Week 7 - Partyyyy Week

This week I call party week because literally I went out every night doing something crazy and adventurous. I am loving it, but it makes me tired. Here's the deets:

MONDAY
I finally got to go to the Boardwalk!!! Ahhhh!!! It's been on my bucket list since being here, and I got to go. We went for FHE because they have dollar night. You can ride every ride for a dollar. We went on 4 rides. We got 3 tickets from the ward and then one ticket from a couple people who didn't use all of theirs. I loved it! My favorite ride was the fireball. I did get a little sick, which is crazy because I rarely get motion sickness from rides. You are swinging and turning around on the end of the pendulum too. I loved it. I rode the Giant Dipper which was my second favorite, there were so many up and downs and turns and it is an old wooden roller coaster. I was also in the first car so I never had any idea if we were going to go up or down. Undertow was my next favorite. It was a roller coaster as well. You went in a 2x2 cart. Your cart was spinning and you were moving fast with lots of drops and different things. It was a solid roller coaster and I enjoyed it. We concluded with the Log Ride that everyone raved about...I was sorely disappointed. I was expecting something awesome...but really, you just go up a hill, meander around in your log, and then go down a hill and get splashed like Splash Mountain...kind of silly. Here are some pics to document the evening:

The Fireball!!!

Me and ChattyMan

I have more pics to add, but for some reason I haven't gotten them yet. The few that are in this post are the ones that got sent to me. I with I had one of the whole group with the sign...you will eventually see them.

TUESDAY
I began being a mentor for a 16 year old girl who is interested in coding. They were supposed to match us up by interests...but really, I don't think we have much in common. I tried to make conversation, but it will be an interesting mentorship. I hope I can inspire her in some way. She comes to eBay to learn how to code along with a bunch of other high school girls. I just meet with her once a week for an hour for the next five weeks.

Institute this week was insane. We had so many people show up! It may have been because the ribs and brisket that were served beforehand, but they stayed for the lesson and volleyball. The level of play was definitely higher than the normal play, which was really fun. I actually got to hit and we had long volleys and everything. I enjoyed it and did a good job getting to know Baller and Friend. They are two guys who are tall and attractive and the athletic type.

I came home and my two roommates were sitting on the couch talking. I began talking with them and we talked late into the night. Sue talked about how she was so afraid of death. We began to each discuss our beliefs of death. I expressed that if I didn't have the belief I had, I would be terrified of death too. I explained how we believed we could be together forever if we live righteously because of Christ. Suh, being a Christian, talked about her beliefs in that regard too. We talked about peace and how we each felt peace in our lives and the love of God for each of us. Suh told Sue and I about when she was a teenager and she grew close to the Lord because that was all she had. She explained how she has kind of forgotten him over the years because she has never been at such a low point again. I told them that is why I do the things I do every day, read, study, and pray. We talked about the meaning of peace and the type of feeling it is when you feel the Lord's love for you. Later, when we were going to bed, I invited Sue to pray with me. She said she didn't know how, but she wanted to. I said the prayer and we prayed a couple more night this week. She even asked me one night if she could pray with me. While I pray out loud sitting by her, she nods her head and giggles agreement to what I am saying. At the end, she says "word." I hope eventually she will be filled with the love of God and no longer seek for that filling through worldly substances and people. Only the love of God will bring someone true and everlasting peace.

WEDNESDAY
I went and got Thai food with my team for lunch. I ate some weird stuff. I had shrimp that was part of my soup, these weird noodles and sauce, garlic chicken, a weird salad with squid, and so many other things I can't remember them all. I probably would have been sick if I hadn't liked dessert. It was coconut rice with mango. Sooooo good! Definitely the best part.

I went to dinner with Surfer Boy at Apple headquarters. I wanted something that wasn't foreign to my mouth because lunch was a little over bearing. I went with pasta, but really it wasn't that fantastic. Next time I will be able to get something better. He dropped me off for visiting teaching and I loved visiting my sisters. They are so sweet and kind. I am grateful for their love and I laughed so much. I was grateful we could go visit.

THURSDAY
I went to dinner with my team that night because it was Connie's last day. I will miss her. We ate yummy food at this Greek restaurant and I enjoyed being with the team outside of work. Here are some pics of the event. On Friday I got a mass amount of emails and one of my teammates that has nevver met me, but lives in Texas asked me if I was 7'0 tall! Tom told her that I was only 5'7, so she will be so confused when she actually meets me at the end of July. I told here that things and people were just very small in comparison to me. Now, they all have an interesting view on what size I actually am.

Senior Manager who is now my manager. 

The Crew

Herb who calls me KittKat

The sourcers who are here in SJ

We went and visited our last sister and then went to a pool party at Baller and Friend's house. They told me it was going until 10, and we got there around 9...and everyone was gone. I probably would have chickened out if companion hadn't been there. We had fun talking with the guys and telling stories. They did a really good job of asking me all the questions. I pulled companion in as much as I could. I was grateful we stopped by and honestly, I was going to talk to them, and this way it was more personal. I am grateful for companion and her great attitude about it not being a party after I had invited her to it.

FRIDAY
I owed Cubical Buddy lunch, so we went and got some good grub. He was a great help when evaluating what to do with my career and I enjoyed getting to chat with him. We of course had some good laughs and he bought dessert at ColdStone when we were done.

That night was the long awaited TOP SECRET intern welcome event! They wouldn't tell us what we were doing, but they told us to bring a pillow and sign this waiver. I did both and was in for quite a night. First, we arrive and they had 5 of us a tent and say, got set this up. We will time you and see how fast you can do it. Winners get a prize. We had to pop the tent, put in the sleeping bags, stake it down, and hang the lantern. We did it all in 09:11! I was impressed. Only me and Freckles had pitched a tent before. We did well, and we did win! :) Here is what the camp area in the middle of downtown San Jose, at PayPal HQ...there are trees, so you can't really tell...

I got a gold star for winning the tent pitching contest.

After pitching the tents, we headed to the soccer fields where they had a bunch of blow up arcade games set up and food trucks waiting to feed us. It was awesome! There was a zip line, a ride you harnessed in and jumped off a pad with elastics on your waist to spring you and you could do flips and stuff, they had two Indian women doing henna, a s'mores station, mechanical surf board, the beer garden for the people who wanted to drink over 21, and music! I had a friend who had never had a s'more before. Of course, I talked like Ham on the Sandlot to teach them. They all loved it! :) I now know what to say when people ask me what an American food is. I got a lovely blister from a can of burning purple jelly.

Blister...hurt like heck.

Day old Henna...I can't find the pics that were took the day of...it was beautiful. All free hand.

So, after the henna and all of those experiences. My friend AJ, who was definitely drunk by 11, came and grabbed my arm and dragged me into a circle of all the Indians. Most of them I am sure were wasted...it reeked of alcohol...which smells like rotten fruit. They were having the time of their lives. Indians party hard and dance hard when the music gets going. I had absolutely no idea, they are so quiet and reserved! So, I was dragged into the midst of at least 50 dancing Indians. AJ taught me certain moves so I could "fit" in. But, let's be honest...a tall white girl doesn't fit in with a bunch of Indians. Finally, the music died out and we went to get water and snacks...this is 11 PM by now. A couple Indian guys came up to me and complemented me on my dancing. They said I did great!...now you know they were drunk. One guy said he was watching and thought wow, she's got spirit!

We watched Heavy Weights...the Disney movie about fat camp. Then, we finally went to bed. I decided not to sleep in the tent with one other guy...I chose to sleep under the stars. As you can see :)

Screen as shown. Huge blow up screen outside :)

My bed that collected morning dew.

SATURDAY
I slept relatively well, can you tell...

That afternoon I spent in recovery mode and then headed to Santa Cruz for another adventure. Here my henna washed off and I walked to a lighthouse. I actually got to touch the light house, which was awesome! It was a fun evening. I went with peeps from the ward and a lot of them ended up being interns that are here for the summer from Cougar town. They just got here this week, so they came to party. I enjoyed getting to know them.

SUNDAY
Here is my henna on Sunday with all the brown washed off. It actually got a lot darker after I took these pics.

So, that's my stories of the week. Party in some way every night. I spent very little time at home. I have to take advantage of everything I can while it's here. Hope you enjoyed reading yet another long post.

Peace out.

-the tall girl