après une pause

forgive me for taking such a long break.
by request, i'm starting to blog again.
not sure how long this will hold out, there's just way too much to get done.
i'll be more dedicated once i graduate because then i'll be foot loose and fancy free!

i have learned a great lesson from a close friend.
"don't forget to stop and smell the roses."
simple:)
be happy, really happy, and grateful for everything in your life because it makes a difference.
Buddha said, "Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful.”
too true. 

i graduate in less than a month.
wowie wow wow!
yesterday evening i had my first job interview at a local elementary school. they have openings for french dual immersion in second and fifth grade.
i killed that interview.
it must have been the sweet note matt&kels left in their car, or the imagine dragons music i listened to on the way there, or the fact that i wore a light colored shirt...
anywho, i have a teaching demonstration to do which is stressful and then it's just me and sweet patience.
the fact that real life is happening, is strange. but i am beyond excited!

i made these magnets: 

love. them. 

last weekend nicki invited me to the imagine dragons concert. 

yeah, i have the coolest friend. EVER. 

so i took the frontrunner and that was a fabulous experience. 

utah is a beautiful place!

i was so happy i even took a picture of myself. 

so smug. 

photo quality is quite poor but the experience was amazing!

Océane has made it home alive and well and i am happy beyond reason. 

i love talking asian things with that girl! 

since i haven't posted in a while i figured i owe you some grand story about my life. 

you can never get enough of those...

once upon a time during my first week of classes at BYU i used the restroom. surprise. 

after doing my business i went to wash my hands.

i guess i don't understand my own strength because when i pressed on the soap dispenser the bottom part came completely undone. 

this resulted in excessive amounts of soap profusely spilling out of the dispenser and all over the bathroom floor. 

being in shock i just stood there for a minute and then frantically proceeded to scoop it up and dump it in a sink. 

not so conveniently, a girl walked in and just stared. 

"i don't think that's helping..."

yeah, i'd like to see you figure this one out.

genius.

i was so stressed out about the situation that i placed paper towels over the leftover spill and nonchalantly went to class. 

i never told anyone. 

easter weekend. 

yes. 

i won the easter egg hunt in my ward tonight. 

correction, i killed it. 

Multifarious

so i totally won a recognition from the judges at this website
for my photography
no big deal!
check it out:)

Link: Multifarious by amandinegc

mon rêve

roommate: amandine. what's your goal?
me: i want to be a teacher.
i want to be a dreamer.
i want to always be making crafty crafts.
i want people to feel good about themselves, tell them they can do anything, tell them they are special.
i want to make people smile.
i want to love life.
i want to be happy.
i want to live a constant adventure.
i want to live a culturally enriching life.
also, i want to go to africa. i have already come up with the perfect plan. océane studied public health, and i elementary education. thus we shall go there together and be amazing. i've always wanted to go there, and this video was the thing that finally did it for me. i'm going.

this last week a boy at my brother's junior high committed suicide. he was 15 years old. it's the second student this month. due to bullying. 

such a tragic story, it made me super sad and i realized that i want to do more than simply be a classroom teacher. i want to be an example. someone they can look up to or turn to. i want students to be happy and feel of worth. i want them to chase their dreams. i want them to feel loved. 

i want them to live like this: 

maybe i'll become a foster mom. because it would be amazing, and the thought scares me.

Mary Oliver once said "tell me what it is you plan to do with your one wild and precious life"
i've decided to start a project in which i will collect responses to this question.
i want to know what motivates people.
what they want to become.
the impact they want to have in this life.
in 50 words or less.
i shall start tomorrow.

please leave your response in a comment if you read this blog.
or email me if it's too personal: amandinegc@gmail.com
names won't be shared, i promise:)

 these are now hanging in our kitchen. 

personally, i prefer the second picture

oh, and

OCÉANE COMES HOME TOMORROW!!!

numérotation

1. clipping your nails in class and collecting a little pile of remains is simply gross

2. spitting is against my beliefs of what consists of a hygienic lifestyle

3. Levin "we should go on a lettuce diet, lettuce eat everything we see" that's your humor for the day

4. my own ringtone scares the daylights out of me

5. dry erase tables should be invented. my idea, dibs. it would be so helpful at work

6. sometimes our conversations in my dual immersion class get so intense that my professor has to get up and shut the door

7. do yourself a favor and read this blog. http://ldsbraindump.blogspot.com click here. i have one genius of a brother. 

8. there are days (fine everyday) when i say super ridiculous things: "oh hey! yeah, i'm just heating up my food in the microwave, yeah waiting for my food to get hot." ...really? 

9. enough with the numbers

monday for FHE we had an "iron chef" competition. 

tell Amandine she has to cook, competitively...she will. 

we were given a cake mix. 

and we made: 

granted, the picture doesn't do it justice but here's what we did: 

mini marble (vanilla and chocolate) rectangle cakes. 

built a train track out of cheerios mix. 

placed the cakes in a great way and covered them with coconut milk icing. 

cadbury egg wheels. 

topped with almond slices and powdered sugar. 

of course we won. 

while i was supposed to be doing something productive a few days back i came across a quote i quite enjoyed, so i tweaked it and made it my own: 

story of my life. 

there are days when class is beyond boring.

once upon a time that happened

yesterday

behold, my arm

if all else fails in my life

i will become a tattoo artist

that'll be my contribution to society

...

tickets to Paris have been purchased and i'm excited beyond reason. 

3 days after graduation. 

my only concern is maman's recurring dreams of the plane having problems 

and us crashing to our deaths. 

not cool. 

"oh hey girl, I was just checking you out."

I was walking out of the marriot center when a fellow ward member informed me of his behavior.

quite blunt. 

quite funny. 

yesterday my patience was tried.

i decided that i would participate in the cook off between the french club and the italian club.

my first attempt was pathetic. 

so pathetic that after sending a picture to my mom she decided to call me and laugh out loud.

and then forbid me to present such horrendous food. 

but then i tried again and made these beauties

i should go ahead and marry myself.

my choux à la crème rocked. 

i didn't win at the competition.

but i won in the eyes of my professor, myself, and most importantly my mother.

good enough for me. 

oh, Océane gets home next tuesday. NO BIG DEAL!!!  sweet moses, it's going to be good!

 already canceled my life for that day. 

so don't text, don't call, don't try to find me, and don't expect to see me. 

fair warning. 

let us all enjoy this song by casey abrams

i'm diggin him today

people, go to the temple

it's the happiest and most beautiful place on earth. 

hands down. 

un lundi

once upon a time i had a dream that i had an american accent while speaking french...once upon a time someone said this to me in real life...i think i'm letting it get to me...

a girl walked into the speaking lab and said, " i always look forward to coming here, you always look so cute and well dressed!" thank you, much appreciated:)

i have found that i highly enjoy listening to classical music while studying. that's one good thing i'll take from my french civilization class. 

i was watching tv this weekend and suddenly gasped. a commercial featured some kind of cash back system and this lady looked exactly like me. it was the strangest experience ever. 

my tv splurge also led me to a new goal: i will be a judge on iron chef america. that food...

i've decided that i will be going to haiti some day. 

maybe this summer, maybe the next, maybe in years to come. 

whatever, it's going to happen before i die. 

i feel like when i have good desires like that, there's always a way provided. 

blessed be.

me, surrounded by these beautiful children:)

eventually, when fish chill in a bowl for so long, their water gets stagnant. yum. 

i feel like the exact same thing happens to us humans. 

it's so easy to fall into a routine and to get used to simple motions in life. 

stagnant people. not so yum. 

stagnant amandine. ew. not happening. 

i have a magic eight ball. 

the past few times i've used it, i've really wanted it to say "indubitably" 

way more sophisticated, and no doubt. 

none of this "ask me later" business. 

people have told me that they like my writing. 

later in life i'll write a book.

i've often thought about what i would write about,

because usually it should be something interesting, thought provoking, or life changing. 

i'll write a book about my life.

that's thought provoking enough...

here is a sample to my future "chef d'oeuvre" 

i moved to springville, utah from switzerland soon after my twelfth birthday. 

i started school only a few weeks later, in the seventh grade at springville middle school. 

i was obviously placed in all of the regular classes, including english. 

i've always felt confident about my literature skills and i was pretty pumped. 

i started noticing that my teacher would constantly correct my assignments and change the word "colour" to "color", and "favourite" to "favorite" and would make comment on my formatting...

that's when i realized my teacher and i might not be the best of friends. 

as all english classes do, our teacher had us write an autobiography. 

probably the dumbest assignment out there. 

i wrote mine, drafted, edited, shared, peer reviewed, and all that jazz. 

the day came where we were to go the computer lab and type it up. 

the instructions were simple: name, date, title, double spaced, so many pages. 

being the little confused child that i was i proceeded to type my paper.

i double spaced it, oh boy did i...

in between every single word i hit the space bar twice...

mind you, i learned how to type on a french keyboard so it was already difficult. 

imagine my embarrassment when my teacher figured it out, 

imagine my not so happy thoughts when i had to start over...

yay me.

it'll be a good read:) 

whatever there be of progress in life comes not through adaptation but through daring. (Henry Miller)

dare to be awesome. 

also, i made this cool sweater. 

sporting it today. 

taking pictures of it in class. 

no biggy.

the other day i got a parking ticket...surprise. 
i have issues ok?
anyhow, to demonstrate my anger i proceeded to tear up the ticket (after having paid it)
that is, i attempted to.
i think they create their tickets out of some kind of bulletproof material. 
olimpia put it right, "if there ever was an apocalypse only two things would survive, cockroaches and byu parking tickets"

watch this commercial

it'll make you want to drink tropicana for the rest of your life. 

everyday. 

i now want to work at awl mart or target or something

and dance down the aisles with this man. 

lastly:

my hair=man catcher. 

no joke.

curly hair in the wind, 

definite win. 

i was stopped three times on my way to class

and twice in class.