Thursday, August 06, 2009

Europe Trip 2009: Spain

Click the title of post to see pictures!

Spain:

Monday June 15th: After getting to the train station, we waited for about an hour before boarding the train. We had a competition to see who could be the most creative with getting all the luggage put away (our group only had carry-on sized bags so we had it easy.) I had a room on the train with Maja, Taylor and Matthew and we ended up just talking and hanging out for awhile. After a bit, our tour guide (Tags) joined us in our room and we played BS (the card game) he ended up winning, not fair! After about 2 hours of trying to figure out how to get our beds out, the train people finally came by and pulled our beds down. We kicked Matthew out for awhile so we could change, and then snuggled up and slept for the night.

Tuesday June 16th: We woke up and had a few hours before the train would stop in Madrid. We got ready for the day and had breakfast and then got off the train and almost immediately got put on a bus for a short tour of the city (We got to see La Mancha where Man of La Mancha is based). We went to our hotel then (the rooms were AMAZING! The shower had body jets, and there were two beds and a bunk bed! I got the bottom bunk.) We wandered around a few shops before going to Tapas for dinner and then going to bed.

Wednesday June 17th: We woke up and had a free day because the other people in our group from other schools were in Toledo for the day. We tried to get tickets to go as well, but we couldn't. Oh well! The free day was fun. We went to a museum and then went shopping and had a siesta (I love siestas!) We then went to another museum (the Prado) with the people who had gotten back from Toledo and I got a poster of the painting "The Garden of Earthly Delights." We then had a late dinner and slept.

Thursday June 18th: We left the hotel and got onto a bus which took us to Cordoba to see a Palace (although it may have been a church, we went to so many I get confused) We then took another bus ride to Seville and had dinner at our hotel. After dinner, we walked down to the river with Mrs. Maus's son who lives in Seville (he's studying to be a flamenco guitarist). We all got lemon slushies in our group, while the other groups got Sangria (we weren't allowed...)

Friday June 19th: We had a short bus tour of Seville and then started a walking tour. We saw a bull fight ring (there wasn't a bull fight going on at the time, thank god), a palace, and a church. At the church we walked up 34 ramps to the top of a tower, it was suprisingly refreshing to do all that uphill walking! We then had free time, so we siestaed (is that a word?) One thing I have to mention about Seville is how many birds are there. It was crazy! It was like the movie "Birds", except they weren't attacking us. Anywho, after our siesta we had dinner before going to Flamenco which was okay, but not the best. It was very hot, and I was thirsty, but I the dancing was good!

Saturday June 20th: In the morning we took a bus from Seville to Grenada to look at a Moorish Palace and it was really, REALLY hot. Also, this palace was the only place in Europe I saw a drinking fountain at. I think Europe has something against keeping people hydrated, either that or they just don't drink ever. Also, at this palace there's a place where you're supposed to be able to sing because it has perfect accoustics. Well, Mrs. Maus goes out and sings and it's fine, but when I start singing the security guard person yells at me to stop. Why me! After the palace, we drove to Costa del sol, had dinner, and went swimming at the beach near our hotel while watching the sunset. There was a sandbar pretty far out in the water so we all stood on it and watched as the sky turned pink, it was awesome. We then went back to our hotel to sleep.

Sunday June 21st/Monday June 20th: These were are last two days in Europe, and we spent them on the beach! The first day we didn't stay at the beach too long, instead we came back and went to the pool to swim (the other people from other schools were in Morocco on that day, so we were on our own.) I didn't actually go in the ocean on this day but oh well, it was still fun! On the second beach day, however, the rest of the group was back and we were all at the beach (though the Colorado group was at a different beach, thank god. I didn't want to be there when the boys in that group saw all the topless women, blech ><) So it was just us and the group from texas. We swam a bit, before me, Maja, Alex, and Christen rented a paddle boat with a slide so we could slide into the ocean. We finally got Bethany and Ellen to come out and join us on the slide (even though we were only supposed to have 4 people at once.) There were these two boys who only spoke spanish that kept trying to come out to join us too, but I think they got the message when we started paddling away. After our time with the slide was up, we went back to the hotel and had our last dinner in Spain. We said our goodbyes to everyone (we were the only group leaving, everyone else was going to Portugal after we left) and then slept before getting up and getting into taxis which took us to the Airport the next day.

I'd just like to say that if you're going to Europe TAKE A DIRECT FLIGHT. Going there we had 3 flights, and on the way back we had 4. I never slept on any of the ones going back, it was horrible. Other than that though, Europe was amazing, I highly recommend it!

Best quotes we said while in Spain:

"I don't wanna be on top of Matthew!" Me on the night train when I realized my bunk was above Matthew's
"Open up the Om-nom" Taylor, I'm not sure why she said this.
"Me and Charles are gonna match. Hello Betches" Maja, because she and Mrs. Charles bought matching pants.
"We've got the jankiest room in the hotel, but we got a bidet!" Maja when talking about our room in Seville.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Europe Trip 2009: Paris

Click title of post to see pictures!

I'd like to apologize in advanced for the lack of accents in this post!

PARIS:

Saturday June 13th: We woke up and got on the bus which first took us to Cantebury (Cantabury?). After having lunch there, we got back on the bus and drove off to where we were going to catch our ferry to France, which just happened to be Dover (you know, the place with the white cliffs). We finally got onto the ferry, and it was the largest boat I ever remember being on! The English Channel was apparently surprisingly calm that day, and we ended up just exploring the ferry, then I hung out with Kelsey and Amanda, two of the girls from Colorado that were on the trip with us, and Amanda had Mermaid Melody coloring sheets. I, of course, colored them while listening to Jeff Dunham on Amanda's ipod. The ferry docked in France (I don't remember which city) and we then took a very long bus ride to Paris. By this time, my voice decided to give out on me and I sounded like a 30 year old chain smoker, so I just decided to sleep. When we arrived in Paris, we checked into our hotel, and then walked to Flans to have pizza for dinner. We then went to our hotel to sleep, very tired.

Sunday June 14th: We had a bus tour of Paris (saw the Champs Elysses, L'arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower etc. all from our bus) and then some of us boarded a new bus to go to Versailles. Versailles was beautiful! I tried finding my foreign exchange student from August 2008, Clemence, who was also at Versailles that day but I couldn't find her... :( Still, the palace was amazing, and the grounds are absolutely huge. After Versailles, we went back to Paris and saw the outside of Notre Dame along with the Holocaust Memorial. Then was time for dinner. I got to call Clemence during dinner to explain what had happened, I was very sad I couldn't see her! After Dinner, we went to the Eiffel Tower, all the way to the top! It was possibly one of the coolest things I've ever done in my life. After spending a few hours at the tower, we went on a boat ride down the Seine. We yelled to the people on the shores (stuff like "Bonjour, comment ca va?) and most of them actually responded in french! It was very cool. After the boat ride we headed to the hotel and slept.

Monday June 15th: We woke up and went to the Louvre. It's the biggest museum I've ever been to! I saw the Mona Lisa, it's quite... small. Me, Maja, Matthew, and Mrs. Charles all walked around the Louvre for most of the day, talking about paintings and sculptures (has anybody else ever noticed that the left boob is hanging out in almost all French paintings? It was odd XD) While we were at the Louvre, Taylor, Mrs. Wolf, and Mrs. Maus all went to see the outside of the Moulin Rouge (to Taylor's dissapointment, they couldn't go inside, she was also dissapointed when they told her "no" to the Museum of Erotic Things). After our fun, we went back to the hotel, and they had found the money I had accidentally left in my room that morning, you have no idea how relieved I was! We then took a bus to the train station to await our night train to Madrid, and I had to solemnly bid Au revoir to Paris!

Best quotes we said while in Paris:

"I can see Europe from here!" Mrs. Wolf, while on top of the Eiffel Tower.
"HWB-Harems Without Benefits" Matthew, he was the only boy in our group.
"Screw it! Just say furet, it means ferret!" Me trying to teach Clover French.
"They have beastiality with ducks here." I'm not really sure who said this one actually...

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Europe Trip 2009: London

Click title of post to see pictures!

As most of you (is there a most of you? I don't even think people read this XD) don't know, I was in Europe for the past 15 days! It was with Education First, EF, and I went with 4 other people from my school (Maja, Taylor M-M, Clover, Matthew) and 3 teachers (Mrs. Maus, Mrs. Charles, Mrs. Wolf.) We stayed in London, Paris, and 3 different cities in Spain: Madrid, Seville, and Costa del Sol.

LONDON:

Our first stop, was London. Here is as much of what I can remember from our few days there!

Tuesday June 9th/Wednesday June 10th: We arrived at the airport and got on our first flight which was to Philadelphia. After a 3 over layover there, we were on our 8 hour, overnight flight to Frankfurt, Germany. We missed our flight from Frankfurt to London, so we had to wait for the next one. Once we finally arrived in London (on the 10th), we went to our rooms and relaxed before dinner. We all met in the lobby (our tour was with a group from Texas and a group from Colorado) and then took the train into London before walking to dinner. We had some sort of sausage and potato dish with a bread pudding like thing for dessert. After dinner we had a walking tour of London before going back to our rooms to sleep. During the night, I started to feel very sick (soar throat, feverish headache, chills) so I ended up going to sleep in Mrs. Maus's room so Maja (who was my roommate) wouldn't get sick as well.

Thursday June 11th: I woke up and still felt sick, but ended up going with the group anyway. We took a bus tour of London (which I unfortunately slept through, so tired!) before stopping at Buckingham Palace to watch the second half of the changing of the guard. We then walked to Harrods, which was the most unfun I had on the whole trip (the walk, I mean) I was ready to pass out from exhaustion, dehydrated, and I still felt sick. The walk (which seemed like it took forever) finally ended when we arrived at Harrods and I made a beeline (or is it b-line... what even is a bee/b line?) towards the place where you could buy water. We then went out for lunch at a place called "Eat" where I had a croissant and some fruit. I felt better after eating and resting and we went to a Museum (forgot which one) where I forced the group to go to the Japan exhibit. We also went to a fashions through the ages exhibit and one on theater as well. After the museum, we went back to Harrods and had Ice Cream which was very good for my throat :) We went to dinner at an Indian restaurant where we had curry (I don't like curry, but this was actually pretty good!) and then the people from my school and I all went to Billy Elliot. I was so tired by this point that I unfortunately fell asleep for a bit of the first act, but what I saw of the show was amazing! These kids could dance! My favorite character was Michael, Billy's gay, cross-dressing friend (I believe the character was 11 years old?) After the show, all the children actors were outside the theater and we tried to get a picture with them but they got away. We went back to the hotel then and crashed, we were all very tired.

Friday June 12th: I felt much better this day, though my throat was still sore. We went to the tower of London which houses the crown jewels (they're very sparkly!) and then went to Covent Park for lunch. Me, Mrs. Wolf, and Taylor went shopping afterwards and ended up buying a bunch of mounted pictures (mine were from twilight, Taylor's were all of Johnny Depp) We tried going to the London Dungeon next but we didn't have enough time before dinner so we had to leave. We had shepherds pie for dinner and then went on the eye! After that, we went to the hotel to sleep our last day in London over.

Best quotes we said while in London:

"I'll show you a part of London you've never seen before!" Taylor, failing at being seductive.
"I don't want to dress him up like Jesus, I want him with his clothes off!" Taylor talking about Johnny Depp.
"I feel like we're the little ducks and she's the big duck" Taylor talking about me, her and Mrs. Wolf when we were both following Mrs. Wolf.

Fanime 2009

Click on post title for pictures!

For more pictures of the Rozen Maiden gathering go here: Click!
That's a link to the 22nd page, the RM gathering is on pages 22-25!

Ok, so this is about a month late, but better late than never, n'est-ce pas? So anyway, Fanime this year was AMAZING! I'll describe each of the days in detail.

Friday May 22nd: Immediately after getting out of school for Memorial Day weekend, my dad drives me and my mom to the airport so we can board our flight. While I was at the airport, waiting for my mom to catch up with me (I walk fast) this creepy older guy had the nerve to ask if he could buy me a drink. I, of course, denied but I now have a bit of a fear of creepy guys at airports (or anywhere for that matter.) Anyway, we boarded our plane (direct flight, yay!) and finally landed in San Jose, CA. After getting our luggage much faster than we had in 2008, we got a taxi to take us to the Marriot San Jose where we would be staying for the weekend. Once in the lobby, I met up with Morgan and Liz before running upstairs to my room so I could change into my Amu cosplay (Morgan and Liz were already in Shana and Shinku cosplays respectively) We went out to dinner and then changed into our PJs before piling into Morgan and Liz's room for bedtime (Morgan's nan was in the room with us while my mom was in the other room.)

Saturday May 23rd: We woke up and changed into our Rozen Maiden cosplays (Me: souseiseki, Morgan: suiseiseki, and Liz: Shinku) We went to Pizza my Heart for our friend Bento's birthday (yay, free lunch! con food is EXPENSIVE) and afterwards went to the Rozen Maiden gathering organized by Morgan. The gathering was fun, we had 1 souseiseki, 3 suiseisekis, 1 hinaichigo, 2 shinku's, and 4 suigintous (one of which was the "male version") After countless photos it was starting to get hot, so me and morgan decided to change (me into Amu, morgan into Toph). We hung around doing random this and that for the rest of the day before going back to Morgan's room to sleep.

Sunday May 24th: Once again we woke up and changed, this time it was me as Amu, Morgan as Toph and Liz as Shinku. In the lobby of the hotel, there was a NEWS gathering which I of course joined. Afterwords, we walked around until it was time for Morgan to go to the Avatar gathering she had organized. While she was there, me and liz met up with my friend bianca and two of her friends and we all decided to [s]stalk[/s] indiscreetly follow someone who was cosplayed as Ikuto from Shugo Chara. After a while, we all went up to our rooms to change for the Black and White Ball. After arriving at the Ball, we met a bunch of really cool people that we pretty much spent the whole night talking to (whenever we weren't being asked to dance, of course) After the ball, me and two of the girls went off to the bathroom and Morgan and Liz went to their room so I had no idea where they were (aka, I was ditched) It was a pretty tense night, needless to say. I slept in the room with my mom that night.

Monday May 25th: I woke up and went to the lobby to hang out with Morgan and Liz before I had to leave. Then it was off to the airport to fly back home after an amazing weekend at Fanime 2009 :)

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Dancing Through Life

*Edit* Unfortunately all the pictures were on my old phone which got stolen :(

Ok, so in keeping with my unintentional theme of making all my post titles song names, I chose "Dancing Through Life" Which is pushing it, because it only slightly has to do with the theme of this post.

I went to the mall with my friend Tati yesterday, and we ran out of money so we decided to go to Macy's and try on prom dresses!

Tati's too young to go to prom (little 8th grader, haha!) and I got invited by 3 people but I decided not to go (so pretty much, neither of us actually needed a dress) but we decided to do it for fun.

We started out just gathering dresses (is there any other way to start?) and Tati picked out about 3... I picked out about 10 (I'm a dressaholic ^^;) And then we tried them on (once again, is there any other way to try on dresses besides... trying them on?)

I don't have the pictures we took on my computer yet, but I'll upload them ASAP!


Wednesday, April 22, 2009

As I Am

Wow, two posts in one day. I'm busy haha XD. So I've decided to just use smileys in this blog because it's too hard for me to hold back, so prepare for a bunch of them!

Rachel and Jess got the letters I sent them today! Meg still hasn't gotten hers, I hope it gets to her!

Anyways, I guess I'll make the point of this post about... things about myself I think I should work on?

Like the fact that when people are telling me something, I'll then tell them something about myself that connects. When I do this, I do it to show that "hey, we're alike! we have something in common!" but people seem to take it as more of a "hey, let's talk about me! me, me, me!" which is really not what I mean!

I think this happens to a lot of people. Well, maybe not this exact scenario, but just things that they do that everyone seems to take the wrong way.

Another thing people seem to do is kind of block off a part of themselves until you get close to them, and then all of a sudden it's like BAM! The person you thought you knew is completely different. It's scary, y'know? I wish people would just be themselves. And there are all these excuses like "I was just brought up differently" blah blah blah. Well, if you were brought up differently then you ARE being yourself aren't you? So why are you making the excuse anyways?

When I say I wish people would be themselves, I'm not talking about how some people just aren't that open and aren't all out there, I'm talking about people who keep a fairly prominent part of themselves hidden for a really long time (even when that part of them isn't that bad!) or people who act like someone else just to be accepted.

If you act like someone else in order to be accepted, YOU WILL NEVER BE ACCEPTED! Instead, the person you're pretending to be accepted will be, and sometimes, even the fake you won't be liked. For some people, I guess this seems like it wouldn't be so bad. Well those are the people that need a serious priority check. Will someone else accepting you really make you happy? Even if they accept you, won't you think to yourself "Well I still don't like myself, but at least they do... oh wait, no they don't, they like the fake me." How can that be good enough for someone?

And then there's the topic of boys. Has anyone else ever realized that pretty much all girl drama is about a boy in some way, shape, or form? And let me tell you, a boy liking you makes you feel good for about a week, and then that wears off. Fast. That's when the worry comes in "Does he like me? Am I pretty enough? What if I'm a bad kisser? etc. etc." And then if you actually get into a relationship it's good for about a month and then the initial feeling wears off and it gets [u]hard[/u].

And one more thing. If you feel like you won't be happy until you have a boyfriend, it's actually the opposite. You won't have a boyfriend until you're happy. You can't be desperate either. Guys can sense that and they usually don't find it attractive. There's someone out there for everyone, but you have to love yourself before they'll love you.

That was just my little words for the wise of today XD I guess I should go do... something now ^^; Bye~

P.S. Has anyone else noticed that all of my blog titles seem to be song titles or parts of lyrics?

What is This Feeling So Sudden and New?

I hate it when you have no idea what emotion you're feeling, or the reason you're feeling it. All I know is right now, it's not the best feeling... And on top of the weird feeling, I have all these things that I want to do, but at the same time I really don't want to. It's like, I want to curl up into a little ball and sleep for the rest of my life, but I also don't.

There are certain things that kind of feel like a force feild around me, and although I know part of me wants to get rid of those things, another part of wants to keep them. It's like if I just get rid of them, I'll be out in the open and vulnerable. This isn't really the best analogy but it's the closest I can get to putting it in words ^^;

I don't know, maybe this is what depression feels like? I really don't think I'm depressed, but maybe I am?

And the worst part: I have NO idea what caused this.

Well, I do have some idea (I'm pretty sure I know the general cause) but I have no idea what the specific reason is. I don't even feel like talking, which is really weird for me.

I think I'll watch Kirarin Revolution. It's such a mindless and cute show! Then I'll listen to Evanescence when I'm falling asleep. It's weird how intense music like that makes me feel better when I'm sad while happy music makes me feel worse.

Or maybe I'll do some singing. That usually makes me feel better (not always though, depends on how cooperative my voice is being that day. Haha.)

(I am trying very hard right now not to fill this post with smileys, I usually use them A LOT XD Oh, look one slipped out ^^; ... and another one)

Everyone should also check out my youtube account! sagashiteXsearching.

Anyways, I suddenly feel a lot better. Not really sure why, but I'm not complaining! I have to go do homework now (suprise suprise) I'll post again soon!

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Good Golly, Miss Molly!

Bonjour! Je m'appelle Molly et ceci est mon blog. (Hello! My name is Molly and this is my blog)

Thought I'd just start out with some French their, but my native language is English (I randomly use French and Japanese words, they just slip out sometimes. Haha!) Well, I've had this blog for about 2 years now, but I decided to give it a face lift and pretty much just start over, and to start starting over, I'm going to introduce myself!

Well, as I said before my name is Molly. I'm a fairly average 16 year old (though people have told me I'm mature for my age... I don't beleive them XD) who goes to an art school. I'm a theater major at my school, but I also love to sing. I actually am an actor/model (I have agents... ok that makes it sounds like I have body guards...) but I'm starting to rethink that career choice. At this very moment, I'm debating between many careers: Vet, Psychologist, Astronomer, Biologist, Chemist, Forensic Scientist (The list goes on!) Of course I'm still open to being an actor or a model, but my passion really lies in science (and singing, I'd rather sing than act ><)

On the other end of my interest spectrum, is my love for Japan. I'm into anime/manga and I also love the pop culture there. I love cosplaying too, it's fun and people take lots of pictures of you ^^ (I like pictures... usually) I'm trying to figure out how to put pictures in my posts... (It's not working D:)

Speaking of me not being able to figure something out, I'm actually really ditzy sometimes. I'm smart (get all A's, high IQ blah blah blah) but sometimes my common sense decides to run away and I say/do really ditzy things (I asked what a sink was once...) I'm also really gullible which I guess could mean I'm too trusting of people, but I'm not sure if that's really a bad thing all the time.

I love being on stage and performing, but I don't usually like watching other performances (I'm too dang critical of others because I'm an actor myself) I'm also really critical of myself, and I worry way too much (Why am I spilling out all my faults in a blog XD)

Well anyways, there's much, much more I could write about, but for the time being, I should really finish my homework... So I guess I should go. If anybody actually reads this, thanks XD Ciao!