#dorm-life

[sailor-moonsault]

Why use beds when there's the beer aisle? I mean, come onnnnn.

[thatdanishchick]

I made my first dish of dinner in my new dorm-room

It's a turkey-pie(ironically chicken mince meat, pasta-screws, egg-mass and tomato-sauce with lots of grated and mozzarella cheese) and I'm only going to eat about 1/8th of it, because I made a whole batch of it. And it's delicious. And I'm not even that good at cooking.

[personal-bizz]

So... Back to college... WAHHHH!!!! Like and Subscribe if you can relate to my pain and suffering... (-_-)

[greenhatboy]

Julianne: Marc likes to say knob in the hood.

Me: You could dangle a hoodie from his erection. Then he'd have a knob in the hood.

Julianne:

Emily:

Me:

[petitexpat]

craving for korean food but have no companion.

[ina-constantstate-ofpanic]

I really need to go to bed. This 8:30 class thing kills me. And it's only a 5-6 minute walk from the dorm.

[ina-constantstate-ofpanic]

I waste a shit ton of electricity at these dorms. I should stop. I wouldn't have all these lights on at home... But I am getting my money's worth for the $26k these fuckers got from me.

Plus the big ass bed I made is pretty comfy and I don't feel like getting up to turn off the light. 

[alexfieldsart]

My Life right now feels like a Dream

For some reason, when I was in middle school, I never actually imagined myself being in college and it still feels weird that I am. I guess it's because I could never imagine growing up. Hell, I haven't really grown up at all. I still feel like the same nerdy loner kid I was in middle school. I still like reading Naruto (although because of school, I haven't been able to follow the manga that much) I still like wrestling and all the cartoons i used to watch like Hey Arnold, The Rugrats and Dragon Ball Z. I don't feel like I've changed at all.

On top of actually being in college, I'm actually dorming too. I never thought I'd actually be able to dorm. My mom couldn't even get a loan for me to pay for my expenses but because I got this scholarship from school for poor minority students who show leadership potential (or did tons of community service like i did) my school's shelling out tons of money for me to dorm. I feel kind of lonely being in the dorms though. I'm the complete opposite of everyone in my suite. They're all white heterosexual girls with boyfriends and I'm the only single black lesbian, haha. That's funny, right? They're all cool, though, we get along pretty well. There's supposed to be another girl moving in. I wonder what she'll be like. I wonder if I'll actually still be in the same dorm next semester. I'm going to register to be here again but there's no guarantee that I'll actually get to stay in this dorm. I'm too used to it to leave and I have a really nice view of the city from my room.

I used to think that dorming and being away from my mom would be hard but since she's taught me to take care of myself (cook, do laundry, be wise with money) and because I have a job, living on my own has been pretty easy and pretty fun sometimes. Especially when my friend, Haley moved in for a while. Living with a friend was really great. Seeing her every day was one of the highlights of living in a dorm so far. No matter what I was going through, having a friend living with me was pretty awesome. Just getting to talk to each other a lot (well, whenever she was home) and us both being generally happy to see each other was really great. Haley's a hell of an amazing person and it was really fun living with her.

So yeah, two years ago, me of all people gets selected from my school to attend a leadership conference called the NSLC in Washington DC. I barely get to leave the state of New York. I haven't been out of the country in 10 years (I went to Belize, Central America where my grandmother was born), going to Washington DC was huge for me. I got to see the White House!! :D So I get to the camp and I'm mentally shitting bricks because I'm thinking that we're going to meet some important people and do a lot of work and that I wasn't going to make any friends but it wasn't like that at all. We did a lot of fun activities, i took an animation class!! We went on tons of trips to museums and news media related companies (because I was in the Mass Communication and Journalism group) and we spent a lot of free time hanging out. I met some really great people, including this really cool girl named Claire from Austria. I spent all my free time with her hanging out in her room and we watched kpop videos on her laptop and we showed each other our art. Geez, this girl is talented. you can see her work here. http://powupine.deviantart.com/

The last few days of the program got really emotional, especially during this workshop we had in the auditorium. The facilitator asked us to express how we felt about each other. We all got to be really close during the two weeks we had together. Everyone, myself included started crying and hugging each other. The facilitator was playing "Say what you Need to Say" by John Mayer. Now every time me and my NSLC friends hear that song, we start crying or trying not to. So we're all bawling and hugging. I saw my roommate crying and we hugged each other and then I saw Claire and we hugged. I remember her telling me "Thank you" and I replied "I love you." People say this a lot and as corny as it sounds, that was the start of a very beautiful friendship.

The program ends and I'm crying as I got into the cab with my mom to go to the bus stop. A lot of people were crying, Claire included. And her crying is really contagious, man. The day after, she sends me a message on Facebook telling me that she got home and that she misses me and everyone else. I replied back saying the same. Then the next day, she messages me again to reply to what I said and then we just started messaging each other back and forth literally every day. For my birthday, she sent me a drawing which after 2 years, I'm staring at on my bulletin board at my desk right now, a card that I keep in my drawer, and a friendship bracelet that I wear every day, including as I write this.

Our messaging went on for months. She would usually tell me about how things were going on for her in school and in life. Whenever she had a problem, she ranted to me about it and I did the same thing to her. We always try to offer each other advice and tell each other that everything's going to be ok. We're always there for each other even though we live so far away. We learned a lot about each other. We tried Skyping with each other for a bit but it was pretty awkward. We already knew what was going on in each other's lives so there was little to say and our time zones made it almost impossible to schedule a Skype date. So we decided not to try it again.

After a whole year of not seeing each other and only having been with her in person for two weeks, I forgot what her voice sounded like.

So a few months into that year, she tells me that she's going to Canada to visit her grandmother in the summer and that her mother might let her come to New York City. We spoke about it as her mother was making decisions and not too long later, she confirmed that her mother was letting her come to New York to see me!!!! xD OMG, that was the best thing I had ever heard since I got the NSLC letter. I told my mom, we spoke about arrangements. Her mom spoke to mine on Skype and then I got to speak to Claire!! Hearing her voice after all that time was great, awkward but great xD She was going to be staying with me and my family in our microscopic apartment in the hood :P I wish I could have given her better but I really wanted her to get to know my family, see where I grew up and I wanted to spend 24/7 with her until she went back to Austria.

I was super anxious when the day of her flight came. Me, my mom and my bro drove to the airport to pick her up. It was raining that day on and off. The rain in Toronto delayed her flight so many times. Me and my family waited there for a few hours, we got pizza, walked around the mall. I bought a Harry Potter DVD. When Claire texted me to say that her flight was delayed again, me and my family went to City Island to get food and kill some time and then we went home to eat. I had Claire tell me when she landed. I think at about 9 or 10, sometime later, she texted me saying that her flight landed!! Me and my family got back in the car and drove to pick her up. When we arrived, I ran inside to look for her and when I spotted her, I couldn't believe it... she was actually sitting right there in front of me. She got up and we hugged each other after a whole year. I forgot how tall she was too, haha.

That week was something I'll never forget...

We had thee BEST time EVER!!! I took her sight seeing, we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 5 Points (it's the Graffiti Mecca of the world and she likes graffiti too) we went to Karaoke with my friends, i took her to Ktown to buy Kpop music (they don't sell them in Austria) we went to Central Park and the Empire State Building (the view from there is crazy!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiAuXBB2sGI That day was also mine and Claire's mother's birthday. Our mothers actually have the same birthday!! That's such a crazy coincidence, haha. My mom said that taking me, Claire, my best friend and my bro out that day and us all having so much fun was the best birthday she's ever had.

Having Claire with me seemed like a dream.

I still can't believe that I had someone from Austria in my room. The room that I had barely left when I was younger unless it was to go to school or to some relative's house. The room where I had sat down and drew and watched obscene amounts of TV because it was the only way I could see the world without actually being there. And now I had a friend from a different country that I actually had tons of stuff in common with sleeping in my room every night for a week. I had to pinch myself (not literally) to make sure I wasn't dreaming. Unbelievable but awesome! My mom thought it was really cool to have someone from a different country stay with us too :)

This is my mom, Claire (her green shorts disappeared because of the greenscreen. We still laugh at this) me, my best friend, Chasity, and my brother.

I still find it ironic and a little unfair that she's younger than me and she's so much taller than me :P

So she stayed with me for a week and it was really fun. On the last day, my grandmother came over and we all went on a boat tour on the rivers of NYC. It was really nice and relaxing. Then that night, we went out to eat for dinner. When we got home, Claire started packing and then the next morning, we took her to the airport. I was trying so hard not to cry that morning and then as she was on the security line. She was crying at that point too. We gave each other a long hug before she moved further away. And as she disappeared to get on her flight, she gave me one last wave good-bye and I let everything out. I cried like crazy.

When she got back to Vienna, she told me that the first thing her mother did was give her a bunch of chores to do and that she barely asked about how her trip was. Odd... Me and my mom were curious as to how her mother felt about her staying with us after the fact and whether or not Claire told her mother about her experience and stuff. I guess she did eventually because my mom called me at my dorm to tell me that she got a letter from her mom saying that Claire had a great time with us and as a thank-you, her husband (Claire's dad of course) was going to BUY ME A PLANE TICKET TO COME VISIT CLAIRE IN VIENNA!!!!!! I screamed over the phone when she told me that (and I scared the hell out of Haley and my other roommate).

At that moment, my life felt like even more of a dream. I never though in a million years that someone would do that for me.

As of now, the flight is booked and next month on the 20th, I'll be leaving for Vienna. 38 Days

18 Hours

39 Minutes

Counting from right now

I will be leaving the country for the first time in 10 years to get on a plane by myself to travel to see my foreign soul-mate. Now every time we message each other, we count down the days until we see each other. We did the same thing before she came to stay with me. I'm extremely, undeniably excited. I'm going to blog, record stuff and crash my memory card taking pictures when I go there. I can't wait to go to Vienna. She's also taking me to Venice!!! :D And me and her best friend, Corinna (who i'm really looking forward to meeting) are going to Claire's lake house in Balaton, Hungary. She also said that she might take me to Bratislava, Slovakia too. From the pictures on Google, it looks like such a beautiful place and I'd love to go there :) She's also going to take me sight seeing, we're going to some classical concerts (I recently got into classical music and I'm really looking forward to that) we're going to this maze in a palace and have a race to see who gets out first xD we're going to have an eating contest at a sushi place, having a Lord of the Rings movie marathon night, probably blast some Kpop and dance and just have a great time. I miss this girl so much. I so can't wait to see her.

I'm in for the biggest adventure of my life... <3 And I can't believe it's not a dream...