A bittersweet goodbye

Saying goodbye is hard to do and in this case, bittersweet. This is how I feel with saying goodbye to my Junior College, Las Positas. Three long yet short years. Wow time just keeps going. I really enjoyed my last semester and I know I will miss it. This spring semester consisted of four classes, Volleyball, U.S. Women's Literature, Art History, and Theater Arts. Many laughs and fooling around in Volleyball and learning the game bette rand being comfortable spiking.Keeping the tradition of Frisbee Fridays after student government meetings. Finally chopping my hair off and donating it to Pantene where wigs are made for women. Going to March in March in Sacramento with Student Government and singing songs on the bus ride there and being the loudest and energetic school there. Driving each day, and appreciating to have a car, no more long bus rides! Listening to the Hollywood song and Eko-m my lady while going to school or work. Getting into Chinese yet missing German and realizing that my heart is for German and Germany and that I want to go abroad, Jah!:) Loving my English class and learning about art history and all the various types of art and artists. Butt not looking forward to my Theater Arts class but going anyway. Subway runs because I know I didn't bring enough food for me to last me till work, I think my favorite is period is Impressionism. Trying to prepare myself for Cal State East Bay and all that lays ahead. Working at Kumon 13 hours a week and getting my older sister the job. Reminiscing about my time at Las Positas and what I have learned, experience and gained and the people and friends I have made. Going to Welcome Day at East Bay and feeling nervous yet excited and happy to become a Pioneer and be part of the school in the Bay!

你好! Nín hǎo!

您好！我是科琳和我学习中国。Nín hǎo! Wǒ shì kē lín hé wǒ xuéxí zhōngguó. Hello! I am Colleen and I am learning Chinese, Mandarin. Haha but what about German you ask! Ich mag Deutsch aber Ich mag Chinesisch mehr. It's more useful even though it is a lot harder. My goal is to study Chinese each day for at least 30 minutes but so far it has been close to two hours since I have more free time now. The time seems to go by so fast. Even though I am an American German girl I am excited to take up the challenge to learn Chinese. Did you know that it's the most common spoken language in America? But I don't feel alone in this endeavor of mine. For me, I don't always need others to do things with me in order to feel passionate about something. However, there is a girl Jessica B. who has a hit channel on Youtube. She is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and uploads videos every so often so watching her videos makes me feel more inspired to pursue this goal of mine. She also studied Mandarin in college, maybe I will minor in it??:) I like and admire the Asian and Chinese culture and feel that it will be easy for me to keep up with the Chinese language.

Zàijiàn!

Colleen

Closing the door to Fall 2013

I am slowly closing the door on this semester. The good times, the somewhat stressful times, the hardest laughs, the hot weather and the very cold weather, the hard art projects that I would do mediocre on and the long bio labs that would fill Wednesday afternoons where looking at the beautiful trees outside would appear to be more interesting, and the notes that my good friend Nasira would write to me in my international relations notebook while also listening and taking notes on game theory. Taking the bus twice a week, driving twice a week and getting rides were apart of this semester. Missing English classes like it was a person and knowing that it's my true passion. Going out to eat and going to Social Justice club meetings and learning what our main goals are and how hard it is to get members. Being apart of student government for the third semester and taking on bigger roles and seeing new people join and some leave. Becoming more interested in the German language yet still only knowing Wie geht's? JK. Still going strong to growing my hair out for cancer patients and being creative with it as well as my wardrobes. Getting to the bottom of my stomach pains that have been going on for far too long and finding out that there's nothing serious. Working at Kumon for  a year in a half now and getting my brother a job through it yet trying to be optimistic through all of the monotisity (is that a word?) but knowing that it's a good job while in college. Becoming more and more excited for the rest of my college career at another school but knowing that it will be hard to leave my school. I think it will be bittersweet. Realizing who are my close friends and who are the people in my life whom I met over the course of these three years and which ones will stay and which ones will eventually fade.  Time keeps on moving, we just have to embrace it as each day comes to us.

A crazy adventure

I don't know how my friend Nasira does it. We are both in student government at our Junior College and after our meetings on Fridays we always play ultimate Frisbee with the others from student government. Today after Frisbee some of us were planning on going to a restaurant near by. Nasira worked at 6 and this was already around 4 when we were thinking of leaving and she was my ride home since it's on the way to work. So we all go to the restaurant and we get our food around 5 and knowing that we have to leave around 5:30. We couldn't even pay for our own meals because the restaurant doesn't do personal checks for big groups. So we made a mental note to pay someone back for paying for us in the group.

This is the good part. Nasira and I head back to her car and first we have to go to her cousins house to drop off something somewhat nearby. By this time it's already 5:25 and she is very low on gas and we are not even in the same city where she works and it's almost 5:30. She races to her cousins, runs to the house and runs back to the car an then heads for the mall where she works in Pleasanton and figures it's best to drop me off at the bus stop there since she is on a crunch for time. So we are on the free way from Livermore and that leads to Dublin then to Pleasanton to the mall. Changing lanes, speeding, stopping fast are all part of this adventure where time is ticking heavy and it's the only thing that you can think about. We finally get near to the mall and she is super low on gas and it's two minutes before 6. It doesn't take too long to find a parking space but she doesn't even turn off the car and instead runs to her work and clocks in and then tells her manager that she has to go back to her car to get gas because as of then there was literally no gas in the tank. We rush to the nearest gas station and she gets a half tank. We go back to the mall and then she drops me off at the bus stop and the bus is already there. She rushes to find a parking space and then runs back to her work. I don't know how she does it while still remaining cool and the whole time we are laughing and having a good time. I'm sure there will be more adventures soon to come!

Denise Huxtable

Who is Denise Huxtable you ask? She happens to be my favorite child on the 1980's-1990's TV show, The Cosby Show and in my opinion she's the best and coolest character with the most unique and creative fashion sense and style. She's a free spirit and although she is a flake at times and sometimes scattered brain, the episodes that she's in make it more enjoyable because there is always something to laugh about.

The first season is when she is a junior in High school and has braces. She is 16 and bright eyed and is the oldest at home since her older sister Sondra is away at college. The second season she is a Senior in High school and has a short pixie hair cut and has no braces. She gets her licence and also gets a vintage 1968 Star fire car for a good price. She applies to colleges and of all the ones that she has applied and has gotten into, she chooses Hillman, the school her parents and grandparents went to. In the third season she goes to Hillman and comes home often. Her hair is now longer and curly with bangs. Her style is eclectic as usual. (My mom says the same about my style haha!) She doesn't have a major but is having a good time in college while barely getting C's. During this time she is also another show called A Different World about her life and time at Hillman. In the fourth season she is in her second year at Hillman unsure of what she wants to study and comes home occasionally. In the fifth season she decides to discontinue her college career and doesn't like the competition of college and instead wants to pursue a field in either music as a record producer or a fashion designer. She ends up getting a job and then quits and gets three more right after but quits or get fired from them in the matter of two weeks. After this she decides to go to Africa as a photographer assistant for a year. In season six she comes back home a week early with dread locks, a step daughter and a husband and begins to live back at home. She becomes a full time wife and mother and eventually applies to a school in Rhode Island and decides that she wants to be a special education teacher. In season seven she isn't in the episodes as much and not at all in season eight.

She's the character who has the most interesting situations and style which make her stand out among the rest of the other four Huxtable children.

Thinking about going to Hillman

Talking to older sister Sondra

Talking to mom and younger sister about her Aunt's wedding

Talking to her brother-in-law about his cooking skills

Home from Hillman

Talking to Parents about going to Africa

Talking to parents about being married and being a mother without them knowing until she comes home from Africa

My date with drawing

Art and what I thought I knew about it, specifically drawing has been a pre-conceived idea, a term that my art teacher uses a lot. I thought it was easy, simple and fun. My pre-conceived idea has vanished and has totally shifted. After 2 months of being in a 3 hour art class twice a week I have come to appreciate drawing and those who are very good at it, and have realized and learned that I'm not one of those people. Drawing like anything takes practice my teacher always says. With a three hour session both on Mondays and Wednesdays we get a fare share of drawing and all the rules and techniques that go along with the wonderful world of art. Rules, you ask? Haha yes there are rules believe it or not, and with this class we get graded on if we applied those rules and techniques to our drawings. As for me, rules and art do not go together, hmm let me give you an example like mint and orange juice. When I think of art, I think of messy, fun, creative, inspiring, free, and no rules!! Well now that we are working with charcoal, I guess there is one thing that I am right about, that's its messy and after working with charcoal for a few hours it looks like I've been working in a coal mine or something.

I have learned that I am not a very precise person and this art class has definitely taught me that. I like to make things up as I go along and this drawing is mainly focused on drawing things how they are not what you think they look like, see no pre-conceived ideas. And to be honest that's no fun. In this class I yearn for imagination and creativity. I guess that will have to go into my spare time. So far my date with drawing has been interesting and quite a learning experience.

In honor of design blog

I came across this blog recently and have fallen in love with it. I greatly admire Anna's (the author of the blog) creativity, inspiration as well as sense of style. Thought I would post her blog link here:
http://inhonorofdesign.com/