finals' week, a harried post.

Ahhhh, it's been so long since I've written here. I'm sorry! Life has been hectic for me recently, and it's finals week now, so my time has been consumed by studying and test-taking. I just thought I'd drop by the blog and say hi, since it's been so long.

Nothing very exciting has been going on in my life, but I'll just tell you what has happened. Just for kicks, eh?

On Saturday 5 December, USC had its last game of the season, against Arizona State. We lost. I was extremely upset for the rest of the day. WE LOST FOUR GAMES IN ONE SEASON, WHAT IS THIS?!?!

-_-'

In other news.

On Tuesday, I met with an academic advisor for accounting. We just talked about the little mundane details of what I would need to do to transfer into the Marshall School of Business, and then into the Leventhal School of Accounting (USC's Accounting department is handled by Marshall). If things go as planned, I'll apply to Marshall for the Spring of 2010. Hopefully. And I have to bring my GPA up, by a lot. Whew. I'm so glad I don't have both biology AND chemistry next semester, that would be absolutely horrid.

My History exam was supposed to be on Wednesday 9 December, but it was shifted to Friday the 11th. ie, today. However, we weren't informed of this shift, so I went to the exam hall, to see a sign on the door that said "Exam Postponed".

Ah.

Thank you for telling us beforehand.

On the bright side, I had studied like a maniac for Wednesday, so I was super prepared for today. So when I was taking the exam today, I was just writing continuously; I had memorized essay outlines, so when I saw the essay prompt, I didn't have to waste time outlining, since I already had the outline in my head. Instead, I just got right to writing, and so maximized my time.

Woohoo!

I feel really good about that final.

Yesterday, I had my chemistry final. The evening before, ie on Wednesday evening, in the middle of hours and hours of panicked last-minute review, I spent twenty minutes calculating exactly what I would need to score on the exam to pass the class. The figure turned out to be 113/200. With this in mind, at 8:00 AM on Thursday morning, I walked into the exam hall with a grim, staunchy mindset.

I WILL GET AT LEAST 113 ON THIS EXAM.

That was the only thought running through my head as I sat down, took out a pen, and put my head down.

The actual exam went a lot better than I thought it would! I would have been so happy with 115/200, but amazingly,

I SCORED 151!

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

So if everything goes as the professors described, and the course is graded as they said it would be, then I will have passed chemistry, and don't have to redo the semester later in my college career!

I don't think anyone can possibly understand how happy that thought makes me.

ahhh.....

[:

So History and Chemistry final examinations went well indeed. Though I haven't received my history one back, I'm sure I did fine on it.

I have biology on Monday, so now off I go to study like a maniac some more.
Wish me luck! :P

ps. I'M FLYING HOME IN SIX DAYS! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

n_n*

I'm a little bit panicked.

Ach, I'm sorry I haven't written in a while. I won't be able to update the blog this week either, as it's an extremely busy week for me. The last day of classes in the semester is this Friday, and there's a slew of exams/presentations/term papers that needs to be done. I'm up to my eyeballs in work, and then as soon as I'm done with all of this on Friday, I'm going to become a recluse and study for my history final like mad. Seriously. I think I'm not going to even use the internet between Friday and Wednesday (when my history final is). You don't understand how scared I am for that exam, particularly because such a huge portion of my grade in that class depends on it. Oh and studying for Chemistry and Biology too, I need to do that. Very badly. Meh I might just put away all things unrelated to my studies and buckle down for finals week.

I really want to do well!
More like, I really need to do well.

Ahhh, we'll see we'll see.
I can't spend too much time writing this entry because tomorrow I have an impromptu essay in my writing class based on two lectures that were given in September, so I have to review my notes from them and try and reconstruct the speeches. This is so that I may derive materials to write about in the essay tomorrow.

I'M SCARED!

Okay whew, ahm.

Ah yes, I was meant to describe Thanksgiving dinner.
Well, dinner that night was alright, the few students who went were given the typical, turkey + bread + mashed potatoes + pumpkin pie + stuffing etc etc. None of the food was amazing, which was sort of sad. I love the cornbread people eat on Thanksgiving, as well as good pumpkin pie and good stuffing. As it was, everything served here was a bit dry and bland.

I made new friends though, as I was invited to the dinner by one friend, who introduced me to a lot of his friends. They were all really nice people, which was great, and I was really glad to meet them. After the dinner, we all went to the Flagship theatre in the UV. Have I mentioned Flagship before? Well, if not, it's this little theatre right next to the USC campus where USC students can go watch movies for 5 dollars, with their USCID. Anywho, we watched Ninja Assassin, which I found to actually be a halfway decent film. Apparently it got really bad reviews by film critics, but I appreciated it. Some of the action scenes were well crafted and the plot was... Well, there was very little plot, but of what there was, it was alright. I assume all Korean females will watch it though, just because it has 비 (aka Rain, the Korean musical superstar) as the main character.

Heh.

I still don't understand why Korean women find that man attractive.

But eh. Moving on.
Later, we went to Parkside, where the guys I'd met at dinner live, and we all made an expedition to the lounge, with a DVD player, many pillows, blankets, and a large book of DVDs. Basically, we made camp in the dorm's lounge and claimed it as our own. And for the next four hours we just relaxed, talked, and watched Pulp Fiction, directed by Quentin Tarantino. That movie's pretty good; I for one, really liked the cinematography of it. Amongst other things.

Anyway.
That's basically that about Thanksgiving evening, afterwards I just went back to my dorm and slept. And for the rest of the break I was a hermit and spent all my time reading. Eh.

On Saturday, it was the big USC-UCLA game! I went with Cameron, and we got amazing seats, in the tenth row. The game itself wasn't that great; in fact, it went really slowly. We got one touchdown in the first quarter, making the score 7-0, and then nothing happened until the fourth quarter. The game ended with the score being 28-7, USC. Of course. There was no way UCLA was going to win, I mean, our rivalry is only in academics. In athletics, there is no question. None at all.

But like I was saying, the game was sort of slow. Still, I had a great time, and screamed my lungs out.

Ah, one thing I found amusing was; UCLA had sent their marching band over, and every time they would play anything during the game, the USC band (known as the Spirit of Troy), would immediately play something louder and catchier. The Bruins' band paled in comparison. And during half time, when the Bruins' started playing their half time show, the USC band turned their backs to them. It was funny. I laughed.

So, victory over the Bruins! Of course. It made me glad.

Okay, I've spent too much time writing this. Off I scurry to continue work on my various looming projects.

a la prochaine, mes amis. [:

thanksgiving morning

Happy Thanksgiving!

Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.

Yesterday, Alexa and I went to the Hollywood and Highland Mall, on Hollywood Boulevard, where the Kodak Theatre and Chinese Theatre are. It was our "two of the few people left on campus making the best of it and having fun together" time.

And it really was fun! We wandered around and window shopped for a while, and I couldn't help but want to take a photo with this beautiful mannequin right here:


Question; am I fatter? My shoulders seem really really broad in this picture. It's kind of disconcerting.

...Anyway, I also had an Auntie Anne's pretzel, which made me extremely happy (maybe that's why I'm fatter, I love food too much).

It's the second Auntie Anne's I've had since coming back to America from Europe, so... yay! It still has massive novelty value. ^^

I'm going to a USC hosted Thanksgiving dinner at Parkside today, so I'll come back and tell you what that was like in the evening. [:

As for the moment, I must run and work on a some term papers.

A bientot!
x

an obscenely long post about birthday stuff and the DMV. and an obscenely long title to go with it.

That's the walkway down to the oceanfront at La Jolla in San Diego at high tide. I was so excited to see the ocean, as I haven't seen it in ages; furthermore, I've never seen the Pacific Ocean before. It's beautiful.

The people who went with me to San Diego were Rachelle (an American girl from New Orleans), Elie (short for Eleanor, another American girl, this time from a suburb of Washington DC), Jai (an Indian guy from India who's been living in Virginia near Washington DC for the past two years), Jason (my platonic soulmate, who you already know about), and Ivanna (my roommate, who you also already know about).

Here, this'll let you put faces to names:

From left to right, that's: Jai, Ivanna, Elie, Rachelle, and Jason.

We left campus early Friday afternoon, taking the USC-Union Station shuttle at 13h, and then catching the Union Station-San Diego Amtrak at 14h.

We arrived at San Diego around 16h30, and went to Jason's house; that afternoon and evening, we just stayed at his place, ordered pizza, watched stand up comedy, and relaxed.

On Saturday morning, we went out to this diner place for breakfast.
IT WAS INCREDIBLE!


I ordered something called the "Upside-Down Pineapple Pancake", and what was described on the menu as a "Huge, beautiful muffin fresh out of the oven". The muffin wasn't huge, nor was it especially beautiful, and it surely wasn't fresh out of the oven; but the pancake was simply breathtaking. That had to have been one of the best pancakes I have ever consumed, ever.
This diner restaurant thing was called "Beach Grass" or The Beach Grass or anyway, something along the lines of Beach Grass. I'd greatly recommend it to anyone planning to visit San Diego at any point.

During the main part of the day on Saturday, we went to La Jolla, which is the beach-like area in the photos at the beginning of this post. A lot of walking was done, heh, around beaches, parks, fields, that part of the town, and it was great. Oh yes, and; there's one part of La Jolla which acts as a tourist attraction, and basically people come to see...


The seals! I saw wild seals, finally, for the first time in my life! They were really very adorable, though for the most part all they did was lie there and sleep.

For dinner we went to a sushi place called "Tsuruya Sushi". Simply put, their sushi was some of the best I think I've ever had. THEIR SHRIMP TEMPURA! It was to die for.
I also, on top of the sushi (which everyone shared), had a "Dinner Combo". For this, I ordered Korean bulgogi, with a California roll. They gave me rice, salad, fried dumplings, and miso soup with that. I was extremely satisified afterwards, and then we ordered dessert! The desserts weren't amazing, but still very nice, and I must admit, rather cute.

^_^

Oh and ach, Jason paid for my dinner, even though I told him not to, he said (and these are his exact words), "NO! Michelle, you will not pay for your dinner at your birthday meal."

After dinner we explored downtown for about an hour, then went back to Jason's house.
We hung out for a while, watched more stand up comedy, played some Wii, blasted some Michael Jackson and sang and danced to it, then went to bed.

And on Sunday, we woke up and went back to USC.

By the way, quick side note;
Jason has one of the most beautiful houses ever. It's like it's straight out of one of those home modelling magazines. The interior is huge and extremely tastefully decorated, and the outside... Well.

I love his house.

So, that was my amazing weekend in San Diego. It doesn't sound like much here, but believe you me, it was fun. Oodles and oodles of fun. [:

Moving on to yesterday; my actual birthday!

I basically had a normal day of classes. Other than academics, though, the following things occurred:

- I donated blood (which I talked about in the post right before this one)
- I had lunch at Denny's for free
- I had a ridiculously good dinner at a Korean restaurant

The lunch at Denny's was great!
One thing I really enjoyed was a strawberry milkshake, which looked pretty and tasted good as well.

mmmmmh.

And then I had some sort of Grilled Rib Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich, which, after the blood donation, was great to eat. I could feel the blood regenerating in my bones, woohoo.

The most memorable meal of the day would have to have been dinner, though.
Jason, Ivanna, myself, Alexa, Cameron (an American guy from Massachusetts, sort of near Boston), and Akshay (I think I've mentioned him before? Well, if not, he's an Indian guy from India) went to what is advertised as "the best Korean restaurant in Los Angeles". It's called Soowon Galbi. It is indeed nice.

At this point in time though, I have to stop and once again, praise my wonderful roommate. I had no idea we were going to this restaurant until the morning of that very day, when she told me, "Hey, I know you love Korean food and really wanted to go to a Korean restaurant, so I found a place that we're going to tonight for dinner. It's supposed to be really good, I think you would like it." Ivanna had looked this place up beforehand and made a reservation to eat there, rented a car out, and everything. She's really thoughtful, I'm honestly blessed to have her as a roommate. We're planning on living together again next year too, since we get along so great. [:

Oh and before I continue; despite my vehement protests, Jason paid for my dinner. Again. His justification was, he has the money, so why not spend it on his platonic soulmate's birthday dinner?
"But Jason, you already paid for my birthday dinner!"
"No but you see Michelle, this is your real birthday. I'm going to pay for your dinner. You are my platonic soulmate. I want to. Okay?"

I had nothing to reply to that with. Poor Ivanna, she really wanted to pay for my dinner, so her and Jason were arguing over who would pay for me, haha! Jason won, I don't know what he said, but she at one point just goes, "alright, fine", puts on the grumpy face, and lets him pay.
haha!

I love the two of them, they're good people.

[:

At the restaurant, I ordered "수원 왕 갈비 (Soowon King Galbi)", 불고기 (bulgogi), 잡채 (japchae), and 돌솥 비빔밥(dolsot bibimbap). They didn't have dumplings, but it was okay; what I ordered ended up being more than enough for the six people who were there.

Oh yes and they gave us so many 반찬(banchan); it's been so long since I had a real Korean meal like that. What's shown in the photo below was only half of the banchan they gave us, the other half was on the other side of the table.

와~~~!

GALBI AND BULGOGI! FINALLY!

I was extremely joyous while cooking and eating these foods.

SO GOOD AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

:D

(By the way, this is Cameron. I taught him how to use chopsticks over dinner last night. :D ... Hmmm, I look very fat in this photo. Ah well. Tee hee ^^;)

The Korean dinner was so great. I was extremely happy.

And to top it all off, after that we went and had delicious frozen yogurt at the amazing frozen yogurt place next to campus, called "21 Choices". Last night, coincidentally, was Customer Appreciation Day, so they were serving yogurts for free. I got free frozen yogurt for dessert on my birthday!

Ahhhhhh happy. ^^

So that was the end of yesterday, my birthday, and the amazing Korean restaurant I ate at for dinnner, thanks to my lovely roommate and my wonderful platonic soulmate.

Today, nothing much to say. I ran for an hour to try and negate the extreme calorie intake from yesterday, and I'm going to run a lot this week, I think. Nothing better to do, everyone is gone from campus and I'm going to get bored from constantly studying and writing final term papers and such.

However, I did go to the DMV to get my California Identification Card made. My appointment was at 14h15, but I went early, just in case; and found out that when I have an appointment, I shouldn't arrive until 5 minutes before the appointment time. As it is, today I went to the DMV at 13h and ended up receiving a form and then being told to come back after an hour and ten minutes had passed. The form took me five minutes to fill out, and for the next hour and five minutes I listened to music and stood against a window that the sun was shining into really strongly; so in fact, I had a very nice hour at the DMV. My back was warm and I had good music, so no problem. It was sort of like being at a personal sauna, actually. I liked it.

At 14h10 I went up to the information desk, the lady gave me a number, and I started waiting. I thought I was going to be waiting to be called for an hour or so, but actually it was only twenty minutes. I gave the man at the desk my passport and my form, he fiddled around for a bit while I ate the peanut butter and jelly sandwich I had brought with me, and then he gave me a 'receipt' and told me to go to the camera, get my photo taken, and then I was done!

So, off I go to the camera, where I waited for about ten minutes, and then the kind lady working at the camera place took my photo. When she saw the address I had written on my receipt, she said, "my goodness, you're a trojan!" and ran off for a bit. She came back and handed it to me, and across the top in big red letters, she had written, "FIGHT ON!" I laughed and thanked her, since she really was a very sweet woman, and then I was out of the DMV, at 14h45. If I had gone there at 14h10 like I was supposed to have done, then I would've been out in 35 minutes. Hence, I think from now on, whenever I want to do something with the DMV, I'm going to make an appointment online first. It makes everything much quicker and easier.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention! I am now a registered organ donor with Donate Life California, so if and when I die, my organs can be used to save someone else's life. It's really quite cool, in fact, that there's a program like that, and I'm more than happy to be signed up as a part of it.
Furthermore, I am now registered to vote! [:
I am trying to take full advantage of my status as an adult and contribute the 0.000000001% (or whatever it is) of influence I have on what happens in this nation.
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY I AM AN ADULT.

Haha, how un-adult-like of me. Whatever, it doesn't matter. Everyone knows that if you love being a kid, you never really grow up inside. ^^

So, I'm supposed to receive my ID in about three weeks, which puts it around December 15th. That's perfect; I hope it arrives here before I head off to New York, because I'm not sure if the USC dorms accept mail and hold it for you over the Winter Break, since no one's going to be here. At least, that's what I think.

Hmmm.

Well, wow, at this point I think it's time for me to stop, before I develop arthritis from so much typing. That is all for now, my one avid reader, and I shall post more later, when more happens in my life!

toodles, xx.

birthday post

Today I am an adult by law.
23 November 2009;
Michelle Kwon has reached the age of majority.

I can now do the following without parental consent, as an eighteen year old resident of the United States of America.

I can vote.
I can own property.
I can obtain a driver's license.
I can serve on a jury.
I can buy cigarettes.
I can get a tattoo.
I can gamble.
I can buy lotto tickets.
I can get married.
I can get an abortion.
I can donate my body to science.
I can bear arms.
I can join the military.
I can be put into an adult prison.

But!
I cannot have a beer.

Heuh.

SO.
Considering all of those things that I can do now that I've reached the age of majority, what out-of-the-ordinary thing did I choose to do today?

In fact, I chose to donate blood.
Yes, ahm, on the 18th anniversary of my birthday, I hopefully gave a bit of life to some unknown person out there who needs it.
I was feeling altruistic.

It really wasn't bad at all, considering the things I've heard can happen afterwards; apparently, some people even faint. Eh. I felt slightly nauseated for about half a minute, then I just got up and nothing was wrong. They gave me some cheez-its and a bottle of water; I had that, then left. I wasn't even woozy, I just longboarded away and to my next class.

I actually felt really good about myself, during the whole process. It was sorta weird; while the nurse was putting the needle into my vein I kept smiling, and accidentally let out a chuckle at one point. She probably thought I was insane. Ah well.

Other things I've heard about blood donation is that you can 'feel' the blood coming out of you. However, I didn't feel a thing. And I understand that everyone is different, blah blah blah, but seriously, a lot of that must be in your head. I sat there and didn't feel a thing. I didn't feel like "part of me was being stolen", I didn't feel like "some of my body warmth was draining away", and I didn't feel like any part of the process was "creepy" in any way. These are things people in my classes told me. I didn't know about this beforehand, so I went in with no expectations or apprehensions - and felt nothing bizarre or strange. Just the pinch of the needle, of course, then a dull sort of soreness until it was over. Nothing more.

:P

The minimum physical requirements in order to be able to donate blood are that one be at least 17 years old and 110 pounds. I'm 18 years old today, and 128ish pounds, so I'm more than eligible for blood donation. Woohoo.

Anyway, the photo above shows the t shirt the Red Cross gave me for free as well as the bandage they put on my arm after I'd donated. I also got a coupon for a free ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery, which I suppose I will use one day in the near future.

Later in the day, a group of friends and I went to the Denny's across the street from campus, and I had my $10 discount on my meal that they give you on your birthday. I had an amazing sandwich with grilled rib meat, melted cheese, onions, and ahh it was so good! I also had a strawberry milkshake which was equally amazing :D .

Tonight, my friends are renting out a zipcar and we're going to what is advertised as "the best korean restaurant in Los Angeles". I'm excited! This is going to be the first time I'm having real korean food since starting school in mid August.

So;

YAY!

Alright, I'm off to get ready for dinner. I'll post again later, and tell you how San Diego was.
[:

San Diego, here I come!

I'm just saying this now quickly, I'm heading to San Diego in an hour and I won't be back until Sunday evening or early Monday morning. I'll take many photos while there and let you know how my birthday weekend went!

[:

receipt, fuzzy, and my schedule

Look what I found in the pocket of one of my sweaters that I haven't worn in ages; it's a receipt from the eating area at Assi Plaza in Flushing, Queens. It dates from 8 August 2009. I don't really know why I thought I would mention that, but I just found it to be interesting, and perhaps noteworthy enough to appear in this blog. I miss New York sometimes. I also miss Korean food sometimes. Heh. When I go back in December, I'm going to eat Korean food until I burst.

Anywho, that really has nothing to do with the main body of this blog post, I just thought I would mention it.













So first off, I'd like to discuss in brief, last Saturday. Fuzzy Festival 2009!

It was simply amazing. The music was great. There were a lot of DJs, and all of them were awesome, but the ones I remember for being particularly amazing were Thomas Gold, Le castlevania, and Showtek.

This actually isn't any of those people, but I thought this guy's shirt was pretty cool. Bahaha. So, I took a photo. :P

All in all, the night was wonderful. Great music, great atmosphere. Everyone was so happy, the happy feeling was contagious! And at a rave, no one really looks at how you dance when you're in the crowd, so everyone just did what felt natural to their bodies in response to the music. Like I said in a previous post, the bass makes me feel like I'm listening to the pulse of a giant, and dancing to that is amazing fun. ahhhhh yes. Booming house music in a crowded room of extremely happy people. Nothing quite like it.

Next: gosh. That post that I did about my computer battery reaching the end of its usable life?
Yea it turns out my computer wasn't kidding about that. My battery life has been reduced to about 45 minutes, and this value is rapidly declining. GAHHHH I emit noises of frustration at it.

As soon as I have enough money, I'm getting myself one of this, this, this, or this.

Windows 7 is having a deal for students where they can buy the OS for $29.99 before New Years, detailed here. I'm hoping that I can take advantage of that. *fingers crossed

The last thing I want to mention before I run and get ready for class is; HAHA my schedule for next semester is second to nothing in terms of awfulness.

My Wednesdays: start school at 9h, no break until 17h, and finish the school day at 20h.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
It's okay. I'll carry around food and coffee on those days.
It's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay. Yes.

The classes on there are:
CHEM-105BL; General Chemistry
BISC-220L ; Cell Biology and Physiology
MATH-125 ; Calculus I
CLAS-280g ; Classical Mythology (General Education, category 1)
FREN-220 ; French semester 3

... 20 credits.
I'm a masochist.

Alright, I shall post again later. For now, I really must run.
Later :]

meh.

I'm writing an essay, this will be extremely short but;
my computer just told me, "Your battery is reaching the end of its usable life."

... Ah great.
:P

quick post

I have class in ten minutes, so here's a very quick post;
I just wanted to say, that yesterday I think I accomplished a milestone feat in my life.
Yesterday, I was the most truly athletic that I have been, ever.
Woohoo I won't grow fat when I'm old!
Anyway, what happened was,
I got onto a treadmill,
and ran for the next hour.

Well, to be specific, here's what I did, in order:

5 minutes of walking
10 minutes of running
5 walking
5 running
5 walking
10 running
5 walking
5 running
8 walking
8 running
5 walking

So in total, it was an hour and a minute exactly.
Oh yes and by the by, each period of walking was 2 minutes of placid walking followed by 3 minutes of powerwalking.
The great thing about the treadmills here is that if you place your hands on a metal bar thing, it records your heart rate for you; so during the walking periods, I could make sure my heart rate didn't go too high. The display also helped me figure out at what rate I should breathe so that my heart and diaphragm don't start going into spasms.

I mean, this actually isn't such a strenuous run for the majority of people; it just makes me really happy because first of all, I've always been extremely unathletic, so I'm happy with myself for having worked my way up to this point, where I can powerwalk/run for an entire hour. I would never have been able to do that as little as three months ago. Hence, I'm proud of my progress, and pleased to see the tangible evidence that exercising is actually doing something to benefit me.
Furthermore, I always assumed that because of my asthma, I couldn't do anything athletic. This wasn't just a superficial belief, it was because every time I started doing something active, I would start wheezing and the asthmatic symptoms would come back.
Yesterday during that hour of running, I actually did not wheeze at all, and was able to even consciously control my breathing the whole time!

Even more than the act of running, that fact made me ridiculously happy.
I feel good.

[:

the Good, the Bad, and the Random.

I have some random stuff to discuss, which may be divided into the categories of GOOD, BAD, and RANDOM. Random, as is implied, denotes 'neither, but still of interest enough to be discussed in this post.'

When people tell me they have good news and bad news, the inevitable question that's always asked is, "Which do you want to hear first?"
My response is always, without exception, "the bad". So here goes, I'll tell you the Bad, then the Good, then the Random.

:P

THE BAD

My gums hurt! I have an inflamed spot on my gums under one tooth, here's a photo (as disgusting as it may be, at the very least I'm being informative, as that's the purpose of this here blog) :


The inflammation is really obvious, you can see it straight away on the left side of the photo there. Also, it's bleeding a tiny bit, which gets a lot worse whenever I brush my teeth. AHHHHHHHHHH MY TEETH ARE FALLING OUT.
Heh, kidding.

Well, my gums on that spot are revolting, and I'm hoping that given enough time, it'll go back to normal. I'm gonna intake as much vitamin C as possible >_>' .
This gum inflammation has made me realize that as soon as I'm working and have a stable income etc, I need to get some teeth pulled and my teeth straightened out. I think this inflammation, which is probably an infection, occurred because bacteria/microscopic bits of food got stuck between those two really crooked teeth (the one pushed really far back, and the one bulging out), which have literally zero space between them. So if something gets lodged in there, there's no way it's coming out. Some bacteria probably got stuck there and then worked their way down to my gums and attacked it. Ach. So disgusting. It hurts, itches, and is tender too! Ehhhhhh. Hopefully it doesn't develop into something ridiculous like periodontitis or... something along those lines. I'd like to keep my teeth, please and thank you. ^^

The next Bad Thing.
Some stupid kids in the building must've been drinking last night ("Thirsty Thursday", as it's called here, is party night at USC) and decided that it would be really fun to... Break some windows! Today, as a result, I got a couple of emails from USC saying, they have no idea who did it, but since this damage occurred in the New/North building (which, as an unrelated side note, is known as the party dorm), the cost to repair the windows ($1148 in total) is going to be split up amongst and charged to all of the building's residents. I mean, I suppose it's not that much per person then, probably about $20, but still, I'm not happy with the fact that everyone is having to pay for the mistake that a few stupid drunk kids made. Ah well. I have no idea who did it, and the people who did it definitely aren't going to take responsibility. Nothing I can do at this point, so I suppose ultimately it's better to just forget about it.

The third Bad Thing.
You know those two exams I studied for for three weeks?
Well, I scored less than the average score, on both of them. For Biology, just a little bit less, and for Chemistry, a lot less.
I don't know why I can't succeed. This is ridiculous. Okay, I'm not a genius, but I'm not dumb. I should be able to average a B, at least. What's going on??? Why is it that the other people here, who seem to party every night of the week, apparently are doing pretty well in school?
I get sick of this. I think at this point I won't be able to transfer anywhere either, as my GPA is too low. Maybe I'll just go back to New York and work for a year serving or something, save up some money, then go back to college at SUNY and start from the beginning all over again. And hopefully pass.
I hope I don't fail out of college this semester. I don't know how I'd move all my stuff back to New York on 17 December.
It's frustrating, because I know I shouldn't be complaining, it's no one's fault but my own that I'm not succeeding academically, but... I just feel like something is wrong. I don't even know what. Probably something to do with myself, and that's probably why I get so ridiculously frustrated. Because I should be able to change so easily, but I don't know how. Or can't. Or subconsciously don't want to? (as counter-intuitive as that sounds.)
AGH I'm going to have to stop contemplating this, I get really angry every time I start thinking about school and my performance.

*breathe*

Okay then.
Enough of the bad stuff, it's awful, now I'm in a terrible mood. Moving right along then, dear reader, let us discuss all the GOOD STUFF that's going on! :)

THE GOOD

First of all, this weekend, on Sunday, I'm going to see the Cirque du Soleil in Santa Monica! I know I've talked about this already in a previous post, but I just wanted to mention it again because I'm very, very excited for itt ^_^. I've heard so much about le Cirque, that now that I'm actually going to see it, I almost can't believe it. IT'S GOING TO BE AMAZING!!!
I will bring my camera and take photos, and post a couple on here so you can see the incredible, formidably awesome show that will take place, and what it was like. hehehehehehehe.

Next weekend, on Saturday 14 November, I'm going to another rave. I had so much fun at HARD, and it was such an amazingly excellent stress reliever, that if there's another rave for a reasonable price and I can a) find reliable transportation and b) get friends to go, I will most definitely be in attendance! The rave on 14th November is called The Fuzzy Festival; if you want to have a look at the website, it's right >>> here <<< . The line-up looks great, and it's not huge like HARD, but big enough to make for a good time; the venue fits 4000 people. HARD was 18000. I'm going with two friends who go to the California Institute of the Arts (I met them while they were visiting USC's campus), and one friend from USC. The friends from CalArts are a guy and a girl, and my friend from USC is a guy. Equal numbers are always good :) .
AHHHH FUZZY FESTIVAL WILL BE FUN AND GREAT AND AMAZING I LOVE RAVES!!!
I think what I love about raves specifically, is the music; when you're standing there and the bassline pounds relentlessly out of the speakers and through your chest, up your throat, and into your brain, it's like feeling the heartbeat of the Earth. I know that sounds kind of odd, but it's really true. At least, for me it is. So at a rave, I lose myself in the pulse of the music, and really, nothing else enters my mind while the music is playing. That must be why it's such a good stress reliever; everything gets washed from my consciousness for hours, leaving only that happy feeling you get when you haven't a trouble in the world, and can feel free to feel good.

Furthermore; I've made an appointment with the DMV, I'm finally going to get my California State ID made. Finally! So, at 14h15 on 24 November, I'm going to the DMV at 3615 South Hope Street (0.4 miles from my dorm, according to Google Maps) and filling out some forms and hopefully getting the process for creation of my ID started! Woo hoo!
However, I wonder what address I'd put on the ID? ... My dorm room? But then I'd have to get that changed at the end of the year... If I even stay here.... Heuh. Ach.
Well for now, I'll put my dorm room's address. I can always get that changed, whatever. It's not like it costs a fortune.
But ahhhhhhhhhhhh yes finally, I will have official identification that isn't my passport! I always felt a bit unsure about travelling around without any official ID whatsoever. And of course, I'm not going to carry my passport around everywhere with me. So yay for ID :) .

What else is good?
Ah yes, Jason and Ivanna have their permanent places of residence in San Diego. Ivanna saw that I had written "birthday" on my calender on 23 November, and now apparently I have to go to San Diego with them on the weekend before that, since I can't go home for my birthday. I think they're trying to get a lot of other people to go as well, but I have no idea what's going on with that. All I know is, they're being really very adorable and making plans to help me have a great birthday weekend. Sweeties. I love having friends :) . And, haha, I love Ivanna. I don't know if I mentioned that before, but I got really lucky; Ivanna's an awesome roommate, and we get along really well, she's definitely one of my better friends at USC now. So I'm thankful that I met her, and that we got put in the same room. If I'd been roomed with some of the other girls in this hall, I can tell that it would've been a miserable year for me. But Ivanna is so similar to me, that living with her is just so ridiculously easy; it's great. So she's really excited to get me down to San Diego to meet all of her friends, who she says are cool and who I would like. Hehe.

^_^

Ah, the good stuff makes me happy. Yes. And I believe that that is all for the good, at least for the moment, so now I'll move on to the Random.

THE RANDOM

Interesting background info before the story of Random:
USC thrives on three-letter acronyms. Every building has a name and a corresponding three-letter acronym that it will be referred to by. This makes for anextremely confusing first week of school, as us confused new students struggle to locate buildings whose names we try to decipher things like "RRB", "RTH", "JHH", and "NCT". The buildings in which I have class are SGM, THH, ZHS, WPH, VKC, SAL, SLH, and sometimes BOV. The funny thing is, after enough time at USC, people come to know all of these acronyms, and they roll off the tongue easily. And when you say them to another Trojan, they will understand you perfectly, and know which building exactly you're talking about.
ANYWAY. "EVK" is the three-letter acronym for "Everybody's Kitchen," the dining hall right below my Dorm building, which by the by, is called New/North. Today I was at EVK for breakfast, and one of the food options they were serving was quiche lorraine. I always think of quiche lorraine as, you know, quiche lorraine. Simple. But when I looked at the little label they attach to all of their foods, it read, "Lorraine Quiche". And I know that in English, that makes grammatical sense, but I couldn't help but laugh at how ridiculous that sounded. I mean, that sounds like a quiche that has something to do with someone named Lorraine. Maybe, made by someone called Lorraine?
... I have other ideas, but I won't mention all of them here.

Ho hum.

Oh yes and another Random, last thing before I go. I have biology lab sessions every Thursday morning, and yesterday morning we did dissections of various organisms. We dissected a perch (normal fish), a bullfrog, a lab rat, a dogfish (which is a kind of shark), and a lamprey (a parasitic leech-like fish with a skull but no backbone! How interesting, right?). It was really very fun, except it was so sad cutting up the rat. I love rats. I actually couldn't look when Brian, one of the people in my lab group, opened up the rat. It was awful. Poor rat. Why not use a mouse, eh? Why a rat??
Bah but then we get into the whole debate of why do animals of higher intelligence have more rights than those of lesser seeming cognitive ability? So I guess in the end I shouldn't have felt bad, but... still. Poor little rat. I love rats.
ANYWAY, the point of this bit was just to say, we did a lot of dissection and I had fun! I love dissections.

:D

Alright, whew, that's definitely enough for this post.
I shall blog at you again later ^^

HARD

Here's a quick post before I go eat breakfast.

I'm sorry I didn't post all of last week, I was incredibly busy. For the past three weeks I was studying for two exams I had on Thursday and Friday. After that experience, I realized that I shouldn't waste so many hours every day studying when the best I can do is pray that I pass anyway. So henceforth, I'm going to try and balance study, sleep, and relaxation time. Because up until HARD, I had been stressing out really badly; my skin quality completely deteriorated and I was running on fake energy derived from caffeinated drinks, because I was stressed and wasn't sleeping. So from now on, I'm just going to spend a reasonable amount of time studying, maybe two hours a day, then just relax and sleep. Otherwise I'm going to fail out of college, and that would be really very bad.

Anyway, that's what I was doing last week. Yes, I know, uneventful. Well, life can't always be fun and games, can it?

HOWEVER.
Saturday evening was the ultimate, best stress reliever I have ever, ever experienced.
HARD HAUNTED MANSION 2009!
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I think that evening, I had one of the best times of my life.
If you have a look at my youtube page, I've posted some videos I took during HARD that you can have a look at. Oh yes, and here's a photo of my costume, which I rather like.


So, from left to right, that's Ivanna, myself, and Alexa.

THE NIGHT WAS SO MUCH FUN!
It was ridiculous, eight hours of music, and really really good music at that. Ivanna was somewhat reserved, but Alexa and I just went crazy because we were so happy. She (Alexa) is also a science major and had been having the same stresses as me, so when we finally cam to this rave, we were both hysterical with joy and suppressed partying energy. :D

Excellent night. Excellent, excellent night.
Oh but apparently, while we were gone, our American football team went and played an away game at Oregon and lost miserably. Twenty something to seven, apparently.
Ouch.

Anyway, I'm going to go eat lunch now, I'll write more later when I think of more stuff to talk about :) .

A bientot, mes amis!

Happy Birthday, Albert! ^^

Happy Birthday, little brother. :)

american parties are awful.

This week, then. In this post I will discuss this week. Which really wasn't too eventful, but. Ah well.

For the beginning of the week, the beginning being all day on Monday, Tuesday, and much of Tuesday night, I was working ridiculously hard on an essay for my writing class that was due on Wednesday. I had planned for it last week, then outlined it over the weekend, and wrote it out on Monday/Tuesday. All in all, to make a long story short, I ended up extremely happy with the final product, and handed it in on time on Wednesday at the beginning of my writing class. Hopefully the good feeling I have about this essay corresponds to a good grade; that essay is 15% of the final grade of the course. Ah it will be fine, I should stop worrying about it.

Hmm. Ah, yesterday, on Thursday 22 October, I had academic advising with Dr. Erickson. She helped me construct, basically, my entire academic life plan for the next three and a half years. Yay, I know exactly what's going on. I like that.
As it turns out though, I have too many courses, and not enough spaces. That means, with the academic plan I have for myself, I am required to take 33 courses to get my degree. However, at USC, people take four courses per semester, for two semesters a year, totalling 32 courses over four years. Therefore, Dr Erickson says I need to take a summer class at a Community College close to where I live. Which seems like it would be alright, I'm going to try and get an internship or job this summer, as well as taking the summer course. Oh yes and, the course is French 3. Which would be sort of fun to study over the summer, I think. So it's all good.

At the moment it is 1:09 AM on Saturday 24 October 2009. However, I'm still living in Friday the 23rd, so for all intents and purposes, in this post I'm writing from the point of view of it being Friday still.

This evening I met some new people, through Jason, who is friends with them. Because he lives in the same dorm building as them, and they have mutual friends, etc etc etc, it's complicated, but basically, they are friends. Okay so a group of people and I, went to this Indian restaurant off campus today. It's not far, just a couple of blocks, and the restaurant itself is really sweet. The food is pretty nice as well; I've had better Indian food, but at the same time, I've definitely had worse. And the waiters were friendly and kind, and service was nicely fast. All in all, a good experience, and I'll definitely be going back there [: .

After we left the Indian restaurant, we went to a house party which was truly atrocious. There was very little music, and the entire party was basically about alcohol. Pitiful. I prefer European partying, where the main emphasis is on having fun, and if there happens to be alcohol, then so be it; but the purpose of the night will be to just have a good time with your friends and good music. I ended up leaving this pathetic house party after forty five minutes of standing around shifty eyed.

>_>
<_<>_>
<_<
v_v'

Shame, really. I've lost faith in the American people and their partying ability.

So, plans for the upcoming week:
Tomorrow/Today (ie Saturday), go see the USC vs Oregon State game at 5 pm!
Sunday, study and do homework.
Monday to Wednesday, school as per usual, as well as studying massively for:
Chemistry exam on Thursday, and
Biology Exam on Friday.
HARD HAUNTED MANSION ON SATURDAY!!!

Then nothing really is going on for a week.
I made reservations to go see the Cirque du Soleil with Julio in Santa Monica, though, and that is on Sunday the 8th of November. It'll be amazing, I've wanted to see the cirque du soleil forever. The show we're watching is called "Kooza". I hope it's amazing. I'm sure it will be.
The day before that, Wiley's frat is having a registered party, which basically means it's going to be huge. Hired professional DJ, and all that. Each of the frats can only have a very limited number of registered parties a year, so when they have one, it's massive and planned out for months beforehand. They even do construction work around the fraternity house, which I think is a bit over the top, but why not. Wiley says that that Saturday the 7th November is going to be incredible and unbelievably exciting. So. I figured I'd go. The registered party at a frat that I went to before was really fun, so I think this time round it'll be even better, since Wiley's frat has more money and devotes more time to this sort of thing.

Right. Well, that's all I have to say for now. Shall post again soon [:

i can see clearly now the rain has gone ^^

While it was cold, grey, and dreary in the morning, it finally stopped raining in LA today! In the early afternoon, the sun came back out and dried everything up, and the streets are traversable again. Ah I'm happy.

By the way, of course I used an umbrella while out around campus. I still have my tiny blue umbrella that I bought at Duane Reade in Manhattan, but I have a far superior umbrella now.


As you can see, it is large and black and white. Has a lot more personality than that little cheap thing from Duane Reade. I love it. And every time the sky looks wet, I take it around with me and merrily go on my way :) .
So as a result, I never get wet when it rains, except for the bottom of my pants, and my socks. Other than that, it's all good. Woohoo. ^^

Hmmm, I look really fat in those photos. DON'T WORRY MOM AND DAD, it's because I'm wearing a very loose shirt. I'm living healthily, I promise. Oh yes and that ridiculous pose in the second photo, haha, I only did it because my roommate told me to. Usually, I have more dignity than that. Really.

One thing I noticed; I really need a haircut. I don't think I can wait until the middle of December, by that time it'll be way too long. Alexa says she needs a cut too, so she's looking around for a hairdresser that actually looks good, and when she finds one, we're going to get our hair cut together :P . I wonder if they have a Supercuts around here? That place is pretty cheap. I don't want to pay too much for a haircut, HARD has taken up a significant portion of this month's budget.

Bleh. Money.

I've been thinking, and I realized that I definitely need a driver's license and California state ID. As soon as possible. Off campus, it's difficult to do anything without any form of identification, I feel like an illegitimate person. And thinking about it, it would be so much easier if I had a driver's license and thus could rent a car for a day or even just a few hours when I need it, such as if I want to go buy large cases of water etc. At the moment, I have to go with a friend, or carry 24 half-liter bottles of water back by hand. It's ridiculous. And at the end of the school year, how am I going to take all of my stuff to the storage center place? Ahhhhh. I need to rent a car and take boxes and boxes of things a few blocks to the place, but. How? Either I ask a huge favor of a friend, probably Jason, or hire a truck or something. Ach. It would be easier to be able to rent a car and do it myself. Cheaper too. Probably much cheaper.

Speaking of public storage for the summer, I found a place that's very close to campus and offers a summer package to USC students.

Their website is right here, if you want to have a look.

Apparently a lot of kids use it, and they're trustworthy; seems good to me. A huge advantage is definitely in the fact that they're so close, so even if I don't have a license and a membership with the local rental car company, as a last resort it wouldn't be too bad hiring a truck, it's not like they'd have to go across the entire city or anything.

Next topic of discussion, then.
One thing I want to come back to is HARD. The thing is, I know that typically raves are full of poor strange people and whatnot, but for one, not everyone can go to HARD. To enter, you need to buy an admission ticket which is, to say the least, very costly. Like I said earlier, a large portion of my budget for this month is going to Halloween evening. And that's only admission! So, that eliminates the poor people from the potential dangers at the rave. Furthermore, I'm going with a lot of friends; apparently some of Ivanna's friends from high school are going to be there too. And more and more of my friends at USC are being convinced to go. So I definitely won't be alone, ever. Lastly, it's illegal to drink alcohol under the age of 21 in the United States. Hard is accessible to people of all ages, so no alcohol is going to be served there.

And I have common sense.

So nothing is going to happen, don't worry about me. It'll just be an extremely fun night, that's all. ^_^

Meh.

Today I had two exams. One was for my Biology Laboratory session, and I have a good feeling about that one. Hopefully, my feeling is accurate, and I did at least moderately well. The other was for my Chemistry Laboratory session, and while I'm sure I didn't do brilliantly, at the same time, I know I didn't fail. So I hope that turns out alright as well.

When I return to New York in December... There are many things I want to do. I would love to go shopping for Max and mail stuff to his family :) . I want to spend a lot of time with Umma, Appa, and Albert. Being at university has made me realize that no one treats you exactly like your family does, be it in a good or bad way. Ha. I kid, I kid.

And well, to be honest, I don't want to see the large majority of the people I used to call my 'friends'. When I saw them this past summer, they had all become very... Typically spoiled American teenage girls.

*long sigh**

Human corruption has limitless reaches.

I do want to see and spend a lot of time with Mr Sklar, Sean, and Cathy though. Those are the three people I remember being remarkably the same, as wonderful as I remember them being :) . Ah, I really like it when people stay good even when the world around them is corrupted and full of evil and despair. Some people, you want to be friends with forever. For me, those people are very few and far between. But of all of the people I knew in New York, those three are who I want to stay in contact with endlessly into the foreseeable future.

I figure, if I stay close emotionally to those who seem to be the most decent people I know, then together, we're invincible.

rain, rain, go away.

Today was the second day of continuous rain here in Los Angeles, California.
The rain is pretty depressing in this city. It's not the heavy, dramatic, exciting rain like in New York; rather, it's the slow dreary drizzle you get a lot in Geneva, and it's constant.

As if instead of getting your hand chopped off in one sudden blow, it's eaten off bit by bit by fire ants.

Ah... It is dreary.

I'd much rather a sudden downpour to come and render everyone awestruck with its ferocity, then the sun to come out again and dry everything up. As it is, it's been soggy and damp for the past two straight days, without a hint of drying up anytime soon. As a result, everything I wear becomes wet and gross, and needs to be hung up on all of my furniture for many many many hours before I can throw it in the hamper. The air is humid, it feels heavy in your lungs. Things decay faster, and the plant life is drowning. Everything in general smells worse than it should, because everything is soaking up water from the air. Time passes slower, and everywhere you can hear the shrill sounds of sorority girls complaining about their hair and clothes.
Ah. Tedium tedium tedium.

Yes... USC doesn't really look its best in the rain, does it? Heh.

I saw these fellows while walking on the way back to my dorm from my history class.
...One thought that occurred to me was,
"What are seagulls doing here, in the middle of the desert during a rainy spell?"

...Ah yes. Look at this veritable lake engulfing the entire walkway. There's about 10 centimeters of brick on the left side that one can tiptoe across in the manner of a dainty hippopotamus, but really, this says something about the efficiency of the sidewalk drainage system here at USC. Then again, USC doesn't really need a sidewalk drainage system, as apparently on average, it rains for only 10 or so days a year here. So I suppose it's forgivable, but still. I miss the efficiency of sidewalk drainage that they had in Geneva.

Another thing about the rain is, I can't use my longboard when it's raining. I mean, well, it is physically possible, of course, but I don't want my bearings to rust. If the board is constantly exposed to water, I'm afraid that the trucks and bearings will quickly degrade, which wouldn't be good. If that happened, the wheels wouldn't turn on the axes as well, and making turns would be much more difficult. Furthermore, I'd have to replace the parts sooner, which definitely isn't a good thing. I mean, decent bearings alone can cost anywhere from 50 to 100 U$D, and that's not even considering the trucks, kingpin, bearing spacers, wheels, etc etc. All in all at least a couple hundred dollars. I am not willing to spend that much money on replacing parts on my board because I was unintelligent enough to ride it when I shouldn't have.

There are some people riding their boards in the rain, though. Which I find to be somewhat foolish, obviously. Their poor boards, I see them ride by with their trucks completely covered in a sheath of water, and I sigh. They will have to get new boards soon. I made a few friends who longboard here, and some of them do that; then, they wonder, "Why does my board not ride as smoothly as yours, Michelle?"

Oh, I wonder.

Anyway.
Enough talk about the rain, it's depressing enough as it is without me going on and on about it. Moving right along, then.

For the longest time, I had no plans for Halloween, as I didn't think it would be important to plan anything for the holiday. I figured, I would just sleep early or something.
Ha!
You see, I'd forgotten what a huge, big deal Halloween is in America. While in France/Switzerland, I grew accustomed to thinking that while Halloween is acknowledged, it's something that people put a halfhearted attempt into, but don't really care that much about.
What a shock I had, then, when I came here and saw people making Halloween plans from the end of September! In fact, my roommate had made plans for Halloween before she even came to USC, which was in mid-August!

Wow.

So the day before yesterday, a group of friends were admonishing me about my lack of plans for the Hallow's Eve, and I inquired as to what I might do, then, to pass the time on the annual day of celebration of horror, nightmares, and the creepy-crawlies.
They told me about this AWESOME EXCITING THING THEY'RE GOING TO,
which actually does look pretty awesome and exciting. So I decided to go to it, and now I'm going :P . It's called HARD Haunted Mansion, and it's two nights, but I'm only going on Saturday 31 October. Basically, it's a giant rave at this place called the Shrine, which is right next to the campus on the north side. A rave is like a discoteque or nightclub, but with electronic-techno-house sounding music, a lot more people, a lot more lights, and sometimes dry ice. Hence a lot more adrenaline, and thus a lot more fun :D .

Dictionary.com provides a lot of definitions for the word 'rave', but the two I found to be closest to the meaning I present in this context are;

rave (n) :

1. An all-night dance party, especially one where techno, house, or other electronically synthesized music is played.

2. Chiefly British A raucous party; a rave-up.

HARD's poster is as follows:


So, that's what's doing on Halloween for me. I'm ordering a costume off of Amazon, because in order to buy one from a store, I'd have to get a friend, most likely Jason, to rent a car and then take me up to somewhere to shop. Then I'd most likely spend hours looking for an outfit, and possibly not find one. If I did, I'd pay for it, pay tax, then get poor Jason who'd been waiting for hours to take me back, and of course I would have to pay for the car rental because the trip was taken on my behalf.

All in all, it just seems much easier to choose a costume that comes with free shipping online, and pay for them to bring it straight to my dorm. Right? Right.

At first, I was told to dress as a sailor, but there weren't any sailor woman outfits online that made me very happy. So I decided to dress as a policewoman instead. Albeit a somewhat liberal policewoman, but a policewoman nevertheless.

One of my very close friends here, named Julio, was having a bad day today. He's having a hard time with school, he's not very involved on campus, his skin is breaking out with acne, and in general he's just feeling really down about everything. So for a while this afternoon I sat in his room and we talked about everything that came to his mind. In fact, it was one of the most profound discussions I've had so far at USC. I was very intrigued, as I thought no one in my year at USC really had very deep thoughts. Anyway, my point is, Julio is a really good friend of mine. After we had spoken for a good long while and he was feeling better about himself and life in general, I proceeded to invite him to come to HARD. Julio told me once that he's a shy sort of person, but he really wants to get out there, because being exceedingly shy is a handicap. Of course. That's true, yes? I figure, he should have fun at HARD, so I asked him to come. And upon hearing the description, he agreed with fervor. I'm very glad, as I relate very much to being shy and finding it hard to put yourself out there and take advantage of opportunities that present themselves. So now Julio's coming to HARD, and as far as I'm aware, the people going are myself, Ivanna (my roommate), Ivanna's little brother (of 15 years), Ivanna's female cousin (I think she's the same age as us), Julio, Jason, Rachelle, Ellie, and... Yes. The last two are girl friends of mine, who are in this 'circle' of friends I seem to have developed. So yaaay, we have a group going. It will be good.

Ho hum.
Guys seem to have issues with creativity when it comes to thinking up costume ideas, but not Julio. Haha. At first he was pensive and confused, but when I told him I was going as a policewoman, he instantly brightened up.
"Oh, I know! I can go matching you!"
"...oh? Will you be a fellow police officer, then?"
"Nono, I'll be your convict!"

HAHAHAHAHAHA it's so brilliant!
I'm excited for the matchingness. I've never dressed to match or be a set with someone, ever, so this should be interesting.

And last thing I'll mention briefly before I go;
What's a "sonic forest"?

Apparently, there's one set up here. Basically to me, it just looks like a lot of emergency poles emitting random noises.

What you do is, stand next to one and wave your hand in front of the little holes in the poles you can see in the photo. A motion detector will sense that your hand is there, and the pole will emit some random noise. I don't really know. When I walk past it and there are people there, it just sounds like a jumble of unharmonious, jarring notes.

Ah well. That's all I have to say for now.

A la prochaine, mes amies :)

letters, rain, exercise, and skin.

I just got a letter from home today. ^^
In it, Albert says he made a city in simcity named after me. And that the letter was written with a pen bought from Harvard.

Haha, very nice Albert, very nice.
How was Harvard? And Boston in general?
Write me an email, little brother, and let me know. I'm sure it was great.

Home in New York seems so far away right now. And home in France seems even further. It's interesting because, I miss certain aspects of being at home, but at the same time, I love living away from absolutely everything that used to be 'everything'. I also love USC with a passion. Everything about it is great; the people are nice (sort of), the architecture is gorgeous, the teachers care, and the weather is fantastic.

Speaking of the weather, though;
Blue moon tonight!
For the first time since I've been here, it was raining all day today in Los Angeles. Water seems like a commodity in this here dry city in the middle of the desert that is constantly in danger from fire and blistering heat. So, rain! The people here who are from the area, they love it, as they don't see that much rain, ever. My roommate, who's from San Diego, was really into the rainy thing. And yes, I appreciate the rain, but having lived in Geneva for nearly five years, and New York before that, it has become much less of a 'new' novelty phenomena for me. Still though, I appreciated seeing the campus of USC in a light that differed from the constantly, perfectly sunny weather that it usually has.

Unfortunately though, I was caught in the rain with Merlin, as it started to rain during my first class. I had to get back to my room, which was across campus, and I was wearing a t shirt, jeans, canvas shoes, and a large backpack. And I had a longboard with me. So in no time at all, I was soaking wet, as was Merlin. Poor thing, I bet that really hurt his bearings. Anyway, when I noticed that Merlin was sopping wet, I got sick of slogging through the puddles with my soaking wet feet in my soaking wet socks in my soaking wet shoes. So I hopped onto Merlin and sped toward my dorm, which was still a fair distance away. And I didn't notice until I was nearly there, but a puddle of water had formed on the deck (where I put my feet), that was sloshing around and getting everything below my knees soaked.

By the by, this puddle had formed because Merlin's deck has a downward indent in the center. This is known as a "concave" shape of deck, and it helps to 'lock' your feet in while boarding. Hence, it contributes to the immense stability I was talking about in an earlier post, while I was first discussing Merlin.

Anyway, the conclusion of my story is a bit anticlimactic. I apologize for this. The long and short of it is, I entered my building looking like the baby of the Loch Ness Monster and a bit of roadkill that's been lying on the motorway for a good few weeks.
Yay!

And lucky me, I ran into someone I know just as I turned the corner to try to run to my room without being seen.

"Oh hi! Wow!"
"...Yea.... Hehe. I've been, y'know, running around outside. For kicks. As you do."

Whatever. It's all good. [:

Oh! Something else I think is worthy of mention.
Today for the first time in my life, I ran until sweat ran over my skin in rivulets and my shirt was completely soaked, as if someone had dunked it into a body of water. When I touched my face, my hand came away with water running down the fingers. I think even my legs were sweating. HA. I was really into the run.
It was great, though! I'm definitely going to have to make a habit of this running business. Afterwards, I got a wonderful dump of endorphins into my bloodstream, resulting in the well-known "runner's high". I was so happy and dazed for a while. And ah, one of the best feelings in the world: A shower right after you've exerted yourself to the point where your skin feels more like water than skin.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

According to the treadmill though, I only burned two hundred something calories. That can't be right, it felt like I used at least a hamburger's worth of energy.

But that's not of significance. Moving on.
Then, I went and got dinner with my roommate. Ah I love food. Haha.
Wow I'm going to get fat this year, if I'm not careful.

So, I've decided to run every other day, for kicks.
Oh yes and, I don't know how well this is going to go, but I want to be able to do one hundred consecutive good form push ups by the end of the academic year. Heuh.
I figure, I'll alternate days; ie, one day I'll run, the next I'll do push ups, then the next day run again, etc etc.
Well, something will figure itself out.

Ah, either at the end of this week or next week, the official halfway point of the semester will have arrived! That is, I will have completed 50% of the chronological commitment I have to this semester at USC.
Then I go back to New York for three weeks.
I'm excited for that.
I miss Manhattan.

Something I noticed the other day;
My skin is declining rapidly in quality. Maybe it's the lack of sleep I've experienced, or the relatively unhealthy food I've been eating, or an amalgamation of both. I hope I spelled that right. Amalgamation? Heh.


I have no idea if you can see it there, but I tried to take that photo specifically so the poor quality of my skin is visible. I'm indicating my forehead in particular, as you can see, because that's where I seem to be getting a LOT of pimples. AHHHHHHH I HATE PIMPLES.
I haven't changed anything in my daily hygiene routine, so I have no idea why I'm breaking out.
How irritating.

But eh, I suppose that's just a minor thing, nothing to get worked up about.
The main thing right now is, I'm so happy I ran! I really really hope I manage to make that a habit. It felt amazing.

Alright well, that's all for now. I have a quiz tomorrow, and two exams on Thursday to study for. So I'm off to do that now.

All the best. ^^

the rose garden

This afternoon, a friend and I visited the Los Angeles Rose Garden in Exposition Park. Or whatever it's called.
It was very nice indeed. And the flowers, when you looked at them one by one, were truly wonderful.

Here's one photo I took:


I had a good time :) .

Oh, on the way back, I passed by the Science Center and sat outside it for a little while. There was this one sculpture/piece of artwork that really caught my eye, it was extremely well made.


Unfortunately, I only took a photo of one side of it. I should've gotten the other side too. However, this side was the one that caught my attention the most, just because... Well, I don't really know why. But I like the gear and the film reel and the music notes thing going on there.

Yay. ^_^

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I just woke up from one of the most involved dreams I have had for the past couple of months.

So first of all, it's important to know that I have reconciled myself to the fact that I will never see Max alive again.

My dream went like this;

I started off at USC. It was just another normal day, waking up, going to class, etc etc. All of a sudden I got a call from... who was it? I have no idea, but in my dream it was someone I knew. I just don't remember who.

Anyway, the call went as follows;
me: "Hello?"
"Hi! Are you busy right now?"
"No not really, I just got out of class. Why?"
"Well, you sort of need to go back to Switzerland right now."
"What?! Why?!"
"That's not important, you just really have to go."
"... Okay." (remember, this is me talking to someone I know and trust, not just some random stranger) "...What do I do?"
"Pack your things, catch a cab, and be at LAX at terminal 2 in 4 hours."
"But I don't have a flight ticket or anything."
"You do actually, it's been purchased for you. [Insert name of other person I know] is gonna be waiting at the airport for you, so you get it there."
"Ahhhh okay okay I'm on my way, then."
"Alright, cya."
*hang up

So I raced back to my dorm (I had my longboard with me), got out a bag, and just started throwing stuff in there like clothes, books, etc. When I was done, I called a Yellow Cab. For some reason it got there right away, so I ran downstairs, got in, and sat there twiddling my thumbs all the way to LAX. I arrived at the airport at 18h on the dot, which I remember because in my dream it was 14h when I got the call. A friend (I wish I remembered who it was!) met the cab and helped me unload my things, then jogged with me to the gate. Blah blah blah, eventually we boarded the plane. The flight was uneventful, and then I arrived at the airport in Geneva, Switzerland.

I have no idea why, but somehow, the family who adopted Max was there to pick me up. And for some reason, I thought that was completely normal. So we greeted each other casually, they helped me load my stuff into their car, and off we went to their house.

Somehow this whole time I wasn't even cognizant of the fact that in a few short minutes I was going to see my Max again.

Upon arrival at their home, I got my bag out of the trunk, then strode through the gate on my way to the door. A couple meters in though, I stopped short because.
Ah.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Max was sleeping on the walk up to the front door, on his side with his legs and neck stretched out, in that position he loved to sleep in when the sun is shining and it's all warm. I remember it so vividly, and in my dream I could see every detail of his beautiful self. So, thunderstruck, I stopped short and held my breath; when I exhaled, without realizing it, I said, "Max..." as a half-sigh, half-word.

When I made that sound, Max lept up and ran towards me in a friendly manner, but.
Ahhhhhhh.
It wasn't the manner that he approaches someone when he knows them. It was the friendly manner that he approaches everyone in, including strangers. It meant that I'd become a stranger to him.

Well of course I wasn't going to just stand there when my lovely beautiful gorgeous sweet Max was saying hello, even if he didn't recognize or remember me. I dropped to my knees and cried into his face while stroking him like the weak-hearted undignified fool that I am.

Oh Max.

And so in my dream, the next few weeks were spent living with this family who had adopted Max. I got to know them and their kids pretty well, which was nice, they were all good people. And I spent so much time with Max. Ah! Max! Sadly, the whole time, he treated me with the distant friendliness he treats everyone with. He didn't recognize me, ah. AH! I was so awfully sad about that, but at the same time, I was just so happy to be around him again that I really didn't mind.

Then the time came for me to leave. As in, go back to Los Angeles to resume my studies. And probably never see Max again.

So the whole last day, I sat on their front lawn with Max beside me. It was really. Sad.

*sigh

The last moment came. I was going to get in the car and drive off in half an hour.
Blinded by tears, I crouched in front of Max and held his face, like I used to love doing. He seemed to understand the seriousness of the situation, and solemnly stared into my eyes, which always made me laugh a bit. Chuckling as I cried, I stroked his forehead in a way that I love, then scratched a place on his neck that he loved getting itched. In a specific manner that he also adores. And suddenly, right then, he remembered me! As in, he remembered me from the house in France. His reaction to the sudden realization was so blatant, it was amazing. With a half yowl-half cry, he jumped up and started kissing my face with such exorbitant energy... And at one point he couldn't restrain himself, and so started doing helicopters and whimpering with excitement. Max! I bawled hysterically and held on to him, haha.

There was a gentle tap on my shoulder. Glancing up, I saw the man of the house looking down at me with a sympathetic expression on his face.
"We have to go in five minutes, I'm sorry." he said.

Ah, Max, Max, Max. Just when you remember me, the time has come for me to leave. What to do, my sweet little baby, what to do?!

But of course, there was nothing I could do. It was time for goodbye. That awful, awful word.

I whispered into his ear,

"Max, Max baby, I don't think I'll ever see you again. Please forgive me, I love you, but please please forget me so you can live the rest of your life happily. I love you so much Max, I know you know it. If I ever see you again though, I'll scratch that place on your neck, and I hope you'll remember me that way. If not, live well my darling, all of my thoughts are with you, all of them. I love you Max. I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you..." And I collapsed into undignified sobs.

Those were my exact words though, I remember the scene in crystalline detail.

I woke up sobbing hysterically, my pillow drenched in tears. Ah I am a wuss. Yes.

I love Max.
I miss Max.

I'll never see Max again.

Ah.

darling... I'm sorry.

random stuff

So. I have a few things to say. First off, I now have a longboard! Finally! I've wanted one since last summer, and now I have gotten around to purchasing it. Actually, I got it a little while ago, and so it's not quite as new as it was when this photo was taken, but here's a picture of the underside of the deck:



It's a Landyachtz Spud, and I am cool enough to have named it. Heh. His name is, Merlin. At first, I was used to the classical top mount flat deck type of board, so I took a little while to get accustomed to the feel of this board. However, after the first couple of days, this board proved to me the pure genius of those innovative minds who design longboards. This board rolls like it's moving over oil, though I suppose that might just be because the bearings are new. Though its turning radius isn't quite as tight as say, a typical Sector 9 pintail, it's still very agile and makes it relatively easy to slalom through pedestrians on foot, woohoo. The interesting thing about this board is, it's so agile, but at the same time it's literally built like a tank. I have yet to ride a board that feels more stable than this. A lot of boards, they feel like they're moving around under your feet and you have to make sure to keep your balance or else they'll throw you... The Spud, however, it feels like you're just standing on the ground. That's how stable it is. I love this board, really. Really really really. Longboarding has become my anti-drug; when I'm feeling ridiculously stressed and can't work anymore without going crazy, sometimes I just take Merlin out and I cruise around campus listening to music for about 30 minutes to an hour. And when I get back to my room and continue working, I feel completely relaxed and able to focus. It's great. I love Merlin.

Moving on, then.
Random thing that I would like to say; I vacuumed my room for the first time this past Thursday! I greatly appreciate my vacuum cleaner, it's so cute and efficient. So late at night, while my roommate was doing homework and we were listening to music at a reasonably cacophanous volume, I bustled around with this vacuum cleaner, et voila, in ten minutes the floor had become so much cleaner. I am not kidding, the change was visible. As I write this, in fact, I look at the floor and feel joyous at the level of cleanliness that is evidenced before my very eyes. I had been lazy before this, but from now on, I'm planning on vacuuming regularly. It's a very stress-relieving experience.

Speaking of stress.
I've been having midterm exams for the past two weeks, and this coming week is the third and last week of exams. This whole college thing is a lot more stressful than I thought it would be.
Recently, I came to a realization concerning myself that was quite a revelation on my part. Mostly because I feel like I've known this my whole life, but I'd been forcing it to the deepest depths of my subconscious in abject denial and fear of the truth.

Here, the thing is, right.

I'm just not smart.

I can't believe I didn't admit this to myself earlier! I would always get frustrated at bad grades, and not understand why I couldn't be at the top of the academic pile.
Well now I know.
That, plus I was lazy in high school. Which I've always known, much to my chagrin.

So far in university, I think I'm averaging a C. I really had no idea why I wasn't doing better, considering the fact that while everyone who lives in my building is out partying and drinking every night (and trust me, it's every night - I hear them shouting outside my bedroom window), I sit around in my room going over lecture notes and doing homework. While everyone else sleeps on Saturday and Sunday mornings until at least 12, I'm awake at 8 to finish up my homework, do readings for classes, and study for whatever is coming up that week. Which I do until well into the evening. While everyone else is out making friends and spreading themselves thin because of their intensely overloaded social lives, I stay in and try not to spread myself thin because of my intensely overloaded academic life.
Somehow, though, everyone else seems to be coping with their schoolwork better than I am.
One of my closest friends here is in a fraternity, and he's out with his frat brothers minimum three nights a week, until at least 2 AM. One of those three nights it's obligatory to stay until 3 AM, and the other two he's allowed to leave the frat house between 1 and 2. He's taking the same biology and chemistry classes as me. And even though he parties so much, and is busy with frat duties etc etc, he still has a much higher GPA than I seem to be able to obtain.

And I didn't know why.
Ha!

So now that that mystery has been solved, I can finally stop hating myself and just accept the mental capacity I have, and stop lying to everyone, including me. Of course, it's frustrating, believe you me. But it would seem to me that it would be best to approach life with a nihilistic outlook, which I've been doing for about five years now. This mindset has helped me to realize that as stressful as everything may get, ultimately nothing is really worth all of one's energies, because in the end, what is it that truly mattered in life?

Nothing.

So during one's lifetime, one should try to maintain two things; happiness, as much as is possible, and financial independence. That's all life really has to offer, I figure. And when it's done, it's done.

Basically this boils down to; I will not kill myself over my inequality to others who are naturally more capable than I. I'll just do my best as it is and not get frustrated. Yes. And I can motivate myself with the thought that a diploma from USC always looks good. I just hope to raise my average to a B by the end of this school year.

Heh, a large group of people are playing Marco Polo in the hallways of my dorm right now. They're screaming and sound a little bit hysterical. Which surprises me, as Saturday night is a party night here, but it's only 18h20; they've started a bit early tonight, I see.

Actually, I'm really tired right now. I think I'm going to go nap, then wake up later tonight and keep doing homework. I want to get 80 pages of reading from a book done for my writing class today, and so far I've done 40. So, 40 more to go. And then I'll make an essay plan based on the text, its implications, and a prompt that my professor gave us.

For now though, ach, I'm so tired. I have to sleep.

Goodnight world, I will see you in a few hours.

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