I was confused. And then I wasn't anymore. And now I'm confused again.

I still need to think about this some more. Give me some time. Please wait.

Oh, I see I haven't updated for a little while there. :) Not that anyone reads this except me (and my parents, yikes!) but I like to blog, so here I go.

It's been, officially, one week after exams. Actually, it's been one day less than, but let's just say I'm right, okay? The exam for Law and Psychology was much harder than my Introduction to Psychology. It wasn't like I was dying or anything, but in comparison, it was a lot harder, mainly because it was an essay and short answer exam, while Introduction to Psychology was multiple choice. I mean, some stuff in that Law and Psych exam was just not necessary (in my opinion). I mean, they asked what TMS stood for. It wasn't even mentioned in class! Although, given that this is college, that's not really a valid excuse any more, as the exam is supposed to cover 70% class/30% textbook (as a general rule). Sigh.

Intro to Psych's exam was so much easier in comparison. Eighty questions, two of which were freebies, and another freebie for the girls (because the girls won a classical conditioning challenge!). Plus, some of the answers were very obviously incorrect, which I loved. Thank you, Professor Wenzel! :) Hahaha.

Anyhow, I seem to have gone on a lot of trips lately.

On Saturday, I went to an amusement park called Canobie Lake Park. How was it? Well, let's just say that I'd rather have driven to Six Flags (twice the distance from Harvard than Canobie), gotten up earlier, spent more money, etc. It wasn't totally horrible, however, because I was able to make some new friends! Yeah, yeah, they're all Asians. Whatever, they're nice people. I seem to think that the Asians here are more friendly in general, although I'm unsure whether or not this is because Asians are more friendly or if there are just so many Asians that all the ones I meet happen to be friendly. Correlation does not equal causation. ;) Yeah, Psych people, you know what I mean. Lol!

Anyway, we went around to almost all of the rides. It was a pretty terrible day to go though, because there was a thunderstorm/rainstorm going on and it was pouring buckets! We were all sopping wet most of the day. But at least there weren't a lot of people! (Too optimistic here?)

One of the highlights was seeing this tribute concert to Michael Jackson. Now, I'm not a huge Michael Jackson fan (*cough*MEILINA*cough) but I do like many of his songs that I have listened to. At that tribute concert...WOW. That guy looked so much like MJ, it was super super creepy. I was like, what? That guy was also a very good dancer and singer, sounding too much like MJ.

Then on Sunday, I had a Whale Watching trip. I went with the two guys in that picture up there (Zach and Khee Wun) on the trip. I used to never get seasick, but I was feeling totally dizzy on that boat. I was alright though and didn't throw up because I ended up sleeping on the way back (when I felt dizziest). Khee Wun also got seasick too, but much faster than me. So I've got a little bit more skillz.

The trip out to the ocean took about an hour from Boston. The boat was going extremely fast. Your face is literally stretched out and massaged from the wind - it's almost painful. But, I stood there anyway. Ha. Smart one.

I must say, I really loved the whale watching trip. I got to see whales, dude! There were quite a few of them around, maybe five or so, but the most amazing was a particular pair of whales - a mommy and her baby calf. They were swimming along together, at the side of the boat. The calf decides to do this amazing jump and literally propel itself out of the water, followed by swimming along with our boat, extremely close, and raising its tail up and down out of the water continuously for a long time. The calf also did some twirls underwater, swimming upside down, right side up, all the while splashing its tail above the water. It was so amazing.

Zach actually has better pictures (which I'll have to get from him), but here are some of mine (horribly taken, I know).

Seriously, whales are amazing. I've said before about my hatred of fish, but other marine life such as whales, dolphins, sharks, etc. are just so fascinating to me.

So that was Saturday and Sunday of last week, so I wasn't able to go out during the week because, duh, I have class here. I did, however, go out again into Boston on Friday. Yes, I went by myself. Was I lonely? No. Do I like going out into Boston by myself? Yes. Is there a reason for this? Well, I just don't know! (That's how my Law and Psych professor talks like! LOL, he's the cutest old man I've ever met!)

Anyway, I went to the Boston Public Gardens on Friday. You can kind of tell why I went by myself. I mean really, who goes to the public gardens? It's just a freaking garden, for God's sake! But no, I really wanted to go because of (a) the Good Will Hunting bench and (b) Cheers. And, they just so happened to be in or near the Boston Public Gardens so I went there too. :)

I downloaded a tour on my iPod (yup, I'm awesome like that) and went around the public gardens, listening to it. I found the "tour guide" to be extremely boring and lacking any kind of emotion. But at least it was able to bring me to some of the more interesting areas of the gardens which I probably would not have toured around to see.

The Ether Monument.

And here's why the Ether Monument is here! I thought this was really interesting, maybe just because I like all this medicine-y stuff? It got me thinking that perhaps, when I'm older, I'd like to work at MGH.

Aww, yeah. Self-timer's awesome.

Here's the Good Will Hunting bench! I think. I'm not actually sure whether or not this is the right one, but it's somewhere around here, lol. :) Too bad it was under construction!

I do believe I remember the inspiration from this sculpture - it's from a book. The cute little kids like to sit on the sculptures! It was funny because my iPod tour was saying how kids like to sit on and interact with the sculptures, which was what the girl was doing. Then, the tour said that the adults like to sit on Mrs. Mallard (that's the mommy duck) to pose for pictures, exactly at the moment someone was doing so.

Cheers! Yup, the inspiration for the TV show! I haven't actually watched it, but it was exciting nevertheless. Bought some souvenirs for the parents here.

The swan boats in the background is what Boston is famous for. I wanted to include this because of that. And also because I happen to look fairly normal in this picture. Success!

It was, overall, a pretty fun day. I went to eat/drink at Cheers, but the thing is, it's not that worth it. It wasn't too expensive, but it wasn't fantastic or anything. I say, next time, just take some pictures, buy souvenirs if you like, but find somewhere else to eat. Also because it's pretty crowded there.

Then yesterday, I studied most of the day, and went to the Harvard Museum of Natural History. DAYUM, that place is major depressing. I usually love going to natural history museums (I absolutely love the one in D.C.) but this one was so depressing. It was basically just a bunch of stuffed animals. What was sad was, some of them used to be real animals. I got so sad and started apologizing to all of the poor things. I know that that makes me sound crazy, but I was feeling so bad for them, I just had to. Of course, I waited until no one else was there.

I'll talk more later. I feel like this is running too long. No one reads this as it is, but even I find myself boring at this point. Ta-ta, lovelies.

(Isn't that such a strange way to end things? Ta-ta? Who says that anymore!?)

Second week, down! :)

I think I'm doing alright here over in the U.S. The whole independent thing is going down pretty well. I did my laundry today (which took a couple hours) and there were no mishaps. Well, almost. One of my shirts got...weird. But it's still totally wearable, so I'll just say that no, I didn't mess it up. Yay me!

Here's a weird thing. I found out that my parents read my xanga. Oh, um, hello parents. Nice to see you around here. Yeeeah.

Anyway, despite Harvard being awesome, I find myself missing Hong Kong very much. Don't get me wrong, I like it here and I love visiting new places, but Hong Kong is so familiar in terms of the people. Yes, okay? I did try to make friends. And yes, I do have some friends, but I'm not exactly the center of attention and I don't have a large group of friends to hang out with 24/7. I have some friends that I see sometimes.

I don't know how anyone expects me to make friends out of strangers in mere days, and expect us to just 'click' and get along well together. The friends I were talking about? Yeah, we're friends, but not on that level. I know, I know. Maybe we just don't know each other well enough yet. Or maybe I'm just being too picky.

No, I'm not! There are some people whom you become good friends with and others that you don't. Friends are people who are supposed to understand you and whom you share compatible personalities with. Sometimes with these new friends of mine, we don't have anything to talk about. I mean, you know me, I joke around in ways that are inappropriate to with new friends. When I joke around with you guys (that's you, friends in HK), I always insult you and you know I'm joking, but with new friends, I can't joke like that because they wouldn't get it.

It's also difficult because I'm part of the younger student population. The youngest here are rising juniors, with everyone else being rising seniors, college age or older. I saw a woman who was well into her sixties or perhaps even her seventies - it's hard to tell.

I don't know; I find it very difficult to make new friends. I don't know what to do or what to say. Well, actually, I don't know what to not do and what to not say too.

Any advice? How do you make new friends?

Oh and, I'll be putting up some pics here later on. :) Just so you guys can see where I've been and whatevs.

EDIT

I just got back from 4th of July fireworks! Me and my roomie went to the MIT campus to watch the fireworks; it was amazing! I normally don't like fireworks very much - you get them quite a bit in HK and I feel like it's nothing special a lot of the time. But these fireworks? I loved them.

They looked so close, I thought they were going to rain down on us. Seriously, they were awesome.

Wayyy too bright there. But still awesome as hell.

Oh, and, I went to Prudential Skywalk on Friday night. It's basically this observatory thingy on the 50th floor (gasp! how high! *rolls eyes*) and you can see all of Boston up there because all the other buildings are super short.

Hey, that's me! I'm just posing there all awesome-like with the Charles River at the back.

MIT. AKA the most awesome school ever.

Fenway Park! Home of the Red Sox...I think.

Those are some islands that are floating around for some reason...but I'm not sure why. Nice pic though.

Anyhow, I know that not a lot of people read this or whatever, but it's always nice to pretend that people do, you know?

Everyone's been writing about the end of year eleven, and so many people had their firsts.

I honestly can't remember any firsts I've had this year. Or, at least, any significant firsts.

So, I'll just skip that crap and go on to life now. :)

Harvard is pretty much awesome, as expected. Class is super interesting; I'm taking Intro to Psych and Law and Psych. My Intro to Psych professor is totally awesome, and very funny - he started our first class by telling us we were taking Natural Science. Everyone started to get up and leave until he told us we'd just been psyched. (Okay, I just noticed about "psyched" and "psychology". Just sayin'.) He's totally hilarious and swears a lot, lol. My Law and Psych professors is also really funny; he is the cutest old man ever. Plus, I get to learn about serial killers and the insanity defense and stuff.

Harvard, in itself, is beautiful. During the summer, when it's all green, Harvard Yard is just gorgeous, and you can always find people studying, reading or picnicking outside. One of my other favorite buildings is Widener Library - it contains fifty-seven miles of books. That's about 92 kilometers! I went down there, and it was actually kind of creepy, since the lights are run by motion sensors. Annenberg Dining Hall, where we eat, looks like a cathedral; there's stained glass windows, statues and an extremely high ceiling.

Speaking of which, the college food is way better than our school food. Harvard is actually not known for good food, yet, I think their food is pretty good. On Wednesday night, I had a fluffernutter for dinner. That's a peanut butter and marshmallow fluff sandwich, which I just found out is Massachusetts' official state sandwich. Just today, I had waffles with the Harvard shield on it for brunch and a make-your-own sundae (moose-tracks and German chocolate cake ice cream, hot fudge and butterscotch syrups, rainbow jimmies and m&m's) for dessert after dinner. FYI, moose-tracks ice cream is amazing; it's vanilla ice cream with peanut butter cups and fudge.

Even with all that awesome stuff, I really miss home.

I miss having an immaculately clean home to live in.
I miss having real, Chinese food.
I miss being able to realize when I am full and when I'm not.
I miss being able to walk alone on the streets and not feel scared.
I miss going to yoga on the weekends.
I miss air conditioning.

Most of all, I miss my friends.

You know me, guys. I'm not great at making friends. When I first came to the school, it took me...what, six months to make friends? I only have seven weeks in total here. It's been rough, considering my being socially awkward. I've been able to make some friends though, which is good, but not as many as I'd like. It's especially bad because I can't remember people's names very well. So, here are some people I remember:

1. Girl Who Helped Me With Luggage: met her on the bus on the way to the dorms. She's pretty bossy.

2. Indian Girl & Her Roommate: met at breakfast/lunch/can't remember when, but I know it was at Annenberg. We don't really talk anymore.

3. Sophie: met her randomly when we were both trying to find the same place on Opening Weekend.

4. Jianwen: sat down at Annenberg with her for lunch randomly (yeah, I'm a creeper). Really quiet and shy; couldn't hear what she was saying half of the time.

5. Hannah: my roommate. :) She's pretty cool. And Jewish.

6. Donald: met him at some college application essay workshop. He talks way too much.

7. Alice Wang: met her during the Yale trip. She's pretty cool, 'cept a bit strange, lol.

8. Alice Wang: same name, different girl. She's good friends with the other Alice Wang. In fact, I met her through the other Alice Wang. I like her too, she's pretty awesome.

9. Friends of the Alices: there were three of them. But I can't remember their names.

10. Kelsey & her roommate: met during the ice cream social. She's nice, but I haven't talked to her since. Same for her roommate.

11. Christina: can't remember when I met her, but she's nice.

12. Katie & Taylor: girls from Cali who are living in the same dorm area. Don't really talk to them, they're very typically Cali.

13. Ping: girl from Lowell who I know somehow. Can't remember how exactly.

14. Guy I Met At The Club: he was really nice, got me a drink and stuff.

15. Dude From The Street & The Officer: not from SSP. They were outside IHOP when I was wandering outside at 12 AM alone.

16. Creepy Jap Dude From 7-11: yeah, that's weird.

17. Forrest/Forest: sat down randomly with him during dinner. He's pretty awesome, and I totally regret not taking down his contact info. :(

I know I'm awful with remembering people I've met. A lot of the time, I know the person's face and all that we've talked about, but can't remember their name and that's it. My method of meeting new people is this: go into Annenberg, see if there's anyone eating by themselves (or maybe with just one other person), go sit down with them and talk. So far, I've met most of the people this way.

In particular, I remember Forrest because we just met at dinner today. I told myself to go into Annenberg and find someone who is: a. a guy and b. not Asian and go be friends with him. (Only because most of the people I've met have been Asian girls.) He was pretty awesome and we talked for like, an hour and half over dinner. And then I didn't take down contact details. Ugh. That sucks, because he's a commuting student, doesn't normally take meals in Annenberg and so, yeah. I don't know if I'll ever find him again. Plus, he was really cute. ;)

Anyway, I really should be getting back to my Psych homework. There's quite a lot to do in college. I didn't even write down everything that I wanted to, but I'll do that some other time.

I can't believe year eleven is (almost) over.

This year seemed to go by so fast, even faster than last year, though I didn't think it was possible. Mostly, I'm so excited for the graduation dinner tonight! I haven't started getting ready yet, but I will soon; three hours is about right.

The year eleven graduation ceremony was nice - short but sweet. I absolutely loved Joyce's speech! Especially the part about Lady Gaga fanatics. *cough*CHI YEUNG*cough*. What was really weird was that my ankle started hurting even though I hadn't done anything to it. I mean, I'm just sitting down, and the next moment I get up and try to walk, it's all strange and hurting, so I ended up kind of hobbling for the rest of the night.

So, I skipped school today to get it checked out. Turns out it's ligamentitis, which basically just means one of the ligaments in my feet is inflamed and slightly swollen. So not good the day before my flight, but it's already better.

Tonight's my last night in Hong Kong, and I'm so glad that I won't be missing the graduation dinner! I'll see you all in August. :) Promise me you'll hang out with me the two weeks before IB Diploma starts and we start dying slowly and painfully. LOL, internal brain damage.