Gah so I've been extremely lazy in my blogging life, but I think that just corresponds to being busy in my normal life.

Grant Weekend was super awesome!!!! 26 (!) of us went up on Friday night to the Second College Grant (a land grant given to the college by the state I believe), which has lots of awesome hiking opportunities and sweet cabins. I was part of the first group, along with Tommy and lots of other awesome people (Kevin, Ben, Athena, Gaby, Becca, Julia, John, and Robin). We all bonded over the 3 hour bus ride and Athena's crazy driving skills (including swerving and tailgating, driving on the rumble strip, and almost taking out the awning of a gas station. We got there about 3 hours before the second bus and decided to hide in their cabin to scare them. We found a cow skull and ax in their cabin and obviously decided to have Ben stand there with the ax and skull in the dark room while we all hid in the bunks. Amazing. They figured out that we were there though because they went further than the cabin and saw our bus strategically placed at a different cabin. But they were still scared haha. We stayed up pretty late, figured out our plans for the next day, and finally went to bed.

Saturday was adventure day! I went with Athena, Jesse, John, Robin, and Bob to hike around Devil's Gate. We basically just meandered along, found a trail up on the rim of a gorge which had some pretty dece views. (One theme of the trip was to shorten every word possible, hence decent became dece, brilliant became brills, and beautiful became beaut.) It rained on us and we almost got lost a couple times, but all was well. The rest of them went on a bike ride after that but I went back to the cabin early with the other group (Ben, Molly, Chris, and Gaby) so I could study some bio. Trips would slowly come back to the cabin, where epic games of Settlers of Catttan (spell?) got going. I ended up playing a LOT of card games throughout the night. Basically the night was spent with games, mac n cheese, CAKE, guitar sing a longs, and lots of talking. It was raining all night and it made the cabin feel so homey :) We went to bed pretty late again and all was well.

Sunday, one bus left around 9 but I decided to go on the late bus. So instead, I went on a hike with Kevin, Wales, and Bob. It was a pretty easy trail except for the fact that because of the rain, our trail had become a stream. Sucked for Bob who was wearing running shoes, not waterproof boots :( But we sang a lot of awesome songs on the trail, like Beatles, S&G, American Pie, and other such folk-y tunes. Tried to teach them Mario Kart Love Song haha. We got back to the cabin where Athena and the remaining campers picked us up on the bus and we drove back to campus.

I glossed over a lot of things but it was the little things that made the weekend so awesome. Getting to know the upperclassmen really well, the random conversations that took place, the great feeling you get when you're in a large group of people all singing together, laughing over something that wasn't that funny...it reminded me of being with all of you guys from home. Like we may not be doing something totally awesome and epic and huge, but I still love every minute of it. Love these people!

This week has been slightly stressful because of my last bio quiz (went okay, one question was just...no...but the rest I feel good about), confusing math homework, and stressful music homework (we have to compose a sonata). However, I've been getting through the week with Sporcle quizzes (if you don't know about it...I'm warning you, it's a major time waster), N64 Smash Bros parties, and just hanging out with friends. Tomorrow is our end of the term DSO concert!! We're playing the Waltz from Tchaik's Serenade for Strings, the Shostakovich Cello Concerto, and Beethoven 5. Apparently it's sold out?! Go us! That like never happens! I think it helps that we all do MAJOR campaigning for it haha. We have another concert tonight in another town (Walpole) and we finally have full brass/cello/viola/bass sections! It makes the music so much more awesome. Tonight is also the Choates Formal! I invited Sang, who is also in DSO, cause we'll be getting there late and if I asked anyone else, it would be awkward cause I wouldn't get there til like 1130 after our concert. Clau had it so if boys wanted a date they would tell her and then she'd get girls on the floor to ask the boys that wanted a date. And we were required to ask in cute ways. I put signs on Sang's door that said "Sang Lee!! Choates Formal with me? <3 Amy B." Then I got one back on my door saying "Amy B.!! For sure! -Sang :D" Clau asked Jack by writing it in chalk on the sidewalk right before you go into our dorm, Anne asked with a cute note/poem to Chris, Lilly brought cookies to Alfredo (at least I think that's what happened), Natalia wrote it on a powerpoint slide and then when we were studying bio asked Tommy if he could help her with this slide, and Zoe blew up balloons, one of which had a cute note in it asking Grant. Yay for us! We're all soooo original haha.

I had my last fencing class yesterday...slightly bittersweet? I feel like I was actually getting to the point where I might be friends with some of the people haha. But oh well, I think I know them well enough to be able to say hi when walking around.

ALSO! Got my schedule and got the later chem class!! Starts at 10, not 8:45, sweet deal. And has the better professor :) Yaaaaay schedules!

And I think I might finally be done with this epically long post. Congrats to you if you read it all!