Study, Study, Study...

yes, that is what my life has become...and I'm LOVING (almost) every minute of it :) Call me a nerd if you want, but I'm really enjoying my class at SPU so far. However, there are a few downsides to being consumed by my studies: lack of time to update this blog (haha), lack of interesting things to post to this blog! (no time for them!), and finally, the fact that you are currently calling me a nerd. All of that being said, I have a new blog. It won't be of interest to most of you, as it is simply the place where I will be posting my reflections and assignments about teaching styles and methods taught in my classes. But I do enjoy feedback and opinions - especially if any of you out there are teachers! Here it is: http://chelsearoseh.wordpress.com/

Btw, I WILL be keeping this blog...as I mentioned, it is under reconstruction, as it has become mainly for personal use, as I am no longer out of the country (this blog originated for my updates from a faraway land). Keep checking back...I have many pictures w/life updates to post one of these days! Until then, to all you fellow nerds out there - may your pencils always stay sharpened, your post-it flags colorful, and your Starbucks cups full ;)

Under Reconstruction

It's been a while since I wrote and I'd like to come back to it...just give me a while to figure out which direction I'm headed in......! I'm also starting a new blog for my academic work at SPU, that url to come any day now.

The Year of 24

It's been a bit of a while since I've written....hah.....so I've got quite a few updates for you -

1). I turned 24.....I can't believe it, I'm an old lady :S Lucia flew in from Venezuela and Rafa drove up from California to spend a few days with me. We went camping at Salt Creek and hung out in Sequim for a few days. It was a lot of fun to see them again and just relax and hang out.....Camping was a bit of an adventure as it turned out that I was the most experienced of the 3 of us, but we did a lot of experimenting and laughing and exploring. Honestly, my year of being 23 has been the worst in my life thus far, so I'm hoping and anticipating better things for the year of "24". It got off to an interesting and mildly murky, albeit entertaining start - but I am hoping for good things to come in this next saga of life as a 24 year old.

2). Next week will be my last week at Chase....woooohooo. As many of you know, it has NOT been my favorite job. Although I do like most of the people I work with now, I got off to a rough start at the job and have definitely come to realize that banking is not my cup of tea. However, at the start of this job I committed to myself, and to the company, that I would put in at least a year of my time...and now I'm quitting just one week short of my start date last year - a pretty well-kept commitment, if I do say so myself :)

3). I'm going to grad school at Seattle Pacific University....starting a month from today!!!!!!!!!! I will be pursuing my Master's in Teaching through a 2-year evening class program. I don't think I could possibly be more excited. I may be a little bit behind in finding my career path than most of the people I graduated with, but I just like to think that I was very thorough in making my life decision of a career ;) Also I wouldn't have given up my year in Venezuela for anything, and this year in Lynnwood has definitely served to teach me some lessons and test me in ways I had never imagined. All that to say, I'm a huge nerd and I'm so excited to go back to school - and hopefully this time, end up with a degree that is actually useful! (oh poly sci....you were not so good to me)

4). I'm moving back to Sequim. WHAT? Yes. I'm doing it. Aren't you scared? Well yes, I'm terrified, thanks for asking :) I am moving back to my hometown after 6 years of living on my own. I'm moving in with my Grandma Jean - one of the funniest and sweetest little ladies that I know. She has a spare bedroom with my name on it and she will make for some great company - and will be, BY FAR, the cleanest roommate I've ever had! How will I get to school, you ask? I will be commuting....yes, commuting - it sounds so grown up doesn't it? It may sound crazy but as plans for grad school have progressed and wages/job availability/cost of living has been assessed the price of living with Grandma and commuting far undercuts the cost of living alone in Seattle (not to mention the emotional benefits of living with someone you love and being in a happy, green, beautiful place!). This brings me to the next big thing.....

5). I bought a car today. What's that you say? YES, I bought a car today. The best part? Through the incredible generosity of my Grandmother and wonderfully supportive parents, and after doing careful searching for just the right car, in just the right price range - I've found it (well, "her"). After driving the car that I purchased when I was 16 years of age (my 1993 Mazda Protege) I am moving up in the world and just purchased a 2008 Hyundai Elantra. It gets great gas mileage, is very reliable, and will be a great commuter car. It's dark blue and has all kinds of fun compartments and ipod hookups and whatnot inside. Power windows and locks (something I've never had!) and, here's the best part, won't break down every couple months!!!!!!!

Alright, so there's the update on my life....I'm going to attach about a million pictures now at the bottom here for your viewing enjoyment.....I'd love to hear what's going on with all of you! Love and Light, Chelsea Rose

Luly and I definitely enjoyed walking out to the tidepools.....Rafa, kept a safe distance from all scary sea-life.
At Salt Creek/Tongue Point there are WWII bunkers
Camping is fun....and sometimes scary.....
Lucia scared the heck out of me by decorating my living room with streamers, balloons and a Feliz Cumpleanos sign for my birthday!!!!!

Sometimes you'd think they're brother and seester
A very important part of camping is sitting...
where did that muppet head come from??

I found a secret passageway!
Firemaking is an important responsibility in camping....




Luly is the best arepa maker!
We decided to make Venezuelan food for my familia - shredding leeks (ajo porro) for Carne Mechada
Homer Depot - Luly's American bf!

Carrie Blake Park
My new car!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hurricane Ridge Road
Up on Hurricane Ridge Road

My Happy Place

Awww beautiful Sequim. I took a long weekend (that felt way too short) last weekend and headed "home" to visit my


parents in my hometown. Amazingly enough, somehow over the past year of living in Lynnwood surrounded by freeways and dirty city buildings I've come to embrace my inner nature girl.. I know! Where the heck did that come from? Well anyway, my jaunt to Sequim was made enjoyable by quality time spent with my family and the serene atmosphere of the little town. I've come to jokingly refer to Sequim as "my happy place" which is ironic if you knew me in high school because I made a beeline out of there as soon as I was able - but now, Sequim has become a port in the storm. Over the past year, the worst of my life, Sequim (due mostly in part to my supportive family) has become a refuge for me, and I was so thankful to get to spend a couple of days there. Outings included breakfast with Grandma at the local Oak Table Cafe (the best breakfast place in the world), long walks with Dad, early Father's day gift-giving, visiting Mom at work and getting pizza at Costco (you laugh, but it's the best pizza), and a day at the lake with Mom. Lake Crescent is about 40 minutes outside of Sequim and is one of the calmest and most beautiful places I've been in my 23 years.

P.S. Yes, I am one goofball in a family full of goofballs, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

TracyShadle

My roommate is getting married and we threw her a bridal shower last weekend! Here's a few pics.....we're so excited for the future Mrs. Tracy Shadle
Practicing her new wifely skills: baking a cake from scratch.
Snacks!
Being veiled.
friends


Presents!

Ethnic?

Conversation I had with a customer the other day....

Customer: "Well those earrings are....interesting"

Me: "Thanks! I really like them, I got them when I was in Venezuela."

Customer: "Oh, yeah.....they look....ethnic."

Conversation I had with my neighbor (the one that once asked me if I could fit in my trunk) the other day...

Him: "Oh? That's your truck?"

Me: "Well, it's my dad's, I'm just driving it for now while my car is getting fixed."

Him: "I saw that your car wasn't here last night, even late last night, so I thought you were out of town for the weekend"

Me: "Um, nope...."

Why is he monitoring my car late at night?!?!?!?!

In case you didn't already know...

So this post has been a long time coming, but I wanted to let you all know that I've been accepted to and made my final decision to attend.....*drumroll* SEATTLE PACIFIC UNIVERSITY (SPU) to get my Masters in Teaching this fall. So that is mostly where all my time and energy has been lately, first applying to, interviewing at, and getting accepted to the program and currently sorting out financial aid information and working on a plan for finding a new job and apartment in September. For my interview at SPU I was asked to give an example of my teaching skills by preparing and presenting a short lesson plan. I chose to teach on 3 of the unique consonant sounds in the Spanish language. It was nerve-wracking, but clearly went well...! Thus I've documented a picture of my first ever lesson plan here for posterity's sake.
Recently I've discovered somewhat close to my house a cute little beach that has become a comforting spot for me, I love to have quiet times there and read my Bible or a good book. Although I was there this morning and had a heart breaking moment in which a couple walked by with their black lab named Jake. For those of you who don't know our family dog's (half lab, half retriever) was named Jake and my beautiful dog passed away the day I returned to the states last July.

What else? A couple weeks ago I was sent downtown with all the other WAMU pee-ons to Chase training in the WaMu tower downtown. The class was insanely boring, of course, but the view was incredible! I was up on the 29th floor, looking down into people apartments, watching dogs pee on balconies and monitoring the ebb and flow of the tide...all the while learning all the important things Chase needs me to know ;)

What would YOU save in a fire?

Ahh, peaceful, tranquil Sunday morning...no work, no worries.....interrupted by a fire alarm! Fortunately I was already awake, as my body is preprogrammed to awaken at the same precise moment every day. I had just turned on the fan in our living room when I was greeted with a piercing sound that ousted the last cobwebs of sleep from my body. However, as you might know, for some of us it takes awhile in the morning before our brains fully function - I was thought that somehow the fan had triggered something in the speaker for the TV and it was having a bad electrical reaction - causing the shrieking sound. After a moment of pondering this, I realized that indeed that was ridiculous and instead turned for the smoke alarm. Tracy is a heavy sleeper and sleeps with earplugs and I contemplated waking her (on the off chance there actually was an emergency)...however, the piercing noise wound its way past the earplugs and she came confusedly out of her room to meet me under the smoke alarm. I attempted the push the button (it said "push here and hold". This proceeded to add an extra aggravated noise to the already deafening one and did nothing to solve the problem. We stared at each other in confusion for a few moments before realizing that you really do learn something in elementary school - smoke alarm, fire drill means go outside. Now I, as I imagine many of you have, have thought about or played that game where you can only choose one thing to take with you in an emergency - or if your house was on fire. Tracy and I both randomly grabbed things and stumbled out the door....into the dull gray morning, to finally meet our neighbors - in pajamas! We all stood around in confusion grumbling and muttering to each other. Now the important part - what did we grab on the way out of the house? I grabbed a sweatshirt and my phone. Tracy grabbed the security phone number, keys, and her bible. What a holy roommate I have!! I proceeded to call the security people, who told me there was no one on duty (helpful!!). Finally another neighbor called the fire department who did indeed show up on the big red truck in the plastic yellow outfits with axes and hoses in hand. What excitement for a Sunday morning! The best part was meeting all the neighbors in their pajamas and watching a majority of them have a 6:30 A.M. cigarette in the back of someone's pickup....Needless to say, I don't foresee in any building BBQs forthcoming...but you never know.

P.S. The alarm went off because some kids broke the glass on the fire extinguisher. Tracy and I tried to start a mutiny to have them kicked out of the building by chanting and thumping her bible...ok, not really, but we contemplated it.

Washington Beaches and Inappropriate Happenings

Tuesday was my day off this week and I opted for a little God time and me-time and headed for my newfound favorite spot - the little beach by our house. Taking advantage of the sunshine I propped myself up against some driftwood and opened my bible.

Unfortunately the rest of the world also wanted to enjoy the warmth and beauty of the sunshine. As I read, a young couple walked up with their dog. The girl was walking as if on hot coals, I thought it seemed pretty odd, the guy threw sticks in the water for his dog to fetch, and seemed perfectly at ease. I pondered why she was walking so strangely, until they walked within earshot. She was talking and talking and talking about how Washington beaches are not really beaches (let me guess, she was from California?). They had too many rocks! and too cold! and too wet! and too sandy! (ok, maybe she didn't say that). She stood awkwardly while her boyfriend played with the dog. He kept saying, "calm down! sit down!" etc...but she was irate about the state of Washington beaches, they did not meet her standard. What I really enjoyed was the (obviously a native Washingtonian) boyfriend's utter disregard for her complaints while he jumped around with the dog. Maybe I'm more of a Washingtonian than I realized....

Earlier that day I treated myself to a pedicure at a local nail salon...the ladies who work there are all Chinese and don't speak much English, but they are very sweet and helpful. The lady that was doing my pedicure was wearing a dress...and, as you may know, to do a pedicure you kind of have to straddle the foot stool area. So yes, as you can imagine, I could see all the way up her dress.This brought me to adilemna - do I try and tell her? Do I attempt to bridge the language barrier for her sake? or is it more embarassing if I say something? Then I thought, well she had to know...she had to realize what was happening, if nothing else she would have felt a draft! I eventually came to the conclusion that she did, in fact, know what she was doing, and simply didn't care. After, she was in a salon full of women. Who knows...either way, it was an awkward moment for me, and needless to say I spent the rest of the time texting so as to avoid the awkwardness.

What an exciting life I lead....

Potato Peels

Back to the regularly scheduled programming of media reviews.......

I recently finished the book "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society". I give it a thumbs up! This novel consisted in a series of letters between a writer in England and group of people on the island of Guernsey. The group on Guernsey formed due to experiences with the war and became a literary society as a front to keep themselves out of trouble from the invading troops. Through these letters the story of life on Guernsey during the war is told. The characters are colorful and and entertaining. Underlying the whole thing is a love story, which eventually draws the story to a rather predictable close. All in all the front of the story is light hearted amidst telling some painful and some comical realities of wartime on the island.

The Jane Austen Literary Society - (movie) - This was an enjoyable film, although a little depressing at times. I found the main female lead a little bit aggravating in her naivete towards the male lead's obvious attraction to her. It was a little unbelievable, however the witty interaction between the characters discussing the novels of Jane Austen was enjoyable, and did inspire me to re-read some Austen classics...no, I haven't started yet. There are far too many novels on my "to-be-read" list.

Dead Poets Society - ok, I realize this is an old movie, but I hadn't seen it before. It's SO SAD! and yet, inspiring. I must admit this happened to be one of the very few roles I've ever enjoyed Robin Williams in. Usually his performances tend to be crude and obnoxious, but in this he played an English professor who uses unconventional methods to teach his students a love of poetry. While some of the teen boys' behaviors were deplorable, watching an appreciation for fine arts such as drama and poetry blossom in them makes the movie worth watching. As a side note, Ethan Hawke is in this as a young boy, he is odd looking isn't he?

I'm currently reading The Story of Edgar Sawtelle - which so far seems to be a bit wordy and slow, although insightful into the life of a young mute boy on a farm in the 1940s (I think, not quite sure). I'm also reading "The Prodigal God" by Timothy Keller. It's basically a deeper look into the 2 sins of the different brothers in the story of the the prodigal son. I find myself identifying with both the elder-son and younger-son mentalities at different times. Praise the Lord for his GRACE!!

Ideas Needed!

Well, strike everything I just said. Ok, not everything, just a little. SPU is hosting a make-up interview on Tuesday April 28th, so THAT will be the big day.

Although, I know that it doesn't ACTUALLY matter if I get accepted to SPU, because, either way - I have a school to go to. I haven't decided which of them is my first choice. I really like how the program looks at CityU, but I'll have to learn more about the program at SPU before I make my decision. Then again, if I don't get accepted to SPU then the decision is made for me!

What do I need your help with? I have to give a "mini-lesson" to the interviers and fellow interviewees that shows my competence and countenance as a teacher. YIKES. So, basically I need something impressive that I can teach in a 5-10 minutes session. Anyone else have any great ideas? I shall be thinking about it for the next couple weeks, but welcome your input!

Side note: I'm a good speller, in fact, I may be a great speller. But I ALWAYS always ALWAYS have trouble telling the difference between when to use effect and when to use affect. I can tell the difference when I'm reading, but when I actually go to use them - I'm so confused! It has been explained to me, repeatedly and in a variety of ways, and yet, it does not compute in my head. On the WEST-E exam, there was a question about affect and effect.......I think I got it right, but really who knows?!

Por fin (finally)....*deep breath*

an update! Surprisingly enough, they took away our email (today is the first day without it) BUT we can access other sites (not facebook or twitter or gmail...but apparently blogging is ok). So I figured it's high time to give you, my few straggling followers, an update on my life, and perhaps, explain why I have been off the radar for the last couple months...

So....as you know, I've been applying to graduate school (to get my Master's in Teaching!). I took the WEST-B, the Washington Educators Skills Test - Basic, in February. I applied to City University of Seattle and Seattle Pacific University (also in February). In March, I had an interview with CityU and also studied for and took the WEST-E exam (Washington State Educators Skills Test - Endorsement) last weekend. I breathed a sigh of relief, believing that I would have a brief respite from all the stress, application filling-out, interviewing, studying, etc...

I was wrong. Yesterday I got an email from CityU saying that I needed to accept my spot (oh yeah, btw, I got accepted to CityU on the spot at my interview!!) by APRIL 13th. WHAT?!?! I won't even know whether or not I am accepted to SPU by then :S

Then I got home yesterday and there was mail from SPU. Mail stating that they are putting on group interviews for my program on Saturday April 25th.. SATURDAY. Now some of you may not know, but a huge part of all the struggles over dates I've had have been about Saturdays (because WaMu is open on Saturday, but of course, all the tellers want it off). I could not believe my misfortune. I fought and fought and fought to get the Saturdays off to take my exams, and also took a couple vacation days to go see my family before Easter (which includes a Saturday). I've pretty much used up all my Saturdays for the rest of my WaMu career. So.........getting that Saturday off for the interview is a no, non-negotiable. PROBLEM.

That is where I'm at currently, I plan to call SPU today and see if they will grant me another opportunity to come in for an interview. eek! At the interview for CityU they asked me a bunch of questions, of course, but they also made me explain what I would do in various disciplinary situations within the classroom, etc. Then, I had to do a spontaneous writing sample about an educational article. I survived, but it was tough! For SPU, I have to prepare a mini-lesson plan and TEACH IT to my interviewers. SCARY! Well, that is, if they even let me interview.....pray for that!

So, there you have it folks. Absolutely nothing INTERESTING, but a whole heck of a lot of frustrating.

On a positive note, I'm loving the fact that it is still light outside when I get off of work....LOVING IT. Even though I have nothing to do in the evening, it's still great to actually SEE the sun!

Picture Highlights

I promised that I would put pics up eventually....