My Sister's 16th Birthday Party

My sister's 16th birthday party was/is today since her actual birthday is this Wednesday.  I'm already worn out, and I still have to make it through the night with a loud group of girls just down the hall.  Thank God it's a three day weekend, and I have an extra day to sleep in.

My birthday present for Regina wasn't much.  I just gave her a little bit of money.  However, I made her search for it.  I made a scavenger hunt and made her go through it to get the money.  The funny thing was that I had the money in my pocket the whole time.  The answer to the last riddle was the number of dollars I was giving her, and I just handed her the money when she solved it.  She wasn't too happy about that.

The party started at six this evening.  My sister invited about seven girls, and one of them was more my friend than hers.  I'm so glad Ji came because she helped keep me sane.  It's not that I don't get along with all of Regina's friends.  It's that there are just two of Regina's friends that drive me insane when I have to be around them for extended periods of time.  The two of them together plus Regina means torture for me.  Ji and I found ourselves seperated from the group or with the girls that I am kind of friends with too for most of the party.

Regina and most of the other girls had a water balloon fight that Ji and I decided not to participate in since we didn't want to get wet.  Then, Regina hit my brother with a balloon when he didn't want to get wet either.  He wanted revenge, so he, Ji, my mom, and I filled up some water guns while everyone else was inside.  Turns out I got wet anyway.  The hose sprayed everywhere when I turned it on, and then Ji and I started squirting each other.  It was hilarious when Matthew finally got Regina too.  Another funny moment was when I slipped ice down that back of her shirt while she was eating.

One of the girls had the idea to walk down to the playground of the school that about half of us attended for elementary and middle school.  Ji and I went with them but didn't stay long.  We came back to the house, and she insisted on putting make up on me even though it was pretty late at this point.

After that we went out to the backyard where Regina, her friends, and my parents were roasting marshmellows and watching The Hangover using a projector.  We stayed out there and talked for a while before coming back into the house where it was cooler.

There was a Star Wars marathon that had been on TV all day while we were running in and out of the house.  We sat down to watch some of it.  It was the end of Episode III, and Ji had never seen Star Wars before.  I had to do quite a bit of explaining.  Some how we got onto the topic of Japanese and Korean culture.  Ji started explaining Korean food, and she showed me the youtube videos that explain stuff about Korea.  They're some pretty awesome videos.

I tried to convince Ji to spend the night and help me deal with Regina and the two girls spending the night, but she decided to go home.  Now I'm dealing with them on my own.  The three of them have invaded my bathroom while I'm typing this and are currently putting on face masks.  Yeah, I'm never getting sleep...

Places I Want to Visit

A while back I did a post of my favorite places that included both places I've been to and places I want to go to.  This post is a bit different.  This is a list of the six places I want to visit the most.  I hope to travel a lot in the future, so this definitely isn't a complete list of places I want to visit.  This is just some of the places I most want to visit.

1. Los Angeles, CA.  I've wanted to go since I was a little kid, but my family always goes on vacations in the eastern half of the United States.  For a while I considered going to college in LA, but right now, I don't think that's going to happen since it's not my top choices.  I definitely want to visit at some point.  It just seems like a city that I would love.

2. United Kingdom.  It's not that hard to figure out the first thing that made me want to visit the UK:  Harry Potter.  Even though Harry Potter was the start of it, I've since learned a lot more about Britain, and I want to visit it for a lot of reasons.  I wouldn't turn down visiting anywhere in the country, but I really want to go to London and Edinburgh.

3. Japan.  I've started to be a lot more interested in Japanese culture much more recently.  It probably started somewhere in the past three years.  I'm actually considering teaching English in Japan after college.

4. South Korea.  I got interested in Korean culture sometime after I got interested in Japanese culture.  I'm also considering teaching English in South Korea instead of Japan, but Japan's still my first choice.  (Unless my friend Ji is successful in convincing me to go to Korea instead.  They are going to be hosting the Olympics in the future...)

5. New Zealand.  In eighth grade we had an assignment to do a travel brochure for any place we chose.  I just randomly choose Auckland, New Zealand.  Over the course of working on the brochure, I found all of this awesome stuff to do in Auckland, and I started to really want to go.  Plus, it's absolutely beautiful.

6. Australia.  My AP biology teacher last year showed us video from her trip to Australia and New Zealand last year, and she had some cool stories.  It would be awesome to see the Great Barrier Reef.

This is just a small list of places I want to visit.  Honestly, I don't think I'd turn down seeing any part of the world.  What places do you most want to visit.