IWU weekend

Hello there!

This past weekend was amazing, as I was able to spend four days at Indiana Wesleyan University, where I went to school my freshman and sophomore years. I drove down Thursday night and stayed with my friends Sarah and David (in married housing) till Sunday!

Friday I went to Chapel with Ashley, Kayla, and Onna, and then I ate lunch at Wildcat, just like old times. My good friend Olivia came over later that day (she also used to go to IWU) and we checked out our friends' townhouse! It was very adorable, and it was so good to see all their faces again (there are six girls that live in that townhouse).

(Me, Maddie, and Olivia)

That night, Sarah, David, Olivia, and I all went out to eat at Fazzoli's with the students who work at the on-campus library, since David, Olivia, and I all used to work there, and Sarah works there currently.
Then we met up with our friend Logan (who also used to go to IWU) and all the girls from the townhouse and went to Friday Night Live, a comedy show that IWU students put on every semester. It was pretty good!

After that we just chilled and talked and drank hot chocolate and had a good time :)

Saturday I got to eat lunch with the beautiful Joanna! Goodness, I missed her so much. After our two-hour lunch, she bought me tea from the IWU coffee shop and then we went to her room and just talked for a while. We kind of speculated on living together after school, since we're both graduating in May! It was really really great to see this face again.

(I have no idea why my camera made our faces different colors)

After that, Sarah and I went to visit Ashley, who is an art student at IWU and had a project to work on in the art building. We sat with her for a while and caught up with her and got to experience her magic touch with Photoshop. This poor girl has so many projects, and she's an RA, so I'm just really impressed with her ability to stay calm and positive!

(Me, Ashley, and Sarah in the art building)

That night, Kayla, Sarah, Mari, and I all went to Sweetser, IN to judge a little kids Halloween costume contest. It was fun! It was pretty difficult because there were so many adorable little kids in very creative costumes; it was hard to pick a favorite. But we did it! And afterwards Kayla's cousin treated us to some kettle corn and we walked around the town a bit, enjoying the festivities.

That night we all watched Miss Congeniality in the townhouse while chowing down on some Wendy's. After that, Sarah, David, and I went back to their place and watched a movie called Get the Gringo with Mel Gibson. I liked it!

The next morning I left around 10 am because I had to be back in Ann Arbor by 3 pm to tutor. It was really such a great weekend, and I'm very happy I was able to see all of my old friends, including my fellow library workers and all the other people that no longer attend IWU but made a trip there anyway!
Thank you so much for everyone who made this a great weekend, and thank you to Sarah and David for taking me in for a few days!

I hope everyone has a really great week.

Love,
Erica

The vet, midterms, and a wedding!

Hello there!

So, several things have happened since the last time I posted. The first is that my cat had his vet appointment as a follow-up to his neutering surgery that he had a month ago. He is all healed up and good to go! And he's healthy, and the vet says that unless something's wrong there's no reason for me to bring Mishi back there for another year. I'm sure that makes my cat very happy.
And speaking of, here he is at the vet:

When Nick saw this picture he said, "...so majestic." haha.
Of course, despite how majestic he is, the poor little guy hates the cat carrier with a passion, and this was my soundtrack on the 20 minute drive to and from the vet:

On another note, I had my midterms this past week. I also had two group projects and a take-home test. This involved my hanging out at Nick's place with his roommates a lot, doing homework and taking the occasional break for Super Smash Brothers!

Also, it was Nick's birthday on the 8th. He is now 21 years old! I got him a vinyl record, a CD, and concert tickets (on November 3) for his favorite band!
His mom came that Saturday, the 11th, and took Nick and I out for breakfast at the Broken Egg in Ann Arbor. It was super delicious. (Unfortunately, I did not get any pictures).

On the 18th (this past Saturday), my good friend Emilie got married! Nick and I drove to Hudsonville from Ann Arbor Saturday morning for the ceremony, then to Grand Haven for the beautiful reception, and finally from Grand Haven to Ann Arbor. It was a very long day full of driving, but the wedding was beautiful and fun, and I'm very happy I was able to go :)

So now that my midterms are over I have virtually no homework on the horizon, so I have been able to relax a lot, hang out at home, and read my Spanish Harry Potter book (I'm on the fourth one). It's been super nice!
And I will end this week's post with a few pictures of my adorable kitten, because it is apparent that I am obsessed with taking pictures of him, and I just don't understand how he can be so adorable =P

(He got in the box and tangled up in the towel all by himself)



I hope you all have a super fantastic week! Remember God's with you and you have no reason to be stressed!

Love,
Erica

Post-college Job Search!

Hello there!
As you guys know, I will be graduating in May of 2015. That's only seven months away!!! After that, I will be expected to go out into the world and find a job like a big girl. It's pretty nerve-racking. I definitely feel a lot of pressure to find the most correct, perfect job, on account of the fact that, who knows, this might be where I work for the rest of my life! And at the very least, this first job out of college will determine my experience in this field, in case I ever try to find employment somewhere else.
So much pressure!

However, regardless of this pressure to find the perfect job, I am kind of enjoying the fact I have a whole world of possibilities before me right now! I could go wherever I wanted, do whatever I wanted. I'm at a place where I can sit back and enjoy daydreaming about the possibilities.

So, with that being said, I have been looking into some companies that could possibly hire me right out of college and that would allow me to do something I enjoy. My ideal goal is to end up in a publishing company, translating famous literature from English to Spanish. For example, right now I'm reading the Harry Potter series in Spanish. How cool would it have been to be able to say I "wrote" the Harry Potter series???

(the company that translated these is in Barcelona, Spain... Maybe I should move there!)

Unfortunately, publishing companies do not hire grads straight out of college, and always require some sort of previous experience with translating (which I do not have). So, my current plan is to find a job that involves translating, preferably in writing, so that I can then have experience to show these publishing companies that I know what I'm doing.

Now, I have this wonderful professor that I am very close to, who has told me of two companies specifically that she has worked with, and she says that I can use her as a reference here to almost certainly land a job! Isn't that great???
The only issue I see is the location of these companies, which are both in Massachusetts. Wayyy on the east coast, super far away from all of my friends and family.
So right now I'm fighting between applying to these places, or staying close to home.

Now, the first place that she told me about (drum roll, please) is Cambridge Brickhouse!
http://www.cambridgebh.com/aboutus.html

This company not only translates youth literature from English to Spanish (which is what I would be interested in), but they also do editing, design, composition, and really anything you can think of that has to do with books and youth education.
From what I gather from the website, my job would be similar to one of a consultant. I would work directly with a client to translate what he/she needs. I guess this company is associated with over 20,000 translation companies, so maybe I would be able to find a job closer to home? The website is a little unclear about the specifics of the jobs, but there are currently a lot of jobs posted, so it seems like my chances of getting in here would be pretty good.

The second place that my professor recommended was the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
http://www.bls.gov/ooh/media-and-communication/interpreters-and-translators.htm

This is the one that I'm really crazy about, mostly because their website is so specific on what I would be doing and very helpful for finding more information.
This is the overview on the job I would have:

I think this is gorgeous! That median pay... the fact that I only need a Bachelor's degree... short term, on-the-job training! It's just what I wanted!
So, as of now, I really really want to get a job translating for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It really sounds perfect.The website is very clear on what I would be doing, what's expected of me, what my work environment would be, and what my job outlook and opportunities for advancement are.


So yeah, this is my job search so far. I have really only looked into these two companies since they're the ones my professor recommended. Of course, translators are pretty sought after right now, so if I wanted to stay in Michigan I'm sure I could. I guess my only issue is I'm not super sure exactly how to go about finding these Michigan jobs.

So, what do you think? Think I should pick one of these two or keep looking? Do you know of any other translation or publishing companies that I could look into?

I hope you all have a fantastic week! And to my fellow students out there, good luck on all your midterms and projects!

Love,
Erica

Home for a day

Hello there!
This past weekend I got to go home for a day, and it was wonderful. I got to go shopping with my two beautiful sisters, and then we ate Chinese at the mall. It was so nice hanging out with these ladies.

Once my dad and brother were out of work, we all went downtown for Art Prize in Grand Rapids! The crew included my sisters (Elena and Tiffany), my brother (Andrew), Tiffany's husband (Matt), my dad, and myself. I haven't seen these guys in about two months, so it was super nice to get to hang out with them and see some great art at the same time!

My favorite piece of art was a large black cube with cut-outs. There was a light source in the middle that made the shapes of the cube form shadows on the walls of the room it was in (in the Art Museum). I don't what it was made of, but I love the effect it produced.

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend at home. I can't wait to be back for Thanksgiving. Isn't Grand Rapids just so pretty?

Until next week! Wish me luck on my midterms!

Love,
Erica

Hello there!

Hello everyone! My name is Erica!
I recently deleted my Facebook, and there were some objections by friends and family members who prized Facebook as a way of keeping up with me. Therefore, I decided to make this blog! For the lovely folk who care what's going on in my life :)

I am a senior at the University of Michigan, and in May I will be graduating with a BA in Spanish (with a double minor in Sociocultural Anthropology and Linguistics). My hope is that I will find some sort of job translating youth literature.

I have an adorable kitten named Mishi (the inspiration for my url!) that I have owned for about two months. The fact that I have my own cat means I'm an adult, right?

I also have a wonderful boyfriend, Nick, who I've been with for a little over 4 1/2 years, and who is one grade lower than me here at the University of Michigan. He is majoring in computer science in the school of engineering with a double minor in Math and Japanese (impressive, right!).

My roommate Noreen is also a junior at the University of Michigan (I met her through Nick). She is a sweet girl, and owns her own dog, the gorgeous Minnie! It is spirited little 10-year-old Pomeranian that Noreen adopted last spring from our local Humane Society. We're both pretty obsessed with our pets and think they're the cutest things in the world.

This past weekend I got to visit my best friends Heather and Sean in Kalamazoo, MI. We saw the oh so interesting horror movie Anabelle to get in the spirit of Halloween (It was rated R and I don't like horror movies, so, needless to say I stared at my lap for a large portion of it!). We also spent some time at the local bars where I got to meet my friends' friends and see what they do when I'm not there! The beautiful Heather is pictured below (the only picture I took with Sean was too dark).

But yeah, so I hope you guys enjoy this blog! I'll probably end up posting short blogs every week or every other week.
You can send me e-mails at ecayoy818@gmail.com or comment on my blog. And feel free to share it with your friends who like reading blogs!

God bless,
Erica :)