The End

It's almost here.  I've turned in my thesis, my last papers, and written my final exams.  Saturday I will graduate.  I will be graduating with a bachelor's degree in psychology (minor in German) and ON TIME!  This is kind of a big deal if you have any idea what I've been up against the last four years.  At times it was questionable if I'd finish at all and many doubted that I'd be able to finish on time. I did have to drop my German major to a minor, but I have completed everything.  Praise the Lord!

Flashback to last weekend:

Thursdsay through Saturday was Tulip Time in Pella.  For all you non-Pella people, Tulip Time is a big deal.  It's a celebration of the Dutch heritage in Pella and there is dancing and parades and lots of food.  And lots and lots of people.  It was kind of cold (read: extremely cold) and rather icky this weekend, but the weather cooperated enough that they didn't have to cancel any of the parades or dancing.

Here's a picture of me and my dance partner before one of our dances:

Her name is Chelsea Bell and she made a fine man (I don't think I'm supposed to say that though...she says she's not good at being a boy.)

Here we are dancing:

This was Saturday and it was ridiculously cold out...most the day I wore my toque and alpaca mitts.  I only wore my bonnet when we were performing.

This year at Tulip Time the added excitement was breaking a world record.  It's Pella and sometimes strange things happen in Pella (and not just because it is a college town).  Pella decided that it wanted to try and break the world record for the most people dancing in wooden shoes.  The previous record had been set in Holland with 400 some dancers. Pella's goal was 1000 dancers.  We got 2604 dancers and danced for 6 minutes and 15 seconds.  Here is a video I found with me in it from second 29-42.  The music in that video isn't the dancing music so here is one with the dancing music if you want to hear what it sounded like out there Saturday morning.

Other Tulip Time highlights:

- Parking cars Friday morning.  I had a lot of energy and stood on the corner with a parking sign singing and dancing (in full Dutch costume) trying to convince cars to park in our lot.  I did this for 1.5 hours...then laughed uncontrollably for about that long for no real reason.

- Playing the question game from 4am-6am with Amber and Ashley while doing security at West Market Park.  Sample questions: If you could shoot anything out of your wrists, like Spiderman, what would you shoot?  If you could sell anything at West Market Park during Tulip Time, what would it be?  What is the most important thing you have learned this year?

- Carpet ball.  good times happened at the carpet ball tables...for awhile I even ended up in charge of a table...not sure how that happend.

- marching bands.  I like watching marching bands, especially the stuff they do with the flags.

- seeing people I hadn't seen for awhile.

After Tulip Time was done, it was Sunday which was also a pretty rock awesome day. If you missed the post about the awesomeness that was Sunday, you can find it here. 

Monday was study day which meant very little studying got done, but Study Day picnic did happen and it was a good turn out, so that was good.  Tuesday was paper writing and finishing my ARP research paper.  I cried when I printed it off I was so happy.  Today I turned in my last papers, wrote my last exam and finished! I'm sure there will be more "finishing college" thoughts in the days to come, but that's all for now.  Just one final question:  What noise does a firefly make?