Living the high life: Selfies in bed

I have not posted since September 4th. This does not mean that I have spent 5 months doing nothing of note, but that I have been busy crawling through the thick slime of physics, chemistry and unmentionable acronyms associated with the IB. I'm not exactly through it yet, but because I have mocks in two days and have already tidied my corner, played as much Blokia solitare as one can handle, listened to too much Missy Elliott (which for me is quite impressive, I can go for days on "Work It"), I figured that the only reasonable form of procrastination would be to slink sheepishly back here.

Also Ruth made me guilty with the return of A Healthy Kind Of Vanity and Áine and Verity will be happy.

5 months is a lot of material to prioritise.

My hair was blonde and I went to see Azealia with wondrous bagel-making Apoorva. My hair was ginger for a day and I wore Chris' hat for a day. My hair was brown and I took selfies in bed.

I developed a passion for internet petitions and have saved sharks, Ecuador and Cardiff Riding School.

I went to Taiwan with Maddie for a week, where we moaned about the single life, went for bike rides, drank so much bubble tea that I wouldn't be surprised if there was a helluva lot of bubbles still left in my system, went to the most incredible natural hot springs in the middle of a deserted gorge (save for Zi, whom we had to shake off by pretending to be on our years anniversary holiday), and made friends with the mongolian chain smokers in our strange bedsit excuse for a hostel.

I went travelling for 3 weeks by land across South East Asia from Hong Kong to Kuala Lumpur (and will probably write a whole 'nother post about that) with my fellow raggle taggle gypsies Maddie and Dorte.

I bought embarrassing amounts of hideous clothing and became a sumo wrestler for a night.

I adopted some children and made Dilene's life a living hell.

 I raised my first year to like Hui Lau Shan H1 large and she raised me to better music taste and clothing badassery. (Cue Billy Idol's Dancing With Myself).

I turned 47 18 and now listen to ridiculous amounts of BBC radio 4 and occaisionally go to the gym. This is in accordance with PROJECT HOT ROOM 2/307 and THE COLLARBONES SHOWDOWN JASON V. HANNAH. I went swimming with Bara in Starfish Bay before Trevor's morning block and the only light was from the phytoplankton which made our arms and legs fluorescent blue. That has made my "best Thursday 6am in my whole life ever" slot.

Paula valiantly tried to teach me how to move my hips, but I have found that my talent lies in dragon boating and amateur photoshopping.

James is really hot.

I am sorry for neglecting this little corner of the interwebs for so long, and during these next two weeks of moderately important exams I promise you I will update far too regularly.

h

"What's a typical weekend like?"

Hola.

Coh moh est ass.

Due to popular demand (and a Bosnian fan) I am back. 

I got back to xiang gong on the 19th of Aout. I'd like to say it was an uneventful flight but unfortunately not. After leaving mo dhaidi in the airport and saying my last goodbyes with my stinky ass Pepperami breath I hobbled to my gate aran sweater in tow. I say hobbled, because I had a liquid nitrogen induced blister the size of Jupiter's fourth biggest moon on my left big toe. This did mean that after my flight to Laandaaan I got to hobble to the Passenger Services desk and get a golf buggy with an old kiwi farmer who fit the "can totally walk but gets the buggy for the hell of it" category. I felt so wonderfully obnoxious. It goes slow enough for people to stare longingly at you as you go past which is an added bonus. On the flight I got my foot run over by the food trolley and watched the Lorax and about 10 episodes of New Girl. I were met by a wheelchair after getting off the plane and had a painstaking conversation with the poor woman pushing me because neither of us quite understood the other. 

Despite being saghas neirbhíseach about going back to school, it was crazy normal to be back. Sat eating dinner in the canteen with Jamés, avoiding packing and napping instead with Glenda, doing a tour of public hospitals on my first day back (Prince Of Wales had a 7 hour waiting time for A&E patients and a 4 hour 43 minute waiting time for those with heart attack symptoms) and having Monica and the hospital nurse pin me down and attack my toe to the sounds of an old man die in the corridor. All was as should be.

It didn't really feel like we did much in the way of class, save a physics lab and maybe a chinese e-mail or two. Did my theory of knowledge presentation on the ethical implications of Death Note. Switching down to standard chemistry has made my life full of rainbows and sunshine and love. And free blocks. So many free blocks. Afternoons were spent unpacking and getting my fix of bubble tea and Hui Lau Shan mango sago after a summer of desolation. My curtain rail broke under the weight of all my clothes and fell out of the ceiling. Maintenance have been notified. We went out for buffet Korean BBQ with tutor group one night. I have rarely eaten that much MEAT. I met up with a fellow Kilkennyian at the classiest karaoke bar in HK. Madonna's Like a Prayer was no challenge for my magnificent voice. I cut Jason's hair and gave him a bald patch. I nearly got my lip pierced to boost my street cred for when the first years came. Unforch (or perhaps luckily, it depends on your own view) the piercer was on holidays, so I went back to school, skyped daddy and said hahahahahahalippiercinghahahah to which he was like lol no and then I bitched out. Goodbye street cred but at least Wendy still loves me. I went to Mong Kok with Paloma and bought ugly clothes and sushi. I found a fedora in my room. I've started to get into the Foster the People album. A riveting two weeks I assure you.

And then the first years came.

I like to use the analogy that we are the spiders in the equation. More scared of them than they are of us. The canteen is suddenly mobbed; the cheese goes, the yoghurt goes, my will to live goes. On the Saturday I went diving with coral monitoring - which was nice to escape the madness. I couldn't dive cause of my toe but I did make the most of the nutella sangwitch opportunities. A good crowd of us went to Sai Kung for honeymoon dessert and pizza. Mouthfuls of mango red bean gunk meant that we didn't have to interect much. At about 10pm when I was about to head back, Mia asked if I wanted to do a 2km open water swim race in Repulse Bay cause Dilzy had pulled out. The next morning. At 6am. So I said yeah sure. Having still not properly met my roommates I left at 6am with Mia, got collected by a total stranger, went to Repulse Bay, ate half a packet of digestive cookies and swam 2km as Dilene Mugenzi. Longest race of my life and I nearly crashed into Ocean Park but still got a silver medal. And beat Mia. Was back in school before lunchtime, in an attempt to prove that asking "What's a typical weekend like?" is the most redundant question ever, considering I went with a hideous skirt n' sparkly boob tube-clad Jason to the airport to collect Morgan that afternoon. The people of Ma On Shan are highly judgemental. We played dodgeball on sunday night too. That was one hell of an initiation. Remembering my first week I feel terrible for them - I was the kid too scared to go brush my teeth. So far though they seem unnervingly settled. I'm looking forward to loving them.

Or at least cohabiting.

Eating Kebabs Like There's No (exam) Tomorrow

Sooooo....after English on Wednesday morning (during which I wrote the longest English essay I've ever written) I totally did loads of Chinese. On Memrise. For hours and hours. And hours dans ma chambre. I got a parcel from mo dhaidí, popped in to Jason in the art room who was busy studying Skins, and went back to my hovel. Upon examining the contents of the package, I decided that I was in the mood for Skittles. After devouring the aforementioned delicacies, I realised that I had, in fact, totally misjudged my craving and was actually in the mood for chocolate. So I ate the strawberry poppets. Then discovered my need for more chocolate. And so ate the entire packet of Cadbury's fingers. Later on that evening I gave myself a "study break", watched the episodes of the Savage Eye that had been in the parcel and polished off three DipDabs. Twas Bellington's birthday too, so I wrote many a seranading wall post. Still don't feel quite right not being le mo Ginge but such is life as a deportee. We're quare good together though.

Thursday I again unintentionally woke up early, got brekkie and a shower and studied Chinese. Proper like. This went on for the majority of the day as I sat, secluded in the Block 2 computer room, writing mundane sentences such as "This is my 57th cup of tea today" and "I do not speak Arabic at the hospital". I went to tutoring at 5:30, back at 7, and then more studying though a little more half-heartedly with JKwok zai block er computer fangjian, until 1am ish, after a particularly intense powernap left me looking horrendously drained.


Friday morning was more of the same, until I reached the kind of hour or so beforehand period where you take one of two approaches (both of which have the same outcome). There's the FECK IT I'M FECKED ANYWAY TRALALALALA approach, or the convincing-yourself-that-you-do-know-your-stuff approach. I like to think I sauntered into the exam ooozing pretentious self-assurance. I came out alive which is all that matters. I went for a quick swim, then back to my room before peer support at 4:30, which turned out to be actually at 4. Meh. No shkin off my back. At 7 we had muchos pizza in the spiritual centre then I popped back to my room, still with a horrible guilty cantstudyhaveexams feeling. I lazed about on my laptop, doing lots of nothing, when Áine persuaded me to get up and out. Had an uneventful evening but I needed it to shnap out of my monotonous exam mode.


Sa'urday I woke up at 7:06, inwardly screamed at myself  NO YOU ARE GOING TO LIE IN, and then did so until 9:30 and 10:50 respectively. Once up, it was shopping time. After a huge fiasco involving lost moneys, I mean, even the mass e-mail brigade was engaged, I found me moolah in a clever place I'd found to hide it then totally forgotten about. I headed out happy as larry to Mong Kok first, where I picked up a denim waistcoat yoke and a dress in Me & G, and some MEGA HEELS and a top from H&M. Also some earrings that I fell in love with before realising that I didn't have my ears pierced anymore. I may do something about that. I got the MTR to Causeway Bay to go to Forever 21 and accidentally left through the wrong exit of the station, leading me lost for a mere few seconds before miraculously I glimpsed the monstrosity of a well packaged mass produced clothing warehouse. This offered up another top agus maxi dress. I went back to school, azzoluthely drained after the ridiculously long journey home then had me a shower and got dressed ter go out again. We left at 9:20ish much to Jason's dismay the poor divil. I'd decided to trial the day's reapings and all went miraculously well. I didn't cop out of wearing me heels, which, though mere wedges and not quite killer pavement stabbing mechanisms, kept me on my toes all night (chortle). Me faux-glamorous image may have been ruined when I had to eat that kebab over a wheelie-bin (bearing in mind that I had not once during my time consumed any other recreational substance - save a Galaxy bar), but there is genuinely no other way to eat those kebabs, let alone whilst retaining dignity. Got a taxi back with Alisher & Palpal and went to bed after grabbing those 20 precious minutes of internet. Feet did be grand too might I add, though the lingering taste of kebab was ever prominent.

Sunday got up at 8 and the world tasted like kebab. I went tutoring, got paid, came back, had brunch, then got ready for feeeetbol (world still tastes of kebab 3x teethbrushing and 10x chewing gum later). I was the only loser who bothered to turn up at the bus at 11:20 but soon enough we were all on our way to Happy Valley for our 6 hour tournament. Das pitch was wonderbar, the park being all surrounded by sooopah tall skyscrapers and that. After drawing our first match 1-1, I started reading the second Hunger Games book that had also been in me parcel and ate my weight in bananas (after applying my weight in suncream). Second match we won 2-0, earning us notre place dans le final. Khetkat streaked across the pitch completely naked at this point, and had to be tackled into modesty by the Chinese Naked Police.Top two out of six was prolly one of our better achievements of the year, especially as we were no longer playing butch teenage girls but now butch women with adoring kids and husbands on the side. They were already one-up on us in that they'd given birth. We lost the final 1-0, though I'd like it to be known that I did one-of-those-kicks-when-the-ball-is-coming-from-the-sky-and-you-just-randomly-or-perhaps-completely-on-purposefully-stick-up-your-foot-like-some-kind-of-gymnast-twisting-it-235-degrees-and-hit-it-hard-in-the-right-direction kicks. It's the most skillful I've ever felt. Sweating like a european in a humid country after strenuous exercise, we celebrated in style with our winnings of non-alcoholic champagne and dodgy baseball caps. The bus smelled rank but I stuck on the Strokes and all was well. Got back, had dindins, had a much needed shower, peed around on bookface and the likes then had a tension-filled room allocation meeting and ended up on the boys floor like the sluh I am. Wrote this and totes forgot to Skype the rentals. Will do so tomozzo. After finishing this book. Sayonara! x

Future Job Prospects: Mermaid

Post Chem and Physics I feel I can now openly write my blog without feeling the shame of the school and the guilt of myself. Thing is, my brain's spent so long on electromagnetic wave optics and trigonal bipyramidal VSEPR theory that I kinda forget errything that happened in the past week (or so). 

So dinner on Saturday was followed by BLANK. 

On Sunday morning I was supposed to tutor Paco but the thunder and rain was UNRALE so Cherry called it off. Instead I headed off to Kowloon Tong with Mia, Paula and Leila to study geo in Pacific Coffee. They didn't do chai latte (boo hiss) but they didn't really mind us studying so that was great. A few variations of the term "Because poor women have more babies" were thrown around and we felt very intellectual altogether. I shamelessly splashed out on a sketchpad (which I didn't realise was a hipster brand until an obviously jealous Jason pointed it out) and some nice markers in the most lovely bookshop ever - though it was lacking chairs/beanbags. We got back I dunno when, to find that José had lost his "flash-dick" and therefore initiated a mass e-mail war.  I studied a tiny bit for my chem test, doodled in my notebook, went to Pooey's room for a bit and doodled and went to bed.

Monday was 9am chem test. Slightly better than the last though it was hardly a happy skippy fairytale walk in the park moment for me. I studied a bit of Maths and went for a swimble. At 6 I met Áine and le Bobster at the gate and we went to Mammy's house in Sai Kung before heading out avec na páistí agus a fear to Hebe for dinner. I had me a pizza and we talked at length about Denmark. And Irish passports. Got back late enough, did a little more maths and some Chinese.

Tuesday morning I went to tutor Paco and played a substantial amount of hangman with him. The rest of the day were spent with the Kinks and my maths book in the block 1 dayroom, before tutor group (and Simba) milkshakes, burgers and wedges in Wendy's flat. The xbox Kinect was out again, but obvs we're all such hardworking souls that we neglected it in favour of further studying. I did some maths and convinced myself I had it down.

Wednesday, and geo first exam. Threw down some made up (though highly-plausible) case studies about Ireland and all seemed to go well. Gender and development? Sor'ed lawd. Maths paper one then violently assaulted me. I was a little shellshocked after it so lord knows how paper two went. Wednesday evening consisted of more chinese, another nice swim and little else. Think I watched Black Pond that night too, which was the best movie I've seen in yonks. Or maybe it's just Will Sharpe. Obsession du jour, ngl.

Thursday began with unintentionally waking up early. I did a pitiable job on physics then somehow wasted the rest of the day. I did swim though. Oh, and went to tutor Charlie. And discovered that it is Laura who has my pink skirt. I added a load of words to our 中文 class' Memrise list. Jason and Paolina came over and tried on my sequin-adorned clothing and that was about it. 

Friday I got up early, had a shower, got brekkie then headed to Sai Kung on the bus with Palomo. We set up camp in an unbelievably air-conditioned Starbucks (who do do chai lattes, buíochas le dia) and I waded through 2 chapters of physics, exam questions and all. After a quick lunch of a mega Paisano's slice, we got the bus back, I went for a swim and then I had peer support training. From 4:30-6:30 which were fine, if a little tiresome when bang shlap in the middle of study leave. Friday night I was with Jason in the art room then had a DMC with Livvie. Went for a walk with Mia to Ma On Shan. I got fro yo and on our way back along the dark promenade we had to pass through frog breeding zone. We nearly got sexually assaulted and were saved only by the fact that we weren't frogs.

Saturday morning was my meeting with Linder about me english exam. That was fine, just 30 minutes of shite. I went to learn chem with Beata and Khet but soon gave up, instead swimming again because it makes it feel like I've been productive, and then procatinating with Jason in the art room. I'm ashamed to say I watched Mean Girls too, not because of the connotations of the movie (all of which, in my eyes, are positive), but because I did absolutely nooooooooothing. We listened to lots of Crowded House, argued over whose country had the best musical exports and procatinated some more. We also perfected the One Direction "What Makes You Beautiful" parody in retaliation to my supposed friends at home having allowed their minds to become goo under the influence of those five unsavoury boys. 

On Sunday I went over to tutoring for Paco. Didn't get paid which was a little disheartening but I'm hoping she'll realise for next time and I'll be rolling in it. I actually did study all day Sunday, venturing out only for a serious sugar fix. And a swim. And had a long study break in which I skyped ma famille. Did a helluva lotta physics past papers though, wrote my english essay and went to bed. 

Monday morning was another Linda meeting. I bumped into Áine at brekky before handing in my essay so we had a nice half hour dmc. After my meeting was over I put a wash on then knuckled down, doing physics and chemistry (and having some amazing power-naps) until I wound up rolling about on the floor of the block 1 dayroom with Maya and Khet having a "productive" pillow fight - you had to yell a useful chemistry definition before you were allowed to attack. Skyped Megzers too. I was super jeally of her jumper. Before going to bed I got my stuff from the laundry room and therapeutically changed my duvet cover, put away my laundry, matched my socks and created a bag for lost socks all in order to put off the inevitable fact that chemistry and physics were on the next day. I listened to Sana's advice though, and convinced myself that I knew everything. 

This had me sleeping well until 4am when I woke up in agony. Fitfully I stayed in bed until 6:30 when I felt the need to check my facebook. I had a shower, went to breakfast then ran to the nurse's office for the strongest painkillers she had. I downed a couple but was in far too much pain to revise before chem. Chem and physics exams happened, I went to Ma On Shan for celebratory large H1 from the Hui Lau Shan place with Livvie, came back, swam (though I think I only did 4ish lengths, the rest of the time being spent pretending to be a mermaid #noshame), had a pear for dinner cause it was grosspants then returned to meine schlafviertel to write this. English tomorrow but sure that'll be nowt, I'm a native-speaking lang and lit cop out. 中文是另一个故事...

The Great Khan Academy Binge of 2012

At the height of les examens I don't feel I should be indulging myself in the mysterious art of blog-writing, but I'm at that awkward "half hour before dinner" time anyway - 'snot like I'd get anything else done.


I recks I left off with me potentially watching Skins with Jason. Somehow, we did end up watching the first three episodes - all in different locations around campus. We watched the beginning of Franky's episode but she's just so infuriating that we couldn't bear to watch any more. And saw an absolutely MEGA spider.


On Sunday morning I set off with Halfdan & Maxim for some WWF volunteering mayokey in the basement of th'absolute back arse of nowhere in Whampoa. We really didn't do much at awl at awl, save occasionally dress up as pandas and sign petitions not to eat shark fin soup (don't do it y'all). We got lunch in this chinese fast food place - I don't mean no Mickey D's now. €2.50 for a mega beef stir fry yoke. After squashing into the panda suit for a couple more hours and taking photos with a billion people who think you speak cantonese we headed home at about 4 (ish) and got back onto campus around 6. No clue whatsoever what I did on Sunday evening. I like to think it involves studying. Oh! It does. I spent a while dans the bibliotheque.

On Monday I had my last day 1. Physics first block, and save from that not much to report. Actually had a mega dictation in Chinese but it went alright. At break we took photos in our WE ARE BAGHDAD t-shirts. Pretty legit really, I'm building up quite the collection of oversized pyjama shirts. On Monday afternoon I were with Paloma in the common room, skyping with le daddykins, then made a few pinhole cameras to the beautiful sound of "Hot Problems" followed by pizza with the coral monitors in the common room. Think I spent Monday night working(ish) in the block 1 computer room.

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Ar an Máirt bhí lá uimhir a dó agam. Chem first block. We did a lab. It was vile. In fact, day 2 generally always is vile. Tar éis an scoil, I went for a wonderful aul swim with Mia - despite the soopah cloudy weather it was pleasantly warm. Mebbe Mia peed.I did some mando & physics study before going to tutor Paco. That child is insane. Read some Pippi Longstocking and The Jungle Book, got paid and bought a celebratory grape soda and those weird chewy sweets that try to be Puccho, but aren't, but are, however, a lot cheaper. When I got back I shtudied a little more after a poor dinner of toast and a fake pear in the block 1 dayroom. 

Wednesday was my last morning free of the year. Twas a grand aul day, with Khan Academy and Memrise.com binges interspersed with a trip to Ma On Shan with Áine for fro-yo and summat from the bakery. We walked back cause it's almost sacrilege not to by now. Went back to me hardcore study and made my procrastination productive by spending my time on College Prowler and putting myself off unis in the US. I caught Eoin on his half day back home so we had our regular Wednesday chat and showed each other morto pictures of each other. I feel it might be pushing the line to post one here - though I'm tempted. I think I'm more worried he'll retaliate with the ones of me that don't deserve to ever see the light of day.


Fursdaaay turned into a musical after maths class, with myself and KhetKatAttack (I try saying this errytime cause it sounds cool but it never really works so I have to stick to Khetkat) skipping to chemistry singing "IT'S THE FIIIINAL CHEM CLASS doo doo doo doo do do doo doo dooooo" (repeat). After school I watched an episode of Shkins, did some more mando and then went to tutor Charlie which was great. We talked about the most ridiculous things, though a large chunk was on the anatomy of jellyfish and how likely her flat was to suffer at the hand of a natural disaster. I got back to school to find that I'd missed dessert night and so was a little emotionally unbalanced which led me to staring blankly at the art room wall mouthing songs to myself whilst Paula, Leila and Mia got concerned to the point of freaked out/annoyed. I went to bed relatively early on Thursday after ordering McDonalds, and Jkwok was sposed to come over to watch Skins. Child bitched out. 


Friday was my last day of classes for this year. Nammuch cray cray shizzle happened, save Jason letting us out of mando early after a rapage of a dictation. I watched a coupla episodes of Skins then had peer support training from 2:30 until 5:30. I left there at about 6, after leaving a meeting on how we should monitor the stalking of the 0 years. At 7 I went to lion dance with Beata and, when no one showed up, went back to my room. Did a little more mando practice then went back to Lion at 8 and beat up James. Left there, then Jason came over, we watched 2 episodes of Skins, went to Wellcome, bought grape soda, C+, crisps, mars bars, ice-cream, inshtant nudeln and then watched the other two (all the while yelling abuse at Franky for being such an annoying tool). We also agreed to go to Peru together after graduation next year. They deffs are not ready for our jelly.

This morning I got up again for Lion Dance, and left when not enough people showed up. I called Sara on the dayroom phone then at 11:30 met Áine at the gate to go to Sai Kung. We got to Sara's house, met her friend Ivan (the perhaps stretched link between me & Sara: Me -> Mum -> Ivan -> Sara) then went out for lunch at the country club place which was beaut. Got back at about 4:30, then wrote this and did a little more mando. 'Bout to go to dinner, slán leat!

The Geriatric Bassist

Chewsday morning I had my English FOA. Further Oral Activity (somehow not a euphemism). Did it on godhatesfags.com . We watched this video in chem and then I collected a food parcel from the office, containing wonderous treats from the homeland. After that I had a meeting with a few peeps which became a DMC with Khetkat and handfuls of Cadbury mini eggs. At 4 ish I had a shower and then at 5 I went to tutoring, which was pretty fun again - though Charlie's still damn scared about boarding school. We played a card game based on stockbroking. It was intense - I was rubbish. After tutoring I thinks I came back, superglued my bass-induced blisters (it legit works) and had band practish, then check in, after which I popped round to Wendy's flat for choccie, tea and a good aul chinwag, to the entertaining background noise of Brian playing Fifa on xbox live - expletives in abundance.

On Wednesday I had school and that, got a letter and a postcard or too, replied to the letter in Chinese class and then walked to Lee On to send a parcel to the siblingly unit and said letter. I also did a quick toiletries shop and managed to bag myself 4 free bottles of OJ and some sweets. Upon my return I positively did not do my physics lab, had another band practice sesho and avoided dinner. After check in I had a meeting with Peter and John Wang faoin being leader of photgraphy next year with Palomo, which developed into yet another DMC with Palomo, until she persuaded me to up and go do my physics lab. I did it in the block 1 pc room, as that is where the fun's naturally always at. No srsly. I got back to me room pretty late but it was DONE.


Ish. I kinda had to finish it during brekkie on Thursday but sure. After last block english I think I pissed around until 4:30 (I really must've done something productive, it's woeful to have to think back over all the hours I appear to have done nowt), when I again had practish, until about 6. I stayed behind for a while though to get to grips with the fact we'd just added a whole 'nother song to our repertoire. Dinner was toast again (oh joy), then more practice, and more again, then getting changed out of me day's clothes, into other clothes and repeat, until I'm back in the clothes I had been wearing anyway. It's a long established routine. At 9 I met Andres @ the gate and was met first by Tomi, then Arshia, Adam and Mr Buttril. He plays the embarrassing dad role overly well. I loved it. I think around this time we (Adam's dad) named the band "Hate Crime Fanclub". I really quite like it. We got the bus to central, went to notre venue, freaked out over a) guy playing guitar left handed and b) note the singular form of the word guitar. Soon after we were there a whole host of girls busted out of the door, and despite my lack of surprise (ta to Paolina), it was purdy nice to have them all thurr. Once we had finally managed to get hold of another guitar by means of Adam's siblingly units and replaced the generic Filipino cover band, this generic multinational cover band went up for soundcheck. Here is where I had my minor shit attack. Now I may be in standard math, but that bass had one more string than experience had led me to expect. Armed with this foreign instrument I did my best, though once or twice all of the strings seemed to become a million. It all seemed to go alroish, the best bit being Áine's appearance (and wonderbra). Snow always sounds good too. When leaving at around 12 ish, I got a few handshakes from the successful attractive types that one occasionally finds lurking in HK accompanied by "You're the bass player?". The "CHDUH I am" feelings I attempted to hide, and prolly failed miserably. We all went on to La Bodaaaaaaaygaaaaaaah and China Bar for a little while before coming back in a plethora of taxis. Once I was back I flicked through me chem notes in anticipation of Friday's test.

On Friday I had a free morning block so twas post-Lan Kwai shower time, then tok, whereby a disgruntled Kalpana read out her e-mails and shouted a bit, then another free when I crammed my chem by the syllabus-load. Then came the chem test. The lump in my throat then is too large to quantify. I think it's better summed up by my behaviour in geo. Motionless staring forward. Julie seemed to know to avoid engaging me too much. I got back to me room and skyped Daddt then at 2:30 I had peer support training until 5:30, after which I ranted with Khetkat, got worked up, and released this frustration in a way not too dissimilar to those facebook likes which go something like "sitting in the corner of your room stuffing your face and listening to Adele". Though in my case it was my bed, home-sent Lindt and the Magic Numbers. Once I'd cleaned myself up I marched to Paloma's room and demanded we go shopping. We left for Mong Kok at 6ish, and after some crazy crazy hours of trawling through the wondrous Mee & Gees off the ladies market, a gawjus and unreal cheap sushi dinner, and some new adjectives such as "zingtastic" (though that was one of the worse ones and I can't think of our others), and rakes and rakes of stripy blouses, we got back at 11:30. Aaaand signed in as 10:52 as we'd neglected to sign for extensions. It was a most pleasant evening. We had a trial of the clothes in my room, as should always be the custom after any shopping trip, and though I had to give one of me tops to Palomo cause it was too small it probs looked better on her anyway. And I was mega proud of my dodge granny dress. (MUM: Be afraid, be very afraid). I was with Paolina & Laci in the block 3 dayroom looking at the photos from Thursday, and our favourite hungarian told me of his plans to go learn irish during the summer. Legend.

Saturday I woke up at 10, and by 11 was at the gate to go on the junk boat. Despite going the shorter way to TST, myself, Christine, Michi & Halfdan ended up at the ferry terminal to China and not exactly at the Star Ferry pier. Through no fault of my own, might I add. We eventually found the right pier and set off through Victoria harbour and mega buildings to the (Brian Cox voice) vast and expansive sea. There were a bajillion jellyfish chilling around, though this didn't put us off jumping off the top of the boat numerous times and trying out various acrobatic techniques on the ringbuoys. Despite the speakers blowing at one point, the craic was had, even though they made me do some contrived stand up to make up for the lack of entertainment. The thunder and lightening of the past week faded away for us to reveal beaut skies, yet I didn't even get too burnt. Heather got married to Apoorva and Peter told ... sensitive... stories. We got back to TST at about 6ish I think, then went to Chungking for gorgeous food in the Khyber Pass place after negotiating our way through the lift system and the strange underworld that is Chungking itself. After dindins we came back to campus, I had a shower and threw on me granny dress again, wrote this and bought me some Jack White, Sallie Ford and Princess Chelsea on the iTunes. I'm planning to watch Misfits/Skins with Jason, but it's a plan of mine and Jason's so it's perhaps unlikely. Though with the promise of an irish easter egg it's only a matter of time. 

Despos in Need of a Name

Sooo on Tuesday I had my morning block math which was as atrocious as always - me and calculus just don't see eye to eye at the moment - then chem and what have ya. After school (which ended at 2) I went to Ma On Shan with Wendy, Ella & Brea to get snacks for our block activity. After purchasing the whole of the crisps isle, I sent my letters and went back to campus. Once I got back, I did some work on my Math IA, just polishing it up and that. That evening was the opening of the art exhibition which was like WOAH. I was so super jeally it was unreal. Chem has sapped all my remaining energy and life - something rejuvinatable only through art! (and neologism)

On Wednesday had a free morning block, then ToK, then another free - in which I printed me maffs, then chem & geo. At 2:15 all of block 2 piled on the bus to go to Silverstrand beach out past Sai Kungers, and we shwam in the sea, and lay on this weird floating island yoke and pushed people off the weird floating island yoke ate ice-cream and laughed at Ray. We got back around 5ish, when I prolly worked or at least tried to, before going to a talk by Paloma's mammy on her animation work which was super interesting - she does the Charmin ads and that! 

Thursday was handing in IA day. Oh the abundant happiness. I went shopping for ingredients with the café team, came back and did some more café admin, then went to God (the Woody Allen play) which I daresay I completed with my two lines "I'm not fictional!" and "But I have a boyfriend at Harvard business school!", as haphazardly scrawled on my hand. Tar éis God, I went back to the art exhibition with Livvie-uh for one last longing look at what could have been my future. On Thursday night I was too afraid to go back to my room because of prank day (second years have no more classes and so have nothing else to do but turn to fear mongering), and so I worked a little on my geo IA but for the most part just stayed in the block 1 computer room, helping Antonio & John Wang make certificates for the teachers. Luckily Dilene had hidden some mini eggs around the block and I was able to survive on those along with mini naps until 3am when I reckoned it was safe to leave for bed. I climbed itno Glenda's bed (she was away) because I figured I'd be safer if my roomies saw my empty bed, but at about 4 crawled into mine, and slept until 6:15 when I ran for freedom, avoiding all main routes and sticking to the walls when I happened upon the mass of second year bodies in the courtyard, waiting outside for my morning block.

So yeah, I guess now it's Friday, so time for a new paragraph. Uhm. So aside from a few casualties, prank day didn't seem to happen, though that made me even more paranoid, along with Julie, who insisted on locking all the doors whilst we had class. They played loud music at brekkie & lunch and terrified me. At 5ish there were drinks down at the principal's house so I stole a dress from Rara, and hung around to steal some spring rolls and uglily photobomb a few photos. The second years were all about to leave for graduation dinner so Olivia and I figured we were being too awkward so we went to Maddie's room and lay on her bed before going to Wellcome and buying about roughly a gazbillion balloons. And an ice cream. We set up camp in the block 4 dayroom and hosted a MEGA AWESOME SUPER BALLOON BLOWING UP PARTY, of which I was the sole attendant, save Maddie who can't blow up balloons, and Olivia who eventually managed a packet or so. We recruited whoever happened to stray in there, including Carmen, Tara and Ottavia, before Sylla came by and helped us to write a bitchy e-mail to erryone telling them to come. Once the time the canteen party began rolling around there were more and more people to blow them up and transport them and eventually the place looked alroish. The second years' arrival interrupted my DMC with Livvie, but after a little while longer in my room with her good self and Maddie we headed to the canteen party for a lil while. I left when Arnett started to do his thang. I think my body could exert no more energy and I collapsed into bed.

Unimpressed balloon face. Y'all have one.

4 and a half hours later, I got up for coral monitoring yaaaaaaaaaay. Had a shower, packed me bag, and went to the poolside to sort out gear. We got the bus to Tai Po, got on our boat after loading all the gear, and helped ourselves to a hearty nutella sangwitch. I was on photos with Laura so we did the low down on that, basically a photo of the transect erry 50cm. There was some weird ass waste in the water, as well as a load of jellyfish, which, while being my second favourite animal (after bats dontcha know) were the small see-through boring kind and were not so nice to bump into after clearing your leaky mask for the 4th time. After our dive was over I made me some nudeln and reminisced about School Of Rock with Andres, as well as examining bellybuttons and Dawn's peeling marks. There were also some interesting ethical debates too - "if your son was gonna die, would you get an illegal organ to save him?" and "if you were driving a train and one good kid was playing on the abandoned line and 10 bad kids were playing on a line they knew was in use, which line would you take?". These are summarised loike, but same idea. We got back at 6ish and then it was  insane uber rush to get all the stuff for café together after cleaning all our dive gear. Café started at 7:30 and despite some AV balls ups and perhaps-so-controversial-I-shouldn't-call-it-controversial-on-my-blog-for-fear-that-people-remember-it-or-get-mad comedy it was great finally over. It had been a darn tough week and by the time I was all alone washing the floor of the student kitchen (after, of course the dutchies' large cleaning input) and listening to The Bluetones, the bliss was unbelievable. When finally carting my stuff back to me room, I bumped into Tifftiff and had a well nice DMC with her on the make-out bench, watching a cockroach devour a stray M&M. 

BUDDY CHECK

wo de epic roomies doing KPOP right thurr

On Sunday morning I took my time getting up, and didn't let myself do any strenuous work until 12, when I went to the library to work on my Geo IA. After 5 productive hours and a short noodle break, I went to jam and all that with le band (despos in need of a name) for a couple of hours, before grabbing dindins and heading to Bheki's Voice talk on the anthropology of LPC. This was followed by a skyping to the mammy and the sister, when we had a "hot-people-off" and she showed me all the clothes I was going to steal during the summer. I went back to work on geo after check in, until 12 when I wished the pitiful group in the block 3 computer room luck.

Johnny Depp won

Cette matin, I had a free morning block so i got up early enough, had a shower, completely finished me geo, printed it off and went to maths. I had a free chem block too - condensed divinity right there. I had a parcel from the mammy in the general office, packed full of choccie - most of which has already been devoured (or given away in return for art pieces). At 2:30 I had coral monitoring service planning, when I discovered that next Sunday Imma be dressing up as a panda for a WWF event. Seems legit sure. That were over at like 5, and at 6 I had more band practice (is there no better phrase?) until the disgruntled first aiders had had enough of RHCP's "Snow" and kicked us out of their examination room. I had a quick dinner, watched some amazing forked lightening - first I've seen in me life and wrote this yoke, not after popping in to see Wendy & Brian to ask for an extension next Thursday. You'll see why when that happens I shpose. Until then keeeeeeeeeeeep dancing!