Wow. It
has been a while. So let me (try to) update you on everything that has happened since. Everything will be rather brief.
I took my exams, packed, then caught a ride with a friend toward the airport. She dropped my rank-mate off at the airport then took me to my hotel, less than five minutes away. There, I intended to stay up all night so I'd be exhausted on the plane. Unfortunately I fell asleep a few hours before my alarms were to go off and slept through them all. *sigh* Then I had to catch another flight because I missed my first one, but I caught one and made my second one on time.
Landed in Hawaii. It was ridiculously hot. Lucky I thought ahead and wore shorts under my sweatpants so that when I landed I could pull them off. ;) Went to dinner, went home, and went to sleep. Had various Christmas parties and realized...oops, I left half of my gifts on my bed in the dorm room!! :(
Flew back to the mainland...or tried to anyway. Flight from Honolulu was delayed for ~2 hours due to mechanical problems in some sort of battery. That made me miss my connecting flight from Chicago to D.C. So I had to reschedule to be on stand-by for two flights that were apparently full. As luck would have it, I was the first on the stand-by list and got a seat. :) So I made it back on time. Also, in HI they decided that my carry-on bag was too fat and thus had to be emptied. They let me stow it in cargo for free and said they'd make sure it made it to D.C. All the way. So when I landed I waited for my bags...which didn't show up. So I had to file a report and stuff and wait for an hour. Then it turns out that my folder holding my ticketing info and my claim receipt for my bags went MIA...which was just lovely, so they couldn't scan for my bags. But they pulled up my information and determined that my bags (well, the one that was in cargo first; they didn't know where the hell the other one was) had been left behind at O'Hare. Not so bad because it was coming in on the next flight, an hour away. So Uncle Dave and I went to eat lunch then came back and found my bags. Yay. :)
Spent some time in D.C. Turns out the cats liked sleeping on my stuff. Not that I minded, but it was a little unnerving to turn on the lights and find a cat staring at you. Drove back to Lehigh with Uncle Dave and Malia. Uneventful trip. Made dinner with a few GC students also stuck at Lehigh. Packed, took a short nap, then walked down the stairs to meet the bus.
The bus turned out to be a van. There were thirteen of us, not counting the four or so chaperones. Then there were bags. At least one for each of us. Some had two. We squeezed. I fell asleep in the backseat. We made it there alive and caught our ridiculous 13-hour plane ride. For those who were curious, we flew up over Canada and then the Arctic, down over Beijing and Qindao, then over to Shanghai. Caught a few winks, not much on the plane.
Landed in Shanghai. I'll post some of my travel journal entries later, when I get it back from my English teacher. :/
Came back to US. Never been happier. Did some laundry, grabbed dinner off campus (everything on campus was closed) with a few band friends and someone from my hall. :) Had a "welcome back we missed you" half-party at 492 Birkel. Brought the gifts for them and handed it out. Alex went crazy. It was funny. I got her a Hawaiian shot glass with her name translated into Hawaiian, a Chinese good-luck pendant, a honu necklace, and a shirt that says 'It's the most wonderful time for a beer (or two)'. I gave Bingold a shirt, too, only because I saw it and it fit him perfectly. It said, 'Bill's Beer Removal Service! No job too big or too small'. He said he was wondering why I had sent him a text message asking him for his shirt size but was glad he replied because he had never found a shirt that fit his personality as good as that shirt did. I got Charlie a wooden sailing canoe. He was really excited. Laura's gift was the same as Alex's, as it fit them both. Hannah got a leopard-print blue scarf. Hope and Ali got gradient silk scarves, purple for Hope and blue for Ali.
Started classes. As I suspected, I failed Math 021, so I have to repeat it and take 022 over the summer. :( Otherwise my classes are good. No complaints. Symphonic band is giving me the most trouble right now because I have issues which will be discussed in another blog. Personally, now that I think about it, it's rather interesting how many issues I have and how specific they are....and that no matter how specific they are, I am always encountering them. :/
Anyway, Silly Band gets its own paragraph. So I went to Symphonic Band (Silly Band, SymphoBand, Sympho) and froze almost literally in the doorway. I was overwhelmed and scared beyond reason. And they didn't have a sax for me that night so I left. I could have stayed and sat with the saxes and looked at the music, but quite honestly I was too scared and fled. I sat outside on a bench and tried to compose myself so I didn't look like an idiot walking back when one of the few saxes I know outside my rank came by. He's awesome. He gave me a hug and agreed to take the gifts inside for me and told me he'd pass them out.
Had the band banquet. It was awesome. Dressed up. Forgot not everyone knew I had a tattoo. Got a lot of 'HOLY SHIT, ERIN IS THAT TATTOO REAL?!', which was pretty funny. Afterwards was a Harry Potter Sorting party. We got sorted into our Houses by pulling names from a hat. I'm in Hufflepuff. Yay...
Saw my sax friend at the party. He's awesome. He asked me if I was all right and we talked a bit about why I was acting so weird at Silly Band. He was nice and sympathetic. He also offered to go home and bring back his secondary sax so that I could have a guaranteed one next time. :) I grabbed mine from the Loft at pep band so I have the one I marched with. It's nice to have her back.
Next week is our "official" Harry Potter Party. I need to dress up in yellow and black (Hufflepuff colors). Then we play games and have fun. It's nice because Matt Smith and I are in Hufflepuff. Also nice because I started talking to him. Now the only person I haven't really talked to in my rank is Dan. And according to a few people, if we ever sat near each other, it would become a black hole of silence and quietness. (Because he is also very quiet).
And...well, that's about it. I'll go back and write blogs for certain things that I feel need specifying. Like the Harry Potter Parties, Silly Band, things I have issues with, etc. :)
Time to go back to studying.
Jya~
~E
