Well... I had the bug the other day to play with Linux again - something I haven't really had the chance to do in going on two years now... So I went ahead and started the 3-day long process (yes, you read that right - 3 DAY process, I'm on dial-up. Still.) of downloading the newest version of Ubuntu (6.10) - Afterall, 3 days of no phone calls is better than waiting 4-6 weeks, right??

Anyhow. I finally got it downloaded, at which point, it ocurred to me that I inexplicably did not have any blank CDs - so I ran to town, and bought 20. Got home, burnt it, got it installed. OK, all good so far.... only I couldn't figure out how to get wvdial to configure for the life of me, so I figured I'd just reboot to windows... and realized that my bootloader had gotten changed, and I was thus locked out. So I started trying to figure Grub out, gave up after a bit an figured I'd just throw collegelinux back on, and all would be good, right? Wrong. Long story short, after (trying to) install various old linux flavors I realized I'd somehow accidentally formatted my Windows partition... So I re-installed Ubuntu. And after a bit more effort... figured out wvdial. And am currently loving Ubuntu.

Now, when I say that, I realy mean it. For the first time, I've succesfully gotten my modem working, my soundcard working... hell, even my iPod's up and running (I'm listening to it right now!!). In short, I really don't think I'll bother to re-install windows... I can't think what I need it for. Now, its always possible that at some point in the future I'll want/need it... but, for now, meh.

I think it all boils down to the fact that I've been living off of other people's computers for the past 1+ years. As a result, most everything I actually use on a day-to-day basis is online to one degree or another - pics (smugmug), email (gmail), documents (google docs), and of course all my mp3's are on my iPod, so not even they have been lost this time around (and even if they hadn't bene, my wonderful brother burned them all to CDs when I formatted THAT in spain!!)

Anyhow, its just a really strange feeling to be toatlly free of Windows for the first time, well, ever. And not the least bit worried/unhappy about it. As I think about it... my computer probably needed a good format anyhow - its been a good 4+ years afterall ;)

Well, crazyness has continued to ensue around here. Kevin and I got married yesterday afternoon, so thats pretty crazy. Now we're on our last few hours of time-off, before the long 8-9 hour drive back down to camp. Its been a fairly fun, crazy few days. 5 days sounds like a good bit - untill you realize your splitting it between 2 different houses on different sides of the state of ohio. So yeah.... its been good though.

Have to say I'm starting to actually feel pregnant now though. My stomach just feels, heavier I suppose. Tis hard to explain. But yeah, we're excited. Going to start looking for jobs in Ashville, NC when we get back to camp, along with an apartment. Its just such an awesome area. Its beatiful, the people are nice, pretty laid back, theres tons to do as far as hiking, climbing, etc goes. So yeah. Hopefully we find some good stuff.

Hmm, well its been a while since I posted on here so I figured I'd do a little updating.

Camp's going well again - after a bit of a rough time with staff 3 weeks ago or so, I once again have a great staff and some pretty decent horses to ride, and am once again having a blast teaching kids.

I've luckly not had too many issues with horses this summer ::knock on wood:: Just had to call the vet out for the first time about a week ago, since a horse had a nasty puncture wound (from god knows what), that was nastily infected. But she's better now, so tis all good. I had him look at a couple others while he was there (I've learned, if you have one big-ish problem, call them out... don't bother telling them bout the other 10 lil things, tell them when they get there:wink:).

Aside from that though, my big news, my crazyness news... is that I am, pregnant :D Which is, believe it or not pretty cool and exciting. Of course, it messes up plans on going back to spain, but thats OK. I'm about 1.5-2 months along at this point, dealing with stupid annoying ass "morning" sickness, which is more like "feel like crap all day" sickness... but meh. Other than that its cool.

As a result I'm trying to figure out if I can stick around here for the fall, where we can both save money and stuff... it would, really, be the preferred option at this point. But yeah, thats about all thats new with me.

Well, I'm now down outside of Brevard NC, working at a camp. Its OK... I've mostly been cleaning the barn up and trying to get it ready for horses (they're coming on Monday around 3 =). And I'll admit that I'm most happy since, for the first time in a year, I'm in the same place as Kevin. Which is awesome.

Its a very pertty camp though, I have to say... and I'm excited for things to really get going here in the coming weeks. Mostly I can't wait for my horses to arrive... then I can actually explore camp, something I haven't had a chance to do at all yet (haven't really even had a tour...), so that'll be fun.

But yeah, thats about all thats new with me. Its been a crazy couple of weeks, leaving spain, getting home, unpacking and then repacking and driving all the way down here (like 9 odd hours!!). But, its cool... and, honestly, as noted above, I'm just absolutely thrilled to be around Kevin again.

So yeah, its actually, really, truelly happening. I´m going home to work for the summer (Ok, so I´l be "home" for a whopping 7 days... and then down to S. Carolina...), and then I´m coming back to Spain, back to Salamanca in the fall for an other year of school here, learning general crap (interesting crap, but crap nonetheless=) and having a blast, living in Europe, living in Spain. So cool. So amazing.

Nintendo Wii

So, on a completely other note, I like the new name. Its cool. Its trendy, its easy - and I personally doubt anyone will have problems pronouncing it. And I´ll probably get one, though I´m not really sure... If only consoles were region free like portables. Ojala. Anyhow.

Macbook - me want!

In other continueing stories. The new macbooks are awesome, and I really, really, really want one. Though I doubt that´ll happen. But hey, I can dream now, can´t I?? The new 17 inchers are frigging amazing. When I get one (because its when now, not if, but when...), I´m totally going to throw Linux on it (probably Ubuntu, but possibly Slackware, or College Linux), and yeah. It´ll be awesome.

Barcelona´s in the finals!!!

Yeah, all you goofy americans don´t know, probably don´t care. But I do!! Barcelona (Futbol Club Barcelona, thats the football (soccer) team of Barcelona), is in the finals!! They´re playing Arsenal on the 17th of May!! And I won´t get to see it!! (Unless maybe ESPN broadcasts at least that game?? I hope??). Not fair.

Right. Thats about it.

Wow. I´m absolutely dumbfounded. I talked to my dad last night about school an all that... and its now a possibility (a very small one, but it exists!!:) that I could come back to Spain, back to Salamanca in the fall for regular university.

Of course, to do this I´ll have to save every damn penny all summer long, and then when I got back here, try and find a job making pizzas or something. But it´d be amazing!! I honestly can´t quite believe my luck, how frigging awesomely cool and understanding (and generous!!) my Dad is. Grandpa of course, according to dad "will say its crazy" - but as tuition would be WAY cheaper here... well, yeah... I´m sure he´d be OK with it in the end.

In anycase, this little tiny light in the end of the tunnel has more or less made my week/month. I´ve been getting pretty sad and depressed about leaving. I just have so many good friends here, its such a cool place... And I love speaking spanish soo much, can´t quite imagine what it´d be like to go back to the US and not speak spanish all the time... it´d be wierd. ´

So yeah, I´m now in the process of looking at the majors for the first time here... I´m actually kind of leaning towards a liberal-arts type thing, or something internacional. We´ll see.

Right. So I´d also like to protest the no-spanish characters in the title rule... Lousy Gamespot!! *mutters*

Wow. I have a measly 3 more weeks (less than that, actually...), left in spain. Its crazyness. I can`t imagine what it´ll be like to be back in the US again... And I certainly can´t imagine what it´ll be like to go to school in the US.

I really just have absolutely no desire to go to university back in Ohio again. It doesn´t sound fun, or interesting, or anything of the sort... It sounds horribly boring and I don´t know... just wierd.

It´ll be nice to be back around my family and my boyfriend especially, but the rest of it... meh. I just love spain. Can´t imagine what it´ll be like to not live here anymore. it´ll be wierd. I know that. Very very weird. I keep looking around Salamanca and talking to all my friends here - friends from all over, from austria, pakistan, france, italy, switzerland, belgium, sweden, england, spain, morrocco, brazil, argintina, mexico... and I just can´t express to them just how much I don´t want to go home. How much I don´t want to goto school in the US, and especially not in Ohio. And how I don´t have a clue to tell my family that. I´d rather work here in Spain than go back to school in the US and especailly in Ohio. **** boring ohio.

Hi there, my name´s Emily and I´m a 21 year old student currently studying spanish in Salamanca Spain. I´m a long-time gamer and have been coming to gamespot for years. I started coming here back when it was mostly a PC-games site back in the 1990s when I mostly came for free game downloads (of both demos and freeware/shareware games...).

As I´m in Spain I obviously don´t have access to a nice big TV and lots of different consoles, so 90% of my gaming is done on the Nintendo DS and the original GBA.

The other 10% or so of my gaming is done online, on good old-fashioned MUDs. If you happen to know what those are, you can often find me on "my" mud which is (as it has been for the past god, 6 or 7 years) still in development (Star Trek Elite: telnet://guests.deus.net port: 6969 ). Its not really mine, although to be perfectly honest I´m not sure who it actually belongs to. But yeah. I´m also a long-time player of Act of War (don´t have a clue what the telnet is, it changes constantly...), Taj there too, just like mostly everywhere else. Years ago I played Starfleet MUD.

Tis about it. Gimme a holler if you like. On here, or on STE.