I'm tired of working so hard!

I am exhausted! Mentally and physically...

This week has been/is going to be the craziest week I have all semester. Thank goodness I don't have to do this again! From here on out, everything is a bit more spread out so I won't have big six things due in one week.

This week I had a spanish paper due Monday, a Spanish test and Women and gender studies midterm today (Wednesday), a group project/paper (20 pages :/) for the Mexico class and a trafficking class midterm tomorrow and then a writing 1 essay due friday. holy moly.

Luckily, I devoted most of my weekend to studying... so there has been a lot less pressure on this week. But I'm really spending every waking moment either in class, eating, or studying (with five minute facebook and pinterest breaks here and there :D)

I cannot wait to be home on friday and to sleep in!

Spencer's visit and the Chef Competition!

It's been such a fun, crazy, exciting, busy, sleep-depriving, amazing week! Let's see... spence came last weekend! I went out to the airport (via the metrolink) and picked him up. We came back, grabbed dinner in bear's den and then found some of my friends and watched The Shawshank Redemption in one of the classrooms on campus. Then we came back and made some cookie dough :)

Saturday - we slept in, got brunch (all you can eat breakfast buffet - haven't had that in months but thought spence would enjoy it! And he did!) and then I had a lot of homework I needed to do so we just chilled in one of the seminar rooms on my floor.

Saturday night, we met up with three of my girlfriends and went downtown! These next couple pictures are from our night!

They are in backwards order of our night haha... First we went to the arch - it was a beautiful day and the view from the top was amazing! I was the only one who had been up it before so it was a fun experience for us all! Then we found this AMAZING restaurant... gourmet burgers and shakes... ahhhh yum! i had an espresso rubbed burger with apples, bacon and blue cheese. wow. and a salted caramel/brownie chunk shake :D

From there we went to the city museum. Its like a gigantic adult jungle gym. I had gone there this summer when I first got here and it was so cool but it was like 110 that day and so we were all just exhausted from the heat. But this time was great! I can't even describe the place to you so just look it up here http://www.citymuseum.org/site/

And here are pictures!

At the top of the arch
mi hermano y yo :)


in the little egg car that brings you to the top.



the view from the top!
looking out the windows
the interior of Bailey's Range (the awesome restaurant) I loved the windows making a "wall"
So Sunday, we just hung out again and spence tried to catch a flight home but it was too full. So then he came back and he got a really good feel for my life... homework...homework...homework...eating...homework...homework...homework...sleeping...homework... :)

Monday he came to class with me! He met me at my Writing 1 class (he didn't want to go to my 6 person spanish class haha) and then we had lunch and I did more homework and then he went to my women and gender studies class (which I think was interesting for him because that day the focus was on masculinity). Then I dropped him back at the metro and off he went! For real this time haha.

The weather has been great this week! 65 and sunny!!
AND THE COOKING COMPETITION!!!!

So the competition was on Tuesday!!! Anna took tons of pictures for me, so here they are!! I'll explain the whole event as you scroll through the pictures.

This is Melanie (the other student sous chef on my team) and I after we got our chef coats! With our names embroidered on them!!! I'm totally wearing it when we cook the Thanksgiving meal next year!
Team South!!

We get to keep the hats too :D



This one makes me laugh haha.
And off we went! So now I can finally tell you what we made!

Our appetizer (which was the one I focused on) was a pickled fennel salad with smoked trout and citrus topped on a lentil puree. AMAZING. And I thought I didn't like trout!! The main dish was rabbit with a stone ground mustard spaetzle and ragout. Spaetzle is like little tiny dumplings, kinda like pasta.

It was all so unique and flavorful! I definitely want to try making it at home! Although mom will probably make me do it with chicken instead :D

But while we were prepping for it this weekend... I butchered one of the rabbits!! As weird as it was, it was pretty awesome haha :)

So here I am getting the lentils warming...

Using a mandolin to sliver the fennel.


chef colby, the one next to me was quartering the fennel and Melanie was working on the ragout. Chef Patrick, the one behind Melanie was doing the spaetzle
My friends who came to cheer me on! Charlie, Jin and Lindsay
My friend Kara

Anna... with the Chancellor in the background (the real reason for this picture lol)
still going on the fennel... Chef Colby was slicing the orange now. we used three different types of oranges to give it some more color and then made a reduction from the juice to sprinkle on the plate



my name on my jacket :D


the theme for the competition was healthy or something like that... we had to follow the FDA Choose my plate guidelines and Connie's Choice (the campus dietician). so our whole meal was VERY good for you!
Melanie working on the mustard greens for the ragout
mixing up the salad
our plated meal! the spaetzle and ragout is in the white dish, the rabbit and some cooked carrots is on the wooden plate. the appetizer is on the white dish - the lentil puree in a swirl with the orange reduction around the edges and the salad in a little ball on top
Presenting our dishes

Chef Jim Dodge (the celebrity judge!) He's Bon appetite's coporate pastry chef... charlie was excited to take a picture "with" him.
Unfortunately, the other team won :( But honestly, the whole experience was so much fun that who cares if we didn't win?! We got some pretty sweet chef coats, some great cooking tips and the coolest experience ever! We just didn't walk away with a check for $250 in our pockets :/

So that was pretty awesome!! It was a pretty big time committment so by the time it was over, I was in trouble homework wise haha... Oh well! I had a big essay due this morning... and I realized that I work so much better when I'm awake in the mornings. So each morning this week I've been getting up 2-4 hours before class and just cranking it out. It's been good but my body has had a hard time adjusting! I feel like i'm in another time zone!

Next week is going be insane... It's midterm week so I've got two more papers and three midterm tests... Yikes. But I'm REALLY loving my classes right now so i don't really mind it all because it's stuff i'm interested in!

alright, now that i've successfully stalled on my homework for an hour - it's time to get back to it. but i'm glad i could finally post all these pictures and tell you about my week!

One more week and I'M HOME FOR SPRING BREAK! WOOHOO!