I am officially back from India~ Got back at around two in the afternoon…I was the only one from our group that got my bags checked by customs. It was a pain, but everything went smoothly~

My dad greeted me at the airport with a bell pepper <3 <3

I’m alive!!! I’m currently in Ahemedabad. I’m sitting in the CEPT University “computer lab” trying to write this out without killing myself. Everything is broken here. I haven’t been able to connect my computer to the wifi at the school yet because some woman named Rima isn’t at the administration office like she said she would be….things move along very slowly here…..

I got very sick last week after we came back from Chandigarh. Our hotel in Delhi only had cold water and I got sick. The pollution also caused breathing problems. I’ve always had issues with breathing properly, so it’s become a challenge to adjust. Monday afternoon, we said goodbye to our beloved bus driver and flew to Ahmedabad. We settled into our hostel and visited the university. The next morning (yesterday) we walked to school again, listened to some lectures, met the students, got split into our groups, and visited our site for the first time.

I like Ahmedabad a lot more than Delhi already. I like schools with universities….there is a lot of youth. But what I dislike very much is the poor air quality. The back of my lungs hurt when I breathe in. We cover our faces especially when we are walking to and from school or if we are getting a ride in a rickshaw.

I have only been able to talk to my parents once. It was on Saturday….New Year’s eve. It was 12:30 in the morning here and I was able to Skype with them. I wished them a happy new year and we talked for a little bit before I had to go to bed and get ready for the following day….New Year’s day when we visited the Taj Mahal. It was amazing, but I’ll write more about it when I get home because I don’t have time to edit photos…or write extensively. I’m really sorry about that.

I have to meet up with my Indian partner at 12:00 in front of the CEPT Canteen (school “cafeteria”). They have really great food there. My partner and I have to research water used for worship and religious purposes so we are gonna visit some mosques I believe.

I should end this here for now. I need to check my email…only have a limited time on the computer~

I’ll try to write again soon. Take care of yourselves < 3

HI GUYS!!!!!!!!!! OMG FINALLY I’M ONLINE! It’s been a crazy week so far, but I am have arrived safely to India! We have been traveling around like nomads this past week and there has been no wifi/internet anywhere. I’m currently in Chandigarh and our hotel lets us use the internet for 100 rupees an hour (around 2 bucks). I have to wake up super early tomorrow, but I wanted to buy some Skype credits and just let people know that I’m alive first.

I haven’t spoken to my parents yet. I’ve tried sending emails, but nothing goes through. I just want to let them know I’m safe. I miss them hahaha <3

Flying to Dubai was hard on my body. Biggest highlights were flying over Sweden (even though it was dark outside) and flying over Armenia. I couldn’t believe I was flying above my old hometown…it’s the closest I’ve been to Hallsberg since I moved away. Flying over Armenia was very emotional for me. Looking out of my window, I could see Ararat. It was surreal.

Dubai was really unexpected. We were there for only 12 hours, but we walked around a lot. Checked out the older parts of Dubai and ended in the new city. We ate right outside of the Burj Khalifa and then rushed to the metro to get to the airport to catch out flight to Ahmedabad. The flight to Delhi was shaky and weird but I knocked out and didn’t realize when we had arrived.

Me at Dubai Airport! At this point we had been awake for 24 hours!!!

At a cafe in Dubai….I don’t even know.

Mint lemonade! So good <3

I loved the older parts of Dubai. So many small shops everywhere.

Inside the metro…trying to find our way around.

The Burj. This thing is so difficult to photograph. It is so tall that it doesn’t fit!

Metro in Dubai!

We got to Delhi Wednesday morning. Thursday morning we woke up early and drove to the northern city of Chandigarh (where I currently am typing this!). Uploading photos is going to be difficult as I’m not typing this on my own computer. I really hope that when we get back to Ahmedabad next week, that we’ll have a more steady connection. It’s been very frustrating.

DELHI!!!

Mosque in Delhi~

Inside a tower at the m osque!

I hope you’re all doing well! If I’m not able to post before 2012 arrives, I’m gonna a wish you a happy new year now! HAPPY NEW YEARRRRRRRRRR~ <3

Talk to you soon, I hope <3

Merry Christmas to you all <3 I hope you are having a wonderful time with your loved ones~
This will be my last post from California~ Next time you hear from me I’ll be in India~!!

Bye bye <3

I have been tagged by Emma to do this~ So I will do my best!

Rules:
1. You must post these rules.
2. Each per­son must post 11 things about them­selves on their blog.
3. Answer the ques­tions the tag­ger set for you in their post, and cre­ate 11 new ques­tions for the peo­ple you tag to answer.
4. You have to choose 11 peo­ple to tag and link them on the post.
5. Go to their page and tell them you have linked him or her.
6. No tag backs.
7. No stuff in the tag­ging sec­tion about ‘you are tagged if you are read­ing this.’ You legit­i­mately have to tag 11 people.

11 things about me.

1. I love crocodiles. I like their cute, sinister smiles~ Too many people hate on them ;_____;
2. I become emotionally attached to objects – especially if I have to throw them away or leave them behind. I feel sorry for the object and feel as though it’s sad. ;____; LOL….i know.
3. If I eat a lot of sweets at once I tend to eat a lot of salty things right after to ‘balance’ myself out. It makes no sense but I do it anyway.
4. Sometimes I feel like architecture isn’t for me.
5. I haven’t played tennis since June and it makes me sad.
6. The first thing I do when I wake up is to drink a glass of water.
7. I love to take walks on my own when it is cold outside and I have to wear a warm jacket and a scarf.
8. Whenever I got to bed early, I wake up late. If I sleep late, I have an easier time waking up.
9. When I have my own house, I’m gonna get a dog <3
10. I miss my best friend.
11. What I wish for forever and ever is to be happy. No matter what I’ll do in the future, where I’ll be, and who I’ll be with, I just want to be happy.

1. Suppose you could be invisible for one day what would you do?
I would….make things appear to be floating and freak people out. Just pull pranks~
2. If you had to be sidekick of any Marvel Superhero, whose sidekick would you be?
Deadpool. He freaks me out but he’s funny.
3. Do you think you are a good person?
I think I’m alright haha~
4. If you had to leave right at this moment, where would you go?
I have a sweet tooth…so I’d probably want to get crepes.
5. What is the color of your mouse? Mammal or electronic.
My electronic mouse is black and silver
6. What is your favorite shape?
I like triangels.
7. At what hour of the day are you most worried?
Right after the sun goes down.
8. If you had to buy an ereader, which one would you buy?
I’m not sure….a kindle? I don’t really like ereaders…and I don’t know much about them either~
9. Which song makes you think of an old love?

Now my questions for you!

1. Where do you see yourself in five years?
2. Did you ever believe in Santa Claus?
3. What language do you want to learn?
4. What are you wearing right now?
5. If you could choose to be an animal, which would you choose?
6. What is your comfort food?
7. Are you a morning person or a night person?
8. What color will your future house be?
9. Do you think you will live in the same city in the future?
10. What was the last movie you saw? Did you like it?
11. What is a short term goal you want to accomplish?

I don’t think I’ll be able to tag 11 people but here we go~ Leanne, Minna, Leanne, Jenny, Julia, Becca ~

So it’s my last week here before I head off to India. There is so much still to be done and I don’t want to do anything. I just want to be with my family. I’m flying early in the morning on the 26th. I’ll get to spend Christmas with my relatives. I love being with my family on New Years so I’ll miss them ;_____; I’ll also miss Armenian “Christmas” which is on the 7th of January. My mom said we’d celebrate it again when I come back <3

I was sick all of last week which was such a waste. I’m not gonna have a break until summer 2012…because starting on Monday, my studio is technically beginning. The Tuesday following the Monday that I come back, I have to go to school. NOOOOOOO ;_____; I’m gonna be so jet lagged. Not fair.

I have most of the things that I need for my trip. I wanted to get some basics for layering, but I don’t know if I’ll have time. Thursday will be the last day I go shopping for the trip. I’m gonna try to pack most of my luggage back tomorrow so I know what I need to buy on Thursday. I’m really bad at packing~

On Saturday, I was still a little sick, but my friends convinced me to go with them to an arcade called Round 1. I hadn’t been to an arcade in a very long time and for some reason I felt a little sad. I’m not sure why. The moment we walked in, I wanted to go home. They had great games though and the toys they had were a lot better than other arcades. Lot’s of Rilakkumas everywhere!!! We played the Deal or No Deal game and won A LOT of tickets. My friend won over 250 tickets in one game and I won 170 tickets~ They toys were way too expensive, unfortunately. One Rilakkuma stuffed animal was 5000 tickets and I only had 380. But they were cute to look at~

After playing the ticket games, we decided to play some ping pong. I didn’t play a lot because I was still sick ;______;

My new shoes!

Experimenting with my new camera~

This was me last week with my crocodile. <3 I wish I could take him with me to India. I’m gonna miss him so much.

My new luggage bag and my shoes (I added them for scale)~

And a random photo of my breakfast today <3

BTW!! This is my first post from my Macbook Pro~ It is really beautiful, but I’m still not used to it. I miss my PC. I don’t think I’ll ever be a true Mac person – I love PCs too much even though they give me a lot of problems hahaha~

I’m gonna try to post at least once more before I leave~ I’m going to be taking this computer with me to India so I will post from there!

I hope you’re all happy and healthy <3 Take care~

I am on the rode to recovery and felt a little bit better yesterday so I spent the day with my friend and sister. We drove to Little Tokyo to eat at Shin Sen Gumi. The food was awesome like always.

After eating a super rich meal, we walked to the Little Tokyo mall and walked around. I was looking for a good luggage back, but everything was too expensive. We went to the market and I bought a Witch Hazel cleanser and then we bought sweets~

At night, we ended up at a Barnes & Noble and sat and read books. I got a news alert that Christopher Hitchens had a died an hour before…and my happy day became very sad. He is a favorite of mine and someone I look up to a great deal. He was an amazing writer and intellectual and I’m sad that I can no longer look forward to reading any new material or hear another great talk by him. The world has lost a great voice.

So many things to do before my trip, but right now I am stuck in my bed because I am sick. I finished my last Typhoid pill yesterday morning, and ever since I took it, I’ve been feeling like crap. There were four pills in total and every pill made me feel worse. After taking the third pill, I had bad stomach cramps and I felt like throwing up. Yesterday I had intense stomach cramps and I did throw up, plus I got a soar throat. Today I have a light fever and I’ve been throwing up. I can’t speak because it hurts my throat…..I FEEL SO WONDERFUL~

I only have two weeks before I leave, so I’ve been planing things that need to be done. I still have to finish my competition boards for studio….I have to submit on the 15th. A little stressed out, but ehhhh whatever. I need to:

• buy an adapter for my electronics
• buy a good luggage bag that is small
• figure out the best clothes to take with me
• i can’t think of anything right now cause my head hurts….to be continued

Good news! I purchased my Lumix GF2 last week and should be getting it tomorrow by the end of the day. I am so excited to test it out! And, second piece of good news: I purchased my Macbook Pro, FINALLY!!! I was so nervous since I’ve never owned a Mac plus the thing costs so much, I was nervous placing the order too! When it arrives, I’ll have two days to get used to it and then it’s off to India. I need to install all the programs onto it before hand~

I’ve had such a boring day today. I woke up and drank tea. I watched the last few episodes of The Office that I had missed due to school. I watched random youtube videos. I tried to read A Game of Thrones that my friend has let me borrow, but I couldn’t. I drank some more tea. I read about Typhoid fever. I tried to fix the lights on the Christmas Tree, but I felt worse so I went and drank some more tea and went back to bed.

It’s now 2:16 am and I can’t fall asleep, so my sister and I are watching Seinfeld in my room. I hope I knock out soon <3

PS. I begun writing this post earlier today but then when I updated WordPress, I kept getting fatal errors so I couldn’t do anything. My hosting company helped me out in no time <3 So here I am~

This is me in the living room after staying up all night working on studio. Last week was draining and I’m glad that studio finals are over.

My friends came over to my house and we worked and worked and worked and ate and worked and worked and worked… One of them had a final on Wednesday and I didn’t want her to drive all the way back home, so I made her sleep over. We slept in the living room (which explains the first two photos of me).

So let me explain what is going on over here. This is the computer I’ve been using. It couldn’t handle all the programs that I had open…it would heat up and turn off while I was working, so I had to keep it cool, constantly. What you see on the keyboard is a bag of ice and below is a huge stick of frozen butter. Yes. A winning combination.

This is piece of candy that we dubbed Crystal “Meth” Light. It gave us sugar rushes which we so desperately needed to stay up.

My sister made us food.

We had to make a quick stop in studio so I could help my friend built her model and we happened upon this cute dog. Some guy brought his 3 week old husky to studio! Three weeks old! She was so small and I was obviously distracted. I tried my best to not pay any attention to her…but it was difficult.

Friday was our final review! My worked pinned up!

The reviewers reviewing!

Saturday night, I was working on my last final which is due this coming Friday. My friend called me up and said that he wanted to go eat, so I went with him. We drove to West Hollywood and tried to look for a good place to eat. I found this funny Armenian market.

After checking out several places, we decided to eat at Urth Cafe which was a really cozy and packed place. I had this heart shaped panini <3 While we were eating, we saw Joe Jonas. At one moment, he looked and smiled it me. It was very awkward.

And finally, a photo of what I made today. I have eaten so much garlic today that my blood pressure has gone down and now I feel the need to lie down and rest my head ~

I hope you are having a wonderful week~ Even though my studio final is over, I am still super busy! Preparing for India!

PS!!!!!! I filmed this in West Hollywood. It’s lame but I find it extremely hilarious.

After my first final on Wednesday, I met up with my friend (who took these photos) at a crepe place that we frequent…a lot. We both got crepes and then shared this thing. We are pigs. I’m not ashamed to admit. I eat way too much of this stuff for my own good. But whatever.

We then made a quick visit to the mall so I could buy The Borrower Arrietty from this store. That’s me…staring at all the wonderful stuff inside that I want.

Then at night, we went to a photography exhibit that my sister’s boyfriend had organized. This is my sister and I. Please don’t be afraid. I look like this almost all the time in real life.

The night before, my friend and I were working on our final. We were trying to spray paint our laser cut models. I failed at putting on a glove properly.

At night, my dad brought us dinner from home <3. We ate a lot. We stayed until we finished our models (which was till 2 am I think…) and then we finished the drawings at home. I slept very late >___>

The morning of Thanksgiving, I met up with my friend who goes to UC Berkeley. We never get to see each other anymore since she lives up there for school. I won’t see her again until summer since I’ll be in India when she comes home for winter break ;____; So I wanted to see her <3

Thanksgiving was spent at my cousin’s house. I played with my cousin, Austin.

And his baby brother, Jacob.

And my older cousin…who knocked out in his ‘sleep fort’ that we built for him.

On Friday we went to our family friend’s wedding! When my family lived in an apartment, we were all neighbors…so I call him my ex-neighbor haha~ My dad and sister at our table <3……

….And me with my dad <3

Broken heart ;____;

On Saturday night, my sister and I went to my friend’s house to watch Arrietty and pig out (again) on sweets.

His dog wanted to hang out with us <3

This is a random close up of a dress I got during the break. I’ll try to remember to take a better photo of it later~ I love the stars.

And then finally…I ended the break with a long walk by myself. I forget that the sun sets earlier now so I have to be careful. We have mountain lions in our area and I always forget to be careful. If I don’t post anything in a long time, you can just assume that I got eaten by one during one of my walks.

It might not seem like it, but I also did a bit of school work this break. My final for studio is this coming Friday. I am very nervous! Can’t wait till it is over! Then I can focus on getting ready for India~

I hope you guys have a wonderful week <3