Hola! :)

Hello everyone. First of all, thanks to all those who took the time out of your busy busy schedules to wish me a happy birthday :) I had a really good time, although it would have been better if you guys had been there. I went with some friends and family to a traditional dance/music "show" (I say show because there is no other word for it in english. It was more like a group of percussionists playing the music and really talented people dancing in the middle of the small crowd.) The music/dance was Bomba, a Puerto Rican artform developed by the African slaves who were brought by the Spanish. It was so much fun! The beat really gets into you... Hopefully when you all come to visit me I can take you there. Afterwards, I went with a few friends to Old San Juan and hung out for a while.

Other than that, things have been ok. I have senioritis like never before, especially since I have about 35 days of class left. There are so many holidays and activities in the coming months that we almost don't get any class. It's pretty sweet, not gonna lie. However, we have a lot of work to finish before the glorious 8th of May arrives (last day for seniors), so I'm not celebrating yet. I assume I'm not the only one dealing with chronic senioritis, though ;)

I'm going to be in Boston from April 18th until the 24th, for Harvard prefrosh and random partying with some college friends. I'd love to see a few TASPers while I'm at it, so if anyone is going to coincide with me, tell me! (Needless to say, I've already informed Anthony about this:) ALSO, Grace is coming to Puerto Rico on March 23, so we'll be having another mini-TASP reunion! Seeing as Aida will be here, there will of course be pictures :D Keep me posted with your lives!

Much love, Laura

MBTA (Someone had to)

Who is applying?

I know:
Anthony
Levent
Aida
Freya

Testing

Testing..

Congrats, Grace!

Just wanted to say "congratulations" for winning LOYALTY QUEEN!!!

*skips around the room throwing confetti*

IB v. AP

What are your thoughts on this? I have mixed feelings and I am still not 100% clear on what exactly is involved in IB and getting your diploma. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Presidential Scholars, Fashion, and...Such!

Blogger is a betch.

Anyway.

CONGRATULATIONS to Miss Laura! She is nominated for the Presidential Scholars Program. :) I also received a nomination, so I'm uber happy. TASPers repreZENT! Yo, yo.

*cough* Anyway. For those that went to Discovery Weekend and met the ASIAN guy from Puerto Rico, Carlton, yeah, he and his sister also got nominated. :D

In other news:

+ My Cornell interview is tomorrow. Woo!
+ School is crazy! Woo!
+ Laura's school's fashion show is on the 11th! Woo!

I will obviously take an obscene amount of photographs and promptly upload them onto Facebook for your collective viewing pleasure. ^_^

I'm sorry for being MIA lately. :'( I love you all, though. I'll try to call soon, but I can't promise anything yet. <3 <3 <3

Has It Been That Long?

I sat in AP Statistics today counting down the seconds until class ended and I realized something. September, October, November, December, January, February – today was exactly half a year since the end of TASP. In ways it seems so tragically far away and yet it is never too far from my mind.

I realize it has been quite some time so I will give you all a brief update as to my life. My debate team is doing wonderfully, my novices continually win tournament and get speaker awards – this, of course, I will take credit for in college interview. Truth be told, it was very little of my doing and mainly their own talent and dedication which continues to impress me. Mock trial has just started a few days ago and for the first time in the history of my school we won our first of three trials, beating a team we have lost to for the past 3 years by a single point. As captain, I feel very glad to have made our moderator so proud, though there is a lot of pressure to win the next two as well so we can advance. I have another trial Thursday and the final of the three a week from tomorrow. So, I’m keeping myself very busy with that. My classes are going well for the second quarter and the first I’ve had straight As with a single B+. Hopefully colleges will make a note of this before they outright reject me. As for colleges, almost all my interviews are done. I have Brown on February 15th and I still have not heard from Yale, which is strange. My complete list: Harvard, Yale, Brown, Dartmouth, Georgetown, Hamilton, UMich, BC, American, George Washington, Boston University, and Brandies. No need to tell me that’s far too many schools – trust me, I know.

On the TASP front, sadly I was unable to convince any deserving juniors to apply. I was informed of my region’s TASPlication Reading Day a few weeks ago, and although I was looking forward to it a lot I will not be attending because it is February 17th. Instead, I will be hanging out with Dan (and maybe Sarah?) on February 17th. We will, of course, do our bests to take many pictures and post them on the blog. Also, my mom makes scrapbooks for each of her kids when they graduate high school, meaning mine is coming up. This prompts me to ask, does anyone have any print photos of some of us together with me in them? If you do and would be willing to send me some please let me know and it would be greatly appreciated. God forbid I have a high school scrapbook and no TASP photos! Thanks to those of you who already replied to Sarah’s email, the earlier the better. I look forward to helping plan the reunion and seeing all of you again. I think of you guys all the time and I miss you so much you can’t even imagine. You often come up in my college interviews – not TASP – you, specifically. I know I have told stories of Laura, Levent, Ingrid, Sheron and Martin in interviews because you are all so smart and wonderful and influential in my life. I’m sorry to those of you I haven’t done a great job keeping in contact with, please call me whenever you have time and I will certainly make time to talk. I apologize if this post is all over the place, I’m trying to hurry so I can go shower.

I miss you all and love you,
Anthony