Summer at last!

School finished yesterday! It was the last exam, English, the one I had been fearing the most. I didn't study nearly as much as I should have, yet I think I did well, on that test as well as on the previous four. So now.... I"M A JUNIOR!! And I'm on my way to Italy in 3 months!! Well, 3 months and 2 days...

I just got an awesome digital camera, and I feel that I need to advertise for it. It's a Canon SD110, and THE coolest camera I've ever seen. It's really tiny, only 3.5 x 2.25 x 0.75" - it's so cute! And it's so easy to use, and it has an automatic setting for when you're too lazy to set anything, and a manual setting for people who like to have more control over how their pictures come out, and it can take movies with sound (!!!), which is so much fun. And....... it's Macintosh compatible!!! Seriously, does a better camera exist? (Shh, don't tell me: I like where I'm at).

But just as every silver lining has a cloud, so must bad news accompany good. Are you ready? Oh, well, it doesn't really affect anyone other than me, so I'll just wallow in self-pity: I'm taking the SAT Subject tests in both Chemistry and Math next Saturday. WHAT WAS I THINKING!?!!?

Well, wish me luck!

Love, me!

Alternate Prom

Alternate Prom (the evening for people not rich enough to go to Prom - yay!) Don't we look simply ravishing?

SYA on the horizon

Tonight I'm going out to dinner at La Fornaretta in Old Town with my mom and Christopher and Lynnette to celebrate having been accepted to SYA. The day I got my acceptance letter was amazing. It was April 8th, and I'd just come home from a friend's birthday party at a great sushi place, completely unprepared for the letter (true, I'd been whining all week that it hadn't come yet, but I'd sort of gotten used to it not arriving, so it was a true surprise). When I opened the door, my mom and my brother were there, holding the envelope. It was really thick, full of forms, so I knew that it must be a yes, but I just couldn't feel it. I was too scared to dare believe I'd been accepted, but at the same time I was sure I had been. So we lit a candle and slowly I opened the envelope. "Macte virtute esto" read the letter. "It is with great pleasure that I write to inform you of your acceptance to School Year Abroad."

Brilliant!! I read the letter every day to remind myself I'm really going, because it still seems like some sort of really cool dream. Also I can't wrap my mind around the idea that I'm actually leaving for a whole school year; it feels like I'll be gone just for a couple weeks, get the feel of Italy, learn some Italian, and then come home. But I really will be away for a whole year. Wow.

I got another set of forms from SYA, and these make it much more real. It has the flight information both for travel to Italy (August 30th, 9:00 pm from JFK, NY) and from Italy (May 25th, 2006). There is a list of what to pack, which is pretty intense, because what I pack is all that I'll have with me for 9 months. Fortunately I'm allowed to bring my computer!! However SYA recommends a PC Windows laptop - I'll show them! (Go Mac!!) Among the forms also is a College Counseling packet. Next year is when I'll start looking at colleges and preparing to apply, and I won't even be here in the States! I'm so excited, though! This is going to be such a brilliantly wonderful experience.

Nothing else to report on, except "The Secret of Monkey Island" is a really great game, although I'm momentarily stuck. Oh hey, I found this really funny article, Hardware Torture Test. Seems like it would be so satisfying to inflict such damage on technology. But don't worry, I'm not rich enough or brave enough to sacrifice my computer and iPod even in the name of scientific research.

Well, that's about it. All hail Murray and his EVIL plots to Conquer the World. Bwaahaahaahaa

Recent happenings of little to no importance

How exciting! I just set all the dates on here to Italian. It worries me only slightly that I can't yet read them. But hey, you have to start somewhere.

I just ordered a completely awesome hat. My mom got a promotional letter in the mail from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation. Of course she was going to throw it out right off, but I was curious so I opened it. Turns out they're trying to raise $25,000,000 by mid-2005 to build a new Reagan Library, or rather an "Air Force One" Pavilion (nice to know where our money's going nowadays). It would be a lost cause, except now they're giving out free hats! Well, technically free means you donate money just for the sake of being a good kind giving person and then you get the hat as a free bonus. Oh yeah, and a family pass! Seriously, can it get any better! But anyway, the hat's a 100% cotton baseball cap and it's got "Reagan Library Air Force One" embroidered along with a picture of this honking big plane. I'm going to start ticking off days till it comes. Wait'll everyone sees it - they'll be so jealous!

But that's only the tip of the iceberg! These last couple days have just been amazing all around. For one thing I managed to download both "The Secret of Monkey Island" and "Le Chuck's Revenge" from a truly incredible site, Macintosh Garden. I am so brilliantly excited! These are the best games EVER!! My life is at last complete, my life's quest fulfilled. I spent all Sunday evening playing the former, and I've just finished downloading "Le Chuck's Revenge," which I can't wait to play.

Of course life isn't all about awesome old computer games. No -cough- of course not. So I've been doing a tad bit of reading (or rather listening), and finished Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, which I listened to on tape (check out Audible.com), which was GREAT. Also this allows me to start other books that I've been looking forward to, namely The Virgin's Lover by Phillipa Gregory (also on tape), and.... drumroll..... ABOUT A BOY by Nick Hornby!!!!!! The movie was the BEST thing ever, so I'm finally reading the book, which is wonderful and in not a single way a disappointment (but of course! it's the original - how could it be bad?). And hey, I'm actually reading it, physically holding the book and reading the words. Gosh, I'd forgotten what it felt like to hold a book that wasn't a text book...

But enough about me. How are all your respective lives going? Jolly good. Can't wait till school's out, couldn't agree more. Wow, I really need to go do my homework, or read, or something, because this is now an officially pointless entry. Don't judge me!

Oh, but before I go, here's a juicy bit of information, since I'm sure you all find my life so fascinating: departure date for SYA has been set for Tuesday, August 30th. I'm so excited! I'm starting to get nervous, though, what with it coming up so quickly; however there's so much to look forward to I can never be nervous for long.

Ciao! Ma domani pioverá!