Day Two: Picture of You

One of the most recent pictures of me. Hooray HP7.1!

I'm already a day behind... This may be foreshadowing... But diving in...

15 Things About Me:
1. I am a champion sleeper. I can and will sleep anywhere, anytime.
2. I've also been known to sleepwalk and sleeptalk during the above times...
3. I have a highly diverse music library. I love everything from Elvis to Rise Against and many things in between. I agree with Victor Hugo when he said: "Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent."
4. I prefer not wearing shoes. I like buying them, just not wearing them.
5. Most of the time, I eat like a five year old. I eat PopTarts for breakfast pretty much every morning and consume Oreos only with milk. Today I made a quesadilla with a cheese smiley face and proceeded to cut stars out of it with a cookie cutter. I'm 21, but it still made me super happy.
6. I love to listen to people speak in foreign languages. I don't even care if I understand them, I just love hearing them. Especially when spoken by attractive men.
7. As shown in the above picture, I'm quite a Harry Potter nut. He has been a part of my life since 3rd grade, and I've been to each movie on opening night. So much love in my heart for those books.
8. I love to travel and have to use all of my fingers to count the countries I've been to. I adore learning about the cultures and seeing things for myself.
9. I quote movies. A lot. My repertoire has recently been expanded to YouTube videos as well. (For reference go to either "Boys Will Be Girls" or "My pushup bra will help me get my man". Both high quality entertainment.)
10. I Facebook photo stalk. No picture is safe. You were warned.
11. I have a strange fixation with mustaches. I currently own three shirts, one ring, one necklace, a giant fridge magnet, and waterbottle mustaches to attest to this.
12. I have quite the princess predicament. I look like Snow White, but always identified with Belle. What's a girl to do?
13. I can never tell if dairy products are bad. I drink my milk for a while after the expiration date, because I can't taste or smell if it's "sour".
14. I am super ticklish, but not in normal places... Don't go near my ears or neck.
15. I wear whatever I want. Sometimes this results in strange fashion choices and an "eclectic" label on my wardrobe.

And on the first day...There was music

Day one of the blog challenge: put your iPod (I chose iTunes) on shuffle and list the first 10 songs.

I apologize in advance for the randomness.

1. All Shook Up - Elvis Presley
2. Baby, It's Cold Outside - Dean Martin & Doris Day (not so true today)
3. Radio - He Is We
4. Remember the Name - Fort Minor
5. Prisoners - Regina Spektor
6. Princess - Matt Nathanson
7. Somebody Loved - The Weepies
8. Friends Don't Let Friends Dial Drunk - Plain White Ts
9. Water And Bridges - Dashboard Confessional
10. Lean On Me - Glee Cast

Well there they are. Haha that is actually a pretty decent summary of my music collection. Hooray for music!

30 Day Blog Challenge

I've seen some people doing these "challenges" on Facebook and blogs and I thought it was a good way to prompt me to blog. Basically I've begun to cave to the peer pressure, since I've newly discovered that apparently all my friends have blogs. So off we go:

1. put your iPod on shuffle and list the first 10 songs
2. a recent picture of yourself and 15 facts about you
3. a picture of you and your friends
4. a habit that you wish you didn’t have
5. a picture of somewhere you’ve been to
6. favorite super hero and why
7. a picture of someone/something that has the biggest impact on you
8. short term goals for this month and why
9. something you’re proud of in the past few days
10. songs you listen to when you’re happy, sad, bored, excited, mad
11. something you could never get tired of doing
12. nicknames you have and why
13. a picture of you last year and now; how you’ve changed since then
14. a pic of you and your family
15. a song that makes you cry
16. an art piece
17. a talent of yours
18. your idea of a perfect first date
19. a youtube video
20. whatever tickles your fancy
21. your day in great detail
22. a picture of something that makes you happy
23. a photo of the last thing you purchased
24. your best friend
25. a photo of the town you live in
26. what's in your purse
27. a tv show your addicted to
28. something you regret
29. something you miss
30. a photograph of yourself today + three good things that have happened in the last month

Pictures

It's been a busy, fun year! I found this great website that lets you show off your pictures in a really cool way! Check it out:

Adventures of 2010 Slideshow: Melody’s trip from Salt Lake City, Utah, United States to 19 cities Beijing, Paris, Shanghai, Amsterdam, Brussels, Xi'an, Seoul, Qingdao, Ho Chi Minh City, Geneva, Guilin, Basel, Busan, Lausanne, Annecy, Versailles, Leysin, Gruyères and Börsborn (near Altenkirchen, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany) was created by TripAdvisor. See another France slideshow. Take your travel photos and make a slideshow for free.

Au début

This is my favorite time of any trip: the beginning. Not only do you still have a whole suitcase of fresh clothes or some semblance of sanity, but you also have the promise of adventures ahead. The possibilities are still full of potential. It is still seemingly unreal to be sitting in Switzerland right now. This trip has been unique in that I haven't had much time to mentally prepare. The last five weeks have been simply survival, and I wasn't even doing a very good job at that! I had no time to psych myself up for the trip, so it's already off to an interesting start.
Switzerland is so pristine and beautiful. I love it so much. I have missed the tranquility. There is such a respect for the quality of life here. The US is so busy all the time, it's easy to get lost in the hustle. Although I'll still have responsibilities, I expect the Swiss air to calm my soul. Just being here for a few hours has been soothing.
Plus I've gotten to know some people in my group better already. I love how traveling together bonds people. We have a great group, with some really great people!

Well, it's currently 10:28 pm local time, and I've been traveling since yesterday morning, so I'm going to bed. Here's to the start of something new!

World Expo

While we were in Shanghai, we had the awesome opportunity to visit the World Expo, also known as the World's Fair. Basically a chance for countries to show off to each other, the World Expo is a gathering of pavilions (or semi-permanent structures) from almost every country in the World. Basically you could get a taste of the world in one city. It was so much fun. We spent almost two whole days there!

In front of the Nepal Pavilion



My friend Brooke and me with the China Pavilion in the background. (And yes, there was a group of Japanese tourists standing behind the person who took this picture, so we ended up on a bunch of Japanese cameras as well... Creepers.)



The Morocco Pavilion



And finally, a shot of the cityscape of Shanghai. It was so beautiful!

So I Climbed the Great Wall...

I know it's been a while since I blogged; I didn't realize that Blogger would be blocked by the "Great Firewall." Tragic, I know. But I thought I'd still post some of my favorite memories from the trip.

One of the stand-out days was when I fulfilled a life's dream of going to the Great Wall of China. It was pretty sweet. We visited just a part of it when we were in the Beijing area, but it seemed to be a popular place to go. It was totally crowded, but still way fun to see.



I think one of the things that surprised me the most was how steep it was. The wall literally just followed the mountains and was quite the hike to make in my flip flops...

Something I love about historical places is the way they make you think about those that came before you. So many people lived and died for this wall. Hardly any of the workers ever got to see the work completed. I wonder if these men could have known that in hundreds of years a girl from a country that didn't even exist back then would come and snap a few pictures, walk around, and leave. They couldn't have. They just did their job because that's what they had to do.



And when we came down off the wall, there was a camel. Kinda random, but of course we had to take pictures!