>.< So stressed.....

(Note: I probably write too much useless stuff on this blog...)

Two quotes... Two small quotes are the cause of all my stress....

"Street crime is common in Mongolia, particularly in Ulaanbaatar, the capital. Most of the street crime is non-violent, but violent incidents do occur regularly."

"Medical facilities in Mongolia are very limited and do not meet most Western standards, especially for emergency health care requirements. Many brand-name Western medicines are unavailable."

My mom just had to on the government travel website and she just had to look up Mongolia... She still thinks I'm completely crazy for choosing Mongolia over France or Spain or something... But I don't feel like talking about depressing stuff, so I'll tell you about useless stuff happening in my life! Yay!

For any of you (most, if not all, of you) that don't know, I'm the lighting designer at the teen center I go to. The show that we're doing is 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. So today, I finished hanging all of my wonderful lights. And they're super awesome and amazing. If you saw them right now, you would be sooo jealous...

My school is finally thoughtful for once. They decided to have big, empty water coolers in the school lobby with a sign saying "Donate Money to Japan" or something like that... But they only decided to do something after the asian club already had. It is said in Japanese legend that if you receive 1,000 paper cranes, then you get to make a wish. So they were selling origami paper and paper crane-making lessons for $1 each. And I made a crane, but it didn't turn out too well... I hope the legend doesn't say anything about demented paper cranes...

I'm awaiting the return of my English essay... I handed it in about 1 1/2 months ago. I'm told that my English teacher tends to take a really long time to grade essays, but SERIOUSLY! So I still need my essay back, I need to study for my Chemistry test in 2 days, I still need to register for my classes next year, but I'm procrastinating by writing this post.

Well, I should probably go now...

(I would say goodbye in Mongolian, but I have no idea how.)

Decisions, decisions...

So me and my dad were talking about possible country options. We were talking about Mongolia and Thailand.

Dad: If the radiation in Japan is under control, than I'd feel better sending you to Thailand.

Me: And if the radiation's not under control?

Dad: Then I'd feel best sending you to Colorado.

Bad just turned into Worse....

Something I wrote on a forum a little while ago...

"I really just feel like crawling into a corner and crying right now... I just finished talking with my mom and she said that because of the radioactivity, even if the exchange to Japan isn't cancelled, she wouldn't let me go there. And I see where she's coming from, I really do.

So I told her about South Korea, but she didn't like that idea because of it's proximity to Japan. She said that she wouldn't be surprised if there were radiation levels detected in Korea. I just really don't know if Korea's gonna be an option either. Right now, it's not only the organization saying that the program's ok. My parents are way stricter about the safety issues.

She wants me to go to Europe or Australia because she says that they're "safer" and "more stable." I looked through the programs that my organization offers again and I saw that they offer Mongolia, so now I'm thinking that it might be a good option. And they are far, far away from the ocean and Japan. I just hope my parents agree...."

So I'm really sorry for all of those who came to this blog searching for a cool trip to Japan, but it's just not going to happen. Even if the program continues, my parents said that they definitely won't allow it. So now I just might push for Mongolia. I'm too lazy to actually say what the Mongolia trip is all about, so I'm just gonna link it here for anybody that's curious.

I'm really upset that all of this is happening in my year of all times, but you can't change the past. You can only try your hardest for a better future. I'm not really a believer of any gods, but my mom told me right before she left to go to bed, "Everything happens for a reason. Maybe you just weren't meant to go to Japan. Maybe you were meant to have extraordinary experiences in a different country."

So I'm probably going to make a new blog for everybody that still wants to follow me, as I'm not going to Japan anymore. Once I find out my new country, I'll post and I'll have a link for my new blog.

See you later.

It's not looking so good...

Soo...

Japan's not looking so good right about now. EIL was super awesome and called my mom and had a long discussion with her about the situation. What's going to happen is for the next 10-14 days, the program is still on. If the conditions are deemed unsafe for students after that time, than the program will be cancelled. :(

But it's not a total loss! If my program is cancelled, which I'm sad to say that it probably will be, than I get to choose any other program that they offer and I automatically go to the top of the list. I'm actually starting to lean more towards Korea than Thailand or China.

But let's not think about that now! I will get back to you about this topic in around 2 weeks and I'll tell you my plan.

See you!

じゃね！

당신을 보십시오!

Bad News: 2, Good News: 0

So.. I bet everybody who has a blog is making a post with this topic. So, I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do. I mean, the earthquake and tsunami were bad, but not bad enough to stop an exchange. But then the nuclear power plant decides to go and explode...

Well, I know that there were some Rotary clubs that cancelled their exchanges, and AFS severely postponed the yearlong exchange, turning it into a semester exchange. Too bad you can't really do that with a summer exchange. Hopefully, I will still be able to go to Japan, but at this point, I really don't know. I emailed EIL a couple hours ago, and I am impatiently waiting for them to respond.

So, for all of you that haven't had their faces glued to msnbc.com, earlier today, the wind started to blow the leaking radioactive particles out to sea where they would dissipate before they reached California. But now the wind started to blow south. Right towards Tokyo. There are some scientists who say that the particles will dissipate before they reach Tokyo, but I personally think that is a load of crap.

According to an article I read (I'll link it at the bottom), the radiation levels around Tokyo have risen 40 times their normal level. Even though this level is "no threat to human health," it is still enough to cause a panic. Foreign embassies are encouraging foreign citizens to evacuate Japan and to avoid traveling near Japan.

I hope this clears up, I really do. But the sad thing is, it may not. And I'll just have to deal with that. The really bad thing is, if Japan doesn't pull through, I don't know if I'll get to choose a different country to go to this summer, or if I'll have to wait until next summer. But I have a couple countries as my backups. My first is Thailand and my second is China, both of which will probably not get any of the radiation from Japan.

And just so you know, I haven't forgotten about the Philippines!! I have about 1000 pictures and I'm still looking through them because I can only post so many. So a post about that will be up soon. And I'll update you about this summer as soon as I can. And in case anybody was wondering, I heard from my friends in Davao. It turns out that the tsunami had weakened by the time it hit them, so the beach waves were just a little bigger than normal.

So,

See ya!

じゃね！

再见!

แล้วพบกัน!

Article

Interesting Video

Earthquake in Japan

This is just so surreal. It's the kind of thing that I never would've imagined would have ever happened. I was in Japan only 3 weeks ago. And then, everything was fine. Everybody was living their normal lives, doing whatever. And now, everything is destroyed.

When I went to the Philippines, we visited Davao. I've heard recently that the tsunami hit Davao, but I have no idea how bad it was. I haven't hear back from anybody yet, but I hope to soon. For all of you that have friends in Japan or any of these costal areas, or if you are there yourselves, I wish the best for you. This is a hard time, but I know that we will pull through not as Japanese or any one nationality, but a species as a whole.