College Life: Week 1 (by Allison)

Hey guys! So my first week of college ended about one and a half hours ago (yes, that's right. It's 1:30 and I'm still awake). I'm sitting on my bed under my warm, cozy covers listening to the rain outside my window. So far I like all my classes. I've even gotten used to living in a tiny room with another person. And I couldn't have asked for a better room mate. It's a little weird thinking that I'll be living in one room where the only place to sit is on my bed or on my desk chair. Also, if I hold out both arms I can touch both of our beds (just to give you an idea of how small my room is). 

This week went by so fast! It feels like I've been living here way longer. I've pretty much gotten used to the college lifestyle. Actually, I love it! I've been ready for college for a while now (minus the whole leaving home thing. I miss my family! And my house. And my room. And my piano. And my cat. And my pool. And my bathroom. And my mom's delicious food...). I've been hanging out with Faisal A. and meeting new people. I'm really glad I'm in Grand Challenges because we all have something in common. And our Grand Challenges class has been pretty cool so far because all we do is work on team bonding. My team incidentally rocks. I've made friends with a few girls on my floor, and we always eat together. The food here is actually pretty good! There's a lot of variety, but they have almost the same thing every day. I guess that's why the upperclassmen get tired of it. 

I walk a ton. Seriously. I think I'm starting to get shin splints. Yes. Just from walking. It's crazy. I like it though! Exercise is my friend. Also, I have to walk this hill called "Freshman Hill" a couple times a day. It's basically a really long, kind of steep hill. It's very infamous and everyone complains about it, but I kind of like that hill! It's not too hard to walk up and it's like a mini workout. Anyway, my parents came today and we just walked around campus. Tomorrow we are going to go to the CNN building, so I should probably get to bed soon. I really can't believe I'm still awake (I'm also hungry. It's the curse of too much exercise-walking! I'm always hungry now!!!!). I wonder if it has anything to do with the three cups of coffee I had today......nahhhh. I'm just going to list my classes for you guys so you know what I'm taking. My schedule changed a few times, so if you think you know what classes I'm taking, I am telling you right now that you're WRONG! MUAHAHAHAHAHA!


My classes:

1. BMED 1000
2. CS 1371 (computer science for engineering)
3. English 1102 (science fiction and ethics)
4. Math 1502 (calculus II)
5. MSE 2001 (principles and applied engineering materials)
6. Public Policy 4803 (this is my Grand Challenges class)


Also, I really like the college schedule. Mondays I have 3 hours of school; on Tuesdays I have 4.5 hours; on Wednesdays I have 4 hours; Thursdays I have 5.5 hours; and on Fridays I only have 2 hours.

Okay, I am going to try to reconstruct my room for you guys.

So when you come in, this is what you see.

This is the view from the back of the room. There's my closet, all nice and organized of course.

This is the view from my window. It's so lovely. And it's usually packed with cars and there are sirens every ten minutes. But I also have an awesome view of the skyscrapers at night. The lights peek through this tree in front of my window. It's pretty cool!

My bed.

I've been personalizing my room. I kind of ran out of pictures, but I will put more up!

So I miss you guys and I can't wait to hear all about your college adventures!



    With love from Georgia Tech, 

Stargazing (by Allison)

So last night (and early this morning) I had a really hard time staying asleep. Don't ask me why, but I slept for about 20 minutes, and then I woke up and NEVER WENT BACK TO SLEEP. In fact, I'm still awake. Anyway, at around 3:00, after being awake for several hours, I decided to get up and do something. I was planning on reading my book, but then I thought of something one million times better: STARGAZING! I've always wanted to wake up in the very very very early morning to take pictures of the stars, but I've always been to tired to get out of bed when that midnight alarm goes off. Well, this was the perfect time to do it. It was so beautiful outside! I wish we lived in the middle of no where (oh wait, we do....) where there are no city lights, only empty land, so that we could take amazing pictures of the Milky Way. Unfortunately, we don't. BUT I still managed to get some wonderful pictures. I was outside for over two hours getting attacked by mosquitoes, soaked from the dew, and trying out different settings on my camera. I also saw two shooting stars! And there was a cluster of stars (I didn't get a good picture. Sorry!) that was....just the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I know that when you look at stars you can see them "twinkle," but these stars REALLY twinkled. Constantly. And it was a group of about seven or eight stars. They were so beautiful. It was like watching a tiny light show in the sky. I'm sitting by the window right now, watching the sunrise. I love sunrises. So much! I like them even better then sunsets because during a sunrise, the world goes from dark and starry to being washed with colors. And the colors are so light and pastel. Sunrises make me think of watercolor. And they are so peaceful. Okay, I'm going to show you my favorite pictures and then finish enjoying my sunrise with a delicious cappuccino.

                                

                                      Yours Truly,

I love how the stars look like snow! I set my camera on the longest shutter speed it had and took a picture of the stars for half the time and a picture of the trees and my backyard the other half. This was the cool effect!

Peeking over the fence to view the stars.

Misty sunrise reflections on the pool.

The beginning of sunrise.

P.S. I also saw a lot of frogs. Apparently they like to go night swimming in our pool.....
P.P.S. California post coming soon! (Sorry it's taking so long!)

Midnight Lightning Storms (by Allison)

The whole sky was just constantly illuminated. When I took this picture, the lightning was just beginning to form in the sky. It proceeded to reach across the whole sky and beyond!

So it was 11:00 p.m. My sister was already asleep next to me, but I could not fall asleep because lightning kept flashing across the sky. Eventually, I got up to close the curtains. But first, I had to investigate. I peeked through the blinds, intending to watch it for only a moment. There was so much lightning, and the whole sky was illuminated. I was mesmerized. Eventually, my sister woke up and got up to watch the lightning with me. At that moment, at least ten different streaks of lightning shot across the sky. It looked like a meteor shower because the lightning traveled from one end of the sky to the other. My sister and I got up and ran to the front of the house, where we have a big window. We pulled up the blinds and just sat there, watching. The storm was scary and wild and beautiful. We watched for a long time. Then we grabbed some delicious red velvet ice cream from the fridge and camped out while watching the storm. As the storm began to move towards the back of our house, we moved to my room. Nala was crying to join us, so we let her into my room. First, she sat at my window, just as mesmerized as we were. Then she started to act really weird. She ran around my room making weird noises and destroying my chair. She even jumped onto my bed and attacked our feet a few times (scaring us in the process of course!). Kylie and I are still in my room, watching this magnificent storm. I tried to take some pictures, but I didn't have much luck. My timing was off by just fractions of a second. Anyway, check out what I got!

Yours Always,

First blog entry: "decoding the secret" stage [by Loli]

Hello my girls, and hello world. 
This is my first ever blog entry, and at this stage, I'm not even sure it will work. But let's give it a try...
I'm in Romania, living it up. I'm tried by a weird feeling as I sense every single day slowly drifting behind. It's already June...The thought makes me want even more to make every day special. Tonight I am meeting some special friends, some of whom I haven't seen in two long years. One of the best feelings in the world is in that moment when you see your loved ones after much time elapsed since your last meet-up. The kisses, the hugs, the flashes of much loved memories, they all twinkle around you in that short moment of rencontre. 
If I'm at this point, I'll also upload some pictures for posterity.
Looking forward to tonight... But more importantly, don't forget that even across the ocean

life {by Jordan}

So guys, I'm finally making my first post. I don't have a relevant photo, but I don't like making blog posts without pictures, so here's an old beach photo (it's from our beach trip for Loli's birthday!).

This past month has gone by in a blur. AP tests, finishing up school, beach trips, sleepovers, bonfires, graduation, family visiting, and college orientation. It was crazy hectic, but in a good way. Where it forces you to really be in the moment, or it will pass you by before you realize what has happened. But I have to say, it's nice not having anything to do or worry about. I spent most of yesterday reading (I finished both the books you lent me Allison!).

I got back from orientation a few days ago. Is it strange that I still don't feel like a college student? Even as I was walking around my future campus, it didn't feel real. I don't think it will feel real until I'm actually living on my own, going to class, and beginning my college life. Orientation was fun. I got a taste of what my life will be like in a few months. The city I'll be moving to is really pretty, and I think it's the perfect transition for me. It's bigger than my current town, but not so big that I can't handle it. At first I thought I wanted to live in a really big city after high school (think NYC), but I think that would be really hard for me since I'll also be living on my own for the first time, hours from my family, trying to figure everything out by myself.

I'm very excited about my next few years. No, I'm excited for my life (haha, is that too broad?). But I really do have so much to look forward to. I get to move out and start college, meet cool new people, go on adventures, live in another country (study abroad program!), figure out my career, and so much more! I have the ability to do anything I want to do, and that's the most exciting part.

I'm so glad we have this blog, so we can follow each other's amazing experiences. And for the next few years at least, we'll be able to meet up each summer and holiday break to catch up on each other's lives.

Here's to our life adventures. ♥

Yours,

Alys Beach (by Allison)

Yesterday my family and I went to a wonderful place called Alys Beach. It's a beautiful beach town on Highway 30A. We ate at a really fancy restaurant (and I mean FANCY) with the most delicious seafood menu. I had mussels that had been cooked in a coconut sauce. It came in a really fancy, steamy bowl. Delicious!

I love how the population includes cats! (and dogs) We love cats!

Afterwards, we drove through one of my favorite Florida Beach towns: Seaside. My mom and I like to drive through Seaside when we go to the beach at Grayton State Park (Which is my favorite beach. Ever.). It has beautiful beach houses and lots of mangrove-y trees, and (of course) it lies right on the ocean. 

I love the buildings in Seaside. This is the post office. It's so cute!

It had been a little crowded earlier in the afternoon when we drove to Alys beach, but by the time we were done with dinner, the vacationers' commotion had died down. 


We parked our car and walked around the town for a bit. Then, we crossed a beach access to the wonderful beach. I love the beach accesses on 30A because they are all unique and creative and beach beautiful! The one we went on was just a plain wooden one, but it passed through a forest of trees and shrubs and also by a pretty blue beach house. 

You can't see the colors of the flags in this picture, but they were red and purple.

The flag for the water was red and purple, which means that the currents were rough and there was dangerous marine life in the water. When we got to the beach, however, the water looked pretty calm. Maybe it had been rougher earlier in the day? We also didn't see any dangerous marine life. I wonder was it was, though! 

The water was absolutely gorgeous. 

The water was nice and warm, which was surprising! Loli, Jordan, and I took a beach trip not too long ago and the water was pretty cold!

The sky was so pretty. Do you see the star in the middle of the picture? It was the very first star that night.

By the time we got to the beach, the sun was already past the horizon. On the east side, it was already dark. On the west side where the sun was setting, the sky was pretty shades of pink and orange. I took tons of pictures because the light and colors were just amazing! 

As we walked along the beach, my family and I saw this thing. I have no idea what it was, but I took a picture with some very bright flash for further examination. Any ideas? Speaking of strange things that the sea washes up, a long time ago when we lived in Maryland, my family and I went to the beach. My dad and I took a long walk and we found parts of a small whale that had washed up on shore. Poor whale. Anyway, that's what this mysterious beach thing reminded me of. 

What is this thing?

P.S. Sorry I added so many pictures! Here are some more that I wanted to share with you guys! I tried    

        to narrow it down the most I could.

I took this picture with a slower shutter speed. I love how it shows the movement of the waves.

All the beach towns along the 30A highway.

Look Jordan, it's our paddle-board/kayak stash!

Yours Truly,

Summer Music (by Allison)

So now that summer is here, it's time for some new music. I just downloaded a whole bunch of obscure music and made a wonderful Summer Playlist to listen to when I'm running, driving with my windows down, enjoying a sunrise, or sitting on the beach. 



SUMMER PLAYLIST

(Artist) - (Song Name)
Bastille - Pompeii
MGMT - Electric Feel
The Neighbourhood - Sweater Weather (A favorite for us ALL!)
Boy & Bear - Fall At Your Feet (I love this band. And they are      
                                AUSTRALIAN! Cool!)
Boy & Bear - Part Time Believer
Sky Ferreira - Sad Dream
Deer Tick - 20 Miles
Wake Owl - Gold
Lord Huron - Ends of the Earth (Really cool song!)
The Vietnams - Oh Miss Deceiver
Dan Croll - From Nowhere
These Mortal Cities - Casanova Can't Dance
Local Natives - Heavy Feet
Marina and the Diamonds - Numb
Dan Croll - Natives
The Dear Hunter - Whisper
Keaton Henson - Flesh and Bone
Blind Pilot - 3 Rounds and a Sound
Wildcat Wildcat - Mr. Quiche
Clubfeet - Everything You Wanted
Dexters - Recovery
Sons of the East - Hold On
Caveman - In the City
You Me & Apollo - We Got a Roof
Fitz and the Tantrums - Out of my League
The Colourist - Little Games
Other Lives - Dust Bowl III



So I hope you enjoy these songs! Lots of love,

The Beginning (by Allison)

Well guys, last night we all graduated. It was a bittersweet moment, because I think we are all ready to grow up and start our own lives, but we will miss our friends, family, and the comfort of home at the same time. Loli is already on her way to Romania for the summer (Have fun Loli! We can't wait to hear all about your trip!), Jordan is probably still sleeping with her cat (Just kidding. I'm sure she's awake by now. But she is probably hanging out with her cat.....because we love cats!), and I've been looking at pictures and organizing my room all day. Well anyway, it's going to an amazing summer. I can't wait to see what life has in store for us, and how we meet it head on. We are going to have so many adventures, learn so many things, and change the world. Power to the IIT! I think I'm most excited about living where *I* want to live. All my life, I've had to move around because the Army told us to. Now it's finally my turn to decide where I will live, where I will visit, where I will work, where I will stay. I'm hoping it will be by the beach somewhere of course!

The end of high school marks the beginning of our blog. It's a chronicle of our lives, our experiences, and (most importantly) our adventures. We are taking a big and final step into the start of our futures. We are living our lives. I've been sitting inside all day, but I'm going to grab a book and head outside now. The sun is shining, a sweet summer breeze is blowing, birds are chirping and flowers are blooming. I'm going to sit outside and read while I daydream about the future. Life is beautiful, so I am going to live it!