From the mind of Brittany

Rock n Roll

I’m running the Rock n Roll half marathon in March. I know - shocked!

I haven’t signed up - this doesn’t mean I won’t go through with it, it means its $100 and I just don’t feel like spending it. 

I’m in week 3 of my 12 week training program. There have been ups and downs thus far. Up: I have been able to run 3.5 miles with out stopping. Okay - “run” is a little strong, but I didn’t walk. Down: this is really hard, finding the time to make my runs can be a real struggle. 

Now I’m thinking of running in the mornings. I know - another shocker. I’m not much of a morning person as most people know, but I’m finding the time to run in the evenings to be unpredictable. 

Why am I awake now and not in bed for my 6:30am alarm? I guess my body clock hasn’t caught up with my new master plan. Tomorrow’s going to suck.  

Cowtown 10K in February and Rock n Roll half marathon in March!! OkayHereWeGo!

Who forgot they had a blog?

THIS girl…

I feel bad holding a spot in cyber space and not using it.

Also, a lot has happened in the past 7 months…To sum it up - I work. A lot. Luckily I love my job and am learning a lot and charged with completing a lot of tasks on my own. YAY ME! Each day I get to help Reimagine Retail, and I feel very privileged to do so.

I moved in with Laura and Hayley - WAY better than living on my own. I have fabulous roommates and I love coming home to them everyday. Well - Hayley and I get a lot of time together, we actually work together! That’s how we met.

“We will never get over the high of each other.” - Hayley.

I have also turned into a mawmaw since I have entered the “big girl world”. Its well past my bed time.

Night!!

Sometimes I want to turn my internet off.

Obviously I would NEVER in a million years do that. However, it does stop me from doing things that I need to do - such as pack. But truly, I’m not packing because I HATE packing.

Always have, and I think I always will. I can be so excited about where I’m going and still not want to pack. I took until 3AM the night before my flight until I packed for Paris. I packed super late for my cruise. I’m leaving to go to Dallas tomorrow to start my awesome post-grad life with a fantastic company, and I’m sitting here blogging.

Eh well, some things change, some don’t. Guess I’ll go pack, or watch How I Met Your Mother…

I have a diploma?!

This past Saturday, I graduated from Texas Tech University. It was a great family and celebration filled day, and lucky for me, I sat with a few great friends during the ceremony.

Do I feel different? No. Should I? Yes. No one told us it was going to be a complete different mindset once we graduated. My dad had to sit me down and say “Do you realize you have a Bachelor of Arts now?” Truth is, no, I didn’t. For the past semester (I guess I should stop talking in semesters now) For the past few months, I have been focused. Focused on the NSAC competition, focused on finding a job, focused on graduating with honors. Focused on soaking up every last sorority event or dinner with my best friends. What I have not focused on however, are my accomplishments. I was so busy worryng about the future, where I will live, where I will work, what friends I will make, that I completely forgot that I’m graduating COLLEGE! Holy cow… how cool!

So now, with my diploma in my hands and my first alumni t-shirt bought, I feel great. I feel accomplished, I feel skilled, and I feel prepared. I’m making more and more decisions each day, and meeting more and more people. I can’t wait for what the future holds for me. Luckily, I don’t have to wait much longer.

Now, will I miss Lubbock? Well, the dust storms were fun, and the lack of rain drainage on campus is a total blast, and that wonderful Lubbock smell (you know what I’m talking about) is amazing. But, I know I’m ready to leave. Luckily, this small West Texas city and the school that is now my Alma Mater, has given me more life lessons than I ever thought possible. I did a lot of things here at Tech, and I plan on doing a lot more things now that I am armed with a diploma from Texas Tech University.

Hello “real world”, my name is Brittany Bourque. I hope you are ready.

Wreck ‘Em

Radio

I’ve been driving a lot lately.

To and from Oklahoma City for the AAF District 10 Student Ad Competition to be exact. That’s not the point of this thought though…

The point is, I realize when I am about half way through a song that it is my least favorite and can’t believe I was listening to it for so long. To all of you Pink lover’s out there… I’m talking about her. I can’t stand her music.

However, it made me think about two things.

1. I really should pay more attention to things while I’m driving… it’s not really the appropriate time to space out

2. Surely I’m not the only one that does this. What about radio advertising? How many of us are so zoned out on the drive, that we aren’t even comprehending whats being said on the radio. I know radio advertising is really up in the air right now, what with the plethora of iPods and Pandora listeners out there. But, it is still being purchased, and in some smaller markets, it is sworn by.

I mean, clearly, all advertisers aren’t just going to get up Monday morning and think “ya know what? I’m DONE with radio.” But should we?

Oh, and in case you were wondering, Texas Tech’s Infinity Advertising placed 2nd runner up this week. Wreck ‘Em!

mmm waffles

Bonjour mes amies!!

Sorry I have been so slow with my blog update, and even slower with photos! I have been really busy this week, I had my first test this week, and I had to of my good friends from high school randomly (yes, literally randomly) show up in Paris on Tuesday! I love Kyle Shafto and Mark Reidmiller! By the way, I think my test went okay, I finished quickly, but that is very normal for me, I do it in the US too. I just feel like, why stew? If you feel an answer come right away, GO WITH IT! anyways…

Mike, Goldy, Alyssa and I took a trip to Belgium this weekend! It was waffle, chocolate and beer filled. No beer for me, because I’m not a fan, but don’t worry, I got my share of waffles and chocolate :). When we got off the train, Mike and I just hung out for a little while waiting for Alyssa and Goldy to get in, they were on the next train. Good news was none of us missed our train on this adventure, but Mike gave a pretty convincing argument to Alyssa and Goldy that Mike had accidentally booked my train ticket for a later time.

After everyone was all together, we went to our hostel to get settled in. The hostel was really nice! It was a really fun atmosphere and the room was really nice. We were in a 14 person hostel but it was clean and smelled wayyyyyy better than the one in London. Once we were all settled in, we went out for mussels in Brussels! :). Turns out I really like mussels, they were quite delicious! We then went to this beer bar that had 2004 beers. It was quite epic, although I don’t like beer so it didn’t matter to me too much. It was still a fun night, we met a few Americans and our bartender was British and Alyssa had a huge crush ;) haha. Also, we all signed an American dollar and Charlie (our British bartender) taped it up on the bar for us! Tres cool!!

The next day we went out and discovered Brussels. We went to the city center, which was so cute and pretty and there we found the chocolate museum and beer museum. The chocolate museum was way cool, and we got to try delicious chocolate :). Also, the man who gave the presentation spoke in French and I was able to follow along really well! YAY! The beer museum was cool, I know so much history about beer now! Also, we saw the GIANT atom, which was neat, but what was even better was the group of old people doing tai chi right by it! We saw manekin (sp?) pis also, the fountain of the little boy who is peeing! Obviously, I thought this was HILARIOUS!! We went to a church, and where parliament is as well, and a couple of cool parks too! I really enjoy Brussels, Its small and you can walk everywhere, but there is still enough things to do to have fun!

Sunday, we went to Ghent, which is a 30 minute train ride out of Brussels. It is this very little river town with not a whole lot going on. But that could have also been that basically the whole town was under construction! Who does that?! We walked through all kinds of stuff that in America would be forced to be blockaded lol. It was nice, we went to a design museum for Alyssa, a boat tour for mike, a cupcake shop for me which was DELICIOUS, and a few other stops in some churches and what not. It was a nice day trip, but if you only have a limited time, no need to explore Ghent.

After that, Mike and I headed home because we have class Monday mornings, WOMP :(. This week has been good I got to see a couple of high school friends and I think I did okay on my test. However, this morning was very stressful getting to class, I was late, fell in the St. Lazare metro station, spilled hot chocolate on all my school supplies, forgot that I needed to buy a new metro pass today… o wow it was awful.

Tomorrow we are leaving for Reims for le week-end du Paques. (Easter weekend). It is in the Champagne region of France and I’m really excited!

Au Revoir!

b

Speaking English Again

This past weekend I went to London!! It was really fun, but so strange to speak English to people again. I never thought I would say that. Throughout the weekend, I would use common French phrases and get funny looks haha.

We took the train to London from Paris and it was my first train ride! It was fun although it was so early in the morning, don’t worry, we got our blood pumping by running through the train station… Yes, of course I missed the train. To be fair, it was not our fault, it was the UK border control man who decided to take his sweet time, until we asked if we were going to make our train, his response: “Well, you are cutting it very fine” We say: “OK, can you hurry then??” So he tried, but alas, we still missed it. SNCF was very kind and put us on the next train which was only 30 minutes later :).

First stop in London was to King’s Cross Station. (Yes HP lovers, this is real, and yes, I went to Platform 9 and 3/4). I got my photo taken and I searched for Ron, alas, no luck :(.

Next we set off to find the hostel. It is north in the city, but a nice location with really great staff. We got there a little early for check in, so we stopped to get lunch. After we made our beds we set out to see the sites. We walked by the London Eye, Buckingham Palace, Westminister Abbey and a few others. It started raining (duh, it’s London, I should have expected it). But we were having a great time! London is nice, but I think Paris is better. We went back to the hostel to nap, because I had been up since 5am. Boooooooo. We went out to a bar that night called Dirty Martini and that was a good time. It was quite odd hearing people speak English everywhere we went though!

The next day we got up to go check out some more sites. Things in London are very expensive, so we didn’t go in to too many places. But we went outside of some buildings and we took a tour of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. This was actually REALLY cool, probably one of my favorite things. We went on a tour of the theatre and learned lots of really cool things about London theatre from back in the day.

After, we tried to go to Abbey Road. Yes, tried being the keyword. We got on a double decker heading in the opposite direction :( so sad. So we all got off and Mike and I rushed to meet his new G-Little who happens to live in London, and his family for dinner. It was so fun, Michael (the G-Little) and his family are fantastic and wonderful. We went to a burger place that was AMAZING (and I really needed a good burger). Also, fun fact, his sister is going to…..wait for it… TEXAS TECH in the fall!!! So crazy! After dinner we went out again, but not before pre partying with some cool people in the hostel. I met a guy from Germany, France, and a couple from Spain. It was so cool to be with so many nationalities.

Next morning, we got up early because I really wanted to see the changing of the Palace Guards, but I read the time wrong, and it was too close to our train departure time. So, we couldn’t make it. I was really sad, but I guess that means I’ll have to go back!

We got back to Paris, and slept for the afternoon because I was so tired! This week I have had class and whatnot. The other day I went to the Pharmacy, because my allergies are pretty bad in the spring here as well as the US, and the pharmacist told me I spoke french very well :) YAY! I really can tell I’m improving and that makes me so happy and excited. I hope to eventually be bi-lingual, I think about it a lot actually. Anyways, that’s all for now. Belgium this weekend, BONJOUR CHOCOLAT! :)

A bientot!!