Weekend #1 in Peoria

So, this weekend was my first in Peoria. I've learned some very important things:

1. Peoria - Champaign - Batavia. No matter where you are, no one can pick anything to do on a Friday night. (Erin and I ended up renting Match Point [pretty good movie].)
2. The sun. The pool. The odd tan lines. (I went out to the pool that's in my complex and got some funny tan lines. I was only out for a little bit, but it was enough for some color, yay!)
3. When you only bring books in Spanish 1 of 2 things can happen: 1) you force yourself to actually read the books...thus advancing your Spanish abilities, or 2) you start reading the books, realize that it's kinda tricky and that your Spanish abilities are semi-nonexistent at this point and then borrow a book (in English) from a friend. (I picked option 2 and went from reading Fiesta [the Spanish translation of Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises to reading Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich).
4. Festivals + 5pm on a Saturday does not equal a crowd. (Erin and I went to the Washington Cherry Festival at the town just east of here... and it only took about 5 min to walk through. So small, so empty, so... sad?)
5. Ivy may grow in the forest, but they both came and visited me! (One of my roommates from UofI (Ivy) and her fiance (Forrest) visited me on Saturday cause they were in town for a wedding reception. Yay for visitors!)
6. Even with nothing on TV on a Saturday night I will still sit and watch it for HOURS until 2pm when I can't keep my eyes open. (I think Ron White is hi-larious...thank you Comedy Central for showing 3+ hours of back to back Ron White-ness. Too bad the jokes sometimes repeat themselves... =) )
7. Sam Lipman has a lot of stuff. (I helped Sam/Focker ;) move into her apartment today... it was a lot of trips, but I was glad to do it. Her family took me out to dinner, too! Free food!!)
8. I miss being in Spain. (KTP came home from Granada on Thursday and I talked to her for a long time on Friday. It just made me miss Europe even more...)
9. YOU should come traveling with me next summer. (The plan is to spend a month in various parts of Europe/Asia?/Australia before my [potential/hopeful] job would start in the fall. Of course, I have to have a job lined up so that I'd be able to pay the parents back for the loan I'll need to travel, but still. Here's my temporary list of places to visit: Portugal, Spain (again ;), Italy, Greece, Singapore?, Japan (to see Saori!), and end in Australia--where my oldest brother Brian and his wife will be living (!) for over a year and a half when he moves with his job. I also wouldn't mind hitting some of Germany, England, and Ireland, but I think it'll be easier/more probable that I'll get to those countries when I'm older. BUT, if you want to come with me and you really want to see those places or more... let me know. =) )
10. But I am le tired. (Getting up early stinks. I have to start getting ready for bed at about 9:30 (oops) if I want to get to bed in time to get "enough" sleep.)

On that note I should pack my lunch (!) and pick out clothes for tomorrow. Haha, I'm such an old woman.

I hope everyone had an amazing weekend. I'm thinking about heading to UofI next weekend (night of June 9th-11th) and I'll be home in Batavia Father's Day weekend (June 16th-18th). I may hold off on UofI until after that. Let me know if anything is going on...