¡Adios España!

Well the Spain portion of our trip has come and gone. Jonathan and I arrived in Florence around 4 today for our week in Italy and, within an hour or two had already managed to eat lasagna, tortellini, tiramisu and 2 scoops of gelato. lol Spain started off interestingly when the guys at the passport check found something unknown in my passport they had apparently never seen which we decided took some major talent. We had some "jogging tours" of Madrid, Segovia, Sevilla, Grenada, Toledo, Valencia and Barcelona, but luckily had time in most places to wander off and see some things a little bit closer and longer as well. Jonathan and I often entertained ourselves by imitating/mocking some of our more annoying tour guides. Mostly it was references to our first local guide who would cut herself off in the middle of an explanation or story to tell us to look at something or another. lol Saw a lot of cool things and places, but have also seen plenty of things that we didn't have time to fully explore that I've put on my list of things to see when I find myself in Spain again sometime. I know there are a lot of funny stories from our tour, buuuut....I can't remember what they are right now. lol Anyway, like I said, the Italy branch of our trip starts today so I'm sure there will be plenty more. Today we even stumbled across the end of the Florence Gelato Festival during our wanderings after dinner! I'll try to do better about posting during this part of the trip, especially since we're making our own schedule now, but obviously with the unknown nature of our internet I can't make any promises beyond Florence.

Arrivederci,

Julianna

Keep Calm and Just Graduate

Today marked the ending of my college journey. For the last 4 years, Baylor has been my home away from home. I've probably even spent more time here than at home. lol

I've met friends I know will be a part of my life forever, people I couldn't imagine the last 4 years without, and some of the most important people in my life. I've grown as a person, learned a lot of life lessons, and created memories I'll keep and treasure forever. As I've said goodbye to the people that have been my Baylor family over the last week, I've started realizing how much I've depended on them. 

     My ADPi littles and grandlittles for all the fun and crazy movie and crafting nights, as well as the many heart to hearts and ridiculous memories we've created together. My other Baylor besties and all the late nights working on homework and such, ridiculous conversations and adventures and the way they've been here to support me through any and everything. And of course there's Jamie, who has done all those things and more. You've got to love God's timing and sense of humor sometimes, and the way it can introduce people and make them cross paths in some VERY interesting ways.

I feel like I should be sad to be leaving Baylor, and in some ways I am, like the fact that I know I won't see these people everyday starting in August as usual. Maybe it will really hit me then, but right now I can't help feeling that, even though I'll be gone from the day in-day out of the Baylor bubble, I'll be back around often enough that it won't be so bad. At the same time though, I'm excited to see where I end up next...even as scary and frustrating as it is not to have any idea where that will be or what I'll be doing. I can't help feeling like something incredible will fall into my lap at any moment. 

Anyway, just a few random thoughts to wrap this Baylor journey up. Leaving for Spain followed by Italy and NEW European adventures in a mere 5 days. Lots more stories to come in the very near future. Hopefully by the time I get back or shortly thereafter I'll know what my next journey is going to be! 

"Here I go, and there's no turning back. My great adventure has begun. I may be small, but I've got giant plans to shine as brightly as the sun!"

 Sic 'em Bears,

Julianna

In the land of dresses....

Sooo......newest adventure? INTERNSHIP!!

I'll be interning this summer at Terry Costa with one of my friends from school (and adopted family member for the summer) Ryan. :) We had orientation last night but have yet to meet our two fellow interns. During orientation we were introduced to several of the members of the management team as well as the CEO who took us out to dinner. Our first real day of work is tomorrow so we're using today to run a few errands and make accomplishments.

We don't have any good stories yet, but we have been given some rather interesting nicknames...Ryan was dubbed "ferret brain" after getting distracted by a sparkly dress during our tour of the store and one of our intern coordinators has dubbed me "not Ashley". lol There's a long story there but here's the basic conversation that led there...

her: "so what's your name?"

me: "julianna"

her: "where are you from?"

me: "mesquite"

her: "what school?"

me: "baylor"

her: "ok so you're ashley."

me: "julianna"

her: (turning to ryan) "are you ashley?"

ryan: "no...i'm ryan."

her: "where'd I get ashley from?"

us: "no idea..."

introducing us to the next person....

her: " this is ryan and julianna, not ashley." (this introduction happened several times...thus giving me my new name for the summer: not ashley.) lol

New Adventures

So the semester has started....and I have a lovely new little diamond sister who is absolutely adorable. :) Seriously, she's precious. Classes have started and I don't think they'll be too terrible, even Finance doesn't suck so far! Most excitingly, I'm in beginning ballet for kicks and giggles this semester. We haven't learned very much in the way of actually dancing so far, but I'm loving it. Maybe it'll help with my clumsiness, though I highly doubt it. I think that's one thing that's incurable. Sing is going well, the dances are really fun and I'm sooo excited about our costumes! Anyways, gotta go soon to get to sing practice.

Ciao,

Julianna

Sisters, Sisters

Well after a significant amount of effort on my part to redo the bad work submitted to me by one of my marketing group members (for our project installation due TOMORROW I might add), part 4 is now complete. One more part, some edits, updates and revisions and a presentation and we'll be finished with the project and semester. Only one more month and the semester will be over! Yay!!

Things are kind of crazy this week since we have fall parties this weekend, but then we'll get a little bit of a break until January. This week is Sisterhood Week, and is definitely a reminder of all the wonderful ladies that have been put into my life through ADPi and how lost I would have been without them in my life the last 2 years. I'm sooo excited to get to spend a little bit of time with Kristen and Brittany this weekend during Silence.

Advising last week definitely put a few holes in my very thought out plan for the rest of my college career, so I'm still trying to figure out my classes for the next 3 semesters, as well as what I want to do about my minor. I'm still trying to figure out if getting it will be worth killing myself the next 3 semesters in the long run. We shall see.

<> love,

Julianna

"Sisters, Sisters, never were there such devoted sisters."

Homecoming

Well, Homecoming has come and gone and I must say, it was an unusual one. First, we missed most of the bonfire due to the Rangers game. Disappointing....but apparently for the best since the fire started burning really fast and they had to scoot everyone back and evacuate the rides and such. I didn't get to watch the parade since...well I was in it instead. The game was eventful...and wet. Rain delays...sudden downpours...it was interesting. But on the bright side we are now BOWL BOUND.

Float hours are over so I actually have some free time...for a couple of months anyways. I think classes are going to try to make up for it though. We shall see.

Happy Homecoming,

Julianna

Time flies

Well....my time in London is coming to an end. Sorry I haven't kept up very well recently.

The Lake District was fun, we did some hiking, it definitely looked nothing like England but was gorgeous. Brittany and I had alot of fun and ran nonstop from the time I got back until the time she had to be back at the train station to leave. lol And yet, we still didn't manage to accomplish at least half of the things on our list. Unfortunate. Paris was great. I saw so much in the 2 short days we were there!

Today was our last field trip and at this time next Tuesday I'll be on a plane headed home. The time went by slowly and yet quickly at the same time. I'll miss Europe and I'm sad I haven't managed to do and see everything I wanted to, but I'm not too worried because I know I'll be back one day. As crazy as it sounds, I'm ready for the 100 degree weather of Texas. This just hasn't seemed like summer. I'm doing my last minute things and seeing what I can and the things I know might not be here whenever I get around to coming back.

Yesterday I went to the British Museum and saw the Rosetta Stone and a bunch of the other stuff they have there. I went originally on a mission to take my extra credit picture and see the Rosetta Stone, but I made the mistake of starting to wander so I got tired and came back and napped instead of going anywhere else. Today after our field trip I went to the National Gallery to do another extra credit assignment and the National Portrait Gallery to see the portrait of Jane Austen they have there. After that I just wandered around in some souvenir shops and second hand bookstores then came back and worked on a bit of homework until dinner, and now I'm working at it some more for the rest of the night probably.

Tomorrow I'm not really sure what's going to be on my agenda yet. I'll figure that out either later or in the morning. lol

Julianna