Survival Guide : Living with 10 Girls

I can not even begin to display the struggle of living with 10 girls. At this point, I'm shaming myself for complaining about living with 3 other girls at states. Living with 10 other girls at nationals is ridiculous, crazy, kind of gross, and a lot of fun.  However, I realize that if I'm going survive living in such an estrogen filled environment with a bunch of wild gorillas, it's my social obligation to create some tips for any other people who may be in this situation in the future.

Tip #1: CLAIM YOUR TERRITORY
Girls typically are very nice at first, so if there's a side of the bed that you prefer or you have a preference for more closet space, claim it and QUICKLY!

Tip #2: Be 1st
If you are the first person, you have 1st dibs and whatever you are getting is untouched.

Tip #3: Invest in Headphones
There is nothing more beautiful than your music blocking out all of the wild teenage girl raucous when you are trying to focus. Headphones keep you on task and out of trouble. Headphones are also the universal signal for "leave me alone" and it can help you avoid uncomfortable and awkward conversation. Headphones are life and you should observe them as so.

Becoming an Unexpected Translator

Today I went to the airport to go to California for nationals. As I was standing in line to check my bag, a woman behind me says in broken English that she's from Beijing while trying to talk to the person behind her in line.  I started talking to her in Chinese. Speaking with a native must have made me nervous so I ended up having messy grammar and apologizing for such things afterwards. So I begin to check my bag and she comes next to me to check hers.  The attendant is clearly oblivious to the fact that this woman doesn't speak English and she doesn't know how to operate the machine that is only in English. I take my 2nd chance at using my Chinese and ask her if I can help her (我帮你吗？. She says ＂对＂ meaning correct. She gives me her information and I check her bags in for her. Then I tell her "it's nice meeting you" (认识你很高兴） and I continue to my destination. Later on the plane, I hear report that she didn't understand one of the attendants when she was trying to ask about the whereabouts of her luggage. When our plane lands to drop off some people in New Orleans, I mouth to her to （请坐）please sit, for we have not yet gotten to our destination. As soon as we were approved to stand, she ran to me and I asked her (你好吗？） "how are you? Are you good?" And she starts talking about her luggage. I told her that her luggage would be in California when she got there. I then directed her to the restroom and she looked very grateful. We finally get to LA and she made her way to baggage claim and she came up to me and said "my husband" and points at a man. She asks me where I'm from and where I learned to speak Chinese so well. Eventually, we both find our luggage and she gives me a hug. That was the most amazing experience. I was able to  utilize the Chinese to actually be able to help someone. Every minute I spent studying in intensive language programs was worth it just for that one experience.

The Most Valuable Zero

 I originally started this blog as a way to extra credit in my Psychology class. My posts started to veer away from psychology specific  topics and started to focus more on the things that occur in my crazy beautiful life. I waited 2 months to find out what I scored on the extra credit. I look on the grade book and I see a zero with a comment from my teacher. My teacher has left a note that says "I'm proud of you". This is the most valuable zero or F that I have ever received on an assignment. I naturally want to do well in every aspect of my lie, especially academically, however, out of all the grades I have earned, this zero meant the most to me. I took what supposed to be a temporary online project and made it something of my own. I even told my teacher when I turned in the assignment that I am so happy that this extra credit provided incentive for me to have my own blog. This extra credit has turned into more than a project for any class, it has turned into an empowering learning experience. I am learning about myself as I am reviewing my thoughts. I'm learning about boundaries and what should/shouldn't be released to the public. I am learning about promotion and marketing to increase blog views and popularity. This is the most valuable F that I have ever earned. I proudly flaunt my zero, for even the person who designed this extra credit said that they were proud of me. More importantly, I am proud of myself.

The Breakfast Club

Last night, I felt inspired to watch the Breakfast Club. This movie is very popular and has been referenced in many aspects of current pop culture.

My Movie Review: The Breakfast Club
This movie makes detention and the 80's seem cool. The cinematography was excellent. It was both simple and complex. The scenes were only in the library, the hallway, and the cars where the teens were dropped off. Clearly, this movie was not that of which had a very high budget. This movie also had frequent pauses of silence. I'm not sure if that was to emphasize the last thing that was said or if there wasn't any solid background music that would properly fit it those spaces. Yet, the movie had this beautiful complexity to it There are 5 different types of people who seem to have nothing in common, yet they all end up having that experience with each other to share. The movie definitely reflected 80's values and 80's insensitivities. All in all, the movie was very good, especially when considering the technology they had at that time.

Think Before You Speak

STORYTIME:
There's this one kid whose involved with one of my clubs. For the sake of the story we will call him Person X. So Person X is typically very annoying and tends to speak whatever comes to mind whatever it comes to mind. So throughout the year, I have maintained a distant and emotionally safe with Person X. I have even ignored all foolish and rude comments he's made this year and even about me. However, today was the last straw... on that camel's back... that broke that camel's back. He calls me and asks me to help him with an assignment that he will read in front various large audiences. I decide to help him. Then, he says to me," I'm sorry, but I'm going to jab you a little bit". I respond with "what does that mean?" He replies with "I'm going to say 'unlike this year's treasurer [me], I'm actually going to raise money'". I am befuddled and offended for multiple reasons. Person X has not been present for any fundraisers that I have spearheaded, nor has he approached me personally before blatantly insulting me. I simply tell him how rude that was and say "Goodnight Person X" before I hang up the phone.

ANALYSIS
I don't have to help anyone I don't want to help. I am a generous and genuine person who is typically willing to help. However, if I, in anyway, feel that. I am being abused or mistreated, I will not allow the abuser to take up any more of my time. Time is very valuable to me because I tend to stay busy, so for Person X to take up my time just so he can insult me is a clear sign of disrespect. I understand that a person won't know how appreciate something that is just given to them so he will no longer be given anymore of my time. Person X did attempt call and text me afterwards, but as I said, the abuser will not be allowed to take up any more of my time.

Furious 7

Furious 7 has overwhelmed me with a series of emotions. I watched it on IMAX and I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. There were things exploding and beautiful cars everywhere. The movie had no best part because the entire thing was dripping with amazing-ness. I noticed all the tiny nuances and previous movie references. At the very end, when they played back Paul Walker's main clips as a tribute, I was overcome with a feeling of nostalgia. The Fast & Furious movies are really important to me. The Fast and the Furious was my first action movie. I have watched the whole collection several times and felt a connection to the movies and all the people in it. They were and they are my familia and this movie is a great addition to the collection.
 I think it's really interesting that something so seemingly small like a movie can have so much value to an individual.

All of my Fast & Furious Family

A Devil in Disguise

STORYTIME
Beware of the devil in disguise. This can occur few times in life, but the best well known occurrence  is open book tests. Students know that this inspires teachers to make the test significantly harder than it would have been closed book. I really don't know why my classmates were cheering today when my AP World History told us we could use books on the 70 question test that had to be completed within 60 minutes. As one can infer, the key to this test is speed. HOWEVER, people are so enthralled with this perceived blanket of comfort, they don't realize that it's actually suffocating their personal confidence in their AP World skills as well as killing their chances of actually completing the entire test. Even I can't say that I wasn't tempted by the blanket of comfort, I actually had a book under my desk just in case I wanted to use it during the test. However, since there was one person who wanted the book more than myself, I gave it to them. I thank that person for most likely saving me from this very tempting poison.

ANALYSIS
The reason this type of testing is really inconvenient is because we don't ever use the method of testing with a book. It also provides the person a false sense of security that they have a high accuracy. Even in the event that the accuracy is high, the use of the book searching for the answers is extremely time consuming, forcing you to guess on the last 20 questions. Thus, compromising the final score of the test, and eliminating any data that could be used to find out how much you actually know. Although I wasn't 100% on half the questions, I still scored a 76 (translates to a 4 on the AP exam) without the book which means I knew more than I thought I did. Yay :)