I'm back!!!

Finally...

I guess I couldn't believe it when I heard last year's kids' opinions on Mosaic. And I was worrying about it so much on the way there. I had such butterflies in my stomach. But then... at dinner, we started talking. And I started realizing how amazing all these people were. How intelligent, how much we had in common, how much fun everybody is and how much everybody gets a kick of singing Yellowcard all day long! And by the time I left, I knew: Mosaic has been one of the best experiences of my life. I will never regret having gone.

Never has anything so educational been so much fun!

During the days, we slagged and slaved. We traipsed all over San Jose trying to find people to interview. I called at least a good 50 people and talked to less than 10. Then the ediotrs would cut up and maul the stories. But it was, neverhteless, so much fun. Working with everybody...singing OK GO songs in between paragraphs..oh my god.

The editors were always so supportive and kind, they never had anything bad to say about me. I rememeber once, some weirdo guy called me and I started asking him my race questions. He just went on to say my questions were terrible, so bad and stupid and skewed, and did I have any idea how bad these questions were? Did I? Now this was the question I should be asking. But that question had nothing to do with it! So What? Who cares? I was so pissed and I complained to the editors about it. THey responded by comforting me and saying it happened all the time. They made me feel so much better.

They really got me to like reporting and I definitely am more confident about my writing now. Ahhhh words can't express!!!

And then there's Anne-Marie. Oh goodness lord. I took a few pictures for my story when we did breaking news coverage, and all of a sudden Anne-Marie is saying I'm a great ameteur photographer! So, a little excited and a lot pumped up by what she said, I asked her if she could take a look at my deviantart and instantlogic portfolios and she said I have real talent. SHe said I have a great photographer's eye and some wonderful ideas, and she had absolutely nothing bad to say! She critiqued some of the other girls' stuff hard, but she just said my stuff was great because I have a wonderufl eye. She encouraged me to keep taking pictures and gave me a bunch of links to check out. She said my work was professional...even better than some pros. That moment changed my whole life. I was so excited. I know I love taking pictures, and I know some of them turn out kinda perty, but I didn't know I had that kind of potential or talent. To hear that coming from Anne-Marie, who has amazing photos....I was awe-stricken. Now, I am inspired to take photos wherever I go.

Just some of the amazing memories:

-playing telephone pictionary and getting all kinds of insane, stupid results and laughing insanely

-going to Iguana's and getting a job proposition!

-having Robby sing-alongs and having everybody yell "It just takes some time! Little girl you're in the middle of the ride! Everything, everything will be just fine!" etc etc.

-getting fucking annoyed out of my brains by the girls howling about colin firth but getting my hair french braided by them nonetheless and nearly passing out every time I saw hot and sexy Ed Norton.

-going mini-golfing!!!

-hanging out at Great America with Vic and Tiff and screaming down coasters

-making the top 10 list with Margot and laughing harder than I have in so long I can't remember.

-saying "mar-got!"

-singing yellowcard and randomly saying "anything!" in the elevator

0making string cheese sandwiches and eating peanut butter and m and ms for lunch

-up 'til 2 every night with Konina, Tiff and Victoria laughing and playing around

-scoring the breaking news with Victoria!

-lying to Debra when we were completely and utterly lost

-being harrassed by strange hobos

-eating great food and losing news quizzes

-eating shit food and losing news quizzes

- annoying the fuck out of poor Sameer

- having the Tow Foo Dick Jain Jane Jain coversation withb him and Margot

-having Tiff call me quirky before I left.

-taking pictures with Miriam's camera.

Konina: I will miss her random chirps, growls, purrs, and squawks, as well as her biting. She wa a cool roommate as we showered in the nighttime. Gave me bandaids, and let me have a shoulder to cry on for my race story.

Tiff: The least annoying of anybody. We have too much in common; it's scary. Ok Go, Coupling, everything. Has an extra bump in her knee and is always smiling when she doesn't look completely bored. Is so nice it's frightening, but trash-talks genuinely, not just because you are.

Johnny: screamed at me for no reason and pinched my cheeks and tried to rape me. Dick.

Miriam: Hotter than the sun and knows it. Boho salsa dancing exotic taiko drum playing photographer who's going to make a lot of men very unhappy but sweet to us girls. We all hate her because we're jealous.

Victoria: drama nerd! Loves to sing, shake her fist at things. Stuck to me and bonded like glue. We did everything together.

Carl: insults goodwill shoppers and is sort of a dick. Writes well though.

Jessica Li: The biggest ditz ever, but somehow writes well(except when in my presence.)Go figure! Cheerleader who hsa a really cool voice. Has a funny stupid tard impression named "DI-ANE!"

Rhiannon: Has an annoying lisp and an annoying demeanor. Cried all day because her pictures were black and white, but so were everyubody else's.

Robby: guitar genius, musical genius. Sexy little motherfucker and so nice and ethical he couldn't even lie to our great dorm mom, Debra. Is sooo cute. Got damn mad at me when I won against him at Spit.

Vikram: such a metro. Doesn't own anything not brand-name. sweet guy with a really weird gasping hyena laugh which is so cute.

Alex: I played DDR with him and used his USB card. He means welll but can be annoying. We always laugh at him for hanging up on people accidentally and yelling "oh schnapps!" "F-word!" and other nerdy phrases.

Anna: the sweet one of the mean girls (jess, reg, anna.) she's the brunnette. reg is the dumb one.

Regina: sucked up by getting her parents to bring us cake and food alllll the damn time. But not a bad writer. Really good at Spit and likes to call me a "hooker" "bitch" or "whore" but it's funny when she does.

The mean girls are only semi mean.

Ricardo: so quiet at first and opened up only the last days of the proigram. But he turned out to be the sweetest boy, so cute and funny.

Neha: AHH Neha's the best! SHe acts like a complete stupid ditzy idiot sometimes but it's so cute and I love her for it! Oh, Neha. You're so neat.

Sameeerrr!: Such a silly indian boy! WE called him "waldo" or "urkel" because of his fat ass glasses. He has a pot belly, too and a slight indian accent. he's so funny. He did an article on sagging and asked some homie at the nickelodeon kid's zone at water park about his pants and almost got punked, and very cussed out.

Neeraj!: hahahaha Neeraj is always having this stupid smile on his face and laughing. He's so neat, I love him.

Sar: I don't really know her....

Margot: is going to be the next woman president of the united states. She is so sheltered that she'd never had Mexican food. She knows all the words to all the songs and always sings. She already has two internships: one at a daily paper and one for a congressman! Is going to succeed no matter what but needs to be taken to a concert and fed thai food.

I"LL MISS ALL OF YOU!!!!