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!