#7 (or 6, or 8, or something else)

Dear everyone,

Well, yesterday (from the time I'm writing) was Halloween, and for the first time in my life, I did not go trick-or-treating. First of all, there's no such thing as that here at Idyllwild. At the time it starts, 6:00pm, the mountain is already dark, then add the fact that the houses are so spread apart... well, too bad. There is, however, a parade from 4-6. We weren't allowed to go. I had class, anyway. It's depressing, but I know that next week candy will be on sale!! Also, the Halloween dance, which at first I wasn't going to go to, was very fun. There was a bit of candy there. And we watched Rocky Horror afterwards!

Okay. That last paragraph was from Tuesday, which was sunny and warm and nice and safe. Now it's snowing and cloudy and cold and bad and slippery. It's snowing. And it's sticking. There's a full blanket of snow over everything right now. I have to walk to the dining hall soon and my backpack weighs more than ever. Seriously. I'm putting Mackenzie into it so that he doesn't get snowed/rained (this morning it was raining) on. And let me tell you, that added with my three 500-paged textbooks, makes a heavy trek uphill. If I had a boyfriend his only use would be to carry my books. Honestly.

Other than the weather, school has been going on pretty well. My highlight of the week was being too sick to attend P.E., because hiking would only make me even more sick. Today was the last day of poetry class, which we spent in Birchard instead of the library. Bad idea-- it was freezing. We were shivering the whole time. Anyway... I have yet to put that stuff on my boots to protect them from the wet, so I'm going to have to wear my sneakers until further ado. Hopefully tomorrow in town I'll be able to navigate my way around to find whatever I need. An adult can probably point me in the right direction; maybe the driver will even drop me off somewhere useful.

My red hair dye arrived the other day! My roommate says she'll help me out sometime over the weekend. Goodbye auburn, hello red-- again, finally! I really love the colour my hair becomes with the dye. My moment of narcism.

Even though this post is three days late, I still don't have much to say, Unfortunately not much is happening in this small little town of Idyllwild. Since I explained most of my classes in the first few posts, there's not much else to add. In Algebra II we had a "team test" today. It's where the people at the table all collaborate on one test and get a group grade. It's pretty awesome; I actually learned something from it.

Shambo, the World Cultures teacher, has been off the hill since Wednesday. I don't remember what he had to do, but he won't be back until Tuesday. We're only working on posters, so it's no big deal. I have to research the East India Trading Company. Shambo says it's the best but most difficult of the four choices, because there's so much information on it. Apparently the company ruled the country. Weird, huh?

We had a snowball fight half an hour ago... it was short and sweet, and my shoes are soaked (unintentional alliteration), but still. It was fun. My Victorian detective story is coming along quite well... but it's basically stealing everything from Sherlock Holmes. Oh well. My detective is nicer... 

Spanish class is pretty fun. Um, I mean, es muy divertido! Sí, sí. We've just begun to learn the preterite forms of verbs. Merlin help me...

I think that my next blog entry shouldn't be about me; it should be the first bit of my detective story. Here's the first paragraph:

"The summer of 1882 brought me  fortunes for which I am very grateful. My teaching career at the University of Cambridge was going swimmingly, and all of my students were delightful people, some of them as young as eighteen or as old as twenty-seven; two years my senior. They all seem eager to learn about apoplexy, epistaxis, suppuration, apopnixis... medical terms that few people are familiar with. I was very pleased with their final essays, and it was a bittersweet moment when we had to part for the summer break of six long weeks."

Andrew said that it's good because I let the reader know the time, place, and age of the character we're dealing with. I guess that's pretty good. Usually I'm "modest" about my writing but I seriously think this is gonna be good. Oh, I'm also using a UK spellcheck just for Andrew, who's from Britain. I think he'll really like that.

Other than that, not much is going on. I'm waking up, getting ready, eating food, and having class. And writing.

Writingwritingwritingwriting.

I need 10,000 more words over the weekend.

Wish me luck.

Love,

Callie

P.S. Please visit http:lovecallie.com and tell others - THANK YOU!

Week Whatever

Dear everyone,

Today was foggy and cold again. By six o'clock, I could barely see across the street! That's the highlight of today, other than the scrape I got on my knee from Capture the Flag.

Oh yeah, and it's my mom's birthday. I called her. Twice. Facebook didn't have to remind me. God I hate that website so much.

In detective class, we've been reading Sherlock Holmes. Have I said that already? Anyway, we were given the assignment of, gasp, writing a detective story. Andrew said it can be however long or however short it needs to be. He never really gives specifics for this kind of thing; he wants us to write until we feel what we have is complete. My plot for the story is coming along nicely, but I'm having to turn to more logical people for help. There's only so much I can know about Victorian era London. It's very fun coming up with characters though! Especially their names. And since I'm doing something totally, unexpected, my teacher is sure to be pleased.

Poetry is almost over! November fifth. Gotta hang in there and write more crap! Hehe.

Over the weekend I bought milk and Nesquik chocolate powder... all I have to do is fill the milk carton in the dining hall now. Yay!

There's really not much to say, to be honest. I would love to write long paragraphs talking about each day of the week, but I can't remember very clearly. Molly Newman asked me if I could dedicate some of my time to coming to her house to play with Lucy, so I guess that's pretty cool. I've been making friends every day; those who used to be acquaintances. Listen to me, sounding all official. I've been sitting with different people at most meals. It's pretty nice. People here are really weird, in a good way, of course. I'm slowly... very slowly.... getting used to the atmosphere.

We're beginning to learn the past tense forms of verbs in Spanish. It's a pain, but I'm working through it; studying a bit will mold it into my mind... hah.

This week on Saturday I'm "hosting" a movie party with some of the people in my dorm. We're watching Spirited Away, only the best movie in the world.

Oh yeah, and Halloween is next week. I was planning on being a video game character, but it wasn't able to work out. So now it's either a witch, or Pikachu. I'm really not sure yet; I might look in town for some yellow clothes, because I have none at all right now.

Other than the excessive research I've been doing on the Victorian era, not much has been happening. I'm friends with Brian Wilson's daughter, Daria. She's my anime buddy. She's just finished the final episode of an anime that has been in her heart since she was little. Currently Daria is going through some emotional distress around this process and I'm the only one who can relate to her, 'cuz I'm the only other person at the school who has seen the whole anime. That sentence seemed really awkward... grrrr methinks this fog has seeped into my brain.
OH YES - Full circle from the opening paragraph!

I went to bed really early last night, but I'm still exhausted. Walking up and down the hill... man... it never gets old... haha. Well, I'll definitely have more to write next week, seeing as I'll have gone through everything from Halloween and the like. Until then, dear readers, be happy and healthy!

Love,

Callie

P.S. LESS THAN SIX HUNDRED WORDS. I AM A FAILURE AS A BLOGGER. 597 598 599 600!


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More Magic in the Mountains

Dear everyone,

Hello again! As I type, I'm hanging out in the library computer lab (amazingly, I'm the only one here) with my new darling, Mackenzie. He's doing quite well, and it's been nearly a week since I received him in the mail; he actually came five days before I was expecting. Wow! So far, he's been responding beautifully to my commands and is adapting to the altitude nicely. He has a few flaws, as we all do, but that's what make us unique. Because of Mackenzie's arrival, my poor Gildroy was taken from me. I miss him, I really do, but Mackenzie is helping me heal. I'll give a shout-out to Gildroy now-- hi!!! <33

In case you were wondering, Mackenzie is a Macbook Pro, and Gildroy was an Eee PC.

In other news, I have recently been filmed for an Idyllwild movie, visited by my aunt and uncle, and gone on an all-day hike.

Wednesday was pretty awesome. The sophomores and juniors had to take PSATs, so all morning classes were cancelled. I got to sleep in late, miss breakfast (we have to sign in every morning by 7:45) and still get tons of work done. For a project, my group went down to the library to work on our poster, and we were actually able to make it pretty decent. I don't know how I can say this without sounding like a conceited bitch, but ours was the best. Anyway, just as we were finishing up, my teacher, Shambo, came in the room and asked if we could spare about half an hour. We agreed to, if only we could have ten minutes to finish up. And so in ten minutes' time we wandered down to his classroom, with our things back in the library. Shambo had informed us that a few of the graduated film majors were filming some movie about Idyllwild, so they took us to some rocks and began to film. We just talked about Shambo's class (which is like totally awesome), but their recording was silent. All they needed was footage of a class outside; there were about ten of us. It was fun. Then we went to lunch.

On Thursday, Mackenzie arrived. 'Nuff said.

The schedules had been pretty messed up because of PSATs and Family Weekend, but whatever... by Thursday and Friday, it was normal. We had no class on Saturday. Friday was pretty cool, though. We got to miss poetry class to rehearse for the reading that would take place later that night. I was the door holder! Before the performance, I went to babysit Lucy, which was just so awesome. The whole time we were walking up to their house, she just kept saying, "My toys, my toys!" because she was so excited to show me. Turns out the kid is a lot more talkative than I had first thought; she was really shy. And only two!

Family weekend was fun. It was nice to see my aunt and uncle. We went out to eat twice... well... really once. I guess. Amy and Dennis got some weird smoothies and fruit juice from a weird place on Sunday in the afternoon. It was weird. But the night before, we went to one of the more well-known restaurants with my teacher Andrew and had a good time. It turns out that the house that mi tios were staying at was robbed, but I won't go into details... there are quite a few details, and had Sherlock Holmes been present, the case would be solved in an instant. Perhaps two instances.

Monday was the all-day hike.  We drove down to Palm Springs for two hours, stood in line for thirty minutes, rode the tram for fifteen, and waited to go on the hike for ten. The hike? Well. It was strenuous, to say the least. A lot of what we did was uphill, but since we retraced our steps, the uphill and downhill was even. We didn't even get lost! Actually, that was very likely, too. There we were, sitting and eating our lunches halfway through the hike, when one group decides to leave early. We bid them adieu and lost track of them within the next minute, happily (or unhappily) munching on the chips and gross sandwiches that were provided in the dull brown bags. Since that group was on the same bus as us (#3), we had to wait around for them to come back. They never did. Turns out they hiked all the way back to Idyllwild! There was actually a group scheduled to do that, but it was canceled due to lack of supervision. Oh well, people ended up doing it anyway!

When it's cloudy on the mountain - we live in the clouds at Idyllwild.

Today is Tuesday, and, well, now I've caught up with the present. It seems like a very short entry... perhaps because I'm slightly out of it. My classes are still fun, and I'm super duper happy about Mackenzie. Along with the Macbook I also received a very AWESOME case that makes the computer look like a book. A very old book might I add. In fact, I've fooled many people with it. They all love it! But of course my love is mostly for the computer itself. In the box that held Mackenzie, there were also several other little items: Tinkerbell glitter crayons (mum knows me so well), headphones (THREE PAIRS), my iPod (which I bought from Sophie (for $20) in like JANUARY (I'm not mad, don't worry, hah)), a billion movies that I'll watch again and again throughout the year, and last but not really last, a phone cord (for some strange reason). My memory is failing me right now.

Anyway, this blog post was probably a pain to read. My mind is wandering; like many other teenagers (and I suppose people in general), I'm lovesick.... so.... excuse the manner in which this is written... I'm exhausted from yesterday's hike (for some reason, only the students are!) and amazed by how much homework I've seemed to collect over that past two weeks. Plus my English teacher is teaching things that I, as a creative writer, am already aware of... oh well... that's what I get for being impatient...

Pues... ¡Adios, mis amigos! ¡Hasta luego!

Love,

Callie


P.S. Please visit http:lovecallie.com and tell others - THANK YOU! 




.

Dear Everyone,

I feel like I'll be saying this a lot, but everything's been blurring together. I can't remember what I've written about in these blog things, and I can't remember what I learned this week different from last week. All the exhilaration from the beginning of September is bubbling down and is replaced with stacks of homework. Returning students have told me more than once to get used to staying up until three in the morning doing homework. I really, really hope they're wrong. I've never been one for homework; I hate it. In fact, as I write this, I should instead be writing twenty sentences in Spanish, but I'm saving that for after dinner. I've already got four done.

I bought a stapler today. And glue. And some Sharpies. Right now my desk is swimming with office supplies; pens, pencils, a sharpener, a paintbrush, scissors, rubber bands, tape, Post-Its, erasers, notecards, markers, crayons, the list goes on! And of course we must add all of the books I need for my classes. Every day my backpack feels heavier! Add that pile of homework and BAM, I'll break my back walking up and down this hill every day. My shoulders are always aching! Thankfully, I'm not having any allergic reactions up here, so I'm not miserable. Scratch that, even if I did have allergies here, I wouldn't be miserable.

How could I say that anyone is mean? All the students here are super nice. One of my friends has an X-Box (apparently she and another girl are responsible for the rules against these game systems; that doesn't dissuade them!), and she said she'll let me come over and play some time. My roommate told me that I'm getting a reputation with my Pikachu hat, and I asked her if that was bad. She said no. There's a boy with pink hair (it was purple last month) and he's got that reputation too. The things people do here are amazing.

As the weather gets colder, there's no more guitar or fiddle music to listen to outside. The instruments are all nice and cozy warm when people aren't in the practice rooms (the Troys). Now that Winter's on its way, people are buying boots and bringing out their coats. I heard that it's supposed to snow soon. I hope I get my boots before that.

Last Wednesday (or was it Tuesday? Thursday?), we were living in a cloud. That's how foggy it was. I could barely see twenty feet ahead! It was cold, too-- I wore two jackets, zipped. It's warmer now; sunny, no rain, and birds are still singing. We had a woodpecker outside the classroom once. It was weird, I'd never really heard a woodpecker at it before. The building probably has a hole now just like the hundreds of spots in the trees that are filled with acorns. Our P.E. teacher keeps pointing out the little things in nature. There are berries here with more vitamin C than cranberries and oranges combined... and they're like, smaller than a dime.

In my desk, I've got heaven on earth: green and red apples, Nutella, cereal, and caramel in the fridge. My roommate also had plastic knives. The stunning total of six green apples, a box of cereal, and twenty ounces of caramel was $9.07 including tax. My dessert every night is amazing; I never get the cake in the dining hall. I could get used to this. Oh, come on, quit looking at me like that. Don't worry, I eat it in moderation, and I share!

Today in the dining hall, the cutest thing happened. I'd finished lunch, but some more people came, so I sat with them because it's a Monday, which I'll explain in a minute. Anyway, here at Idyllwild, several small children live on campus, ranging from the age... what, seven months? to about six years old. John and Molly Newman have a daughter named Lucy, she can't be more than two, who is the cutest thing ever. She reminds me so much of Ryann, Teagan, Raphael, Alex... So I sat down in the dining hall again, and she's in her dad's arms, right? Then she sees me and starts to squirm out of his arms and squeals, "CallieCallieCallie!!" pointing to me and grinning.

I almost died it was so cute.

Last week she was very shy, but she really, really likes my hat. I think that's what first made her like me. But now even if I'm not wearing my Pikachu hat, she'll love to see me. I seriously don't understand... but yeah. Same thing happened with a different kid the other week. A bit different, but similar. He wanted to sit on my lap on our way back up the hill from the beach. Little blond boy + Pikachu hat = adorable. I really want to kidnap one of these kids.

The schedule for classes this week is insane. Tomorrow is a "moderated" schedule and I have to have all of them in a row. That's Spanish II, P.E., Intro to Lit, World Cultures, and Algebra II in one day! AND Detective class later! How do they expect me to handle it?! The weight of my backpack will kill me. Thankfully the next day there are no academic classes. Sophomores and Juniors have to take the PSAT. Same with Saturday (family weekend)... but I only have one class. Hello writing all night on Tuesday! Andrew, my writing teacher, explained to me that they couldn't just cut classes on Wednesday without having to fuck up the schedule somehow; "it's Idyllwild, nothing's allowed to make sense!"

My magic day is Monday. I have four classes in a row in the morning, up until eleven fifteen. Then I kick back, relax, and wait till three-thirty for poetry, which, if you'll excuse my bluntness, is boring. I'm not saying my teacher is bad. Actually, I really like her. It's just that I have to read poems. And write them. And talk about them. And write about them. And read about them. I mean, come on... stick a metaphor here, alliteration there, maybe a little rhyming, and BAM, you've got a poem that then has a hundred questions following it no matter how simply it's written.

Wow. I used "BAM" twice in this already. Three times.

Anyway, I suppose this is enough about what's been happening.

I'm very tired. I need to remember that Sunday should be my go-to-bed-early-dammit day. I'll write again next week!

Love,

Callie

P.S. I didn't say anything about the guest writer. David Shook is his name. Graduated from here in '04, I think it was. Or '07. I'll have to ask. Another poet. Translator. He was funny. Had some poems about a modern Jesus.

  P.S. Please visit http:lovecallie.com and tell others - THANK YOU!   

Getting Over October's Overture

Dear everyone,

I woke up this morning more exhausted than I've been in almost a month! Yesterday (from the time I'm writing this), Sunday, was the day the creative writer majors, musical theater majors, and a few others went on a required (not entirely) field trip down the hill. We drove in two big buses that held about fifty or sixty people each (neither one was full) for almost three hours, and I forgot to bring a book! It didn't matter much since I had people to talk to. Anyway, the field trip was to see Pride and Prejudice, the play. It was amazing! Although, according to my British teacher Andrew, their accents were totally shitty. I didn't think so, but of course he would be a much better judge on that.

On Saturday I had Algebra (eww), which is getting harder every day. As with the rest of my academics. And art. So, yeah... then I went to town, where I bought lots of snacks and a few other nick nacks. This include $3.50 worth of 25cent lollipops, Pocky and a very cool light that I can use to read at night; my roommate sometimes gets stressed when the big lights are on in the room. I skipped dinner that night, and was in my room for quite a while. Then, while computing (of course!), I heard a bunch of girls in the hallway singing Disney songs, and before too long, went out to join them. Long story short, we're creating a sort of tradition. I gave them lollipops. :)

Now wait, I'm going backwards, aren't I? Well, it's a bit hard for me to remember the details from the week. I know that at some point the opportunity to get a Mac computer was introduced to me. I was thrilled, of course, beyond words. Macs are right up there with chocolate and writing - what can I say? - I'm addicted. I have my parents to thank, blah blah blah, but that isn't really what you want to be reading about, is it? I'm definitely going to give my soul in parts to whoever helps me get this laptop. Of course, my soul is limited now that I've given most of it away to those of you who donated to me for going to Idyllwild. Plus my friend Ava, who has stolen my soul at least eight times on the Internet.

Anyway, my week was fun, but of course some of it wasn't. I don't particularly like having to work... I mean, I do, but I don't. It really depends on what I want to do or learn. Like, for World Cultures class, I spent about two hours making ten different maps of India so that I could memorize the things we were suppose to memorize geographically. It's a damn good booklet of maps, if I do say so myself. :) Of course, I can't ever spend that much time trying to memorize something. Ever again. I swear I got more homework today than I've had in two years. That's what I should be doing at the moment... but I want to finish this blog for you people!

Another good thing about the week was that I finally purchased sweatpants. Now I won't get points off in P.E.! And something else, a little bit annoying, is that the boots my mom ordered me did not fit. :( Have to get new ones... curse my big American feet. In town one of my Chinese friends bought some boots and she was like size six. See that alliteration? Take that, Karin (my Intro to Lit teacher)! I'm getting sidetracked. I'm very tired. I've actually found that eating three meals a day gives me very much energy indeed.

That's a message there for all you kiddies! Eat your breakfast, have scrambled eggs! As much as you can fit down your throat without choking! And eat lunch! THAT'S A MESSAGE TO YOU, SOPHIE. BREAKFAST AND LUNCH. AND DINNER.

There's a reason why they say breakfast is the most important meal of the day. (Rhyme!!! :))

I would write more, because I certainly have much left to say, but alas, I must keep you wanting more, yes? So, my dear everyone, I must say goodbye and goodnight again. I hope you have a wonderful day/night/ whatever's-in-between!!

Love,

Callie

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Dear Everyone

This is my new blog as I begin my adventures at Idyllwild Academy for the Arts.
The blog is called A Writer Types and it's at awritertypes.blogspot.com

Dear everyone,

I've been in classes for more than a week and every day it gets better and better. Idyllwild is honestly the most magical place I've ever been to, including Hogwarts in my dreams. Right now it's room study; an hour an a half set from eight-thirty to ten for homework, in which you are not allowed to leave your room for any reason at all. The only ones exempt from this are prefects, who are like hall monitors, but more important. They have lots of luxuries, and the advantage of being me is that I am rooming with one. She's really nice.

So far my classes have been fairly easy. I love all of my teachers, even my math teacher, but I hate math. My world cultures teacher has actually traveled the world, which makes his classes much more intriguing. P.E. is basically hiking and games; we've gone on two nature walks and have played one game of kickball. So far I haven't died. Intro to lit so far is kind of boring, but that's just because I'm a creative writer and the stuff we're learning is stuff I already know, or at least, most of it. I do love learning new vocabulary though.

Writing classes are amazing. We always drink Yorkshire tea, which is probably the best tea in the world no matter what other people say. After that's brewed and everyone has a mug, we talk about writing and writers and poetry and books. It's the best thing ever. There was even a guest poetry author, Chase Twichell, whose book I bought after a short reading (I never buy poetry!). I have had to read a LOT. Even as I type I should be reading the first twenty chapters of a book that are due by Tuesday! But alas, I don't have the book yet (have to get it at the book store), because at boarding school you have to own your books. Fortunately I'm allowed to sell them back at the end of the year for an undecided refund. So far I haven't written more than two poems (seventy-one lines each!) and some fanfiction, but I'm certainly going to have to soon.

Getting food is so exciting. I have to go to a thing called breakfast sign-in, which means that I must go to breakfast every morning and sign to say that I was there. It's convenient since it forces me to eat a good breakfast with fruit and everything. I love being early to meals, because sometimes people gather outside the dining hall and bring out their guitar or fiddle and start to liven the mood. There's nothing more fun than laughing with your friends.

My free periods are normally spent in the library, where I either compute or study, because the library is so close to most of our classes. Spanish, though, is a different story-- it's way up past the dining hall, which, since you don't know the campus, is quite a trek! Especially if you only have five or ten minutes-- the breaks between classes vary depending on the day. Days with shorter classes (forty-five minutes) have shorted breaks, and longer classes (an hour and twenty minutes) have longer breaks. Getting from class to class can be tough, especially since there's a different schedule every day. But we somehow manage. At least the creative writers have only one building, plus the library.

Over the weekend there are trips to town, which, apparently, are the highlight of the week. I'm excited to maybe go and check it out. There's even a candy shop! On Sunday there's a beach trip, and I'm definitely going to go. I'm sure it will be tons of fun. Everything here is fun (except maybe homework) because the classes are so engaging. My Spanish teacher rarely uses English in the classroom. I can't understand him at all.

At night, when I can open up my laptop or play my video game or read, I also have lots of fun. I'm making everything sound so positive, when, in reality, it's a pain! The Internet really sucks at night, and my cell phone battery dies quickly. My video game sometimes hurts my eyes and the homework is a drag. Walking from class to class, which I know will be in the rain soon, is hard because I'm still not sure where all of the classrooms are. Each building is separate. The books I have to carry around weigh a ton, and sometimes teachers don't let you go to the bathroom! When you don't have a water bottle, getting thirsty will happen very quickly, and the elevation level is so high (6,000 ft) that the air is quite thin. Getting from place to place requires going up and down hills, and the dining hall is often crowded and loud. The time difference from here to Ohio is also a pain, especially at night. I miss some people very much and sometimes certain websites refuse to load. I haven't got any of my music with me so room study can be exceedingly boring, especially when I have to do Algebra II homework. There's not nearly enough space in my dorm room to fit all of my textbooks, so I have to pile them up high and search for a little while. Sometimes the food is gross, too.

Well now... Who am I kidding? I LOVE it here! Thanks to all who have donated and supported me through this! I owe you so much for having made this all possible!

Love,

Callie

P.S. Please visit http:lovecallie.com and tell others - THANK YOU!