FREE HUGS, Christmas, Huge Life Dump!

Ok so my last post didn't go so well...it was boring. So here's an interesting one! AFTER SO LONG @_@

So anyway Vaughn is probably like the coolest person on Earth. He had the best idea ever on a boring Saturday!

Part 1 - Give this stuff out:



They're "Happy Holidays" cards with money inside :)

Part 2 - GIVE FREE HUGS DOWNTOWN ON THE MALL






Vaughn told me he got well over 80 hugs from complete strangers and ended up in quite a few pictures. At one point a group came and got a picture, and then some other guy gave him a hug. The guy then proceeded to move toward one of the tourist group members, so Vaughn quickly called out "HUGS ALL AROUND!" and so then everyone nearby, about 20 or 30 people, hugged each other. Simply amazing.

Later that night, while he was in Dupont Circle, a teenager approached him. He came up and introduced himself as Zack. Vaughn described him as looking nice and about 15 or 16. He told him that he'd had a big fight with his parents so he was running away. Zack asked about Dupont Circle at night. Vaughn told me he was thinking "No, not at all. It's cold, lonely, and dangerous." Zack asked if he knew a place where he could stay; Vaughn said he didn't. So he bought Zack dinner from Subway and called the St. Luke's Homeless Shelter to pick him up and take him somewhere warm.
SUCH A KIND, AWESOME BROTHER!


Let's see, how about now I talk about Christmas-ITWASAMAZING!

Christmas Eve:
Spanish family came over for most of the day, and my grandparents from Florida came up :)
I completely forgot how FUN AND COOL they are! So we spent most of the day with them. Then we went to a service at the church that Chloe (cousin, 14), Nicole (cousin, 6), and I all participated in a little. That was kind of fun...but the real fun was AFTER!

After the church service, all our family came back home and the cousins, Vaughn, and I played Rock Band for a little while. Then a nice young lady from church came and joined us for dinner. Then the church's master (lol, she knows everything and it's like her second home) came and joined us too! So we had 10 family members and 2 church members over for our EXCELLENT DINNER OF PANCAKES, my favorite food!! :D


CHRISTMAS:
Ah, Christmas. We (all family minus Spaniards, who are staying in my other gparents' house) all woke up and quickly wrapped all our gifts (heh, we fail, especially me :P). Then we went down and did our stockings, which is a big deal for my mother's side of the family. That was really fun. Then we had a light breakfast and proceeded to gifts. Originally, the Spaniards were going to join us but decided not to. So the 8 of us opened all our gifts. Here's a list of the wonderful things I got:

AN ELECTRIC GUITAR AND AN AMP! YEEEEEEEEEEES AMAZING AND UNEXPECTED
A nice shirt and pants
6 pairs of awesome socks
Portable iPod speakers
The World Ends With You (Nintendo DS game)
Electric razor :P
Assorted food/candy in stocking

Really good loot this year! (Heh..I love using the word loot - thanks to Calvin and Hobbes!) After presents, the Spaniards came, and we had our Christmas lunch (not dinner lol) with another church friend. Then we all went on a short walk! AFTER alll that, everyone went home except for the gparents, and I went upstairs and tuned my guitar and played around...

Today (well now it's yesterday):
Today my Uncle Mark, Chloe, Vaughn, and I went downtown to the National Geographic building (museum?). We went through a really cool whale exhibit and then took some NICE pictures in the courtyard-area. Check out my Facebook for those pictures and more. Then we went into Georgetown to let Chloe look in all the shops and plan for her trip down there with her mother (who has the shopping $$). THEN we all went to see Marley & Me, which was really good. But it was SAAAAD. So many people were crying, especially little Nicole. She just couldn't stop. Honestly, I almost did. Marley and Major are both labs, just Marley is white. But they looked alike! So it was VERY SAD to watch near the end. I had to bite down hard on my tongue. And I know anyone who doesn't know me would be tempted to say I'm soft, or weak, or whatever else, but you're wrong. If you've ever had a dog, or still have one, this will get you. I swear, you'd have to be heartless not to react at all. But anyway...good movie, even better book. Read the book then see the movie!


SO THAT'S BEEN MY LIFE FOR THE PAST TIME :D
I really don't have much to say except I really need to learn Spanish! I want to understand and speak to my family in Spanish! I REALLY DO! :)


MERRY TIME AFTER CHRISTMAS AND
HAPPY ALMOST SORT OF NEW YEAR!

Miniminimini post...ummmmmm except not at the end

This is really short. Because I don't feel like writing. So yeah.

Uh, school is good. I'm like 90-95% done with my personal project. The Personal Project Fair is one week from today. Then it's all over!

Break is at the end of next week ANDICANTWAIT but yeah.

Vaughn's coming down tonight. He's staying through after Christmas sometime.

I like pandas.

Uh uh uh...I'm making more friends? Life is going well. It's almost time to do our preliminary choices for the IB program next year. I'm just gonna explain that really quickly...

So Middle School, 9th, and 10th grades make up the Middle Years Program for the International Baccalaureate program (IB). 11th and 12th are the like the actual IB Program. So we have to pick our classes, which are divided into 6 groups:

Group 1 - First Language (Language A1)
English A1
Spanish A1
French A1
Dutch A1

This is your native language. For me it's English (haha well duh...)

Group 2 - Second Modern Language
French A2
Spanish A2
Dutch A2
English A2 (non-native speakers)

French B
Spanish B
Dutch B
English B?

French/Spanish/Dutch ab initio*
Almost any other language ab initio*

*Course is designed for beginners (don't know anything about the language)

Group 3 - Social Sciences
History
Geography
Economics

Group 4 - Experimental Sciences
Biology
Chemistry
Physics
Environmental Systems and Societies

Group 5 - Mathematics
Math
Math Studies

Group 6 - Arts and Electives
IB Art
IB Theater
IB Music
IB Computer Science
OR ANY COURSE FROM GROUPS 1-4

In addition: each course can be taken at the Standard or Higher level. HL meets more times per 8-day cycle than SL and is generally harder (ie. more material, or more compositions, or more literature, etc.)

Most students take 3 HL and 3 SL, plus an AMDJ (Arts, Music, Drama, Journalism--NOT an elective; elective is separate) course. You aren't required to take any HL classes, and the max is 4, but only if you can make a good case why you should be allowed to take 4.


So now that I've confused you, I'll let you know what cours-I'll take your wallet! Haha no...these are the courses I think I might take:

English A1 Higher
French B Higher (possibly French A2 Standard)
IB Art Higher

Math Standard
History Standard
Biology Standard
AMDJ: ?

I would really like to take Spanish or Japanese ab initio though...we'll see what happens.


OK SO now that I've bored you and all that with IB blahblah and random junk...I dunno. There's not much else to talk about. Oh how about Christmas Break!

So through Christmas I'll be here in DC. As I said, Vaughn's coming down tonight. My grandparents from Florida are coming up on Christmas Eve. Then, the day after Christmas, we all go down to someplace in South Carolina to meet up with my cousins and family. Should be pretty fun.

Ok yeah I really need to end this post I'm even getting bored with it. So yeah that's my life for now.

Just when you thought it was safe...

WE'RE BAAAAAACK.

So yeah, the cabin we rented was AWESOME! As I said, we drove 8 hours the first day and 4 the next to get there. First we stopped by our cousins' house which is pretty sweet. That's where we met up with the grandparents and all (10 of us total). And I met the family bird which I didn't know existed! COOL.

So from there we drove our little caravan an hour to the cabin, which was large and very cool. I wish I could live there...All the kids and Vaughn stayed down in the basement, boys (Vaughn, Josh 12, Aaron 14, myself) in one room and the only girl (Hannah 12) in the other (large cabin, large basement).

The first day we didn't do much but play Super Smash Bros. Brawl and hide and seek. We just hung out, and then we had a picnic in Callaway Gardens. Callaway Gardens is pretty cool. I've been there before, and they've got a bunch of things to do. Check it out sometime.

So now it's Day 2, and it's time for us to celebrate our grandparents' 50th anniversary (IMPRESSIVE!). We went back to Callaway Gardens and swam in the man-made lake for 20 minutes or so, then we drove around looking at houses and stuff. Then the real celebration started. We all got nicer clothes on and went to this fancy restaurant with cool food. Nice place! Vaughn took pictures with this AMAZING lens he rented, and it was just an awesome place. Nice food, awesome setting outside.

When we got home from the restaurant, we had a family celebration. Josh and Aaron performed a funny rhyme thing, my uncle Vaughn played had written his parents a song, my aunt Angie and my mom wrote letters to them, my dad shared some memories, and Vaughn and I each wrote them a note. In the end, my mom presented a scrapbook that she had been working on. The week before she emailed a bunch of my grandparents' friends and family and had them write congrats letters. She put them all in the scrapbook and really surprised her parents. Awesome! Oh and we had cake.

The cousins and I did manage to have a lot of fun. The twins, Hannah and Josh each came up with a personal high five with me, which they LOVED. All of us together played Brawl on the Wii, and we played SO MUCH hide and seek, which was pretty fun given the size of the cabin. I was the bomb at that. I hid cramped under a sink, and in dark, tight spots. I was the master. Then Aaron got out Guitar Hero 3. I was expecting him to be pretty decent, but not amazing or anything considering he's not too good at other video games. And then he started playing. He went straight to Expert and immediately impressed EVERYONE IN THE CABIN with his extreme skill. It was almost inhuman. SCARY GOOD. He blew us all away. Just wow. COOOOOOL.

Oooooooook, well now that I've absolutely filled your heads with unnecessary family junk, I'll talk about the DUN DUN DUN xxx-Ride Home-xxx. We decided we were going to do all 12 hours in one day, which really isn't too bad considering we left at 11:00 or so. We were making decent progress, but then we stopped at a mall for food for an hour. Then we stopped again like 3 hours later, then again after that. We kept losing time everywhere! We even stopped at a Target and shopped a little. Not good. By the time we got home, it was 2 in the morning and we were all bored and TIRED. BLEEEEEEEH. I'm STILL tired now. Yuck.

Well, now I'm back and the next trip isn't until the end of the month when I COME UP TO PITTSBURGH! YEAH MAN! I'M COMING UP! W0000000T!

So yeah...see ya.

Tra La La

I'm leaving for Atlanta today! I get to see the remaining cousins from my mom's side of the family! Hooray fun! Oh and we're going for my grandparents' 50th anniversary! WOWZAH!

So yeah, we're driving 12 hours to get there. We're splitting it up over 2 days, but we're *hopefully* driving 8 hours today, 4 tomorrow. BLEH. Not fun.

Fortunately, I am fully prepared to entertain myself for at least 2 hours or so...I bought some TV episodes from Itunes that I plan to cram onto my Ipod and watch. And I always have music. And I have to write something for my grandparents, too. So I should have plenty to do. :) Ooh! And we're staying in this cool cabin when we get there! Should be pretty awesome! And my cousin is bringing his Wii with GH3 which is even more AWESOME!! W00T!!!

So yeah this summer has been a very cousin-packed summer! Considering I don't really have friends I can hang out with, that's good. Thank goodness for 9 younger cousins! Well actually, 3 are close to my age (13,14,15), 2 are 11-yr-old twins, and then ages 4,6,6, and 8. Not bad. At least I don't have little baby cousins anymore. Or creeper 30-yr-old MARRIED cousins! O_O


So yeah, I'll be back in a few days maybe? We'll see how long it takes us.

All Gone!/Busy Day!

Well, everyone's gone! All the cousins are finally gone! I'm both happy and sad; sad that they're gone, happy to be FREE!

So yeah, yesterday was rockin' awesome! I started off the day slow, but it soon picked up. From 1:30 to 3:30, I biked NINE miles with Vaughn to my grandparents' house where I met my Spanish cousins for the last time until Christmas or later next year. Then we got a ride home at 5:00 or 5:30 and got some food when it started to POUR. It was raining so much that water was flowing down the streets at a steady pace. Very cool. When we got home, Vaughn and I decided we weren't in such a hurry to get inside. So we (Vaughn) built a dam and we made a *two-inch* deep pool of water under our deck. Playing in the rain isn't just for small children. Mwahahahahaha...

So yeah, I'll add some pictures from the bike ride straight from my phone in a little bit.

Me want watch / Family 'nat

So yeah, today I watched one of the newer episodes of Avatar and I REALLY LIKED IT. So I went online and I was like
"Ok, so let's see what I've missed...Wikipedia > Avatar > Episode Guide! There we go!"

Well, I'm finally caught on the first 2 "books". Whoo. Whatever. I really want to watch the new ones that are coming on today and tomorrow and then *GASP* there's a TV MOVIE. But I can't watch that because, well, it's nothing much just, I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT'S GOING ON. Too bad.

So yeah, enough sounding like a nerd and moving on...

So my cousin Megan has decided to be baptized into our church on Sunday! YES! HOORAY! This is awesome news. I'm happy. She's taking baptism "classes" with my parents and she seems to actually have a desire to join the church! YEAH!

My other cousin, Chloe (the Spanish one who IM'ed a bunch of you a few years ago...X_X), is taking a bunch of classes and stuff. Last week, while I was at Sr. High camp, she was away at Jazz Camp. Apparently she had a recital that I totally missed. :/ Well now this week she's taking guitar classes. I was offered to go and STUPIDLY DUMBLY IDIOTICALLY refused. GAH! I mean, seriously, she gets to borrow an electric guitar and TAKE IT HOME. GAAAAH I WANT TO LEARN TOO!

...Yeah, I really want to learn how to play the guitar. REALLY DO. I'd also like to learn Japanese, but I'll stick with guitar for now...

So yeah, back to nerdiness: it turns out cousin Megan was in a talent show and as far as I know SHE SANG A STAR WARS SONG. OMG. NO WAAAY. So yeah while I'm thinking about it, brb. I need to email my grandpa...

..k back. So anyway I really need to see the videos from Chloe's jazz recital and Megan's talent show. But I gotta go to bed now @_@ goodnight!

--Awesome!

Chloe y Nicole!

So today my cousins flew in from Spain (yes, Spain!) and visited les Estados Unidos. They're thirteen (Chloe) and seven (Nicole) and they flew BY THEMSELVES here to America. Nicole was pretty zonked so she took a nap but when she came up for some din' she was cute :).

Chloe spent like 2 hours on the computer talking to friends...poor girl.

So anyway, for the next few days, something like 4 or 5, I'll be up in Deer Park in PA for a reunion. I'll talk about THAT when I get back. Oh, I'll be up there with EVERYONE from my dad's side of the family:
Chloe and Nicole
The Elbins (Aunt Lisa, Ryan 8, Megan 13)
The Hodges (Aunt Lynn, Uncle Rick, Riley 6, Ellery 4)
Wallace Grandparents

Lots of fun already and coming up!