock Irish Pub, O'Malley's, and Roses (each bars) until we came upon this one called Visa Vis. There was a little place to actually dance which we were trying to find this whole entire time. We were fine for an hour or so, then some guy (who I suspect was drunk) decided to mess with Matt (and Matt is a tall built guy, he plays rugby. so I do not know why this skinny short guy tried anything) and we decided to get out of there. We finally ended up in this legit club/bar called Republic. The bouncer made Brian Schnack take off his Munich scarf and German hat (think made me laugh) because it might offend a lot of people in the club already, but we were dancing for a long time there. We were all starting to feel exhaustion run through us and decided to go back around 1:45am.(I realize now that it was a bad idea to stay out that late when we stayed out the night before till about 11 something and we had to wake up to get our stuff out of the Hostel and go to mass the next morning.) We got back around 2:15am and again I collapsed into my bed. I woke up to my roomie getting ready to go, so after a little while I got up as well and packed. I got through breakfast and the walk to Church without feeling too tired. But when we had Sunday mass in the Dom, and the Canon/Priests were only speaking in German, I started to doze. But I stayed awake even if my eyes closed. There was a lot of standing and sitting through it all, there was an Orchestra and a Choir that played/sang magnificently, but it was hard to follow. Even though all masses have the same bare structure, there are many differences. It was a beautiful place though. After this, we were to go back towards the Hostel to get into the buses so we could go to lunch. Before trekking back, I saw Brian playing with the Director of Student Life's kids, Dominic(3) and Ari(6). Liz got Dominic on her shoulders and he pointed to me and said "I want to be higher!" so I experienced actually carrying a kid on my shoulders for the first time I believe. My messenger bag was about as heavy as him and by the end I was ready to collapse. But he kept my hat on. When we got to the buses, he wanted me to sit with him. I said I would to find that the bus he had to be on was completely full. So Liz and I said we will try next time and could eat lunch with him. We reached Mondsee in no time, but lunch with Dominic did not happen. After lunch (where I had apple strudel! YUMMY!!!!) we went to the church where they actually shot the wedding scene of Sound of Music. It was beautiful and I was curious and stupefied why when I stood in the very back to take a picture of the front of the church, my camera thought there was a face right above all of the Artwork of the altar. I took many pictures to make sure that is wasn't a screw up, and each time they were flipped upside-down. After the Church, we walked by the river and found our way to the buses. Liz and I got onto the bus with Dominic (yay) and he decided to sit with us, on our laps, the entire 2 hour ride back. I guess he thought it was funny how I fell asleep, but when it was my turn to play with him, we found entertainment with the curtains of the bus and with counting, songs, and my jacket. He got really flirty and gave both Liz and I kisses on the cheeks as well as butterfly kisses. He is pretty much the cutest 3 year old I have seen in Europe. What made me freak out quite a bit was him putting his hand on my belly saying "you have a baby in your tummy" (now, this came up because I asked him about his mom who was actually pregnant and I guess his mind set is adult women all have babies inside, which technically is true to an extent I guess) and I was shocked. I was thinking in my head, does he know something I don't? but of course I've never had relations with a man in that way so it couldn't be. So I said "No I don't, why do you think that?" and said, quite enthusiastic and loud I might add, "because you are big and you're a girl." I had to remind myself that he is only 3 and he doesn't know what he is saying to keep myself from getting upset. So I just laughed it off. When we got back to the Kartause, we sent Dominic to his mom so we could get off of the bus, saying goodbye was a little saddening, but I don't think we could have entertained him anymore. And that was the end of a glorious weekend.

Now I could tell you about what I did after, like skype TJ, Emily, Tim, and Sean, but except that my night was pretty dull. So I will leave it at that and I hope I remember to write about all of my adventures that are to come.
Have a great day everyone and God Bless.

Dancing

This semester I have been doing something new for me. I've been dancing a lot more than usual. Now many of you would be thinking "but Becky, you dance all the time! I see you at every dance party" Well this is different because I'm not dancing hip hop. I'm actually assistant teaching swing dance (both east coast and west coast) with one dance partner and I'm dabbling on waltz, tango, cha cha, samba, mambo, and salsa with another dance partner.
I don't know what it is about dancing, but I absolutely adore it. For waltzing it is the quick movements of the feet and the look of you floating on a cloud. For tango it is the passion between the partners and how it can be seen as violent when it really isn't at all. For cha cha it is how you can dance to many techno songs with it (now you will be listening to techno and counting the beat out in your head). Samba, Mambo, and Salsa are just so nice to relax to when we've been spinning way to much for either of us wanna do anything else.
Now, the one dance partner that I dabble in a little bit of every ballroom dance with is named TJ, I sort of have come to the conclusion that he is a taller and skinnier version of my brother in law Matt Colvin. And let me tell you, from what both of them talk about, I wouldn't doubt them being related. But we actually came up with a dance. Not a dance move, but an actual dance. we sort of took waltzing and swing dancing (east coast) and mixed them together. Now we have only figured out how to go one way, but still! It is so much fun.
My other dance partner I have is named Adam. He has actually been teaching swing dance for awhile now, but I have only recently offered my services as an assistant. The only reason I am teaching is because I know how to follow. Which is funny because if you asked my good buddy Matt Heaps last year, he would have said I'm really stiff in my arms and hard to work with.
Swing dance, I have to admit, is one of my favorites. Here on the hill of Franny Land, swing dance is a BIG dance to learn. They hold a dance specifically every Sunday night just for swing dance. I'm not saying if you don't know how to swing dance you would be shunned by most of my friends (because that is not the Franciscan way) but we will force you to learn because you will fall in love with it that much. What do I love about swing dancing? Is it the aerials? Is it the fancy arm tricks? How about the fancy foot work? dips? You would be wrong. I enjoy swing dancing because it usually gives you a chance to meet new people and have fun with your friends. Don't get me wrong now, I absolutely adore all of the parts to swing dance even though I only allow a few guys to flip me, I love the closeness it gives everyone.
Now that it is fall break here, there is no swing dance on Sunday cause no BOS is here to put it on and the JC is closed. What my friend TJ and I have decided is to learn "El Tango de Roxanne" while everyone is gone. This is going to be tricky because the Fieldhouse (our gym) is closed for the break, and that is where the dance studio is. We can see if we can use a common room that has not that much stuff in it, but the mirrors would have been nice. Oh well, La vie continue. Alright, I better get off now because I have a lot of work to do today that will probably have nothing to do with school.

LOVES!!!!!!!

byes.

(rawr)


BONUS:

This is a pic of a random couple from my sister's wedding 3 years ago! This is a cuddle position dip, but she was about to be flipped.

And here is my sister and her husband (Matt Colvin) during their first dance. I can't remember what they were doing, but it was cute!!!!!!! and I heart her dress because it was sooooooo spinny! I hope my wedding dress is like that.