Weekend at Home

For anyone who doesn't know, I had the pleasure of spending last weekend back home. It was fantastic.

I finished packing on Friday morning and went to German; after German, Mum and I took off, around 11:45. I hadn't eaten lunch, but we didn't want to waste time driving, so we stopped at Friendly's and got take-out Sundaes! ♥ Mine was Cookies & Cream [we don't have Cookies and Cream ice cream in the dining halls here, so it's been a while :( ] with Hot Fudge and Butterfingers, with Whipped Cream! So good :3 Any way, that would have to be the highlight of the three hour drive.

I got to Livingston a little after 2:30, and it was probably quarter to three by the time I got to LHS. The first person I saw was Phoebe, and then I saw Jimmy and Blair, and then I headed inside because there was a bakesale [and people]. I saw Paula, which was awesome. I miss her a lot. She gave me part of a brownie ^^. I went to visit Madame and Monsieur, and we chatted for a while. I also visited with Dr. T. and Mrs. Lee. I was very happy to see everyone, because I'm very homesick here and miss all these familiar faces terribly. After school, Mum and I bought bubble tea! More ♥. Another first-since-August.

Then I had to go shoe shopping, and I bought these really fun shoes and some boots because it gets wet up here. We got home just about the same time as Andrew got to our house, hehe. I was so happy to see him :D We tried to have dinner at Mistuba in Chatham, but it ran into my dance lesson, so I had to leave him and Mum there while I ran to dance. I had a great lesson, and then Andrew and Mum started to watch, so Victor went into show-off mode [which I do not like very much *cry*].

Once home, I taught Andrew how to play the violin [just a little tiny bit] and then we went to sleep. A very wonderful day. Saturday!

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Let me just say, it was Andrew's idea to wake up at six, but that loser was still in his sleeping bag by the time I came back from washing up and getting dressed O: I had to wake him up, but in his defence, he is A LOT easier to wake up than Greg. Yep. So when I asked Andrew what he'd like for breakfast, he said PANCAKES. So we ended up at the Original Pancake House :D I had crêpes, as usual, and they were delicious. We got to Jesson's house at 8:10, just like he'd asked us to, and we had to wait for Mrs. Hartmann to pick us up. Oli was going to cosplay, but we weren't.

We got to NYAF super early. The registration lines were... well, non-existent. We had to wait in this massive line until it opened.

Overall, I was not so impressed. I think AnimeNEXT was a lot more fun, and I did not like how the emphasis was on the vendors.

I actually bought less, too. But I got this really cute Bubble Tea / Kitten bag and a lunchbox and a necklace with a cloud on it :3

I also got some of those speech bubbles [ellipses] for Ying and Liam, because they both wanted to go but couldn't. Watching Uncle Yo was fantastic, and I taped the whole thing [now I just have to figure out how to put it on YouTube or FaceBook... heh... it's too long. Oh dear.


Because Andrew and I were not-so-impressed with NYAF, we left around five-ish and took a 6:11 train back to Livingston. It was sad because that meant I'd have a little less time with him, but I knew he had to get home any way. We said our sad goodbyes, but I'm sure we'll see each other again before the loser decides to move to Hawaii or something -.-

After that, I went to see the Marching Band perform in their first competition! I'd love to post the video; I'll see if I can get that working some time soon. I thought they were fantastic and they held their own decently, but they got last place [despite an award for Best Music]. I still think they were great.

I had to remove the video from Youtube, though, because of general stupidity -.-



I got a call from Greg that night. Turns out, we all met up at Applebee's for old times' sake. It was great :D It was Kenny, Greg, Wendy, Arianna, Josh [who was asleep], Dan, and Kevin. I hope that's it.... It was a lot of fun [but we were all very sleepie].


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On Sunday, Mum and I went to see Hamlet at the NJ Shakespeare Theatre. It was fantastic!! I loved it ♥.

That night, Mum and I also saw Inglourious Basterds, and despite the bad reviews, I thought it was great. I mean, it's not amazing and all that, but it was so good as an entertaining movie. If you haven't, go see it.

I took the train back to school on Monday afternoon. That was fun.

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If you missed me, I'll be back next weekend, so make sure I see you!! [This means you, Vigg.]
Check out all the photos from the weekend here: on Facebook!

Ich Spreche Deutsch.

Well, no, I don't really speak German. But I'm learning how to, any way. So I wanted to give you some updates on how that's going!

Where I am right now, I can introduce myself, describe clothing [poorly], describe the weather, talk about my family and other countries. Not bad for, what, nine classes?

Well, a large part of our grade is participation, obviously, so we have to do a German Lab. I know, wtf. So I went to that at 3:30 yesterday, Tuesday, and it was... interesting. A very young man introduced himself as Clemens; he explained that, in Germany, he teaches English lit - his English is fantastic, btw - but he has never taught his native language [so bear with him, etc.]. For the first half hour, we practised introducing ourselves and each other [and we changed gender quite a few times]. For the second half, we played a really fail geography game, about which I will not go into too much detail. Just let it be known that I finally won the game [Schweiz!]. When we came back, Ariana, Dan, and I [so awkward to write, since it's not Arianna and Danylo] performed dialogues from the textbook for an hour before going to dinner. Bo even came to read one about bananas and oranges. It's funny. He told Tanaha that "It's like really old English!"

So, the language lab folks gave all of us German 101ers iPod touches. They're fully loaded, not only with the tracks from the CDs that came with our textbooks, but also with tons of German music, including Rammstein, and lots of videos. The videos are what really excite me, because they've got a whole bunch of commercials that we can vaguely understand, and there's even SESAME STREET!

The Fringe Fiasco, or, Why I Hate Fox [And DirecTV]

Last Thursday was the second season premiere of what quickly became one of my favourite TV shows, Fringe. Now, I love this show. I have been looking forward to this premiere since the day the last episode of the first season aired. Obviously, I was psyched. So, as 9pm got closer and closer, my excitement grew and grew. I couldn't remember which channel was Fox, so I surfed through the eighty-four channels we get in our room multiple times, but nothing that said Fox or looked like Fringe. So I found my channel list and looked to see, then turned to Fox. I got a message that said something along the lines of 'Don't bother calling, we know the channel is down and we'll have it back in a little while'. I was very angry, considering how much I'd been looking forward to this. Well that annoying screen and cutesy background music didn't go away for the whole hour, and they still hadn't when I turned off the TV. Luckily I got to watch it the next day, and didn't have to wait eight days for it to come online like I would for House.

Yeah, I know that's a boring thing to write about, but it was on my list, and it's what I've been up to. More later.

So I've got this list of things to blog about. Originally, I wanted to write about them all at once, but I think it's probably better if I tackle a few at a time. Here's a photo of my workspace [a little of it, any way], and you can see there's a pink post-it on my laptop, which is my "Blog" list.

It reads:

• Fringe fiasco, or, why I hate Fox
• The Graffiti Tunnel
• German iPod!! O:
• NYAF
• German... lab?
• House! Heroes! Castle! Lol ♥
• Operation Watch Chuck Like Mad
  

So expect insight to some of these things at around 5:00 tonight. That German lab, btw, I have no idea what it is or what I should bring. I do know that I have to be there in twenty minutes. Tschüss!!

Weekends here feel so slow. I'm sure this might change when my workload gets more intense and I become increasingly more involved with campus happenings, but for now, the weeks seem to crawl by. I remember being in high school, and even middle and elementary, and thinking TGIF when the weekend rolled around, but crying moments later because the weekend had already flown by. Maybe it's the fact that my weekend essentially starts after Music Theory on Wednesday, at 2:30. I don't know. Because on Thursday, I have Theatre, which is a crazy fun class. Then on Friday, I have German, which is early and little effort. I can essentially get all my homework out of the way before it's even officially the weekend [you know, Friday night]. I don't party, so it's not like I can go out. New London is, apparently, a rapist town, so I can't go out there, not to mention, I don't know where to go. Time moves slowly. I can go to chamber concerts in the middle of the day, and then sleep in the grass while friends work on their East Asian Art homework. I can walk down the hall and join a tea party where we listen to Beatles records and then watch Family Guy, then proceed to a neighbouring room and chat until 4:30 in the morning.

Will, I'm still waiting on that post you owe me.

Omg College.

Oh man, I finally updated O: Lol, I've actually been working on this for a long time, as you can see, and wrote every entry on the day of the title. I didn't put it up because I hadn't compiled all the videos and pictures I'd wanted to. But now I have, and here you go! Don't hate me too bad.

Wednesday, 9 September.

Today was pretty awesome. First, I didn't have to go to my Gender & Society class. Of course, it's a shame to miss it, but I'm glad that I didn't have to wake up for it lol. My German homework that's assigned for Friday is very easy: find the weather for Friday morning in some German speaking city. I picked Vienna. If you're wondering, they're going to have a high of 74 and it will be mostly sunny.

I went to my mailbox today, too, because I was expecting a package from Mum. She was going to mail me two books. What I wasn't expecting was a BULBASAUR POSTCARD FROM SARA ♥ !!! That totally made my day, because, as awesome as the package was, I was not expecting the postcard. My package included the two books I'd asked for and also the last installment of Fruits Basket ♥ and some little things for school like a super awesome portable stapler and tape dispenser that sticks to stuff with suction power. Don't worry, she knows how easily amused I am, so these were good gifts =P . Oh! And SOCKS.

Music theory class was total B.S. because we only went over everything we "learned" from the reading last night. Which was NOTHING. KILL MEEEE. Only when I'm in that class, though; please arrange it so I live for the rest of the week. I biked around, ran a few errand-type-things I had to take care of, and biked to an early dinner, just for the fun of it. Then I came right back to the dorm and did all my theory homework just because I knew I wouldn't want to be bothered with it later. Ew.

And Victor called! He finally told me I could start going to group lessons at the Niantic Arthur Murray. But I tried to figure out the bus schedule, and it wasn't so easy. Then I realised that I might not be able to go at all because it seems the bus to Niantic only runs until early evening, before the classes even start, so forget about getting back. I might call a taxi service, or maybe just give up the idea entirely [though I feel bad, putting everybody involved through all the effort :'( ], or maybe try to convince Mum that I can bring the car back with me after I visit home *coughcoughcough*.

Oh yes, I never watched Heaven, and the phone people still haven't showed up.


Tuesday, 8 September.

Today was so chill. I had my theatre class, so I got to sleep in until about 9:30. I was ready by 10 and so I had breakfast in the Smith dining hall, which is like three steps from my dorm. Theatre class was fun. We did some mini-performances and I got quite embarrassed when I received a lot of compliments. I'm not very used to that at all. We had lunch in Knowlton again today, but despite sitting at the Spanish table, we did not speak Spanish. That's probably because there was no one at that table that we didn't know, hahaha. It's 3:24 now as I write this, and I've long since finished all my homework, besides a quick Music Theory article I was supposed to find [but I came here instead...], oh well. I'll do it eventually. I really hope I can watch Heaven tonight!! :D


"I said play it, bitch!"


Monday, 7 September.

I had my first Gender & Society class today, which was really cool. The teacher seems very chill, and she seems to remind me a bit of Madame Steffener. Also pretty great, she said she'd be out of town on Wednesday, so we don't have class again until next Monday.

We called the people to fix our phone and TV again. Hopefully they'll show up tomorrow. -.-

We had lunch in Knowlton, the language dorm. We had to sit at the Spanish table because French was full and we don't actually have a language in common between Najam, Kelsey, and me.

I also had my first Music Theory class. Apparently, I've had some awful scheduling mix-up v__v;; Oops.

I think I found my audition song! I'm going to see "As Long As He Needs Me" from Oliver!, but obviously not in the same key as in the musical >~< . I can sing it decently, I hope.

Sunday, 6 September.

It's so weird being here. Certain things about it seem so wrong or so temporary. I can't bring myself to call my room or dorm 'home' or even 'house' because it is not either of those things, physically or emotionally. I'm hesitant to call the people here my 'friends' because they're not. I've known them for a week. Everything I do feels temporary. Even using this laptop as opposed to my old one, which is still at home, feels like, oh well it's not really my laptop. Showering in these little tiny stalls. Trying to go to the bathroom while other people are in the room. Thinking of doing something like band without Jesson or Bryan or Greg.... And feeling like, oh, I don't need to get too attached to these people... I have my real friends back at home and I'll see them soon enough. It's all so bizarre. I'm here. This is my home for the next four years. And yet...?


Saturday, 5 September.

Today was... wow. I got to sleep in :D That's always a plus, lol. Kelsey wasn't around all day, and I basically spent the day moving between my room and Harris for food. When Kelsey finally came back, I was pretty happy [yay, company!].

We went to dinner [we being Benito, Andrea, Tanaha, Kelsey, Najam, Kevin, Eric, and me]. Najam told us a funny story about how he was playing a guessing game earlier that day. He had a card with an animal on the back, and he had to give his friends clues about what the animal was, so he said, "Okay, it likes peanuts." Tanaha guessed "Elephant" and Najam said, "You're right, it's an elephant." The picture was of a rhinocerous.

Back in the room, both Kelsey and Wendy were doing homework. This upset me because I had no one to talk to =P But we had a little drama, about which it would probably be impolite for me to go into detail. After three hours of uncomfortable silence and complaining, I went to the boys' room. That was a nice change because Eric and Benito were cracking up, and I could make noise O: Benito dragged me to a rave, which was fun. I actually danced *everyone gasp!*. After that, I watched House at like 12:30am with Eric and Ben and some other people. It was season four, episode two, which is the one where the intern games begin. If that means anything to you. Then I came back and went right to sleep :]


Friday, 4 September.

I slept rather poorly last night, but I got to sleep in this morning, which was great. My class was Elementary German at 10:25 am in Blaustein. I found it okay, miraculously. German is an intimidating language o___o;; and starting the class in a completely foreign language is equally as intimidating. He told us, "Guten Morgen! Ich heiße Jim McFarland. Wie heißen Sie?" And we all had to answer him O__O;; Lol. But I'm very excited. And I have easy homework: learn colours lol.

I ate lunch with Najam, Andrea, Benito, Eric, and Tanaha. We wanted to eat in Knowlton, because we would sit at the French table there and speak French! But it was closed. So we spoke a little tiny bit of French in Harris instead, lol. Kelsey went home for the weekend, and I basically just fooled around in my room all afternoon, until I realised it was evening and would probably be wise to get some food. I ate alone, but decided to wait for Najam. He was slow though, and I ended up dining with Dan [not the one from Montclair... oh this is going to get too confusing too fast o_o], Kevin, Bo, and two new acquaintances, Brian and Jesse. After that, Dan, Jesse, and Bo and I went to see if the game room was open yet. It wasn't. I ended up going to an a Capella concert for about half an hour; it was amazing, but too stuffy, so I left. It's crazy how many people turn up at these a Capella performances!

After that, I came back here. All in all, a boring day. As I sat at my computer, Najam walked in. Apparently there was something of a party going on in his room, but he had to read EIGHTY pages for bio and asked if he could study in here for the time being. So of course, I let him. After a while, though, Benito came in and apologised to him. He was saying things like, man, we made those roommate agreements, what I did wasn't cool, you just have to say something, you know 'man I gotta study,' and we'll leave. I felt like that was really mature of him, and... well I don't know. I just liked that he did it. And the party moved down to South Campus somewhere, just like that.


Thursday, 3 September.

Today, I got to wake up at 9:30. That was fabulous, except I skipped breakfast. I found my theatre class after much searching. Awesome two hours. At the end, I got talking to this kid, Dan. Turns out, he's from Montclair! And he used to date Blair, lol. He knows a few people from my school and he's even seen a play or two LHS. Pretty awesome, lol. We had lunch together, and met up with Najam, Eric, and Kelsey, and also Benito. Dan and I made waffles, and the waffles have CAMELS on them O: It's really awesome :3



After lunch, we went back to the poster sale, and I bought yet another, larger, cooler, A Clockwork Orange poster. Heh. Since we'd both finished the day, Kelsey and I basically hung out all day and didn't do much. We took short naps, and some random girl just walked into our room -- it turned out to be Tanaha, but Kelsey and I were semi-sleeping, so we were freaked out -- because apparently Wendy gave her our key -.- We had to a Convocation ceremony, which is basically a reverse graduation lol. It was awful. I read A Brave New World and Bo was sleeping [and snoring]. We decided to skip on the whole-school-and-then-some picnic, and we ate in Oasis, the snack shop in Cro. I had a toasted bagel :] I'm still full lol. We haven't... done anything... all night, lol.



Wednesday, 2 September.

Today I had to register for classes. Registration opened at 8:30, and you sure as heck had to be online ready to go when that clocked turned. Well, in our room, we had so much trouble even just getting in the page. After a good fifteen minutes, I still hadn't even logged in. So I had to go to D'Larys' room to do it. I missed out on the "Introduction to Mathematical Thought" class, but, eh, small loss. I've ended up with my freshmen seminar, "Gender and Society," an acting class, "Elementary German," and "Foundational Theory for Musicians." I have to go buy books, which is going to suck.

Oh. I bought books. The day sucked. We bought all these posters at a poster sale. I bought two from A Clockwork Orange and one from Taxi Driver.



We came back, found a necklace in the stairs, and smelled smoke. It got stronger as we entered our floor, which worried us, considering this is substance free housing. We knocked on someone's door to ask about what we should do with the necklace, and when she opened the door, the scent grew stronger, flooding out and surrounding us. We kept our cool but freaked out once we were in our room =*( And then, after that, we were just chilling in our room when we hear a scream. Wendy turns and looks out the window just before we hear a crash. Kelsey and I are a little slower to the window. Wendy shouts that that girl just hit a parked car! She went out to help, while Kelsey and I watched from the window. We were so freaked out, we didn't know what to do. We couldn't get a good view to see what state she was in, which only made us freak out more. Wendy went to the emergency room with her. We went out to see the damage on the pick-up truck, and it looks like it was hit by a small car! Kelsey called her dad and I called Viggi. So much freaking out in one room o__o;;

Two hours later, on Skype with Vigg the whole time, we had to go to a house meeting, which, in itself, was awful. We came back. I showered, and Najam was in there the whole time, singing "This Little Light of Mine."

Tuesday, 1 September.

Happy September! Today I slept through breakfast again >_<;; I was just so tired. I did, however, hear the national anthem playing at eight in the morning. That was fun. I woke up finally at 10:30. I muddied around for a while until I had to go to an adviser meeting at 11:30. That went well, but I don't know what to do about French. Classes are being picked tomorrow.... I just hope the Internet doesn't die before I can submit O: I went to check my mailbox because I was told that the college puts mail in them to get us to go see if we can get it. Mine was full of a few papers, a letter regarding my AP scores, oh, and a condom. "Proper attire is required for entry" decorates the wrapper. I asked around all day though... no one who has been to their mailboxes have found condoms inside. Then I ate a sandwich for lunch. On my way back, I met Andrea, and we decided to meet at two to get our IDs. I tried to set up my television [finally!!] but I don't have an extension cord I can use :( and I can't get the cable to work. Long story, though. At two, I went to get my ID. Well... it looks like me, at least. We went to Cro to look at books, but I was lazy and didn't buy any. We chilled out for a while and went back to my room while I tried to fix the cable but to no avail. We went to dinner with another friend and Marisa even came and sat with us too! We had to go to a skit series which was AWESOME. There was a performance of some Michael Jackson - Beat it and Thriller. It kind of made me miss Bryan :P Check out the video!

Oh, and after the skits and such, I was attacked by flying condoms. One just flew from the sky and landed on my lap. Another was slingshotted [is that a verb? lol] into my chest -___-;; I'm starting a collection, and I have plans for it.... mwahahha. But I can't say them online because it's a surprise O:



We came back to the dorm and hung out for a while. I met some kids, one of whom is a big Switchfoot fan, which was awesome. Alex. He said he was going to perform in Open Mic Night and that he might play "The Shadow Proves The Sunshine." I told him that if he did, I would wear the shirt.



So at ten, we went to Open Mic Night. I taped a comedian and Alex. Alex actually gave me a shout out and asked me to stand up, which was quite embarrassing and I turned pretty red. Any way, check out his rendition of this awesome song.




After a few more acts, we headed 'home.' And we basically did nothing. A little hanging out, a little chatting, but nothing huge. And now it's time for bed. Big, early day in the morning.


Every day since Saturday.

On Saturday I woke up at 5am and headed out at sixsomething. It was a long car ride, but I got to eat a bagel. Also, there was torrential downpour hurricaine weather for much of the drive, which is really scary! When we showed up, around 10ish, we were greeted by some very enthusiastic [and wet] sophomores in ponchos, and a dancing camel. I moved in and met my roommates, who seem great. Kelsey is very nice, and Wendy knows everyone, so our room, being SO HUGE, is something of a social centre between the hours of 10 and... three. Ew. But Kelsey and I have learned to appreciate sleeping! *Yawn* I'm making other friends, too, but I'll write about them more later. Here, enjoy my photos thus far.

The Last Week

Before I went to college, I had one week to hang out with as many friends as possible! I was very upset that I missed the TCNJ and Lehigh kids :( But here's a quick story of my adventures with everyone else.

On Tuesday, the twenty-fifth, I picked up Jesson and we visited Band Camp. I brought everyone popsicles and they were all very happy :] Except my sister, who acted like a little brat to me once again, because nothing is ever good enough. It was really great to catch up with everyone, since a lot of the band kids [that didn't graduate with me] are kids I don't get to see as often outside of school.




I had a dance lesson and had to leave band camp for that. It was a good lesson, as I recall.

That afternoon, I rode my bike, and Jesson ran around after me. Then he went home to pack for his trip to Maryland.

That night, Ying and Will came over, and we went to Pane Vino for dinner. We made Ying eat a lot of food, lol. Well, she ordered a calimari appetizer, but Will and I never planned on sharing it, so she had to eat both that and a meal all by herself. After that, we got ice cream at Calaco's and we jumped napped on my trampoline. HINT! Will is very ticklish. Just letting you know. After that, it was goodbye to two of my very good friends :'(



Wednesday, the twenty-sixth, was Sharon day ♥ . We watched The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert because all our other options were too depressing. [Hmm, the Holocaust movie or the story of a kid from a ghetto?] She even came to watch my dance lesson, but had to leave halfway through. I think she survived the drive home, though I'm not sure, since I haven't heard from her since ;D

On Thursday, I went to Verona Park with Maria! We had a lot of fun having a picnic of bagels and cookies. We even saw Sara there! we traipsed around through the stream, which something tells me we're not supposed to do, and got really close to some ducks and minnows. Lol.




That evening, I went to see Jersey Boys on Broadway with the Marching Band! It was SO AMAZING. I would highly recommend it O: As in, go see it. Now.



Friday was my last day here. I had my last dance lesson *cry* and I gave Victor my college address and a Pikachu doll. After that, I got my last bubble tea from Kam Man. I still haven't been into New London and haven't found out if there's a place that sells it here. But I could make it... Then, I had to call my grandparents, and they generally wished me luck, and my uncle came over and gave me some money [hehe] when Mum wasn't looking.

THEN IT WAS TIME TO GO! After a long drive, we got into NYC and I got to see SWITCHFOOT IN CONCERT. Everyone should know how much I love them ♥ ♥ ♥ . During "This Is Your Life," I almost started crying. I love seeing them live. They also played my favourite song, "Gone," mixed with "Crazy in Love" and "Umbrella," but I accidentally deleted the video!!!!! AAAAUGH! That, too, almost made me cry ;___;

I was fortunate enough to see the aftershow. Jon played a lot of songs from the new album, Hello Hurricaine. ♥



We left the city at 12 and got in around 1am, at which point we went to Viggi's house and kidnapped the poor guy. I made him sign my yearbook, lol. When 2:30 - the curfew his parents gave him that night - rolled around, we left for his house, but instead of saying goodbye, we chatted for about half an hour just sitting in the car in his driveway lol. I was very sad because this was the last goodbye, and he's such a good friend. Of course, it's more of a see you later, but things are never going to be the same.