Coming Home for the Last Time

Homecoming Week 2011: Coming Home for the Holidays! is over. Last year was amazing (save the whole fighting thing) but this year, our last Homecoming, is, I think, the best one I've had. Maybe Kendall's too. For Kendall's Homecoming post last year, click here.


As I type, I am uploading the last photos from Homecoming onto Facebook. Anyway, the theme's point was to allow us to celebrate holidays we usually can't celebrate in school because we always have the day off. Before I forget, there was also a week-long Easter egg hunt all around campus. Sadly, I did not find any eggs but Kendall got two, I believe.


Monday: FASHION NO-NO


In keeping with tradition, we started off with Fashion No-No dress day of course! We  And, like we do every year, the SAO Family greeted students early in the morning at the Upper School autoline, proudly displaying our garish outfits and waving at all the cars. Kelsey kicked on of the footballs for the symbolic Homecoming Kick-Off! The Fashion No-No Fashion Show at lunch was funny and so memorable (I got it all on video! Haha!). The energy was amazing. It was a great way to start what I knew would be an amazing week. (Also, we had great timing for signing psychosis! Thank you, John, for signing all of the books!)


Tuesday: CHRISTMAS

We have been ready for Christmas for quite some time now and I've actually been listening to Christmas song for the past month or so. I AM SO READY FOR CHRISTMAS! Anyway, Tuesday was a little teaser for everyone, which was a bit mean, but it was okay because it was still fun. Plus, we know that Christmas is on it's way. So everyone dressed up in their Christmas-y outfits and everyone shared Christmas-in-October holiday cheers with tinsels, bells, and a wave of red and green. I was amazed at how creative some costumes were--angels, gingerbread men, elves, Santas, the Grinch, the Spirit of Christmas (Bogs!), snowmen, and, of course, Zalman came as a rabbi! We had some milk and cookies in the morning, courtesy of the SAO, and Christmas music serenaded senior benches. At lunch, students played an exciting game of Gimme Gimme (in which we weren't really allowed to participate because we helped wrap the "presents" and knew where and what some of the gifts were. 

Wednesday: ST. PATRICK'S DAY

We celebrated St. Patrick's Day on the third day so....GREEN GARMENTS GALORE! Leprechauns, clovers, rainbows and pots of gold were everywhere! I think it was Rachel who commented that we all looked liked we were going to the Quidditch World Cup...minus the Bulgarians, of course! GO IRISH! I felt home because of all the green--I just pretended it was a Slytherin party, and you know how those go. The dungeons can get pretty crazy. In the morning, they served some Lucky Charms and green milk. While Kendall trotted off to a Light Green (his team from Senior Camp) pizza "gathering", the rest of us went to Seto Hall for the magic show. Blew my mind, man. We had fun trying to figure it all out. Some tricks we've seen before and we had some creative ideas as to how it happened. But the other tricks were just--well, it's magic. Especially that last one with the box illusion--we are all convinced that they hit it with an Expanding Charm before the show. That's the only viable explanation. We love magic. We also helped to build the I after school!

Thursday: THANKSGIVING


On the fourth day, we celebrated Thanksgiving! The day's colors were orange and brown but this was probably the day in which mostly everyone dressed up in costumes rather than simple colors. Indians and pilgrims roamed the halls. Even Turkeys! The SAO served some cranberry juice and pie in the morning. The lunch assembly was hilarious--they had an apple bobbing contest. Mr. Park did not fail to amaze and wow everyone with his skills--he was slipping and sliding and spraying water everywhere. Luke broke the container and gah, it was so fun. The mashed potato and marshmallow portion of the contest was good, too, and of course, Mr. Park, again, was the highlight of the show. 


At the end of the day, we watched the Lip Sync performances. I thought the juniors and the sophomores delivered clear and smooth performances. The seventh graders' love story was cute and they had us singing along with T-Swizzle! Eighth and ninth graders were also good. As for the senior performance, there were some parts that confused a whole lot of people (me included) and I could not hear/understand the dialogue that I assumed was supposed to tie the whole thing together although I was in the front row so I spent most of the time trying to figure out how it was all connected. One thing is for sure: the Katy Perry bit in the senior lip sync? PRICELESS and the BEST segment out of all the grades.

Friday: ALL-OUT RAIDER DAY


It's all about the Red, Black and White. That's what we all bleed. Not just Red--RED, BLACK, AND WHITE. Hopefully, our class got the 100% dressed-up percentage we'd been wanting all week. For the past few days, we had been at 98-99%, constantly urging everyone to set a record of 100%. We'll find out on Monday. 

The most exciting part during the school day? The Kikaida flash mob! Kendall and I are both in Mr. Park's math classes (Precalc Honors for Kendall and AP Calc AB for me) and for the past three days before Friday, we've been doing nothing but correcting homework and practicing the Kikaida dance in class. Mr. Park even videotaped himself doing the dance and posted it online just for us to watch and use for practice at home. He organized the flash mob, which was scheduled to happen during lunch at the Fair (booths set up for students to challenge teachers in games like chopsticks games, mental math, staring contests, thumb wars, etc.). I'm pretty sure that most of the senior class found out about it because everyone was just milling about, waiting for it to happen. But for the faculty and the underclassmen, it was a nice surprise. At about 12:20pm, the music quickly changed from Michael Jackson to the Kikaida theme song and that was our cue. Walking away after like nothing happened was the best part! Check out the Imua article and video here.


Friday is also Cheerfest day--the day for which we had been practicing for weeks. All of the seniors met in the Athletic Courtyard to prep for our entrance. Although we weren't allowed to walk into the gym as a part of our cheer, we still wanted to announce our presence in a big way. So we filed into the gym, chanting "Ruh! Roh! Seniors!" over and over again. We fit everyone on the bleachers, I believe, which was key because sitting down was necessary for the beats. We went second and there were some similar songs used here and there between the grades but I think we did it perfectly. Josh asked me after, "How did you guys make sure everyone was doing the same thing, that you guys were all in the same page?" I told him that in the past, our class hadn't been like that. On Cheerfest, some people wouldn't be into it, some would be pushing other people down (like last year...) and jumping or just saying the wrong words on purpose. But I think being seniors makes us all BAM! Focused and ready to win. I felt the all-out quality we radiated. My head hurt after all the screaming and cheering, but it was so worth it. 

Then there was the game. Uhh, it wasn't a very fun game to watch because we slaughtered the other team. But it was a fun game to go to for us because Kelsey and Bryan both played! When Kelsey kicked the second time, she made it in! I made leis for some of the seniors on the football team and after giving those out, taking pictures and congratulating Kelsey and Bryan, some of us headed straight to Ho'olaulea and some went to shower in the locker rooms. Kendall and Sid helped to clean up after the game. 


Ho'olaulea was great as usual. I always love watching Stage 3, and Rebecca and Gavin were there. Josh had told me that Rebecca would sing in one of the concerts, but I don't think she did on Friday (we missed the first few minutes of the show), so I'm crossing my fingers that she will at the Christmas concert. We had to leave a bit early so that we could go to Chapel at 6:45pm for the Burning of the I. 


I don't think it hit me then that we were experiencing the Burning, finally as seniors, until it was fully ablaze. In the night, just watching that I burn and burn and burn. It's not a feeling that you can really describe. It's one of those "You just had to be there" things. 

And, finally, to cap it all off--the dance. Which was crazy. Partly because I don't think the school had ever seen so many people at an 'Iolani dance as they did on Friday night. The line was extremely long, but the wait was worth it because it was pretty fun in there. Yes, it got rowdy, I gotta admit. But being with friends and everything, as a senior, in the last Homecoming dance we would ever have? Man. I had to leave half an hour early because of my mom. In the beginning of the week, she had said yes, but I was actually sick for most of Homecoming so she told us on Thursday night that we couldn't go to the dance so we could get some much-needed sleep. At the very last minute, she yielded to my pleas but said that if we were to go, we had to leave at 10pm. Perfectly fine with me because I was so thankful that I was able to go at the very least. 


All in all, a good night. What made it a great night? I got home, showered, and then I thought, "How can I end this perfect week perfectly?" I picked up The Son of Neptune. I told myself that I didn't have time to read it at all in November (more on that later) so this weekend was the weekend to do it. So I ended my Homecoming Week with an hour of Rick Riordan's awesome storytelling skills.


And now to other things! First, today (it's actually 3am on Sunday, October 30 now, but...) was October 29. Can we just take this moment to appreciate this special day? Okay, now that we've acknowledged and honored this day, on to next week!


So next week is Halloween! And the whole week has a lot more surprises, which you'll hear about later, but one that you are allowed to know about right now is NaNoWriMo! It isn't really a secret, I know, but yeah. I think Kendall is going to finish his 2010 novel for this year (which I'm really excited about because he left me hanging and I really wanted to know what would happen next!), and I'd like to try to do the same to mine but I've decided to start anew this year. The 2010 novel will be finished at one point, but I have a new idea and I just want to see where it goes. I'm also going to be very un-OCD about this story this year just because my OCDness on writing is the number one thing that keeps me from finishing any of my stories. My tendency to keep revising just doesn't go well with NaNoWriMo, so I'm forcing myself to change tactics. Wish us luck! Also, maybe expect shorter and boring posts all month...we are trying to write 50,000 words after all. I'm also blocking myself from Tumblr (like, COMPLETELY) and limiting Facebook time to the weekends. Homework is NOT going to move to the back seat. I will have three focuses--homework, NaNo, and college apps. College apps will mostly be in the weekends. It sounds scary, I know, because I still have speech/debate, clubs, Smalls, and prefection duties. Wish us A LOT of luck.


So it's almost 3:30 and I'd like to get some sleep (though I don't feel tired because I took a 2-hour nap in the afternoon). I have homework and a costume to do/make tomorrow.


LAST HOMECOMING!


Today....
I really loved...not being sick anymore.
I smiled...because of Percy, and Frank, and Hazel, and NICO, and Tyson, and GAH. TOO MANY EMOTIONS AND NO WORDS WITH WHICH TO EXPRESS THEM.
Lyrics playing at this very moment as I type this portion of the blog:
"This is the start of something good, don't you agree? I've never felt like this in so many moons..." (Follow Through by Gavin Degraw)
Hugs: 2
Risks taken: 7 (Only one during Homecoming? Weird?)
Current food cravings: fries...good fries...and orange juice...