I have a huge chemistry exam in the afternoon today (at 15:30) which I need to study for like crazy, and on top of that I just had a pretty saddening argument with one of my closest friends here. Plus, North Korea attacked the Korean border, and South Korea returned fire!
Hi! The photo above is not me right now, like I usually do, but I took that photo on the train on the way coming back from San Luis Obispo, to Los Angeles. I just wanted to put up some photos I took while on the train, because when I pasted the entry I'd written during the commute, I was kind of in a rush, which is also why I didn't correct my typos. I'm sorry! :(
Anyway, here are some photos! I hope you enjoy! It was a truly beautiful train ride! [:
My ticket. ^^
Here are the rock formations I mentioned, giant boulders everywhere and such:
Here is one of the farms I saw;
And here's the Pacific Ocean!
This is a very old fashioned looking train I saw at one of the stops. I thought I'd take a photo of it, because it just looks very... a la Americana. Do you know what I mean?
By the way, the weather this week has been rather gloomy, in Los Angeles. For once it's chilly and windy, and I wear long pants and sweaters everywhere. Interesting. Today some friends and I were planning to go to Six Flags, but that ended up not happening, obviously, because according to weather.com, it will rain today. Well, there is an 80% chance of raining. So, we decided not to risk it.
Tonight, I'm going to go see Harry Potter 7 with Cameron and Ivanna! That should be fun, my friends who went to the premiere had mixed views of it, but in general people said it was definitely good. So I'll let you know how that goes. I'm excited.
Okay well, that is all I have to say for now, I'm going to go study because I have an exam on Tuesday I really have to do well in... So, au revoir!
A bientot mes amis! michelle
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Hello hello!
I have news!
First of all, on Tuesday 16 November 2010, Bill Nye the Science Guy came to USC to speak! His speech was mostly about the health of the planet Earth, and what we can do as members of the global community to preserve the planet and live in a sustainable manner. He also spoke about the position of the Earth in relation to other planets in our galaxy, like Mars, as well as our entire galaxy, and then other galaxies, and then the entire universe. Basically, it was a talk based on environmental and astronomical sciences.
Did you know that Bill Nye's highest educational qualification is an undergraduate degree, in Mechanical Engineering? :o Man if only society worked like that now too.
Anyway, it was an amazing experience, and as Appa knows, I have loved Bill Nye ever since I was ridiculously young! Hearing him speak live, seeing him on that stage, it made me so happy. ^_^
Unfortunately... He fainted towards the end of his presentation, I was legitimately terrified. He just collapsed onto his side, laid there for ten seconds, and then got up and said, "Woah, that was weird. Did I just pass out? How long was I out for?"
I will not lie to you, I had tears in my eyes. Bill Nye, my childhood hero, had just collapsed on stage in front of me. It was a very traumatizing realization of mortality, considering I had looked up to that man for so many years of my childhood.
You know what really disappointed me? When he collapsed, everyone grabbed at their pockets, pulled their phones out, and began to text. It was a very disturbing sight, as no one leapt onto the stage at first, to help him. Not only that, but people were taking photos of him on the floor of the stage, and of the ambulance and fire trucks that drove up to the building to take care of him. Have they no shame, or respect? I was very ashamed of the USC population at that moment.
The official line is that he collapsed because of exhaustion, you can read the story published in the USC newspaper here: http://dailytrojan.com/2010/11/16/bill-nye-speaks-at-bovard-about-global-climate-change/ However, honestly it looked to me like he had a miniature stroke... I was terrified.
Apparently though, he's feeling better now, thank goodness. I hope in the long term he's okay. I will keep track and keep you updated!
Anyway, moving on; last Thursday (11 November 2010), I was in my Holocaust class, which is my General Education Category 5 class. The professor handed back my two term papers that I've written so far this semester, out of three total that will be graded this semester. I got A on both of them! I was sooooooooooo happy! I hope I get an A in that class! That would make me so happy, and would be a great start to the winter break. ^_^
Furthermore, today I got my new California State ID in the mail today, I'm glad. Here's a photo;
My photo is better than the last one, thank goodness! Haha.
Anyway, I have to go to a PHE meeting now, so... Blog again later! ^_^
Well, I'm visiting Tom for the weekend at his university (California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo campus).
I wrote an entry on the train, so I'll copy paste it here:
Oh yes and I'm sorry about the terribleness of the picture, the train was really shaky, the amount of light was overwhelming, and it's awkward to smile at my computer in public, which is why I'm making such a strange face... ^_^;
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Right now, it is noon on 12 November 2010. I am on an Amtrak train on the way to visiting Tom in San Luis Obispo! This weekend will be fun. :) I look forward to meeting all of his friends, whom he has told me about, and seeing him and his girlfriend again!
I was sitting alone for a while, having boarded the train at 10... However, just now an old woman sat down next to me. She's very awkward and refuses to speak or look at me. So, I am being equally as awkward and refusing to look or speak at her and just typing on my computer. At the moment, I'm writing in font size 6, color very light grey, so that she won't be able to read it, because I feel like she would be offended if she read what I just wrote. I'm writing on a word processor, because the train has no wireless internet connection available, as far as I'm aware. Or, well, there is one, but my computer can't connect to it. So I'm just writing on the processor for now, and I will copy paste this into my blog later.
Ah it is really beautiful outside, the scenery as I go from south central Los Angeles to further north in California is breathtaking indeed. So far, I've seen rock formations that are rather impressive up close, whole fields of gigantic boulders that look like they easily weigh at least one ton each! On the other hand, I've seen vast farms with picturesque rows of vegetation, looking so wonderfully neat and orderly... I love California, I feel like the cliched saying of “Once you go to California, you never leave” … might actually be true! At least, for me. This is a really beautiful state, and I'm so fortunate to be able to go to university here. Many people spend their university years feeling like miserable academic recluses, wehre I... I am on a train looking out the window at glorious Californian scenery, waiting to see a great friend of mine whom I rarely get to meet. Life for me in this moment of time is very content, and I am pleased with everything right now.
However, I do have a large project due on Monday, which I'm going to have to work on this weekend! That shouldn't be a problem though, as Tom and his friends are allpretty studious and devote a lot of time to their studies. Also, Tom is apparently always asleep by 23:00 or so, which gives me at least two or three hours every night to get some work in before going to sleep myself. So, the project should definitely not be a problem or a hindrance to having great times this weekend!
I feel like I'm making a bunch of typos. I'd better proof-read this before pasting it into the blog.
Well, Tom goes to CalPoly San Luis Obispo campus, which as I mentioned before is a while north of Los Angeles. The train ride is five hours long, from 10:15 to 15:35. Don't worry though, I'm making good use of my time and reading for my classes. And napping. It's a rather pleasant train ride.
I've had a better look at the woman next to me, and she definitely seems unhappy to be sitting next to me. Or maybe her mouth and eyes just naturally curve downward and give her a permanently disgruntled and unhappy expression. In any event, her head is firmly turned away from me, and her jawline is looking rather rigid. Man. This woman would be intimidating to live with. Or to entertain as a dinner guest. Her shirt has a rather interesting brightly colored floral print to it, and by way of trousers, she seems to be wearing some sort of wooly stocking-legging thing, in navy blue.
Wow the scenery outside right now is ridiculous, on my left there's a beautiful view of the Pacific ocean and the beach, with palm trees scattered artistically and strategically about... And to my right there are some farm fields with workers, or they might be day laborers, walking about... harvesting? I couldn't really see what they were doing, we passed them too quickly.
Ah, now on my right there's a mountain range. These mountains are so bright and desert-y. Such a contrast from the Swiss mountains.
Apparently we're in an area called Seacliff right now. Seacliffe? Who knows. On the water to the left there's a couple of oil rigs that are apparently not active, but are still maintained by major oil companies... And we just passed an oil depository that holds enough fuel to fuel the United States of America for 75 years. HA. I scoff at that ridiculous figure. You naïve man, we will run out of oil pretty soon at our rate of consumption, and not only that, but we'll run out of fresh water too. How about that? Don't just blindly and blithely read the lines that amtrak has given you to say! Alas. And thus the misinformation to the American people continues.
Anyway, like I was saying, the woman next to me is dressed in the manner I described, and for some unknown reason, her hair is extremely short, I'd say no more than one inch, and gelled. It's slicked back a la Costello, and in some ways is amusing to look at. I hope I don't do that to my hair when I'm old and my hair is white. Unless that's what the norm is. I suppose I''ll do what everyone else does, as long as it's practical and comfortable.
Woah, I just passed by a tree that had what looked like an egret sitting on one of the highest branches. What a pretty sightt. ^_^
Well, I really haven't much to say about this past week, since I usually update you about my life when I blog. Last Sunday I had dinner at Olive Garden with some friends, and it was absolutely delicious! If you are looking for a nice restaurant to have dinner at anytime soon, definitely go to Olive Garden! Great breadsticks, great entrees, great raspberry lemonade, and great desserts... What more could you ask for? Haha.
There's someone in my car listening to Justin Bieber REALLY LOUDLY on their headphones. Sigh. Must we all be subject to this? Albert, when you are between the ages of thirteen and sixteen, IT'S NOT COOL TO BLAST YOUR MUSIC AS LOUD AS YOU CAN ON YOUR HEADPHONES! NOT EVERYONE WILL LIKE IT, AND A LOT OF PEOPLE WILL NOT THINK YOU ARE COOL AT ALL!
Haha, I know you might not understand why I'm saying that now, but when you are that age, I'll tell you again, don't you worry about it, little brother. ^_^
Well, it's now 12:40 and I'm getting sleepy, so I think now is my cue to nap. Since I won't be arriving for another three hours anyway. I suppose at some point I will wake up and continue to read my book about the women's orchestra in Birkenau (a Nazi concentration camp), but for now I just want to close my eyes and rest.
So that is all for now, I will blog again soon. Thank you for reading! ^_^
It's worse than I thought it would be. By the way, you can click on the image to make it larger and see the specific classes! ^_^
SIGH.
The reason my Monday to Thursday schedules look so bad is because PHE teaches on Fridays, and so we have to keep our Friday schedules as open as possible to allow for greater flexibility with teaching schedules. Therefore, I had to pack all of my classes into Monday to Thursday. Of course, I don't mind doing that for PHE, though. So it should be fine.
Alright well, I'm going to go continue doing homework.
Currently, it is 7:07 in Los Angeles, California, and I am awake because recently I've been waking up pretty early. I've found that when I wake up early, I am full of energy! I'm definitely a morning person when I wake up early... However, when I don't wake up early, I'm as lethargic as a sloth. ^_^
Anyway, I said that I was going to blog about the weekends, so that is what I will do now! These past two weekends have been pretty eventful, and I am quite pleased with how they went.
Alright let's see;
On Friday 29 October, I woke up bright and early in the morning and went to a local high school at 9:00 to teach my first lesson with PHE! It went amazingly well, and I love teaching, so I'm definitely continuing to be in this program for the next 2.5 years that I'm at USC. My partner and I did kind of run out of time while teaching the lesson and had to rush starting from about halfway through, but we covered all of the material we were supposed to cover, so it was good. ^_^
Later that day, I went with Cameron, Ivanna, and a few other friends (by the names of Jordan, Stephanie, and Natanya) to Universal Studios' Halloween Horror Nights! It was legitimately terrifying, and the park was set up to make guests feel like they were in a horror movie. There were tall men in masks and robes with extremely realistic chainsaws chasing people around the park!
For an idea of what they looked like, imagine this guy:
and this guy:
...chasing you around the park, both with the chainsaws that the clown in the second photo has. AHHHHH! hahaha. Actually, I didn't scream or run, because I thought it was pretty funny and cool to see, because the makeup/costumes etc were all extremely well done. However, I did see one girl sprinting for her life across the park with three pigmen with chainsaws chasing her... Poor girl. Eventually she huddled against a wall and shivered as they surrounded her and waved their chainsaws in the air... The employees aren't allowed to touch the guests, however, because Universal could get very heavily sued if something goes wrong in that sense. So, eventually they left her alone.
I laughed. Is that wrong?
Anyway, here's the website of the attraction, have a look if you're curious! ^_^ [ http://www.halloweenhorrornights.com/hollywood/2010/ ]
Moving along, on Saturday 30 October, USC played University of Oregon in Am. football... Considering Oregon is the top team in the country, and we are quite far from that, obviously we lost. For a few glorious moments though, we were beating them! I was proud of the Trojan team. ^_^
On Sunday 31 October, which was Halloween, I went to HARD Haunted Mansion 2010, which has basically become a tradition with me and Jason. Basically, we're going to go every year, and whoever else wants to come with us joins. ^_^
Here's a photo of me and Jason in our Halloween costumes!
...And here's a photo of Jason and the other two guys he was coordinating outfits with;
It was a very good night, I had a lot of fun, but we went home early (at around 12:30) even though it ended at 2:00, because we all got tired. All meaning us four and a few other people we went with, totalling to about... 12? Yes.
On 2 November it was Albert's birthday of course, and on that day I also had a chemistry exam. It didn't go well at all, and I hope to do well on my next exam to make up for it.
On 5 November, I taught my second lesson for PHE, but AHHHHHHH the driver got lost on the way and we couldn't find the school for a full 45 minutes! My partner and I ended up getting to the classroom 20 minutes late, with only 25 minutes left of the lesson, which normally takes one hour to get through. So, we zoomed through the material and managed to cover most of the information, and all of the vital information of the lesson. I think we did well there, and the teacher said afterwards that she was impressed with how we took control of the class and taught so much information in such a small amount of time. She also said that she's currently doing her Master's degree at UCLA.
Ha. Ha.
Anyway. On 6 November, Tom, my very very good friend from EPGY, visited LA with his girlfriend! I was soooo happy to see him, as I had only seen him once since EPGY! We went to Six Flags Magic Mountain, the three of us, and had an amazing time. Unfortunately, his girlfriend, Sam, didn't want to go on any of the scarier rides... Tom and I, on the other hand, LOOOOVE roller coasters; the scarier, the better! So it was a little disappointing that we couldn't go on the most famous coasters, especially since they had driven for 4.5 hours to get there. Still though, we had a good time, and Tom and I got to see each other, which is great, since we are extremely good friends, and have kept in touch consistently since EPGY. I like seeing my friends face to face every so often. ^_^
Later that day, USC played Arizona State in Am. football, and thank goodness we won! We've been losing waaay too much lately. All of our games end up the same way, getting very very close (with us having a tiny lead of anywhere from 1-3 points), and then we either manage to fend the other team off for long enough for the clock to run out and thus we win... OR, our defense, AS USUAL, lets the other team's offense run through no problem, they score a touchdown or a last minute field goal, and we lose by a very tiny margin.
BOOOOOO.
So, I was very pleased when USC won. Not that beating Arizona State is anything in particular to speak of, but I was still glad. ^_^
Today, I am registering for my classes for next semester!
I'm going to register for: PSYC-274: Statistics 1 PSYC-100: Introduction to Psychology BISC-230Lxg: Brain, Mind, and Machines; Topics in Neuroscience (a General Education class) CHEM-322AL: Organic Chemistry 1
Should be interesting. If my classes stay like that, then my school day is as follows for the week:
Today, 4 November 2010, is Umma and Appa's 20 year anniversary! CONGRATULATIONS, UMMA AND APPA! Even though there have been many ups and downs over the past two decades, you are great people and I'm glad we can celebrate today together. Well, not really together, since I'm in California, but in spirit I'm in New York with you! So, congratulations again, and I hope you have many more happy anniversaries to come. Be happy! I love you both! ^_^
Also, two days ago was the birthday of my one and only, favorite and best brother in the whole wide world! I'm sorry I couldn't post on that day, but happy happy belated birthday Albert! I love you so much! I hope you had a great day, and we will celebrate when I come back home on 15 December! I miss you very much, little brother! :)
I'm working on an essay right now, but I'll post again later about the past weekend and this week. Until then, I love you all, and thank you for reading!
Smile though your heart is aching Smile, even though it's breaking When there are clouds, in the sky, you'll get by If you smile, through your fear and sorrow Smile, and there'll be tomorrow You'll see the sun come shining through If you'll.... Light up your face with gladness Hide every trace of sadness Although a tear, may be ever so near, That's the time, you must keep on trying Smile, what's the use of crying? You'll find that life is still worthwhile, If you'll just.... Light up your face with gladness Hide every trace of sadness Although a tear, may be ever so near, That's the time, you must keep on trying Smile, what's the use of crying? You'll find that life is still worthwhile, If you'll just.... Smile
Personally, I find that this song reflects one of my must fundamental idealogical constants; "smile despite everything." People who spend enough time with me will know that I say that all the time, because really, as the song says, "Smile, what's the use of crying? You'll find that life is still worthwhile, if you'll just smile."
In the end, everything will turn out the way it's supposed to, so for now, don't worry about it and just smile despite everything. [:
