I'm Backkkkk!

Oh my goodness, it has been longer than a long time since the last time I was on here. I really wanted to keep up with this blog, but like everything else in my life I got distracted and just gave up on it. I'm honestly trying to do better and I have a lot of plans of what I would like to post on here. I legitimately just made a sticky note on my laptop about different post ideas and so I'm actually looking forward to posting. 
Here's a quick little update on the chaos that is my life:
I just finished my third semester of college (yay!) and my first semester at the University of Texas. I met some amazing people and got closer to people that I have only known for a few months than people I have known my entire life! My roommate is crazy and scary but I love a big group of girls that live on my hall so I don't have to deal with her much. I love living in Austin, it's true about what they say. It's definitely weird but there is always something to do, somewhere to explore, and the food is really great! I never want to leave. The schoolwork kicked my butt and my GPA took the brunt of the pain. I registered late because I was a transfer student and went in pretty blind not knowing the good professors. I truly think that that really affected me and my classes. I am taking less classes next semester and I supposedly have some really teachers so I think that will help me out. I need to be making a certain GPA in order to get into my major. As I could not do this semester which is a major bummer. 
My studying abroad plans have changed quite drastically. The plan when I started this blog was to go with a professor I had last year to Europe for 5 weeks to 4 different cities. I attempted to contact this professor when he told me to so I could get more information about the trip, but he never replied. Just another disappointment. I ended up talking to my current French professor about an opportunity she talked to us about in class and she convinced me into applying for a trip to Lyon, France this summer. I think that this decision is better since I have never traveled abroad, especially by my self so travelling so extensively and essentially by myself was quite frightening to me. I think going to Paris for a week and then to Lyon for 5 weeks is much more doable for me. I'm not sure when I will find out if I got into this program, but I think that I should hear by the end of January. 
I feel so blessed to have gotten into this beautiful wonderful school that has genuinely been the best decision I have ever made and I can not remember a time I have been this happy! 
More to come soon. I promise! 

New Life In A New Town

I know it’s been about a million years since I’ve updated this thing, but when I’m signed onto my school email in Gmail it won’t let me go to the blogger website. It’s really annoying.

It's been an eventful week already. I just moved in yesterday morning and was completely unpacked by 1:00. Having to carry up all my stuff up from the pit parking lot and then up three flights of stairs was incredibly horrible. Apparently all the muscle in my arms turned to fat over the summer and they were of absolutely no help yesterday. I was shaking and sweating so badly. I saw a lot of the people I had creeped on/talked to on Facebook, but the only person I really talked to yesterday was my RA Abby. She’s a sophomore also and really cool. I ending up getting really bored waiting for my roommate, Erica, to show up especially after my parents left. She didn't show until around 5. It was just me and her having to get her stuff upstairs. We did it in one trip. Definitely a lighter packer than I am. After that we went to dinner downstairs together (it was delicious!). Then Erica went to her yoga class and I struggled to stay awake. At around 9:30 we headed down to the ballroom and watched This Means War with some of the girls living in the house. It wasn’t a very good movie. Except for the fact that Tom Hardy is freakishly gorgeous and perfect and I might be a little obsessed with him… After the movie I crashed and was out like a light by midnight. Erica went drinking with some of her friends at like 11:30. I have no idea when she got back. I left my bedside light on for her so she wouldn’t have to stumble around when she got home, but she never turned it off so it was on all night. Whoops.

Then today, we were up and ready for the day at a little before 9 and so we went down and got breakfast together. Then I was planning on going to go with Abby and some other girls on our hall to the bookstore and pharmacy on the Drag (where all the cool restaurants and shops on one block from campus and my dorm) but at 9:30 when we were supposed to meet up Abby was nowhere to be found! I went to her room but the door was closed so I went downstairs to see if she was in the main office or the living room but she wasn’t so I went back up to my room and saw that her door was now wide open! The house is so big that we never even crossed paths.

So since I didn’t get to go to the bookstore with everyone, Erica and I got really bored and so she decided to show me around campus since I've never had a proper tour. Before now it has just been me and Google maps struggling not to look completely lost when I was in Austin for orientation a couple months ago. We ended up walking through the middle of campus and then veered off to go to the Drag. I needed to go to the bookstore because I got an email from my English professor this morning saying I needed to get an iClicker (a high-techy remote that you can use for different classes to take pop quizzes, polls, and take attendance) for the class. So we went and got that done and taken care of. Then we went to a frozen yogurt bar that Erica loves and it was really adorable, I honestly have never seen so much candy in my entire life and it was also cheap (always a plus)! After that we just kept wandering around. Erica also took me to the Union and down to the basement where you can play pool and there is a huge bowling alley. It was really cool. We were also sort of looking for jobs along the way since we both need to get on that! In total we walked probably 3 miles and now she's about to go to the gym. These past two days have been the most active I have been in a long time. My roommate is going to be great motivation for me to get back into shape! It’s kind of ridiculous how sore my arms are today. And my legs probably will be tomorrow.

Hopefully soon I will make more friends, but it kind of seems like everyone is already friends and they are all off doing their own stuff.

Transfer Orientation

I spent three full days in Austin for my transfer orientation. It was definitely an adventure! It takes a little less than 4 hours to drive from Dallas to Austin and we were almost 2 hours in and my dad called and said that I had dropped my credit, debit, and drivers licence on the driveway! So I illegal drove for 2 hours! Oops! So we had to turn around and and meet my dad halfway because I couldn't sign in for orientation without some form of I.D. It ended up taking us 5 hours to get to Austin! Which was annoying but it could have been so much worse!

This trip was the longest I had ever spent there. I also had the opportunity to stay in the house that I will be living in next year which was so great!

Here's some pictures of my dorm! It opened in 1921!

The Ballroom:

The formal living room:

And last but not least, the pool!

I even sneaked up to the third floor and got to see me and my roommate Erika's room! (they were painting and getting everything ready for next year that's why it looks like a mess)

The corner closet is so huge! But it does make the rest of the room feel tiny!

Our view!

On Monday the actually orientation started and it was ridiculously hot! On the first day I have to walk 1 mile to sign in then 10 minutes I had to walk straight back to the dorm. I thought that I was going to die of heat stroke. Plus the vending machine at the dorm was out of water! I came back and laid in bed with the fan on full blast in the dark for like 20 minutes and then finally found some water and I was fine.

Here are some more random pictures I took!

I was there on Monday and Tuesday!

The heat index was like 140. I swear!

Schedule of events!

There is a wall by the Tower that is covered in carvings.

This is 5 days before I was born!

This bike...bent wheel and no seat.

The Tower!

On the drive back to Dallas!

And even though I had never really walked around on campus I never I got (too) lost! Thank goodness for Google maps! Plus there was always like 40 other people walking around who looked incredibly lost so we just sort of teamed up and figured out where we needed to be. It was really annoying that none of the buildings have names on them! And part of the campus are closed off to cars during the day so my mom couldn't figure out where to pick me up at the end of the first day!

On the second day I had to register for classes which was a pain because Transfer students have to register so late compared to everyone else so all the classes are already full. I didn't get like any of the classes that I wanted and my schedule is all wonky. I have French everyday from 4:00-4:50. That just isn't going to work for me if I want to get a job. Or go home ever. Hopefully some other classes will open up so I can change it. And my Art History class that I have to take in order to transfer internally into the College of Fine Arts are full so I am wait listed. I was 4 out of 4 but now I am 3 out of 5. So that seems to be a move in the right direction.

Everyone that I met was so nice and it was just a completely different experience than the one I had in Tyler. It just made me that much more excited to get there in the fall!

Our drive through Dallas!

Adventures in Nannying

I've been a nanny for about a month now! It's so much fun and really just the greatest summer job. I don't feel as though my summer is being drained away by me working all the time. Having this job forces me to wake up at a reasonable hour and actually get out to bed. It also makes it feel like time is going by faster which I like because I am so ready to go back to school!

Here are some pictures of me and the kids having fun!

Television hypnotizes kids

They built a fort out of pool toys so I couldn't see them. They love me I swear!

Fun times in the pool!

I don't know what this is, but I approve! \m/

Showing off his dives!

First official day of summer!

Doing handstands! (My favorite thing to do in the pool also!)

Just casually watching television!

I mean't to post this like a week ago, but trying to post pictures on this site is a major pain!

Saturday, June 30th

So much has been going on lately I just haven't been able to keep up! I was trying to change the layout and template of my other blog, but with my limited knowledge of HTML and all that I ended up breaking the whole page. Oops! I then tried to be more careful with this one but I was still unsuccessful in changing the template so I will probably continue to mess around with it until I really like it. I might even change the web address name if I can think of something better. All the good ones are taken though!
What has been going on with me lately is that I started my nanny job and that has been going great. The kids are adorable and really well behaved so it is just a lot of fun and not as exhausting like my last nanny gig was! Plus I only work 2 days a week which is nice. My whole summer isn't being taken away but I'm still getting paid more if I had a more normal job.
About a week ago I got a new laptop which is why it was hard for me to update because transferring everything from my old laptop to the new one was just a huge pain in the butt.
Then, I went to my transfer orientation in Austin last week to get ready for the upcoming year. It just made me that much more excited to move there in 52 days!!
And yesterday I was interviewed for a dog walking job and ended up getting the job! I started this morning and this particular gig will go until the 4th but I hope to continue doing some of the odd jobs until I go back to school in the fall. I really just want to be able to make the most money I can this summer so I don't have to worry a out that and having to work all the time when I just want to be worrying about school. I also didn't receive any financial aid this year which is always rough. Plus studying abroad next summer is extremely expensive.
I'm planning on making a few separate posts from this one later today and tomorrow with a more detailed description of what I have been up to and even some pictures!

Thursday, June 28th

The name is Courtney. Nickname = Court
I'm a mutt. A mix of English, Irish, Norwegian, and Austrian. So yes I am super pale. I have a major Vitamin D deficiency that gives me intense headaches...
I'm 19. I act like I'm 30.
Texas born and bred.
I am an extremely sarcastic person. It's just my personality I can't help it... Practically everything I say I am joking about. I don't like to be serious ever.

I think I'm funny, but I'm really not...

I got really sick my senior year of high school. I currently have symptomatic non-erosive gastroesophageal reflux disease. And I no longer have my gallbladder which helped my erosive esophagitis.

Then last year in my first year of college I started having ocular migraines. Not sure what's going on there but I will probably have to have an MRI at some point to rule out anything.

I'm pretty liberal and I stuck out like a sore thumb during my first year of college in Tyler, Texas.
I love to write and read and watch television (primarily British) and listen to music.

I'm a full fledged Anglophile!
I will be attending the University of Texas in Austin in exactly 61 days...I'm just a little excited!!!!
I will technically not have a declared major at first but I already know what I want to do. Second semester I will attempt to transfer into the college of Fine Arts and change my major to Art History.
When I 'grow up' I want to be a conservator in a museum (which means restoring old paintings to bring them back to their original beauty) My dream would be to work at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. or at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. I have never been to either. I don't get out much.
I am a Nanny for a couple days a week to two adorable kids (ages 8 and 10)

But really the plan for this blog is for me to rant and rave about my life as a summer nanny, as a transfer student, my life living in Austin, and then for my plans for next summer.

Next summer I will be studying abroad in Europe for 5 weeks. The trip starts out in Amsterdam and I will stay there for 6 days. For a couple of those days the students are allowed to pack up and go wherever they want. My plan is to fly to Rome then back to Amsterdam. The next cities are Berlin, Paris, then London.
I have always wanted travel all over the world and I feel so lucky to have this dream of mine come true!
More to come later!