1. Usar más español.
2. Do homework away from computer, eliminating distractions.
3. Actually get through all the piano lesson books so I can learn real music.
4. Save more money.
5. Get a summer job and volunteer over the summer.
6. Try harder to get my semester grades up so I won’t be so stressed during finals.
7. Read more.
8. Sleep earlier.
9. Be nicer to parents.
10. Take more leadership.

Wish me luck?

So. Last time I came to Mumbai, those train bombings happened (~July 2006). This time I come to Mumbai, terrorists torture our city once more. Perfect timing.

At around 10 AM (local time) on the 26th of November, this all started. My family was awake. We were just chatting and then I went to sleep. My parents were woken up to see the news. So the next morning (the 27th), I woke up. I DID make a mental note that it was unusually quiet outside (normally, the streets are bustling and noisy from very early in the morning). I logged on the computer and checked my email. I got a few more than usual. Several of them were asking if I was OK. I panicked. What happened? I started trembling as I navigated to CNN.com, and there I saw the news of the terror.

I watched the news a lot on that day. Things were not getting too much better. There was still firing, explosions, deaths, and hostages. On Thanksgiving day, I was so thankful that my family was safe. We knew a few people that were in this horrifying situation, but luckily, they were also safe. My thoughts are with those families and friends who have lost their loves one during this event.

Mumbai has experienced a nightmare. I think we did a great job of picking up the pieces. The hotels have already done so.

“We dedicate our reopening to the city of Mumbai as affirmation of the values of courage, resilience and dignity,” Raymond Bickson, managing director and CEO of Indian Hotels Company Limited, said.

Being in India is actually kind of nice. It’s a new, fresh feeling. It’s more real. Except the pollution, insane driving, poverty, etc. I am staying at my mom’s brother’s house. Their flat is really big, but my parents and I have to share a bed. And my cousin has to sleep in my other uncle’s room. And my uncle has to sleep in the living room What fun. At least my dad agreed to stay here and not the bride’s house. It’s insanity over there. My mom was happy to see me and vise versa. But she got SO mad when my dad and I was unpacking. Basically, my dad did the opposite of what she instructed. I got a bit of jet lag yesterday. I was falling asleep in the morning. I took a nap in the afternoon so I would stay awake for the evening and now I am OK. (It’s currently ~9AM)

I am so excited to miss seven days of school!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY. blah. I am going to start doing homework today. I want to finish a lot of it before the wedding, but I know that’s not going to happen because GUESS WHAT. I have to learn a bollywood dance! This is what I have been waiting for all my life. My mom kind of told me about this before I left, but now I realize that she was actually being serious. Oh well. It may be a little bit fun… I will keep an open mind.

In the evening, we went to my cousin’s fiancé’s sister’s house for this interesting party. I forget the Hindi and/or Gujurati name for it, but it’s basically a game of Antaskshari, where you guess songs given some clues. I obviously did not participate because I have a 1% knowledge of Hindi music compared to everyone else. The groom’s family is ALL Gujurati, and we are like… everything. We are a mix of Sindhi, U.P., Marathi, Gujurati, Keralite, etc. We also cover the major religions of India: Hindu, Muslim, and Christian. It was hard for the groom’s family to accept my cousin at first, but I am really proud of them for doing so and being so welcoming. They were really friendly and lively, and I am looking forward to seeing more of them.

On Mondays, I have piano lessons after schools. That’s not too bad because I love piano, I have a great teacher, and she lives literally five seconds away from me. Spanish Honor Society meets on some Wednesdays, and every other Friday I have JSA (a debate club). My plans for going the YMCA on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays have failed, and I haven’t gone since summer ended. I am going to try to find time now. I will be able to go some Wednesdays and Fridays, and Thursdays will be open once my PSAT class is done. I have found time for SOME social fun on the weekends, which is great!

My classes are much more challenging this year. AP Chemistry isn’t as a bad as I thought it would be, but it’ll most likely get harder. I think I will do OK. Psychology has taken me by surprise. I didn’t expect so much work. The test on Friday was tough…

I really like music this year. In piano, I am picking up on the books again, and it’s great to continue lessons after that long break. I am also teaching myself a fun jazz song called “Old Fess Joe Rag” by Riccardo Scivales. In my voice lessons, I am singing a variety of songs, including a Mozart aria that’s in German.

Sorry for those pretty random blurbs! This is what happens when you don’t blog for a long time. Oh, I cleaned up the footer (there was way too much junk: scrobbler, books, etc), and I also added a Lifestream page, thanks to the RSS Stream plugin.

PS – I coded a very beautiful layout today. :]

As for my classes, I think I picked a moderately challenging selection. I am deathly afraid of AP Chemistry, but it’s my fault I signed up for it. I will also take Honors Math Analysis (pre-calculus), Dramatic Literature and British Literature (semester each), Spanish III, Psychology and AP Psychology (semester each), Varsity Chamber Singers (top choir), and of course, P.E. Some other options, and classes that my friends are taking, are AP English III (but I am not that great at English), Honors Physics (which I will take next year. I took Honors Chemistry last year, so I’d like to keep the Chemistry classes consecutive), AP US History (I took regular US History last year, so there’s no point), and AP Biology (Chemistry interests me more).

Wow. Big plans? Yes. Will all of this work out? Hopefully. Will I have time to blog and design? Barely. Do I use too many parentheses? Yeah. :|

The main jist of the book is: Teenage boy gets stuck on a lifeboat. With a fierce Bengal tiger. How do these castaways survive? The beginning did drag on a bit. I think I would’ve enjoyed it more if I didn’t take those two long breaks, though. I really liked how religion and realism came together in this book. Also, the details. I am a partial vegetarian (I only eat foul meat), so some of the events described in the book were utterly gruesome. It was so sickening that I just had to keep on reading. Anyway, the book is an inspirational life lesson. Not just a lesson of surviving in a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger, but just about life in general.

I do have some hope for this live action movie. I think it has the potential to be as amazing as the original series. At San Diego Comic Con’s Avatar panel, Michael Dante DiMartino, one of the creators of Avatar, said that it was a “very faithful retelling of Book One: Water.” Though he and Bryan Konietzko, the other creator, are not directing the live action movie, I will take their word for it. I believe it is going to release in 2010. Actually, I think the show’s director (Joaquim Dos Santos) isn’t even directing it… *googles* Oh, it is M. Night Shyamalan who is directing the movie. I heard he is pretty good.

Oh yes, I did totally redo my site. Thanks for noticing. I still need to make the URLs pretty for my portfolio and make a site map. For those who subscribe, you will have to change the RSS feed. Sorry. I also added a feed for my portfolio.

As for other things, I have an audition for a jazz ensemble coming up. Also, there are choir concerts coming up, drivers ed, and finals (beginning of June). Oh yeah, my birthday is also this month, but who cares. I’m actually going insane because my birthday gift is somewhere in my house and I can’t have it until the 21^st. My parents and I went last weekend to purchase an new 80GB iPod Classic because it was on sale. I survived one week of this torture, and just a week and half to go.

Basically, my life during sophomore year has been one big ball of stress. Recently, I have learned to just let go of things and relax. Things will sometimes work themselves out. Sometimes they won’t, so at least it’s good to be on ONE toe. Being on all of your toes doesn’t help much. Basically, at the moment, I have two things to stress about – audition and final video project for American Society Block (for our final, each group has to make a video for a certain decade; we have the nineties).

At 5:45, my alarm went off. I hit the snooze button. It went off again at 5:55 and I got up, brushed my teeth, and went down for breakfast. My mom had the radio on, and the announcers said that there was an earthquake at 4:37 AM. It was centered in Southern Illinois and had a magnitude of 5.4 (later, it was changed to 5.2). I knew that the shaking I felt in the morning was the earthquake. I wasn’t really surprised; I knew that there was a fault down there and before, many people were saying that we were due for a large earthquake. Luckily, this wasn’t catastrophic, and there was no damage in the Chicago area, and I think a little damage in the southern parts of Illinois. At school, a few people said they freaked out and this was their “near death experience,” while others, like me, felt it and continued with their lives. About half of the students did not feel anything at all. My dad, who was up and downstairs in the kitchen, did not feel it. My mom and I were both sleeping upstairs, and did feel it.

I felt that this was an experience to note for the future, thought it wasn’t live-changing. People from California probably think that this was nothing, but for us, it’s a pretty big deal.