Going through a year's worth of photos

"Year in review" posts are pretty cliché I know, but I suppose that cliché things become cliché for a reason. If people didn't like getting roses on Valentine's Day or dancing in the rain or making "year in review" blog posts, then these things never would have been overdone in the first place.

Probably my most abused condiment of 2011.

At the beginning of 2011, I was still doing my 365. I was venturing out into the cold just for a daily photo (or, more often than not, staying inside and settling for a not-so-great photo). The breathe on my wrist was written daily with a pen. In January I went on an extra credit fieldtrip for geosystems with my friends. We got way too much dust on our shoes and Nikki got to take embarrassing photos of us after everyone fell asleep on the way back home, but we got to see a bat and the trip earned all of us an extra 2% for our quarter grade. I managed wrestling because it seemed like a fun thing to do with friends, but also because I had a little crush on one of the varsity captains. It actually ended up being a very interesting experience.

Photocred: Nikki!

After wrestling season, there was something of a fiasco with three of the wrestling boys trying the Flatliner Challenge at the Buffalo Wing Factory during Fat Week. Only two got out alive, although that isn't even saying much. They were very hot wings.

I got to wear a sari for the first time and performed in the Namaste club's dance during my school's International Night. As an eighteenth birthday present to myself, I got breathe engraved on my wrist forever.

I pledged to take my 365 seriously again (which worked for a little bit) and hiked to an elevation of 3291 feet with aforementioned boy who i had a crush on. Then at the end of March, a package came in the mail that would make me a Brunonian forever. Lacrosse season came and went. That boy did incredibly cute things for me like surprise picnics on the roof, kayaking trips to little islands, and showering me with rose petals in the process of asking me to prom.

Day 268/365.

As the end of senior year approached, things began to pick up speed. The senior boys (and some girls) got their act together and found prom dates, asking in ever more creative ways. I tanned on the deck while pretending to study for finals. I wrapped up my senior project in the neuroscience research lab and on college t-shirt day, everyone wore their school proudly.

Prom asking by box fort.

Our senior class trip to D.C. coincided with Prime Minister Netanyahu's arrival and so although there were many cute photos like this:

More often than not we also caught photos like this:

At the beginning of June, in the spirit of being seniors, My friend Michael and I scootered to school. The ten mile journey took three hours and involved getting lost, hopping fences, and a multitude of injuries, but it was undoubtedly worth it.

Everything seemed to be coming to an end. I could tell that this was happening by the increasing amount of group photos being taken. My three-year stint as an English teacher for Chinese grandparents ended as did various classes and labs.

I wish I could say that by the time prom and graduation came around, things seemed a little surreal. And I guess they might have been a little, but mostly things just came & went, and we took it all in stride. Beach week was crazy (everyone has way too many stories to tell from that week), and my 365 ended up being something I was kind of proud of. All in all, June was a pretty good month.

Graduation, in case you couldn't tell.

Day 351/365.

The summer passed like a blur. I hung out with way too many Asian people (story of my life?), completely geeked out at the premiere of the last Harry Potter movie, and made my friends model for me. I probably should have spent more time with my grandparents. My friends & I had baking parties and cute dinners. On that last night before people started going their separate ways, my girls & I had final pre-college heart to hearts in a library, jumped fences, skinny dipped, and cried way too much. I got awful marks from flea bites right before going on a cruise to the Bahamas, but i went out in a bikini anyways and counted on photoshop being my friend.

We went as house elves. Rainbow Dobby-style house elves.

My beautiful friend Karis...in a cow suit...?

Photoshop was indeed my friend.

And then just like that, summer was gone. It was time to pack up my life and drive eight hours north and worry about grades and making new friends. Lucky for me, the people I've met at Brown so far have been nearly all amazing people. I've made incredible friendships here that last, just like my friendships at home have lasted. I should probably dwell more on the experiences I've had in college, both typical and not-typical, but this post is getting long and i'm getting tired. 

Sorry that you all just read about my life.

Providence in monochrome

My family and I cleverly booked a flight back home for the evening of the 22nd. And so once everyone had gone back home for break by the afternoon of the 21st and even the people who had stayed to party one last night had left early morning on the 22nd, I found myself to be one of the very last people left at Brown. It was quite an eerie feeling to walk around the halls and not hear people through the doors, not smell the attempts of a cooking experiment in the kitchen, and not see people awkwardly walking down to the bathroom wearing just a towel.

I was at loss as to what to do for the entire day. All the doors to my building had been demagnetized so I could either hole up in the dorm or move to the outside once and for all. after a morning with the first option, I finally went with the second. I stashed my bags at the clinic and went into downtown Providence armed with just my ipod and my camera. a little (a lot) hipster, I know.

In the middle of my wanderings I happened upon a goldmine of artsy fartsy poetic graffiti.

There were three panels of this faded lavender writing with ivy growing over it. The full poem went something like this: "I wanted to paint you a castle in the sky but a hot mouthed kiss of destiny got garbled in distant conundrums. In the immensity of my passion for you I found this one quippish phrase: that a world with you in it was forever a more magical place than one without."

Guy ate here

Loui's is one of those charmingly small diners with an eclectic collection of signs, plaques, and paintings. A giant Santa Claus statue with a yellowing beard was perched in a corner and the strip of wall above the counter was a confusing mix of photographs, bumper stickers, and handwritten signs advertising daily specials. When I first stepped through the doors, I noticed a Brown University pennant hanging over the doorway. I found the entire effect very cute and eccentric--I loved it instantly.

About a five minute walk from campus, Loui's is well-known in Providence as a provider of food that is both delectable and cheap--perfect for poor college students. It's even been featured on the food network!

Banana tree!

Guy Fieri's graffiti from his visit here for the show Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives.

Having both just submitted final papers/projects for some of our classes, Hannah & I decided to celebrate by losing our Loui's virginity. We gathered a group of people together for breakfast this afternoon--after all, breakfast at 1pm is only for the classiest of classy.

I'm no expert foodie, but the food at Loui's was absolutely delicious. After four months accustomed to Ratty dining hall sausage, it was a real treat to have sausages that really tasted animal. I tried frozen hot chocolate for the first time and my friends were served steaming platters loaded with toast, eggs, and home fries. Hannah and I ordered pancakes--pumpkin pancakes for me and granola pancakes for her. The pumpkin pancakes were packed with flavor and the granola was a subtle mix of crunchy and cinnamon-y.

We'll definitely be coming back here--at least for two for $2 muffin Mondays.

I tend to wallow in nostalgia

I collapsed onto this couch with the full intention of reading one of the five articles I need for a final paper on digital media, but ended up scrolling through my friend's tumblrs. It's incredibly gratifying to find those posts labeled "to my girls" or "@janebear" or the like. If I really think about it, the fact that people are able to make impressionable dents into the lives of others is truly an amazing concept. How crazy is it that right now at this very moment people might be thinking about you, whether it's because you're part of their daily lives or because they saw something that is reminiscent of you?

Meet my girls. I suppose that in the long run, I haven't even known them for that long. We weren't even always a group of friends through high school. But something about that tumultuous journey has made us unbelievably close. What we've lacked in constancy we have made up in depth.

"I feel like your entire tumblr is dedicated to jjks-isms. I laugh at every single one because they're so true." - S