Hello from Amherst!! Yay first post on the Mac and at Amherst!! Every night I keep telling myself to post but something always ends up happening or I'm too tired or I get a phone call.

First, I should introduce my roommate, Shannon. She is AMAZING!! I love her so much! I'm SO grateful to the housing assignment goddess (yes, goddess, because women are superior) for pairing us two. We like the same music and movies and she's REALLY nice and she always says, "Way" + adjective, such as "Way sweet!" or "way cool!". She's from Iowa, and we both talk a lot and like to go meet people and explore, and it's hard to describe, but we just click. It's probably because we live together and thus spend all our time together, but she's the most awesome person I've met thus far, and I've met a LOT of people. My floor mates are pretty nice too. We really need to branch out of our floor, so Shannon and I have been trying to get around to all the dorms and meet people and see what the rooms are like. She's at her XC meeting right now (she's a crazy runner), so I just wanted some alone time in my room so I can finally blog. Oh! And she loves Paris!!! So our room is very Parisian haha.

My mom and I got here Saturday night and we went to her friend, Heather's, house and had dinner and stayed over. I've never had fish (cooked the American way) that good before! This whole area is GORGEOUS! New England houses are SO adorable!! And trees everywhere!! And it's so rural, which is slightly odd to me. I'm sure I'll hate it in the winter, but the weather is BEAUTIFUL too. Sunny, but not hot. I love it! Too bad it can't always be this way.

The next morning we drove to campus, and as I found my room, Shannon and her parents were already in there. We hit it off immediately, and settled into our lovely dorm. It's on the first floor and it faces the quad, so basically from where I'm sitting I can pretty much see everything going on everywhere and every single person walking by. Shannon's favourite hobby is to sit in her window and stare at the people going by. I just like looking at the trees. :) After the flutter of speeches (very boring, btw), there was a party at campus center, which we went to for about five minutes and then just walked around exploring. Everyone is so nice and friendly (at least now when they don't know anyone), and we went up to North 4th floor to find Michelle Johnstone, who wasn't in her room, and this guy who lived at the end of the hall with his door open just randomly said hello and waved, so we went over and talked to him and his roomie for about 10 minutes. Pretty awesome. One of them was from Newton, MA, and went to the same high school as John Krasinki (Jim) and BJ Novak (Ryan) and they both came and visited them!

Monday, we heard the most boring and useless talk about financial aid ever, but then got to register for classes!!!! My advisor, who is also my seminar professor, is the nicest lady ever!!! She's a German professor, and she was actually born in East Germany and only came here after high school. At first appearance, she scared me, with her short, cropped hair, high cheekbones, sunken cheeks, and drawn face. She looked like an extremely strict German martinet, and reminded me of Professor McGonagall. But then she started talking and she was the nicest lady ever!! We spent the first 15 minutes of our meeting discussing Communism in our respective homelands, while a lot of other advisors didn't even really talk to their students.
And so my classes!
-Europe in the 20th Century
-Berlin, Metropolis (my seminar)
-Introduction to Religion
-Advanced Spanish Composition

I'm not actually sure about Spanish 7. Obviously, I would die to take French, but I don't want to abandon Spanish either. My advisor was asking me where I wanted to go junior year for study abroad, and my obvious answer was Paris, and she said that that should be one of my main criteria for deciding what language to study. But I would love to study anywhere in Spain too!!! She then said that if I wanted to take French, I would have to start now, immediately, to make any significant progress, whereas with Spanish, I already have so many years that I could just come back to it if I wanted or even continue it. I didn't want to take both, at least not this semester, because we're limited to four classes our first semester because they're afraid we're going to overburden ourselves, and so that would only leave one class to choose (other than the seminar). She then told me to consider what I wanted to do in life, because Spanish is awesome for art, theatre, and journalism, but for more academic, intellectual pursuits, French would be first choice. So for now, I'm not exactly sure yet. I'm going to shop the French classes in the first two weeks, and must hear what my dad has to say.

Oh! One piece of bad (painful) news. I split my toe open! We were going to the financial aid talk (SO not worth it), and it had rained in the morning, and I was going slightly downhill, and I slipped, ramming my foot into the sidewalk, and splitting my toe open. It hurt so badly, and my flip-flop was covered in blood (grotesque, I know). It's okay now, but I hope it doesn't get infected. Just imagine me in the winter... all that ice and snow.. and the entire campus is hills... great...

Another clumsy episode: In our dining hall, the napkin dispensers are really inefficient and difficult. They're basically like toilet paper rolls and you have to tear them apart. I was carrying a tray with two plates and two cups, and I was trying to balance that so I could tear the napkins, and the entire thing exploded onto the floor and made the world's biggest crash. I was absolutely MORTIFIED, but this upperclassman standing next to me was like, "Don't worry. It happens all the time," and this old man who worked at the cafeteria ran over and was like, "Don't worry about it!! Just go get a new tray and start over. Someone will take care of it. Go get your food! This happens like three times a day!" So I guess I don't feel like the world's biggest idiot.

The governor of Wyoming, an Amherst alum, gave us the most boring speech ever as well, and I fell asleep for part of it... this is not a good start!! I never fall asleep during class, but since it wasn't a class, I guess I'm off the hook for now.

This morning, Shannon got up at 6:30 to go running (crazy), but as we were discussing the night before, she didn't have anywhere to carry her keys, and so the plan was that she would go at 6:30, run for an hour, come back at 7:30, and call me from our window (first floor facing everything), and I would painfully and dangerously climb off my bunk bed (I almost die every time trying to get off that thing) and open the door for her. It is SO DANGEROUS. My bed is lofted, so I have to climb up and down, and on one side, it's next to the wall, so I go on the other side, which is next to the dresser with the TV on top. Climbing up is just painful, but not dangerous. Climbing DOWN, however, is another matter entirely. I usually just can't figure it out, and otherwise I feel like I'm going to knock the TV down, and then I keep missing rungs... it's terrible..

My mom left today after lunch. We tried out the Chinese restaurant in town... yeah... this is going to a depressing four years food-wise... We had this really long breakfast where they gave all these speeches about various school policies and then had us sign the honour code. They then had our RCs (like RAs) do all these sex/alcohol/drug related skits. We were SO shocked. They were all about how to put on condoms and how to safely drink... and they were so crudely presented!! OMG! The first one was a mock drill team, but instead of being an army, they were putting on condoms, and each one of them had made a common error and they explained how to rectify it. I don't even know what they were saying most of the time... and the hilarious thing was that this tour of parents walked by RIGHT THEN. Those kids are definitely not coming to Amherst. We then watched this film on social class in America, and broke off into discussion groups afterwards. It was actually really interesting, and it's amazing how a lot of people here don't appear or act intelligent at all, but when they open their mouths, they're actually eloquent. A lot of people are from really small towns too... I'm in shock

I should probably go be social or something now.... I'm probably the only one in the dorm alone.. haha.

It is officially the day that I leave. It's so frightening. I don't quite believe it, even though all my clothes are packed. I drove my car for the last time in a while, hugged Yogin, and am sitting at my computer for the last time in a bit. It's so weird. I don't quite believe it, and I really can't think about living another life from that which I have always led. Well, we'll see. Here I go!

My dad decided that I had eaten too much at dinner, some of which, by the way, I cooked!! YAYY FOR ELAINE!! So about half an hour ago, he decided that we were going to take a stroll around the neighbourhood. We walked all the way down to Chino Hills Parkway and made a circle back, ran inside the house to turn off all the lights brightly wasting electricity, and walked to the park, where we sat on the swings with the breeze blowing gently by, the moon freeing itself from the confines of the clouds, a lone lamp post shining faithfully on, and the distant sound of a happy family chattering over television. My dad gleefully declared, "I feel young again!!!" as he swang, reminiscing about when I was a little kid and we would come to the same park and he would push me on the swings. The swings have changed, the old, rickety wooden set replaced by a plastic, red one, but it still felt the same. We still watched out for the large, mean dog that used to always terrorize me as a child as I turned the corner to the park, and I thought of all the days I spent playing Sand with Eugene, Alex, Kate, and Annum in the park. And my first time on a bicycle, attempts to ride in circles that always ended in another scrape or a cut that my dad would bandage up afterwards with me sitting on the bathroom counter.

I went to Knott's on Thursday, and am halfway done writing that recap, but since today has been the most miserable day in a long time, I shall just do one of these mind-numbing surveys.

No Lying Survey
1. last beverage: iced tea
2. last phone call: Yogin
3. last cd played: "Motion in the Ocean"--McFly
4. last time you cried: today
5. last text message: Jay

Have You Ever:
1. dated someone twice: nope.
2. been cheated on: ... I don't THINK so.
3. kissed someone & regretted it: nope.
4. lost someone special: :( yes.
5. been depressed: not medically and not like yogin!
6. been drunk and threw up: ewww never!

List Three Favorite Colors:
1. red
2. sky blue
3. white
So patriotic. Hah.

This Month, Have You:
1. Made a new friend: Have I? I don't think so... other than the imaginary one in my head.
2. Fallen out of love: yes, I suppose, but that's complicated.
3. Laughed until you cried: haha don't I do that every day?
4. Met someone who changed your life: yes. Because I knew you, I have been changed for good.
5. Found out who your true friends were: yes, and I was surprised many a time.

Random Questions:
1. Is there something you want to tell someone:
I always have something to say!

2. How many kids do you want to have?
2-3. Not sure... Older boy, younger girl(s)

3. Do you have any pets?
Not currently.. I never really grew up with many pets. I used to have a black lab named Shadow, and a beta fish named Ginobili.

4. Do you wanna change your name?
Haha. Considering how I'm going to court in three days to have my name changed, I guess. But I already consider Elaine my name.

5. What did you do yesterday?
Got yelled at for going to Knott's, watched the opening ceremony of the Olympics, talked to Kathleen on the phone and felt touched that she called me instead of her sister, even though it was Justine's birthday, listened to Jay and Yogin bitch about each other, saw Matthew for the last time in a long time and hugged for a long time, didn't play basketball and missed those friends, apologized to Yogin for not calling, learned geography and countries I didn't know before, ate at midnight and threatened Matthew that it better not be bad for me like he said it wouldn't be, etc.

7. What time did you wake up today?
11:30 am. BE PROUD.

8. What were you doing at 10:30 last night?
Texting Yogin

9. Name something you CANNOT wait for.
seeing my friends again

10. Last time you saw your father?
two minutes ago

11. What is one (or more) thing(s) you wish you could have in your life?
More time to spend with friends, permission to spend time with friends, easy access to football, less anger, and a more vivid imagination

12.What are you listening to right now?
"As Long As You're Mine"--Wicked
and the faint sounds of "The World Series of Poker" echoing from downstairs, quickly followed by my dad's snores

14. Who's getting on your nerves right now?
my dad, myself

15. Most visited webpage?
facebook.com is probably tied with bbcnews.com and soccernet.com

16. Coke or Pepsi?
Pepsi, but just barely

17. Have you seen anyone naked in the past week?
yes. I'm hot stuff. :D

Let me tell you the epic episode of the bitchy Chinese waitress at the restaurant I am never going to again.
I went to go play basketball today, as usual, and at first, it was just me, Sam and Jeff there (Connie and Jo had to go eat and thus were going to be late). Jeff is really talkative; it's pretty funny. A lot more talkative than the rather shy Sam. And then Ryan and John got there, and the three of us somehow beat Sam and Jeff. We were playing up to 11, and it was 10-9 (us losing) for about 10 minutes, and neither side could score. Jeff got so mad at Sam, "PASS THE BALL!!! I said PASS. NOO DON'T SHOOT!!!!" he yelled with his accent (which made it even funnier), and then yelled at his brother to actually guard Ryan and John when they lobbed up three after three. I was like, "It's okay Jeff. Breathe," and his brother like... poked/punched him. Brotherly love. Aww. And then, after 10 minutes of deadlocked bad shooting, ELAINE made the three. Whee. I'm so proud. :D

Anyway, the conversation somehow got to drugs, and Ryan said, "Don't you know Elaine? Canyon Hills is like a drug school now!"
"WHAT!!!!! HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE??? WHEN WE WENT THERE, IT WAS SO CLEAN!!! I NEVER KNEW ANYONE WHO DID DRUGS UNTIL JUNIOR YEAR OF HIGH SCHOOL!"
"Okay. You're pathetic. Sheltered!!!"
I looked distressingly from Ryan to Sam to Jeff, and the brothers, both of whom went to Canyon Hills this past year, nodded at me, and then in perfectly-accented English said, "Yeah. It's true. This one kid got caught with meth a while back, and one time they brought sniffer dogs on us."
How is this POSSIBLE? When we went there, rebellion was not tucking in your shirt!!! Sigh. Children these days. This, coupled with all the children I see smoking in the park, really depresses me. Ew, I am suddenly reminded of Holden Caufield. I shall be the catcher in the rye, rubbing out profanity at elementary schools.

I began craving boba while playing, particularly when I saw Shannon, who works at 99 Ranch making boba, and so after playing, I took off for Good Time Cafe, this overly-priced, but rather authentic Chinese restaurant near 99 Ranch that sells boba "buy one get one free," and I could give the other to Connie. However, I realized that I had absolutely no cash on me, but I had my credit card, so I stroll in and ask them, "Do you take credit card?" to which I received a reply to the affirmative. I then asked for two bobas, and the waitress, a Chinese woman, who had a drawn face that made her eyes look like they were bulging and who I could tell hadn't been in the country long, asked, "That's $2.96 and you're paying with credit card?"
"Yes," I replied, thinking that if it was too little to charge a card, they would just say that they can't charge the card and I just wouldn't have boba. Starbucks always takes credit cards, but I know of Chinese restaurants that don't take them unless the bill is over $20. I didn't want to make trouble, and I figured she would just tell me she couldn't charge it.
Her eyes opened even wider, a feat I didn't think possible, and she asked, "What? Do you not have cash?"
That raised my ire slightly, given the confrontational way she asked it. Why is it your business if I have cash or not? If I want to pay with my credit card, you either say it's okay or you say it's not. But I responded evenly and politely, "No. I don't."
She scoffed very audibly, then whipped around to make the boba, leaving me to contemplate just how rude this woman was. I held my card in my hand, waiting to pay her once she finished making the drinks, carefully watching her so she didn't spit in my drink, something I was sure she was capable of and probably wanting to do. Once she finished, she set the drinks down a little too forcefully, and asked, "What? Are you gonna give it to me or not?"
I wish I could say this in Chinese, because the accent and the inflections make it so much ruder.
I stared at her for a little bit as she glared at me, and gave her my card. Might as well be the bigger person, I thought. I just want my damn drink, though at this point, I'm tempted to walk out the door and pay more at 99Ranch. All through the card charging, she made her displeasure obvious, and as a fellow waitress walked by and saw her charging the card asked, "What? No cash?" to which she replied contemptuously, "Nope. She doesn't have money," making it sound like I was a beggar. At this point, I was really just trying to get out the door. By the end of this transaction, she basically threw my card back at me, and I departed without another word or glance.
Definitely never going there again. Ever. I'll pay more somewhere else. This is how you lose business, people. Let that be a lesson to you, rude Chinese waitresses that need to learn manners.

And then, what made it even worse, as if karma were punishing me for my role in this whole debacle, half the drink spilled onto my car. Hmph. Oh well. At least Connie had hers. :)

My mom started freaking out about leaving for Amherst today, and pulled out all her boots, woolen socks, and started making piles of what I have to bring. We were upstairs, digging through the guest room closet where my mom keeps her mountains of crap, trying to find a throw for me to take, when my mom suddenly pulled out this piece of bright red cloth, brighter than even any Liverpool jersey. It was the length of a scarf, but seemed too wide. My mom stared at it for a second, then looked up at me, and asked, "Do you know what this is?"
"Uhh.. no.. a really small blanket?"
"This is from, back when your mom and your dad were first dating, your dad bought this for me."
"Aww really??"
"Wait. I'm not sure.. I think so."
"Wow, mom. You're terrible. Keep all your boyfriends straight!"
She laughed, and threw the scarf at me, "You can have it now. Take it to Amherst with you."

I went home a bit after that and found my dad lying on the couch, half watching TV, half falling asleep, as he always is, and as my grandpa used to always be, and I asked, scarf clutched in my hand, "Daddy! Guess what this is!"
It took my dad half a glance to say, "That's the scarf I bought your mom thirty years ago in 1979 in Changchun, in the store (insert store name) on this street (insert street name)."
"Wow Dad. How do you remember this stuff?"
He chuckled to himself, proud and gleeful that his memory, something he had been constantly worrying about losing, was still intact, and asked, "So your mom gave it to you? Good. It finally belongs to someone who deserves it."
He then asked me how much I thought that scarf cost, and knowing that a kilogram of meat back then was only one yuan, and meat was one of the most expensive things you could buy during those times of famine and hardship, and that things are still ridiculously cheap in China, I didn't quite know what to say. My dad answered for me, "10 yuan. Back then, I made 40 yuan a month, and I spent 10 of it on that scarf for your mom. It's like if I made $4000 a month now and I spent $1000 on her."
I gave my daddy a big hug after that, and bounded up the stairs to place my new (but old) scarf respectfully in my room. After a while, my dad came back upstairs, his mind still on the scarf. "I'm so happy right now. You have the scarf! Now it's with its rightful owner. Your mom used to look so pretty wearing it, but I'm sure you'll look better," and before he finished speaking, he'd taken the scarf and demonstrated just what he thought I would look like... so disturbing. My dad with a red scarf wrapped around his head like an old Russian lady.

And right now, as I just gave my daddy a long hug and asked him, "So why'd you spend so much money on a scarf?"
He laughed and said, "Because I wanted to give it to you!!!"
That is my epic tale of the scarf. :) I shall pass it on to my children!

Oh and I need to add that while we were walking up and down the street yelling, "SAAAAAMMM," I thought it was highly ironic that Stella was with us yelling, as it reminded me of Marlon Brando's iconic "A Streetcar Named Desire" moment yelling, "STELLA!!!!! HEY STELLA!!!!!!!"

PLEASE. SOMEONE. Tell me you get it!

Today is August 1, a fact that very much frightens me. Just the word "August" seems so daunting.. only 22 days until I get on a plane with boxes and suitcases, leaving home and everything and everyone I know for the very first time. I know it's exciting and everyone wants to leave home and go off to college, but I somehow find myself staying in bed, trying to ignore the very idea that I'm leaving. There's still so much that I want to do. And going across the country is so scary!!! What if I hate it there?? Haha as Matthew says, I could always transfer back and live with him at SD. Hah. Bad idea. But still, this "Mamma Mia" (therefore ABBA) song captures it pretty well:

Slipping through my fingers all the time
I try to capture every minute
The feeling in it
Slipping through my fingers all the time
Sometimes I wish that I could freeze the picture
And save it from the funny tricks of time
Slipping through my fingers all the time

But onto today's epic story!! It was Sam's (older of the Australian brothers we play with) birthday yesterday, but he was gone with his family to celebrate it, so we decided to surprise him with a cake today. I picked the cake up at Dairy Queen and went to pick up Connie and Jo, who had a cooler, plates, and forks. After we finally got to the park, at a time when Sam and Jeff are ALWAYS there, with Sam usually spinning and then shooting a fadeaway with his left hand, THEY WEREN'T THERE. After Connie and I had THREATENED and basically told them what was going to happen on Wednesday, with, "You guys HAVE to be here on Friday. Like, you HAVE TO, or else we'll go to your house!" they weren't there. It was most unusual, seeing as they are there more often than we are. We, as in Connie, Jo, Stella, and I, sat down and waited. There's another court all the way across the park, barely visible from the other side, and from our side, we saw two people, one tall and one short, playing, and we thought, "Hey! That might be them!" especially considering that there were about 12 young teenage boys sitting on the grass smoking near our court. Connie and I jogged over, craning our necks to see. After I said, "That doesn't look like them," busy looking at their faces, Connie said, "Yeah. That's not Sam's shot." SO TYPICAL, Connie. I would look at the people. She would look at the basketball.

Frustrated at not being able to consume the delicious and aesthetically pleasing cake, Stella, Jo, Connie, and I decided to leave Ryan and Kevin with our things and set off on an epic quest (to destroy the Ring). Sorry. Couldn't help myself. We all knew that they live up the hill from the park, as we see them walking home every day, but not a single one of us knew exactly where they disappeared, as in, what house they lived in. So essentially, the four of us walked up this hill yelling, "SAM!!!! JEFF!!!!!!!!" We saw a lady pull into her driveway in one of the two cul-de-sacs on that street and we basically went up to her and asked, "Excuse me? Do you know any boys named Sam and Jeff who live on this street? They're Australian.." We knocked on doors and talked to anyone outside, taking turns asking, Connie being the most reluctant. Finally, we concluded, most distressingly, that they probably weren't home, since if they were, they would definitely be at the park. And thus, my day was ruined, as I had been looking forward to eating that cake all day, and it now sits in my freezer, unable to be consumed until the aforementioned Australians turn up. GRR. SAMUEL. GRR. We really need to get their number, Connie!!!
But yes, that is the epic tale of how the four of us are stalkers. Good thing none of us looked menacing, or else people really would have been concerned.