Beach, Blues, and something else not starting with a B

Blue. Smooth, firm under my feet. Step... step... off. Woosh and silence. Blue. Bang. Crash. Darkness. Cold. Light. Wet. Ouch.

I swam towards the platform and got out of the water.

Yesterday we drove to Nyon (like 30 minutes away) and swam at the beach. We got there late, like at 5 or something. So I hung out with my dad at the dive platform, went off a few times and stuff. There was this guy in a blue speedo playing his guitar and singing, with microphone and video camera. Free entertainment. Then he walked around selling his CDs. He was American I think. His lyrics were in English, anyway.

Then after that we drove home and then drove to this birthday party for someone named Jenny that we did not know. The Canettes Blues Band (see their website on my "Check out some of these links!" section) were going to play, and our friend from there (Steve Goldfarb, the singer) was told by Jenny to invite lots of people. So we dragged Zach (he wanted to do his homework) and he stayed for an hour. There were a lot of kids. TONS of Chinese food. I got some and came back for seconds. Then they brought out this new load of chicken with peanut sauce, but the time my mom and I got there there were only a few pieces left. So I grabbed the last one, and then someone put two other pieces of chicken on my plate. I was aghast. I looked up and saw this tall 15 year old with blonde hair that looked a lot like Cal. I was too dumbstruck to say anything. I never said thank you. How rude!!! So then my mom had a small conversation with him and he resumed his place with some other like French guys.

At 9 this solo guy played some of his songs with his acoustic. He was ok. It was funny during one of his songs, because this kid had been playing with that string and plastic thing which he threw up in the air and caught in the string, then the guy missed the plastic thing, so it rolled down right next to the guitarist. He just left it there. Then the Canettes Blues Band came on and everyone started dancing. Some of them were really getting down. And then this one little girl started shaking her butt and dancing in front on me and my mom (we were sitting in the "front row") and then she looked behind her and noticed us, and then stopped. It was funny.

The bassist and guitarist looked like "The Blues Brothers" or whatever because they wore dark shades, a coat and a hat. They also had a harmonica- player who liked to get down. He looked sort of like Mick Jagger. The keyboardist was also good, and the drummer was a lefty. Then they added some woodwind to the mix. This guy played the tenor and soprano sax and was pretty good.

So then we had people working up a sweat shaking their butts and other assorted body parts, the singer walking around in the audience, the harmonica player really getting into it, and a group of French girls trying to grab their friends or people into the dance floor. Oh yeah! Let's totally add a little kid on a tricycle into the mix! This little, pudgy black kid came onto the dance floor, looking surprised or something at the people dancing around him. Then he came up right next to me and my mom and tried to move through the grass. He got this determined look on his face and pushed hard, saying "grrrr". I couldn't help but smile. It was really funny. Then he noticed me looking at him and tried harder Ha. I think his like mom came over to help him. That was funny.

I got tired. My parents went in to dance two times, which sort of irked me. My dad was... well, let's just say he wasn't the most hip dancer. They tried to get me to dance, but that would be like making me go into a make-up store. Totally against my "religion". So I didn't.

Then we left at like 11:30. We could still hear the music after walking almost all the way to the car (it was a pretty long way down this road). It was out in the country sort of, so not many lights were on. We could see lots of stars. I wanted to sleep under them, but it would have been.......... weird. It was still really awesome. Awesome.

I went to bed, having a weird dream about band.

Then we woke up at 9:30 to drive over to my dad's friend's new house. He lived on the hillside in some Switzerland. His name was Pierre. We had visited him 4 years ago when we were here before. He was still having his house built, but it was mostly built. Very very nice and big. He also re-married, to this Rwandian woman who also had 5 kids. They spoke French. So we had brunch and talked and had a little walk. Then my dad biked home and I listened to my iPod on the way back. I need Panic! at the Disco on my iPod. Along with lots of other stuff. AND I need Breaking Dawn, the 4th Maximum Ride and a hockey stick. We got a printer. I have my two French tests tomorrow.

It's the last day of August. I've killed off almost 2 months. I don't know how I feel right now. Happy? Sad? I think I'm just weird-ed out, which is not unusual. There is a gap. Poetry and writing helps with stuff.

I've still been thinking about that music video. I should be making some friends soon. My toes have little cuts on them, for some odd reason.

Things are shaping up to be pretty odd
Little beds in musical deaths
So it seems like someone I've never met

You will only hear these elegant crimes
Fall on your ears from criminal dimes
They spill unfound from a pretty mouth

Everybody gets there, everybody gets there, and everybody gets their way
I never said I missed her when everybody kissed her
Now I'm the only one to blame

Things have changed for me, and that's okay.
I feel the same, I'm on my way, and I say
Things have changed for me, and that's okay

I want to go where everyone goes
I want to know what everyone knows
I want to go where everyone feels the same

Panic! at the Disco- That Green Gentleman

I like chocolate milk.... and hockey

Today I went with my dad to this hockey store in the outskirts of Geneva. There was tons of traffic. We listened to the radio. I heard that one song where the lady says she's not going to write you a lovesong because you asked for it or whatever. Her breathing got harder. I heard that song twice now on the French radio. Maybe the French like it. I also heard Jason Mraz's I'm Yours, which is a very good song. I had to resist the urge to lip-synch. It was awesome, though. They didn't have like any Mission sticks though. I'm going to be playing with the CERN hockey club, which is like all adults. But it's no-contact and pretty casual. It'll be awesome. The first practice is like on Wednesday. I looked around at the sticks, flexing and observing them. I had found a $50 TPS one on Amazon that I wanted to get, but it'd probably get here in a while. I found a practice ball and I grabbed a stick and started stick handling. I found this purple TPS Response junior one that I really liked. Had a flex of 40, so it was really easy to bend. I really liked the stick. My height, and I liked the blade. My dad was also going to be on the team, but he didn't have any equipment. He might play goalie though, because they have all of that equipment, and he's not the best skater. We couldn't take my stick over because it would cost a lot (we think). But my dad thinks we can ship it over with the skis or something. I really liked the TPS one. It was 99 Francs, about 90 dollars. But it was really awesome. We could have gotten it, but we decided to wait to see our options I guess. We also got our skates sharpened and I got a Montreal Canadiens poster. I hadn't skated in like... 5 months or something. I hope I don't like fall down. Ha. But I can't wait till the season. It will probably be hard with adults, but at least they don't all hate my guts like some of my last teammates did. Well, I hope they don't hate my guts. I'll start off way better this time. 

English Tests

"Should we just follow where everyone is going? Go with the flow?" My dad asked partially rhetorically. We walked over to the white door, made of vertical concrete plank things and were in the school. It had cool architecture, and was pretty much all white. We went down some yellow stairs and I saw a sign at the bottom pointing to the College to the left, and then Lycee to the right. There was another sign that said "English National Testing" which we followed to the right. There were a few other kids going the same way, and this one kid had like a laptop case. 

I went inside with my dad and Zach. The architecture had like poles, swerves and stuff on the ceiling. It was pretty cool, but again just white and plain. The inside was sort of like a school and an office building put together. I could see a room across from the entrance which had chairs and lots of windows. We went up the stairs, which had little yellow feet painted on them. When we got up to the level we were supposed to be at (we could see signs) a familiar smell knocked on my nostrils. I hadn't smelled that smell for at least 2 months. School. I almost missed it. But not really. We turned the corner and saw several other kids waiting. I saw a door open to the left that said "English National Testing Waiting Room" or something along those lines. I wasn't nervous. That was the weird thing. Like, my stomach no longer had that distinct nervous feeling. I had eaten some salad without really knowing if I was hungry. My queasiness had covered it up. Before lunch I had watched some Homestarrunner and hung out on facebook. Zach had already taken like half of his tests. He was done after today. 

Some tall guy came out of the room in a blue suit. Blonde hair, no facial hair and a slight pleasant look to him. He was definitely English. He talked to some people there and like gave directions. My dad confirmed which tests we were taking to me and Zach and we just waited. 

It was a school, yeah. Walls were plain white. Floor was like reddish. Purple doors. I peeked inside the testing room and noticed the desks, white walls and white board. At the back there was a poster of some guy I had never heard of. His name sounded sort of like Latin-American or something. It was mostly boys waiting, I noticed. But then this one girl came up the stairs. She was that kind of girl with designer closes and she had her arms crossed over her chest, chin high. She observed the scene with a neutral expression, more with a "I have confidence and you don't" look. But she wasn't that bad. Her dad had a NASA polo on, which was cool. 

At about 1:30 this medium-height lady with short black hair and an English-ish look to her opened her mouth and said, "Ok, if you are here for the English National Programme, could you please start coming in, so I can... I can tick you off the list," I smiled in my head at her saying "tick you off the list". Anyway. So then we all filed in the door, sort of making a line. I could overhear lots of people speaking English and this one guy was wearing a Golden Bear t-shirt for California. I was wearing my Slauson shirt. I also brought my jewel of concentration and eye drops, just in case my eyes starting spazzing.

The line was pretty short. There were only like 15 people anyway. After that "designer clothes" girl went, it was my turn. 

"And what class are you applying for?" She asked me in her thick British accent, giving me a small smile.

"Uh, quatreme," I looked up at her face; she seemed pretty nice, but first impressions can be like worst impressions. 

She looked down at her list, her pen tracing over her list, somewhat pursing her lips.

"What's your family name?" I leaned down to look at the list, telling her my last name.

"Do you see your name on the list?" 

"Uh yeah, here it is," I pointed down at my name, and she seemed almost hesitant, as if she didn't want me here or something. Then she told me to find a place to sit and wait for the test, which I did. There were already a few people in chairs, and I found one at the very back against the wall. I put my case on the desk. I had brought like 5 pens just in case we needed a certain one. On the other side of the room I saw lots of graffiti. People had written random messages in pen. On this side there wasn't much. 

There were still lots of kids coming in with their parents and mine were talking with a different teacher with Zach. I just waited, looking around. 

Then my parents were talking with the first English woman, and I caught my dad's eye and I grinned quite big for some reason. He just smiled and nodded. I didn't really know why, but I was like.. happy. Or at least not sad. I think it's because I didn't know what the school would be like, so it was like a big unknown, but now I know what it looks like and stuff. 

Zach was finally done with his registration or whatever, so he came around to find a chair. He was coming towards the empty seat next to me, but I thought, "Nah, he'd never sit next to his sis-" but he grabbed out the chair and sat down. Well. Ok then. I guess he doesn't have any friends here so he wouldn't be "embarrassed" or whatever. So then my parents left and we waited until like 1:50 until the English guy finally started asking for the 6eme students. Then the 7th graders, then my class. There were like maybe 15 or so people going into 8th grade here. We went around the corner into this other room that already had some kids in it; the 5eme class. Some lady told us to find our name in the two rows in the middle, and so I started looking. 

Not there, not there... is that me? No. Uh.... not me, not me... crap- what if they don't have my name? Just as almost everybody else had sat down at their name, I found mine at the very back.

There was this guy in front of me, and to the right. I sat down my sack of pens and just sat. I noticed a stack of a few papers, the first one having a few lines to fill out my name, school, etc. The lady up at the front of the class told us something about how the tests will be timed, the full details I didn't really get, and then told us to quickly fill out the cover sheet. And I sure did.

So then she told us that we answer the questions on the blank sheet, and can use extra sheets for the essay. Crap, essay, I thought. But at least the test didn't seem that long. There were only like 2 sheets of paper.

There was a black board at the front, showing when the tests started and finished for each grade. Mine was supposed to last an hour and a half. Oh well. 

We started the test a little late sort of. I just had to read this short story and answer 8 questions. So I started reading. I was sort of nervous, as I was normally with tests at first, so my brain was only collecting like 3/4 of the information. I was also sort of reading fast because I didn't know how long it would take. It was a rather depressing story. This guy, Richard Jordan (though they called him "Dicky" for some strange reason...) had to answer these questions from this machine, then was killed because his intelligence quotient exceeded the government rules or whatever. The questions were easy. I used the whole sheet and then asked for another one for the essay. I wasn't that nervous. I looked around at the other students, noticing that they had used less paper than me. This one girl had written so neatly. I looked back at mine and fixed an F that looked like an R. I have messy handwriting. 

After I got another paper for the essay, this lady came over and sat down next to me. She had been going around, having little conversations with everyone. This was the oral test. She asked me what subjects I liked, stuff I do besides school, book genres I like, and then I had to sum up Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment for her. I told her I was here because of CERN, and she wrote that down. She wrote down a lot. She also told me to like, learn as much French as I could here. Like I have a choice. A lot of the other kids she talked to were Swedes. There were only one or two Americans there I think. So then she said thanks and I continued with my test.

The essay had like 5 choices; I could fill in the part where he answers the questions/gets killed, write about how I would tell my parents if I didn't get on a team or something, something else, another something else, or write an autobiographical piece or story or whatever entitled "The Teacher". I did that last one. It had to be between 300-450 words. I wasn't really sure if that was long. I didn't think it was. So I just started describing a RANDOM teacher. He would wear pins and give out a piece of candy to whoever spotted it first, he taught geography, no one really liked him except for this one kid who was telling the story, black hair, green eyes; he would look at you first with a glare then soften it. Looking back, it was one of the worst things I had ever written and it makes me sort of want to pull my hair out, because I wrote that piece of filth. It was disgusting. Eww. Eww eww EWWW!!!!!! No. Ugh. Stupid. It was like the stupidest thing EVER and I had written it. God. And then those English people would read it and like, discover what a horrible writer I am. Crap. I think I just started writing something, without really knowing where to go with it. I didn't know what I was getting at. Oh well. It was annoying to have to count each word, but I had enough. I finished a last sentence, which did not sum up the story hardly at all, and then got up and left after they collected everything. 

I met my mom outside and we biked home. She just smiled me, and I smiled back, because I had actually had fun. I told her about the story, making it sound less stupid I guess. I was really really hungry. It was around 4 when we got home, and I had a carrot. Crunchy. So then I got on the computer again and stuff and yeah. Zach is like all done with his tests, but I have the French oral and math one to take on Monday. And then school starts.

What happens when you have a nervous stomach and a blog, OR "Why Red Is a Better Color for Freddy's Dorm Doorknob"

I lied in that last post. No, I have not yet taken the test. But I have about 2 hours till I have to start hyperventilating. Nah, just kidding. See, the whole test thing just ticks me off. I remember in 7th grade, (last year) one of my classmates (well, several) would always get really nervous and like spazz when she heard there was a test. I acted all cool and just said, "Just because it's a test doesn't mean you automatically fail. And plus, the school system is so messed up it doesn't even matter," which were BOTH true. I mean, I was nervous too. Tests just sort of give off that vibe that makes my stomach nervous or whatever and I might have shaky digits. Not to mention the sweat. The test atmosphere is also just... ugh. I mean, you can't talk, desks are separated, maybe you have to use a certain pencil, it's timed, etc. But seriously, the USA school systems ARE messed up. Not the teachers fault. Well, ok... I can talk about this later. But I don't have that excuse over here. The French system might even be good. 

Zach came back after his tests a few minutes ago. He has all of his tests today. He just took hi French oral one. He said it was easy, like 10 minutes. Then I freaked because I was like, "I FORGOT HOW TO SAY HOW OLD I AM!!!!" But then I realized that I don't have that test today. I just have the English tests. Thank god. I'm actually not too nervous about the writing ones. I mean, I HATE writing essays like that, but luckily I don't suck at writing. Well, I mean... I don't want to brag or anything. Ugh.

Soo let's see... I think it's persuasive writing. So I start with a sentence to "drag the reader in" or whatever. Then, say my main points, etc. For example. The question is, "Would a better doorknob for Freddy's dorm be red or yellow?" (see, also my brain like messing up when I'm nervous...) Here's my sample.

Often times when we open the door, we use a knob. Freddy has a dorm room and he needs to open the door. I think a red doorknob would be better for him. Because I mean, honestly people, yellow does not work with that picture of him in a Santa Claus suit. And plus, red just brings out his eyes. I'm assuming his eyes are some "hot" color, here... And then my last reason is that... the red one costs less and is made with a special "dorm room door knob finish". 

And then I'd go into the first paragraph. I apologize for the... well actually I don't. I think writing this and stuff is helping. Reduce the stress and all that. But actually, today will be sort of easy even. I can have FUN writing an essay. Which may be an oxy-moron, but I might as well have as much fun as I can. That made me smile. Almost laugh. Half of you will think of the word "stupid" or "dumb" or "this girl has problems". But that's just too bad for you. Ok. 

I had pancakes for breakfast after my dad woke me up at 7:48. I think I ate my pancakes too fast, but then stopped doing that after a little because I noticed. I was nervous. Everyone except for me had fresh-squeezed orange juice. Some of you might know this, but orange juice is like my greatest fear. I had some... bad experiences with it in my early years I think. And I hate the smell. It's yellow. Has pulp. Makes me want to barf, run away, shake with fear, and wrinkle my nose at. So then of course I had to clean the dishes. I used to refuse to clean the glasses if they had juice in them, but now I have learned to be strong against the foul orange juice glasses. And listening to Melvin helped. I had lots of fun doin' that. Ha ha! So then I checked email a little bit, got on facebook, stuff. 

Then I had to take down the lovely recycling while listening to Queen, and smashing those glass bottles. God, I hate doing that. I cringe every time one hits the bottom. Eek. A little before that Zach came home, and I already told you what happened.

It would be cool, if not interesting, if thinking burned calories. 

Hey, I think I got into the mindset of not being worried. About today at least. 

Time goes by fast. I mean, seriously. I can remember playing with our neighbors Nelson and Connor with my brother in our back yard, and my mom and dad and a few other people were putting wood planks into the ground. That was building our deck. And I remember thinking just then, "well, this was all be done and then I can think about how it was like this NOW," or something like that. It's amazing. It's like, you blink and you graduated from 5th grade. I blinked just now, and I'm not back in my Ann Arbor home. Maybe now... nope. But it will go fast. (yay!) That test will be a mere memory. I can just wave my hand and say, "Oh, that test..pshaw" or something. 

It might be worse than the MEAP, but whatever. I won't have to fill in circles. And in a way, the MEAP makes you like... less smart. Because seriously. Those people didn't know how to spell like "Los Vegas". Geez. But whatever. 

Ok, I guess I'll like post this post and then hang out in my room listening to music. I have a pile of various paper-sizes and whatnot in my room for school. I got a Texas Instruments scientific/graphing calculator. I had some problems with it last night. I did some random thing a bunch of times, then it said "error" and I could not get rid of that. So I tried turning it off, pressing the "entrer" button several times, etc. Then I eventually got it to turn off. The french use : for dividing. 

Expect another post today. Might be long, since I will (try to) write in MUCH DETAIL about the test, the kids, the questions, etc. But I will have fun. And it might be good writing, I dunno.

But I do think red would be a better color for Freddy. 

Tea, Tally Hall, deep breaths, a blog, smiling and thinking about my friends helps the nervousness go away.

Marvin walked into a helpless land and wondered lightly, "am I happy? Is this happy?"

following the footsteps left by man, he stood to reprimand the mystic, who's sadistic

took a step in the elevator who said "guess I'll see you later, don't you worry"

15 flights that lasted nights and days that's how he went out of sight with creatures with their beat shirts

...

Lonely paperbacks that wanted just a simple taste of feeling to implode them

before living

(Taken For a Ride- Tally Hall)

Wish me luck.

Ok so the next time I blog, I will have taken the tests. At least the first ones. I am... trying not to worry. It's going to be ok. It's. Going. To. Be. Okay. Hey guess what Amelia? The tests don't matter! Just say "Je ne sais pa". OK I'll stop. 

Wish me luck.

I'm also bringing my jewel of concentration. I'm not going to die, because also whatever happens doesn't matter because I still have my friends.

Those tests till all be a mere memory in a few days. Slash weeks. 

Perhaps the "opposite of a disclaimer"

Well wow. I guess bribing people really works! I  have 2 comments so far on my 100th posts, so 2 lucky people! Thank you all for reading my blog (again) even if you don't comment. You don't absolutely HAVE TO comment, but it makes me happy. 

Enough of that. Something occurred to me. As usual. I'll just jump in saying it, without all of that "introducing" crap that I had almost permanently "inscribed" in my brain. This trip (or as my mom calls it, "adventure") is actually really awesome. Me spending a year in France for 8th grade could seem like the best dang thing ever. In theory. And you know why? I have a year to not worry about school, explore part of a completely different hemisphere, make some new friends, meet some people, eat good food, experience a different culture, learn a new language, learn life skills, an excuse to blog (ha!) and just an opportunity to take a break from my ill and somewhat lame US life. Sounds so great, doesn't it? I'm almost starting to become convinced. Ah, this would be all so very awesome. If. Almost always an if. There's almost always that little text, the disclaimer, the thing that makes you want to throw a book at the creator of that "seemingly wonderful thing". Or whatever. It would be as awesome as it's cut out to be if my friends were here, if I didn't have to miss 8th grade, and therefore not graduate from middle school (no ceremony), if I didn't have to use a new language and if I didn't have to leave my dog behind. So that's why it stinks. It really would be awesome if my friends were over here. Or if I didn't have to go at all. 

Anyway. I'm sort of doing the good stuff that I mentioned (not worrying about school, exploring, etc) So yeah. 

I have just now, at THIS SECOND gotten two new readers. That is just great. I think I have about 20 or so possible readers. Awesome. 

I've been wanting to make a music video. I have like 3 or so songs that would be good for it, and I might post it on facebook. I have taken up my old hobby I developed over here which is to listen to my iPod outside on the porch, possibly lip-synching. I also want to make a slideshow for this trip, which I would show when I came back. I can't wait. 

I need a haircut somewhat soon. And I really like when people tie my shoes for me. Doesn't happen hardly at all these days, but it's cool. To me.

3rd edit: I forgot to mention that I heard Panic! at the Disco for the first time today. I must say, they have quite creative titles and lyrics. But to me, the songs are like... almost sound the same to me. And the singer's voice irks me. I don't really like that sound of it. But yeah I like them pretty much. Cool.

101th post

I was chatting today, as usual and then realized (again) the weirdness of how I was in France for a year and chatting with people back in Ann Arbor. I still haven't gotten over the fact that I'm in France for a year. It still seems weird. But anyway. And then for some strange reason, it was suddenly 5:10. And I had this urge to get outside and do something. Just.. I dunno, get off the computer and like do something for the world. Actually make yourself matter as a citizen of this weird and stupid world. It stinks. But hey, there's always the possibility and option of 6 billion+ people doing the RIGHT thing. 

Ride your bike.

And listen to "Us and Them" by Pink Floyd. My favorite song by them. That was what started me wanting to do something I think.

There's tomorrow and the rest of today (THIS IS MY 100TH POST!!!)

After I posted this post at first, I noticed this was the 100th post!! So I clicked on the little pencil thing to edit it, and now I'm writing this! So yeah. Wow. 100. That's a big number. For that special occasion, I'll do something special. How 'bout like... if you comment on this post, I will bring back a... something cool from Europe. Or do something cool. Just ask. Now, if you live in like... a place that I can't go to, then sorry. I'll just do something cool anyway. So and those comments have to be worthwhile. Not like, "This is a comment. Where's my Nutella?!?" No. Like, a good comment. That makes me smile and think you're cool. If you want. Thanks.

Ooh I need your love babe, yes you know it's true

Hope you need my love babe

Just like I need you

Hold me, love me

hold me, love me

I ain't got nothing but love babe, eight days a week

Eww. A drop of sweat just plopped down on my leg. I am just soaked. I was just out running. It was pretty fun. For some reason, I have to stop every once and a while to stretch 'cause I get cramps. Ugh. I listened to my new playlist. It was cool. I ran a little past the school and back. I have a habit of worrying about school. And that's not different this year. I think if I was going to Slauson, I wouldn't be worried hardly at all. But since I'm not, I am seriously worried. But I'm trying to get into the mindset that the grades this year DO NOT MATTER and I should just focus on having fun. Because you know what? I get one life, and why look back and see sadness and worry? Think outside the weird world of worry. I'm going to really try not to kill myself. Because there's no point to worry. I know I've said this same rant several times, but hey, I didn't make you read it. Anyway. I'm about to practice my trumpet- those lyrics up there are from one of the songs I can play. (It's called Eight Days a Week by the Beatles if you didn't know- good song)

I have the rest of today (which is about like, 10 more hours or so) and then all of tomorrow, and then some of the next day. Then I take 4 tests, half of them in a different language. Whatever. I will try my best, of course. I normally get good grades. Anyway. I'm trying to stop talking about that.

You know what's ironic? Like, seriously- what happened today proved that optimism works (like, stuff turns out alright) and that life can be SO IRONIC it like HURTS. Well, ok not really. It doesn't actually cause physical pain, but - ok I'll just shut up and tell you what happened.

While I was sitting outside on our porch eating breakfast with my mom, I mentioned that I wanted to order 2 books (Breaking Dawn and the 4th Maximum Ride) and she said she had sent over a box of good books from our house, and they would've come by now, so they're probably lost or stolen, she said. So I thought, "Oh. That sucks," because it did. But guess what happened? I bet you can guess. It's really quite obvious.

A little bit after that conversation, my mom went downstairs after hearing the door ringer thingy. I heard her talk to this like person and then say thanks. And then she brought this big white bag into the room and said "This really nice guy just carried up my heavy bag of books!" So then I opened the bag, and there were the books she sent over. Wow. Just.... wow. I mean, do you guys see how incredibly ironic that is? That she just magically brought the fact up that her books hadn't come, and then in the SAME DAY they came. That is like... freaky. So anyway.

I'mago practice my trumpet. I enjoy doing that. I sort of always did like playing trumpet, but sometimes it just got boring. I've also been listening to a lot of music (as usual) and lip-synching. Lip-synching is like a second nature for me. I want to make music videos. If you think that's stupid, too bad. It's fun.

It's weird; somehow almost all of my posts get to be like many paragraphs. I dunno why. Perhaps I write a lot. Oh, and also I've been writing down lists of like my top ten favorite guitarists. I'll probably post it on here sometime.

As always, thanks for reading my blog. Comments are appreciated of course.

Hope your summer has been better than mine. Mine was pretty much a waste after July 1st. Sigh.

Oh my gosh- my mom just got the New Yorker. That is surprising because she changed her address and they actually sent it. Amazing! Yeah ok. It has a cool cover, as always. A teal-ish pool with people in it. They cost $4.50. I'm going to stop now. I should probably take a shower sometime today. Again.

I'm going to leave with this note: I just now remembered that I used to like to smell my dad's sweaty armpits. I'm serious. I LIKED that smell. I think I do still. How's that for gross?

And no I'm not saying jk.

Numbers, late night, gnats and nice aunts

One thing on here says I have 105 posts, the other thing (the archives/old stuff) says I have 98, not counting this one. I'm going to go with 98 because I sort of counted them, and it's 98. So almost 100 posts, people! Lets see... my first ever post was on May 24th, so I've had this blog for about 95 days. I just did the math. This is the 95th day. Wow. So that's just over a post a day. And some of them are sort of longer... but it's really cool. I like having a blog. I've definitely got better at writing I think. I mean, if I looked back at my older posts, I'd probably like barf from the terrible writing... ugh. But anyway.

Today we went on a bike ride around some vineyards. You may not know this, but gnats seem to like to hang out around vineyards. In large swarms. And when you're going, say, 10+ miles an hour on a bike, and going through these swarms, you might get a little plastered with those darn gnats. You also might get a little irked. I had more than one cling to my arm and not get off even after I shook it violently. I had to blow or flick it off, which normally resulted in at least one less gnat in the gnat population. And then they get in your mouth, your nose... god they are like... IRKsome. Quite. I would just close my mouth while riding, and try to not to inhale through my nose too hard. It worked for the most part. 'Cause trust me, you do not want that distinct flavor of fresh gnat in your mouth. Ever. Or up your nose.

And you know what else I've noticed? For some odd reason, there have been lots of... flies flying around here. Here as in my apartment. Ok, there was this one fly that would just fly in a weird polygon shape just below the ceiling light (it wasn't on though) and it'd just KEEP flying forever. A few times I would sit on the couch (our couch is very uncomfortable, by the way) and just stare at that weird fly. Around and around... around and... around again. Weird. And then also, there were these two flies that would fly around the computer (this one) and then like land on me and all sorts of places. And they weren't even that scared or whatever. I would have to try really hard to flick them off my shirt or whatever. And then they landed on my FACE, which REALLY annoyed me. Die, you f-ing flies, just... go choke on your fly barf and DIE! That's how I felt. But anyway. They sort of left. But I spotted one earlier.

Last night (or should I say morning) I stayed up chatting with several people. I went to bed at 1:30 AM, and I was tired. But it was worth it because I got to talk to my friends, and they had like all got on at the same time. I used to stay up really late like that a lot like in July, but then I just stopped and went to bed earlier. But I probably won't stay up like that again, since school is soon. Ugh. But yeah.

I have one of the greatest, most nicest aunts ever. My favorite kind of pencil is the Dixon Ticonderoga Soft, and we couldn't really find them over here in France. So my aunt so kindly sent over a big package of 'em. And I just got 'em today! It was so awesome. I had just come back from the bike ride and then wanted to check the mail, like I always do. *Gasp! There was a black package. I thought, well ok, it's probably like electronic parts or whatever for like my dad or someone, but then it had my name on it. I was so happy! First package!! So I brought it inside and practiced my trumpet. Then I opened it, finding a box of 24 Dixon Ticonderoga HB 2, which are still great. Softs are pretty rare. So those will last me a while! Awesome! So yeah.

That fly is back. It just landed on my hand. I need a chainsaw. Or like an ax.

Purse- peck-tiv

Well ok. I have some... see, it's even it now. Ok well let me just start. There are a lot of ways you could look at life. There are a lot of things to do, so make of it. It's different, it's weird, and I'm even now trying to make something out of it. It's weird, ok? Well see it's just that... the Internet has so many... it's weird. It can be so stupid and bad. There's a lot of stuff on it. There's a lot of good stuff that help people and should be there. But then there's a ton of stuff and people that are bad. And so then one day you think it's safe or whatever to do something. Then you hear a story about someone else and then it seems to unsafe and real and yeah. So I found this other blog off of Fang's blog. Both blogs are listed in my "Check out some of these links!" area, which is to the right and below. It's a blog about this girl's life. She has a pretty hard life, from what I can tell. I don't want to say anything... insulting or whatever about her. No I'm just saying. It was very interesting. INCREDIBLY interesting to read someone else's blogs that you don't really know about. That might seem like a freaky concept, but it brings in a major dose of one of Becca's favorite words (well, she does use it a lot...) and a word I'm using more. Perspective. All of a sudden, after reading that blog, it's like... my life is so so... great. I'm really, really lucky. I mean, seriously. Now, some of you guys are going to be like, "yeah yeah, we're really lucky, there are poor people... blah blah blah.." but like, you guys, out bluntly, just don't know. I don't even know half of it. Because it (the world) is SO big. SO many people. SO many thoughts and ideas. And then I think how I have SO much stuff, SO much friends (compared to some people). See, it's all how you see it. It's all how you compare. It's perspective. Wow. And so it's like, this blog has lots of... somewhat personal stuff about my life. I say names, I post pictures... because I know the people that read it. It's mostly relatives, some friends. (I think so...) but then it's like, the Internet is still SO big. This one guy called it "the last frontier" or something. So am I saying I don't feel safe? No. Not necessarily. Because.... well I don't know why. But it's just...  it was like a huge boom. That I could connect, read about and maybe contact with this other person. Things are so different. Humans still have a long way to go. 

BOOM. After practicing my trumpet, I realized again that I had to go to school. I had pretty much forgotten about school while blowing in that piece of brass. But then I was like, "dang I have to go to some school soon and it's hard, etc, etc" but I had taken my mind off it, and it was a sort of weird form of perspective. Well, maybe just a way to deal with stress. But it's just... BOOM. Or maybe a "Daaaaang" or "wow". Whatever you want. Because is it what you want? Ha ha. Never-ending. Not making sense? Again. Now this is like bex-blabbermouth. If you don't mind. I don't even know. Start laughing. I'm 90% of the courage. Yeah it's pretty late, but hey- there it is AGAIN. It's like those people that ALWAYS appear whenever I look in a reflective surface. What is this? It's definitely not my bff Jill. NEVER ending. Deserves a poem. IS a poem. Sighs. Sighing isn't even that much. I guess I'll thank you. 

Stuck inside these four walls, sent inside forever.

Never see or no one.

Nice again.

Like you, mama. Yooou, mama. Yoooooooooou.

If they ever get out of here, thought of sending it all away to registered charity

All I need is a fine today.

Well the rain exploded with a mighty crash, as we fell into the sun

And the first one said to the second one there, "I hope you're having fun!"

I think I made my first friend(s)

I held in my hand a green rectangle as I sat on my bed. Click click...scroll... music, artists... past the Beatles, Coldplay, Eric Clapton, Herbie Hancock, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Louis Armstrong... ah, yes, here it is. Click. Click. The familiar sound of Miles Davis's addicting trumpet playing filled my ears and I sat back, already becoming inspired and thrilled. Playing trumpet is one of the most blissful and simple joys, at least to me. So much fun. Ah.

I listened to a few songs until I heard the sound of the door buzzer. I turned off Melvin, putting him on my bedside table, and got up. A few minutes later, the door opened and a tall woman with longish blonde hair and two boys came into our apartment. The woman (Helen) was born in Manchester, England, and had a distinct British accent. The two kids, one around 13 (Joey) and the other just turned 6 (Nathan), also had slight accents. They were coming to our apartment to have brunch with us and help us with the school supplies list. They had been living here for a while now, and Joey had gone to the College, the school I was going to.

My mom had set out croissants, pain aux chocolate (chocolate croissants), a fruit basket, bowls, silverware, plates, bread and condiments. We sat down at the table, and then Helen went into the kitchen to help my mom with stuff. It was pretty quiet after that. Joey did ask if either of us played guitar. I replied, "Yeah I play some electric," and he said he played acoustic. We continued eating for a bit. Then Joey was like, "Why is it so quiet?" And I couldn't help smiling, remembering "awkward silences" with my friends. It's making me smile even now remembering it. Ha! And then Oren would be like, "Awkward silence" and we'd all like laugh/yell. Goosd times. So anyway.

Then after a while I managed to ask, "So, what kind of music do you guys like?" Nathan (who reminded me slightly of Becca's brother Nathan) said something like, "we don't listen to music," or like, "just whatever," Because of their accents and way of talking, I could only hear what they were saying half the time and just had to guess. Joey said something to, but I couldn't really understand what he said.

"You know, there's one thing I really don't understand about my brother," Nathan said mostly to me after a while. I stopped chewing my ceral (goosd ol' corn flakes) and smiled somewhat, as if to say "go on," He did, saying, "He always wears a lot of polka-dots," and turned to look at his brother. "His jacket is polka-dotted, his pants-" then Joey cut in, making a point that he was not in fact wearing polka-dots; it was called "checkered". So then Nathan continued, "Fine, checkered."

Then Joey argued back, saying "Oh, give me a break- so I get this jacket, right, and so I see these shoes (his shoes were also checkered) and they match, right? And then I had this checkered belt from England, and my grandma gives me this checkered hat, which I don't have with me," He was indeed wearing a lot of checkered items. Then Nathan started again.

"All you need though is a checkered shirt then. And checkered underwear. Well, boxers. Boxer shorts-" but then it apparently got too awkward then for Joey because he put his left hand over Nathan's mouth, but Nathan kept talking. It created quite an amusing affect.

So after brunch we talked about the school and went through our school supplies list. They were a great help, because they like translated it and gave us advice and stuff. I've got some "news" about the school:

• So my first day of school (besides the tests) is on Wednesday, Sept. 2. It's a half day, so it gets out at like 11:30. Wednesdays are always half days I think.
• The whole schedule is 7:55-5:30PM, Sept. 2- to like July 2nd.
• Lunch is from like 11:30-1:50, and I can go home for it. The food there is somewhat bad, but better than in America.
• I have two recesses, both 15 minutes, in the morning and afternoon.
• The math program is behind the one back in the states, so like it will be pretty easy for me. But I also might be behind in high school...
  

So yeah. Then we went to the Hyper Champion (big store) and bought some school supplies. They had like 5 rows of school supplies, but some of it was almost all gone. We got more note books, colored pencils, binders and I went over to this other store afterward and got a nice planner. They were really nice people. Joey would run around, telling us what stuff to get and recommending things. I might even have a class with Joey. We said bye in the store, and my mom mentioned that we could like get together again sometime. Then it occured to me that, I had a friend. Well, a few friends really. I just made friends. Wow. That feels so awesome. It's like, I'm not... alone, there's someone else here going through the same stuff. It feels so much better to have a friend now. Cool. Cool!

So I have 3 more days till the tests. I practiced my trumpet today, which was awesome, but then I came back and it was like I completely forgot about school. Now school doesn't seem so bad. It did when I was school shopping. I can just imagine the classes- the teacher says something about something, and I see everyone else do stuff but I'm left clueless. I fear school. But I'm trying to not to. I really don't want to kill myself this year. That will be like my main goal. I'll just try my best and all that, but not worry about it so much. Or even at all. It's not worth it. It never is.

But the advantage of this is, when I come back things will seem so dang easy. I mean, I get to use English. I can walk into a donut store and say "Uh... two jelly-filled, and three chocolate" or whatever, as opposed to saying like, "Je voudrais..what jelly-filled is in French. I mean, seriously. And then in school, pretty much all of the directions and stuff will be in ENGLISH and I can just so easily talk and ask questions! I can't wait! That will be awesome. And of course, I'll get to see my friends again. Which is the best part about coming back.

Jamming and paddling

Last night, after eating an ice cream cone, and leaving at 9:15, I went with my dad to the CERN music room and we jammed. It was so frickin' fun. It's basically a big white room with a drumset, a few amps and music stands, posters of like famous musicians and two pianos and a white board and a couch. I played drums first, and I came to realize how bad I really was. But actually after a while I got the basic back-beat down pretty well. So then I improvised on my trumpet a little, which was both fun and perhaps very mediocre-sounding. But see, when you're improvising, my top rule is to just like, not care at all what people think, you just gotta do your thing and have fun. Because that's what it's all about. So yeah. And then I tried the piano a little while my dad drummed, then we did a piano duet thing. I really liked improvising with my trumpet. I did it in B flat, which was the blues scale I was most used to. I just did a few random patterns, stuff and stuff. It was very fun. So then at around 10:30 or so my dad said he was tired so we drove back home, listening to some French radio station.

That same day, we also biked the 6 miles to Geneva and rented a paddleboat. My dad had already done a 60-mile bike ride in the morning, so his legs were like dead. But it was still fun.

We got up close to the sailboats and stoof. The water was coldish, but I stuck my foot in it anyway. Ah.

I want to jam more at the music room. It was really really cool. Too bad none of my friends are over here, 'cause it'd be like, as cool as an ice cube on steroids, if like Miyako could really get down with her flute, Erez could bang the drums, Nick could honk on his sax, Anthony kept the rhythm with his bass, Jenny could sing or play flute, Tina came with her clarinet, Sam played trombone, Becca played like... piano? Oren rocked on his gee-tar, or piano, and then like Alex came and wow-ed us all with some jazzy string-ly action! Yeah. That would be like THE best thing ever. And then like we had a concert and stuff and stuff. Yes, that is one of the best imaginary things ever! Ooooooh yeah.

I think I'm going to die

We got some mail or whatever from the school which tells us about the tests. And it's not pretty, I can tell you that. Here's the schedule:

4eme (8th grade)

-August 29, 2008 14H (2:00-3:30PM)

• One and a half hour comprehension and essay writing
  
• 5-10 minute oral test (in English)
  

-September 2, 2008

13H00 pour le test ecrit de Francais Langue Etrangere (FLE)

• {1:00PM writing test of foreigners of the French Language}
  

15H45 our le test de mathematiques speciales et l'entretien oral de FLE

• {3:45PM math test and oral French test}
  

NB/L'echec a l'examen d'entree dans un niveau n'autorise pas l'admission dans le niveau inferieur. 

That pretty much means that if I don't pass these entry tests, I won't be put into the lower grade. So I guess I wouldn't have school? I dunno.

Crap. 

Massive understatement.

"News"

Dang, only 6 days till school starts for me. I guess I don't not have to take the MEAP, considering I'll be taking a test similar (I assume) to it. It's math and language arts. I did some practice algebra ("find 'x'") problems at the restaurant when we had dinner with the Levins two nights ago. And I should like review my multiplication table or whatever. I hate writing essays. 

I really do not know how it is August 23rd. Like, last I checked it was like July 23rd. Somehow, two months have gone by. Just... boggles the boggling out of my mind. And then if I just think about the fact that we're staying in France over here for a year, it still seems weird to me. But anyway. I'm actually sort of looking forward to school because it's something to do, I can learn, I will make friends and after school is done, I get to go home (*pumps arm)! 'Cause honestly, this summer wasn't all that great. No camps, no s'mores, NO FIREWORKS for 4th of July, and my brain got fried a few times from studying French and all that. Plus, I had a few doses of culture shock, I miss my friends a ton, I had to leave my beloved dooder dog, and I miss my friends again. But I could look at the pluses: I got an iPod, have a (somewhat successful) blog, I got a facebook, etc. But I guess I just want this whole thing to be over with. Or do I? It hasn't really even started. Once school starts that will be the real thing. And not to mention, the real hell. Pardon my French. 

But anyway. I was looking around on the Internet for stuff today. I went on to NYTimes.com to check up on the news. I found this article, which was... interesting. I also posted it on facebook by the way.

I also checked up on Fang's blog and this article made me want to like... barf? I dunno. But worth checking out. Kinda creepy, though. Surprising. Means a lot if you've read Maximum Ride. Which you should if you haven't. 

And let's see... what else... I put up all of the pictures, so yeah. I need to practice my trumpet more. Oh yeah! I really want to go to Interlochen. It's this really cool band camp. There's like a program thing through Pioneer, which I would do. One of my friend's brother went there and he said it was fun but hard. And my parents approve. My dad said it was "a good ambition," So yeah. I think I'mago with trumpet. If I had to choose between trumpet and guitar. But I dunno. Band rules. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. 

I need to get my hands on Breaking Dawn. And the Dangerous Days of Daniel X. And The Final Warning. And Lovely Bones. And an iTunes gift card!!!!! I so need that. The stupid thing still won't us buy anything. Uggggghh. 

Hey, go USA! This is the end of the post.

Pictures, part six

A random sign, the moon and us eating lunch on the Day Two hike.

Pictures, part five

That's our mountain chalet, then there's the welcome sign and the other sign showing where we were in relation to the other places. My bed was on the left (closest to you).

Pictures, part four

Those mountain goats aren't very social. More views of the glacier.

Pictures, part three

Looks like a highway. It's breaking off. That's me with my dad and bro. Looks blue.

Pictures, part two

Pictures of Bettmerhorn, clouds and stuff. It's cool.

Pictures, part one

Pictures of the fog.

Day Three

August 20, 2008, around 9 a.m. "Waking up with my head in the clouds" (this is the typed up journal entry)

Holy crap- I woke up at 9 and want to my listen to my iPod. I also want to go outside, both I am doing. But see, outside it's like...freaky. When I was opening the door, I could see white through the crack. I thought, it can't be that bleak. But it is. Everything is white. White. I can see a little bit of the cabin in front of us, but otherwise it is just a white void. Kind of awesome. I still hear cowbells and someone like cutting grass. It's almost...painful, I dunno...to look out-it's like you can't see anything and my brain doesn't like that. I've never experienced this. Mountain fog. There was a big rainstorm last night. It's also kinda cold. There's wisps of...of white air? The cloud blowing around and it reminds me of like...Harry Potter and the pensive. This is kind of cool. White is one of my favorite colors. I like this because it's like...just a void. You can see anything, or not see. It's almost like I'm not in the mountains right now. I couldn't tell. Ah, yes- I inhaled and smelled that fresh, crisp mountain air. Towards the ground is a more grayish color. I can see the grass well near our house. It's so weird. But insanely AWESOME. You guys, if you haven't already, should try to see a glacier in real life and experience this white void. I love that word-void. Nothingness. Non-existing? Ha ha! Life is goosd. Zach isn't up yet. Neither are my parents. I'm wearing my Slauson shirt. We're going home today. Probably leave at like 4. I can't wait to put this all in my blog and facebook! This is/was a really cool trip. I'm glad we did it. I'm going to take pictures of the whiteness now. You know, this would be a cool time and place to draw on the air like I saw in that one old Disney commercial thing. Anyway. I'm getting cold. I miss my friends- of course. But I'm going to stay out here because "touching the void" is like experiencing a complicated, not necessarily bliss. (Good movie.)

Later:

Well ok, now the void is receding. i can see more mountain houses and like another cloud or something. It's 9:25. I have goosebumps. The sky is still white, ground is gray. But the void will probably be all gone in a few minutes. I should like get my parents. (Later) Eh. My dad just woke up.

-----------------

That day I had yogurt for breakfast and the same stuff I had yesterday. Zach said his knee was too sore to walk and my mom was tired. So they stayed home, while me and my dad went on a small hike to the Bettmerhorn. My socks got wet from walking in the boot-room but I survived. It was a cool hike. The white void did not in fact disappear, and we went in and out it all along the hike. It was so frickin' awesome! You couldn't see a few feet in front of you, but then you'd walk a little farther and break out. It was fun. My dad read the signs along the trail about marmots, which were like mountain ground hogs. They seemed cool. The trail wasn't too hard, sort of steep at times, but fun. We talked about hockey, getting fit, marmots and other stuff. I took a few pictures. There were a few other people on the trail too.

At one point we weren't really on the trail. We could see the gondola but not the trail. So we just sort of walked straight up. But then we did get on the right trail and went up. There were lots of people at the top. I was tired. We rested a little bit and went up the Bettmerhorn, which was a slightly harder peak. More rock and climbing and it was steep. At some points we had to use a wire to climb up. It was somewhat freaky. Reminded me of Howell. Man, Howell was SO FUN. That was just great. I had to climb on these wooden bridge things and on one side would be a sheer drop. Eek. I wasn't like, "Omigod-omigod I'm going to die I'm going to die!!!!1" but I was still a little...you know. I just kept moving up, not letting myself get scared. It wasn't even that bad. For some reason I seemed to clear my throat whenever I went on one of those freaky wooden platforms. Whatever. So we had a great view of the glacier...again. And could see lots of clouds. I said to my dad one time, "It sort of makes you feel like you could just jump and it'd be pillowed," he didn't seem to agree with me though. I did feel like that sort of.

All we could see at some points were just white clouds surrounding us. And then we made it to the top, or at least the top I wanted to be at. There was still another peak to climb but for some reason I just didn't feel like doing it. Besides, we were already at around 2,858 meters or something. We had a great view of everything. It was at times like this that you wish you were Maximum Ride. Seriously. I would love to just snapping out my wings and jump off the mountain, flying through the clouds. She did say flying in a cloud wasn't that fun, though. But whatever. There were clouds everywhere. Covering most of the mountains. It smelled nice, was sort of cold. I had some white chocolate. Looked through the binocs, took pictures. Then we went down. It was sort of freaky, but I got used to it. A lot like Howell. So then we took one last look at the glacier and took the cable car down.

We just sort of jumped on one, seeing as there wasn't anyone there to like sell a ticket. They were small-ish, could hold about 8 people. I took a short video, which will be put on facebook. And some pictures. It was a fun ride. Like 10 minutes. It was freaky sometimes (but cool) because sometimes we wouldn't see the rest of the cable in front of us through the fog. So it was like that movie "The Mist". But it was awesome. Then we met up with my mom and Zach and had lunch. We watched some Olympics, which was really fun. Then we rode the cable cars down and took the trains.

On the second train to Geneva, I mostly sat by myself but some people did share the seats. This lady rode a few stops and then got off. And then these two French/Swiss guys came and asked me something like, "can we sit here?" and I just nodded my head. One of them sat across from me and the other next. I caught the distinct whiff of cigarettes. Ugh. And then the guy across from me grabbed out two Heineken beers from this bag and gave one to his friend. They started talking and drinking. My music was pretty loud so I couldn't really tell what they were talking about, but they laughed a lot. And again, I had to sort of hide my lip-synching or not do it at all. Then the guy finished one beer and grabbed out another. He managed to drink two beers (they were big, too, mind you) in one sitting. Gross. Luckily they got off before Geneva and I didn't have to listen them anymore. They were ok, I mean, just sort of...drunk. Luckily I had Melvin with me. I was tired.

When we got the Geneva Cornavin, I put on Tally Hall. We waited for the bus and rode it home. I sat with my dad on those fold-able seats. No one had to give up our seats this time. I was tired. There were lots of people on the bus. Ugh. But eventually we got home. I had to walk over to a post box to drop off a postcard though, which was annoying because of my tiredness. But then I got in the apartment and jumped on the computer.

It was a great trip. I'm really glad we did it. Especially since school is really soon. Somehow, I don't really know how it happened, I have like a week till school. Ugh. But actually I'm looking forward to it because I'll meet friends and learn stuff. And it's something to do. Because I got like nothing done this summer. Ugh. Almost a complete waste. Sigh. But two months have gone by! So only 10 months left . Awesome! I'll add the pictures in the next post. I know they're long posts, and sorry, but they were long days. Hope you enjoy(ed). Oh and, my mom found her wallet. It was in some hidden pocket. So yay! And the Levins come back today. So we'll see them one FINAL time today. For like an hour. Yay. I guess.

Thanks for reading. Comments are appreciated, even bowed upon. Pictures in the next post.

Day Two

A bright light, resembling what I thought was yellow, banged on my eyelids. I was forced to get up, finding the window and door open and my dad standing near them. We all got up and after a little bit of delay, including watching some Olympics, went down to have breakfast. I had plain yogurt with muesli and corn flakes. And some bread with strawberry jam and a hard-boiled egg. After that we went outside with our boots. I inhaled through my nose, and the scent immediately made me happy. A cool, crisp, fresh whiff. So goosd. One of the best smells ever. Mountain air at 9:45 a.m. Just wonderful.

At 10:15 we started out on the big hike. We had to bring two backpacks, one of which me and Zach switched off carrying every hour or so. I started out with it. It wasn't too heavy. The trail didn't have hardly any steep parts at first and was mostly flat. Some Swiss Army jets passed us, which caused us to stop and look up. We stopped an awful lot on this hike to drink water and take pictures and whatnot. We talked about Italy, the science of clouds, and other assorted topics. We passed lots of German/Swiss people, and I maybe muttered a small "Guten Tag" once or twice. We saw a steep bike trail or two, which I would never want to do. There were lots of cows. And we also smelled that wonderful scent.

After a few hours the trail got a little more challenging. More rocky, more of a climb. It zig-zagged up the grassy mountain, allowing us a great view. There were lots of cliffs too, which were sort of freaky. We saw part of a glacier far away after a little bit. We also found some blueberries before lunch. They were goosd. We also used the binoculars and saw this one mountain house like right next to a cliff. Geez. After lunch, which consisted of yogurt, blueberries, bread, cheese and chocolate, we continued on the trail. There were some small shrines or whatever on the trail and also little plaques for people that died. Depressing stuff.

Then we finally got to see the main attraction.

It was like a bunch of dirty cream poured over rocks, making a smooth platform. With lots of dirt and brown. There was a small river flowing towards it, and some chunks of ice farther away from the main glacier. We walked down, getting closer to it. As I got closer, something made me say "woah". At first I just saw the white and brown-ish color. But then there was this blue-ish tint at the end, and it looked like a sponge. It looked like a blue-raspberry snow-cone. I took a ton of pictures and got to touch it. It was cold. Felt like a weird form of ice. This one guy had gone really close to it, like almost in it, but we didn't go quite that close. There were little caves and stuff. It was so cool! The air around it was chilly, but not that much. There was this water that was reddish (looked like cow blood) that flowed down the rocks. It was really slippery.

As my dad put it, we could see "global warming in action,". It was dripping, that's for sure. Dripping a lot. But it was still there. It was Europe's biggest glacier. Al Gore was right. I never doubted him, but this just proved it. Humans are stupid. We're smart in a way, but our decisions are mostly from emotion. This is stupid. What we're doing right now. What we're not doing, really. We eventually continued on the trail, leaving the glacier behind. I couldn't really figure out how I felt after seeing the glacier. It was cool, but I felt mad. I was sad. I was mad as heck. I could go on and on about how stupid we are. But I won't. Maybe in another post. But seriously.

Anyway. So after seeing the glacier up close, we could see more views of it from up high. The next trail we were on had mountain goats. At first my mom thought they were dangerous because they had horns, but then Zach was just like, "I don't think they'd let dangerous animals on this trail," so we just walked past. They looked kinda freaky though.

I walked pretty far ahead of my family because they were slow and I wanted to get home fast because it was supposed to rain. And this way I could stop to take pictures more. Then something interesting happened. I was walking ahead as usual, and saw two mountain goats a little bit ahead of me on the trail. I said hi to them (I say hi to mountain goats a lot) and tried to walk past. The bigger one (probably like the mom because there was this other smaller one) stopped and sort of bumped into me. I was sort of scared for a second, because I thought, this guy could push me over the mountain easily with those strong horns, but nothing bad happened. Instead, it started licking my jacket. It was somewhat weird. It just started randomely licking it. I said out loud, "Yeah, ok....um yeah...ok," somewhat loud. I looked over at the goat and noticed it's eyes. They were black and looked sort of happy. I started smiling and tried to push away the goat. "Um yeah ok, how about you go eat grass now?" the goat then like rubbed me with it's leg. My mom and Zach walked past, sort of laughing. It kept licking me. Then my dad came over on the trail and had some sense. He pushed the mountain goat away and said, "Go, go- he'll start eating your-" so I walked past the goat, hearing it baa-ing. My dad said that the goats probably got food from people, so that's why it was like eating me. Well, licking my jacket. That was funny.

So we just kept walking. I was ahead of the rest of my family still, stopping occasionally to wait for them. We passed some cows. Cows have very intimidating stares. I just give them my teeth smile and walk along. Finally we got to the town. It was getting dark and stormy sort of. We went to the restaurant where we got drinks the other day. It was goosd. I was hungry, but not as much as day one. I sort of fell asleep waiting for the food. I ordered a salad and Spetzla (I spelled that wrong). It's a german dish- sort of like eggy, batter-y, and bread-y. You normally have it with meat. It wasn't as goosd as how Omi (my dad's step mom who's German) makes it. But it was still goosd. I didn't finish all of it, and tried some of my family's dishes. I tried a chesnut from Zach's meal, and it tasted weird. Not sure I liked it. I also noticed on the menu that the horse meat came from USA. Weird. During the meal, we could see it getting darker outside and the storm coming in. When we walked outside, it was raining pretty hard. But the drops were small. It still was very wet.

A few feet down the road from the restaurant, I saw a dark shape near my dad's foot. I recognized it after a few seconds and shouted out in a strange voice that didn't sound like mine, "FROG!!! FROG!!! It's a frog!!!" Then we watched as the big amphibian jumped it's way towards the restaurant. I looked over at my dad and we laughed. It was a big frog. Then my mom said, "'A see of frogs,'" quoting what Michelle said once, trying to say "fog". It was funny. So we kept walking towards our mountain house, getting wet. Then I saw another frog and yelled, "It's another FROG!!!!" It was so funny. Ha! Those were big frogs. We couldn't see the mountains at all that night because of the fog. It was cool. My shorts were really wet when I took off my boots. I took a shower and watched some Mr. Bean on the German TV. It was so funny.

It was dark outside, raining. That hike took us 9 hours when it was supposed to take like 6. Heh. So then I went to bed, sleeping happily.

Day One - "This is better than any movie"

We woke up at 7:30, and I maybe got enough sleep. I had some Special-K-like ceral; the box said something about a bikini. Then we had to rush out to catch our bus. We each brought a backpack and also brought a cooler and briefcase. I had packed the night before-clothes, iPod, notebook, camera, etc. My backpack was sort of heavy. We got on the bus, already with a few people. Zach and I sat on those fold-able seats in the wheel-chair section. Our parents were just behind us, sitting on the normal seats. But then this woman with a baby stroller came on the bus and my mom wanted Zach to give up the seat for her. Eventually he did get up, but this other woman sat down. I listened to my iPod on the bus. Some of the new songs I found on that site. It was cool. So then we got to the Gare Cornavin and bought train tickets.

Then our feet were pounding gently up the stairs and we got on the train. This ride was going to be about 2 in a half hours. I was sort of tired but didn't sleep. There weren't a lot of seats open but I did get a window seat. My dad was sitting across from me, talking about stuff. I did listen but then listened to my iPod a little. A Swiss/French couple, looking around grandpa/grandma age, got on the train and hovered near our seats. Then we realized they were supposed to sit where we were. So we had to move. Zach could stay but I think he moved. I then sat with my parents a little farther up, again getting the window seat. So I basically just sat there listening to music. I have a...habit, persay, to lip synch lyrics. It's like an instinct. I have pretty much all of the Beatles songs memorized, and lots others. But I didn't want to look like an odd teenager with a mouth-spazzing disease so I didn't. I did do it occasionally when I just couldn't resist the song, but I had to cover up my mouth with my hand. Anyway.

So we got off that train after a few hours and arrived in this Swiss town. They spoke German there. We got on another train, which was smaller I think and louder. I didn't even get to sit down on one of the normal seats. I sat down next to Zach on one of those fold-able seats. Listened to more iPod. We only rode 3 stops and then immediately got on a cable car up a mountain. The scenery majorly changed. Instead of Mont Blanc, we could see other snow-topped mountains. There was the Matterhorn here and stuff.

The first cable car had a dog in it. They were also bringing up supplies in it. My ears popped as I looked out the window. After that one we got on another cable car. This one had a bench so I sat down. Next to these two little girls. And I bet you can guess what they did, too. Sigh. One of them did stare a little, but then sort of stopped. Thank goodness. That is one of my major pet-peeves. So anyway. This one also had some dogs and supplies.

After being dragged up a mountain in rectangular prism-shaped pieces of metal, we arrived in our town. It was called Bettmeralp. Their slogan was: "Bettmeralp...the better alp." I could have thought that one up. But anyway. They translated almost everything in German, French, English and Italian. And the welcome sign also had some Asian language on it. So then we walked down the street, trying to find our mountain chalet. I saw lots of tourist-looking houses and stores but not a lot of people. There was even a co-op. I guess you can't go anywhere in Switzerland without seeing one of those.

Our mountain chalet was called Garni Slalom. It was pretty big. The receptionist person knew like 4 languages. Pretty much everyone here did that worked somewhere. She told us our room would be ready at around 2. It was like 1. So we had lunch outside, with a great view of the mountains. Yogurt, bread, cheese, crackers and peanut butter. I hadn't had peanut butter for a while. It was so good. It reminded me of when we did that peanut butter quality rating unit in math in 7th grade. That was fun. Sort of.

After chewing various foodly items and swallowing, we checked in to our room. It was number 31, the very last one. We had to climb up 3 staircases which weren't that bad. The room was sort of smallish. The first door on the right was the bathroom, then it was me and Zach's room. We had separate beds and a TV. Then our parent's room also had a TV. It was cool. Then there was also a small deck. Small as in: could fit our whole family, but that's pretty much it. It was cool. There were some Olympics on; soccer with Brazil and Germany. We watched a little and then took a small hike. The trail was well-paved and several small trucks passed us. Some other people were also walking.

We passed lots of restaurants, mountain chalets, and had a great view. We were going to do this loop-route which would take "a few hours," says my dad. He says that for pretty much any hike, so it meant nothing. But yeah so it was fun. There were a few more people farther down the trail. It switched to a more grassy and mountain-y kind of trail. We got a great whiff of some cow cologne. Made me put my nose under my shirt and say ew a few times. My sweat smelled better, amazingly.

Anyway. So we just continued hiking, passing cows and people and a golf course. Then, something exciting happened. A couple was coming down the trail and we were going up it. So we got to the side to let them pass, and it worked. But then my mom was like really close to the woman, trying to move out of the way. But her camera case came off her shoulder and rolled down the small hill towards the golf course. It rolled for a few feet, but my mom just stood there watching it. We all sort of just watched. The couple we passed stopped and stared too. It rolled all the way down into the golf course. It was only like 10 feet down. Then Zach went down to get it. And later my mom checked it and the camera still worked. It was like a 500 dollar camera, but the case was terrible.

I took a video of part of that and will probably upload it to facebook. Anyway. It was funny, sort of. We kept hiking. Passed a group of like school kids on a field trip or something. They reminded me of some of the people back at Slauson sort of. At this point, we could see part of Europe's largest glacier. The real hike for that was tomorrow. I was looking forward to it, I guess. But back to this one, Zach really wanted to go on a cable car but my mom felt strongly about him not. So there was a huge argument, and my mom just blew up. Perhaps I shouldn't mention this, but she used very colorful language. She said one word about 10 times in the span of about 5 minutes. Then she walked ahead of us and avoided us for pretty much the rest of the hike. Sucked.

We got back to our town, passing this lake that was really cold but still had some people in it. My dad, brother and I went to this place to get a drink. I got a coke, which was just gorgeous. We got sort of lost trying to find our mountain chalet but found it somehow. I was super hungry. And tired. We met up with my mom and tried to find a restaurant. The first one was closed, the other one too expensive, and then we found one that had pizza, pasta and crepes. The guy spoke some English too, but he mixed some French when talking.

My stomach felt so empty, the grumbles feeling like little inpatient pokes. We ordered, me getting salad and this pasta dish that I hadn't had before. I finished a plate of salad in about a minute, everything tasting good. I also had a piece of bread and drank lots of water. Eventually our food came, hot and ready to be digested. My dish was like a bowl of lasagna with spinach, cheese and something that tasted like potato. It was sooo goooosd. I just kept eating, my teeth happily biting down and throat swallowing with glee. It all just tasted so goosd, and I cleaned that bowl clean. All that was left was a little bit of tomato sauce on the edges. I was tired, getting hypnotized easily. I got some ice cream for dessert and my stomach still didn't have that feeling of complete, utter fullness. But that was good.

After we all finished, we stepped outside and started walking home. Outside was a perfect blue, the air coolish and warm. Calm. We could see some stars, not much. We walked over to this church on a hill and watched the moon rise. We had missed the sunset, but this was almost better. The white-yellow coin in the sky floated up quite fast, while we watched on a bench. We were all silent, appreciating this awesome moment. I said out loud after a bit, "This is better than any movie," Something clicked then. I realized something, had something then. I discovered something but I don't know what.

I felt contentment, happiness when I got back. We had to take off our boots before we went inside the mountain chalet and could put on slippers. I didn't though. At our room, I had fun brushing my teeth and went to bed. This was a good trip.

Sigh.

Well we just came back. I got about 44 new emails, most of them from facebook. It was cool. And then I checked my blog, and whatta-know. Thank you to those who commented. See, my deal is, I just don't know if people are actually in fact reading this. But I've heard people are. So I will still pretend people read it. Sigh. So, the trip was really awesome. I will write it up soon, and add some pictures on here. I will put the many, many, many pictures on Facebook. Sorry to those of you that don't have one/don't want one and therefore cannot view them, but I will still put some on here.

The posts will probably not be that long. It was a great trip. I'm going to make a list of my top ten favorite hikes this year. I already have 4.

I have terrible news. Not concerning you of course, but my mom had her wallet stolen. Or lost. When we were in Geneva, about to take a bus to Ferney, she says she felt a slight bump and found her backpack zipper very slightly open. So then she had to call people, and all that. Sucks. So yeah. Awesome trip, probably awesome posts.

Thank you to all who read my blog. I really appreciate it. I think I have about 10+ possible readers. Awesome. So yeah. The posts will probably be up tomorrow. As well as pictures. Trust me, it was very very cool.

Overnight hiking trip

Tomorrow we have to wake up at 7:30, ride the train somewhere and stay at this place and hike. We'll be back Wednesday night, so I'll be gone like 3 days. I'll write about it when I come back and add the many pictures I will take. We'll see Europe's largest glacier. Wow. I think we'll take a total of like 3-4 hikes. Lots of cable-cars. The train ride should be like the best part because I'll get to listen to music. Ha. No but seriously. I'm sort of looking forward to this trip, because it's something to DO, but it's going to be hard/tiring/boring at times. Probably Becca's blog will have like 50 posts by the time I come back. I'll have to catch-up quickly. So yeah.

Ah, and let's see... my last 8 posts have gotten no comments. A record! Sigh...

Seriously, guys...

"Some strange people visited us last night..."

Last night, my mom's friend, Michelle, and his wife, Isabelle drove over to have dinner with us. We had visited them at their house 4 years ago. Their kids are grown up now, and were in this circus. We got to see them in that and it was really cool. Michelle is fluent in French and knows a lot of English, (still has a small accent of course) but Isabelle knows only a little bit of English. So Michelle sort of translated to both sides. It was cool. I didn't talk much, but did say a few small French phrases. I only understood the conversation about a fourth of the time maybe. I caught little snippets. Luckily, some of it was in English. They brought a fig pie for dessert and these caramel squares. And some wine. My mom made spagetthi with a pesto/mushroom sauce. I tried some and Zach had plain pasta. "Rubbery" is a good word to describe mushrooms. They don't even have that much taste, but are quite squeaky. There was also some broccoli and chicken. Ah, yes, the chicken. There was much discussion over the different pieces of chicken (my mom had made different parts, like she didn't cut it from a whole chicken). After a little bit I went to my room and downloaded songs to my iPod. Dude, you guys have to check out this website: free and legal mp3 downloads. Go to the left hand side and click on "other mp3's". It's really cool. So anyway. I have 900+ songs on Melvin now. Amazing. So then after dinner, we had that wonderful fig pie. It was quite good. Then they departed at around midnight and I went to sleep shortly after. It was awesome. My parents mentioned my blog, so they're probably reading this. My mom said, "You guys will probably appear in her blog tomorrow," and Michelle added something like, "'Some strange people visited us last night....'" which explains the title. It was fun.

OMIGOSH- COLDPLAY CONCERT????!!!!

I was listening to music on Facebook, and found out that Coldplay was on tour. I glanced the cities, most of them in like Paris or whatever. But then- there was a show in Lyon, France which is relatively close to Ferney!!!!!!!! And so then I tried to find tickets but they were like 100+ Euros. That SUCKS. It would be on August 4, which might be a school day for me. Ugh. But it would be SO FRICKIN' AWESOME to see Coldplay in concert! I mean, I'm not really a huge huge fan, but I like a lot of their music. And I mean, I haven't actually been to hardly any big concerts. But it's probably unrealistic. Sigh. I'm going to keep looking for tickets.

Update: found some for 45 Euros. Not tooooo bad...
And I found some for like 53 Euros. This is probably not going to happen. 'Cause like, we'd probably get 2 tickets, which would be like 100 Euros, which is 160 dollars. But at least I can fantasize.

More pictures

Where the US sits in one conference room, an awesome painting inside the UN, where we have to go in for security checks, a Ghandi statue down the street from the UN, the car entrance to the UN across from the fountains.

some pictures

Security guard, conference room, a microphone and our tour guide.