SYR

The Jesus Sandals
His ridiculously huge feet in my small Rainbows
He secretly loves me





Downtown Hartsville

Marla

Jason, myself, & Nicole

Doesn't she look like a Who?
Me standing on the base of the fountain in Centennial Park
Nicole and Jason sitting around the fountain

Hola! So I've officially been a "Govie" for a week now and it's everything I'd thought it be and much more! It's shocking and terrifying and mind-blowing, and I'm pretty sure all of those words mean the same thing, but oh well. The classes are extremely hard. Well, extremely hard if you don't study and don't put in the effort it takes to succeed in this kind of environment. Note-taking is going to be so important it's scary. My AP US History teacher (Carlanna-she's beautiful) talks 80 miles an hour, but on the upside, it's not like class at all. It's more like story-hour with Granny. Oh my god... She's mind-blowing. All the other classes are as stimulating as Dr. Hendrick's, but they all serve their purpose.

So getting on to the point of my post: SYR. SYR is a Govie tradition that is many, many years old. SYR is short for "Set Up Your Roomie." It's basically like a date, but not ultimately. So it goes like this: A senior girl picks a junior guy and a senior guy picks a junior girl. The process the proceeds to the senior taking the junior to dinner somewhere in Hartsville and showing them around town after that. My SYR was this really smart, nice guy named Todd Eisenberger. My SYR and I went out with a whole bunch of SYRs and their seniors to a local restaurant (Bizzell's) and then hung out in a local park for a couple hours after that until it was time for the movie to start. We went to see 1408, a completely creepy, yet oddly fascinating movie. I loved it, though I did watch most of it with my hands over my eyes. Yeah, I know, I'm a scaredy-cat, but I live with it. Jason (a new friend) picked on me through the entire film. By the way, pictures of a few new friends are enclosed, Aunt Judi! So yeah, it's 1 in the morning and I'm awful tired. I think I'm going to hit the sack, seeing how I have plans to go shopping with Cari in the morning/later today and the parents are also coming to take me to dinner tomorrow night. Love you guys...

A Day in the Life

Ultimate Frisbee!

The outside courtyard-ish eating area

The back entrance to GSSM

A friendly basketball game between some of the guys

One of the mentioned "half-naked" sweaty guys!

Well, today was my second day of life at GSSM. It consisted of a FULL day of nonstop talking from Elaine Penn, a very energetic motivational speaker, who sang karioke. It was horribly bad, yet oddly entertaining. We had "GSSM Idol" with 3 of my new classmates. My new-found buddy, Raques, was the winner, but he had lots of competition from Jake Hammer and Sharon Guffy. Both of them proved to be very, very tough competition. It was so much fun!

Our last activity consisted of fort-building in groups of 6 to 7 people. It was...interesting to say the least. We had well over an hour to construct previously mentioned fort out of plastic, twine, and PAINTER'S tape. I learned an important lesson about painter's tape today: It is NOT meant to build forts out of. It tends to fall off of everything. That meant we had to TIE everything to other huge objects, which tested everyone's skill level. Turns out, we're at GSSM because we're smart, not because of our contracting skills. Ha...

After karioke and fort-building day, we had dinner. Today must have been an off-day for me because I ate 2 salads, which is very unsual for me. Shanna would be extremely proud! =) So, after that, we (my new friend, Marla and I) watched sweaty, half-naked guys play Ultimate Frisbee, which looks like so much fun. I'm just not sure that I'm ready to try and play. Kate (another new friend) says I'm missing out on the best GSSM experience so far. Gosh, I've been too chatty tonight. So goodnight and farewell to all for now. I'll write more later... Love you guys!

My First Post!

My lovely toliet!

The pink, orange, and cream polka-dot shower curtain!

Everyone says I've been here, like, 10 years or something.

The lovely duvet cover Shanna gave me! I love it!

So, this is my very first post on Blogspot. Shanna's going to be so proud! And as many of you know, lots of new things are entering my life this fall, as I'm now a member of the junior class at the South Carolina Governor's School for Science and Mathematics. GSSM, as it's affectionately known, is located in lovely Hartsville (also fondly known as Hartsvegas). Move-in day was yesterday and things have been going non-stop since then! The orientation process is proving to be very tedious, but oddly helpful. Everyone keeps asking me what I think about school, as in, whether I'm liking it or not, and I have yet to answer that question. I blame it all on the hectic schedule of orientation, though I'm pretty sure it's not that. So yeah, basically, I'm ignoring the situation until I'm just so used to being here that I have no choice but to stay. Ashley (my across the hall-mate) has been uber helpful before move-in day and since I've been here. Any advice on adjusting to my brand-new life would be mucho appreciated. So, this is all I can think to blog right now. Check out all my pictures of my new "home." Love you guys...