back from quebec!

which was so much unbelievable fun! i just got back an hour ago and i wish i was back in canadiiiia. well its almost 1 am so i'll finish this up tomorrow morning w/pictures! -rachel

I got plastic surgery!

<-- And I now look like this!! HAHA JKKK But still a very attractive face no?

So I had a HORRIBLE week with like pms and like all that unfun stuff and tests and that I think like until the summer it's going to be hell

M.E.- YAY!! upload a pic of your beautiful self ASAP we have to see this and personally i think it's ridiculous that you have to get your dress APPROVED by like nuns? that's like just wrong on so many levels

Amita- we ALL have weeks like that when like event he friends we love are like annoying the clay (shit haha) out of us

scott- like my parents are the same way but you know there's nothing wrong knowing a little more math... but Still i feel your pain.

i miss everyone!! and M.E. I'm also really worried that my camp this year will have me living through with hell unlike us!!

so i'm going to prom with this junior guy named matt and the thing is I've realized that i don't really wanna go anymore because after i said yeah I realized that I don't know him too well and there's just too much pressure to make it a fun night for his junior prom... and i also don't want to get a long dress... it's just not worth it for him ha not to be mean but to satisfy your curiosity heres my dress (taken b4 my haircut) my friend on the left isn't going but bought a dress for the fun of it haha...

but seriously do you guys think that it's fair to him if i let him down now considering I said yes like months ago and little time for him to get another date?

other than that i have like no other dilemma in my life besides SAT BIo which is coming up and like being a pain in my ass

and like my mom YELLING at me for my cell bill

and my dad YELLING at me about how i need to fix my tennis stroke

and my friends being all prissy and fighting over either boys or just thinking each other's annoying and AHHHHHHHH

i justt need summer to be here

i no i'm repeating myself

but

i really really do

like i think i might need to get back to studying

bibi <3

Haven't Posted in Forever it Seems

Hey Everyone!!!!

Okay. I have an excuse as to why I have not posted in so long. I GOT MY BRACES OFF!!!! And a significantly shorter haircut. So I kept waiting because I wanted to post pictures with my post but now I'm just kind of giving up because I don't feel like uploading pictures. And it's pretty sad because I got my braces off WEEKS ago and I still haven't uploaded pictures.

Ah vell.

So anyways I was very upset because I got bumped from Dickinson College for CTY!!! I was super excited about going but not enough people signed up for Pop Culture there so I got bumped to Lancaster. (But for the same course.) On the bright side though, Scott and I are going to be in the same class!!! But he's the only other person I know of who's going to Lancaster.

Hmmm... what else is going on in my life. My graduation dress got approved!!! It's a horrible ordeal to get it approved though. Everyone in my grade has to line up outside the school one night in their dress and go into the cottage (smaller building) with their mother and stand and twirl and walk and be poked and prodded by my principal (who is a nun and about 2000 years old) and my two eigth grade homeroom teachers. It's quite nerve wracking. I have to get the dress taken in though because they didn't have my size so we had to get the next one up. And it's a tad long.

Dance is going good for me. I'm SUPER PROUD of myself because I only started pointe and tap two months ago and I've improved like, a lot. Though I don't know if my teacher is going to let me be in the tap choreography even though I know it because it would be hard to stick me into it with spacing and I still am pretty new to it. I'm doing the ballet number in pointe though. It's Superkalafragalisticexpealidocious (SPELLING!?!?!?!) from Marry Poppins and it's really exhausting, but still really cute. And I started demonstrating for the younger kids on Saturdays and even though I'm happy to do it anyway, I start getting PAID this week!!! Because I've apparently proved that I can be a good assistant or something like that. And it's not a lot but who cares it's CASH and I'm broke.

So right now I'm in the process of planning a 30th birthday party with one of my friends from dance for my dance teacher Allisyn, because the big day is in like, 2 1/2 weeks. We're having pizza and other pizzaria takeout stuff for the food so I was reminded of all of you when I had to ask everyone to bring in money. ;-D And for her card we're making it ourselves and incorporating all titles of songs she's choreographed to into the text. But the cake is the ABSOLUTE BEST PART. She's going to hate us for it. Tee hee. Do you remember Brady, the security guard who was in love with her? Well we have a picture of her hugging him on her birthday last year (which also happened to be his last day of work there because he got a new job) with my friend popping up in the background and WE'RE GETTING IT SCREENED ON THE CAKE!!!! It's going to cost a fortune, but we found bakeries that will do it. Does anyone else have any creative party ideas?!?!?!

Okay. I can't think of much of anything else to say.

What's happening in all of your lives?

Miss you all!!!!!
M.E.

Might not get on for a while...

So I come home yesterday with my report card. Good grades, even a 98 in Language Arts with a tough teacher during a tough marking period, but guess what? An 87 in Algebra 2H, a grade level above me. My parents start shouting, and apparently, since I was only slightly above a class average a grade above, and because I didn’t do extra work beyond homework and studying, apparently I’m a lazy ass with no motivation in life, and I’m stupid.

So, now my parents decide I shouldn't be allowed AIM or Internet besides for school, which means no blog. I"ll try to sneak on, but I might not be on that often. Sorry I could never give you guys the pictures of Italy.

I feel like I want to scream. I now have to do extra work that my dad will check, and if he doesn't like my handwriting, he'll throw it away and make me redo it. Also, he wants me to do CTY Distance Learning for Math, which makes me want to smash my head against the wall. And, apparently, since I'm a slow learner who falls behind in math and gets 87s, I have to start learning Geometry early, like right now, so I don't fall behind next year!

That's only recent stuff. I'd love to do an emo rant where I whine about everything this year, but I don't think you guys want to read that kind of stuff.

So, byes.

No more EMO!

I read my last post again and I was like AHHHHH I sound SOO emo... But like I understood what Amy said about like if your part of a minority then like everyone compares you... And Cherry thank you very much for backing up my statements with like evidence!

Geena- I totally know what you mean (well I've never been to China) but even when I walk through NYC and I see homeless people it's like horrible. I've donated alot of stuff though and I'm planning on doing this thing called the Midnight Run with my Church where you go and bring food and clothing to the poor. It makes me really grateful for everything I have (and now this is getting all Dr. Phil and touchy and stuff)

On to more superficial matters, one of BFFs birthday is coming up and we're bringing her to a Gwen Stefani concert!! We got these really great tickets and we each had to pitch in quite a lot but it's totally going to worth it... The best thing is HOW we're going to present it!! See that picture? Well we all have our hands stupidly out like that and I'm going to Kinkos like now to blow it up to poster size so I can put each ticket in the palm of each hand and we're going to frame it and give it to her!! I'M SOOOOOOOOOOO EXCITED! AND I DID SUPER GOOD 3RD QUARTER! AND I DID GOOD ON MY FLUTE AUDITION (BETTER THAN I EXPECTED) AND I AM JUST SOOO HAPPY THAT IT'S SUNNY NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

<3>

btww kingston happy belated bdayy

heyyyyy

HI everyone i just came back from china! it's not that late here yet plus i'm jetlagging so my body thinks it's 10 in the morning right now and i still haven't unpacked but i just read all your posts and i must say i love all of you and china was amazing! first off rae that dream sounds so nice and i would love to go to the beach right now :D plus angie we all heard about the vt shooting in china and everyone was so freaked out, and i totally know what you mean about that stereotyping thing. like a few weeks ago there was this asian supremacist who published an article in a chinese newspaper called "why i hate black people" and it caused a huge stir in california or something and it just kind of made me mad and sad how the minor government figures were all kind of criticizing the entire chinese community there, but then again you know what no one in a single group of people is always entirely "the same" like stereotypes say so people who think all koreans are violent should just get over it.

to add onto the whole perspective thing i definitely gained a lot of it over in china, we visited this slightly poverty-stricken town and a lot of stuff just blew me away. like there are some kids at that middle school who are so poor that they can't even afford to go home from school so they basically live there all 7 years, and a lot of them live in towns far away that are so poor that they don't even have middle schools. plus there was a huge lake which was a fishermen's community where all the fishermen and their families lived in these TINY, squalid one-room wooden plank houses in the middle of the water, and their kids were so dirty that their faces were pretty much cracked and brown. (OOH! fun fact to interrupt with, one of the girls who came was named lily and she was in the crafting the essay class in session 2 with amanda, and she knew the molly & ned game if any of you remember, the one we played like the first day of class it was really cool :D) anyway i guess i have too much to say to say it all here so i'm going to post later with pictures hopefully :)

plus on the planeride there i lost my ipod! i have had my ipod for like 2 years and i really miss it now, at the time i just kind of got over it because i didn't want it to ruin the trip or anything but now i wish i just paid more attention for once and didn't lose everything (i lost a bunch of other stuff like meds and lotions and my contacts) but, to take a stab at being optimistic i've decided i'll just take my discman around now and burn mix cds so it'll be similar to my ipod. =) well ok i really need to unpack and shower and get to sleep, i'm going to be SO tired tomorrow in school lol soooo good night chickies (and guys) i'll definitely post later =)

tons of love,
geena

R.I.P. Victims of Virginia Tech...

It was a crazy tragedy... Like I didn't really get the massiveness (word?) of the whole situation when I first heard about it. At first I heard it was a Chinese exchange student but then later I found out that the guy was actually a mentally unstable Korean. And this really blew me away. Not to sound selfish (Like I am hurting for the victim's futures and their families) but the guy had the same last name as me. And I was just thinking what a disgrace it would be to all Koreans, I guess. Because stereotypes are already really hard to deal with but now it's not just the fact that I'm good at math, it may be like all Koreans are mean people! And I've already heard of protests, rallies, and other bad actions against Koreans. And it's wrong I know. I should be thinking of the victims but the thing is, I never really lost anyone close to me except my grandpa 2 years ago so I don't know the whole scope of what it must be like Virginia right now. I mean, can you imagine if your friend, your child (well later on), or like a parent of yours was shot and KILLED?? It just blew me away. I'm not saying what other people think should change you, but if enough people have the same stereotype of you, not as a person but in the group that your in, then maybe certain opportunites may be taken away from you. You never know! And that's what scared me too.
I loved your posts I remember thinknig alot of things when I read them but now I don't remember... I gotta fix this comment thing on my account...
Other than that, I'm going through a really stressful phase. I just had a kinda bad flute audition, a bad entrance exam to a pretigious science program at Columbia, and on top of that I just got dumped for a slut (sorry for bad language) So yeah... the only that's keeping me going to trying to live the moments that the victims of virginia tech would never be able to experience again... it's making me keep things in perspective. And my life kind of sucks right now but I gotta deal because as VT showed us, there's alot of shit in life.

Georgia

I just got back from Georgia. I spent the last five days there. Gerogia was pretty good because I spent my birthday there.

On the day of my birthday, yesterday, we were going to go to this buffet. One of my grandma's friend's daughter was coming and she brought her two kids with her. I was sitting and watching tv, waiting for her to call and tell us that we could go to the buffet, but when she called she told us that she had a flat tire. We went over to help her, but her tire blew out in the middle of a hill and we were all afraid that if we put the jack too high then the car would roll down the hill. We called the police and they told us that they were on the way. Then an old lady drove by and asked us if we needed any help. She called her husband to come help us. At the same time that her husband came the policeman came too. He fixed the tire, but the replacement tire was old and couldn't make the trip back to her home, so we had to go to Wal Mart to get the tire changed. When we got to Wal Mart everyone was getting off work, so the technician had to get authorization for overtime, find a suitable tire, prepare the tire, collect the cost, and finally fix the tire. While all of this was happening I kept thinking to myself that this was the worst birthday ever, but when we finally got to the buffet it was all worth it. My favorite food is mashed potatoes and they had some of the best mashed potatoes I've ever eaten, maybe because I was so hungry. And they had steak "hot off the grill" the sign read. The waiters sang me a birthday song and gave me a small cake drenched with chocolate fudge, sugar and topped with thick whipped cream.

coinkidink

do u remember at camp last year, we were recommending rly good books for ppl to read? well, the one book that Sarah mentioned, "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life" turns out the author, Kaavya Viswanathan(whew), graduated from BA(the hs i got accepted into) its like soo weird
i was in wikipedia tryin to learn more bout the scool cuz i know nothin bout it, nd turns out like these famous ppl (most idk) graduated from BA nd one that i actually knew and it totally reminded me of Sarah nd for some reason Angie..i think she read it too?

well neway, nothin happened today or maybe it did but idk..i have such a bad memory, i dont even remember what i did in school today..sad i know..
OOh report cards. I got all A+s cept for this one class i got a friggin B+ which pissed me off so much i felt like punching something...this bald teacher gave me a B+ in PBL(Problem Based Learning) nd its like the first B on my report card in 5 years.
nd my mom ended up just yellin at me for 5 minutes nd then turned on the teacher instead and cursed bout him haha I dont care as long as shes not mad at me

dreams rock

okay so on friday, i had the coolest dream :) it involved a little part of cty... specifically geena! don't you feel so special :D anyway if i could control my dreams i'd put u all in but it was only geena. it was in summer and i just got back from camp. i remember in the dream i just flopped on the couch cuz i was so tired and she was sitting there! i was so surprised and ecstatic and i asked her how she got there. geena told me she was visiting people in nj and just happened to stop by :) then its all kind of vague, but i remember later going to the beach with her! and when we were swimming, there was this cavelike place carved in the rocks on the side and it was so cool ;) the best part about that was the ocean current was so strong, it was literally pulling us at like 15 mph in one direction (in real life that'd be scary but it felt so real in the dream i can still remember it clearly! it was like an amusement park ride lol) and we were getting closer to the cave and then i don't remember.... but later geena had on all these bracelets and i was like your bracelets are so cute and she said thanks and gave me one :P then i woke up! pretty weird dream, i know but it was really cool too :)

anyway today was the surprise party for my friend! it was so stressful planning it this whole week but thankfully everything went great and everyone had a good time. so yeah that was good :D

anyway i'm in desperate need of songs! recommends please? -rachel

AAAAAHH!!!!!

I MADE IT INTO BERGEN ACADEMY!!!!!!!!!!!!
YYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
im so surprised rite now tho cuz my interview sucked sooo badly haha
when i got the letter i just stared at it for like 15 seconds...numb...
nd whats weird is that my neighbor made it too!!!
IM SO HAPPYYY~

Finally!!!

i just got my cty letter today and I'm going to saratoga for critical essay: Literature and the Arts..or something like that
i seriously have no idea what the class is about and what we're actually going to do there...so sad..i know
Neway is Saratoga a good place? I heard from some of my mom's friends that saratoga is one of the suckiest places in the program. I have no idea why, but just that it is...maybe i should request another place
anyway, can you all tell me if you're going or not and if you are, where too just in case we end up in the same place
~Cherry~

hello heyhoo

hellloo my friends!!!!! lol. i am just going to make a quick post because i'm trying to go to sleep at 8:00 today (although it's already too late for that) but i'll try for 8:30 now and that is because i am really tired, but i am posting anyway just to say hi :) things have been super duper, happy late easter!!! my family doesn't celebrate it really so albert and i each just got a packet of skittles and they were deeeelish (especially the pink ones you know the ice cream flavors?) anyway track has started and that's been pretty fun albeit a bit cliquey, but i can't do anything about that ;x my grades this term have majorly slacked off but i am promising myself that fourth term will be straight-a again i hope. i am seriously SO so so so psyched for the last day of school because school this year was absolutely nightmarish and it's like each day in the morning i think of an excuse to stay home from school. ok maybe not every morning but close. :P i've still been running with my friends and i've gotten up to 3.5 miles and it feels so rejuvenating, plus i read two books i am the cheese by robert cormier and the glass castle by jeannette walls, both of which were very unconventional and amazing :D i recommend them both, i am sure the glass castle will go down as a classic someday, plus the cheese book already is somewhat considered a classic :) (ok whatever happened to making a short update) i will just end this right here with a few good songs and they are:

our song - taylor swift (it's a country song and i know lots of you hate country but give it a try it's a very happy fun song)

ummmm actually i know it's pathetic but that's all :P hahahaha anyway the hush sound is a good band too, i heard them for the first time a few days ago and i downloaded both of their albums because i just love piano-jazz-rock stuff and it's gorgeous =) alright bye i love you kids i hope you enjoyed my virtually punctuation-free post ;D

tons of love
geena

aloha!

i just got back this afternoon! i spent the last week in the caribbean :) on a cruise. it was absolutely amazing. we went to the bahamas, virgin islands, haiti, and puerto rico! the actual cruise ship was the best. there was so much stuff to do when we were at sea! in short, i spent the days beaching and shopping and going on tours when we docked, and on the ship, i ate lots of food, rock climbed, took free dancing classes & etc ;) plus my friend, who came with me with her family, + me found this xy channel and we watched lots of music videos lol when we got bored. and there was an ice show + farewell show which were supeeeerrrr (van morrison played @ it! and when i got there, they were playing brown-eyed girl :P)! i'll post pix and stuff asap! oh i love spring break :) but its tomorrow is the last day :(

+ two major things happened (in ONE week). they're all pretty freaky. one, our mall (br commons) had a bomb threat =O apparently it was so big, they had to evacuate in the middle of the day! two, a bank 10 mins from my house was robbed! there are like a cuople of suspects but one of the robbers still hasnt been caught yet. people said that he's still in nj or something :/ its pretty crazy.

so whats up with you guys? i hope you all had a great break! -rachel

Been on vacation

And I'm baaaaaaaaaack! I'll get some pictures up for you guys later if you want. I went to Italy!!! ^_^ Florence, Pisa, and Rome. Felt great this week.

Actually, I've been feeling awesome ever since that Thursday before spring break. I got to shout at this one kid who really, really deserved it. He used to be my friend, and turned his back on my friend, making up all these rumors that have destroyed his reputation. I unloaded a lot of anger onto him, and I think I actually got him to stop. Yay!

I'll post pictures soon, if you want!

Stuff.... Random fluff

Hey everyone!! I haven't posted in a long time. I just got my CTY packet yesterday. I got Law and Politics in US History. I'm sort of bummed, because I really wanted to take a science course. I think we just put on that choice to fill up the course choice spaces, but I sort of really wanted to take a science course. OH WELLLLLLLLLLLLLLL. I'll probably go, though I have to miss my birthday again at home:(. Where are the rest of you going?

Like Kingston, I can't believe that there's only one term of school left! I have no feeling of being and going through the year, though I can remember it. I'm so excited for summer vacation. Especially short sleeves and all of the fruity juices that come with summer. I just went spring shopping today and bought lots of cheap short sleeves for just 8-10 dollars at Marshall's. Big $-saver :)

Did you know I have a newfound interest in jazz music? My favorites are Michael Buble and Tony Bennett. I'm also following American Idol for the first time. It sort of saddens me, though, because I loved everyone on the top 12. I don't like watching people get voted off.

Haha... I'm trying to think of something interesting to say, but I can't, so here are a couple of awesome vids I thought you should know about.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ynnoAccq9M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMStRERJNsM&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fprofile%2Emyspace%2Ecom%2Findex%2Ecfm%3Ffuseaction%3Duser%2Eviewprofile%26friendID%3D174455762

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4ZNTWwMBZw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cU-S2qlnK_g

Hey

I can't believe that the third term is already over. This year has gone by so fast. Which is really suprising since every day just seems to get longer and longer. I just can't wait for the summer. I don't have school tommorow because of Good Friday. In a couple of weeks I have to take the TIMSS test. It's a math and science test. My class just had to be selected to take it. They pick the testers randomly and my class got picked. When you read in newspapers in stuff about how good the American students are doing, they get their information from the TIMSS. My birthday is on April 18th, it's getting closer. I don't have school on my birthday because it's during spring break every year.

Pics

It seems as if my pictures came out kind of small and oddly placed. Click on them to zoom in.

I FINALLY FIGURED OUT HOW TO POST PICTURES!!!!!

Okay I finally got a new photo program, so I can post pictures!!!!

The first picture is me wearing my dress from when I was in Once Upon a Mattress in January. I have been DYING to post it ever since then. It is because of this dress that I now want to have a medieval themed Sweet Sixteen so I can wear it again.

The second picture is obviously NOT me. This is the graduation dress I ordered. Isn't it pretty!?!?!

Okay. Now that I know how to post pictures I'm going to be, like, obsessed with it. But I just felt like sharing that little bit now.

M.E.

Dum Dee Dum Dee Dum Dum Dum

Hey everyone!!!!

Okay, so no one has posted in like FOREVER!!!!! What is happening in all of your lives? I'm very happy because I have off from school for TWO WHOLE WEEKS!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!! Although I still have to do some kind of dull stuff, like practicing the piano and reading Dan Brown books for my L.A. Author Study project, I still totally plan to have fun. Today my friend and I were talking on the phone and we were both really bored so we decided to go shopping at Kohls. I would up getting 4 pairs of pant/capris/shorts (because all of the ones I had are now HUGE on me) and 3 tops. And then my mom took us out for Chinese food and we came back to my house and played Sims and ate ice cream. So I actually wound up having a lot of fun today. And at some point over the break, my cousin (who is a dance major at Fordham University in Manhattan) plan to go take dance class together somewhere in the city. That's the only bad part about Spring Break. I don't have dance this week. At least I go back next week. And next Wednesday (April 11th) is my cat's birthday. Yes. You read that right. My cat. And since he is going to be 16, I want to have him a Sweet Sixteen party. But the best part of my week is actually on Friday the 13th. (Drum roll...) I'M GETTING MY BRACES OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After THREE LONG PAINFUL YEARS of braces plus a palette expander, headgear, and getting 14 teeth pulled. Salvation at last!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Dances with joy) And more good news!!! I found this awesomely pretty dress for graduation!!! This was no easy task though, because since I go to an evil Catholic school that has a nun as a principal, I had a thousand restrictions:
-must be pastel
-no halters
-neckline cannot be lower than 3 inches from the middle of your neck
-nothing low in the back
-must be at least mid calf length
and (worst of all)
-must have straps that are at least 2 inches thick and you cannot get a strapless dress and have straps sewn on.
But the dress I got is lavender and has all of this embroidery on the top and bottom and is kind of poufy but in a pretty way and it's supposed to come this week ( I ordered it on the internet) so I'm very happy about that as well.

Okay now I feel like I'm being completely self centered and only talking about myself again (I feel like I do that a lot on the blog) so what's happening in all of your lives? What are your plans for spring break??? Easter/Passover??? Heard any good songs lately?? I don't want to feel like I'm talking to myself here.

TTYL,
M.E.