Back From L.A.
"Why are there so many gangs in L.A.? If I had a gun, I would steal a car and leave." Brandon Adams
L.A. was remarkably underwhelming. There, the air is tangibly polluted (statistic: walking around in L.A. for a day is like smoking a whole pack of cigarettes. It's actually healthier for you to sit inside on your ass than to go jogging and risk breathing hard in L.A.), you aren't allowed to hail a taxi (you have to call them and give them your address, and they don't do intersections) the traffic blows (half hour to get anywhere at the least) the bathrooms aren't well stocked (at least in the businesses that I went to) and they even tell you not to drink the water when you show up.
I was down there from Friday morning to Sunday afternoon, and the whole time was fun, but half the fun was making fun of how ridiculous the city was. I was with Chiho, Brandon, and Alex, my NSCS officer posse, and when we weren't lugging our luggage around looking for all the world like really clean homeless people, (the NSCS powers that be didn't book the conference room for all day, just for after 4, so from 9 am to 4 pm we had to carry our stuff around the city) we were riding the ever-lasting bus or learning how to be better nerds.
A lot of the people in NSCS don't really have any social skills. Chiho and Brandon and I were talking about this at length while drinking cheap nasty wine and watching old movies in their hotel room. Some are nerds, and some are almost normal, but there's just something not right about them. They talk too much or they hike their pants up way too far or they slick their hair back or they're just waaayyy too excited about NSCS activities. This one guy got up in front of the group and tried to start a cheer...about NSCS. Bad-news bears. To top it off, he had his shirt tucked in and his hair slicked to the side. Yeah, you know, the sort of person who must just be beating the ladies off with a stick back home. Other people were way too interesting in the National Leadership Council's Academic Integrity initiative.(We were cracking up when they told us about one chapter who set up a fake 'person gets caught cheating' scenario in a real high school classroom during a test to promote integrity. Chiho thought it was especially hilarious. "Cheat=bad. Lying=okay. Next lesson, hypocracy."
But there are people who take it too seriously. We found it interesting that we as a group (the WWU chapter) are sort of the bad kids of the conventions we attend. With the exception of Alex on this trip, none of us are virgins, and we drink (at the conferences, no less...*gasp* Oh, the indecency!) and don't have a problem with drugs and we joke around and don't pay attention and never take anything seriously and cut out early. The best part of all, however, is that we're a Gold Star Chapter, which means that even though we're delinquent 'normal' kids, we do more activities and get more points than just about every other chapter at these conferences. We're better at this than they are, yet we still goof off and constantly make fun of stuff and mess around. And we're all really good friends, unlike the people who get cobbled together to go from other chapters. We got the 'Most Unified Chapter' award, which the boss-lady had to give to us early because we made some excuse and left early so we could wander around the town. We just...rule, I guess.
We did have fun at the conference, though. For our service project, we went to a ranch where they teach horse-back riding to people with disabilities as therapy, and the woman who runs the place gave us demonstrations and told us some of her amazing success stories. We pulled rocks and weeds out of fields, cut low-hanging branches, cleaned and organized rooms (I took on the task of rearranging and cleaning her tool shed, in which you couldn't even walk, single-handedly, and got a lot done.) We filled two dumpsters with garbage and limbs as we cleaned and trimmed and straightened fences. It was great, even though by the end I was filthy and tired.
The whole time we were down there it was about 65 degrees out. Why I brought my wool peacoat, I'll never know. Probably because I don't have any common sense.
So I bought a UCLA sweatshirt, a present for Erik, and a few postcards to send to the folks. Somehow, I'm pretty sure I managed to spend waaaaayyyy too much money. Alas, travel is not good for my bank account.
Now, I have a bunch of homework and a dodgeball game to get to in a few hours. Took my midterm today; not too bad, despite the fact that I failed miserably to study last night after getting home and accidentally fell asleep on the couch, then skipped tutoring this morning and still didn't thoroughly study. Hmm. I'm a miracle worker, or just a lot luckier than I deserve to be.
I think I'll post pictures once I get them from everybody. For now, I'm going to try to do my homework, at least a little.
I'm so glad it's raining. -) Delicious Washington weather.
L.A. was remarkably underwhelming. There, the air is tangibly polluted (statistic: walking around in L.A. for a day is like smoking a whole pack of cigarettes. It's actually healthier for you to sit inside on your ass than to go jogging and risk breathing hard in L.A.), you aren't allowed to hail a taxi (you have to call them and give them your address, and they don't do intersections) the traffic blows (half hour to get anywhere at the least) the bathrooms aren't well stocked (at least in the businesses that I went to) and they even tell you not to drink the water when you show up.
I was down there from Friday morning to Sunday afternoon, and the whole time was fun, but half the fun was making fun of how ridiculous the city was. I was with Chiho, Brandon, and Alex, my NSCS officer posse, and when we weren't lugging our luggage around looking for all the world like really clean homeless people, (the NSCS powers that be didn't book the conference room for all day, just for after 4, so from 9 am to 4 pm we had to carry our stuff around the city) we were riding the ever-lasting bus or learning how to be better nerds.
A lot of the people in NSCS don't really have any social skills. Chiho and Brandon and I were talking about this at length while drinking cheap nasty wine and watching old movies in their hotel room. Some are nerds, and some are almost normal, but there's just something not right about them. They talk too much or they hike their pants up way too far or they slick their hair back or they're just waaayyy too excited about NSCS activities. This one guy got up in front of the group and tried to start a cheer...about NSCS. Bad-news bears. To top it off, he had his shirt tucked in and his hair slicked to the side. Yeah, you know, the sort of person who must just be beating the ladies off with a stick back home. Other people were way too interesting in the National Leadership Council's Academic Integrity initiative.(We were cracking up when they told us about one chapter who set up a fake 'person gets caught cheating' scenario in a real high school classroom during a test to promote integrity. Chiho thought it was especially hilarious. "Cheat=bad. Lying=okay. Next lesson, hypocracy."
But there are people who take it too seriously. We found it interesting that we as a group (the WWU chapter) are sort of the bad kids of the conventions we attend. With the exception of Alex on this trip, none of us are virgins, and we drink (at the conferences, no less...*gasp* Oh, the indecency!) and don't have a problem with drugs and we joke around and don't pay attention and never take anything seriously and cut out early. The best part of all, however, is that we're a Gold Star Chapter, which means that even though we're delinquent 'normal' kids, we do more activities and get more points than just about every other chapter at these conferences. We're better at this than they are, yet we still goof off and constantly make fun of stuff and mess around. And we're all really good friends, unlike the people who get cobbled together to go from other chapters. We got the 'Most Unified Chapter' award, which the boss-lady had to give to us early because we made some excuse and left early so we could wander around the town. We just...rule, I guess.
We did have fun at the conference, though. For our service project, we went to a ranch where they teach horse-back riding to people with disabilities as therapy, and the woman who runs the place gave us demonstrations and told us some of her amazing success stories. We pulled rocks and weeds out of fields, cut low-hanging branches, cleaned and organized rooms (I took on the task of rearranging and cleaning her tool shed, in which you couldn't even walk, single-handedly, and got a lot done.) We filled two dumpsters with garbage and limbs as we cleaned and trimmed and straightened fences. It was great, even though by the end I was filthy and tired.
The whole time we were down there it was about 65 degrees out. Why I brought my wool peacoat, I'll never know. Probably because I don't have any common sense.
So I bought a UCLA sweatshirt, a present for Erik, and a few postcards to send to the folks. Somehow, I'm pretty sure I managed to spend waaaaayyyy too much money. Alas, travel is not good for my bank account.
Now, I have a bunch of homework and a dodgeball game to get to in a few hours. Took my midterm today; not too bad, despite the fact that I failed miserably to study last night after getting home and accidentally fell asleep on the couch, then skipped tutoring this morning and still didn't thoroughly study. Hmm. I'm a miracle worker, or just a lot luckier than I deserve to be.
I think I'll post pictures once I get them from everybody. For now, I'm going to try to do my homework, at least a little.
I'm so glad it's raining. -) Delicious Washington weather.