Moving

Today I finally got moved out of the apartment. I moved out most of my stuff on Monday and Tuesday we moved large stuff of Matthew's. Wednesday we moved small stuff of Matthew's. Thursday we packed up everything else and on Friday we had the walk through. It was a long week. I'm just glad the moving part of it is mostly over. I really liked our apartment but I keep telling myself about all the things I didn't like so I won't be sad about leaving it. Like the paint job, it was horrible. The heating system. The radiators really liked to talk, and not quietly they liked to be heard and mostly in the middle of the night when I wanted to be sleeping. The water pressure was not so good it took about five minutes for the hot water to get to the top floor. That was a pain if you wanted to be fast. The main thing now is getting my room at home organized so it doesn't look like a disaster zone when I leave.

My lovely living room

Thursday I went to the last Rotary meeting I will be going to before I leave. It was good to go and I think that with time I could really get to understand the club. It is hard as most of the members are older men. They don't really know what to think of me, a young woman, and I don't know what to think of them. We are so different. They do have a song which they sing before the meeting starts. That is fun. This week that a song called "Rotary, Rotary" sung to the tune of Edelweiss. I enjoy this part as it reminds me of the Arthur Morgan School, which was the middle school I attended. I think that I have everything ready with my sponsor for my trip to China so that he doesn't get worried about me being gone. At least I sure hope I have everything ready. I need to be ready.

My Bedroom which is no more

Tonight I went to my grandfather's with my parents. It was a nice meal. Papa was more together and it was good to talk with him and actually not have to guess at what he was saying. I'm not very good at guessing as he is often random or it has to do with the Westerns he is watching. I don't really like the Westerns and thus miss what he is referring to sometimes. He knows that I'm leaving and he keeps asking if I'll be back. He says "Is this the last time I'll see you?" He doesn't think he will live until I get back. It is so hard to say if he will or not. One day I think he will and the next I think that he won't. I know that in some ways he really doesn't want to live that long and in others he does. I do realize though that when I leave for China I will be saying Good-bye for the last time most likely.

Rotary Orientation

This Friday and Saturday were the Rotary Orientation for Ambassadorial Scholars, Peace Scholars, and others. Friday I headed out to Winston-Salem. When I got there and was heading to the hotel I found that google maps wanted to send me on a one way street the wrong way. I ended up parking in public parking and walking a block to the hotel and then finding out that there was parking across the street. It did work out for the best but I was a little bit cold and didn't think so at the time.

When I got there I put my stuff in my room and registered with Rotary. I made it with the last people going to lunch. We got a bit turned around. The lunch wasn't that great and I was really hungry but the time half of the presentations were over and it was still 3 hours until dinner. While I didn't get as much from the presentations as I would have liked. I found that there was good information in all of them. What was best for me was meeting the other scholars. I met lots of people who were in the same place as me and it was nice to be able to share with them. I roomed with a girl from the same district. We are the two scholars from the district. She doesn't know where she is going yet. It was nice to talk with her though.

Saturday was more lectures. I thought that some of what was discussed on Saturday was more helpful than what was talked about on Friday. After the lectures I ate a hurried lunch and headed home. My car didn't have heat so it was really cold. It wasn't to bad in Winston-Salem but by the time I got up to the mountains I couldn't feel my feet.

Rotary Assignment

Dear Annalisa,

We are pleased to inform you that the Trustees of The Rotary Foundation (TRF) have approved your application for a 2010-11 Academic-Year Ambassadorial Scholarship and have assigned you to the study institution named below (Please note that the Trustees reserve the right to assign scholars to any study institution listed on their application or to another suitable institution):



ASSIGNED STUDY INSTITUTION: Nanyang Technological University

Singapore, Singapore


Sincerely,

Haruka Wada

Coordinator, Scholarships Program

Okay I edited the letter a little bit...But I'm going to SINGAPORE!!!

Rotary Dinner

The Flag ceremony line up.
I was confused as to what to wear to the Rotary District 7670 annual dinner, so I spent some time looking for something that would work. I found a dress which I really liked at TJ Maxx but it didn't fit me, it was too big. After failing to find anything, even with help from Teel who I work with, I realized that I could wear a long sleeve shirt under the dress and then it would fit me. That is what I ended up doing and I have to say I am glad that is what I did because it is a nice black dress and it doesn't look like it would be that difficult to take in.

This morning I drove up to my parents. Mom has been altering my Navy Jacket for Rotary and I needed to pick it up from her so I could have it at the dinner. It was really very nice in Bakersville and I got there in time for a walk with Ruff. It is always really nice to walk around the property on a sunny day and now that the leaves have all fallen the views are amazing. After the walk and lunch mom and dad took an impression of my hand for a piece they are making. I didn't want to go to the dinner smelling like alginate so I showered, but I still smelled like a dentists office. We decided that since it was so nice we should go and walk around Swiss Pine Lake before I had to leave. It was a nice walk, but in the shade I could feel the cold air moving back in. Ruff was really excited about getting a second walk. Now that he isn't getting car sick as much we take him places. After the walk I headed out to the Rotary Dinner. I stopped and changed at Papa's and then drove down to Hickory.

Me and the Guatemala Flag before the introduction of the Flags

I got to the event on time which I thought at first that I might not. The place where the event was held was not as nice as where I work, but it was bigger. As soon as I got into the main room someone came up to me and asked me if I would be part of the flag ceremony. Each one of the flags in the ceremony represents a country in which the Rotary district 7670 has a tie either they have a scholar from there, a scholar studying in the country or they have a project which they are working on in the country. I was originally going to carry Australia but there wasn't a flag for Australia, so I ended up carrying Guatemala. Everyone kept asking me if I was from Guatemala, which I am not. I had to keep telling people that no I was not from Guatemala and I didn't know where I was going to be studying yet. I ended up sitting with a group of people I didn't know from Marion. They were all very nice. We talked about Lenard Cohen and Doc Watson. It was an interesting dinner as I think they were all surprised that I knew who they were talking about. The food at the event was not all that great and it really wasn't very filling. The speaker spoke mostly about Rotary and I found it hard to follow what he was talking about and to remain interested as it really seemed like he was just talking about his books and not as much his experiences which would have been better. He was a good speaker but not the most interesting one from my perspective. I think it was good for me to go to the dinner but the drive back to Asheville was long and I'm just really glad to be back and ready to go to bed.

The Banquet room

Rotary Club Meeting

Thursday at noon in a town near you the Rotary Club is meeting. I didn't prepare nearly as much as I should have for giving a small speech about myself. I know, who knows me better than I do? In some ways I'm sure this is true but sometimes I feel like maybe there are people who know me as well as I know myself. My mom knows me pretty well and she probably could have done a good job giving the speech in my place, we all know she has more public speaking skills than me.
The fence at my Grandparents house. This fence has many memories from my childhood.

Before I went into the Rotary meeting in Spruce Pine, my sponsor club, I meet my mom at Granny and Papa's. We went and got cider at Alta Pass Orchard. Their cider used to be pretty bad but both my mom and I had heard that they were getting their cider pressed by Saylors Orchard which is the orchard in Bakersville. Saylors has really good cider and so mom and I took a chance and spent twice as much and got a 1/2 gallon. Lucky for us it was Saylor's cider. And if it wasn't then Alta Pass has gotten much better at pressing cider.

My speech and at the club went well. I probably rambled a bit. I tried to make a ruff outline before I went in to speak, but I forgot some of what was on it. I guess that is the way it goes.

After that was over I went back over and helped my mom prepare more for getting my grandfather back to NC. She is interviewing all of the people who I called last week. I felt like I called millions of people even though it was only 38 or so, from a list the hospital provides.

Matthew and I went to our Chinese lesson. Again I feel behind, Matthew is way ahead of me. I am trying to keep up but it is hard. Maybe by next week I'll get as much as him.

Scholarship!

On Thursday, I found out that I had been selected by the district for the Ambassadorial Scholarship from Rotary. Carol King, one of the women who was at my interview, called to tell me. Now my application is passed on to Rotary International and I have to wait until at least November to see where I might be placed. I'm really excited to have the chance to be going and getting a masters degree.

Overlook from Craggy Gardens. It was beautiful with the clouds blowing over from one side and it being sunny on the other side.

This week on Wednesday and Thursday I babysat for the person who Alle` had been working for. There were three kids. They were pretty good but they liked to argue. But I guess that is what kids do. I took them to Craggy Gardens on the Blue Ridge Parkway because they wanted to go hiking. They were so excited to be outside and hiking that they didn't even care when it rained and we had to sit under a shelter for a while. On Thursday they spent hours collecting blueberries which they all claimed to not like except for the youngest. By the end of the day they were all eating the blueberries and saying how good they were. I guess that is typical for kids. They were upset with me when I made them turn around on a trail because it was raining. When I made them turn around I took them to the picnic area so that we could wait out the rain. It wasn't raining when we got there and they wanted to hike some more so we walked a bit of the Mountain to Sea trail. When we got back to the picnic area there were rangers picking up trash. There was a black bear that had learned to open and get into the dumpsters. A little later the bear was wandering from one picnicer to the next trying to find food. The kids were really excited by the bear and they really wanted to see it so we watched it from the car.

Tunnel from the visitor center at the Craggy Gardens.

Yesterday I worked at Dining Innovations. They don't seem like they will be able to give me the hours I need. They let me go early all the time. It is going to be hard to pay the bills with that. It isn't that hard of work and the people I'm working with are nice so it makes it better to work there. I'm hoping that I might be getting more hours in the future. Today they called me and said that I didn't have to come in until 11 so there was another hour that I lost. I do think that it will be a fun job if I can get the hours I need. I might start looking for something else.

This morning I watched Gilmore Girls. I rented the first season from the library and I'm loving it.

JOB!

On Friday I was finally hired at Dining Innovations. I'm really happy to just have a job at this point. After they hired me on Friday they asked if I wanted to work on Saturday. I was hired at the same time as two other girls and we all said yes. So on Saturday we were thrown in without any of the training to an event for the JCC (Jewish Community Center) which I live right next to.

Ponyo movie poster

Friday night I rushed around before I went to meet Erik and Alle` for a movie at the Fine Arts Theatre. We saw Ponyo which was good but not as good as some of Myazaki's other movies. It was more for kids than his other movies have been but it was still good.

Saturday morning I had an interview with Rotary for a scholarship for next year. I was nervous about it but it really wasn't that bad. The interview took place at AB Tech Community College. I am not familiar with the campus at all and they told me it was in Laural Hall and when I looked at a map of AB Tech there was no Laural Hall, so I emailed and they said that it was Laural Hall in the Fergison Building. It was good I found out early or I would have been wandering around lost. I got there early which meant I was sitting in the really cold hall waiting to go in. Also when I got there I realized that I had forgotten that I was wearing my Chacos and not my nice shoes so I was really glad that I was wearing long pants which mostly covered my shoes. Leave it to me to do something stupid like that. They finally came out and brought me in. Their were about ten of them and they each asked one question of me. The room we were meeting in was not nearly as cold and by the middle of the interview I was actually getting pretty warm. They told me it would be about a 30 minute interview but they let me go for 50 minutes which could be good or bad. I felt pretty good about the interview because they all seemed to appreciate my experiences. I will find out at the beginning of next month if I'm going to get the scholarship or not. Then I have to wait until Rotary International decides what institution they are going to place me at. We have to chose five institutions. During my interview they suggested that I chose more varying institutions than what is on my application now. I also need to put them in my order of preference. So I have to do that as soon as possible. I think I'm going to be doing that today or tomorrow so that I can get the updated form to them as soon as possible.

That evening I headed into work. I was serving hors d'œuvres. I have to say that I never thought of myself as weak but after carrying around the platter offering hors d'œuvres for 30 minutes I thought my arms were going to fall off. By the time they moved on to the dinner I was really happy to be refilling water glasses and scraping plates for the kitchen. It was gross but it wasn't hard on my arms.

Rainbow in the sky, barely visible here

Yesterday I didn't do much as I had a headache that would not go away. I sat outside and ate dinner and there was a rainbow in the clouds. It was three setts of color. I haven't ever seen a rainbow like those before.

Today I head back into work. I'm hoping they will go easy on my arms but as today is mostly training I think it will be alright.

Summer Walks

This afternoon I finished reading Through the Looking Glass by Louis Carroll. I found it interesting, but not as good as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I am looking forward to the new movie directed by Tim Burton. As I haven't seen the animation version I'm going to wait and see this one as it seems more likely to be an adult version of the story.

On Monday I got a drug test for a job I applied for. I was pretty sure that I was going to get the job but I still haven't heard from them. Which makes me wonder what has happened. I don't know if they are still deciding or haven't gotten the test. I didn't call them because I don't want to be pushy but I do wonder what has happened.

It has gotten cool again after the warm weather last week which is nice. It has been raining a lot in the past couple days. It blows in and rains really hard and then clears up. The mountain storms like these are very nice as they cool it off even more which is nice. After the rain stopped Matthew and I went out for a walk. On many of our walks around we go cat watching. Matthew and I count the number of cats we see. Some of the cats will walk up to you and follow you if you pet them which we do. Today we saw only one, a white cat. This cat is very white, it is surprising how white the cat is. I have seen the cat before on walks and it followed me for a long way.

My pepper plant finally has a ripe pepper so I should be able to eat it today or tomorrow. It is very nice to grow my own vegetables, satisfying.

Yesterday I watched The Color of Magic. It was funny but very long.

My Peppers

I found out that I have an interview with the Rotary Foundation for the Ambassadorial Scholarship on Saturday. This is good because it means that I am being considered for the scholarship and might actually get to graduate school. I am really excited about possibly getting the scholarship and being able to study in another country.