Dancing and Driving

Salsa dancing is a lot of fun. Jenn, Jon, Ian and I finally made it down to the salsa club to go dancing together. I can't say that the American style and the style the Latinos in Germany taught are very similar. I couldn't say which is better, either. They're both fun. From a sideline observation, though, I find that the Latinos were often more relaxed and loose when they did salsa. They just danced, though. They used none of these tricks and dips you see when you watch American style salsa.

Driving is coming along. I got to drive down Valley View today. If you don't live in this part of OC (or if you do and don't know your streets) that's one of the largest major streets on this side of the Orange Crush. Maybe that doesn't say much; I find all streets here large after returning from a country in which the freeways had only 2 lanes the majority of the time. Today was a Saturday, so the traffic wasn't very heavy, thank goodness. My mom and I are going out again early tomorrow (she has already redefined the word early to between 6 and 7 am; no more getting out at the "late" hour of 9 in the morning), so I can get more practice. Practice never hurts.

Driving (No Roadkill!)

I took my first of three driving lessons today. That was intense. The teacher did say at the beginning that this was just going to be a "light, easy, relaxed lesson." Right. If you ever take driving lessons, don't believe that statement. That's probably what he'll say the first time we go on the freeway next lesson.

So there were no accidents, no roadkill, so it must not have been so bad. My teacher had to continuously reach over the wheel because I drift away from the center line too much. Otherwise, pretty much everything went well. Those right turns need some work, though. Well, a lot of maneuvers need work.

The last few weeks back at home have been busy. I'm trying to get back into the groove here at home (the groove has changed a bit), and meet up with friends. During the first week I was almost exclusively with Kaylin before she left for Ohio. That was followed by a weekend visit by Sarah, a German friend of mine and her family, and the return of my partner in crime Jenn. Tomorrow my sister and I are going out salsa dancing with her friends. Just watch me trip and fall.

I'm trying to catch up on school work, too. I want to get into AP English next year, if my new counselor gives the opportunity. That means I need to complete their summer reading list. It's a whopper: Moby Dick by Herman Melville; Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky; Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck; Light in Autumn by William Faulkner; and The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemmingway. It'll not exactly be a walk in the park. My reading list last year included Harry Potter in German and Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo by Christine F. Okay, so I did read another book by Dostoevsky, but that doesn't make Crime and Punishment all the less torturous.

What other classes do I plan on taking this fall? Let's see... AP German pretty much goes without saying, AP Calculus, AP Civics and Economics, US History (Honors or AP), and Physics. If I didn't want to pursue some sort of science in college, I'd go for AP Chemistry. Then I could have all AP classes next year.

That would be quite a bumpy road.