College

At first I thought this semester was going to be pretty hectic but then I thought back to last semester and decided that I'm better off. For a sample of my feelings on least semester, let's take a trip down memory lane by reading a choice excerpt from my journal in the first few days of classes:

Almost every class I have this semester is so full of work that I'm already starting to hyperventilate a little [...] I am completely, one hundred percent screwed. I'm going to look back on this semester as the Era of All-Nighters, I can just feel it.

I only pulled one all-nighter that semester, but still. It was bad. So this semester's going to be better, even though I'm not taking any Happy Fun Times classes like choir (was supposed to be Happy Fun Times, but wasn't actually).

The problem with French is going to be my speaking. I have fine comprehension, certainly better than many people in my class, but my speaking is horrible. It's interesting to realize how my different methods of learning Korean and French are affecting my aptitude - colloquial Korean isn't too hard for me to navigate and I can speak it fine for my level of study, but reading and writing it is a real struggle. But I don't even know what colloquial French is. I don't even know what words are okay to leave out if I want to abbreviate a sentence.

Gosh language is hard. But I love it to death. I'm going to have fun in this French class if it kills me. Even though the teacher is teaching the class in French, he talks pretty slowly and clearly so I didn't have any major embarrassing moments of uncomprehension. And I'll be darned if I'm outdone by the only guy in the class.

Freshmen are everywhere these days. I heard there are more freshman than ever this year because the president is trying to make up for lost state funding by increasing enrollment (read: accepting students the college would not normally have accepted and making them pay higher tuition), so I guess that would account for the dining halls being overrun by a den of thieves and scoundrels. I have been brainwashed into bemoaning the existence of freshmen, because that is what everyone does (but really, they can be pretty clueless sometimes). But it turns out that upperclassmen aren't all that great themselves. So far I've heard an inordinate number of people badmouthing our C.A. in the hallway, which is dumb because she's super sweet and only means well.

Basically college is the same rat race as ever. It is not really a rat race but it can seem pretty arbitrary a lot of the time. Last night at Campus Christian House I met the first person I have ever encountered who said all he wants is to get out of college and become a functioning, useful member of society. We high-fived over our common goals and went our separate ways to conquer the world. Strangely enough I have not met anyone else who has admitted to feeling the same way. I guess everyone else is taking advantage of their last years of low responsibility.

Amy

P.S. Korean phrases! Here is one that I was reminded of while sitting in Government class today:

이젠 위인들이 무섭지

We're afraid of greater men now 

Let's Go Back To Prehistoric Times...

I have a funny story. So do you remember those times when I would recommend a book to you and you would read it (I remember this happening with the later Harry Potter books as well), and then when you were finished, I would be all, "Remember when this plot point happened, and it was so funny/horrible/sad?", and you would be all, "Wait, that happened? I completely missed it because I don't know how to read."

Well, you didn't say it like that, but you really used to have a habit of skimming over things if they had too many big words or something. So the reason that this is relevant to today is because I've realized that you don't read my blog posts very thoroughly, which I wouldn't mind only you get mad at me for things I've explained in previous weeks. Let me direct your attention to this post I made over a week ago. It is even tagged appropriately. See how easy that was?

I don't really remember what you said in your talking video. Come to think of it, I don't really even remember what I said. I just sat down and spouted off whatever came to mind.

And I'm truly sorry about that Dream High debacle. I thought you would be mad if I watched the episode before you did and I reasoned that if I just didn't say anything it would all pass without incident.

However, your drama queen gifs warmed my heart.

Today in my Literature for Adolescents final, the three Korean girls in the class made a little speech about what a good time they had and how much they'll miss everyone now that they're returning to Korea, and then they handed out boxes of Pocky to everyone. I was already in love with them, and that made me love them more, but they also hand-wrote a personalized note on the back of every box in Korean and English. Let me share the joy with you.

Basically, it was the sweetest thing ever. I'm just sad that their Korean handwriting is virtually unintelligible.

The other thing we did for the final was show each group's final video project. I had an inner debate as to whether or not I should link this, and I decided that I should, if only to show you a little bit of the shenanigans I partook in this semester for that class. Basically, it is the corniest thing I have ever done (I have done a lot of corny things. For your viewing pleasure. Just know that the reason I'm only in it for about two seconds is because I was holding the camera most of the time. You probably don't know this because you never watched Crocodile Hunter, but Terri was always the voice of reason. I'm a method actress.

It isn't all that hot today, but it is so humid that I got all icky and damp when I was carrying things out to my car. The quantity of stuff I own seems to regenerate and when I've taken a load of it out and return to my room, it's like there's not even a dent in my possessions. I think I need to swear myself to a life of poverty, like the monks do.

-Amy

P.S. I am in love with this guy's voice and I am in love with this song.

Park Bom and SECRETS.

I watched both of those LEDApple videos. I like them. I'd seen one of their videos before, but I didn't really like it because the main guy had bad hair and it was a rock band, and their always kind of weird.

Though they seem to have figured their stuff out. The first video was really cool and that girl is super cute. SUPER CUTE. I didn't understand the end, though.

The second video was really fun too.

Ok so I have to talk about something pressing....

and here it is:

Ok, this girls name is Park Bom and shes arguable the cutest girl....in the world.

I have a picture of her on my wall and sometimes I just stare at it and think, wow. Seriously?


OK, in other news, today is May 1st, and the 2PM-miss A contest thing ends on the second.

So here it is again.

Just...in case you want to be awesome and give me like ten views. I know what you're thinking,
Ten views?

But just to put things into perspective, there are about 1300 videos now. Obviously a majority of these don't have a chance because they added them like, today or yesterday. (there were quite a few with 0 views. How is that even possible?) But anyway, I have 260 views, and every one counts. Thank you for supporting me. If I have just twice as many views as I have now, then I will have a much better chance of being one of the finalists.

But I came across the strangest thing while I was trying to figure out just about how many videos had more views than mine, and it triggered a de-ja-vu that went something like this,

"Unnie, are you going to submit a video?"
"Eh, I thought about it, but I'm not going to."

Well. WHELL. 

(I had to reach into the deep recesses of the Network's memory to retrieve this little treasure.)

I found, not one, but two videos by my own twinsie.

I am also having another de-ja-vu that goes something like this:

"Unnie, can I watch the next Dream High without you since you won't be around very much and I have time right now?"
"Yes, you may."
"Thank you!"
*almost an hour later*
"Oh unnie, this episode is just incredible, you must watch it as soon soon soon as possible."
"Oh yes?"
*about four hours later*
"Oh unnie, please watch that episode, its so amazing. Watch it when you get home."
"I have a confession, Michelle. I watched that episode before you did, last night, while you were gone."

Me:

Its not that you watched it without me or that you entered this contest, its that you didn't tell me. Or that you thought I was too sensitive to know or something.

The song you sang was pretty legit, I like the song, and I like you singing it. You have a good voice even though you abuse it by being a cheat and backstabb--

And the other video was pretty much exactly like mine, just executed better. You were even wearing glasses like me!


That's all for today.

-Michelle

You Don't Have to Read This Blog Post Since It's The Weekend

I have decided that there are few things as enjoyable as having a free morning to sit by a window while a storm rumbles outside, listening to my smooth playlist and drinking tea.

Here's how I feel about TOP's singing voice: I don't actually have any words for it, because it is just so great.

I have been researching count words in Korean lately. You may not have encountered this yet, but in Korean if you're telling someone a quantity, you usually can't just say "I have three cats" or "I'd like five tomatoes". You have to also add a count word, and the count words are different depending on what item you're counting. English doesn't usually have an equivalent, but in some cases we do say things like "300 head of cattle" and "five pieces of candy" where "head" and "pieces" are count words. Here's an example:

난 고양이 3마리 있어 - I have three cats

고양이 is cat. Since the quantity is stated right afterwards, no plural is needed (I love this). In this case, 마리 is the count word. It basically means "amount of animals". So if you were to translate it more literally, it would say "I have three animals that are cats".

I thought it was pretty confusing at first since it means a whole new set of words for me to learn just to be able to state a quantity, but actually it makes pretty good sense and it eliminates the uncertainty of where to put the number since count words always come after the noun they're modifying.

5분 나를 인사했습니다 - Five people greeted me

Here, you don't even have to say "people", since 분 is a count word specifically for people. 명 is also a people count word, and it's used more often, but it's less polite and you know how I feel about being polite in Korean (I am terrified of doing anything else).

So now you know. But there are also weird count words for random things that I will probably never have cause to remember, like 통, which is for watermelons, and 자루, which is for anything with a long handle like shovels, swords, and frying pans.

Sometimes, Korean is hard, especially when it has concepts that English doesn't have. But then I remember how Korean fascinates me more than most of my other subjects put together, even though it isn't very applicable in my foreseeable future.

I feel better about moving now that I was able to pack up all my books. I didn't have a box, so I used the next best thing, which was a double-layer brown paper bag just big enough to fit them all. I am not looking forward to carrying it down to my car. I'll wait till it stops raining.

-Amy

My Crippling Social Anxiety

Here is the thing about my social anxiety: it is pretty ridiculous. I don't know if this is true of anyone else, but I don't actually get seriously anxious until after the social interaction happens. I have this habit of obsessively thinking over conversations and remembering everything I said that could be construed as awkward and dumb (and you of all people know that I can have lots of dumb moments). And while this whole anxiety thing is happening, there's a more rational part of my brain that is telling me that I am ridiculous and there's no reason I should worry about past conversations because the other person probably doesn't care that much if I had a brain fart or moved my hands too much.

But then I think about all the brain farts I had and all the weird and unrelated hand movements I made, and feel deflated.

In other, rational news, though, I once again met up with my conversation partner and she brought one of her friends with her, as I have told you, who was pretty awesome. I'm finding that every Korean male I meet here has already been in the military. I get the feeling, and you may confirm this, that people who have been in the military tend to be more dynamic people in general. Something about character development. Anyway, even though I am incredibly nervous in these kinds of social situations, I had a grand time and didn't choke on my own spit or anything (these things have happened in the past).

They also told me to spell my name 에이미 instead of 애미 for reasons that are not readily evident to me at the moment, but I will go with what they said because they're probably the experts.

Yesterday, on the spur of the moment when I found myself in possession of $6 without any pressing costs to cover, I decided to go watch The Cabin in the Woods. As an admirer of Joss Whedon, I have wanted to watch this movie from the moment I saw the trailers a few months ago, even though they made it look like it was just another lame horror movie about stupid kids getting hacked to pieces in the woods.

Well it wasn't a normal. In fact, it was pretty messed up, and premise was so opposite to what I was expecting that I spent a lot of the movie feeling a strange sense of "what... what just happened? And why?!"

It was a riotously grand time. I've found that attending movies alone sometimes is pretty fun.

Okay, it's later now and I just received a package of delicious goodies to tide me over through the valley of death that is finals week.

The truth is that finals week isn't a valley of death. The truth is that finals week is pretty cushy because even with the extra studying, there's a lot of time since there aren't any classes and usually never more than one final per day.

But, the package of goodies is still endlessly appreciated, so thanks, Mom. I ate some of the Mike & Ikes in there and was transported to joyful days of yore.

So you know that thing I have about not wanting to do things unless I've had time to mentally prepare for them? Well as evidenced from my midnight movie run last night, that is not always true. But I only have about a half-pint of spontaneity in me at any given time, and right now it's all gone, which is why I'm not a huge fan of the way people have been bursting into my room for the last half an hour insisting that I attend some school-sponsored bash called "Fun Before Finals". I wouldn't even mind much, except I'm bad at parties. I'm bad at spontaneity and bad at parties. What am I good at then, you ask? Well. I am good at being a snooty prude. Just ask anyone.

In Which I Take a Test and Get a Colossal Headache

Remedial math, remedial math,

the more I do you,

the more I'm wrath.

Remedial math, remedial math,

you let me go,

them pluck me back.

remedial math, remedial math,

When I do your problems, its sucks.

You send me into spiraling mucks.

The more I see of you,

the more I am mad.

The more you're around,

the more troubles abound.

Remedial math, remedial math.

Ta-da. There it is. I hope that round aboutly gave you the news that I totally failed the placement test. Apparently they gave me the wrong test anyway, but it was still horrible. Being homeschooled  I've never really had to endure the humiliation of being told that you failed by thirty six points, by someone who is not your mom. The worst part of this whole thing would be having to actually be in a class that pretty much said, "Michelle has taken Algebra one and two, but she is bad at testing so she had to spend a year and hundreds of dollars paying for it."

So I'm going to study and take the test again, because I don't want to take two creditless classes, and I don't want my brain to spill out of my ears from taking pre-algebra....again. I can only imagine the sort of bored and un-inspired and horrible person I would become if it came to that.

On another note, while I was walking to the school, I saw three white kids, three black kids and literally eleven Asans.

Usually I stay away from saying anything that could be interpreted as even close to racest, but I have to comment about this: There are so many Asians. 

So anyway, I saw all these people and I was like, "This place seems pretty chill." There was some group kids on the hill and one of them looked JUST like David So 

("I'm a little French, buddy, a little Irish, a little Scottish." to which David So says, "You just three types of vanilla.")

And he was playing guitar and singing some songs. His voice was very loud and very beautiful. And then we walked past some kids that were speaking, THATS RIGHT, Korean.

Sometimes its hard for me to tell if they're speaking Korean or not, because if they say a word like "nehga" (I), I'm pretty sure that's also a word in Japanese. They didn't look Korean though, and I'm pretty sure it was Korean anyway because my Korean senses were tingling. Just kiddng...kind of.

Here's how I tell the difference between Asian languages:

Chinese: If its really fast and sounds kind of like mumbling and is so incredibly fast that you really can't believe they're saying words, its Chinese.

Vietnamese: If it sounds like they're not saying many different words but lots of different tones and words that sound like "hay" every other word, its Vietnamese.

Thai: If it sounds like a tonal language but it isn't as incredibly fast as it could be (Chinese) and there are more "ow"s "oh"s and "wha"s, than its probably Thai.

The only way I can tell Japanese and Korean apart is because I know some words in Korean, and they're pretty easy to identify.

I'm hoping to meet some cool Koreans when I got to this school and get them to tell me how to speak Korean. Yeah buddy!

-Michelle

P.S. I logged onto your youtube again and watched five incredibly random videos just to throw you off.

P.P.S. Today I had shrimp made by my mother for the first time in my entire life.

They said I could become anything....

So I became...Zelo.

Just kidding. Heres how it happened, "Michelle since your hair is the right length and color, you should try the Zelo thing."

So I did. First it looked like a bangs-only-perm. But then I worked it.

For those of you who are not aware, Zelo is a 15 or 16 year old rapper from the band BAP. He's one of those people who's annoyingly talented, young, and tall. Like me. (Cockiness is the key to quick success, as I say)

Way to copy like a boss, Michelle. Like a 사장님. Bet you've never heard that one before! ah HA!

Anyway, Amy, today I feel like poo but I danced for an hour anyway because I had that horrible line from Dream High stuck in my head:
"I've worked hard while you were gone. All of my toenails fell off...what was it? four times."
Talk about determination. That's what I want to have. I mean, I don't necessarily want my toenails to fall off, but I'm not really doing that kind of dancing anyway, so that'd be really difficult anyway.

I finished Dream High, by the way, Amers. (They said there is a seventeenth episode "special" but I think it might just be an 'in between seasons one and two' thing that is more of an introduction rather than a conclusion.) It was so awesome. SO. AWESOME.

Also, I wanted to share this video not only because I just realized that both the song and dance are awesome (as usual, SHINee. As usual), but Taemin has both a singing part AND a dancing part. Legit, right? Yeah. But my favorite part (beside Minho's rapping, Taemins scarf and (seriously though) the length of his hair) is Taemin at 1:21-1:23. He always has these weird unexpected two second things he does that I have to watch over and over and over again (you remember Lucifer. Uh huh.)

Also you should look up the song Marshmallow by IU, its super cute.

Its late, so I leave you with possibly the cutest picture...ever.

IU and Jason Doll. So cyute.

PS. That actually reminds me, I saw a picture of IU doing major-surprised-face and the picture said, "IU for real?" I lawld.

-Michelle

Thursday Evening Drears

So, college. It's a big deal. For you, I mean. It wasn't a very big deal for me. But since you're my little sister, it's a big deal. If you want I can take you around the campus and show you where things are, like the writing center and the math lab and the best places to go if you want to sit and enjoy the academic vista or just go to sleep for a while (there are an abundance of comfortable nooks and crannies in which to chill between classes). But if Nicole's still going there she can probably show you around too. Anyway, whatever works. It's a pretty cool school. I have to make sure you don't take it for granted because if you go to a four-year university there's a 100% chance that it won't be as slick as JCCC is.

It is pretty cool that you have a resolution to save money. In the distant past, I also saved money. Those were good times. I really didn't appreciate those times. But they were good. Though I have always remembered that for school, forever ago, I read this little kid's history book about Benjamin Franklin, you know the kind that takes a lot of creative liberties with the lives of the forefathers, and how when he was growing up his father nurtured his young mind by inviting intellectuals to dinner every week or whatever, and once there was a man they had over for dinner who had once been very poor, and was now very rich, and he said to little Benjamin Franklin, "If you are poor, save every penny you have, and you will become rich." I don't know, I just always remembered that.

If there's one thing I have a lot of, it's pennies. And nickels. I use all my quarters for laundry, and all my dines for printing, which leaves an almost completely useless collection of pennies and nickels in my change jar. I take the John Green stance on currency so small it's become obsolete: get rid of it altogether, and enjoy convenient cash-paying experiences once again.

I didn't finish that show. I recently started watching two shows that just started airing, King 2 Hearts (the one with Seunggi) which is a political romance and pretty interesting all around, and Rooftop Prince (the one with the guy from JYJ), which involves time travel and is as riotously fun as it is silly. They are both quite good and have a lot of things I like about kdramas in general. Rooftop Prince has that awesome thing that I know you love: the entourage of non-love interest guys who are basically the most awesome brofriends ever. Think Kim Joon and Kim Bum only funnier and (possibly) better looking. Except one of them is younger than me, which I find strange.

Have you heard of Sungkyunkwan Scandal? I keep hearing about it because it has that same guy from JYJ in it and also Park Min Young. Apparently she's disguised as a guy for a while in it? I just don't understand how some casting director looked at Park Min Young and said, "yeah, we could definitely make her look like a guy." She's like the cutest and most petite person ever, plus I'd be surprised if she's any more than five feet tall. If she was going to try being a guy, it would have to be a fourteen-year-old boy. Anyway, I've heard it's good so maybe I'll think about it when I have the time and my list of Dramas I'm Watching has thinned.

So you know that BB song called Big Boy, and how there's this part where TOP yells something in English that I couldn't figure out for months? Well I only just realized that he's yelling "We need a club banger", whatever that means. It doesn't sound like club banger, anyway. It sounds more like "purpringle", which is altogether more entertaining.

-Amy

P.S. The president's gardener is hitting golf balls around the back garden again. It's all very surreal, especially since he possesses such a whimsical bramble of grey hair.

P.P.S. My word of the day is 약속, because it is pretty versatile. It means "promise", and both a verb and a noun, but it can also mean engagement or appointment, which probably makes appointments a little more sacred I should think. Anyway, it's a good word, you should notice it because they use it a lot in songs and dramas. It's just one of those words.

I Write Long Blog Posts to compensate for my Lack of Social Interaction

That is a pretty cute little boy. I would enjoy having such a little boy in my life, but alas there are none. I am alone in a wasteland of dull young adults.

They are not really dull. But there sure are a lot of them.

I got stood up today by the Korean person I was supposed to meet. I suspect there was a failure in communication or something of that sort. Ah well, I suppose these things do happen.

Due to my recent Educational Resolutions, I finally achieved the coveted A on a test in Geology. Up until now I have always gotten Cs and Bs, but finally I wised up and breezed right through that test like it was a jar of peanut butter, and I was someone who really likes peanut butter. In fact, I did so well on it that I actually got 101%, thanks to a couple of suspiciously easy extra credit questions. I feel like extra credit questions should always be harder than the rest, so it takes extra effort to get a few more points.

Not that I'm complaining, though. I have the sneaking suspicion that I aced the lab test as well (the extra credit question on it did turn out to be too hard for me to do, though, because it required the use of a calculator that I didn't have. Apparently the teacher assumed that everyone had a calculator on their phone and didn't think to tell anyone to actually bring one. Hah! watch me disprove your convictions that every lazy, snotty college student is joined at the hip with a cellphone that has such capabilities).

So I have a sort-of job interview this Friday. I am one of the first people being interviewed, so I hope I can make a good impression. If I get this job, I will sign up for any hours I'm not in class, even ones late at night, because I want to fulfill the 20-hour-per-week maximum and wring as much income as possible out of minimum wage. Here are my goals for what to do with that income:

1. Buy my own meal plan and food
2. Get back to paying my own insurance
3. Have enough money left over to get a phone plan

You may not realize this, but having a phone in college is much more important than having a phone in high school, because not only is it essential to a lot of social interactions, it's also important for academic and business reasons. Since I don't have texting, I've had to pass up a lot of opportunities to stay in touch with people because their preferred method of communication is texting, especially international students because they have a hard time talking on the phone. So when I have some money that I can call my own, that's one of the first things I'll get, so I can actually keep friends.

Last night, I willingly left a large portion of my homework for today because I had the express intention of enjoying my Tuesday evening with no distractions of the academic sort. Sometimes you just have to schedule that sort of thing, and I needed to reward myself for kicking my own butt to get an A on that Geology test. Anyway, I sat down with a bowl of ramen and a bottle of sriracha (not kidding, best college purchase I've ever made besides peanut butter. DELICIOUS PAIN) and watched a couple of episodes of that show Rooftop Prince that's airing right now. Okay so turns out one of the villains is played by the actor who played my absolute favorite character in Playful Kiss (kdrama law dictates that my favorite character is almost always the one who doesn't get the girl in the end despite confessing his love and also being awesome, wouldn't you agree?). As a villain, he is delightful. He doesn't look much like one, but he murders someone in like the first scene. So I guess actions speak louder than appearances, or however that saying goes.

So then, just when I was really starting to like the show, I realized that the main character is Micky from JYJ. Weird, right? It's actually pretty cool to start watching a drama and then realize that one of the characters is a world-famous musician (odd fact of the day... JYJ is for some reason wildly popular in South America).

Since you mentioned a Korean word of the week, I'll raise you one and give you a Korean word of the day. Mine is 너무. For a long time I had assumed that it was one of the words for "you" because it had 너 in it, but today I saw it in a sentence that didn't make sense until I looked it up, and turns out it means "too", as in "too much" or "too many". So SHINee was really saying "Noona, you're just too pretty" after all.

I have to go do a lot of reading. In Literature for Adolescents we are reading Slaughterhouse-Five. It is a little strange but it became more enjoyable after I realized that it seems to have quite a few stylistic similarities to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. After that I only have three literary analyses to write for tomorrow, and I'm good to go.

There is an Egyptian guy watching a Taylor Swift music video in the next row of computers (I'm in the computer lab). It is interesting.

-Amy

P.S. There is a flier on my desk advertising a country Western night on campus, with line dancing instruction and contests involving such things as "cow head roping" and "best country outfit" (I am not sure what that entails). I guess there is a market for that sort of thing out here, but it still made me laugh a little inside.

The future and Korean names

I'm at Mor Mors right now. Actually, she just came here and told me the low down on her moving back. I kind of get the feeling that every day she flips a coin to decide whether or not she'll move back. Heads is stay, tails is move. That's why she changes her minds so much.

The other day Mo asked me what college I want to go to. That's the thing. I don't know. I guess I'm waiting to go to real classes and see if I'm willing to work really hard on what I want to do. The only concern I have is that I'll take performing arts classes and realize that I'm not good enough to survive in the business.

Lately I've been getting over that though because I've realized that I can pretty much do anything I set my mind to. So surviving as a dancer wouldn't be that hard.

Also, if I go to Korea, everything is going to be at a standstill. Hopefully, I'll go and then come back and continue to go to Juco for a little while, depending on if I have incredible luck or not, I'll go to college or just get a job. (the luck parts means me not going to college and just getting an awesome job without it.)

Yesterday Angela was talking about the far future, and I mean like after 30 future. Thats far and I never think about it. Ever. But maybe I'll own a dance studio. That would be super fun. That is after I become rich and famous for a little (famous for a little - rich forever....just to specify.)

So anyway, we were talking about Korean names for me (in preparation for being awesome and going to Korea, I'm going to (don't get too freaked out extended family, (and kristin) its not set in stone) pick a name that the majority of Korean people can actually pronounce (so, not Michelle. I admit, being called Meeshul for a few days would be cute, but for anything longer than that would probably drive me crazy)) and after much consideration, I've narrowed it down to less than fifty. Ha.

So here are the top picks (amy thinks its important for me to keep M as the first letter, and I will try to honor that)
MinWoo
MinSo
Minjo
MinJae (I know what you're thinking, "Michelle, why don't you pair Min with every letter of the alphabet and then stick an "oo" on the end." These are legitimate names,)
JoonSoo
Joon Seung (my favorite)
Chan Seung
SeungWoo.

I will spend much time in meditation over this matter, and get back to you.

In the mean time... pick one for me.

Also Amy, Mor Mor came looking for her kettle today even though mom told her you have it, I think she forgot, even though she has one at her apartment. She wants it so she can pour boiling water on the weeds.

-Michelle

잘 해

My hair straightener broke. It is a tragedy for a number of reasons: 1) now that the weather is humid, I actually need it, or else I look like an elderly woman who just went in for a perm, in the worst possible way, and 2) I only bought that thing a few months ago, and I expressly bought the second-cheapest straightener instead of the cheapest straightener in order to prevent something like this from happening. But on Wednesday I woke up and it simply didn't turn on any more.

I got pretty bummed out thinking about shelling out $20 for a new one (when the one I have is basically still new), but then my roommate said that she spent $120 on the one she has now, so I don't feel so bad any more. Then again, her hair is like a luscious waterfall of thick swishy beauty, so there's really no comparison.

I am not sure about my world literature class. I like it but the teacher isn't very committed to teaching. A lot of the students don't do the reading because they don't have to (no quizzes or anything), and the class is run on a "who wants to talk?" basis. Today he let us out 50 minutes early because only a few people had finished the book we were supposed to have read. It doesn't make any sense. If you want your students to read the books, you have to make it really cost them if they don't. Instead of rewarding slackers. It's a fun class and everything, but I can't help but think he doesn't actually care. It's frustrating.

Speaking of school though, this sounds bad but I saw a clip the other day of Taemin and Onew talking about how they were both the #2 best students at their respective high schools despite being trainees all that time and working themselves to death for SM (who notoriously treat all their trainees like crap). Having just received a completely surprising C average progress report in my history class, the one class that I was sure I was acing, it made me think about my attitude towards school and how right now it's basically the most important thing I could be doing. I don't even have anything else going on and yet I still treat school like it's not the biggest deal in my life, like a chore that I only have to try just enough to get an A and no more. Well that's worked for me in the past but I don't think it's working any more. The truth is that in the hierarchy of Things That Are Important to Me, school honestly ranks below things like having fun and studying Korean. Which is kind of wrong. It also makes me feel ungrateful since basically it's the hugest privilege to be in college and actually have the opportunity to study my eyes out. Right now, I'm actually forced to study my eyes out in order to make up and end up with alright grades at the end of the semester just because I've spent so much time until now messing around doing other things, but next semester I really need to start out with the mentality that I have to go strong from beginning to end so I can actually have something to show for having such an awesome opportunity and not end up at graduation with a "due tomorrow? do tomorrow" work ethic. I feel like that could really have bad repercussions in my life. So here's to actually doing work to the best of my abilities before it's absolutely urgent.

That's one thing that I find cool about Korean common phrases; so many of them are encouragements to the betterment of humanity. Like how in America some people say "take care" as a sort of farewell, but in Korea they use "수고하세요", which means "work hard". If I could only point out one good thing about Korean culture, it would be their commitment to raising a nation that's sustainable because in their eyes you're never too high-class to work hard and do well.

So how is your translation going? It's good that you picked out the 국 clue. The thing about 국 is that it doesn't necessarily mean a specific country. It's more like nationality. In the case of this sentence, 외국인 isn't referring to an actual place, it's more like a group. A group of places. Or people. Yeah. I mean, you can just go look it up. It's not like you're forbidden to use the dictionary.

Here is the video that I was talking about earlier that someone showed in my Literature for Adolescents class. I didn't know it was TVXQ until afterwards when someone mentioned the name, and I was like "WHAT?!" I think it's the only song they ever did that was remotely like that, with the hair and the outfits and everything. I liked it in a weird way. I mean, it hurt a little, but I liked it. I think it was made in 2004, so they're all really little and gosh it's just so weird. But I like TRAX so it was cool to see the collab. I guess. I don't know. I have super mixed feelings. WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THEIR HAIR? That is the burning question for me right now.

-Amy

Bad Hair Day

Right now, every day is a bad hair day because I have a horrible haircut. But today was actually not awful because it was a little cooler and it was raining so I could get away with wearing a stocking cap.

It puzzles me that you take pictures of the computer screen when it's so much easier and there are so many less steps just to take a screenshot.

While I'm impressed with your Korean skills (and motivation), it important to remember that the verb is an essential part of sentences. So for instance, from the picture of G.O. with the foot-phone, he would say something more like "여보세요? 천둥 동생의 발 있어?" Notice that there's the verb at the end. Even if you took off other words, the verb still needs to be there. I also noticed your extensive use of 짱. Tehe. I don't actually know if it's an adjective or an adverb, because it's not in any dictionaries. It might be more versatile to use 제일가. It just means "is best". So you could say 탑 몸 제일가, because now it's got a verb and makes better sense.

의 is a possessive suffix. Use it! Sometimes! I am not yet completely sure of the rules with it. Sometimes it isn't needed, but other times a sentence doesn't make sense without it.

Note: Dayoung is spelled 다영 and Seungho is spelled 승호.

Assignment! Translate this simple phrase which was actually uttered by a real person! Go: 안녕하세요! 외국인 닉쿤 입니다. ...한마디 없어요. 메롱! And you can't cheat by using Google Translate because it will only lead you astray. Every time I see the word "astray", I think ashtray?

So I was just looking for a video I watched yesterday and I happened to notice that you watched a whole bunch of videos while you were signed into my account. Shane Dawson? Really? I can see you hoped he was covering Teen Top... I'm sorry to say that that will never happen.

Anyway, about that video, here it is. (it is super relevant! Plus, Onew).

-Amy

I was going to talk about Mom being on the you-going-to-Korea train in this post, but then I felt inadequate so I won't.

Thank you.

I was starting to miss Daesung anyway, because basically everything Big Bang has done between May of last year and their comeback has been without him, because of that accident he was in. Anyway I'm glad he's back and staying cool.

Today I went and gave blood. Every time I go it gets easier to handle, so that's good. I don't mind blood at all but needles are a little iffy. I mean, I don't mind the actual needles, but I psych myself up so much for the initial prick so that's all I can think about and that makes it hurt more. Anyway, I had good blood pressure so it was over really quickly (but I still had time to construct a paper airplane using ONLY my left hand. Swag).

(Bought some cherry chapstick. Swag.)

Your trip sounds pretty awesome all around. It's cool that you can have stuff in common with a lot of those people. Speaking of Big Bang though, last night I got to show everyone in our group the Knockout video that we're going to be using in one of our assignments, and they all thought it was hilarious. The bubble-popping scene was everyone's favorite. ^^ Anyway, they were impressed that I could tell them what some of the lyrics were, so that's good. I feel validated as a language learner. That reminds me though, I saw a little clip of one of those Real 2PM videos, and part of it was Nichkhun talking about how a lot of fans bought Korean language learning books for him, but he'd recently bought a textbook for himself called "Survival Korean" and he was all excited about it. But he was talking about it in Korean, so really what's the point? It depressed me anyway. Jaebeom was on too. Sometimes I feel sorry for the subbers, because he seemed to be constantly saying the wrong words and then pretending like nothing happened.

My roommate keeps telling me about how I talk in my sleep. According to her, so far I haven't said anything horrible, but you can never be certain. I feel like sleeping is like being drunk - you're so uninhibited that you'll say anything. I think about a million horrible thoughts every day, so I don't know what I would do if some of them slipped out while I was fighting cancer.

Seriously though, My Color is like my favorite song. It's fantastic, and then you get to Taec's part and it's outstandingly fantastic. There's a line that I think is "I'm so scary/sometimes I even scare myself" that cracks me up every time.

So I think in Cinderella Girl Taec likes the girl but the girl doesn't like him. So in a way he's a love interest I guess, just a tragic one. In case you're still interested.

-Amy

P.S. Here. In case you're partial to watching Taec putter around in the kitchen for seven minutes discussing the finer points of making ddokboki.

Thoughts on Thursday

Ha, well, our internet is going pretty fast. I opened all the videos you talked about (and more) and they're all loading incredibly fast.

First thing: this happened last night, but its still funny. You know how me and Angela had to search around for Dance Academy on Youtube, and one of the videos top comments was, "came for the dancing, stayed for the hot asian" we laughed for like thirty seconds, and then we went to like three more videos and ALL the top comments were about Christian.

-CNBLUE, wow that is really fun on my ears! Its so catchy and wonderful! Sometimes I wonder if Shinwoos face is too tight for him to smile. He has pretty tight skin. Does that makes sense? I don't know, but I've always thought that.

-Jason Derulo,  I really really like that song, actually, its really beautiful. I watched the MV and he did some totally weird zombie dancing. I didn't really know he's a dancer, but he's like Chris Brown's twin, so it makes sense (more on that later). At one point he did like a jig or something, it was totally weird. Also, WOW he's worse at lip syncing than EXO-K. But yeah, I really liked the song.

-Justin Bieber, yeah, I did hear his song, but I wasn't really paying attention to the words, because when I watched Chesters cover I thought it was a parody because I couldn't imagine that JB would actually say "falsetto in thee two swag" or somethin-somethin "fondue". But yeah, I hope the rest of the album  has less talk-rapping and more rap-rapping.

-Chris Brown, when I watched that Jason Derulo video I was reminded how much he reminds me of Chris Brown, and then I remembered this song that we dance to in Hip Hop called Turn Up The Music, which I really liked, so I watched the video. Its kind of bizarre, and the song is very stereotypical dancy song, but a little ways in he starts doing crazy-dance in a suit, which is pretty cool, I must say. I feel his dance style is similar to his lifestyle: crazy. Make sure to watch it to the end, he has a fedora and a cane.
The way he approaches girls is similar to the way Taeyang approaches girls. You know what I mean.

-B1A4, I'd watched one of their MV's and it was the only song I'd heard of theirs, and I didn't like it that much. The song was in japanese or something so I don't know what its called, but  the whole thing was red and white and one of the guys hair was no bueno. But then I just watched Baby I'm Sorry, and daaaaang I really like it. The girl is really scary looking and one of the guys looks like Justin Chon minus the crazy nose.

-NU'EST, I heard about them a little while ago, and I watched a dance version to their song. It wasn't a legit dance version it was just a bunch of performances put together, but I remember being like, "this song is pretty cool! This dance is pretty cool!" but I didn't really do anything about it. Today I saw the music video and now I'm like "THEY ARE TOTALLY AWESOME." even if one of them really DOES look like a girl. You know its true because I only say it when its totally true. Its easier if you just assume that the whole "You're Beautiful" thing is happening there. But anyway, the band is cool, the dance is cool and the song is reeeally cool. Its called Face, by the way.

-Hip Hop Class, I mentioned something about Hip Hop class up there, and heres the dizzle. We got a new song, and its like five songs put together, but I found two of them. Let it Rain, or Chicken Noodle Soup, is the first one. That song is really old and I get the feeling that its one of those Teach me How to Dougie, or Superman songs where the song is only popular because of the dance. But the chorus is in our dance. And then the chorus of Outta your mind by Lil Jon ft LMFAO is also in the song. The chorus is totally legit, but the song is LAME and the music video is super sketch. Its a pretty stereotypical LMFAO music video with a pool party and a DJ and about three hundred slightly chubby white people. Why are they always chubby?

-You're a bigger beast fan than me so I'm sure you've seen/heard the song Bad Girl, but I just watched the music video and its totally fun. Also theres a random dance refrain. And goodness I love dance refrains.

- I found someone taller than Lee Min Ho. This is incredible! Chansung, the maknae of 2PM is 6 feet and half an inch! TALL.

-"2PM hands up tour in......thailand!"
- 0:35 - 1:00 bahahahahaha taec you da silly. Also the whole thing is funny because none of them know how to play any of those instruments. Apparently they're coming out with a new album pretty soon, and I'm super excited.

- How did we miss this???? OH MY GOSH. 2:07 bahahahahah. And does Taec have corn rows? Why!! The maknae isn't my favorite, really, but I would totally pick black. Mainly because having seven backup dancers makes you looks really cool.

- GD's sense of humor is surprising. I laughed for like seventeen minutes.

I Like Your Thinking

Facebook is pretty public, after all. Everyone is probably sick of seeing our multiple-per-day posts about TOP and MBLAQ in their news feed. I am starting a little late, however. Right now, it is 4:00.

4:00 - I watched all the videos you linked, and here are my thoughts.

-SHINee: I have not seen so much cool beans in one place since I can't remember when. It is of a different type from Fantastic Baby and Bad Boy, which are my automatic go-to MVs for doses of awesome, so I don't know. Let's just say that Key is daebak. And also Minho. I can never say who is my favorite in Shinee though, because Onew's voice is like magical honey, Jonghyun is the drama queen and therefore irresistible, and Taemin is the Korean Michael Jackson. There's just no way to choose.

In other notes, after watching the video a couple of times I have to say that this dance must take a massive amount of coordination. I mean, I knew it was hard the first time I watched it, but the more I watch it the harder it looks. Anyway, as for what they're wearing, I wasn't a fan of Taemin's outfit (or his hair, but we will not speak of it), except then I realized that those aren't just lame capris that he's wearing, they're legit Thai pants, you know the ones that wrap around weirdly and tie that look super comfy but are hard to figure out. Key is ridiculous, but in a good way. I kind of want those shorts. And the pants Minho is wearing make his legs look really long. Maybe that's just how they are anyway. I guess he's the tallest.

-Big Bang: For one thing, Taeyang is pretty cute when he stumbles over Japanese. For another thing, I have a newfound respect for Seungri because even though he doesn't know a lick of English, he speaks Japanese really well (from what I can tell). And TOP... well, yeah. I want Daesung to say something.

-MBLAQ: Dat falsetto. Dang. I didn't even know that was possible. I actually don't think I've heard that song before, or else I heard it but didn't put it on my playlist for some reason. I lol'd at the Engrish, though. "Let's get party tonight."

CNBlue came out with a new album recently. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZYuZ5DIvn4 My ears are definitely having fun. Also my eyes. Don't know what's up with all the white people, though.

4:42 - I have made informal plans to get an apartment next fall with my roommate and another friend ("Major downer" Kailea). We haven't looked into anywhere yet but I am excited. Speaking of which, she wants me to go to the gym with her today. I really don't want to go because I am a lazy butt, which of course means I must go. After that I think I'm going to cut my hair. It's definitely time.

On Easter weekend I think I'm going to bring my friend Jamie home with me. She pretty much invited herself but I don't mind because she is pretty funny and cool. I don't know what we'll do all weekend since we don't exactly share hobbies, but I guess we'll work something out.

Every time I talk to my Korean contact in choir, I get tongue-tied and can't think of anything important to say. She's super chill but I'm ashamed to show how little I know in front of her. Thankfully it is a motivator for me to work really hard to get better so I can impress her (and others).

That Big Bang family tree is hilarious. My favorites are TOP&TOP's Coffee CEO (from Knockout), Taeyang's mother and father, Seungri's youngest sibling who was kept hidden, GD's "Passionate Christian uncle", and Daesung's brother who wears his underwear over his pants. XP

5:19 - Have you heard Justin Bieber's new song "Boyfriend"? I'm listening to it for the first time right now, and I have to say that my first impressions are good. I'm not sure about the weird rap-talking that's going on since I know JB can do so much better, but I like the feel of it. Maybe it'll be easy to get tired of. I like how his voice has changed. Plus he has kpop-worthy falsetto ("I don't know about me but I know about you, so say hello to falsetto in three, twoswag"). I feel like it's bad that I am comparing these things, but what's a girl to do?

Chester See did a cover that's pretty good, only different. He doesn't have the same time of charm, plus he can't get away with saying "swag" a lot. I guess the song's pretty versatile.

Another song I've really liked lately is Jason Derulo's "Breathing". It's not new but I just heard it on the radio for the first time when I was driving to school on Sunday (it took me TWO HOURS because there was an insane detour for construction on 7). I don't normally like Jason Derulo's music that much, but he doesn't do any of those annoying things with his voice in this song. Check it out. 

5:40 - The internet is so broken right now. It has been slower than at home for a few days (basically I opened all those videos you linked, paused them, then went to my two-hour lab so I could watch them when I got back), and now it is gone altogether. Sometimes living in this dorm hurts me a little, just because the AC doesn't really work at the moment, the hot water keeps going out, and the internet is like a snail that has died. First world problems.

Okay it's back on.

7:54 - I'm not sure how it got this late so fast. Anyway I went to the gym with some people. I was only able to run for about three quarters of a mile before I felt like my heart was going to explode (I can't remember what your heart rate isn't supposed to get above, but I counted 210 bpm and that seemed like enough to tone it down a little). Then I walked briskly the rest of the mile and stretched. It was good, because I got to do some yoga, and I haven't done that in a while. While I did that, I reflected on the interesting experience of doing yoga while listening to a bunch of jocks hitting on my friend while she did weights in a corner. Such is life.

It's 7:59 now and I desperately need a shower, but someone is in the bathroom. The thing about our suitemates is that they ever use the bathroom until I need to use the bathroom.

Okay, they're out now. I'm gonna finish this blog post here because I have a lot of homework for tomorrow that I haven't started on (that's how I do).

-Amy

Everything I did today.

Amy I decided on something HEUUUUUGE today:

I'm not going to write on your facebook wall a single time, I'm just going to keep this post open all day so I can add to it, and then I'll publish it when I leave the computer, and when you get on facebook, you'll be like, "gosh finally I don't have three million wall posts from Michelle today" and then I'll be like, "Look at the blog!" and you'll be like, "ahh! So organized!"

10:05

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQTLZTt_RAM
I stumbled upon this video and I was like, "oh another anouncement video, I'll watch it because there are few things I love more than watching things that have to do with Big Bang. And then I found out, this isn't like other announcement videos.
Thoughts:
1. top...just...keep it up.
2. WHAT SEUNGRI KNOWS JAPANESE?
3. I love them. soooo muuuuch.
4. top is like seven inches taller than all of them.

10:06
I've watched this about 700 times

No, thats a joke, I've watched the whole thing about, literally, 25 or 30 times, and I've watched 1:35-1:45 and 2:52-3:11 about 100 times.
Thoughts: At first I thought the dance was really weird, but its definitely grown on me. Every time I watch it I realize just how ingenious it is, and how it works with the concept of the song so well. The part where they all stand in a single file like and freeze in their different poses is really wonderful. It took me a while to get it, but now I really love the idea.
Keys part at 2:52? I watched it so many times that I got it stuck in my head ALL AFTERNOON while working. It was great.

10:34I've always loved this song but I didn't realize until not very long ago what was going on at 2:31-2:37.
Thoughts:
DAT FALSETTO. I'm just guessing that's GO because he's the one that always does the falsetto, but OHMYGAAALSH. it so amazing.

12:00
You're welcome.

So I watched that episode of MBLAQ Hello Baby where they leave Joon with the babies and watch from the other room without him knowing. So Joon calls them to see where they are, and GO is like "He's calling us!" and Seungho is like "Just complete the mission we gave you." and Joon is like "Theres a lot of stuff on this list!" and then Seungho is like, "Well you made a house so you should be fine."
And then they're all silently like, "OMG seungho ruined it now Joon knows that we're watching him" and then Seungho is like "Maybe if I don't say anything more, he won't get it," and then Joon was just like, "....I don't want to do this alone!"

Well...at least he's pretty.

And then Mir, "This is the first time someones made Dayoungie cry." "....No...No you were the first one to make her cry."

The things they say to get the kids to go to them in the popularity test is hilarious.
"I'll buy you something" - seungho
"I'll buy you pororo." - Thunder
"I'LL BUY YOU A POOL!" - Joon
"I like you." - mir
"Dayoungie, lets get married when you grow up!" - joon

Just saw a picture of Seungho wearing a shirt that said, "Be the superlative." cheesy in a different language, yur doin' it right.
And then right after that I saw a picture of GO wearing a shirt that said, MEN in MBLAQ. uh... I thought fans were supposed to wear those shirts.

Google Big Bang Family Tree and enjoy the things that become of it.


Yay for nerdy kpop post!

-michelle

Nothing in Particular

Here's what I can't do. Deal with Angela's computer when its in Turkish.

So I changed it.

I also can't deal with calling this "Angela's Computer" forever, because I know I will, even though soon it will be my own computer. Its kind of like calling the room which is now the guest room/Amy's room, "Josephs room" Why do I still do that? How long ago did he move out? I don't know, but it will forever be Josephs room.

So I'm thinking of an absolutely awesome name that I can name this computer. Preferably something incredibly long that I can shorten or use the acronym of. Like, I'm not going to name it Max, because that's lame, and I need a name that surpasses the computer in awesomeness. I mean, if I had a TOTALLY awesome computer I could name it Max because it would work. Good computer: bad name. Relatively old and jerky and messed up computer: good name.

Maybe something from a book. Maybe something I made up. Maybe something from a different country. We'll think about it. The first thing to figure out is, is this computer a girl or a boy? It seems like a boy to me. But when angela had it, it was a girl. Does that sound weird? Sometimes I gender-atize things, and in my mind, it was definitely a girl when Angela had it. But its a boy now.

The thing I'm most excited about having my own computer is putting my own backround on the desktop and the chrome homepage....

I take joy in the simple things.

The thing I'm NOT excited about is transferring my files from moms computer to my computer. I don't have an abundance of music, but it will still be a bore to transfer it all. The thing I'm most dreading is transferring my "beautiful people whom I love" file, because I feel like its taking all the 4000 or so pictures of Angela's I deleted off here the other day and putting them ...right back on. But of course, my pictures are pictures of beautiful people, not 700 blurry pictures of smoke.

Anyway, Amy. I'm listening to MBLAQ right now, and I'm going to mow later, and the only lotion we have is 50SPF, which might just be my only option. I'd rather stay evenly white than be the the kind of weird tan that you become when you mow. One good part about this is that I'm going to be in the sun and maybe my hair will get even lighter the healthy way. I love it when stuff happens naturally (i.e. My hair getting lighter by the sun rather than an abundance of horrible chemicals that create a straw-like - but satisfyingly white - wasteland on my head)

So Amy you know how we're always like "yeah Korean people just don't get cuss words" and its totally true, but I realized something: its not just them, I'm getting that its really hard to get cuss words in different languages. Like I don't get cuss words in Korean, even though I get them in English. Like obviously they're just words to me, but to other people they aren't, and that's vise versa.

That's all I have to say about that.

Science City

I like to feel like a kid. Sooo, Science City is like my favorite place of all time. ITS SO AWESOME. Anyway, lots happened, and it was really cool. You know where you can uncover bones and stuff, and they're all covered in little pieces of rubber? Well, me and Mo went over to do that and we had our little brushes, and we started to uncover stuff with these two little black kids, and this Asian kid.

SIDENOTE: ok, OK. There were like seven hundred Asian 8-year olds. I saw one Asian adult, but it was like ever kid was a little Asian kid, and they were all. so. adorable. And speaking of which, yesterday I went to Forever 21 with Mo, and I lost her for a minute, and it was then that I realized that every single person in the store was either a short Latino girl, or a short Asian girl. I mistook like four people for her.

BACK TO THE STORY: so anyway, the little black kids were actually TOTALLY ANNOYING. they were gettin' dirt all over me and Mo and the other kids newly discovered artifacts, and then after a little they left, and the little Asian boy started talking and OH MY GOSH IT WAS SO CUTE.

"We have to solve this mystery! What is that? What are you digging up?"
"I think its maybe the Dinosaur Footprint"
"Well we need to discover if it really is. We need to know! Whats this? This is a hand bone! We have to dig it all up! Can you sweep over there? Uncover that mystery, I can't reach there. Only big people can reach there, not little people. You know what my name is? A-U-S-T-I-N."
"Are you here with your school?"
"Yes, I like this place....Ok...you guys can discover this mystery by yourselves now."

sobsobsob SO CUTE.

So that was like the best thing ever.

Speaking of the best thing ever, this Korean for Beginners is totally awesome. It doesn't just talk about vocabulary, but honorific endings, types of food, sentence structure, double letters, (TERRIFIED OF THEM),  How to write the letters neatly, and like every rule of grammar you'll ever need to know, and I'm not even halfway through the book.

-Michelle

Pretty Sure Everyone's Tempted to Post Selcas

...it's a condition of the human race. As such, here is one of me, giving absolutely all I have to bring out the cute in me.

It's hard work. Anyway, speaking of Hangul, do you mean that the PC doesn't support the alphabet at all, even if you're using Chrome? Because usually the easiest way for me to get Hangul is to just use the keyboard in Google Translate as a notepad. I tried for a while to get the add-on that would allow me to type Hangul in OpenOffice, but the problem with open source software is that it's always changing, and updating language add-ons is never the priority (I couldn't get it to work). Anyway I thought I'd show you my Banksy poster as it is now. I added a lot of stuff to it, and it's helpful. 

I also put a LOT of country and continent and ocean names on my world map, so that's good. I already knew Japan (일본) and America (미국) and a few others, but it's good to know that most of the continent names are the same as they are in English except for North and South America and Australia (호주). That always helps.


The weather outside is pretty magical. You know what would be awesome? If this school actually had a place where students could congregate and sit at benches and tables outside. Sure, they have common areas, but they're just grass with maybe a couple of benches. At JCCC they had all these cool courtyards with a lot of places to sit and do homework and eat outside, and it was awesome. Here if you want to be outside you'll probably get a damp pair of pants and chiggers. But it's still nice to walk through. Sometimes there are people tightrope-walking, so that's cool.

When you said that you had a splinter on your lip, the variety of scenarios that drifted to the forefront of my mind in which something like that could happen were all really weird. Were you making out with a telephone pole? Do you chew on sticks when you sleep? Do you chew on sticks when you're awake? Do you regularly run head-on into wooden doors? Did you happen to have a swashbuckling adventure on a pirate ship where some of the shrapnel from a flying cannonball hit you in the face? It's vital that I know the cause!

I'm gonna go do homework. Look at me, all gung-ho.

-Amy

Splinter on my lip.

This is called Michelle's super super dramatic face.

Actually its not, its just my straight face. I'm normally a dramatic person.

But anyway, this is the second clue/hint. I'm pretty proud of it, I must say.

 Last night Rachel and Christina were back in town so I spent the night at their house and we played Apples to Apples, and in the end, this is what I was.

Seems legit.

 And this is a picture of me. But don't worry, it totally has a purpose. I'm not one of those people that just takes pictures of my self and then posts them (just kidding. Sometimes I totally have a urge to do that.) But anyway, you see that liiiittle red dot on my lip? Its not actually that little. Its huge. Its A SPLINTER. or rather, the cut that resulted from me pulling out the splinter after a day. Yeah, I know what you're thinking, how HOW did I get a splinter on my lip? Heres the answer....I don't know.

Anyway, I learned a new word/phrase in Korean, Amy. I'm on the PC and it doesn't do hangul, so I'll spell it out phonetically, cause I'm cool like that.

Nar-uh-ta-ta-hay-uh. Kind of.... It means follow me.