So, school starts on Thursday...I have one more day of summer, then it's on to junior year...my schedule, for anyone who's curious is as follows:

1st Semester
Chemistry
Art III
AP US History
Spanish III

2nd Semester
Psychology
AP English 11
Pre-Calc
Comp Tech II

I didn't want Art III, but unfortunately I put it down as an alternate for Pottery, thinking I'd get Pottery for an easy class...they won't let me switch it, because supposedly everything else is 'full' (meaning the next person who asks gets to get a change)...

I believe I've made a few new friends over the summer...well, more like learned to appreciate the friendships I already had with people I didn't usually think of as my friends...Mostly people I knew, but didn't hang out with or have much in common. I've started learning to play guitar (I can play Leaving on a Jet Plane! YAY!), and Wilson Nave also started about the same time I did, so we keep each other up to date on our progress, and Clarke Hincks, one of the guys in my workgroup at ASP (more on that later) is pretty cool, he's into guitar too, more advanced than me, so he helps me out sometimes...Al, I've always been friends with Al, I just never really knew it. She helped me out with the guitar when I first got it, and she was at ASP too, so we got a chance to talk and stuff...so it's really not so bad that I lost some people I thought were my friends

Ok, I said I'd say more about ASP later. It's a bit late, but I went on a mission trip to the Appalachian mountains in Tennessee for a week at the beginning of August. That was a wonderful experience. The first full day was a little rough, we had to get up really early (7 AM, ready by 7:30) for breakfast and morning devotions, but the coffee was good...then we headed out to our worksite about 9. Our job was to build a porch on the front of a trailor where they had been using stacked-up cinderblocks to get into the house...very unsafe, especially with a 1-year-old running around. We also fixed the siding, painted the ceiling inside, cleaned up some of the bigger rocks outside, and put a doorknob on the front (er...it was actually the back) door. I now know how to install a doorknob! The last night we were there was the greatest...first we sang some songs, then we all walked up to a fire they had lit up on a hill beside the school we were staying in. We sat in a big circle and passed around a bowl of cut PVC pipe...made to wear either as a ring or on a string around your neck. That was the que to say something if you wanted, or pass the bowl on and keep going. After the fire, we went back to the school to our 'Cleaning Party'...of course we had to clean the place up, we'd been living in it for a week. Our group was tasked with the cleaning of the cafeteria. We had some good music, Danielle, Clarke, and I decided we'd dance our own ways, Danielle decided she didn't want me to teach her how to waltz. Overall, it was a great week.

Can't say I'm looking forward to going back to school much. I do know I've got a lot of friends in my AP and Chemistry classes, so that's a plus...but mostly I'm nervous about the workload and stuff...