Catch Up!

Opps… I guess I have forgotten to write on my blog for a while. I guess it is time to play some catch up! Lots of things have been going on in my life since my last post so I guess I better start with the most important thing!!

 

My Call! 

I GOT MY MISSION CALL!!! Yay! I know so exciting right? Anyway I am going to Chicago Illinois and will be speaking Spanish! Anyone who knows me even a little knows me even a little knows that Spanish may not be my favorite language. Let’s just say I was a little bit shocked when I read that part of my call. After studying for French for around four years, I would have loved to go French speaking, but I guess that is just not in the Lord’s plans for me. Ever since receiving my call I am becoming more and more excited to learn Spanish! Honestly, Spanish will be such a useful language to know and hopefully my French back ground will aid in the learning process, as I also am real horrible and learning languages!

 

So excited!!! =]

I leave August 7^th! I know, it is super soon! I opened my call June 5^th, so I only will have about two months from getting my call and leaving. O yes, I almost forgot the best part! I am going to the MTC in Mexico! Yay! I love living in other countries even if it is only for six weeks, I am totally counting it! I have lots of shopping to do before I leave needless to say!

The other major change in my life since my last post, is my wonderful second job in the Deli at Maceys. I am pretty sure that sometimes I am delusional and do not think things all the way through, and this is the case with my new job. While the thought of earning more money and having something to do at night was appealing to me, I guess I just didn’t realize how much a second job entailed. I started working at Maceys Memorial Day and have been working four to five days a week there ever since.

The biggest problem is I thought it would be a part time thing, when it is turning out be more full time than anything. So most days I worked 8-3 at Lowry and then go straight to Maceys and work 3-10, but let’s be honest 10 doesn’t really mean 10 it means 10:20 and even 10:40 sometimes. The good part is the work at Maceys goes by pretty fast as I am constantly doing things.

I didn’t expect to be leaving on my mission so soon, but it has given me a great excuse to quit, and last Friday I turned in my two weeks at Maceys, which actually turns out to be three and a half weeks because I don’t know how to say no. The extra cash for my mission will be great, but these last few weeks have been real packed with no friend time which isn’t great as I only have 51 days left.

In the mean time I have been able to find some time for some fun random activities. Such as the Arrest Development Watching Party at #themodelhome!

 

AD! So great! 

The Taylor Swift concert with Clarissa!

 

At concert! 

We made a brief stop at the planetarium and the moon! 

And I even got to feed the duckies at first dam!

 

Duckies!! Love them! 

Nathan Graduated! 

Saw a sunset or two. 

I will try to blog some more before I leave!

Ashley P!

My Life!

I was super pro at writing on my blog while I was gone, but have been a real slacker since being home. In all honesty, my life hasn’t been all that exciting. Mostly, I just go to work and then go home go to bed and do it all again.  I also snapchat lots, so if anyone has that totally snap chat me sometime!

See I get real bored...

However, there have been a few slight highlights since returning home. Obviously, graduating was wonderful, but I have also turned 21 since being home! I have never been a huge fan of my birthdays, they also seem to be a letdown so this year I didn’t really expect too much, which probably helped to make my birthday pretty awesome!

My wonderful sister, who has left me for Europe took me out to lunch at Maddox. Then I came home and took a nap. I think I am adding a nap to my annual celebration for sure. Rachel and I went out to Twizzle Berry as we haven’t really seen each other since returning home. She is a real busy lady and I am real lucky when she has some time for me! After this is when the real partying started. When turning 21 there are certain things you can do that you cannot do when you are 20, so obviously I need to utilize my new privileges! Haha no I did not drink any alcohol I just went to the White Owl to celebrate!

My free Birthday Burger! 

Jonny, Regan, and MaKell were all great friends and made the great trip with me! Let’s be honest I was a little afraid of the bar and we probably sat at the closest table to the door. After the bar the night was still young and I could not retire early, so we headed to one of my favorite places in Cache Valley!! That is right we headed to the Fun Park!! I think I could play arcade games forever, and will need to be travelling down to a Nicklecade soon!

MaKell and I! 

Our Wonderful Winnings!! 

Other than that my mission papers may or may not be submitted.

Ashley P! 

Graduation Nation!

Well folks, I did it!! Yep, that is right I am a college graduate! Yesterday, I graduated from the Huntsman School of Business with a Bachelors of Arts in International Business and Economics. It seems like just yesterday I was walking at my high school graduation. I wasn’t super stoked about walking for my college graduation but I am so happy that I did!

 

Me and Jonny! 

I did it! 

College was such a great experience! Freshman/Sophomore year was a blast being a Huntsman Scholar. I meet so many great individuals through that program and was able to make friends that lasted throughout my whole college experience. Not to forget the amazing experience with the Go Global Program traveling around Asia for a month!

 

Kenzie and I before the first 80s dance! 

Summer and Rachel!! 

The initial group of Huntsman Scholars! 

Us at a retreat! 

South Korea! 

China! 

All of us in Hong Kong! 

So many great friends! 

Last year, which I will refer to as my Junior year of college was such a blast! I moved out for the first time in my life and built great friendships! I most definitely held my social life at a higher priority than my school work, but hey I could do both! Cruisin’ to Mexico with all my friends over Spring Break was awesome!

 

My awesome room! Loved it! 

Halloween Party! 

Festival of Colors! 

Ice Cream with Boyd! 

Frog Hunting! 

Our wonderful Cruise! 

We love cruises! 

Shelby's Wedding

Fireworks! 

NYC with Summer! 

Niagara! 

Then we have this year! SENIOR YEAR, which was great! Mostly due to the fact that I only had to be in class for one of the two semesters and the other one I spent in Ghana, Africa!

Debra's wedding! 

Love these girls!

Road Trip to Canada! 

Alberta, Canada! 

African Wedding! 

The beach! 

ELEPHANTS! 

I loved college, but am so grateful that I am done! Now on to bigger better things! Haha, also sorry for all the pictures. I may have gone a little overboard! 

Ashley P! 

What's Next?

Wow! I am home! I have actually been home for a little over a week now, and it is so wonderful! I miss Ghana extremely, but it has been wonderful to catch up with friends and family!

 

Lunch when I got home! Love them all! 

I feel like everyone I talk to seems to have a couple of the same questions.  One of the biggest questions is what I am going to do now. As most of you know I will graduate from Utah State University, May 4, with my undergraduate degree in International Business and Economics. For a long time I didn’t have anything planned for when I returned from Africa and would graduate. I figure I would figure it out when it happened, and now it looks like it is happening. I have come to a sort of cross roads in my life.

For a while now I have been toying with the idea of serving and LDS mission. I have gone back and forth on whether or not I was going to serve. While the recent age change helped many with the decision, it seemed to make my decision harder. It wasn’t like I was going to leave any sooner and when I left there would be lots of younger people serving with me, I didn’t particularly like that idea.

However, during my time in Africa I pondered and prayed about my decision. The Lord has blessed me in so many ways throughout my life.   I feel that serving a mission is just one of the many ways I can try to repay him for all that he has done for me. So with that I am very happy and excited to announce that this past week I started working on my mission papers. I am aiming to get them turned in as soon as possible! So I guess that is a little update on my life.

 

Yay! So excited!! 

Ashley P! 

Goodbyes Suck!

It is official I hate goodbyes. Over the course of the last couple weeks we have been saying our goodbyes to all the wonderful people that we have met during out time in Ghana.

Stephen and Margaret are wonderful individuals and threw us a great going away party. Margaret spent all day in the kitchen making all sorts of wonderful Ghanaian food. It was a most wonderful feast. Earlier this week we traveled make to Cape Coast to say our last goodbyes to all our wonderful friends there.

 

The yummy food!! 

I do not like goodbyes at all. I wish I could stay here, but at the same time I miss my family and friends like crazy! I can’t believe how fast the past three months have flown by! I swear it was just yesterday that Rachel and Summer were driving me to airport!

My flight leaves Accra tonight. I hopefully will be landing in Utah at 10:50 PM Friday!! I can’t wait to see all my family and friends! See you all soon!

Ashley P! 

Elephants!!

How can you go to Africa and not see any elephants? We decided that seeing elephants during our time in Ghana was a must. After some research we learned if you want to see Elephants you go to Mole National Park. Excitedly we started planning our trip to the north to see our elephants.

In all honestly Rachel is the one who pushed this trip forward. Her dream was to touch an elephant! We all thought she was a little crazy, but I decided to hop right on board with this trip. After making some phone calls we got the important aspects of the trip booked and set out.

Our trip started Monday night, when we left our home for the past three months Abomosu on the midnight bus. It was bitter sweet saying goodbye to Abomosu, there will also be a place in my heart for Abomosu. After arriving in Accra we took a small nap before setting out on our long journey up north. We has reserved ourselves seats on the “luxury” VVIP bus that left Accra at 3 PM and would arrive in Tamale at around 4 AM. Needless to say we were all super stoked for the travelling!

 

Rachel and I stoked for the bus ride!

After arriving in Tamale in the middle of the morning, we set out on the task of getting to the park, which is approximately 3 hours away. This is the part that I may not have researched as well as I should have. You would think it would be much easier to get to a National Park than it was. However, eventually we made it to park. Once again we realized our lack of research as there was a swimming pool that we didn’t even know about.

Our first elephant sighting came that night from the viewing area by the hotel. Wow, I have seen elephants in a zoo before, but seeing them in the natural state was an amazing experience. We were excited for our safari hike the next morning, hoping that we would be able to get closer to the majestic animals.  

Lucky for us the elephants were out and about when we started our morning safari hike! There were at least ten of them and they were so so so close to us! We were not going to miss an opportunity to get our picture taken with them. Here are just a few of us with the elephants!

 

I was just a little happy! 

Elephants! :) 

Us with our tour guide, Moses! 

Stoked on life! 

There were also a number of other animals that we saw, but I have to say that the elephants were my absolute favorite! We saw some crocks, antelope, warthogs, and a few monkeys! Wildlife is so much more amazing without the zoo cages.

Our trip up north was superfast, as shortly after our safari we set back out to Tamale in hopes of making it there before 4 PM to catch our bus back to Accra. Luckily, we were able to and rode the bus back. The trip was short, but the elephants made up for the crazy travel time!

Ashley P!