HOBY WLC 2006: July 27 to August 4
It's a camp that's not a camp, and that's very difficult to describe. I also think it would take me several hours to write out how much it changed me and how much fun I had. So how about some photos? And by "some", I mean several hundred. XD
It stands for Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership, and boy, was it.
I began my trip meeting Evelyna (quite a surprise) at the airport, and then took several short flights to Washington D.C.:
The overhead views were great:
(And I even saw lightning twice from the airplane in a storm over Virginia! But I couldn't take a photo of it.)
We arrived at the airport, then were shuttled to George Washington University, and were told to mill around for awhile, so we did:
The next day, we all got up early and ate breakfast with our groups. This is Kevin (on the left) and Meg and Nicky:
Ben from Nebraska ate an entire plate of bacon and nothing else. He did that every morning. XD:
Nicky from Hong Kong had a cellphone that was also a really good camera:
Angela from Taiwan and I quickly became good friends:
Angela and Ben:
DAY 2
On our second day, we had (I think) the commander of the Marines come speak to us:
But I was more fascinated by his SUPER shiny shoes than his speech:
Hugh O'Brian came and talked to us:
That evening, we had International Night, an intro to each of the 20 or so other countries that were represented at HOBY. Here is a photo of the Hong Kong people:
The Koreans didn't get very long for their show (and they had planned a LOT of cool stuff, like a traditional dance) so I was very, very mad that the Canadians took almost 10 minutes to dance around screaming "WE'VE GOT SPIRIT HOW BOUT YOU!" The moderators for the International Night even said, "Thank you Korea, but we're out of time." You should have seen the devastated looks on their faces!! I even shouted at the mods, "I'll stay here until 1am if they can do their dance!" and got some disapproving looks. But the Koreans got to perform at the talent show later in the week.
DAY 3
We walked across Washington D.C. to another hall where we had some lectures. But before then, we all met up in the George Washington University place where we had breakfast. Angela and I were already best friends, and here is Rachel, another girl from my group:
Other girls from my group (L to R: Rachel, Won-Ju, Meg, and Ashley aka Canada on the bottom):
When we arrived at the hall, I noticed the germ paintings that I thought were awesome:
...and...the rest of the day was amazing, but right now I have too many photos to describe it. Perhaps later. But at night our group had our second group meeting, and we instantly had great fun:
(Nicky, in the top left corner, was totally my favorite. But seriously, I got along perfectly and felt like I had been friends forever with everyone but one person in my group, and we two just didn't talk that much. XD)
The whole amazing group (which, by the way, was named "1B") is here. Right before the photo took, Nicky said, "Sex!" really loudly to make people laugh. XD
We told briefly about where we lived, and I gave, according to everyone, a very funny report about North Carolina. Here is Angela telling us about Taiwan:
DAY 4
The next morning we were SO tired. I, for one, could not sleep because my roommates and I all wanted to know about each others' lives. I had a girl from Texas, Kelly; a girl from Connecticut, Megan; and a girl from Taiwan, Lori. They were SO awesome. But you could tell that no one got any sleep. Here is Ben sleeping on a bench during a five-minute break before we went to breakfast:
That was the day we went to get our massive group photo taken on the Lincoln Memorial steps:
It was a beautiful morning and led to one of my favorite photos ever:
But once the sun came from behind the clouds, the temperature rose exponentially. We all stood on the steps for the photo, and one by one, kids started fainting and passing out. It was really quite scary, because it was like there was a certain time where everyone just began passing out. I was so hot that my legs were sweating and sweat was dripping down my face. In the group photo, I did not smile. XD
But here, look at this awful photo of me!
Oh, how I love the kids from Taiwan! They asked me if I would take a group photo for them, and when I said "SURE!", they grinned and handed me 25 cameras. XD It took forever, but their cameras were all so awesome.
By the end of the 9 days, I was friends with most of the Taiwanese kids. :D Because I took their photos for them, two girls gave me stickers that say "I love you" in Mandarin. ^_^
I like this bike's stickers:
Here's the Lincoln Memorial:
Woo, me!
Here is the group of people from Hong Kong, and one girl from California. Guess who she is? HA! She's NOT the white girl! The third person from the right is from California. ^_^
Here are me, some girls, and three of the boys from Iraq/Kurdistan. Is it just me, or are they HOT?
They asked if they could do their gangsta pose. XD
This is Yad. He really liked me. XD Maybe because I have blonde hair. But he put his knuckles lightly to my face, which, in Kurdistan/Iraq, is the highest gesture of respect from a man to a woman. ^_^ He wanted many pictures with me, so Stam took them for us on his camera, my camera, Stam's camera, and Avraz's camera:
Then Stam wanted a picture with me on several cameras:
And their idea of posing for a photo is everyone looking in different directions. XD Really, they planned it like that.
I was walking with the Kurdish/Iraqi boys to the WWII Memorial, but then I found some people speaking Spanish! I was so excited that I hugged the boys and told them I'd meet up with them later. It turns out that there was a small group of South American students whose English was either great, good, or not so great, so they were speaking in Spanish. I chatted with some girls from Mexico and Argentina in Spanish, and they said my Spanish was very good. ^_^
We arrived at the WWII Memorial, which was very beautiful:
I believe these two are both from Argentina:
All of these people are from Spanish-speaking countries except for the tall boy on the far left who looks and is Canadian.
Here is a pretty fountain in one of the lecture/panel halls:
During the break we had, everyone was so tired that they were sleeping on each other:
I don't know why I have this photo. XD I just saw a boy posing amusingly for someone else, so I took it.
Me and a really cool person whose name I can't remember. Someone saw this photo and thought we were sisters??
Every night we had choir practice, which one would think would be torture for someone like me. Actually, it was extremely fun. Only once did I fall asleep, and it was short-lived due to my head falling off of my hand everytime I drifted off. XD But here is our choir director, Sean, who was extremely funny and made many sexual innuendos with his pointy stick, which was called "Schtick". He said things like, "When Schtick is up and ready, you need to watch out!" He moved so quickly during practice that it was hard to get a picture of him.
We sang "Seasons of Love" from Rent, "The Impossible Dream", "That's What Friends Are For", "Bridge Over Troubled Water", and "We Are The World". They were very good choices.
DAY 5:
We walked around Washington some more, and passed very beautiful buildings:
I was incredibly pleased with this photo, which was taken while I was running across a street. Literally.
Our panel today was on the United Nations, which was very interesting. Here is the row in front of me, including one boy from Iraq/Kurdistan and one girl from Taiwan who is my friend! I think her name is Judy, but I remember so many names that I'm not sure it's hers:
Meg and me:
Later that day, we trekked to the Smithsonian Museum of American History. I liked it, but I really REALLY wanted to visit the Museum of Natural History. :( But some things in the American History museum were cool, like the flag that flew over the Pentagon on 9-11:
My group looking at a map. It was so hot that we were drenched in sweat after the walk to the museum:
In the elevator, Mary-Kate tried very hard to look exactly like th people on the poster behind her. Really, that's what she was going for:
Not sure why I took a photo of this, but I did:
Yay, one of the non-stolen pairs!
This... has no explanation:
This does. XD I told Nicky and Mike to stand in front of this sign and make the face that they think of when they think of "American Pop Culture". So they did.
Elvis gets a polio shot:
A famous country singer's guitar:
My friends and I play with hats in the gift shop:
The National Mall, bathed in an incredible heat wave:
Devon hangs on the metro poles:
Mike from Florida loves his pants:
And so do they:
Mary-Kate and a Lincoln hat:
NICKY!
That night, Hugh O'Brian gave us medals. I have to admit, it was one of the most awkward moments of my life. XD
MARGARET FROM EAST HIGH SCHOOL WAS THE REP FROM KANSAS!!!!!!!!! We freaked out when we saw each other. I can't believe we were both there!
Her group seemed very fun:
DAY 6:
Our panels today were VERY cool, including a talk from the man who invented the modern Internet:
His plans for the internet's future were cool:
But some of future plans were scary to me, like internet in everyone's daily appliances, like refrigerators. Imagine if it got hacked! Or if your appliances were smarter than you and forced you to go on a diet or wouldn't let you get your food. So I'd like to stick to computers having internet and not much else, if possible.
This guy was so cool:
He gave us tours of Google Earth, which seems to obey him more than it obeys me. I have it on my computer.
My group took an awkward and hot photo on top of an Einstein statue:
Here they are again, but it was a poor idea to take a photo like this:
The Iwo Jima Memorial:
That night we went to the Marines Sunset Parade, and to our surprise, they played a medley from Rent! XDDD They were very good.
DAY 7:
...began at breakfast with some girls daring me to drink this concoction of milk, apple juice, orange juice, water, and cranberry juice for money. It was disgusting, but I did it anyway, of course. XD I only took a sip, and it really didn't taste very bad. However, it looked absolutely nauseating. The money wasn't in there when I drank it. XD
Ewwwwwwww:
We are so immature:
Sandy from Taiwan and I took a photo before a panel:
And another cool person. It looks like Won-Ju, but I'm kind of covering up her face by accident, so I'm not 100% sure:
The talent show was AMAZING. Seriously, HOBY kids are talented! My favorites were probably this boy and girl who both played a rare instrument called a macarena or a macena or something like that. They played Amazing Grace together, and then the boy played the Titanic song. Oh, it was amazing. Also, a girl did a step routine that was so cool.
Here, the S.Koreans reenact a traditional Korean wedding. It was so sweet!
Then they did a traditional dance:
(I had bad seats, so my photos are of quite poor-quality.)
The white girl from Hong Kong was amaaaaaaaaaaaaaazing. She designed this dress herself and sang a song from Phantom of the Opera. She wants to be a Broadway singer when she's older, and she will TOTALLY get the job. Her stance, confidence, and abilities were seriously perfect.
DAY 8:
Um, Kevin is hot when he's scary?
Caroline and Mike (who is from Massachusetts)!
Caroline, Nicky, and Won-Ju. I think my parents are right, I really do love Asians more than other races. XD
Kevin and my hideous face:
The last night was the banquet, which costs $100 for non-HOBYs. It was incredibly fancy and awesome.
My friends!
Margaret and Elsa, probably the tallest and shortest of my friends. ^_^ Elsa is from Taiwan and was SO SO SO cute whenever she did or said anything. XD
Emily and I met at the banquet and chatted while we were waiting to get onstage to practice our songs for the performance at the banquet. She was cool, and check out how cool the room we were in was!
A boy from Kurdistan/Iraq and me. ^_^
Kelly (one of my roomies) and an extremely nice boy, Jeff from Hong Kong, who sat at my table at the banquet:
After the banquet, we had a dance! It was very fun, and I danced with a boy who I thought was from China but was actually from California. XDD Kevin asked me to slowdance, and even though I think he meant it as friends, it was the most romantic dance I've ever had. :)
Nicky, Rachel, Devon and Angela after the dance. Awww, we all knew the trip was almost over and CLUNG TO EACH OTHER.
Ben, Kevin looking like a model, an awesome guy from my group whose name I can't remember!! AHH!!! NO!, and Nicky with his special plate.
All of the international students were given pewter plates with the seal of the United States on them. Students who had shown extra kindness to a specific international student were chosen to give them. I was chosen to give one to Angela. ^_^ She was so happy when she got it.
Evelyna from Mexico with her plate:
The bus ride back to the University. CURSE MY CAMERA'S LACK OF FOCUS IN THE DARK. XD Check out Nicky in the blurry center:
Kelly and Yad:
Meg and Lori, my other two roomies. I LOVE THEM ALL. We got to know each other so much... I feel almost like I'm doing them and my trip an injustice by writing so little about it in this post. I'll have to do another one.
DAY 9:
We arrived at the University at 1am and had a group party until 2 or so. Then we all decided to sleep in the group room (pretty much on top of each other). This guy was the first to fall asleep. On some desks. XD
Ben slept on the floor, and unbeknownst to both him and the owner of the feet, they ended up like this:
Mary-Kate, Nicky, Ashley, Kevin, Meg and I stayed up until about 4:30am. I am SO GLAD WE DID. First, we all went around the room and told about the best and worst days of our lives, and everyone paid full attention. For my worst day ever, I told about the Coach Pridgen Scandal and, despite my efforts, started crying as I was telling. Nicky scooted over and held me as I cried and for a good 5 or 10 minutes afterwards. Everyone was sympathetic and couldn't believe it. That made me feel...so understood. Loved.
But I felt a little bad, because some people's worst days were a lot worse than mine. Devon's might have been the worst, because he was accused of raping his stepsister and was forced by the police to live in someone else's house for three weeks until they proved he was not guilty. Ashley aka Canada's might also have been the worst; she went to statewide HOBY, was inspired, planned some kind of fundraiser at a beach, refused a boy a ride home because she had to leave, and then the boy ended up drowning. She was blamed doubly because she both planned the event and didn't give him a ride home. Then the next month, her boyfriend died in a car crash.
If you are ever looking to bond with someone, ask them about their worst day ever. Tell them that no matter what it is, they can talk about it, and will have as much time as they want. We all felt such a connection... I hardly ever talk about the Coach Pridgen Scandal because it upsets me so much. But I was glad I did.
Then we did the best day ever, which was very fun. I have had many very good days. As my very best, I told about the day I started The GAPP Club. In addition, I added the first Darfur car wash I ever did and my trip to Germany.
But when Stacie, our group leader, said it was time to turn off the lights, we stayed up. She said we could talk quietly if we wanted to, so we did. In the dark, we played "The Animal Game" in silence, which was so funny. Nicky was hilarious at it. After that, it was about 4am and we figured we should probably go to bed. Kevin, Ashley, and Meg were all in one bed, Mary-Kate was in a gap between the beds, and Nicky and I were in a bed. NICKY WAS SO FUNNY!!! I laid down and stared at the ceiling for a minute, thinking, "Nah, there's nothing wrong with sharing a bed with a male friend." and then Nicky whispered loudly, "Caroline! May I offa you PLESH AHH?" XD in his awesome Chinese accent. XD It was SOOOOOOOO funny, and everyone just burst out laughing. I said, "No, Nicky, no pleasure!" XD He said, "Well, you should at least thank me. It was a nice offer." After about 10 minutes of being 2 inches away from Nicky's face, I fell asleep....
...and woke up 2 or so hours later. XD
Everyone cried at breakfast and before it. The international students had to leave very early, and no one was more upset than the Taiwanese. ;_;
Elsa, Angela, and Jeffry were all crying.
I did a lot of hugging and holding. Two girls from Taiwan were just sobbing their faces off, and I said, "No, it's okay! We'll see each other again! And you can sleep on the plane." They just choked and cried harder, saying that they never wanted to sleep again if they could just stay here. ;_; I almost cried right then too. Saying goodbye to Angela, Lori, and Elsa was very, very hard.
At breakfast, our group was much smaller. :( They had an open mike for people to come up and say whatever they wanted to about HOBY or about how they'd miss us. So people did. We sat at our table and made faces at my camera:
Mike was very ghetto:
People all around me were very sad:
I tried to make people happy by forcing them to smile (XD) for my camera.
Meg was not too upset because she was looking forward to some sleep. But she still didn't want to go. She smiled nicely for me:
Then SOMEONE got the bright idea of taking their iPod up there and playing a sad song, "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing" by AeroSmith. Of course, everyone began hugging and swaying and crying some more. Me included.
Afterwards, boys started hugging each other and crying in mass quantities! :D I can dig that.
Christopher Lee (YAY for the name) and me:
One final "Outstanding" cheer:
AWWW!! Nicky started crying!! ;_;
And finally, me and Stacie, one of the nicest people I've ever met. She was our group leader, and an amazing one at that. She's also a first-grade teacher, which gives me hope for the next generations. :)
The end. :(
It stands for Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership, and boy, was it.
I began my trip meeting Evelyna (quite a surprise) at the airport, and then took several short flights to Washington D.C.:
The overhead views were great:
(And I even saw lightning twice from the airplane in a storm over Virginia! But I couldn't take a photo of it.)
We arrived at the airport, then were shuttled to George Washington University, and were told to mill around for awhile, so we did:
The next day, we all got up early and ate breakfast with our groups. This is Kevin (on the left) and Meg and Nicky:
Ben from Nebraska ate an entire plate of bacon and nothing else. He did that every morning. XD:
Nicky from Hong Kong had a cellphone that was also a really good camera:
Angela from Taiwan and I quickly became good friends:
Angela and Ben:
DAY 2
On our second day, we had (I think) the commander of the Marines come speak to us:
But I was more fascinated by his SUPER shiny shoes than his speech:
Hugh O'Brian came and talked to us:
That evening, we had International Night, an intro to each of the 20 or so other countries that were represented at HOBY. Here is a photo of the Hong Kong people:
The Koreans didn't get very long for their show (and they had planned a LOT of cool stuff, like a traditional dance) so I was very, very mad that the Canadians took almost 10 minutes to dance around screaming "WE'VE GOT SPIRIT HOW BOUT YOU!" The moderators for the International Night even said, "Thank you Korea, but we're out of time." You should have seen the devastated looks on their faces!! I even shouted at the mods, "I'll stay here until 1am if they can do their dance!" and got some disapproving looks. But the Koreans got to perform at the talent show later in the week.
DAY 3
We walked across Washington D.C. to another hall where we had some lectures. But before then, we all met up in the George Washington University place where we had breakfast. Angela and I were already best friends, and here is Rachel, another girl from my group:
Other girls from my group (L to R: Rachel, Won-Ju, Meg, and Ashley aka Canada on the bottom):
When we arrived at the hall, I noticed the germ paintings that I thought were awesome:
...and...the rest of the day was amazing, but right now I have too many photos to describe it. Perhaps later. But at night our group had our second group meeting, and we instantly had great fun:
(Nicky, in the top left corner, was totally my favorite. But seriously, I got along perfectly and felt like I had been friends forever with everyone but one person in my group, and we two just didn't talk that much. XD)
The whole amazing group (which, by the way, was named "1B") is here. Right before the photo took, Nicky said, "Sex!" really loudly to make people laugh. XD
We told briefly about where we lived, and I gave, according to everyone, a very funny report about North Carolina. Here is Angela telling us about Taiwan:
DAY 4
The next morning we were SO tired. I, for one, could not sleep because my roommates and I all wanted to know about each others' lives. I had a girl from Texas, Kelly; a girl from Connecticut, Megan; and a girl from Taiwan, Lori. They were SO awesome. But you could tell that no one got any sleep. Here is Ben sleeping on a bench during a five-minute break before we went to breakfast:
That was the day we went to get our massive group photo taken on the Lincoln Memorial steps:
It was a beautiful morning and led to one of my favorite photos ever:
But once the sun came from behind the clouds, the temperature rose exponentially. We all stood on the steps for the photo, and one by one, kids started fainting and passing out. It was really quite scary, because it was like there was a certain time where everyone just began passing out. I was so hot that my legs were sweating and sweat was dripping down my face. In the group photo, I did not smile. XD
But here, look at this awful photo of me!
Oh, how I love the kids from Taiwan! They asked me if I would take a group photo for them, and when I said "SURE!", they grinned and handed me 25 cameras. XD It took forever, but their cameras were all so awesome.
By the end of the 9 days, I was friends with most of the Taiwanese kids. :D Because I took their photos for them, two girls gave me stickers that say "I love you" in Mandarin. ^_^
I like this bike's stickers:
Here's the Lincoln Memorial:
Woo, me!
Here is the group of people from Hong Kong, and one girl from California. Guess who she is? HA! She's NOT the white girl! The third person from the right is from California. ^_^
Here are me, some girls, and three of the boys from Iraq/Kurdistan. Is it just me, or are they HOT?
They asked if they could do their gangsta pose. XD
This is Yad. He really liked me. XD Maybe because I have blonde hair. But he put his knuckles lightly to my face, which, in Kurdistan/Iraq, is the highest gesture of respect from a man to a woman. ^_^ He wanted many pictures with me, so Stam took them for us on his camera, my camera, Stam's camera, and Avraz's camera:
Then Stam wanted a picture with me on several cameras:
And their idea of posing for a photo is everyone looking in different directions. XD Really, they planned it like that.
I was walking with the Kurdish/Iraqi boys to the WWII Memorial, but then I found some people speaking Spanish! I was so excited that I hugged the boys and told them I'd meet up with them later. It turns out that there was a small group of South American students whose English was either great, good, or not so great, so they were speaking in Spanish. I chatted with some girls from Mexico and Argentina in Spanish, and they said my Spanish was very good. ^_^
We arrived at the WWII Memorial, which was very beautiful:
I believe these two are both from Argentina:
All of these people are from Spanish-speaking countries except for the tall boy on the far left who looks and is Canadian.
Here is a pretty fountain in one of the lecture/panel halls:
During the break we had, everyone was so tired that they were sleeping on each other:
I don't know why I have this photo. XD I just saw a boy posing amusingly for someone else, so I took it.
Me and a really cool person whose name I can't remember. Someone saw this photo and thought we were sisters??
Every night we had choir practice, which one would think would be torture for someone like me. Actually, it was extremely fun. Only once did I fall asleep, and it was short-lived due to my head falling off of my hand everytime I drifted off. XD But here is our choir director, Sean, who was extremely funny and made many sexual innuendos with his pointy stick, which was called "Schtick". He said things like, "When Schtick is up and ready, you need to watch out!" He moved so quickly during practice that it was hard to get a picture of him.
We sang "Seasons of Love" from Rent, "The Impossible Dream", "That's What Friends Are For", "Bridge Over Troubled Water", and "We Are The World". They were very good choices.
DAY 5:
We walked around Washington some more, and passed very beautiful buildings:
I was incredibly pleased with this photo, which was taken while I was running across a street. Literally.
Our panel today was on the United Nations, which was very interesting. Here is the row in front of me, including one boy from Iraq/Kurdistan and one girl from Taiwan who is my friend! I think her name is Judy, but I remember so many names that I'm not sure it's hers:
Meg and me:
Later that day, we trekked to the Smithsonian Museum of American History. I liked it, but I really REALLY wanted to visit the Museum of Natural History. :( But some things in the American History museum were cool, like the flag that flew over the Pentagon on 9-11:
My group looking at a map. It was so hot that we were drenched in sweat after the walk to the museum:
In the elevator, Mary-Kate tried very hard to look exactly like th people on the poster behind her. Really, that's what she was going for:
Not sure why I took a photo of this, but I did:
Yay, one of the non-stolen pairs!
This... has no explanation:
This does. XD I told Nicky and Mike to stand in front of this sign and make the face that they think of when they think of "American Pop Culture". So they did.
Elvis gets a polio shot:
A famous country singer's guitar:
My friends and I play with hats in the gift shop:
The National Mall, bathed in an incredible heat wave:
Devon hangs on the metro poles:
Mike from Florida loves his pants:
And so do they:
Mary-Kate and a Lincoln hat:
NICKY!
That night, Hugh O'Brian gave us medals. I have to admit, it was one of the most awkward moments of my life. XD
MARGARET FROM EAST HIGH SCHOOL WAS THE REP FROM KANSAS!!!!!!!!! We freaked out when we saw each other. I can't believe we were both there!
Her group seemed very fun:
DAY 6:
Our panels today were VERY cool, including a talk from the man who invented the modern Internet:
His plans for the internet's future were cool:
But some of future plans were scary to me, like internet in everyone's daily appliances, like refrigerators. Imagine if it got hacked! Or if your appliances were smarter than you and forced you to go on a diet or wouldn't let you get your food. So I'd like to stick to computers having internet and not much else, if possible.
This guy was so cool:
He gave us tours of Google Earth, which seems to obey him more than it obeys me. I have it on my computer.
My group took an awkward and hot photo on top of an Einstein statue:
Here they are again, but it was a poor idea to take a photo like this:
The Iwo Jima Memorial:
That night we went to the Marines Sunset Parade, and to our surprise, they played a medley from Rent! XDDD They were very good.
DAY 7:
...began at breakfast with some girls daring me to drink this concoction of milk, apple juice, orange juice, water, and cranberry juice for money. It was disgusting, but I did it anyway, of course. XD I only took a sip, and it really didn't taste very bad. However, it looked absolutely nauseating. The money wasn't in there when I drank it. XD
Ewwwwwwww:
We are so immature:
Sandy from Taiwan and I took a photo before a panel:
And another cool person. It looks like Won-Ju, but I'm kind of covering up her face by accident, so I'm not 100% sure:
The talent show was AMAZING. Seriously, HOBY kids are talented! My favorites were probably this boy and girl who both played a rare instrument called a macarena or a macena or something like that. They played Amazing Grace together, and then the boy played the Titanic song. Oh, it was amazing. Also, a girl did a step routine that was so cool.
Here, the S.Koreans reenact a traditional Korean wedding. It was so sweet!
Then they did a traditional dance:
(I had bad seats, so my photos are of quite poor-quality.)
The white girl from Hong Kong was amaaaaaaaaaaaaaazing. She designed this dress herself and sang a song from Phantom of the Opera. She wants to be a Broadway singer when she's older, and she will TOTALLY get the job. Her stance, confidence, and abilities were seriously perfect.
DAY 8:
Um, Kevin is hot when he's scary?
Caroline and Mike (who is from Massachusetts)!
Caroline, Nicky, and Won-Ju. I think my parents are right, I really do love Asians more than other races. XD
Kevin and my hideous face:
The last night was the banquet, which costs $100 for non-HOBYs. It was incredibly fancy and awesome.
My friends!
Margaret and Elsa, probably the tallest and shortest of my friends. ^_^ Elsa is from Taiwan and was SO SO SO cute whenever she did or said anything. XD
Emily and I met at the banquet and chatted while we were waiting to get onstage to practice our songs for the performance at the banquet. She was cool, and check out how cool the room we were in was!
A boy from Kurdistan/Iraq and me. ^_^
Kelly (one of my roomies) and an extremely nice boy, Jeff from Hong Kong, who sat at my table at the banquet:
After the banquet, we had a dance! It was very fun, and I danced with a boy who I thought was from China but was actually from California. XDD Kevin asked me to slowdance, and even though I think he meant it as friends, it was the most romantic dance I've ever had. :)
Nicky, Rachel, Devon and Angela after the dance. Awww, we all knew the trip was almost over and CLUNG TO EACH OTHER.
Ben, Kevin looking like a model, an awesome guy from my group whose name I can't remember!! AHH!!! NO!, and Nicky with his special plate.
All of the international students were given pewter plates with the seal of the United States on them. Students who had shown extra kindness to a specific international student were chosen to give them. I was chosen to give one to Angela. ^_^ She was so happy when she got it.
Evelyna from Mexico with her plate:
The bus ride back to the University. CURSE MY CAMERA'S LACK OF FOCUS IN THE DARK. XD Check out Nicky in the blurry center:
Kelly and Yad:
Meg and Lori, my other two roomies. I LOVE THEM ALL. We got to know each other so much... I feel almost like I'm doing them and my trip an injustice by writing so little about it in this post. I'll have to do another one.
DAY 9:
We arrived at the University at 1am and had a group party until 2 or so. Then we all decided to sleep in the group room (pretty much on top of each other). This guy was the first to fall asleep. On some desks. XD
Ben slept on the floor, and unbeknownst to both him and the owner of the feet, they ended up like this:
Mary-Kate, Nicky, Ashley, Kevin, Meg and I stayed up until about 4:30am. I am SO GLAD WE DID. First, we all went around the room and told about the best and worst days of our lives, and everyone paid full attention. For my worst day ever, I told about the Coach Pridgen Scandal and, despite my efforts, started crying as I was telling. Nicky scooted over and held me as I cried and for a good 5 or 10 minutes afterwards. Everyone was sympathetic and couldn't believe it. That made me feel...so understood. Loved.
But I felt a little bad, because some people's worst days were a lot worse than mine. Devon's might have been the worst, because he was accused of raping his stepsister and was forced by the police to live in someone else's house for three weeks until they proved he was not guilty. Ashley aka Canada's might also have been the worst; she went to statewide HOBY, was inspired, planned some kind of fundraiser at a beach, refused a boy a ride home because she had to leave, and then the boy ended up drowning. She was blamed doubly because she both planned the event and didn't give him a ride home. Then the next month, her boyfriend died in a car crash.
If you are ever looking to bond with someone, ask them about their worst day ever. Tell them that no matter what it is, they can talk about it, and will have as much time as they want. We all felt such a connection... I hardly ever talk about the Coach Pridgen Scandal because it upsets me so much. But I was glad I did.
Then we did the best day ever, which was very fun. I have had many very good days. As my very best, I told about the day I started The GAPP Club. In addition, I added the first Darfur car wash I ever did and my trip to Germany.
But when Stacie, our group leader, said it was time to turn off the lights, we stayed up. She said we could talk quietly if we wanted to, so we did. In the dark, we played "The Animal Game" in silence, which was so funny. Nicky was hilarious at it. After that, it was about 4am and we figured we should probably go to bed. Kevin, Ashley, and Meg were all in one bed, Mary-Kate was in a gap between the beds, and Nicky and I were in a bed. NICKY WAS SO FUNNY!!! I laid down and stared at the ceiling for a minute, thinking, "Nah, there's nothing wrong with sharing a bed with a male friend." and then Nicky whispered loudly, "Caroline! May I offa you PLESH AHH?" XD in his awesome Chinese accent. XD It was SOOOOOOOO funny, and everyone just burst out laughing. I said, "No, Nicky, no pleasure!" XD He said, "Well, you should at least thank me. It was a nice offer." After about 10 minutes of being 2 inches away from Nicky's face, I fell asleep....
...and woke up 2 or so hours later. XD
Everyone cried at breakfast and before it. The international students had to leave very early, and no one was more upset than the Taiwanese. ;_;
Elsa, Angela, and Jeffry were all crying.
I did a lot of hugging and holding. Two girls from Taiwan were just sobbing their faces off, and I said, "No, it's okay! We'll see each other again! And you can sleep on the plane." They just choked and cried harder, saying that they never wanted to sleep again if they could just stay here. ;_; I almost cried right then too. Saying goodbye to Angela, Lori, and Elsa was very, very hard.
At breakfast, our group was much smaller. :( They had an open mike for people to come up and say whatever they wanted to about HOBY or about how they'd miss us. So people did. We sat at our table and made faces at my camera:
Mike was very ghetto:
People all around me were very sad:
I tried to make people happy by forcing them to smile (XD) for my camera.
Meg was not too upset because she was looking forward to some sleep. But she still didn't want to go. She smiled nicely for me:
Then SOMEONE got the bright idea of taking their iPod up there and playing a sad song, "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing" by AeroSmith. Of course, everyone began hugging and swaying and crying some more. Me included.
Afterwards, boys started hugging each other and crying in mass quantities! :D I can dig that.
Christopher Lee (YAY for the name) and me:
One final "Outstanding" cheer:
AWWW!! Nicky started crying!! ;_;
And finally, me and Stacie, one of the nicest people I've ever met. She was our group leader, and an amazing one at that. She's also a first-grade teacher, which gives me hope for the next generations. :)
The end. :(