Movies with the best soundtracks!

Well, I'm back at school!  It's nice to be back, although it was a little odd at first.  I guess I was used to being at home...but I'm mostly back into the swing of things now, so that's good.  I haven't had much free time.  My Intro to International Relations class is actually pretty interesting, but it requires a lot of reading (I believe I've spent over 5 hours reading for it this week...and I'm not quite done).  German isn't going to badly so far, but it's going to start kicking my butt again, I'm afraid.  We're reading a play that is relatively easy to understand, but doing the summaries and vocabulary do take up a lot of time.  I still don't like Freshman Studies, but I'll get through it.
Anyways, the whole reason I'm writing this post (besides the fact that I'm procrastinating) is that since I've been doing an exorbitant amount of reading in the past few days, I've been listening to a lot of soundtracks from movies.  So I thought I'd make a list of my favorite soundtracks to listen to.  Keep in mind that these are only from movies I've seen (or that my mom has given me the soundtrack to).
1. How to Train Your Dragon - First off, if you haven't seen this movie, go and buy/rent it right now.  I'm serious. GO!  I could watch this movie every week and not get sick of it.  The music (by John Powell) is SO great!  Because I've seen the movie so many times, I can listen to one of the songs and tell you pretty much exactly where it is in the movie and what is happening.  Plus, it's actually catchy! :)
2. Braveheart - An excellent movie, and an excellent soundtrack!  Naturally, you probably won't like it if you don't like bagpipes.  But I happen to love them!  I've listened to this soundtrack on repeat for hours.  It doesn't get old!
3. Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron - So, about half of the music from this movie has lyrics, but all of the songs are SO good!  Plus, if you haven't seen this movie, you should!
4. The Man from Snowy River - Another good horse movie with a great soundtrack!
5. Titanic - There are actually two separate CD's from Titanic, but I think the first one is the best!

Well, that's all for now, I really should work on some German homework! I'll leave you with this link though:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9TanR_3M0o  It's one of the best songs from How to Train Your Dragon (although they are all great!) 

I'll write again as soon as I can!
StephanieAnn

Winter Break

Well, it's been way too long since I've written!  I only have less than two weeks left of my winter break, and I'm ready to go back.  I like being home, but I'm working 40 hours a week, and I'm getting sick of my job.  Don't get me wrong, I'm very grateful to have a job in this day and age, but I'm starting to think that I'm just not cut out to be a manager.  Only time will tell, and for now, I'm stuck here.  There aren't many other job opportunities in Fond du Lac, so I'll probably have this job all summer...only time will tell. 
Anyways, I'm ready to get back to college life.  At school, I have a routine and it's nice.  I see my same friends every day, which I love.  When I first got to college, I thought it was going to get boring seeing the same people every day.  But I don't! I love it!  Since I've been home, I've literally only hung out with two of my friends.  Part of that is because I'm working crazy hours, and the other part is that my friends were all still in school up until recently, but it's still weird.
Well, I wish very happy holidays to anyone bothering to read this mundane blog :)!

What If?

  Lately I've been wondering what would have happened if I had gone to college outside of Wisconsin.  Don't get me wrong, I love Lawrence.  The size is perfect for me, and I LOVE the people in my dorm.  But when I look at my one friend who went to school outside of Wisconsin, I wonder how I would have been able to handle it.  It would have been different, no question about it.  I definitely would have missed seeing my parents on a semi-regular basis.  I also would have missed watching Packer games with other fans! : ) 
  In a perfect world, I would have been accepted to Vanderbilt (I was wait-listed, and they didn't take very many people off of the list apparently) and I would have been able to get out of Wisconsin.  It's not that I hate Wisconsin.  I don't really like the winter here, but I've been dealing with that for all my life : ).  I just want to get out and see the world! I'm happy where I am....for now.  I'm content to spend my four years of under-grad here.  But after that, I want to get out!  Ideally, I would be able to get to Tennessee, but I'll go wherever I can where I will get a good job and be able to complete my graduate stuff.  I don't want to be stuck in the same place my whole life.  That's fine for some people, and I don't judge them, but I'm different.  I want to get out, see the world, and change lives (wow, how cliche)!  : )
  That's all for now - the great news is that it's halftime in the Packer's game, and we're winning 17-0!
Stephanie Ann

GO PACK GO!

  I'm sitting here in the seventh floor lounge of my dorm with a bunch of my friends watching a Packer game (currently we are winning 21-14).  Can life get any better?? I think not.  Growing up in Wisconsin, all of my immediate family were Packers fans.  I suppose up until last year I was a Packers fan by default.  I didn't really care about football at all.  At the beginning of last season, however, something changed.  I don't really know why.  Maybe I realized that I couldn't escape it, maybe it was inevitable.  But now, I very rarely miss a game, and I legitimately know statistics about the Packers and the players.  Who would've thought?  Seriously, ask me how many sacks Clay Matthews (my favorite player) has in his career or even this season (26.5 and 3, respectively).  I actually do research on the teams we play each week, and I have a Packers application on my phone.  It's crazy to me, but Packers fever has definitely hit me! :)
  It's not even that I love sports.  Baseball is boring and basketball is nasty.  The only other sport that I will watch is soccer, and that's only when the FIFA World Cup is playing - Go Germany! :)  I love football.  Part of it is that I actually understand the rules and penalties, but another part of it is that it is so exciting!  I even enjoy watching other teams play - even though I don't scream nearly as much :).  Packer season is my favorite time of the year - I can't help it!

Go Clay!

  That's all for now - I have German homework to work on yet again!  Anyone have some extra Packers tickets? :)
StephanieAnn

Time Flies!

Wow, I can't believe it's already November!  I've been in school for almost two months, and it's crazy to me that in about three weeks I'll be taking final exams!  Then I'll be home for a little more than a month : ).  I've been going through severe horse withdrawal, and that's definitely one of the things I'm most excited about coming home for!  Obviously it goes without saying that I'm excited to see my family as well as get some home-cooked meals!
  Three weeks left and I still have one project and two papers due...That doesn't sound like a lot, but it feels like it.  I also still have to read one book for Freshman Studies as well as my mounting piles of German homework...Seriously. College German is really difficult.  I'm not a master of German or anything, but I'd like to think I'm pretty good at it.... I'm planning on minoring in German, so I'm taking one class in it each term this year.  Today I spent two hours on my German homework.  Two hours.  That's still mindboggling to me!  I have NEVER spent that much time on German in my life.  It's quite humbling!
That's all for now I believe.  It's late and I have class at 8:30 tomorrow morning : )
StephanieAnn

Mr. Darcy

  Pride and Prejudice is seriously one of my all-time favorite books.  What better "Prince Charming" is there than Mr. Darcy?  He seems to be the man that most women compare other men to, which isn't all that fair, but I'll admit that I do it too.  The first time I read Pride and Prejudice (Junior year in High School), I didn't really understand what all the fuss was about.  But then I watched the movie, and re-read the book.  It's amazing how your perspective changes when you actually see how Mr. Darcy acts.
   Anyways, I love Pride and Prejudice.  I'm not really a huge fan of any other Jane Austen book though.  Sense and Sensibility (what I did read of it) was o.k., but I just couldn't get into it... I'm sure I'll try again some day.  I watched the movie of Emma, and I can say that I probably won't be reading that one.  Emma just annoyed me.  But who knows?  Maybe someday I'll try to challenge myself and read all of Jane Austen's books.
   For now though, I found this amazing series, written by Sharon Lathan.  It's about what happens to Elizabeth and Darcy after the marriage.  Naturally, it is not written with the same Jane Austen flair, and the writing is a bit more contemporary, but I love them!  I'm on the third book in the series, and I'm captivated!  These books aren't exactly for the faint of heart however....it tends to get a bit...graphic.  : )  In my defense, I was not aware of that aspect of the books...but they are very good, nonetheless! 

Colin Firth - I think he makes a much better Mr. Darcy!

  As for the multiple movies of Pride and Prejudice, my favorite thus far has to be the 1995 BBC mini-series.  It's quite long (5+ hours I believe), but it does not stray from the book at all.  The movie with Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen was good as well, but it's just not my favorite.  I broke down and bought both of them last week...They were both on sale and I had 10$ off of anything on Amazon, so that's my defense.  We might be having a marathon on Sunday, but if we don't I think I may bring it up to the cottage with me.  I'll probably have a lot of homework though, so we'll see if I even have time to watch it!  Oh well, there's always Christmas break!

StephanieAnn

Alba gu bràth!

     I've traveled to Scotland twice in my life.  While Germany will always be first in my heart, there is something about Scotland that keeps me wanting to go back.  It's the most gorgeous place in the world to me.  In a perfect world, I would have enough money to travel for the rest of my life, but the reality is that won't happen.  I keep myself sane by looking at pictures of past trips, planning future trips (that may or may not happen), and watching movies such as Under the Tuscan Sun (takes place in Italy - another place I want to visit someday) and Braveheart.
     For those of you who don't know, the title of this post (Alba gu bràth) is a line from Braveheart.  It means "Scotland forever!"  Even though the movie isn't the most historically sound movie in the world, it is amazing. Seriously. Mel Gibson is great, and the scenery is (to quote Tigger) B-e-a-utiful. : )  And the music is wonderful!
   Usually, I can't listen to music while I'm writing a paper because I end up singing alone and getting side-tracked.  I was writing a paper for Freshman Studies a couple of days ago, and I was listening to the soundtrack to Braveheart while writing. (Freshman Studies is basically an English class that is required for all Freshmen)  For whatever reason, it actually helped me write my paper.  Maybe that's something I never considered before - listening to instrumental music.  I'm not talking about classical music necessarily, because that would get quite boring for me, but more soundtracks from movies!  I talked to my mom yesterday and she said she'll bring some up to the cottage when we go next weekend! 
  That's all for now I think - college is going pretty well.  It was kicking my butt for a little bit, but now I'm getting into the swing of things.  Less than a month until winter break! (My winter break goes from Thanksgiving until January 1st.  We're on a trimester schedule)
  I'll write soon - I want to do twice a week, but we'll see how much time I end up having! : )

StephanieAnn