That "End of the School Year" buzz.

It's exciting. Because school is almost out. Less than a week left, and everyone is stressed and excited. Stressed to study for final exams, and finish final projects.

This term, a lot of my classes have final projects instead of tests. Only 3 out of my 8 classes have an actual test. Which is kind of cool, because on finals day, your project is already done, and the most you have to do is a presentation or report.

It's also great, because as junior, many of my classes had seniors in them. "Had," because seniors had their last day a week before we get out. So now many of my classes are less in number. The hallways are certainly less crowded without any seniors.

And now, I'm technically, "the top dog," at school. Now I'm the upperclassman, and there is literally no student above me grade-wise. Which is kind of scary. You'd think it'd be exhilarating, but it scares me how old I am. Part of me still feels like a wimpy freshman. I still get pushed in the halls, but hey, now I'm more justified to push back.

This year, my AP Psychology class had a final project instead of a test. This assignment was certainly much different than any other final project I've done before. We were assigned to do a community service project, using our own unique talents, and to give a relaxed report about it on the last day of school.

As soon as I heard this project, I was excited. I am into service, and when I hear, "unique talent," I immediately think of my art. So I was fairly sure I wanted to do some sort of painting at my school. I was thinking in the hallway, on a wall, where there have been paintings before. I partnered up with my friend, and we painted on the wall. It was a great experience, which I will elaborate on later in a different post, but I just wante to touch base on that final project.

Overall, the end of the school year can be bittersweet. You won't see everyone everyday like you do during the school year, but now you don't have to deal with school work. You can go on vacation, sleep in, hang out with friends, etc. So I am excited, but also sad to leave. At least I have my senior year ahead of me. :)

Last week of blogging. :(

Well, it looks like this is going to be the last week of blogging. Just confirmed the The Doctor himself. At first, I was happy. It'll be great to be on break. But at the same time, I think blogging has finally grown on me. I've finally gotten the flow of generating decent ideas weekly, and I've basically kept up on blogs this term. So yeah, I'll be a little sad to not have it anymore.

But hey, I might keep my blog anyway. Who am I blogging to? No idea. Probably just friends from the same class. But I will be traveling a lot this summer, so I will have a lot to blog about. Plus, it'll keep me writing this summer, and I sure do want to keep writing.

And now, I can even stretch my topics further. Maybe I'll post poems or short stories. That would be fun. So yeah, I think I will keep my blog. :)

It's really fun sometimes, just writing. No one particularly listening, but maybe someone surfing the internet will come across one of your posts. Maybe someone from Russia or Latin American  country finds my blog, reads a post, is slightly inspired, then never reads it again. I like the idea of being an anonymous blogger on the internet.

And I've found a lot of other blogs I like a lot. Ones that have to do with particular interests of mine, or just have to do with people's lives.

One of those blogs includes one by an American who is teaching English in Korea. It's just really cool to hear stories and input from someone in that position, considering I'm into the East Asian cultures. It's reading a narrative of a real person, but is also reminiscent of reading realistic fiction. And I love fiction.

Ehh, I don't even care if no one will read my blog. I enjoy writing, and I think it will help me, and open my mind.

Thank you. :)

Nail Art.

Painting my nails isn't something I ever did a whole lot, and I still don't. But when my mom offers for us to go out for a mani/pedi, how can I resist? Sometimes, I get inspired to do a cool design on my own for my nails.

Lately, I've seen a lot of cool and new nail painting techniques. Both on the internet and in person. One of those techniques came out about a year ago, and is called "Cracked."

Also known as Shatter or Crackle, the Cracked polish is applied over a base color of your choice, and the polish seems to "shrink" into the random blotches that it dries as. I have never tried the polish myself, but I've seen many cool things done with it. Black shatter over a gold base coat results in a leopard print theme.

Nowadays, I've seen many new things being done with normal colors, done in layers and patterns. Some of those styles are done with tape.

A base coat is applied, and let dry. Then you can cut strips of tape, and stick it on in the pattern you want. With the tape on, apply a coat of another color on top. Then the tape is taken off, and the nail polish is left to dry. (You may or may not have to let it dry before you take off the tape; I have not tried for myself yet.)

In the example (and blurry, sorry) picture, the girl did rainbow stripes as a base (now ain't that fancy), then a black overcoat with three skinny diagonal stripes.

The next style is something that I will for sure be trying this summer.

This is done with a similar technique as the last one, by using tape. A base color is applied, and let dry. Then you put tape on, revealing only the ends of your nails. The color of your choice is applied to the revealed nail tip. Let dry, then take off the tape, and you have polychromatic French tips.

The example picture used yellow as a base, and red on her tips.

Another trend I've seen is using a nail art pen, where you can draw on the dried nail polish coat.

I bought one of these in silver about a week ago. I haven't used it yet, but I'm excited to. Some really cool designs can be made with these now. Much more complicated, elaborate, and skilled aesthetic designs, in the past only been done in the salon.

I love these nails. It would take forever to do them though. If I could successfully though, then it'd be so worth it. Challenge for this summer? I think so.

Makeup.

Makeup. Makeupmakeupmakeupmakeup. What does it mean to you?

Being high school, I see many people who have different opinions on makeup. Girls who can't go a day without wearing makeup. Girls who refuse to put any on. Girls in between. Guys who like girls with makeup, guys who prefer when a girl doesn't wear any. I've met people with all of these points of view. Personally, I think many people depend too much on their makeup.

Now, just looking at the girls' point of view, I can see why you would wear makeup. I understand why many put on makeup every day. I wear makeup, but certainly not every single day. I can also see why you wouldn't wear any makeup. In fact, I have a lot of respect for girls who are completely content with themselves not wearing makeup. But honestly, I don't love it when girls cake it on every single day, because they think they look ugly without it. I love the idea of natural beauty, and I like when a girl can show up somewhere without wearing makeup, and not feel like they're just being lazy.

Honestly, usually you can find me wearing makeup. One or two days out of a week, I won't be wearing any. When I do wear some, I don't wear a lot. In fact, quite a small amount. Basically, I stick to the eyeliner and mascara. If it's a formal occasion, and I want to look extra fancy, I will put on a little eye shadow.

I used to do the whole shebang. Foundation, blush, eye shadow, eyeliner, mascara. It certainly didn't give me the overboard look, but it was what I did when I first started wearing makeup. So what happened? Basically, I got lazy. I also started to dislike the feel of wearing foundation. I felt like I was wearing a mask (that statement can definitely be taken either literally or metaphorically. Honestly, I originally meant literally). I began by skipping foundation, then skipping foundation and blush. For a while, I just did eye shadow, eye liner, and mascara. Then I just skipped eye shadow altogether.

I am content with how I look with just the last two. Personally, I think my eyes are kind of small, so eye liner and mascara emphasizes them, and makes them pop. On average, it takes me about thirty seconds to put on my usual makeup. I am very proud of that achievement. Not wearing any makeup has a different impression on me each time. Sometimes it is just due to laziness. Other times, it makes me feel fresher, not having anything on my face. I also don't like the commitment that comes with wearing a lot of makeup. You put it on in the morning, and you basically want it to stay that way all day. But foundation rubs off, eye shadow smears. I tend to touch my face a lot, so I found that I was thinking a lot about my foundation, because sometimes it would rub of on my hand.

I don't like having to constantly think about makeup during the day. With just the basics on my eyes, I don't have to mess with it at all. I can forget about it after I put it on, which is really nice.

More Japanese Fashion.

I can tell how much you loved my Japanese Fashion post. Actually, I have no idea. I'm just posting this because it's what I want to talk about. Maybe you'll enjoy it anyway.

My fashion post was basically just a little preview to fashion ideals of Japan. I am no expert, but I can do research, get pictures, and share experiences with foreign exchange students.

One thing I'm going to point out first, is that the diverse fashion is not acceptable in school. As you may or may not know, Japanese schools are extremely strict. You MUST wear uniforms. There is no makeup, piercings, hair dye, perms, and boys can't grow out their hair. This may seem contradictory with the following photo:

The people in this photo do have dyed hair, pierced ears, and are indeed wearing makeup. The conclusion to draw from this? They're out of school. Simple as that. There is no breaking rules in a Japanese school, because you WILL get kicked out. A student wouldn't even think about doing any of this while in school.

That being said, are students still allowed to have their own individual style? Well in school, your uniform is...well, uniform. Hair, I suppose you could change that up a little, but nothing dramatic. However, there are chances to dress how you want outside of school. The extent to which that goes, I don't know. What I do know is that the Japanese exchange students that visited in March wore a lot of cute clothing. One major style I saw was tights under a skirt or shorts (Deja vu. Remember my post on tights under shorts?). They wore a lot of pretty sweaters, blouses, and jackets. They did not wear makeup though (although, for the record, I thought they were very pretty without it).

However, I do know that when a dozen Chinese exchange students visited for a week earlier this year, they were all wearing their school uniform, at least for one day.

Maybe I'll have a better viewpoint on all of this once I visit Japan for myself. I'll keep you updated.

Japan/Italy

As of a year ago, I already had plans to travel to Italy for a week this summer through a program that the art department at my school is participating in. Those plans are still on, and setting sail in late July. However, there has been another travel opportunity offered to me as of this past March.

Our Japanese teacher told us about a program that the prime minister of Japan had organized. The plan is to sponser around 1200 students in America who are studying Japanese, to go on a two-week long exchange/service/tour/homestay visit of Japan. The trip would consist of a homestay, some touring, visits to Japanese schools, and doing a little bit of clean-up in the area that was hit by the tsunami. So it really is exchange/service/tour/homestay.

When he first told us this, my class was immediately excited. Then he said all travel expenses would be paid for those who are going. We are esctatic. But I know I also have the trip to Italy, so I go home and check my calendar to see if the trips might overlap.

Barely. At that point, the tentative dates for the trip to Japan was July 9th- July 22nd, give or take a few days. I leave for Italy on the 23rd. 3 weeks of international travel? Not even considering what time I would return from Japan, then leave for Italy? No way that would be allowed. I am of course disappointed, and start to accept that I probably won't be going. I tell my mom about the trip anyway, but make sure I say that I know it's not gonna work out.

However, approaching one of the meetings about my Italy trip, my mom mentions asking my art teacher about incorporating the preceding trip to Japan. I am surprised, because I was assuming it just wasn't going to work. My mom's reason? "Well, the trip is free. I don't want to just pass it up."

I love those moments when I realize my mom is even more awesome than I thought. So we ask about it at the Italy meeting, and they say it should be fine, as long as the day I return from Japan isn't the same day I should leave for Italy. They discussed even meeting them in Italy, from Japan, but we decided to wait and see once we know the dates of the Japan trip for sure.

So the next day, I tell Sensei that the chance of me going to Japan depends on me knowing the exact days of the trip. He finds out within the hour, and tells me in my next class. "It's July 8th-21st. Does that mean you're applying?" And of course, I answer, "YES."

Back from Japan on the 21st, leave for Italy on the 23rd. That would be a crazy 3 weeks. But I'm up for it. So I fill out the application, get teacher recommendations, a copy of my transcript, write an essay with my reasons for wanting to go, and cross my fingers. Honestly, I knew I had a decent chance at being selected. I have good grades, and I have a good service record. But I was still nervous as can be. I don't like getting my hopes up if there is a decent chance of being let down, so my mindset was that I wasn't going to get selected. Sounds pessimistic, but really I just didn't want to be disappointed.

Plus, there would only be 23 students going out of the three eligible schools in our district. Two other schools offer Japanese, so I'm sure there were a lot of people who applied.

It's been a couple weeks, and I walk into Japanese class, suddenly being bombarded by my friends Rebecca and Alyssa. "WE GOT IN!!!" I was really excited for them, because they are extremely interested in Japanese language and culture. I think they even want to study abroad in Japan in college.

With this knowledge that, yes, the results are in, Sensei knows who's going to go and who's not, I become panicky. I basically stayed calm since turning in my application, but now I was really nervous. Unfortunately, I wasn't going to find out until halfway through class whether I got in or not. I'm sitting in my chair, half paying attention to the sentences I'm supposed to be translating, when Sensei hands me a piece of paper, and says, "おめでとうございます,” which means, "Congratulations."

I MADE IT IN. I sqealed, and was overcome by excitement. Some of my friends were going too. It's what I'm looking forward to most this summer. In fact, I plan on keeping my blog and updating it after my trip.

Honestly, I can't stop thinking about Japan. I am so pumped, it's kind of ridiculous. I'm FINALLY going to be able to experience their culture first-hand. Ahh :D So now you may or may not see more posts that have to do with Japan. Just a heads up. :)

Raven

More and more often lately, I've found myself walking into a movie theater to see a movie I have not seen any sort of previews for. However, I also find that I am starting to appreciate movies more when I see them in that sort of situation.

This past Saturday, I was out to eat with my best friend and her family, when she turned to me and said, "Oh yeah, we're going to a movie right after this, I hope it's okay." Haha, well it was, but it took me by surprise. We are pulling into the theater when she finally says, "We're seeing Raven."

Me: "Oh yeah? What's that about?"
Friend: "Something about Edgar Allen Poe."

Okay. Not a whole lot to go off of, but I sure do like Edgar Allen Poe. His writings and life are so juicy and dark, like its own suspense/thriller movie. And apparently, Hollywood thought so too, because they made a movie.

We walk into the theater, and I have no perceptual set (AP Psych terms, oh yeah!) of what this will be about. Basically, no pre-judgments made, or reviews read that might change my own personal views on the movie. (The basis behind perceptual sets is that, for example, if you hear from someone that a certain movie is ROFL funny, then you see it, you may think it's funnier than you would have thought, had the person had told you nothing about it. Because you are looking for what's funny, and anticipating it.) Another cool thing about not seeing the previews, is that it's almost like the plot is a surprise, and you feel more like a bystander in the crowd than a spectator who knows what's going to happen in the first thirty minutes. Haha, maybe I'm getting a little too deep about this.

So no perceptual sets for me, and I walk out of the theater loving Raven. The plot unfolds perfectly, so that even when the main problems start, I had no way of seeing what would happen next. Obviously, you get that feeling eventually, whether you see the preview or not.

In general, I really liked Raven. It had the old Victorian feeling about it, which I like a lot. The atmosphere is a lot like that also foudn in the Sherlock Holmes movies. It was enjoyable, suspenseful, and thrilling. I think most of the audience will enjoy it.

That's not even to mention, John Cusack.

Oh my love, John Cusack. His acting was brilliant in this movie. A complete transformation with the spectacular facial hair. Definitely reminiscent of Robert Downey Jr as Sherlock Holmes.

Awkward driving habits.

I've noticed that there are certain things I do while driving, that may or may not be shared by the entire population. And I've noticed things that other drivers do that is probably not shared by everyone. Driving habits, whether frightening, awkward, weird, entertaining, or just plain annoying, are very numerous.

Starting with an obvious one, is speeding. I can understand that most everyone is comfortable with going five over the speed limit. But when I notice other vehicles speeding to the point of ridiculous, I don't like it.

Yes, there is the off-chance that the person is truly in an emergency situation, however I find the more likely option being that they just prefer to go fast. But it confuses me. When you're on a road with streetlights or stop signs, you are constantly being stopped anyway, and speeding in between red lights really just doesn't get you anywhere. I've been past by people going incredibly fast, then I catch up with them thirty seconds later because we are both at a red light. It didn't get them anywhere quicker. If anything,speeding might save you a few seconds. But honestly? A few seconds may matter in racing, but if you're late for work, or you just want to get somewhere as fast as possible, speeding doesn't help anything.

Now, for a few of my own driving habits. First one, changing radio stations. I'm not picky about music, but I always constantly scan through the stations to find a song I want to listen to. I may change mid-song because I get bored. I do it less when other people are in the car, because if the roles were switched, I think I would find it annoying.

Another habit of mine is singing in the car. I may sing really loud too. I find a good song, turn it up, and sing. I always wonder if people see me and think oddly of me. But it's fun, so if anything, I just lip sync when I know there is a car next to me. When people are in the car, I may or may not sing depending on the company. Either way, it's usually quieter.

So I've probably embarrassed myself by singing in the car, but hey, I know many people also do it, so I'm not particularly ashamed. Especially considering other drivers can't hear me.