So I have not been the best journal writer senior year [not that any of you are like in tears over this or anything] and I'll spare the extremely detailed ramble-a-thons that I used to have.
But I will have you all know, New York City, for the national portfolio award shenanigan, was FRICKIN AMAZING. I usually don't consider myself much of a "city person" but I really liked it. Lots of time spent reading nerdy books [primarily O Jerusalem {Collins & LaPierre... SUCH A GOOD BOOK HOLY SHIT READ IT ALL YOU FELLOW HISTORY NERDS OUT THERE IT'S IT'S IT'S SOOO GOODDDD CRIES}] in Central and Bryant park, and walking. Hot dayum we did like 37 miles [fathah tracked with an app] of walking over the entire trip, which was half of Thursday, all of Friday, and about 2/3 of Saturday. We even walked to Carnegie Hall, with me in the dress and heels [shorter ones, for the walk, but still the type that if you stepped on a grate you'd probably fall... it's a shock I didn't, considering the topic below!].
I was one of "those" people who was on the phone incessantly while walking [we were too cheap for a taxi the entire trip, not kidding, we did a LOT of walking] and I'm surprised I didn't get squashed by a car. While walking on the sidewalk at one point the lady in front of me was doing the same thing as I was, and ran head-on into a wall. SMACK. It was fantastic.
Anyway, amid our storm of walking and walking and walking, we had a couple stops at restaurants [TGI Friday's, where the only thing I could get on the menu, according to the allergen listing, was broccoli florets and squash {plus I had an apple in my bag - three cheers for resourcefulness!} and my art teacher made sure to make a big fuss with the waitress about the prestige of the whole event] [Chipotle, once with fathah and once with him and art teacher] [precious little Mediterranean vegetarian restaurant with big open doors so our table was like partially outside and we got hummus and couscous and it was probably the best of both I have EVER HAD EVER] as well as Chinatown.
I LOVED Chinatown. Few things can please me more than being the minority in a sea of Asians. [but no really, I was like dying of joy there]. Art teacher and I took pictures of everything. Like seriously... EVERYTHING. Tiny dried shrimp in boxes on the street? Picture. Weird spiky fruit? Picture. Old man selling reed animals? Picture. [and we got two of them, a cricket and a praying mantis]. Fish at the tiny humid pet store? Pictures, lots of them. Streets filled with Asians and Asian signs and Asian things?? FRICKIN PICTURES
We also went to the park, which was pretty much a sardine can of Chinese people. Fathah and art teacher were not a fan. I thought I was going to die in there oh my gosh you have no IDEA how great it was to take a break from white people like holy crap
I mean one can kind of get that experience in Curaçao, but in a different way. Anyway I liked the park a lot, and we sat on a rock and listened to some sort of karaoke thing with string instruments from near-fossilized elderly Chinese people. It was fantastic. Even the bathroom [which I, against my Chinese friend's advice, attempted to tame to wash my hands], which had like a 30:1 fly
eople ratio and took some serious effort to not slip on the water pooled on the floor [once you go down, you're probably down for good... swallowed by the seas of flies...].
The only thing more fear-inducing than the flies were the elevators, which creaked, moaned, and grated their way up to the fourteenth [really thirteenth, DON'T lie to me hotel I C U] floor and really seemed at any moment about to crash or stall in the wall. Thankfully those never happened, especially the latter, as my art teacher at one point nearly attacked a guy in the elevator with a piece of my art work [AP Concentration Color I] and bellowed about LOOK HOW AMAZING THIS IS MY STUDENT DID THIS
At one point, after considerable begging, fathah allowed me to take the stairs instead of the elevator. BIGGEST MISTAKE EVER
THEY WERE SCARIER
THEY WERE
EEK
:bademoticon:
Anyway, to wrap this up, Chinatown was the highlight of the trip and the whole trip was the highlight of my second semester, especially the ceremony at Carnegie Hall, which was definitely intimidating but pretty kickass too. And, Usher was there as the surprise guest, which spiced things up a bit.
Graduation also happened, F I N A L L Y. I liked high school a lot, sure, until I got into my university. Then yeahhh downhill crash. I was proud of my C in teacher cadet, since I had brought it up pretty impressively from a D- with a deluge of last-second late assignments. Also, I changed my major. TC taught me that teaching is not the career for me. I like the teaching process, like lectures, but not anything ELSE. Major has been switched officially to natural resources.
Never in my lifetime of considering college majors did I even CONSIDER this. And anyone who knows me IRL, you know what an eco nerd I am, so I don't really understand that. But anyway it's changed, and I will be spending my freshman and sophomore years fighting my way through chemistry [barely passed that in high school], organic chemistry [???], lab biology [if I didn't fail the AP Bio exam and can't get exemption], calculus [never took in high school], and physics [crapped out on this in HS too] classes.
But, that's the only downside. I'm really looking forward to college, this should be a pretty kickass major [freshman year / the physics and math parts of sophomore exempted] and I got accepted to the community service house, where I'll basically live for a year with fellow volunteering nerds who like feed on community work. YESSS MUST USE MY WEEKENDS TO BUILD HOUSES AND NOT DO MY MATH. For real I'm like super excited for this. And, being in a community of volunteer people, I will be much more likely to find someone to haul with me to India, since major breakthroughs have been made with mother in this category. From 'YOU ARE NEVER GOING TO INDIA EVER' to 'We'll think about it [-> yes] if you find people to go with'.
McLeod Ganj, Himachal Pradesh, DAMN IT I WILL GO THERE
I WILL
BUT I HAVE TO GET BETTER AT HINDI FIRST BECAUSE WHILE I AM PRETTY GOSHDAMN LITERATE FOR A WHITE PERSON AND WRITE ALL THE TIME [NO SERIOUSLY ALL THE TIME AND IT UPSETS THE PARENTS A LITTLE BECAUSE ART HAS SOME COMPETITION] I DON'T SPEAK WELL BECAUSE THERE ARE LIKE NEGATIVE FIVE INDIANS HERE
Ok. There's no one left reading this but I will post my summer schedule anyway, half to keep it in line with myself and half for anyone who cares [ie no one, I know bbys, I know]
June 15-22: Curaçao ;
)
June 24-28: Volunteering at Habitats theme children's day camp with Kajal [one of the few Indians here, love that qurl #]
July 2-6: International Key Club Convention with my homeboy Garrett and our ever-tolerant sponsor, Mrs. R, who has seen us through two DCONs and now the big international shenanigan in DC
July 7-14: Outer Banks, NC beach trip with Julie and father's side of the family
July 15-19: Another whipass camp [reptile themed] with Kajal and the children and the wilderness and probably, like last year, a legion of ticks and chiggers
July 25-26: Orientation at my university [it's like one of the last sessions, so I'm pretty much screwed for picking the good classes and teachers.. blahhh...]
July 29-?: VERMONT YES BBYS VERMONT WITH MOTHER'S DYSFUNCTIONAL SIDE OF THE FAMILY AND THE WILD WILD WILDERNESSSS
And then, it's off to college.
Seeya later, angelfaces.
xoxoxo,
Sharkdiver131 out.
