Croquet anyone??

So every year my school plays another local Annapolis college in croquet.  I don't think we've ever won, but it gives us an excuse to dress up in wonderfully preppy clothes and drink boatloads of champagne! I wish we could do this every weekend...

 We may have looked absurd, but believe it or not, this is how a lot of people in Annapolis dress on a daily basis...with the exception of my friend in the bottom right corner of the photo above.

me and my bf! (he always dresses like this..)

Creative Writing.

So, my favorite class that I am taking this semester is Creative Writing.  My teacher is one of the most eccentric people i've ever met, but i love love love him!!!! He's always encouraging us to share our stuff with other people so I figured what better way than on my blog?!   Here's my first piece...we had to pick a moral and write a story to tell it: 

In the small town of Kiama, Australia there lived a young girl named Olivia.  She had blonde hair, a pretty smile, and malicious twinkle in her green eyes.  Olivia attended Illawarra Middle School where she ruled as the queen-bee of seventh grade.  She was a beautiful girl and used her looks to get whatever she wanted, including straight A’s, discounts on movie tickets and hoards of expensive jewelry from her many love-struck boyfriends.  During lunch time, Olivia strutted down the halls giving out orders to her minions and pretending not to notice the stares from her admirers as she past.  Though she tried not to play favorites when it came to tormenting her classmates, there was one girl in particular that she loved to make miserable. 

Alice, on the other hand, was a sweet girl; she was quiet and unsuspecting and everything that Olivia was not.  Once when they were both in elementary school, Alice had made the mistake of wearing the same sweater to school as Olivia.  She returned home that day covered in blue paint with a written citation from Olivia warning her to never wear that sweater again “or else”.  Ever since that day, Alice had been on Olivia’s hit-list and was traumatized on a regular basis.  Because she was a good girl and was above getting revenge, Alice paid no attention to Olivia’s childish pranks; she knew that in the end, Olivia would get what she deserved. 

Today was a Wednesday which was Olivia’s favorite day of the week so she celebrated by sticking a thumb tack on her teachers chair and giggled with joy as Alice was sent to the principal’s office instead.  Later that day as Olivia was walking to her next class, she spotted Alice putting her books away in her locker.  Olivia floated by and nonchalantly rammed her shoulder into the other girl, knocking her books to the floor.   She smiled to herself as she walked away ignoring Alice’s comments about karma coming back to haunt her one day.

The next day as Alice was sitting with her friends at lunch, Olivia snuck up behind her and poured a carton of milk on her head claiming that it was an accident.  Alice’s friends were mortified but she just wiped her face and fought back tears.  The rest of the week was awful and by Friday Alice was so upset that she almost forgot her birthday was the next day.  On Saturday morning she woke up to find a large pile of presents sitting at the foot of her bed.  She was very pleased by all of her gifts but her favorite was a shiny, pink boomerang.  Alice spent the whole weekend playing with it and was excited to show her friends the new toy.

On Monday before classes began, Alice and her comrades sat around in a circle admiring the beautiful boomerang. They all took their turns playing with it and were keen on having one of their own.  Olivia watched the girls from afar and decided that she did not like how much fun they were having.  She marched across the courtyard and snatched the boomerang from one of the girl’s hands.  Alice rushed up to her and tried to take the toy back but Olivia shoved her to the ground.  Alice cried and cried but did nothing. She knew Olivia would get what she had coming to her. 

After school that day, Olivia sat with her minions recounting the story of how she had stolen Alice’s toy.  She admired the pretty boomerang and decided to give it a try.  She reached her arm back as far as she could and flung it forward into the air with all her might.  The boomerang whipped through the sky and finally rounded a semi-circle to come back towards Olivia.  Lacking the eye-hand coordination needed to play with such a toy, Olivia was not able to catch the boomerang and was instead hit in the face by the fast-moving object.  She was rushed to the hospital as blood poured out from her nose and mouth and was sent into surgery as soon as she got there.  Sadly, Olivia’s once beautiful face was now disfigured and ugly and was hard to look at for more than a few seconds.  Because she was so unsightly, Olivia never married and grew up to be a spinster who lived alone with her fifteen cats.  She died a virgin and no one came to her funeral. 

As for Alice, she excelled in life and grew old and happy after having four children. When they were old enough, she was sure to tell them the unfortunate story about Olivia and warned that just like a boomerang, “what goes around comes around”.

So what do you think?? It's supposed to be childish and silly...constructive criticism is always nice...

About my home

Sandwiched between the everglades and the Atlantic Ocean is my home-sweet-home, Boca Raton, Florida.   It’s not pronounced “rat-on” as most out-of-towners say and the locals are quick to correct this common mistake with some sort of rude comment.  I never understood how lucky I was to hail from such a place until I left for college and my friends asked to come home with me during the holidays breaks. 

When translated from Spanish, Boca Raton literally means “mouth of the rat” but despite the less-than-glamorous name, it is a beautiful, tropical paradise.  To those who don’t live there, South Florida is the perfect vacation location complete with celebrities, mansions, and the South Beach Diet.  Certainly, it is beautiful and my town is no exception.  Every house in Boca is painted in one of five colors: yellow, pink, white, sea-foam green, or cream.  The lawns are kept neatly groomed with tall palm trees lining the streets, trash cans are kept out of sight, and shiny Jaguars’ sit in every driveway.  It is almost like the Stepford town in which everything looks wonderful and impressive but only those who live there know that it is far from perfect.

While the appearance of Boca Raton is ideal, the people who live there are not.  After living in this town for most of my life, I know the truth about the extreme collection of people who call Boca their home.  The one joke about my town is that it is referred to as “God’s waiting room”; this is in regards to the large amount of old people, or “snow birds” as we so lovingly refer to them as, who retire in South Florida.  They are generally from the North East region of the United States and come down in large flocks to stay in the various retirement homes lining Ocean Drive.  Every Friday night, they all slowly make their way down the roads to Publix, the regional grocery store, and spend the night perusing the canned food isle for a new bingo partner.  The rest of the week, the elderly spend their days driving recklessly around town, causing accidents left and right.

The other type of people that inhabit my town are New York Jews.  I don’t know what it is about Florida that attracts them, but Boca’s population is about 80% Jewish.  They are loud and rude and very rich.  My high school was full of what we called JAPs, which stands for “Jewish American Princess”.   These are the girls who are extremely spoiled and generally drive more expensive cars than their parents.  They throw large birthday parties and carry their books in designer purses; They know what we call them and they love it.

Another Stepford secret is that drugs are a huge part of the culture in Boca Raton. Because there are so many old people in my town, there is a need for plenty of doctors which also means lots of prescription drugs are available.  Many high school kids steal medication from their grandparents and either take it themselves to get high or sell it to the Haitian gardeners.

Another less-than-perfect thing about Boca is that most of the people who live there pretend to be very rich but most of them are so poor they can hardly keep their children in private school.  When the economy crashed, the housing market in Florida was affected worst of all.  Property value has decreased immensely and all the big-time executives who used to work at top-tier companies have been laid off and are currently unemployed.  You will never know the extent of the financial turmoil that a Boca Raton resident is in however; everyone is too proud to admit it, so they continue to spend money they don’t have and claim that they aren’t going on vacation to the Bahamas this year because the islands are where low-class people vacation.

There are many other things that make my home of Boca Raton unique.   For instance, thousands of green iguanas can be seen bathing themselves near the road-side canals; Hurricane season means surf season because that’s the only time we get fifteen foot waves; gym classes have been cancelled due to alligators being found on the school track; white is worn year-round…there’s no such thing as the Labor Day fashion law; and last but not least, there is never a need to go on vacation because the little town of Boca Raton, Florida truly is paradise.