An Ode to the Brain. Or, (a little bit of) My Take on Human Nature

The year is 2008, and the human race is gotten quite far. We've gone from rocks and sticks to fire to electricity to electronics to laptops to iPods to etc. It's almost scary if you think about all the stuff we use. All the energy we waste, all of the money and time we spend, all of the things that die, all of the small things that can do big things. I mean, geez- we're nearing 7 billion (around 6.8 billion) people and stuff is starting to run out. We've got tons and tons of problems - global warming, world hunger, poverty and just general human nature. We all make choices constantly, we all do something big and something small. We just keep making stuff, stuff and more stuff. And we keep destroying stuff, stuff and more stuff. There's wanting and needing. But in this age, wanting is often the new need. We've done some great stuff, the human race has, but we still have that one thing that gets in the way, and yet is the only thing making us keep going: human nature. I'm getting ahead of myself. The whole point I was wanting to make with this post was that I have lots of stuff going on, and almost all happening inside a screen the size of maybe a small pillow. I've got an iPod, I have a blog, I have a facebook (woot!), I have a FanFiction.net account, and I used to play Runescape. Only stuff I don't have really is a laptop and a cellphone. Sure, I'm sure there are plenty of you guys with twice the stuff I have. I'm just saying. There's a lot going on. On top of that, I'm in a different country with a new language, I play trumpet and guitar and hockey. Lots of stuff for my brain to understand. I guess it sort of all goes back to the brain, doesn't it? Because that's what determines your mood, your thoughts, your life, your human nature. So all hail brains. Cool stuff.

Health Risks associated with Eating a Baguette

Today is a rainy day. It is raining as I write this. I went out running with Melvin earlier today. It was fun. Wet. Painful at parts. I also mailed off two letters that were supposed to be mailed off like 5 days ago...oh well. And we went to our neighborhood boulangerie/patisserie and got croissants and 2 baguettes. Lemme tell ya, there are very few things more blissful than eating a hot, fresh croissant... with Nutella. Aah.... the butteriness... the chocolate... the warmth...*drools. 

As for the baguette, I was told that my brother, Zach, got injured from eating a piece of baguette. He claims that a sharp, brittle part cut his cheek or something. So, watch out. 

I also have some advice for you guys. You might already have thought of this. But it's always worth doing. Well, I dunno if it's really advice. But it's one of my favorite things to do ever. When it rains, or even when it doesn't, just sit/stand/go outside with your iPod or whatever and just... listen and stuff. It's just so awesome to take the time to listen to good music, while admiring one of my favorite weather scenes. And just in general, taking the time to just stop and think about whatever. It's not worth it to run to catch your bus, or always doing work or always rush everything. Who knows, maybe this really is it. But often I like to think there is something else. It's you. 

You know, sometime we should all have a "baguette party". Like, you guys back home can get a Zingerman's baguette, I'll get one over here, and we eat some at the same time. That'd be cool.

How I wish, how I wish you were here.

We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year.

Running over the same old ground, what have we found?

The same old fears, wish you were here.

Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd (absolutely genius song)

One Last Time

So, today was the final goodbye to the Levins. Well, okay, we might still get to see them like next week for like 4 hours. But yeah. So I woke up at 11:11 (on the 11th of August, mind you) today, which was extremely late for me. I had breakfast and we drove to CERN to have lunch/hang out with the Levins. I had some french fries. The ketchup really tasted like ketchup. Me, Erez and Oren also had ice cream (Magnum Temptations) which were really really good. After we all ate, we went outside and took some movies and stuff. We did a weather one and stuff. It was fun. Today was dark and rainy. Bleak. Depressing. Just like I like 'em. Then we played a little bit on the CERN LHC magnet model outside. It was like a big blue cylinder. That was fun. Then, they had to go. I half-hugged Dan and Aviva (not at the same time), high-fived Oren, and did a high-27 with Erez. Then they walked away and that might've been the last I saw of my best friends for 11 months. Sucks.

Then, to add to this depressing day, we had to buy school supplies. Lemme tell you, the school system here is really messed up, at least in terms of supplies and as far as I can tell. My mom got this list of stuff to get from this other family. They said each class uses like a different size of paper. What's with that? We got binders, folders, pens and pencils. And glue sticks and tape. The binders here are either 4- or 2- ring. And the 2-ring ones have this cool closey-lever-thing. We weren't even really sure of what to get though, because stuff was complicated. And I also think I have to take gym. I told my mom, "You know, we've been here a month, I had a good experience, how about we just go back now? I mean, a month is good," I also suggested that I could be a foreign exchange student at Slauson. I really want to go back to Slauson. I liked that school. Well, at least part of 7th grade. Slauson was hard enough. And that was in English. Why must I go to some stupid school that uses different paper and whatever? Geez. I hate school shopping. I hate shopping in general. I hate malls. The one good thing about not going to Slauson next year is that I don't have to take the MEAPs. I don't make a big deal out of them normally, but still, tests in general are a whole bunch of not-fun. 'Course, I have to start my French-school experience with a test. First day. Bring a pen. Math and English test. But I'm not really that worried. I mean, it's just to place me somewhere. And hopefully the math will be in English. Doubt it. But I do have to write an essay I think. I just hate, HATE having to write essays in general, but then when you have to do it on demand? And like, in a span of a few hours. Ugh.

So anyway. Then I got home and got on the good ol' computer. Re-synched Melvin. Added blog posts. I need to get iTunes gift cards to buy songs/albums, because the stupid iTunes store doesn't like the credit card being in France. UGH. So yeah. I'll add them pictures soon. I'll try.

And of course, this post will get like, what? 0 comments? Whatever.

"Ooh!"s, "Aah!"s and teenage groans

Last night we drove to Geneva, parked our car and walked the rest of the way. It was a cool evening and we were going to watch fireworks explode in the night sky to celebrate the Fete de Geneve. There were tons of people flooding in, and almost all of the good spots were taken. When we first got to the edge of the lake, we saw the perfect lighting on Mont Blanc. It literally made me and my dad say "woah!" The mountain was radiating a reddish/yellowish color, which made it look...well, awesome. We sat down on the rock ledge along with several other people. We waiting for like...an hour. I just stared at the water, coming up to froth against the rock slant.

Woosh...waaa...wa wa woooooosh...

I took some pictures. Add 'em later, of course. There were lots of boats in the lake, and tons and tons of people. I could see some amusement rides in downtown Geneva across the lakeshore. Ugh. Almost made me sick looking at it. Back an forth...anyway. I looked through the binoculars at Mont Blanc and stuff, which was cool. Zach was really bored. Complaining as usual. My mom was having a "conversation" (argument) with him about how he was like never satisfied with whatever we did. I didn't mind this hardly at all. I can stare at stuff for a long time. I just kept staring at that water, the boats, humming a song. I talked to my dad a little bit. Took pictures. It gradually got darker. The boats were drifting toward the shore, the rock ledge we were sitting on now had people all the way down, and the lights across the lake suddenly became more alive. Finally, at ten, a loud boom echoed throughout. And with it, an array of bright colors in the sky. Several other people around us muttered "ooh!"s and "aah!"s and clapped. I smiled. Across the lake, there was a whole string on dots (lights) that stared at you through the darkness. It was a cool effect. But then we waited. No fireworks for like 10 minutes. Then-

boosh! boom ba ba bing! (Ooh!) booom! baaah bum! crack bum! (Aaah!)

* Red blue green white yellow circles banging mutterings gibberish smile glittering boom *

The cracks exploded so loud, I could feel it in my ribcage. It was like the colors were cracking open the sky, lighting up a whole new world in the sky that we had never knew of. I was lost in thought, I wasn't even sure I was thinking. The fireworks kept exploding, people kept talking, and I kept taking pictures. There were some very interesting displays. Rings, lines, droppings, etc. We could also see (what we thought was) Jupiter, and I stared at that for a while. It was cool to see through the binoculars. After a while the fireworks sort of faltered and we got up to leave because 3/4 of us were complaining. So we walked through Geneva, with the explosions behind us, like hippy drumsticks hitting the sky. We walked past the fountains that were across the U.N. and the lights under each fountain an interesting glow. The street lights were also like, spazzing-blinking yellow or red all at the same time. There weren't many cars anyway. We walked back to our car, with vivid colors appearing in the sky, hearing booming bumps, smelling the crisp and warm night air and seeing black with little lights darting here and there.

I was so tired when I got home and almost immediately went to asleep.

The next day, my loving father (quote Jenners) came in to my room and (attempted to) get me out of bed at 9am. Eventually I did, after about 20 minutes. I groggily took out my retainer and had breakfast. We were going a hike that day. What fun. We got in our car, and I had brought along Melvin (new iPod) for the hour-long car ride. That was going to be like my favorite part. I had subscribed to Guy In A Tie/Slauson podcast, so I listened to that. It was okay.

The town we were hiking in, Chamonix (pronounced "Sham-on-ee) had like a billion people. Parking was hard. We were going to go up the cable car like half way then do a hike to this lake. The line for the cable car was like... New York City style. We waited for like 30 minutes. And everyone except for my dad was complaining. There were babies crying, people cutting us, kids staring at me (WILL THEY JUST STOP THAT?!?!?!) and a slow line. Ugh. I just wanted to not do this. We had an amazing view of Mont Blanc, though. Snowy, tall and brown. Eventually we got to the cable car. I thought it'd be really really packed, but I had a window place so I wasn't squished. It felt like a roller coaster sort of because you would drop down, and have your stomach like barf in itself. Well, fine, have your stomach move.

We eventually got to the end of the cable car line, and got out just like a whole lot of other people. Everywhere you looked, there was a line of people looking like ants on the trail. Ugh. But I had stopped complaining. Zach, on the other hand, was liking this about as much as Little Timmy if he had all of his shiny red tricycles suddenly gauge out his eyes and trample him. Which means, not at all pretty much.

We walked and walked. It wasn't really that bad, 'cept for the whole "sharing the experience with several other humans" factor. The trail wasn't that steep and we got to do some climbing of the rock sort alittle bit. And then if you just looked behind you, or to the side, a hunking-big piece of rock and white hit your vision. Man, that view was just... holy crap. Crap in the good sense, that is. (What?) So yeah. We had lunch at around 2:30 in this little grassy spot away from all the people and the trail. We could still see people (lots of them) but we couldn't really hear them all that much. Lunch consisted of bread, cheese, sausage and chocolate. And water. One of the chocolates was left in the sun and therefore, like, died. There was all this chocolate juice inside the wrapper. Ergh.

We saw some mountain goats, took some pictures. There was much debate about whether or not to go all of the way up to the lake as originally planned, because the last cable car was going at 5:50 and it was already like 3. And it would take us like 2 hours to get down. And there was the population of...some big city walking around on this mountain. In the end, Zach went down by himself after lunch while I went ahead of my parents. I was so frustrated. I thought the lake was really close, but no, I had to keep walking up some stupid mountain stupidly on a stupid trail for many many stupid minutes with no stupid water. At first I thought it was around that corner, but then it wasn't. Then- was it over that hill? Had I finally reached the stupid lake? No. What was that lake's problem? Why can't it just not be stupid? Stupid stupid. Eventually I did reach it, after about 40 minutes. It was cool I guess. I waited for my parents and when they came, I put my hands in it and washed my face. It was cold, man. Like, cold. Glacier water. It was also an abnormal blue-green color. Kinda cool. So then we looked at the cabin-like place that was there and stuff. Then I walked down, along with a whole other bunch of people, quickly. I was way ahead of my parents after a while. It was sort of...fun in a way. But hearing young British kids complain and sing the "uh-way-oh! uh-way-oh!" song for 2 hours kinda got old. But after an hour and a half or so, I could see the cable car thing. I turned the corner on the trail, gripping the gravel. And immediately stopped dead.

"Holy shizzzzz," I muttered under my breath. "SHIZ-napppppp," I stared at the cable car area. Holy crap. There was this huge, huge line of people coming out of the building. HUGE throng. Like, this was not even funny. Maybe 10 people wide, and like, I dunno how many people in length. I stood there for a few minutes, and took a picture. Crap. Crap. I thought. And there were still MANY other people coming down the trail. Dang. I continued down the trail, very close now. There was this hill and I ran up part of it. I was tired. But still could keep going at a good pace. I got to the line, looking down at the trail to try to find my parents. No sign of 'em. I then looked up and down the line for Zach. Didn't see him. So I just waited for a little. My parents came up after a few minutes and we got in line. My dad looked for Zach but figured he went down the cable car. So we waited in the line.

This was really freaky, because we would look back and see like double of the original line behind us. It just kept growing. Every 10 minutes or so we would move up a few feet. It wasn't all that bad, really. I talked with my parents and looked through the binoculars. Cool. But, of course, I can't go anywhere really without some random kid staring at me for a rather long period of time. There was this little French/Swiss girl ahead of us with her family that just kept, just KEPT looking back at me. I would glance at her every once a while just to see if she stopped. But no, I obviously looked....I dunno, weird/interesting to her, so she kept looking at me. GOD. People tell you not to do that for a reason. That's at least one polite rule I whole-heartedly support. People, I don't care if the person is... interesting to look at, just frickin' look away. All these kids staring at me are making me want to like, grab their heads and point them ahead. Or just yell out, "Okay, how about you STOP STARING NOW??!" Geez. It's just so dang annoying.

So anyway. We waited in line for about 40 minutes. I didn't think we'd get on the cable car, but we did. I got another window area and enjoyed the ride down. When the cable car dropped down and we felt the "Stomach Sensation", you would hear the people mutter "woahs" or whatever. I looked up at my dad and laughed at this.

Zach had been waiting for about 2 hours or so. Even if you don't know Zach, you can guess that that means he was not happy. I got ice cream at this place and we finally went home. And then something happened that made me want to kill Apple.

I listening to the other podcasts, but then wanted to hear some of my music. I clicked on a song, but the thing just went back to the menu. I kept trying, but it just would not let me play a song.
Turns out, when I charged Melvin, we accidentally deleted all of my songs. GOD. I just cannot have a normal, functioning iPod, can I? Luckily we can just re-synch it. But still. GEEZ.

I was really tired when I got home. People were on chat so I chatted. I'll add the pictures later.

Oh, and I did re-synch the songs. So far Melvin is doing ok.

Another Goodbye

I biked over to the Levin's apartment again (by myself) and we filmed another AntipastaP movie today, but still need to edit it. So far we have like 5 almost-done videos that will (hopefully) added to YouTube soon. It was really fun. We were next to this corn/sunflower field that was next to a road. It was cool, because my parents and Zach were driving to this cool town and they were on the road next to us and stopped. So then we convinced Zach to join us, and he's in the video. I won't tell you any more about the video, but you can see it for yourself when it's on YouTube! Can't wait. That might've been the last time I see Erez and Oren (and Dan and Aviva) for another 11 months. Sucks. We spent the day making movies and watching them-both activities making us laugh a lot. I remember the last fifteen minutes or so I had with Erez and Oren. Oren would keep saying, "Ah, but Amelia-this is the last time I'll see you for 11 months in 15 minutes!" And I'd just go, "Yeah, I know." I went up to Erez while he was sitting on the couch and said, "So I guess I'll see you in 11 months," he got up and said, "Yeah" and we high-fived. I remember saying bye to my friends back home. I remember July 1st, when Becca and Anthony were still on my porch. Becca swept the porch, and then left. I said a casual good-bye to them because I was so sure I would see them tomorrow. But I didn't Which really sucked. Ugh. That seems like so far away. I was at my house then! I was in America! No smart cars! Sigh. It was almost worse seeing Erez and Oren again over here, because then you have to say bye and don't want them to leave. Just like Becca had said. I told her I wanted to see my friends again, but actually that would make it worse. I'd probably cling to a... a pole so I wouldn't have to go on the airplane back to France. Sigh. But actually, we might get to see the Levins again. Aviva said "probably" when I said "hopefully". But it'd only be for like a day. Dan drove me and Zach home because Erez and Oren were going to a birthday party. Then he said bye to us. He smiled at us, and seemed so sincere. Then he drove away, and it was like my life-line to seeing Erez and Oren was gone. Now, I don't have any friends over here. Geez, what a depressing thought. But on the lighter side, I can still see Erez and Oren by doing this video-conference thing. I remember doing that when they were away in France. It was cool. But it's no the same, obviously. Yeah, yeah and there's email and chat and letters. And hey, only about 7, 816 hours left! And like, 329 days!

I was on YouTube today, catching up with Fred. My favorite video is Fred on Halloween (the first one). That was like the first one I saw. I also practiced my trumpet again today. I can play like 4 songs or so in the Beatles book. It's cool.

We're going to the Fete de Geneve tonight to see fireworks. It's going to be cool. I hope. I'll take some pictures and post 'em. Yeah. And then we're also going on a hike tomorrow, leaving early in the morning I think. Ugh.

Also, Zach might kill me for mentioning him, but he wants to do para-gliding. I actually would want to do that too, 'cept it'd be really expensive. Sure, it's a little freaky maybe but would be an awesome experience. Definitely gnarly, man.

One last thing- Anthony told me today that Bernie Mac died today. What a depressing happening. I don't think I actually watching even like one second of the Bernie Mac Show, but still. He was only 50, too. That sucks. So, let's take a moment of silence to mourn the death of our fellow comedian. (And the late Freddie and Nick-you'll know what I'm talking about when we upload the video on YouTube.)

This is seriously the last thing now. Farmer John likes garlic bread. With onions on top. (Again, it's from the video. I'm laughing now remembering that part- ha ha!)

Yeah.

My mom made a blog. The url pretty much explains it all. I'm staying up with her while she tweaks it. I'm listening to Danger Radio and stuff. My ear buds (head phones?) are warm right now. Kinda scary. It's almost one in the morning. Basically, whenever I'm on the computer, I'll have ear buds in my ear. And be listening to music, 'course. I'll put a good song by them from their new album, which I might actually buy on Itunes. I mean, they have some okay songs. I have to admit, though, after awhile my brain gets sort of...tired of it sometimes. But whatever. I'm really expanding my musical...interests. I mean, before listening to Becca's playlist, I knew like no modern bands. So all credit goes to her for (indirectly) showing me the new stuff. (Thanks.) Their singer has a good sneer. Ha. I've been trying to limit myself to no more than a post a day, because like, it seems that people might get...discouraged when they see like a whole bunch of stuff. But whatever. I have at least 10 people I know are/have read(ing) my blog, which is pretty cool. Thanks guys.

My mom's blog
Danger Radio: Slow Dance With a Stranger

Not necessarily

Antipasta's really getting underway. I biked over (by myself) to the Levin's apartment today and we made videos and stuff. It was super fun. We have one video very close to being 100% done, which should be added to YouTube soon. So then I rode home with my mom because it was raining and stuff. There was a fat rainbow outside. I used up like all of my camera battery. That was probably the second-to-last time I'll get to see Erez and Oren. Ugh. For another 7,900 hours or so. Sigh. Since I got my iPod (Melvin) I've been listening to a lot of music and stuff. Checking out my friend's blogs and yeah. I keep thinking I'm losing my friends, but I think it's an illusion. I guess not seeing them in real life for a month while spending time with no new friends can really get to a teenage girl, huh? But I'm more optimistic I think. And there is a reason. This is hard. But not necessarily. Because in a way it doesn't even exist. So I don't know what to think, why or whatever. Who cares about age? Ellen Page must play Maximum Ride. They've already made plans for the movie. She's 21. Max is supposed to be 14. Er. But I mean, they cannot cast a girly stupid girl for Max. I will hate their guts. The movie's going to pretty much stink anyway, might as well get the actors right though. Sigh. And I still need to get the 4th book, along with some books my friend recommended to me. And I will consider reading Breaking Dawn because I read the other books and am sort of "caught up in the story". And maybe the Host. I also joined FanFiction.net. My goal is to write a Maximum Ride fanfic. Will take TONS of work if I don't want it to be a piece of crap. But yeah. My profile is here if you want to check it out.

I've been wondering. Inspiration has it's bad affects, sure, but even if you can be inspired to do/think something "bad", could it still be considered positive because it's almost like the sincerest human connection? It can cause side effects as well. It's quite complicated. Not necessarily.

Today: A day of spit and sweat

Today I finally practiced my trumpet. I hadn't blown in that thing for like 2 months or something. I was surprised, because I thought I would sound like a dying cow, but it was okay. I crossed my fingers that the valves and slides weren't stuck. They were pretty dry, but still worked. I started out with those deep belly breaths to get the air moving. Then I put the mouthpiece to my mouth and blew. My room made the sound echo, almost making it seem like every note is in an auditorium or something. I did the usual; lip slurs, long tones, scales, articulation. My tongue was really lagged. I tried playing the scales fast but I didn't quite manage to zip through them. But it was still pretty impressive considering I hadn't done anything for almost 2 months. It was kinda sad- well, surprising- that I sort of forgot some of the warm-ups. But luckily it all came back to me. I used my old practice logs for reference. I sure hoped the neighbors couldn't hear because trumpets are loud, and this particular trumpet player wasn't exactly at their peak. I managed to successfully squeak out a high G and the next open note after that (like a... E?) Wasn't too bad. Then I tried playing parts of the songs I learned. I played the beginning of Memory from the Cats Musical, which I played in 5th grade. Ugh. I had forgot a lot. And then I forgot how to play that one part in Kenya Contrasts. But then it came back. Along with some of Stormchasers and Monmouth. And then I glanced through some of the songs in my Beatles book, finding the ones that looked easy. I played some of Eight Days a Week, Norwegian Wood and other ones. So yeah. I practiced for about 30 minutes. It's actually really fun to play trumpet sometimes. I want to do it everyday. I also played around with the B flat Blues scale, which is always fun to do. I need to jam with Erez and Oren and maybe my dad soon. There's a music room at CERN.

As for the sweat part, I just now went out running with my new iPod. I ran to my school and back, sort of getting lost in a way, but still making it. It seemed like people thought I was weird. I had no idea if what I was doing was weird. I stretched before going out, but always manage to get a cramp in the right side. Ugh. So annoying. But I was surprised how long I could go with the pace I had. I only had to stop at crosswalks and to stretch out the cramp. It was really hot and humid, so I really got sweaty. Like, very, majorly sweaty. I was surprised. People wear deodorant for a reason. You probably knew that. But anyway. Plus I was wearing a Michigan shirt, dark blue. But I liked it. I ran for about 25 minutes. I'm going to try to do that more often. Get ready for the grueling hockey season.

Oh and also, we decided we were going to take a trip to England/Ireland on the school's spring break. We were going to go like now, but then decided to just do small one-day or overnight hikes. So yeah. I really want to see Abbey Road and stuff. So yeah.

Army trucks, eating with airplanes and an absense of an empty mailbox

Last night we went on a short walk with the Levins near Meyrin, Switzerland (where the Levin's apartment is). It was around 8:30, and we saw a bunch of interesting stuff. The "first surprise" was seeing this awesome landscape setting. You had two bunches of trees on each side, and behind that you could see the indent in the Saleve, and then this other peak behind it. It was cool. I didn't bring my camera though. Oh well. So we just walked along this road talking to each other. Erez and Oren sure like to say "hellaye". They greeted me with that like 20 times. I didn't mind because private chokes never get old. Anyway. So then we were on this road that went along this army base. Two huge army trucks passed us with some soldiers in 'em. They were sure big. And loud. We would see a fence to the right with barbed wire. Also the airport was nearby, so we could see several airplanes landing and stuff. At our apartment we also see the planes take off. And hear them. All day. Anyway. So then we reached this restaurant. It was quite close to the runway and the army camp. We sat down and waited to order. The restaurant was outside and seemed to be run by this Asian family I think. We could see these airplanes stuck almost upright on poles. And we had a great view of the airport. There was also this kid- area, with like a mini playground. Us kids (me, Zach, Erez and Oren) went over there and swung on the tires and stuff. And we also talked and stuff. They gave us these place mats that advertised nicotine patches. Erez drew his dream drum set on it and made a list of all the drumming equipment he would want. It was cool. I ordered pasta with red (tomato) sauce. It was okay I guess. By the time our food got here, it was really dark so all I could see were dark splotches and stuff. It had parsley on it, which I'm not too fond off. They gave us candles eventually. Then me, Erez and Oren acted out this one scene in one of our Antipasta videos. It was where I...well, actually I won't tell you. But it's really really funny. Check it out on YouTube sometime when we add it. So then after a while we walked home. And no night with the Levins could be complete without playing a classic game of Hooligan. It was really dark out. You could see tons of stars. I love it when it's like that. 'Course, it wasn't the best conditions for Hooligan so after a bit we got tired and stopped.

The Levins are going to this cymbol factory (Paste) today, and their train ride is about 7 hours there and back. But yeah. They're leaving on Monday, and I probably will only get to see them two more times. Sigh. Oh but also, I got my first letter a few days ago! And I got another one today! He he. I love getting mail. Thank you to those people! I've been writing a bunch of letters to people lately. Everyday I jump up to check our mailbox (it's somewhat high) and normally don't see anything. Whenever I open it, it's either completely empty or has some bills or something. So, yeah. I think I'm going to practice my trumpet today. I bet I'll sound like a dying cow.

Oh, and, as for the absence of comments, fine. I just didn't know whether people were actually reading this. But I do encourage comments. Because then I know people have actually read and processed my "work". And you can give me suggestions/tell me it stinks or whatever. But anyway. Thanks for all of you that read my blog. I enjoy writing it, and hope you guys like it. I also have a poll, which just requires one click to contribute. So yeah. Thanks guys.

Antipasta re-discovered, yargul face saves the day, sleepover and Marvin's bro

You could say a lot happened since I wrote that last post. I got my first skype call, from Oren, and him and his brother came over yesterday to our apartment. We took an hour's worth of videos, made a YouTube account and played ping-pong. Us and a few of our other friends had made earlier movies, and we came up with a name for the group: Antipasta. So we'll have some movies on YouTube eventually. We also managed, yesterday, to blast a glass cup into several smithereens. Erez was demonstrating how I should act in one of the videos (I was finally acting-normally I would be the cameraman) and he slammed his hands down on the table. One minute there was an empty glass there, the next second there were tiny pieces of glass. It was like it suddenly exploded. I knew we were SO dead then. It was an accident of course, but my mom had already pestered us to be quiet and get outside. She wasn't even that mad. So we just went outside and sort of invented this game where you hit the ping-pong ball against the apartment wall outside to each other. We made all sorts of rules and had tournaments. It was fun. Then I went with them and their family to this game night at the place where Erez and Oren's mom works. We played a game of Around the World. It was fun. I was stuck on one of the places (the really far one) for about like 20 tries. Finally, I heaved the ball hard and yelled, "yargul face!" and it went in! I was so happy. So then we sat down listening to the rules of this one game which was a variation of Dots. It was quite confusing. You would charge people for making a polygon in your property, there were negative numbers, etc. But we left before they actually started playing. I had dinner with them, which was fun. Dan said at one point, "Amelia can do whatever she wants when she wants," or something like that. I felt so...so welcome and cool there. He also made awesome pasta, fish and brussel sprouts and we also had chick-on wings. They said I could have the last 2 chicken wings, but I said I wanted to have more brussel sprouts. I like brussel sprouts. It turned out I had the last chicken wings and some brussel sprouts. Completely and utterly scrumptious. So then we played cards. And I had a sleepover. 'Cept is wasn't even...worth having one because my "loving" mother said I had to sleep in a different room. Ugh. I said to her on the phone, "Ugh can't you just not follow society's rules? I mean, seriously." But whatever. Sigh. I've known Erez and Oren all of my life, who cares if I'm a girl? Geez. But I just slept on the couch. Kinda sucked. But I managed. They brought over several Calvin and Hobbes, which I read. I hadn't read those in a while, and I forgot how really amazing they are. I remember when I used to read them and not actually understand what Calvin was saying, because it was so sophisticated. But now I really appreciate everything. Anyway. So then we went to the market in the morning. Erez wasn't feeling very well unfortunately so he stayed home. But yeah. The market was cool. Me and Oren found a bunch of vintage records, including several Pink Floyd ones, TONS of Elton John, and other stuff. They were about 7.50 Francs (dollars) each. I wanted to get one. But then my mom, (after spending about an hour trying to meet her at the market) said there was a store in Ann Arbor that would sell them for like 50 cents. So yeah. But then I bought two figurines, each 8 Francs, which is 50 cents cheaper than at Franz Carl Weber. I got the sleeping guard from the Asterix comics and this Marsupial character that I remembered from this cartoon Zach and I watched once the first summer we were here. That cartoon, I recall, aired very early in the morning I think. And we only saw it like once. And it was fuzzy. But yeah. So then we went to this kebab place which was awesome. Then I went home, finding my new iPod on my desk. My old one, Marvin, had problems turning on so we sent that back. This one is the same model, green and 8GB. I'm gonna name it like... Marvin the second? I dunno. So yeah. I'm going to add some more songs. I wanted to practice my trumpet today, and I still could, but lots of people are on chat.

Ok, I'm just going to assume that more than one person is reading my blog. Seriously, guys, comment please? I'm putting a lot of effort, and I haven't had like any comments for a while (with the exception of my cousin-thanks) But yeah. I check your guys' blogs every freaking day if I can. And always read and comment. And if you could vote on my poll that'd be nice too. Thanks.

Goin' solo with no panini

My feet pounded down on the pavement, briefly feeling the tiny indents in the concrete. Every few seconds, water crashed over me, sometimes chilling my clothes, other times feeling warm and relaxing on my skin. My face got wet and I closed my eyes, wiping them and then raising my eyelids to see the big chair.

My mouth curved to make a smile. I squeezed out my Michigan shirt and picked up the frisbee.

I was at the fountains in Geneva, across from the U.N.

Speak to me, wish you could see- you're always on my mi-ind.
The things you do are your pursuits, try to keep your distance, I know your kind ...

I had that part of the song stuck in my head all day and would keep lip syncing it. (Your Kind {Speak to Me} by Danger Radio)

We stayed there for like 15 minutes and then I went home on the bus all by myself. I had met Erez and Oren at the Gare Cornavin (train/tram/bus station in Geneva) at around 2 and we got lunch and stuff. I was hungry. I wanted a panini. We walked past several people sitting on the sidewalk, asking for money and some street musicians. I even saw this girl with her knees bent forward, which was kinda...unnerving. The panini place wasn't there anymore. Ugh. It was a trailer, so I guess they ran out of 'em and moved. I was so bummed. But we went into the co-op and got pizza. I got salami picante, which is like pepperoni. It was really really good. I also gulped down my lemon iced tea, which was so dang good. We sat down at this plaza-type thing. Lots of pigeons and stuff. And then there was something really quite...interesting that happened.

There were these like 3 people sitting to the right of us, a few yards away and this one lady was like yelling at this older-looking guy, and there was this other guy who was also yelling with a cigarette in his mouth. There were a handful of beer cans around them, and they smoked. So everyone was yelling at each other. Eventually the older guy went and sat by a tree, glaring at the lady. But the rest of them eventually followed him there and gathered around, doing hand gestures and giving off fierce looks. The one was still blowing off steam, and then like two other people joined in. I don't even know if they were speaking French. It was really weird. But rather entertaining. I mean, these people were literally yelling, as if they were in some play. And they seemed to be pretty oblivient to the fact they were doing this in public, where lots of people walked past. Erez, sitting next to me, first commented that he thought it was quite entertaining. I said back, "And they're making it just so public," He said, "Oh yeah, totally." Geez. Definitely drunks. But we left eventually, still hearing the yelling and I could still see the yellowish eyes of the man sitting next to the tree. Creepy.

So then we walked around downtown Geneva, passing the carnival-like rides and stuff. There was a festival going on. Oren wanted to do bumper cars, but Erez and I were like, "it's more little kids, man". We got ice cream in the Cornavin mall. Oren set a record pretty much, because he literally took like 10 minutes to decide what ice cream to get. Geez. He would stare at the thing, picking up one package, then deciding against it, and picking up a different one. Then he'd go back to the other one. Argh. Eventually he finally picked one and we waited for our bus to come. We rode it to the fountains and yeah.

Today was cool. I feel accomplished. Sure, it's not really even that big of a thing. But I rode the bus by myself to the Cornavin and back home. Plus, I bought my own ticket and may I remind you, I'm in a different country. Yeah whatever. Sure sure, all I had to do is stand up on the bus and like, give the machine money. Yeah well I'm just saying.

It's weird though, being so independent like that. Like, you suddenly just feel so...by yourself and alone and almost vulnerable. It's a nice feeling, though. You're just...you don't have to talk to anyone, you're just by yourself with your own thoughts.

Riding the bus there, I had that "Speak to me" song stuck in my head like I said. A lot of the people had iPods. Heck, every other person had an iPod here it seemed. I hope I get my new one soon. Anyway. And then I would try to get a different song stuck in my head. I tried Bicycle Race, but I kept going back to the Speak to me part. So annoying. It's a good song and all, just when your brain plays it over and over, it starts to get...redundant. So that's what I did on the bus. I checked my watch and wondered what my friends back home were doing. It was around 8am there, so I thought they'd be sleeping or something. Yeah so. I haven't gotten a comment on my posts for like...years. Does anyone even read my blog anymore? Ugh.

Pictures of the school

Yo, here are some pictures of the school I'm going to. The French seems to smoke a lot, and so I also found this cigarette package on the ground one day. Pretty interesting.

We went to the beach

As the title says, we drove to a nearby town in Switzerland (Nyon) and went to the beach. It was a pretty nice beach, really. Lots of platforms and a diving platform. I went off that a few times. There were lots of people on it, though. One time there were these 4 French/Swiss guys that counted to three in French but didn't jump off, but then one of them jumped off while the rest stayed on. They started laughing hysterically. I mean, it wasn't even that funny, but for some reason they just seemed to think that was the funniest thing ever. I couldn't help it, I started grinning. They were just laughing so hard I had to. Anyway. So that was fun. I got kind of bored after a little, so I read the second Maximum Ride. I'm re-reading the series again; this is my 3rd time I think. Such a good book. Made me laugh out loud a few times. Ah. Highly recommend them. Anyway. I had some chocolate and an apple. There were lots of people. There was also this guy that brought along an acoustic guitar and he was serenading the ladies. Problem was, he would keep playing what seemed like the same chords over and over. Kinda annoying. But he also played The Wind Cries Mary, a GREAT song by Jimi Hendrix (see my playlist). So yeah. Then we left and walked to an ice cream place. It was pretty good. So yeah. I want to practice my trumpet tomorrow. I really need to. And I need to oil/grease my slides and stuff. But I don't know where I can buy some...eh.

Keep it gnarly! (I'm experimenting with ending statements, ok?)

Rheto(rical)

Hike No. 3.5

"I wonder how painful barb wire really is," I pondered out loud while climbing over the little bridge alongside the fence blocking cows, with barb wire on the edge of the trail.

"Well, here's your chance to find out," My dad said back.

We then advanced to yet another muddy part of the trail, getting our boots almost completely covered in bligadesh and eugerewf (a new word).

That was just one small part of our 6-hour hike today. Veeerryy long and tiring. We drove up part of the Jura with our new car (bright green VW Golf) while listening to our new radio. Then started walking on what seemed to be a non-long hike. It was complete with several cow pies, mud piles to squelch through, intimidating cows/bulls that stare at you and moo, a parental quibble, cliffs that make you almost faint, me having songs stuck in my head and complaining about having no iPod, being able to see a spectacular view pretty much throughout the whole hike, us meeting this French couple and talking to them a little bit at the end, a relaxing lunch and plenty of pictures taken. As I always say, I'll add those later. It was quite a hike. I'm really tired right now. But it was fun, I suppose. We followed this huge U trail that looped around and brought us to this steep edge on the top of the mountain, providing the name of the hike (the Balcony Hike, or something like that). We saw tons of cows and had to go through these huge, deep mud "episodes". I started a conversation by asking my dad what music he listened to when he was my age. He liked pretty much the same stuff as I did. He also told me he went to a Rolling Stones concert, which totally wow-ed me. That would be awesome. But he said it was really really loud and you could hardly even tell what they were playing because of all the loudness. But whatever. He wants to bike up the road trail next time.

Well, seeing as no one is on chat and I have some time on my hands, I'm going to finish that other post. Maybe add some pictures.

"Disclaimers" of the 8th month

Hey. Happy August. I'm sure yours will be a hell of a lot better than mine. And why you ask? Because of the many unfortunate things brought to me by the Secondary Easter Bunny (who comes around at this time). The Secondary Easter Bunny (who's brother, Gif-Bas-cket, got hit by a car again, though I believe he is doing alright. But I heard his insurance isn't the greatest) has brought terrible things. Things that would make a hater of Slauson into someone begging to go back to Slauson. Things that make a school week into a whole week of h-e-double toothpicks. I'll stop with the similes, or metaphors or whatever you call 'em.

See, starting August 29th, I have to go to a school that starts at 7:55am and gets out at 5:30pm. FIVE-THIRTY PEE- EMM. That is not a nice time to get out of school. Especially with about 2+ hours of homework every night, which will be mostly in a FOREIGN LANGUAGE. And then the very beginning isn't that welcoming, considering I take a frickin' TEST on August 29th, which is in English and in math. That test lets them see where I should be placed in the school. I have to write an essay and all that. UGGH. At least I get like a two-hour lunch, and I can go home for that. I also learned a few more things after our little "adventure" today. We got a car. A bright-green VW Golf. Pretty cool. So we were supposed to meet these Americans (they were from Dallas but didn't have an accent really) who would tell us about the school. We took about an hour getting there, because we were using a hiking map. Luckily I had a book with me, the first Maximum Ride. So I just read that and it was fine. So Zach and I asked the 15-year old son questions about the school and stoof. His name was like John. There was also their daughter, Jaqueline (I spelled that wrong) who had long blonde/brown hair with glasses and was like 11. She also told us some stuff. I asked John the first question, which was if it was "fun, uh, at all". He said sure, and the thing he liked better than the American schools was that they had lots of breaks and stuff. So that's cool. We asked him other questions, like about Fat Friday, which was this thing a lot like the Neutral Zone. It's a church, but isn't very religious. Kids aged 11-18 come every Friday during the school to just meet each other and hang out I guess. I'm thinking of doing that. He said it was really hard the first few weeks. His mom told us that he was really depressed and stuff starting out and then liked it after going to Fat Friday. He also plays trombone and likes band a lot. And likes writing/reading. It was also cool when I actually related to them, because his sister mentioned she wanted to do saxophone, and John said something about "ugh, woodwinds" and he explained about the "rivalry" between brass (woot!!) and woodwinds. I totally agreed. Him and his friends were having this sleepover I think or something, because at around lunch time two other teenage boys resurfaced. One of them was named Zach and reminded me of Batman, probably because he had short black hair, and his eyes were sort of in this almost-glaring position and was pretty quiet. The other one was named like, Pen? Ben? I dunno. He had that wacky hair that just sticks out everywhere.

So yeah. He said this one German teacher wasn't the nicest, but I'm going to be taking Spanish. And he said you share lockers. And the lockers are more square-ish. I'm going to be going to the College, which is the younger one. What else did he say...I'm definitely going to try out Fat Friday. Sounds pretty cool. And yeah. I'll try to keep studying French and trying not to worry about it. It's just school. I'm going to have to just put the grades aside and focus on the whole experience I guess. It's going to be really hard the first few weeks but, hey, I'm just human. My physical body will be occupying the space known as the school, but that doesn't mean I have to like, focus everything on school. I've got friends. I've got a mouth to smile. I've got ears to hear music. Who cares what grades I get this year? I don't even think the high schools will look at these grades. If I was back at Slauson, sure I'd care. I'm still going to try really hard over here, but I'm not going to kill myself. Easier said than done for me, because I have a habit of killing myself over school.

Eh. I can try.

I'll add the pics of the school later. It looks like a frickin' prison, man...