Yoga

In an attempt to reduce some of my stress, I have recently taken up yoga. I have found that it is a better form of exercise than I thought it would be. All you do is stretch and hold your body in certain positions and yet I leave drenched and tired. It is actually a great workout. So it is official, I am jumping on the yoga bandwagon. :)

I am really looking forward to improving my technique. The teacher of my class is good... but I don't really know what I am doing and I am sure I am doing half of it wrong. Monday was my second class and I realized most of the stuff I was doing the first week could have been done better. So I guess in a few weeks I may actually be doing some of it right. :) We will see... :)

I also went running the other day with Daniel and actually managed to escape without an asthma attack! Shocking, I know... I still DON'T LIKE running and have not managed to go by myself, but you never know... I may become a running yoga fool one of these days. :)

I need all the stress relief I can get. It is funny, I think I am doing alright... Not stressed out and functioning well... I think I am giving my stress to God and not trying to do this thing on my own... Then something that normally wouldn't upset me really upsets me and I realize how crazy stressed I actually am. Surrendering to the Lord is truly a daily process and sometimes it is not easy. :) I guess it is a good thing that we get to take it day by day. :) But praise the Lord that I am trying yoga and running because I need an outlet for sure!

Year 2 = Stress

So... I have decided that the second year of law school is not harder than the first, in fact, truth be told... classes are actually more manageable. I am taking classes I chose instead of them being forced upon me and I generally enjoy all of them. I also have been through a year of this so I know what to expect. But, despite classes being relatively easier, the second year remains harder than the first.

In my second year I am on a journal, I am the VP of a club, and I am doing OCI (On Campus Interviewing... for jobs for next summer). All of which take TIME. The second year is stressful because you are pulled 10 different ways in any given day. There are so many things competing for precious little time. I have been freaking out for the past three weeks because I am behind in everything and whats worse is I keep getting more behind. I am starting to get it all under control, but it is insane!

I spend about 10 hours a week working on stuff for my journal (Houston Business and Tax Law Journal), about 10 hours trying to get stuff done for OCI (researching firms, in a few weeks interviews, etc...) and about 3-4 hours doing CLS stuff (Christian Legal Society... the organization I am the VP of). All of which are obligations I didn't have last year. So it is making time management more of a issue than I had thought it would be. I then study for my classes about the same amount as I did last year, but that leaves little to no time for anything else. But I want to do other things, so studying has been taking a back seat... which gets me more behind... which gets me more stressed. It is quite a vicious cycle indeed!

But long story short, I have to get on the ball or I am going to crash and burn. I have to spend a few weeks really concentrating on school and getting caught up, or I am going to be so far behind that I won't be able to catch up even if I try... So if you want to say a prayer for me this week or next, pray I would be diligent to do my work and that I would have time to get it all done. :)

You can also pray for OCI. I have a few interviews throughout September in which I hope to gain employment for this summer. It is stressful and I don't have any idea who I want to work for or what I want to do with my degree, so pray for clarity in this whole process. :)

Anyway, year 2 is crazier than 1, but at least I am 1/3 of the way done! I know I will get everything done this year, it is just going to take a little determination and a lot of time. :) Oh the joys of law school. Aren't you glad you aren't in it! :)

I just wanted to provide you all with a quick update and let you know if you haven't heard from me recently and don't hear for me for a few weeks, please don't be upset... I am trying to be productive! I will return to normal eventually... It may be May of 2008, but it will happen.

I am adding a picture of my CUTE baby 2nd cousin. She is 4 months old and getting so big!!! She always calms me down and if my rant about the stress got you anxious, I hope this helps to calm you down too! Enjoy! :)

Barnes and Nobles Stalker?!?!

So, the weirdest thing happened this weekend. My friends and I were harassed at a Barnes and Nobles in San Antonio:

A man walked up to Erin (my best friend from Dallas) and I and proceeded to aggressively ask if he was "one of the most attractive men in the store," which, I have to say he was not (He was about 5'10, maybe 40 years old and average looking with dark hair and a three day old five o'clock shadow).

We didn't know what to do, so we just looked at each other shocked. My boyfriend Daniel was standing within earshot and walked up to see what was going on. The man proceeded to ask if he was more attractive than Daniel (no way!!!) to which my mouth dropped. He was being extremely aggressive at this point so Daniel told him he was more attractive to try to control the guy and see what he was so upset about.

The man said he wanted to hear from the girls and looked at Erin and I who were still in shock... To which Erin replied "More attractive than him?!?! No..." He asked why and Erin said "lets just leave it at no..." He walked off agitated and then re-approached us a few minutes later saying "if he shaved and put on a suit (Daniel was dressed up because we were going to a wedding) then he would be more attractive than Daniel, right?!?!?" We told him to "Have a nice day" and he walked away... But it was all quite insane.

I have to admit I was a little scared by the whole thing. Not that I honestly thought he was going to hurt me, nor could he have if he wanted to... Since Daniel was there... But he seemed so distraught. Like he had gone his whole life thinking he was the most attractive man in the world and someone had recently told him he wasn't and it was causing a midlife crisis. It was insane...

I didn't respond to him at any point partly out of shock and horror and partly because I was not sure what to say. In that situation do you appease a man that is clearly mentally ill or do you tell the truth??? My boyfriend is quite a bit more attractive than this guy and would not have had his feelings hurt had I chosen to lie to this man to get him the heck away from us and to make him feel better. But I couldn't do it. I could not bring myself on any level to tell this man that he was attractive. I certainly could not bring myself to tell him he was more attractive than my (quite attractive) boyfriend. (I am glad Erin answered for us and I didn't have to respond.)

But it was quite an interesting situation and I am still trying to process why I couldn't appease him. I could have told him what he wanted to hear and done so without hurting my boyfriend and hopefully gotten him out of there quickly and yet I could not bring myself to do so... I wonder why? What instinctively kept me from lying to this guy out of self preservation? I keep trying to figure it out and I got nothing...

All I know is beware of Barnes and Nobles in San Antonio... You may meet a crazy man looking for affirmation and be put to the same test I was...

Week 2

So... after three semesters of law school and a brief stint with summer school, I have decided that week two is by far the hardest week of classes for me. Don't get me wrong, studying for a final that is my only grade and that is 4 hours of constant writing is harder than anything, but week 2 is the hardest week of actual classes.

I think this is because week 1 is the last week that I have what I like to call "freedom." I don't study nearly as much in week 1 as I should... Because ultimately I know that I am gearing up for a full semester of reading and I just don't want to do it yet... So week 2 is when I functionally get into the swing of things and I read the full amount I am supposed to... Which is hard enough in itself, but then I also have to play catch up because I didn't read at all in week 1. Again, because I try to hold on to my "freedom" from reading for to long... Oh well, maybe next semester I will try to start reading in week one! :)

So, I am half way through my "hard" week and I should be able to catch up on all my reading by Labor day. So YEA for being on track for the semester. :) WooHoo!

My classes seem much better this semester. All except tax that is. It is hard and boring so far... But the rest are quite interesting and I think I am going to like them all. The old adage for law school is "the first year they teach you, the second year they work you, and the third year they bore you." I am fairly certain that is going to be correct, and I am OH SO looking forward to next year!

This year with my classes, being an officer in Christian Legal Society and being on the Houston Business and Tax Law Journal, I am putting in a lot more hours of extracurriculars than I thought I would. It is manageable, but I think I will find this year harder time wise because I am doing so much more than I was last year. So, if you want to say a quick prayer for Jen... you can pray I would figure out time management! That is one of my goals (pretty much always) but every year I see more and more reason to excel at the skill.

Back to life, back to reality

Well, I am finally back to Houston and back to law school. It is good to be home and back in the "swing of things" but law school is still hard. I didn't have to read as much this summer and I began to believe law school was less time consuming than it really is... Sad day. So I am readjusting to reading for 5 or 6 hours a day. I might add I am not adjusting to well, I have not read for some of my classes... so this weekend I get to play catch up. :)

I think I am really going to like my classes this semester! I am excited. I am taking Tax Law (which is in fact as boring as it sounds), Business Organization (My teacher looks like Danny Tanner and is SO FUNNY.. I think it is going to be my favorite class), Marital Property Rights (my teacher flies through the material, but actually points out the significant parts), and Intellectual Property Survey (It may be my easiest class, but it is kinda boring...). It is a manageable load and I have Fridays off! WHOOP!!! I am excited.

This means I will be able to make more trips home or to say College Station this year than I did last. :) Which is really great!!! Current Aggies, let me know if you ever have any tickets to the games, I would love to come to a few!!! I have missed my Aggie Football. It is just not the same from my living room couch.

I have been so crazy busy since I have been back. Yesterday I finally finished unpacking my boxes and my room is beginning to look like normal again, but I have been back for a few weeks and I am just now starting to get everything situated again!

I am sorry for those of you that have been wondering where I have been lately. I think I should be back to emailing/updating my blog with regularity now. So have no fear, Jen is here... Hehe... (Yes, I am a nerd!)

I am feeling much better in general than I did most of the summer. It is nice to be back in America. I really did love my experience, but I missed you all so much. It is nice to see all of your smiling faces again, and for those of you I haven't seen, it will be nice to see your face... eventually...

I'm Home

Hello All,
I am officially back in America and it feels great. I drove my car today for the first time in over a month! I was so excited. I almost forgot how to use the clutch! Haha. It is nice to be independent again and be able to go where I want to when I want to. Though I had the same freedom in Oxford, there I had to go on foot, now I have MY CAR. :)

I got back yesterday at 2:50pm and went straight to dinner with my parents at Taco Bueno. I missed Mexican food so much! I am going to eat it again tonight for dinner. It is funny how much I missed a type of food.... But you don't realize how much you like it until it is gone! Hopefully in the next week or two I will calm down about Mexican, but until then Tex-Mex it is! :)

It was so great to see my parents at the airport yesterday. I felt a huge weight lift from my back as I exited the gate. I realized I was really homesick but I didn't realize just how much I was ready to be back. I learned so much from my time in Oxford and the Lord was so faithful to show me how to cling only to Him, but MAN did I miss my friends. Being in Oxford was fun, but I have never felt so alone before. It is weird to go to a foreign country alone. I met some interesting people and all, but I could not shake my feeling of loneliness during my whole trip. I didn't like it. I felt like myself, but not at the same time. I wasn't depressed, I was just lonely all the time.

I decided I don't like being outside of the body. I think that God blesses us with fellowship for a reason and I don't like having no support system where I live. I did not meet a single Christian during my entire trip. Not one. Which was odd, because when my friend Mel came to Oxford for a week she met several (from Houston I might add) on the street. I don't know if I specifically didn't meet any because the Lord was teaching me something, but I didn't meet another believer. I think this made my homesickness harder. But I learned that at the end of the day, we need to depend solely on the Lord and not on other believers. (This is a lesson I have learned several times, but God always seems to teach me again in new ways.) I place my faith in the Lord alone, yes, but on a daily basis I have so much support that spurs me on to the goal. In Oxford that was not the case, and the Lord had to sustain me Himself. It was a wonderful time, but as a person who LOVES fellowship, it was quite hard for me.

So, being back in Texas and surrounded by my support, my prayer is that I would continue to apply what the Lord taught me during my solitude. I pray that my fellowship with Him would not be diminished by my fellowship with the body of Christ. :) And I pray that I would not take my wonderful friendships for granted!!!

I really did have an amazing summer and I am so thankful for my time in Oxford. But it is good to be home! I can't wait to see everyone!

Paris

It is official. I love Paris! I really do. It was my favorite city in my whole trip. I thought it was absolutely beautiful! For a girl that LOVES bridges, there were a ton. And for a girl that likes architecture, I had plenty to feast my eyes on. I went into Paris expecting it to be absolutely filthy and I was pleasantly surprised. Though it is by no means the cleanest city on earth, it was cleaner than I was expecting. :) Did I mention it is beautiful! Because it is!!! :)

Daniel and I kept very busy during our trip. We went on a Segway tour of the city the first night and got our bearings. We saw the Eiffel Tower sparkle. The next day we went on a bike tour of the Palace of Versailles. It was fun. The palace is pretty. Very ornate (if you like that sort of thing, you would really enjoy it). It was crazy crowded though. We got to bike around the grounds and have a picnic. I think that was my favorite part. The grounds are beautiful.

The next day we went up the Eiffel Tower, to Notre Dame, Sainte Chapelle, the Louvre, and the Arc de Triomphe. We were quite tired after this. I don't recommend doing so much in one day, but when you only have three days in Paris, you do what you have to do. :)

We headed to Normandy the next day. It was interesting to see the remnants of the war. They have retaken most of the land and are using it for farming now, so you pull up to these Bunkers that are in the middle of farm land. It is quite crazy. And the beaches were all crowded with swimmers. There were still parts of roads in the water and random remains from the war everywhere and then people just swimming among it all.

It is hard to believe so many men lost their lives there. Both of my grandfathers were at Normandy (not on D-day, but soon after) and it was interesting to walk where they had walked during the war. I liked being able to put the place with the history. Made it more real.

On Tuesday, we headed back to London on the Eurostar. I liked the train a lot because the scenery was nice. The underwater part is about 20 minutes of darkness, but I like saying I rode on the chunnel! :) That night in London, we went to dinner and a movie (Miami Vice) and relaxed. Then we headed back to Texas on Wednesday morning.

I have had better plane rides, I must admit. We were sitting right beside a mother with a 7 month old teething infant that didn't stop crying much. Made it interesting for 9 hours. But at least we made it home yesterday, today would have been INSANE! Praise the Lord for making our flight yesterday and not today.

Scotland

Well,
I made it back from Scotland safe and sound. The 7 hour train ride seemed much longer on the way back, maybe because I was awake for it. But it was good to get back to Oxford. The weather was so nice in Scotland. It was around 65 or 70 the whole time, which was a welcome change from 85-90 with no AC in Oxford. I was dreading coming back to the heat, but luckily it has been cool here as well since my return.

I had so much fun in Scotland. I stayed in Edinburgh for two nights with a girl named Alyssa that I met on the trip. The first day, we toured Edinburgh and saw Edinburgh Castle, St. Giles Cathedral, and The Palace of Holyroodhouse. On the second day we took a tour of the Highlands (we got to see several Highlands cities and Loch Ness). It was amazingly beautiful! I have attached a few pictures, but you will have to wait till I get back to Dallas to see the rest. Sorry...

I am in the middle of my last week of my last class. Too bad my professor started flying through the material in an attempt to get it all in. I am mastering writing at warp speed and trying to retain the information at the same time. It is proving more difficult than I had hoped. :)

Good thing I am almost done. This final is supposed to be insane, but I should not be complaining because my other two finals were quite easy and to only have one hard final in law school (even in summer school) is quite a blessing. :) If you think about it from 7-10am (1-4pm my time) on Thursday, please say a little prayer for me.

I will be so excited after 4pm because I will be done with summer school and have a two week break before U of H starts again. :) Not only that, but I also get to go find my boyfriend after my final! He arrives in Oxford around 2pm on Thursday and he will be waiting for me once I finish. Great after finals treat! :)

Daniel and I are going to see Oxford on Thursday and Friday morning, then head to Paris Friday afternoon. We are taking a train and get to ride on the Chunnel! I have always wanted to do this, I don't know why... But I will etll you all about it in my next update. :) We then get to spend 4 days seeing Paris, Versailles, and Normandy and whatever else we find time to see. :) Special thanks to Abby's parents for letting us invade their apartment for the week, it is such a blessing! We then return to London on Tuesday night and will fly to Dallas/Houston next Wednesday.

I have had so much fun on my journey, and I would not change anything, but I am ready to come home! I didn't realize how homesick I would get before I left. I think it is because I have such an amazing family and friends that it makes it hard to be gone for an extended period of time. :) And I am ready to have fellowship again! I miss you all dearly and can't wait to see you in a few weeks! :)

Oxford/Bath Update

Hello All,
I hope and pray this email finds you all well. I wanted to let you all know I am doing well in Oxford. I have two more weeks of class and then I am done! The time has flown by, but it also seems like I have been gone forever.

My time has been much better since I finished my first class. I have a lot more free time now and am enjoying myself quite a bit more. I have my second final on Tuesday, and then for the last week and a half I will only have one class. I finally took some pictures of Oxford! I am going to send an email with all my pictures after this one. There are a lot, so you don't have to look at any or all of them, but I will send them none the less. ;)

Last week my friend Melissa came in town. It was GREAT to have a friend here!!! We hung out in Oxford for a few days then went to Bath/Stonehenge/Salisbury. We went to see a show (We Will Rock You) in London as well and I took her on a whirlwind hour and a half long tour of the highlights of the city. It was my best weekend yet. Thanks Mel for coming! :)

Next weekend I am going to Edinburgh, Scotland with a girl I met on the trip. I am excited. Then I have one more week of class before my boyfriend, Daniel, comes in town and we go to Paris!!! I am also extremely excited about this. :)

I hope to send out one more update before I come home, but if not, I will send you the rest of my pictures and a final update once I am back. I get back to Dallas on August 9th and I get back to Houston on August 13th in time for church. I miss you all greatly! I am sorry I have not sent many updates. It is crazy over here. But know I am safe, I am having fun, and I cannot wait to come home!
Please email me back if you have time!
~Jen

Oxford Update

Hello All,
I know I have not sent out an update in a while. I think I bit off more than I can chew as far as classes are concerned for the first week. I have survived my first week at Oxford! Yea. I have yet to see much of the city though, because most days I am in class for six hours and then I come home and study. I have my first final on Tuesday and then I only have two classes for the remaining four weeks. I think my life will be much more relaxed after Tuesday, Praise God!

It is so beautiful here. I will show you all pictures when I take some. Everything is so old and beautiful. It is amazing!!! I went back to London on Friday and went on a tour of Legal London. I then went to Blenheim Palace yesterday. It is 8 miles outside of Oxford and it is the birthplace of Winston Churchill. I will email you the pictures I took if you would like to see them, you can!

Anyway, I better get back to studying. I will send a longer update with pictures of actual Oxford later. Just wanted to let you all know I am still alive and kicking! :)
I miss you all!
~Jen