Photography Trial Expedition: Bana's Senior Photos

My dream is to break into photography really soon. This weekend I got to borrow a Canon EOS 7D and I went crazy with it! My dad requested I do my sister's senior photos, so I decided why not? Here are a few of the best shots. My sister is just beautiful inside and out! I love her.

I'm back!!!

Ha! I've neglected my blog for quite some time now, but I think I am back for good. Yay for me! Anyway, updates on my life:

1. Being an EFY (Especially for Youth) counselor in July was the best-ever experience of my entire life!!! I got to meet LDS youth from about 25 different countries and experience a very cultural gathering of the saints in Blaubeuren, Germany. I was blessed to be the counselor of seven amazing girls during that week and I was very impressed by each one of them. My testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ has grown so much because of them and the opportunity I had to serve. I also had the best co-counselor (Kevin) to work with! <3

2. I attended a summer program with Heidelberg University that helped me learn better German and understand their culture. The classes were all in German. It was so fun!! I met some great people from all over the world and made a wonderful friend from Moscow.


3. Spacetagung, a YSA convention in Darmstadt held the 1st-4th of September, 2011. What made that week amazing? My best friend in Germany and my previous EFY co-counselor, Kevin. Pretty much we spent the weekend together and had fun being random. 

Some more random updates:

I visited Schwetzingen gardens during a car show. Best combination ever! I love old cars.

Marienburg Fortress, Würzburg

I went to the Bundesgartenschau in Koblenz :) I don't know whose shiny head that is. 

I'll be back...

So I've totally neglected my blog for a while. I have so many things to blog about and so little time to do it! My summer classes and a few other super important things have been keeping me verrry busy! But here's a random snack-post to let everyone know I haven't forgotten about my awesome blog!

My freshman year of high school I tried to paint "The Orchard" by Camille  Pissarro.

My version came out looking like this. 

So there, a random fun-fact about me. Till next time!

Luxembourg Overview

I went to see Transformers 3 in Luxembourg on Saturday with a friend at the Utopolis theater. I love this movie!!! Pretty much my new favorite. :D

If you don't know where Luxembourg is, its that tiny little country between France, Germany, and Belgium.

We arrived in Luxembourg just a little bit early for the movie so we walked around a bit and got to see some cool things. I love this bridge. :)

Couldn't figure out what this was for, but it's kinda cool and random.

Ruins of some sort. :)

The view from one of the random cave-things they have there.

When we got to the movie theater it was really nice with huge comfy seats and lots of leg room.  Sadly no aliens, though, except on the movie screen. ♥ Transformers!

I need a new blog post!!!!

Anyone have any great ideas or requests?

4th of July!!!!

Guess what guys?! Independence Day is just around the corner!!! Woot woot! And...Here I am again designing things when I should be doing my history homework. It's just in the spirit of the holiday I guess. :D Today I designed 4th of July cupcake toppers! Just cut them out, attach them to a toothpick and stick them into your favorite kind of cupcakes! These can be used to spice up a family snack or just to add a little bit more excitement to your usual 4th of July celebration! Click on the link to be taken to the PDF file so you can view and print!

Free 4th of July Cupcake Toppers!

What now?!

YSA Seilbahn Rüdesheim am Rhein

Woot Woot! Soo much fun!!! I love all you YSA!

My Germany Family

Seilbahn!

Historical Enchanted Cave

On the Rhine! I love rivers.

The Amsterdam Experience

I give Amsterdam a 4/10. It was fun for a one time trip, but in my opinion, the bad outweighed the good. Lol. That's a punny! Of course the bad is going to outweigh the good; they tolerate EVERYTHING there.

"Coffeeshops" are where you smoke weed, not where you get coffee. If you want coffee, go find a Cafè. They honestly have "coffeeshops" everywhere. 

The redlight district is Amsterdam's prostitute central. They not only allow it, they regulate and support it. Ugh. I avoided that place so I don't have much to say about it in the way of actual experience. 

They don't want people putting erosive substances on the beautiful historic buildings, so guess what?! They have these super convenient urinals on the sidewalks! Who'da thunk? 

Also, I heard they have houses where a bunch of kids live and share a cheap rent together. I'm not sure how old these "kids" are, but I was told it was illegal and they tolerate  it in Amsterdam. It keeps them out of the streets. I still have to do a bit of research on that one. 

For anyone who wants to visit, this place is also a tourist trap. You have to pay for everything. I had €20 on me and wasn't able to do much. Just saying.

Another thing I wasn't too impressed by was how dirty it was. It wasn't unbearable or anything, but just coming from Germany where the streets are almost spotless it was a bit of a shock. The water itself was brown with all sorts of stuff floating on top and there was trash lining the streets. It could be so much cleaner. 

Some interesting things about it were that EVERYONE rides bikes. Bikes have the right of way on almost every street. Pedestrians get run over by them if they aren't watching. I almost got hit a few times! Not because I wasn't watching, but because they just appeared out of nowhere and they were going so fast! 

Also, in all honesty, the canals are very pretty. They are everywhere in the city. My sisters and I took advantage of that and we did a little one hour canal cruise to see the city. Beautiful. That was the highlight of the trip for me. If nothing else, I would recommend that. 

I saw the Grim Reaper in the Dam Square. Lol.

View of one of the canals from one of the bridges. Notice all the bikes.

See all those hooks lining the tops of all the houses? They used the pulley system to get their furniture inside the house. So most of the houses lean a little bit forward. 

Notice more bikes?

A view of the trash in the streets. This is actually not that bad. 

One of the "kid" houses. Kids did that. This wasn't the only one.

Floating down the canal. :D

A view of the seven bridges from the cruise boat.

View from the cruise.

See how dirty the water is?

The lovely urinals. This is not my photo, but its a perfect example of the urinals. :D

"Angela's Dreamworld"

I've decided to start posting a few of my epic dreams. Yes, they are quite epic. At least in my opinion. Since I was chatting with a friend and told him all of it I've decided to post the conversation/"me telling him the dream". Here goes! (Whoa. That's all I can say about this one.)

________________

A: it started out super weird. one of my friends was having a party so I went to it and had tons of fun with a bunch of old friends i hadn't seen i years.

we played games and talked about old times. it was good.

but then they all sorta ran away and never came back. it was kinda creepy when my friend who threw the party came into the room and just looked at me like he had seen a ghost

K: lol

were you a ghost?

A: i asked him where everyone else had gone and he said they were all just apparitions, fakes of the real thing.

(lol. no i wasn't the ghost)

it was super creepy cuz then i realized that he had lied to me about the whole thing just to get me at his house

K: uhoh...

A: i was really mad and creeped out and called my dad to come get me.

while i was waiting he cleaned up and his mom came down and kept telling him not to do certain things.

things like washing the dishes and putting sausage grease in the trash can

K: -.-

A: she looked like a ghost

not like, a real one, but like she was just kinda empty inside.

K: what color were his pants?

A: huh? his pants?

i don't know

they were blue jeans

K: lol

A: why did you ask that?

K: to check how good you actually remember your dreams...

A: oh, well i've only ever recently seen him in blue jeans so that's what they were.

anyway, i thought his mom was a fake too, but she wasn't

i was really creeped out so I went exploring the house

just to get away from all of them

both

i discovered that their house was partly made of those same apparition things and most of it was fake

K: you mean like the material of the house was fake?

A: but then I discovered a crack in the wall that was real. and my dad came and I ran out to the car. it was a new car and he was giving me a lecture on it while i just wanted to get in it super bad to get away from that creepy place.

K: ^^

A: yeah, like when you tried to touch it you hand could barely hold it

sometimes it would crumble and fall through your fingers

then my dream went back to the crack in the wall.

it was just a crack, but for some reason i wanted to make it a hole, so i did

K: lol

A: behind it there was a secret passageway

it went down, down, down.... and in some parts it was like a cave . hard to fit through unless you were skinny

K: uh, how cool...

A: there were rooms carved out of it with lots of supplies and stuff. food and water and even oxygen tanks

K: and where did it go?

A: i never got to the end

K: awh 

A: when I came back up i put the wall back how it was before. don't ask how i did that

my friends mom saw me and told me something bad was going to happen. then her and my friend disappeared

it was so creepy weird

K: and all of that happened after you already were in the car?

A: it was suddenly was my house

i wasn't in the car. i think my dream jumped back to it because i was curious

K: you teleported? maybe you were a ghost after all 

A: but when it became my house i had just gotten back from the crepy house...which was the same house...

i wasn't a ghost!

K: sure...

A: there were soldiers at the door.

knocking.

K: uh uh ... me 

A: we didn't answer and my mom got really scared.

why were you scaring my mom?

jk

K: idk... your dream 

i dont know your mom, so i would have no reason...

A: we looked out the window and since it was night we realized the liight was coming from burning houses

houses all over the city were burning

K: oh no...

A: and there were soldiers going through all the ones they were about to burn looting them and throwing the people out on the street. some of them they locked inside to burn

 i suddenly had a great idea and I ran to the crack in the wall

i turned it into a hole really fast and kept digging through the walls and rocks and finally got to a big room in the underground area.

the oxygen tanks were perfect

i got my family and everyone down there with an oxygen tank and we tried sealing up the wall again. but the soldiers had already set our house on fire

it was too late so we just piled a bunch of stuff at the entrance and wet it all so the fire wouldn't get through

then we went further down and explored the area. i was tired so i went to sleeep in this tiny room i could barely fit in

and dreamed about the creepy house burning while i slept underneath

and then it was over

K: you dreamed in a dream? inception 

A: it was awesome

there was a part that i missed.

before the soldiers set the house on fire a couple of them actually got in and it looked like they were collecting these metal rings from everyone's house

they had them in a big pit in the street and I guess they were going to burn them or melt them or something

K: every house had a metal ring? what kind of rings?

A: they looked like hula hoops. and every house had not only one but sometimes more than that.

Class Of 2011!

Congratulations to my little sister M who graduated from high school yesterday! I am so proud of you, Moonah!

Heidelberg Field Study Highlights

Monastery Ruins on Heiligenberg

"Open Air Stage" on Heiligenberg

Stephanskloster

Heidenloch (a really deep well!)

Random Funny Signs

Monastery Ruins on Heiligenberg

Heiliggeistkirche

The Old Bridge

Bridge Towers

Heidelberg University Student Prison

Heidelberg Castle Ruins

View of Heidelberg and the Old Bridge from Heidelberg Castle

Heidelberg Castle Ruins

(Note: The last four photos were taken by a couple of my classmates who did the field study with me. The rest are my own. Just sayin. :)