It went on and on and..

I was asleep in a bed in Shanghai circa a mixture between the 1920s and 2001. Awoken by my alarm on my crappy Nokia cellphone that I used in South Africa, I rolled out of bed and went about my daily morning duties before A, my fellow intern in Cape Town, a group of friends, and a teacher figure who was a mix between Madame and Professor Theidon (some intimidating female figure) walk in.

No sooner than the people had walked in did the alarm start going off again. This set off a mad scramble to find the phone - no where! Where was that annoying alarm coming from? Eventually I found the phone, but its data had been erased and all that was left were photographs of revelry. None of which I recognized or was in. Frustrated I chased after the group of people who had already left, eager to get away from the loud and obnoxiously ringing alarm.

Going through the revolving doors and into the misty weather I eventually caught up with the group at a corner shop. The alarm was still ringing. A showed up in a qipao telling me that Madame/Theidon really cared about my family and had bought us all sorts of small goods. I complained "The world is an alarm! It's warning me!"

And then I woke up and realized my alarm had been ringing for the past 10 minutes. Whew, seemed like a day in dream-time. Inception complete.

Commitments

I think I'm too amused reading other people's blogs to post on my own.

Anyway, here is the backdrop to my year - my commitments!

School Work: 2 core classes (learning the philosophy of my ancestors and reading romance novels), Junior Tutorial (our TF wants to do a module on porn where we'll watch everything from soft core, to hard core, to interracial and then analyze it using a freudian lens - titillating, he called it), and Japanese Art and Gender (by far my most reading and analysis intensive class) for my VES secondary.
Overall not bad so long as I keep up with readings and try not to zone out too much during class. Lighter workload leads to more procrastination.

Breakers: Our first show of ever is coming up this October! Once we start pubbing it it'll be official. Looking forward to the practices & bonding. My gcal is over flowing with breakers blue.
Overall going to be super intensive come October when we try to really pull this show off - looks already like I'm having practices almost every night...

WorldMUN: Study guide edits equals 40 x 8 more pages of reading for me, sigh. I can't even skim this stuff! But, truly, the people in WorldMUN are what make me stay, and the people are awesome! Every time I hang out with them it's all laughs. I cannot wait for Singapore.
Overall it's a constant barrage of work that never quite ends until committee sessions come to a close (post conference trip bliss!) but so, so worth it.

Crimson: Where's my money for doing design?????? I meet a new person there every time. It's interesting.
Overall I'm sad that there are no more board happy hours. Clearly I got back into it at the wrong time. Also, sport design is challenging but fun. I don't like skipping my dinners every time I design ):

Consulting: Aka summer internship in general. It's kind of hazily always in the back of my mind.
Overall stresses me out about how low my GPA is and how I need to raise it to get good summer internships. Oh, and I need to finish (aka get past page thirty of) Case in Point. Bah.

Mario Kart: R, I will beat you... sommme daaayyy.
Overall some things never change - what can I say.

On the road to consultingdom

Aka I just ordered Case in Point off the internet.

Today's task: go to a Bain info session.
Result: Listened to a recent graduate talk about the important aspects of consultingdom (don't be a tool during interviews, only bother staying at info sessions if there will be people you know there, Bain>BGC & McKinsey, hah). Attempted to follow her and the crowd as they walked to the info session. Decided to take alternate route. Got lost. Ate fish tacos at Border Cafe. Sessioned.

The end.

Polaroids part deux

Food always looks better in polaroid form

Qui est?

Oh hello Korea!

Sexual Tension

No Comment.

On the first day of class

I realized that I bought two bottles of shampoo instead of a bottle of shampoo and a bottle of conditioner. Bollox.

collection & recollections

I hope that some day I will have this feeling where when I do something for myself, it is no longer just for the betterment of me, but for me and someone else. Though, I have an inkling I won't achieve this for a while. (Is it an achievement? Maybe I should just say that it won't happen for a while.)

Visited my friend L in San Francisco at her law school dorm. Her room is probably 3 times the size of the one my roommate and I share at Harvard. Sigh.

It seems sacrilegious to comment after a polaroid but... polaroid app ftw.

Though it doesn't beat the real thing.

The next day I was up early and we wandered about town eating, praying (aka taking deep breaths after feeling nauseated from too much food), and talking about love.

Eat

Pray

Love

At home today -- I felt like drawing. (This is what happens after life changing events to me, I suppose) So I drew for the first time in ages. When I was little (aka in high school) I created "original characters" which are like imaginary friends on paper. This one's Kattachu. Say hi!

I tend to draw the expression that I have.

Or do I test the expression I'm drawing out on my face?

Anyway, to round out this random collection of drawings & photos. I arrived back to California and mother took me to a Japanese noodle place. Omnomnom. I still can't believe you don't have to wait for an hour and a half for food to arrive at your table. In any case, took this awesome photo in a noodle bowl. I think that it sums up my sentiments, good times and bad in multiple ways. I didn't think of this at the time of taking the photo. When I took it I only thought of sending it to someone near and dear to me. I never did send it and now I'm posting it here as one last gesture of memory, for the inside jokes, the arguments, the anticipation, the excitement et al. I present to you:

fin

Mefloquine induced dreams

My anti-malarial medication states that I will experience dizziness (check), headache (check), insomnia (sometimes check), and vivid dreams (check). Here I'll just delve into my experiences with the last of the lovely quadruplet.

An average night in Tofo looked a little something like this:

Fall asleep exhausted at 10 pm.
Dream one: I'm walking around a labyrinth like structure looking for my classrooms when I run into my APUSH teacher, Phipps. He takes me into a class with windowed walls where Tsuna in "reborn" form (from hitman reborn.. if you don't get it, don't worry), a gundam, and a fat girl in cosplay are doing bicycle crunches on a hardwood floor.
Dream two: Michael Jackson is young and dapper and deathly skinny, dancing around and showing me how to moon walk while the light bounces off his glittering pants and suit.
I wake up at some random hour, battling with my mosquito netting and see that it is still dark outside. Readjust, fall asleep again.
Dream three: I was the hero. There were people after me. As I was holding a meeting atop a sky scraper someone detonated a bomb that caused the entire building to collapse (conveniently in slow motion). I rebounded off nearby buildings to save myself and saved an old man in the process. Once on the ground I transformed into a female version of myself (was I male before?) and someone else transformed into the male version of me to try to trick those who wanted me dead.
Dream four: My high school friend R had filled the bottom of a warehouse with treats and goodies for his crush, D's birthday. There were crackers with jam, lots of savory goodies, and all in costco style, stacked up and in units of 1000. D came in and was not impressed. Meanwhile, starving African people walked through while grocery shopping. We tried telling the cashiers not to let these people take what R had stockpiled but by then it was too late. R looked around the empty room and lamented that he had spent 60,000 USD on the whole affair! At this point D started to feel a bit guilty and so we turned on music and started a cypher. D did a few awkward ccs and another friend from HS, T, egged me on to participate. I top rocked a bit and woke up at
6 am. Just in time to see the sun rise