Whew

First day of high school?

Let me just say - at one point I felt like a bush in a forest of tall trees, and once I also understood what its like for a mouse, being sooo much incredibly shorter than everything else that you can't see around them. And I'm really not that short.

It would've also been nice if people - this means kids, sophomore to senior, and all of the teachers as well - had made an effort to speak up in morning announcements. It was pretty easy to miss the fact that we were following Monday's schedule - with different timing and a switch between two periods - on a Tuesday. (And even with the schedules posted, how are we, as freshmen, to be sure that going to periods 1 2 3 4 5 etc, means to follow Monday's schedule, seeing as we're not used to our schedule changing everyday.)

The classes, the teachers, were great. Like WowI'mSoExcitedICan'tBelieveWe'reActuallyGoingToBeLearningAllOfThis great. (Plus the textbooks look genuinely interesting too, which is like a...farely rare phenomenon!)

I'll be okay, I know, but I did feel pretty overwhelmed. And since I woke up at 4:45 this morning (not on purpose) I was kind of more in the mood to lie down and take a nap than get a jump start on my homework. But I did do the homework.

Compared to the Chinese exchange student in our grade whom I helped along all day, my problems are extremely minimal. I think she would have been far beyond lost if she wouldn't have had anyone to help her out.

Mostly, I'm afraid that I'll forget something. Or neglect something. Actually, most of all, I suppose I'm afraid that I'll have to give something up that I love to keep my grades up to par (well, at least satisfactorily up to the par I've become accustomed to), which is something that I've never had to do. But I'll be okay. If I just keep telling myself that - and if I get some exceptionally awesome sleep - I'll be okay.

Oh, and if I remember who I am. But that won't be hard.

8th Grade Achievements

Recently, my dad helped me put up a bulletin board strip in my room, on which I promptly tacked some of the certificates/ribbons I am especially proud of on. I wanted this strip, not to show off what I've done or boast about it to anyone who visits, but to remind myself, at times when I may not be feeling fully up to par, what I've accomplished so far. Walking in and out of my room throughout the day, seeing those certificates on my wall, and tying up some loose ends from things I started during the year, I've been thinking about how much I did in my eighth grade year. And it's really quite a lot. It felt like a good year, a great year, but not a blazing-white-hot-with-accomplishments year...but it really was quite awesome. So, I've decided to make a list of the things I did/accomplished/feel great about in my eighth grade year so that I will never forget this past year. Hopefully, it's the first in a chain of great, successful years. We'll see. (I'd like to make a list of the things I accomplished in middle school too, so that I can go back and say, see, middle school wasn't as bad as everybody says it is. Actually, it was exceptionally great for me, thanks to great friends, great parents, great teachers, and a great school. And some great, gluten-free food at the end of it. Oh yum...)

Fall Term:

• played soccer and had a lot of fun. (Don't forget how much fun playing a team sport is, compared with something like track.) Scored two goals in one game! (They were headers, too, and yes, it was mainly the person who passed me the ball that scored the point...but I was still extremely proud of myself.) Played forward almost the whole season.
• took Speech and Debate, in which I made an informational speech about compost, and in which the compost program was kickstarted, and we decided to found what would later become ATAC. Quote from my teacher Ms. Carey's comment: "You entered class feeling comfortable in front of your peers, but I think you have gotten even more comfortable."

Winter Term:

• Started this blog!
• In November, I participated in NaNoWriMo and started a novel that I get increasingly excited and anxious about every time I think of it. (Meaning that I think this is "the one.")
• I turned 14! Had a great birthday party where everybody came out to Yellow Springs, took a hike, and saw the Clifton Lights. (That felt worth mentioning.)
• Participated in the Scale Ribbon Festival for piano, and got all blue ribbons! (You play scale-type stuff and a piece, people judge you and sort of grade you. Yahoo. It's not a big deal but I got super-duper-shaky nervous, so it was more about beating the nerves that I'm proud of.)
• Mrs. Kessler (Geometry teacher) said this on my grades: "I revel in your success." (Sweet!)
• Won a marathon school spelling bee.
• Played the March Hare in the school production of Alice in America-Land. That, I think, was my favorite role ever. (And my best friend Cora, who played the Mad Hatter, and I made perfect comedic accomplices.)
• Read Night, by Elie Weisel. Aahh...
• Played squash. Only played one actual match (and I didn't win, but I won one game).
• My Mandarin class placed second in the singing competition at Miami University. 
• Took the SAT for the second time, and got a score which I am...very proud of.
• Got to be a Student Ambassador for MVS (once, at the Open House, but hopefully that continues in high school).
• Got to talk to the author of The Tension of Opposites, Kristina McBride, who was truly AMAZING!
• A short essay I wrote for Chinese won Honorable Mention in a contest (I was pretty proud to get even that, since I hadn't really been expecting anything.) (Actually I'm really not sure which term that was in...but I figured that Winter term was equally close to the two others, so I wouldn't be far off ;).)

Spring Term:

• My Holocaust Window Project was completed, submitted, and won second place in the art portion of the contest.
• My essay for the Xenia Optimist Club on "How My Education is Key to a Successful Future" placed second.
• Cora and I collaborated on a high school TV drama (we got totally out of character) script for the April Script Frenzy (same company as NaNoWriMo).
• I got to shovel some dirt at the groundbreaking ceremony for the MVS greenhouse!
• Played lacrosse, loved it, and scored a goal almost every game!
• Over spring break, my parents and I went on our first big college trip! (To Oberlin and Kenyon.)
• Finished and turned in my first term paper, about Biosphere 2.
• Got A+'s for National Guild, at the state level. (Piano, once again, seven memorized things, five songs and two scales plus other scale-related things.)
• Took the ACT for the first time.
• Finished up all of my vaccines for China.
• Graduated the 8th Grade!

And that all goes without saying that I did very well in school, kept my grades up, studied, read books...and ya know, plenty of other things. (I'm sure there are some things I forgot to mention..so maybe I'll add a few in later or something..or not.)

As for what I did over the summer...that'll be another list. (One I should probably make soon seeing as school starts tomorrow...)

The FFA Contract

I just completed the Family Food Adventure Contract, something of my promoting which you'll be hearing about shortly, and I'm very excited. I'm also in a formal (ish) writing mood. It's quite fun, actually. Anyway, I'd like to give you a preview of the Contract (which hasn't yet been approved by the other two members of the Family), to show off my work of the last hour or so and let you share in the excitement of a draft completed in one sitting! (Don't worry, I really will make it a preview, a short one.)

:D

The Adventure

A year-long experience in which the Greenberg family (Dione, Saul, and Mollie) will prepare, eat, and learn about all different kinds of foods.

How It Works

Each month focuses on a different theme – this may pertain to the type of food itself, the manner in which it is prepared, the ethnic or historical origin, the time of year the food is eaten or produced, etc. Each member of the family shall have a delegated Role. Each member of the family shall take part in the documentation of this Adventure by participating in the writing of a blog.

...

The Continuous Themes

The Continuous Themes are things that the Family will attempt to experiment with to the best of their ability throughout the duration of the experience, are: raw, local, homegrown, fermented, organic, vegan, gluten-free, low-fat, and seasonal food, smoothies, and healthy desserts.

More later on the origin of the FFA. (I'm quite proud of it, as it was pretty much my own invention.) For now, I've had a busy day (in which I've biked/run/walked for an hour and a half, met the Chinese exchange student that will be in our class next year, went to school - which was an odd experience - to pass the test letting us into Mandarin III alongside my best friend that both of us thought we were only asking our teacher questions about today, not actually taking, saw the progress that's been made on the greenhouse at our school so far, showed the Chinese girl the drinking fountain and discovered that she didn't know how to use it, discussed plans for a Hunger Games themed birthday party with Cora, gotten the best deals at Kroger with my dad, and eaten some really really good food made by my wonderful mom) and I'm ready to read and go to dreamland.

The Life-Changing Cheesecake, A New Home, and...I Wish "Agave" Was Pronounced "Aguave"

I've missed you, World of Words.

I've missed you, blog.

And you are, simultaneously, two different things inexplicably intertwined with each other, and the same thing altogether. (I like that sentence!)

We got back from our college trip on Saturday night. Despite now - superly unfortunately, since summer is the time to not do this - being a little stressed about getting things done that need to be done (such as studying Chinese and finishing at least the first unit of my online course), the trip was very worthwhile.

Here are the collegs we visited, in order, with ratings from 1-5 (1 being the worst, 5 being the best):
Cornell - 3
Harvard - 2
Brandeis - 2
Wellesley (the campus only, since we didn't have time for a tour) - 5 (but that's not taking into account any information about the college, or the fact that it's an all-girls college...just the fact that the campus was beautiful and green and hilly and Hogwartsy!)
Brown - 3
Yale - 4
Vassar - 2
Bard - 4
Oberlin - 5.....mmiiIILLLLIIOonnn

Especially after visiting Yale, which was the first college that I actually liked, and didn't just feel that there was something I didn't like about it, I was afraid that I'd go back to Oberlin and have the exact same feeling as I did before - really liking it, feeling like I could fit in, and familiarity with the town - but nothing less or more. This would make my decision more difficult, because I would be torn between something that I thought was a perfect fit and something that was a good enough fit and would give me tons of resources along with credentials. ('Cause really, someone hears you went to Yale and it's like WHOA!) But that wasn't my experience at all.

When we drove into the town of Oberlin, at about 9:00 at night,  I actually felt this release in my stomach. Like I'd been uncomfortable, holding some sort of tension, and as soon as we were in Oberlin that left. It felt like we were home - even for my parents. I felt comfortable and confident. And the food was so good!

Here's how it went: Aladdin's for dinner, with a giant Pita Pocket salad with felafels and some hummus from my mom's; mid-morning everything cookie and green tea with cardamon and honey at the Slow Train Cafe; and lunch at Cafe Sprouts. Cafe Sprouts is a little corner restaurant that is all vegan, gluten-free, beyond organic, local, mostly raw, and SO GOOD. Beyond belief tasty.

Especially their cheesecake.

I'm talkin' raw, pineapple banana coconut cheesecake. Cold and creamy - oh-so-creamy - it melts in your mouth like heaven. Like the best heaven ever. Better than brownie heaven or cookie heaven or cake heaven or smoothie heaven or tea heaven or fresh fruit heaven or whatever kind of food heaven you like the best, better than that. It's like eating a cloud (or what eating clouds might be like if they weren't just air and tasted like pineapple and banana and coconut).

We also had raw vegan sushi with this nutty mock chicken stuff and really good soy sauce and a raw vegan veggie-burger (with some really good rice-ish chips on the side), along with free samples of a "blueberry blondie" smoothie (which was extremely invigorating). We shared everything, along with the bottomless cup of tea that my dad ordered (you get unlimited refills....but wouldn't that be cool, a bottomless cup of tea that actually held tea? Haha, that'd be a funny joke - put "bottomless cup of tea" on your menu for a really good price so that people pounce on it, then actually give them a bottomless cup! Haaahaha, too funny...and cruel.).

After my first bite of cheesecake I was in a meditative state. Like, I'm not kidding, I seriously felt like I was meditating (let's note: I don't know what meditating actually feels like, I've never done it). For the rest of the day I couldn't help but walk around with a smile on my face, and I felt so calm, calmer than I've ever been, calmer than I feel lying in the sun or waking up to the chirp of birds or after an afternoon nap or anything.

Earlier that day we'd also walked through campus, spent some time resting in front of the Conservatory of Music, where there is a beautiful fengshui-ish pond with fishies (!); looked around in the bookstore, read some, and I got an Oberlin shirt (I made a decision to not get college shirts on this trip unless I really loved a place, and this certainly fell under that category); and walked through the Family Fun day stuff that they had out on the streets. (Mostly tables that the shops had put out.) We also checked out this really cool antique store  - I could've spent hours in there - and my mom and I got some awesome cheap sunglasses. At one point, walking along the street between the edge of campus and the town, where the street was closed off and retro cars were on display, with 60s music playing and children laughing and tables full of books from a used book store to my side, and my parents walking on either side of me, I wanted to freeze that moment and store it away somewhere so I could revisit it time and time again. I was so happy...and that was before the cheesecake.

So that was the day that raw vegan pineapple banana coconut cheesecake changed my life. That was the day when I felt ready to clim another step on my way to adulthood, to responsibility, to whatever-my-life-will-lead-to. I felt like honey, smooth and warm and flexible and real. I felt like the breeze, the clouds, the soil below my feet, the leaves reaching up to the sky. I was P-E-A-C-E. I felt like a mass of warm, cofrmting air, and I felt like nothing could disintegrate me. I felt sturdy as an oak. I am me, and that's that.

And it was also the day that I found a new home of sorts - Oberlin. The bike wheel sculpture bike racks, and the composting cups, and the recycling bins everywhere, and the huge clock besides one of the main streets (CVEC, you'll know why that's important), and the vegan/vegetarian friendly restaurants, and the gardens, and just everything, felt so ME. I could definitely live there. I could live there right now. 

So you see why I gave Oberlin a 5. Million.

And even though we went on that long trip and saw all those colleges and my parents had to deal with all that New England traffic, just to come back to one of the first ones we saw a while ago and still love it, even more, I'm still glad we went, because now I'm sure that I love Oberlin a LOT.

One more thing: Agave is pronounced "Ah-gah-vay" but I really wish it was pronounced "Ah-gwa-vay," because that's how I've been saying it, and it's just so much easier to slip off the tongue than Ah-gah-vay."  (Agave nectar is a sweetener we use in lots of our healthy desserts - think of something between maple syrup and honey.)