Everywhere Holidays

Happy Thanksgiving Too! Have a good dinner on Sunday Nikole. You could totally do smoke jumping. It's a bit dangerous because they just drop you in the middle of a forest where a fire is coming, and you have to be in good shape, but definitely worth the training (for a skydiver it's no problem :) Careful on the ice! The field was so icy in our second-to-last game that everyone was "skating" on their cleats. There isn't much snow here in IL, but at home and Ithaca there is. It was good to see you at break El. The only thing we're missing for the holiday is our Nikole. Love you both. xxoo

vi här snö nu!!!

Hey girls! im sorry i havent written in a while. translation of title: we have snow now! i guess its going away again, but for the past week its been nice! we have a big hill up to my school, and on the way home everyone was sliding down it. i almost fell today...my shoes were flat on the bottom so i was going soooo fast haha. okay so, i hope you both got my postcards :) and also HAPPY EARLY THANKSGIVING! i miss that holiday, but my grandma sent me her recipes that she usually does for thanksgiving and so im going to cook for everyone. lena and jonas are really good at cooking and they are doing it with me. i think were gunna have 9 people here! and its not on the realy thanksgiving, but the sunday after. good job in soccer shannon! but thats too bad about the last game. let me know when the games start for winter (or is it just straight up practice?). ooh elenor! where did you meet chinese women? let me kno how they like good ol alcona. theres a girl and two boys in my exchange program from china! they are really nice. maybe you could talk to them sometime since you are learning the language, i think they would love it. and shazza, how is school going? thats cool that you got a 'little.' thats going to be a great experience! i am going to look into the peace corps thing. oh, and i dont think ive told you but i was thinking about becoming a smoke jumper..the summer after next (2010). i remember your mom (shan) talking about it once...and it involves parachuting...but yea i have to look up and its prolly really hard to get a job. well anyway, i have like 3 weeks left of school and then CHRISTMAS!! wahooo. i will talk to you guys later. love love love love love you.

xxoo Snow!

Love the snow! it mostly melted last night but it was very pretty. It makes me remember our ski trips....I love the pictures nikole, and karaoka...(we really need to learn how to spell that) sounds like so much fun! I got your postcard just before they harshly locked the dorms for break. And I'm curious too: did you sing in Swedish/Finnish? Sorry about the break-up El; that it was messy. But you are taking a Chinese woman home with you for break? Awesome! Thanks for following soccer. You and my dad can watch the live stats on line together next season : ) I know we play co-ed indoor a couple times a week through the winter, and individually need to stay in shape. not sure when that starts though, or the specifics. In the spring we practice with Coach and go to a couple tournaments just to stay in game-mode. Before break a few of us had dinner at one of our goalie's houses. She played us some guitar after dinner, and sang a couple of songs she wrote. It made me really miss singing and playing music...definitely will pick that up more now that there's less soccer. Though we lost sunday, we played pretty well. Williams is the #1 ranked in the country, I think. They didn't have more talent than us or anything straight-forward like that, they just played as a team better: connected, moved off the ball...better than we did. Bummer, but what can you do? There were some really close-calls the first 20 min. or so of the game, and we were lucky it wasn't 4 or 5 to 0, though we had some good opportunities second half. It was frigid and snowy on saturday, and the field was like an ice-rink for that game, everyone was slipping everywhere because the ground was so frozen. We moved to a different field on Sunday. (p.s. did I tell you that Coach Quigg is lesbian and has a partner that comes to some of our games? Just realized you might not know that).
I'm at my cousin's right now, and we're leaving today around 3 or so. They are going to Illinois, and Dad is going to pick me up (at the Hampton Inn where we're staying tonight) on wed morning. I think Drew will be coming too (my cousin; he's been hunting at your dad's camp, Nikole -- and hanging out with ryan and eric.) I'll be home until friday, when my mom and caitlin, maybe leezanne, and I are going to IL to see my grandpa Pete and my grandparents Nisbet, and I'll head back with Mark and Stephanie to Ithaca on Sat or Sun. That's my break.
I'm sorry this is so long, but just a couple more things: They have a "Little" for me for Big Bros. Big Sis! Her name is Tanisha and she is 11. BBBS will call me this week sometime with more info. Also; Peace corps is usually 27 months with three of those as training. Some people do take extensions; You work on all sorts of projects, sometimes related to your field, sometimes not. Like the guy at the info session was a history major, and helped breed pigs, set up bee hives, and build a bridge. But, some people do use those two years to complete grad school, and they'll often defer or reduce student loans as well. they have a website if you want to check it out. some people have been as young as 18 and as old as 80, some people serve as a couple. Health, education, and agriculture are the main fields they help in. Definitely check it out!
I'm going to end this novel now. Love you two. I know what I'm thankful for this Thanksgiving.

I Love Ithaca

Hey, Shan, I'm sorry about the game yesterday... but it sounds like you did a really good job against a scary team!  Did you guys play well?  Is there any post-season stuff going on, or are you through for the year?  Any plans for winter sports?  Do you have snow yet?  There's lots of snow here, but it never stays for very long.  It's actually snowing right now, really pretty.  We have Christmas lights up in our room, and that plus the snow makes it seem like Christmas already.  

I'm taking some Chinese women home for Thanksgiving!  I can't remember if I told you that already... oh well.  They're pretty excited for all the American holiday stuff, and they really want to try venison and see everybody going shopping on Black Friday.  My dad is going to light the sauna... I don't know if they have saunas in China... hmm... that could be interesting.  

Love you guys

Hellos and Silly Things

Shannon!! Playoffs are so exciting! Congratulations on going to the sectional semis! It just says the 21 or 22... which day is it?  Can I watch it anywhere?  So cool... and so is the Peace Corps! Do you know what you'd be doing?  Like, could you use your major to help, or would you build houses and things?  And I am very jealous of the cookies... :)  We were so darn cute when we were girl scouts... remember when we put on some play with a genie and a prince and Jenny Pruit got mad at Kayt and it all got way out of hand?  'Cause I do... and Nikole remembers Girl Scout camp!  Ahahahaha!  Good times.  And singing karaoke on a Finnish boat sounds wonderful.  Was it in English, or can you sing in Swedish/Finnish now?

There isn't much news here... I went to a talk by a woman whose transgendered daughter was murdered.  She wasn't that great of a speaker, but the message was very good.  Gwen was killed when she was only 17, because some guys decided she was "really" a man, and should act like it.  So sad... but it brought a lot of attention to the issue of hate crimes against transgendered people, so something good came out of it.

I also went through a nice messy breakup with Adam, so Elenora is now single!  Hooray...  I'm not happy it's over, but... *sigh*... I guess it was time.  

And here are some funny things!  

Stuff

Ooooh shannon! tell me about the peace corps! i dont know much about it but i was thinking about joining one day. as for me, theres not much new going on. i went to finland last week on this giant boat, which was pretty sweet. and i sung kareoke (sp?) and you would both be proud haha. i figured i could since i didnt kno anyone on the boat and it was unlikely anyone from harrisville would be there to laugh at me lol. right now im just getting distracted, because i am supposed to be doing homework!!! ahhhhh. love you guys. and i added some random pictures...halloween and friends...

Peace Corps

Hi. Besides the big game tomorrow (NCAA playoffs: http://www.ncaa.com/sports/w-soccer/spec-rel/bracket_dIII_soccer_women.html this is an "interactive bracket" to check out if you have a few) and Thanksgiving coming up, the big event this week was going to an info session about the Peace Corps. Ithaca's recruiter came and gave a short presentation....and now I can't wait until the end of college when it's possible to do things like that! I really want to volunteer for the peace corps....
Shannon
P.S. Girl scouts are selling cookies around campus, and I can't help thinking of you two when I see the brownies and cadets in sashes with their badges.

Sweet costume El! I'm glad you had a great Halloween. Nikole, I sent you an email update on uncle andy, El: I didn't send yours because I'm not sure if I have your right email or not...maybe you could post it? That's about it. It's 6:53 and I need to register for classes at 7:00 when the network opens and hopefully I can get my classes on the first try. Had a nice talk with Ben B. yesterday: he's at culinary school in Hyde Park, NY (just north of Poughkeepsie), about four hours south-east of me. His number is: (989) 884-1767 cell phone or (845) 483-2870 in his room (he's in a single, so I think it gets kind of lonely). That's about it for now....talk to you all soon!

I are lazy, sorry.... <:D

Hey guys, glad to hear that nobody got TPd or egged or anything.  I dressed up (of course) and watched Rocky Horror Picture Show, but that was about it.  Here are pics:

This was my costume.  I don't know what it was, other than sort of creepy. :)

This was everybody else.  The guy in the suit was "Evil Alternate Universe Carl Levin, running for Evil Alternative Universe Senate." Don't ask me why.  Other than the mad scientist and the princess, everybody else was a character from a graphic novel.  Hmmm... It cut off half the picture... if you click the edit icon, you can see the whole thing if you want. 

I am so excited for tomorrow and election day! We are having a party at which everyone is going to dress up as a political figure.  I called Barack. :)  I will definitely be up all night, and will check facebook regularly for chatting, if you guys would so desire.

I taught my first class on Halloween, and it went decently well.  They have ALOT of work to do, but they catch on very quickly and it was fun to teach them about Halloween and trick or treating and everything.  

I also got hit on by a creepy Indian man. (like from India, not Native American) So I spent a lot of Halloween trying to escape.  He kept trying to get me to come back to his apartment, or have me show him my dorm, and kept doing that awkward "I'm walking so close to you that my hand keeps 'accidentally' touching your butt" thing.  And he seemed to think that I would be teaching him English.  I don't know why.  So that was fun.

The Jazz concert sounds fantastic, Shan!  Are you still practicing piano?  You could be a jazz pianist and Kolson & I could come watch you!  If you aren't home for Thanksgiving, I'll call you and catch up.  

I love you both.

haha i'm the first person to write in november

hey! that jazz thing sounded awesome!!! i wish i could play an instrument. okay, so are you both excited to watch the elections? i wanna watch them so im gunna say up all night on tuesday and if you are, than we could maybe talk via facebook or something to keep each other awake. i dunno. but my news wont be as good as yours because 1, its in swedish, and 2, im only getting the old stuff lol. but yea, write me!