My room the way I slept in it the first night!
My dad and I woke up pretty early Thursday morning and got everything else moved into my room before anyone else was even awake! My room still wasn't complete, but it was definitely more put-together than before! We also spent a lot of time running errands to make sure I had everything I needed for my room (and food)! My room is finished now, but I don’t have a picture of it yet. I will take some pictures of my room and the whole house and post them in a separate blog…I promise I will! ;)
My room the second night...still no sheets, but much more put together! =)
Anyway, on Friday the 21st we set out for Conrad, which is about 3.5 hours northeast of Missoula. Our family farm is there (my mom's mom's parents', now owned by my grandma's brother), and my mom's cousin got married there the 22nd. She's only a few months older than I am (my grandma is the oldest of six kids, so my mom has a lot of young cousins!), and we are pretty close for growing up in different states. Our whole extended family (or the vast majority of it) was at the rehearsal dinner Friday night, which was SO fun! We hadn't all been together since the summer of 2007 when we had a 50th anniversary party for my grandparents. It was a really fun time! I love the farm, and I hadn't been there in quite a few years. I got to see a lot of family that I hadn't seen in awhile as well, so that was good. All in all, it was a great weekend!
I woke up Saturday morning and opened the door of our trailer to this; good morning farm!
I just had to show off my baby cousin, Jonah, here...he is the cutest (and fattest) baby EVER (he's only 9 weeks old here)! He fell asleep in my arms like this. I love him!!
Anna, the bride, and I. She's great!
Andy (the groom), Uncle Joe (the pastor), and Anna (the bride)
Sunday we packed up our trailer and made the drive back to Missoula. Raechel got to Missoula Sunday, which was relieving for me! My parents left Monday which was sad, but we were keeping busy here! Over the next few days, we basically ran errands to finish putting our rooms together. Also, on Tuesday I went to the DMV and got my Montana driver’s license and license plates! I spent $300 doing it, which is slightly outrageous, but I am now an official Montana resident!
My license! It's blurry because they have a really weird coating over the surface, but you get the idea.
License plates on the Matrix! I just took this picture, so it was dark outside. Sorry ;)
On Wednesday, Raechel and I had to go to our University of Montana new student orientation. It was basically a bunch of freshmen all excited to be in the dorms and away from their parents…we were so miserable!! We only went to the transfer student meeting and then to our advising appointments, which were on Thursday. My appointment was pretty smooth sailing; I only need two classes in order to apply for pharmacy school in February, and one of them is only offered in the fall. Easy decision! So I enrolled that Thursday in Cellular and Molecular Biology.
Then Friday Bryan arrived! That was the greatest day. =) He got here at about 9:00 pm, so we didn’t do much Friday night since he was so exhausted from the drive! We just unloaded what he had brought with him, then set off to the dreaded Walmart Super Center to get breakfast items for Saturday morning. (We now dread Walmart because in our first weeks of being here we literally went there every day for something. It's cheap, but it's also exhausting!!) Bryan wanted to make me breakfast since it was my birthday! Since all I like for breakfast are hashbrowns, he made (per my request) hashbrowns with bacon and cheese all mixed together. Fantastic! On my birthday, we decided to not do too much, but to have a relaxing day. We slept late, then Bryan made the aforementioned breakfast. I think it was at about noon that we decided to do something with our lives, so we got ready and drove around town to show Bryan around. We went to the mall, which was of course great! Raechel bought me a Victoria’s Secret Pink sweatshirt for my birthday, how nice. =) I also opened the gifts that Bryan had brought from our families, (which were ALL unnecessary since they had already given me some, but I of course appreciated them). Nevertheless, I got some wonderful gifts, one of which is a Verizon phone from Bryan! We can now talk as much as we want for free; great for me, but I don’t know what he was thinking! LOL. Poor guy. Anyway, we then got ready for dinner! Bryan took me to The Keep, which is a really neat restaurant up in a neighborhood called Mansion Heights (which IS as ritzy as it sounds!). The view from there is fantastic, and we dined all through the sunset.
"The Keep"
It was really perfect! Even though I was away from home, it was a great 20th birthday. I’m no longer a teenager! Which is relieving to Bryan because he no longer has to say that he is engaged to a 19 year old, HAHA! But I digress…on Sunday, we all decided to hike to the “M,” which is a 40’ tall whitewashed concrete letter on the side of Mount Sentinel. Montana has this weird thing about putting one of those letters on a ton of mountains! I think they’re for every city or something. There is a mountain right next to our house (literally!) that is called Mount Jumbo, and it has an “L” on it. As far as I can tell, the “M” stands for Missoula, and the “L” for Lolo, a suburb of Missoula. ANYWAY, there is a trail that goes to the “M,” which has a great view of the city. So, we hiked it. I can’t say much for myself though…Bryan helped me up a little bit. =) It was really fun though, and it was a beautiful day! A little too hot for the hike, but we made it. Then I’m pretty sure I spent the rest of Sunday being depressed about the fact that Bryan was leaving Monday…and that I was starting school Monday!
Bryan and I at the "M," with Missoula in the background!
So, you guessed it; Monday morning (August 31st), I set out for my class at about 8:40, knowing that I would have to say goodbye to Bryan when I got back. I was a bit distracted though, and here’s why. The University of Montana has a horrible parking situation…they sell 4,000 parking permits for 2,000 parking spaces. Knowing this, I opted out of purchasing a parking permit at all. They have a pretty extensive Park-N-Ride system, so I decided to try my hand at it. I suppose the first day of school they were still ironing out some kinks, but I didn’t figure that out soon enough! I left late enough to catch the late shuttle, which on a regular morning would put me at my class right on time. Unfortunately, the shuttles were running a bit late. I was waiting until 9:00 AM, but then I couldn’t wait any longer! My class started at 9:10 AM, so I was forced to set out toward the University on foot! Besides being horribly tired, sweaty (from power walking for 20 minutes), and ten minutes late, my first class went fine! Whitney, one of my roommates, and two of her friends from volleyball are in my class, so it is nice to know some people! Well, I inevitably had to come back home to say goodbye to Bryan. He came to pick me up for the University because he wanted to get on the road ASAP, and didn’t want to wait for the Park-N-Ride to bring me back. Of course I cried and cried when we got back to the house, but I’m a girl, what can you expect?? Bryan had to leave right away, so we couldn’t drag out a teary goodbye. I composed myself pretty well right after he left, I’m not usually one to cry unless I’m saying goodbye or something is reminding me of him. I dedicated the next few days to getting ahead on my homework (because I had nothing else to be doing!) and applying for jobs. Which I still haven’t had any luck with!! So frustrating.
Awesome storm clouds from one of our recently frequent thunder/lightning storms
Bryan and I enjoying the storm
Anyway, not much else happened that week except adjusting to being in school again! Then, on Friday the 4th, Raechel’s parents arrived for a visit. They weren’t able to come up with her when she moved due to an important appointment, so they came this last weekend! Even though they aren’t MY parents, it was still fun to have them in town! It made me a little less homesick. So on Friday night, we just went over to their hotel to say hello since they got into town pretty late. We hung out there for about an hour, and managed to get an official hotel noise complaint! Pretty hilarious since we were just chatting in the room and it was only 11:00! I guess they had some neighbors that liked their sleep. Saturday morning, Rae’s parents came over and saw our house for the first time! Then they took her shopping, while I spent the day watching TV. (Which, by the way, is how I spend 90% of my time anymore!!) On Saturday night, her parents took us out to dinner. Guess where? The Keep! It was fun to go again, and the sunset was completely amazing…again! After sunset, a thunder/lightning storm started (which happened every other night for probably a week), and it was really cool to see from up the mountain! After dinner, we went back to Rae’s parents’ hotel to go hot tubbing. It was really nice! Her parents left Sunday, which was sad, but we were excited to still have one more day of the weekend! Sunday I felt horribly sick, so I spent the bulk of the day on the couch. Raechel and I watched the entire first season of Grey’s Anatomy, which I haven’t watched any of yet besides the most recent season. It was great! We’re now desperate for the following seasons…does anyone want to lend them to us?? I’m sort of joking, sort of not. ;) On Monday, we pretty much just laid around again, and I made 9384092384 Biology notecards. Which, by the way, I hate! I had completely forgotten how much I hated Biology when I took it at OSU, and now I’m re-living the torture all over again! And of course it’s CELL Biology, which is really the worst kind. Sigh…at least it’s the only class I’m taking so I can fully concentrate on it!
I also decided recently to take the PCAT on October 17th. The PCAT is the Pharmacy College Admissions Test, and it is HORRIBLE! It is an eight hour long multiple choice test based on General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, and Biology. And anyone who knows me well knows that these are just my favorite subjects!! Anyway, the reason I bring it up is because today I received my study book from the UPS man, which is exciting because now I can start studying, but also unfortunate for that same reason!
I guess the only thing left to talk about are my employment issues. I haven’t been TOO worried while I’ve been here, because I knew I could get a job from the guy my dad knows on campus. Well today I went to meet with the department he got a job for me in (coincidentally that department was Payroll), only to find out that to be a student employee at the University you have to be a full time student. Well, since I am getting my residency, I can only be a part time student, so I got the shocking news today that I can’t have the job I thought I was guaranteed! I’m extremely stressed about work now; I am so broke and so up to my neck in expenses! So now I’m applying like mad to all sorts of jobs! Hopefully I will have something for sure within a week; I will be sure to keep everyone updated as I get more information on that! Well, I actually think I am 100% updated now. WOW!!! I miss everyone SO much, and I hope that I will get to see you guys soon!
P.S. The weather is finally cooling down here. The first few weeks of being here it was SO hot, and my house doesn't have air conditioning so we were miserable a lot of the time! It's been pretty cool (37 degrees in the morning on my way to class...) the last few days and I have actually been LOVING it! Anyway, I knew you would care SO much about that, so I figured I should throw it out there. ;)
