New Computer

I got a brand spankin' new computer today! It's an early birthday present from my parents. I go back to school next week and I need a reliable computer to get me through. It's a Sony Vaio, like my old one, but it's much faster and has Windows 7. So far I am very happy with it. And the other amazing thing is that my Dad kinda got the computer for free. He occasionally goes to the casino and he gets points for every time he gambles. Well he's been doing this for about 15 years so he has accumulated A LOT of points, so he can get things at the stores down there using his points. He got my old Sony Vaio this way too. It still surprises me that he has so many points because it doesn't really seem like he goes that much. Anyway, I'm really happy and grateful that he was able to get me this computer because my old one was on it's last legs.  It would take 5-10 min. to get the Internet up and running and then once that was working it would sometimes freeze or just randomly close because "windows detected a problem" or something like that. And considering one of my classes this semester is a hybrid course- meaning half of the time we will be meeting online and turning in work online and half the time we'll meet on campus- I really needed a good computer.

More updates-
I got back from Germany about a week and a half ago. It was a really great trip. I'm really happy that I got to experience life overseas in a different place from the United States. Other than going to Canada a few times this was the first time I ever left the country. Karl's family was really nice. His cousins are soooo cute, they are 9, 6, & 3, and it was so much fun playing with them. Although, they would speak to me in German and go on and on and on about something and then look at me, waiting for me to say something, and I would have NO IDEA what they were talking about so I would just look at them and shrug my shoulders. We were able to communicate a little bit because English and German have some similarities. I learned how to count to 12 in German, and how to say, dog, cat, out, apple, mushroom, vegetables, meat, cake, milk, eggs, sleep, friend, and some other random words. I would definitely go back, although not in August because a lot of Germans (and probably other countries too) go on "holiday" in August too so some places that Karl and I went out of our way to visit were closed :( My co-worker warned me about this but I hoped we would get lucky and not run into problems. But Karl's favorite brewery, Plank, which is in Laaber (his mother's hometown) was away on vacation, as was a store in Berlin that I dragged us all over the city to go to. When we plan a trip to Europe again I think we will aim for June or July instead.

I definitely want to travel more and soon! Some places on my list:
Northwest corner of the U.S. or Canada- maybe Portland, Seattle, or Vancouver
Mexico- my brother has a timeshare there so I can stay in a really nice place for a very reasonable price
Yellowstone National Park
London

And one day I will go to Australia and New Zealand. I have wanted to go there for years. Ideally it would be a 2 or 3 week excursion with a stop in Hawaii on the way. Ticket prices were over $1000 the last time I checked so I won't be going to OZ anytime soon, but I will get there someday.

Anyway, right now I'm just going to focus on working, staying on track in school, and saving as much money as possible.