Sunday, February 9, 2014

Skiing + Flappy Bird

Can I say it's been an interesting week? It really has been and I'm not sure how I feel about it yet but whateves. It's all good!

On Sunday of last week, I went skiing for the second time! Yay! Now, I may be from California and surprise! We have snow! We have this mountain range called the Sierra Nevada and boy, does it snow! Or...it usually does....California is currently in a drought...so not a lot of snow...
Anyway! I have been to ski resorts before but lo and behold: I'm a snowboarder! I have snowboarded for four years now and I like to think that I'm pretty good at it. I'm not a pro-snowboarder but I can definitely go down a hill without falling.

The last two Sundays (not including today), I have gone to Taos Ski Valley with my peers and friends and learned to ski. It was...entertaining and painful but loads of fun. Both days, I took lessons to improve my skills. On the first day, we learned all the basic ski techniques and practiced those. When my friend and I had mastered the beginner's slope, we decided to move on to the next "beginner's slope" to get a harder run and go faster. That was a bad idea...

I, being a snowboarder, could not control my skis very well and panicked whenever I was going to fast. This caused me to shift my weight to my heels to stop but, unfortunately, skis don't like that. I ended up falling a million times and it took my an hour to get down this slope. That ended the first day of skiing.

The second day of skiing, I took another lesson and was moved up two levels since I was more advanced because of my snowboarding skills. Unfortunately, this required for me to go down that slope that I hated and fell down a million times the previous week. When we got to the top, I told my instructor that I was scared and could feel my eyes begin to tear up (fear + exhaustion do not mix well ). He said I could do it and we went down. This time, my speed was much more controlled and it wasn't as scary. However, there was this one point where me knee twisted away from me and I had to make a split decision to let it happen and hurt my knee or fall and hope for the best. I chose the latter and slammed my hip to this incredibly thick sheet of ice. I didn't break anything but my hip hurt with each movement and I have quite a large, terrible looking bruise in that area. All in all, skiing was great fun and I enjoyed it though I still prefer to snowboard.

In terms of academics because I still go to school and all, I had a pretty good week In my environmental class, we had a Climate Summit which was pretty eye-opening in terms of how hard it is for delegates to reach a conclusion. I, personally, am not a big fan of climate change and am a huge environmentalist - my old email address was gohugatree and I made business cards that said "Caroline: Jr. Environmentalist". I also did incredibly well on my math and physics test which was great seeing as they are higher level classes and I'm finally understanding the thinking behind the IB!

We had Yule Ball last night which was fun! I got all dressed up (makeup and all that shiz) and put on a sparkly formal dress and hung out with some friends. I then sorta just hung out in my room and watched "A Walk to Remember" (a great movie) and played Flappy Bird and SongPop.

Okay, so I don't support Flappy Bird or anything and I don't want anyone to get addicted to it (ahem, my classmates) but it is a pretty entertaining game though it is incredibly simple and silly. My high score is 34
which is quite an accomplishment. I also highly recommend the game song pop since it tests your knowledge of music and your reflex skills. To those challenging me: Bring it.

OH AND I BAKED A CHOCOLATE CAKE FROM SCRATCH! To many people, that probably isn't a big deal but to me, it is. It was my dorm mate's birthday yesterday (and another one's today so Happy Birthday to you both!) and I baked an Oreo Cake. I don't know how it tastes, but I know the batter was actually pretty yummy so hopefully everything turned out well.

The reason I'm proud of this is because I fail at baking treats from scratch. I baked chocolate chip cookies once from scratch and they turned out to taste and look like pancakes...I don't know how it happened but it did...Only me...

To my friends back home: I love you all oh so much and I miss you all and I am so excited for you guys for your last semester in high school! Keep me updated on what's going on or I will spam you and annoy the heck out of you until you tell me. I'm here for you because I honestly love you guys so much!

To my friends here who may be reading this: Eh, you're doing alright. :P

That's the update for this week! Hope all is well for everyone else! See ya!



Saturday, February 1, 2014

Semester 1

Hey all!

It's been quite a while since I have posted on this blog and for that, I apologize. I sort of lost the password for this account and locked myself out for some time so that caused me to forget about this blog a bit...Sorry! However, I did keep a journal and some documents containing all the wild adventures I've had and will update you shortly on life here. It's also a new year and my resolution is to update this weekly. Here we go!

First and foremost, yes I am alive and well! Physically, my calves have never looked better from running up the 150 stairs to get to my room in time for check and run down to make it to class in time! Mentally, I'm quite pumped and energized. I feel as though I have learned quite a lot and still have so much to learn during my time here.

First semester was a blast and difficult as well. I hiked the Grand Canyon for 5 whole days (crazy right?) during the Government Shutdown which was loads of fun and such a terrific experience! Although it was challenging, more physically then mentally, it brought me closer to some of my peers. I may have had 7 blisters and dozens of cuts from falling down but I wouldn't trade it for the world. Though I don't know if I will ever do that again... I do recommend, however, that you should all hike down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon during your lifetime as it truly is an incredible experience and it does change your outlook on life.

We also, us first-years, went to Santa Fe for a weekend for a retreat. As much as I did not want to go since we had finals that Monday, it was so much fun! I was brought closer to my class and it was nice to get off campus and just be silly kids again. We were each given money for dinner and a map and then were told to come back by 8:30 that night! They just left us to do what we want and I loved it since it was nice to have fun with my friends as we explored Santa Fe! I also had Starbucks that weekend which was needed seeing as I needed Starbucks after those 2 months of having none!

My friends and I went on multiple hikes to stargaze and to explore during this time, though this semester we will do much more! My love for the wilderness grew during this time, especially when it snowed!

A fun fact that occurred during this time was that a couple of my friends and I decided to try and sled while we had snow. We set out for the woods and found a pretty decent place to sled in. However, the snow was quite dry and didn't necessarily want to hold our weight...but that didn't stop us from having fun! We ended up running and pulling each other on the sled which was a great workout and made for a memorable moment! Hopefully, we get more snow soon so that we can try to sled once more this semester!

During my first semester, I also learned to bake! Granted, I have baked before but never super great treats or anything. In fact, I've never baked cookies from scratch! The few times I did, I ended up somehow making cookies that looked and tasted like pancakes... I don't know how but apparently, the world of chocolate chip cookies hates me or has out a curse on me. I did, however, bake a ton of Funfetti cookies, Nestle Chocolate Chip Cookies (the dough was prepared), brownies, cakes, and Oreo Treats including cupcakes and milkshakes! There were several reasons I began to bake and it really depends on what kind of person you think I am. I baked because I wanted to relieve stress and make my dorm mates and friends happy is one idea. I baked because I desperately wanted to get some attention (yup. I like attention sometimes) and wanted to become friends with those around me but didn't know how to talk (which is weird since all I do is talk...) and treats gave me a reason to knock on someone's door and talk to them.  Or, the one my mother and sister believes, is that I, being manipulative (or so I'm told...) baked to make everyone around me gain weight while I didn't seeing as I don't like sweets much. It's true! I bake quite a bit but never eat a ton of what I bake since I'm not a huge fan of chocolate and sugar...unless it's Oreos...then I'm the cookie monster! Anyway, I would say that I bake because it's fun for me and I like to make other people happy because a little bit of good/smiles won't hurt the world.

What else... Oh! I began writing poetry once more! When I was younger, I was quite a fan of poetry and was eager to write. However, high school and formal writing caused me to step away from poetry and learn the proper techniques of MLA and all that boring stuff of no self-expression. I did continue to write short stories and novels during that time since it was "Narrative writing" but poetry, not so much. Here, I can write whatever I want! I'm part of a writing club with all these fantastic writers and poets of much higher caliber than I but I love it. I love the way their ink stains the page to form similes, stories, metaphors, and art. They inspire me and I love them all so much.

I'm also learning French which is interesting seeing as I've never learned a new language in a classroom setting before. Je parle un peu francais.

I don't want to make this incredibly long and bore you with the grim details of my classes though I will say that they are a challenge and I love having to actually think in class now!

It wasn't always fun and games though, even if we did play Jungle Speed quite a lot. It was hard at times seeing as there are just so many cool and inspiring people that I love and kind of obsesses over and only one me! (I do share my name with one of those cool people and she's one of my closest friends) There's quite a few trains of thoughts here and it was a bit difficult to find the one I agree with. I also found that I missed me my Mormons! (Yeah, Y'all had an effect on me and you're group activities) My sister and I, being wonderfully fantastic, are incredibly close so that was also mind blowing not being able to tell her everything that happen and have all those girly talks and sing from the top of our lungs Pop songs. I also missed our random trips to In-N-Out (CALIFORNIAN FOOD) and our movie nights. However, I fear not! I love her very much and she loves me (I hope) and when we do see each other, it's all PARTY! Being away has taught me a lot and I am able to understand my family more. I also have found some amazing friends who I love dearly and can't imagine my life without them and their quirky ways! And, I freaking get to try international food like all the time! Who wouldn't want that?!

In order to not make this any longer, I'll end here (later really but expect the ending to be near). All in all, my first semester was alright. I do regret somethings but hey, I also had some really fun times and some great laughs. This semester will be 10 times better. I can feel it. In fact, it has been fantastic. I love it here, even if there's problems but that's life and I like to see the bright side of things. Why frown and complain when I can smile and laugh with my friends? My friends and family back in California who still love me and all my oddness, which has definitely increased since being here, and my friends who give amazing hugs, make amazing food, and make the world shine with their smiles. I know, a bit cheesy and all, but I can't express my love for the people in my life. If anything, I love them all way too much but like my mom says, I only see the good in things and always stay happy.

So yeah... That's a bit of an update. I kind of rambled on but whateves. I don't need MLA or Chicago to write my thoughts. I just need my Jason Mraz on the Spotify (yeah, I recently found a new love for Spotify) and my computer to type. I hope y'all enjoyed this random mess of a blog post! I'll be sure to post soon!