O Week

Ahhh!!! I'm sorry! School started and then my brain would always be like "well if I have time to blog I have time to do homework" and then neither one would happen... I think I have a better grasp of time management now but who knows if that will still be the case tomorrow.

So O Week was the next week which is also known as orientation week but it's shortened to O week. I've very quickly realized that Australians tend to shorten everything which is both nice because I like it but also really confusing because I don't know what they're saying. It doesn't help that sometimes they talk really quickly too. Anyway that's not the point. O week. Basically it's set up for first years to learn about how to survive university. Well as an international student we figured this would probably be good for us too. They also had different events happening as well.

Monday
They had a specific class like thing specific for whether you were going into science, liberal arts, and whatever else you were studying. So I went to that all morning with almost everybody I had met so far because we all seem to be in science. It was really good because we were able to meet the mentors that are students in our field and we can ask them for help if we so desire. Then we met a few of the professors that could be teaching some of our classes which I think I actually met one of mine during that time. We met both lecture professors and the lab coordinator. That lasted most of the morning so they gave us pizza afterwords. We struggled a bit to get pizza at first because we had to wait for the mentors to give them to us at our table and our mentor never gave us one! So we had to go up to them and ask for one which was silly. Then we were going to leave but didn't really have anything to do at that time so we went back and sat down at a table again and then mentors from another group that was now having lunch gave us two pizzas! It was great but we didn't know what to do with them. I think we just left them there and left. After that we went and got our student IDs and a bus pass so that we don't have to pay as much using the bus. The bus is expensive! It will be interesting to see how much I spent on the bus by the end of the semester.

Tuesday

At the botanic gardens =)

Pretty sure I slept in and laid in bed most of the morning. There were more informational sessions that I could have attended but I didn't feel the need to go any of them. In the afternoon they had a tour of Cairns where they got a double decker bus that we rode around town in while they told us where things were. Naturally we went to sit at the top of the bus despite being told that the sun is a lot stronger here than anywhere else (this is a constant theme). We stopped at the botanic gardens and spent about an hour there before we left. It was really pretty as botanical gardens are. Lots of cool flowers and there were signs that explained a lot about how they are used for medicine. Then we got back on the bus to go back. I didn't go to the top of the bus this time because I figured I had been in the sun long enough and I'm not a huge fan of getting sun burnt and getting skin cancer isn't on my bucket list. They had a movie night too and originally we planned on going but it started when dinner at the lodge is so we had dinner and then by the time we were ready to go we figured we had already missed most of the movie and it wasn't worth it so we probably just hung out. Maybe that's when I wrote my first few posts.

Wednesday
This was a long day. We went to get pancakes from the Red Frogs (a Christian group) in the morning and had some half backed pancakes that were slightly unsatisfying but it was free food so I guess I can't complain too much. Then I had to go to the international studies orientation that I originally missed because I was in Byron Bay. They said basically the same stuff that I had already heard before but it was good to get reminded I guess. During lunch they had market day which is where all the clubs set up a table and advertise what they do and stuff. They didn't have as many clubs as I was hoping they would and the clubs sometimes seemed more like an organization ran them then students but that was just what it seemed like to me. I signed up for information for a few of them but I haven't gotten very much information on them still so I guess that didn't work that well. I remember a guy coming up to us at one point and giving us a flyer about a martial arts club (I can't remember exactly which martial arts it was). I was interested and asked a question about where it is and instead of saying where it is he gave me an answer about how they want women who had a bad experience with a man join so they can kind of rehabilitate them (my wording may be terrible on that sorry). Now I think it's great that they want to do that and that it is one of the goals of the club but at the same time I got this feeling at the same time that he didn't want me to join unless that was the case. Which was rather rude because I was really interested and then he just kind of ruined my interest by kind of pushing me away.

After that we hung out till the party of the night occurred. They had a tropical themed party planned where they had a DJ, entertainment, and of course food. I had some ice cream and a snow cone which was probably my favorite part. After the party at the school we got on a party bus and went to a bar. We started at one called Lyquids which was pretty fancy. It was still pretty early in the night so we were the only ones there (this includes everybody on the party bus). With my friends accompanying and ordering for me we got the weakest shot one can get which also happens to be the cheapest (hurray!). It wasn't bad but I don't think I ever want to have more alcohol than that, especially in a public place. After that we danced a bit (me very awkwardly) and then ended up being the last people there. So we left and found a different bar called Woolshed which is a backpackers bar. We stayed there for a long time (longer than I would have preferred). We danced some (a lot) and after a while I was just done. You have to realize that I had been doing stuff nonstop for over a week and my feet needed a good rest still so they hated me and hurt a bunch so I found a random stool and sat next to my circle of friends that continued to dance. It was an interesting experience at this bar because a guy came into our circle of times and would grab one of the girls awkwardly dance with them spin them and then the girl would swiftly make an escape. I'm just glad he didn't try to dance with me because I have no idea how I would have responded. Eventually I went to get some air and since it was cooler outside than inside the bar (which is saying a lot) I decided I would stay there for the whole time. One of my friends joined me outside and then another joined me. Eventually we left but we had to get a taxi because we missed the last bus. Then bed and happiness.

Thursday
I don't think we really had anything planned and didn't need to go to any of the sessions they had so we may have gone to buy some things at the closest shopping center. In the afternoon the school had a scavenger hunt set up and me and one of my roommates went to do it but it wasn't exactly what we were expecting. The items on the list were kind of weird and we didn't really want to do it after getting the clipboard with the list on it so we left the clipboard on a picnic table outside the building where they had organized it. On the way back to the lodge (which is where we are residing) these people clearly doing the scavenger hunt tried to complete the task of "taking a selfie with someone without them noticing" with us. He was so obvious about it though! He started walking backwards and was clearly taking a selfie. So I pointed it out because he really could have done so much better. I said he could still use it but I'm pretty sure even in the picture you can tell that we knew what he was doing. Pretty sure we just chilled after that too. There wasn't that much going on that day.

Friday

Sadness :'(

We went to a lot of sessions in the morning because we figured they would be useful. They were pretty much how to survive in university and the resources available which we had already heard about a lot but it did clear up some confusion that we had so it was worthwhile. In the afternoon the student association (which is the group of students that organize all the fun things that have been happening on campus) had organized a trip to Palm Cove, a beach. So we took the double decker bus to the beach again. Once we got to the beach it was pretty unfortunate because we couldn't actually swim because of the irukandji. We couldn't even swim in the netted area which was rude. So we sat on the beach and put sunscreen on (because the sun is stronger here than anywhere else) and the student leader made sure we had sunscreen eventually. We really only stayed on the beach until they brought us food. Once we ate or food we left the beach to explore the shops that were by it.

The beach at Palm Cove

We got gelato which was nice and refreshing considering it was really hot. We went into a couple of shops with gelato in hand and then we needed somewhere to throw our cups away but we couldn't find any trashcans (or bins as the say in Australia)! So one girl went up to these people working at a hotel lobby area and asked if she throw her trash away there and the lady just took her trash. So we all did that same. Since we were already in the hotel (which was confusing to me because we never went through a doorway) we ended up going to their pool area. At first I thought we were just going to look at it but we ended up going in. Then I thought we would just sit at the edge of the pool but me and this other girl ended up going into the pool because it was hot and the pool wasn't crowded and why not. So we did and it was really nice. The pool was super nice too! It was like a makeshift beach with sand and everything. Eventually another girl joined us in the pool and we ended up just goofing around in the pool. It was really nice and since we aren't as loud as the other American international students the people working there either didn't care or didn't notice. Eventually we left because we had to get back on the bus and I don't remember what we did in the evening.

Well that's my quick update. Hopefully I will catch up quickly since actual school started shortly after this week and I will really only need to talk about the weekend when I did something exciting.

The First Weekend

Hello everybody! Welcome back to my wonderful adventure. This is my third post and I will start where I left off from the last post but before I do that I forgot everything that I could use as a camera so I don't really have any pictures unfortunately. Sorry about that but I hope you enjoy my post anyway. Also It was brought to my attention that in my previous post I mentioned going to the bar and I said something along the lines of "I knew I would be a drinking person" well that's a typo it shouldn't say something like "I knew I would not be a drinking person". Look. I don't edit these. I just type it out and then post it. I don't have time to review stuff and my grammar isn't that great anyway. I'm just trying to get my thoughts down so that I can look back on it in the future...so enjoy this next post!

The Afternoon

So the flight to the city in which my school abides was like three hours. The first two hours were super uneventful just a normal flight of me wondering when the heck the flight is going to end and being bored. I forgot to charge all of my electronic devices (I know I'm super good with technology...) so they were all about to die which meant I was trying to limit my use of them which meant even more boredom. The last part of the flight was a little more awkward because the lady to my left started talking to me and the girl on my left (I was in the middle). Well actually she started talking with the girl on my left and that was awkward because they were talking across me which always causes me confusion because I'm not sure what I should do. Eventually she started conversing with me and I had to try to explain that I was studying abroad which appears to me more confusing to people than I thought it was. I did find out that she was in the top five realtors in Australia or something just as impressive. So she was going back after receiving an award. And I believe the other lady was visiting her boyfriend. Honestly, I was just really happy that they weren't two large men and were nice and friendly even if I did feel awkward. But I always feel awkward so I guess that doesn't mean that much.

Well once the flight landed I struggled to get my bag down from the overhead place like short people do. There was an exit at the back of the plane too which was new and caused me to try and move faster but really just panic and fumble around even more. I had to walk outside after that and was met with a large dose of humidity and heat. Luckily I got to go back inside shortly after that. We met the person in charge of us in this new city and went to the actual campus/living area of us new students.

Upon arriving at the student lodge we were told a bit of information about where we were staying and some of the important information that we needed to know so that we wouldn't die while staying here. We were then given our rooms and left to get situated and whatnot. Well my room ended up being on the second floor which is really nice and I can't complain but that meant that I had to carry my luggage up the stairs which was a bit of a struggle but I got it so it's fine. Then I went to my room and met my new roommates! I think I got super lucky because both of my roommates are super friendly and nice. Plus we are all in similar majors and we have one class together! I got to meet a bunch of new people through them and was bombarded with names. I'm pretty terrible with names but I actually put effort into learning them and personally think I did pretty good at learning everyone's name. Sure there are two pairs of girls with the same name but that's beside the point. 

We sat outside in the courtyard for a bit and met an actual Australian! Okay I know what you're thinking. "You're in Australia shouldn't you have met an Australian already?" Well, I hadn't met and talked to an Australian student yet because I had met all the other international students and that meant a bunch of people from the States and Canada. After that I unpacked and went to bed.

Saturday

The campus with the forest in the background.

I slept in. I was tired and they don't serve breakfast or lunch on weekends so of course I'd sleep as long as I can. I had to get up somewhat early though because the group I came with had a school tour planned and being told more information about how to survive here. Where the school is located is super cool. It's pretty spread out and surrounded by tropical forest. It's almost like forest grew around the different buildings. There are some small mountains that the forest is part of and it's just really really beautiful. There's also a bungee jump place close to the school so apparently we might hear screams every once in a while because of that. I doubt it will happen but we'll see if I do that or not. 

After the tour my roommates invited me to go with them and the group I was introduced to as they went downtown because there was a Chinese New Year celebration happening. So we took the bus and embarked on an adventure in which we constantly lost people and were somewhat lost. But it was fine nothing bad happened and we found our way without losing anybody.

We walked around time first and went into a couple of shops but I didn't buy anything. Then we went to the Lagoon in which they have a free public pool that's outside because you can't really swim in the ocean because of the Irukandji jellyfish (the smallest and most venomous box jellyfish in the world). We sat by the shore and looked across the horizon though which was nice and relaxing. After sitting for a bit we decided to go to the street that was closed for the New Years celebration. Some of us just really wanted to find the food stands so that we could eat some food. Once we found the street, we watched a little bit of a dragon dance that was being performed and then left. We decided to find an actual restaurant to get food from because all of the food we saw people with didn't look very good. 

In our search of food we found the night market in which there were different Asian food places where you choose the size of plate you want and then you pick the dishes that you want. It's basically Chinese takeout buffet style. We found fried pineapple that was so good! We might go back there just for the pineapple. After filling our stomachs with the wonderful food that we needed we began to explore the night market which has a lot of nice souvenirs. I will definitely be going back to actually get some souvenirs before I leave. 

After exploring the night market for a while it was time to go back to the street with the New Years celebration to see a parade. On our way there we ended up stopping to take pictures of all the flying fox bats that were flying. During the day we could see them in the trees all over the place and basically taking up all the space in the trees as they slept. Well now it was night time which meant they were no longer sleeping. They were all waking up from their slumber and there was basically a parade of bats in the sky. We probably stood there watching them for about ten minutes and they weren't even close to being done. It's probably one of the coolest things I've seen since coming here. 

These are the bats during the day (I just found a picture on
google but it's the same thing)

The bats were so mesmerizing that once we were done watching them we went to watch the actual parade that was our goal in the first place. We were probably only five minutes late but when we got there we saw this one gold dragon traveling above the crowd and then it was over. So we missed the actual parade but we got to see a parade of bats. Hopefully I'll see it again but this time with my camera so I can share it with you. 

We had heard that there were supposed to be fireworks after the fireworks but those weren't for another hour so the majority of us went to sit along the coast again and find a place to sit and watch the fireworks from. We sat on a bench for a while and then I needed something to lean against so I sat on the ground and leaned against the bench/sitting thing we had been on previously. Shortly after others decided to join me and we had a little pow wow on the ground with some people still on the bench. We got quite a few stares because of this but I didn't really care because I was comfortable. Finally the time for the fireworks arrived! ...and passed. We waited for half an hour before deciding that the fireworks weren't actually going to happen and decided to leave. 

The adventure to find the correct bus stop was a bit of a struggle and we ended up walking in a circle when we could have just crossed the street to begin with but we found it and got back safely which is all that really matters. Then off to bed! 

Sunday

I don't think too much happened this day but I do know that we did a bit of running around. We went to the closest mall to us because the stores across from us are expensive since they know they are right across from college students who need stuff suddenly. Well I got an Australian phone because that was a thing I needed and we also got some groceries since we don't have breakfast or lunch on weekends. The most exciting part to me was when we went to Kmart. Now don't go assuming you know what Kmart is like because Kmart is stinking awesome and their clothes are beautiful and soft (although that might just be clothes in Australia in general). You may be thinking that it can't be as good as Target. Well you are wrong. Here in Australia Target it not so good. In my mind in Australia Kmart will probably become my Target in the US. 

After that we went to the pool at the lodge and probably won't go swimming in it again because it's rather dirty and surprisingly cold considering we're in the tropics. Then we had dinner and hung out a bit before going to bed. More might have happened but I'm pretty sure I wanted to have a me night because I had been doing stuff nonstop for at least a week and really just needed some time to relax. The majority of us had to wake up early the next morning anyway because orientation week was starting but I'll talk about that in my next post. =)

The Beginning of an Adventure!

Right now I am sitting on a couch in a country half way around the world from where I would normally be. I can still hear people screaming and cheering in the courtyard outside my room as they play some drinking game that I'm sure wouldn't be nearly as fun as if they were sober. Due to this grand adventure I will (hopefully) be recording what is going on and my thoughts during the whole adventure here so that I can look back at it and others can look at it and know what I'm up to. Today I will record my thoughts on the first few days of this adventure (Warning: it's going to be long).


First flight: Got a window seat! Hurray! A lady sat next to me. The plane didn't have any TV screens originally on the backs of the seats or that come down from the section above your heads (I'm not sure what they're called). This made me very upset at first because I wasn't sure how the heck I was supposed to entertain myself! However shortly after the flight began I discovered that they had WiFi on the plane and that they seem to assume that you would just use your mobile device to stream movies and stuff. We could also use our electronic devices during take off and landing as long as they were on flight mode. I'm used to them forcing us to turn off all electronic devices. I felt like an old lady being amazed by the technology on planes nowadays.

Second flight: Got a window seat again! Hurray! This time a guy sat next to me. He was from Puerto Rico (I know this not because I talked to him but because I sneaked a look at his passport and it was a Puerto Rico passport). I didn't like him as much because he was larger than the lady last time and he kept moving around and bumping me. The entertainment setup for this plane was the same as the last plane I took but the stupid internet wouldn't work for me!

Between flights: I got off my second flight and was super happy to discover that my next flight was right across from me so I knew where I needed to go and had time to get food. Super exciting. Well I went and got food and have now decided that LAX is stupid because the food was stupidly expensive. Never again. I also didn't know what half the food places were. After eating my crumby food (crumby as in "not the best" not crumby as in "leaves a bunch of crumbs") I went to my terminal and was shortly told that we would be taking a bus to our plane 30 minutes before we were supposed to take off. At the time I didn't understand why the heck the plane wasn't coming to us if that was the terminal I was supposed to be at. I now understand that I was in the domestic airport and the bus would take me to the international airport where the plane would be leaving (why you have to be so confusing airports??). As I was waiting for the bus two other men came and were waiting on the bus. Since I didn't have anything better to do I eavesdropped on the conversation which happened to be about long plane rides. They must have traveled a lot because one of the guys was talking about how if you go on a specific flight to Africa then you need to be in this row because of this and all sorts of other stuff that made me feel like an amateur. When we finally got on the bus one of these men asked me if I had been on a long flight before. After saying no he asked if I could fall asleep on planes. I warily said yes and he said I would be fine. I hoped he was right. After reaching our destination by bus the five of us walked into the airport again and started following some man that worked there that said to follow him to our plane and assured us it wasn't that far. I don't know what he considers to be far but I sure don't want to experience that because I was huffing and panting by the time we got to our plane. We were the last ones to board but at least we made it.

Third Flight: Window seat!! Woohoo...except because I was so slow at boarding the airplane and ended up making a small scene because I had to make the two people sitting next to me move and then ask someone to help me put my carry-on in the over head bin because I am much to short to reach it on that humongous plane. After getting situated I discovered that this plane had individual TV screens on the back of the seats and had a remote underneath. This was pretty freaking cool. You could select a movie, TV Show, TV channel, Radio Station, CD, and all sorts of other things. Not to mention you could play games on it! If you flipped the remote over it was a game console thing so you could play a game. I don't know about you but I think that's pretty stinking cool. They also had a chat function where you could specifically chat with another person on the plane using their seat number or you could go in the chat room and talk to random people on the plane. The only bummer was that it didn't have WiFi. I don't know about you but that confused me but whatever they had a ton of other ways for you to entertain yourself. As for the person sitting next to me. He was also a student going to study abroad except he was going to New Zealand. I believe his major had something to do with Forestry which I thought was cool and we could have some good conversations because we have similar majors. Now then, how do I know all this about him? Obviously because I talked to him right? Wrong. I was eavesdropping on his conversation with the other person that was sitting next to him. He completely ignored me the whole flight. Why? Because there was a "gorgeous Australian" sitting next to him (mind you those are his words and he did say that to the girl sitting next to him at one point. Before he started his conversation with his new best friend he looked at me and then looked at her and started a conversation with her. This started at the beginning of the flight and I didn't put any earbuds or start listening to music or anything for a while because I thought "We're all around the same age. We are going to be on a super long flight together. He already started a conversation with the person next to him surely they make ask me a question just out of courtesy. Nope. Completely ignored. Well whatever. Also I realized later that even if I had wanted to listen to music I wouldn't have been able to because this plane actually made you turn off your electronic devices. These two were having lovely conversations about their lives and whatever else you talk about when you flirt but some of this conversation occurred while safety explanation thing was being done that they always do on flights. I personally thought it took the flight attendant to do anything about it because they were talking through most of it but she did end up talking to them so they had to be quiet after that and I may have been too happy about that happening. Other than being ignored the flight was fine. I got two meals which I wasn't expecting (dinner and breakfast). They also had the plane ride set up so that you would eat dinner and then sleep and the eat breakfast and then we were there in the morning. It was super awesome and I think it helped with jet lag a lot. So I slept for most of the flight. After getting of the plane I saw the two "love birds" hugging and parting ways like they had become the closest of friends when realistically they probably only talked to each other for about 5 hours at the most. I don't understand.


There you go lovelies. That was my adventure getting to Australia. The next post will hopefully be more exciting with actual pictures of stuff happening but I shall leave it at that for now. 

Quick Update

Hello there everyone! I realize I haven't posted anything in two weeks. I apologize for that but college started. Two weeks ago I was moving into the dorm and then last week was labor day and I just didn't feel like posting anything. Sorry.

Anyway I shall try to continue to post weekly but if I miss a week please don't kill me. I think I'm going to move my normal posting days to Saturday because I tend to end up waiting on people to wake up so that we can go get breakfast together. So posts on Saturdays not Fridays!

There will be an actual post about college coming too. I will probably post it next week since I will have experienced everything I'm going to be doing by then. If something new is added I will let you know!

Stay classy and don't forget to enjoy the adventure of life! You never know what is going to happen so take it one day at a time! Look for a post tomorrow!

In the Future: Fangirling, College Observations, and of course the history of Nail Polish (goodness when am I actually going to talk about these things?!)

Sesame Street Meets Will.i.am.

Just a heads up. This is a really random post. I wrote it a while ago and just decided I would post it because why not? Plus I'm really tired. Hopefully next week there will be an better post. :)

In my Biology class my teacher starts off reading a bunch of fun facts to start the class (I would like to share some of them with you but I can never remember what they were). After reading the fun facts she then told us about a song that has been playing in her house 24/7. This is the song she played:

This song has like 25 million views and is actually pretty fun. I enjoyed it and the chorus was stuck in my head. Even right now it is stuck in my head. I don't know why but I felt like sharing this song with you. It's not everyday you see Will.i.am singing with the characters from Sesame Street. Did you think he looked really bored and like he didn't want to be there? Yeah. Me too. Oh well I'm assuming he survived. Although I have to say that Sesame Street was a whole lot cooler seven years ago then it is now.
~Scooby

P.S. I hope you aren't like Will.i.am in that song while reading my blog.

In the future: Fangirling, Favorite Characters, and the History of Nail Polish! 

Exam Results

So during my English class this last school year my teacher showed me this video. With AP results coming out soon I thought I would share this video with you. Personally I feel like they have taken way to long to get here but now that they are I feel like they caught me off guard.

After we watched the video we had a little discussion about whether or not we let exam results decide our fate. I can't remember exactly what was said but a majority of it was that that focus so much about your grades. If you fail an exam it isn't the end of the world. Something along those line! Let me know what you think in the comments!

I hope I helped a little bit. If I didn't I hope the video did. Stay classy and remember that I believe in you and don't lose hope!

In the future! Nail polish rant, YOLO, fangirling! What could those possibly be about?

Cat Collar Shopping

This is going to be a random post. After my post last week I think a shorter one would be kinda nice. So this is just some of the news that has happened in my life this past week.

Story #1:
So I saw my cat zonked out (that means sleeping hard core if you didn't know that) on my parents bed. So I went to pet him because he was so cute and I felt like petting him. When I get there I notice that a spot on his chest is lacking of some of his fur. Taking a closer look he has two scratches on his chest.

When I went to pet him he woke up and started licking and licking and licking and licking and licking it. I swear he's licking it SO much. Any way we are taking him to the vet because we want to make sure he's okay and we are leaving for vacation tomorrow.

Cutest fight ever :)

Sigh my stupid cat is once again injured and we think its from our neighbors cat. Not entirely sure but that's our best guess.

Story #2:
I went shopping with my friends expecting to get a boat load of clothes. That was a major fail. I didn't get anything and my friends each got one shirt. Total fail and somewhat disappointing for spending all day shopping.

Story #3:
I had graduation. Yes, I did graduate. Anyway not the point. We had to be at the school super early (and then we didn't do anything for an hour and a half...but that's not the point). With the robes we were supposed to wear all the girls got a collar to tape (the tape was like the tape you get for name tags) onto their robe. Well I forgot mine. Oops. Don't worry! That had extra ones and they helped me put it on (they had duct tape though...much more affective).

I think that's pretty much it for my update. I wanted to keep it somewhat short. Besides that though my friend invited me to help her with another project she is doing. It's this blog called Smiles No Matter :) and I think you should check it out because it is pretty awesome. Plus, you can read about my awkward moments in life (if that is any incentive).

Oh yeah. I'm going on vacation so there probably won't be another post next week. Sorry. Have a classy day and don't forget to keep your cat away from your neighbors cat! Sigh, stupid cat. 

Friendship

Sorry I'm late again on posting. I got home yesterday and was completely exhausted. Not to mention that this post took a lot longer to write then I thought it would. It is rather long. Anyway here it is! Enjoy!


What is friendship? Well that's a tricky question. It varies from person to person. This is what Google says the meaning of friendship is:

1. The emotions or conduct of friends; the state of being friends.
2. A relationship between friends.

Really helpful right? That's probably why we all have our own definitions of friendship. I don't really now how to put my "definition" into words or even a one sentence explanation. It's not just "Oh yeah I have friends that I hang out with sometimes." It's so much more. For me friendship isn't just about talking and hanging out with people. It's what you DO for that person. Do you help them when they need help? Do feel awful if you get in an argument and want to find someway to fix it right away? Do you stand up for them if others talk badly about them or do you join in? 

Everybody shows their friendship in a different way. Some go with the talking route; so they give their friends a lot of compliments and openly say how awesome their friends are. Others take the actions route; helping their friends through their actions. There are a lot of other ways people can show their friendship. I prefer actions because I think its harder for somebody to do something for somebody without really caring. People can lie and get away with actually feeling bad for something. Actions are harder to fake. At least I think so. 

Every relationship requires a give and take. This is the same with friendships. You can NOT keep asking for something over and over again and never return the favor. Say you're at lunch with your friend and everyday at lunch you ask if someone will go across the street with you to buy lunch. Do you have that friend that always goes with you? Yeah, most people do. I happen to be one of those friends. Now say that same friend asks you to go with them. Do you go? I sure hope you said yes. I have been so annoyed when people refuse to help me even though I have helped them so many times I can't keep count (not that I would want to but still). For me personally I getting to the point where I was just done. If I wasn't going to get any help in return why should I return the favor. That may sound selfish but after always helping people it makes sense. 

Think back to the same situation I was just ranting about. If you go with your friend do you go to benefit yourself? Is the first thing you ask "Will you buy me something?" when you already have a lunch? Now who sounds selfish. I never ask that question. When I do think about myself it's more of a "Will I be back in time for class" type of question. If you're going with your friend just so you can get something for free I don't think that's a very good friendship. That almost seems like you are using your friend. Also not good.

I have had friendships where I have felt like I was being used. Those friendships don't last very long. If you have a friend who has a special talent and makes awesome stuff don't use them as a source to get free stuff. Once or twice is okay but you can't expect them to keep making everything for you. Especially if they are using their own money to buy the materials. Plus they can begin to feel used.

Everybody has disagreements from time to time. Everybody is different and has different ideas and beliefs which is going to cause arguments. However, you can NOT go up to your friend say something that makes them cry and then walk away happily. 1) That's just not okay. You are their friend you should not be making them cry. 2) You made them cry you should have to deal with it. When you walk away you cause other people to "clean up your mess" 3) That should not make you happy. If you are happy because you made a FRIEND cry you should really think about your friendship.

I had my last day of high school and either people are really upset because they aren't going to see some of their friends again or they don't really care because you make your real friends in college. I have an issue with both of these. Firstly, who says when you make your real friends. With that mindset of course you aren't going to have the best friends in high school. Secondly if you don't want to lose your friends then don't. Keep in contact. Make sure you hang out together when you can. Isn't that why we have all of these social networks? Or are they just there so you can complain to everybody and get grief? Or show how popular you are?

That's another thing. Social networks. How many friends do you have on Facebook? How many Twitter followers do you have/follow? Do you actually talk to all these people. Are you ACTUALLY friends or have you just heard of them because they are one of the popular kids in school? All my friends of Facebook I have talked to on a daily basis at one point in my life. I know every single person. I don't have that many and that's fine with me.

A while ago I told some of my friends "If they don't want to be my friend that's fine. I don't really care." Something along those lines and their reaction was something of "That's so mean!" First off, I didn't mean for that to be mean. It's how I feel. Going into high school I tried to be friends with them and I was shot down. That showed me that they didn't want to be my friend. Instead of sucking up to them and continually trying to be their friends I moved on. I already had friends. I already had my best friends. I didn't NEED anymore friends. Now if somebody wanted to be my friend I wouldn't shoot them down. I am willing to make a new friendship. If somebody shot me down already and then want to be my friend, sure I'll be nice and talk to them but I don't know if we will be actual friends in my mind. I'm not trying to be mean. I have a certain definition of "friend" and it's rather strict.

We were signing yearbooks this last week. One of my friends asked me if I had a lot of signatures. I said no and that I don't need a lot. I prefer my close friends to write as much or as little as they want. If they take up a whole page awesome. If they don't that's awesome too. If they do write a whole page it doesn't need to be entirely heartfelt. Whenever I take up a picture I always add a picture and just random ramblings just so I can say I took up a whole page. I don't need all these people to sign my yearbook just to say something nice and to wish me luck in the future. Besides half the time people always complain about how they never know what to say when people they haven't really talked to want them to sign their yearbook. I'm not putting them in that situation, they should thank me (just kidding). If someone wants me to sign their yearbook I will have them sign mine as well. Why? Because that seems like the polite thing.

I requiring theme in these last two paragraphs is NEED. What I want and what I need is entirely different. But that's a whole different discussion.

If a friend tells you something really exciting what would your response be? Would you be extremely excited and want to know everything or would you suddenly change the subject because you've had a sucky day and don't care about the good fortune your friend has. I don't know about you but when I'm in a bad mood I at least pretend to show interest in my friends good fortune. Even when they change the subject on me.

I have been very lucky. I have amazing friends. Ever since we've known each other I think the longest we have ever been mad at each other is less than 24 hours. That's pretty impressive if you ask me. Now I'm not saying that I'm the perfect friend. I try but nobody's perfect and sometimes you're just in a bad mood to be the perfect friend.

Think about what kind of a friend you have been. Really think about it. Truthfully. Have you been a sucky friend? Have you done some things you regret doing (in terms of friends...focus on that right now)? How do you want your friends to treat you? Then treat them the same way. If you're worried about losing your friends then maybe you should think about how you're treating them.

It really bugs me when I witness people being stupid with how they treat their friends. I tend to be on both sides of every argument and it stresses me out when I see my friends in an argument. Why? Because I find friendship EXTREMELY important and it bugs me when people take it for granted.

Well I'm done ranting. I hope that made you think. If you have questions or need advice I'm willing to help just let me know. Stay classy and remember to cherish your friends because they take a lifetime to make and a moment to lose (yes I know, its really cheesy but its true).

Here's a fun song about friendship...with super heroes! I want to be your friend forever!

Christmas Break

Oh dear. Once again I have neglected this blog. To be honest before Christmas break I had this plan to blog everyday even if the posts were only a couple of sentences or a funny quote I found. Then Christmas break arrived and I didn't want to do anything. For a while the morning consisted of video games (Super Paper Mario for the Wii to be precise) and the afternoon consisted of sitting in front of my computer and watching videos while I made bracelets for my friends. A majority of the time I wasn't sure what to watch and would sit in front of the computer and thing "Bored!" and then watch more videos. The main problem was that I really needed to read the forty pages of reading I was supposed to for AP Psychology. Don't worry I read it but most of it I read yesterday. In fact pretty much everything I should have done right away I did yesterday. Not the best planning right there but at least I had one really productive day.

Well I hope you had a fantastic Christmas and New Year. My was relaxing and just good until I got to the point of "I really need to do something productive but I really don't want to." I hope school goes well for those of us in school and work goes well for those that are working.

My first day of school was so slow. My schedule was: off, math, off, economics, off, psych. So I had multiple breaks which was probably good for my sanity but I didn't have anything to do which made it extremely slow. I have a quiz tomorrow which I'm kinda bummed about but I'm not too worried about it.

Sorry if this is a really random post. I'm waiting for the parking lot to be less crowded so I can leave. I refuse to leave when everybody else does because there is a very good chance that I will get hit and I don't really want to get hit. So I'm waiting and that is why this post is really random. My bad.

Well anyway I think I can leave now so have a great rest of your day!
~Scooby

Broken Computer

THIS MACHINE IS OUT OF ORDER

YES - WE HAVE CALLED THE SERVICE MAN

YES - HE WILL BE IN TODAY, MAYBE

NO - WE CANNOT FIX IT

NO - WE DO NOT KNOW HOW LONG IT WILL TAKE

NO - WE DO NOT KNOW WHAT CAUSED IT

NO - WE DO NOT KNOW WHO BROKE IT

YES - WE ARE KEEPING IT

NO - WE DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO DO NOW

THANK YOU

That, my friends, is what was written on a sheet of paper that was taped onto a computer in my school library. Obviously it wasn't working. I don't know why but I found it both funny and sad at what they put on the paper. It's funny because they really do answer all of the questions you could think of asking (if not all then most). However it is sad because they probably had to put that on the paper because people have actually asked them those questions.

Well I hope you enjoyed this short little post. I thought I would share this experience with you because it was interesting. Have a fantabulous day!
~Scooby

Catching Up

I'm back!! Did you think I had gone forever and would never come back? Well never fear I am back and ready to rant! Hurray for rants! Oh wait! Before I do that...have you forgotten who I am? Well I'm not really going to say who I am but I will catch you up on what has been happening in my life (even if you don't really care).

Let's see the last post is Fun Facts About Life (Part 2) which means school must have just started. Oh yes, that's why I have been neglecting this blog. Well let's get started then shall we?

School started and took over my life. How? Well with all the homework the teachers have given me and the clubs I decided to join. The classes are actually classes that you have to think in (unlike some of the classes people I know are taking so they are just cruising there way through school all happy with no homework). There are a couple of AP classes in there (I'm still not sure if that was a good idea on my part) and then government. Oh government. Government as you can probably guess is about politics and the US constitution and all sorts of that good stuff that I am clueless on and really don't care that much about (probably not good considering I live in the US...oh well). So I have been struggling a lot more than normal to keep my grades up in government and the AP classes which is rather frustrating and annoying. Oh! I almost forgot about zoology. We have very little grades in that class and we turned in this journal of our labs and what not and he graded it. Well the teacher is a lot more picky than it would seem. For example, he took points off on me for not coloring I drew in my notes while we were dissecting it. Normally I wouldn't care that much but the jellyfish was clear. CLEAR! How the heck am I supposed to color something that is clear? Sigh silly teacher.

Continuing with sill teachers...teachers are mean. They say, and I quote, "Make this the best year you can!" So I think to myself okay cool I will try to go to every event and just have a great time. But then the teacher follows up with: "Here's your homework." *falls off of chair* Seriously? I can't do everything if you keep giving me a ton of homework! Ugh.

As for the clubs well I am currently in Culinary Club, Anime Club, and National Honor Society, and Drama (kinda sorta...I will elaborate in a bit don't you worry). I helped my friend last year make an Anime Club and it's really pretty cool. They people are very interesting and have a lot of character that makes it fun to get to know them. In the club we really just watch animes so overall it's a good time. I helped some of my friends make a culinary club this year too. That's also a good club because you make good food and I really like food. I don't understand why anybody wouldn't want to join that club because it's food. Who doesn't like food?! National Honor Society is really easy there's only one meeting a month and that just tells you about volunteer opportunities. It's good for me that I sing at my church and get all my hours there so I don't really have to worry about that one very much. And then there is drama club. Okay. So I have gone to a meeting and helped with the set (for like an hour). I was going to do more but before I actually started going to meetings (well...a meeting) I was busy. I can't remember with what, probably school, but I was busy. Then I was going to help with the set (because I can't act so I'm going to help build the set) after school for a week!...but then I got sick...Oops. So Drama is the one that I really need to start doing more, don't worry, I am working on that.

Then there's work (there is a more detailed post about this I just haven't finished it yet...sorry). I close on Friday's and work in the middle of the day on Saturday. That is (was) my main homework doing time. Now I do like an hour of homework here and there...it's such a struggle. Then on Sunday I have church (which is good and am never going to stop going to) and youth group...so that means I have very little time on Sunday to do homework. (I think this paragraph was supposed to be about work and not be complaining about not having time to do homework...oh well).

Oh yeah, did I mention that I missed a week of school because I was sick? I didn't? Well I missed a week of school because I was sick. Luckily I didn't really miss anything and stayed on top of it while I was home (I also watched the Lorax =) it was fun...I really just said that so the smiley didn't have a double chin).

Now I am on fall break! Hurray! I have no idea what I'm going to do but maybe I will be able to post stuff and rants. We'll see what happens.

Well that's been my life for the last month or so. I probably forgot something but that's just how it goes. I was going to rant about some stuff or share stuff I have discovered throughout but well this post is already rather long so there you go.

~Scooby

P.S. Do you like the design? Yes, I like the holidays I might even post about them so there is your teaser to come back again...I don't know.