music & memories

So, I've been thinking about all the songs that remind me of different things that I've done or just old memories, and I thought I'd share a few.

Hide and Seek - Imogen Heap
I listened to this song a TON in India. I always listened to it when I went to sleep. I was feeling a bit lonely for the first while I was there and for some reason this song just made me feel better.
Steps In My Fade - Love You Long Time
Two summers ago (2009), Megan and I were EFY counselors in Taylorsville together. We carpooled to and from everyday. We wanted to learn this whole song by the end of the week... and I'm pretty sure we did it much sooner. We listened to it most of the way there and back and sang along. It was so fun! It made us so freaking hyper, which was good. Cause EFY counselors are supposed to be crazy.
Mr. Right - A Rocket To The Moon
Reminds me of this summer. The music video makes it way better though, because the singer is oddly attractive. It also reminds me of Aleisha cause she was also in love with it and we talked about how attractive the singer is. I would get home from playing and doing summer frolicks and I'd go down in my room and blog and photoshop and facebook chat and listen to this song until wee hours of the night.
Counting Your Worries - The Continentals
One of my all time favorite songs. My band in high school, TeliFone Pole, was me, Erica, and Megan. Megan dated Erik for a while, who was also a drummer. He went through various bands and ended with this one; the best one. We all (all of our other band friends including Bradley, Trevor, Adam, Peter, and Josh) played shows together, went to each other's shows, and had open mics. I remember going The Continentals basement show at some rich house in Sojo. It was after our first pie party. Me, Erica, Megan, and Peter. They played this song in their set. I don't even know how to explain the feeling, but I seriously love this song so much. So everytime I listen to it I think of high school and all of my music friends and how we went to shows 3 times a week during the summer.
Red Lights and White Lines - Between The Trees
This song reminds me of two things. First: driving. In high school I loved it and I always listened to it while driving. Second: Warped Tour with Megan. This is kind of random because we didn't see them at Warped Tour. They were on the schedule and we looked at what time they were playing and were planning on seeing them, but somehow we missed it. Either we forgot or we just lost track of time, I can't remember. But we were both really bummed.

now that i'm here

So...
I decided to make a video of a song I wrote in high school.
It's called "Now That I'm Here".
So, check it out if you please!

Thanksgivin!

Awww man. Thanksgiving break was epic!
Um, jk, I hate that word.
It was just really, really good.
Here are some of the highlights:

Shooting with Father

Jazz game with Father. Best Jazz game ever. We beat the Lakers.

HP with Carlee and Lindsay. Definitely the best one. The only problem,
the guy next to me kept belching.
It was nasto.
And a baby in front of us kept whining...

Wrestling with Andrew. Mom made us stop, but it was really fun.
He shows no mercy.

Cafe Rio twice in one day. Thank you Mom and Dad.

Showing Andrew and Dad the Gay Lobbyist video. Andrew had to get up and leave the room he was laughing so hard.

Jazz

On Friday night, we started our quest to see the Jazz win. This quest failed, however, because they lost. We included Brucey, Liz, Lizzie, Matt, Andrew, and me. I drove down to Matt's house with him and Bruce. Our car ride was quite the party. Liz, Lizzie, and Andrew drove together, which probably sucked. So we got to Matt's house, said hello to his mother, and all crammed in his car. Traffic was pretty bad, so we finally got to The Gateway parking like 20 minutes before the game.

We had a feast at Panda and ran to the ESA (some of us). Bruce, Lizzie, and I got in but I took all the tickets so Matt, Andrew, and Liz were stopped by the ticketman. Woops. Not to worry; we got it all resolved quickly. We got up to our seats but 4 people were in them. I told them they were our seats and they said, "Well, some people are in our seats." What the?! But Bruce and Lizzie had already moved up to sit in the row behind, so I just went with it. But at half time I told them to scoot and we got our seats. Not long after, we got some hookups and Andrew and I got to go sit on row 19 lower bowl. We were so close, I could see the freckles on Deron's face and the gum in Ronnie's mouth.

After the game we went to Dairy Queen and got some icecream. It was delightful. Some really weird things happened there, which are not for the telling.

Here's Brucey:

After ice cream, we said goodbye to Matt at his house and drove back to Logan. It was quite the car ride. Bruce, Lizzie, and I were in the back. We danced, massaged, talked about cuddling, and smacked knees. Holler.

Man Shoot

The Howl

Basically, the Howl was awesome. Let me tell you about it.

So, we (Liz, her brother, Carl, Sarah, Crystal, Lizzie, Andrew, Matt, and I) went to the basketball game dressed in our costumes. We kicked trash by more than 50 points.

After the game we went back to our apartments to get Matt's rubix cube costume that he had earlier decided against bringing. We walked up the hill and when we reached the top, we found a line. A freaking long one. So we got in it and waited.

After waiting approximately 30 minutes, everyone started running to the front of the line. Lizzie and I, being smart, joined in, leaving the rest of our group behind. We got in and found Dallin, Christian, Steve, and Tanner. We did some dancing and chips and salsa eating with Christian because we lost the other three. A half hour passed and we found our lovely group. Good thing, or I would've been devastated.

We went right to the field house to see The Higher. They were pretty awesome, I'd say. After their set, Lizzie and I went to get a picture with Seth, the singer. It took three tries, because Hot Rod sucked at taking pictures.

Then We The Kings came on. I hate them live. But, it was really fun. And I'll tell you why. For the first two songs people were moshing and really close and I could barely breath and I hated it. Then Lizzie and I started moshing and that's where things turned around. We were moshing for the whole hour We The Kings was on. We made 2 mosh friends, too. One guy in a diaper and one guy in a nice suit jacketless suit. They followed us everywhere. When a slow song was on and we were waiving our hands, they copied. When we had our arms around eachother, they put theirs around us. It was really nice bonding with strangers. As for our group, they didn't really join in the moshing, except for Matt. I'm pretty sure. I got an elbow to my jaw and a heel in my ankle, which made it even better.

When they finally ended with Check Yes, Juliet, we were gross and sweaty. Then we walked home. And took some pictures.

Runner Runner

On Friday, my roommate, Lizzie, and I went to see Runner Runner at the Logan Arthouse. We were pretty much the only college kids there. There were plenty of high school and middle schoolers. And even some little elementary schoolers with their moms. That's awkward.
We were almost in the front, except for this annoying couple that had their arms around each other the whole time while trying to jump up and down. And a little 10 year old girl who probably had her life made by this concert.
The band is really good live. I was quite impressed. And I haven't heard a song of theirs that I don't like. We got some sweet pics with them after the show.
Ryan the singer

Nick the guitarist

James the drummer

Jon the bassist

They gave us free tickets to see their show the next day in Ogden. So that's what we did. It was even better than the first show! While they were setting up we were behind some girls who were in the front. There were some girls next to and behind us that were quite large and quite scary. So we decided we didn't like our spot. We squeezed in front of some short girl on the other side of the stage. She was really mad and said, "Excuse me!" all mean like. But, I didn't care. We were in the very front! At the end, the drummer threw his drumsticks and I caught one! Yusss.

Little Peter the guitarist/Proud owner of a fedora

3/5 of Runner Runner

Runner Runner: Round 2

Major Jammage

Almost every single day for the past 2 weeks, my roommate, Lizzie, and I have been playing our guitars together. The few days that we don't, I go through jamming withdrawals. I forgot how much I loved it. I've even got my calluses back.

We've been learning 'The Best of Me (acoustic)' by The Starting Line and we've pretty much got that one down. It sounds pretty awesome.

We've also been making a medley. This medley consists of many songs including: California Gurls, Love Story, Baby, Bad Romance, Airplanes, Soul Sister, Kissin' You, and a few more. I'm really excited about it.

Other songs we've started learning or want to learn are:

Six Feet Under the Stars - All Time Low

Sugar Sweet - Sing It Loud

So Obvious - Runner Runner

The Only Exception - Paramore

Free Fallin' - Allred

Ten Things.

I love lists. And I like a lot of things. So I think I'll copy my sister, Carlee, and make a list of my top ten favorite things right now.

1 Men
2 Walking to and from class
3 Pictures
4 My Camelback water bottle
5 "Counting Your Worries" by The Continentals
6 Tomatoes
7 Fall boots
8 Bracelets
9 Painted Nails
10 Talking to friends for long periods of time

Golf.

Today I went golfing. I thought I hated golfing. But, I don't.

I went with my new friends, Andrus and Kevin. They're pretty cool, I'd say. At first I just took pictures.

Kevin

Andrus

Me

Then they taught me the art and I surpassed my own expectations. I guess I'm decent. And I would totally do it again.

Homey Home

I'm home. Yay. I loves it. I love this country. D'ya wanna know why?

It's clean. The water is clean. Not that many bugs. Traffic is orderly. People eat beef. Cafe Rio. People can sing properly. Not that many fat old women wear belly shirts. People poop in toilets.

I got home on Wednesday. First place I ate: Cafe Rio. Thanks to my awesome mother. Best meal of my life. Wednesday night: best sleep of my life.

On Saturday the fam went up to Bear Lake. It was cold. And after a few hours it got really windy. Too windy. So windy that there were white caps which meant we were done. So we got some delicious Bear Lake famous raspberry shakes then drove down to Logan and unpacked my stuff in 3 minutes. We got some pizza at Firehouse and then split up. They went home and I went to my new apartment, which is pretty much awesome.

Now, I'm trying to scope out some hotties.

oh dear, what a riot!

This week was kind of a riot.

For the past 2 weeks we have been in Medak. It's about a 2 or 3 hour bus ride from our apt in Hyderabad depending on your bus selection. We've been working with SKS. We each were assigned to a field officer and everyday they pick you up on their motorcycle and take you to a village where they try to find people for their program. They find people who are ultra poor and help them out by giving them a cow or something that they can use for a business. We all had some surveys (mine was on nutrition) so after talking to the villagers about their program, they would do our surveys. They were our translaters, but they weren't too awesome at English.

I was with Jailsingh. He's pretty small, like most Indian men. He had a mustache, like all Indian men. He picked me up everyday and I rode on the back of his motorcycle. We'd go get breakfast, which was super good, and go off to a village. When we got out of town the scenery was awesome. It was super green and rocky. What's even more awesome is that as we drove down the road, there were people squatting just on the side of the road, doing their business. I saw at least 5 people a day doing this; kids, teenagers, and old men and women. There were also herds of water buffalo, goats, sheep, and cows blocking the roads. We would get back to where we were staying at about noon or so everyday (we left at 6:30am), then get lunch, then just hang out.

We stayed at some little dormitories next to a Cathedral. I shared a room with Grace. They had squat toilets and a fan. No AC. It was bearable, except for that in India, the power goes out at least once a day. It could be out for 1 minute or 2 hours.

There were monkeys all over the Cathedral grounds and some around our dormitories. One day, Grace and I were just chillin in our room. The door was open a bit because it was so hot inside. I was standing on the opposite side of the room away from the door. Grace was sitting on her bed, which is right next to the door. All the sudden she was like, "Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh." I looked over and there was a fairly large sized monkey walking into our room. I froze. I didn't know what to do! So we both just stared at it. It started rummaging in Grace's duffle bag. She had some goldfish with her so I told her to throw some out into the hall. She did, but the monkey wasn't interested. He moved onto Grace's grocery bag full of goodies and grabbed a package of crackers. Then he slowly decided to leave, so I ran to the door and shut it. It was terrifying!

On Wednesday, after we visited a few villages, all of our field officers took us to a Hindu Temple called Durgabavani. It was pretty cool. They had to take a billion pictures with us. They each wanted one with Kurt and me. Or just him. Or just me.

Some of the field officers.


Jailsingh and me.


Me, Jailsingh, Ravinder, Praveen


They also took us to a dam, where we took even more pictures.




On Thursday, the craziest thing happened. Jailsingh and I were driving back into town. Some old lady (I would guess age 70, but Indian women always look 15 years older than they are) was walking across the street. Traffic is always crazy. She saw we were headed straight for her and froze. Jailsingh didn't know which way to go and she didn't either. So what happened? We ran right into her. She was facing us, so we flew right into her stomach. It sounded like a belly flop and she flew back, leaving her flip flops behind. I jumped off and so did Jailsingh, so we were totally fine. He went to park his bike while a crowd of more than 50 people gathered around. The old lady started screaming and punching Jailsingh. It made me so mad! We had to take her to a little health clinic and get her blood pressure checked and her heart rate. She had a bit of a scrape on her elbow and kept moaning about that. She also had a coughing fit after drinking some water. I think she was totally exaggerating her injuries. Then Jailsingh had to take her to a bigger hospital. This made me so mad because I think if she was okay enough to get right up and start punching Jailsingh, she's probably not too injured. But, whatever. Some other SKS guys picked me up and took me home, while Jailsingh went to the bigger hospital, where he spent 700 rupies on this old woman for a 'stomach problem'. That's about 15 bucks, which is kind of a lot here. These field officers make about 100 or less American dollars a month. So 15 is kind of lot.

So, it was a bit of a crazy week. We took a bus back to Hyderabad Friday afternoon. I leave back to America on Tuesday. I CANNOT wait. Seriously.

Indian Photoshoot

Today we went back to the orphanage. Prashanth, the 'dad', wanted me to take portraits of all the kids so they could put the pictures on the walls. The only problem was that we had to do it on their little porch which is gated off. So there was like no variety. Only a few different walls and a tree. But they're cute anyway because all the kids are adorable. I'm going to edit them when I get home, but for now, here's the best ones.

Awkward Family Photos

At the Baby Taj we took some awesome family photos.
I can't tell you how hard I laughed after seeing them.

Agra

Friday morning, Kiira, Kurt, Marie, and I went to the train station to train our way to Agra. It took about 23 hours, but it wasn't so bad. We had some fun times.

On the train ride there there was an old mother-in-law in our berth (compartment). I was sharing a bench with her when she decided to take a nap and stretch out across the whole bench, putting her feet behind my back. It was nice.

There were many sights to see out the train window: trees, mountains, old buildings, rice fields, men pooping, men peeing, and much, much more.

The trains had squat toilets. Pretty difficult trying to squat in the wobbly train. But I managed 3 times!

We arrived in Agra with flies swarming us at 6:00 a.m. I really cannot express in words how many flies there were. We were also swarmed by taxi drivers. We took a taxi to the Taj and got our tickets. 15 dollars for foreigners and 50 cents for Indians. We put our food in the lockers, but there was a sign that said "Do not leave anything valuable in the lockers". So we went along with Kiira's laptop thinking it was probably kinda valuable. Well, when we got to security, they wouldn't let it in. They also wouldn't let me bring my face cards or Kurt's Q-tips. The best part is, they couldn't tell me the reasoning. I asked the lady why I couldn't bring my playing cards in. All she could say is, "Security reasons." And finally, "You can't play cards," or something like that.

So, Kurt and I went inside for an hour while Kiira and Marie waited with the bags. Then we switched. I was really angry when we first walked in because of the ridiculousness of the situation. But the sight of the Taj lightened me up.





After the Taj, we went to Agra Fort. It's huge. It was cool, the problem was that it was 91 degrees outside with mounds of humidity. I thought I was going to die. I was getting dizzy and sopping wet. We had a tour guide, which made it last forever. It did eventually end though.



We stayed in Hotel Ajay. It wasn't too bad. We had AC and a fairly nice toilet.

The next morning (Sunday) we went to some Tomb, which was fine, and then the Baby Taj. That was my favorite part of the whole trip. It was awesome. No one was there when we got there. We got some awesome family photos, which I'll have to get from Marie. So stay tuned for those.





I thought Hyderabad was dirty. But Agra was ten times worse. Garbage was everywhere and it smelled horrible everywhere. Don't forget the massive amounts of flies. There were herds of water buffalo walking on the streets. Huge, they were. And smelly. They pooped everywhere and blocked traffic.

It was super weird seeing all the white people. There weren't tons, but there were some. I haven't seen white people in weeks.

We did a bit of souvenir shopping Sunday afternoon. We went to 2 restaurants. I usually just eat nan cause I hate curry.

We went off for the train station in the evening. Our train was an hour late, but somehow we got home an hour early. Not bad.

When we were waiting at the train station some old beggar man came over and wouldn't leave. Finally after a few minutes of ignoring him, he did some fancy hand gestures and facial expressions, aka a curse of sorts.

So, I'd say our trip was a definite success. It was long, hot, humid, gross, dirty, and smelly; I am soooo glad it's over. But I really am glad I did it. It was fun.

Future Foundations

Today we went to an orphanage called Future Foundations. On Tuesday when we were at the Aids Clinic a bunch of little kids came in. I talked to the guy they were with and found that he was the head of an orphanage of about 22 kids. So I set up a time for me and Kurt to come, which was today.



It was so much fun. The kids are adorable. Especially the boys. I just love little boys. They're Christian, so they all called me Sister.

We made bead bracelets, played Simon Says, and played their version of Down By The Banks. I brought little baggies, each including a toothbrush, toothpaste, and 2 flosses. We gave them a little lesson about brushing your teeth: how to do it, why you should do it, and what happens if you don't do it. They were pretty excited.

They all love to shake your hand. I taught them how to high 5 and they all wanted to do these complicated secret handshakes with me that took forever. Super funny.

They fed us breakfast and lunch. WAY too much food. I ate slowly to avoid them giving me more. Kurt wasn't so smart. He ate way fast and the guy loaded him with more rice. Before eating, the kids said a 'prayer'. It was a song to the tune of 'Mary Had A Little Lamb'. They sang something like, "Thank you, Jesus, for this food..." During lunch there was burping all around. It made me laugh.

One kid could dance I tell you. I taught him some moves and he caught on way quick. He also had some moves of his own.



I taught these 3 boys some sweet moves. They learned it in less than 10 minutes.



These boys were the cutest.

India

It's a crazy place, I tell you. But the weird thing is, I doesn't feel that crazy or strange to me. It's soooo different from home, but it isn't that weird. So, it's weird that it's not weird. It's awesome.

People drive freaking crazy. If you're on a 2 lane street, there could be about 2 or 3 motorcycles and a few autos across the lanes. Motorcycles hold anywhere from 1 to 6 people on them (kids included). People drive like less than half a foot away from each other. I don't know how they don't hit pedestrians. Honking is nonstop.



Cows hang out on the street. They just walk around and block traffic. They stink. Everywhere stinks. There's piles of garbage on the side of the streets.

Our street usually gets flooded with sewage water. So we get to walk through it often. It's nice.

Some kids run around with only a shirt on. Bare butts showing.

Men are super touchy. They hold hands and put their arms around each other when walking and/or talking.

Usually I'll see men walking in groups or women walking in groups. But not very often are there men and women walking together and they never hold hands. Today I think I saw the first or second couple I've ever seen holding hands.

There's an LDS church down the street, about a 5 minute walk. There's a branch that goes there. The kids run wild in sacrament. And the guy who spoke on Sunday talked about how the scriptures say we need to keep our kids reverent and not let them run around and be loud. Oh snap.

Monday we did a bit of shopping. I found the cutest scarf I have ever seen and I almost didn't buy it because it was 5 bucks! Ha, pathetic. But that's pretty expensive here. Being in India makes you really cheap. I got some other scarves for about 1 buck each. I also got a really cute Indian shirt for 3 bucks. Saweet.

Tuesday we went to an Aids Clinic. We shadowed the doctors. Basically, a patient would come in for their monthly checkup. They take their blood pressure and check their heart beat, eyes, and tongue. They don't even care about privacy. The doctor would just tell me what was wrong with the patient and how long they have to live. They'd show us their tongue and blood pressure and swollen hands. It was pretty crazy. They even told us some of the patient's background, like that they were a widow or poor.

That night we went to the mall. They have a movie theater on the top floor. The mall is sooo nice. Like, nicer than home. There's like 5 floors. You have to go through security to get into the mall and into the theater. We saw Inception for like 3 bucks. The theater is also as nice as, or nicer than, theaters at home. The crappy thing is we had to sit on the front row because they have assigned seating and we didn't get tickets soon enough. But, it was good. We went to Subway after, which was only fair. American Subway = way better.

Wednesday we had a meeting with a guy named Subash with CARPED. We talked about women in villages that complain about little things like stomach pain and fake doctors tell them they need to have hysterectomies. They take them into private clinics that have dogs wondering around and do the surgery pretty badly. It costs a ton, so the people are in debt. They can't have kids anymore, so that causes problems. These women are from about 20-45, but even younger. It's crazy. So we're trying to raise awareness about that. They have a powerpoint to present, so I might be adding a slide about nutrition: what they should eat to help them recover. So that should be fun.

I can't decide about the food here. We had breakfast at a ward members house on Monday and I hated it. The next day when we volunteered at an Aids Clinic and they fed us lunch. Rice and Curry. And it was freaking good. Last night we went to a restaurant and got a bunch of curries. And it was gross. The only thing I liked was the tortilla things. I even got a chicken sandwich the other day and it was gross. Everything is just too spicy. All I want is a cheeseburger. Or Cafe Rio.

After going to a meeting on Thursday with Prajwala, an organization that deals with sex trafficking, we went to Charminar and got a bunch of Bangles.



I got the biggest bug bites of my life last night. There's 2 on my arm, both about the size of a Ritz cracker. It's nuts!

Today I got my first sari. Well, the fabric. I need to have the tailors downstairs make it for me. For about 4 bucks. Awesome. I'm really excited. We (Kristen, Kurt, and me) went to the mall today and saw a 3d space movie where the seats move around and they blow air at you at certain parts. It was pretty sweet.

Airplanes

4 of them. 3 days. 4 security checks. 2 hotels. 5 airports.



























On Thursday, July 15, my mom, dad, and Lindsay took me to the airport so I could fly myself to India. Or I guess have someone fly me to India. I'm going with an organization called HELP International to volunteer.

Anywho, I met up with some kid named Kurt who is going. We flew from Salt Lake to Chicago, which was about 2.5 hours. But when we landed in Chicago, we ran into a bit of a snag. Our flight from Chicago to England at around 9:30 was delayed till 7:30 the next morning. 10 hours.

So we had to go through this long line and get new flights and food vouchers (Which Kurt lost. Awesome. ) and a hotel. So we ended up staying at the Hilton Hotel and getting our own rooms. It was pretty sweet.

The next day we flew to London. Then we had to stay overnight at a hotel called Thistle. Then on Saturday we went to the airport to catch our flight. This is where I saw the most beautiful man I have ever set eyes on. Unfortunately, this is the best picture I could get.



He was not the only beautiful man I saw. I think I'll have to take my sisters to London sometime so we can get ourselves some husbands.

We flew into Dubai from London, which was creepy. All these scarved people. You couldn't see their faces, just the eyes. When we got onto our plane to Hyderabad, we were the only white people. It was super awkward. But that was only 3 hours or so.

Our luggage was lost, of course. It's coming in today so we'll probably get it tomorrow. I can't remember the last time my armpits had so much hair. Can't wait for my razor!

Kristen (my country director) and Natalie (another volunteer) picked us up from the airport and we drove about 45 minutes to our house. It's decent. I mean, everything in Hyderabad is old and crappy. So our house is too, but it's nice enough to live in.