Back again

I hate how I keep going months without posting, but oh well, I'm back. So let's see, where did I leave off? Gosh, I was still in high school the last time I wrote. Okay, so I guess that means I should start with graduation, last day of school, and all that. Well, the last day of my senior year was exciting. The sad part was having to leave the peer helpers. That was pretty emotional, all of the seniors leaving that class. I'm hoping to be able to go back and visit them though. And also, the seniors got to do all the fun stuff at the end of the year, like the senior breakfast, and the senior barbecue. The breakfast was especially awesome because we got Chick-fil-A! Gosh, I love that place. Best chicken ever. Haha but anyway, yeah, that was fun, and then we all got out of school earlier than everyone else. I remember the same day as our last day was when I had my dress rehearsal for my recital. My grandma and great-aunt also came into town that day. They stayed with us for a little while so they could come to my recital and graduation. So anyway, the dress rehearsal and recital both went well. As usual, I did three dances, one for each class, ballet, tap and jazz. Ballet this year was "Mozart's Symphony #40, tap was Cha Cha Heels, and jazz was Tainted Love. It was a lot of fun! And a few of my friends came too, which made it even more fun. My friend Shaun even came! He's a really good friend to want to come and sit through a dance recital to see me. haha. A lot better than my brother, who just complained about how long it was back when he'd come to my recitals!

So then of course, there was graduation. I wasn't exactly thrilled about having to get up early in the morning to go to graduation practice. The especially bad thing about the practice was that apparently, besides just having us go through our lineups and find our seats, they also decided that all 700 of us needed to practice walking across the stage. I was just like, "Are you serious? For Pete's sake, we all know how to walk across a stage!" So we were there for what seemed like 5 hours (or maybe it actually was pretty close to that...it might have been 4 hours) while they called every single person's name, and we ALL had to go across the stage like we would later that night. Sheesh. Well, we finally got out of there and when I got home, it was so late that I barely had time to get ready for the actual thing. But I managed to get all ready and get in my cap and gown, and we all went back to the civic center. Since we had to get there a lot earlier than the ceremony started, they just put us all in this big room to wait, but luckily since we were all in there I found some of my friends that I could talk to. Then they finally told us to get in our lines. Then I started getting a little nervous...what if I tripped and fell while I was walking across the stage? What if I messed something up? I know, seems a little silly, but I tend to get nervous about stuff like this, especially if it's in a huge arena with like 2 thousand people. They finally took us out of the room and we went outside and lined up right by the doors that went in the arena. We heard the band starting to play the graduation music and they let us in, and I don't remember exactly how it was done, but we were behind the stage and some curtains and on both sides, two people from the lines walked out, and luckily there were people standing there telling us when to go. So that was at least pretty easy, plus we had practiced earlier. When I finally walked out, I of course felt pretty nervous and awkward, knowing how many people could be looking at me. But at least there was another person next to me and two more people coming out the other side. So I just walked over to the rows where we were going to sit, and kept walking, and then...CRAP, I realized I had walked too far back and passed the row I was supposed to go to. So of course I panicked but tried not to look like anything was wrong since that would only make it more noticeable that I had made a mistake. I just walked back as quickly as I could and looked for my row letter, which was marked on the floor next to all the rows. I found it and just went down the row and quietly squeezed past the people who were already sitting there. I felt like an idiot, but hoped that I hadn't made the whole ordeal too noticeable. At least none of my friends saw, because they all happen to have names at the beginning of the alphabet and were sitting way up ahead of me. None of my teachers saw because they were all sitting down on the floor part with us but were outside of the students, so there were already other people sitting in the rows blocking their view! So, I guess it made me feel a little better that most of the people who saw were just random people sitting up above who didn't even know who I was, and were hopefully focusing their attention more on their own kid. But luckily there were no more disasters after that. We got everybody seated and then the valedictorian and salutatorian did their speeches, the principal did his speech, and they called all 700 of us again to walk across the stage and this time we actually got our diplomas! With my name being towards the end of the alphabet, I had to wait awhile, but I finally did walk across the stage, and thank goodness I didn't trip! lol. So when the ceremony was finally over, my mom took some pictures with my friends, and then me, her, my dad, great-aunt and grandparents all went for a late dinner at Nothing But Noodles (I LOVE THAT PLACE- even more than Chick-fil-A haha). Then we went home and I opened graduation gifts, and we had one of those giant cookies that you can get instead of a cake. So overall it was a great night!

So, my summer was pretty good...I finally got to go back to Virginia, where I used to live to visit! I'd been waiting 5 years to finally get to do this, and I finally got to go back. And what a good time to go back too, right as we were all graduating. So while I was there, I of course visited all my friends, and I stayed with one of my best friends I had there. We went up to our old middle school and visited our old teachers who were still there, which was awesome. It was so much fun seeing them again. With my other friend, we drove around the town and stopped by both my elementary schools. I just looked at the outsides of those though. I was tempted to go inside and see if Mrs. Snow, my favorite teacher from 4th grade, remembered me, but I wasn't so sure she'd know who I was! haha. Also while I was there, I went to downtown Washington DC with my two friends, and I went to their school's prom...for some reason they had prom really late in the year, but it was a good thing! They just get out of school a lot later there than where I live, so I got there right as the seniors were getting out of school. The prom was so much fun. I got to go with all my old classmates, and it was like, how it would have been if I hadn't moved. Since they allow guests at prom as long as you purchase a ticket and have an ID to show, I went, and plus, I still had my dress that I wore to my school's prom, so I took that with me. So that was a lot of fun going to the prom! While the whole experience (dinner, taking pictures, etc.) was good at both proms, I have to say, the actual dance was actually way better at my friend's prom!! Haha. They had a lot better music, and a wider variety. And my own prom they practically played all rap music the whole time, and after awhile I was about ready to just wear earplugs. haha. So yeah, Virginia was awesome! Also this summer, my family went on a small trip to Savannah, Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina. We basically just toured the downtown parts of both places, and also toured this ship that was used in World War 2, and went to a plantation to see a mansion that someone (I forget who lol) lived in in Charleston.

So yep, that was basically the summer! Last week I started my classes at the community college. They're going well! I go to the campus for Intermediate College Algebra (fun, haha, but at least it's not precal or geometry!) and US History. I'm just taking English and music appreciation online. I haven't seen a whole lot of people I knew from high school there, and sadly all of my good friends went off to far-away places already. But I've met one girl in my history class who seems nice, and I actually saw her today during my break between my classes and we both sat at the same table to eat and study, so I wasn't all alone. I like both my teachers that I have. The math teacher is pretty laid back and not too hard, so far. lol. We actually had our first test today and it actually wasn't too hard and I guess I did okay. The history teacher is really easygoing too, and he seems like he'll be pretty easy! I was a little worried about that class because I heard about how some college teachers just lecture and talk really fast and you just have to write everything down. But he actually types up notes in power point and puts that up as he lectures, so it makes things a lot easier. And he doesn't really give homework except for asking us to keep up with reading the textbook, and we'll probably just have one or two reports to do at some point in the semester.

And what I LOVE about college is the freedom! Gosh, it's almost weird having so much freedom now, compared to how they practically treated us like prisoners in high school. I mean, we're actually allowed to just come and go as we please. I have a break between my math and history class that's almost two hours long, and it happens to be right around lunchtime. And I can actually leave the campus and go get lunch somewhere, and come back! Man, I just never could have imagined having such a luxury in high school. lol. We're also allowed to use cell phones in the hallways and lobby...I still don't really do this because I'm so used to not daring to pull out my cell phone in high school because one of the assistant principals was really strict about that and would jump down your throat if he saw you with a phone! lol. Plus I don't really need to use it anyway. And also today, when we had our math test, we were just allowed to leave as soon as we finished the test! Not like in high school, where you had to just "sit and find something quiet to do" all the way until the end of class. lol.

So yeah, everything's going well so far! Maybe I'll be able to update more often now. We'll see. lol

Back

Yeah, I know I said I was going to start posting regularly again. But I didn't. But, I don't think it's really my fault. School has been pretty crazy and stressful, mostly because of my Algebra 3 class. Ughhhh. Don't get me started on that. The name "Algebra 3" for that class is VERY misleading. I did pretty good in Algebra 1, did REALLY well in Algebra 2 last year (I got a high B the first nine weeks I had it and barely made an A the second nine weeks- it was a MIRACLE). So when choosing my math class for the next year, I thought, "Well, Algebra 3 must just build on 1 and 2. It can't be too hard for me since I did fine in the other two." Wrooooong. Turns out we use the exact same textbook as the pre-calculus classes, and cover a lot of the same material, but just not quite as much of it as they do. It started out not too hard, especially since one of the first chapters we did was stuff I learned in Algebra 2. I was making a B at first. But it just went downhill from there. It just kept getting harder, and the worse I did on each test, the more I would freak out on the next test and have a nervous breakdown from being under so much pressure to do well on it and make my class grade go up. And I'd just keep doing worse. :( Luckily, for the last chapter, instead of having a test, we had a project that we worked on in class, and since I ended up doing okay on that it raised my grade a bit. Now I just have to do well on the last test and on the final exam, and I'll still make a C at least. But hey, even if I failed the class, I don't actually need the credit to graduate. ;) haha jk, I definitely won't fail. But yeah, technically I already had all the math credits I needed, but they just tell you that you should still take a math your senior year, since it will look better to the colleges you apply to, and they say you might struggle more in college math classes if you went a whole year without it in high school. But anyway, I absolutely can't wait to be done with this class. Since seniors get out earlier than everyone else, this will be my last week of school!!!!!! :D I'm SO excited.

But anyway, yeah, I guess I haven't posted since January so I have a lot to catch up on. Well, I already covered how horrible my math class is. And although my AP Psychology class is kind of difficult to have at the same time as this math class since there's a lot of studying required, I've quite enjoyed it. I have the AP test on Tuesday and I'm pretty nervous. I'd really like to do well enough on it to where I can get a college credit though- because psychology is one of the electives I need for that school in California, and it would be nice to get it out of the way now, and that's one less class I have to take in college next year.

Peer helping has been good, of course. That is the one class that I will be so sad to leave- we had some really awesome people in there this semester.

Marine biology is pretty interesting too. Luckily, the tests are REALLY easy and the teacher even lets us use our notes, so that's always nice. :) The great thing about that is if I end up having both a test in there and a math test, I at least don't have to study for the marine bio one and can just focus on the math. The one thing I didn't like was dissecting a shark- I'd much rather learn about the parts of a shark in a diagram, thank you very much! It was pretty gross and kind of sad that they captured and killed all those little baby sharks just for that, when we could just as easily learn the parts of a shark another way. Oh, and my teacher for that class has all these snakes in his classroom. One is named Lucy, and there's a little one named Abbott. So far, I haven't been brave enough to hold them, but I have pet them before. One named Lex ended up getting loose during the night and managed to slither his way down to the library. Needless to say, the next morning the librarian about had a heart attack when she found him. lol.

So yeah, that's school. I'm so excited about finally finishing. Graduation will be on May 20, and my grandma and great-aunt have decided to come for that, and they'll also be here for my dance recital. Speaking of which, I am SOOOOOO excited for the dance recital! It's a week from today, actually. As usual, I'm doing three dances. My ballet dance is Mozart's Symphony #40, jazz is Tainted Love, and tap is Cha Cha Heels. A few of my friends will be coming too. So yeah, I can't wait! This may or may not be my last recital...because since I'll be staying home for one more year to go to community college while I get my general education for California, I might be able to find the time to still take dance. We'll just have to see. I'm hoping I'll be able to because I'll really miss dancing if I can't!

Back

Oh, I do apologize for such a long hiatus from this blog. But, I do kind of have an excuse. Nothing that exciting was really going on for the past three months. Well, except for the fact that I turned 18 in November. Weird, I still don't feel like an adult at all. And I certainly don't feel like I SHOULD be 18 yet. Such a weird feeling. But I had a fun birthday! I went to Olive Garden with my family (they have the most amazing soup, breadsticks, and pizza in the entire world, I swear) and we had cake and stuff back at home. Then the following weekend, I went to this outdoor mall with my two good friends. We had lunch at Red Robin, and then we were supposed to do this boat ride thing that they have there, but sadly they told us that it was too windy to take us out. We still haven't gotten around to rescheduling it, but we'll do it eventually. Since of course they're closed during the winter, we'll have to wait till March or so. But we'll finally get to do it eventually! lol. So instead we just walked around and went shopping that day, lol.

Well, my winter break was good. Boy, was I glad to get out of my government class, and especially British literature. I mean, I love reading, but not when it's a bunch of 500 year old poems that no one can even understand. At least that class wasn't as crazy as when that student teacher had taken over, but it was still pretty darn boring. Pretty much all we did was sit around and read literature and talk about what everything symbolized. And what, I ask, is the importance of knowing that? I doubt when you're getting a job in the future, that they're really going to care whether or not you know what such-and-such symbolized in Beowulf (don't even get me started on that poem). I actually miss my Spanish class, because there were some really cool people in there. During the last few weeks of that class we actually went to one of the elementary schools and taught Spanish to kids there. We just were divided into groups and were all assigned one class to teach. My group taught a 2nd grade class. It was actually a lot of fun- teaching young kids isn't quite as scary and intimidating as giving a presentation to people your own age! So, Spanish 4 was my last Spanish class ever! Of course, they do offer AP Spanish at my school, but I chickened out after hearing about some of the stuff you have to do in there, and figured the colleges would probably be fine with me just having taken up to level 4, since a lot of people don't even go past 2 anyway. But anyway, yeah, I think I got off-topic because I started this paragraph off talking about my break. lol. Well, my family and I had a good Christmas and New Years. We got a "family gift"- a Wii! So far we have two games- Sports Resort and Mario Cart, which are both a lot of fun!

Well, today was my first day back at school. So I have all new classes now, except for peer helping since I signed up to be in there both semesters. My new classes are Algebra 3 with Statistics (oh boy, math), AP Psychology (my first AP class!), and marine biology. Well, I certainly expected my first day back to be pretty uneventful, considering we usually just get our new textbooks, and the teachers just call role and go over everything about the class. But wow, I had no idea what was actually going to happen. And thank GOODNESS no one I know (that I know of) saw me or knew what happened. But I guess I need to start at the beginning.

So, I was doing just fine at the beginning of the day. Well, I actually had a slight car disaster this morning. My brother is still home since he visited over his break from grad school. We moved my car out into the driveway and my brother moved his car to my spot in the garage, so that it would be easier for me to get out of the driveway and not have to worry about hitting my brother's car (lol). And it has been absolutely FREEZING here for the past few days. I went out to my car to find all of the windows completely covered in ice. We didn't have an ice scraper and I had to leave soon or I would be late, so my mom had to bring out a pitcher of warm water and basically dump it on the windshield and all the windows. So eventually we got it fixed and I made it to school okay. I went to my first class, which was Algebra 3. I have the same teacher I had from Algebra 2, which is good, because she was a pretty good teacher, and her teaching method must have worked pretty well for me, considering I made in A in her class, and it was the first A I'd gotten in math since 6th grade. I heard that Algebra 3 just builds on stuff from Algebra 2, so hopefully it won't be too hard. ;) After that I had psychology. I think that will be a pretty interesting class. And the teacher is pretty hilarious so it should be entertaining. :D And my friend has that class with me, which I'm so happy about! We actually met in my choir class in 9th grade, but haven't had a single class together since then. So I'm happy about that! Then I went to peer helping, and that's when the disaster began to unfold. You see, I had been having slight abdominal pain all day, but I took medicine for it this morning before I left school, and took more at the nurse's office once it had been 4 hours and I could take more. It still hurt a little after the medicine, but I figured it would just take a little time for it to start helping, like it always does. Bad idea. Turns out I should have just gone home, but I didn't really have a way of knowing it would get so bad. Well, I got to peer helping, and was starting to not feel so well, but I still wasn't too bad, and figured it could still get better. So I said hi to all my old peer helping buddies that were in there last semester, and also met two new girls who just joined this semester. Then my teacher gave us our first journal question of the semester, and that's when it got bad. Suddenly I felt the worst shot of pain I've ever gotten before. Soon it was gone, but then it would keep coming back. I figured I'd better just go to the nurse now, and maybe if I just laid down for a little while, it would get better. So I told my teacher I just needed to go to the nurse and I'd probably be back soon. Then, as soon as I walked out the door and started walking down the hall, I actually felt SICK. I was getting dizzy and nauseous and wondered how the heck I was going to make it all the way upstairs to the nurse. I started to run into the nearest bathroom, but figured that could be bad if I ended up fainting or something, since no one would know where to find me. So I just ran over to the wall and sat down against it, taking deep breaths and trying to not feel so sick. I felt like I would seriously pass out if I tried to walk any further. Of course, a teacher walked by me and asked if I was okay. I just told him I was having really bad pain and was on my way to the nurse, but just had to sit down for a minute. I decided to try getting up and walking again then, and I was actually able to walk a bit more. I made it to the stairs and the teacher made sure I got up there before he left. Then, when I was literally only about two feet away from the nurse's office, the nausea came back again, and this time I was starting to see black. I thought I was going to pass out any second now and immediately sat down again. One of the counselors saw me and although I was hardly able to speak at this point, I told her I was trying to get to the nurse and she helped me get in there. The nurses let me lay down in one of their little rooms while they called my mom for her to come pick me up (obviously me driving was out of the question). I figured I'd just wait till my mom got there and I'd go home, but the pain was getting worse and worse by the minute. Soon it was so bad that I was literally writhing. Of course, if you know me, I'm about the last person on the planet that wants to make a big scene in a situation like this. But I was in so much pain I could hardly even feel embarrassed. Luckily there were at least no other students in there at the time. One of the nurses saw how much pain I was in and asked if I needed my mom to get there faster. It was so bad now that I knew I had to go to the hospital, no question, so I told the nurse this. I hoped my mom would just get there soon so she could drive me to the hospital, but my house is about 10 minutes away from the school, and I couldn't bear the thought of waiting that long. So, the nurse ended up calling 911 and asked them to send an ambulance. I had left my backpack and stuff back in my class, thinking I was going to go back eventually, but this was obviously out of the question now, so Mr. Seeley, the teacher who helps the main teacher for peer helping, came up and brought me my stuff. Then HE saw how much pain I was in and stayed there until my mom came. It was of course quite embarrassing for him to see me like this, but I felt better not being alone at least. He started talking to me about my winter break, obviously trying to distract me from the pain. In between my shaking and breathing really hard, I managed to tell him about the Wii, going to the mall, and going out to lunch to Famous Dave's. Then my mom and the paramedics finally got there. They loaded me onto a stretcher, and, I guess if we want to put it positively, I got to ride in an ambulance for the very first time! Whoo! The worst part though, was that they had to wheel me right past the main office, where some of the students who are office aides were working. Of course, some of them were gawking at me. I looked at them and thankfully didn't recognize anyone I knew. As the paramedic started asking me some questions in the ambulance, luckily the pain started easing a bit. About halfway through the ride, I started feeling a lot better. Once I got to the hospital I felt almost completely better, but we still had to make sure nothing was wrong with me. At this point I was getting my appetite back, and was starting to get really hungry, since this was about the time I was supposed to eat lunch. But I couldn't eat anything unfortunately, since they were going to give me an ultrasound. The doctor came in and asked me a few questions, and then the nurse took my blood and injected an IV with some pain medication. Too bad they didn't have that back at the nurse- I didn't really need it at his point, but I would have given anything to have it earlier. But, at least now we'd be sure the pain wouldn't come back. It seems like they are required to move in slow motion in the ER, however. All we needed to do was get the ultrasound done, but it took forever for them to actually get me in there. After they finally did, they found nothing wrong with me, but recommended some stronger medication for me if something like this were ever to happen again. Then, of course, it took forever for them to get me signed out and everything. By the time we got out of there, it was about 4:00, and I hadn't eaten anything since about 7:15 in the morning. My parents were going to pick up some food for me on the way home (my mom rode in the ambulance, but my dad came over in his car from work, so that's how we got out of there), but we got out of there so late that it was already close to dinnertime. We decided we'd just go home and get my brother, and go out for an early dinner to celebrate that I was still alive and well, haha. So, we went to Cheeburger Cheeburger, and I can definitely say that I stuffed my face. A cheeseburger and fries had never tasted so good.

So yeah. What I thought was just going to be an uneventful day back at school after a break turned out to be completely chaotic with me being rushed to the ER in an ambulance. Wow. Again, thank goodness no one I know saw me. I really hope word didn't get around school that someone had to be taken in an ambulance. But, I suppose if I hear anyone talking about it tomorrow, I can put on some good acting skills. "Oh, really? Someone had to be taken in an ambulance? I wonder who in the world that might have been!" hahaha. As big as my school is, even if people do know, they won't figure out it was me. :P Well, my peer helping class may know what happened, which will be a little embarrassing, especially considering the two new people who I didn't even know until today. Way to make a first impression. haha jk. At least everyone in there is nice so they should be understanding. I'm still pretty embarrassed about my teacher seeing me, but he was so nice about the whole thing. Gosh, I just hope things return to normal tomorrow! I didn't even get to go to my marine biology class, so I guess I'll see what that's like tomorrow. What horrible timing. Of all days that this could happen, it happened on the first day back after winter break. Well, I guess I'll stop rambling now. Later!

Back!

Ahhh! Finally! I'm finally not so busy and able to post. lol. Well, ever since last week, school has been absolutely crazy. And the funny thing is, it's pretty much just one class making it crazy. And that class would be English. You see, we have a student teacher that has taken over teaching the class. She seems like a very nice person, but also seems to be a bit clueless about the fact that we have OTHER classes that we have to keep up with and do work for besides our English class. And also about the fact that most people need more than one week to do research papers AND research the topic enough to do a debate on it, and that research papers really shouldn't be done as group projects (yeah I know, you're probably wondering, what the heck? That was exactly what I thought when we were told we would be working in partners on our research papers). So yeah, I guess I basically summed up what we had to do. She put us all in partners, except I ended up in a group of three since we have an odd number of people in the class. She told us to pick a topic to write a persuasive research paper on, and that one person would argue for it and the other against it. The two girls in my group decided on the new universal healthcare plan, and me, not knowing a whole lot about the subject and figuring I could research it and find out enough about it to write a paper, agreed. When I later found out we'd be doing a debate, I immediately wished we had picked an easier topic. But it was too late now...
So anyway, we spent two days in class in the library doing research. The other two girls decided to write against it, which meant I had to write for it, even if I'm not even really for it. But again, I hoped I could just find enough research to be able to pretend like I think universal healthcare is the greatest thing in the world. Oh, and I can't believe I didn't mention the dumbest thing about this whole project, which was what made it the most complicated- we all had to use the same points in our papers. Like one person would write a body paragraph in their essay arguing a point, and you'd have to argue about the same thing. This whole thing would have been a hundred times easier if I could have just picked my own things to write. And, it was really hard to plan anything with your partners, because in the library, we couldn't even sit together- there weren't enough computers for all of us in that one room so some people had to go to another room, and we were separated. And then on the day that we were working on it in class and planning everything, we weren't allowed to talk (!). Uhh, the last time I checked, if you're doing a GROUP project, you need to be able to talk to each other. Luckily, we managed to get away with whispering to each other (the student teacher shot us a few glances, but we just explained to her that we really needed to talk just a little bit so we could figure out what we were going to write, so she finally let up and just told us to whisper and make it quick). So, after a lot of thinking and wanting to slam our heads into the wall, we came up with some subcategories to write about. They came up with their argument and I'd have to find sources that argued against those exact points- so it turned out the research I had done in the library was pretty much useless, and I had to find sources at home that addressed those exact points. Well, thankfully, I have now finally pretty much finished the paper. I have the rough draft written, so all I have to do is make the works cited page and add in one little extra detail, and I'll finally be done! YESSSS! It's such a relief. And also, I finally got the debate over with today, which I had been dreading all week. Some of the stuff about the healthcare thing is really hard to understand. Like, I get the basic idea, but all these little things about it can be hard to understand. So I was extremely nervous about the debate because of this. I'd have to defend it all on my own, and worse, I'd have to just spontaneously come up with a rebuttal after the other side stated an argument. I wasn't worried about presenting my opening statement or my arguments, but the problem was when I had to argue back to one of the other side's arguments. I mean, who can just come up with something to say right on the spot like that, especially when you have a topic that you don't even fully understand? I felt shaky and nervous pretty much all day before that class. Normally, English is my second block class, but since this week we're doing those good old graduation exams, they have to switch the order of the classes around each day so the people testing spend enough time in each class. So today, it wasn't until third block, so I had more time to dread it. When the end of my second class was nearing, I was already starting to shake and could barely concentrate on the story about the history of Spain that we were reading. When I actually got to English class, I thought I might actually throw up. My group members and I tried to plan as much as we could before class started. We basically hadn't had ANY time in class to plan our debates at all. But, one good thing about today was that since the class was later that day, all the people who are dual-enrolled weren't there, so only about half the class was even there. So, I didn't have to do it in front of as many people at least. Anyway, the first group went, but I hardly even noticed what they were saying. And then...my group was next. Well, at least we were going to get ours done before lunch, so I'd finally be able to relax at lunch, and maybe I could actually keep my food in my stomach. So, the three of us walked up to the front of the room and stood at our podiums with our notecards. I just tried to tell myself, this will be over in just a few minutes. Just get it over with. So we started, and luckily, with all the notes I had written down, I managed to always have something to say. In my rebuttals, I just read some of what I had written down, but it wasn't always necessarily related to what the other side just said. But at this point, I didn't care. It was better than saying nothing, and I just wanted to get it over with. And then, it was finally over! I don't know how well I did, but at least the student teacher said she wouldn't be too hard grading them, so maybe I did okay. But I am just sooo glad it's over!

Well, my other classes are going okay. Economics is almost over. We only have two weeks of that class left before we go into government. I'll be kind of glad when that class is over (although I'm not sure how much better gov will be- but, at least the teacher for that is extremely funny, so maybe he'll make it fun:) Econ just isn't my favorite subject. Pretty much all we do in there is write notes and listen to our teacher talk. See, whenever he's lecturing, EVERYTHING he says always reminds him of some story he has to tell, so it just goes on and on. Sometimes the stories are somewhat entertaining though, so I guess it's still better than doing a bunch of written work haha.

Peer helping is awesome! Next month, we're going to go to the elementary schools and put on a skit and teach them a chant and song about being drug-free. We have a few people in there who can play guitar, so we're all going to be divided up between all the elementary schools so different groups of us will go to different schools. We'll do our skit and chant and then someone will play the guitar and we'll sing. It's very interesting, somehow whoever wrote the words to the song decided to make it into the tune of Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours." It's all kind of cheesy, but it is for elementary kids, so...but yeah, that'll be so much fun!

Spanish is all right too. My teacher must think I'm the biggest slacker ever, because I've been having so much trouble getting homework for that class done with all this stuff I had to do for English. The homework we had this week wasn't exactly that quick either- we had these incredibly long packets talking about the history of Spain- in Spanish. Then there were questions at the end, and to find the answers you had to go back and look through the whole thing again! And when it's not even in English, that's really hard. And then last night, I also had to make a food dish to take for "food day"- we always have some of those in every Spanish class where everyone gets a different recipe from a Spanish-speaking country and we have to bring it in. Anyway, I spent most of the day working on my research, and then I got as much done as I could for Spanish, but I ended up just having to go to bed before I was even done because I couldn't have possibly stayed up any later without falling asleep in my classes the next day. Sorry Mrs. Clough! Now that this stupid research stuff is finally over, I can actually finish your homework now!

We have also had a few pep rallies already this year. It's not fun being a sophomore or junior at a pep rally, because they have to sit in the top bleachers, which are very cramped and crowded and it gets really hot up there. But unfortunately, it's not much better for the seniors- now we get to sit on the very bottom bleachers...right by the band. I didn't think I'd ever recover from the headache that came from all those drums banging and trumpets blaring right in my ears. The only good thing about those is that we get out of 4th block early.

And yeah, like I said, we also have those grad exams this week, but thankfully, tomorrow is the last day. Then we can look forward to having them again in the spring! But yeah, I believe I told about the joys of having those last year- how the test-takers can't have any "distractions", so they turn off the bells and block off areas where people are testing, making all 2,200 students have to take the same routes to class. Just a recipe for disaster.

But anyway, I guess I should stop complaining about stuff, since, after all, I am really really happy about this week being over! I'm so excited for the weekend!

Back in school already!

Yup, that's right. Although it seems like merely weeks ago that we got out of school, I already found myself back at school on Monday. Well, the rest of my summer after our California trip was pretty uneventful, so that's why I didn't write anything else after that. It was nice, and I did just some normal everyday stuff and did things with my friends, but nothing was really interesting enough to write about. lol. But anyway, I guess I should tell about school...

Well, I FINALLY don't have to deal with the screwed-up bus system anymore since I now have my driver's license and can drive to school! I have to make sure to get there a little early since I don't want to be circling the parking lot (which is total CHAOS) looking for a parking space, which is probably what you'll have to do if you get there after 8:00. As I've said many times, my school is extremely overcrowded. Last I heard we had 2,200 students in our school, and they were estimating to have about 2,400 this year, although I'm not sure if their predictions turned out to be right. Perhaps not, because if there were that many people I think quite a few people would have been trampled to death in the halls already...haha, maybe that's an exaggeration, but I haven't really noticed it being much worse than last year. Mind you, it was EXTREMELY crowded last year and still is. But anyway, yeah, since I make sure to get there at about the perfect time, I'm always able to find a place to park and then I go inside and sit in the courtyard with my two friends and talk to them until the bell rings. Last year and the year before, we had our own little corner in the hallway that we all met in, but unfortunately we all didn't meet on the very first day, so it was taken over by another group of people! So now we meet in the courtyard, which is nice, but I just wonder what we'll do in the winter...guess we'll have to try to claim another area of the school. ;-) But anyway, back to the parking lot. It's pretty easy to get in there in the morning, but getting out of there at the end of the day is a bit more chaotic. Although the sophomores don't drive since they're not old enough and I'm sure we wouldn't have room for them anyway, a lot of juniors and practically all the seniors drive, so that's still TONS of people trying to get out of the parking lot. But they have some teachers and one of the assistant principals out there directing traffic, so that at least keeps it running a bit smoothly. But it can sometimes take up to ten minutes just to get out of the parking lot. Kind of a pain, but still a little better than the buses I guess. lol

So...I guess I should tell about my classes now. Well, right now, I have economics, English, peer helping, and Spanish 4. I have all of those the whole semester, except for economics, which is only nine weeks, so after fall break I'll switch to government. Not exactly my first choice, but that's the required history course for seniors. So yeah, economics is first. It's going okay so far. I can't really tell if it's going to be excruciatingly boring yet since we haven't done much. But, our teacher did say he'd try to make it more interesting and have us do more activities instead of just read a bunch of stuff out of the textbook. I however do hate it when we have discussions during class. We haven't had many yet, but we always have a warm-up to do when we first get to class, which usually asks your opinion about something, and he'll call on a few people and ask what they put down. I never like to talk about stuff like that in front of everyone. So of course I don't raise my hand, and since I've never spoken a word in there, luckily the teacher seems to be unaware of my existence as he has never called on me...yet. Let's just hope it stays that way. ;-)

Then second block is English. Gaaahhh, we're doing British literature this year, which my brother says was the worst and most boring year of English. And of course we have to read another Shakespeare play (surprise, surprise), Hamlet, which we haven't started yet, but I just know it's in the syllabus. And we'll also have the dreaded yearly research paper. But, we haven't started any of that...so far we've only gone over our summer reading book and taken the test on it, and prestented our poems that we had to write for the book. I was of course dreading having to read my poem to the class, because I can assure you I am not the least bit skilled in writing poetry. But thankfully, the poem only had to be fourteen lines so I got it over with pretty fast. So I can't say I'm too excited about English this year...but let's look at it this way, at least I'll have it over with and out of the way after the first semester. The teacher seems all right too, so that makes it a little better. Of course it wouldn't be any fun to have a boring class and a mean teacher combined. haha.

And then I have peer helping, of course! So far that's been a lot of fun. For the first three days of school, we did what we did last year, where some of us sat at a table in the cafeteria giving people their lunch numbers and bus numbers, and some of us sat at the "new student table" where any students new to the school could come sit. So, I got to talk to a few new people, who all seemed really nice and glad to have someone to talk to at lunch. Me and one other girl in peer helping also got to give one new girl a tour of the school. Tomorrow, we're having a little party for all the new students- they can all come down to our room during their lunch and we're going to have pizza, snacks, and cake and stuff. So that should be really fun! And also, even though most days I've been busy doing stuff for peer helping during lunch, we weren't doing anything today so I got to sit with my friends, who finally, this year, happen to be in my lunch! And since we're now seniors, we get to sit at the tables outside. It felt so weird to actually be able to sit out there! lol. But lunch is a lot of fun this year, it's just an awesome group of people sitting at my table.

And then last, I have Spanish. Although I did decide to go up to Spanish 4, I'm definitely stopping after this- I'm not going to take AP because according to one of my friends from peer helping last year, it pretty much takes up your whole life. Plus I'd be worried about having to do really hard stuff, like giving a speech in Spanish. In Spanish 4, we already are only allowed to speak Spanish (well, there are some exceptions sometimes, but usually it's "no ingles!") and will apparently have to write research papers in Spanish, but I can't imagine it's going to be on any topic that's too difficult, since we still don't know THAT much Spanish. But so far it's going pretty well. It actually ended up being a small class, even though most classes at my school are totally full. So that kind of makes it a little less nerve-wracking when I have to talk in front of the class since it's less people. And most people in there seem pretty nice, so I don't think anyone will laugh at me or anything. And usually, my teacher doesn't call on you unless you raise your hand. So I raise my hand sometimes if it's something I'm sure I know, but never do when I don't know so luckily she doesn't call on me then. The only thing I'm concerned about in that class is that I feel like I've forgotten a lot of stuff. Mostly because I went a really long time between Spanish 3 and 4- I took 3 the first semester of last year, and it wouldn't work with my schedule to take 4 the next semester, so I had to wait until this year. Plus, we learned a crazy amount of grammar in Spanish 3- it's not so much the vocabulary that I think I've forgotten, but all those different verb conjugations and stuff. I'm definitely going to get on the classzone website and try to review that stuff! And hopefully we'll review it a little bit in class. We've already gone over present-tense, preterite past tense, stem-changing verbs, and some of the ones that have a change in spelling in certain forms (yeah, it's pretty mind-boggling when you think about all those little particular things like that, lol.). Tomorrow we all have to take in a paper bag with five items representing us, and explain it in Spanish! Kind of scary. I'm going to have to try to find five things about me that I know how to say in Spanish!

So yeah, school is going pretty well so far. I think I've covered pretty much everything. :) Later!

Back from vacation

Well, actually I've been back for almost two weeks, but I was too lazy to get on here and write about it until now haha. Well, so I guess I'll start with the trip there, which was pretty uneventful. We went over to the airport in our city, and luckily, unlike last year, they didn't fool with our flights and make us go on more planes than we originally were going to. So, we got on the plane to go to Dallas as planned. We met my brother there, who was flying in from his city. To my delight, they had a Fuddrucker's in the Dallas airport, so we ate there for lunch. Seriously, they need to extend their locations a bit, because sadly there isn't a single one in my whole state. But anyway, after that we got on our second plane, which was taking us to San Francisco. That was the biggest plane I've been on. Instead of the kind that has three seats on the right side and two seats on the left, there were two seats on each side, but then three more seats in the middle of the plane. I ended up having to sit in one of the middle seats, which I didn't like as much since I like to be closer to the window. Well, I usually don't like to sit right by the window, at least during take-off, because it makes me feel kind of queasy, but I still want to be near it because I want to be able to see what's going on outside. lol But anyway, it didn't end up being too bad because I could still kind of see out the nearest window where other people were sitting. And also, since this flight was about three-and-a-half hours long, they showed a movie on their little TVs. For that I was thankful, because getting myself really into the story of "Inkheart" really helped me forget that I was thousands of feet in the air. lol. And, since I now have an iPod, I had my own headphones to use, so we didn't have to pay 3 dollars or however much it was to use some of the airline's headphones. So finally, we began landing in San Francisco. It was kind of weird, because the airport is right by the water, so it seemed like we were literally two inches above the water, and just when it seemed like we were going to go right into it, the runway appeared and we were on the ground! So that was kind of scary but cool too. haha. So we got to the airport and took a tram over to the rental car center. So we got the car and then went to our hotel, which was in a suburb called San Bruno. We had dinner at this little Chinese place there, which ended up being really good, and then went back to our hotel.
So the next morning, we got in the car and headed over to Yosemite National Park, which was quite a ways from San Francisco. But finally we got there, and met my uncle, who lives in California and decided to come with us. Since Yosemite is pretty big, we spent two days there. We stayed at a hotel in a little town called Mariposa (that means butterfly in Spanish haha) which was right outside the park. But yeah, Yosemite was really cool. We saw the big waterfalls there, and all the rocks and lakes. It was very pretty. :) We also drove out a little ways from the park to see Lake Mono, which was SO cool! It was a big lake which was surrounded by these weird looking rocks, which made it almost look like you were on another planet or something! lol. Here's a pic of it: http://www.pashnit.com/pics/road5/Hwy120/MichaelMaloney_MonoLakeTufa.jpg
Then, we went to Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Park, which was a little smaller so we just spent one day doing that. So, we saw all the sequoia trees, and also saw the General Sherman, which is the largest tree in the world! And it definitely was huge! http://innovatechurch.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/general-sherman.jpg
The next day, we left our hotel in nearby Visalia and started heading over to Monterey, which is a town on the coast. On the way there, we stopped in a town called Cambria to eat lunch, which was kind of what you might call "hoity-toity". lol. It was nice, but I lost count of how many "upscale botiques" and ladies carrying tiny dogs in their purses there were in the town. haha. Then we went to the Hearst Castle, which was a huge house and estate owned by William Randolph Hearst. We rode a bus up the big mountain where the house was. We got a tour of the guesthouse, which had guest bedrooms and a big dining room with a really cool ceiling. There were also two pools there, one outside and one inside, which was called the Gold Pool because it had real gold on the tiles. So that was cool! Then we drove the rest of the way to Monterey. I was wearing a skirt, since the weather had been warm in all of the previous places we were. In fact, it was quite hot at the national parks and in Mariposa and Visalia. But it's amazing how drastically the temperature drops when you get into a town right by the ocean. Because both Monterey and San Francisco were far from hot. lol. When I stepped out of the car in Monterey, I was freezing! Even during the day, it usually only gets in the upper 60s, and at night it's like in the low 60s or even in the 50s. I guess it probably felt colder to me than it really was, since it's so hot and humid where I live and I'm totally not used to cool weather right now. But anyway, since it was about evening when we got to Monterey, we ate dinner and then after it got dark, we went right up to the coast so my brother could take some nighttime pictures (he's into photography and has this special camera that can even take pictures at night). Luckily we had brought jackets with us so we wore those, since it was cool and windy. There wasn't a place to go right on the beach, but there were some rocks you could stand on and see the ocean from there. So that was fun, but my mom and I ended up going back to the car after awhile since we were freezing, and let my brother finish taking all his pictures.
Then the next day, we did the 17-mile drive which started in Monterey. You just drove all along the coast for 17 miles, and there was all this stuff you could stop and see. You could see the beach, and there was one place where you could see seals and sea lions on this big rock out in the distance. We also stopped at the part in Carmel, which had a beach that you could go on. My brother and went in the water even though it was freezing! lol. So that was really fun too! And then that night we ate at a place called California Pizza Kitchen, which again, is a chain restaurant, but we don't have any in our state. We got pizza, of course, even though they had pasta and stuff too, and we quite enjoyed it.
The next day, we drove through San Francisco and briefly stopped there. We drove over the Golden Gate Bridge, which was cool. It's so big! We also walked around downtown (and had to wear our jackets of course lol). Like any big city, it was extremely crowded, so I think it was a cool place to visit, but it would probably drive me nuts if I lived there because of how crowded it is, not to mention the fact that you're shivering in July. lol. So yeah, we finished looking around San Francisco and then drove the rest of the way to Santa Rosa, which thankfully was further away from the ocean, thus it was quite a bit warmer than San Francisco. There wasn't a whole lot to do there, even though it's a pretty decent-sized city. The reason we went there was to look at a school that I'm thinking about attending, which is specifically for people who want to train assistance dogs. So that was pretty much all we did there, besides eat and go to the mall there. lol. And I LOVED the school. Everyone there was so nice, and it looks like such a fun place to go. Plus it's a pretty small school, so you get more one-on-one classes and stuff. So that's definitely staying on my list of places I might like to go!
And then we drove back to San Francisco since that's where we were flying out to go back home. That day we actually walked across the Golden Gate Bridge instead of just driving over it. Well, all of us except my mom, because she hates bridges. I guess she has a fear of it falling or something. lol. But anyway, yeah, the bridge was really awesome, but again, it wasn't too comfortable unless you were wearing a jacket. It was so windy that by the time we were done my hair was all over the place! lol.
So then the next day we flew back home. This time we got the long flight over with first, when we flew from San Francisco to Dallas. Since they always offer drinks on flights, I stupidly made the mistake of drinking a whole can of Coke. I started needing to use the bathroom but I figured I could just wait until we landed. But soon I just didn't think I could wait any longer and we still had an hour and a half left. But I really didn't want to use the bathroom on a plane. I'd actually never even done it before, but I didn't think I'd want to go in that cramped thing. But now I pretty much had no choice. So, I stood up, and started walking to the back of the plane. This of course felt really weird while the plane was moving. I have no idea how the flight attendants move around throughout the whole flight like that. So, after I managed to walk back there without falling over, I went inside the tiny thing. It was seriously the most cramped place ever, so any claustrophobic person could never go inside. And for some reason it felt even bumpier and more turbulent in there than it did in the rest of the plane, so I really made it quick so I could get the heck out of there. Moral of the story: Don't drink a whole can of soda on a long flight. haha. So we finally landed in Dallas and ate dinner. Then, as we were waiting to get on our plane home, they suddenly announced that the plane that just landed, which was supposed to be the one we were going to get on, was having problems and couldn't be used. Of course, everyone groaned. It was going to take them forever to find us another plane. My brother was supposed to leave to go back to his home after us, but of course he ended up leaving before us because of our delay. They told us it might only take 30 minutes, but of course, they lied- 30 minutes later, they announced that we could go to a different gate, but still, the plane had not arrived. So, we took a tram and went over to the other gate, and then waited about another hour before the plane FINALLY got there. Then they finally boarded us and we took off. By then, it was almost dark, and it got completely dark while we were in the air. If we had left on time, we wouldn't have had to have flown in the dark, which I don't like, unless we're landing in a big city, because all the cool lights provide a good distraction from the fact that I can't see anything else or see what's going on. lol. But anyway, we finally made it home! It was really late, after 10:00, when we finally made it back, but we were still so glad to have finally made it. And of course, I was very thankful that no problems had occured while we were 30 thousand feet in the air and we made it back alive. haha.
So yeah, that was basically the trip! It was a lot of fun! Definitely one of the biggest highlights of 2009. =]

Summer

Well, so far my summer has been pretty good. I'm still going to Jazzercize every Saturday with my mom, and going to lunch with my mom and her friends once a week. And it is SO nice to not have to worry about homework or tests! I'm so glad to be out of school. lol. Sadly I do have two summer reading assignments to do, but I might try to read those books on the plane ride to California, since I won't really have anything else to do.

So yeah, we're leaving for our vacation to California next week, so that should be fun. My brother will also be able to come with us. And I also already took one vacation a the beginning of this month. So I have to tell all about that. lol. Well, we went to Florida and brought my friend along with us, since 1. she had never been to Disney World before and really wanted to go and 2. because she was dying to meet my relatives, some of who are quite odd (but nice) people. But yeah, we had TONS of fun. The first day we were there we went shopping at this big mall. We found this amazing store called Lush that has cosmetic stuff. Mostly stuff like bubble bath and soap and shampoo. But they have tons of different scents and everything in there almost looks like candy. Like they had these things called "bath bombs" that were like bubble bath, but they were bars. And they were so colorful! It was the coolest store.
Then we also found an M&M store! Yep, everything in there had something to do with M&Ms. They had tons of M&M T-shirts and other clothing. They had M&Ms in every color you can imagine. That was the only time in my life that I'd ever seen purple M&Ms! So yeah, that was really awesome too. :P
The next fun thing we did was Disney! My grandma knows this really nice lady who used to work at Disney, so she was able to get my friend, my mom, and me in for free. Plus she gave us a park hopper pass, meaning we could go to any of the different parks in Disney! Well, all the parks are huge so of course we didn't have time to do every single one, but we ended up going to Hollywood Studios and the Magic Kingdom. We parked in Epcot and took a boat over to Hollywood Studios first. My friend really wanted to go there because she wanted to do Rock n' Roller Coaster, which is an Aerosmith-themed roller coaster that's in the dark and plays Aerosmith music. I thought the concept sounded quite cool, but the fact that the coaster had three inversions (upside down things) and was in the dark made me chicken out. I'm really afraid to go on a roller coaster that goes upside down, but I figure that if I ever were to try one, I'd at least want to do one where I would be able to see what was coming. lol. But my friend went on it and said it was the coolest thing ever, and at the end of the day said it was her favorite ride. I kind of feel like I missed something now, but oh well. lol. Because I can still say that I went on one intense ride! Before my friend did the coaster, she wanted to go on the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. She had been trying to convince me to go on the roller coaster with her but I refused, but I compromised with her and told her that I MIGHT at least do the Tower of Terror with her. I'd have to check it out first. Basically, it was a free-fall ride, meaning it just dropped you straight down. It looked pretty intimidating because it was 199 feet tall, but I learned that it doesn't drop you from the very top all the way to the bottom. It has a series of shorter drops. So, even though I was a bit unsure, I decided I'd go ahead and try it. Of course, my mom doesn't ride ANYTHING (she wouldn't even go on the little kids' roller coaster at Sea World- we'll get to that later haha) so she just dropped us both off at the ride and then went and sat down somewhere. The line was really long and it was extremely hot, but luckily they had mist spraying so that made it more bearable. lol. Finally we actually went inside the building which was supposed to be the haunted hotel, and the people working in there were dressed as bellhops. We waited some more and finally my friend and I went with a group and we were led into a dark room. They shut the doors and played a short little video clip about the Twilight Zone. I don't really remember it much because at this point I was getting really nervous and all I could think about was the ride. Then they let us out of the room and we stood in line a bit longer, and this time we could actually see the "elevators" that we were about to ride. The scenery inside the hotel was really cool. It actually looked like an old abandoned haunted hotel. lol. But anyway, the time came and my friend and I were at the front of the line and they started lining us up to get on the ride. I noticed that there was an exit over to the side of the building, I guess for people who whimped out at the last minute, and for a minute I considered running over there, but I decided I was just going to be brave and try it. I was pretty much shaking at this point though. We went inside the elevator, and luckily they had seatbelts and little handles on the seats that you could hold onto. So the ride began. First, I think they showed another little video clip telling the story of the hotel. Back in 1939, it was this big glamorous hotel that all of the Hollywood stars stayed in. Then on Halloween night, five people got into the elevator when it was struck by lightning during a storm, and the people were never seen again. Apparently they had been transported to the Twilight Zone. So now we were apparently traveling to the Twilight Zone, in the out of control elevator. So after the clip played, we started moving forward. That part was cool because it was dark but you could see all these stars and stuff, like you were going through the Twlight Zone. And then, suddenly, came the first drop! It was so unbelievably fast and it felt like we were dropping really far, although I have no idea how many feet we actually dropped. Apparently no two rides on the Tower are ever the same, because the computer always randomly generates how many times and how far the elevator drops. Of course it was pretty scary and I used all the energy I had to scream as loud as possible, but at the same time it was lots of fun. We probably dropped 4 or 5 times, but each drop only lasted 2 or 3 seconds so it wasn't too bad. And plus since my friend was right next to me, it wasn't as scary. I'd never go on a ride like this alone, but when you're with your friend it's different. We actually laughed too on some of the drops. And before I knew it, the ride was over! I breathed a sigh of relief. The ride had been really fun, but I was actually starting to feel a little nauseous after all that falling, and figured 4 or 5 drops was enough. Plus my throat hurt from screaming and laughing. But, I did really enjoy the ride. What I liked about it was that you were in an enclosed elevator, which is good for people like me who are afraid of heights, because most of the time you couldn't actually see yourself falling, you just felt it. There were a few parts where it stopped at an open window and you could see outside right before the tower was about to drop, but I think I closed my eyes on that part. haha. But yeah, my friend and I came off the ride and found my mom waiting for us, so of course we had to tell her all about it. Luckily my slight nausea was fading away, so I could still eat since it was about lunchtime. We went and got some pizza, and then all three of us went on The Great Movie Ride. My mom could handle it since it was just a little train that took you through all these different recreations of movies. That was pretty cool. Then my friend did the Rock n' Roller Coaster, and we also saw a show called Voyage of the Little Mermaid, which was really cute.
After that, we wanted to go over to Animal Kingdom, but that park closes at 5:00 for some reason, and it was already 4:00 and it was starting to storm, which means they close all of the outdoor rides, so sadly we had to skip Animal Kingdom. My friend and I wanted to try this roller coaster called Expedition Everest (it doesn't go upside down, so I was willing to do it lol) over there, but we didn't get to. Stupid rain! lol. So we decided to go ahead and head over to the Magic Kingdom. We hoped it would stop raining soon but we figured we'd just try to do all the indoor rides until it stopped. So we took the bus over there. My friend and I got a kick out of the security people there. They had to wear these colorful uniforms, and every time someone passed through, the guy would say, "Have a magical day!" (My friend ended up recording that as her voice mail on her cell phone lol)
Anyway, we of course saw Cinderella's castle, which was beautiful! I think the first ride we did was the Haunted Mansion, and since that's not an intense ride my mom did that one too. We also rode the carousel and Snow White's Scary Adventures, which was just a leasurely ride that took you through the movie basically. We also went on one like that for Winnie the Pooh. haha. The cars we rode in were designed as honey pots. It was so adorable. lol. Then my friend and I rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, which is a roller coster, but it's a very mild one. Of course my mom still wouldn't do it though lol. It went pretty fast and it had quite a few twists and turns, but there were no big drops. So yeah, that was fun. lol. And of course we had to ride the classic spinning tea cups too! The last thing we went on was Pirates of the Carribean. Disney was tons of fun!! We were so tired at the end of the day, but it was so worth it. :D
And then we also did Sea World! That was tons of fun too. We went to four different shows. One had dolphins and also acrobatics performing, another had sea lions, and then there were two Shamu shows- one called "Believe" and one called "Shamu Rocks." I liked the Shamu Rocks one- Shamu did all these tricks to rock music. :D Me, my friend, and my dad went on a ride called Journey To Atlantis, which was a "water coaster"- a combination of a log flume and a roller coaster. We just rode in this boat and first went through "Atlantis." That had some of the coolest scenery I'd ever seen. Then we had to escape from Atlantis because Medusa was there. haha. So Medusa appeared and we exited the little building and went outside. We went up a little ways until we finally came to the big drop into the water. I braced myself, because I wasn't exactly looking forward to it- it dropped you 60 feet. But hey, I did Tower of Terror, so I knew I could handle it. lol. So we went down the drop and splashed into the water, and since we were seated in the back of the boat we actually didn't get as wet. The people in the front were the ones who got drenched, but that was kind of a good thing because we didn't want to be soaked for hours. lol. This little tiny drop after that was the one that got you the wettest, surprisingly. Then after the flume part came the roller coaster part, which was really only one drop. We went back inside the building, and it was almost pitch-dark, but luckily I knew that the drop was coming because I had looked up the ride on youtube and on the website. That's a little OCD thing that I do- I always research every ride that I'm considering going on, at least if it's a thrill ride, because I have to know whether it'll be too scary or not. lol. So we went down the last drop and we were done! I really liked that ride!
We also went on the Wild Arctic ride, which was just a simulator ride that was supposed to be a wild helicopter ride through the arctic. Even though that was pretty mild, my mom (and my grandparents and aunt who had come with us) opted for the motionless seats. My dad, my friend and me did the ones with motion though, so that was pretty fun. Then, we went over to the "Happy Harbor"- which was the section for kids. But my friend and I were so excited about this, because we were going to finally get my mom on her first roller coaster, which was a kids' roller coaster called the Shamu Express. We got there, and it had a brightly colored pink track and you sat in little Shamu cars. But my mom took a look at the tiny roller coaster and suddenly said, "No, I don't want to do that!" My friend and I were so disappointed and couldn't believe she chickened out at the last minute! But the two of us still went on it. It was only about a minute long and had two drops, one of which was surprisingly steep for a kids' coaster, but still not that big. I still think my mom could have handled it. :P Then we headed over to the Swishy Fishies (which were like the spinning teacups at Disney, except they were shaped like fish instead), since my mom was willing to do those, although she requested that whoever rode with her didn't spin the cup at all. Sheesh. lol. So my dad rode with her and my friend and I rode in a different one. But as we tried to climb in, we discovered that since the ride was designed for small children, we barely fit in the thing! lol. My friend was practically sitting on me at first, and then we both got situated and ended up having to sit sideways for our legs to fit! lol. After that, we rode a carousel, except this one had sea creatures instead of the typical horses. And then, we headed over to the Manta! It's a new roller coaster that just opened there last month. However, only my dad and my friend were willing to go on it. Obviously my mom wasn't going to do it, and I immediately put the nix on it when I saw the gigantic loops and twists on it. And also, you're laying forward for the whole ride so that it's like you're flying! That actually sounds kind of cool, but at the same time I think it would be scary since I'm afraid of heights. lol. So my mom and I went and looked at a dolphin exhibit while they were riding that crazy thing. Then we met them afterwards, and of course my friend thought it was awesome! My dad liked it too, because he's a huge thrill seeker as well. At this point it was dinnertime and they actually both still had an appetite after riding that, so we ate dinner and then afterwards went to the stingray exhibit, where you could touch the stingrays. So that was fun! Then the last thing we did was go to the gift shop, where I bought a stuffed otter (since I love otters- they are so CUTE!) and my friend bought a gigantic stuffed walrus, because we had seen a walrus at one of the exhibits earlier and she had fallen in love with him. haha. So yeah, Sea World was tons of fun!
That was pretty much all the fun stuff we did. The trip back home ended up being long because we got stuck in a huge traffic jam, but we amused ourselves by rolling down our windows and waving the walrus at everyone. People's reactions were priceless. Some people just stared at us blankly, others smiled and waved, and several small children were absolutely delighted. These two ladies held their cat up to the window and made it wave back, and one guy even took a picture of the walrus! Haha it was great! And then we finally did get home! So yeah, this was definitely one of the best vacations ever!
And now we're leaving next week for our other vacation! I'm excited of course, but not so thrilled about flying. I don't know, something about being trapped hundreds or thousands of feet above the ground if anything happens to go wrong kind of freaks me out. I KNOW it's not likely for anything to go wrong with a plane, but just the mere possibility scares me. So please pray for our safe trip! If I can just get past the flying part though, I'm super excited about the trip! I'll be sure to tell about it when I get back! :)