I am typing this at a hotel right now in a two bed room with my family. I just finished moving into my dorm in Pennypacker. My legs are killing me and I am very tired. I walked a lot today, from my dorm to my sister’s room in the Lowell House back and forth a few times and then to the parking garage in order to load a few empty suitacases onto the car. Before that, I stood around for more than two hours moving into my dorm.

The dorm actually wasn’t that bad, but my room was pretty small. I have a roommate and our beds are bunked. It’s a pretty narrow fit, but it isn’t too bad. I’m sleeping on the top bunk. After a semester, my roommate and I will most likely switch rooms with our two other suitemates, who have the bigger room.

My family and I, after helping my sister arrange some of her things in her dorm, went to eat at a Vietnamese restaurant. I then returned to Pennypacker because there was a meeting for all the students living at Pennypacker. Students were divided based on which floor they lived on and then led to a room in one of the teaching buildings.

We introduced ourselves (our name and where we are from) and played two truths and one lie. Afterward, the proctor had to go through a few guidelines.

When we returned to Pennypacker at 9PM, we realized that the electricity had gone out in the dorm. The entryway lights were still working, but the electricity in the actual dorm rooms were all gone. So, I called up my parents, in the beginning thinking that they could drop me off at my sister’s dorm and I could spend the night at her dorm. But then my parents decided to book a room at the hotel with two beds instead of one so that my sister and I could both spend the night at the hotel as well.

So now here I am. And I’m tired.

I’ll wake up early tomorrow so I can be one of the first to use the waffle maker and bring the waffles back to the room. I can study a bit of math while I eat.

I need to ward off these bad habits soon. What was my day like? Waking up very late and watching lots of TV shows (online, I don’t watch much on TV except for the news), reading different things on Wikipedia, reading news articles that caught my eye, going through my email, and just spending way too much time before the computer. Seriously, I will damage my eyes beyond repair at this rate (not that they can be repaired except by laser eye surgery).

I did not design a business card that I was supposed to have finished today. Arghhhh! I did not study BC Calc or read Chinese as I was supposed to do in preparation of placement exams next week. I did not pack or sort through my items. I did not clean up my room, and I have still left my sister’s room in a mess. But then again, she left it as a mess, too. It was just that I contributed to her mess.

On days like this when I only stay in the house, I feel incredibly unproductive. What makes it even worse is that I haven’t really done anything during the weekend, either. I need to go study some and finish doing all my tasks. I can’t keep procrastinating!

So I have decided that tomorrow, I will wake up at 7:30AM and finish designing the business card ASAP. Then, as a “break,” I will clean the room. Afterward, I will study some BC Calc (those dreaded notes! Even when I took the course, I completely stopped paying attention during the last month and I had no grasp of knowledge of series and sequences. Thank goodness that the AP BC Calc people expect students to not do well on the test. I failed the last question out of six extended response questions.) and follow that with practicing some piano. Then, I will allow myself to search for a Chinese drama to watch (but I am not really in the mood to watch those, because the stories are so overdone). I will then go back to studying BC Calc.

Well, let’s see if I manage to keep any of the above in my schedule tomorrow. Hopefully, I can. I still have to account in a dentist appointment. I was never one for schedules, having set countless ones before and not sticking to any single one. My parents even set schedules for me, but they never held up. Then my sister attempted to set a monthly schedule for me (because setting a daily schedule seemed pointless due to my lack of activity), and that fell through. Self-control! I must have self-control!

But on a better note, today is the first of September! I also realized today that I wasn’t going to college until Saturday. Ahaha…wow, I really need to start keeping on top of things.

Also, I am very excited that my digital camera is coming in tomorrow! Woot! I will definitely be testing it out and when I get to college on Saturday, I will be dangling it in front of my sister. Mwahaha. What a horrid sister I am.

Summer is already almost over for me! As I predicted after I graduated high school, this summer flew by: I will be heading off to Cambridge this coming Friday. Today, my sister had to leave for Harvard (she has this two-week business program before starting college). Yesterday, she stayed up very late with my mother to pack everything. I helped some–a little. Well, I did tell her that if she forgot anything, I could bring it when I come this Friday.

Before packing, my sister and I were reminiscing about our childhood. It made us miss aspects of our childhood, laugh at certain events, and then criticize each other due to our immaturity other times. You had no idea how much we fought. We were both violent little kids. Every day, there would be a scratching or punching skirmish. I was victorious when I was little against my sister! But I think that’s mainly due to the fact that when I was a baby, my one-year older sister bullied me to no end, so by the time I became four, I developed enough skills to defend myself against my sibling. The funny thing is, when we fought and I got hurt, my sister would suddenly get worried and help me with my wound. I, on the other hand, when I hurt my sister would run upstairs and lock myself in my room–I was scared my sister would come after me with vengeance, since she did threaten me with staplers and tape dispensers. But during those times, my sister would most likely just be crying downstairs. Then, after everything blew over, my sister and I were both very close again. You just got to love how little children act. We were definitely giant headaches to our parents when we fought, but we were also pretty good that we shared almost everything without complaining. As we grew older, the fighting obviously diminished. Ah…good times….

Afterward, we played duets on the piano. It’s been a long time since I’ve played on the piano; I would like to play every once in a while, so my skills don’t completely deteriorate.

Soon, my sister had to start packing, and then we didn’t go to sleep until 3AM because of all that (and because my sister and I watched a movie afterward–last sisterly bonding time at home before college).

Today, it was like my sister was going off to some foreign place or something. I told my sister, “You’re going to miss me,” and she said the same back to me. There were many good-byes, and my mom even hugged my sister before my sister and my dad drove off on that four-hour drive to Masschusetts.

But I am going to see her in five days. My parents are going to see her in five days as well–they are going to “help” her move all her belongings to her house (for the business program, she’s living in Dunster, but her house is Lowell). By help, I mean that my parents are going to foot the labor. After helping my sister, they will then help me set up my dorm. Then, I have to go over to my sister’s so we can separate all the jewelry and clothing. We’ll be sharing a lot of things anyway, so I guess that’s not such a big deal.

Ah, it’s a little sad that I will be leaving home. I wonder how long I will be home sick. I guess I won’t be as home sick, because my sister will be there. We could have sister days.

I thought the Beijing 2008 Olympics was simply amazing! The opening and closing ceremonies were both very well planned and executed–this will definitely go down in history. I loved how these two weeks that come only once every four years help create a bit of peace around the world and people can just enjoy watching athletes trying their hardest doing what they do. The 4×100M swimming relay was one of the very exciting events that I saw–live. I loved watching the events live, but I was always disappointed when NBC held events that had occurred half a day ago just to show at primetime. It takes the excitement away from it, because you know who’s going to win what. But overall, the Olympics coverage was pretty good.

I’m interested to see how the London 2012 Olympics will be. How will their ceremonies be? The style of the London artists in the closing ceremony was definitely very different from the Beijing Olympics. It was more of the hip, hop cultural aspect when the Chinese was about the tradition mixed with technology. I am interested to see how critics will address such constrasting styles.

My sister just came back from China on Tuesday. Actually, it’s more like on Wednesday. I was sleeping soundly until 2:00 in the morning, when I suddenly felt someone shaking me and saying, “Yingna!” I opened my eyes sleepily and managed to croak out, “Hi….” Afterward, I glanced over to my clock to realize it was two in the morning, and then I just went back to sleep.

When I came back from my internship yesterday, my sister came down from her room and she started showing me the things she brought out from China. She brought out two giant suitcases. We looked through them and she showed me different skirts, shirts, bags, shoes, and even a coat she bought for me! Soon, we had to go eat dinner, and after we ate, I showed her how I had managed to allow our HDTV to receive more signals, so we could watch the Olympics in HD. We were watching when my mom remarked, “Wow, it seems like a war just went through here.”–she was referring to the clothes and suitcases.

I thought, “Sure…” but decided to get up and take a look. It really looked like some battle had taken place. Clothes were strewn across the suitcases and one or two shoes were actually right-side-up, while its partners were laying lazily on the floor. Hand bags were placed carelessly on the sofas and piano bench and my coat was hanging quite close to the floor.

Ah well. My sister is cleaning this up today, while I’m at my internship. This is what sisters are for!