In which I REALLY get my diploma

It's been a tough week, I gotta say.  I've been calling the records office every other day since about a week before I got on the plane, just to be sure my plans are going through and I'm graduated.  Well, I called again on Monday last week to see how long until my diploma gets here and they tell me, "Diploma?  You've got six credits to finish!"  Naturally I poop my pants.

Long story short, everything got figured out.  There was a math error, and one of my classes was able to count for missing credits and both my adviser and the records office were AMAZING help.  I should get my diploma tomorrow, it's being overnighted out here to sunny CA and I'm all sorts of excited to see it!  And then send it to my boss in China and be like, "SEE?  I'M A GOOD PERSON"

I finally figured out how to get videos up here (PROtip: it's not hard) and here's a gem from back in MN.  It's two nights before I left, down at the BEST place to chillax in bemidji- Brigid's Cross Irish Pub.  I asked the bartender that everybody has a friendcrush on to make me a drink that would commemorate my adventure to China.  He poured me three glasses of PBR and told me it was tradition in Shenyang (turns out he went there!) to say 'gongbei' and chug the hell out of them.  Like a champ, I did.

Video is unable to upload for some

reason... I'll try to figure out how to

fix it.  :)
 

Making my parents proud, right there

After that I was QUITE smashed because I'd spent the previous 5 hours making friends with Whiskey 7's and the karaoke mic.  It was the best send-off a girl could ask for.

Here in California my dad's got a pretty awesome job.  Well, normally he manages a bunch of Rebox kiosks and employees.  But his AWESOME job is wood-fired pizza catering.  He's got two wood-fired ovens, one that he built from scratch in the backyard and one that he ordered on a trailer so he can take his food from place to place.

 

There are a few other people in the area who also do pizza like this, and it's probably the most delicious thing in the world.  Seriously, I could eat pizza every damn day and NEVER get sick of it.  Best part is that you can have completely new, weird pizzas that you'd never find at Papa John's.  My favorite is alfredo sauce instead of red sauce, gorgonzola cheese, thinly sliced potatoes and chicken if there's room.  Muy delicioso.

Last Saturday we went antiquing in Sacramento.  (Don't worry, this ties in.)  There's this really cool spot under a highway where people just show up and peddle their expensive looking wares.  It looks a lot like a really classy hobo village.

They had all kinds of weird stuff!  I spent the day looking through the jewelry and comic books (found someone who had the first 5 issues of Xmen.. awesome...) but if I was still in the steampunk mood, I would have hit a TREASURE TROVE.  Pocketwatches, gears, springs, old cloxks just begging to be taken apart and glued onto tank goggles... it was wonderful.

Anyways, one of the food vendors there was a guy that my dad knows- also in the pizza catering business.  We got some delicious pizza and chit chatted with this super-hot (and super-pretty) oven just feet away.  I ordered a gorgonzola and carmelized onion pizza, which only took about 90 seconds to cook (that's how hot the oven was) and I ended up with this beauty.

It was delicious.

In which I've travelled 2000 miles and earned my degree

Firstly I want to thank Jeremiah back in Bemidji for taking the initiative to talk to the President of the university.  It seems that theatre might not be dead and contrary to popular belief, the guy is willing to find solutions.  Fingers crossed that it ends up doing well.

Then some news... I'm in California!  Flew in last Saturday and MAN I LOVE IT.  The weather is warm- 75 degrees.  I took a walk today to the local grocery store and I didn't need a sweater!  Wore one anyways because I don't like putting things in my pants pockets and my purse is small and unfashionable BUT I DIDN'T NEED THE HOODIE FOR WEATHER'S SAKE.  Just pocket's sake.

My dad runs this sweet pizza business out of his home, catering wood-fired pizza.  It's not called wood-fired just to sound cool, this guy has two brick ovens (one he made by hand) where he'll build a fire and slide some pizza in right next to it.  Takes about 20-30 seconds to cook and out comes the most delicious thing the world's tasted.  I'm not saying this just because he's my dad, but this guy is the best cook that I've ever met and I've been craving some of this pizza hardcore since I last saw him two summers ago.  In short: I really want him to either get a job catering for someone or have a pizza night here because it's delicious and I'm definitely going to miss his cooking.

Since there isn't much to do around here, I decided to have a responsible morning and called the school to keep tabs on my grad plans.  It still freaks me out that I haven't gotten the diploma yet, but the lady at the records office assured me that my plans were all processed and as far as she could tell from looking at my stuff, I was graduated and my diploma should be coming to me soon.  Rock on!  I'm going to freak when I get my diploma.  Maybe staple it to a shirt and run around town whooping in joy.  (I'm just really happy that I don't have to take another class again ever.)

I also hoofed it to the bank to see if I could use Wells Fargo in China, but apparently they're not international so I'll have to figure something out.  Oh well, least of my worries.  :P

So yeah, that's the update I have so far.

Things packed: Suitcase Status: Beat to hell.  Got it from the airport with a rip and stains on the front, a wheel bent in, my nail polish taken OUT of my makeup bag and smashed (good luck getting that out of my clothes) and missing my Zune charger, DS charger and some expensive lotion.  I'm not one to point fingers at the TSA.... but the TSA can go screw themselves.

In which I eat chicken nuggets and lament the chaos at my school.

Six followers?  Hot diggity, I must be the most popular person in the 'verse!  It's kind of exciting to think that there are at least six people in the world who are going to read this, no matter what I put in it.  It's just like having friends!

Soooo update on life... BSU cut Theatre and Art History, and Visual Arts are soon on their way out from the way people talk.  So yesterday we staged a protest in front of the administration building, complete with signs, chants and honking horns.  We're so special!  It was a great start, but now we need to get everybody who protested and supported us to write letters to the legislature, maybe even carpool down to the capital to let those government people know that the students demand education!

So a HUGE thanks to everybody who participate!  I feel really bad that I won't be able to help out any more, but I'm confident that they'll ROW ROW FIGHT THE POWAH just fine.

Another thing BSU has done to seriously screw up?  They forgot about my grad plans.  I went over a couple days ago to see if I was graduated, since I never heard anything back from them after handing in those plans, and turns out that they've been sitting on some dude's desk for the past couple months, paperwork piled up and he just hasn't gotten to them.

So I went to talk to him and impress him with the gravity of the situation (Big words, look at me!) and he told me they would get done this week.  Then asked my name, probably so he could do them first and make it look like he was working hard or I don't know.  But he was nice about it, so I had a hard time being frustrated to his face and it wasn't until I got home that I realized that I should tell him that I HAVE A JOB THAT REQUIRES ME TO HAVE THAT DIPLOMA RIGHT NOOOOW.

I'm just worried that they're going to process my plans and tell me, "Oh hey, you need 100 more credits in liberal arts" or "Sorry, but that thing you did doesn't count as a senior project SORRY TRY AGAIN AND DON'T PASS GO".  It's just me being paranoid but until I'm holding that impersonal piece of paper with my name and BSU's phone number on it, I'm going to worry that I'm not graduated at all and everything is a lie.

Things packed: absolutely everything.  Well, almost.  I have all my clothes (except the ones that need washing) and all my shoes (which is only 25% of the shoes I had two weeks ago.... this is a hard process that requires heartbreaking sacrifice) and I've told myself that anything not in the suitcase or storage box by the end of tomorrow is getting thrown away.

In which I'm thrown at an airplane

Second update, good for me!  I don't have too much information yet on the China front... I'm waiting for some papers from them so I can finish applying for a Visa.  The thing that sucks about all this bureaucratic nonsense is that I need the papers to apply for a visa, need the visa to get the plane ticket and need to get the plane ticket before it's insanely expensive.

On the other hand.... EEEEEEEEEE I'm going to China!  (Grandma's a little on my case that I'm not more excited)

My dad wants me to come out and live with him for the remainder of my stay in the US, and it's totally a good idea.  Living in the same state as the consulate I need to visit, living there for FREE (if we can/are allowed to find a subleaser) and also getting to have my dad's cooking for the last time.  Seriously, you've never had Italian pizza as good as this Norwegian guy's.

The problem is that I'll be leaving for California within the week.  I'm not entirely sure of the date, but I'll find out tomorrow and I know it's really soon.  "Don't buy any green bananas" he tells me.  Little does he know that I LOVE green bananas and bought one to eat just to spite that advice.  It was delicious, even if it made me incredibly thirsty.

WOW, tangents.  Anyways, I'm planning a going away party at the American Legion in town.  They do karaoke on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, so I'm going to sing it up with my friends and hopefully drink myself blind.  Probably not drink myself blind.  Sing myself blind?

Currently I'm browsing different teaching websites to try and glean some ideas.  I've got some great ones and am kind of excited about implementing them.  I'm going to be trying to get the creative juices flowing, writing assignments, this cool comic book idea thingy that I don't feel like explaining...it'll rock.  I'll be the MOST AWESOME SUPERFANTASTIC TEACHER EVER!

Items packed: Nothing now, except some sand that I found at the bottom of the suitcase and have a hard time shaking out.

Items donated/tossed: All of my cosplaying outfits and about 5 trash bags full of clothes.  Life is full of difficult decisions and the one I made takes me away from Assassin's Creed II Booberella.

First Post!

Haven't been on blogspot in a long time and I guess exciting things are happening, so I thought I'd give this another go!

About me... well, I'm a recent college grad (BFA in Theatre-Performance emphasis.  Pretty much means that I'm really good at faking a smile as I'm waiting tables), self proclaimed artist (though I don't do much), avid reader, obsessed gamer, damn good DM and a Gemini (or I WAS anyways. I have no loyalty to you, Taurus.)  I've been out of work for a couple months because despite what the newspapers say, the job market is absolutely shit.  However I have gotten a job which'll start in March as an English teacher.  In China.

That brings me to the reason that I'm here.  I've never been out of the country on my own.  Only time I've really been overseas was in Rome and Athens with my parents and an entire school to keep me from getting into trouble.  So this is a little nerve wracking, especially since I didn't know the when the job started until this morning.  A month and a half before I'm due at Liaoning University in Shenyang, China.  Even though I complain about the short notice, I'm incredible excited to go and have one of those life experience thingies.

Hopefully blogspot isn't blocked by the Great Firewall.  There are a lot of choice sites that I'll be missing, but I'm sure it'll do me some good to go a year without Facebook.  Might actually get around to finishing 'House of Leaves' (Yeah right) or 'Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters (which is even less likely).

Nothing too exciting to say yet.  Oh, except I'm getting a haircut tomorrow so this will be the last day in a long time where I'll have long hair.  Whoopee!

Items Packed: The travel diary I got on the trip to Rome, a slipper which I think I accidentally kicked into the suitcase.