Heyyy, so this is my first time using Blogger. I've used xanga since 7th grade and wrote in it occasionally, but I guess I recently decided it was time for me to switch to a less fruity online blog. Enter Blogger. Ta da. Wooteh.
I don't really know why I feel compelled to blog about my life online. For the most part, I keep a lot of things to myself, and I am naturally sort of a private, shy person. Unless you happen to know me, in which case you know that I am at times talkative and sometimes even goofy or bitchy or excessively sarcastic. A lot of stuff goes through my head at any given time, but my facial expression can be blank, which for some reason, a lot of people think looks mean?!? I don't mean to be mean. I am actually nice. haha. I guess the main reason I am keeping a journal is because it is a sort of catharsis for me to ramble about certain things. So you're thinking, glo, you're a lame-o, but it's okay, I know I am!! And also it's probably because my upbringing in California is so different from what I'm experiencing here in Baltimore, Maryland. I can't really say that one place is better than the other, because these two places are so different that they cannot be compared. I still love California to death, but being on the east coast is an interesting experience as well. I would highly recommend Californians to experience living on the east coast and vice versa. How else would you realize that no one outside Norcal uses "hella" every other sentence (or that people from Norcal actually say "hella" all the freakin time) or people from Boston say "wicked" and that milk pronounced "melk" sounds funny to some people and not others? Or how suburban houses on the east coast don't have fences, while those in California do? (That is a rough generalization). I guess one "purpose" of this blog is for me to talk about how my life here is different from before.
So about me, I'm from San Jose in northern California. I grew up in a suburban area right in the middle of Silicon Valley, just an hour southeast of San Francisco, in an area where companies like Google, Apple, HP, and etc have their headquarters. A lot of the people I know there have at least one family member working in high tech--yea, it kind of is a nerdy place. I had a pretty normal upbringing consisting of participation in lots of team sports, music lessons, family vacations, video games, summer camps, camping trips, and stuff like that. Typical suburban kid stuff, I think.
Fast forward to now... I just finished my freshman year of college a little over a week ago. First semester was okay, I got a feel for Johns Hopkins and the wonderful city of Baltimore (ha), didn't study but still passed all my classes anyway (for that first semester, our transcripts only show whether you passed or failed each class). So chill. That will probably end up being my favorite semester of college. This previous semester marked my transition into a full-time nerd. Gotta do what you gotta do.
On Wednesday I moved most of my stuff into the single bedroom apartment I am leasing for the summer. With help from Vik and Annie, it only took four trips going between the apartment and my dorm room. The apartment is a nice little place with its own bathroom and kitchen, and the best part is that it's got a really convenient location right across the street from the school library... it's closer to campus than my freshman year dorm.
So after the moving, I went on a weeklong trip to Rockville and New York City! I visited Annie's house in Rockville, Maryland (a suburb or Washington, DC) and stayed there for a few days. Basically we just shopped, walked around DC for a day, and ate a ton of food. So Rockville is pretty cool and that adventure was fun. Then Julie joined us as we took the shady Chinatown bus up to New York City to stay at Nina's house in Queens for a few nights. Basically, we spent most of our time shopping in Manhattan (midtown and downtown) while sightseeing on our way between retail stores. We went to Chinatown, Wall St, Ground Zero, the Empire State Building, 5th Avenue, Central Park, and some other places. The food was superb as well. The trip was really fun. Last night (Wednesday), Annie, Julie, and I left Manhattan and I got back to my apartment in Baltimore at around 11 pm. It was actually kind of scary taking a cab alone for 30 minutes from the bus stop back to Hopkins through the Baltimore ghetto at that hour, but I survived. I guess you haven't lived until you risk your life like that.
Today, Thursday, I spent the day settling into my apartment. My stuff was still in suitcases and boxes, and the apartment itself was left very bare when I got here, so I did some light cleaning. Then I went grocery shopping by myself for myself for the first time ever. I felt like I didn't really get much, but still managed to buy 55 bucks worth of food, all of which I carried in 4 heavy bags for a very long 15 minute walk back to the apartment. I spent the rest of the day unpacking my stuff and thinking of what else I need to buy in order to survive living on my own. It dawned on me at one point that I was doing things that mothers do..... holy crap, I am becoming domestic! What in the world! It was actually kind of gosh darn boring. I can't imagine what it's like to be a mom and have to take care of an entire family... *barf*.
I'm gonna bum around here for the next few days over Memorial Day weekend, and then my summer classes at Hopkins start next Tuesday the 30th and run until August 4th. I am flying back to San Jose on August 5th!!
FRESHMAN YEAR OF COLLEGE IN A NUTSHELL:
-I took a class, Intro to Fiction and Poetry, and hated it
-I was on the crew team! I rowed in the bow seat (port) in an 8 in a 5000M race... but the 4:30 AM practices were brutal (check this out: http://hopkinssports.cstv.com/sports/m-crew/recaps/101905aab.html find my name!)
-Friday nights were fun during first semester, got accustomed to a little game called beer pong
-Got to know the school library pretty well... incredibly well.
-Enjoyed Baltimore. The inner harbor, downtown, Towson Town Center.... Baltimore's not all bad
