2010

It doesn't seem so long ago that I was sitting here, adjusting to 2010 and remembering 2009. January saw me finishing up my first ever college winter break, which seemed to last forever, up until the moment it was over. I saw Rocky Horror live for the first time with Greg and Jesson and, more terrifyingly and against my better judgement, with my and Greg's mothers. Oh gosh. I remember wanting to go snow tubing desperately, though I never did.

I had a birthday party here at home with local friends, when we saw The Rocky Horror Picture Show for my second time, and against the will of most of my friends, but I didn't turn nineteen until two days after classes started again, and to celebrate that, friends in college ordered takeout and enjoyed it in the common room, and we ate a cake that Mum had made me. I do remember that She Who Must Not Be Named showed up uninvited, and that bugged me a lot. After we ate, only two friends remained to watch The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert with me, hogging the common room TV from anyone that might have wanted to watch the State of the Union address.

I took the Jeopardy! test for the first time. With upsetting results.

During midterms, I wrote a wonderful essay on the nature of dreams for my philosophy class. It was stressful, but it was actually a fun paper to write. Kelsey wrote one in the form of a dialogue between Alex Trebek and Johnny Gilbert. We also spent two and a half hours a week sitting through A History of Modern Philosophy with a very silly professor who is apparently mildly famous within his field. I also took my first college French class with an amazing professor, and I'm convinced she is Monsieur's long-lost-relative-of-some-sort. I continued German and I took European history for the first time since 'global' in eighth and ninth grade. I also started band and bassoon lessons.

I made a transfer application to Drew University, and was accepted with a small scholarship. Then I wrote them a letter asking them to defer my enrollment one year. They wrote back and said I wasn't allowed to take more than a certain, small amount of credits [something like 11] in the next school year. Oops.

I also had my first ever college spring break. It was two weeks long and spent at my own home, hanging out with friends. Trina came and visited for a couple of days and we went roller skating. After Easter, my triple turned into a double and Kelsey and I rearranged. I even got a fort out of the deal.

In April, I saw my first opera, Die Zauberflöte.


In April or May, I took a trip to Mount Holyoke to perform a German play which I had had a major hand in writing, though my character only had a couple of lines, only to be left out of the programme, and to come in third place out of three schools competing. Nonetheless, the German Theatre Workshop was a fun experience and I made some new friends out of it.

At the end of the semestre, things took a turn for the worst with The Bad Thing, which had a great deal to do with She Who Must Not Be Named. So I did not enjoy most of May, and I was just incredibly grateful when it was all over. It was also around that time that I got the news that Dan H would not be returning to Conn for sophomore year. He was, indeed, transferring.

Summer was the best because it was long and I did not have anything to do for a very long time. No job, no homework, just friends and relaxing.



There was, of course, AnimeNEXT.



Then, within one week, everything exciting that would happen that summer, did.

On 24 July, I went to see David Mamet's Race with Liam and Viggi, and I was lucky enough to get signatures from the cast and A PHOTO WITH EDDIE IZZARD. And then I promptly stopped breathing. It might not be an understatement to say that that was one of the most exciting moments of my life so far.


On what I think was the hottest day that summer, I went to the beach [*gasp*] to celebrate Kristin's sweet 16. She and I being as pale as we are turned into lobsters. Very pained lobsters. I seem to remember, at the end of the day, her mother yelling at her for not putting sunblock on because she was already extremely red, and she said back that she'd put it on four times and still got burned that badly. I also remember Ying seeing me come back out of the water and freaking out: "You're all spotty!" Having all but given up sunlight, it has been years since I had had so many freckles.

Just days after that, I went to a water park for the first time in years with David, Arianna, and Kristin. It was more fun than I had remembered it, and I did not get further sunburned. And by the end of July, I was packing for a trip to Belfast! Which I wrote about while I was there but never actually posted anything [maybe I should amend that...].

It was yet another dream come true, having never been to the UK before, even though it was only for a week.

September saw me back at COLLEGE, to my dismay, but newly resolved to bury myself in schoolwork and planning for a very different future. I took two French classes - one in film and one seminar on prostitution in the 1800s. I also worked very hard to get into Chinese 201, a class which would eventually get the better of me. I continued German with 201 and I continued my theatre studies with Technical Theatre, a class on the building, managing, and designing aspects of what goes into making plays. I had so much fun with that that I actually got a job out of it, hanging lights and building sets. I didn't get a chance to work this year, but I have promised myself that next year, when I have an easier schedule, I will. And of course, band and lessons.

There was NYAF and NYCC, and I got separated from Jesson and everyone for a long time with a dead phone battery and ended up taking the bus home by myself. But I did get to meet and speak briefly to Zach Weiner, which is really, really, really cool.

Sophomore year was dramatically different from freshman year, though only separated by a few months of break. I had a car. I came home almost every weekend except for two - the one after I first arrived and the one before Thanksgiving. She Who Must Not Be Named, surprisingly and to my great joy, did not return, though I wait in fear to find out whether she is returning for the spring semestre or is in fact waiting until next fall. Kelsey came back, though, even though she wasn't supposed to. Dan did not. I had my own room and I decorated it by getting rid of all the furniture except the bed.

I started thinking more and more about my actual future [ooooh~], something which I'd never wanted to do before, and which landed me in this upsetting school in the first place. I thought about what I wanted to accomplish in the film industry, and the incredible amounts of fun I had in my French film and tech theatre class made me realise that, though I love acting, I would be content working on films in a more creative role [ideally directing, but that's unlikely, I guess]. And I realised that I didn't only want to study film as a theory, like literature. So I started new applications, this time to the UK. In the end, they went to Nottingham-Trent University for Film and Linguistics, York University for Writing, Directing, and Performing, York University for Linguistics and French, Aberyswyth University for French and Film and TV studies, and Queen's University Belfast for Film and Linguistics.

The year ended with decent expected grades - they haven't been received yet but I'm expecting hopefully all A's except for Chinese and possibly my seminar. There was a very large paper on prostitutes to be written and a very strange movie about a German drug dealer and love triangle [more of an arrow shape, actually].
There was a fabulous Christmas, filled with gifts, friends, and family. I was accepted into Aberystwyth. There were many movie days, only to be added to in the early days of this new year. There was dancing. And there was cake.

So 2010 had its ups and downs, and frankly, I'm not too sorry to see it go. But I do think that it has prepared me in wonderful ways for whatever will come next. At least three things that I survived - The Bad Thing, learning German, and learning bassoon - can all be pointed at as I say, "Well I survived that, so I can do anything!" The year was, in complete honesty, heart-breaking, and I don't mean in the traditional sense. But it had its wonderful moments, and I wouldn't trade them.

As for 2011... I don't know what it's going to bring. My classes still haven't even been finalized for the spring semestre, and fall seems worlds away. I'll have a decision to make, in some ways difficult, as to whether or not I am going to the UK for the next three or four years, and if so, which school. But what I do hope for the year is the strength to continue dealing with a school that I don't love, the confidence to make this school work for me in my last months, and the perserverence to find and follow what it is that I actually "want".

Here's wishing you all a very happy and lucky new year.

It's Monday So I Will Write

And now for another installment of 'guess what silly thing I did today'.

I skipped showering last night because by Sunday night, the showers are mad disgusting. I went to my classes, and got out at 2:30, ready to take an awesome, clean shower. So I hopped into the stall and did my stuff.

As I was getting out, I remember remarking upon the fact that I hadn't shed so much as usual, and wow, look how little time I took, even though I washed my hair.

And then I went back to my room. I got dressed, and then I started brushing my hair.

Ew. What is this white stuff coming out with every stroke?

Shoot.

So back in the shower, to rinse off the conditioner, which I had left on the whole time and forgotten to rinse before actually getting out the first time.

*Bow*




Completely unrelatedly... I am really excited! Today was the first meeting ever for a brand new, coming-this-spring club at my college: Conn Garde!
[If you didn't guess by the really lamey pun title, it's a fencing club!!!]

I've been missing fencing so much. This is the weather and the sorts of days that I have been fencing in for the last four years, and days seem a little empty without it. Like, what's the last week of summer without marching band camp and/or cramming summer reading? Same, weird feeling.

It was just an informational meeting, to see who's interested, etc. The club needs to be approved and get funding for the spring term before we can do anything, really. But just the idea that this might happen [and that I'm not the one who has to go through the headache to organise all this, thank you so much mysterious organisers!] is so exciting!




This weekend was fairly bizarre for me. I got back from Boston on Thursday morning, as I've written, so Thursday was a long and sleepy day, and Friday just seemed to be an extension of that. I kept messing up my days of the week because of the trip [feels like such a weekend thing to do, lol], and when there were no classes on the weekend, I was pretty confused.

I went Christmas shopping on Friday afternoon at the Crystal Mall. I've presents for Dan, Bo, Kelsey, Wendy, Andrea, Ariana, Najam, and also for Mum, sister, Sara [mailed that today], Liam, and Paula. I will get other Livingstoners' once I'm back home. On Friday night, we had Ballroom Club, but I really wasn't in it that night. Plus it was samba, which I suck at / don't love. After that, though, Dan and I ended up watching Paprika, because I had only ever seen the first half and Dan K. back home always speaks so highly of it. Trippy movie, man. It makes your brain kind of confused.

I dedicated much of the rest of the weekend to actually accomplishing things, because I felt so unaccomplished due to that concert. I wrote a song [it's pretty awesome] for music theory, and I compiled my presentation for gender & society, which is on ads. I also skipped Sunday Sundae [aaaugh why!?] because it was too cold to bother to walk to dinner. [Bad reason. Stupid.]



Today was a fairly chill day. In gender & society, I just had to watch other people's presentations [which, in turn, made me think about how to make mine better, yey!]. In German, we had a review session, clearing up a lot of issues with the cases [English speakers, be so glad we don't really have dative and accusative cases and gendered nouns! AAH SCARY!]. I fell asleep during lunch, and then in music theory I performed my piece on the clarinet, and two other people's. Then I just got to sit back and listen as everyone else performed theirs [or had someone else do it]. And then that is when the shower story occurred.

I had dinner down in south tonight, and when I came back, I fell asleep again. Meh. Why? I don't know. It's not like I haven't been sleeping or anything. Oh well. And then I went to the fencing meeting!



So last night, Sunday night, was pretty eventful. We had a cookie decorating party in the common room at eight, and an all-house meeting at nine, and then Dan taught me how to play Diplomacy. I haven't played yet, but I've been taught the rules, and I am prepared for the big games both Dans have awaiting for me in the January and February months... *eep!*

And then we went to sleep.

And then it was 4:30, and I rolled over so that I was no longer facing the wall in my sleep. I probably wouldn't have woken up, but I heard someone shuffling around on a mattress. My initial reaction was that it was one of my roommates, but it sounded like it was coming from more-or-less below me, rather than over there or over there, so I roll a little more and peer over the edge of my bed.

And there's a body there.

I mean, on a mattress, asleep. But still. In the darkness, I couldn't figure out who it was at first and my brain was so confused. I tried to go back to sleep, but my brain kept saying, "There's a person over there!" and I kept rolling back over and staring at him for seconds at a time. I figured out it was Dan, but I still had no clue how he got there, or how I'd slept through it, since he'd clearly dragged in a mattress from student storage on which to sleep.

I asked him in the morning. Apparently, the heat in his room doesn't work, so his roommate is pretty sick now. He was going to sleep in the common room, but Wendy saw him, long after Kelsey and I had gone to bed, and she invited him to stay in our nice, warm room.

But I'm still wondering how I didn't wake up.



This was a very non-linear post. Welcome to the inside of my mind... this was more like my diary than anything I've ever written here.




If you are interested, the most recent posts at Not Studying are:

• Heroes from 26 October
• Fringe from 12 November.
• A Study In Scarlet

And the newest additions here are:

• Switchfoot
• Thanksgiving
• Busy!
• Boston

WHOA BUSY

So every weekend has been 'the best weekend ever' lately. Now, I'm having just as much fun whether I'm at home or at school or gallivanting through foreign cities.

I should probably start with Thursday, because I wrote a letter to Sara and watched Howl's Moving Castle. That was awesome!

Friday was fantastically fun from the start. It was class registration day, so I had to be up for 7:30. My plan was to take Elementary German, French Introduction to Literary and Textual Analysis [a three hundred level class, YAY], Mathematics from a Cultural Perspective [a.k.a. bullshit math to complete my general education requirement], and either Ancient Greek Religions [to complete a religion/philosophy gen. ed.] or Tonal Theory [it's the 'next step' from music theory]. Completely by coincidence, in building this schedule, I would have had no Fridays and nothing before 10:25. Well math was full, obviously, and theory had a lab that I overlooked, which conflicts with German, and Greek religions was full too. So somehow I ended up with this schedule:
MONDAY: Intro to European History, 9-9:50; French, 10:25-11:40; German, 11:50-12:40.
TUESDAY: History of Modern Philosophy, 10:25-11:40
WEDNESDAY: European History, 9-9:50; French, 10:25-11:40; German, 11:50-12:40.
THURSDAY: History of Modern Philosophy, 10:25-11:40; German, 11:50-12:40
FRIDAY: Intro to European History, 9-9:50.

After that nightmare, I decided to go back to sleep until about 9:30, but I hit the off button on my alarm and didn't wake up until 10:10! I quickly got ready, muttering profanities to myself, and made it to German in time. I'm really happy that I get to have the same German teacher for the next semestre, because he's super awesome.

After class, I came back to my room, but I didn't have German homework to do because we have a test on Monday, so I just chilled out. Wendy was still asleep. Dan came up and knocked on my door and invited me to lunch. So he and I and Ariana all went and ate, and I met a person who seems pretty cool named Emily. After lunch, I think we were headed to Ariana's room, but we never quite made it, and we sort of sat down in the hallway just feet away from her door. They started tickling me [*cry*] but then I remembered, "Hey, isn't Dan ticklish?" and so we tickled him instead. And all of the people from our house who walked by were, well, confused.

Eventually, there was dinner with a bunch of friends. At seven [I missed Jeopardy! :'( ] there was BALLROOM DANCE CLUB! Only a few people showed up, but it was still a lot of fun, and I got to swing with Tom. After the club, Ariana, Tanaha, and I walked to the Coast Guard Academy for a dance. There were significantly less Coasties this time, but Tanaha still managed to dance with all of them ;D . Dan showed up after a while, too.

When the dance was over, we walked back to Conn and Ariana invited us to her room for tea. We actually made it there that time. We listened to Stephen Lynch and Bill Cosby. Dan fell asleep on the floor and Ariana and I chatted until three, at which point we woke Dan up, but it was amusing because he was really confused. Wendy's guests were still in our room, so I just grabbed my blanket and Blankie and went back to Ariana's room and slept in her big chair.

Saturday was another fun day. We slept through the pancake breakfast that Melanie had invited us to [oh dear] and we had 'brunch' at 12:15. I made a waffle. Yes.

Ariana and Dan and I had planned a Jeeves & Wooster and teddy bears tea party for that afternoon at three in the common room. I was very surprised at the great turn-out! Lots of people, lots of teddies, and for three hours we watched half of the first season (three episodes, each being about an hour long). I'm so glad I brought my DVDs, and even more glad that I found a fellow fan and even more friends who were willing to watch!

We also saw Doubt that night at eight. Dan sat on my right and Danny on my left, and I started freaking out, "I'm surrounded by Dans!!" Not that I'm not used to that or anything... [just look at my LHS friends...] The play was really wonderful. I will copy/paste my crummy reaction paper thing at the end of this entry. And then we watched Tonari no Totoro!!! AAAH. Dan's first time hahaha. I love that movie ♥♥

Sunday was considerably less productive, probably due to the jam-packed-ness of the days prior. We had brunch together again, and then we went our separate ways.

I tried to be productive and write a journal for my freshmen seminar or my reaction to Doubt, but that didn't go over very well. I basically ended up sitting on my bed for a few hours doing absolutely nothing. Finally, I convinced myself to catch up on Fringe! Haha. Yay for productivity?

I wandered down the hall into 313 and found everyone sitting around in there, working, and they said they'd be eating soon, so I went with them.

There was also a Blackstone [my dorm] Thanksgiving party in the common room at eight, so I went to that. Awesome! We made s'mores in the fireplace and drank cider, and just generally had a really happy time with our fellow house people. Ariana and Dan tickled me again -__-;; Bo too. Stupid people, haha. The party died down pretty much after all the food disappeared, but Ariana, Dan, and I stayed to make sure we didn't burn the house down. I brought myself to study German a little and help someone with music theory, and I went to sleep around midnight. It seemed like a pretty cliché Sunday night, like something you might read in an old book, but it was good. Very happy-making.

Today was wonderful because I had two tests - one in German and one in Music Theory - both of which were mildly challenging, but not so much. Once again finished theory with forty minutes left, left class early, and I got to go practise! Yay!

I'm so happy with the bassoon the school gave me because it has such a great sound, especially compared to the LHS one.

Oh and House was super awesome today!

Doubt
I had the opportunity to see the first run-through of Doubt, and I was very impressed. I kept telling people, “It’s going to be great; definitely go see it!” Even so, I was still surprised by the end product (Saturday, 21 November, 8pm). Of course, knowing the show beforehand, I didn’t get the same shocks and emotions as the first viewing, same as Tempest, but I still loved the production.
The setting was fantastic. I was very impressed by the floor of the stage: I loved the way that it faded gently from indoor tile to garden stone, and how that played into the staging, since all of the office scenes were set towards the left and all of the garden scenes were on the right. The costuming and music all fit very well with both the play itself and the time period in which it takes place. The Mozart had an especially poignant effect after the climax.
I also think all four actors were great. (You may have noticed by now that I’m not very good at being critical…) Mrs. Muller was especially great. She really seemed as if she were hearing the words for the first time, sitting in that office, and though she only had one scene, she left a memorable performance. The only performance that I thought was a little weak was Sister James, and even she was very good. There were some parts, especially at the very beginning, where she didn’t seem completely into the character yet, but she overcame it, and when she was in character, she, too, was great.

Fall Break

Fall Break

My fall break was fantastic. It was supposed to start "Thursday at 5:00 pm", but my theatre teacher cancelled class for that Thursday. That being my only Thursday class, I could leave as soon as classes were over on Wednesday, which is precisely what I did, catching a 3:07 train back to NJ.

It was great being home.

On Thursday, I visited LHS. I tried the side door, but it was locked, so I turned back to walk around to the front, when I heard the door open and Josh Kim yell my name. That was convenient, and great to see him. I stopped by the band room with him and Anton, but I wanted to visit Mrs. Lee, so I did, but she wasn't there! The Spanish sub that always subs for her was there, and I asked if I could just say hi, so she said I had "two minutes". It took a little longer than two minutes, yeah, but she kicked me out after a while. A lot of people to see in that classroom :( Hopefully next time, Mrs. Lee will be there and I can spend more time!

I didn't know what to do, since I told Mum not to pick me up until 1:04 [when seventh period ends], so I went to orchestra. Dr. T. made me play o__o;; It was pretty unnerving when she said "Oh you can sit next to Deborah!" Hah -.- Except I played the second part on the harder songs. Hehh. It was really great to see everyone, but there was much more weekend to go!

Mum and I practised making rainbow cupcakes. I also had a dance lesson on Thursday night, and I brought the cupcakes to dance to share with everyone there. Yay dance! Woo. That made me happy. I miss it so much :'(

********

On Friday, I went to LHS again for the GSA meeting. I was really surprised at the underclassmen turn-out. It looks like there's hope for the club yet! Yay! I brought a rainbow cake, too, because it was a Coming Out Day party. Everyone loved it [but it's hard to eat something with so much food dye].

That evening, I went to see The Invention of Lying with Vigg. It was cute, but not as amazing as I'd expected [I don't really know what I was hoping for, since my hopes weren't very high; it wasn't even a bad movie, in fact it was very good, but... well I don't know]. Afterwards, I kidnapped him to my driveway for about forty-minutes, not telling him where I was taking him next.

Then we went to Applebee's. That was wonderful! I got see Bryan, Arianna, Alex, Kevin, Dan, Mike, and many more amazing band geeks. Life is weird without them =\ Any way, we tried to smush ten people into this little tiny booth, which was only built for six, max. That was fun.

********

Saturday was fantastic beyond belief.

I went to the mall because Mum wanted to buy ...who knows what. And I needed tights. I ended up stopping at The Gap and getting fall-wear, too. I love their boys clothes. So great haha.

I got all dressed up in a knee-length striped sweater/dress and my tights and my Mary Janes, and I even straightened my hair yay. I went to New York City, where I met up with Sharon and Maria for a little while, as I headed to the Radio City Music Hall. Alice was with them, too. That was great. I miss having Sharon's smiling face and Maria's sense of humour~ Last year, I sat between them every day, and now I don't :(

Halfway there, Mum yelled "SHIT" and grabbed my arm - not joking. Turns out she forgot the tickets. WTF. I was VERY angry and scared they wouldn't let us in. When we got there, they only let one person in to the box office at a time, per party, so I had to stand on the street and wait. That's when I saw Stephen Colbert. He was there with two of his kids and the man said 'only one at a time' and he was a little mad with him and said, "I have kids with me, I'm not going to leave them out here alone." I wasn't paying attention, though, 'cuz I was scared for the sake of my own tickets. I didnt' realise it was Stephen Colbert at the time, either.

We got in.

When the show started, I almost cried three separate times out of sheer excitement. It was a concert of The Fellowship of the Ring music, performed by a massive, live orchestra, and three choruses, with the movie projected on a giant screen in the background! AHHHH.

The scariest/most amazing part was intermission. I went out into the lobby to buy a programme, and four feet in front of me, I saw Howard Shore walk by. I have never been so starstruck. My mouth and eyes opened wide [ =0 ] and my feet wouldn't move... at all. He was right there, shaking hands with someone, and I was right there and couldn't do anything about it. I went back to my seat to see if I could find Mum and tell her, after I'd lost him into the crowd, but then I remembered to buy a programme. As I continued searching for Mum, I found Dan [H., from school] and told him about this. Sooo excited. I started crying a little bit, again, haha. Tears of joy!

After the second half, I heard that there was a signing. There was such a long line, but I finally got there. Howard Shore signed my Fellowship of the Ring CD that I've had since middle school. AAAHHH.

********

Sunday was the chill day. Mum and I woke up very late haha. We also had to buy a new suit case, because I've been using my sister's. But this one is superiour, really. And I also bought bubble tea! Yay! I don't know if there's any of that up here, still -.-

I caught a train back to school that evening, and worked on a paper during the three-hour ride.

********

Fall break was great. The next time I'll be back will be for Thanksgiving. See you then :D
Pictures coming soon... I just left my camera at home so I have to wait for this weekend when Mum brings it up.

Cutting Class, Plastic Apples, Adventures, Mail, Chocolate Chip Cookies, Sitting on the Floor

Today is just one of those good days you always hear other people talking about but you never get the chance of experiencing for yourself. You know?

It started last night. I just finished reading two articles for Gender & Society, and was about to go to sleep, when I checked my email. There was a message from Prof. Jafar, telling us, "Since this is the third day of snow and freezing rain where I live and this weather is expected to continue (with hazardous driving conditions) until tomorrow afternoon, I have to cancel class tomorrow (Monday). We'll cover our scheduled reading on Wednesday." That made me incredibly happy as I drifted off to sleep.

This morning, I woke up naturally at about 7:15, and had trouble staying asleep untill my alarm went off at 9:30, but that was okay. It meant I was well rested and ready to go. I had breakfast with Livy and Brendon, and the fact that I love Raisin Bran makes that all the better.

After breakfast [and not going to Gender & Society], I went to German, where we had a test. I don't hate tests. In fact, most of the time, I rather like them, as long as I have a decent mastery of the subject matter, which I did. His tests are always fun because he acts out what he's saying [give us a slightly higher chance haha], and they involve a lot of creativity. So I handed it in and left class - it was only about five minutes early, but I was, once again, the first one done, which is a great feeling. Heheee.

Then I went on an adventure! It's been over a week since I got permission to get a practise room key, but the permission is in the music building and the keys are in campus safety, which is, apparently, in the middle of nowhere. So, having free time, I finally decided to find the place. I rode my bike all over the place, and just as I was giving up, I found it. And I also found out that the hours on Mondays were 1-4. So I went back.

I also went to Cro to check my mail, and I found a package from Mum. ♥♥ Lots of little knick-knacks, some popcorn, and a small letter... it made me very happy. :D

I went to lunch and ate raisins with my sandwich and I had some fantabulous chocolate chip cookies. So good :3

I had my music theory class, which was mostly review for our test on Wednesday, but it was so hot in there. OH MY GOSH. So hot. Lol. So she had us stand up and move around a little, and she opened the door, 'cuz she could tell we were all dying a little bit. After I had done what she wanted [she gave each student one question down the line, basically], I sat on the floor, and it was so cool. Not cool like 8) cool, cool like cold. It felt really nice =P By the end of the exercise, I'd convinced Patricia to join me, who, in turn, got four other kids to sit with us, too. Good class.

After that, I caught up on Internet happenings. It's really a simple life, hahaha. I'm going to watch last week's episode of Glee, finish the last chapter of Brave New World, study German, work on my theatre scene, watch Jeopardy!, House, and Castle. It's going to be wonderful.

I don't know, today just feels so great, you know? It's a really nice day, and I'm happy. This has to be the happiest I've felt since I've come here [besides, you know, when I was back at home], and it's so reassuring to know that I can feel like this here. :]

Have a wonderful day!

Coming soon: Fall break, dancing!, talking about the new blog [hahhh], Tempest, Fall Weekend, and more!

Oh noes!

So many things to blog about!

• Fall break!
• Dancing!
• New blog!
• The Tempest
• Fall Weekend
  
• Other stuff...? I guess I thought there was more than there really is xD

So I'll work on those for this weekend, while catching up on TV [*cry*] and studying for my German test on Monday.

Have a photo to tide you over.

Happy fall.

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!

*********

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].


*********

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.

*********

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!

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!!

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.