Back! . . . again

First of all, I apologize for disappearing without a word of warning for the second time in one month. Very bad form on my part; I'll have to work on not doing that again. Apparently June was not a good month for internet activity. Second of all, those people who keep up with regular blogs even though they're a lot busier than I am? They're a lot better at managing their time than I am. (Either that or blogging is their form of procrastination . . . which is still better than my usual form, which consists of playing games on the internet until I get too frustrated or run out of music.)

Anyway, my last three weeks were pretty exciting and pretty busy, thus my lack of blogging. What was I doing? Well, from the 12th to the 26th, I was at college. Kinda. A college that my friend goes to offers a summer dual enrollment program in which you take a college class in two weeks, during which time you live on campus. It was an awesome experience, both in and out of class. It was also a lot of being around people- if I wasn't in class or studying, I was generally socializing or participating in the activities planned for the Summer Studies students (and there was an activity almost every day).

One of the best parts of the two weeks was the people I was with. I already knew Mandy, my roommate (we go to the same Bible study), and that helped a lot. I think that if I'd been with almost-total-strangers the whole time, I wouldn't have enjoyed the time as much, but since I knew someone already, it was a little easier to step out and get to know other people too. There were quite a few other homeschoolers there (thought not as many as I expected), and several others who loved LOTR, Star Wars, and other geekish things of that sort. (Two, Jenn and Luke, actually know Elvish. And Jenn, on our third day there, memorized Gandalf's "good morning" speech from The Hobbit and occasionally quoted it at me or Jimmy- another LOTR fan- throughout the rest of the two weeks. If you can't tell, she's awesome.)

The class itself, Politics and American Culture, was also excellent. A lot of the class focused on our government and how it's developed, as well as the development of things like civil liberties and civil rights, and I found it really interesting! Some members of our class had a tendency to ask questions that got us off on rabbit trails or into debates. In my opinion, though, that just made the class better, since we weren't just listening to the professor talk the whole time and we could actually interact somewhat. The homework load wasn't too bad, mostly just a few things to read for the next day's classes and one paper that was due at the beginning of the second week. Even though I more or less doubled the amount of work I did out of class by typing up my notes so I could study them more easily, I still had plenty of time to hang out with the others and do the activities. (I also managed to not procrastinate on the paper, something I'm very proud of myself for, since papers during the regular school year tend to get pushed off.)

And, of course, there were the activities. As I mentioned, there was one almost every evening. They ranged from small groups (Wednesday nights), to various things off-campus (like ice cream, bowling, and canoeing), to- on the 21st- King's Island. They were all really fun. One of my favorites was canoeing, something I haven't done in a long time. It was really relaxing (until we started racing two of the boys), and I now want to use canoes in a book sometime.

The biggest and most exciting event was, of course, King's Island. I'd never been there before, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. And before anyone asks, no, I didn't ride any roller coasters. Jenn, Abby (the only other girl there my age- the others were all a year older), and I decided the day before that we'd stick together at King's Island, since everyone else was like "YAY ROLLER COASTERS!" and none of us were all that keen on, well, pretty much any thrill rides. (Of the three of us, I was the only one remotely interested, and I won't go on anything that goes upside down. Even then, I have to be with people who, like my family, really enjoy that sort of thing.) Even without thrill rides, though, we had a great time. In the morning, we did some of the non-thrill rides, like the Scrambler (one of those spinning rides) and bumper cars (which I never get to go on because I'm the only one in my family with any interest in them).

Then, in the afternoon, we headed over to the waterpark to get thoroughly soaked. The waterpark was originally Jenn's idea, and I'm very glad she suggested it. We only had time to do two slides before we needed to go meet the others, but those two were awesome. If I'd had time, I would've done both of them over again. Then, after we met up with the others and decided to stay longer, Mandy joined our group and we went to do some of the wet rides outside the waterpark. Mandy, Jenn, and Abby went on the log flume, which I skipped to watch bags and get ice cream. (I'd been wanting ice cream all day, but no one else was all that interested.) Then we went on the Whitewater Canyon ride, which is similar to one of my favorite rides at Busch Gardens, the Roman Rapids. I think I may have gotten as wet on Whitewater Canyon as I did on any of the water slides, to be honest. It was absolutely awesome.

The final highlight of the two weeks? Risk. I've wanted to learn how to play it for a while now, but didn't have the opportunity- until now. My first game was over very quickly; it only took about an hour. My second game, on the other hand, was over four hours and the longest game played by anyone in the two weeks of Summer Studies. It was epic. (Also, after several very long and drawn out battles, I won. I was very happy.)

Eventually, though, it was the 26th and everyone had to leave. There was much hugging, much trying not to cry- and also a bit of freaking out, particularly on my part. See, while I was packing that morning, I made a discovery: there was a very large rhinocerous beetle living in Mandie's and my room. How did I find this out? The worst possible way: it tried to climb on my leg. That's when I screamed (apparently loud enough that I got the attention of most of the girls' dorm) and fled the room. The rest of the day, though, went smoothly, and I got home around eight that night.

Since then, what've I been up to? Not much. I'm doing Camp NaNoWriMo this month (I can tell you more about that later if you want), and I've been reading a lot. My current obsession is Mistborn, since I just read the first book two days ago and it was ah-mazing. I've also been trying to cut back on computer time. So far, I've been successful- though it's part of the reason I didn't get this up sooner. (The rest was all procrastination, I'm sorry to say.)

Anyway, that was my three weeks. What about you? What've you been up to? Have you done anything fun this summer, or are you planning anything fun? Please tell me in the comments!
Garo arad vaer!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)