little secrets

while wandering the interwebs today, i discovered this lovely website:

http://urlai.com/Default.aspx (who are you)

which helps to determine what kind of blog writer you are. you basically put in the name of your blog, and it will analyze old posts and provide several results based off of the content of your posts. so naturally, i gave it a shot, and this is what i discovered..

Text Analysis

whodamanwerd.blogspot.com is probably written by a female somewhere between 18-25 years old. The writing style is personal and happy most of the time.

Gender

Age

Mood

Tonality

The analysis is based upon 20 posts that has enough English words.

the age, mood, and tonality are quite accurate. but personally, i think the only reason why the website thinks i'm a female writer is because of my justin bieber post.

contact juggling

it's always the little things in life that bring smiles to my face.. and every day seems to be just full of them :)



(he's good at handling balls.. har har har)

epic road trip

the day i graduate from college, i will pack all my things into my car and drive far, far away from campus.

not to my house.
not to the other side of the state.
no.

i will embark on an epic road trip.

do i have any takers?

wii sports?

mario kart wii has officially become a competitive sport.


last week, i proposed a nice challenge to charles, since we pretty much always play mario kart whenever he's at my house. to make things more interesting, we added a little bit of extra motivation..

quarters.

the rules
- each race will be a dual match, including 10 computers (12 total)
- each place difference will result in a winning of 25 cents (or another amount by agreement of both competitors)
- the difference in places between the winner and the loser will be multiplied to the cost of each place
- the challenge ends only by agreement of each competitor

now admittedly, charles is better than i am. i lose the majority of the time. i pretty much always get second. which means i should never manage a football team because i never get my quarter back. (see what i did there?)

but here i am, 5 dollars down in mario kart losses, still standing strong. one day, those 5 dollars will be mine again..

(603):
Its meant to be. the first song on the radio was enrique

(781):
haha i like it.

bieberiffic

lebron, while making his announcement last night:

"I never wanted to leave Cleveland."
"It was a tough decision because I know how loyal I am."

somehow, these quotes seem very contradictory to his ultimate decision. i guess all athletes want these days is a couple more million dollars to spend on late night partying up in south beach.

but here's a little humor to add to the drama:

maybe you should just stick to the music industry.

best name ever?

with the fifty-first pick in the 2010 NBA draft, the oklahoma city thunder select..

magnum rolle, from louisiana tech university.

i don't think a nickname is necessary for this one.

like it's her birthday

yesterday, i officially turned 20 and a half years old. it's a magical milestone... makes me feel like i'm so old in this day and age. because we all know how much half a year makes in one person's life.

the bamboozle roadshow made its way to the comcast center in mansfield yesterday, and it just so happened to be the last show of the tour! so you could imagine all the bands were incredibly exhausted, which means they'll probably give it their all for an amazing concert. and it turned out to be exactly that.

the main stage showed forever the sickest kids, good charlotte, simple plan, third eye blind, LMFAO, all time low, and boys like girls. i went to the concert with jess, and we ran into alana's sister somewhere in the crowd. needless to say the stadium was pretty packed, and although the seats didn't get filled there was always a mob of people dancing to every song. it was one hell of a concert, i don't think i've ever had the chance to listen to live music for like 6 hours straight..

what surprised me the most was how good every band sounded live. all time low and good charlotte might have been my favorite shows... and yes, i know. i said good charlotte. they played all the old classic songs and even showed off a new song they're gonna release in the fall, and i have to say i am waiting for the song to come out. because it's catchy.


it's always concerts like these that make me appreciate music as a whole. bands from all sorts of genres coming together to form one group, whose purpose is simply to pour their hearts out into their words and melodies, no matter what the sounds are like. makes me believe that anyone in the world is capable of producing something that will affect at least one person's life, whether it is through song or some other form of demonstration of their emotions.

still got it

almost one year since i last played guitar hero 3.. picked it up today for kicks and managed to still beat through the fire and flames!

but now my wrist hurts.

/insert joke about using your wrist for other things. ha, real original.

this too shall pass

sleep hasn't been coming easy these days.

ever since sunday night, i've been struggling to fall asleep at a reasonable hour. or at least, at the hour i'd like to be sleeping at. i don't know what it is.. i'm always tired throughout the day, and i don't have anything to do at night. so what better way to spend my time than to be healthy and hit the sack a little early?

i just feel restless whenever i'm trying to pass out. it's not like i'm thinking about anything, honestly my brain is too tired to even begin to process any type of information. and i just lay there under my blankets, eyes closed. but the rest of my body tells me it's not ready to slip out of consciousness.

i feel like the real reason why i bring this up is because i've been feeling constantly tired and sluggish during the day. i got a solid 7 hours of sleep last night, but still felt terrible when i woke up this morning. we had a short intern conference meeting at 9, and i couldn't even keep myself awake. it's starting to make me wonder if there's anything actually wrong with my body.. three days of this pattern is starting to make me worry a little bit.

i'm going to blame it on the fact that the celtics absolutely bombed last night. unacceptable.

world's largest...

coming june 17th!

keep posted :)

at least i'm getting paid..

the first time for anything is always scary.

that first day of college, being forced to mingle with people who may end up being your greatest enemies or your best friends and being thrown in an unfamiliar location, leaving you lost and overwhelmed. that first kiss, being afraid that you would miss and make a fool out of yourself or that it wouldn't be returned. that first flight overseas, feeling the uncomfortable pressure in your ears and freaking out at the unstable airplane as it takes off and jets towards the sky.

the first day of work is no different, especially when you are dropped off in an empty cubicle with no access to any of the equipment and no boss available to go to for help :(

i started working at my internship yesterday, bright and early at 8:30 in the morning. after the typical orientation and sitting around waiting for paperwork to be filed, i was picked up by a member of the mechanical engineering department in the lobby for assignment. she brought me across the facility and plopped me down in a cubicle, which was bare with the exception of a monstrous monitor plugged into a small PC.

but because i could not log in to my computer, i was left with no work to do. my boss showed up briefly, gave me a description of what i was here to do, and then left for meetings that would take up the entire day. by this point it was only around 10:30, so i decided to kill time and explore the premesis. i proceeded to do so until lunch at noon, and then once that was over i walked around some more and almost got lost on the way back to my cubicle.

this sounds like a nice start to my summer job.

ice ice baby

ever been iced?

http://www.brosicingbros.com/

as ridiculous as this is, i find it to be quite awesome. seems like it's the new craze in this day and age, and as with "the game" it's only good if people you play with also know about it. so why not spread the word?

it's hilarious when it happens to everyone else. but it's just downright humiliating for it to happen to you. so you better keep your eyes open the next time you're out with friends. and with that.. happy icing!

oh and by the way, i just lost the game.

all the weight on your shoulders

i've always wondered why people enjoy backpacking as much as they do. the idea of packing an entire month's supply of clothes and necessities into a large bag that you have to strap to your back for days at a time never really appealed to me... i mean, i like being adventurous, but every now and then i would like to settle down in a nice bed and feel fresh, clean, and relaxed. on the other hand, i suppose backpacking is great because you'd get super jacked legs and you would get to experience so much in your travels. who knows, i don't own one of those backpacks anyway.

last weekend, i took a camping trip with nick, emily, and jess to mount morgan and percival up somewhere in NH. we were staying for only one night, but we were living up at the top of the mountain. which means we had to backpack. tents, equipment, food, clothes... all there.

i must say it was quite the experience though. i just don't see how people do it so much. those backpacks are monstrous, i can't even begin to count how many times it got caught in tree branches and almost knocked me over... and i was absolutely wrecked from the two mile hike up and down the mountain. but the result was totally worth it, the view from the top of the mountain is amazing.

view of new hampshire... incredible.

hanging out on the summit!

camping really is intense.

blog keeping fail

alright.

so it's been about two weeks since my return from namibia (woohoo!), and honestly life back in the states has taken me a bit of time to get used to. not to say that i'd rather be in once place or another, but it's quite apparent that the culture back here is... different. maybe it's just the abundance of things we like to take for granted in our every day lives. like how easy it is to find coffee because there's a dunkin donuts on every single block of every single road. things like that make me realize i'm not in africa anymore. sad.

but i wanted to make a post today because i realized i had not quite updated the rest of my journey in namibia. as you can see in my past entries, i left my adventures a couple weeks behind of what i actually did while i was down there. and if you've been following my blog, you'll know that i have kept my entire blog on a separate text document that i would like to call my second diary.

today, i accidentally deleted this said document. i was cleaning out my files on my computer and didn't realize i had misplaced my text file in another folder...

gone are my memories of namibia, at least the last two or three weeks of my time there.

but i can't say that. all the memories i've made are stuck in my head.

hopefully i'll be able to recall enough to finish writing the rest of my blog. check back for updates to come! i'll be throwing in some pictures in previous posts too!

post date:
tuesday, april 27th - 2:13 PM

current weather:
73 degrees, sunny

here's another small update of what's been going on in namibia. it's definitely been a lot more work and a lot less play as of late, especially all of last week. since last monday we've been collecting surveys at the museum on our touch screens to see what kind of feedback we are getting. so far it's pretty positive, but we also only get about 8 surveys done on average per day...

tuesday, april 13th
- lunch break at in's weiner cafe shop, tried creme soda for the first time, which i did not realize was green.

wednesday, april 14th
- went to cardboard box at night, no clue what we were celebrating but me and dan got 24 shots of jager... it was a good time to say the least.

thursday, april 15th
- jenna's group (NTB) leaves for swakopmund for the weekend.
- got my ice cream sundae (3 of 15) at milky lane! brownie fudge.
- tried to make buffalo chicken wraps without wraps or hot sauce. still turned out okay.
- poker tournament at night, knocked out in 10th when 99 lost to 44. love it when that happens.

friday, april 16th
- dan's group left for maltahohe!
- went out to mugg and bean for lunch with group. amazing food.
- had weekly meeting at poly and all DRFN groups decided to return early, which was nice. makes me jealous that they get to travel so much.
- weekend poker tournament, round 1. me and john survive with one buyback.

saturday, april 17th
- debated going to cake and coffee at the bistro in the morning, but then decided not to go. they didn't have it anyway.
- weekend poker tournamnet, round 2 in the afternoon. made it to 14th place, incredibly frustrating.
- another trip to the box at night with everyone who came back.

sunday, april 18th
- rediscovered mario golf!
- tried making buffalo chicken wraps again, turned out a little better this time.
- went to box again after dinner, didn't stay long though cause it was sunday.

monday, april 19th
- failure of internet. volcano eruption in iceland kills internet in namibia.
- failure of virus. i open mysterious file on my flash drive only to watch my computer malfunction bad. i can't access any of my files.
- failure of getting computer to owela museum. almost walked 15 minutes down a busy street carrying a computer and a monitor but thankfully we got someone to drive us over.
- slumber party at night!

the rest of the week consisted of conducting surveys at work, trying to fix my computer when we got home, eating dinner, and then sleeping. we went out to a braai in katatura on wednesday, i got knocked out early in poker tournament on thursday (AK vs AA, i was screwed to begin with), and then went out to mugg and bean for breakfast on friday.

the end of the term is coming fast... we've been working quite hard on our paper and presentation to prepare for our project to be done. home stretch.

it's too late to apologize...

post date:
tuesday, april 13th - 2:11 PM

current weather:
81 degrees, sunny

wow guys. okay. i'm a terrible person for not keeping this up to date.

since it's been a really really long time since i've actually updated, i'm just going to keep you up to the notable things that we have been doing these past few weeks. i'm sorry for being so lazy on this, there hasn't been anything too exciting going on lately, really. except for our weekend excursions :)

monday, march 29th
- invited to dinner at nice by the US embassy, met and talked to a lot of government workers and local business people.
- went out to cardboard box at night, had a good time.

tuesday, march 30th
- finally finished reading angels and demons.
- went out to sardinas pizzeria for dinner. absolutely amazing single-serving pizzas with thin crusts. tried castle lager for the first time.

wednesday, march 31st
- went to milky lane ice cream for brunch and an after-work snack. ordered an ice cream waffle... twice. yum.
- took out money in the ATM on my transmission account? didn't know i had an account for that, but i got money anyway.

thursday, april 1st
- dan comes home from maltahohe!
- stopped by bookstore in the morning, debated buying a south africa version of monopoly. costs around $N300.
- wrapped up traditional music display at work, all finished with programming and designing outlines.
- wrote an april fool's post and posted it on my blog.
- bought a cardinals jersey on the way back from work, cost $N350 but it's pujols so i don't care.
- went to chinese restaurant at the country club with a large-ish group of people. got 9th out of 19 in our poker tournament.

friday, april 2nd to monday, april 5th
- weekend trip to etosha national park!

our trip to etosha was tons of fun. we left puccini at around 7 on friday morning and boarded/packed the bus. we literally took up every square inch of the bus - it had a capacity of 28 and we had 29 people, including the driver. combining that with all of our small suitcases was like playing tetris with bags and bodies. needless to say, it was a pretty interesting ride over. quite comparable to our 30 hour trek down to florida... and back. we made a few stops along the way to gas up and buy groceries, most of which was juice and meat. and some chocolate cake. but during our shopping spree we found this huge plastic bag (1kg!) of large fruity loop things. it stood about three feet tall and looked quite intimidating. so we bought it and vowed to eat the entire bag before we left the park. talk about a sugar rush.

for the rest of the trip me, heidi, and dan passed our chocolate cake around as a dessert. it didn't take long before the entire cake was gone, once everyone else who was sleeping decided they also wanted to try a piece... it was still incredibly delicious. after a bit more driving we finally entered the park at around 3 in the afternoon. our campsite, however, was a bit further into the park so we didn't actually unload until around 5, when the sun was starting to set. thankfully we weren’t late because the campsite opens and closes according to the sunrise and sunset, they don't want guests and visitors disturbing the animals once it's dark out. we also wouldn't want to accidentally run any poor animals over in the dark :(

the campsite was really nice, it definitely surpassed my expectations. it had a convenience store, pool, restaurant, and relatively nice facilities in general for a campsite. it makes sense because it's quite the toursity area. but the ground was also all dirt, sand, and rocks, with no grass at all. we slept in a 4-person tent that fit 4 guys perfectly without much room for anything else haha. if you wanna look up our campsite, it’s called halali camp. i'd definitely recommend it as a place to stay if any of you ever plan on taking a trip to africa.

me, dan, and ally decided to hop in the pool once we finished setting up the tents and unpacking, but after only about 2 minutes we started talking to this girl sitting in one of those poolside lounge chairs. that girl then asked us if we were from the US and asked us a bunch of questions... apparently she was from minnesota and doing a research project on tourism accommodations, so we basically got interviewed while wading in a pool. now i know what it feels like to be on the other side of an IQP haha. we ended up having a massive cookout after pool time, our group of 8 made a bunch of homemade burgers and grilled cheese. mmm.

the next day (saturday) we woke up at 5 to start a fire and cook some eggs. since we didn't have any pots or pans we got kinda creative and made little boats out of tin foil to cook scrambled eggs. i'm surprised at how well they actually worked haha, i think after playing with fire those few days we all became masters of the grill. we boarded the bus at 6 but got stuck at the gate because the sun didn't actually rise until around 7. i think i passed out before we even went anywhere. but once the gate opened, we were off!

the next two days were pretty much spent on the bus, doing game drives from sunrise to sunset. we drove around the entire park, which is absolutely gigantic. i saw springbok, zebras, giraffes, impalas, vultures, kudu, wildebeest, everything. didn't see any rhinos or elephants on the first day though, but we did watch an elephant cross the road right in front of the bus. on the second night me and dan found a black rhino at night drinking from the watering hole back at our campsite. it was really late, and we were just sitting there chatting and watching two springbok wander around the lake, and then all of a sudden we see them running away because a black rhino was charging at them through the grass. oh man, it was really intense. and then the rhino walked towards us so we sang to it, but it got bored kinda quickly and walked away. the one time i forget to bring my camera... sigh.

we also got stuck in knee-deep mud during one of our travels haha. it had rained for a few hours and we were driving back in the afternoon to try to beat out the sunset, but then we just drove smack into a puddle that was much much deeper than it looked... the wheel was more than half submerged and the exhaust pipe was inches from the surface of the mud. all of us had to get out of the bus and help push, it took about half an hour of rocking the bus but we finally got it out. now that was one experience I’ll never forget. it followed with some brief mud wrestling afterwards.

on sunday night we celebrated easter and john's birthday by going to the restaurant. it honestly wasn't that great, a bunch of us ordered a kudu steak for dinner but when we got our plates we quickly realized that not everyone got kudu. heidi was convinced that her steak was actually a piece of pork that was burned enough to look like kudu. and it was a bit on the expensive side, but of course it is since it's a tourist area. later that night we brought out a cake and lit some candles, sang a song, and then devoured the cake in about 10 minutes.

on our way back from the park we stopped by a cheetah conservation. we took a tour of the entire area and visited the small museum. just watching all the trainers walk around with the cheetahs in the field and feed them... i would be kinda scared to be standing right next to a cheetah if it was wild but all of them seemed incredibly friendly towards visitors. granted they were also caged in by an electric fence, but no matter. i came really close to petting one haha, just stuck my hand through the fence but the cheetah walked away. then we took tons of silly pictures while waiting for the bus to leave.

finally we got back to puccini at around 6 at night, after we almost died twice on the drive back to the city. our bus was pretty beaten up and the breaks weren't working properly... we hit really heavy traffic at one point and almost ran into two cars. thankfully our driver was pretty damn good, he swerved off road and almost tipped the bus twice but i'm still sitting here writing this post so obviously i didn't die.

tuesday, april 6th
- woke up a little sick with a fever, minor headache, and some stomach pains.
- DRFN groups leave for their projects, won't be back for two weeks. only about half the crew remains :(
- went shopping at the mall after work, bought another stockpile of groceries.

wednesday, april 7th
- more sick, lots of resting.
- some people went to the cardboard box, i just stayed in and watched glory road.

thursday
- slept in a couple hours before going to work.
- stood out in the downpour for about half an hour with a measly umbrella while waiting for a taxi to the country club. needless to say, i got soaked.
- got 7th out of 24 in our poker tournament. made a stupid decision and folded KJ with a short stack... why?

friday
- went to cardboard box, played ratscrew until 1 in the morning.
- took a taxi to cheers, a small and local club. stayed until 4 in the morning.

saturday
- went shopping at the mall with a couple peeps. stores were closing early so we didn't stay long...
- got invited to a dinner buffet / dance party event at a nearby hotel. dressed up like a fool.

sunday
- tried to go to the public pool but failed. maybe next week.
- watched dude where's my car? realized it was the 90s version of the hangover.

monday
- made some delicious pizza! pizza crust with ground beef, homemade sauce, and lots of cheese.

wow, hope that all makes sense. i promise the next post will be some time before friday, and not as short-texted as this one was. wouldn't want to keep you guys from knowing what's going on over here :P

ending on a serious note

hey everyone,

there is something that i've been wanting to share with all of you for a long time now. i know this might seem like it is coming out of the blue, but i have been thinking about it a lot for the past couple of weeks, and even more since i arrived here in namibia.

i know i don't usually write much about swimming in my blog. but for those of you who are reading this and were not on the wpi team, i'd like to fill you in on what happened this year.

last summer, i dedicated a majority of my free time preparing for this year's long and strenuous season. i ended my sophomore year on a really high note, setting personal bests that i thought i would never achieve in all of my events and feeling like all my hard work throughout the year had paid off. knowing this, i faced the offseason with a strong desire to work even harder. i went to the gym every day for about 9 weeks and lifted with steve rose. i swam twice a week just to keep the feel of the water. and when i came in the beginning of this season, i felt stronger. faster. prepared. ready.

i was positive that all the work i had put into my offseason would greatly improve my season results. but as the meets wore on, i noticed that a lot of my times were the same as last year's in season times. nevertheless, i remained confident, repeatedly telling myself that the season is just a journey to our final destination, the NEWMAC championships. in season results are not a direct correlation of how fast one can swim when one is rested and tapered.

but as those of you who were on the team this year noticed, championships did not go according to plan. i didn't achieve a single best time throughout the year. i failed to make it back to finals in all of my events. and i saw the same disappointment in the eyes of my fellow teammates as well. there are many possible reasons as to why our team did not perform as well as we had anticipated, but i'm not here to point fingers at anything. i'm just writing this to say that as much as i didn't want to show it, i became incredibly frustrated at how all the time i spent in the pool didn't even come close to paying off at the end of the season. what hurt more was watching freshmen come in and go through the same process as all of us, and still drop incredible amounts of time. and i think the dagger to me was seeing nick and mason train for only one term and still manage to achieve times close to or better than their previous bests.

when i came to wpi, i didn't imagine i would make it through two years of swimming, and certainly not three. i was sick and tired of the double practices, the constant odor of chlorine, and the body aches. i wanted to live and be free, go out and explore things that i couldn't see because i had to go to practice instead. somehow i managed to change my attitude towards this, but now i think it was only temporary. my mind know that it would only be one more year of hard work, training, and dedication. but my heart tells me that my body is now longing for something else.

my reasons are all personal. i did not use the influence of anyone to make my decisions.

i think it's time to bring my career to an end.

as much as it hurts me to say it, i feel like this decision is long overdue. i have been frustrated for so many years in this sport, hitting a wall that i have not been able to break. there were so many times where i felt like i was not being rewarded with my efforts. the feeling of being let down and coming up short was one that i learned to accept and expect over the years. i understand it isn't always about the achievements in the pool that makes being on a swim team memorable. the past three years of my college swimming career have been great. i've made so many incredible friends, traveled all around new england, and even caught a small glimpse of greatness. but at the same time, i feel like i am making this decision for my well-being. i know there is the possibility that my senior year could very well be that year where i achieve that greatness, but not even giving it a chance is a sacrifice i'm willing to take. and that's simply because there is also a possibility that i might have one last year of frustration and end my career with even more regrets.

i think it's time to move on. it's time to experience college as a student, and not as an athlete.

thank you all for making this experience so valuable and memorable to me throughout my years. it was an incredibly tough decision on my part, but i promise i will still keep in touch with the team and support you all. there are so many things that i still have left to say, but i just don't have the words for them...

outside the rain's falling down...

post date:
monday, march 29th - 12:42 PM

current weather:
64 degrees, sprinkles

okay, okay. so i've been slacking off on updating my blog, i'm sorry. here it is.

while i was at work on thursday, me and john discovered another really nice casino online in the windhoek country club resort. we decided to check it out that night, because we heard they had poker tables available. and i really wanted to check out their golf course. so at around 7:30, we called a cab and drove right over to the resort.

when we arrived at the resort lobby, i was in awe. this hotel was at least a 4 star hotel with fancy waterfalls, fountains, and bright lights. i definitely felt underdressed with my t-shirt and jeans. but no matter, we found the casino and walked right in. i must say though, every time i've walked into a casino there is always a flock of chinese people crowding the roulette or blackjack tables. and they're always smoking and talking loud. so it's impossible for me to play those tables and walk away smelling clean.

we quickly discovered that the poker tables were reserved for a poker club, which we clearly were not a part of. however, the president of the club told us we could play in their tournaments, so hopefully we'll be able to play in one of those soon? should be fun.

me and john then decided to suck it up and play blackjack next to all the old people and smokers. i'd say it was a pretty good decision - i lost $N200 to start off with, but then i put in another $N200 and ended up walking away with $N1200 in my pocket, while john walked away with $N900. yesssss.

on friday, i lounged around the museum office and explored the building a little bit. since it is located on the top of a hill, the view from the balconies is gorgeous. just take a look for yourself!

and you thought africa was only desert.

i think this sign was trampled by elephants. adds to the scenery.

later that afternoon, we found this strange box with a lock on it in the corner of our office. it looked like a freezer, so we decided to take a peek inside...

sketchy looking metal box?

just a plastic bag inside.

oh wait, that's a frozen snake.

betcha you weren't imagining that, were you? haha. but that's as exciting as my day got, i'm pretty sure i just slept the rest of the night away. awesome. but at least i'm getting my recommended hours of sleep in?

okay, so i'll admit this. i like to shop. i like shopping. okay? i've said it. on saturday morning, a small group of people decided they wanted to head to the mall and plaza and pick up a few trinkets and things like that. i woke up to find out that they had already left... and i woke up at like 8:30! how early do i need to get up to go shopping these days :(

so instead i decided to go wander the city a little bit. all the stores close at 1 on a saturday, so i really didn't have much time to do anything once i decided to get off my lazy butt. we hiked up some hills but still stayed in the main city. i showed some people where my office was. they felt really bad for me. they said the hike up there is miserable. so i guess every morning for me is miserable.

at night, our entire group went out to dinner at a nice restaurant called... nice. or better known as the namibian institute of culinary education. i tried out springbok for the first time, it was very tough meat but still delicious nonetheless. i really wish we had this type of meat back in the states :(

big boys waiting for big boy food.

our guests, BP and chris.

springbok leg in cherry sauce.

so yeah, that was the story of my weekend. sunday was another lazy sunday, lots of reading in the sun and playing cards. i wish i could go and travel though some more though, it's just so hard to do things on your own because of all the safety precautions. and the fact that i don't know much about the good places to go visit in the country. and also because i don't have a car to travel around in... but technically i can drive ;)

lunch break! it's been another slow day at work...

malta-yahhh

post date:
thursday, march 25th - 4:15 PM

current weather:
81 degrees, mostly cloudy

so it begins. week number two of work. i feel like i've been here forever, i don't know why it's felt like we've been working for so much longer than that. i suppose this is what real life will be like once i get out of college. but i can only hope that the weather is as nice at home as it is here.

these past few days have been pretty productive days for our group. for our project, we are working on three separate displays in the owela display centre - traditional music, omahango / oshiwambo people, and etosha (national park). our plan was to create a small interactive true / false quiz that featured some information that was already displayed in the cases. we spent the entire day doing research and i decided to re-learn HTML for the actual quiz. janine and lily were able to get all the research and questions done, and i got about half of the actual quiz coded and programmed. that put us wayyy ahead of schedule, so i'm pretty pumped about that. if all goes well we'll be mostly finished with the bulk of our project by next week. i hope it all goes according to plan :)

on tuesday night, chris (one of the namibians) came over and brought his poker set for a casual game of poker. we played for about two hours, mostly chatting and just getting to know more about life in namibia. they're very similar to us, and they absolutely love people from other countries. that's something i still have to get used to - being called an international student. it's weird.

yesterday was quite the interesting day. the maltahöhe group (dan, meghan, and ally) came to work with us so they could tour a little bit on the nama people exhibit, which is what they are doing their project on. while they wandered the museum, i did some wandering of my own. i realized i needed to use the bathroom, and i never knew where it was. so i explored.

when i finally found the bathroom, i felt like i opened a door to an underground dungeon cell. the walls were pale and rusted, and all of the porcelain was dirty. i also couldn't help but notice how interesting the urinals were (sorry if i'm touching on a sensitive subject to some people but i think it's funny!). they are about half the size of urinals back home, and they were mounted so freaking high on the wall. to give you an idea, the bottom of the urinal comes up to my hip. definitely not kid friendly. the flushing system was also very unique - instead of a lever or a button, they had a knob which worked just like a sink. manually turn the knob to unleash as much water as you'd like to clean off the urinal. interesting.

i forgot to mention that in the corner of the bathroom, there was a shower stall with no curtain. now i wonder who would want to use one of those. sketchhh.

on the way back from work, i started paying a little more attention to all the buildings and noticed that most houses had electric fences on them. i guess people here are really protective of their stuff, or the crime rate here really is bad as they say it is. even our bed and breakfast has a huge electric fence, i'm always tempted to touch it to see if it actually works, haha. even if it did i'm sure it wouldn't kill me...

so at night, everyone decided to go back to the box but for some reason i just felt like staying in. after more chilling and mostly doing nothing, i was washing my dishes from dinner when i suddenly needed to go to the bathroom. i walked outside and decided to cut under the umbrella that covered one of the outdoor tables. little did i know that i was about 4 inches too tall. and did i mention the umbrella was made out of thick and rugged tree branches? and to make it better, it was pitch black outside. needless to say, i now have this interesting looking cut right above my left eye. i've never been more thankful for having glasses to wear.

as for work today, well... our main advisor left the country to visit south africa for about a week, so we've been sitting in the office and taking turns using the internet. i have the feeling that tomorrow will be the same. i did take a short lunch break at around 1 and met up with jenna cantwell and john, and i got to eat my first king pie meal. delicious. and i also found out that my computer is too advanced to support the touch screens that our museum provided. but it's already 15 minutes past 4, which means it's time to go! i'll figure it out tomorrow haha.

sweet dreams

post date:
monday, march 22nd - 4:56 PM

current weather:
90 degrees, sunny

man, it's quite difficult to keep up with updating a blog. i can never distinguish between days, and everything that happens feels like it happens all in one day. ah... i'm trying my best.

after coming back from work on friday we chilled in pool and sat outside and baked in the sun. every day is pretty much ideal for tanning, there's practically no clouds and the weather's always nice :) but i also decided that i wanted to start working out again. i got my workout email from matt and it was all dryland, since i don't really have any access to a gym or a pool. so then i tried to do a set, but i failed miserably and couldn't finish it. lots of abs and lots of pushups, man i'm getting out of shape kinda fast :(

that night we went back to the cardboard box, because nick (one of the wpi kids) met some other american students who were working in the same department as him and found out that all those kids would be at the box too. turns out that other group has 3 people from clark, that's so crazy. after some mingling i met jenna, who i believe is from new york? she told me about how she was on spring break, and then convinced me to go on a trip to swakopmund and the skeleton cove for the long weekend (since we have monday off from work) with nick and some other groupmates. i totally told them i was in, and they told me to meet them at the bus station at 6:30 the next morning. cool.

so i got back to puccini at around 1 am, packed my stuff in my bag, and then went to bed. i woke up at around 6:34 the next morning to a phone call asking where i was... turns out my alarm didn't go off and i obviously suck at waking up so put those two things together and you can figure out what happened. so yeah, i failed at going on vacation. i felt pretty bad for ditching, but i hope they had a good time without me haha.

but on the other hand, the rest of the wpi crew was already planning on taking a game ride through the okapuka safari, so i went with them instead. we took an hour and a half ride through this huge field on a range rover, and i saw all sorts of animals just chilling out in the wild. crocodiles, springboks, warthogs, vultures, rabbits, giraffes, rhinos, you name it! i saw a warthog from about 10 feet away, and then i watched a rhino eat some chocolate that our tour guide fed them. these animals are huge, it's crazy to see them face to face out in their natural habitat. i took a ton of pictures but my camera died about three quarters of the way through the trip, but hopefully i can upload them soon and show 'em to you guys!

view of the safari fields. amazing scenery.

by far my favorite african animal, the springbok :)

family of rhinos!

family of giraffes!

warthog.

i literally spent the rest of the day napping and making more pasta for dinner. really exciting, i know.

yesterday, march 21st, was namibia's independence day! they were celebrating their 20th anniversary of independence, and the town center was bustling with locals and foreigners alike. there were a few speeches and a long parade, i could hear all of it from where i was staying. after all the festivities we mostly just chilled all day in the shade and then went back out in the sun. i taught cribbage to brittany and dan, and then i learned how to play skat from meghan and jenna. cards are pretty much a staple of our survival here, i also broke out my set deck and we all took turns playing that. we also lounged by the pool and cut down some limes from a tree. we invited BP, a local namibian who we became friends with the night before, down to puccini to chill with us. he stayed for the whole day.

i also ran about 3 miles for the first time since i got here. it was awful, i got winded in about 10 minutes. but the altitude definitely has something to do with it, i'm sure i'll be a crazy runner when i get back to the states. watch out.

yesterday was also steve galucki's 21st birthday! we celebrated by throwing him a barbeque on the patio. we had a grand 'ol group bonding sesh, it was cute.

africans like their meat raw, so we decided to give it a shot.

john showing us the proper way to grill. no hands.

stuffed and happy after a hearty meal :)

birthday boy and his cake! i guess he's only 5 years old.

as for today, it's been a very lazy day. i don't think i have anything planned. guess we'll see...

pinch me

post date:
friday, march 19th - 12:00 PM

current weather:
73 degrees, sunny

so as you might have noticed, i've added this little 'post date' up top. this is because i write all my entries in a small word doc, and i upload them whenever the internet is nice to me. usually it ends up with me writing out my blog, and then not posting it until about 5 hours later. it's like a surprise, really.

today marks one full week since i've left the US for namibia! for some reason i really feel like i've been here much longer than that, i guess it didn't take long for me to get used to this culture. aside from the fact that i obviously don't fit in appearance-wise, i don't mind the area, and it slightly reminds me of being in both taiwan and costa rica. the only difference is that i can use english to communicate with people :)

after work yesterday, we walked through the mall again and had to pick up a few things from the grocery store. i wandered into an urban clothing store and saw that a bunch of sports jerseys were on sale! they had some lakers and nuggets jerseys, as well as a bunch of different soccer uniforms. i'm still debating whether or not i want to buy one - they're on sale for $N350, which is a little under $50. i think that's cheaper than the ones in the states? someone pleaseeee help me out on this.

we also encountered our first random stranger on the street! he was one of those street vendors and followed us for an entire block while carrying small keychains and talking his head off to try to get us to stop walking. slightly sketchy.

i've also started noticing that since people here drive on the left side of the road, they also like to walk on the left side. there have been so many times when i was walking on the sidewalk and then i look up and realize someone is walking right at me on the same side. i even got stopped once by a kid who told me to be on the other side. i didn't even notice how natural it was for us to walk on the right and pass on the left. it's little things like these that make me remember where i am, haha.

yesterday afternoon was really chill. me and janine visited the poly library so i could test out the wireless over there. the library is beautiful, i'd much rather be in there than the one at wpi. it's just very aesthetically pleasing, with large glass windows and what seemed to be brand new furniture. we stayed for an hour or so, enjoying the AC.

the evening was just the usual - cooking dinner, chilling outside, playing some cards. seems like nights just fly by, and i always find myself just sinking into a couch and getting bitten by mosquitoes. i have noticed that i've been taking fewer pictures though, so i should probably get on that.

as for today, i woke up at 8:30 to get to work by 9. we've been lounging around in the acre again, doing a little bit of research and killing time. my work really isn't exciting at all, i don't even know why i write about it in the first place. but yeah, that's where i'm stuck at right now.

i also just checked my bank statements today. counting the $100 i brought in cash to namibia, i've already spent $330 in one week. even though about a third of it is on groceries alone, i still think that's a lot of money to be throwing around, haha. whoops.

51 days and counting... i'm sure there'll be plenty more stories (and hopefully pictures) to come :)

how far we've come

post date:
thursday, march 18th - 9:50 PM

current weather:
88 degrees, sunny

i apologize ahead of time for these ridiculously long posts, but the past few days have been quite an experience. we've been staying in the city, but i don't think i've had to walk so much in the past two days. most of the city is also on a hill, so i feel like every walk is a hike up a mountain... haha.

on monday night me, john, becky, dan, and heidi went to the casino after dinner. it was at the kalahari sands hotel on independence ave, which we totally walked past because the entrance to the hotel was in a mall plaza. after about 20 minutes of searching, we got into the casino. it was a $N10 entrance fee, and we spent about an hour playing on the roulette tables. there wasn't any poker :( which is why we went there in the first place, but i made $N400 and john ended up making $N300 as well!

on tuesday morning, at around 8, we took a bus tour around the city in the morning. we drove to the area right outside of town and visited the informal settlements, where the (i don't like saying it this way but i don't really have any other way to) poor people live. their houses are pretty much shacks and made out of scrap metal, and the roads are all dirt and unpaved. it's almost shocking to see how close these settlements are from the city - i feel like it's almost like seeing two worlds right next to each other. it's unfortunate, really.

even people don't like living in places like these.

african spices and other delicacies at a local market

my house, come and visit me!

we also visited the habitat research and development centre, which was a government facility dedicated to reusing materials for sustainability. we saw some cool things - there were walls made out of soda cans and buildings made out tires. things like that make me wonder why people always waste materials when there are so many other alternative options out there.

our impromptu tour guide talking about the facilities

using different materials to construct a wall

later that morning our group walked up to the museum to visit our sponsor, anzel. she's quite young and very sweet, and she loves to talk haha. we pretty much talked about our proposal and our plans for the next few days, and then we took a short tour around the museum. it's not bad at all, i think it's a very comfortable place to work.

we stayed for about two hours, and then we just headed back to puccini. on the way through the mall we stopped by that ice cream place and got a cone for $N6.90. madd cheap. when we finally got back i just passed out on my bed for about 5 hours and woke up at 7... that night a group of us went to spur again for dinner and then me, john, and becky hit up the casino for round two. it didn't take long for me to lose the $N400 that i earned, so i guess i broke even. haha.

yesterday, we got to work at 9 and toured the acre, a separate building where all the museum staff works. we met eugene, the museum technician, and he talked forever about our project once we were able to sit down. we pretty much completed our staff interview cause he answered all of our questions for the project, so that was nice. at noon we took a lunch break and i napped on the grass outside because i forgot to bring lunch, oops. in the afternoon we went back to the acre to write up the timeline and test the internet... which works! but still unreliable.

after work we stopped by for ice cream again, and then ran into our advisors at the bistro. this time we got gelato, which was only $N8. but then we went to the pick and pay, the local supermarket, and i went a little crazy with my food and spent $N417... which is the equivalent of like $60. i had spent $N350 on food only a couple days ago, i think i eat too much?

in the afternoon me, john, peter, dan, and becky got into the pool for a little bit. i brought my dragsuit haha, and i wore it cause my swim trunks has a hole in an awkward place. yeah. then we made some dinner and a group of us went out to the cardboard box at night, a small local bar in a hotel. we met some namibians and some people from canada, and i'd say we had a pretty grand time. we had to wake up the security guards on our way through the poly on the way back though, that was fun haha.

all the single ladies! (all the single ladies...)

boys being boys

today, we started to conduct a few visitor interviews at the museum. we planned on staying from 8 until noon, and in this time we only got about 6 different groups to come in and talk to us. the museum itself doesn't really attract that many visitors in the first place, so we had about three hours of dead time where we just sat around and talked about random things. we spent the rest of the afternoon bumming around up in the acre, doing a little bit of research and being mad at the internet for not working. talk about team bonding, hmm?

i really hope that now we've started working, things will start picking up a bit. it's only been a week since i've left the country, but all the days feel like they've blended. it's also frustrating to know that so many stores close at 5 in the afternoon, so we have to miss most of what goes on because we don't get out of work until then. at least our everyone here gets to talk to each other a lot in our free time, i'm pretty happy with the group we have :)

meters and zebras

current weather:
84 degrees, showers / clear

sooo, it turns out the internet situation here is little stickier than i thought. i ran out of my first 120 minutes kinda fast, mostly from waiting for websites to load. and i couldn't buy another card until about an hour ago. so now i'm back!

on saturday night, a group of us went out to eat at spur, an "american" restaurant with pretty decent food. i forget what i ate, but all i remember was that it was mad cheap. after dinner, we were invited by the polytechnic of namibia students to go see a fashion show, which was held as an orientation event for new students. they had some pretty rockin' music, but the show dragged on forever because it was more like a beauty pageant. i left a little early cause i was still tired from the trip, and i just missed sleeping in a real bed in general.

namibians really like to strut their stuff.

yesterday was a very relaxed and chill day. we had no plans except a small barbeque with some staff and students from the poly. it was nice to get to know a few people from here, i really also enjoyed the food and meat they had. my plate looked a little something like this:

i honestly wouldn't mind eating this every day.

for the rest of the afternoon, we played cards and relaxed back at puccini (the name of our place). we also went shopping down at the mall, got a few groceries and necessities like that. at night we went to joe's beerhouse, a local restaurant and bar. they had some pretty amazing drinks, and even more amazing food. i got myself to try a zebra steak (which is DELICIOUS), and we also ordered a meter of beer. the meter was pretty much a meter-long box with 13 beers lined up in it. it's just really cool to look at, and i guess that's what they're known for haha.

imagine ordering one of these for yourself... oh man.

on the way over, we learned a little bit about the taxi situation here in namibia. apparently taxis will pick you up and fit as many people into a taxi as they can. however, if there are any empty spots, they will drive around until they find someone else who needs a ride. they have absolutely no problem picking up other strangers to sit with you... as you can imagine this made our rides a little awkward. taxi drivers will also fight other drivers in order to get customers, we had about 4 different people offer us rides back to puccini. i guess they can't really be that reliable, maybe we need to find a better way to get around the city.

today, we finally got to tour the area a little bit. we got up at 9:30 in the morning and took a tour around the main mall and city area with our advisors. we walked around the plaza and found a cell phone shop, and most of our group bought cell phones and SIM cards. mine is really basic and i haven't tested it out yet, but hopefully it works! i spent some good money on it haha.

me, dan, and becky found a small bistro in the center of the plaza and grabbed a lunch. we all got club sandwiches and sodas, and the meal came out to be $150 namibian, which is approximately 20 dollars US. not bad for a lunch for three people! we then got ice cream cones for $6.90 namibian, or roughly 90 cents. i think i'm liking the prices here on food :)

in the afternoon, we all dressed up and went over to the poly to meet the director of the university. we walked into this huge conference room with two circular tables, and each seat was equipped with one of those microphones that you can press and talk into the intercom. being goofy, bme and john took turns just talking to the whole room, it was kinda cool haha. finally, the director came in and gave us a small speech about the area and some of his experience in traveling abroad. he seemed like a pretty cool guy, hopefully we'll be able to meet him again.

after a trip to the poly, we went over to the US embassy for a security briefing. i won't lie, when we walked into the building after all the security checkpoints i felt pretty american. i felt like i hadn't left the country at all seeing as how we were surrounded by american flags, pictures of obama, and normal white people. this guy named frank gave us a speech about the crime rates and terrorist rates in the country, and honestly i can't say i feel the safest being here. apparently people get pickpocketed all the time, and mugging is a very common act of violence here. even people who have been here in the past have told us they've experienced something like that before, and it's best to just use your common sense. oh well, i've been here three days and so far so good. let's hope we can keep this up.

oh, i completely forgot to talk about the local time and things like that. i believe right now we are 6 hours ahead of US time, since daylight savings just happened. it's a little hard to coordinate things between countries right now, especially since my internet is so limited. i'm trying the best i can to keep in touch, so just bear with me as i try to settle in and figure things out!

i'm here!

current weather:
78 degrees, cloudy with thunderstorms

i made it in one piece!

so i flew out friday morning from boston at around 7 and landed in JFK at around 8:30. when i first checked in my luggage, the jet blue staff told me that my suitcase was 11 pounds over the domestic flight limit... i obviously packed for an international flight, so of course i had a little more baggage. so i had to open my bag and stuff like 15 pounds of shoes and shirts into a small duffel bag that i also packed. good thing i bought that bag, or it's like a $50 fine.

when i got to JFK, i wandered around and got lost a little bit, then finally met up with janine, john, and brittany at our gate. we also ran into peter, boya, and george as the plane was boarding. we then took a 15 hour flight to johannesburg at 10:30, which maybe took forever (but they had free wine!). i don't remember much except waking up and trying to sleep every hour or so, and the little kids next to me being loud. my neck's also sore for not getting comfortable. ohh well.

our final flight was from johannesburg to windhoek, and it looked a little something like this.

they're squinting to make me feel a little more at home.

i think it was around this point that i finally realized that i was in AFRICA. just looking at all the shrubbery and plains, it's hard to confuse that with any other place! it was exciting for sure :)

there's probably a giraffe in this picture somewhere.

after landing in namibia, we drove about 40 minutes back to the bed and breakfast. the road back was basically a two-lane highway with endless trees and shrubbery on either side. oh, did i mention they drive on the left side?

and this is a picture of our luggage... safe, i know haha.

it would probably suck a lot if it started raining... oh wait. it did.

finally we arrived at our bed and breakfast. i'm living with three other dudes in a relatively small pad. it pretty much only supports four beds, one small cabinet, and one small table. turns out the bathrooms and showers are outside - there's two bathrooms and one shower room for the entire complex. so this will probably make things interesting.

my room with four single beds. this is as big as our room gets.

breakfast area / indoor lounge

small courtyard outside of our room

outdoor patio (and hammocks in the back!)

this is the pool where plan to train at.

also, internet here is really really slooooowwww. plus, it's not free so we have to pay for it by minute. i happened to only buy the 120 minute card, so i guess i don't really have a lot of time to spend on my computer today. it sucks that most of my minutes are spent waiting for a website to load, but whatever. hopefully i don't go broke from internet services. i apologize in advance for these spotty posts, i'm trying to write as fast as i can haha.

anyway, it's looking pretty good so far. tomorrow's our first official day here, so we'll be touring the city and things like that. so hopefully there'll be more posts and pictures to come!

one last hurrah

so in about 12 hours, i will be all packed and on my way to the airport. i can't believe how fast time has flown by during these past several days, and i can't even begin to imagine what my life is going to feel like tomorrow. it's almost overwhelming...

so today is just a very mellow day. running some last minute errands, finishing (starting?) my packing, and making sure i remember to turn off all my alarms when i leave my room. you know, the usual stuff :)

only a couple more hours! not a lot of time left in the land of the free.

[EDIT] it's 2 AM, and i'm still up packing? i'm supposed to leave my house at 5. uh oh.

i hear the drums echoing tonight

i feel like this is only appropriate...

in other news, i just found out i got an A for ID 2050! it's nice to know that hard work does pay off :) and now i actually feel like i'm ready to start working on this project.

packing... holy cow

so i finally got home yesterday after staying at wpi a few extra days to finish up some work and things like that. i didn't realize how much stuff i brought to school!

it took me about three hours total to load up my car and then unload it when i got home. my room is probably the biggest mess i've ever seen right now, i can't move around my room without stepping on something. i just think it's funny that i have to unpack all of these clothes and random things, and then i'm gonna be packing it all away again probably in a few days.

in the meantime, i think it'll be nice to just sit around and enjoy the weather. 50 degrees? i'm not going to complain :)

intro

i've decided to start dedicating this blog to my trip to namibia!

for those who don't know, i will be leaving the US on march 12th and staying until may 9th. i will be working in the national museum of namibia for seven weeks, doing research and helping the staff update their exhibits. it's looking to be a grand 'ol time!

classes have finally ended, so now i'm just getting ready to leave. and getting ready to say some farewells. and getting ready to pack... haha

swimming video

http://www.rpi.edu/~chians/50%20yrd%20Free%20Stevie.MOV

good 'ol brother picking up swimming again. reminds me of old times... haha

massive fever

is it bad that despite wearing two pairs of sweatpants, one t-shirt, one long-sleeve t-shirt, one fleece, one massive hoodie, and three fleece blankets.... i am still shivering?

meet

we lost to clark yesterday, 122 - 119.

that should never happen.

it's gettin' late but i don't mind

exactly one year ago today, i filled out one of those "write 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you" on facebook. i recently found it and read it. it's almost funny how much things change in one year. i'd like to tackle it again. so here goes...

1. one of my goals in life is to eat my heart out and become absurdly overweight.

2. i will always have music playing on my computer or ipod, regardless of what i am doing.

3. the reason why i still swim is because i am afraid of what life would be like without it. i've been swimming competitively for almost half my life, and i don't remember what life was like before that.

4. i will eat almost anything without caring how unhealthy it is for me.

5. i have set many goals in life, but i just can't quite get myself to reach for them.

6. i was the most anti-social kid in middle school and high school, and i'm sure i still have those tendencies in me.

7. i like talking about my past. when i listen to myself talk out loud, it makes it easier to figure out why i am the person i am today.

8. video games just don't appeal to me anymore. my attention span is about 15 minutes, tops.

9. if you ask me if i've seen a recent movie, the answer is probably no.

10. i've always thought about living in another country, but i'm just terrified of adjusting to their culture. taiwan was always on top of my list, but the language barrier is just too great to overcome.

11. i really regret not paying attention in chinese school because now my mandarin is horrendous and the only characters i can write are the two symbols that make up my name.

12. i don't know what i want to do when i get out of college. i take life as it comes without thinking too far ahead simply because it's not worth worrying about things that won't happen.

13. i am not good with technology. i used to love computers and such but i think everything just evolved so fast that now i don't even bother to learn.

14. i've always wanted to travel the world, which is ironic because i am really stingy with money.

15. my bed is like a black hole. i can never get out.

16. i feel like college shaped me into a completely different person. everything about me - my opinions, my interests, my motivation - seemed to just have a complete makeover.

17. there are times in my life when i forget that i am, in fact, chinese.

18. i always feel like there isn't enough time in the day.

19. friendship has a lot of value to me, and it bothers me sometimes when some people don't take it seriously. it's too easy to point out the pretenders.

20. one of my favorite things to do is look back at old memories and relive them.

21. when i find a song i really like, i have a tendency to overplay it enough that i get really sick of it by the third day.

22. i never considered myself artistic, but sometimes i surprise myself when i catch myself drawing something or making up lyrics on the spot.

23. i think i set my expectations a little too high most of the time.

24. once i fall asleep, i will not wake up to sounds in the middle of the night. this includes loud trains and my alarm clock.

25. the art of relaxing is one that i have yet to master.

why mixing is bad for you

today, i lost my sense of taste.

at daka for dinner, i grabbed a cup of blue powerade and started to drink it. after about 10 seconds i realized that it tasted like water, and there was absolutely no flavor to it. at first i thought it was just the powerade so i blew it off like it was nothing.

but then i started to eat my chicken sandwich, and i couldn't taste the ridiculous amounts of ketchup i put in it.

i grabbed a fresh-off-the-oven daka cookie, and couldn't taste the chocolate.

so i told nick to "go make me a drink".

he came back with a glass of green liquid, which i tried. i felt some carbonation, but there still wasn't any taste! he told me he put in powerade, cherry coke, nestea, apple peach, and orange juice. everyone said it was amazing. i couldn't comprehend why.

so then, as an ultimate test, sarah poured in some milk. eric added some chocolate milk. it looked absolutely horrendous.

i drank it anyway.

i didn't taste anything.

...would you ever drink something like that?