Yesterday was the first day of school. I was dreading having new classes and new teachers, but looking forward to seeing my friends. My chem teacher is intimidating, but she's supposed to be really good. My math teacher is odd, but she's supposed to be really nice. My English teacher is hilarious, but he's supposed to be really hard. I looove French, and with my French 1 teacher too, who is so cool. My Theatre teacher was so scary yesterday, but today I had a lot of fun. I was planning to start volunteering at the Food Bank this month, but today I asked myself if I'm really up to it. I wonder if I'll have time, and if I'll really want to do it. I don't want volunteering to be something I feel I have to do, instead of something I want to do. I was looking to volunteering so much but now I don't know. Maybe this is just beginning-of-school jitters. I have so many goals to fulfill, just as I did last year. I just hope I don't turn into a lazy sophomore. Now I just realized how lazy some students are. But I won't go into that because I got to go now! talk to you guys later...

I feel much happier than I have in weeks. I went to a close friend's house to swim today, along with a few friends. It was so much funner than I thought it would be. Not that I thought the lil get-together would be boring, but only five people came, and I was afraid I wouldn't have a whole lot of fun because there was one girl good friends with the others but not with me. I mean I don't hate her, she's cool, but we're not really friends. Anyways, I had a lot of fun. And it put me in a good mood when I went home. I guess since I barely did anything this summer, that seeing and hanging with friends I haven't seen for a while makes me happy. I didn't know I missed them until until I'm with them after a long time after not being with them. I'm appreciating my friends more now. Ugh, I hate I barely did anything productive this summer. But I'm gonna start volunteering for the Second Harvest Food Bank next month, so that's good!

Ugh. I went back to school shopping this morning. I only bought a couple of shirts at Ross (so cheap) and got school supplies. I went with my whole family and they can be so annoying. I love them, but they can be so irritating. We were going to all these places: drug emporium, officemax, sportsmart, ross, anchor blue, mcdonalds, then finally...home. *sigh* I just wanted to sleep! And school's starting next week...argh summer vacation is ending too soon!

I have lived in the US all my life. I was born in New Jersey but raised in southern California since I was one year old. I have never stepped onto another country, though I wish to. When I read about how it's like to live in other not-so-rich countries here at IT, I feel lucky and stupid at the same time. I feel like I've been sheltered, and I want to learn about other countries' cultures and what it's like to live there. I've always felt very loyal to my country, even before 9/11, but even more so after, and when I hear some non-Americans' perspectives about some of US's bad qualities, I realize our country, however can be really annoying to others. I've always known our country isn't perfect, but I have a better sense of it now. Geez, I hope I didn't come across as some naive, ignorant idiot. If I did, please tell me. I'm glad I became part of IT; it has definitely broadened my perspective.

My first article is published in the e-zine. It's called Discrimination and Our Parents. It got a little screwed up; the paragraphs aren't defined for some reason, though I thought I did. Oh well, it's ok. Check it out if you want, in the Culture section. In other news...I got a phone call today about a volunteer position I wanted with the Second Harvest Food Bank. There's positions available! I called back but all I got was an answering machine. I guess I'll have to wait for them to call back. Well that's my morning. Now I'm waiting to eat lunch in an hour.