looks like the end of history as we know/just the end of the world

I know it. I'm attrotiously overdue. and I think I spelled that wrong but I'm not going to bother looking it up right now. I kind of just want to write.

I'm feeling all emotionally bottled up again. but thankfully all my emotions (well, most of my emotions) are happy and good ones, so it's not as bad as it could be. I'm just feeling like words aren't doing a good job at getting across what I want to express. but anyway, I'll give it my best shot. since I'm obviously the center of the universe (/sarcasm/) I know you're all dying to hear about my first week of school and everything.

(and I do sincerely promise I'll have pictures and an India post up soon. give me a break - I haven't even gone through all the pics with my own family yet, and I don't have them on my computer either. sometime this week...I really really hope.)

so anyway. school.

I'm surprised. and I'm happy to be surprised. school is fantastic and amazing. I know my campus and some of the kids on it. I found myself smirking as I remembered my first day of running start just one year before - I was lost, alone, scared to death, and looking pathetically homeschooled.

ok, I'm still alone and I still look pretty fairly homeschooled. but I'm not lost or scared to death and I'd rather get rid of those two labels first.

I swore this year that I wouldn't take any 8:00s. I had 8:00s all of last year (yeah, every quarter) and it really screwed up my body clock (interpretation = I was always grumpy from not getting enough sleep). so this quarter it's a 10:00 Shakespeare and an online Intro to Novels.

My Shakespeare teacher is actually pretty cool. she's not amazing by any means - she wears a very revealing and too-tight style of dress every day, and she can be rather vulgar/swears a fair bit. however, her mannerisms are engaging and she cares about her students. she's FUN, like, super-fun, and I look forward to class every day. the swearing is mostly related to what we're discussing (she teaches Shakespeare, for crying out loud), and as we're reading The Taming of the Shrew, which contains just about every dirty pun in the book, I can forgive the vulgarity to some extent. I've gotten used to it. I think I've learned not to expect Mr. Keating as my English teacher, and so after taking 110 with the Wicked Witch last winter, I'm happily surprised with anything better.

and The Taming of the Shrew is amazing! I love it. we saw it at Shakespeare in the Park this summer, and I liked it then. I like it even better now. Grumio is the awsomest character ever, Bianca is a total ditz (or is she?....), and we're reading with a very forgiving perspective of Kate, which makes the whole thing open to interpretation and five times as interesting. it's cool.

next is Richard III, which is bound to be entertaining. and after that, King Lear. then - just in time for Christmas - Titus Andronicus. >:( this is really the only drawback so far.....

my online class isn't as great, but it's really not bad. I don't have to suffer through a bad teacher every day. it's just a lot of reading in a short amount of time, and writing on top of that. I'm sure it will calm down soon, but this week I've been insanely busy with about five different things that all required urgent attention, so it's been hard to squeeze it all in.

we're reading Persuasion. *dances* we're reading Persuasion! now, if only almost all the rest of the class could have half a brain when they read, and write worth anything. we had to read half the book by thursday and then write something about the beginning chapter (how it supposedly "draws us in"), and then about how the characters are either confirmed, contradicted, or complicated.

so almost the entire class writes about how amazingly Austen draws us into the first chapter through her description of Sir Elliot and the vanity and pride of the Elliots. and then goes on to say "oh, Sir Elliot is introduced as a vain guy, and he still is halfway through the book. so it confirms our original view of him." *SIGH*

what do you say to people like this? I just want to find a big, heavy copy of Persuasion and beat them over the head with it. for one thing, the first chapter is one of the boringest things I have ever read. it doesn't "draw me in" in the least. I know because the first time I read the book it took me three tries before I could get through it and keep going (thank goodness it picks up quickly and gets interesting!). for another thing - this book is not about Sir Elliot. nobody wrote about Anne. or if they did, it was just to talk about how Sir Elliot and Elizabeth didn't value her, and "she was only Anne." but Anne Elliot, though I too overlooked her the first time I read the book, and completely misunderstood her, is a fascinating character. she's really amazing. and if this post wasn't already too long I would probably go off on a long rant about it. maybe later, I will.

so anyway, after this we move on to Dostoyevski. and then to 20th-century lit *yawns*. sadness. it's only the last two books that I'm REALLY not looking forward to. but - it must be done. I've already read half of the last one, and I'm thinking about finishing it next week so that I don't have to be reading it at the same time as Titus Andronicus, during the holidays.

the other big news in life is that I started taking a class at the high school. I know - shocking, isn't it? on monday mom was like - you should take French with Cosi at the high school. (remember that high school started a week and a half ago.) the problem was that it was from 12:30 to 1:30, and I had a piano lesson on Tuesdays at 1:00. the next day I talked to my teacher - no hope of changing the lesson time at all. but then my mom talked to the counsilor and the teacher and the result is that I'm going to French class four days a week.

so yes, I am now taking a class at the college, an online college class, a class at the high school, and other stuff at home. how diverse can we get, I wonder?

but it's fun. although I really dislike the high school atmosphere, I like being with Cosi in the middle of every day. the class is full immersion - the teacher speaks pretty much only French (occasionally some English to help clarify grammar stuff). the downside is that none of the kids pay any attention (or can speak a word of French), and the teacher has the most dreadful accent ever. but it's still fun, and I'm still learning. with Cosi and my college French book, I'm getting along pretty well.

that's the other thing. Cosi has been having a wretched time at school. she hates it. high school kids are just awful, and it's nothing like Germany or what she's used to. luckily, today she had her orientation and met with her representative from the exchange program, and we started working things out. it's looking like she'll be able to take just the minimum number of classes, dropping her morning classes and giving her less time at the school, less homework, and more time with us. we're all much much happier now. :)

also at orientation today, I met an exchange girl from Pakistan, who's living about a mile from our old house in Buckley. she's like the sweetest girl I've ever met! she speaks Urdu, which is almost the same thing as Hindi, so we talked for quite awhile about cultures, food, languages, life....everything. it was really fun. I'm really hoping we can get together soon. she was quite happy to have someone to speak Urdu with also, which was amusing for both of us. :P

after this orientation, we went up to Issaquah and toured the Boehms candy factory. that was pretty sweet....it smelled and tasted wonderful, lol.

since we're "doing the Puyallup" tomorrow, we went to the Saturday night service at church this evening. it was the first time I'd been to church in 6 weeks (I did go once in India, but it's a very disfunctional church and I spent most of the time trying to not stick out or offend anyone, so I don't think that counts. I'm talking about being spiritually fed, going to church). It was AMAZING.

I love Saturday night because it's rough around the edges. it's smaller, more intimate, more casual. it's like going to a dress rehersal. the band is worn out from three hours of practicing, and they're finally playing all the songs more-or-less as a trial run for Sunday morning. so there are always some kinks to be worked out, but the people who come to Saturday night service are usually those who enjoy the kinks and have fun with it.

tonight was even better than I expected, actually. I really wanted to go to 2nd service on sunday morning, because I know more people there and there are quite a few people I haven't seen in six weeks who I wanted to catch up with. but for lots of reasons we ended up coming to Saturday night, so although I was happy to be at church again, I was a little disappointed because I knew I wouldn't be seeing some people. but how surprised was I to find that there had been a lot of switching up with the worship team for this week (someone was on vacation, other people had to fill in last minute, etc.) and the main people from my worship team who I really wanted to see more than anyone else, were there tonight! so that was even more fun, especially as our guitarist kept forgetting the words to everything. I got to spend quite ahwile hanging out with them and catching up - telling them about my trip and hearing about things that have been going on at home as well. I loved the trip, but I hated being gone. I missed my church so much and I'm really, really, so glad to be home.

and the best part is that I'm on worship next weekend so I get to spend the whole weekend with my team! this I am extremely excited for, though I think that playing keyboards is going to be interesting. I've been having a hard time playing in general since I got back. the normal stuff is coming back, but I haven't really tried church stuff yet. so......yeah.

ok. congratulations if you made it to the end of this excrutiatingly long post! I think I really wrote this more for my benefit than for yours. but anyway, I'll try to post more regularly and less lengthily in the days to come, ok?

bonsoir!