Warped Tour, Pride, and Stolen Wallets

Hello everyone!

Today is exactly one week from the YES Abroad PDO...and I still have no idea what to wear.  And my wallet got stolen with my driver's license in it.  So that's fun.  Here's another mad scramble for identification this time.  Oh people and their greed.  So you got $40, an unusable driver's license, a school ID, and a cancelled debit card.  Ooooh, you're cool.  Sorry.  I'm irritated.

Anyway.  This weekend has been CRAZY hectic.  First I went to Pride Fest with a couple of my buddies, and we decked ourselves out in anything rainbow that the vendors gave us.  I think I have around 10 rainbow themed stickers.

Isn't he amazing?!  I absolutely adore his hair.

My lovely rainbow nails painted for the event.

Next up, the absolutely fantastic and amazing WARPED TOUR!  It was insanely hot and exhausting, but worth every minute.  Except for the stolen wallet part.  I was with my kin.  So many people had colored hair.  I saw Ten Second Epic (a Canadian band that I had never heard of that is wonderful), Yellowcard, We The Kings, part of All Time Low, and Of Mice & Men.  I would have really liked to have seen Sleeping With Sirens and Falling In Reverse, but they conflicted with some of the bands both my friend and I wanted to see.  Then the best part of the day was the signing with Of Mice & Men.  I got in line 10 minutes before it was set to start...and figured out that my wallet was gone.  With my ticket in it.  Freaking out, I booked it halfway across the entire festival to the merch booth and pleaded with the merch guy in near tears to help me get in.  To my extreme relief, he wrote on my arm in sharpie that it was okay if I got to meet them.  They signed my shirt, and added various facial features to it and we made casual conversation.  At the end I got to Austin Carlile, who is ranked up there as one of my idols.  I asked for a hug.  And got one.  It was a fantastic hug.  During the hug, he said "Thank you.  I love you." All I managed to blubber out was thank you, then I tottered away grinning like a mad person.  

Two and a half hours later, after braving a horde of people, I was one person away from the stage which Of Mice & Men was performing on.  Needless to say I got mildly beat up from crowd surfers and the four man mosh pit going on beside me, but I have never been so inspired by a show.  Merely four years ago, Austin (lead singer) was at Warped Tour (in Colorado) watching everyone perform.  He decided that one day, he would be up there performing himself.  And now he is.  I'm just as determined to be up there myself one day.

I didn't take this, I was to the far left in the front somewhere.  I don't think you can see me.

This is mine.  It's crappy quality, but I was very close to the stage!  Sorry it's so jumpy, I was being bumped around a bit.

Well, that's really all I have for now.  I might have one more post before the PDO, but who knows.  

-Olivia

Two videos today!

The lesson of the moth

i was talking to a moth
the other evening
he was trying to break into
an electric light bulb
and fry himself on the wires

why do you fellows
pull this stunt i asked him
because it is the conventional
thing for moths or why
if that had been an uncovered
candle instead of an electric
light bulb you would
now be a small unsightly cinder
have you no sense

plenty of it he answered
but at times we get tired
of using it
we get bored with the routine
and crave beauty
and excitement
fire is beautiful
and we know that if we get
too close it will kill us
but what does that matter
it is better to be happy
for a moment
and be burned up with beauty
than to live a long time
and be bored all the while
so we wad all our life up
into one little roll
and then we shoot the roll
that is what life is for
it is better to be a part of beauty
for one instant and then cease to
exist than to exist forever
and never be a part of beauty
our attitude toward life
is come easy go easy
we are like human beings
used to be before they became
too civilized to enjoy themselves

and before i could argue him
out of his philosophy
he went and immolated himself
on a patent cigar lighter
i do not agree with him
myself i would rather have
half the happiness and twice
the longevity

but at the same time i wish
there was something i wanted
as badly as he wanted to fry himself

-Don Marquis

Now I realize this isn't 100% relevant with study abroad (it is, but in a more morbid degree), but I absolutely love this poem. I shows how much passion just for...happiness this moth has, and how he'd rather live his life to the fullest than live in fear.  It's one of the many reasons that I want a tattoo of a moth.  Not even one of the pretty colored variety, merely a simple miller moth that I used to fear so much as a child.

-Olivia

I love these guys <3  I'm actually learning the Ballad of Mona Lisa on piano.  Quite an accomplishment for me.

Brief History of a Market Economy...

In the mid-eighteenth century, a new era of philosophy known as the Enlightenment developed in Europe. New theories about religion, science, government, and economics dominated this era. Adam Smith was a well-known Scottish philosopher during the Enlightenment...


Oh, I'm sorry, let me hit my head against the wall a few times to wake my brain up.  As I'm sure I've mentioned before, I'm taking multiple online classes over the summer.  Today, I'm focusing on Economics.  Hearing a teacher talk about it in class and making it interesting is one thing, but reading it online for hours on end is dreadfully boring.  No offense to my beloved social studies teachers who read my blog.


Now that I think about it, I'm going on a government sponsored program.  I should probably learn as much about this as possible.  Make me look smart.  


Anyway.  The days are strolling along.  The sun is beating down rather furiously, with the occasional respite by way of a gusty thunderstorm.  During these storms, I protect myself by hiding under my bed. I've never been a fan.  Classmates post pictures of bikini-clad bodies and wonderfully refreshing looking pools.  I sit on my computer taking classes and eat all the food in the house.  Of course, I go out occasionally.  Yesterday, I went out on our boat to hang out with the family and have a barbecue.  I fought off a hoard of invading red ants and grumbled as my step-dad pelted me with marble sized rocks while I was reading a book.  Later that night, I attended my cousin's ballet performance, and was awed by the dancers' effortless grace and flexibility.  For those of you who know me, I have the dancing ability of a brick.


Saturday, I bleached my roots, but didn't have time to actually put the dye in.  I walked around with a hat the rest of the day, refusing to let anyone see me as a blonde.  It isn't pretty.  Thankfully I was able to dye my hair today, and it came out like this:

Purple and dark blue!  The blue almost looks black though.

On the exchange front, I got my National Pre-Departure Orientation flight details today!  I leave at the chipper hour of 7:24 AM.  Luckily I get a window seat, so I can ogle at the sights below and rock out to some of my favorite music (Of Mice & Men is really growing on me).  I am traveling with the lovely Sarah Bibbey who is going to Ghana.  She gets the window seat on the way back though.  I may have to bribe her with a sheet of my dinosaur stickers so I don't hyperventilate for three and a half hours in the middle seat.  

I have my Local Pre-Departure Orientation this Saturday (so many orientations, I love it), so I shall take plenty of pictures (I document everything.  It gets annoying) and write a detailed blog post for you all afterwards.

-Olivia