Summer Swimming: Day One and Two

Well, WELL. Would you look at this: blogging in the summer. Its unheard of!

So swimteam started yesterday. My feelings toward it in the days approaching were not mixed. They were very simple.

 I'm a simple person.

And then the day before it became more of a unhappy acceptance. 

And by the time I was in bed on Monday night, slightly delirious with dread and sleepiness, I remember thinking, "Yeah its no big deal, I LOVE swimming."

HA. I was such a silly child.

Because by the time I woke up, 

I forgot why my alarm was going off. "Why is it dark outside? Why am I supposed to be awake?"

And then I remembered. So we're babysitting this little kid, and he's staying in Amy's room, so she was staying in my room. (So Amy, how do you feel about getting kicked out of your room by a 19 month old?" "Same way I feel about getting kicked out of my room by anyone") So I couldn't turn on the light or anything.

As a matter of fact I DO love stumbling around my room in the early early morning before its light!

All I could really think about was, "What was I thinking last night? This is HORRIBLE."

So then I go through that same range of emotions as I wake up and eat and drive to practice.

So its pretty much exactly the same people as last year, just less. I'm in the top two percent of girls, (as far as height, age and even speed goes.) not to be cocky and stuff, but all the old fast girls left. So I'm kind of suddenly one of the oldest people.

So I thought about this a lot "Get into lane four, because if you get into lane one you will be stuck there forever with no friends, and the rest of your summer will consist of you hitting peoples feet."

So I, you know, TAKE OFF MY CLOTHES. Do you want to know how cold it was Tuesday morning? It wasn't actually that cold, compared to today, but t was pretty chilly. It was the kind of chilly where I would normally go outside with a jacket on and just chill and think about how not-cold it is, but everything changes when you're wearing a swim suit with the prospect of getting in equally chilly water.

So I get in the water and swam some backstroke/freestyle drills for about an hour until some ice cold water got stuck in my ear and I got this headache that was like the most painful thing I've ever felt. Ever. So I went and stood in the 200 degree showers until it passed. Let me tell you: there is nothing like a 200 degree shower after a 60 degree pool to make a headache get ABSOLUTELY WORSE. But it passed.

So then I got back in the pool and swam for another hour and then got in the showers for another 20 minutes and then went home and slept for like two hours.

Anyway, I got up the next day and it wasn't quite as bad. I got ready and ate and stuff, and then I was walking out the door when mom was like, "Michelle, do you have a shirt?" Uh, kuduur, I have a shirt. A tank top. In my bag.
And she was like, "You might want a shirt cause its kind of chilly."
Kind of chilly....KIND OF CHILLY??
"What? Its cold?"
"No not cold. Just chilly, its 62."
..... Celsius?
What part of 68 is "not cold"?
68 SCREAMS cold.

So I drive to swim team and I'm one of the first people there, so I walk in, and my coach is on the other side of the pool with two swimmers and they're trying to pull the giant lane line holder out of the water.

Now, last year, in the last few days of swimteam, my coach got so annoyed at the lane line holder that he threw it over the fence. (the lane line holder was metal, and probably like seven feet wide and five feet tall. And the fence is also seven feet tall.)

So they got a new one. Its just as big, but its plastic and apparently pretty hollow, because it filled with water and was pretty heavy, I guess. It took like four guys to pull it out.

But anyway, I know what you're thinking. Why, oh why is the lane line holder in the pool? And in the deep end for that matter? (13 feet or something crazy like that)

But here's a better question. Why is there a trashcan in the water?

And an even better question, Why is the life guard stand at the bottom of these 13 feet? When I say life guard stand I mean life guard STAND. Its like eight feet tall, and made out of metal.

So there were like 13 boys trying to get it out for about 20 minutes.

And all the girls were standing on the other end of the pool, like,

They succeeded and in the end coach said that it was probably just some "ridiculous hoodlum" who did it. Solved that.
Girls: "Das right 20 less minutes of practice. Thank you ridiculous hoodlum!"

But then we had to get in the water.

Thats pretty much the most accurate depiction of anything I've ever seen, using animals.

IT WAS SO COLD.

Everyone was freezing the entire time. But then we got into breastroke and these two girls that have been faster than my my whole life were both like, "You're faster than me, go ahead."

Life goal: ACHIEVED.

So I led the lane for a short time and it was glorious. I looked behind me at one point (Every 25 or 50) and,

And then it was OVER (after I died from butterfly, but lets not go into that). And I was like, "Yay hot showers!" So I went to the showers and the went from 200 to 80 in about three minutes. Apparently the boys were having a shower party or something.

I've always kind of assumed that boys don't really have any interaction in the bathroom. Like, even though the bathroom is like completely open, I can never hear them talking. But today they were making a ruckus and having a party or something, and using up all my precious hot water.

But anyway, since I'm saying all the negative stuff about swimteam, it makes it sounds like I like absolutely nothing about swimteam, and then people are going to be like ,"Then why do you do it, Michelle? You want to torture yourself?"

There are things about swimteam that I like. I like swimming, and thats the biggest thing. I like the coach, I like most of the people, I like competition and I like winning. So its not all depressing.

Anyway. Hopefully I'll get to blerg some in the near future and tell you more about my incredibly interesting life.

-michelle.

In Which I Take Hypothetical Things to a Whole New Level and Then Question My Sanity.

Ah, well, Touch Korea sent me an E-mail that told me to tell them all my personal information.

Not personal, don't worry parents. Just like my name and my blood type and my height and my eye-color and my address.

I'm KIDDING.

I guess now that you, Amy, signed up too, you got all this information too. Everything changes now! Ahahaha, Well, I guess I can include you in my wonderings.

So, I got the tour dates, And its pretty much goes like this.

1/3rd and 1/6th of the cool and an AWESOME tour.
3/3rds of the cool and a pretty awesome tour.
1/3rd of the awesome and a not so cool tour.
I saw this and my reaction was like, 

WHY CAN'T ALL THE AWESOME BE IN ONE????
( His hat says "trust your instincts." I can understand that on a shirt, kind of, but why is it on a hat?)

If I ever have to choose, I think...bad things will happen. I'd almost them rather just, pick one for me.

How do they expect the winner to pick? Fan girling doesn't work like that. We have bias's but not like that. I'm pretty sure there's not a single person whose like, "That's what I want to tour AND those are the three people that I want to meet." Good for them, if that happens.

And where is Nichkhun this whole time? Probably hanging out with Victoria or something laaame like that. What, are these people too busy to meet crazed fans?

When I'm rich and famous, I will always make time for crazed fans. Unless they're like Jonghyun crazed fans and cause you to go to the hospital and miss like half your tour.

First world problems.

Last night I attempted to count how many people had under 100 views on their videos but I got bored around 400. There are still those crazy people who have like 3,000. What are they, famous? Cheaters? I don't get it.

I know its not going to happen, but it'd be pretty cool if we both got picked. I can still dream! I would be, like, the coolest thing ever.

Also, I like CN Blue. Mainly because they're happy and their album is called Ear Fun.

-Michelle

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

Lazy Days Become Too Lazy

I am not opposed to your initiative in changing the template. It seems much more interesting now.

So, I just watched the finale of MBLAQ Hello Baby... even though I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as I enjoyed SHINee Hello Baby, I still cried at the end, because there were too many goodbyes, and since the kids were older they understood what it meant more than Yoogeun did. And you know how it makes the tears flow to see grown men crying because they have to say goodbye to kids for good.

Plus, I mean, I guess G.O. is pretty awesome in general.

So I recently discovered this band LEDApple. I don't know if you have heard their music before. It is a little different. I mean, they are a band like with a drummer and stuff, only they're all futuristic and their instruments are like, a bit odd. I actually have no idea what they are. They're not with a major label and they're not even that popular but all their music videos have this oddly high-budget feel to them. Like this one. It is also a little creepy but I like it. And then there's this one, which is pretty different. I think they keep changing members. Maybe that's it. I heard that one of their lead vocalists left the band because he had tuberculosis, of all things.

This has been a really long weekend. I wish I had more to do because honestly today has been one lazy day too many. I have a lot of stuff I want to do but I can't do any of it until getting home, like working off some of my substantial debt, and I feel a little detached from the finals frenzy that people seem to be in. None of my important finals are happening until Wednesday. Today I went to go sell back some of my books. As you may recall, I spent close to $300 on textbooks at the beginning of the semester, and when I took back the majority of them today, I was only able to get $20 in return for them. It really made me mad because I was kind of counting on at least $70 or so to go towards paying my tax debt.

So there's that. I think when I get home, I am going to go to Louisburg to apply for summer jobs. I expect that priority will be given to high school students, but I have work experience so maybe I can sell my skills more effectively. Only one way to find out, I suppose. I'm sick of feeling like a hungry money-eating machine with no useful output. Being grown up sucks sometimes.

I have been writing to pass the time. Even though these are lazy days I am incapable of being bored, as you know. I think my roommate probably thinks I'm weird because I spent about four hours last night writing one thing in a notebook. I really don't like typing out my stories usually because it feels creatively stifling. Lately I have felt a little creatively stifled just because I don't know. There are no rules to how creative feelings come and go. Anyway so I wrote out the beginning of this story which I am sure is complete rubbish but it was a good exercise.

Now, I will write some more and maybe study things (like I said, my first real final isn't until Wednesday), and I will also listen to Busker Busker because they just give me so much joy, and joy is good to have on days like this.

For some reason, in a lot of their songs the main singer keeps talking to the drummer, who's the white guy. "Hey, Brad, do you know 막걸리?" "오 ~ 막걸리 좋아요!" I am not sure what the purpose of it is, but it makes me laugh.

-Amy

P.S. Busker Busker has a song called 감기 걸렸어. I felt a strong sense of victory when I knew what it meant right away without having to look up any words. Ah, triumph.

Template

I changed the template because its time for new beginnings.

Just kidding, I got bored of the backround. We've had it since the beginning.

Also new beginnings is redundant. All beginnings are new. (you're welcome, Angela)

I'm watching You're Beautiful again, and for those of you who don't know what this is, (or don't remember my Shinwoo blogs (search the blog for Shinwoo and you can see my beatimus 'seventeen to one complete victory' poem)), Its a show which the concept of would be hard to explain in just words, so I'll have my gifs help again.

So you start the show and the REAL story starts about an episode in and you're like,

And then you realize, She's not going to get with the guy you want her to get together with, and you're like,

 And then things start to work out and you're like,

 And then they stop working out and you're like,

And then, even though things don't really work out, in the end you're like,

And by that I mean, "You successfully made me feel a very large range of emotions. well done."

Anyway, in other news, we went to a Japanese restaurant last night, and it was pretty totally delicious.

But maybe the best part was that the 20-some year old white people sitting next to me were debating about the differences and similarities between Avatar: The Last Airbender, and The Legend of Kora, which is the new show.

No I'm joking, the best part was the food because it was 진짜 맛있다.
Also watching those crazy people cook some crazy vegetables.

I'm pretty sure that yesterdays weather is my favorite kind of weather beside totally sunny weather. I know, crazy dark spring thunderstorms and sunny weather are totally different, but there's something about spring thunderstorms that are so cozy and wonderful. I just wanted to stay inside all day and do cool cozy stuff.

and then it stopped raining and we went shopping and it was cool and humid and it smelled like greeness.

On Saturday we did the market and it was a really really pretty day. We sold like a ton of plants. maybe 너무. People continue to make it sounds like 22 dollars for a basket that is beyond beautimus it way too expensive. I have a theory that more people would buy them if they were 25 dollars because everyone has 20 dollar bills from the ATM and they don't like to break a 20 for 2 dollars. I dunno. I hate breaking 20's.

Amy I can't wait until you get home. I will pass the time by learning both Ring Ding Dong and Replay, (did I mention I love SHINee?), and then we can dance them together.

We can also sing a song together. Something beautiful and english, maybe, but we should also learn Cotton Candy (maybe we need a kazoo or a ukelele.) and My Heaven.

-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