Immersion, Spring Break and The Hunger Games (GACK!)

Well, seeing as I haven't posted in a while or gotten to write much about the AWESOME things I've been able to do lately, this post may be quite random and long...

First of all, Immersion ended like a week and a half ago. It was REALLY awesome. We got to take a Meyers-Briggs Personality test (INTJ all the way, man) and a Strengths Quest (mine were Input, Strategic, Intellection, Learner, and Achiever); learn some ballroom dancing; go rock-climbing at Red River Gorge; create a (hypothetical) foundation with a group of peers; call MVS alumni to ask for donations, as part of a studying philanthropy (I didn't get any... the most personal message I got from someone was a guy who said, "Don't worry, it'll get better..." whatever that's supposed to mean...); and make a self-portrait through whatever medium fit us best (art, music, writing, movie-making, dancing) to share who we are with our classmates. I especially enjoyed the last activity, not only because I learned SO MUCH about my peers, but also because I learned more about myself - how I communicate best, what I REALLY think expresses me (for example, I chose art instead of writing), and how other people react to me.

In fact, despite all the things we did during Immersion, I feel the most valuable thing I got from it was being more social with my peers. Not having tests or homework to worry about left me much less stressed (and my friends can probably testify to this) and much more social because of it. I think I became better at "going with the flow," and doing something because it might make things better for my parents or for my friends, rather than having to put myself first because I was just so tired and stressed all the time. I think I made some new friends and strengthened the existing relationships I already had.

To the right is a picture of my self portrait. Outlining the face and the pink spiral are two poems that I had written previously and edited to fit the picture. All of the images in the left portion of the paper symbolize something about me.

For the past week and a half, I've been on Spring Break! Usually, I'm not very happy about going on Spring Break because I don't get to see my friends much, and whenever the weather starts getting nice, I always feel like I should be outside all the time, but don't feel well enough or just don't feel like doing anything outside... I can definitely see myself living someplace where it's cold or always rainy at some point in the future. This year, however, I think I've gotten a whole lot better at managing my time and always staying on track during breaks. I guess maybe that's because I always have something to do these days...

My Spring Break has consisted of some awesome dreams (I got to time travel...GACK!), chatting and inside-joke-creation with my best friends, editing my NaNoWriMo novel (and I'm just getting to the hard part of that), working on the last unit of my online Environmental Science class, feeding my rabbit with a spoon (I made him a yummy apple-banana-hay smoothie, and it even smelled good to me), eating almond cheese (yes, cheese made out of ALMONDS that I'm totally obsessed with), and transplanting, weeding, and watering at a nearby organic farm to get in all my community service hours. Well that, and plus the usual like sleeping, eating, breathing, playing piano, and reading. Oh and drinking tea.

Of course.

And then there was The Hunger Games.


GACK.

I saw it on Friday, March 23 at 5:20, and BOY WAS IT THE BEST THING EVER. Of course I still like the book better though. Books are always better. I've heard people say that they thought it was rushed, or that they changed too many things, but I think that all of the changes worked well and were even beneficial for the movie medium. The third person approach worked really well in the movie, and seeing the Gamemakers room was AWESOME, but I still think that first person worked the best for the book. I like the first person approach of the book because, since it's about such a gruesome event during which some kids kind of disconnect their emotion, it allows for the reader to see Katniss's compassion and rationality.

Anyway, you should go see it immediately. Well, first you should read the book. THEN go see it. IT'S PHENOMENAL.

Well, now I need to go take a shower so I'm not rushing out the door later to get to lacrosse practice (yay!). Now that the basic updating of events is done, I'd like to post more stuff about my thoughts (those can get in the way of life sometimes, but they're pretty awesome, and I like to share so that I don't forget them). Oh but here's one before I forget (I'm really only saying this now because I absolutely never want to forget in case inventing ever becomes a viable career for me... which is not likely):

While transplanting yesterday, I was thinking, "Gosh, this sure wastes a lot of time, just having to put all these tomatoes in bigger pots so they can grow better. If you only planted them once to get them started before going to the fields, it would save SO much time." So what if you had a tray with pots that started out small, and then expanded as the plant grew? It could have something to do with time since the seed was planted, or pressure from the roots, and then all you would need to do was add more soil instead of completely transplanting! It would save time, and money in the long run, because you would only have to buy half as money trays/pots. And with all of the high-tech stuff going on these days, I'm sure it would be possible...

(So yeah, clearly I'm proud of that idea. I like ideas :D.)

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....