The Chatterbox Times

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 The aftershock of an earthquake can be an uneasy, tumultous experience, but the aftershock of a collision of two diverse countries is something everyone should get a change to fell. Both leave you feeling unsteady in completely different ways.

I think the aftershock comes in stages. Stage 1 is when the richter schale goes off the charts, when you first arrive. Everything is newand exciting and you feel as if you have all the time in the world. Then the jet lag kicks in and you find out you only have time to sleep before you turn into some kind of zombie tourist.

Stage 2 is when the foreign country becomes strangely familiar, when you realize that boring, normal, everyday life still goes on even here. But you´re somehow free from it because you´re on vacation, right? Wrong.

Stage 3 is when you join that monotonous ho-hum. You might not know it at first, but when you´ve started buying toothpaste and various necessary items, you´re there. Seems that even on vacation, you have to perform mundane activities like grocery shopping.

Stage 4 is when you get a tad bit homesick, when it finally occurs to you that no one here ever knows what you´re talking about and that PB and J sandwiches are either a rare delicacy or a strange food combination that you have to practically force-feed someone to try.

At long last, or much too soon, depending on your viewpoint, comes Stage 5. This is when you sadly pack and you sadly say your good-byes, even though there´s a small part of you that´s secretly glad to leave because you really miss those nice, fuzzy slippers you forgot to pack (how could you have let it slip your mind?) so many days ago. In no time at all (unless you´re driving, for that takes forever), you´re at your home, exhausted; you´re either wistfully unpacking or sprawled on the couch saying, ¨I need another vacation!¨ 

June 2009

The first thing that comes to my mind when I think about June is summer. Summer has always been my favorite season.There's the end of school and obligations. There's a sense of freedom and that magical feeling that anything can happen. I have never quite agreed with the saying, "the lazy days of summer." For me, summer is anything but lazy. You know how people have New Year's Resolutions? (That are strangely forgotten mid-February?) I happen to have Summer Resolutions. They vary from the typical (go swimming frequently) to the slightly not typical (meet someone important). This summer, make your own Summer Resolutions. They might just challenge you to make this summer just a little more magical.

May 2009

To me, it seems like May is the beginning of excitement. The weather starts to warm up (or at least it was before we began getting bucket-loads of rain) and it seems like summer is just around the corner. It's a wonderful time to go outside and get some sun (with sunscreen of course, I don't want to encourage anyone to get cancer). The unfortunate thing about this weather is that May signals the start of rigorous state testing. So instead of frolicking through the dandelions and enjoying the wide open sky, every student (besides seniors) are put in overheated classrooms and given excruciatingly boring, difficult tests to work on for hours. The funny thing is that we're somehow expected to perform well under these nearly unbearable situations. It requires so much concentration and thinking that by the end of testing, students start to resemble mindless zombies. Thanks a lot state.

April 2009

There's nothing like the birds chirping and flowers blooming to get me in a writer's block. In fact, the block is so serious that I have decided to mention it in this article. Whenever I can't write, I read...a lot. Recently I've been reading The Law of Success by Napolean Hill (I was halfway through when I realized what I was getting myself into). There's several quotes that I'd like to share.

The test of a man is the fight he makes,

The grit that he daily shows;

The way he stands on his feet and takes

Fate's numerous bumps and blows,

A coward can smile when there's naught to fear,

When nothing his progress bars;

But it takes a man to stand up and cheer

While some other fellow stares.

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