Travels in Austria... Belated entries with pictures!!

I just posted some more of my diary entries from when I was in Austria in spring on my blog at http://corastravels.blogspot.com. Check it out!

China

I left China only a week ago, but it seems as if the whole trip happened months - maybe even years - ago. The pictures I took, the souvenirs I purchased, and the diary entries I wrote serve merely as memories of a world that seems so distant now. The food, the people, the customs and traditions ... everything was so different. I'm not always operating on a busy schedule, which I enjoy tremendously: I love the feeling of waking up in the morning without a wake-up call and not having to worry about having to pack up my suitcase and move hotels every other day. There's a lot that I miss about China, like speaking Chinese, but a whole lot that I won't miss, like the smog and pollution and people smoking everywhere and bumpy train and plane rides during which I had trouble sleeping. China was a great experience, but I'm really glad I'm back home with my family and friends, relaxing to the best of my ability until school starts again.

It's Been a While ...

I would say that the reason that I haven't been writing recently is that I've been really busy recently, but that's not necessarily true. Before summer started, I went to Pennsylvania during Project Period with my grade at school, where we studied history in Philadelphia, The Quakers, and The Amish, with plenty of fun-time in between in which we bought heavenly pretzels at Amish stores, jumped into hotel pools, played cards with friends, goofed off during bus rides, took plenty of awesome pictures, and spent almost an entire day in Hershey Park and Hershey's Chocolate World. When we got back to school, we watched The Witness, printed out pictures, made scrapbooks of our many journeys, and had our 8th Grade Graduation, in which we received awards and 'diplomas', watched a slideshow with pictures of us from all the trips we took together, and said our goodbyes to friends and teachers.

So, even though you could say a lot had been going on in my life before summer started, but since our graduation, I've spent a lot of time simple having fun and enjoying my summer so far and simply relaxing. It's a good feeling, being able to have plenty of time to read, solve Rubik's Cubes and try to beat my best time (which I've failed to do so far - sometimes I can get within three seconds, though!), brainstorm writing projects, play computer games in the basement, reminisce about old times by working on making a Time Capsule, and - of course - eat the occasional ice cream! :)

This Thursday, I'm going on a trip to China, so I'll have a lot to do over the next few weeks. I'm just going to try to have a lot of fun and learn as much as possible! You'll definitely hear from me after China, but I might even write another post or two before I leave. :)

Talk to you later! Bye!
Or, as they say in China, 再见！
~Cora

Quick Blog Update

I just posted another diary entry from when I was in Austria on my travel blog. Go check it out at http://corastravels.blogspot.com! :)

-Cora

Acts of Good #96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, and 104!

Note: I'll try to keep more up-to-date in the future, but I've been really busy recently with make-up work, Script Frenzy (if you haven't heard of it, look it up!), etc.

April 4: helped tidy up some things and sent birthday greetings to an old friend
April 5: my leg started feeling really sore abruptly today, so I couldn't fully participate in gym, but I tried to cheer on as many people as possible while playing kickball
April 6: composted stuff!
April 7: I helped around the house and finally finished my video diary of my time in Austria! (note to self: finish written diary...)
April 8:

• I posted my first Austria diary entry after procrastinating a bit... check out my Travel blog! (http://coravec.blogspot.com/)
• I gave a gift to Mollie that I got for her in Austria! :)
• Mollie and I accomplished a lot of Script Frenzy together! Four pages! *cheers*
• I composted a LOT and recycled the leftovers of our ice cream party dishes! I felt really good because it did take extra time to wash out everything, but it was worth it. :)

-Cora

Boston Trip- Day One Published!; Act of Good #80

After a long time of procrastination, I just published the first part of my journal on my other blog at http://corastravels.blogspot.com/. It accounts the first day of my trip to Boston in February. Check it out! :)

-Cora

Acts of Good #53, 54, and 55

I just came back from Boston! I'll probably post some pictures later on, most likely on my other blog for traveling, http://corastravels.blogspot.com.

Yesterday, I went to the Science Museum and it was BRILLIANT! I LOVE science museums. xD
My first act of good for this weekend was that when I was in the museum's bathroom, there was a little girl (probably about 2 or 3 years old) and her mom, and the girl was impatiently dancing around and whining. I wanted to let them go ahead of me, but I wanted to teach the girl patience. Then, I realized that she would almost definitely not remember that moment in time, and she wouldn't realize its significance in the future, so I went ahead.

My second act of good was over the whole course of the weekend, and it's on more of a green note: Whenever possible, I searched for recycling bins to discard my recyclables and I made an extra effort to turn off lights, use hand dryers instead of paper towels for drying my hands... etc. Our city's airport doesn't have recycling bins, which makes me really upset. I'm going to see if I can change that somehow... I'll bring it up at our next MAD club meeting.

I performed my third act of good today, when I was in the airport back home in the second flight, and during the whole flight, I did extra math homework. :) I ended up actually completing two days worth of homework and I just finished the second assignment within a minute of touching down, because my mom had challenged me to see if I could get it done, and I did! Yay! Over the whole course of this weekend, I've completed all of my math homework for the rest of the week, so my next assignment will be due Monday- and I think I deserve some sort of prize for doing that, so I thought: "What's better than an act of good?"

So, I'm back home, and I hope to update you soon on all of the other amazing things I did this long weekend. Talk to you later!
-Cora

Act of Good #51

Though I probably would have done these things anyway without this act of good program, but I want to award myself for helping out others and myself today. I did a few extra chores around the house, and I did extra math homework, which benefits myself. :)

I'm going to Boston this weekend, so I might not be able to post very much from tomorrow until next Monday. Tomorrow, we don't have school because our teachers are finishing our grades and comments- it's the end of Winter Term already!- and on Monday, we don't have school, either, because it's President's Day! So my family is taking advantage of the weekend and going to Boston to visit my brother at college. I'm really excited! :D

-Cora

An Icelandic Lake

Below is a picture I took this summer on vacation when I was in Iceland.