foosball and plants

yesterday, the three wives (rachel, ben and me) set the new foosball table up and rearranged the living room. we thought adding red pillows and plants in the corner would really make the place come together...and it does!
we then waited expectantly for the three husbands (john, corey, and vanessa) to come home and see our handiwork. needless to say, vanessa was the only one with the appropriate response (she loved the room) whereas corey and john only focused on the foosball table. boys.

but the foosball table was fantastic! as you can see, its a tad short, but as long as we spread our legs out really wide, then its do-able. we definitely make a lot of noise when we play...we're concerned that our neighbors are going to complain and that we will be evicted from this amazing house.

tonight we are having a housewarming par-tay! i think everybody's coming which means about 50 people. we've been cleaning and buying food and drinks in anticipation of the hoopla. we're also thinking about buying our neighbors wine as a pre-raucous gift (thinking that buttering them up may ease the loudness tonight).

last night we prepared a family dinner (we meaning the wives for the husbands). we had lasagna and pasta and salad and garlic bread. it was delicious! but, not everyone made it. afterwards we went to chiswick (off the turnham tube stop on the green line) for the first bar review of the semester. we had a great time drinking and playing a bar quiz created by matt and brad (two guys from the program).
here we are sitting at our dining room table. even though most of us have desks in our rooms, we prefer all sitting at the table together (we also get zero percent of our work done this way).
ben does not like having his picture taken when eating his cereal (which is really the only thing we can eat right now since our stove doesnt work...boo).
this is a great crepe and waffle place right by the ealing broadway tube stop. everytime we walk by it smells soooo good. i usually cant resist a cream waffle!

another mish mash of pictures...

harrods at night. harrods is an amazing place. they have everything you could ever imagine (actually, i need to go back and by tights. tights there run around 30 pounds...and i wonder why i have no money).




here is the front of our house. ours is on the right...the car in the driveway is not ours, its our neighbor's. we're on friendly terms with him. the front window is ben's bedroom...its huge.






here are some pictures from our house hunting days. i think we were on the northern line on the way to brixton or some other place way out of town. boy am i glad that we finally found a place to rest our heads.

the feet became our symbol of the long hours and many days that we put in to finding a place. we made hundreds of calls and looked at a dozen houses. i know i mentioned this earlier, but we have actually been to more boroughs in london than our british director. thats quite an accomplishment.


here the housemates are on the tube. this is one of our lines...the district line. or as i like to say, the green line (for obvious purposes). we thought this was a funny picture because john is so big and we are so small. today i tried reading on the tube (preparing for class on the day of...man i miss my first semester days when i was so on top of things...oh well). at the time i thought it was a great idea, but now i realize i dont remember a word of what i read.

class time!

i was told to post pictures...the problem with pictures is that they take forever to load. i'm somewhat impatient so the idea of waiting FOREVER for a picture to load does not make me jump up and down with joy. however, right now i am in class so i have 2 hours to post pictures!
(p.s. i'm updating my blog using firefox instead of safari and its soooo much easier!)

i'll post some from the past two weeks in london...

here we are in class...


i am diligently listening to the professor and taking copious notes.

i thought a picture of the london underground would be useful since i talk about the different stations. as a reference, my house is off the ealing broadway station (last station on the green left in the western part of london) and my school is off the south kensington station...can you find it?



here we are traversing the london streets in order to feed ourselves cheaply. its amazing to me how expensive eating out here is. i can easily spend 10-20 pounds ($20-$40) on a meal but when i go to the grocery store its so much cheaper. i can get bread for $1.50 and milk for $2. it truly is wonderful. and now that we are in a house, its so much easier to buy groceries and eat at home.





here we are in front of the pepperdine house (with our groceries).


one night we decided to find soho. we went to this really great bar that served excellent mixed drinks. i thought the place was great and could have spent all my time there but everyone else wanted to try new bars. well, the next three that we went to were gay bars....needless to say, the guys were not too excited about this. finally we found a great british pub (and just in time since the rain was coming down hard). there was a great alcove in the front of the pub that all ten of us were able to fit in.


because there were so many of us, we decided to institute the buddy system. i thought it was a great idea and an excellent system, yet we still were able to lose a guy. he went to the bathroom (never a good idea when in a big crowd) and thats when we decided to leave. so, when he came out of the bathroom, we were all gone! he tried to chase us down, but we were way to wily for him. the buddy system failed =(

pepperdine arranged for us to go on a bus tour of london. our guide was hilarious and let us get out of the bus at several stops. one of the places we got out at was a palace where a guard stood watch. i felt really bad for this poor bloke because within the span of minutes he had 50 people
surrounding him waiting to take pictures. i heard through the grape vine that he eventually got a bit huffy and decided to walk along the wall of the palace instead of stand in front of it (probably to get away from all the american tourists!)

here amy, kerry, and i are waiting expectantly for the tour to start.

we also got out so we could take pictures of the tower of london and the tower bridge. this was also along the river bank where we walked this past sunday night (i'm still feeling the affects of that walk in the form of blisters all over my feet).


at the end of the tour, can you guess where we went? to a pub of course! the prince regent near our school was the last site on our "meet and greet" with london. many nights have already been spent in the pubs of london and i'm sure many are to follow.

sunday night

sunday night ten of us (the 6 from st. james, the whites, sarah, and johnny) tried to see love's labors lost at the globe theater. however, when we arrived all the tickets were sold out. so we improvised and decided to take a lovely walk along the river bank and then a jaunt around the london eye. the past few days have been fabulous weather here in london. it was so warm yesterday and didnt get cold enough for a jacket until around 11pm.

along the river bank were street performers, skate boarders, and people enjoying the great weather.

the whites.



dang! i always forget about the up and down pictures! well, here is one of the performers. he's headless.







here i am in the london eye pod. if you look closely, you can see big ben behind me. we timed the trip perfectly and were able to get on the eye around sunset. it was beautiful watching the sun go down over london...well worth the 15 pounds. The other picture is the london eye from a rarely seen angle...sideways....











here's parliament and big ben from the pod. earlier in the week we went on a tour of parliament. it was so fasinating how much of the british legal system we have in our american system. a few things i didnt know...

the house of lords has red trimming everywhere - red benches and the like. this is because red dye was the most expensive back in the day. the house of commons has green trim and seats because green was the cheapest dye of the day.

only those in the house of commons are elected and there are so many members that they all cant fit in the chambers. so some members have to stand wherever they can fit their feet. also, the prime minister is the speaker of the house of commons...

when there is a vote, the members of the house have to actually get up and walk to either the left side or the right side of the chambers (into separate rooms). the left side is a nay vote and the right side a yes vote. they literally vote with their feet!

also, the house of lords and house of commons are separated by a large foyer. and the house of lords is decked out in gold and luxury whereas the house of commons is basically made of bland stone with no gold in site.



here is the group in the pod. from left to right: ben (the domestic one of our house...ben makes sure we are well fed with brownies, cookies, muffins, and the like), vanessa (also a housemate), john (housemate), aaron, janelle, rachel (also a housemate), and me (behind the camera).



a picture of london from the eye. the river thames is off to the left. in the distance is the tate modern and the globe theater is next to that. the tate modern is where we went the other day to see the dali exhibit. it used to be an old factory back in the day.

house pictures

15 st. james ave, london, w13 9dl. what i call home....

my room.


the toilet.


living room (imagine a foosball table in the corner...its coming tomorrow).


the kitchen.

tate modern and dali

today amy, john, brian, and i went to the tate modern to see the new dali exhibit. normally museums here are free but because this was a special exhibit we had to pay 8 pounds concession (this was the reduced student price). it was worth it! the best part was seeing the collaberation between disney and dali called destino. i first saw all dali's paintings for the movie and then i was able to see the movie. it was so cool! i wish they had it in the bookstore because i would definitely love to have it as a memento.

today was a GORGEOUS day. it was a balmy 80 degrees and so sunny that i needed my sunglasses. i felt like i was in california again. so after the exhibit we sat outside on a balcony and enjoyed the warm air and view of st. paul's cathedral. i also was enormously entertained by the pigeons who dared life and limb to grab crumbs from the sandwiches we all enjoyed. one pigeon was chased inside but then realized what a horrible mistake this was and promptly exited the area.

on a side note...i love the accents of little kids here. its amazing to hear them speak with intonations of an adult. i'm amazed at how early things like accents, language, and preferences start. at the museum today, there was a darling little girl (no older than 6 or 7) who was with her parents at the dali exhibit. she would walk up to the pictures and talk about them with her dad as though she was an adult.

at one point, they were talking about a phone with a lobster on it that acted as the receiver of the phone. she asked her dad why there was a lobster on the phone. her dad asked her why not a lobster on the phone. thats all i heard but it was very cute.

afterwards we went back to amy's place in nottinghill and had gourmet burgers. i had a blue cheese one and it was outstanding. although i still cant believe i ate the whole thing. when i first got here i could hardly get enough food because the places we went were really expensive and they gave us such little portions. now i am either used to the price and portions or the portions are bigger and price cheaper. i find myself getting stuffed on a regular basis (i like to think my stomach is shrinking and i'm losing weight from all this walking i'm doing).

now i am back at school and am supposed to be working on homework. we have had a week's worth of classes and i have yet to seriously start the studying process. we'll see if tonight is any different.

the purple room

so sorry that i havent updated this recently. i know a lot of you were biting your nails and sitting on the edge of your seat waiting to hear if i found a house. well.....i have! its a beautiful five bedroom place in ealing. if you look at the tube map, we are off the ealing broadway tube stop (its the last stop for the red and green lines and is in the west part of london). i'm at school right now so i dont have the cord to download my pictures of the place. i'll try and do that soon.

my room is great! its purple and has built in cupboards, wardrobe and desk. personally, i think i have the best room in the house but dont tell the others. we also have a beautiful kitchen, dining room, and living room. we have leather couches in the living room and are buying a foosball table for the corner. we also have a great little backyard with an apple tree. we dont have internet yet so thats my excuse for not updating the blog recently...but we will be getting a year's subscription starting a week from monday. everything here tends to be long term, including our lease.

to get in this place we werent able to get anything shorter than a 6 month lease even though we will only be here for 4 months. so it will be a bit more costly than i had anticipated. however, we are centrally located in ealing (not necessarily in london). the local sainsbury's (a large supermarket) is a short block away, as well as a great pub, the pound store, a guy that sells produce for a pound a scoop (i was able to buy 12 bananas for a pound...about $2. this is an amazing price), a burger king, and a pizza hut. there's also a belgian waffle place by the tube stop!

i really love our little house. we have a great mix of people and i anticipate many fun memories and never a dull moment. its really nice having six people because there is always someone around to do something with.

i'll post some pictures when i can!

more house hunting...

well, day four of house hunting as ended. we visited seven places today (all on the oustkirts of london) and according to our british programme director (being in england i think it best that i spell like an englishman) we have seen more of london than he has. thinking back on the past few days i really cant believe how many places we've been.

after all the travelling today we finally made an offer on a place. if you look up a tube map, we will potentially be living at the end of the district line (the green line) in ealing broadway. the place is 5 bedrooms and earlier today 6 abercrombie models vacated the place. my moto is, if its good enough for the abercrombie models, its good enough for me. actually, this place is really great and is near a cool part of town. the only problem is that the landlady has already received an offer on the place but she isnt happy with it because the people cant move in until september 15th. but we can move in tomorrow so i'm hoping this means she'll pick us over them (feels like kindergarten).

also, we will only be here for four months but most places do not accept anything less than a six month let. that means at most places we've seen we would be paying for two months of rent even though we wont be here. crappy. but its really our only option - either that or split up and we would rather stay together.

yesterday we went on a coach tour of london. our guide was great and was so funny. i have some great pictures but havent uploaded them yet.

classes start tomorrow and i am far from prepared to start another semester of school. i would be more prepared if i was living in a flat and wasnt still living out of my suitcases. hopfully tomorrow morning i will get a lovely phone call telling me that the offer was accepted and we can move in at our convenience. then i could buy groceries and unpack my shampoo. i would feel more like i'm home and less like a traveler if that happened.

i'm wondering if its too late to come home.

success!

after waiting on hold an hour and a half, i am finally able to withdraw money and charge again!

your call is very important to us so please stay online for the next representitive

another unsuccessful day of house hunting. now we wait over the weekend (unlike america, people here actually limit their time at work and do not work on the weekends and only work from 9-5...now, i'm sure this is not universal, but a lot of places here are like this including the estate agencies who we need to help us with this whole process).

last night we all went out to eat and then to a bar. we had a great time! although, i had run out of paper money and wanted to pay with my card. when the waitress rang up my card it came up denied. turns out my bank has put a hold on it because i didnt put a travel alert on my account.

thankfully, my current roommate melissa gave me her mobile and i called card services. the first call was pretty much unsuccessful. the guyg didnt know what to do so he put me on hold a few times and then the call ended. so, i called back but that call ended just as i was beginning to speak to someone. then, the phone rang so i answered it and it was the bank. the guy who was on the line was able to put the travel alert on the card but since it already had a hold on it he needed to transfer me to debit services. i then proceeded to wait about 45 minutes. everybody else had moved on to the pub so i was standing outside in the cold waiting for someone to help me. i finally just gave up and went inside.

so, this morning...i still have no debit card, master card, no paper money and my mobile phone has no minutes. so whats a girl to do? i found out we can call toll free through skype to 1-800 numbers. and guess what? i am currently on hold with the debit card people waiting to sort out this mess. i am starting to hate wamu. i have had such horrible service and the worst part is that i cant do anything until this is done because i have no money.

ahhhh!!!!

...and the hunt continues.

after two days of hard core searching we still havent found a place. i think we walked over the entire city today. we almost had a great four bedroom apartment that was above a store and in a great neighborhood. but when the estate agent contacted the landlord, the landlord changed his mind and decided he wanted to let the place for 1-2 years rather than the six months he originally told us about. dang it! we were so close. now we have to go back to the drawing board.

i was originally supposed to live with amy and holly, but when i got here amy told me that she was going to live with a friend of hers who is already here. its a great situation for her because her friend is not charging her rent (she will now save thousands), the place is in nottinghill (great part of town) and she doesnt have to go through the hassle the rest of us are going through. so, holly and i tried to find a place for 2 people but it wasnt economical for us. so we decided to partner up with five others. now we are down to six people because holly has decided to live with some other friends of ours.

well, the search continues. hopefully we will find an affordable place that isnt too far away. we found a great five bedroom place this evening but it is 50 minutes away..so we're not sure if we want to go with it.

i'm exhausted and i'm starting to get blisters on my feet. i also have the hugest zit ever on my chin that continually reminds me its not happy. i havent unpacked yet because we're still in temporary housing and i cant wait till i'll be able to find everything. tomorrow we continue with our quest and will hopefully be able to sign our names on the dotted line.

london, baby!

for all you who dont know, thats a friends reference. the last time i came to london, brynne and i would say that to each other. brings back good memories!

well, i am now in london! the place where all your dreams come true...wait, thats disneyland. i feel like this city is my home away from home...

i arrived yesterday around 1:30pm london time. i decided to be cheap and take the tube from heathrow to pepperdine house. needless to say, after carrying 110lbs of crap my body is still incredibly sore. at the time that i was carrying all this stuff, i felt like i was going to have a heart attack because my chest hurt so badly...it still hurts. i think next time i'm going to pay the $100 and take a taxi...sometimes being cheap really does kill you.

after i arrived at the house (around 3:30), some of my friends showed up from galavanting around the city. we went out again and i bought a sandwich at marks and spencers (a posh grocery store...probably wont be shopping there again, but the sandwich was good) and then we went to carphone warehouse. i hate to say it but i am now the proud owner of a nokia mobile phone. i decided with all of us spread out here (everyone in the law program has to find his or her own housing around the city) the best way to keep in touch with people was to buy a phone. so i did.

well, its breakfast time. for all of those who know me, you should note what time i am posting this....7:30am! thats right, and this is after i took a shower and got ready for the day. crazy jet lag!

check back often and hopefully i will post often. ciao!

80's par-tay!

for my birthday we had an 80s party. tons of people dressed up for the occasion. adam, one of joel's roommates, made a putting green and put it in the middle of the pool. we swam, barbequed, and listened to crazy 80s music. mom, do you recognize my 80s costume?

felix's

tonight joel, hutch, charles, and i went to felix's cafe in orange. its a great cuban restaurant where we get lots and lots of excellent food. i also like the atmosphere because its in the middle of the circle and there is a lot of outdoor seating. its neat to feel like we are in a community. a few dogs went by and charles got up and pet them and talked to their owners. we took a few pictures with the waiters....they're all great and are super friendly.

disney-rama

we went to the happiest place on earth and all my dreams came true...i went on space mountain! it wasnt that busy when we went. we were able to go at our won pace and there was never a huge crowd pushing themselves along the walkway. the longest we waited was about an hour for space mountain. we went on 12 or so rides...it was great.

mini golf

ummm...not sure why the pictures are sideways. i'm trying to add a new flair to the page.

last week with my dad and brothers here (as well as hutch) we went miniature golfing at camelot. hutch and i tied for first. we had a great time, although it did get super hot.

i was told i need to update my blog more often. i wish i was one of those people that updated it regularly because i love reading the blogs that are constantly changing...it brings joy to my days; so, assuming people read this, here's a bit of joy for today.

i ended my judge job a few weeks ago. it was a sad day as we said goodbye to the judge. we took a picture with him in front of the bench (i'm supposed to send it to him but i have yet to do it) and then took us for a tour of the underground jail. it was awe inspiring (in the sense that i hope i never make it to jail) and a bit scary. we went in to the hallway and the guard shut the door behind us (this was right after some inmates walked by)...all i could think about was a prison break and then i wouldnt make it on time for my plane.



speaking of planes, joel and i recently went to sacramento for a family reunion. my stepmom's parents were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. each of the families had their own color shirts (ours were Kelley green) and they said "hitched 50 years" with a picture of a man and a woman in a carriage. the children (meaning my stepmom and her siblings) prepared a song to the tune of "old grey bonnet with a blue ribbon on it" (dont worry if you have never heard of it...i hadnt, but after that weekend it was s.t.u.c.k. in my head).





my grandparents live in the outskirts of sacto so they have sheep and horses on their property. we were able to ride the horses and then the last day we had to heard the sheep and move three of them into another pasture...the mother sheep was so stupid that instead of running through the passage way we had created, she turned and ran straight into the fence, bounced back, fell on the ground, and then couldnt get up because she had stunned herself - so stupid!

now i'm getting ready to leave for london...i leave next monday on the 13th. i have a mix of anticipation and sadness. it will be a great semester and time to learn a lot about international law, but it will be hard to be away from joel for four months.

right now i'm watching wedding crashers and i didnt realize how funny it is. wouldnt it be funny if we had wedding crashers at our wedding...would they give a toast, cut the cake, and eat our amazing food?

joel's best friend, hutch (i didnt know his first name for the longest time), has been here for the last week. we've had a great time with him. today he and i went short shopping for joel while he was at school. its usually a tramatic experience for him (joel that is) so hutch and i thought we would jump start the trauma by buying the clothes for him. then all he had to do was come home, pull the shorts out of the bag, and put them on. i'd like to report - it was a complete success! out of five pairs of shorts he's only returning one pair...yes!

hey...check out our engagement slideshow.

http://jasminestarphotography.com/Slideshows/Amanda_Joel_Engagement/

engagement photos

this past tuesday joel and i took our engagement photos. we had an awesome time and postively love our photographer. she's amazingly creative, fun, genuine, and has a great sense of style.

we decided to go to the balboa fun zone - site of our first date. it was a great night. after the pictures we ate dinner at a great seafood restaurant. overall, it was a fantastic time.

to check out jasmine's blog (she blogged about our time at balboa and also posted some pics), go to: http://jasminestarblog.com/

hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

traffic court

i spent the day in traffic court. no, it wasnt because i had received a ticket. i was there as part of my internship at the court house. the most important lesson i learned today - dont go to traffic court!

from 9 till 11:30 the room was packed with people. people would see the judge, leave, then more would come in and fill their places. it was truly amazing. and, these people ran a tight trip.

there was absolutely no talking, whispering, phone activity, book reading, dozing, or having fun in this place. kent and eugene were scolded for talking when eugene asked kent in a whisper (and he as a quiet voice - he's asian for crying out loud) if we should introduce ourselves to the bailiff. kent replied that he thought they already knew who we were. sure enough, the bailiff came over and told them that he knew they were externs but thye still dont allow talking in the court room.

they also made the people take their hands out of their pockets, take their hands off the table, stand behind the table directly in front of the judge (and if the moved a few shuffle steps to the side to hand the bailiff anything, they were scolded).

i can imagine some of those people were also humiliated since they had to stand in front of everyone and admit their guilt to narcotic or alcohol use.

i told kent that this would be the first time i would get a ticket (because i had been so terrified about traffic court). well, i didnt get a ticket (yet!) but on the way home we saw three police cars on the 22 (i have yet to see one on our daily commute).

overall, it was a very informative session for us. a nice break from white collar crime in dept 12.

lingual frenectomy

this past friday i had my surgery. for most people, their frenum (the piece of tissue that holds your tongue down to the bottom of your mouth) is in the middle of their tongue. for me, my frenum was at the tip of my tongue. this is called being tongue-tied. most people have their frenum snipped when they are babies...my parents didnt. so, last friday i suffered in order to have a freed tongue. the surgery only took 45 minutes. i had a local anastetic so i was awake during the procedure. i could hear them snipping and sucking up the saliva and blood. even though my tongue was numb, i could still 'feel' when they snipped something (it didnt hurt but felt more like pressure). at the end of the surgery i was able to stick my tongue out! it was such a neat sensation.

later when the anastesia wore off, i was definitely in some pain. thank goodness they had prescribed vicatin and ibuprofin as well as amoxcycilin. i've been taking these quite frequently over the past few days. my tongue is still swollen and its painful to move it around. i also cant eat since this uses the tongue quite a bit. i've been on a soup diet but only the soups that are completely pureed - if there are chunks this tends to be too much for me to handle. i've also been enjoying a lot of ice cream (yes!).

i stayed at joel's these past few days so that he could take care of me. he was so wonderful! he would make me soup and get me water and pills. whatever i needed he took care of.

i've also sustained quite a bit of teasing. my language is far from articulate and the boys have felt the need to make fun of my speech. i definitely feel like i am mentally handicapped especially when i am drooling and am doped up. needless to say its been an interesting few days.

i'm still a bit sore and swollen and am not sure if i'll be able to work on tuesday. i hope this heals soon. also, i don't have much tongue movement and am supposed to be exercising it so that it doesnt heal back to how it was. if i want to be able to stick it out further or fold it back in my mouth i need to be doing that now. but it really hurts and its kind of hard because its swollen and i still have the stiches in. i'm just hoping that it will be worth it in the end.

my judge job

this summer i am working for judge di cesare in the westminister court house. i started last tuesday. it was a great week. he was in the middle of a trial so we (kent and eugene - 2 friends from school - are also interning with me) were able to observe a few days of it. this trial is nuts. its literally court room tv. everybody that works in the department has been telling us that its almost never like this. i cant say much about the trial (i am sworn to secrecy now that i am a court employee) but i can say that these lawyers know how to put on a good show.

on thursday, the judge had us do mostly research (he doesnt hear trials on thursday or friday). we didnt know this at the time, but he was having us research something that the court researchers had already researched. although, it was probably better that we didnt know that. we were so nervous that we wouldnt get the right answer in our research (since the judge wanted us to write up a recommendation for him we were terrified that we wouldnt find the right law and would give him a bad recommendation). at the court house we have to do all of our research out of the books. but at school, they have taught us how to research on the computer. so its been a bit rough on us trying to figure out the books.

i think this is going to be a wonderful summer and will definitely help sharpen my skills.

i'm engaged!

on wednesday morning (may 23rd), joel got up really early and went to the grocery store to buy roses and blueberries. he then made me oatmeal with blueberries, and english muffin and tea (several of my favorite breakfast items). i on the other hand did not wake up early. joel, a bit perturbed that i was not working well with the plan, repeatedly called the house phone to try and wake me up. when that didnt work he had his friend and his friend's sister call my cell phone to wake me up. that to was fruitless because i turned my phone off after the first call.

so around 10 i rolled out of bed (joel had been up since 7). i decided to take a shower and shave my legs before waking joel up. what we had been doing was whomever got up first would crawl into the other's bed to wake that person up. so, joel thought that i would crawl into his bed to wake him up - but i'm difficult and decided to shake things up on wednesday morning. about 45 minutes later (after waking up) i went into joel's room to wake him up. instead of crawling into bed i decided to jum on him. when i entered his room i noticed a mound under the covers. so i touched it and realized it was a pillow and not joel.

i turned around and noticed him peeking outbehind the door of the other room. i walked up to him and saw that he was full dressed (this puzzled me since joel usually is pretty slow in the morning and i didnt think he had woken up yet). i asked him if he was playing a trick on me. he threw his hands in the air and said 'do i have to do everything for you?' he then walked into his bedroom and lifted up the covers on his bed. there on the bed was a dozen red roses and my ring in its box. i was shocked. i asked him if he was proposing and he responded 'will you marry me?' to which i replied 'of course.' it was wonderful!

afterward he led me into the other room where my breakfast was waiting. i later found out that he had been up most of the night and had been laying on the floor of the third bedroom. he was peaking under the door so that he would know when i woke up. so cute! he was so nervous. he had been carrying the ring around with him the entire time we were in washington because he was waiting for the right moment.

washington

joel and i went to washington for about a week to visit with friends and family. we stayed at joel's parents house in tacoma. they have such a beautiful yard and i love staying there. i am starting to feel more and more like family each time i visit with them.

the first friday we were there, joel, daniel (his brother) and i met up with ben (a friend from pepperdine) at a great rib joint. we had a wonderful time and stuffed ourselves with excellent food. we then went back to joel's house and spent the night with his parents.

we spent the weekend with his parents. this was their main time to visit since wanda (joel's mom) still had to work. so we just hung out and went out to eat. on saturday we went bowling which was a blast. although, i found out rather quickly that joel hates bowling and wanda wasn't so fond of it either. but ben (joel's other brother), steve (his dad), and i all had a great time.

on sunday we went to church (which was wonderful) and then went home and had a great sunday meal with the family (steve, wanda, ben, daniel, rebecca - daniel's wife, joel and me). it was great to spend time with them. somewhere in there we watched the last king of scotland which was so wonderful.

on tuesday we visited with hope (my friend from biola) and her boyfriend nate. we went to a great mediterranean restaurant and then to our favorite bar, the monsoon room. while we were there, joel received a call from his best friend mark. turns out he had arrived back into tacoma from his trip to ohio and wanted to meet us at the bar. it was great to see mark again and i could tell joel was in seventh heaven. he really misses mark a lot and was so excited when he finally got back to tacoma.

mark, joel and i ended up going back to joel's house where we played games (which we do a lot of) and watched movies. i then went to bed but the boys stayed up talking and scheming. scheming for what you ask? for my engagement!

on wednesday joel asked me to marry him...i said 'of course.' i'll write more about this in a different post.

later that day, mark, joel and i drove to south colby and visited with my family. my uncle pat, aunt susan, and cousins jeff and jessica live in south colby washington. we had a great time visiting with them and had a wonderful dinner. later that evening, jeff, jessica, mark, joel, and i went to the cabin on harstine island. this is where my family has been going for the last 15 or so years. we have a cabin there and it always proves to be a great trip. usually when i go with jeff there tends to be more alcohol than beach trips or hikes. some of jeff's friends also joined us while we were there. mark used to be a bartender so he kept us plied with drinks the whole night (but they were more sophisticated than beer or rum and coke). joel and i went to bed earlier than the others (he was exhuasted from staying up the night before thinking about how he would propose).

the next day we drove back to tacoma. however, we had to make a detour and went by bellevue to return my ring for a smaller size. once that was finished joel was able to rest a bit easier.

on friday, our last day, joel's friend (and mark's cousin), beau, came over and played games with us. we then had dinner with steve and wanda at red robin and then went to the airport.

overall it was a wonderful trip. it was also great to spend so much time with joel since we don't see each other all that much during the school year.

limbo time

in between moving home from school and going to washington, i tried to complete some tasks. i had to buy some suits for my job this summer and while i was home i received a call that a professor at pepperdine wanted me to be his research assistant this summer! so i went back to pepperdine only three days after leaving. we met and i received my first assignment. it feels good to be making some money this summer.

i then did a lot of shopping. i bought a new suit, a beautiful dress and lots of shoes. it was nice to buy new things and get ready for the upcoming summer.

on thursday may 17 joel and i flew to washington!

i realize its been a long time since i have updated my blog so i will try and do that now. to keep it simple i'll put all the 'major' things in a separate post.

this one will be - "finishing finals."

the last week of finals went by quickly...which was great becuse at that point i could not wait for it to be over. i mostly studied by myself, but on thursday night (before our torts final) amy and i went to montana (a local bar and restaurant) and had great happy hour food and drinks. we also made up torts hypos using the people in the bar. we would choose a character (a waitress or restaurant patron) and then would make up a story based on what that person was doing in the bar at that time. we would then somehow weave a tort into the equation (this last semester was products liability and defamation) and then the other person would have to analyze the hypo. it was great fun and definitely helped us prepare.

after our last final for our first year, about 30 of us from section b went to a local restaurant on pch, the reel inn, and had fish and beer. it was so wonderful to visit with people and truly enjoy our time together as friends knowing that we were done with our first year of law school. it was such a wonderful way to finish the year.

amy and i then went to the massage place and had hour long massages - fantastic. we then went to holly's 80s party and danced and had a great old time.

saturday (may 12) i moved out of george page. it was great to finally be done with that place. i saw spiderman 3 with some friends and then drove home to the oc. i visited with joel a bit before moving back to orange. he was still in the throws of finals so i tried to give him as much space as he needed.

i realized that i've had this blog for 4 months and i have only posted 12 times. thats pathetic.

civil procedure and malibu seafood

i had my third exam today...civil procedure. this is basically the nuts and bolts of being a lawyer and how to bring a case to trial. i felt the exam was pretty easy (which generally isnt a good sign - either i overestimated it or everyone else did just as well which means the curve gets very tight). professor ogden isnt my favorite test writer because his tests tend to be easier which means that one wrong answer on the multiple choice is really detrimental versus contracts where the average number of wrong answers is 15 out of 30. oh well...its nice to have a good exam under my belt after the horrificness that was contracts last thursday.

after the exam amy, john, ben, aaron and i went to malibu seafood for the lunch. it was yummy. then amy, john and i went to the beach and met up with my roommate erika. it was such a gorgeous day! so warm and clear. the beach was fabulous (but the water is still a little too cold). we "studied" and then decided to go get something to drink at the coffee bean. we were there for awhile and then came home.

erika, jen and i went to la salsa for dinner and then watched some sienfeld. now we are all studying hard for our property exam on wednesday. three down two to go! i have only a few days left but it seems like forever. i am absolutely exhausted and am having to reach into the depths of my self-control and self-discipline to pull these last few days of studying out.

two down, three to go

i had my second exam today...contracts.

i neglected everything but crim pro up until tuesday at noon. then i had 1 1/2 days to learn and memorize contracts for today. i have to say this wasnt the wisest move on my part. last semester i rocked contracts, this semester it rocked me.

i am definitely the type that needs to sit with something for awhile and i didnt have that this semester (because of my own doing). yesterday i was in panic mode and almost got to the point where i couldn't think, breath or make decisions. i didnt know what to do because i had so much to learn and i kept it till the last moment. so today, i took teh test and can honestly say the multiple choice section was the hardest i've ever taken. nonetheless, it was an extremely fair test and its because of my own non-studying that i had such a hard time with it.

when i got back to my apartment after taking the test, i encountered two of my three roommates weeping about the contracts test they had just taken (they are all in section c and i am in section b...we have different professors but take the same subjects). apparently, my three roommates are not the only ones crying about section c's test. so i guess it could be worse. we could have had a completely unfair test like my roommates had (turns out their professor didnt write their test...section a's professor did. this is a big deal because each class covers different material, from different case books, in a different order, and will often use different terms to describe something. so the fact that another professor writes your test is horrible.)

now i must regroup and get back to the books for the next one...monday, civil procedure.

here's to hoping.