Refreshing Breaks

It's been a week since I drove up to Niagara Falls for Thanksgiving Break. Feels like it's been a day or a year. I gathered together four friends, one of whom had a car, and we crossed the boarder into Canada and drove eight hours toward the Niagara area.

Plans never quite work out, so we ended up stopping at the Toronto airport where I was dropped off to go search for my boyfriend and his family. He stepped off the plane just after I got dropped off, so in the end it worked. Then we all drove down to his parents' house and ended the night with hot soup and a movie.

The break was amazing. I felt so relaxed and smiled so much. At one point Friday night I was just feeling tired and was worrying about whether or not everything was going well, but my boyfriend was right there beside me and was able to point to my friends, who were all laughing like crazy over some toy in a Christmas Shop, and assured me that they were having fun, that his parents were enjoying the company, and that it was a good trip. He then pulled me into a room lit up on all sides with Christmas lights and moving paintings of candles, and we pretended to know how to waltz.

That evening we played Camouflage and Lave Monster on a little playground and we realized that there's a huge difference in the endurance levels of elementary school kids verses college students. We all woke up sore the next morning.

We got to do a lot of hiking, through different sections of the Bruce trail, beside the train tracks that passed the house, along the strip of river leading up to Niagara Falls. Everything was beautiful, and breathtaking, and I was able to forget about school.

Well, other than to check emails and find that my professor had graded a huge group project (A!) and then to consider reading the non-fiction pieces I would have to workshop as soon as I was back on campus. I got a few sentences into one all about anime, drugs, and sex and decided not to keep reading. So instead we played another round of Dominion and laughed some more.

It was beautiful, and wonderful, and I can't wait to go back in just two weeks. So close! I cannot wait to see my boyfriend again, and his family, this time including his sister who's getting married! I'm so excited for her and so excited to see her.

Now I just need to figure out how to push through this last week of classes and the week of finals and finish up the semester well. Easier said than done I'm afraid...

Entertainment Overload

Crash! Bang! Boom! Splash! Flop! Pow! Kachaw!

I'm back!!

I don't really know how long it's been since I last posted, but it feels like it's been forever. I know a lot has happened since the last time I wrote, and I feel like I have an overload of information to pour out on my dear blog. Of course, I don't actually want to have this mega-long blog post with too much information to keep up with. So I'll try to narrow it down.

I'll skip the graduation fiasco, since I'm sure I'll mention it again once I actually graduate.
I'll also skip the exciting guy drama, since, well, frankly, I just don't want to talk about it.
I'll skip the SAT and the practice and the fact that I cannot stand bad grammar and SAT is full of it!
I'll skip Catching Fire and Ender's Game and Book Thief and Hobbit that I'm so excited for.
I'll even skip Thanksgiving and Korean food and too many sleepovers for my own good.

I think the most exciting event was our Junior/Senior trip to this little village called Atepec.
Our school always lets the Juniors and Seniors fundraise throughout the year so that at the end of the school year they can all go on this big, awesome beach trip. I'm graduating early, though, and another girl is leaving in December, so the class all agreed to set up a semester trip apart from the end of the year beach trip.

We headed up to the village, all ten of us (or are there eleven? Massive class anyway, huh?) and spent the weekend playing tons of board games and card games and group games and laughing until our stomachs hurt  so badly that we could barely even keep laughing.

We hiked down to a field overflowing with sunflowers and a cool little river hidden by bamboo and 'nispero' trees. We played hide and go seek and camouflage and sardines in the backyard at night, and only one girl twisted her ankle and touched one of the poisonous caterpillars. We all got some scratches and some cactus thorns, though.

At one point, I recorded the conversations going on because everyone except for me was involved in either a game of Risk or Chinese Checkers. I got some interesting sentences and conversations.

"Everyone was really close to me!"
"Your troops are like Shamgar!"
"It will be your face going into the toilet, then."
"I'm going to Congo to kill Ben!"
"I have nowhere else to go." "Heaven! You can go to Heaven!"

There are definitely more, but these are the ones I can remember of hand. I'm laughing just remembering.

Hopefully I can update again soon; I'm about to begin writing Draft 5, and I am so excited to get on to the second book in the Shadow Series. Ah! I can't wait!!

(I'm not sure why the pictures aren't working. Hopefully I can get them up before too long.)