Favorite Quotes.

One of my favorite things to do while I'm procrastinating things on my to-do list (I promise this doesn't happen very often...) is to look at inspirational quotes on my Pinterest. They serve as a reminder to keep things in perspective which, I'm not going to lie, is often useful. 

Rather than keep these to myself, I figured I'd feature them here. 

Keep not settling,

Note: These images were collected from pinterest.com, all rights remain with their original owners.

Family.

So, first thing's first: Salem's wifi has all of a sudden decided that it doesn't want to work on my laptop. Or anyone else's, for that matter. While Salem's tech team is trying to figure out why it's happening, I'm stuck in the library on the ethernet-enabled computers.

But that's besides the point, I promise. 

This week, I've had the pleasure of my family being here. Tomorrow starts the beginning of Family Weekend here at Salem. Let me tell you, it's very different having my family here on campus rather than being home, but I'm enjoying it a lot. Dad and Shawn ("Baby Jansen" around here) haven't visited before, so they've been getting acquainted with the area. Hopefully by the time they leave to go home on Tuesday I'll have successfully communicated all of the reasons why I love Salem. Pictures just don't do some things justice. 

I have an entire list of places my family has to eat at before they leave. Not kidding.  We've knocked off three from the list already, and there's a good six or seven more. Plus, they had the opportunity to experience their first College Night Coffeehouse -- Salem's weekly live performance in the Student Center -- starring a band called Runaway Dorothy. Check them out. They were amazing.

As far as the rest of the week goes, I assume we're playing it by ear. On the agenda includes trips to the Wake Forest library and Costco. Exciting, I know. 

In the middle of midterm prep stress and all that wonderful goodness that comes with the end of October, I can't say that having my family here is a bad thing. I mean, it gives me every excuse I need to finish my homework. 

Hopefully by this weekend we'll have some decent wifi connections...If not, you might be hearing from "Library me" again in the near future. Stay tuned.

Oh and, 

keep not settling,

My Washington D.C. Trip - Part 2!

Here we are for the second part of the pictures from my Washington D.C. trip. 

If you haven't already, go check out part one! 

This second portion covers stops at the Smithsonian National Air & Space and Natural History museums. Unfortunately we only had so many hours in the day, and all of the museums close at 5:30 PM, so we didn't get the chance to explore nearly as much as we'd have liked. Nevertheless, these two museums were incredible. 

I have a ton of pictures, so I'm not going to talk anymore. Enjoy! 

There was so much to see in both of these museums... and we only covered about half of the exhibits in Natural Science and less than a quarter of Air & Space. Hopefully one day I'll get the chance to back and round them off. 

Keep not settling, 

My Washington D.C. Trip - Part 1!

I figured it would be easiest to split up pictures from my trip into two parts, since there are lots of them. This first part will include pictures from our first stop, the Capitol Building!

In general, the trip was incredible. Roommate J and I woke up at 3:45, easily the earliest I've been up in a loooong time. Salem women have incredible energy, though, even at four in the morning. Even just overhearing everyone's plans for the day had me forgetting the time. So, although we spent 10+ hours on a bus that was not conducive to sleeping, it was a great time. We stopped at a McDonalds along the way, and I've never seen better fast food customer service in my life. Props to all the staff on duty at 5AM who managed to get 50+ through the registers and fed within 45 minutes. 

But enough about the travel, let's talk about the really fun stuff.

Honestly, I don't think I've ever seen anything more beautiful in my life. We got the chance to tour the historic areas and rotunda within the building... it was all incredible, not to mention extremely motivating. There's something about actually seeing the building in my textbooks in person. As soon as I left I wanted to go back. As a political science major, this was definitely the highlight of the trip. Maybe one day I'll make it over to see the White House.

(Probably my favorite picture of the whole trip!)

The historical Supreme Courtroom.

Inside the "Crypt." Fun fact, there's an empty tomb for George Washington sitting underneath... turns out he didn't want to be buried there.

The top of the Rotunda. The donut tarp is due to the 3-year-long construction project to restore the dome.

The following pictures are all from the inside of the Rotunda:

Really, I don't think I've ever seen anything more beautiful in my life. From the moment you walk into the visitor's center, everything is breathtaking. Add an entertaining tour guide and you're set. I'd go back in a heartbeat.

Stay tuned for pictures from the rest of the trip!

Keep not settling,

Fall Break.

There’s been something glorious about being a west-coaster on Salem’s campus during Fall Break. Because I wasn’t able to go home, one of my roommates (who is also Californian) and I have been soaking up the emptiness. Four days to recharge? Amazing. I’ll take it.

What have I been up to? A bunch of lovely things: 

• Saturday: A bunch of television-watching and just being lazy, including a very successful two hour nap. 

• Sunday: Probably one of the best days I’ve had this semester. I started out the day by taking my camera out for its first spin since being on campus and, what do you know, my SD card decided to break.. But otherwise, Roommate J and I had a fairly productive, energizing day: adorable Winston-Salem weekly art/food/music fair, a trip to the mall for  pumpkin spice-flavored Starbucks and Cinnabon (yum), delicious burgers from the Student Center café here on campus. 

• Monday: Took a bus trip with about 50 other Salem girls to Washington D.C. So much fun, a separate post all about this to come shortly! 

• Tuesday (today): Reading ahead for my literature-intense political science classes. No regrets. But really, it's been a day of plain old-fashioned rest, since nobody really got "sleep" on the bus to and from D.C. 

These last few days have been magical in terms of getting some extra sleep, lounging in sweatpants, and exploring new places. I’ve also had the chance to listen to music which — surprisingly — doesn’t happen very often anymore. (This is basically a crime to me.) 

So, tomorrow is back to the usual grind. Let’s do this. 

Keep not settling,