first observations in london

1. British people refer to "Restrooms" as "Toilets" on their signs
2. Signs for elevators say "Lifts"
3. The bathrooms on buses look as if they're giant fridges. I don't understand how they work.
4. Seat belts must be worn on buses, or else the non-wearer is charged a fine!
5. London license plates are the same ugly yellow as the new New York State ones
6. British people use a lot of interesting words that seem to have bad meanings. Our guide kept using a word which he said meant "wh*te tr*ash" and he would just say it in sentence over and over again. I was like o.o;;
7. Crossing the street in London is both a dangerous and confusing task.

some goals for London / Europe

- To develop a killer British accent
- To learn and understand European fashion!
- To have afternoon tea
- To go to Camden Market
- To go to a pub
- To visit FRANCE and at least one other country
- To take the tube
- To eat fish and chips!
- To visit the palace
- To take a picture with the palace guards
- To send postcards to friends back home
- To begin and actively keep up a Project 365 via flickr
- To have an awesome internship
- To not procrastinate on my analytical journal I'm supposed to do

To be continued...

a nostalgic melody

Went to Mannes College of Music today to accompany my brothers on their auditions. They auditioned for the prep division for playing violin. It was an interesting feeling to go to Mannes...the only times I've been there was to visit my friends Sho or Jon, which I had started doing since throughout high school. And now it's come time for my brothers to be making that step themselves and developing their skills as musicians.

It was a little bittersweet, because I never really got to take violin seriously. I started up lessons late in middle school, and the only reason I started in the first place was because I just wanted to learn to play for fun. But my instructor was insistent on pushing me...my first year of playing violin, I already took a Level 5 NYSSMA exam and was learning to play a Level 6 piece. I was playing pieces way beyond my skill level, and was relying more on piano skills to play violin. I could play fast pieces, but it was hard for me to play slow and emotional pieces because I never learned how to vibrato! I kind of wish I started earlier and was able to develop more. My orchestra teacher always commented to me how she wished she could "turn me into a violinist" but I got so sick of being pushed so hard that I just stopped enjoying it.

Nowadays, I barely touch my violin but I still play piano. I feel like piano will always be a part of me; I don't care if I'm not the best or whatnot. In middle school to high school, there were 3 years where I didn't take lessons and it felt so weird, like something was missing. Even in college, even though I don't have lessons as often as I should, I still love the feeling of playing and challenging myself to do better.

At Mannes, chilling at the Steinway piano in the practice room~

Adventures Await!

It's crazy to me that I am going to be leaving soon for study abroad. I feel like I haven't done ANYTHING really to prepare for it...I think I'm going to be in for some major shock once I leave and get there haha. I'm more nervous about studying abroad that I was for leaving for college or anything else. Everyone tells me I'll have a lot of fun but I'm still kind of nervous :X

Things I still have to do:

- Figure out bank issues

- Finish packing

- Look over information for my internship

- Contact some people, friends of friends, who are in London

- Make some sort of plan on where I want to go while in Europe

Ugh. Well I guess that's what Saturday is for...yay procrastination in every sense! :D

In the mean time, it's been fun seeing friends from home & chilling with college friends as well. It's funny because most of the people who I've seen from college are my sorority sisters, which as a freshman I never thought I would really hang out with sisters that much haha. I was so worried about being labeled a "sorority girl" and whatnot. But I think now I've grown to accept that people DO label, people DO judge, but what do I care? It's not going to stop me from having fun and doing what I want. I feel like I was always afraid in the past of being excited to do certain things because I didn't want to look like an idiot or didn't want to be judged. But life's too short for all that.

One thing college has taught me: to just enjoy everything I can, and not worry so much about what other people will think.

"What you want?"

"What you want?", originally uploaded by franstarrr.

Bored at home, so spent time taking photos of my puppy ^^

My "Forte": Worrying

I'm often told I worry too much...which I guess is pretty true. I really have no confidence in myself whatsoever, so when I'm faced with difficult situations, I feel like I can't rely on myself. I would almost rather trust anyone else but myself haha. College has given me opportunities to start to believe that maybe I can be a leader, but at the same time, I feel like I have the least confidence in myself.

I'm trying really hard to change that though, because I want to prove to everyone, especially myself, that I can be a leader. I'm starting to get worried that people might not respect me as CSA President...as much as I don't think much of myself, I don't want to be stepped over. I don't want people to think "so and so should've been President" or "Frances only got it because no one ran against her." Because I've seen a lot of cases were Presidents dedicated so much for 4 years to their organizations, and then the last year end up leaving with bad feelings because people just don't understand or talk shit.

Mike told me that being President means "doing all the work but having no one appreciate you for it" and I feel like that left him not as happy or enjoying his time as President as much, and thus leaving CSA with not the most happiest of feelings; it was more just being burned out. I don't want that for myself, I want to be excited, I want to inspire people in CSA, I want everyone to truly have fun and be proud of being part of this organization. And I want to be proud of being its President and feeling like I've accomplished something.

I guess it's just hard because not only am I just pretty unconfident in myself but I've seen a lot of the unhappier parts of being a leader in organizations like CSA. Hopefully I can change that.

My beloved CSA e-board, this past year's & next

I can't believe I've been on e-board since my freshman year o.o 4 years already

Don't seem like much of a "President" haha

I always remember thinking the CSA President my freshman year was cool...aiyahhh!

finally summer & it feels so good!

This has been a pretty good two weeks at home. Just been chilling and relaxing until my trip to LONDON! =D

A little summary of the past month:

FINALLY turned 21 haha and had a wonderful birthday at school thanks to my boyfriend and lovely friends =D Picture of me with some of my pledge sisters<3

Watched my boyfriend and other friends at school graduate :):) Luckily he'll still be around working so we won't be apart yet! ;)

Went to Seattle for my sorority's National Convention! Got to spend time with my awesome big & little :)

Our chapter also won an award and three of our sisters got onto National E-Board, including my big! So proud.

Also been spending time with friends from home. Picture above with my dorkchestra buddies who I've blogged about before haha

And now just pretty much chilling and getting ready to go. I bought a new lens for my DSLR, thanks to the helpful advice of the guy at B&H (MOST AWESOME STORE EVER!!) and Christy, who answered all my stupid questions haha and I'm sooo excited to play around with it!

I have so many things I'm excited for this summer, so many things I want to do this year...I hope I can do it! XD