Love this song and interpretation

I loved this song by Coldplay and then was watching SYTYCD with my roommates, when they performed this. I don't have much of a critical eye for dance, especially contemporary. This was beautiful though.

http://youtu.be/_TsR1yiAe9g

More rain running & SLC

I told my friend in DC to send some rain out here to Utah, as they seemed to have received an excessive amount of rain lately. He graciously complied and I managed to be about 15 minutes from home, on a run, when the rain clouds opened up on me in SLC. Oh well, I guess we can always use the rain!!

I don't know why I love running so much. I don't mean to talk about it all the time or be obsessed with it, but I do love it. Recently, I've been able to do some more hiking and every time I hit the trail walking, my brain tells me that I ought to be running. Even after hours of hiking, I'm still up for running down the trail. It's crazy.

It's been an adventure running in the city. One of the first times I went running, without knowing, I happened to pick the street that was restaurant row here. Glad I'd eaten a little before, otherwise it would have been torture. On my way back I managed to hit every. single. red. light. for about a mile. At which point I decided that I needed to turn the workout into sprints because all the stopping was killing me. So, traffic lights aren't too much fun. However, I went with my friend last week on a different route and she opened up a whole new world of trails and more roads not too far from where I will be moving. I'm always eager to explore a new path on my run. Now I just need to increase my mileage so I can get that far. ;)

Also, I can tell I'm in Ragnar country here. The first 2 runs I went on I happened to be wearing my Ragnar shirts and both times someone I passed commented/gave me cheer because of them. Love it.

On another note, I need to blog about my school and work. It's great!!! It really is, I'm so glad. I'm teaching Spanish at a charter school in West Valley City. I work with good people who like their jobs and the kids are fun and pretty easy-going. So far, so good, even after a long week.

Things I miss about DC

There's so many, it's hard to count them all but here's a few of the reasons why I absolutely loved my 6 years in DC!!

P.S. I actually wrote this post on my drive across the country 2 wks. ago but it didn't get saved so here's draft #2. :)

- cherry blossoms in the Spring

- professional sports teams in all sports

- Atlantic coast beaches

- meeting and associating w/mucky mucks

- the humidity (as long as it isn't extreme)

- amazingly beautiful Fall foilage

- an endless amount of ethnic restaurants to try

- Eastern market and all the community farmer's markets

- the metro!

- all the free and awesome Smithsonian museums

- so much diversity

- Library of Congress and inside the Capitol

- being at the center of the universe (ha, ha)

- a plethora of VA vanity plates

- so many great American historic sites and fun cities close by - Boston, NY, etc.

- the best living situation (cute townhouse, roommates and neighbors)

- OBX!

- some pretty crazy partisan politics

- great shopping

- snow and ice storms like Snowmageddon

- the National Mall and all the monuments

- beautiful azaleas and hydrangea plants

- lots of fantastic running trails

But mostly, I loved living in DC because of the wonderful and inspiring people I met there. Co-workers, friends, neighbors, ward members, and friends that were like family. I learned so much from them and I'm so grateful to have had them in my life. The good news is that I love DC so much that I know I'll for sure be back to visit.

A N I M O !

"Animo" is one of my favorite words in Spanish. It's a cognate, so you can probably guess what it means, animated, excited, etc. As an exclamatory phrase though, it doesn't directly translate, it's kind of like, 'get excited!' So that combined with "adelante", or onward/forward I thought worked well with the alliteration for the title of my blog.

When I was in the MTC in Spain, our Saturday teacher was awesome. He also happened to be Canarian and his family was in the first branch I served in, they were great. Anyway, he would always have us bring it in, for a little huddle and do the "grito de animo", or 'yell/shout of excitement'. As missionaries, we loved it and I've loved that word ever since then.

So here are a few things that have me "animo"-ed recently:

the rodeo I went to tonight

professional tennis match next weekend

learning to make salsa

1 more month of summer

Debut

Yes, I've decided to start a blog!

Crazy, I think. No promises that I'll update regularly but I'll try not to go M.I.A. too. A couple of reasons why, I feel like I should and have for a long time now. I was recently at home with my family and my sister was trying to get us to join Twitter. I told her I would probably be starting a blog, to which she replied, "Do both!!" Ha ha, probably not. One at a time.

I do read blogs regularly, so most of you that are reading this that have blogs, I've probably read them. I love to read blogs to see what my friends are up to, though I don't comment often, sorry. I also think writing on my blog will be a good way for me to become more of a reflective and grateful person which is something that I need to do better.

*There may be a few posts in Spanish too, I hope to keep in touch with my international Spanish-speaking friends a little better! Mis amigos hispabohablantes! Espero escribir en espanol de vez en cuando tambien, asi que hay que volver a visitar el blog para ver lo que he escrito!! ;)