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 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.)

College Visits Day 5

Monday, March 28, 2011

8:00 Woke up, went to the bathroom, discovered that both of my parents were definitely still sleeping, and decided to go back to sleep. Very gladly.

9:00 Woke up again only to see that my mom was already showered and dressed and my dad on his computer. Wow, time flies when you're dreaming!

So I took a shower. Unfortunately, I had to take mine last. And I don't do well being rushed out because I took the last shower. So basically...it was a bad morning. Let's leave it at that.

10:00 We walked over to the main part of campus and caught the campus tour just on time. The tour guides were all very nice, all girls... (Hey, I just realized - all the tour guides we've had at colleges have been girls...hmm.) But they didn't seem to have the same amount of enthusiasm for what they were doing as the students at Oberlin. Our tour guide kept talking about things as if everybody had the classic school-is-boring mindset... Which, I admit, I've never had. In fact, everyone there seemed like that. Like they couldn't wait till they could go and party, and they just weren't that interested in what they were doing. Lots of people are like that, I know, but I barely got that feeling at all at Oberlin. A large part of that was because the students we got to talk to individually were all very passionate about their studies, and that wasn't the case at Kenyon.

11:15 Afterwards, we sat in on an information session. It was a lady involved in the admissions process, and that was pretty much all she talked about! And boy did she talk! She seemed very nice and personable, and she did a good job of making the college admissions process very comfortable...but she barely talked about Kenyon! Seriously, at one point when there was a little lull in her chatter, she said, "Hm, I'm trying to think of what makes Kenyon unique... Well, I guess I just keep going back to the place." Yes. All she could think of was the location! Which, I've got to admit, was very nice, but not at all what I want.

It's isolated, on a hill. In fact, our tour guide said the founders built it there because then it would be above the sinners down below. (I couldn't help but be reminded of the colonists' City Upon a Hill theory.) All the buildings are very nice and grand. A lot of the classes are actually held in houses that the professors used to live in. One of the dining halls is called the Great Hall, and actually looks like a smaller version of the Great Hall in Hogwarts. The campus is beautiful, but it somehow isn't real. The "town" it's in, Gambier, is barely a town. It's really just a collection of a couple shops and restaurants on like...ONE street.

The whole time I was in the information session, I felt really uncomfortable. We were in a room with fancy chairs and a high ceiling and bookshelves lining the walls, along with big painted portraits of the founders or something. It felt too unreal, too fancy, not like a home. And not someplace where people would be passionate about what they were learning, and actually go out in the world and DO something about it.

We went back to our hotel room and checked out, then went to the cafeteria for lunch, because my parents insisted upon eating in there. Let's just say that I was in a very bad mood. I was very affected by the feeling of the place, and I felt very trapped. I hadn't had a chance to talk through it all with my parents yet, since we were always around other people, and I was hoping to do that during lunch. However, when you're in a cafeteria filled with college students, it's a little hard to tell your true feelings about the college they're going to, especially when those are largely negative! That, combined with this trapped feeling and not being able to find A SINGLE THING that I wanted to eat in the cafeteria, made that a very undesirable experience. I was hoping that I'd get some good food and feel better, but not at all.

While my mom walked around campus to take pictures, I stayed with my dad in the cafeteria while he ate his vegan veggie burger (which took so long because they actually had to DEFROST it), and then we walked down to the bookstore. We ended up just walking back up to the end of campus where my mom was.

We talked about all our perceptions of the school on the car ride home, but I was still really hungry, dissatisfied, and then nauseous. Finally, when we were drawing closer to home, we started talking about where we'd eat. After much much much deliberation, we went to Papa John's and got a large cheese pizza with tomatoes on it. My family NEVER orders pizza from chain restaurants...so that was quite a special experience. My mood improved a lot, and when, late in the day, we got home and settled down to an episode of Friends and some pizza, I felt a lot better.

Obviously, I liked Oberlin a LOT more than Kenyon. It was surprising what an extreme reaction I had to Kenyon, especially in comparison to how much I loved Oberlin. I'm sure Kenyon is just right for some people, but I'm just not one of them.

College Visits Day 3

Saturday, March 26, 2011

I woke up peacefully and very rested this morning. I also found that my ribs are extremely sore, presumably from all those push-ups yesterday (in total, I did 100!). I think that’s thrown my stomach off a little bit…oh well, sometimes feeling sore feels good – makes me feel accomplished. We all showered and got ready to go. Had a few sips of tea, but didn’t get to finish that cup… However, that was all fine because… At about 10:40 we walked across the street to the Slow Train Café again and shared two Chocolate Expresso muffins between the three of us. They were vegan, so we could eat them, and quite good. Just a tad bit dry, but still an extremely tasteful breakfast! I thanked my parents for letting me have a huge chocolate muffin for breakfast. We started dipping the pieces of muffin into the soy chai latte my mom had ordered, and boy was that scrumptious!

11:15 Soon after, we made our way to the Admissions Office for the information session and campus tour. There were about thirty people in the information session, which was about 45 minutes long and covered lots of information about Oberlin. He said a few things that really stuck with me about the personal essay for college applications. He said, firstly, to write about yourself, not some other figure (since “we’re not admitting your aunt to college, or Abraham Lincoln”), and that it doesn’t have to be a structured essay, with an introduction, three main points, and a conclusion. He said you don’t even have to have a formal conclusion. And he said this is why: because your life is concluded yet, “otherwise you’d be dead, not applying to college.” That is, of course, very true, and I like how he said that. How could you have a conclusion? Things are still very open-ended. I got inspired when he was talking about that, so I took a few notes on my iPhone about what the essay could be like. I have a good idea of how to write it.

12:00 After that, we went on the campus tour. I loved it! It was, of course, frigidly cold, but we kept moving, so it wasn’t too bad. Our tour guide was a sophomore, a History major, and deciding on a second major, either French or something else. She said a lot about all the opportunities on campus, and really gave us all a well-rounded perspective on what they have to offer. We walked through the Conservatory of Music (which is world-renowned, and apparently comparable to Julliard). It was an aesthetically pleasing building, especially the jazz part. Something particularly unique about the college (among many other things, of course) is that you can actually get a double-degree – a Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Arts degree – at the same time. This is only if you were enrolled in both the music and arts & sciences divisions of the college. However, even if you weren’t enrolled in the Conservatory of Music, you can still take music lessons and be involved in the music programs, which is nice. She also talked about the food and living co-ops, which is basically working with a group of people to sustain good living quarters and/or cook food (which is definitely something I would be interested in).

After the tour, I found myself much more interested in Oberlin. I’ve found that all the students I’ve seen appear to have very solid, developed characters. They all seem classy and most have a sense of style. I like how accepting they all are of different, innovative ideas, and effective they seem to be. In the information session, the man talked about lots of Oberlin alumni who have gone on to do big things in life. Considering some of the things Jeffrey and Lauren talked about yesterday also, I’m beginning to see how important a Liberal Arts education may be to me. That it seems a lot more like my kind of thing than an Ivy League school (which I’ve never been very interested in, with the exception of Princeton). I love the town of Oberlin, also. It’s so alive, and the food is great! It’s what I wish the small town I live in was, and what it’s trying to be. So now, Oberlin’s looking like a sincere possibility on my wish list. I’m enthusiastic about it, and I think all the experiences I’ve had here, just in the last two days, have had a large impact on my perception of what Oberlin has to offer and why that could be the right thing for me. The only problem remaining? It’s in Ohio, not too far from where I live, and I’ve always wanted to go someplace different for college. But, you know, things change, life takes unexpected twists and turns, and many times you just have to go with the flow. I’m getting better at that.

After the tour we went to a little health food store and café called The Oberlin Market. It was fantastic! I felt like I was back home. It was very modest too, but the food was just right, and just like the things we could cook in our own kitchen…yet different enough. My mom got an absolutely delicious, to-die-for German Chocolate muffin, and we all shared some rice noodles with peanut sauce and tabouli made with quinoa, along with some bread and parsley pesto. Unfortunately, my stomach wasn’t in the best of spirits, so I couldn’t wholeheartedly enjoy the meal (after all, I barely ever have chocolate expresso muffins for breakfast). Then we went back to the little shop we discovered yesterday called Inspired, where my mom and I tried on some clothes…to no avail. The thought was nice, of fair trade and bamboo cloth, but they didn’t fit right. I did get a beautiful green and silver bracelet that sort of wraps around several times; and it was handmade in Indonesia! I found it yesterday, and still loved it today…and I’m wearing it now. It’s motivating to thing that I can walk around all day wearing something on my arm that was made halfway around the world. (Not that most people don’t do that…but buying it in a small store, and knowing that it’s fair trade makes all the difference. I feel so much more connected.) We walked back up and stopped in the bookstore for a few more minutes, where my parents found a couple of books by David Orr – the man who designed the Adam J. Lewis Center. On our way there we stopped in at Gibson’s, a place that has ice cream, donuts, and chocolate covered everything. Seriously – dried cranberries, dried mangoes, dried cantaloupe, dried apple, pretzels, Oreos, mint patties, marshmallows, granola…all covered in chocolate. Let’s just say…I’d really like to go back there.

We finally walked back to “our house,” and I promptly went to the bathroom, made a cup of tea, and had a few grapes. I’ve been sitting at the kitchen table, typing this up, for an hour at least, and soon we’ll probably go to the Slow Train Café! Who knows what the rest of the day holds… We’ll see!

At one point today, while I was washing my hands actually, I was filled with an overwhelming sense of enthusiasm for life. I’m filled with this quite often, actually, but sometimes it gets to be so much that I’m afraid I’ll burst with it! It’s a little confusing, too, because I enjoy so very much what I’m doing at the moment, yet I just can’t wait to move on, go out into the world, and do more! I’ve considered starting college early, but I don’t want to rush too fast through the experience of going through high school, and all the enrichment I can experience at my school and in the surrounding area. Better to make the most I can of that time than rush through it so that I can be finished with school earl, I believe. But who knows what’ll happen – I’ve still got time.

6:23 p.m. Now I’m sitting in the Slow Train Café again, finally warm and sort of tired, ready to relax. And try some of the Everything Cookie my mom just got! I walked around campus with my mom while she took some pictures. It was nice to talk and revisit some of the places we’d seen earlier in the day. I still LOVE the Conservatory of Music – it has such a calm and focused feeling to it…as does the rest of campus, actually, and all the students. Everything I do here just makes me love it more!

College Visits Day 2

Friday, March 25, 2011

7:30 Woke up and stretched.

9:00 – 9:50 Went to the class “100 Poems” with my mom. They analyzed and discussed William Wordsworth’s poem “Ode.” Interesting thoughts about childhood vs. adulthood, life as a play…I kept thinking of the Alchemist as I listened. At first, when the teacher started reading the poem, I was totally confused and couldn’t make any sense of it, despite loving the sound and texture of all the words. I had to ask my mom about the meaning. However, as the class started analyzing it and revealing their perspectives, I really got a good idea of what the poem was, so now I feel confident, should I ever have to pick that poem apart myself. (Now, I really want to find it and read it again so that I can pick it apart, or at least enjoy the words for what they are without being encountered by confusion and overwhelming-ness.)

After that my mom and I walked to the admissions building so we’d know where to go for our tour.

10:00 Ate brunch at “home.” Finally had tea!

11:00 Went across the street to the Slow Train Café so we could use their WiFi. Blogged and got all caught up.

12:30 – 1:20 Science tour. The guide wasn’t a science tour guide because they had all left for spring break already, but she did her best. She’s actually going to law school after she graduates this year, and seems pretty excited about it. (We actually saw her later in the Slow Train Café, where she reached out and said hello to us, apologized for not being a science major, and was just very nice.) Unfortunately, this was actually just a tour of the science building, not the sustainable building for environmental studies, which we were all very interested in. The science building actually cost more than 50 million dollars to build!

1:30 – 2:20 – I sat in on Introduction to Advanced Literary Analysis. It was an interesting class – they were discussing Othello. The energy was a bit low, but that was probably just because everyone was pining for break to start. However, once they got a little warmed up, they had a lot of fascinating comments to make. What I enjoyed the most about it was looking at the students and imagining them as characters in some story or other. (I try to stock my mind up with those mannerisms and types of presences that make a person who they are.)

After this, we walked to the Adam J. Lewis Center (the sustainable building). The front room was beautiful – there was a little pond and lots of tall plants. A sundial was outside the front of the building, and a little pond snaked around the side, one that was actually part of the building’s waste water recycling system. It recycles waste water – water in the toilets – using plants in what they call the Living Machine to filter it and then bring it back into the toilets. All of the materials the building was made of are local, except for the floor, which still plays into the environmental side of things. The roof is covered in solar panels, and the building has a passive solar design (meaning it uses sunlight for heat).

Then we made our way back to the Slow Train Café to meet a student from the Creative Writing Department. We had some extra time, so on our way there we stopped in the Bookstore and looked around. I didn’t find anything profound, unfortunately.

3:30 – 4:45 We talked to a couple of students in the Creative Writing department, Lauran and Jeffrey. (Lauren had to leave early.) I loved hearing their individual stories about how they got into the school and their experiences once there. They talked about other projects they’ve done. Lauren recently went to Rome, and while there discovered some interesting things about the idea of monuments. She, along with some friends, are working on a project where they’re going to cover up and then rededicate a huge arch on campus. She’s also working on a novel, which has something to do with monuments. Jeffrey is creating a website that has something to do with publishing or creating poetry or prose. He is a vegetarian also, as is his whole family! Part of the reason he came to Oberlin instead of some other colleges was because they had so many vegetarian choices. He said, also, that he didn’t like the feeling of some Ivy League schools – the reputation they had to uphold, the superiority everyone that goes to those colleges feels entitled to. We were all able to engage in conversation about some complex issues, and it was very stimulating. Made me like Oberlin more…getting this insider’s perspective, and actually getting to really talk to them. They both seemed like the kind of people who enjoyed life and the many things it has to offer, enjoyed the simple things and the normal kind of fun, but found real, heartfelt satisfaction and joy in the things they were passionate about doing, particularly writing. You could tell they had a lot on their minds, and they were very much people, and very much wanting to do something, and well on their way to doing it.

4:45 We walked down to a place called the Black River Café. We were there a few minutes before opening time, so we walked down the street and found a place called “Inspired.” It’s a little shop of clothing, jewelry, snacks, books, etc, all fair trade and sustainable. We’ll definitely be going back tomorrow. The lady there let us try some fair trade milk chocolate balls – they were very good!

5:10 We went back to the Black River Café. We got amazing French fries for an appetizer. I got a really good beet salad with candied almonds on it and some tomato and artichoke soup; my mom got mushroom risotto; and my dad ordered the best dish – some kind of tomato and cheese stuff wrapped in noodles...I don’t know what it was called, but it was amazing!

And now we’re back in our room, so glad to finally lie down. And my shoulder still hurts. [It really pained me that night, and took a long while to feel better. The movie “Pretty Woman” was playing on TV, so we watched that. It was really the only thing I could do, considering that sitting up and holding a book would hurt my shoulder, and I wasn’t relaxed enough to sleep. I needed a distraction, and movies are the perfect thing for that. Anyway, afterwards I was feeling a lot better, and I did some sit-ups and stretching before bed. I did get a chance to read, fortunately, which I’d been craving all day.]

College Visits Day 1

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Today was the first day of our little college visit trip! During the car ride, I occupied myself by listening to the radio (NPR – All Things Considered) and relearning how to solve the Rubik’s Cube (I just needed my handy-dandy algorithm post-it note). We arrived in Oberlin at around 8:00. We lugged all of our stuff up the steep staircase to our room. We’re in a room of this lady’s house, which she rents out. The house is ginormous, and our little upstairs room is quite cozy, and spacious – bigger than a hotel room. Plus, we have our very own kitchen!

I went into the bathroom, and spent a few frenzied moments in which I couldn’t locate the toilet. It turned out to be right beside me, right by the door, but so short it just blended in with the rest of the little room. I soon realized that everything in the bathroom was miniature – the toilet, the bathtub (which is one of those old-fashioned ones with claws), the sink, the little marble counter across from the tub… It’s the cutest thing! The walls are painted a light, pleasant pink, and the drapes around the window have a modest white lace around the edge. It’s the daintiest bathroom I’ve ever been in.

After unpacking our stuff into the dresser, we went on our way out to eat dinner! I was extremely hunger, and in a bad mood because of it, which was only worsened by the car alarm being set off by my father’s delinquent keys. But, because of the cold, I started jogging instead of walking, and it warmed me up so much, along with lifting my mood a little. Not even a block from the house we’re staying at, I saw a warm, bright place called Aladdin’s. I pointed to it, my mom said there was one in Columbus, and BAM, we decided to eat there!

And boy am I glad. I wanted to melt the moment I walked in because it was so toasty, and then I got cinnamon apple hot tea with honey… It took us a while to decide what to get, but I think we were all very happy with our choices! I ordered a Baba Salad Pocket. It was lettuce – lots – with baba ganoush on top, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, and sprouts, all enclosed in a big pita pocket. It was huge…and heavenly. And I managed to eat the entire thing, with relish, and pride. After I finished I kept staring across the restaurant to the colossal cakes that were on display. They had ample amounts of whipped cream, chocolate, and general fatty, creamy goodness. One looked like a giant Oreo! Unfortunately, we couldn’t get any of them because they all had eggs. I kept pestering my mom about it though.

It was a very nice dinner, except for the fact that the waitress and the manager (at least I think that’s what she was) of the place kept talking to us. They kept asking us how the meal was, if we needed anything else, were we ready for the check…and then they’d start complaining about the long winter! They were both very nice people, though. The way they acted was annoying, but I still thought they were nice… The manager, however, had a funny habit of wrinkling her nose as if she was sniffing something. Like some kind of animal. It was…pretty funny, actually.

Then we all came back to the house and crashed. And I can’t get online now. We have to get up early tomorrow, because we’re visiting a poetry class at 9. Ooh, how I want to sleep in…