It Made My Day

Good Guy Molty...[]

IMMD: actually practiced with my new sword for the first time today

IMMD:



OH SHIT

CALM DOWN SIR

HOOOOOLLLYYYYYYYYY SHHIIIITTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!

IMMD: I think I forgot to mention, but about two weeks ago I got accepted into OU (Univerity of Oklahoma), I have yet to apply for a scholarship, and already I have earned one from the university itself.

Congrats Molty! []

IMMD: got accepted into the study abroad program I was trying for! Went to China, now I'm going to Ireland for a semester at a school kinda near Dublin. Currently the rest of my family is in London, so I'm competing with them

Travelcube wrote:IMMD: got accepted into the study abroad program I was trying for! Went to China, now I'm going to Ireland for a semester at a school kinda near Dublin. Currently the rest of my family is in London, so I'm competing with them

Way to make us feel like boring, cultureless peasants, but congratulations, that does sound awesome. :3 Also, China? How was it to study there?

Oh hush Tasha, you already live in Europe. China was absolutely incredible, despite knowing about as much mandarin as a rather clever parrot. UD has an extremely nice abroad school there, so classes were taught basically the same as if I had stayed home. Very friendly people (at least where I was) who were very understanding of my vocab. What's weird about China is that it seems like they keep everything clean but the air. Also, some places have the stereotypical shoulder to shoulder congestion, but other places, specifically where I lived, had roads with one car a minute.

The locations are historic, but not the content. Typically, if it's not a museum piece, it's a reproduction. I went to the Humble Administrator's Garden, a garden which dates back to 400 BC, and did not see a single thing older than I was.

Chinese people are extremely racist against Japanese people. Extremely. I was talking to a Chinese friend about what he thought after we left the Nanjing massacre museum and he said, word for word, "When I grow up I will kill all the Japanese." Granted, this is like asking a Jew leaving a Holocaust museum what he thinks of Germans.

Nationalism is still extremely strong. I have an anecdote about that I'll save for later.

Everyone smokes. Cigarettes are still marketed to kids in China, so teen smoking is actually on the rise there, unlike the rest of the world.

Freshwater pearls are so cheap you can finance a trip purely by flying to China on credit, buying pearls, flying home, and selling them there. Bought some lovely gifts for family that are probably worth $500+ here. I spent less than $30.

That's the other thing: everything is cheap unless it's imported. I survived for 4 weeks by spending less than $250. The dollar is strong.

All in all, I loved my trip, I'll never go back.

I took somewhere around 500 photos, but because awful internet I can't upload that many. Here's a small album though. Last one is actually Waikiki Beach, Hawaii, where I also studied.

Bonus pics of where I lived:

man i wish i had the ability to travel. just for a while of course

IMMD: I got a new job. I'm now a Technicien in medical equipment. So yeah, I fix and work on medical machines. Like, I work for hospitals. Every North American hospitals by the way... So if you go in an hospistal, your life is in my hands

.... i'm scared now

And I learned that we also have every US military bases... In the world.

Stef, for the last time

Sneaking into hospitals and military bases to tinker with medical machines does NOT mean you work for them!

But in all seriousness, that's awesome news, AM

I DUN PASSED ME ALL MY CLASSES!

I'm disgustingly proud, I have the pdf file with my grades open in a tab to stare at every so often. The lowest grade I got was still 70%, and I even got a 90% on my Maths for IT course. I'm the only girl in the course and I got the best grades, I kind of want to send all the sexist guys in my class group my grade card.
One step closer to being Codepanda!

Party! ☺

W00t! Ik ben zo trots op je, slimme panda! Koekjes voor de panda! []

Well done you! I'd rub your head affectionately as a gesture of goodwill and pride, but I can't do that right now, so in lieu of that, look at these pandas!

IMMD: It's Friday....[]

IMMD: So another instructor and I have a program at a park district that we just finished a 10-week "cycle" with. One of the families from that cycle have moved on from the satellite location to the main academy.
They sent an email about us to the main academy.
Here is said email.



WE HELPED SOMEONE OH MY GOSH WE LOOKED SO GOOD YES I AM SO PROUD OF MYSELF I'M SO HAPPY I'M AN INSPIRATION YES I HAVE SO MANY WARM FUZZIES RIGHT NOW

I thought this was pretty neat.

IMMD: I have officialy graduated High School

Congratulations!