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.

Thanksgiving

On Tuesday I went home! Yay! It was awesome. Not really. Actually, my one class was cancelled, after weeks and weeks of the professor saying, "I'm not going to cancel class on Tuesday," so I didn't have anything to do until 3:00, and I could have taken the same train twenty-four hours earlier if I had only KNOWN. Ugh. Oh well. After being home for a very, very short while, Mum and I went to NYC to pick up Elisabeth!! Yay! And then, our super fantastic weekend began~



I woke up early on Wednesday, but Elisabeth didn't want to. Makes sense. Why be crazy like me, if you don't have to, right?

So I went to the high school that morning! I started the day in Mirsky's first period AP English, where we played the 'surrealist game'. Basically, everyone writes a question on a piece of paper, and then folds the paper so no one can see. Then they pass the paper on to someone else, and then everyone writes an answer on their new paper. Then, they read the combined question and answer and try to interpret it, lol. Mine was something like "Why are there no chipmunks here?!" and Vigg's fail answer was "Blue." But there was a funny one: "Where will ___ go to college?" "Pretty pretty rainbows".[I don't know the kid, so I don't think it's fair to publish his name, but they assure me he's pretty flamboyant and... yeah.]

Second period, I went to orchestra, and third I went to Madame Steffener's French class, and her son was there and he is SO CUTE. For fourth, I visited Dr. Walsh in AP Enviro, even though I have never taken that class myself. And then for fifth, I went to Gov, another class I have never taken. It took Mr. Safran a really long time to notice I was there. I went to band for sixth period and sat with Josh, texting Eric and confusing him about. For seventh, I got to go to 'my' Chinese class, and I ended up taking notes for Johnny. -.- Eighth was World Film, where we watched 400 Blows, and then I left.



After school, Elisabeth and I went to the Original Pancake House, and we were planning on meeting Bryan and Alex there, but they were slow and I had a dance lesson to go to. We ordered, and when our food arrived, so did Bryan and Alex, so we ate and talked to them. Then, when we had to leave, their food showed up. Funny, but it worked.

Then I went to my dance lesson, which, as always, was a lot of fun. I think Elisabeth was slightly impressed [Victor was in show-off mode, of course! Ugh!], but I was fairly embarrassed.

Then I had to go to the mall to get a haircut. I ACTUALLY LIKE IT and it's as short as I want it! I know, right? Lol.

<-- Me, plus new haircut, making a grumpy face ['cuz it was really late at night]. That night, we had dinner at Pane Vino, and then that's where the fun began. It started with kidnapping Vigg, and culminated with twelve-ish people watching THE FANTASTIC MR. FOX. That movie was fricken fantastic, as the name might suggest. If you haven't seen it, go see it now. If you have, well then go see it again.



After the movie, we went back to Bryan's house, where we played things and stayed up really late. And Vigg thought Arianna was a b-tard. And it was amazing and fun. Yay. ♥





Thanksgiving itself was pretty low-key. We woke up in time to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade [bizarre, as usual], and then we got ready to go to Aunt Mary's. I felt sorry for Elisabeth, having to repeat the 'I'm French, but I grew up in Tokyo, and now I'm at Middlebury, Vermont' speech so many times... We hung out until four, when we had dinner. This wast the first time we'd ever had dinner at the same time and the same table as the adults. But the Mahoneys weren't there, and neither was Uncle George & co., and the Maine McDonalds were MIA as well, of course. We were finished with dinner by five, and had dessert at six. By seven, we were ready for bed, and we left around 7:30, getting back at nine. At ten, we were sound asleep.





We had a lazy day after Thanksgiving. We both woke up relatively early - Elisabeth at eight and I at nine - because of our super early bed time. Well rested, we spent the day doing a little bit of nothing, and attempting to do homework. Notice the attempting.

Ying came over because she wanted to play violin with me. She'd brought some duets from anime, and one was from Tsubasa: Resevoir Chronicle, which is one of my favourites, and it was really cool to be able to play a song that I know. After she had to go, I just kept practising [once you pop the fun don't stop?].

Mum tried to fix her computer, but it turns out she needs a new hard drive [yay -.-], so we went to Best Buy. Elisabeth came too , because she wanted to see what it was like. We looked around the entire place, and I drooled over some gadgets and games I might enjoy, but most importantly, we found no hard drive for Mum. She'll have to order one online... for which she'll need a computer... yay?

At 6:30, we went to Arianna's house for her After-Thanksgiving-Day Party [or, You're Welcome Day Bash], and I brought the chocolate cake Mum had made. A lot of people were there, including Bryan, Greg, Kenny, Kim, Virginia, Cassie, Lori, and Justina and Stephanie, so it was really awesome. I was happy to see them all, and I feel like, if it weren't for this, I wouldn't have seen most of them this weekend. Dinner was wonderful - everything was homemade from scratch! - and so was Mum's chocolate cake.



Elisabeth and I left at midnight and went to bed soon after.



Saturday was the day that Elisabeth and I had arranged to meet Kristen, our mutual friend from Explo who lives near me, and so I really have no excuse for not seeing her for over a year. Mum made scones when Elisabeth and I woke up, so we were well fed for the morning. At twelve, we went to the Short Hills mall to meet Kristen at the California Pizza Kitchen, and we watched her eat lunch. Then we went shopping for a little while. The Gap was having a great sale, and all t-shirts were only ten dollars [including those men's waffle shirts I'd paid so much for before!!], so I bought two, a red waffle shirt, and a purple and black striped shirt. Kristen eventually had to leave [*sadface*], but Elisabeth wanted warm pajamas, so we went to Macy's. There, we found super soft and fluffy bathrobes and we each bought one. Leaving, she asked me, "How do you call this warm fluffy thing we just bought?" I don't know why, but I thought that was cute, lol.



After the mall, Jesson wanted to hang out. He originally suggested seeing Ninja Assassin, but that looked really crummy, and movies in Livingston are so expensive... So did all the other movies nearby, and The Road and Men Who Stare At Goats were just too far away. We agreed to rent a movie instead. I brought Elisabeth to Jesson's house, where we looked through five or more photo albums. We drove to Eric's house - our first successful Eric-napping! - and then to Blockbuster, which is going out of business [*sadface*]. I bought There Will Be Blood and some half-price popcorn, and Elisabeth bought Atonement and Speed Racer, and the guys bought Speed Racer [blu-ray], Superbad, some anime, and something else... Back at my house, Mum made us rice and chili, and then we watched Superbad in my room. During the course of the movie, Sara, Greg, Tara, and Pascal all made their way to my house, too, but Greg and Tara left.



When the movie was over, Greg wanted us to come hang out at Littel People's Park with them, so we walked there. We were almost to the parking lot when Greg calls me and says they'd left already. What? Sorry, but aren't you supposed to call before you decide to leave, if you're expecting people? He said they were going to Riker Hill Art Park, so we walked back to my house, got my car, drove to Jesson's house to get Oli's car, and called Greg again, but he'd left the art park and was going to Eddie's house. No, that was a party I just would not crash. So we ended up at Wendy's [fast food] instead.



Sunday was the 'chill' day. Or at least it was supposed to be. Elisabeth and I woke up, took long showers [because we won't get another as comfortable for three weeks], and ate breakfast. I did my laundry, and we packed. Then we made a last minute, spontaneous trip up Route 10 to Kam Man to get bubble tea.

After that was when it stopped being chill.

We drove Elisabeth to New York City for her 2:45 bus. We thought leaving at 1 was plenty early. Good thing we did, because there was so much traffic around Weehawken and the Lincoln Tunnel. Finally, we stopped at where her bus was supposed to be - it was 2:30 at this point! - and it wasn't there yet. So she and I got out and looked around; we found some of her friends from school, I said good bye and went back to find Mum's car. It wasn't there. I stood in the spot where she'd left me for half an hour, and I even tried calling her but she left her phone at home. I was quite upset. She found me after almost thirty minutes.

Then we drove down to Newark. The traffic wasn't nearly as bad on the way out. We were about an hour early for my train, so we stopped at a CVS and bought a water bottle and a Butterfinger for the ride.

When we got to Penn Station [Newark], we wanted to sit down, so we went up to the track on which my train was supposed to come in. The television board told us that the train was delayed twenty minutes, but when a train pulled in only five minutes late, Mum was convinced it was mine and sent me off. A conductor told me I was going the wrong way! South! To Newark Airport! AAAH! I asked him what I should do, and he said to get off at the next stop and find a train to NYC. That's what I did, but the next wasn't until 5:03, and it was only about 4:40. I frantically called my mother, even though I knew she didn't have her phone [!!!] and left her a message telling her my predicament, when what do I see but a train pulling in on the opposite track labelled 'Amtrak'. Well, I might as well try my luck. I asked a conductor where this train was headed and he said it was the one I was supposed to be on, so I got on at the very last second. Thank goodness it was so much delayed, otherwise, I would never have gotten back to school.


Back at school, I fooled around with Kelsey, Ariana, and Dan. It was very amusing - poor Kelsey! If I ever need to blackmail her, I'm pretty much set... Haha.



On Monday night, we had a potluck. And it was amazing. Yay! And then Kelsey wrote a letter to my German teacher about how amazing his photocopying skills are.



And, as always, you can check out all of the photos on Facebook.

Boston, and then some!

The big thing about this weekend was that our prospies were coming. That's prospective students. Wendy had two, so we dragged extra mattresses from student storage and put them in our room, covered with our extra blankets. Greg and Arianna were late in leaving New Jersey. At school, we were having a party. Benito ordered food from a Dominican restaurant in New London, and he was flirting it up with the woman on the phone, and dying over the fact that they didn't have yuca frita. When the food arrived, we opened it up, and saw on the very top a box labelled "Yuca Frita, on the house! Enjoy!" We and the prospies enjoyed the meal, and finally Greg and Arianna arrived at eleven-thirty pm.





They walked in on an entire room of college students and some high school seniors seated around an empty cake pan, colouring pages ripped from colouring books with crayons. I showed them around my building and then bought them coffee and soda at Cro, and then we were on our way, about two hours behind schedule.

We finally got into Boston at 2. Needless to say, Liam was not impressed, but I was when I saw his dorm. The building had been converted from an old hotel - the hotel in which Eugene O'Neill died - and it had a lobby, an elevator, and hotel style rooms. I thought it was pretty nifty, but Sara says that it has the worst food. Since it was so late, we just got ready for bed and went right to sleep, end of story.


The next morning, Liam had to leave at eleven, which gave me time to wander around and explore a little. I found a bagel shop, which is not Finagle-A-Bagel and had a nice long brunch there. Long, mostly because I had time to kill and because I didn't want to go out in the rain.

I found my way to Sara's building for a quick visit, and she told me how to get to Liam's play. He was in the student-run production of The Iceman Cometh by Eugene O'Neill, and he played Parritt. I'd like to say that he was fantastic and it's not because I am biased. He, Hope, Larry, and the bartender were, in my opinion, the best actors in the play. Really amusing: during the climax, when all the people leave the bar, the door fell down on one of the whores. It was sort of amazing.

After the play, I congratulated Liam, and then I figured out where Greg was. He was at Harvard with Justina and Debanjan, so I called Sara and we figured out how to get there by the T, the Boston train, if you don't know. My phone died! I had to use a payphone to call Greg, and luckily I found them in Harvard Square! DJ had a meeting to get to, so I only got to see him for like half an hour. We got ice cream and coffee in a place called the Garage, and then Justina dragged us into Urban Outfitter's 'Bargain Basement'. In Harvard Square, there is a fob store that is largely Totoro themed and there is a Curious George store as well.



Then we went back to Tufts, and Justina found someone on her floor who had a charger I could borrow [thank goodnessssss!]. Greg and Justina had tickets to a comedy show, so I sat in her room for the duration. Mostly, I was just thankful to be charging my phone, and I got to go on Facebook and chat with Andrea and Viggi. When they came back, we hung out for a while, talking to kids in the hall. When Greg and Justina started getting ready to go to a No Pants Party, I decided it was time to go back to Sara's at BU.

When Liam had signed me in on Friday night, he signed me in as a one-night guest, so I couldn't get back into the building on my own. Since he had a cast party, I had to contact his roommate and ask if he'd let me in but he couldn't until about two. I stayed in Sara's really tiny room [but they have a HUGE closet!] and chatted with her, and we decided it would be a lot more fun if I slept in her room for that second night. At two, I walked down the street to Liam's dorm, where Stevhen let me in, and I got my things and walked back up the street. It's really cool that they're neighbours, but weird that Sara and Liam don't know each other, lol. And then we went to sleep.


Sunday, Greg and Arianna showed up bright and early [not really, it was like ten] and I said goodbye to Sara and headed back to Conn. Once there, I brought Arianna and Greg to brunch with Andrea and Kelsey and Benito and Dan and a million other people because none of us had eaten before we'd left Boston. When it came time to leave, we said our goodbyes, and Arianna gave me Kenny's fedora to keep until Thanksgiving.

That night, as if it wasn't a fun and busy enough weekend, I helped Dan make a "Welcome Back" poster out of leaves, and then Andrea, Dan, and I watched a French entitled Mon Meilleur Ami, with Daniel Auteuil [La Fille Sur Le Pont, Jean de Florette, Manon de la Source, etc.]. It was really funny and very touching.



What an amazing weekend!! :D


But the fun didn't stop there!
Would you like to know the silly thing I did on Monday, 16 November? I got back from my last class at 2:30 and sat around. I'd decided to waste time until my 3:30 German Lab. But something kept not feeling right, the closer I got to 3:30, the less I wanted to go to the lab. So at twenty after, I finally wrapped up what I was doing, grabbed my packpack, and headed out. I got halfway to the building when I realised... German lab is on Tuesdays. That was not Tuesday. And I promptly turned around and came back to my dorm.


And the exciting news from today:
Now, Uncle Yo is easily my favourite [stand up] comedian. If you know anything about me, you know that, lol. So, he's releasing a DVD of the performance that I went to over the summer, and is holding a fan art cover contest for it. Over Halloween weekend, I crafted my design from this photo, from that same event. Tonight, I finally sent in my designs, one black and white that I drew, and one that I coloured in with a Photoshop trial. Really awesome? He emailed me back with "This is awesome! my favorite entry so far. Is my face sinking into a sea of blood? 'Cause that's badass!" And I can't stop freaking out about how amazing that is.

Oh yeah, and we threw a birthday party for our friend and neighbour, Eric.




For photos, check out: this and this on Facebook!