what a night!

God above all the world in motion, God above all my hopes and fears, i don't care what the world throws at me now... It's gonna be alright!
Hear the sound of the generations, making loud our freedom song, all in all that the world would know your name... It's gonna be alright!
Cause i know my God saved the day! and i know his word never fails! and i know my God made a way for me! Salvation is here!
Salvation is here! Salvation is here and it lives in me! Salvation is here! cause you are alive and you live in me! Salvation is here! Salvation is here and it lives in me! salvation is here! Jesus is alive and he lives in me!
Cause i know my God saved the day! and i know his word never fails! and i know my God made a way for me! It's gonna be alright!

(Salvation is here - Kristian Stanfill)


Walk towards me. I wanna hear the heavens singing over you. When you breathe and look at me i want to be captured by you
Gaze into my eyes and let me know you'd fight thousands for my love
Slip your hand in mine. Ask me to dance with you tonight...just ask me for my love
I want to hide what's deep in my eyes. I'm scared to be known by you. But when i turn my head and see you there i wanna be pursued!
Gaze into my eyes and let me know you'd fight thousands for my love.
Slip your hand in mine ask me to dance with you tonight...just ask me for my love
I dream I would wake from a story that would never end
The ground your feet walk on... let me be there!

(For my love - Bethany Dillon)

i think those two songs accurately describe my night tonight...it's all about love and trust...they go hand in hand with an indescribable end result

a revelation

1 cup of coffee + 1 cup of coffee = 1 very hyper Lauren...and slightly ADD might i add

first week back

Well there ya go...everyone who's been waiting on pictures from Chile...there's a couple. (scroll down to view) I realized after i got back that i didn't really take that many pictures...but i guess that's cause i wasn't enjoying myself and didn't think to take pictures...i did take a lot of pictures of the mountains cause they were AMAZING! maybe i'll add a couple more a little later...

so right now i'm watching the UAB/UK game and we're losing...it should be over by the time i post...but hopefully the tables will have turned by then!

So i had a GREAT week this week...tuesday i went to the ham to make my appeal and check on my scholarship and everything has now been completely resolved. By monday i should have 3 wonderful W's (everyone's dream) and therefore a complete waste of my spring semester cause i got 0 credit and my scholarship had to pay for it...BUT as long as i take 10 hours this summer i will keep my scholarship for my last year of school which is a HUGE relief! so i'm home free for my last year of undergrad - something that's weird to think about...i only have one year left and i'll have a friggin college degree!

ok the game's getting intense it's 64-67 with 19 sec to go!

so yeah tuesday i surprised miles at work which i thought would be funny but i guess he didn't think so... so it was kinda an unemotional reunion which was a little upsetting to me the day didn't get much better as i had to wait around all afternoon then all through dinner and a movie he seemed rather distant, not saying much... but afterwards we drove around a little bit and got to talking and got down to what was bothering him... it was a great, much needed conversation and the night ended well after all Wednesday i went with miles and his brother jack to Jasper to hang out with his mom, eat dinner (pork chops and the works to go with them...yum!) and go to their wednesday night service at church...it was AMAZING! i was really just in awe the whole time of how much their church family is "of one accord" they're so real with each other, not holding anything back and just letting God run things... something that really doesn't happen in most churches nowadays... so wednesday was a great turn from tuesday... thursday was great too! i went to lunch with meghan (i'm trying to convince her to get an apartment with me next year...so everyone get on my side haha) then looked around for an apartment, got my classes cancelled, went out to eat with Miles, worship at BCM, then we went to see V for Vendetta - which was really good, i highly reccommend it... and then i started my wonderfully long drive home ...it was a little difficult staying awake but a little Eve 6 on volume 30 did the trick OH YEAH...and bekah let me stay with her while i was in B'ham which was so great! we don't get to see each other very often but when we do it's always fun times and i'm so thankful that she's a part of my life...whenever i need her she's there for me, and i just hope that i can do the same for her

today was rather uneventful til about 430... i've finally made my MCAT study schedule and it does not look like too much fun... but i'm gonna do it. cause i have to. and i have nothing better to do or study for oh yeah so at 430 miles showed up! we just sat around and watched a movie... then switched to the game, but we had fun! (which goes without saying)

a HUGE fire at some important government building in Chile 

my beautiful bedroom... it was SO big :) 

Me, Marie, and Jessica (from Japan and Australia) 

Some cool exchange students from Norway, Wisconsin, Austria, and Australia respectively 

the Andes...as seen from my window! 

back in the swing of things

Alrighty, well i'm finally getting settled in here at home in Madison...it's kinda weird living back with my parents after being gone for 3 years straight. my mom called the house today just to "check on me" and i was like mom you wouldn't be calling if i was living in birmingham! haha i don't think it'll be too bad...we'll see

So i've had to change a lot of things now that i'm not finishing out this semester... like now i can take the MCAT in April instead of waiting til August which was the plan, but that's good cause right now i don't have class so i can focus on studying just for that. Also, i'm gonna have to take summer school...it's looking like one spanish class and two biology classes FUN

tomorrow i'll be in Birmingham (YAY) cause i have to make an academic appeal about getting administratively withdrawn from my classes for this semester...i'm hoping i can get my scholarship back and maybe use it for the summer classes but of course knowing UAB it probably won't happen but one can hope

so i finally get to see Miles tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!! i'm so excited...still haven't seen him since i've been back! so YAY for that Even though i'm back in the state...i still live an hour and half away for awhile but hopefully we'll be free to drive and see each other often :)

i applied for a job at Bath and Body Works today haha YAY for retail jobs! i've never done it before but my friends Linc and Stephanie work there and they're hiring so i figured i'd go for it cause it should be fun! and it's only for 3months or even less.

spending the night at Bekah's tomorrow night! YAY i love her bunches and UAB choir recording session Wednesday! i'm in for two amazingly great days! here goes...

who needs sleep?

Ok...sorry it's taken me so long to post... i tried to yesterday but blogger was down so here goes

I'm back in Alabama for those of you who weren't sure what exactly my plans were. I was very unhappy being in Chile : didn't like the city, the transportation, the food, the school, my classes, all in all the only thing i liked about it was how beautiful the country is (miles claims there's gotta be something else but i guess i'll have to get back to you about that)

I wouldn't say it was a waste cause i'd say i definitely learned a little bit about myself through it all... like the fact that i still LOVE to travel (as i always have) but i now realize that amazing experiences like that aren't as memorable unless you have someone to share them with...traveling alone is no fun (for me atleast...props to everyone who HAS studied abroad and loved it) i also improved my spanish in the short 2 weeks i was gone...it was very difficult to understand most of the Chileans because they talk SO fast...but i think i put up a good fight with the language :)

So now i'm just chillin in Madison until May or June probably, when i will enroll in summer classes at UAB to make up my missed semester this spring...hopefully it won't be a problem

This weekend i'm at the first of many weddings that i would have missed had i stayed in Chile...my cousin's getting married in about 3 hours! so i'm in Indiana with my family and i'm so tired from all this traveling! i'll be catching up on sleep for awhile... Also, Brian and Ashley are getting married today in B'ham i wish i could be there...but family comes first! haven't seen my cousins in about 3 years...since the last wedding (my older sister's) I guess if i want to see them again i'll have to get married...just kidding

alrighty well time to go get ready

Congrats to Dawn and Matt.... Ashley and Brian! i hope the weddings are amazing! love you all

the end of the road

I'm coming home tonight...well i'll get there tomorrow morning

reasons why i'm leaving...i'll write later right now my battery's dying
:)

the end of the road

I'm coming home tonight...well i'll get there tomorrow morning

reasons why i'm leaving...i'll write later right now my battery's dying
:)

regret

i´m miserable

and the semester begins

Well, today is the start of classes for me here in Chile...i´m off to a good start (i missed my first class!) but oh well i´m gonna go wednesday and get the syllabus and stuff and i have to read something for wednesday i think ah! i´m not registered yet but i´ve decided what classes i´m taking: Intro to Literature (Introduccion a la Literatura), Intro to Linguistics (Introduccion a la Linguistica), and Chilean and Hispanicamerican Narrative (Narrativa Chilena e Hispanoamericana) (all in spanish of course...i translated the names for you) THey shouldn´t be too bad cause two are ïntro¨classes but the narrative one is A LOT of work and A LOT of reading but i figured i´m only taking 3 classes which is way less than normal for me so i should be ok

So i´ve officially survived my first week here in Chile...man was that long! i still don´t have internet in my apartment so i´m at school right now using the Internet so it´s free and i can use it as long as i want! i think i´ve been here for like 2 hours already...

yesterday was fun! i went to the pool (la piscina)of one of my friend´s from Norway and like 5 other people came...so i met my first US citizen yesterday! haha but it was fun... we just kinda sat around and talked then went to the supermarket (el supermercado) to buy food to make lunch and it ended up being like 4 bucks each which is really cheap and we got sandwiches and chips and soda and ice cream and i ate so much it was so good! haha the food here isn´t too exciting and it´s kinda boring but that´s cool...i think i´m gonna lose some weight with all the walking and eating less food and it´s more healthy...we´ll just have to wait and see

alrighty well i guess that´s all for now, i guess there´s not much going on... i haven´t traveled much yet cause i need someone to go with but i think i´m going to a vineyard next weekend with a group of people cause supposedly the wine here is amazing... i want to go to Patagonia but it´s like 300 bucks for the plane ride and then you have to find somewhere to stay and that costs more anwyays we´ll see

alrighty time to go get some food and maybe a book to read yay

TGIF

so it´s finally friday...i think i´m gonna survive my first week here... tomorrow is the weekend so Pilo (my hostess) is home (i hope) and i guess i can spend time with her, maybe explore the city a little bit...
i bought a cell phone today! i don´t know how much i´ll use it but now i can call other students on their cell phones...

thanks to everyone who´s been emailing and sending me messages i love you all! please keep praying and i´ll write more later cause i´ll have internet tomorrow at my apartment

ay de mi!

HOLA de nuevo! (hello again!)

well...a lot has happened since my last post. It´s has a been a frustrating couple of days. getting transportation, phones, internet and all that fun stuff worked out is pretty difficult... you wouldn´t think so but it sure is

yesterday i had my orientation at La Potificia Universidad Catolica de Chile... it was alright i guess. i didn´t really learn much but i did meet some people! Lene from Norway, Marie from Japan, and Jessica and Duncan from Australia... it was so nice to meet other students that understand exactly what you´re going through. today a couple of us met up to register our visas and get our resident ID cards...kinda weird and took a long time but we did it! we were really proud of ourselves haha

i also got a phonecard and got to talk to my parents and Miles which was great! and i´m getting internet on saturday so i can do all this stuff at home at night and not have to pay for it cause right now everytime i want to use the internet i have to walk to this place and pay for it...

thank you sooooo much to everyone who has emailed me! i had like 15 emails waiting for me in my inbox today...it was amazing!

alrighty well i´m exhausted from my day today so i think i´m gonna go home and relax...maybe read a little

que tengas un buen dia! (hopeyou have a great day)

ciao