The Last Goodbye...

I'm home, so i guess this is my last blog. It's strange, i'll never see some of those kids again. But there are some things i'll never forget...

Unpacking and wondering what on earth i'd gotten myself into...
Talking to Rose the first day for so long...
Brady and Alex zipping me into a suitcase...
Sleeping out under the stars with Nguyen, Meridith, and Chelsea...
Keith sticking with me to answer my numerous questions...
Seeing Jupitar and its moons through Millicent's telescope...
Jamie curling my hair for two hours...
Church with Lena...
Falling asleep on every bus ride...
Getting caught making faces at Nevin during class...
Filming the lightsaber battle...
Eric's bear dance...
Crying on Alicia's shoulder when i was in pain...
Jamie's 20 alarms every morning...
Playing chess for a couple hours with Leo...
Dancing in the lab with Mia...
Watching my bat genes fail and then pass various tests...
Finishing my PowerPoint revisions the day i was to present...
Teaching Keith to play different card games...
Nevin trying to put an earplug in my ear that was too big...
Mia and i being determined to do our presentation without notes...
Long nights up eating peanuts...
Trying to make a perfect messy bun...
Smuggling cardboard...
Lena and i watching Josh Groban and laughing so hard...
Alex's hugs when i was tired or in pain...
Mia and i winning the award...
Saying goodbye...
I love you all. May GOD be with you...
Laura

One Last Night...

Last night was our last night here, so we went all out. Eric and Alicia (the RAs) pretty much said there were no rules. They, along with Millicent and Nevin, joined us in a dance party. We danced in the dark with the glow sticks my mom had given me. I will admit, it was strange to break it down with my teacher, but pretty fun. Millicent can dance, but Nevin can't. Actually, Nevin and i were beside each other for a while, so i started mimicing him. Lots of fun.
Other things we have done here include milk-chugging contests (i didn't try that one), bowling, playing poker and wrestling. It's been great. So now, it's time for me to pack so i can come home. GOD Bless and see ya soon! Love y'all!
Laura

Big Day Number Two!

Today was the open house. That was pretty awesome for sure. A couple ladies came from the Tointon Family Foundation, one of my sponsors. I hadn't known they were coming and was so excited that they did!
It was fun to see all the projects displayed. Nevin was going crazy trying to do decorations and i was first on his "People to strangle list," but it's all good now.
Okay, i'm gonna have to brag a little. Mia and my presentation won the best team presentation award. I'm so excited. That's the only award we really wanted.
Well, that's all for now folks. Love y'all and GOD Bless!
Laura

Big Day Number One!

Yesterday i was able to give my presentation - i'm done! The acummulation of six weeks worth of hard work has resulted in 29 powerpoint slides, one poster and 20 minutes of talking. Mia and i decided that our goal was to know our info so well that we could do the whole presentation without notes. We succeeded! We can now resite the whole presentation without slides even - "Hi, I'm Mia Edgar and I'm Laura Anderson. We had the chance to work with Dr. Shountz with his study of bats as reservoirs of infectious diseases. We also we able to be the first people to clone immune-related genes from a bat species." That's the first slide. I'm so glad that's over.
We wanted to make Millicent proud as she went above and beyond to help us in so many ways. She's incredible.
Tommorrow is the Open House. I'm so excited. Then, soon i'm coming home. I miss y'all. Love ya.
Laura

Cardboard and duct tape...

Hey Y'all! So this week, guess what i did? That's right, i built a boat out of cardboard and duct tape. The idea was that each advisory group build a boat using these materials and then race the boat with at least one person in the boat. My group happens to be the smallest (Amanda, Alex, Brady, Mia, Millicent and myself) but perhaps the most imaginative. We decided to build a boat that could fit all five students. Millicent would be our cheerleader. For two days we smuggled cardboard into the dorm from the UC. The cafateria workers thought it was the coolest thing ever and helped us get the cardboard. We built the boat in two night. The USS Smuggler ended up being eight feet long and three feet wide. We went through a ton of duct tape. Unfortunately, it didn't fit in the bus, but Nevin took it on top of his Jeep. We knew that with a boat that large it might sink very quickly. Alex, remembering how he and Brady had stuck me in a suitcase in South Dakota, came up with plan B. He built the USS Laura, our secret weapon. If the Sumggler went down, my job was to finish the race alone. The Smuggler did hold out for quite awhile, but then it sprung a leak. Unfortunately, the USS Laura went down too. We were able to get both boats to shore and did take second place! It was so much fun! As soon as i get pics from someone, i'll post the one of all five of us laying in the boat side by side. It was pretty awesome and a great stress reliever. Now i have a twenty minute presentation on Monday. Cool Beans... GOD Bless! I love y'all!
Laura

Crunch time...

Hey y'all! I have a paper, powerpoint, poster and card board boat due this week, so everything is getting crazy. Today we had to give a 1.5 minute speech on our project, which was much harder than i expected. We did get to break sheep bones today and try to plate them back together. Our group did the most realistic looking job, we didn't butcher the leg first, but instead made it all pretty and surgical like. So, life is crazy but good... ;)
Laura

Hey Now...

Hey y'all! How is everyone? Sorry it's been so long since i last wrote, it's crazy around here! It's crunch time now. The last part of our paper, Results and Discussion, is due Tuesday and i don't even have my results yet! (CSU is behind...) I'm excited though, Open House is coming up soon!
Just because we're so busy doesn't mean we don't have a little time to goof off. We went to the movies on Saturday night and filmed the light saber battle in the rain today. It was so funny! The battle will go on the DVD we're making for the Open House.
On Thursday we went to Body Worlds. That was so cool! Nevin and i figured out the perfect plan so we could stay longer. Basically we walked slow so we could read everything. i couldn't get in trouble because i was with an instructor and he was waiting for me. We were the last ones out of there and laughing pretty hard. It was awesome.
Next were building boats out of cardboard and racing them at Swift Ponds. We're building them as Advisory Groups, which works out perfectly. Millicent is the engineering teacher and my advisor. I think i mighgt be the one in the boat along with Alex.
Well, that's about it for now! Love y'all!
Laura