So, yesterday, I gave blood for the first time ever. A friend of mine was doing it, and I decided to see if I could as well. I’ve never really been sure that I could because of an iron deficiency in my family. Anyway, after an hour-long wait and a lifestyle interview, they sat me down and scrubbed my left arm with iodine. Blech.

I dislike needles. When I was a kid, I had absolutely no problem with getting shots, but now I do. I get all twitchy and tense when I know a thin piece of metal is about to be shoved in my arm. So, I got Jordyn to sit with me when she was done giving blood, and talk to me to keep my mind off it. Since it was my first time, they had me lay all the way down. I had my ipod in one ear, listening to absurdly happy, dancey music, and it wasn’t too bad when the needle went in. The first time. I squeezed the little stress ball and talked to Jordyn while my left arm went numb, so they released the blood pressure thingy a little bit. Toward the end of the donating part, my arm went cold. Creepy. The fun part came when, for some odd reason, the blood clotted up when they were about 30 grams away from finishing. The solution? Move the needle around in my arm! Ack! That was gross. So, they got their baggie of vamp food, and then they needed to take some test tubes full of yet more blood to make sure they could use it. They asked me if it was ok to try my right arm instead and see if that worked better, and I said sure. Otherwise 470 grams of my blood would just go to waste.

My right arm worked better, and they took about five tubes full from that one. I watched about two of them fill up, then had to look away, because eww. I know blood pumps out, but I don’t need to see it.

They took out THAT needle and were putting a band-aid on it when the real fun started. I was talking to Jordyn again, and my vision dimmed a little and I got dizzy. I told the lady who’d been overseeing, and as I did that, my hearing went away, like when you’re holding your hands over your ears. They laid me back down and put a couple of cold cloths over my head and neck, and the lady made Jordyn hold a Coke for me to sip. I didn’t actually black out, and I was aware the whole time, so yay! That’s another thing I’ve never done before–pass out. I can’t cross it off the list, but I came close.

After that, I was fine. Jordyn and I went to dinner with Hidenori-san, and I got permission to call him Hide-kun, then I went back to my dorm, finished off a paper for personal money management, and went to bed. Now my arm is bruised.

Well, once again, I can’t think of a good way to wrap this up, so here’s another belly dance video. Swara Armunn Tribal Belly Dance to a 14th century French song, played on bagpipes by a German band.

I had three classes today, and I got homework in all three

Astronomy will be very mathy, but I like stars and planets, and I don’t mind math when I know what I’m doing. I was waaaay early for the class though, so I wandered around Bruner hall’s second floor and ended up next to this big giant sphere which I assume will be a planetarium (!) when they finish with it. My French class seemed just like my high school French class, but without Madame’s quirks, and I liked Madame’s accent better. It should be fun, when the class actually lasts as long as it’s supposed to! Madame Goldberg let us out early because she was ahead of schedule and ran out of things to do. Healthful living was interesting. We had a test. Already. It was just a pretest, and I knew a lot of the stuff on it, but I did have to guess on a few that started talking about LCLs and LDLs and DHLs and whatnot. I dunno.

I have to print out my Astronomy homework by Wednesday, and I don’t want to pay for it per page, so I need to go and buy myself a cheap printer. Yes cheap. I’m a broke college student, remember? I have a nice worksheet for French about food, which is done (I’m hungry), and I have already finished my little assignment for HL. I had to introduce myself on the Academic Blackboard site. No big deal.

New classes tomorrow! Western Civilisations at 8AM (NOOO!), and personal money management, which will tell me how to manage being a broke college student

<3<3<3 Shannon

Ok. I’m settled in my dorm, and I have a bit of time for hanging by myself. I haven’t been alone for more that a few minutes since I got here

So far, I like it here, even without the air conditioning. Fans make it better. My bed is comfy, although difficult to get up. I got a loft bed, and I’ve only hit my head a few times I’m finding the best layout of my stuff so I remember where it is, and figure out how to put things where I can reach them from my bed. I have too many essential electronics that can’t all fit on my shelf! iHome, light, fan, cell phone, iPod, iPod touch… Those and my contacts make it very crowded up here.

I’ve been here three days now, and had my first college party last night. Just a dance outside the student union. It was fun, though. For as few people as were there, there were enough for three separate conga lines Because no party is complete without a conga line. I met a few students doing their study abroad from China, and my friends and I taught them the standard American heartland dances: the Cha Cha Slide, a bit of Thriller, and, of course, country line.

As far as school stuff goes, I got my books today, which only came to around $500, which is MUCH better than I was expecting but still the most money I’ve ever spent at one time. Classes start on Monday, and my first class, Astronomy, is at 10:10AM. Yay! I don’t know when my roommate’s first class is. Hopefully not 8:00. Her alarm is one of those beepy ones that scare people awake, rather than gently awakening them. Personally, I’d rather wake up to a harp or a bell tower from my iPod than a fire alarm-like buzzer.

I shall update more later!

<3

Yay I’m turning 18 and I’m going to DC! Check all the stuff below to follow along on my trip this weekend!

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I dozed a bit at work today while I was on break. Actually it wasn’t so much a doze as I walked into the back room, set the timer and crashed. A big thank you to Mrs. M for the lovely cough and cold she’s given me. My meds kicked out on me at about one. So anyway, after I managed to drag myself out of the back room, I wasn’t quite awake yet, and I still felt all out of it. The lights out on the floor were too bright and the flat fold table was apparently closer than it appeared. I was so happy when Rose clocked in and told me I could go home. (Yay!)

Erm… One week til dance recital day. My costume just needs one last touch before it’s perfect. I should post a picture of the skirt Cyndi made for me. It’s awesome.

School will be out soon, and I’ll either be painfully bored or my days will be filled with lots and lots of JoAnn’s-y goodness. Good for the paycheck, but I wish my boss would have let me have Thursdays off. I can’t work Mondays because I assume I’ll be at Nanny and Papa’s as usual, but I would like to have a proper day off as well. And Thursday would be the day to do it, because I’ll have dance that night. I get the feeling the the boss-lady would like very much to schedule me every day of the week. I need at least one day where I can count on sleeping in til noon. It’s my summer thing. It’s how I celebrate.

So, to end, here’s a video of a pair of really great American Tribal style belly dancers. ATS is my style, not the scary kind you get at birthday parties.