11 I 2002 - 03:25 - vita20

Hello again. This is another school entry and as such is likely to be incredibly nonsensical, just because I cannot focus and string together sentences in the noisy computer lab. Right now, an animated discussion about the value of honor and respect in society, and how this relates to Britney Spears's music, is going on behind me. You'll excuse me if I'm more than a little distracted.

I have ten minutes to get to class across the hall. This will be a short one, I promise.

So I'd like to complain a bit. But first I will choose to be alarmed by the fact that my most recent entry is not appearing on this computer. Well, no entry is appearing on this computer. Is this a crazy Mac thing, or is it my school? I can get to everyone else's diary, so... well, I find that just a bit curious.

My parents and I had a "discussion" last night about what I want to do (read: what they want me to do) for the summer between high school and college. Assuming there is enough money for a trip, they want me to spend some time in Mainland China to "experience Oriental philosophy because you might not know that it can be very different from the Western style of thought." Uh, duh, I live with this? I'm not so sure I want to go live in China for a summer, even if it's only sightseeing. China is different things to all of us, and they don't seem to recognize that. Although I will admit that I speak more Chinese than I speak Czech, German, or Hungarian, so travelling might be a little easier. Still, cries of "ugly American!" are sort of hard to miss, even if you don't understand the language. Anyway. They seem to want me to regard China as some sort of hallowed place that birthed me once before (nope, sorry, I was born in San Francisco) and that will eventually be my savior. They don't seem to understand how I could possibly want it otherwise. Sigh. Although they do have a point in that learning Chinese will eventually be incredibly useful. Yes, I know, I'm a teenager complaining that his parents don't understand him - there's nothing new there. But I had to get it out sometime.

My other complaint: progress reports. My advisor loves to hear herself talk. She told me explicitly that she had made up a list of questions because my grades were fine. Among these questions: "Do you mind dropping from an A+ to an A?" Which just annoys me, because there is absolutely no reason to ask that question. Unless you're her. My group was stuck in individual meetings - well, I'm sure the last person just got in, and it's a minute to classtime. We were given an hour and a half for these meetings; all the other groups got out after half an hour. What's wrong with her?

To close, I have a headache, things are not improving with the other cellist in my school orchestra, and I don't do enough writing for pleasure.

Will someone tell the people around me that calling up error messages on the computer to hear the beep is NOT AMUSING? *growls*