SUMMER

Yesterday was my first official day of summer. I finished reading the Hunger Games on the plane (the book ending is WAYY better than the movie) and fell asleep at 7:30. Ha, I know…but I was tired, it’s been a long month. Here’s what’s on the agenda for Florida

Sun-Mon – Daytona Beach trip for the girls (mom, sis, gma, & me)

Tues-Wed – JUST VACATION, RELAXING, and China/Ireland planning.

Since I haven’t posted in a long time, and nothing too exciting has happened yet, here’s one of my promised short stories from my English class…

It was early summer in Upstate New York. By eleven am, it was a warm and sunny seventy degrees- my favorite. I was staying at my Gramma’s house for a week as I did every summer growing up. I love that house. Over the years it has changed many times, from knocking down walls, to porch additions, to new paint. But man, I really love that house.

One of the best parts about staying at Gramma’s in the summer was not having my parents around. At twelve years old, on the verge of becoming a Teenager, this was a big deal to me. And this year, in order to prove I wasn’t just a silly little preteen, I got to walk to the corner store all by myself! Looking back now, that store is maybe 200 meters from my Gramma’s house, but back then, it might as well have been in China.

Leaving the front steps, I turned right to pass by My Marnie’s (aunt) house. Just past her house I had to make a left and cross the street. Looking both directions four times each before sprinting across the street, the anxiety of being truly alone began to set in.

I was less than a block away now, but I swear I walked for ten minutes to get to that little store. My thoughts were racing, What if someone kidnaps me? I don’t know my phone number, I’ll never be able to get home. Ahh! Dog. It’s OK, there’s a fence. Focus Bailey, your almost there, you’re going to be fine.

When I entered the store I was met with a cool blast of AC and all my worries melted away. They have ice cream shaped like SpongeBob! Candy cigarettes! I have ten bucks, I’ll just grab these and the…the… what was I supposed to get? For the life of me I had no idea why my Gramma sent me to the store, so I put back my SpongeBob ice cream and candy cigarettes, and walked with my head down the whole way back. I had failed. I was not a big, bad Teenager just yet, but still a child easily distracted by sugar and cartoons.

Clearly Failing

I’m clearly failing at getting on here to post every day, and figuring out the website as I have not had the chance to explore others blogs.

Another reason I wanted to start this blog was to gain practice writing. I am taking a Non-Fiction Narrative class at school this semester, and have been writing some short stories. I plan on posting them here to get feed back.

For now, my posts are pretty boring– I admit– but as soon as I get caught up on my never ending list of things to do to prepare for my trip, homework, and work, I promise they will get more interesting.

Stumble

I’m trying to get in the habit of posting everyday, or at least every other day.

Today I’m going to write about the website StumbleUpon. http://www.stumbleupon.com/

My best friend told me about this website over a month ago, and I finally made the time to check it out a few nights ago. It’s awesome! I stayed up for hours looking at tattoos, DIY crafts, news, and comics. I’m planning on making this really cool doily lamp when I get the chance. If u haven’t stumbled upon StumbleUpon, I strongly suggest you go check it out right now. Go.

Also, I’m posting this from my newly downloaded wordpress app.. Curious to see what this looks like online later.

So Here’s The Plan..

My first 3 weeks in China is a school program learning the Chinese language, Partly, china 3 wks is a school program learning Chinese language and culture and Confucius. The next 3 wks in china is a volunteer program with an English immersion camp at a Chinese univerchina helping teaching English. 1 week in Ireland is bailey free time; I’m gonna go to cork and Dublin-get a tattoo, shop, visit the free roaming zoo, guineas factory, and stay in hostels, and i have online class stuff. The next 2 wks in Ireland is with umd we are traveling to Belfast to studyical violence and prison system though a series of case studies.

My First Time…

I am starting this blog mainly to share my amazing summer vacation with family and friends. Before I begin my Senior year as an undergraduate student at the University of Maryland, I will be studying abroad for 9 weeks. My goal is to be fluent with blogging and how to use this site over the next 2 months, that way when I’m in Florida, New York, China, and Ireland….all I need to do is write.