It's the U.S. not us

Should-a/Could-a/Would-a

People should be smarter. Especially those that have the power to control or look over how smart we can/should be.

Go on a major virtual shopping spree! Maybe it will make you forget about Bush's stupidity. Or, maybe not.

This is my shopping cart: (with large quantities of the good stuff)

Washington Redskins

Manhattan Townhouse

Buy the World a Coke

McDonalds Franchise (I would get rid of it or turn it into something awesome)

Chewing Gum

Feed a Starving Child

House a Family

Protect Tropical Rain forests

Feed the Poor

Help disabled veterans

Adopt a Polar Bear

Levees that can do the job

Cure the Sick, Heal the Injured

New York Mets

A Jackson Pollock Painting

Racetrack (to get rid of them)

Picasso Painting

Hollywood Movie

Help to Prevent the Next Katrina

Get on Board with Mass Transit

My mom's still working on that play... says she'll finish it today. Sure hope so. She's had one of her plays off-Broadway and wants this one to be too. She thinks it's pretty good. I bet it is. What's the weather like? I heard there was snow.

Days

So you know how we often procrastinate, almost like its a natural reaction? And then after a while we just get plain fed up and sick of the lack of... getting it done? Well that happened today. I just got tired of having a stupid room so I put on some Beatles (I ended up listening to about 4 different albums straight through) and had some fun organizing books and papers. It's raining yet again. This day has sort of... already decided how it'll be. Ugh the floor is sooo dirty. It's like gross. I will probably grab the vacuum after this post. 

So this is really the only time I've had a long-enough break to actually... like really have a break. It's pretty cool. I've become transfixed with this new-found wonder: breaks. They work like magic to put everything into perspective! I've also noticed that like, school, stuff and life is good and possible and all, but you just have to deal with the stress put on you as a side effect. Like, you can always have perspective and stuff and not care and it goes fine, but then its just unpleasant to go through I guess. So, that's why school stinks for me even though it goes ok.

I looked through our Great Britain tour guide book and made a list of stuff I wanted to see. Here is some of it:

Must do/see

Abbey Road (Studios)

Westminster Abbey

Big Ben

British Museum

Museum of the Moving Image (highly recommended by my uncle/aunt)

Buckingham Palace (guards change everyday at 11:30)

Tower of London (has like.. dungeons)

Thames River 

University of London (seems cool)

Stock Exchange (there's an area where we can like watch them work the stocks or whatever)

Also really want to do/see

Fleet Street (has newspapers)

Science Museum

Hyde Park

British Library (has like a copy of every English book published in Great Britain)

National Postal Museum

Also, seeing Madame Tussaud's (wax museum, which was also in Maximum Ride: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports), Royal Albert Hall (I have a CD of Cream concert there) and the Post Office Tower (they said it had a great view) would be cool. And of course, the fish and chips, check out the telephone booths and those buses. Just like a tourist. And I need a calendar. So, yeah. It should be pretty awesome. Our flight is pretty early tomorrow. But yeah. Hopefully I'll get to chat with my friends before I leave. Or I could call. It's more convenient now that its only 5 hours different- France starts Daylight Savings Time earlier.

I learned that I am about 4213.26 miles from A2.

The yeah again

Ew. But I guess everyone has their opinion. Still, imaging a person such as her being president is pretty shocking. Dangerous. Gross. Weird. Whereas if Obama gets it, that'd be pretty friggin' gnarly, man. You get plenty of this in the media so I won't keep rattling on. What is it now, like 8 days? Wow.

I Skype'd with O and E yesterday which was pretty cool. Their video wasn't working though so I couldn't see them. Oh well. I'd like to call my friends more. That'd be pretty awesome. Skype is pretty nice, actually.

My mom is writing a play. She describes it with words along the lines of "annoying", "hard", "terrible", "tiring", etc. She works a ton on it. Says it never ends. Says she almost hates it. Says her characters talk to her and she has to write it all down. She's also been listening to A Long and Winding Road almost 24 hours straight, since she says that song will be included in the play. She first heard it on my iPod, and was quite struck by the awesomeness of having one of those. Now she uses YouTube or something.

8 months, 7 days. Left.

Anthony: pretty much the whole midwest has wind advisory (light blue)

me: wow

I'm still not glad I'm not here

Anthony: yeah

of course

me: duh

Anthony: but you are nearly a third of the way through

the time will fly by

me: yes

day 115 I think

Phillies won again. But I mean honestly, I'm happy either way. But it'd be cool if it was 7 games. Or yeah.

So we leave for London early on Wednesday, so I've got today and tomorrow to get some stuff done. And now my friends will only be on late again because they have school. And then Halloween. Dang. I was so distracted. It snuck up way too fast.

You know what I'd like? A powdered donut. I haven't had one of those in a while. And suddenly I thought of them. Aahh... *pretends to drool but not really*

Well actually I did have a donut. Amazingly. Zach got some. They were soooo gooood. And also I filmed the first scene of my documentary. The camera has terrible battery life. Not sure if I like what I have, but we'll see.

I stumbled over this awesomeness and felt the need to share... and have succeeded in not filling up everything with these: !!!!!!!!!!!!!! Enjoy and read the books!!!!





If they make Max a slut or whatever, I will personally sue. Yeah sure Alex come along.

"PUNCH her"

We went to Michael's (see this post) house last night. Zach didn't feel like going. I was tired and took a nap before. At first I wasn't sure whether I was going to go, 'cause it was already sort of late. But I went. It was pretty cool, actually. About an hour drive, during which we listened to the radio. There were French stations, Italian stations (I had thought it was Spanish at first), German stations and we even found a British one!!! It was cool. They were just talking about soccer, though. "Football". But it made me immediately think of Nick. So then we got there and met some people. There were their two old friends from like elementary school. They were cool. We talked mostly in French, but some in English. It was sort of fun. Then Michael's daughter and her two friends came down. They all wore jeans and had black/brownish hair. She remembered me from when we visited them 4 years ago. We saw in the circus and she's still doing that. I learned they met in Capetown, speak English together but know French. Wow. That's pretty impressive. So then they left and we talked some more. The husband had done a marathon and we talked about that a little bit.
After a little bit we had some awesome soup. It was seriously good; squash with some sour cream. Then Michael's son came down and said hi. He was in the Swiss Army and apparently really likes it. He also earned two stripes or something, which was impressive.
Dinner consisted of bread, cheese, grapes and roasted chestnuts. The chestnuts were warm and brown, and almost looked like warm brains on the inside. But they were good. Then we talked some more and Michael said I could watch a movie. We climbed up these nice, wooden stairs to a smallish attic-like room. The TV was on the floor. They had several discs of Desperate Housewives (oh yeah, I'm totally going to watch that...) and some Harry Potter. I settled on some good ol' HP. Not surprisingly, it was in French. And the remote didn't work so we couldn't change the language. But it was ok.
My first reaction was to start cracking up when I heard the Dursley's speaking French, and I almost did. Then when Dobby (this was the 3rd one) started torturing himself and yelling in French, I actually did laugh. It was pretty fun. The voices were sort of weird though. Like Ron's was too high, and so was Hermione's. Eh. It was sort of lonely. I've actually been pretty lonely lately. I mean, what with no friends ('cept for the virtual pixel-version) on the weekend and stuff. But yeah. I actually could tell what they were saying sort of. And it also helped that I saw the movie before. Lockhart was so stupid. I hardly remembered this one, though.
After a while I got too tired and went downstairs. Then we left. They actually played some ok songs on the radio at that time: I heard an awesome Coldplay song and While My Guitar Gently Weeps. Then also the last one we heard was Shut Up and Let Me Go, after which my dad said "The songs they play are just terrible" It was almost midnight and 1 am when we got home. I considered getting on to chat with friends, but decided I was too tired. And I completely forgot about the Michigan game.

Today I should work on the documentary. And finish HW. I looked at some of my older chats with friends and it was awesome. I miss those guys. Where did it all go?

me: elanor
Anthony: Rigby
me: has a rib of bys
Oren: All the lonly peopl
me: og gys
Oren: e
me: where DO they all come from? i mean, seriously, where?
Anthony: where do they all belong?
Becca: a2
me: oh
Becca: and shut down circuses

This is cool.

Something to read.

Oh and also, yesterday I went to the Ferney market with my mom. It was pretty cool. Quite big. Smelled like fish. We bought some spice bread, flowers, dried kiwis and apricots.

DARN it. But actually, I like them Phill-ays...somewhat.

My dad's biking around Lake Geneva right now. It's like 109 miles, yo!

Go Blue!! And white...

AP Photo/Jay LaPrete

HA HA. Thank goodness at least ONE of my favorite teams is doing alright. More than alright.

This is not related to the above at all, but it's cool, so deal.



Like the second song I learned on guitar. It's awesome.

More than a feeling

Well um. I haven't actually blogged in a while I guess. Hmm. I guess I've been lazy/busy. But yeah so cutting to the chase, here is my list of happenings/news in a bullet-point format because I'm just lazy like that. And I mean, who likes paragraphs anyway? People want their information fast, simple and easy to understand! None of that leading-up-to crap, introductions or... boring, 2-page articles about something that happened in possibly a different continent, like 4 in a half months ago, that totally does not relate with your life. 

So on Thursday, I came to the conclusion, or at least, I suddenly thought that, at least at the time, that FLE was actually an OK class. M. Besson can be really awesome and learning French can be fun. We had to do these oral tests on the vacation we had, and then when Nafaa (this kid who's quite tall, probably in 3eme {9th grade}) came up, M. Besson started a rant-type thing about, well I wasn't too sure because he was talking in French, but it sounded like he was saying his writing was bad, and then like.. something to do with him writing Arabic and it being bad or something. Then, as M. Besson was looking at his notebook, get this- Nafaa gave M. Besson the finger. Muhammad (this short-ish, cool {as in, actually cool not "popular"} guy) looked over and we gaped at each other. For several minutes. Luckily, M. Besson did not notice, because if he did notice that behavior Nafaa would probably... well, he'd be... traumatized. Maybe. I dunno.

I had so much fun with Jess in math speciales on Thursday. We talked about how like the Spanish test we had to take next hour was stupid. And then talked about accents, and I told her about how us Americans have what we think are "English accents" but really don't sound hardly at all like real ones. So I said (in my non-sophisticated English accent) "I'd like a spot o' tea" and we both cracked up. Then she tried an American accent, saying "I'd like a cheeseburger" and he cracked up even more. It was fun. And we still got the work done.

Argh I so need to work on that documentary. I will, I will... we leave for England on Wednesday. If I hadn't already mentioned before, I am on break for 10 days!!! Woo-hoo!!! That's so awesome. I have some HW, but its not too bad. I actually don't even hate HW that much. It's weird. This is day 115 according to my calculations. Maybe I really can survive this year of.... of... crap. 

Ok yay the MEAPs are done for you guys. Good. Now you can start to learn, you know? And argh I need to learn algebra!!!! I am so behind. This sucks. But hey- wait- I'm on break, right? And life is still good. I guess...

Ok. Ok. Really need to work on that documentary... I am at the point of talking to myself while walking to and from school. A few people noticed. Eh. Too bad. Do I care. (No). 

Oh and guess what- I had a peanut butter and jelly sammich today!! I hadn't had one in like years. Well, months. It tasted quite American. 

I don't know why the F this stupid thing won't let me embed a stinkin' youtube video (it worked before) and I'm getting really mad at it, so I'll just give you the link. WTF Blogger?!??!

This is one of those classy, gnarly, good ol' '70's rock stuff. 

Oh and this one is awesome too.

blue ink #11

You know what occured to me Well, before I get into that- this is my first paper in a new package! The other one ran out. It was really tattered. The new one is quite thick and nice 'n fresh. They have 200 pages. Anyway, I noticed that I hadn't really been paying attention to like... French culture much. Stuff like going to cafes, reading a (French) newspaper, just walking around town, etc. You know, I've only been to a cafe like once over here this year. I really should go to more or something. I guess it's just 'cause school takes up everything.

I actually want to try reading a French newspaper or something. Reading newspapers is actually pretty cool. And not on the Internet either- a real bunch of paper with ink.

Yesterday I was going to write in sciences physiques like I did that last time but the teacher asked if I wanted to try taking the test so I took it. It wasn't that bad. I didn't understand this one question so I left it blank. It had something to do with like perfume and a door or something. And then the last part was filling in the blank, but that was (too) hard for me in French. But I did learn the material (pretty much) so HA.

Ugh some kid put a big wad of gum on the back of my chair in French (the class I had before) so now my Strong Bad hoodie has some blue goo on the back. And to think- that was in someone's mouth. Uugggghhhh.

Dude I'm so tired. I stayed up till 11:30 chatting with my friends. It was worth it, though, 'cause like ten people got on. I'm also really hungry. I think I should just eat a bigger breakfast. Our cereals are so boring though- Corn Flakes, various forms of meusli and like... Special K.

First trumpet lesson tonight. I'm excited, sure, but I hadn't practiced for 3 days and I'm still sort of sick. But I'll just practice a little before. Trumpet is pretty awesome.

Yay the Rays won. So I might try to watch some games... or at least follow the scores. It's actually somewhat hard to follow American sports over here- I have to like majorly go out of my way to and I often forget about it.

It's la semaine de l'Europe (Europe week) at this school and they put up some flags and stuff. Yesterday I was talking to Jess and said, "Europe is a big continent," but was about to say "country". I should read now.

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

On the way home from school, I walked with Claudia. She's in my FLE class and knows English, Portugese, Italian and is learning French. Wow. It was really cool to walk with someone- totally under-rated. I laughed a lot. And at school I told Jess and people that my iPod was named Melvin because I had brought it to school. That was cool. Walking by myself like sucks. But that was really cool.

I had 3 hours of FLE today, which is now like the best class. The lessons reminded me of a lot of band, because Monsieur Besson got side-tracked a lot (but not in a bad way) and he was in a good mood. One of his mini-lessons was like how we can understand something we'd never learned before because humans make connections. It was cool I guess. And he needed my cahier (notebook) for some reason, so I don't have to recite this one thing. Cool.

I have a big Spanish test on Thursday, but whatevs. I'll study sure but like i said, Spanish is not in high priority. It's just so annoying to have. I wish I could switch out.

Trumpet lesson was good. We were like 15 minutes late, after asking some people taking a break outside to smoke where this place was. It was a smallish building with really cool murals on 'em. The teacher came out to meet us. He seemed cool. Short black hair, slightly short. He knew English pretty well, but I had to explain a few vocabulary words. He said I should play louder. We played scales and Norweigan Wood, as well as Hey Jude, at which I was not very good at. But I hadn't really practiced it. I would play B flat instead of B natural, which is a common mistake. But I think I did ok. And he was a pretty pleasant guy. He was playing a C trumpet (we use B flat back in the States) so the fingering is all a-jumble-donk. But he could play pretty well. He plays in some opera. So, that was fun.

Ugh the Cross thing is tomorrow. But I can probably run ok. I think it's only like a mile or less. Last time I ran a mile (1600) was in 6th grade track and I got like 2nd to last place. But I had a cold. Eh. But yeah. And it's so annoying, because its the first two hours in the morning so it just misses me missing Spanish (as in, I don't have to skip Spanish). Ugh. Oh well.

I found out last night that my MyAccess acount had been deactivated. MyAccess was this thing for Language Arts class where we write persuasive essays and stuff. (It was really... ugh/stupid). But yeah. Whatever.

I really need to work on that documentary.

You guys should really check this out. It's QUITE funny. (Thank you Becca).

Allee le bleu!!!!

My knees slid on the carpet and I reached down, hastily grabbing at cards. There- get that one- uh oh is that someone coming- then adrenaline exploded through my body as a guy in a white suit and mask came walking near me. I got up and my legs ran like hell back to my hive. I handed the cards to Claire then hung out near the door. It was dark. Neon circles showed up in the absence of light, while smoke blew around and terrible heavy metal played rather loudly.

Aliens Strike Back thing. It was quite... wow. Not a whole lot of fun. I was pretty lonely at dinner while my friends sat in one of those big circle-groups. I didn't feel like doing that. But some counselor people came over and talked which was cool. The counselors there are actually really nice. They remember my name and make an effort to talk to me. And one time at the end one of them gave me a hug. How nice. 

Blue won. I was on blue. First I was on team pink, then some people asked me to change to orange, then someone wanted to switch with a blue. So there. I picked up cards mainly but didn't do any popping. We put a balloon (life source) on our back under our clothes and if yours got popped you went back to your hive (blue's was in the library which was near the sanctuary and pretty small) to get a new one. Boys could only pop boys, girls pop girls. I didn't get attacked at all, seeing as I mainly stayed within 20 feet of my hive. And I didn't even try to pop someone. 

It was weird, though because at the beginning we had to blow up balloons and guess what. I couldn't I just... couldn't. I would blow, and it wouldn't fill up. Kinda ironic, seeing as I can play trumpet but not blow a frickin' balloon. I think it's because I breathe through my nose (baaaaad habit I need to get rid of) when I play trumpet, so the air didn't actually go through my mouth really. Huh.

At the end I just walked home. We had my dad's collegue over and his girlfriend, who had both visited us here when we were here 4 years ago. Then I was tired and the Internet didn't work so I just went to bed. 

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

Saturday was weird. For one thing, I was reeaaaaalllly tired when I woke up. I woke up at 8, but sort of just laid down. Then something really weird happened. I looked through the patio door-windows at the clouds. I stared for a while. And it seemed like... the clouds were moving. Now, I know what you're going to say- well, DUH, clouds, move!!!! But see, it was like... you could hardly tell. And there were just little patches of sky (hole in the clouds) so it was hard to tell. And then there was a bigger opening higher up, and it was almost freaky. Then there was this like rumbling sound. And it seriously was like... I dunno... something... not normal. And I remembered how Emma told me on Friday how the whole world had bet on aliens coming to Earth Saturday. 

It was pretty freaky, trust me. But I wasn't freaked out. I was too tired so my brain was just like, "oh. I see. Cool." To that sort of thing.

Sunday was better. I just had like a cold. I played hockey and did my homework. 

Argh. I did not get to work on my documentary. That was really bad. I so regret that. But I'll seriously try this week/weekend. 

Aaaaaand you guys I have news.

My first trumpet lesson is Tuesday at 7. I haven't practiced though since I've been sick, so my first impression might not be good. But eh whatever.

Turns out I CAN play with the women's team only on Wednesdays. Question is, do I want to? I already have school (of course), trumpet lessons and late hockey practice. So I might not. And plus, it was rather intimidating the last practice. Not that pleasant. And CERN is cool.

School does not get out July 4th as I stated before. It actually gets out July 2nd. Which makes life easier!!!!! That means we might actually leave July 3rd (making it closer to 365 days) which means less time here and yeah and yeah. So cool. I counted on my calendar that I have about 200 school days total. But only 180 left. Such a small number, I know. But yeah cool.

The daughter of the family that is taking care of our beloved Chesterton is living in Spain (she's like 18) and my mom wants to invite her for Xmas with us. I wouldn't really mind. That could be cool I guess. 

I got

Space by James A. Michener

It's ok so far.

"And Zames Bond will eeuh be there to zave us!"

So hockey last night. This time we brought the keys, so we didn't have to turn the neighbors into raving sleepless... um... guitar picks. But. The other locker rooms were all closed so we had to wait for the zamboni guy to finish his job and find me a room. I got to go in this private one, that was labeled something with an a. It had two chairs and like 3 bathrooms. Pretty nice. But I had to suit-up like super duper fast because everyone else was already on the ice. So when I came out I didn't have enough time really do to the usual individual warm-ups. But I still did that a little bit. Then we scrimmaged, which was ok I guess. Except for the fact that I was designated a forward (offense/attack) which is ok, but I'm not the best forward. And plus, it seems like I majorly lag the forecheck on my team because I can't skate as fast. But yeah. The guy that helped me before (still don't know his name) talked to me a little bit. And he also tried to pass to me a few times, but that only brought out my patheticness. He's on the blue line, I'm making my way straight to the net, he passes, I take a pathetic swipe and the puck goes 1 mile an hour, staying on the ice surface. Then the other team gets it. See what I mean? But I guess maybe I can cut myself some slack considering the following facts:

1) this is only my second year of hockey
2) these guys have been playing for longer
3) these guys can skate at least twice as fast as me, shoot at least twice as well as me, etc.
4) I'm new to this league.

Oh hey that's like my second straight list like that. Eh well. Hope it won't be a habit. But yeah. I didn't practice with the girl's team because their practice got like killed (canceled). We don't know if I'll practice with the girl's team because I wouldn't do it on Friday, and maybe the coach wouldn't want a non-full time player. But I mean, the CERN time is ok. If I can learn to play with those guys, high school hockey shouldn't be that hard.

School went ok, as it seems to do these days. I need to start filming my documentary, because I find myself talking to myself when I walk to/from school, like describing stuff. I should work on it like.. nowish.

This might sound like bragging, but I was amazed at what happened. On my math speciales test, I got 19.5 out of 20, which is like... pretty DARN good in this system. I mention this because it doesn't seem like many people (save for them bi-lingual types) get that kind of score in this school. And because that's probably my highest score. It wasn't really a hard test, but yeah whatever.

I came up with a good idea, you guys.

I noticed the Lycee-College International de Ferney-Voltaire (which I from now on will refer to as the LCI or College) doesn't have a school newspaper. And then I thought, hey, I could make like a fake one! So, I plan to write a somewhat joke/fake article about the Cross du College (that 2-hour, around 2-km race next Wed). That'd be pretty cool. Oh and, about the title: in FLE, Monsieur Besson spent a while telling us about the Cross du College, and someone asked if how they would know where to run. And then Monsieur Besson exaggerated, saying "Oh zair will be eh.. helicoptairs and polise cahrs and Zames Bond to zave us!" It was pretty funny.

And I'll also try to write about other stuff with the school too. So yeah. It'd like to get into Community and write for the Communicator. I read an issue once and it was friggin' GOOD. So yeah.

Fat Friday tomorrow. And it's Alien Night (Aliens Strike Back) which is supposed to be really gnarly.

Here's your Random Question every once in a while-
Is mainstream stuff even that good? (Mainstream, in this case, referring to those somewhat over-marketed, over-hyped stuff...)

Wow, Rianna- what a math teacher.

I'm a "flair making machine!"

Half day means I have lunch, do homework and stare at a screen for a while. I got on facebook and made some lovely pieces of flair, which are basically like virtual pins with stuff on 'em to "express yourself" on your profile. They're pretty cool, take about 10-20 seconds to make one. Then I had to stop because I apparently made too much. But yeah.

I was pretty surprised in English math(s) today. We're doing scatter graphs now and the teacher mentioned how we could be able to find the exact like... formula for a line on the graph, but said you wait till like 11th or 12th grade to do that, which SHOCKED me. I had learned that... let's see.. last year. Dang. This system is sure... weird. I'm glad I'm only doing a year because otherwise I'd be WAY behind.

Check-a this video out:




And press the left button on your mouse with your pointer finger when your cursor goes over the following pixels: awesome, interesting website (yeah so what I found it from Fly On??) That will keep you on the computer for hours, maybe days. No but it's good trust me.

I'm still amazed at the following things:

1) how taking a break from stuff really changes perspective on stuff
2) how time goes by
3) the school system here
4) me being in France
Wait. What? France? Me? Now? Since when did that monstrosity happen?!?!

Aaaaaand I need to work on that doc. Umentary. What was I going to say next... oh yeah.

Don't try to see yourself like others do
It's no use

But it's your life
and you can decorate it as you like

Ben Folds. And the Five. Never cease to. Kill me with their awesomeness. Which is a good thing. It means they are so magical and excellequent that humans can't... live with it so they die. But they are brought back to life with the awesomeness. (I should start my own personal dictionary.)

blue ink #10

I just had gym ("sport"). For two hours. Sigh. And guess what we're doing- wrestling. Isn't that just great?? I mean, I love playing tackle (American) football and all that but wrestling for me is just like... er eh no. First we waited in that place (next to the Lycee and near the L building) and the teacher (who was actually here) called our names and stuff. Then we entered the sport area through this gate and walked with a few other classes of kids. It was first thing in the morning so a slight layer of fog floated near the fields, creating an almost eerie hat. We passed this soccer-like field with reddish power and some more fields. I talked to Claire, Olivia and Emma about the class a little bit. I asked if you could forfeit, and you could but Claire said that'd give you a lower grade. So nevermind. But according to Claire, wrestling is so fun. I could see why she felt that way- she's quite tall, confident, strong and somewhat violent.

A big grey building loomed as we argued about saying fish and chips, French fries or crisps. It was somewhat amusing.

We entered the bleak building and I noticed on one of the outdoor billboards that they did Aikido. So cool. We were let in in groups of like 10 people each and had to take off our shoes in the hallway. I went with Emma. I had only brought one pair of shoes so I brought that with my change of clothes.

I hadn't really liked gym at Slauson, and I can't say this was much better. The locker room was smaller- a square room with benches on the side, white walls and some bathrooms around the corner. I changed in a shower stall.

After changing into my red "Central" running shorts and Red Wings shirt, we all went into this large room that had some blue and red mats covering the entirety of the floor. Large posters of Asian guys hung on the wall. It smelled somewhat like sweet pretzels. Sweat. The teacher talked to us about such and such. He had short black hair with very thin and small sideburns. Looked pretty young. He was pretty nice I guess.

So he went through the rules and stuff and Emma and Claire told me what he was saying. He also informed us that next Wednesday we all had to do this cross country thing/race... and I think we're GRADED on that. I mean, what the heck? Graded on running 2 hours to benefit hospitals or whatever? He also handed out these pamphlets that we could fill out to donate/get money for running or something. I didn't get one though.

Emma was my partner. It was somewhat awkward, and she beat (pwned) me several times on the drills, and I pretty much stank. We did stuff like pushing each other out of an area, picking each other up, etc. Wasn't that much fun. And then before all that we did these running around drills sort of like what we did in band where you have to get in groups of 3 or whatever and have a consequence for being the one left one. On the exercise where we had to pick someone up, I was left by myself sort of. And had to do 6 push-ups. Which wasn't even bad at all. I mean, I really don't want to brag or anything, but those 6 push-ups were not... very hard for me. I overheard one of Joey's friends say something like, "yeah well she's an American so..."

Finally, after humiluating myself a lot and taking in that eughaduge smell for 2 hours, we could go. Apparently I need to have 2 pairs of shoes for some stupid reason. Like, we have to have different shows for Ping-Pong or something. I don't think I'm even doing Ping-Pong. What the heck. I also walked away with a bad rug burn, which really smart.

So gym is all year and I think we do wrestling for half the year. Ugh. At least it's only once a week. And we have to be graded on almost everything. Frankly, I've already got 2 hours of hockey a week which is so much better. Sigh.

Dude I'm hungry. Short lunch today, too. And three hours of FLE. Geez. I'll try to work on that documentary a lot. This school is annoying.

Oh yeah and hey it was cool yesterday- Bridgitte (someone in my FLE class) came up to me yesterday and we talked for a bit. She's Canadian. From Toronto. And she said her family might stay here permanently or move somewhere else French-speaking if they don't like it here. God. I would hate that. I mean, just one year in plently. Already almost too much.

Chester is a dog.

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

YOU GUYS GUESS WHAT.

My mom told me we found a trumpet teacher for me! One of her close friend's from Quaker meeting daughter is a French Horn player in the Geneva Symphony Orchestra and she was looking around. So the teacher (François Seigneur) is French but knows some English. The lesson would be Sgt. Geny, which is pretty close. I can't wait! I hope I get the lessons on the weekend, but Wednesday could work. The French Horn player (Julia) said she found him "quite pleasant" when she talked to him on the phone. So cool.

Dang, the day goes by so fast. It's already pitch black outside and 7:30. I did my HW luckily and should work on that Doc. Just till July 4th... then boom I'm out. But first, till October 24 and we'll go to London and see Wicked and take lots of pictures and see England and take a huge, much-needed break from this heck and I can have some fun.

And yo, check THIS gnarly-ness out.

I thought I was the only one moving in slow motion while the other kids knew something I did not

Um so, I had to post again today because well just because.

I have a story. (just like Becca does all the time sort of!!!)

So my dad and I went out to play catch with the football in the park across our apartment. It was really fun. I had lots of energy after not doing hardly anything the whole day, which was cool. Then those French kids came and hung out at the other end of the park and stuff. So then this dog came out and was running around. I missed this one pass and it got pretty far away. Then the dog picked it up in it's mouth and ran around with it. I tried taking it out of it's mouth, but to no avail. My dad and the French kids (about 10 or so) came over, trying to take it away from the dog too. The French kids starting kicking at the dog's muzzle but always managed to miss. It was actually rather funny; my dad and I cracked up. The dog (a medium-sized black Labrador it seemed) then ran around to this other next-door park with the French kids chasing and kicking it more. Finally, the owner came and stopped the dog and hit the ball out of it's mouth. It was slobbery and some of the outer skin had came apart, but it luckily wasn't punctured. Then this French kid with brown hair and a weird scar comes up to my dad and asks him like how much it costs. I guess the French kid wanted the owner to pay. My dad told him 10 Euros, but the owner guy didn't really pay. It's not like we could get a new one over here anyway. But yeah. We can use it. Just slap some duct tape on it.

And then see, there's no way I can write about this next subject in full right now, but it's just really weird and almost freaky how much I changed, how much I am changing, how much everyone else is changing and all that. I won't go into detail (that might be in later posts) but it's like... almost scary/sad. But yeah. I've been writing the layout for the documentary, and I'm excited. But ugh school tomorrow. I'll try to have fun- I'll just think outside.

Just like that

It's almost funny how fads go from "unrecognized" to "discovered" to "the new thing for me" to maybe either "my life" and/or "actually never mind that sucked".

I think you will enjoy reading this. Along with this and this.

Here's a few excerpts I found interesting from this awesome site I found this morning. (added to the COSoTL!)

4) IT’S A BLOG, SO MAKE IT PERSONAL
I really believe that as a blog, your site should be as much about YOU as it is about the movies you’re talking about. YOUR thoughts, YOUR experiences, YOUR opinions. You’re not meant to be an impersonal movie news site. Blogs by nature are personal things. Don’t be afraid to share bits of yourself with your readers and engage them every chance you have. The news is the same on every single site out there… YOU are the most unique thing about your site. Leverage that. Some will say to me sometimes that Blogs shouldn’t be personal at all… to them I say “Then you have no idea what a blog is”

15) START A PODCAST EARLY
When we started The Movie Blog Podcast almost 4 years ago, most people hadn’t even heard of the term before. Now, podcasting is insanely popular and very EASY to do. Remember how I just said to make your movie blog as personal as possible? Well podcasts are a great way to do that. It’s YOUR voice. It’s a wonderful way for your personality to come through and for your readers/listeners to get to know you. Podcasting has never been easier. With free podcasting services like:

Studio Odeo
GCast

You can be up and running in no time at all. It’s VERY fun, VERY easy and very effective too. There’s no reason not to start podcasting as soon as possible once you launch your site.

So, cool. Eh?

And then these just hit home:

Don’t become a “blog” that just repeats the news that has been repeated a million times already today on every other site out there.

[...]

Blogging is about personal expression… so what use is expression if you’re not expressing YOURSELF?

So yeah I'm pretty psyched about the documentary idea, and blogging. Inspiration! Inspired! Invigorated???

It's almost not fair. If you were/are puzzled by that last post, yeah well yeah. I don't feel like explaining. I sort of did. Actually, I sort of already did with the majority of my recent posts. Basically it means that, well ugh I'll just be repeating myself, but that the perspective keeps changing. Take now for instance, I am out. I'm not really in Europe anymore. But then yeah once I finish that HW I'll be back in. But. There is hope. There's weekends, there's my ideas and there's chatting with Albert. Among other people.

But then its just... let me be with my friends. I hope to explore with my film.

what is this

What the crap. What the crap? Is this even real? What is going on? Am I exaggerating? Do I not understand? What is this called? Or does this not exist? Why? It's like a weird-ed out attack so eccentric and psychedelic that it's a medical condition.

no. What the crap? Should this be happening?


Out. I need to be way.

Writing a play > staying in house

My mom is writing a play. And today she claimed she needed space. I didn't blame her. So me, my dad and Zach went on a hike. But not without Zach triggering a major nerve (or several) in my mom. And me. Zach can be such a... such a... well fine I'll refrain from saying it, but lets just say he can be really un-nice/un-smart. He ALWAYS CONSTANTLY argues if we're going to do something. I mean, I just had to intervene with his second wave of argumentation with my dad and say SHUT UP. I didn't yell, even though I wanted to. I mean, GOD, ZACH, just PLEASE STOP THAT. Anyway. The hike was eh. It looks like Thanksgiving on the mountains. That means the trees remind me of like.. fall colors. Because they are fall colors. Exploding poofs on the side. I didn't mind the hike at first but then sort of started complaining because I was tired. I had woken up at 12:20. Which sucked. I wanted to get my homework done. So yeah.

And then I've been thinking about doing a documentary. About this trip. Should be fun. I could interview teachers and stuff. So yeah... yeah.

OH AND this is the 100th day!!!!!!!!!!! So only like 266 more!!!!!!!!!!! I'm about a third of the way done with this heck.

Aujourd'hui c'est le centieme jour!!!! And like 300 hits!!!! After like 19 days.

It is Legal to Tickle the Boys

Second Fat Friday. This one was fun. After doing most of my homework during lunch, I walked with my dad over to the church again. This time it was fun. I saw Emma there, the English girl I sit next to in French and art. She's pretty cool. Jess still hung out with that other group of people, but it wasn't that bad. There was this new organizer person. Well, new to me anyway. She was nice. She told a story about how she was really good at Clue and didn't want to lose and all that. The morale of the stories were that games are just to be fun; there aren't really winners and losers. Then we got into groups and went around the circle saying our names and our "favorite nailpolish color" which was like... wow. We had a discussion about life being about winners/losers; I said it wasn't about winners and losers just what you make out of it. Then we had dinner, which was chicken and I didn't have to serve it. I sat with some other girls who were nice.

Then we got to play card games and stuff. But first I went outside and played basketball with Emma. It was fun. Whenever I scored I'd go "What now?!!". Emma snorts a lot. But I told her it was cool, because it is. I told her she should enter a snorting competition. No seriously. Then I played Speed with some people after watching a game of "Cheat" (BS). Speed is fun. I played it with this asian girl at Blue Lake (clarinetist) and she always beat me. It's so fun though. Fast.
Then, we went inside.

Games included the pulling of limbs. We had another boys vs. girls thing, and I just rolled my eyes. Larry caught that and gave me the "a-ok" sign. We had to pull people over to our side, but could be pulled. I pulled a few people over then decided not to kill my arm. The girls won. Larry said that in all the history of that game, the girls always won. Then we did a variation of these 3 adult guys vs. all of us. Then the next variation was where the guys all hooked together in the middle of 2 tape lines, and us girls had to pull them out/apart. And Larry said that we were allowed to tickle the boys. I didn't of course. That'd be... weird. It was... eh. The guys wanted to do that same game but with pulling the girls apart. Larry's agrument against that was that (he brought up a girl to the stage) this girl's left arm would be over in the corner of the room and the other one slapping a boy silly. She looked horrified. So we didn't do that- thank goodness.

At the end they told us next week was Alien Night, which was apparently really awesome. Some guy got a black eye from it though. They say they make it really dark and we wear those glow-necklaces. Strobe lights. Darkness. The like. So cool I guess. At the end I talked a little with one of the organizers, Amy I think. She's cool.

So Fat Friday (which stands for fun and truth) is pretty fun I guess. Cool.

That's the Way We Get By

Have you ever had an Asian physicist that you just met that calls you Amy tell you to "go! go! go!"? Well, whenever the time comes; should that ever come to happen, it means you have to go. Go go. As in, get off the bench. And onto the ice. So that's what I did.

I had two straight hours of hockey practice last night. The girl's team was... was. A few people knew English. There were a lot of teenage girls, so I was somewhat intimidated. But hey wait. Aren't I a teenage girl? Oh yeah. But anyway. We ran for a few minutes around the rink then did stretches and those infamous butt kicks, and stuff.

I sat next to Tina in the locker room. Tina, if I didn't already tell you guys, is like the person that runs the team... sort of. She's the Captain of the team, is Canadian, and called us about me joining. She's nice I guess. And then also there was this other girl/young woman who was nice. She talked to me a little bit before running and stuff. Pretty much everyone knew French. Some didn't know any English.

And then it turned out it was also team picture day. So I had to change my jersey twice or so. I was located on the left. Well, right when you look at the picture. But it was sort of weird because I mean, I might not be on that team really. But anyway. The team had a mascot; some guy wore this huge like... doll thing. The team is called the Demoniaks. The logo sports something like a rabid doll. The website is in French, I must "warn" you though.

Hockey is a tough sport. If you didn't already know. There was this main coach guy who spoke French but knew some English. He was pretty nice, actually. We had to wear practice jerseys. Mine was yellow. There were 3 other yellows. I later learned the colors were for the different lines.
So anyway, here's an excerpt of what was going through my head/was slightly whispered occasionally during practice:

OH MY GOD. I suck I suck I suck I suck I suck. What WAS that?!?!?! That was like not even... no. UGH how did I miss that pass?!??! What is wrong with me?!?!? I suck I suck I suck.

I say that a lot to myself. And there's a reason. Because see, I do miss passes. I make stupid mistakes. Which cause me to come to the conclusion that: I suck at hockey, and/or my teammates think I suck at hockey. I guess you could say I'm pretty hard on myself on hockey. But at least when I make a mistake I know I did and insult myself right?

Well actually. Maybe that isn't a uh.... good thing.... but whatever. The drills weren't really even that hard, but it takes me awhile to get drills. And I don't really get when the coach uses that white board. With the X's and O's stuff. So I made many many many mistakes on the drills, even on the easy ones. Eventually the coach guy saw that some of the drills were too complicated for me so he put me with this other line doing this more simple drill. Even then I took a while to do the drill right. Sigh.

But it wasn't that bad, I guess. At the end, that one other lady that was nice asked me if practice was too hard or too easy. I almost laughed in my head. How could that be easy? I told her it was sort of hard. But it was ok. Then I stayed for the CERN practice, which was awesome.

There were a lot of new people. At the end the coach said we weren't allowed to invite more people. As I mentioned earlier, there was that Asian guy. He was ok though. But being not called by your name is annoying. Very irksome. We scrimmaged. My dad played goalie again. He needs to work on his five hole. That one guy that last time talked to me a little bit (I still don't know his name) told me what I was doing was good. He was on the other team, but while I was playing he said I should keep doing what I was doing. So cool. He gave me the advice, "keep your head up and don't panic". Good advice I say.

It's weird though, because on the faceoffs I play left wing, then in the offensive zone I play defense, but then defensive zone I'm sort of both... I guess I prefer defense.

In a way I like the CERN team better. Well, maybe that's just because I've been going to it more. As I step on the bench for the next line, I recieve the occasional head pat, knee pat and/or stick-butt pat. Which is like... acceptance. Well, that's assuming those are encouraging gestures. As opposed to negative ones.

After practice the guys drank beer. No drunkness, don't worry. Then the nice guy told me about the best hockey player in France. He was the guy wearing a Los Angeles Kings jersey, and he WAS really good.

We got home at around midnight as usual. But I wasn't even that tired. It was dark, and when you inhaled it was that thick, warm and soothing air. It would've been a really awesome night. "Would've" is the key word here. And "key" is the key word for that last sentence.

It turned out we didn't take a front door key. Which meant ringing our apartment constantly for 10 minutes, while calling with my dad's cell phone. Which also meant waiting with two large hockey bags in the morning in a strange, hard place. But eventually this French guy came. So he opened the door and we all fit in the elevator. He knew English. Then we had the wrong key for the apartment. Which meant more of the same: ringing the doorbell constantly while calling the phone. That doorbell was loud, mind you. LOUD. You could hear it from pretty far away. So the neighbors must hate us. And then every few minutes it would turn pitch black and I'd have to turn on the lights again. Eventually, my mom came. Apparently Zach had heard the noises, but didn't think about them much. So... ok? Yeah that was sort of our fault. Yeah we should've brought a key. But yeah we can learn from our mistakes.

Today was picture day. I was right in the middle of my class picture in the front row. I hate being "short". Then we took individual pictures.

In English, we got these like test packet things. Purple. They say "SATS" on them, but I don't think they're for the SAT. We have to read short stories/texts for a timed amount, then answer questions for a timed duration. I hate timed things. I hate competition. I hate tests. Why does school have to be so focused on tests??!! What about learning?!??! My full (or partially full) thoughts on that subject can be read in a future post.

I've decided again to start complaining. Well, not complain really. But on the way home I decided to make a music video or something. Like, a documentary on this trip. Which seems like a good idea. I'd have to do it on a break though. And where did my trumpet inspiration go?!?! I was almost unenthusiastic to practice it today. But yeah.

And then, suddenly, Stop and Stare started playing. And when that chorus came, what happened was what I have described several times before. It has to do with complaining.

Let it be known that I am now like obsessed with Crosby, Stills and Nash. And Spoon.

If you love a friend (as a friend) you should tell them that. And never take them for granted. And hugs are good, too. Way under-rated.

(Yeah that's right, I'm talking to YOU, Albert. And Ms. Bad-at-flirting if you read my blog. And Jenners and Yu.)

Leaves on the Car

Half days are such excellent things. I think I did pretty good on the English math test, but probably not that good on the SVT test. I think they have half days for the students to catch up on work, which I definitely need(ed) to do. It's another bleak, grey and foggy day. Which suits me just fine. I haven't been going outside hardly at all lately, which very much stinks. I mean, this is just ridiculous. Wake up early, go to school, rush home for lunch and back again, then rush home to do a few hours of HW; no time for nothing. But ok ok I've complained enough. 

I saw some leaves on this car out my window today, that for some reason triggered some nostalgia/homesickness/memories. Like suddenly I wasn't supposed to be here. Well, I could be here, but the real place was Ann Arbor.

I was going to write a poem. But after attempting to, decided it was too painful to read. To put it plainly, I'm not much of a poet at all. But I still like poetry. Even if I suck at it, it can still be fun for me. 

What else? I keep adding new blogs to the various lists, so be aware of that I s'pose. Blogcast this weekend probably. We called the girls hockey team in Meyrin and it turned out they practiced before the CERN team does. So we'll check that out tonight. They're sort of serious-ish, though. 

I got an awesome letter from a friend yesterday. She said people had like... actually... mentioned me I dunno. It was cool. I love letters. " *nudge nudge say no more* " ex dee

There's not enough of something. Too much of something? Not a balance? Not something at all? What the heck. But can I even complain? Does it make sense? It's just, see, this combination isn't working pour moi. I've decided (again) that I want to make a music video/slideshow. I've decided (again) that I prefer the old way, can live with the new way to a certain degree, but sense that I'm getting sick of it. Just... just... but I guess I'm not done, am I? 

What what what what. What? WHAT? 

(P.S.

This is (marching) college life for ya. Shame on them.)

blue ink #9

The walls are painted in thirds, pink on the bottom, grey with random painted pictures of people in the middle and yellow on the top. You can play pool in here, as some people are doing. And play connect 4 and just talk. I'm writing, as you can see. The French teacher wasn't here so I have 4 hours of etude.. AGAIN. But that's not bad. 2 tests tomorrow. I studied some. I can also read and write. A kid (the jerk in my musique class who was also flicking paper wads in etude) just came over and randomely looked at what I was doing. Then left.

Some people are listening to their iPods. Joey, I notice, has a green one too. The pictures of people painted on the wall include the head of the Statue of Liberty, Marylin Monroe, Jimi Hendrix?, a car, a butterfly, a cat, a futbol player, snowboarder/skateboarder and a few more.

It's foggy today. I love it when it's like that-rainy, wet, dark, gloomy, depressing, bleak, grey, foggy. It's so awesome!!

Ooh, there are also comic books and you can play cards. I'm sitting by myself here. It's the second hour of etude. And there's a French movie poster. The movie is called Russian Dolls I think.

This year I have to basically just "pick my battles". I am not going to pass every class (and that's ok) and have too much work to do. Thank God I have trumpet. It's a great stress reliever. I try to practice it everyday after school, even with the amount of HW I have. It's awesome.

11 months of school. Only 10 now. And with breaks, that's 63 days off, so really only 8 months. AND Wednesdays are half days, so 31 half days are only 15 in a half days. So that's like 7 in a half months. I think I can make it. Each time I walk home from school= one less day. Just one day at a time.

I'm going to read. The pool game seems to be creating lots of excitement.

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

I could've gone home for those 4 hours of etude. Ugh. But I'll do that next time. In the first FLE class, we got a sort of moral lesson, which reminded me of Ms. Smith's band lessons. I was tested on yesterday's lesson, at which I stank. But he gave me an 18, which I so didn't deserve. Then he started to talk about how FLE is pretty much first priority, and the other stuff doesn't matter until we learn French and stuff. And how we have to learn the lesson. Monsieur Besson (FLE teacher) is pretty cool and relaxing, until you start fiddeling. Quinn was playing around with his watch, so M. Besson like spazzed. As in, he yelled at him. After M. Besson does that kind of stuff it's always extremely quiet. Quinn at first just said, "Pardon" in a surprised/it's not my fault sort of tone. Then he yelled again, and Quinn actually talked back to him, saying "Geez!" I thought that was a really baaaaad idea but Monsieur Besson didn't take out his battle axe, thank goodness. I think he's just under a lot of stress or something.

I keep thinking about going home. And then it occured to me that I guess I did really miss home. No time to throw the football hardly. I don't hear the crowd every Saturday. I can't walk a few blocks to Sweetwaters, or pointlessly walk around downtown with Becca, Athony, Nick and Sam till we decide that was extremely pointless so we eat at my house. But I haven't gotten to the point of like... actually throwing rocks places. I can live/deal with it. But it's hardly living. Just one year, man. Then everything's going to be awesome. Ok.

blue ink #8

Well this is different. I'm in sciences physiques (chemistry) and the other students are taking a test. The teacher said I didn't have to take the test because I don't speak French. That is both bad and good. I didn't learn the material really BUT that doesn't mean I can't. I'll study/learn with my dad at home and he can test me on it or something. And I mean, it's just less stress for me not to take it.

I have an hour. I could study. I could read. I could write. Dang, someone wanted to ask a question just now but the teacher just shook her head. Hmm.

My mom says that me and Zach are doing something that's as hard as college. I doubt that. It is quite hard, but manageable I 'spose. Somewhat. I just wish there was more of a school/free time balance. Because getting home at 5:45 just doesn't work for me. Slauson started. It's 2:45 (8:45). Mondays aren't actually that bad. In FLE, the teacher was surprised and a biggish deal about my birthday. He also asked "what kind of creature is it?" after studying my Strong Bad hoodie. Now he knows it's Strong Bad, a chatacter from a website. It didn't seem like anyone had heard of him in the class.

You know, it always smells like glue in here. Tables have cold white tiles and sinks.

Ugh we have HW. Lots of it- the teacher just wrote it on the board. 4 problems. Oh and CRAP. I am behind in algebra. I am so screwed. My friends can do these really complicated equations but I can't. I doubt I will pass the Algebra 1 test. That sucks.

I'm going to read now. I started a new book- The Tiger in the Well by Phillip Pullman. It's quite thick and pretty good. That Phil is quite a good author.

I'm rather self-conscious, you see. I'm the only one not taking the test and the teacher (who seems to have taken a slight dislike for me) stares at me form time to time. Sigh.

I talked to my mom about going home plans at lunch. School ends on July 4th. Can you believe that?? Almost a full calendar year of school! At least we sort of get more breaks than in A2. We'll leave after school ends, which means we're actually staying about 366 days. Ugh. And then we might go to Uncle Carl's wedding. Well, we will go but it might be like right after school gets out. Which would mean I see my family before friends. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Don't get me wrong- family is very awesome, but after spending a year in a foreign country then more plane rides to a different state, into a formal situation... well, you can see what I'm getting at probably. But anyway. First thing when I get back- sleep if it's late I guess, but first I will call my friends. And I want to see them. See, I get so happy thinking about all this. Can't can't can't wait! I think I can do it. Hehehe. Hahaha. Ok I'm done. And then let's see... I'll have about 2 months till high school starts, which means 2 months of parties and hanging out with friends. As I said, it's so pleasant to think about.

Right! (That's what my English teacher says all the time.) On to reading.

Ock-toe-burr

You always know it's October when that familiar whiff of Winter-for-boding wavers around your partially-snotted nose, the crisp air, like crunching an October apple, finding it's way through your late-summer "coat". We're always lulled into this false sense of security that we can wear shorts in September, and then boom - we need those L.L. Bean washed-denim jackets. Halloween. As you walk to your car (or bike or just legs), your jeans suddenly become melting ice against your exercised legs and you can see your breath in the blue, cool air. Pockets come in handy at these times, but you're also throwing the old pigskin around so your hands can't waver there for long. College hoodies are in, and you're pretty well-adjusted to school by now. Your family sits around the TV set every Saturday and groans from noon to dinner; Michigan fumbled again. But there's a certain homeliness, familiarity. Loads of teeth-rotting, artificial flavors/colors wrapped in too much plastic, cheap and creative costumes, pumpkin pie, candles, cider and the turkey population to take a huge plummet are all on their way. This is when you smell the dirt from under your Michigan sweatshirt as you're friends pull you and that rough brown ball to the ground. Grass stains and Hail Marry's are in fashion.

I was going to take a walk today but got sort of... freaked when I saw that the apartment door had huge cracks in it, probably someone throwing a rock at it or something. I took a nap because I was really tired. Then got on the computer and chatted. I did some HW, but got bored. I didn't practice my trumpet, which was bad.

See, weekends are like the only real days of the week. The only real days when I feel like myself and can actually live. I can talk to my friends and follow American sports, which leads to perspective booms. I don't like going out of those perspective booms. I don't want to go back to school. I don't feel like speaking French. I don't feel like being clueless and helpless in a stupid system. I don't feel like Europe. Ann Arbor was just fine, it was. I just... don't.

I just went outside to play catch with the football with my dad, even though it was like pitch black. It was awesome though. I had lots of energy I needed to get out, so my throws were pretty good. It felt great to play catch. I should do that more often. See, that's another thing- I have no time for myself or free time on the weekdays. Except for Wednesdays, but that's to catch up on HW. It's just so inconvenient and controlling. It's like I never get a breath of fresh air. For a whole year. Well actually there's breaks. Thank goodness! But Zach doesn't want to go to London so I'll probably just hear him complaining the whole time. But at least it's a break.

Tomorrow when I wake up, I'll be out of the perspective boom and into Europe again. Sigh. At least it's only a year. Already a fraction of the way done. And I guess it could be worse, like my grades could really
matter. And I do sort of just have fun with it. But then again, you can only really have fun to a certain extent. But yeah.

Michigan lost. Not a surprise. I didn't watch it, but paid attention to the score. At least I'm an Illini fan too. I need a new hat.

Have fun with October. I'll try too. Wish me luck. And Go Blue.

Beans or no beans?

I went to Fat Friday tonight. It was... wow. Different than I thought. And the school day was also sort of weird. I got called to the other counselor/office person. I thought I might've been in trouble, but I just had to clarify my schedule and stuff. Fridays are pretty easy days, pretty much the only easy day. I also had to "waste" an hour of my formerly 3-hour lunch to do this weird voting for a "delegate" class. It's pronounced differently in French. Basically, it's like the student/teacher helped I guess. Like they ask for help or something. An supposedly it's a pretty big honor or something.

I practiced my trumpet on my lunch break, which is awesome. I was surprised how fun that was. It's like my only outlet from all this crap save for blogging. I just let stuff out, and it feels really nice to play. Of course, it also causes a negative reaction, because whenever I remember that I'm missing 8th grade band, missing jazz band, missing Slauson, etc, I want to throw a rock or something. I just want to like chuck a rock at the wall. But I just glare out into the air and kick a rock or something extra hard.

I've been thinking, you know, about my blogcast. I'll try to do it this weekend. Even with the outrageous amount of homework I have. I think I'll like play a piece or something on my trumpet. That'd be cool.

Fat Friday. Sat Hiday. Frap Fidap. It's at this church (Crossroads Church) that's just a short walk from our house. Started at 6. We got there right around there. It's behind this parking lot and near a car wash. When we got there, there were some guys (looked a little younger than me) playing soccer (football). My mom just had to walk right through the game. Well, there wasn't really any where else to walk through, considering they were just playing in the middle of one parking lot. But it was ok. Went through glass doors and I heard this techno music in the background. Toilet paper strips hung from the balcony up ahead. There was a big room with a bunch of chairs directly in front and some kids inside.

Two ladies (around age 17 or something) welcomed us at this welcome desk thing. My mom filled out some forms. The ladies were Amy and someone else I forgot. British accents. Seemed pretty cool. Then we had a long conversation with the main guy's son, Dustin. He had this green shirt on that said "Go State" with a ram in the O. I found out he was from Illinois and was at the same school I'm going to for a few years. He seemed pretty cool. Short brown hair combed in a sort of mohawk. Not too tall.

The main guy was named Larry. He had a voice that I thought I recognized, then I recognized it sounded sort of like Alex Johnson's voice. Larry is an Illinois fan. So we had another longish conversation with him too. At the end he asked Zach if he could compliment him. Zach said yeah and Larry commented on Zach's wonderful side-burns. I rolled my eyes inwardly. As if I had eyes in my... stomach? I dunno. Anyway. Then my mom left. Then Larry introduced us to lots of kids. He mostly introduced Zach, and seemed to almost forget me. I dunno. I met his other son who was in my Spanish class. I thought I recognized him. And a bunch of other guys. Most of them more in the high school age.

Then I went outside. They were showing some Wallace and Grommit-like video (it was that one about like flushing the toilet) and some people were watching. Outside, thin shiny lines of water painted the view but the sun was out, so it looked sort of odd.

After waiting around for a short while, they called everyone inside. So I sat down in the big room with green chairs. Then they (as in Dustin and Larry) said we had to eat. Larry came up to me and Zach and asked us to serve food, so we did. He had made chili. 3 bowls of macaroni, 2 bowls of green beans and two bowls of the chili. Larry asked us twice if we really wanted to do the serving. He said we could say no. I was, well, sort of not wanting to do it, but decided to over rule his polite gestures with my politeness. Which means that I was doing it to be polite.

It wasn't that bad. I was scooping the green beans, Zach the pasta and these two guys with the chili. Not many people wanted the green beans so that was ok. The guys next to me serving chili had this one accent (English I think) that made them sound like Marry/Pippin. One of them had chili with beans, and the other chili without beans. So they had this like... friendly competition sort of about how many people would choose beans or no beans. Beans was pretty much the majority. It was pretty funny how they were "fighting".

Someone yelled at my name with enthusiasm from the food line and I saw Jess enthusiastically waving at me. I smiled back and waved. Cool. Jess was here.

Larry luckily saved from food out for me. I was pretty hungry. There wasn't really any places to sit but Dustin let me sit with him and these other younger guys. They separated the kids into "Low Fat" which was 10-14 and "High Fat" which was 14 and up. I was in Low Fat obviously.

Sitting with "Dustin and these other younger guys" proved to be quite interesting. Three of the boys were having some discussion about how if some guy named James said "James likes his names" it would be funny. Then they somehow got to the subject of the name "Edward" and I guess one of the guys was named Edward there, who said he was the most awesome person at the table. Then Dustin was like, "What's that, Edward?" in a joking yet still remaining serious way. So then eventually they got into a "fight". Dustin got up and grabbed Edward from the table (in a non-violent way) and they got all tied up together on the floor and all that. I was just sitting there, trying to eat my chili. The other kids had started a "Fight! Fight!" chant and Zach even came down from the "High Fat" area to check out what was happening. Then it ended and I had cleaned my plate.

We went back into the big room and Larry gave some speech about his fishes. I sat next to this one girl who was in my sciences physiques class who seemed nice and Jess and her friend Sarah were next to me. He said he had these 2 fishes when he was a kid with his brother, then they got to flush 'em down the toilet. Larry's brother got to do it first, and the fish swam in circles in the toilet bowl first. Then when it was Larry's turn to flush the other fish, the fish just swam down the hole. So Larry said the morale or whatever was like which fish you are when it comes to be guilty. For example, when you feel guilty, do you just swim and circles and sort of avoid the problem (1st fish) or take matters into your own hands (2nd fish). So then we split into two groups (boys and girls) to discusss that.

It was ok I guess. It had been a while since I was in one of those church groups or whatever. Since I was new I introduced myself and stuff. Then they started the discussion. I didn't really talk much. They talked about how we should "talk to God" and all that. Hmm. Well. If I get started on that whole Religion/God thing, this post will get even longer. So nevermind. It was somewhat interesting. Then we shared like funny/interesting toilet stories. Emma (or maybe it was Amy- one of the receptionist girl people) told us about these bathrooms in London that have a mirror on both sides, but the people outside can't see you. Interesting.

After returning to the main room (which they called the "Sanctuary"), we played some toilet paper games. The first one was where we put some toilet paper hanging out our trousers and we had to play tag where we grabbed the paper out of each other's trousers. It was boys vs. girls too. I got out within seconds when some girl got me out. I looked back and heard her mutter a "oh... sorry...." when she realized I was a girl. I sighed and sat down. Whatever.

Remember when I mentioned Jess was there? Yeah well that seemed all so great. But she mostly just hung out with Sarah and I felt neglected. Sarah's in my class. She's ok I guess. Luckily that other girl in my SP class (forgot her name) was nice to me. We played this other game where you run up and try to eat these floating brown marshmallow bear things in this bucket of water. Quite unappetizing. I didn't go. It was... weird sort of.

Another game we played was with this sheet of like... cloth put on a low table with nutella smeared over it and Mars bar chunks spread over it. The object was to put as much Mars bar pieces in your mouth without chewing onto this plate. I actually went. Dustin explained the game and looked at me speculatively when it was someone's turn. At first I didn't really want to go but then I decided to go for the tie-breaker game. And some other guy also went on my team. We won. It was... somewhat fun. Tasted like chocolate. I only got 2 pieces in my mouth. Chocolate all over my face.

Then this other toilet paper game where we tried to get as much toilet paper onto the other guy's side. It was...eh. Again Jess "avoided me". I felt ditched. That sucked. I mean, what the f? Was I not important enough compared to those other kids?

I went home at 9 after helping to bury these two guys in toilet paper. It was yet another game. I sort of had fun. Zach had left already. I shook Larry's hand and he asked what I was going to do over the weekend. "Watch the game, I guess," and he said he'd check the score on the Internet and if Illinois won, he wouldn't let me forget it. I said bye and thanks and yeah.

Jess, Sarah and a few other kids were hanging out outside. Jess hardly noticed when I left. She said bye sort of though. It was dark outside. Somewhat cold. But calm. After walking a few feet, Sarah said my name, and I turned around. Then she put her hand over her mouth and said, "Wait, that's your name, right?" I said yeah, completely... irked. "Wait, where are you going?" she seemed surprised. "I'm walking home. I live really close," She said oh ok and I turned back around.

Juno was mad, he thought he'd been had so he shot at the sun with a gun
shot at the sun with a gun
shot at this wily one only friend...

I sang songs as I walked in the dark. It was cool and helped me not feel as... "scared". I wasn't really scared, but it helped me not feel so alone. I was irked. That was weird. But hey, it's Friday. It was quite dark too. When I got home we watched Dan in Real Life. I remembered The Ann Arbor News didn't really like it. I mean, it was... somewhat ok, funny, but was lacking something. Steve Carrell was awesome. It actually made me rather sad. The family seemed really awesome. Like, very... very family-like. Very family-like.

I'll go to Fat Friday again, sure. I'm tired. Got tests next week. Lots of stress. Haven't talked to my friends in a while really. Game on tomorrow. Sigh...... I need.... something else. Blogcast. That'll be fun. Go Blue!

The Blog Post That's About as Important as a Slice of Eggplant to the Newspaper Soduku

Sigh. No. Ugh. Stop. Well, let's put it this way: living here is hard. Living in the world is hard. Living as a teenager is hard. Living HERE as a teenager is hard. As you guys have probably gathered from the majority of my other posts. But you see, today I sort of lost it. Maybe. "Lost it" means, in this case, got... unhappy... and... annoyed? I think I'm just a little stressed. Really stressed. Too stressed. For one thing, I've got school. School is so bad I almost don't want to even go home because I know I have to just do more work. For two things, we've got this whole "world/Earth/human/life" thing. As in:

The U.S. sucking beyond dirt.
The world sucking beyond dirt and rotten red bell-peppers.

As in:

The never-ending issues of world hunger, inequality, unfairness, wealth/poor/money in general, etc. etc. And then NOW we have that whole "second depression" thing goin' on. I mean, you gotta hand it to these people (as in us), I thought global warming was bad enough and enough to make me stressed/ughed beyond happiness, but no, we have to continue to act like stupid idiots, continue to not think about what we are doing, continue to act like humans. This is not ok. Will it go ok? You tell me. Did the Holocaust go ok? Optimism comes in handy in these hard times. Does it actually always "go ok"?

This is beyond unfairness. I'm not even going to call it "unfair". Sure, the economy hasn't killed us all yet, but after I sat down and thinked about it, I was ready to quit. I suddenly was so sick of living in France, so sick of George Bush, so sick of people not caring, not doing, not even acting like frickin' HUMANS. No, this blog post isn't going to solve the problem. In fact, this blog post has about a 0.000000000000000000000000000000000000001% affect on the world. Actually, way way way less. But at least, AT LEAST I'm acknowledging the problems, analyzing them (to a certain degree) and admitting that I am part of the problem, and am willing (I WILL) try to/help solve it all.

But is that even possible? Maybe 2,008 years was enough. Maybe we're supposed to just die now. Maybe it all ends. And then another thing happens and "humans" grow 11 fingers. The problem is us, we made the problem, we are the problem, but we are the solution.

You know what is just downright sick? Inhumane? Well I could name a few things. But the most recent, if you will, is the election. Yeah yeah yeah you guys know the drill. McCain, Obama... yeah yeah. But this seriously is like teh biggest (most important) election ever. You guys have probably heard that too a thousand times. But as I was saying, the thing that is just downright sick is that, somehow, I really do not know how, but apparently around 50% of the US population somehow does not see the evil in Bush. Hey, if you're an elephant (republican) will you kindly stop reading? Because you getting mad at me or whatever is not... just don't. Just leave. I'm not necessarily "insulting" YOU, but your thoughts and whatever.

As I was saying, I just do nut understand how people can see any "good" in Palin. She is... ok I don't want this to be one of those political blogs or whatever. You guys get enough, and more than enough, from the media. But what I was saying was that you guys (as in all of us) need to like OPEN OUR FRICKIN' EYES and THINK ABOUT WHAT WE SEE AND DON'T SEE. Because this is a mess. This is the result of modern humans getting too "smart" and lazy and just evolving, or actually lack. This is sick. This is gross. This is wrong. This is the world. This is October 2008.

Yeah I'm 13. I don't understand how the election fully works, I don't really get economics, I don't know how the world goes 'round fully and I don't know trigomonetry. But I'm a citizen of the world just like you, I'm a human just like you. I like chocolate cake and looking at the clouds. I listen and follow most of my parent's opinions and want to understand everything, just like pretty much every other human. I don't get much, but what I do get is that people have problems. Humans can be seriously.... wrong. Those rich people out there that are ruining everything; I doubt that's who they really are. But you never know, 'cause we're all different all the time. Like I said, this blog post doesn't even matter. There's no point really, 'cause everything is so unbalanced. Some people have so much power, and are always yelling out to make themselves heard even though it's wrong sometimes. After they're heard and are big, they want to get bigger. They get corrupted, too big and too loud that they can never hear the little tiny voice that says the truth.

But maybe, just maybe, if some guy named Obama gets elected and people start acting like humans, screw greed and money, think about everything, and don't jump in the stupid can, the Earth will feel like smiling back.

P.S. I haven't started blogcasting yet, but I'll really try this week. I'm super super busy with school, so it sucks. As I said, I think I'm already sick of this.

blue ink #7

Sigh. Well, actually it's not that bad. I'm in etude again for four hours because the gym ("sport") teacher wasn't here again. This is liek the 3rd straight week. But I mean, its four hours to read, write and do HW and that doesn't hurt. It even helps. SO yeah. I think I heard somewhere that fountain pens are easier to write with, but this one is like stiff. I don't plan to write a ton like last time because sore hands smart.

I'm excited to see Wicked. That will be so cool it will like... hurt. (That's one of my expressions that doesn't really make sense.) But yeah. And Abbey Road will be interesting. (Wow- walking across a street- so intriguing! I know) I sure hope there aren't loads of tourists or people when we're there because I don't really want to walk across with them. So selfish, I know.

Dude I need a haircut. It's like seriously long. The bangs are almost down to the tip of my nose. This is the longest my hair has been like ever I think. I'll get a haircut on Wednesday I think. It might turn out to be a disaster though if the hairdresser doesn't know English and isn't nice.

8:17. My friends in Ann Arbor are still sleeping. Another 6 hours till they start school. Wish I was still a golden bear... my new school has no mascot. No school colors. No sports really except there are like clubs or something.

I mean, I guess this isn't so bad- living here. But like I said, I'll just get sick of it. I cannot wait to come back- to see my friends again. Oh, and you guys remember when Erez and Oren told me I was going to really really miss my friends and all that? Yeah well so far it hasn't been bad like at all. I mean, I miss you guys a lot, sure, but it's not as if I can't... live with it, you know? I can deal. I think. I don't think it'll get as bad as they say. I mean, it's been almost 3 months and I've survived.

So anyway. I'ma going to read for a little.

Wait. Before I forget, Simon come up and talked to me for a little bit this morning. So amazing, I know. I was just writing down the HW I still had in my planner when this tall figure loomed over and said, "sup" I said sup back and he said he liked my Strong Bad hoodie. I said thanks and stood up. He moved his headphones away from his ears and asked what class I had. I told him gym and he said, "Ooohhh sucks for you" in a nice way. As in, not meanly. I was just like yeah and he said he had to go. The reason I found that so.. unusual is because I'm an 8th grader and he's a senior. So, it seems like that'd be a little... weird/uncool for him for do that. But then again, we're both new people in this foreign country and foreign school and we don't know many people. So anyway. Back to reading.

Yeah I'm back. It's 10:10. I'll study a little FLE then read. It's not a bad book.