Bonfire!

This is consistently my favorite part of homecoming. The official homecoming dance is always awkward and fraught with sexual tension and awkwardness and such.
However, it is almost impossible to be awkward after you've stood in a circle around a bonfire and sang "Stand By Me".
That's why this part is my favorite.

By this part, of course, I mean the amazing random tundra field dance party that always transpires and always leaves me hot and sweaty and exhausted and high on life and voiceless.
They played "Don't Stop Believing" toward the end when everyone was basically clearing out. I told Isabella, "Hold on, I've got to go pretend I'm in Glee!" and I went and sang and danced with the freshmen. I told them the people in my grade were all pretending to be too cool. But I was rocking out with these kids, some of whom I knew, some of whom I may never get to know. I hope I left the impression that not all seniors are boring and scary and wrapped up in their own lives.
I swear to Greenberry's, I will never ever pretend to be too cool for this stuff.

Speaking of Greenberry's, Eleni and I had a work party there today. By work party, I mean we went intending to do work but ended up talking up a storm and going to get sushi.
Real conversation in the car on the way back.

Eleni: I think I'll go back to my spot.
Me: ... what?
Us: *insane giggling*

That almost summarizes the sort of conversation we have every day. Things just don't make sense when we talk, but it's awesome.

Now I'm at Isabella's house. Her family is watching Monk. I told them I'd join in a little bit when I emailed my physics homework in, but I also had to blog.
It has been a fantastic day.

Also, I dressed up as a police woman. The costume included handcuffs. Score.
I had hooked them to my pants, but forgot to remove them when I changed my shirt from the police jacket to my regular shirt. I went from girl-in-costume to sketchy-girl-with-handcuffs. It was sweet.

Will: WHY ARE YOU STILL HOLDING ONTO THOSE HANDCUFFS?
Me: ... I don't know.

The new hip thing to do, apparently, is play the first eight measures of a pop song on the piano in the crossroads. It's pretty chill, except when the people have no idea what they're doing.

Me: There should be a password for the piano
David: Yeah. Maybe it could be 'talent'.

My general schedule tomorrow-
11:00- Isabella and I get manicures
after that- we eat lunch someplace
1:30- soccer game starts. Isabella wants to be there, although I have no idea why.
2:00- football game starts. What do we eat? Frog meat. Damn amphibians. It's like, what do you live on? Water or land? COME ON, YOU HAVE TO PICK.
4:30- probably return home
7ish- begin to get ready for homecoming dance
7:30- guys show up for said dance, loiter.
after that- we eat.
after that- we actually go to the dance for probably twenty minutes max.
and finally- watch scary movies, eat candy.

I'm going to send in my physics work and go watch Monk with Isabella's family.
Homecoming 09 is shaping up to be a great one.

Love always,
Clara

Being Frustrated with Words

Me: Why isn't there a 'u' in forty? There's a 'u' in four!
Matt: ... oh, that was my fault. I made that decision...
Me: Why would you do that?
Matt: I was really tired
Chloe: What?
Matt: I wrote the first dictionary.

It's pajama day. I'm wearing my snuggie.
Tonight I'm going to have dinner with Stephanie!

Actually, I just took off my snuggie. Those things are really warm.

Hanna: You aren't fully utilizing your snuggie. You could be typing on your laptop and covered by a warm blanket!
Taylor: Yeah! You could be robbing a bank and wearing a snuggie! Or climbing a tree and wearing a snuggie!

John Henry: I don't think celebrities should be separate in jail.
Me: But think about it. What if you were in jail, and T-Pain showed up. You would be like "This is sweet. I'm on a boat... in jail... with T-Pain!"

I meant T.I. I think, seeing as he's actually going to jail or something. I get my rappers-whose-names-begin-with-T mixed up.

Love always,
Clara

A pretty good day

This morning, before I woke up, I was stressing out like crazy. I'm not sure exactly what that means, except that perhaps my subconscious is trying to drive me off the deep end.

The day got better as it went on. I didn't get lost driving around Bethesda and Spring Valley. That's always a plus.

Then, continuing the upward trend of the day, I went for coffee with Eleni and Claire! Hooray for coffee! It was great. We hadn't had coffee together properly in a really long time. We discussed college and such, and other sorts of things, and it was just fantastic.

I got back to the place where I am staying, with family friends, and decided I didn't want to do physics homework, but I did want to work on my senior page. It turned into this giant awesome collage project that has given me awesome inspiration for life in general. I also heard great stories from Wyatt (the greatest fourth grader ever) about how he's tough because he used to get beaten up a lot in kindergarten. I said that was hardcore.

But wait! It gets even better! We all went out for frozen yogurt! And then I got to help Merritt with her math homework, and they were doing number theory! Isn't that exciting?
Okay, I thought it was. I love these kids.

Overall, a good day.
And I'm going to Breakfast Club tomorrow, so that means tomorrow will start off on a good foot. Upward trends are wonderful.

Love always,
Clara

Where the Wild Things Are

That was a great movie. I just went to see it this evening. And almost cried, which is rare for me to do in movies. But oh, what a great movie.

Then the bunch of us went back to Isabella's house and chilled. And we played the sexual fantasy game, which is only mildly less inappropriate than it sounds. Very fun.

I love the way people here love each other. There is seriously so much love in this school. I can't even explain it, but I was musing on it tonight when all the guys were having their adorable bromances and such.
We're a family, sort of. In the sense that while we're not always best friends, we've known each other long enough and been through enough madness together to have this sort of love.
I feel like a walking cliche.
That's alright.

Of course, the flip side of this is that sometimes you know people too well, to the point that everything is predictable.
... Nah. We're very dynamic people.
That said, I love the fact that I can reinsert myself into this school with very little difficulty. Like my chair was just sitting there empty.

Love always,
Clara

Insanity in the Library, which I missed.

Sam: Hold on, I've got to go do something stupid. I'll be right back.

He just climbed out the library window and started running around in the middle of Outdoor Ed's game. Cath says, "Oh god". Sam is being insulting to her. Siblings are fun. And

David bought me a leopard print Snuggie. In the library I had a super cool fashion show with it, and I'm wearing it on pajama day. It'll be very sexy, because it's leopard print.

In other news, I'm back at school, at home, and I am completely loving it. I could not be more thrilled with life right now.

Cath: Hey Matt did you write your column?
Matt: Yeah but I wrote it in a fever. It makes no sense. It was like "Suburbs. Wealth. Suburbs. Wealth. Pizza?"

Sam: (referring to Katie S) I don't even know what she's doing there. I'm like 'what is that, Harry Potter?'
Katie S: I heard Harry Potter and I'm stoked!
Sam: I was talking about you.

Carolina: Do you know about Omegle? I feel like you would.
Me: Oh, I do
Matt: What's this?
Me: It's like, talking to strangers... on the internet.
Matt: Wow, that sounds like exactly what my mom told me not to do.

Sam: You're really...
Carolina: Creepy?
Sam: Yeah
Matt: Are you guys like, friends or something, or are you just being really honest?
Carolina: We're not really friends.

Love always,
Clara

There's no place like home. Fo rizzle, Dorothy.

BEST. DAY. EVER.
Why? Because for the first time in over two months, I'm back in the state in which I was born. I never realized how much I valued the concept of 'home' until basically today.
Now, I'd known that something was off while I was in Switzerland, I just didn't fully know what I was missing. Now I know. It's this.

Took the train from Philly. It was crowded, so I sat in a foursome with three businessmen with laptops. Actually, one of them had two laptops. It was very hardcore. I sat there reading The Guinea Pig Diaries (which is awesome and hilarious, by the way, if not especially challenging reading), having finished the somewhat depressing but interesting The Elegance of the Hedgehog (which is very French and rather sublime).
I wasn't really focusing though. I was beside myself with anticipation. I was doing weird things in public (not that this is unusual. I think it might have to be a new tag. "Doing Weird Things in Public". It could actually be the title to my autobiography).
When it seemed we'd crossed the Maryland border into DC, I actually said "haHA!" Think "huzzah!", not "hahaha". I thought I'd said it really quietly, but it clearly wasn't quiet enough. The three very serious businessmen with their four laptops between them exchanged nervous glances.
Then when the train pulled into the station, I giggled.

So that was awkward.

But no matter! I'm home! No longer will my weirdness in public be chalked up to being an 'auslander'! I can make a fool of myself without reflecting poorly on my nation!
I can talk to strangers again!

And I can see my friends. This is the most important thing. I look forward to tomorrow morning, when I really go to school for the first time since June.
I've missed Potomac more than I could have predicted. I was going through my mobile-upload facebook album the other day and found this gorgeous picture of the Upper School flag circle in the sunset that I must have taken on my phone in sophomore year or something. The description for the photo is-
in a weird way, i see this and think, 'home'

Love always,
Clara

July! July!

That's the name of a song by the Decemberists.
I'm listening to my music from July. It's really taking me back.

"Am I just growing up, or am I growing old?"
"Sewer smoking, what the hell? Is it toxic? I can't tell"
"Can somebody please remove these cutleries from my knees?"
"You make my frown turn upside down, and all my worries are gone"
"We were victims, together but lonely"
"I MAKE THEM GOOD GIRLS GO, GOOD GIRLS GO BAD!"

Right now I'm thinking of a lot of things, and one of them is Daphna and how she was so obsessed with that last song which very much threw off my obsessive compulsive song-listening habits. Damn her. (Just kidding. <5)

I miss my American friends, but I'll see them on Friday! It was going to be thursday, but I don't get in to DC until 6PM, and then I have to get settled with the wonderful family friends who are putting up with me for the next week. Unless anyone wants to kidnap me for dinner thursday night after that?
Just a thought. I really do miss you guys like crazy.

Although here's an unexpected phenomenon- right now, I also miss my Swiss/randomly international friends. I haven't seen them in a couple weeks, and they're wonderful people.
This is a predicament. But I think I set myself up for this one.
I am forever doomed to missing one group or missing the other, or the worst of all, missing everyone at once.
The fact that I now have an eternal curse basically means I definitely am cut out to be a pirate. Well that's reassuring.

Love always,
Clara

Also, my laptop case is airport-friendly!

Hotel Shuttle Driver: Anyone here going to the Renaissance Hotel? Its architecture is very famous. You hear about it all the time.

There's a rather delightful quote without context for you.

Today I went to classes at Brown. The second one, Neural Systems, went way over my head, but it also let out early, which gave me twenty minutes of not knowing what to do with myself. I went to Starbucks and got a tall coffee and an apple bran muffin.
Then I was walking around trying to re-navigate myself to the dorm that I'd slept in and I walked by a tour group. At the same moment I walked by this tour group, I spilled coffee on myself. Not too much, but enough to look completely dysfunctional.
It was great. Everyone was staring at me, I guess assuming I was a student. I wanted to be like "Don't worry, I don't go here, Brown students are not in fact completely spastic, they know how to use commas correctly too, don't mind me"

Then we flew to Philly. At the airport I was having problems. The root of this problem was the fact that I am constantly at odds with the physical world. Things like spilling coffee and heavy suitcases align themselves against me.
But in the security line I made friends with some pilots. We chatted about the ridiculous nature of making pilots go through the security lines with the rest of us. They decided I was a cynic. I think that's the first time I've been told that.
Maybe not.
I'm kind of bipolar in that regard. I'm either completely naive and living in a world of rainbows, or I trust no one and guard myself against everything. It's one way or the other.

Now we're staying at a hotel near Swarthmore. I remember coming here (not to this hotel, but to this area) last August, when I was just starting the whole college thing. It's weird, I was obsessed with a couple songs by The Postal Service and I was just beginning to blog and I was wondering what school would be like when we went back.
Well, here I am again, blogging, my newest crop of songs from Death Cab for Cutie, and I'm wondering- What will school be like when I go back?
I'm excited to see everyone.
I'm pretty sure I said that last august too.
I was optimistic about junior year. I had good reason to be. Junior year, despite its madness, was actually pretty awesome.
Senior year has been a completely different kind of insane, and I'm still trying to discern its awesomeness. I can't draw any clear conclusions until I go skiing.

Therefore, it is too soon to say.

Love always,
Clara

Another day, another college

Woke up to a completely beautiful non-rainy Williamstown morning with gorgeous leaves and sky. And I went to a couple classes. And then we got on the road again.
I fell asleep. It was sweet.

I'm listening to my 'Purchased' iTunes playlist backwards. It's like rewinding my life. In preparation for my brief return to Potomac, of course.

Then we got to Brown and I used my excellent navigation skills to get Sandy and I to Au Bon Pain. Take note, I'd been to Providence once before in my life, last March, for all of three hours. I was very impressed with my vague recollections of where I was supposed to be going. Anyway, I had a bagel.

I started having a great conversation with a vaguely familiar-looking girl in the admissions office. Turns out she was Anni, a girl whom I had friended on facebook after meeting her once or twice at some parties. That was literally our conversation-

Me: So where are you from?
Anni: McLean
Me: Are you serious?!
Anni: What's your name?
Me: Clara
Anni: I think we're facebook friends.
Me: Oh my god, you're Yazzy's friend! I stalk your videos sometimes!

It was a pretty cool randomly-small-world moment.

Then I went to the chorus practice with my super cool host, because she's musically oriented, and I got to try to sightread the Alto II part of something by Handel. I am not an Alto II, and Handel is hard to sightread, but it was fun all in all.

Why are all colleges so great? It really makes it hard to be decisive.

Love always,
Clara

Ex-Haus-Ted

It's funny, when you split up the word "exhausted" it looks like it involves being out of one's German 'Haus'. Curiously, my exhaustion is very much related to the fact that I'm out of my house in the land where people speak German (or rather, Swiss German).
I'm in America!!!!!!!!!!
There are not enough exclamation points to express my enthusiasm, but I'm afraid that if I add any more I'll look like a 13 year old girl.
Okay, to be honest, I already look like a thirteen year old girl.
But not, you know, in real life.

Anyway, last night I flew from Zurich to Boston, got in at 9:00 which felt like 3 AM, and almost passed out when we finally got to the hotel room. Then my damn circadian rhythms told me to wake up at 7:15. It was, to say the least, annoying.

I'm doing an overnight stay at Williams College right now. It's pretty sweet. We're hanging out in the entry common room and I'm trying to do physics but getting very distracted.

Joe (to a fellow prefrosh): What're you reading in AP spanish lit?
Fellow Prefrosh: [book]. It's brutal
Joe: But isn't it hilarious? Oh Loraine, you would hate this book. The guy is like, "Hey you know what I really like to do? Get women to sleep with me and then leave them!"
Loraine: I would hate that.
FP: ... that's actually almost a direct quote of something I just read.

Love always,
Clara

New carreer path alert!

I just watched Chocolat with my parents. I've been in a bit of a directionless rut lately, but during the movie I had an epiphany.
I want to be a pirate. Or as they called them in Chocolat, a River Rat.
I will live on a boat with lots of similarly irreverent friends and we will sing and dance and travel from place to place, and we will hang out with Johnny Depp, and we will also be very well educated pirates, which is why we will spend a lot of our time on our boat (while we're not singing and dancing) reading books of philosophy and discussing important things like Plato.

Oh wait, that was my life for a little while. Minus the boat.

Anyway, this is what I intend to pursue after college.
Real Conversation-
Me: Mom, I want to be a pirate! If I were on a boat with people singing and dancing and drinking gin and swearing and such, I would not have any of these problems! You should have been a pirate, so I could have been born on a pirate ship! Mom it would have been so great!
Mom: Sorry, all the pirates I knew turned into investment bankers.

Avast, mateys!

Love always,
Clara

Twice now, this has happened.

A song from when I was just a young thing (specifically, freshman year), which was once completely impossible to find, randomly approaches me on iTunes completely unprovoked.
The latest music binge:

Brilliant Daze (Days Are Confused Mix) - Magnatune Remixed
We Will Become Silhouettes - The Shins
Who Says - John Mayer
Another Travelin' Song - Bright Eyes
First Day of My Life - Bright Eyes
Walking with a Ghost - Tegan and Sara
Hell - Tegan and Sara
Fifteen - Taylor Swift
Let's Just Fall In Love Again - Jason Castro
Party In the U.S.A. - Miley Cyrus
(by the way, there is a really cool remix of this song with Notorious B.I.G.. I twittered it, if you're super curious)

So, back to the insane blast-from-the-past moment. That first song, "Brilliant Daze", is from all the way back in the day when I loved loved loved Lonelygirl15, that youtube series about the girl on the run from a cult with her friends who are all in love with her.



This song was in a video about going hiking, and, just like the Katie Todd Band song, it spoke to me. This one speaks to me about love-
"We are the same but different, and it's brilliant, swim in my ocean sometimes, together but seperate, intertwining, love is so easy when you don't need the obvious things, i'll swim in your ocean sometimes, we've got tender hands but wild minds"
It seemed especially poetic at the time. That's how I think love should be. I don't know.

The song is a remix of a Lisa DeBenedictis song. Lisa DeBenedictis is unknown enough as it is, but finding a downloadable version of the remix was completely impossible until recently. I played the video over and over and scribbled the lyrics in the margins of my notes and did all the things I do when a song kidnaps me that way.
(It really is like kidnapping- when a song takes me I am its prisoner until it chooses to let me go. I don't get bored with songs, they get bored with me.)

Anyway, today I was on my little iTunes adventure and I was at a loss so I did what I tend to do sometimes- go to the "Genius" recommendations. You know, sometimes those are great and sometimes they're terrible and sometimes they're completely inexplicable. But right there, number 15 on my list of 15 recommended songs, is this.
I don't know what about my recent purchases even indicated that I was into this kind of thing.
But wow am I lucky.

I decided tonight that I am a frustrated artist. I need a means to express myself artistically. Blogging is pretty super awesome, don't get me wrong, but I have an urge to like, write cryptic and metaphorical poems on the sides of buildings just to make people think, so that they can escape their little boxes of spider webs.

Love always,
Clara

Going home!

Real conversation just now-
Me: I'm going home!
Mom: yeah in just two days!
Me: well, two days until I'm in America. Then more until I'm really home.
Mom: but still, America!
Me: I know! I'll be able to speak English withouteople thinking I'm an idiot!
Mom: ... Well... Sometimes.

We're on a train. We're always on a train.

Love always,
Clara

The most swiss I've felt in months.

I'm in a hotel at the base of the Matterhorn, the mountain I've been hearing about for years, because my dad's sort of a little bit obsessed with it.
Also, tonight I had fondue for dinner.
I have never felt more like yodeling and buying liederhosen.

Actually, I really do want to find some liederhosen before I go home.

We left Geneva (aka Genf, aka Geneve) this morning. Mom and I took the train and, again, were completely dysfunctional, and dad and Grace drove for three hours in total silence. Geneva is definitely my favorite city so far- it feels so... French. I love it.
Last night we went to this conference at the University of Geneva about genomics- Craig Venter was the speaker, and a friend of a friend of ours. Google him- he's brilliant.
The lecture was more scientific than I thought it would be, which I appreciated- I'd assumed he'd be dumbing it down for the clueless political sorts such as my father, but it was a pretty university-oriented crowd. I only understood a lot of what I understood because of my internship last summer.
The lecture was also in English, which I also appreciated.

I really really really want to learn French.

Tomorrow we're going to take a train up a mountain or something, and I'll probably put in braids and legit find some liederhosen. This really needs to happen.

Love always,
Clara

Mom and I on the train

It's been a lot of family bonding this weekend/week.



Mom and I went shopping today. We're in francophone Switzerland and we're totally lost. Between the two of us we've got English, Spanish, and a working knowledge of German. Of course, everyone we try to speak to speaks French and Italian, basically the other two languages of continental Europe. So that's fun.

Mom: You know, I heard this quote attributed to Albert Einstein, but he was a native german speaker, so it doesn't make any sense
Me: What quote?
Mom: "Life is too short to learn German"
Me: That's like me saying "Oh, to hell with English, it's a stupid language anyway"

I think I have said that on occasion, actually.

Also, my uncle's mother died (I'm not sure what my uncle's mother is in relation to me, but it's sad nonetheless). This is really only worth mentioning because my mom found this out today (it was her sister's husband's mom) via e-mail. She does this thing where she takes a picture of me doing something and sends it to her siblings- I think it's the Irish family version of twitter.
So she sent my other aunt this picture of me sitting at the Stabucks in Vevey, looking kind of ridiculous and excited, because I tend to make really weird faces when she (or anyone else) tries to photograph me without my permission.
And so she sent this ridiculous photograph/caption:
(DISCLAIMER: I KNOW, I LOOK REALLY STUPID)

"[Uncle John]'s mother died this weekend"

She sent it, realized what a complete nonsequitor it was, and the two of us basically died.

Then I got the hiccups, we tried to get a chocolate croissant in a bakery, I couldn't deal with my hiccups, and I basically walked into a random Swiss man.

At this point mom and I were in hysterics. It was all just ridiculous.

Love always,
Clara

What a completely functional family!

Nothing weird about us at all!

Last night we were having dinner and everyone was harassing me for letting things not work out with this wonderful boy from summer 08, which was completely not fair, because he lived in San Jose and I didn't want to deal with that.
So then my lovely mother brings up a certain other boy that I ended up hanging out with that summer.
Me: Oh shut up! I was in a terrible mood! I was tired!
Mom: ... I needed the money!

That's right, my mom called me a prostitute. We have fun.
I have a super awesome judgmental family.

Then we explained to grace that dark chocolate and red wine are healthy, and we toasted to resveratrol.
I hope to go shopping today. Also, perhaps, swimming. I like vacation.

Love always,
Clara

On the go

In yet another new part of Switzerland today. Mom and I took the train down. Dad and grace drove. It was nice actually- they took our luggage (we're out of town for about a week) so mom and I didn't have to drag it around the banhofs.
Also, I ran into this girl from New England in the Lausanne train station bathroom. We had a great little exchange about how the bathrooms cost twenty cents and she didn't have a twenty cent coin and I gave her one.
Honestly I just like being able to talk to strangers.

Love always,
Clara

True Blood.

I'm watching it online right now.
It is incredibly sexual, but it's also pretty cool. Oh vampires.

Went out for dinner with mom tonight. Found a cute french place and had mussels. Very yummy.

Also did a lot of novel planning and not a lot of school work. Hm. Regretting that now, because I have a bunch of things due tomorrow.
That's the thing about online classes- You're never really free of things.

Love always,
Clara

I'm such a loser it's almost funny.

I just almost cried at a Taylor Swift music video.
Well, at least this time it's not over something vaguely related to moving.
No, this song speaks to me.

Quite honestly (probably more honest than I should be on the internet), I remember being fifteen really clearly. That was the spring of thinking that maybe maybe maybe a guy who I liked (i.e. liked liked, in Hey Arnold terminology) liked me back, which is kind of life-altering when you're a freshman, and having a lot of fun with the idea.
And then after that there was the summer of existentialism and late night text message conversations and drinking coffee every day and literally running away from boys who set up chairs outside my dorm (which is a really long story).
And then it was the fall of supreme awkwardness, and my first semi-successful novel adventure, and hating field hockey with a passion.
And then there was winter which was cold (mostly due to the ice) and I get this terrible feeling that I was really distant to 99.5% of the people in my life (and overly open to that other .5%), and I don't even know why I did that, except that I have this tendency to be completely naive about life in general. I wish I had more to say about that winter, but that one thing was my winter. Yikes.

And then I turned sixteen, which was a completely different story.
Sixteen was a lot of anger and joy and enthusiasm. More adrenaline-filled highs and lows, less of the complacency.

My point is, Taylor Swift is right again. You go, T-swift. Being fifteen sucks because you can only see about five feet in front of you, and the rest is a complete mystery, but for some reason you think you've got it totally figured out.

On the other hand, I can see a whole seven feet in front of me now, and thus, I know exactly where my life is going.

Hm. Maybe what struck me about the song is that I wish it ended at sixteen. Because fifteen did suck, and the years since then have only gotten better (quite honestly, I think fourteen was the worst), but the not-having-a-clue thing hasn't gone away.

Oh well. So it goes.

David: And my dad took the lord's name in vain several times.

We're skyping.

David: And I thought "Go blonde haired blue eyed people!" So then I thought, "Who else says that, besides Hitler? Clara does!"

This is true. Not that I have much else in common with Hitler.

Love always,
Clara

Chilling in the Student Lounge

Quote without context: Wait, so are you my actual daughter in law?

I just told Halima a really awkward story.
She's looking at the University of Chicago supplement essays.
"How did you get caught?"
I find that one really cool

Aksil just showed me the greatest display of college a cappella in the history of the world.


Love always,
Clara

It's raining!

For some reason the rain is not depressing, but actually quite delightful. I was under the impression for some reason that the rain would depress me.
Now it's raining and I remember- I like the rain!

Yesterday I discovered that I don't have to wear pants here.
That was another delightful discovery.

I'm getting pumped for National Novel Writing Month.
I'm also realizing that during October break (which starts tomorrow afternoon!), I'll still have to do at least three hours a day of work.
Super.

But then I'm in America, so I'm happy.

Love always,
Clara

My schedule

So I've realized I have a million and a half things that seem to be coming up and threatening to eat me, so I'm making a list of them.

• I have a Theory of Knowledge essay due tomorrow
• I need to get ahead on physics and psychology
• National Novel Writing Month starts soon
• College applications
• I have to figure stuff out for the a cappella group and for the sports spirit awesomeness and all of it.

Although I'm looking forward to that.

This class has a lot of super random fictional familial relationships. Mariam and Percy just got divorced and now Mariam is going after Boyuan, but Boyuan and Lyna are dating, but Lyna is Mariam's mother.
Me: Are you going after your mother's boyfriend? Because that's really scandalous.

Looking at it, there really isn't all that much on my plate right now, but it feels like a lot because... I don't know why. Probably because it's first semester senior year, and I'm falling into the typical traps.

Love always,
Clara

I should be more positive.

I think a lot of people here would actually prefer that I do the opposite- not that they want me to be unhappy, but I am in this habit of being enthusiastic even when I'm stressed out and going crazy.
But seriously, I should be more positive (genuinely).
So I will make a list of things I am thankful for (and feel like a pretty huge dork who's more than a month early for this kind of thing):

• Patrick the laptop tells me the time. Thanks, Patrick!
• Just now, I simultaneously ate ravioli and took a math test. Hooray for home-schooling!
• Enough people have signed up for the unnamed a cappella group that I'm starting, so we're actually going to exist! Awesome!
• My online psychology classes involve videos by Dr. Phillip Zimbardo, who I love! Familiarity is so hard to come by here!
• I have a Mars bar!
• I have actually seriously founded a Student Athletic Committee. I know, right? Me? Athletics? But I've decided here it's more an issue of cheering and being excited about things, which is so my style. Also, we're going to have some sort of spirit week. And I'm designing sweatshirts for the basketball team, which is basically the only team we have here.
• There's a student council meeting today! Hooray for getting things done!
• There are only three days until October break! And only sixteen days until I'm back in the DC area!
  

These things are all very exciting.
SMILE MORE. LIFE IS AWESOME!
As Julien said, I should probably lay off the crack.

Love always,
Clara

Hello there

Today my second two online classes start. You know what that means?
It means I have drastically less free time.
But it also means I get to watch videos by Phillip Zimbardo, whom I have loved dearly/slightly been obsessed with since CTY cog psych 06.

I didn't blog yesterday. I hate that.
Yesterday was busy in the most mundane ways. Woke up, had breakfast, and we drove to Interlaken and had lunch. It was a long drive. Then we got lost in Interlaken, found ourselves in Interlaken, and drove to Grindelwald, at the base of the Eiger. So then we walked around by some mountains, went into a Mont-Bell store, I bought a little tiny umbrella, and we drove home.
Then I hung out at home for a bit, and then we went to see "New York, I Love You" which was pretty good.
And by then it was nighttime and I went into nighttime time-wasting mode, which included talking to Isabella on skype, which was great.

So, that's life right now.
Not bad, not superb, just life.
But... two weeks until I'm in America. And 17 days until I'm back in the DC area.

We had a great conversation on the tram today about fast food. The Swiss imported all the worst fast food places from America- McDonalds, Burger King, etc.
They all want KFC here. I told them they really wanted Chipotle and Subway and Taco Bell. Clemens said he wanted In-n-Out Burger, but I said we can't even get that on the East Coast, so good luck with that.
I'm going to go to Chipotle when I get back to America.

Love always,
Clara

threeway.

I'm skyping with both Daphna AND Vivian. At the same time.

Daphna: I'm glad we've established which countries have good hookers
Vivian: Clara's a good hooker
Daphna: We knew that
Me: ... that's cool...

I bought this lime green headband at Migros today. I feel like an eighties aerobics instructor. It's super.
Also, is the fish taco shaped like a fish?

Love always,
Clara

You know what?

Don't tell me newspapers and magazines are endangered species.
I LIKE PAPER.
Sure, the internet is handy, but there is something about reading a magazine cover to cover or flipping through the newspaper and falling asleep with it on your couch, because newspapers are big enough to be nap blankets.
And YOU CAN'T NAP WITH A KINDLE.

I told my dad's friend Mr. M this last weekend. He was like "Your generation's not supposed to think that! You're the internet generation!" but, goddamn it, I do.
Not that I'm in any way bashing the internet.
It's just not the same.

It's like having a Tamagotchi instead of a real pet turtle or something. Easier, less expensive, and you can play more games with it, but definitely not the same.

Love always,
Clara

TGIF

I slept in this morning. But before that, I had a really weird dream.
It had two parts. The first part was before my alarm clock went off and I realized my first class was at 12:00 today and there was no reason to get up at 7.

That first part was roughly as follows: I was at something, and I think it was supposed to be Junior Retreat, but we had this sort of talent show. So everyone was standing in this HUGE oval in this also-huge room. And this guy shows up carrying a giant polaroid camera, and I get onto it. And he runs around the room while I do something similar to a can-can. That was our talent. Can-can on a camera.

This is the second part: I am at someone's summer home somewhere, and there's a party, and I am expected to be a guest at this party, but I have also been put to work- I am to cover a board with "pearls", but these pearls are little drops of this glue-like stuff that sticks to your hands, so you have to drop the glue out of the tube wearing rubber gloves, just in case. I decide it is also necessary to do this while in the bath (because the water would also keep the stuff from sticking to my hands?). Then my sixth grade teacher walks in and I realize I'm not wearing rubber gloves, which is why I am failing so miserably at my task. He had had to do the same thing, but he finished quickly because he did it the right way, and I was clearly doing it the wrong way, and it at that moment occurred to me how impolite it was to use someone else's bath without even telling them.
My parents and I leave the party, because we're driving home with CeCe's parents, but then I realize I left my shoes inside and so I run across the front yard.
Somehow in the midst of this, someone refers to my talent show performance. I explain to them that it was a dream, even though they were there.
Also, I spent some time walking in the back gardens of wherever-the-hell-I-was.

It was really strange. I made myself wake up at 8:30 just so that I could get out of the dream.
I'm going out tonight, in a couple hours or something. It'll be sweet.

Love always,
Clara

I really should. Damn Crack.

Mariam: Phatty, you're gay right? You love me.

I can't even explain that.

Today in art Percy and Julien were talking about something, I don't know what. I was listening to music in one ear and so I wasn't listening really, but occam's razor told me that they were probably talking about art.
Percy: When I think about it, it doesn't work, but it works only when I don't think about it
Me: Oh, when I do that, my friends end up looking like ducks.
Percy and Julien: ... What?
Me: Oh sorry, were you talking about drawing?
Percy and Julien: ... No
Me: ... Oh
Julien: You should probably lay off the crack.

Um that was embarrassing.
We've been looking at potomac yearbooks, searching for inspiration.

Love always,
Clara