So. What a week. On Friday night we had Class Night up at Hanifl and was it ever fun!! We chilled and ate and sat around the fire... There are some talented guys on the guitar. And girls. Woo baby. And then Cheeky and me started a dance party over by the grills and eventually they brought over the big amp and Prateek's mP3 player. A bunch of other people came over and we partied for a bit together (class bonding - woot) and then Beni and Katie and me were up dancing 'til like... 2, 2:30. Madd fun!! Lost my voice though... Remember last time I lost my voice? 8th grade, Kat's halloween party... And the next day we went to that football game and I couldn't talk and it was cold and rainy and the players got all muddy... Then we played some Truth or Dare with Nithin and Elias, it was soooo funny. Dancing around the fire and stealing stuff and serenading people. Mwahaha. And then I played Uno with Ed and Nithin by the fire, and Paul tried to play but he was asleep. Then we went to sleep. On the ground. If I'd gone to bed earlier I coulda got a mat but I didn't. Woops. In the morning we had ice cream and wai wai for breakfast. Haha. Jae Young is a madd ice cream scooper and Daniel is a madd strawberry sauce squeezer. We cleaned up camp and then headed back to school singing Boom's ballads on his CD player. Fun times. Back at dorms we had a REAL breakfast and showered and then headed out to Buzz, where we met Jeff and Mike, Gus's dad and grampa, at The Tavern. That is one high-class restaurant. Like half our month's pocket money!! But as far as American dollars go, $60 bucks for 15 or 16 people. Not so bad I suppose. Drinks and all. It was good too. Beni and I shared Thai green curry and rice - it was the HOTTEST thing I have ever eaten and my mouth was burning like kerosene (except it tasted better) but it was soooo good!! We then proceeded to shop while Gus got his hair cut (Mom's orders) and found this sweet Rs.10 earring stand and a 50% off Diwali sale on shoes. Beni got some reallly cute heart heels with red plastic flowers between the toes... We got back to dorms and made tea for my vocal cords, and then went to Mrs. Howard's for "Advisor Baking." Of course none of our advisor group went, so it was just Beni and me and Cheeky (who is not in our advisor group) but we made lemon cracks and talked with Mrs. Howard (love her!) and did triazzle puzzles. Loads of fun. We missed check-in because the cookies weren't ready yet, but Jessica accepted our excuse and a cookie and we didn't get fined :) Then we went down to dinner and admired everybody all dressed up for the play, and headed up. I don't know if any of you have heard of Mary Chase's "Harvey"? It's about a pooka, a 6-foot invisible rabbit. Kinda a weird show... But not bad. I love seeing my friends acting. Raghav as the main character Elwood P. Dowd was amazing and adorable in a tweed hat and yellow checkered jacket. Afterward we went back to congratulate the actors and get lipstick prints on our faces and Zoe said that if friends of the cast stay for strike we could stay for the cast party too!! So we helped clean up the aud and stayed for a bit, dancing on stage and stuff. I figured out that if I ran up the aisle and jumped on stage I could slide halfway across. Fun times. We got back to dorms after lights out but they didn't care because the play was so good. It was too. I have to admit I wasn't too excited from helping Nicole learn her lines, but it showed me what I was workin with! On Sunday morning we got up and started the study party in the basketball court, and then at 12:30 Nayan and me left for our special music thing at Christ Church in Library Bazaar. It was reallly fun, I felt like I was back at Trinity except in the balcony as the special music. It wasn't exactly flawless, but we pulled through and it sounded cool, with the band, choir, and orchestra all there... And after rehearsal and before church I hung out with Mung Boi on a sunny ledge and we stripped floppy sticks to poke people (each other, and Robin, who is goodnatured) with, and made mini-landslides and ate chocolate and drank tea and talked about Lion King. I love band, and band trips. They're a lot smaller-scale than Marching Rams but I love them anyway. A few minutes after we got back we had a SAGE dinner at the Jeffrey's. Those are always fun. Open-mic session!! It's always full of hilarity... Ms. Aoki decided to randomly show up for it, though, and she said she'd never been around so many American girls and that we were loud. Hah. And then we had chaptacos!!! Oooh baby!!! Sooo good. And then we watched this movie about a Tibetan yak caravan called "Himalaya." It was a lot easier than "Osama"... The next morning I went to Health Centre with flu or something of the like... Lexie was there too and we spent the whole day being sick... At night they sent us to the hospital to get hooked up to IV's... Lexie's second trip; she described it as WWII hospital, and it kind of is. The IV poles looked exactly like our high jump poles for sports day :x And the wheelchair was a white plastic lawn chair with bicycle wheels. Innovative. The beds were very uncomfortable, though. Not a very comfortable place in general. We left in the morning, fortunately, and spent the next day and night in the Health Centre until they were sure we were fully recovered (temperature and BP checks every couple of hours). I got out yesterday morning, but Lexie got sick again :( Not food poisoning, like they said. There are two showers at Health Centre: one has only hot water and one has only cold. It was fun. Nicole and I had to do our current events: a huge church is threatened to lose its tax exempt status because of an anti-war sermon right before elections. End-of-semester is piling up on us now. They asked us last night if we want trunks, and they're asking about travel plans for winter break... I'm ACTUALLY staying for extended study hall today!! And no, I see no pigs flying. Not even a water buffalo. Neither is the moon blue. But I DO have a history essay due Friday, a paper due Monday, and a project due Wednesday. Today I have an English debate after lunch (Transcendentalism - OK, it's a cool unit, but I HATE oral presentations!!) and then RIGHT after that I have scale exams and I'm not exactly on the ball with those after missing almost a week of practice. :( And then right after that a Health test (which should be a cinch, but still). I shouldn't stress out because I know I'll get them done and do reasonably well on them, and even better if I'm not FLIPPING OUT, but I can't help it. I'll probably conk out right after school... Which I can't do because I have... something... Whatever. Don't think about it :x Also end-of-semester means a lot of people will have to leave because of academics or conduct or just end-of-semester... Seriously, it's like they're trying to rid Woodstock of our grade. There's a buttload of people leaving, among them Ed and Boom and Gus and Paul and Robin and Georgie... These people are scattered all around the world! It's not like I'll go home and they'll be up the street again! *sigh* Granted, Gus and Paul are only a couple of hours away, but still. That's only two. Out of... a lot. I guess it'll be an excuse for me to travel, to visit them... Like Bangkok - Ed and Boom said we should visit them in Thailand at the end of the year. Which would be sweet. Thailand and/or Germany. Where we could stay with Alisa in Munich and/or Elias in Bonn. This is sweet. I now have connexions WORLDFREAKINGWIDE BABY!!! I still want to be a kamultimillion-lingual bum and travel around as an interpreter... or something... It'll be weird going back to the States. I feel like I won't fit in anymore and like I'll be really irritable and different and snap at my friends and stuff... But I hope not... But I can't help but think/worry about it. *sigh* OK Clara, that's the signal to stop thinking. Critically. Go do some research or something like you SHOULD be doing. Peace out bro.