Forensical

Well, forensics is over. It's quite sad. It was such an amazing trip! I can't decide whether this or ITF was better....we had a really good group too! Which is so great! And it was crazily intensely fun!!! :D We all did really well, even if the judging was biased and didn't show that *rolls eyes*. We got first and second in Serious Duet Acting and first in Comic Duet Acting too. We meaning ASD. We should've placed more in Comic Duet Acting and in Serious Oral Interpretations. We got 3rd overall which is pretty stupid cause it was basically whoever had the most number of students got the better placing. *rolls eyes again* But it was really fun anyways! We know we all deserved more, Amman's just in denial. :P

So now I can return to normal life.
Well, nope. Not really. I stayed home sick today to catch up on sleep and work so I don't wear myself out before exams, which start tomorrow. I've got AP Lit and US History exams tomorrow then after those head straight to Al Shamal for the final, and my third practice, for the big Christmas Production on Friday and Saturday. Three showings each day. Then after that crazy hectic weekend, two more days of exams and thenn CHRISTMAS BREAK!!! We're going to Tanzania for Christmas, then heading back to Dubai in time for Desert Challenge and staying for New Year's, then heading back to Doha sometime in early January. I am so excited! I just wish I didn't have all these obstacles in the way.

I should probably be working on my Senior Seminar paper that's due at 3:30 today....eek.
Later.

Striking(v.) Chords(n. pl.)

That's pretty much all I've been doing lately.
Ignoring my homework to go plod through some amazingly unreachable Josh Groban chords. sigh. It's been amazing, working my way through February Song and Remember When It Rained, and even Relient K's Getting Into You at times.

Me loveth piano.

I haven't blogged anything for a while...I've actually been quite busy.
Let's see...I've got Antigone practices, Forensics practices, Theatre class practices, Solid Rock Christmas Production practices. . .it's insane. Forensics leaves on the 5th to go to Amman, and we're back on the 9th. I'm really really excited for it! It's gonna be sweet!! :) But I also do kinda want to get it over with....as fun as it is....IT TAKES UP SO MUCH TIME!! I swear, practically everyday I'm staying after school for one thing or another. Oh. Great. Yep. Forgot to turn in my math work. Jooooyy. Well...I probably should start studying for my philosophy test before I fall asleep on my mom's laptop. It has been known to happen on occasion.

Until we meet again...
Adieu, adieu.

Pick-up trucks.

Top 10 Worst Pick-Up Lines [taken from MSN.com]
1. “What’s your sign?”
laame.
2. “Pardon me, I seem to have lost my phone number, can I borrow yours?”
uh. no, you may not.
3. “You must be a broom because you’re sweeping me off my feet.”
i actually kinda liked this one :P
4. “Do you have a license? Because you’re driving me crazy.”
and this one sorta...cheesy but hey!
5. “I gotta thirst and baby, you look like my Gatorade.”
yeah..okay i don't want a guy drinking me thanks...=/
6. “Are you lost? Because heaven’s a long way from here.”
*rolls eyes*
7. “Are you religious? Because you’re the answer to all my prayers.”
yeah...okay. no.
8. “Can I take your picture? I want Santa to know exactly what I want for Christmas.”
ewww. creeepy!!!
9. “Do you believe in love at first sight or should I walk by again?"
loll!
10. “Well, here I am. What are your other two wishes?”
reminds me of caylen :P

Now some personal favorites!! =D
[originalls! cept the one in quotes]

If you were on the McDonald's menu, I'd name you McBeautiful.
jon with an i's original.

If you were on the McDonald's menu, I'd name you McHunky.

michelle's response to jon's

Are you all from Dubai? There must be something in the water there, cause you're all gorgeous!

gag me lizard face!! :)

"Do you happen to know how much a polar bear weighs?" ... "Well it's enough to break the ice!"

Wanna date?

I just got some from the madinat.

llol good times.

What's your number cucumber?

it's tomato.

*Looks at shirt tag* Yup, just what I thought...Made In Heaven.

ahhh goooooood times confusing nash with that one!! hahaha!!

Have you seen my beach ball? It's about this big, *flex arms downwards* and it went either this way *hercules flex left arm* or that way...*hercules flex right arm*

hehe

I once caught a fish this big...

auustinn!!! :)

A piece of AP Lit.

THE LIFEGUARD
James Dickey

In a stable of boats I lie still,
From all sleeping children hidden.
The leap of a fish from its shadow
Makes the whole lake instantly tremble.
With my foot on the water, I feel
The moon outside
Take on the utmost of its power.
I rise and go through the boats.
I set my broad sole upon silver,
On the skin of the sky, on the moonlight,
Stepping outward from earth onto water
In quest of the miracle
This village of children believed
That I could perform as I dived
For one who had sunk from my sight.
I saw his cropped haircut go under.
I leapt, and my steep body flashed
Once, in the sun.
Dark drew all the light from my eyes.
Like a man who explored his death
By the pull of his slow-moving shoulders,
I hung head down in the cold,
Wide-eyed, contained, and alone
Among the weeds,
And my fingertips turned into stone
From clutching immovable blackness.
Time after time I leapt upward
Exploding in breath, and fell back
From the change in the children's faces
At my defeat.
Beneath them, I swam to the boathouse
With only my life in my arms
To wait for the lake to shine back
At the risen moon with such power
That my steps on the light of the ripples
Might be sustained.
Beneath me is nothing but brightness
Like the ghost of a snow field in summer.
As I move toward the center of the lake,
Which is also the center of the moon,
I am thinking of how I may be
The savior of one
Who has already died in my care.
The dark trees fade from around me.
The moon's dust hovers together.
I call softly out, and the child's
Voice answers, through blinding water.
Patiently, slowly,
He rises, dilating to break
The surface of stone with his foreheard.
He is one I do not remember
Having ever seen in his life.
The ground that I stand on is trembling
Upon his smile.
I wash the black mud from my hands.
On a light given off by the grave,
I kneel in the quick of the moon
At the heart of a distant forest
And hold in my arms a child
Of water, water, water.

A New Kid's Guide to the Ways of the American School of Doha.

These are three essential things every new student to ASDoha should know.
[In other words, pretty much the only three things my brain retained from orientation day.]

* * *

1. You must never, under any circumstances, call the Dining Hall the "Cafeteria". The Cafeteria is reserved for the elementary school and the elementary school only. If you do slip however, some teacher will come whack you on the side of your head with a thick, dusty textbook.

---

2. There is no such thing as water bottle machines on the campus of the American School of Doha. There are only water coolers. You are required to bring your own water bottle to fill up from said water coolers if you want to drink water during the day. That is because their theme this year is: "Go Green." Failure to do so will result in you finding yourself in the middle of the desert, parched, crawling on the floor with a coin in your hand, desperately searching for a water bottle machine.

---

3. The room with the number 1408 in the Science Hall of the American School of Doha must never be entered. It is said that terrible things surrounded by fermaldehyde that look at you with their beady black eyes through glass jars haunt that room. If you happen to have a class there, I guess you must enter the room so you don't land yourself a detention for skipping class. If you do have to go through with that terrible task, I am truly sorry. I wish you luck. Just remember, if John Cusack could survive in a haunted hotel room with the same number of 1408, than you can too.

---

And that, my fellow newcomers, are the three most essential things that you will need to know to survive this year at the American School of Doha.

Thank you, and Good Luck!

* * * disclaimers * * *

1. No teacher is going to come whack you on the side of your head with a thick, dusty textbook. So far the one teacher I've met at ASDoha has been very nice.

---

2. Hmm...didn't really extend the truth much in that one...okay, I'm sure you could find a water fountain nearby, or a nice kid who'll give you a sip of their water. Or if you're really, really desperate, I guess you could drink straight from the spout. But that would be just gross. Not to mention the millions of cooties you would spread onto the next person who uses the water cooler. *shudder*

---

3. Me? Biased? Because I hate science? Naaaaaawww!!

[There actually is a room with the number 1408 in the science hall though. And I haven't seen the movie, so I have no clue if John Cusack actually lives by the final credits or not. I assume he does though, how else would he tell the tale?]

Baby Steps. . .

Today was the New Student Orientation at ASDoha. I've never been to one before. When we moved to Dubai, we moved in the middle of the year, so we got a tour of whatever was on the way to our class, and kinda just got shoved in with a "Good Luck!". Okay, maybe it wasn't that harsh, but I don't remember there being a whole hour set aside to welcome you. There's actually a LOT of new kids. And quite a few new seniors. I'm glad. I thought there would be like three, including me [boy that would've been awkward!], but there's maybe around 10 new seniors. The new campus for middle and high school is frickin' HUGE! Half of it isn't ready yet, including the theater [sniff!]. But the musical is next semester apparently, so I'm sure it'll be done by then. So the orientation went like this: we were directed into the dining hall [dining hall...NOT cafeteria!! - I think thta's about the only thing I got out of that tour...=S], where the principal welcomed us and then one of the counselors told us we'd be splitting up into groups, by grade, to go for our tours. I was actually REALLY nervous about it. I don't know why...I'm weird like that. Like I told Wesley, who didn't believe me, I'm actually very quiet unless I know the people I'm around. I think I'm really only ever my true crazy self around the youthies, and the few people at school that aren't youthies :P, cuz I don't feel judged around them, whereas at school, I always feel like someone or other is judging me. Maybe it's paranoia...but okay yeah, whatever. Anyways, we got assembled in our respective groups. We did an icebreaker as seniors, 'Never Have I Ever' [ooh, bad memories watching that game...] Thankfully it was kept very clean, mostly stuck with travels and skydiving. Then we went on the tour of the half-finished ginormous school. It was so overwhelming! I felt like I was on another college tour. Mostly due to the fast that our tour guide walked backwards half the time and was very tour-guidish. Everyone seemed nice though. But I'm still so very nervous for the first day of school! My mom said she got a peek at my schedule though, and she said I got what I wanted, so that's promising I guess. [ha! all you ASDubai-ers!] I think I'm most nervous for AP French. Pretty much the reason I signed up for it in Dubai was because Mr. Lemaire didn't think I could do it. So I was all "I'll show him!" And plus, I really liked how he taught, but here there is no Mr. Lemaire, so there's not really a challenge, no real incentive for me to take it. So right now I'm writing this blog as a break from going through my mom's old French textbooks in a desperate attempt to make sure I know what I'm doing so I don't embarrass myself...in French. =S But knowing myself, that's probably gonna happen anyways. They gave the parents a booklet at orientation, and in it there was a list of churches and youth groups here. I though that was pretty cool, you never really see anything like that in Dubai. I found out Solid Rock youth meets Thursday nights at 6 pm. I think it's close to our house. I'm gonna e-mail the leaders today to see if they're meeting tomorrow or not. I really hope they do meet tomorrow! I'd feel so much more comfortable in a youth atmosphere than a school one, for afore-mentioned reasons. Plus, I could meet people from school there...if there are people from school that go to youth...ooh I reallly hope so!!!! So then I wouldn't have to sit alone at lunch on the first day, cause I'll actually know someone. That's what I'm dreading the most...lunch. [dun dun dun] I can just imagine myself standing in the middle of the cafeteria..er, dining hall...not knowing where to sit. Ack! Anyways, I should go do more French stuff, then read Othello, then see if my brain will respond if I open up SAT and college stuff. Oh the joys of senior year.

Missing Dubai like crazy!
Much love,
Tach.

Ignorance is bliss...unless it's AP English you're ignoring...

I should be reading Othello at the moment, instead of being online. Or reading two other books. It's not that I don't like it, I love Shakespeare, I really do. Even if it is really confusing to understand most of the time. Call me a nerd, but actually deciphering the words on the page is half why I love his works so much. Yeah, I dunno what else to say about Shakespeare now except that I should really go read more Othello! Orientation is tomorrow, and I'm scared sockless about it. I spent this whole summer fantasizing about how I'm gonna be on the ball with all my school work and SAT work and such, and now look at me...Less than a week before school starts and I'm not even halfway done with my AP English work! Not to mention I haven't even thought about reviewing any French verbs...Okay, I lie...Thought I have, done I haven't. Oh how I loathe schoolwork so. Yet I am so intrigued by it. Maybe intrigued isn't the right word...Okay, enough ranting for now!
<3

the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice.

How freakin lucky is that girl??

1. Your first role is in HAIRSPRAY!!
2. You kiss Zac Efron in your first role [:P]
AND
3. You get John Travolta as your mom.

And she's pretty darn talented!!

So I saw Hairspray last night [finally!] It was sooo awesome!!! hehe Although now I must confess that I am totally in love with Link Larkin! lol And Nikki Blonsky is just way too cool! And I SOOOO want John Travolta as my mom!!!

A Square Peg For Your Round Hole. {a little overdue}

Oops, I did it again!
I had another late night dosage of starbursts.

So sue me!

A Demain.

This whole past year, I hated waiting a whole week for youth on thursday night.
This whole summer vacation, I've hated waiting forever for a rare game night.
So I am so PSYCHED for the game night tomorrow! I wish I was already in Dubai! I miss everyone SO much! I am gonna be so hyper tomorrow! Lol. And then marble slab after game night with everyone...and possibly a major sleepover at michelle's.
Life couldn't get any better!

But it could get a lot worse.





~~[why do i always have to do that? ruin a perfectly happy post w/ a totally sad line at the end? *rolls eyes* some would call it my inner emo-kid.]

Fellows will fall in line

Well, after searching on youtube I couldn't find a clip of those two dancing in the gazebo during the storm when they sing Sixteen Going On Seventeen in the Sound of Music and seeing as our tv still isn't set up in the new house, let alone our old VCR, I couldn't put the tape in...so I haven't been able to follow the tradition of watching that scene on your seventeenth birthday. Sad, I know. But, apart from that, my seventeenth birthday was quite fun. This morning my parents gave me the complete Friends series and the DVD The Benchwarmers. [more for me and my brother to share, but i got em on myyy birthday nananananana :P] When we get to Dubai, my mom's gonna buy me a new pair of converse, black ones! And I'm getting a week in Dubai, and I'll be going back every so often so s'all good!
Then we headed to the new house to do more unpacking. Tooootally boring! We hardly got to do anything in my room cuz my a/c unit was leaking so we couldn't move the closet under it cuz it would get wet...so I found this wheel of fortune game my grandad gave me during a trip to Amman so I played that like the whole day :P We did unpack my computer, so hopefully I can plug it in and fix my iPod tomorrow, before we head back to Dubai! Anyways, me and my dad went to go pick up a McDonald's order for 10 [we had packers :P] and when we got back my mom was making a brownie cake so we had that for my birthday. The packers got a real big kick out of it lol. Then more unpacking. My brother got his room almost completely organized, he just needs a closet :P. And like 20 minutes before we were gonna come back to the hotel, my mom and I FINALLY found all my piano books after looking like the whole day...and we had already looked in that box *rolls eyes* so I finally got to play a proper song on the piano after like two months!!! =S
Well, then we got back to the hotel and went to the asian restaurant for a teppanyaki dinner. Twas so fun, our chef was quite hilarious. And they gave us random kimonos to wear, cuz we were at the teppanyaki table so we're all special. Only I had the guts to wear it. My mom only wore it cuz I made her wear it cuz I didn't wanna wear it alone haha. The one she had on was a realllly nice shade of purple. I had a red one on. I wanted to buy the purple one, cuz you could buy them, it was reallly pretty and my parents said it was okay...and then we asked for the price and we all quickly changed our minds. 500 rials [500 dhs] for that! And it wasn't even real silk! So I got to wear a 500rial worth kimono for a couple of hours :P Then, you know, they have to bring out a cake. And the band from the Mexican restaurant came to sing for me. Haha, they're like my friends now :P We've eaten at the Mex. restaurant I think twice now, and both times my dad and I are always the ones to start up the applause :P

So all in all, twas a pretty fun birthday :]
And it's gonna be soo much more fun when I late celebrate it with everyone back in Dubai!!!
Just one and a half more days till I see everyone again!!!
<3

Some will seek forgiveness, others escape.

Although I can't say that I'm a huge fan of underoath yet, I can say that I have fallen in love with their song Some will seek forgiveness, others escape. It's so beautiful, yet somehow calling an underoath song beautiful doesn't feel right. The lyrics are really good, and the music is too, but you can't really see that on here, but here are the lyrics: [and cait, tell me if you think it's happy lol]

***

I heard a voice through the discord
A deluge of passersby
I saw one gaze frozen in time
Watching me passing by
I swear I'll know your face in the crowd
And I'll hear your voice so loud
When you're whispering

Hey unfaithful, I will teach you
To be stronger
Hey ungraceful, I will teach you
To forgive one another

Here's my kiss to betray
I'm desperate to brush the lips of grace
Do you feel hollow when you think of how I lied?

Oh sweet angel of mercy
With your grace like the morning
Wrap your loving arms around me
Oh sweet angel of mercy
With your grace like the morning
Wrap your loving arms around me

Hey unfaithful, I will teach you
To be stronger
Hey ungraceful, I will teach you
To forgive one another
Hey unfaithful, I will teach you
To be stronger
Hey unloving, I will love you

And Jesus I'm ready to come home
I'm ready to come
Jesus I'm ready to come home

Hey unfaithful
Hey ungraceful
Hey unloving, I will love you

A time of constant relocation is just around the corner.

I traveled the most this summer, with a record of 19 flights [two more coming up when I go back to Dubai...so it'll be 21] and 7 different countries [states included] visited, new places including Lincoln, Nebraska and Aleksandrow Kujawski, Poland...okay, that was a mistake...so really Kutno, Poland. So, for all you who want to consume your time with it, here's a "brief" summary of my summer so far. [No need to explain the quotes around brief :P]

Dubai
That last week of school/first week of summer, starting like right after the End of Year H2O Banquet. A day in Sharjah, a day at City Center, a day at Mercato. Things couldn't get better! Until I started remembering that I was freakin moving! Oh well, I had an amazing time of hanging out with my best friends! And there's still more to come when I make a return appearance.

UnitedStatesOfAmerica
Alright, that was the first destination of my epic summer. Seriously, these past few months have been soooo drudgingly [at times] long. Me and my mom [or my mom and I?] flew to Virginia and spent a week there shopping for clothes for another year overseas. I was pretty much banned from getting a new pair of vans...or converse. I actually am getting a new pair of converse though :P...for my birthday...well I have to buy them with my own money *rolls eyes* but still, I'm allowed...*rolls eyes again*. Yeah, uh...see why I put quotes around brief earlier?? Then Michelle came and met us up and the next morning we all flew out to Nebraska for the International Thespian Festival. That week was non-stop everything! A day's schedule was pretty much as follows:
1. Wake-Up!
2. Breakfast
3. Morning Show
4. Lunch
5. Workshops
6. Dinner
7. Evening Show
8. Dance/Auction on one of the nights
I still can't get the first day's amazing performance of Thoroughly Modern Millie out of my head! It was just...amazing! The cast had to try out the year before at the festival for the musical, and they were pretty much the "best of the best", thespians chosen from different schools around the United States. I can't believe they were all high-school kids. Also the non-musical Moon Over Buffalo was freaking hilarious! I swear I don't think I stopped laughing!
"He just came out of the closet." l.o.l.
And of course, Zombie Prom was awesome too! And no, I'm not biased in my opinion. Buying the two male leads at the auction with three of your friends does nothing to affect the quality of the show. :P Yes, Kelsey, Lizzie, Michelle and I all pitched in a certain amount of American dollars to buy our claim on the two awesomely talented male leads, Ben and Max, and go for dinner with them the next night. Haha.
The dances were also quite entertaining [cough*cough]. It's still an amazement that Americans don't know like any techno. They do know the Cha-Cha Slide. All too well, but oh gosh is that fun to dance to with a bajillion people!!
Hmm..what else happened in Nebraska? I can't really think of anything else actually...just a bunch of inside jokes and such. Lots of fun times though, I won't forget them! ...Even though it seems like it happened oh so long ago.
Anyways, after that week, we headed back to the D.C. area where me and my mom spent a couple more days power shopping and meeting up with old friends and family. Met a guy [well he was the guy serving us] at T.G.I.Friday's who was like an exact replica of Austin Page, just add like 10 years :P. Totally hilarious. Then...I flew back to...

Dubai
Yet again. This time, there wasn't much hanging out. A few times, yes. Like the three-headed picture-taking session with Michelle and Megh. And a couple game nights. Saw Transformers for the first time. Awesome movie. Probably the best movie I've seen all year :P.
"Satan's camaro is on my lawn! ... IT'S STALKING ME!!" hehe, great line.
But pretty much, the bulk of my time back in Dubai...the last of my time where I could still say I lived there, was spent packing up the house, and spending like every day at Michelle's house watching rented movies and memorizing the layout of Mercato mall. :P Then after a time of two "relaxing" weeks, we were off again, this time to

Kutno, Poland
for the Little League World Series. My brother had made the team in Dubai, so now we got to travel to Poland to watch the tournament. So, we took a flight to Zurich and had a connector to Warsaw. We had a short amount of time to make the connecting flight and the security lines were so very long [good ol' zurich international airport] so when it's like our turn in the security line, one of the airport officials calls out for people going to Warsaw, which was us. [And we were already late by then] Like the only thing he tells us is "You're late!" And it's like "No freaking duh Sherlock!" So we got yelled at by a Swiss guy, but still made our flight. Probably the only reason they waited for us was becuase we were like a group of 25 people haha! So then we land safe and sound in Warsaw airport....without half our luggage. So we had to wait for the next flight from Zurich to bring in our stuff. So we went pretty much next door to the Courtyard Hotel to spend the four hours or so that we needed to wait to get our luggage. I think the hotel was a little shaken up with our short yet loud stay. Well, we got our luggage...an hour late, but what you gonna do about it? Then we got on the bus, for like the third time, and spent the next three or so hours on the road to Kutno. Then spent the next 10 days in Kutno. Well, a good summary was...hmm...watching baseball games everyday and getting high off the fresh air with Ellis. Oh, getting stood up by Eric with Ellis and never getting our beer from him. Just kidding. Or am I? Well, he never did get us beer. He got it for the dads, but never for us! Hmpf. It was quite entertaining watching that kid being taken under the dads' wings...and being like the stud of the polish girls. DJing for my brother's 13th birthday disco dance thing at our hotel was fun, even if I was a little scarred at watching an 11-yr-old version of a Nebraska dance...*cringes* The games were lots of fun! I think we were like the loudest team there, waving around pom-poms and plastic megaphones, courtesy of Mrs. Keener. The Dubai Falcons ended up coming in 4th place, and the Saudi All-Stars won the tournament, not a loss in their minds. Now, they're in Williamsport, Pennsylvania playing in the finals of the Little League World Series. Their first game is tomorrow. How cool would that be if they won? :P They were a good team though, very well organized...even if I didn't really like their parents. The parents were so obsessed with statistics and stuff, which I guess is what got them to the top, but seriously, they're just kids, the eldest are just 13. Oh well, not my place to judge right? Well, after our little adventure in Kutno, we were due in Berlin. So we thought it would be a good idea to take the train to Berlin. Good idea actually. Just not when you miss your train. Not our fault though seeing as all the announcements were made in Polish and seeing as we don't speak a word of it, when you hear "Berlin" and "express" at a couple minutes before the scheduled departure, you go "hey, that's our train!" So we load all 7 pieces of luggage on a train that's really going to some random destination we can't even understand. Because that train was late half an hour, so our Berlin train would've been after it. Well yeah, we got a lot of weird looks from a lot of people but we found an English guy who speaks Polish in the next compartment and he helped us figure out what we needed to do. We were gonna stop in the next stop, Alexandrow Kujawski, and get a train back to Kutno to catch the next express ride to Berlin. So we did just that, and the son-in-law of the hotel's owner met us at the train stationto take us back to the hotel so we could have lunch and then he took us back to the train station and made sure we got on the right train. Which we did, and we spent the next five hours traveling through the beautiful countryside, although I was paying more attention to the words on the pages of my copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. [I did look up every once in a while, when my mom would bother me to look out the window]

Berlin
We only spent a couple of days there, visiting my mom's sister and her family. I wish we could have spent more time there, there is SO much history in that city! And it's really quite pretty, it's green...:]] clovers everywhere. oh sigh! How I miss the greenery so. I can't wait to move back to a green country with four seasons. College! I had fun though visiting the family. My little four year old halfer cousin is SO adorable! He refuses to speak anything but German though. So I learned a few German words...like kaput haha Okay, I lie...I already knew that one. But schnell [run], I didn't know before, and kokmal [however you spell that!!], which means look. Those were pretty much the only three words he kept repeating endlessly. He understands French though, so I was able to sort of work on my French skills. I got him to tell me different colors in English and French, hehe...smart kid I'm tellin' ya! Anyways, then we went to visit more family in

Switzerland
My grandparents have an apartment in Montreux, on the shores of Lake Geneva, so we went to spend about a week with them. Didn't really do much sigh-seeing or whatever since we go there like every year. We did some shopping, watched Ratatouille. Cute movie lol. And on the last night, we drove the hour to Evian, France to watch a dance show called Celtic Legends. It was really awesome! There was a 5-piece band, one piper/floutist[i think], 2 violinist, 1 accordian player and 1 acoustic guitarist. and of course the amazing dancers! Here's something I wrote about it during the intermission:

"And for that split second, with their bodies suspended in mid-air, there was complete and total silence, and then the thunderous sounds of the dancer's rapid movements filled the auditorium once again, followed by the almost equally thunderous sound of applause. Their legs were the lightning in this unique storm, moving rapidly yet as fluid as the fabric their costumes were made of."

The auditorium was so cool! The show was held in this old lodge-style hotel so the entire place was made of wood. The accordian player welcomed everyone and such and did it all in French. Let's say...it was comical hearing him speak and I wonder if all French students sounded as choppy as he did. :P He was hilarious though, he wouldn't stop moving. The whole band kept time with their feet, and it was cool watching how they each did it differently. Yeah, I'm a weird music geek...Mr. Hart would be so proud. *rolls eyes* lol. Anyways, after that week of lovely, normal weather..it was back to

Dubai
for two days. One of which was spent all with Michelle. Listening to Mika until the wee hours of the morning, plannign our extravagant senior trip and watching movies of young fathers stealing their kids from hospitals :P. Okay, one movie called Me and Luke and it was very cute. Some low-budget Canadian film I think. Anyways...then we got on the flight to

Doha
My first time here. It's so strange being here...like really is. It's not as bad as I thought it would be though. It's REALLY quiet, but it's really familiar too. It's like a mix of Deira, Sharjah and Dubai. I guess because it's so familiar it's not as hard to be here, but we're still not in the new house yet so we haven't officially moved in. Plus I still haven't read that little green book of all the stuff my friends wrote to me as goodbyes. Oh I don't wanna do that. Well kinda do, cuz I know some are gonna be 100% hilarious but yeah...kinda don't. My room's painted! Blue and yellow! It's totally skamazing and it's not even ska! The house is smaller than the one we had in Dubai. [I hate past tense.] Doha's kinda cool though. Everyone I see in malls and stuff that's around my age I keep thinking..."I could be in their class..." It's so...weird...I just wanna move in and for school to start. But at the same time, I'm scared out of my mind for the first day of school. I really DON'T wanna be the new kid. Not in senior year. These guys have had years of establishing their group of friends and stuff, I just spent the last almost two years getting to know some of my very best friends. And now I have to be ripped away from them. I'm not gonna rant on and on about "It's not fair." "Life sucks." Obviously, it isn't fair. But how can I whine and complain on and on like a little kid when I'm almost 17? Besides, who knows what'll happen right? I could meet even better friends here. Oh I hate when people say that. Okay, I'm being a tad hypocritical right now. But really, everything my dad's said to me about friends makes it seem like I should forget about the ones in Dubai cuz I'm gonna meet new and better people here who will take all of their places, and don't even get me started about the numbers of people I'll meet in college.

"Ease the pain, take it all away; I wanna feel numb instead of this lonely emptiness." -Aug 11, 07

I guess I'll end this here. Funny how the mood so drastically changed huh?

Cut the ribbon with silver shears.

What do you write in a first blog?
*thinks to self*
Well probably what I'm writing now I guess.
This isn't my first time blogging, I've blogged before. But this is my first blog on my new blog.
So, a bit about the title...
Tach&theTravelingVans
As you've probably read somewhere in my profile, I like to travel. And I've seemed to have formed a new kind of...*looks around for a word*...shall we say "habit"? of taking pictures of my proudly worn black-and-white-checkered-vans in almost every country i've visited this summer, which has been six. So, in a special dedication to my lovingly worn shoes, I named my blog after them. Plus, it's totally catchy and like sooo totally me!
So, after that brief introduction...[i actually did keep it brief! woohoo!]...
I now wholeheartedly welcome you to the special grand opening of

Tach&theTravelingVans

*cheers erupt from crowd*