Small Town Toilets

This weekend has had such an abundance of excitement, the only thing left to do is to blog about it. In the course of three days, I have made over 30 new friends, done 2 things for the first time in my life, unburied trash bags full of cans, and experienced something that only happens in small towns and movies. Each story is in-depth enough to deserve it's own paragraph.

On friday, I am lucky enough to have only one class. On this particular day, the activities of this class included sitting in the back corner of the room while groups went up to present a project. I had been smart enough to volunteer my group to go first the previous day, so we had nothing to worry about. Instead, I spent the class doing my homework for my other class. When we were done, I went to the cafeteria and ate lunch with my friend, like always. Except today, we had plans. We were supposed to meet our other friend (who had a car) around 1, so that we could all go to the Humane Society. You have no idea how long I had been wanting to go. The thought of petting a cat again brings tears to my eyes. Since we finished eating approximately 30 minutes early, we were reduced to sitting alone, waiting on our friend to arrive so that he could eat, and we could hurry and leave. After half an hour of nibbling on oranges and ice-cream, he finally showed up, and gobbled down his food in under 10 minutes. Amazed at his ability to slurp down an entire plate in such a short amount of time and excited for our adventure, we skipped out the door (rather, they walked, and I skipped out the door). When we showed up (picking up another couple friends along the way), I charged into the building and asked if we could play with the animals. The lady at the front desk smiled at us, and directed us to our locations. The dogs were outside in their pens, and the cats in the back room. I walked as quickly as I could to the feline corner, trying to hold down my contained excitement. There were 8 little rooms within the big room, and in each room, 4 to 6 cats lounged on one of the multi-level shelves. I started with the first room, and made my way around until I had met every single cat. Most of them jumped out at me, longing to be scratched behind the ears, while others barely gave me a glance before going back to the sleep that I had interrupted. I was totally in heaven. There was one room with 5 young cats that I particularly loved. One of them would climb up my arm and sleep on my shoulders while I scratched his back. Another would prop it's front two paws on my chest and play with the keys that always hung around my neck. He would also try to crawl on my shoulders, but he was less capable than the first boy. I've never had a cat actually sit on my shoulder. It was like being in the movies. It took everything I had not to sneak the two of them out of the place with me. However, my roommate is allergic to cats. A shame. After finishing with the cats, I realized that the rest of my friends needed some help with the dogs. They were nothing less than oblivious when it came to large canines. In a nutshell, they pretty much just hung back and watched as one of them attempted to walk a timid labrador mix named Precious. I tried to get them a little more involved. However, I'm not sure that the friend with the car even likes animals. Him and one of the guys we picked up would watch one big boy, Midnight/Bear, as he jumped all over the place, begging to be pet. I got them to get inside and play with him. It was adorable, to say the least.

We had originally made more plans for Friday. We were going to go to Zumba at 3:30, but that got canceled. After dinner, we were supposed to go swimming in the school's pool, but for reasons unknown, it was closed that night. Reluctantly, my friend and I were now plannless. However, the other international students decided to have a 'party' that night. I told my friend that we should go, since they had invited us. She told me that they were probably going to drink (which wasn't a problem for her, since she's 24. I, however, am underaged). I told her I wouldn't drink, but we should still go to hang out. May as well, right? So after killing some time, we decided to head over. When everyone got there, we started a card game. Yes, this is the Chinese idea of a party. And I must say, I prefer it by far to anything an american teenager would plan. The game was simple. You would sit in a circle, and each person would get dealt one card at a time. Each number/face card meant something different. For instance, if you got a 6, you either took a drink of beer, or you had to do a dare (which is what I was automatically given). The dares were decided through a computer program that one of the guys had made. It was my first time to ever play a drinking game. To my parents, it probably sounds horrible saying that I was "playing a drinking game". However, everyone there was over 21, and I never drank. So it was fine. I just had to clear that up. After a while, we ran out of beer. So, they sent me and one other guy to go get more. This was also the first time I was a designated driver. I had to drive the guy's car, which was terrifying, because it's a gorgeous vehicle. Not to mention I'm not used to brakes working so well. But we made it back. Overall, the night was really fun. I stayed there until about 1:30, in which time I had been the waiter, proposed to one of the guys, counted in Chinese, and dealt out a wonderful dare. However, I was forced to leave early since I had to wake up at 7:30 the next morning (a Saturday).

When I woke up that morning, I tried to remember why on earth I had stayed so late. Dismissing the question, I reluctantly got ready for the volunteer program that I had signed up for several weeks prior (another question I was asking myself: why did I agree to do this?). I walked down to the meeting place and waited to go. After a while, we finally took off to the local lake, where we were all participating in a clean-up project. It was far to early in the morning. We were each issued 4 trash bags and a pair of latex gloves, and sent off to a location at some obscure corner of the lake. My time spent picking up glass bottles and tin cans is hardly worth meditating on. I was tired, and ready for lunch. At one point, I thought I had discovered the door to a secret underground world, but it had just been a perfectly round tree bulb. In the process of our cleaning, one of the members of our group uncovered a toilet. That's something you don't see every day. Long story short, at the free lunch that they later served (by which time only 8 of our previously 22-person-large group were left), the toilet won the Most Unique Trash Item Found award. Other than that, there is nothing left to say on the subject. When we got back to the college, I fell right to sleep, not to wake again until dinner time. My Saturday was done.

Sunday (today, that is), there was supposed to be a car wash at the Auto Zone, about 2 miles away from where I am, for the International Club, which I had recently joined, in order to raise money. I figured it was my duty to support them, yet I didn't have a car. The obvious answer to this dilemma was to take my bike to get it washed. So that's exactly what I did. The trek there was unbearable, and I almost passed out when I finally arrived (luckily, I sat down on time and drank plenty of water). They washed my bike for me, with confused looks on their faces. I had become friends with one of the guys who was working there the previous day at the lake clean-up. We talked for a bit while I my bike was being cleaned. When it was all done, he asked me if he could ride it. I told him to be my guest, since there was no reason for me to believe that I would be heading back soon. After all, I was still catching my breath. While he rode around, one of the older men cleaning cars pointed out to me that my tire was flat. Oh. That's why it was so hard to get here. And here I was thinking it was because I was simply out of shape (though I'm sure that has something to do with it as well). The tire was pretty flat, too. That would certainly explain why I kept bouncing the whole time I was riding it. After several phone calls and a rejection from the Auto Zone, I decided the best option was to ride my flat bike back to the college, and maybe stop along the way at a gas station, and hope for the best. I peddled back with a new understanding of the effort it took to go up a small hill. I passed an auto assistance location, and almost considered stopping to have them help me. But I decided against it and headed toward the gas station closest to my school. When I got there, I looked around, unsure of what I was looking for. So I parked my bike outside and walked in, hoping I could ask for help. I took one look at the line that stretched across the whole room, and almost turned around and walked out. However, one of my friends with whom I share two classes with was just getting finished checking out. I sighed in relief as he asked me what was going on. I didn't hesitate to ask him where this magical air pump was. He pointed to a small box in the back of the station, and gave me three quarters and a couple dimes and a nickel for good measure. I thanked him and promised to pay him back as he drove away. I pushed my bike to the machine, and was sad when it said it would only accept quarters. I quickly finished this problem when I exchanged the 2 dimes and the nickel for a quarter with a stranger standing in the line. I then walked back to the machine and started reading the directions. I was totally and utterly confused. I took out my phone, prepared to call my dad for some help. I saw that I had a text from one of my other friends who also shares two classes with me, but decided to read it later, since I was a little busy. However, right as I was about to press the call button, I turned around, and there he was! I was so relieved, I couldn't contain myself. He helped me fill up my tires (which turned out to be really easy), and left with his friends, who were waiting in the car. It was a wonderful small-town moment. Honestly, how many times do you run into the two classmates when you need them most? It was like the movies, or my Korean TV. I always wondered how the main characters just happen to run into the one guy who they need at that moment in time. And now I know that feeling!

The best news I received this week was the fact that my best friends are going to be able to drive down and pick me up. I get to go home this weekend! I'm so excited, I can't hide it. I cannot wait.

No trees were harmed in the making of this post.

Where The Red Perms Grow

The title of this post has nothing to do with anything, except for the fact that I keep seeing the same girl walking around campus. She has reddish hair, and since she's black, it has kind of a natural perm. It looks really weird in a really cool way. Every time she's in the room, my eyes naturally gravitate towards her. I would say, "only in *insert town name*", but I'm pretty sure that there are stranger hair styles in bigger cities, like LA or New York. Not that it really matters.

The other day I discovered that our library has a really good DVD collection. As with my recent goal to watch all of the Studio Ghibli films in existence (which, unfortunately, is a rather small list, compared to others), I checked out Howl's Moving Castle. The thing that bugs me about the Ghibli movies is that bad guys will automatically turn into good guys, and the main character tends to forgive with inhuman ability. It's a pretty reoccurring theme. That detail aside, I've loved them since I first saw Ponyo with my little brother. I thought it was going to be really dumb, which was the reason I loaded it on my Netflix instant queue in the first place. I was pleasantly surprised. Next on my list is My Neighbor Totoro. I've heard only good things about it. Then again... I've only EVER heard good things about Studio Ghibli... Speaking of movies!! I was finally able to watch The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya! It was amazing. I was afraid of two things. One, that it would go by too fast, lacking in various important details, as most movies do. However, that fear was settled, and never should have even been invoked. The whole Haruhi Suzumiya series has followed a very close pattern to the books. The Endless Eight was even more detailed than the original series, to a point where most (if not all) fans were driven crazy. My second fear was that I would be incredibly bored after 2 and a half hours of film. This fear was settled after the movie had finished, and I had sat down for 2.5 hours without even realizing it. Overall, the movie was fantastic. I don't want to give away anything. Like I've said before, I hate spoilers.

The only reason I'm writing right now is because I don't want to get out of the habit of blogging. I have nothing interesting to say today. I'm in a class right now, but since I've already finished the work, I have nothing else to do. I'm so bored! I can't find John Smith anywhere. Though I admit... I haven't been looking very hard.... Me and my friend walked about 20 minutes the other day to the local Humane Society. We wanted to volunteer and play with the dogs and cats. However... When we got there... there was a problem. The problem? We went on Sunday. What self-respecting non-profit organization would be open on Sunday? I should have known. Though I had hoped that somebody would at least be around to feed them. As a result, we trudged all the way back to the school, dying of thirst and fatigue.

Cave Canem.

Bad Boys

In follow-up to the last post, I have successfully moved into a complete circle. I worked it out with one of the RAs, and I am now back into my original room. The entire situation took over a majority of my free time, and am now left to do homework Sunday night in the library. *sigh* It's my own fault, after all. I can't blame everything on outside sources, however much I would like to. I did play a couple worlds on Kingdom Hearts. I've also been watching Boys Over Flowers nonstop. If your reading this, then please take this as your opportunity to skip to the next paragraph... Unless you've already seen the whole show. But even if your not planning on watching, I hate telling people important storyline info. Anyway! Here I go! Goo JoonPyo's father passed away, so he was forced to take over the ShinHwa company. This meant that he had to leave JanDi... He sent her a text saying something along the lines of "Stay right there and don't move. I'll be back soon." It was totally adorable. But apparently, after 6 months he never contacted her, or the other F4 members. So they went to him instead. It was really hard to get him, since he was always so busy. Long story short, JanDi finally got her personal meeting with him, and he was a total jerk. He called her "a stain that needed to be erased". I almost cried right along with JanDi. However, my roommate was in the room, so I resisted the urge. Anyway, you kinda follow her around for a while as she goes through a really emotional state. But then you finally switch back to JoonPyo... he goes up to his awful mother and says, "I hope your happy. If you do anything to her, I will destroy ShinHwa". It was that moment that you knew he was faking it, and every inch of his face was covered in pain. The most amazing part of the entire series thus far was the scene where he was watching the video that JiHoo made. JanDi is telling JoonPyo how much she misses him, and it was really cute. Then this video from when JoonPyo was a child follows. He is with his father, and they're looking at an airplane. His father says to him, "Goo JoonPyo, if I ever leave, it's your job to take care of your mother and sister, and the ShinHwa company. Do you promise?" and little JoonPyo says, "yeah! I promise!" and they pinky-swear. Then present time JoonPyo lets out this agonizing cry, and he sinks to the ground, engulfed in sobs. It was so emotional, I could hardly continue to watch without sobbing myself. There is no doubt that episode 14 and 15 are the best thus far. Poor JiHoo. Always forced to be the 'friend'. After he got his haircut, I sorta fell in love with him again. But... this is for the next paragraph.

When I think back onto the past post about my love for, well, 'bad boys', I believe that this Boys Over Flowers phase has confirmed my theory. While JiHoo is totally hot, he's so... nice. Okay, I'm not saying it wouldn't be totally easy to fall for him, but... after a while, I slowly started to move to JoonPyo's side. JiHoo is by far more attractive, but JoonPyo's acts of love are so rare, sweet, sincere... how could you not love him? He's a total jerk, and yet... Nice guys always ask, "why do girls always like the jerks?" See, theres some things they need to understand. Girls don't necessarily always like jerks, for starters. The term 'bad boy' needs to be clearly defined in order for that statement to make sense. For instance, JoonPyo, Baek SeungJo, Mr. Darcy, Kyo... all of them are the dark, loner, stand-offish kind of guys. Sorta awkward at times (with the exception of SeungJo. I can't remember him ever being awkward), but super sweet. And rare. The things they do don't happen often, which makes them extra special. See? Girls (at least, this one) aren't aiming for a guy who hits you and plays around with other girls. Although, the idea of 'taming' someone is always a pleasant though. Though, even I agree that the whole theory is unrealistic. The thing about a 'nice guy' is that it's too easy. Most people hold to the belief that guys are supposed to chase after the girls. And I agree, totally! However... what is it I'm trying to say, exactly? Maybe just... life is more exciting with a slow-growing love. Not the kind that just pops up. Which is basically how it usually is for a 'nice guy'. *sigh* I feel like I'm totally hating on good people. I would say I'm not, but... I feel like that would almost be a lie. Because, no matter how you look at it, I kinda am. Well, whatever. Be who you are. Don't try to be a bad guy to impress girls. Because I honestly believe everyone has their own soulmate. And you're never gonna find them if you aren't yourself. So if a girl doesn't like you because you're too nice, so what? She has another soulmate, and so do you. But finding them isn't the main goal of life. Just don't worry about it. Everything will work out someday.

Funny and cool things that have happened these past couple of days. I was in the car with my friend, her boyfriend, and his roommate. We were listening to electro music, and there was this random rapper in the middle of it. I asked my friend's boyfriend if this was "electro rap". He said it was more like random rap syllables just thrown in. So we started making fun of it. We were having a conversation along the lines of "be-bedu bap ade be" "bop-a-da boop a bebe" "boo boo ba-beda". When out of nowhere, his roommate goes, "ni hao" in the most obnoxious chinese accent ever. It was hilarious. But it was probably only funny to us... Earlier at Taco Bell, we had been talking about different Eastern dialects. So it was pretty funny.

Not to long ago, my international friend that I've been hanging out with told me about her night. Apparently, she was in her room with her roommate (whom she has nicknamed "Ice") and her roommates boyfriend. They were watching a movie without headphones, so she was getting annoyed. So instead of trying to drown out the sound with her own headphones, like I usually do, she took them out and turned her computer on full volume and watched a Chinese movie. XD All I could do was laugh at her. Seriously, when did she become so spiteful? It was hilarious!

Today at dinner, I had an orange. I was able to successfully peal it in one fatal swoop! That's right, all in one piece! I was pretty proud of myself. So I asked her (... my international friend. Someday, I'm going to crack and just say people's names. Protecting people's identity is hard...) to take a picture of it. So she took it for me, while I held the peal. When I looked at the photo, I noticed that she had gotten the face of the cute guy sitting behind me in the picture. Later she told me it was kind of on purpose. Hahah! I was so proud of her at that moment.

So here I sit in the library. I finished my chocolate milk already, so I'm somewhat at a loss for what to do now. I turned around randomly, and discovered that it was totally dark outside. I've been in here for way to long. But it's the only place I can be at peace. I still have homework to do. I'm such a terrible person. I really love the weekend. It's so relaxing. Why can't life be like this? I'm currently working on ideas for my manga. Someday, I'll come up with a really good one, and I'll be able to make my debut. I'm aiming for something that is similar to my life story, with my friends. That could be made into something really good. I can tell.

Do or do not. There is no try.

Yuki Nagato vs the World

This isn't working. I've tried everything I could to room with my friend, and it isn't working. Her roommate refused to leave her room, in less words. To be honest, I did limit myself in one way. Because I was thankful to my roommate for being so gracious in all that I asked her, I told her to just pretend I asked her to move. That way, she wouldn't be forced to pack up for my selfishness. Anyway, I went to the resident life office, and asked them what I could do if neither of our roommates could move out (that is, letting us move in together). She said there were people on the upper stories of the building that didn't have a roommate. Since I am currently on the lower half, this may have worked to my advantage. If I could move up to one of the top three stories, perhaps I could beg the single current resident to move down, making things significantly easier for them, and making room for my friend to come up with me. However, I had to decide right at that moment. You see, college attendance has grown so drastically over the past couple of years. Many colleges are not prepared for such a large flow of incoming freshmen. Our colleges solution was to temporarily board them somewhere off campus, and provide transportation. The woman working at the res life office was just about to send letters to the off-campus freshmen to let them know that they had made room for them. That is, the rooms that had only one person living in them. The rooms that I wanted. She gave me the option to switch into one of these rooms before she sent the letters, in which one of the letter girls would in turn get my room. Okay, sounded easy enough. I would switch into an upstairs room, and beg the current resident to move down into my friends room. I had until 10pm the next day to move in. There were three options available. I took a gamble. I was wrong. When I walked up to my new room in order to check on the quality of everything, I noticed that the girl who lived there (though, at the time, absent) had a ton of stuff. There was cloths packed into both wardrobes, sheets on both beds, supplies on both desks. Dang it. This girl had more stuff than my old/current roommate and my friend's roommate combined! How on earth was I going to convince this girl that it would be better for her to move downstairs?! Nobody in their right mind would want to do that! My heart sank. The only thing that went through my mind was, "I was wrong." However, there was still hope. I had to have hope. I left my name and number, hoping that the girl had not left for the weekend, but was simply out for lunch. I went back to my room and waited. Later, when she hadn't texted me back, I decided to go back to the room and see if I had imagined the large amounts of stuff. To my luck, she was there. I informed her that I was her new roommate, and offered my proposal to let her move downstairs.

"So, would you by chance want to move down a couple floors?"

"No."

The sudden response caught me off guard. I was expecting her to be happy about moving down, like my other friend's old roommate. But... No? Was all of this for nothing?

"See, the thing is, I already have a roommate."

.... What?!

She already had a roommate? That would explain all of the cloths, but... What did that mean for me? Did I ... no longer have a room? I instantly went to resident life to see if I could sort out the situation. Closed. It was already 5:30. I was too late. And since it was a Friday... I could only hope that they were open on the weekends. After all... If I don't move in by tomorrow evening (that is, by tonight, as I am writing this Saturday morning), I won't have a room. My stuff is all packed in boxes, my friend still stuck in a crummy roommate situation, I am living in a mysterious dorm room, and I still have no money. I don't know what to do.

Pointless

I don't know why I'm putting myself through this. Why I even bother to try. Really, what's the point in this suffering? In all of this pain and annoyance? Why did I give up the comfort of familiarity, the ease of what I had? Every day, this whole endeavor seems even more pointless. I don't know why I even began this journey. Really, what was I thinking? The only thing that will come from this whole experience is the satisfaction of knowing that I achieved this all on my own. That I was the one who found the good and bad. When I cross the finish line, I will only walk away with the knowledge of what I have completed. But then what? I'd have suffered for that alone? Making the trip from one place to another is a pain in itself. So what is the point? And yet... I continue. I continue to achieve the goal that has caused me so much irritation: using every shower in the dorm to found out which one is the best.

Wait... what'd you think I was talking bout?

*sigh*... here I go to number 12.

Rocky Mountain Syndrome

Another asian television series has caught my attention. Since the dubs for Ipartment are currently in a copyright battle, I have gone back to Netflix to discover the other k-dramas that came up with my Playful Kiss stage. The first one I chose to look into was Flowers Over Boys. The 4th episode is loading on another page as I type. While not exactly on the same level (in my opinion) as Playful Kiss, it is still utterly adorable. Kim Hyun Joong is still a leading character (though I'm not a fan of the half-mulet), and as heart-melting as ever. I still go crazy when he lets loose one of his rare smiles. The main female isn't as cute as Oh Ha Ni, but she fits the character profile better. I couldn't understand why nobody thought Oh Ha Ni was pretty, when she quite obviously was. Not that this other girl isn't pretty! Rather, she has the "mess with me, and I'll sock you" look, a goal I'm sure the director was aiming for (since she actually carry out the threat). I'm still having trouble reading the subtitles at times (must be my minor-dyslexia coming out). Then again, every once in a while, they'll put an entire monologue up. The whole screen is covered by the words. That is a little obnoxious. But whatever.

This weekend has been fantastic. I have the room all to myself, so I can pretty much do whatever I want. I even practiced my Hare-Hare dance. It's killing me not having a PS2 to play my games on. I have the opportunity to buy one soon, but once I move into my new room, I won't have a TV! This almost reminds me of the first time I ever bough Kingdom Hearts... A quick story for those of you who don't know... I had seen commercials for the second one on TV. I thought it looked pretty cool. I checked it out at Wal-Mart. $50. That was more money then I had ever spent on anything. So, I worked really hard to raise the money. When I finally had it, I walked into Wal-Mart, and I bought it! I was so excited! However, right as I turned away from the counter (no exaggeration), my brother looked at me and said, "You know the ps2 is broken, right?". No. No I did not. I was devastated. The $50 game sat in my dresser, unopened, for half a year. I figured if I really couldn't play it, I may as well not open it, so I might be able to return it. But I couldn't bring myself to do that. I really wanted the game! It wasn't until later that I realized I had bought Kingdom Hearts 2, not 1. Wow. So when we finally got a ps2 for Christmas that year, it was the coolest thing ever. And yet, I had no idea what was going on. Who the heck was this Kairi girl? And why was I some guy named Roxas? I thought I was supposed to be Sora! I was actually really disappointed when I finished KHII and moved onto KHI. The second game is significantly superior to the first, both in game play and in graphic quality. Either way, I had fun.

Yesterday, one of my brother's Army friends came by to visit. We ended up going to the lake, which got me totally excited. I had wanted to go earlier, but it's an hour by bike, and 20 minutes by car. The latter definitely wins. It was me, my Chinese friend, him, and his friend. I told them that parking in a parking lot would be way to easy, so instead, we found the hardest way to get to the water, and chose that. We basically slid down a hill onto a pile of rocks, where we swam in alligator-infested waters (apparently, they have those around here). My friend didn't swim, for reasons unknown to me, but me and the two boys enjoyed ourselves. The water was perfect. It was pretty awesome. But we got there really late, so we had to leave soon after, since the sun went down so fast. I'll go back again, soon. But I also need to explore the local ghost town...

There is no amount of words I can say that will express how much I miss my cat. My sister sent me pictures of her on my Facebook, and I swear, I almost cried. My mom told me she's pretty much lost now. She keeps wandering around upstairs, sleeping in random places. I miss her so much!

There isn't much more I can say. My original intention was to overdramatize our trek down the treacherous mountain into the welcoming waters, but that plan was destroyed by my need to express my new love for Flowers Over Boys. I need to find John Smith...

Got it memorized?