Last Monday and Tuesday my office had a tent in the Red Square Info Fair. We gave out goldfish (and other stuff too) as prizes. Getting the fish was actually kind of a funny story. First we called the locally owned pet store in town. They told us that every fish needed 10 gallons of water with air filtration so unless we had a 2000 gallon tank, they would not sell us 200 fish. Then we called petco and they told us that as long as the fish were being taken care of, they would sell them to us, no problem. Except when I called back and talked to a different guy, he told me that giving fish out as a prize was inhumane and I should call Petsmart. At that point, I was feeling rather rejected and shutdown. So when I called petsmart, I wasn't giving a lot of details. The conversation went something like this:
Me: Hi. I'd like to order some fish.
Him: Okay, what kind?
Me: goldfish.
Him: ......Okay?
Me: 250 of them, please.
Him: Yeah.......we have thousands of those, you don't have to order them.
It was awkward walking in and asking for 125 fish, two days in a row. My coworker, Jackie, and I got a lot of laughs out of it. Also, the fish were given to us in these tiny bags, which we also got a lot of laughs out of.
On Wednesday I started class! let me first tell you about the bus. I hate the bus. I hate it so much. On Tuesday night, I told my roommate, Caroline, that I didn't know how to ride the bus. I told her that I didn't know what to do if there wasn't a seat on the bus. She got up, put a hand on the wall, and did a half squat and said "like this!" Then she told me what to do if the bus stopped, which meant almost falling over, but then standing up really quickly to pretend like nothing happened. So when I got to the bus in the morning, it probably couldn't have gone worse. We were packed in there like sardines, and of course, I didn't get a seat. While almost falling over, I stepped on the guys foot behind me, but luckily he just laughed at me.
The ride home was probably worse. I can't decide which part was the worst about that bus ride. The fact that once again, i didn't get a seat, the fact that I was so so motion sick from the way the bus driver was driving, or that fact that this girl got on the bus with two cages full of rats. yes, RATS. So gross! I still have yet to figure out how to know where a bus is going, where it's going to stop, where the next stop is, etc etc. I'm sure I will figure it out with time, as well as how to stand on the bus without falling over.
I really really like my Wednesday classes. My 9am journalism professor is a nut, which makes everything more interesting. (If either of the 2 of you that read my blog know George Rother, he's pretty much the younger version of him.) He makes weird comments about "butt clenching" and getting arrested, and he's not afraid to give us his biased opinion of how things are. He keeps things interesting. He also cancelled all of our Friday classes because we "are going to to have homework, so that will just cancel out Friday classes."
This quarter, I'm also taking a Communication Science Disorder class, which I think is going to be really interesting. On the first day, my professor had us go around the room and have some people say why they were taking the class. Since it's a large lecture, I of course did not talk. However, one girl wasn't afraid to say "When I graduate, I want to talk to animals, like whale and dolphins, and I thought that this class was probably the closest thing to that that's offered." I felt bad because I couldn't contain my laugh. But that's okay, because no one else could either, including the professor. Another thing that he had us do was write down an interesting fact about ourselves. On Friday he told us that he had to share the weirdest fact. One person wrote that they could say 'take your pants off' in 19 different languages. My professor's response was "that guy obviously gets around....... the world that is." he was also talking about going to his parents house and watching how they interact with each other, and it makes him go straight to the liquor cabinet.
First Day of School Picture!
On Thursday, the bus was not much better, still had to stand, but this time I didn't fall over. My only new class on Thursday was Greek, which is not really new at all, since I've taken it 3 times before.
It's crazy to think that I've been in Bellingham for a year already. I really do love it here! Things have changed so much from where I was a year ago. The friends I've made, the friends I've lost, the ways I've grown that I would have never expected. Through it all, I feel so blessed to have some of the most encouraging friends in the whole world, two amazing roommates, two of the best jobs in the world. I'm excited for this year and what it's going to bring!
