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.

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.

Getting Back in the Saddle

Yep, as the title says, I'm getting adjusted to things. I've been enjoying some pleasant mornings out in the garden with my mother, and a lot of very active dreams which all seem to have featured something linked with the China trip. I've had dreams about hotel room mix-ups, refusing to pack my luggage, and then one last night where I had some very tiny frogs as pets. I wake up almost every morning with the excitement of these dreams running through my head, and then when I tell my mom about them later they sound so dull. It's so hard to convey the full sparkle of the dreams when I tell them...and I find myself forgetting why a certain event was so, so important that it made my heart race.

I've been reading, playing a little piano, cleaning the house, letting my rabbit out and cutting his knots of fur off, taking walks, trying to wake myself up in the afternoons when I get drowsy, studying Chinese, and I just started my online Environmental Science class a few days ago. So my good summer is continuing. There have been a couple of ups and downs...

Last week, I came home after the Antioch Writers' Workshop and ate lunch. I went through feelings while sitting in the workshop of feeling a little naive/weak/away from things...I was pretty much alone the whole time because the girls in the Young Writers' Workshop who also spent the afternoons together workshopping each other's work never really talked to me; and I suppose, after a little while, I just wasn't very interested in talking to them after hearing what they talked about. It's just sitting in a lecture hall, listening to someone talk about writing and trying to get inspired in a room full of inspired people, so you don't really have to interact with anyone. Anyway, my parents both left soon after I got home, and then I had a bit of a collapse because I realized I just really wasn't up for being alone anymore. I didn't know what  to do! And I was tired, and frustrated. (That was when I plugged my computer in and tripped on the cord, which I found out later cracked the screen...thank goodness I didn't see that it had cracked then or I would have been a mess.) But I only went through a few minutes of that, because then...

I started to think about Friends, and how it can cheer me up. Then my thoughts drifted to one of the characters, Monica, who loves to clean. She cleans for fun, anytime of day. And I, being in a bit of a crazy mood, decided, Well, let's try to be like Monica and clean! And ya know what? It worked. I scrubbed at the kitchen floor, and then the cupboards, and the handles on the cupboards, and the stove and the dishwasher...and it felt so good. I was completely wrapped up in it, and I felt so organized, so in control, like everything was in its place.

I'm very proud of myself for taking Monica's example in that situation. I've discovered a new therapy for myself! (I thought I was crazy - I've barely ever liked cleaning before. Now I've just got to get myself to enjoy the organization type of cleaning...like cleaning my room..ohhhh goodness...)

I've read (counting on fingers...) six novels this summer, I think, a couple of those for the second time. And almost all of them have had to do with war. I reread The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, both in the Hunger Games series, and those are about a future United States where the people are starting a revolution against the demanding government. Then I read A Thousand Splendid Suns, which is set in Afghanistan around the war, Catch-22, and Peace, by Richard Bausch. The last two are my summer reading books, the latter assigned by the school and the former assigned by...moi! Ironically, I finished Catch-22 on Tuesday, thought, I really liked that book and I don't want it to end (I actually read the first page or so over again because I just wasn't ready for it to be over) but I'm really done with all this war. And then. Tada - Peace, a book that follows three men who hike up a freezing mountain in Italy during WWII. More war (the same war as Catch-22, actually). But they were good books.... Now I'm ready for some plain old young adult fiction though, so I've started a book called Delirium, about a (probably future) U.S. where love is considered a disease and people are "cured" of it. Hm...scary thought. (Kind of goes against the entire theme of Harry Potter....speaking of which...)

Have I mentioned that the last Harry Potter movie was ABSOLUTELY OUTSTANDINGLY AMAZING AND INCREDIBLE AND UNSPEAKABLY BRILLIANT!?!?! I was soo satisfied and happy and warm inside when it finished (along with sad because there won't be any more) and I wanted to watch it again RIGHT AWAY! I think I shall watch it again, in fact..in the theater. Oh, it was just sooo gooooddd...... (And so was $5 popcorn.)

So...there's more I could tell...but I've said enough. I'm looking forward to my dreams tonight...and hoping it won't be as hot tomorrow morning, because I'll be doing my first community service hours at a CSA farm owned by the parents of a fellow car-pooler and friend of mine!

Life is good....

Back, Loving Democracy and Wanting to Eat

I got back two days ago. China seems like a dream now, a dream that brought the dream of my real life into contrast with the stark reality of the world. Almost three weeks of not being sure what I'd eat for the next meal, if I'd be able to use a sanitary toilet, and what the heck I'd be doing sure changes your ideas about time and being comfortable. Walking by dried up old women who carry trash bags full of empty water bottles and seeing people walking the city streets and waiting at bus stops with the saddest neutral expressions on their faces you've ever seen sure changes your perspective. Being fawned over by every other group of Asian people that you see, getting your picture taken, and sometimes even signing your name for a group of eager Chinese school girls, all just because you have light skin, light hair, and blue eyes, sure makes you realize how diverse your own country is. Seeing people constantly working so hard, putting up with heat and smell and uncleanliness, hundreds of school kids wearing the same clothes with their fixed the same way, walking around in groups , blending in with each other, and hearing them talk about how they can't get on Facebook or YouTube because the government doesn't allow it, sure makes you appreciate your own democratic country, where people have a choice about their job and value individuality instead of feeling obligated to be the same as the group. Driving through a forest of skyscrapers, apartment buildings that touch the sky, and standing at the top of the Oriental Pearl Tower to see that the city stretches beyond the skyline, sure makes you realize how small your own cities are. Walking on bricks and stones that are hundreds and hundreds of years old sure lets you know how young your own country is. And seeing women washing their laundry in the river, houses with their windows and doors open to let in a breeze which they depend upon for coolness, a little girl sitting on the street next to an old blind ma who plays a barely audible instrument counting bills, sure makes you believe that the streets in American really are paved with gold.

I don't know much at the moment, other than the fact that I woke up this morning at 4:00 and didn't go back to sleep, and that I've been craving a Chinese breakfast for several hours now. I must be insane. And also somewhat in love with China. So I'd love to write, but all I can really feel right now is the urge to stuff myself with food, familiar food - or food that has become familiar to me in the last few weeks.

One. More. Day.

Oi.

It hasn't quite hit me yet that this is my last day at home for three weeks, getting up early and running, then walking and working in the garden with my mom; eating breakfast on the front porch and reading; fixing salads and baking; writing, using our lush garden as inspiration; relaxing with my rabbit in my lap as I read a good book; settling in at night and reading myself to sleep while visions of the day just gone by and the next one coming up dance through my head; along with the things that aren't as relaxing, that I have to do...which isn't much, now that summer's started (really just getting ready for China).

Tomorrow at this time I'll be on a plane...and I won't be in Hong Kong until...9-ish in the morning our time. (I believe that's right.)

Anyway. Wow. I'm trying to make the most of this last day...but I don't want to do anything monumentally special. Just...have a calm, normal day. Eat some fresh fruit! Since I can't have that in China unless it's peel-able. Don't be surprised if you hear from me later...but don't be surprised if you don't. After all, I don't want to spend all of my time on the computer. Gotta soak up that Yellow Springs energy!

Malls, Thunder, Strawberries, and Purses

I told you there was more to tell about my day yesterday.

My mom and I went shopping for stuff for China. And now I think I have everything I need, except a pair of really nice-looking, comfortable, walking shoes...which I already have an alternative of. Anyway, we had to go to the mall: I hate the mall. I even begin to despise myself when I go in there. Unfortunately, sometimes you've just got to go to it, but I really wish that wasn't so. It all feels so wasteful and unnecessary, and like it's just a huge lie, a pocket away from reality, where one doesn't have anything one really has to do. Besides buy, buy, buy.

I mentioned the weird weather yesterday. It really was one of the weirdest days, weather-wise, that I've ever experienced. It was raining and thundering in the morning, with eventually some lightning. Then that died down, and while we were out shopping it was sunny and hot. Later, at about 6 or so, it started to thunder again, gradually working its way up to a rainstorm with lightning again. But here's the thing: I looked out of my window at 8:00 to see that it was almost completely dark out, but at 8:30 it was very light again. That was strange. This is all not to mention that it was windy, the kind of wind that reminds me of a hurricane because it seems to swirl around and around, then tempt the rain to join it. Fortunately, I don't think there's much of a chance of us getting a hurricane in Ohio.

This morning I woke up early and worked in the garden with my mother. (This time weird nightmarish dreams didn't get in the way of my sleep.) I like getting up early so that I can begin the day's productivity before the day itself really begins. I don't really like doing things in the middle of the day, especially when it's so agonizingly hot outside, so I much prefer to wake up early, get some exercise or just start my day, relax in the middle of the day (read, blog, make some good food, be sleepy...), then get a little more exercise and accomplish a few more things at night. I'm much more agreeable that way.

One of the things we did was picking strawberries! It's terrifically fun and satisfying: each little berry is like a piece of gold in a mine of green leaves and soil. You get so focused that you don't even realize how much you've picked, and then look at your basket to discover that it already contains a couple of jars' worth of strawberries! Sometime today my mother and I are going to make strawberry rhubarb sauce, or possibly pie, with all the berries we've acquired.

We went to the street fair today. It's held two times, once in June and then again in October, and it's a fun event, but more so for people who live out of town, I think. It really just consists of a whole bunch of booths, at least a third of which must sell jewelry, filling up the length of two of the main streets downtown. My mom and I went down there to buy gifts for my hosts families in China, and we settled on some packs of gift cards, bookmarks, and magnets with beautiful pictures of some places in Glen Helen. I also got a really pretty skirt, and then we picked up our box of food from the farming CSA we're a part of. (More strawberries!) Anyway, at the street fair, there are an abundance of purses. Purses of all kinds of sizes, shapes, patterns, materials, colors... And each one seems more tempting than the next. Of course, I always look at those things only entertaining a sort of admiring fancy, never setting my thoughts in order to actually be thinking of buying one. Which is good - I never go there expecting to get something or necessarily even wanting to. So when I do find something I really like, I feel like it's a good buy - and not that I'm being luxurious!

I also got a book on China, from the used book store downtown (which smells of old books, and has tons of them, along with a black cat who's always hanging around...it's a nice place to go for some quiet; I think the many pages and pages contained in the books absorb all the noise or something). It's a big thick one from Lonely Planet, and it has a lot more information than I need, but some very useful things just the same.

I've really got to take a shower now, and then I think I'll give in to my sleepiness and simply settle down with a good book. Ah, I'm looking forward to that... Soon, though, possibly later tonight, I've got to start packing early for China! (WOW, I'm leaving in less than a week! And trying to pack in as many blog posts as I can.)