[Malia's Scrapbook] The Final Curtain

[Stitch]

Malia! Make sure you go on the cruise! Cruises are lovely and amazing; I have been on two! Make sure you go, and make sure you take pictures! And make sure you take pictures of this prom thing you speak of, and the boy! I want to see you in a dress. Do you have to wear a dress? I want to see you in it. :]

All in all, everything sounds very exciting! I am very happy to hear you are having fun! It sounds so exciting and hectic though. I am surprised you haven't been long since overwhelmed, I am sure I would have.

If we ever meet, you must teach me how to do some of your dance. I know a bit of Swing, and a bit of Salsa, but that is about it. And I like dancing! D:

And Malia is close to having a boyfriend! Maybe? Kind of? Or don't really see it going in that direction? You sound kind of attracted, and nervous! It is cute in a way, and usually when a girl acts cute about a boy, it means she might have a bit of a crush? Or do I just read things too deeply?

All in all, sounds like a crazy week, but I am glad to hear from you, and about it! <3

[Malia]

The Cake is a Lie? Before I return to doing homework, I'm posting a picture of a cake I did yesterday in honor of my mum's birthday. The cake even has a story ... Because when I took it out of the oven, it was of a more pudding-like consistency. I had and still have no idea what I had done wrong (thought it might have something to do with yolk in the beaten egg whites), but my mum put it in the microwave for about five more minutes and it went to normal cake-like consistency. Strange cake is strange. On another note, this cake is called Guglhupf which sounds typically Austrian, so I'd say it's an Austrian cake? And Ora can tell you how you pronounce it.

[Malia]

Status Update I thought I’d post a little update about my rl. I’ve told Stitch the basics through PM and then we talked a bit, and I’ve talked to various other people complaining about it in the last few days, but somehow the story still wants to be told again and again. It’s a bit strange, but there isn’t anything wrong with speaking up and voicing my thoughts, right? When you graduate in Austria, the final exams consist of either three written and four vocal or four written and three vocal exams, for most people anyway. For those who write a thesis – yes, me – it’s only three written-three vocal, because the thesis is more than enough work. Those people still have much more work than the others, though. Two written exams are compulsory: Maths and German. The other subjects you can pretty much choose as you like. Although registration is in January, everyone is encouraged to decide NOW, because it’s not only about studying the subject you choose, but you also have to write some ten pages or so about a special topic that’s part of that subject. This will be your main focus during the exam, together with what everyone learned in class for the last four years. That’s how the vocal exams work. The written ones are pretty easy compared to that, although I have to study hard for Maths because I’m not some brilliant genius who understands everything immediately. So, I have three written exams in Maths, German and English (I chose the last) and three vocal ones in History, Latin and Psychology/Philosophy. My thesis belongs to Psychology as well, although there is a bit of linguistics and other stuff thrown in content-wise. My topics are quite interesting – of course, they have to be, because I chose them myself. That’s actually the one big advantage about all those projects: they are interesting to you personally! In History I’ll read up about socialistic China and Mao Zedong. First I wanted to write about Japan, Sengoku Age, but English literature is not so good when you’re supposed to write and study stuff in German. And there is no German literature on that. So, it’s China. I’m really interested in China, the situation during Mao’s government as compared to the situation today. It’s surprising, seeing newspapers calling China an industrial country nowadays … Anyway, my topic in Latin is … special. I started with the idea of “something religious” and then sat together with the teacher (who, by the way, has this awesome sarcastic streak you can laugh at as long as you’re not the target) and we came up with “the nature of the Roman gods and goddesses”, basically what people thought the gods really were. Ancient Romans were really discussing that on a scientific level which is amazing! I’ve thumbed through Cicero’s “De natura deorum” and although it’s written as some kind of dialogue, it’s more of a scientific thesis about what is known of the gods and how the world was created and why people need the gods so much. It’s really interesting! My teacher tells me to focus on Cicero for now and include a bit by Ovid later. I originally wanted to focus more on Ovid, because I like his Metamorphoses, but regarding the gods he wrote about public holidays and rituals and so on which does not interest me that much. I must order the book by Cicero soon, though, so I can start translating! I love translating Latin into German. Looking up words in the dictionary can be daunting, but the process of discovering the meaning of the sentence and making sense of what someone wrote 2,000 years ago is so beautiful! That’s why I like Latin so much. And that’s why I wanted to include it in my final exam, because I’m also good at it. And while the other subjects require some kind of summary no longer than 10 pages, the thesis usually covers 3 to 5 times as much. I will have to read about 20 books for that, and I only have three or so by now. I need a concept too. My Psychology teacher actually sounded quite angry when we spoke about it the last time. She wanted me to show what I had done so far. But my printer didn’t work, so I only showed her the books I currently had and she wasn’t satisfied and said I should incorporate what I already have got in my concept and show that to her … I was kind of upset. Later she said she had a bad day and we should forgive her. Sure, forgive her. Meh, that’s not as easy as she thinks. But I should also talk to her more, talk about what I really do and what I think. To be honest, my enthusiasm has died down for the time being, and has been replaced by acute pressure of doing something useful during the holidays, getting two or three more books done and coming up with that damn concept. I will use mental cushions of playing violin, writing, sketching a bit and posting on Miza if I can. Currently the pressure is there and tells me not to get anything else done before I get a bit of schoolwork done. That sucks. However, I will start practicing the “writing whenever I have time” method. It’s what Sama’el and Gossamer and Nim and everyone else who is such a fast poster does. It’s about writing whenever you have the time to write, no matter if you’re tired, have a bad conscience, think you will produce crap or anything else. There are no excuses anymore. You just write and that is it. I really admire this method and everyone who is able to use it. I want to be someone who is able to use it as well, so I must practice. And practice I will, that’s on my mental “To Do”-list now. Plus, I want to do some more writing experiments so I know what I will write for my NaNo novel starting November 1st. I’m looking forward to that! This year so many people from Miza are going to participate, I’m sure it’ll get very cool with all the exchanging tips and comparing word counts and crazy talks and everything else.

[Gossamer]

I love reading your blog. It is so interesting to get such insight into different cultures and different educational systems. Wow, you have a ton of work ahead of you. I'm glad your determined to keep writing though. Kudos for that. I know you'll do great on these exams and it never ceases to surprise me how well rounded and varied your education is.

[Malia]

Prom The ballroom. (We rented it.) See the red and black decorations on the walls? We spent the last week making all of it. Our motto was "Full House", the one you can get at poker. Cutest couple alive. (No, that's not me, but my friends.) Me (on the left) and my best friend. The opening dance. ... But why does the world feel so empty now?

[Stitch]

You look great! I like the pose you are striking in the picture! It is sassy! <33

[Kamalia Timandre]

You are stunning, my dear! The couple picture is also romantic!

[Jilitse]

Why does the overall Prom post sound sadder than I imagine? The ballroom looked awesome! The decorations did lift up the "Full House" theme, but why aren't the cards in front (I assume it's the stage) an actual Full House?

[Malia]

NaNoWriMo Dear Jilitse, the post sounds sad, because I don’t like dressing up and going out for no reason at all. It makes me feel depressed and the world look senseless afterwards. That’s why I usually avoid such events … but of course I had to enjoy my own senior prom! And I did, I just felt not good the day after it. That wasn’t alcohol (we promised not to drink during prom, I’ve had a few sips of wine and Eristoff that night), that’s how it always is. Oh, and it is the stage, and I have no clue. We had little card houses glued together for the tables though, and the cards depicting a full house were on our poster. By the way, I like scrapbooking. Because I hardly ever post anything else these days, I can at least make sure you guys know that I’m still living and doing stuff out there. It also proves that I can still write and will write for Miza on the weekend, hopefully. At the moment, I’m grinding out thousands and thousands of words for NaNoWriMo. I started late, but I think I can still do it … and that’s all what counts! I designed a cover today, so here’s it together with the synopsis I posted at the NaNo website: “A circus that combines light, sound, movement and smell to create the most breathtaking performance you have ever seen. A director who gives out the performance's concept in the last few seconds before it actually starts and forces the artists to improvise. A melancholic young woman who thinks in music instead of words. A man who pretends to be a woman and loses himself in the process. A girl with no origin, but a blue and a green eye. And an incident that sends the entire crew into shock.”

[Malia]

NaNoWriMo 2 NaNoWriMo is over and I finished in time. I actually finished on November 29th. Expect a rise of activity from now on. Maybe? But exam time at school has also just started, haha.