first new attempt

Well, considering I'm making a new start, I guess I should make a first attempt at posting after a long absence....

Well, life has been...well, life. I'm now living in Tennessee--insanely random, but still quite enjoyable. But high school is....well...sorta, kinda....hm.

Odd? Strange? Fun? Painful? Awesome?

And very vaguely defined.

I totally am in love with Cake right now....not just actual CAKE, but also the band Cake. They've got the weirdest yet greatest songs and lyrics :D

And now, as promised, I'm off on a tangent ;)

But I'm extremely excited that I've memorized my lines for The Crucible--a school play I'm in--it's a reeaaally big relief. I get to be an old man....whose name is two women's names put together to somehow make a man's name....Francis Nurse.

Apparently, I'm the only GUY in the play who's going to have to wear makeup...mostly because I'm young and somehow have to play an old man. So, I have to have wrinkles and gray hair and it's gonna be really really weird to wear makeup :)

But, I think this concludes my rather odd, digressing post. Til' next time?

a fresh start?

Why hello, there!

Congrats on finding this blog, it's quite an impressive feat.

I'm sort of....starting fresh. I'm gonna restart this whole thing--start using it more, and also just posting more often.

As a warning, often my posts will go off on odd tangents, and quite possibly be entirely unentertaining. Well, that's really your problem, because you're the oddball that typed in the website or clicked the link. So maybe just bear through the insanity? Peer through the blinds blocking the reality out, if you wish.

But overall, I'm just gonna start new. So, people, enjoy, feast on these words, and fulfill yourself by indulging in this sweet nonsense.

frozen legs, sand coats, and donuts

We've gone to the beach a couple different times lately.

The first time when we went, at the Bridlington South Beach, me and Dad spent the entire time playing volleyball with some people from church. That was really fun. It was windy though, so it made it hard to serve the ball right, especially when the wind is blowing against your side. I did a lot of diving in that game.

The other time we went, we went to the same beach, but I instead played with my friend Sam Wilkinson. We built sand fortresses, and had a sand war. Basically, we flung wet sand at each other. Sammy teamed up with me, so I had double the sand flinging power! But all in all, she was really helpful with digging up more ammunition. We also used the shovels to catapult sand bombs at each other. It was really fun. We built our fortresses by a stream of water, so they got flooded in the end. Afterwards, we decided to swim in the sea.

Normally, in the states, when you go to Florida, or Alabama, the sea isn't too cold, or anything. The sea here is FREEZING!!!!! Sam kept calling me a wimp, and I totally was. I was FROZEN when the water got to my hips. It was almost painful! Sam, of course was swimming in it no problem. He, at least, was used to the water.

After finally getting out of the frozen sea, we returned to our forts. Sam's was deeper than mine, as well as flooded with warmer water, so we tried to turn it into a hot tub. We had a bit of trouble, though, as it was already flooded, so there was no way to dig it deeper. We tried, and tried, but eventually, our efforts to drain the jacuzzi just made "sloppy-joe" as Sam called it, water. This water was so filled with sand that if you stuck your hand in, then pulled it back out, it would be COATED with a layer of sand! After playing around with that for a while, we just started making quicksand.

After that, we needed a snack. For a snack, we had a choice of two different treats from the beachside: ice cream (with tons of flavors to choose from-which you could choose two of to have in one cone :) or fresh sugared donuts (HALLELUJAH! THESE ARE HEAVENLY! ;)

If you couldn't tell, I chose the hot donuts. OH MAN. They were BRILLIANT. You could also watch them being made. You could watch the dough get dropped into the fryer, (me and Sam's sound for that was "bloop!") and be tossed in the sugar. It was worth the wait, especially the highly painful wait, because the donuts were too hot to eat!

You could tell we had fun by the thick layer of sand coating our bodies afterwards.

So, my beach trip, filled with fort digging, sand flinging, frozen water, a failed jacuzzi, and some heavenly donuts, was an adventure worth having.

allright!

Hey everbody!

sorry I haven't posted for a while.

the other week, I had the opportunity to attend Especially For Youth (EFY).

for those of you who don't know what that is, I was with you guys until a little before we moved.

EFY is a large activity where the youth of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints ages 14 and older (or if you make the cut-off date like me) get together, have dances, learn the gospel, and enjoy time with other youth from the area. It lasted monday-saturday.

I was able to attend the Leeds (basically, northern England Stakes) EFY, in ENGLAND. It was held at York University, which is in, (you guessed it) York.

It was really cool. We were able to play tons of games, hear loads of speakers, and feel the spirit.

there were two dances there.

one was a learning type dance, where at the beginning we learned how to do two different formal dances: the Foxtrot and the Triple Swing.

how we managed to learn these dances in a mess hall at York University with somewhere around FOUR HUNDRED youth, I will never know. Yes, scarily enough, we had to dance boy-girl.

but, after learning some formal stuff, we had a freestyle period afterwards.

that was crazy, but fun.


the other dance was more formal.

we were dressed up in best dress (shirt, tie, and nice pants for the guys, and a knee length skirt or dress for the girls), and there were more songs for formal dancing.

I decided to be part of the EFY musical program (choir). That was fun. I made some new friends there, and had loads of fun.

we also held a variety show, which is basically a talent show. that was really neat. we had some singers, instrument players, and dancers.

we had classes for two days, in the morning and afternoon. those were neat. you got to choose what class you wanted to go to, and then just go to the room it was being held in. you got to go to four of these a day.

all in all, I grew spiritually, and enjoyed myself during it.

the allright! title, was, (as any of you EFY attenders will know) for the cheer that they do at EFY.

it goes:

allright! allright! allright allright allright HEY!

followed by a clapping pattern, then EFY!

this cheer is triggered whenever anyone says the word allright. (except during devotionals, classes and firesides.)

allright!

this silver button will......

Such a wierd thing to notice.
Seems perfectly normal. But I'm different.
I think this button is cool.
Do you know what it is?


I didn't think so.

This is a toilet flush.
From the UK.
They have buttons on their walls that flush their toilets!
It's so cool, yet so wierd!
No more little flush handles for us!
(I'm sure they have flush handles here as well.)

P.S. Please do not be disgusted, this just is neat to me.

battling a beast

Hi everyone!

Yesterday I faced one of the toughest, roughest, stickiest, ickiest, and scary things the world has ever known.

I went to school.
(insert dramatic music here)

To tell you the truth, it wasn't as hard as I thought. After a few classes, I was understanding the layout of the school. (My school = The Beverley Grammar School)

So, here goes a description of my day......


First, I get there, and wait in the reception office. (the head of year 8 said he was going to meet me at 8:45 there, and introduce me to my form teacher.) I waited, and waited. We had gotten there ten minutes early though, so I understood.

Eventually, the teacher came and got me, and took me to my form room. (you see, every student belongs to a form. sort of like harry potter houses, only more of them. the students in each form have all their classes together, save a small few, such as maths, and ITC(computer lab.)) The form teacher was very nice, and it turns out that an american boy that is a member of my church was also in my form! how handy!

So, first, you take attendance in your form, and then have some free time. After that, we went to science. There, we watched a movie, and the teacher gave us candy. Quite a difficult class, huh?

Next, we went to maths. The only reason we DIDN'T watch a movie was because the teacher's DVD player wasn't working. So, instead we just played a couple different math-ish games.

During maths, the teacher asked if everyone in the class knew what maths class they were going into next year. All the students responded that they knew. Except one. (three guesses who it was.) Me. She gestured me out the door. She took me into another classroom with another teacher, and they discussed what to do regarding my lack of maths placement. At this point, I didn't really care what I did, because I was bored of watching a movie. They suggested two options:

a) Just place me in a middle class and see how I do
or
b) Give me a math test to assess what level I should be in.

They decided on the latter.

I was not terribly thrilled about this decision, but I wanted some form of work to do.
They decided to bring me over in fourth period, normally geography, and have me take the test then.

So, continuing with my adventures......

Next, we had break, which, in short, is a ten or twenty minute (I can't recall which) break period, during which you can either relax in a classroom, get food from the cantine or from home, or relax outside. I decided to hang out with most of the kids in my form, and just relax in a classroom. Not the most thrilling thing, but I didn't mind, because I was attempting to get to know the other kids in my form. (oh yeah, the kids in your form, your head teacher, and your form teacher all stay the same until you graduate.)

So, we went to history, and watched another movie.

Then, we went to lunch, which you can eat either in the cantine, or outside on the school grounds. I chose to eat outside, because of the nice weather.

Then, while the other kids went to geography, I was escorted to the maths room, to take my test. (bum bum bum!!)

I was given a fair-sized test, and a pen to do it with. It took all of fourth period to complete, but it wasn't really too hard.

So, afterwards, some kids from my form came and brought me to the ITC room, which is, basically, a computer lab. It was then that I noticed I didn't have a school login. Uh-oh.

So, me and another student went to the computer tech room. On the first visit, no one was there, but after trying again, the tech guy was in there.

When I asked for a login, he grinned, and said, "On the last day?" I grinned, and nodded. He moved to his computer, and then asked, "When did you start?" When I replied that today was my first day, he grinned even bigger and started to chuckle. When I realized how ridiculous my request was, I began to laugh as well. He gave me a login, and I was able to have some time on the computer in the ITC room.

During that class, one of the maths teachers that had discussed how to place me came in and talked to my teacher. Afterwards, he took me outside of the classroom, and said that he had "marked"(graded) my test, and didn't want to leave me uninformed all of the holiday. He said that I had done "brilliant" on it, and that they had two top classes, and I was to be in one of them.

Maybe this math test wasn't so bad after all.

After being asked what the guy had needed, I told them about what he had said. (they knew about how I had had to take a maths test.)

ITC was the last class of the day, and afterwards I went home.

What a day, huh?

just another post

I have a feeling that posting too often may make it less exciting when I DO post.
Probably true.
Nonetheless, it works, and gives me a way to communicate to the world.

So....

We are now living in Anlaby House, in apartment twelve. It is on the very top floor, so you get a great view at the HUGE backyard.(also-they call a backyard a garden in England) It's quite nice. Mom has decided to write down all the 'lingo' that we learn here. As I remember, so far we've collected:

Chips are fries
crispies are chips
bobbies are policemen
nappies are diapers
a mobile is a cell phone
football is soccer(fairly obvious)
dinner is lunch
tea is dinner
pudding is dessert
a chewy is a piece of gum
the loo is the bathroom
sweets is candy
jacket potatoes are baked potatoes
and cheers means goodbye.

Quite a bit, huh? And we've only been here six days!
With many more to come.
But for now, cheers!