Back in Michigan - Christmas!!

Tuesday morning, we all woke up at 6 AM so we could make it to the airport for our flight at 8:45 AM. I was mostly packed the night before, in the morning I just had to pack some small things in my carry on bag. I packed my 2 microphones in my carry on bag because I wanted to make sure they wouldn't get damaged. I wrapped them in one of my blankets. 

A car got to our house at 6:30 AM to drive us to the airport. Our first flight was a couple hours, we flew to Amsterdam. Next, we had the long 8 hour flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. On that flight I watched 3 movies. I watched the fate of the furious, Baywatch, and a horror movie I cant remember the name of. Here is the first meal that I got on the plane. It was a chicken meal, it was really good.  

I did not sleep on the plane, when we got to Detroit, it was 5 PM which would be 10 PM in Dublin. I was not tired, it felt like it was 5 PM. We waited until 6:30 PM to get on the plane that took us to Grand Rapids. That flight was only 30 minutes. We finally got to the Grand Rapids airport, and my Dad was waiting there where he always does to greet us. It was nice to be back in GR. We went to his car and drove home. 

We got home at about 9 PM. About 30 minutes after being home, my Dad and I drove to Taco Bell because I was hungry, and that's the first place I always go when I come back to Grand Rapids. 

I got a lot of food there, then we went back home. 

Wednesday night I finally got to see Ben. He slept over at my house that night.

 We went to Taco Bell again that night, and we saw Max on the Job. He went on his break and came to say hi and talk to us. It was really nice to see Max again. After we talked to Max for a bit, Ben and I went back to my house. We watched "The Punisher" until about 2 AM, then went to sleep.

Thursday, Ben and I went to City High Middle school (my old school) to watch the powderbuff game, which is a volleyball game of Seniors vs. Juniors. We picked up Lillie and Calebs mom Amy, then drove to City. The game started at 3 PM, it was pretty close, but the Seniors won eventually. It was very fun to watch, and after the game we were going to see Blandfords production of "A Christmas Carol" at St. Cecilia Music Center. We had time to get food before that, because it started at 7 PM, and it was only 4:30 PM. Some of us went to Taco Bell, including Lillie, Ben and I. We all got to St. Cecilia around 6:10 PM, and we were able to get good seats. The Blandford Beeps always sit on the left side of the seats, and we usually take up 2 or 3 rows. Everybody was wearing their blue hoodies from Blandford, but I did not know where mine was. 

The production was very good as always, and at the end all the Alumni stood up to sing the final song of the production. It was a lot of fun, and afterward we got to have some snacks upstairs. I had Ben, Caleb and Tony over that night to spend the night. 

People left early Friday morning, and my Dad took me to deposit some money into my bank account at Lake Michigan Credit Union. Friday night I had another sleepover with Max, Caleb and Ben. Saturday night around 3 PM, Aunt Pennie, Oma and Uncle Art came over to our house to hang out. For dinner we all went out to eat at Donkey Taqueria. They are a very good Mexican restaurant. They have really good chips and salsa, especially because they have 3 different types of hot sauce, all of them are delicious. For dessert we got Churros, which were very good. 

Sunday, in the morning, I cleaned the bathrooms and then went to see Star Wars: The Last Jedi again with Mira and Caleb. They let me tag along. We originally thought that the tickets for that movie were all sold out, so we switched to go see Pitch Perfect 3, but once we got to the movie theater we saw some seats at the 3D show so we got them. AMC has these really nice seats that can recline by pushing a button, so you can basically lay down and watch the movie. It was probably better seeing the movie the 2nd time around. I was able to appreciate the plot and special effects more since I got the basics the first time seeing it. I still think the best part of the movie is when this lady turns the ship at the enemies ships and jumps to light-speed, the movie goes completely silent, and you see the ship go through each of the enemies ships, then about 5 seconds later the sound comes in. That is the coolest thing ever!

That night, my Mom and I drove to Uncle Oliver's house to have dinner for Christmas Eve. I also got to use his cool studio that he has in his basement. It is crazy big, he has a lot of cool technology that I don't know how to work. It was fun to mess around with his stuff. 

Here is a picture of his recording studio:

 

It is very big. Uncle Oli cooked us a very delicious Dinner. We all played a fast version of Uno after dinner for a while. By the time we left, the car was covered in snow so I brushed and scraped the ice off of the windows and windshield. It was about 9 PM when we left, and it was very cold. We got home at 10:35 PM, right when my Mom guessed we would get home. 

Monday was Christmas Day. I waited for Levi to wake me up so that I did not have to wait forever to open presents if I would have woken up at 6 AM like I usually do. He woke me up around 8 AM I think, I never looked at a clock. We went downstairs to the Christmas tree to open presents. 

We had to search for our stockings first, and Levi thought that they were hidden in the Piano, and he was correct.

I let other people open their presents before I opened mine. I got a lot of cool presents, including a new Spartan sweatshirt,

 a new helmet and gloves for skiing, some money, and some new ski boots. The ski boots looked very nice. 

I also got 2 tickets to a Taylor Swift concert in Ireland at Croke Park, which can hold 74,000 people. Here is an Image so you get an idea of how many people it can hold.

I can go to the concert, or I can resell the tickets, probably for a much higher price. My Mom said that the tickets sold out in the first day very fast, which is crazy because that means 74,000 people bought tickets in the same day. I don't listen to Taylor Swift a lot, but it would be an amazing concert to go to. 

~ December 19-25, 2017 ~

Karaoke, IB Party, South Korea trip maybe?!

Last Tuesday we had our Secret Santa day at school. I got Juho for my secret santa about a month ago, which is perfect for me. I got him some food from the Korean supermarket, and also made him a cool spray-painted painting I tried to make it Christmas themed. He loved the painting and the gift. 



For my gift, I got some candy, and also a self stirring mug from Maria. I was so excited to try out the self stirring mug, it works very well!

Thursday night after school, Juho, Yonghwa and Boan came over around 5:30 PM. Me and my mom were going to take them out to dinner at Brothers Dosirak. We left around 6 PM and walked all the way to the restaurant. On the way, Juho called his friend whos father owns the restaurant and got us a reserved table. Once we got there, we ordered our food. I got the Bulgogi Dosirak just like I usually do. We also ordered some Korean chicken wings that are always amazing. 




After we were finished eating, we all walked to the Korean supermarket about 2 blocks away. I got some more noodles for myself, and Yonghwa got a lot of food for himself also. We then walked back to the bus stop, and my mom and I took the bus home. 

Friday night (December 15) I took the bus across the Liffey to a restaurant called Arisu. It is a Traditional Korean BBQ restaurant. We planned this night about a week ago, a lot of IBs and some other people were coming to dinner, then we were all going to Karaoke. I got to the restaurant at 5:30 PM, and Pierce and Connell were there already. Most of the people got there around 5:45 PM. At the dinner there was Kim, Dominik, Shane, Connell, Pierce, Juho, Yonghwa, and Juhos friend Jinho. The people at the restaurant set up our grill to make the BBQ. 

They put the meat on the grill that is in the table, and make it for us. Then, they cut it up with scissors and we eat it. It looks something like this.  

After we were all finished eating, we all walked over to the Karaoke place, which is part restaurant, and part karaoke place. We had a big room again for 14 people, more people showed up for Karaoke. The room was pretty cold, but the guy got a heater for us. Juho and Yonghwa started off singing a few Korean songs, then everybody started to queue up songs and sing them. It was a lot of fun.




I left the Karaoke place around 9:30 PM, and took the bus home.

Saturday night I was having my IB party at 7 PM. I told everyone to bring or wear Pjs. We started setting up for the party around 4 PM, this time the parents would be upstairs by the Piano room, and all the IBs would be downstairs in the Kitchen. A lot of people showed up, and the downstairs was packed. Many people brought food, even though nobody asked, which was nice of them. Carolina brought Guacamole that her mom made, which is so delicious. 

Ben brought his speaker for the party which I was thankful for. We played a mix of Christmas music and just regular cool music. The party lasted until about 11 PM, thats when the last of the people left. 



Sunday, Mama, Levi and I all went to see Star Wars: The Last Jedi. It was the most recent movie, and we saw it in the Stella Theater. At 1:30 PM, we started to walk down to Rathmines, where the theater is. It took us about 20 minutes to get there, and before we went to the movie, we went to eat Lunch at Fallon & Byrne. I got a chicken wrap, and my mom got some Indian food. 

We then walked over to the theater around 2:50 PM, the movie started at 3 PM.  































The theater looked way different than any other theater I have been to. There was a huge screen at the front, but there were individual leather chairs. They were very comfortable also, when I sat down I sunk into the fluffy cushion. It was probably the best way to watch a movie, because you have your own table and seat and its so relaxing. The movie was amazing, especially some of the special effects. I would highly recommend this movie. After the movie, we walked home and got there around 6 PM. 



Monday was my last day at school before we went back to Michigan! I did not do much since it is the last week before break, and everybody is just relaxing waiting to get out of school. Once I got home, I started packing, I hadn't packed Sunday night. I planned to take 2 carry on bags back, so that I could bring a lot back to Dublin. I also am taking things back to Michigan that I can take back, since this might be the last time I go to Michigan before actually moving back to the U.S. so I have a chance to bring back things that I dont use often. 

Boan told me today that his father confirmed that he would be able to go to Korea. Juho, Yonghwa, Boan and I are all planning to go to South Korea in the beginning of June. We would be there for about 7 days. My mom still has not given me an answer but im hoping she will allow me to go, it would be so fun. Juho said that we would go to the Lotte World Tower, which was built this year and is now the 5th tallest building in the world. It is a combination of work spaces, places to eat and shop, a hotel, and theres an aquarium also. It is 554 meters high. 



Tuesday morning, we all wake up at 6 AM so that we can get to the Airport to get our flight home around 8:45 AM. We will be in Michigan around 7 PM Tuesday!

Grease Musical - Going home in 12 days!

Last week was my exam week, where I had all of my exams except for my Spanish one, which I took today. Today is Monday, December 11th which means I have 12 more days before I fly back home to Michigan. We leave next Friday morning, and we get home around 10 PM. 

The week before my exam week was the week of the musical. Monday was our dress rehearsal, which was our first practice where the cast had microphones, and the lights and the sound guy had everything set up. The professional musicians played with us Monday night. Our 3 shows were Tuesday through Thursday, each one at 7:30 PM. Each night was very fun, but I think the crowd got better as the days went on. Thursday was definitely the best crowd. One of the nights I remember the second to last song, the power somehow stopped working for my piano and the amps of the other musicians for like 15 seconds, so there was no music for 15 seconds, then somehow the power came back on.

My family came to watch me Wednesday, and they loved it. The whole production I thought was very good, especially because it was the first year it was put on by Mr. Williams and Ms. Sawyer. 

After the final performance on Thursday, I was happy that it was over because it was very stressful, but I also wish we could have put on more performances because it is so fun each night. There was a short party Thursday night, and after that Juho and Yonghwa came to my house to spend the night. We went to sleep around 2 AM. 

The next morning, we ordered food for Lunch and hung around until about 2 PM. They then went to Booterstown to meet Boan. It was Friday, but we had the day off because it was the week before Exams. 

Exam week went pretty well, Physics was my hardest test by far. All the rest of the exams were not that hard. Saturday, December 9, we all went to the Bord Gáis theater to see E.T. in concert. The National Symphony Orchestra played the entire soundtrack to the movie, while the movie was playing on a huge screen. It was excellent! 

The next day Sunday, we all went out to eat lunch at a place called 'The Vintage Kitchen'. I got a Lamb Shank with carrots and a baked potato. It was delicious. 

I then went out to get a present for my person that I got for Secret Santa which we would be doing on Tuesday. I then took the 145 back to my house. I studied for my Spanish test that I had on Monday (Today), along with practiced the piano and talked to my dad. 

-November 27 - December 10-