monotony is the key to happiness

today is the first day of "summer" since i've gotten back from europe. "summer" is waking up at 7:30, watching tv, going on the computer, eating a tomato the way a person would eat an apple, not looking at my cell phone all day. it's what i enjoy the most. there's no drama, no confusion, no excitement; it's just tranquility. i usually fall into this kind of habit a few weeks into the holiday, after the initial joy of being free from school and homework wears off. it's blended in with a mixture of parties, trips, and the occational summer camp. but now, with only one week left before school starts, my summer days are filled with homework. the results of procrastination are finally hitting me. it really does suck.

i wish summer never ended.

home equals heart.

it really is true. i've never been happier to be home. three weeks is too long of a trip. it makes me miss home. it doesnt matter how fun the trip was, or even how many great friends i made, my room, my bed, my piano, my phone, & my friends back home matter more to me.

i went to bed at 7:30pm last night; in england, that would be 12:30am. it's 9:22 right now, and i'm trying to get over my jet lag. home food helps. so do kinder chocolate bars.

i got a haircut today, and i think it looks okay. i tend to dread haircuts because they always cut my hair too short. i get really attached to my hair when it gets long. ben didn't really freak out about his hair this time either. shocking, really. after living in the same room with my brother for nearly a month, i've learned a lot more about him. for instance, his favorite color is orange. he wants to own 2 dogs and live in a small house or apartment when he gets older. & he REALLY loves babies and animals. a couple days ago, my brother & i just sat in front of a fountain in paris and watched pigeons, ducks, & seagulls for an entire hour.

i really want to meet up with truc so i can tell her about my trip. actually, anyone for that matter. calling someone isnt just the same.

europe is so different from america. i kind of miss it. & i kind of don't.

pictures will be on facebook soon (:

two a day.

post number two today.

i have never appreciated owning a bike so much as i do now. europe is full of walking. theres the occasional tour bus, but honestly, who has enough money to go on tours every day? theres even a lane for bikes on the street. renting a bike is also an option, since not that many tourists can afford to have their bike shipped to paris. they come with flashing lights and lovely reflective tape so airplanes can spot you from the sky.
i saw a smartcar today, except it wasnt the normal kind. this own looked like a sports convertable; it was low to the ground and was actually smaller than the typical smartcar you see in the streets. my moms Sienna could probably run over it.

im heading home tomorrow; ive been away for so long that its hard to remember what living normally is like. everything was done for you on the cruise. my friends and i left an empty plate in a corner on the staircase. five minutes later when we came back, it was gone. getting proffesional photos was fun. being crazy. adults walked by shaking their heads while muttering "teenagers..." home will be a drastic change from the past 3 weeks.

fish out of water.

on the last night of the cruise, i cried.
it's not the same as the last day of school, or even graduation. its the fact that ill never see these people again in my life. sometimes, friendship just isnt enough. i didnt fully realize that until michael said "i hope you have a good life," and truly meant it. it wasnt the normal "see you later" or even the carefree "bye," it was different.
even my new american friends cant really visit. LA is a long way from home. pennsylvania is too. goodbyes are always hard.

i miss them already.

i also miss my VA friends. i just read all of sabrinas & trucks posts. ill go look at other peoples blogs after this.

day three in paris was exciting. we went to versailles & i asked my brother what was his favorite part of the trip. he replied with "food." i know he really meant it too. after several hours of trudging through ancient artwork, we had gelato. in paris. it turns out that parsian gelato tastes better than the one we got in rome & in florence.

when i get back home, i seriously need to exercise. and not eat.
ill have to buy another airplane seat so that ill fit on the plane.
i was rolled off the boat since i was too fat to walk.
seriously, one of my greatest fears is that ill come back to school and have people think "wow. i think ivy gained a lot of weight this summer." my brother and my mom tease me about it, but it does affect me. its really superficial, but i have nightmares about it.

naps.

We were I'm gibraltar earlier today. Monkeys hopped on cars. Its an island that's a part of the uk. Apes are everywhere. One tried to hop on ben.

I'm in my room now because I don't really feel like doing anything. Tired. And only a few people are on the pool deck. The island's still filled with cruise people... Which means that most of my friends are in caves, shopping, or being molested by baby monkeys.

I'm actually kinda pissed off at a certain person right now. I hate it so much when someone just acts like they're drunk. Honestly, they're not fooling anyone. This boat probably has more drama in two weeks than tj does in a year. Its all about getting off with certain people, drinking, enemies, and friends. Ill actually miss it all when I get back home. Its like high school, except everything is sped up 10 times faster: friends, fights, flings.

I really need to send off my postcards.

i'm (almost) on a boat.

Five minutes into the bus ride and I'm already bored out of my mind. its the strangest bus I've ever been on. Seatbelts are required. Bright blue curtains line the windows. There's a safety card in the seat pocket in front of me. An orange and white satellite receiver is spinning on the buikding next to me.I bet that it's calling aliens down to earth. At least it looks like it. the glowing seatbelt sign is on. My brother calls this the "ground plane." He's completely right for once.

Yesterday I went on a full day tour of london. Waking up so early was quite the experience. The tour bus was nice, but I wanted to go on the doubledecker. That's okay though. I had tons of fun. We visited big ben, the london eye, st pauls cathedral, and many other places. I also went on the river cruise and saw the pedestrian bridge from hp6. I would post up a picture except my dads blackberry can't really connect to the camera.the eye was my favorite though. Its like a huge ferris wheel where you get to stand in this giabt glass room. The view was spectacular. Again, I'm really dad that I can't post pictures.
The people here are really nice too. I met this austrailian lady when we ate at the pub. And there was this really cute spanish kid who drank a lot of beer. The tour guide was super funny too. Ny parents had some trouble understanding him though.his attempt at an american accent was... Sad. Anyways, I still have 1 more hour on this bus. I've sent out only two postcards so far. Everythings so expensive.I had a bottle of water with my dinner yesterday. Apparently, water is around $8. Crazytalk. I had fishcakes and nearly all of my moms pina colada last night. It was... An experience.

I now know all of the words to "I'm on a boat" and "down"

woah.

So I just got to the hotel room in london after eating at mcdonalds. Everything's so different here. Even the mcdonalds. Its actually really cool. Its a million times cleaner. And really green (literally). the food is different too. And its a lot quieter and stuff but maybe that's because I went at like 22:00.
What's really funny is that my dad can't understand what these people are saying. Especially wheb they talk fast. It reminds me of when I watched skins yesterday and they had subtitles for some scenes. Hilarious.
British commercials are funnay

I'm really glad kyles okay ;)

if i could be anywhere.

wow. two posts in one day. & i still need to finish packing for europe.
i've gotten all of the addresses i need for postcards. actually not all, but i don't feel like sending out a million of them. with my luck, the postcards i send will end up in canada or iceland. i think it's the thought that really counts.
screw packing. i'm going to watch skins on bbcamerica. i've seen so many trailers for that and it looks pretty interesting. my mom's going to kill me for not packing.
i dont care; i'm too excited for tomorrow. i'm so freaking hyper right now, it's not even funny. i even put up tom felton's song & i'm on a boat because they somewhat relate to my trip.
i can't call anyone for 3 weeks. that's 21 days. 504 hours.
but that's still okay. i'm freaking out about tomorrow. i wish truck could get out of viet school soon so i can be like sdjgklsdj;l to her. maybe i'll call richie or ankit or something.
whatevers. i have to go pack & download music & stuff now before my mom gets home. the end.

pessimistic outlooks.

airplanes make me nervous. it feels extremely unnatural to be so high above ground. i've been on so many flights now, yet i can never shake the anxious feeling i get on a plane. i tend to over-analyze and think too much. if the plane suddenly stops working, everyone's going to die even if you're above water. the impact of the ocean from such a high altitude is the same as falling onto a slab of concrete. it's why so many people die from jumping off the golden gate bridge. the same thing won't happen if you're in a train, car, or boat. if any of those stop functioning, there's still a likely chance of survival. i'm a paranoid person by nature.

i hate smell of airplanes. how many sick people have breathed that same air that's being recycled through the over-active air conditioning of the person next to you? for that reason, i never try to turn it on; it's always cold enough anyways. having cold air blasted at your face makes the smell even worse. instead of being the faint smell of sweat and coffee blended together in an unharmonious scent, it feels as if you're standing next to your brother who had just run a mile in 50 seconds drinking 5 day old coffee. what makes this even worse is if the person next to you is extremely overweight and is eating mcdonalds or some other deliciously aromatic food. first of all, that person is not only taking up his own seat, but he's also starting to spread right over to your own personal space. plane seats are small enough, thank you very much. then, soon after his body mass is infringing on your seat, the smell hits you. now it smells like sweat, moldy coffee, & food containing a disturbingly high amount of trans-fat. i know this from experience.

i'm probably going to call truck to whine about this some more even though i already did with saab. i'm glad my friends can put up with me & all of my complaints. i'm leaving tomorrow morning for heathrow airport. by the time i get there, it's gonna be night.

harrypotter: take 2.

Yesterday, i went to tysons with sabrina & bought new sunglasses to replace the old pair that i had lost. my new pair has the same frame shape as my old one, but my attachment to my old pair hasn't worn off yet & i still miss them. i still have to decide whether or not i like my new ones, yet i can't bring myself to regret any of my purchaces.
i also did a good deed. when the cashier handed me my change, she gave me an extra five dollars. i noticed it and handed it right back to her. i feel like a good person.

after shopping, we went to see harry potter for the second time. this time, i missed the where the wild things are commercial & the part where the girl floats up into the air and screams. thank god. seeing harry potter 6 again made me think of a few things:

• i get scared easily. the first time i saw the movie, both truc & i screamed at the cave scene when harry tries to get some water out of the lake. this time, i told myself i wasn't going to do that again, yet that proved to be futile. i screamed...again. (this time it wasn't as loud though)


• my annoyance at hagrid has escalated to a whole new level. i have a great dislike for that character, but i didn't know why until yesterday. i figured that it's because he's too emotional & exuberant. he's loud, hairy, dumb, & he never really thinks before he acts. he's the personification of stupid. i'm not saying that i dislike people who are emotional or loud; it's just the combination of all of these factors that truly disturbs me.


• tom felton is amazing. no more words are necessary.

today, tomorrow, & friday.

"today is a good day." i used to say that phrase a lot to a certain someone. he'd always reply "don't you ever have a bad day?" i never did when i was with him, and he definitely knew that. it's strange how when i think back on it, i can't remember anything but those moments; our conversions are lost from my memory. did we ever have normal conversations? i can't say that i miss him, but i do miss the feeling of someone making my day a good day. but that's all in the past now.

today is a good day because i get to go to qdoba, a place just like chipotle, only much cheaper. i'll go there with sabrina, eric, tim, earl, & kevin at 2 since it's half price for students.

tomorrow will be an amazing day. i just know it. sabrina & i are going to see hp6 again, and i'll go buy some sunglasses. i've lost two pairs this summer: one michael kors & another F21. honestly, i could care less about the designer ones; the F21's were my favorite. even though i already own 3 pairs, i'll go buy some more tomorrow. the price tag doesn't matter, as long as they resemble my old pair of sunglasses. shopping makes me happy.

friday will be a whole lot better & significantly worse. i'll be without my phone for 3 weeks, something i can't recall ever happening to me. i'll be on a plane for 9 hours, breathing recycled air and drinking copious amounts of Sprite. on the bright side, after those 9 hours, i'll be at the London Heathrow airport. apparently, it's the third busiest airport in the world, ranked under Atlanta & Bejing. i've never been outside of North America, so this will be a first.