Before school closed, I remember sitting on one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs in Science. It was the end of the day, and I was finished with my work. I kept thinking to myself, why am I still here? How is this going to help me in the real world? I was constantly thinking about my civics quiz, the one I studied weeks for, and I couldn’t get my mind off of it.

Now, I’m sitting on my couch, figuring out a way to right this positively. My mom has assigned me some German homework, sigh, and I’m watching reality TV shows. Currently, Toddlers & Tiaras are on. It’s disturbing, to be honest, how some parents set their children up like that. I’m relieved that my mom never forced me to do pageants.

During Communications, Mariam, Emma, and I kept on talking about our DC trip. We planned on going to the Climate Change film festival with Ayyoob, and just explore DC afterwards. Sadly, it was cancelled due to COVID-19, but we had never expected that to be the reason for the cancellation.

I think I speak for all of us when I say I never expected for this pandemic to wreak havoc on our lives like this. Quoting my cousin, we all thought that it was just a problem that China was facing, and now it’s affecting the entire world. I like to blame my mom’s side of the family for inheriting my pessimistic side, especially during these times …

But we all must focus on the pros of this situation and be thankful for what we have. My mom still has a job, and I still have a roof over my head. I don’t have to worry about if there’s enough food left in the refrigerator, or enough money to pay the bills. As exhausted and bored I am in the house, I am glad that I even have a place to live.

Welcome back to my blog! Since this week is all about free choice, I decided to write about my trip to Europe over the summer. I figured that this experience would be a great post and it’s also somewhat related to the theme of my blog (I think geography goes with politics). I know most of you are probably intimidated to respond to my posts, but it’s okay! I don’t bite. My friends say that I’m an angel and could never hurt anyone.


I flew to Germany in late July, where my extended family lives. Usually, summers are mild in Germany, but this summer was one of the hottest Germany had ever experienced. Because of this, my mom and I had trouble sleeping because they have no AC!! Can you believe it? I didn’t think I would spend my summer, waking up, and sweating at 2:00 in the morning. Even though that happened, I still had an amazing time seeing my family again, since this was my first time visiting in four years. I visited relatives I had never seen before, I hung out with my favorite cousin, and overall, it felt like I was back in my childhood, like I never left.

However, with all good things, there’s also bad things included. I also had to visit relatives, whom I don’t care for. That was a, well, interesting experience. During my last week in Germany, I was awfully stressed with all the packing and my grandma yelling at me for being on my phone too much (I needed to talk to my friends somehow!). It just sucked how there’s some people in this world that refuse to be friends with you, or even get to know you, because they place a stereotype on you. It’s whatever, I’m already used to it.

My second week in Europe, I flew to Marseille, France with my cousin and my mom. My mom has friends down there, and we hadn’t seen them in years. Besides, my mom wanted to escape Germany and enjoy the fresh breeze from the Mediterranean sea. We stayed in Marseille for four days and also visited Monaco & Nice. It was RAVISHING. My favorite part of the trip was visiting them. Yes, it was BOILING, and I had to walk A LOT (18,000 steps to be exact.) However, it was enjoyable sightseeing and the views made up for my blistered feet.

Marseille is such a fascinating city. It’s the third biggest city in France, and it’s known for its port (the biggest in France). It was strange visiting France because I couldn’t understand anyone! Usually when I visited Germany, I could understand people. But France & Monaco? It felt like people were speaking gibberish. I constantly had to ask my mom what they were saying and she had to order for me. I felt like a little kid again, but at least I didn’t have to speak to people.

Overall, despite my many migraines and breakdowns, I had an incredible trip to Europe. I know I’ll never forget this trip, and the blisters that came with it. I ate a lot of good food, but I also went bike riding and went on walks with my mom. Since my grandma lives in the countryside, there are a lot of bike trails. Biking is very popular in Germany and I know a lot of kids that actually bike to places instead of asking their parents for a ride.

Hopefully you enjoyed my many paragraphs of my trip to Europe. Down below, I’ve included some pictures that I took (I’m such a photographer, I know!)

I can feel the hot, humid air sticking to my body like popsicle juice dripping on my hands. This is a summer day I know I’ll never forget. The summer before high school… the summer before everything changes. I have a feeling in my bones this summer will be one of the best summers I’ve ever had.. It’s a delightful sunny day, a day that I’ve been waiting for a long time. The rain has finally cleared out and Jules & I are laying by the community pool, trying to get a tan so that we won’t look like ghosts when we go back to school. It’s the first pool day of the summer, and for once, it actually feels like summer. Kids splashing around, spraying each other with water guns, preteen girls trying to impress the male lifeguards on duty, popular music blasting on the loud, expensive stereos, the sun shining down on our pale, vampire-like bodies. A typical American summer.
I know in a couple of hours, Jules & I will leave the community pool, walk down to the run-down 7-Eleven, buy two large, mouthwatering cherry Slurpees and walk to our community park, where we’ll talk about what we want to do in high school and get all nostalgic about when we were little. Yet, I also have a feeling that this will be the last time that we’ll do this. Jules & I are changing. I can defend myself now. People don’t boss me around anymore and that’s something Jules loves to do. Jules is the leader between the two of us. She’s the one that would talk to people for me. And now? It’s just different. What if going to Greece to visit my family will change my perspective on everything? I guess that’s one thing I don’t have the answer to. At least not yet.

Welcome back to my blog! This time, I teamed up with my classmate, Mariam, and decided to create a video that would be different to the other videos my classmates made. I had such a great time putting this video together. (I may or may not have laughed my heart out with Mariam while trying to fix our audio.) Mariam was such a great partner, and I feel sorry for her having to deal with me during the whole video!

Since Mariam and I wanted to do something different, an idea popped up in our minds. We wanted to create an ASMR style video on how to comment because we realized that instead of focusing on our video, we were talking about our favorite ASMR videos. We couldn’t wait to plan out the video and record it. Little did we know, we would face a lot of dilemmas along the way.

While recording, I forgot to mention to Mariam that I have night mode on my computer, so it made the entire video a shade of yellow! (We’re not going to go into depth about that.) We also had difficulties recording our audio, and didn’t even realize our microphones weren’t correctly adjusted until we later put the video together. After hearing the audio, Mariam and I both cringed really hard.

If it weren’t for Mariam and her video editing skills, as well as her patience, we probably wouldn’t even have this video up now (props to her!)  I hope you enjoy this creepy, yet interesting version of a “how to comment” video. If you liked it, or cringed at it deeply like we did, leave a comment down below!

Be sure to check out Mariam’s aesthetically pleasing blog!  http://blogs.lcps.org/mariamsnotsosecretdiary/

This is my avatar that I think looks similar to me. I couldn’t find my actual hair color so I opted for a more lighter version of it. I’m wearing a purple dress because not only is purple my favorite color, but I really liked the cut.
I’m also wearing a watch since I always want to know what time it is. Due to my love of photography, my avatar has a camera around her neck. Considering my passion for fashion, I am wearing a beret and nice, comfortable shoes. As a result of my sensitive eyes, my avatar is wearing sunglasses and is crying, because I’m always stressed out.
I prefer my bitmoji to my avatar I created because I think my bitmoji resembles me and how relatable I am. Overall, I had a pleasant time creating this. I’m so excited and thrilled to be participating in the student blogging challenge! Go check out http://blogs.lcps.org/milkywayswithwords/ you won’t regret it!