Ramblings of a Constipated Mind

It's been more than a week since I last posted, so here's the scoop:

I went to Carowinds theme park a bit more than a week ago. It was awesome! There are two main rides that made an impression on me:

1) Drop-Zone: This was one of those rides where you sit down and get pulled up a long tube. Then, when you reach the top, it drops you and you freefall back to the ground. The only thing that prevents the ride from crashing is brakes. I had never been on a ride like this before, so of course I had to try it. I loved it. There's nothing like getting to the top, seeing an amazing view of the park, and then suddenly plummeting hundreds of feet to the ground.

2) The Borg Assimilator: This was the newest roller coaster there. It's a "flying" roller coaster. I had heard of those, but never actually seen one. They're incredible; this was quite possibly the best rollar coaster I've ever been on in my entire life. Basically, you sit down, pull a harness over your head and another harness up over your legs so you won't fall out. Then, the seats rotate so you're lying on your back, facing up at the ceiling. Then the ride starts, and you go up the first hill looking at the clouds having no idea how high up you are.

Then the fun begins.

Right as you start down the hill, the track twists so suddenly you're facing downwards. There is nothing between you and the ground except those harnesses. When you go into loops, you don't see a track, just sky. It feels like you're flying, hence the name. If those harnesses were not there, you will definitely die. I loved it. That's the most terrifying and thrilling coaster I have ever been on.

Two days after Carowinds, I went off to the MK Retreat. It was fair. Nothing life-changing. Some parts were good, some parts were bad. We were staying at a camp in Texas. One of the worst parts was the tap water - it was really soft so when you finished taking a shower or washing your hands it felt like you were still covered in soap. It was kinda frustrating. There wasn't much to do at the camp during free time except go play minigolf, which got old after a while.

The best part was when we went to a mall on Friday. They gave us all $50. I bought t-shirts, including this one, as well as two books and a DVD. Yay.

There's a whole lot more I could say about the retreat, but it would take way too long to talk about everything. That's the problem with not having computer access - you get home and there's too much to write about. So I guess I'll leave you my thoughts on movies I have seen before and after the retreat:

Sleeper: A hilarious Woody Allen movie about a guy who wakes up after being cryogenicall frozen for 200 years, and what he finds. It's got Allen's trademark dialogue and slapstick situations. I got the feeling a lot of this movie was modeled after old silent movies. There were many scenes (particularly the action ones) where there wasn't a lot of sound, campy music was playing, and all of the comedy was physical. And as usual with Allen's movies, there's a statement about society to be found. This movie showed what the world would be like without democracy (one Leader runs everything), meaningful relationships (in order to have sex, people step into a machine for 3 seconds - there is no intimacy), and everything was run mechanically. It's definitely a statement about society today. Good stuff.

Seven Samurai: It's Akira Kurosawa's most famous movie - many critics consider it to be the best Japanese movie of all time. And I can see why. Although it's in black-and-white and 3 hours long, it's really quite good. A lot of movies these days were indirectly, if not directly, influenced by it (The Magnificent Seven, for example, is basically the same movie except as a Western). The story is one we've all seen before, even in kid movies (A Bug's Life, anyone?). There's a poor village being tormented by bandits, so the townspeople find warriors to come help them fight. Even though this plot has been done countless times, its original incarnation is still excellent. The characters were great, and each had a different personality to make things interesting. They were well-developed - there are plenty of subplots that really give the movie a well-rounded, believable feel. I liked it. At first it was kinda awkard getting used to the old-fashioned production quality of the movie, but Kurosawa's directing made it so in many ways it feels like a contemporary film. A true classic.

Kicking and Screaming: Fair. It's not Will Ferrell's best movie, but when you realize it's targeted at kids, I guess it's okay. I totally related to the coffee stuff.

Manhattan: Another Woody Allen movie. I liked this one too, but not quite as much as Sleeper. It's much more serious, but it has its funny moments. The main problem with it was that I couldn't really see what Allen was trying to say; I know it's a commentary on relationships, I just can't figure out the specifics. It certainly is interesting, though. It starts out with 42-year-old Isaac, played wonderfully by Allen, as he dates a 17-year-old girl named Tracy. Meanwhile, his best friend Yale is having an affair with a girl named Mary. Isaac's second ex-wife is writing a book about how their marriage failed and his response to her becoming a lesbian. The relationships between Isaac, Tracy, Mary, and Dale gradually change and become more and more crossed. I was astounded by how easily Allen lets his characters fall in love, break up, and get in more and more of a mess with each other. I have a feeling there's a whole lot of stuff he's trying to say in this movie, but I just couldn't grasp it. The ending didn't allow me to come to any conclusions. To make matters even more complicated, the whole "Allen dating a much younger girl" element has an obvious parallel to reality. It makes me wonder how much his life influenced the script, or vice versa.

It's a good movie, and I feel like it does have many things to say, but it just wasn't clear enough for me. Maybe that was the point, I don't know. It's definitely the most complex of Allen's movies that I've seen. Other, much smarter IB students than myself would most likely have a field day with it. Story-wise, it's great. Analytically, though, it made me feel like I missed out on something.

Quote of Da Moment:
"You know what you are? You're God's answer to Job, y'know? You would have ended all argument between them. I mean, He would have pointed to you and said, y'know, "I do a lot of terrible things, but I can still make one of these." You know? And then Job would have said, "Eh. Yeah, well, you win."
--Manhattan

"I'm not really the heroic type. I was beat up by Quakers."
--Sleeper

Get Shorty is a pretty good and fun movie.

A Nightmare on Elm Street is awesome. It's a horror classes, and deserves to be. Unlike most slasher movies, this one was actually good. There was some really creative stuff in there.

Easy Rider is extremely overrated. The only part I'd consider really good is the 30 minutes Jack Nicholson is in it. He steals the show. What's up with that bizarre montage at the end?

Rosemary's Baby is probably the most overrated horror movie ever. I was expecting to be scared. I wasn't. It starts off really creepy (with an awesome nightmare scene where the baby is conceived) and then it just gets really slow and boring. The ending is terrible.

I went driving today and survived. I don't have to worry about getting smashed by a bus now that I'm not in El Salvador.

Tomorrow I'm off to Carowinds theme park. Yay!

Quote of Da Moment:
"Some people say that I must be a terrible person, but it’s not true. I have the heart of a young boy...in a jar on my desk."
--Stephen King

I'm back from the mountains now. I haven't been doing much except sitting around watching movies. What else would you expect a guy like me to be doing during summer vacation?

A Very Long Engagement is the most recent movie by Jean Pierre Jeunet, director of the Amelie. And I'd have to say that this is just as good, if not better, than that film. It follows a young woman named Mathilde as she goes on a quest to find out the fate of her husband-to-be, Manech, who has supposedly been killed on the battlefield during World War 1. You'll either really like this movie or hate it, but whatever you think about it, you can't deny that the art direction is incredible. Every once in a while I'd find myself thinking, "Wow! Awesome shot!" I'm really surprised it didn't win any Oscars at all for technical stuff like that.

The love story that makes up the backbone of the film is told extremely well. The actors have chemistry, and we want her to find her lover in the end. We understand why Mathilde's going through all this trouble to find the truth. And as to what the truth is...well, Jeunet keeps us guessing until the very end. Along the way Mathilde will ask fate to tell her about Manech by asking it questions of chance: "If Manech is alive, the train will go through the tunnel before I count to seven or the conductor will come ask me for my ticket." It seems like each time she asks questions like that, fate responds rather ambiguously. Forget foreshadowing. With a story like this one, Jeunet made the right choice by choosing to never give any hints as to what will happen in the end.

Jodie Foster also makes a surprise appearance in the film. Who knew she could speak French?

The only thing I'd complain about is that at times it's hard to keep track of who all the characters are. Luckily, Jeunet uses enough flashbacks to avoid confusing us for too long. I found myself thinking, "Who's that guy again? Oh yeah, that's right." For such a simple plot, it unfolds in a rather complex way. But the movie is all the better because of it.

But on to another movie. Being John Malkovich is the best movie I have seen in a very long time. It's absolutely brilliant. This only confirms to me that Charlie Kaufman is the best screenwriter in Hollywood today. He's a genius.

The movie basically follows a puppeteer named Craig who one day finds a mysterious portal...into the brain of actor John Malkovich. By entering the portal he can see through John Malkovich's eyes for 15 minutes before being kicked out. His wife Lottie tries it, and she has such an incredible time doing it that she becomes addicted and decides she prefers being a man. Both Craig and Lottie end up falling for the same woman, and the sexual tension and plot gradually thicken and go through one twist after another.

This movie is an IB student's paradise. Like all of Kaufman's movies, there's so much going on beneath the surface it will take multiple viewings to fully understand the point he's trying to make. The message of the movie, at least the one I took from it, is about how we're all afraid to show our true selves, so we live our day to day lives by pretending to be someone we're not. The amount of symbolism is stunning. The fact that Craig's a puppeteer, of all people the portal leads to the brain of an actor, etc. And yet it's presented in such a way that most people probably won't notice all the little details of what Kaufman's trying to communicate. That's how good he is. Unlike most movies these days, which either skip over a message entirely or repeat it over and over until you're sick of hearing it, Kaufman chooses to write movies that are somewhere in the middle. There is a definite message to all of his movies, but they're cleverly hidden in such a way that you won't grasp the details of it unless you're looking. Some of the clues as to what it is are obvious, but if you're like me and love to pay attention to all the little details, there's a lot hidden beneath the surface.

If there's anything I don't like about this movie, it's that the ending has a pro-homosexuality ring to it, and like all the Kaufman movies I've watched has at least one scene that's very pro-marijuana, but that doesn't do much to undermine all the positive things it's trying to communicate. This is just as good as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, if not better.

See this movie now. It's funny, intriguing, and actually has something important to say.

Quote of Da Moment:
"There is truth, and there are lies, and art always tells the truth. Even when it's lying."
--Being John Malkovich

I saw L.A. Confidential. Great movie. I definitely need to go back and watch it again - the second half was really confusing. Everything got so complex...it was like, "Wait, that character did this, which connects to that, which also happens to be related to this character and his dealings with that? Huh?"

Also, Hard-Boiled is a pretty cool Chinese action movie - John Woo's last film before coming to the USA to make films in English. It has all the typical elements of a John Woo movie; motorcycles nearly fly, the main characters are somehow able to leap out of the way of thousands of bullets (they could be Olympic gymnasts with that level of agility), and the body count keeps getting higher and higher and higher. Fun stuff.

Yesterday I also went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It's a pretty good little summer movie. It wasn't nearly as bad as the previews made it look - Tim Burton managed to pull off another good movie yet again. The Oompa Loompas are awesome, Johnny Depp does a good job, and I now have a huge craving for chocolate. Unfortunately, like most kids movies these days, they overdid the whole "message." I think Hollywood underestimates its audience. Once a character actually states the "point" of the movie, there's no need to state it again and again and again and again. It got kind of annoying. Other than that, though, it was a good movie.

In other news, it's Sunday. I'm starting to really miss Seguidores. These past two Sundays have been really boring, at both the churches I've visited. It seems like all the Baptist churches are slowly dying out, and for good reason. There's no passion in them. The songs/hymns are either slow and boring, or have completely meaningless lyrics. I keep thinking to myself: "Wait, aren't we here to worship God?" The majority of the songs just talk about how we're saved, how we're blessed, how we're worshipping God. Whenever I sing them I feel like I should be singing them to a non-Christian. They're the only people who would get anything out of them. To all of us Christians it's like, "Yeah. We know. We're saved, and it's good." I mean, really, shouldn't worship songs focus more on God and be addressed to Him rather than ourselves and other people?

If this is how most Baptist churches are, I can't say I'm sorry to see that less and less people are starting to attend. Nobody wants to be around people who can't stop singing about themselves and how great they are since they serve God.

Quote of Da Moment:
"If it weren't for electricity we'd all be watching television by candlelight."
--George Gobel

I'm in the mountains now.

I'm debating whether or not to download the MP3 on this page. Supposedly if you listen to it you'll become hypnotized and feel "floaty" and stuff. Basically, it's like getting high off of listening to an MP3. It also can supposedly help you have "lucid dreams" - dreams in which you know you're dreaming, so you can control what happens.

People say it works, but I don't know... I don't want to get brain damage and die or something. That'd kinda suck. The obituary would be interesting, though: "Andrew Johnson, 18, died after getting high off an MP3."

Anyways, there's the link in case any of you people out there aren't as cowardly as me and feel like trying it. You need to close you eyes, relax and listen to it with headphones on. The effects supposedly vary from feeling really good and having amazing experiences to just getting a really really bad headache that goes away quickly.

If anyone tries it, comment and let me know if it's for real or not. If I try it, I'll post about it.

Took my driving test again today. Two or three other people there with me failed it, but this time I aced it. Vroom vroom!

I'm getting ready to go up to Boone for the weekend. So next time I blog, it might be from the mountains.

Later.

So I went to take the test to get my driving learner's permit here. Failed it.

I passed the vision test and the road sign test. Then it was on to the driving knowledge test. I had to sit at this touch-screen computer and answer 25 questions. Once you got 6 wrong, you failed.

I had studied all the important stuff. Unfortunately, I hadn't studied the unimportant stuff, and that's what killed me. I messed up on questions like, "How do you pass farming equipment?" I mean, really, only down South would you get asked a question like that...

Oh well. I'll look through the manual again tonight and go back tomorrow to try again. I was on question 23 or 24 when I failed it, so that's a good sign.

In other news: I saw The Shining last night. I hadn't seen the whole thing before. It's an awesome movie, and definitely one of my favorite horror films, even though it's more suspenseful than actually scary. Kubrick really was a genius. The directing was perfect - awesome use of colors to create mood and tension. It also ties with Fight Club in terms of what I think is the Best Use of Nudity in a Film. When it's not gratuitous, nudity really can be add a lot to a scene. Now I really want to see how Kubrick uses it in Eyes Wide Shut. That probably sounds perverted, but I don't mean it like that.

Oh, and Serpico is a so-so movie. Felt kinda disjointed at times.

Quote of Da Moment:
"Redrum! Redrum!"
--The Shining

So, I'm in the USA. I had an interesting trip over here. The bottom line is simply this: the Atlanta airport really sucks.

My flight from El Salvador to Atlanta was fine. For some strange reason, it seems like I always end up going on the same flight or ride as teachers as my school. Two years ago, I saw Mr. MacClure. I can't remember who I saw last year, but I probably saw someone. A few weeks ago, Mr. Murgatroyd was on the same bus ride back from Guatemala with me. And this time, it turned out Mr. Morgan was going to be on my flight to Atlanta.

That was a pretty neat coincidence. He was able to tell me what I made on my IB exams - I got 38 points! Woohoo! For those of you who don't know, the minimum amount of points required to graduate is 26, I think. Something like that. The maximum amount possible is 44 or 45. So yeah, I did good. On a scale of 1-7, I made a 7 in Spanish (not a big surprise, since I took it at the easiest level) and English at Higher Level. I made a 6 in Computers Higher Level and History Higher Level. I did the worst in Math and Biology - 5. Oh well. I also made an A on my Extended Essay, which is really good. What's weird is that the IB gave me a C in TOK. I don't know anyone who made a B or an A, even though we were awarded A's in class. Strange. I'm going to find out what it takes to appeal that decision.

Anyways, Mr. Morgan and I were able to help each other get through customs. Then he was off to a hotel to spend the night, before flying to San Francisco the next day. He was going to spend a week with a friend he hadn't seen in around 50 years. I think that's incredible - this guy randomly found his picture on the school website, asked if it was the Glynn Morgan he knew from college, and it was. What a crazy coincidence.

Well, my ticket said I had to be at gate B10 for my flight to Greensboro. But I noticed on one of the monitors that it said my flight had been changed to gate E15. Since I was already in E terminal, I decided to check it out. I went to E15, and no one was around. Just a sign that said that was the place to be for a flight to Florida. So I assumed the flight hadn't been changed, and was at B10. So I went all the way to B terminal. There was a big signing saying that this was the flight to Florida, and the flight to Greensboro was moved to E15. The monitors said the same thing, so I walked all the way back to the E terminal. The monitors and signs still said that this was the gate for the flight to Florida. After going up to the Delta desk twice, I was finally informed that yeah, I needed to be at E15. Someone just hadn't gotten around to changing the sign yet.

By this point I'm exhausted. Nobody should have to walk around an airport that much just to find their gate. So I sit down by my gate. The flight is supposed to leave in around 40 minutes, and there's still no one at the desk. Finally, this lady shows up. She tells me that there's a problem since Hurricane Cindy is close by, and my flight will be delayed. Great. I sit there for a while longer. Then I decide to go get something to eat.

I go to Burger King, and order a burger. Turns out the only thing they have left is a chicken sandwich. Fine. I order that, and then proceed to wait. The cashier is completely clueless as to what she's doing. The girls in the back are spending most of their time standing around and talking. When they actually do work, they work at a very slow pace. There's only one guy - thank you very much for doing your job, whoever you are - who actually seems to be putting forth some effort. Twenty minutes and a few very frustrated customers later, I have my food.

I go back to the gate - by this time, my flight is around half an hour late leaving. After ten more minutes, the airport opens back up, and we finally get to board. Yay. So I get on the plane. Sit down. Wait.

And wait.

And wait.

And wait some more.

The whole airport had been closed down, so there were backed up flights everwhere. Tons of planes needed to land and take off. I was sitting in the plane for at least an hour, slowly inching closer and closer to the runway, before finally taking off. Talk about a boring way to spend an hour of your life. All in all, I was around 2 hours late arriving. From what I've heard, the Atlanta Airport isn't a very good airport even when there isn't a hurricane. I hope I don't have to fly Delta again any time soon!

Anyways...I'm here. I didn't do much for a few days. Just chill out and go shopping for a few things I'd need in college. I saw Spaceballs. It had been a while since I'd seen it, but I was in the mood for a Star Wars spoof. Overall, it's a pretty funny movie. Some of the jokes are really hilarious; others are just really bad and lame. But oh well. The good outweighs the bad. Besides, it's a spoof classic - it was even referenced during a presentation at Orientation.

Speaking of which, yeah, I just got back from Orientation. I now know a lot more about what it's going to be like at NCSU in August. The campus is freakin' huge! Then again, with thirty thousand students, it'd have to be. I only know my way around a few areas on campus; I'm still lost about the rest.

Overall, Orientation was so-so. Some of the presentations were interesting, and others were really boring. I had to walk a lot. The food wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, but that may be just because the parents were there too. There were times when I was really bored and wanted to leave, but I did have some interesting experiences.

For one, it's a really interesting student environment. There isn't as much diversity as I'd like - supposedly, 90% of the students are from North Carolina - and I'm not used to being around so many white people. It feels weird to be a majority again.

As many guys pointed out, there are a ton of girls in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. I think they outnumber us guys by around 4 to 1. Lots of guys were like, "The girls are so hot here! This is great! *drool*", but I just miss Souwa. Blegh.

I was staying in a suite with some others guys. I was lucky, and most of the guys in my dorm were Christians, or at least claimed to be. They were pretty cool, and we hung out some at night. Before I get into the details, I might as well mention this:

During one of the presentations for parents, a staff member told them: "Yes, there are laws prohibiting students that are under 21 from drinking, and drugs are not allowed. However, don't assume that the majority of people here will pay any attention to those laws. I can pretty much guarantee that your child will be invited to go to a party and get drunk and smoke pot during the first week...if not the first day."

Well, as it turns out, people decided not to wait until the first day to start partying. There was evidently a huge party happening on the floor beneath mine. A few of the guys in my suite and I went down to see what was up. As soon as we entered the hall we were met by some people I got the impression my roommates had met earlier in the day. I don't know if when they met before these guys were sober, but they certainly weren't now. I think they were high, too. Wow. I haven't even started college yet, and I already have the opportunity to drink and do drugs. What a reassuring discovery.

My suite was also the victim of vandalism. A few of us went to the student lounge a few doors down to play some foosball at 1:00 AM. When we came back around 20 minutes later, the door of our suite was standing wide open. Someone had turned on a faucet in our bathroom and just left it running, and the bathroom floor was completely flooded. Some of the water seeped into my room. At first I thought it was a just a little bit, so I tried to wipe it up with my towel. Once my towel was completely soaked, I realized how much water there was. It was a lot. There was nothing to do except leave it there and hope it evaporated before too long. We were all really annoyed about it.

Another interesting thing happened, too. We were out on the balcony looking out at the campus, and we noticed a guy and a girl in the hall on the floor beneath ours. It was obvious they were flirting with each other, getting ready to make out. I didn't see the girl's face, but one of my roommates knew her and said she had a boyfriend. I'm not surprised - there was this atmosphere around her that practically screamed SLUTTY TEENAGE FEMALE. As for the guy, he probably had AVERAGE TEENAGE MALE written somewhere on his forehead. We watched them for a few minutes, and sure enough, he went in for a kiss and they started making out. At this point, my roommates started waving their arms trying to get his attention - they gave him the thumbs up sign, and acted really enthusiastic about his decision to make out with this girl in front of us all. He looked up, saw us, laughed, and we ducked down before the girl could see us. Then they disappeared, probably to go continue their activity elsewhere. It was really funny. My roommates were crazy, but as long as they weren't stoned or drunk that was fine with me.

Speaking of making out, there was a really great presentation on "Community Issues", one section of which dealt with sex. It encouraged us all to have a safe, healthy sex life while we're at NCSU. It reminded us to always use condoms and showed some pictures of STDs - that's enough to almost make me want to never have sex in my life. I'm going to have nightmares about public hair lice and genital/oral herpes. Lucky for us, the Student Health Center will give us each up to three free condoms per day! Oh well, I guess I should have expected as much. This is a very large state university; it would be crazy for them to advise something like, I don't know, abstinence. I mean, it's not like that would help prevent STDs, right?

Here's some scary statistics: if I remember correctly, they said that probably 1 out of 4 girls will be sexually assaulted. With guys, it's 1 out of 10. Isn't that just a little high? Are hillbilly hormones really that strong? They said that if you're ever sexually assaulted, it'll probably be by someone you know. Which means that logically, there is a way to get through all four years of college without ever risking being raped: don't get to know anyone. Go to your classes and your dorm, nowhere else. Don't talk to anyone. Then you'll be safe.

That is, until your roommate murders you in your sleep because you don't respond to him at all. It's rape or death. Take your pick.

But yeah, that's college. I guess I'm a little more optimistic about it now than I was before. They lost my housing application, so I turned in another one, and got placed in Avent-Ferry - it's this dorm that's kinda off campus and really far away from all my classes, but hey, it's better than nothing. There's also a chance that I'll get moved to Becton before school starts, which would be awesome, since that dorm is near all my classes and is being completely renovated. Also, I found out why I wasn't invited to be in the Honors program or to receive any merit-based scholarships. Their computer system for sorting students has a major flaw, in that automatically sorts students with SAT scores over 1300 and GPAs of over 3.5 into those groups. Well, I met the SAT requirement, but for some reason since I studied at an international high school my GPA was left blank. That's why I didn't get any of the benefits I should have gotten - I fell through the cracks of the system. They're going to try and see if they can get me at least a little scholarship money, so that's cool. It seems like all my administration problems are finally starting to be worked out, little by little.

Also: registering for classes is a pain. I had to wait in line for over and hour, and then when I finally did sit down to register for classes, I realized that they can't expect a freshman to register in half an hour for less. It's crazy. Most of the courses I wanted to take were already filled, and I didn't want to be put on a wait-list unless it was absolutely necessary. Luckily, I was able to work out a few of my problems after I got home. Here are the classes I'm currently signed up for:

ENG 252 - Major American Writers: Woohoo, my first English literature class!

FLS 308 - Spanish Conversation and Reading: I automatically placed into this upper level Spanish class since I'm pretty much fluent already. I'd start Chinese, but if I take this class I'll get 9 hours credit. I can't pass that up.

PE 240 - Social Dance: Yes, that's right, I'm taking a dance class. I wanted to go ahead and get my PE requirement out of the way, since the classes don't take up very much time. There were tons of options to choose from, but in the end I figured I might as well go with this. I won't be the only guy in there, so that's good. Besides, this class will probably be better in the long run than say, Bowling.

PHI 221 - Contemporary Moral Issues: I have to take at least one Philosophy course in order to graduate, so I thought I might as well go ahead and take this. Besides, I might be interested in taking other Philosophy courses in the future, so this will give me a good introduction to that field of study. I'll get to study and analyze a lot of world issues like euthnasia, suicide, abortion, etc. Should be interesting.

PS 236 - Issues in Global Politics: A political science course. This will count as one of four Social Science credits I'm required to acquire before I graduate. I wasn't planning on taking any Political Science classes, but this one sounded okay. It'll be on things like wars, women's rights, terrorism, etc.

SOC 204 - Sociology of Family: I want to take other courses in Sociology in the future, so this is a good introduction, as well as counting for another social science credit. This class will deal with familiar matters, such as what makes up a family, mate selection, marriage, divorce, etc. I don't know why, but for some reason that sounds really interesting to me. My mom says it'll probably be taught from an extremely liberal viewpoint and promote homosexuality. If that's the case, I probably won't like it. But I met a girl who took this class and she said she loved it. So we'll see what happens. It should be interesting, either way.

I was planning on taking Calculus 1, but that's a 4-hour class, there were no open spaces left, and being put on the wait-list would screw up the rest of my schedule. I'm not sure if I should sign up for the wait-list anyway, or just wait until next semester to take it. I really hate calculus, and this is the hardest level a freshman can take. I just want to get it out of the way - if I take it I'll be qualified to take some Computer Science classes that look interesting.

Overall, I guess I'm more optimistic about college now. At least I have a better idea of what it will be like.

That's all for now. I'm exhausted.

Quote of Da Moment:
"I am your father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate."
--Spaceballs

I saw War of the Worlds. Awesome visuals. Great special effects. Cool action scenes.

But man, oh man, did that ending suck.

James didn't understand it. I only got it because Andrew West told me how the book ends - Spielberg kept that ending. It's not even a particularly well-done bad ending. It's just a bad ending all-around.

Other than that:

So...yeah. Once again, I'm moving. Except this time it's back to the USA.

It's weird. I don't feel anything about it at all. I guess I'm just so used to moving around, it's not a big deal anymore. My brain sorta has this conversation with itself.

"You're going to college!"
"Yeah. Whoop-de-doo."
"Aren't you excited?"
"Not particularly."
"Yeah. It sucks that you're having to go to your safe school."
"Uhhuh."
"But hey, you can always transfer!"
"Uhhuh."
"Aren't you sad to be leaving El Salvador?"
"Uhhuh."
"Aren't you excited about being independent?"
"Uhhuh."
"Are you so incredibly emotionless about the entire thing that you can't stop saying 'uhhuh'?"
"Possibly."
"Any last words?"
"I'd better at least get to see some good movies..."

Anyways, so long El Salvador. It's been fun. Goodbye Academic Britanica Cuscatleca, the best school I've been to in my life. Goodbye people I know and love. So many memories, so little room for them all.

Time to make some new ones.

Quote of Da Moment:
"Laugh at yourself, but don't ever aim your doubt at yourself. Be bold. When you embark for strange places, don't leave any of yourself safely on shore. Have the nerve to go into unexplored territory."
--Alan Alda

"You never really leave a place or person you love. Part of them you take with you,leaving a part of yourself behind."
--Unknown

All About My Mother is a weird, but pretty good movie.

It's 12:10 AM, which means today is officially my last full day in El Salvador.

Playing XBOX with Leonard with his projector is fun.

Packing sucks.

Finished Heat before Mission Meeting. It was really good. It truly is what it claims to be: an "epic crime drama." Good stuff.

Mission Meeting was...fair. Not great, not terrible. It was fun seeing everyone again, and the team that came to work with the MKs was cool. Unfortunately, I didn't really enjoy the stuff they were teaching. They separated the 11th and 12th graders from other groups, and yet were basically teaching the same thing to everyone. What's the point in splitting up if we're all learning the same thing? Personally, I don't like knowing that I'm learning the same thing as 7th graders. I like it when groups actually treat the older kids like they're older. I also think that leaders should be willing to move away from the curriculum if necessary - say, to discuss issues that MKs really care about and are interested in. Overall, the team this year was a good group, but spiritually I just didn't feel like it challenged me or made me think about things enough.

I did get some cool pictures though that maybe I'll post later. Right now I'm feeling kinda tired and sick, so I'll call it a night.