Sunday, February 27, 2011
Birkenstock
So I purchased these Germans yesterday. Made in Germany... as you might imagine. Extremely comfy and totally what I'm going to wear on my plane ride.
Alfalfa knows that, "You are so beautiful, to me."
Monday, February 21, 2011
And things start to move
Hey, long time no see. Or talk to, rather. I have three things to talk about, so here we go
1.) If we rewind a little bit, you'll see I mentioned something about a talent show. Well yeah, so my band and I got accepted and we played on stage for a handsome amount of people. It was very fun, you get an adrenaline rush and your nervous but once your on stage and you start to play you forget that there's a lot of people watching you. All you can do is play. Too bad it was only one song. It would have loved it if we could have done another song, or maybe we can repeat the experience. As fun as it was though, the best part was the end where everyone claps and yells, its awesome to know that they liked what you did. Maybe I'll post the link for the band on one of my future post.
2.) I got my passport. It took maybe like a week and a day or two. I was really worried that it wouldn't get here on time but it got here a lot quicker than I expected. AND IT'S SO PRETTY. I know that sounds weird, but it has like pictures of landscapes in color. It's so patriotic, but it's really nice. As of now, I wont be needing another one for the next ten years.
3.) Last thing I wanted to say, is that I had the home interview for AFS. Since I had my CB interview, I already knew the person who was coming over to interview me. Another thing, it was relaxing that she also knew Gello and had interviewed him so it was comfortably casual. My mom bought some Colombian pastries (which are amazing) and she loved them and my mom also made her some coffee and she thought it was fabulous. Honestly, it was like having a friend over....that was asking you questions and writing down your answers. She asked me a question, I told her the answer and it reminded me of a story and I would tell her all about it, and vice versa, so it took about two hours. In the end she told me she thought I would be a great candidate for AFS, so that made me feel a lot more positive.
So really there's not a lot that's going to happen that I may want to write here until March, which is when I'll get the results for the scholarship and May, which will be an orientation.
I couldn't find a song to sum up anything in this post so here's a little story that explains the quote.
My mom's real serious about me going to Germany to the point that when she goes shopping it's always "Do you think you might need this in Germany?" So after the interview she sounded like Gerard Way when she said, "And just you mind your manners when you go."
1.) If we rewind a little bit, you'll see I mentioned something about a talent show. Well yeah, so my band and I got accepted and we played on stage for a handsome amount of people. It was very fun, you get an adrenaline rush and your nervous but once your on stage and you start to play you forget that there's a lot of people watching you. All you can do is play. Too bad it was only one song. It would have loved it if we could have done another song, or maybe we can repeat the experience. As fun as it was though, the best part was the end where everyone claps and yells, its awesome to know that they liked what you did. Maybe I'll post the link for the band on one of my future post.
2.) I got my passport. It took maybe like a week and a day or two. I was really worried that it wouldn't get here on time but it got here a lot quicker than I expected. AND IT'S SO PRETTY. I know that sounds weird, but it has like pictures of landscapes in color. It's so patriotic, but it's really nice. As of now, I wont be needing another one for the next ten years.
3.) Last thing I wanted to say, is that I had the home interview for AFS. Since I had my CB interview, I already knew the person who was coming over to interview me. Another thing, it was relaxing that she also knew Gello and had interviewed him so it was comfortably casual. My mom bought some Colombian pastries (which are amazing) and she loved them and my mom also made her some coffee and she thought it was fabulous. Honestly, it was like having a friend over....that was asking you questions and writing down your answers. She asked me a question, I told her the answer and it reminded me of a story and I would tell her all about it, and vice versa, so it took about two hours. In the end she told me she thought I would be a great candidate for AFS, so that made me feel a lot more positive.
So really there's not a lot that's going to happen that I may want to write here until March, which is when I'll get the results for the scholarship and May, which will be an orientation.
I couldn't find a song to sum up anything in this post so here's a little story that explains the quote.
My mom's real serious about me going to Germany to the point that when she goes shopping it's always "Do you think you might need this in Germany?" So after the interview she sounded like Gerard Way when she said, "And just you mind your manners when you go."
Friday, February 4, 2011
My great, great, great grandson...
OK. So, I would say a lot happened in two days. I'll take this step by step.
Day 1(thursday):
I have to give my friend Shivy (short for something else) a BIG thank you, cause she's letting me borrow her Rosetta Stone... German version. Anyway, thursday was basically a preparation day for the Constitution Competition so I went to the library. After some serious work, right before I went home I started to fool around on my laptop and so the following conversation occurred....
Acquaintance: *mildly loud, across a fairly far distance* Florence, is that your laptop??!
Me: ....yes.
Acquaintance: *nods*
Friend: *next to me, whispers* Why'd you say that?! You should have lied and said 'no, it's my... great, great, great grandson's'!"
Me: I didn't know I had one.
And then we proceeded to laugh, really hard.
Also, I also got a call from an AFS volunteer that night, she reminded me to get my application in by March 1st, not the 21st of February as I'd thought. I think maybe it's the CB that's due on that date. Also I have to have an in home interview done. ACK.
Day 2 (friday):
Friday, February 4th, was the day we would all go to school at 6:15 in the morning to go to Trenton for the Constitution Competition. We were all dressed nice and spiffy, with tired faces as we loaded on to the bus. We got to Trenton as the only sophomore class amidst seniors. To this point we had already beaten six senior classes that hadn't made it up to this point. Now we were going to face another five school to see which would move on to nationals. As you can imagine we were all nervous. But the nerves hit us at the wrong time.
Once it was our turn to answer the questions, it was up to us to go back to those brain cells that held information that we could process into an answer. Based on our answer we would be scored. At the time you speak you think, that what you say is good, you may think that what you answer makes sense. However, after it's all done and your judges have left the room you pick out minimal details like 'Oh, I stuttered,' or 'I didn't say enough,' and in other cases 'I paused to long and too much.' You think about every possible thing that could make you seem like you could have done better...
To move on with today's happenings, after the questions, we went to a buffet to eat. It was really crowded, but we found seats and I was very happy that they had a vegetarian lasagna and chocolate chip cookies! They announced the winner and we received....
THIRD PLACE.
Yeah, I was disappointed. It was not what I expected, hoped or aimed for. But when you really put it into perspective, we went against a total of twelve schools, and out of all of them we placed in the top three. To add on to that, we were the ONLY sophomore class there, all of the others were seniors. So when you really think about it, we did really well. In fact, we did great.
So the bus ride home wasn't as quiet and sad as you might think. It was actually pretty wild, especially in the back, where I was. We were accompanied by a crap load of teenagers with a real heavy stress taken of they're back, with candy, juices and soda, plus our teacher who ran down the isle handing out brownies like a flight attendant and almost falling into people's laps every time the bus turned.
By the time we got home we were pretty much happy with our third place achievement. I'm pretty sure everyone was tired after the long day, I know I was.
And to conclude I want to say that tomorrow I'm taking care of my passport business, so that's another thing that I won't have to worry about. Also, just got an e-mail, my letters of recommendation made it to Oregon, so relieved. And on Monday, I'll have to harass my teacher to tell me if we made it to the talent show. Two more things before I go...
Awkward situation
Sal: I'm hot.
Nicole: Your mom's hot! Wait.....that didn't come out how I expected.
The Jonas Brothers can rock my title....kinda. "And your great, great, great granddaughter is doing fine."
Day 1(thursday):
I have to give my friend Shivy (short for something else) a BIG thank you, cause she's letting me borrow her Rosetta Stone... German version. Anyway, thursday was basically a preparation day for the Constitution Competition so I went to the library. After some serious work, right before I went home I started to fool around on my laptop and so the following conversation occurred....
Acquaintance: *mildly loud, across a fairly far distance* Florence, is that your laptop??!
Me: ....yes.
Acquaintance: *nods*
Friend: *next to me, whispers* Why'd you say that?! You should have lied and said 'no, it's my... great, great, great grandson's'!"
Me: I didn't know I had one.
And then we proceeded to laugh, really hard.
Also, I also got a call from an AFS volunteer that night, she reminded me to get my application in by March 1st, not the 21st of February as I'd thought. I think maybe it's the CB that's due on that date. Also I have to have an in home interview done. ACK.
Day 2 (friday):
Friday, February 4th, was the day we would all go to school at 6:15 in the morning to go to Trenton for the Constitution Competition. We were all dressed nice and spiffy, with tired faces as we loaded on to the bus. We got to Trenton as the only sophomore class amidst seniors. To this point we had already beaten six senior classes that hadn't made it up to this point. Now we were going to face another five school to see which would move on to nationals. As you can imagine we were all nervous. But the nerves hit us at the wrong time.
Once it was our turn to answer the questions, it was up to us to go back to those brain cells that held information that we could process into an answer. Based on our answer we would be scored. At the time you speak you think, that what you say is good, you may think that what you answer makes sense. However, after it's all done and your judges have left the room you pick out minimal details like 'Oh, I stuttered,' or 'I didn't say enough,' and in other cases 'I paused to long and too much.' You think about every possible thing that could make you seem like you could have done better...
To move on with today's happenings, after the questions, we went to a buffet to eat. It was really crowded, but we found seats and I was very happy that they had a vegetarian lasagna and chocolate chip cookies! They announced the winner and we received....
THIRD PLACE.
Yeah, I was disappointed. It was not what I expected, hoped or aimed for. But when you really put it into perspective, we went against a total of twelve schools, and out of all of them we placed in the top three. To add on to that, we were the ONLY sophomore class there, all of the others were seniors. So when you really think about it, we did really well. In fact, we did great.
So the bus ride home wasn't as quiet and sad as you might think. It was actually pretty wild, especially in the back, where I was. We were accompanied by a crap load of teenagers with a real heavy stress taken of they're back, with candy, juices and soda, plus our teacher who ran down the isle handing out brownies like a flight attendant and almost falling into people's laps every time the bus turned.
By the time we got home we were pretty much happy with our third place achievement. I'm pretty sure everyone was tired after the long day, I know I was.
And to conclude I want to say that tomorrow I'm taking care of my passport business, so that's another thing that I won't have to worry about. Also, just got an e-mail, my letters of recommendation made it to Oregon, so relieved. And on Monday, I'll have to harass my teacher to tell me if we made it to the talent show. Two more things before I go...
Awkward situation
Sal: I'm hot.
Nicole: Your mom's hot! Wait.....that didn't come out how I expected.
The Jonas Brothers can rock my title....kinda. "And your great, great, great granddaughter is doing fine."
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Hello, I'm nervous. You?
Where to begin?
The beginning sounds nice.
It all started in the fall of 2010.....*flashback*
My good friend, Rogelio, (whom we will call Gello) had told me about his crazy idea about going to France. Me, being sardonic, ignored this and thought what a stupid thing to do. Skip a school year for months to live in France? Yeah, it sounded fun, but that wasn't the smartest move to pull off. He mentioned it two or three more times, before he explained to me what it was all about. He told me that he would go to school in France, that he would live with a french family, that he would be completely immersed by the culture a great way to learn the language, culture and to live a French life. Then he said "You're lucky though, If you want to go to Germany, there's a possibility for you to get a scholarship." And then BAM....just like that, I had the same stupid idea and shared the same wild dream.
No, the scholarship was not what endorsed my liking of Germans. It was more of a growing process. There's a moment when you're a little kid, and you finally understand what something is, and what it's for. When I knew what a car was, I instantly had a favorite, a buggy Volkswagen. Of course, it was later that I learned it was a German car. From there it transformed to Porsche and soon Audi. And then it expanded, when I heard Tokio Hotel. I had no idea who they were, but I heard one of their songs in German and I thought whatever it was he was speaking was just so beautiful. So it took three minutes to know everything about them through wikipedia.
That's when my passion for German took full throttle. With their songs I learned a lot and googling and regoogling, I found busuu.com. Busuu is a language learning website that helped me excel in my German a lot. Of course, I couldn't find a way to thank Gello for introducing me to this crazy idea, so I gave him the website too, and to my great pleasure, he loved it (but for French).
So now, I had to tell my guidance councilor and my mom. I told my guidence councilor first and showed her the AFS website. She took it well, she thought I was making a bold move, she also wanted to speak with my mom about it. Sooooo, I had to tell my mom. I had plenty of mental visions of my mom calling me crazy, yelling at me, or just straight out saying no, so it was up to me to plan out this encounter carefully. With much preparation and help from Gello I picked a calm Saturday to tell her.
She was playing solitaire on the computer and I opened up the conversation by telling her that I had become much more interested in Germany recently. She continued to play while I told her everything. She didn't speak and she didn't look at me either. I blabbed away and ended by asking, "Mom, do you want to see the website?" She was still looking at the computer screen when she said, "I won." She closed solitaire and opened firefox and said, "Show me the website." At that moment the biggest wave of relief swept over me.
Now it's February:
So far I've submitted two applications and on February 21st I have to submit another. I have yet to renew my passport, and I have to get some paperwork for my doctor to sign. Recently....more like four days ago, I had my CBYX interview. I am extremely tense and nervous about my results, hence the title. The only reason why I'm nervous is because I really, really, REALLY, want to go to Germany. I feel that the response to the questions they asked me were nice. I don't think I sounded scripted and I didn't sound overly confident. I feel like I spoke to them in a normal tone, laughed a little, added my opinion, gave them honest responses and had a casual stance. But, I just don't know how well all that will pay off. To look on the bright side, my mom was extremely impressed by the results of studying abroad: independence and responsibility and has a more firm support of letting me go to Germany.
I sent my letters of recommendations in the mail (January 21st), which I believe I got really good one's from three of my favorite teachers who teach English and History (my favorite subjects). But that's not the problem, the problem is I don't know if they ever arrived. I live in New Jersey and I had to mail them to OREGON.
Additionally, a band that I belong to and I have auditioned to the school talent show and we have not been notified weather we made it or not.
To top it all off, I am part of the Constitution Competition. A United States funded program which is part of my AP U.S. I History class curriculum. This competition basically requires you to know the Constitution inside out and to answer very complicated questions about it and to be able to know about as many current event issues as possible which could be related to the Constitution, and a bunch of other things. I'm going to Trenton in two days to face off all the other schools in New Jersey who are in the Competition as well. My classmates and I have made it a goal to get first place so we can move on to nationals and win this for my soon-to-retire history teacher.
In the words of Haley Williams "I can feel the pressure."
The beginning sounds nice.
It all started in the fall of 2010.....*flashback*
My good friend, Rogelio, (whom we will call Gello) had told me about his crazy idea about going to France. Me, being sardonic, ignored this and thought what a stupid thing to do. Skip a school year for months to live in France? Yeah, it sounded fun, but that wasn't the smartest move to pull off. He mentioned it two or three more times, before he explained to me what it was all about. He told me that he would go to school in France, that he would live with a french family, that he would be completely immersed by the culture a great way to learn the language, culture and to live a French life. Then he said "You're lucky though, If you want to go to Germany, there's a possibility for you to get a scholarship." And then BAM....just like that, I had the same stupid idea and shared the same wild dream.
No, the scholarship was not what endorsed my liking of Germans. It was more of a growing process. There's a moment when you're a little kid, and you finally understand what something is, and what it's for. When I knew what a car was, I instantly had a favorite, a buggy Volkswagen. Of course, it was later that I learned it was a German car. From there it transformed to Porsche and soon Audi. And then it expanded, when I heard Tokio Hotel. I had no idea who they were, but I heard one of their songs in German and I thought whatever it was he was speaking was just so beautiful. So it took three minutes to know everything about them through wikipedia.
That's when my passion for German took full throttle. With their songs I learned a lot and googling and regoogling, I found busuu.com. Busuu is a language learning website that helped me excel in my German a lot. Of course, I couldn't find a way to thank Gello for introducing me to this crazy idea, so I gave him the website too, and to my great pleasure, he loved it (but for French).
So now, I had to tell my guidance councilor and my mom. I told my guidence councilor first and showed her the AFS website. She took it well, she thought I was making a bold move, she also wanted to speak with my mom about it. Sooooo, I had to tell my mom. I had plenty of mental visions of my mom calling me crazy, yelling at me, or just straight out saying no, so it was up to me to plan out this encounter carefully. With much preparation and help from Gello I picked a calm Saturday to tell her.
She was playing solitaire on the computer and I opened up the conversation by telling her that I had become much more interested in Germany recently. She continued to play while I told her everything. She didn't speak and she didn't look at me either. I blabbed away and ended by asking, "Mom, do you want to see the website?" She was still looking at the computer screen when she said, "I won." She closed solitaire and opened firefox and said, "Show me the website." At that moment the biggest wave of relief swept over me.
Now it's February:
So far I've submitted two applications and on February 21st I have to submit another. I have yet to renew my passport, and I have to get some paperwork for my doctor to sign. Recently....more like four days ago, I had my CBYX interview. I am extremely tense and nervous about my results, hence the title. The only reason why I'm nervous is because I really, really, REALLY, want to go to Germany. I feel that the response to the questions they asked me were nice. I don't think I sounded scripted and I didn't sound overly confident. I feel like I spoke to them in a normal tone, laughed a little, added my opinion, gave them honest responses and had a casual stance. But, I just don't know how well all that will pay off. To look on the bright side, my mom was extremely impressed by the results of studying abroad: independence and responsibility and has a more firm support of letting me go to Germany.
I sent my letters of recommendations in the mail (January 21st), which I believe I got really good one's from three of my favorite teachers who teach English and History (my favorite subjects). But that's not the problem, the problem is I don't know if they ever arrived. I live in New Jersey and I had to mail them to OREGON.
Additionally, a band that I belong to and I have auditioned to the school talent show and we have not been notified weather we made it or not.
To top it all off, I am part of the Constitution Competition. A United States funded program which is part of my AP U.S. I History class curriculum. This competition basically requires you to know the Constitution inside out and to answer very complicated questions about it and to be able to know about as many current event issues as possible which could be related to the Constitution, and a bunch of other things. I'm going to Trenton in two days to face off all the other schools in New Jersey who are in the Competition as well. My classmates and I have made it a goal to get first place so we can move on to nationals and win this for my soon-to-retire history teacher.
In the words of Haley Williams "I can feel the pressure."
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