Unexpected Statistics

A few weeks ago, I published my post, "Memories of the 2011 Vacation to Mexico." On Facebook, I posted a link to it and tagged the sixteen members of my family who were with me during that trip. So I was definitely surprised when my blog had at least three times that many views at the peak of its popularity for that post. I concluded that a lot more people than are admitting it stalk me...and I have no way of telling who they are, but I know they're out there. Since then I've had a fairly steady flow of a few page views per day, despite the fact that I don't write all that often.

Then today, I checked some of my blog statistics that I have never looked at before, and was shocked to learn about some of the places where my blog has been viewed. These are the stats for the total number of page views my blog has received at this point.

United States: 995
Russia: 175
Netherlands: 142
Latvia: 72
Germany: 69
Slovenia: 32
Poland: 29
United Kingdom: 27
Canada: 26
China: 26

Russia? Who the heck in Russia is so interested in my life? And the Netherlands, and a couple other places I'm not even sure I could identify on a map...it really came as a huge surprise to me. And those aren't even all the places my blog has been viewed from - here are the statistics for the past month.

United States: 72
Russia: 9
Spain: 5
Germany: 4
Slovakia: 2
Ukraine: 2
Switzerland: 1
Japan: 1
South Korea: 1
Mexico: 1

I'd love to receive comments from some of these foreign readers. But maybe they'll just remain quiet, as most of my unknown readers have for the past 4 and 1/2 years, since the beginning of my little blog. Anyway, just thought these unexpected statistics were interesting - you never know who may be curious about what goes on in your life.

Memories of the 2011 Vacation to Mexico

50 Memories of my Extended Family's Vacation in Mexico (in no particular order)

1. Arriving at the Grand Palladium Hotels & Resorts and being amazed at the size of it
2. Being served free fruity drinks everywhere
3. Swimming almost every day in the big, warm pools
4. Taking underwater photos in the pool 
5. Taking underwater photos of the fish in the Salt Pool (it was fun to snorkel there)
6. Playing on the beach and in the ocean
7. Enjoying the warm, humid air
8. Snorkeling in the warm Caribbean waters
9. Visiting the city of Cancun
10. Buying a really pretty sundress (blue with rainbow threaded patterns)
11. Unlimited food at the all-you-can-eat-buffet; that was fantastic. Having unlimited nutella and all sorts of other delicious food, begging to be eaten. At any time, all the time.
12. Taking full advantage of the free ice cream machines (free ice cream!!! Who knew?)
13. While in Cancun, being rained on as if the sky was crying waterfalls - buckets of rain were pouring down while my mom and I ate fajitas at a little local restaurant.
14. Watching this guy make these beautiful pictures by finger-painting (wish I had bought one...)
15. Eating at a certain Japanese restaurant while sitting down on the floor, with our legs crossed underneath the table. Not something I've done anywhere else.
16. Swimming up to the bar at the edge of the pool to get free fruity drinks (and sitting on the stools in the water while sipping them)
17. Going on late-night excursions to the beach with the girls - I miss that sooooo much. The ocean and the sky were so dark and mysterious, and being out there in the salty night air was just enchanting.
18. Being poured on while returning to our rooms from those excursions
19. Having crazy, frizzy hair all the time and not caring one bit
20. Running barefoot everywhere
21. Seeing interesting animals (mostly big lizards and such) on the sides of the roads, and also flamingos in a little pond
22. Attending a little dance performance that was based off of Disney movies, if I remember correctly - there were fun costumes and music and such.
23. Shooting with a bow and arrow at the little archery place
24. Wishing we (kids) could go to the spa
25. Swimming in a Cenote (underground pool - it was really, really cool)
26. Visiting Coba (a Mayan village)
27. Climbing the tallest pyramid in the Yucatan peninsula - it was in Coba, and hiking up the 118 steep steps was very exciting.
28. Touring the ruins of Tulum
29. Staying up late playing card games and talking (well, I didn't play cards much back then - but I began being taught how to play Oh Heck while we were there)
30. Having a hot tub in our hotel room
31. Being sung to and played instruments for by two guys while we were waiting for a table at one restaurant
32. Getting to ask someone at a restaurant, "¿Dónde está el baño?" (one of the few Spanish phrases I knew at the time)
33. Having a girls' night to paint nails and such
34. Bartering with people selling things
35. Walking around on the smooth marble walkways between the main buildings and pools
36. Intending to write in my journal every day about things that happened, but never getting around to it
37. Spending some time on rainy days lazing around in our room, playing Plants vs. Zombies (and beating it)
38. On the bus ride to the resort, taking pictures of each other's eyes (they're really quite interesting to study and compare)
39. Having a random dance party up on a stage somewhere in the resort
40. Burning our bare feet on the hot ground and then relieving them in the cool water of the pools
41. Passing crabs scuttling around the place when going to the beach
42. Riding around the resort in golf cart-type vehicles and mini trains
43. Being exposed to more poverty in that one trip than I have seen anywhere in America
44. Having a lesson together on Sunday about gifts (we made a long list of them)
45. Getting up whenever we wanted, eating whenever we wanted, swimming however much we wanted, eating as much ice cream as we wanted as long as we were willing to walk to machine to get it
46. Not bothering to try to look good - at all. Ever. I brushed my hair maybe once the whole week.
47. Soaking in the exotic smells, sights, and sounds - it was so damp and so GREEN there
48. Taking a big family photo of everyone - not looking our best, dressed in clashing colors, having done nothing with our hair or anything else whatsoever to better our appearance - but looking bright-eyed, relaxed, and happy to be together.
49. Half-wondering on occasion if the experience was real, or just a dream
50. Just being with each other in one big, happy family reunion

We love Mexico!

Underwater photo

Fruity drinks at the swim-up bar

Snorkeling in the pool (not much to see, but it's fun to swim with flippers and a mask)

This is the list of gifts we have that we made on Sunday.

Climbing the tallest pyramid in the Yucatan peninsula

Swimming!

Under one of the bridges spanning the pool

Another underwater picture

I wish I could eat as much as Dave can...

Fish in the Saltwater Pool

Flamingos

The random dance party up on stage

Dinner

One of the ruins in Coba

Our big family photo. :)

Orchestra, Lunch, Bowling, Summer...Update on a Few Months

This is the start of a post I began a few months back - I'm just adding to it now. I figure I might as well post it. :)

A while ago: I've had a fun, busy week. On Thursday we had our orchestra festival, during which a bunch of Jr. High school orchestras gather at one school and perform for each other and for judges. Some are decent, some some are, frankly, terrible (to put it bluntly). But we all gather together and perform about two songs each, and our performances are rated. We went last - we like to think it's because no one wants to go after us (and they want to save the best for last :) - and we stole the show. We got perfect scores, and very little criticism; though of course, we had some. There are always things to change and do better. But overall, we performed magnificently - and I'm not giving myself credit. I take about a fiftieth of the credit. :) So that was fun, and then we went out to get lunch. The bus dropped us off at a parking lot near a variety of restaurants, but most people raced for Café Rio. Including me. So my friends and I ate there, and then we went to get frozen yogurt at the popular fro-yo shop nearby. Then we got back on the bus in time to sit through one last class at school.

(Adding on to that): On Friday, a bunch of the ninth graders on the High Honor Roll list went to FatCats to bowl. I was very proud of myself when I got several strikes, and it was fun to spend time with a bunch of my friends. I also tried play-dough ice cream for the first time, which was yummy.

On the way home, my friend Charlotte and I took pictures of ourselves making goofy faces. Some of them were so terrible or funny, we laughed ourselves to tears - we had a good time. :')

By the way, here is the scoreboard at one point - and notice the beautiful X's at the top of the screen. ;)

Present day: I've had a crazy summer. That took place a couple months ago, but since summer started, I've scarcely been at home. Before school got out, my family went on a trip to Zion National Park, which was awesome. There were some amazing views, and I plan on adding more to that later. After school got out, my mom took my brother and I on a trip to New York and then Vermont, where I had a wonderful time reconnecting with old friends. Then I had EFY as soon as we got back, which was absolutely wonderful. I encourage anyone who hasn't been to go; it's a fabulous camp. The day after that ended I attended an all-day Teen Writers Conference. Tomorrow I have Youth Conference, and next week I'll have my cousins over and we'll be heading up to Grandma and Grandpa's house. We'll be going on our annual trip to Bear Lake while we're up there - and then soon after that we'll be going out to Hawaii. So...it's been crazy. I feel terrible for not writing much, but there is only so much you can do when you're constantly heading out, creating memories, and going somewhere else before you have a chance to record them. I suppose it would help to just write shorter posts rather than going into great detail. But anyway, I won't be done with this blog for a long time. It's tough to write on a blog or journal consistently during the wild years of high school, but I'll do my best. Which is good enough.

End of March Update

I missed February, but I am not missing March. So here is a little update on stuff that has been going on:

• Spring has sprung! And being on Spring Break feels better than I can ever remember.
• General Conference began today, and I enjoyed all four hours of it.
• I saw the Hunger Games yesterday, and loved it - I'm going to start reading the books tonight. Yes, I know: everyone has read the books already. I just stink at making time to do these kinds of things. Anyway, I went with a bunch of friends, and afterwards we got ice cream at a Dairy Queen and then went to someone's house and played Reverse Charades. It was a blast - we were all cracking up while doing some impressions. I love my friends.
• Last weekend I went on a trip to Goblin Valley and Moab with a bunch of people in the Concert Band and Orchestra at our school - it was SO much fun, and I think everyone had a great time.
• I've been spending a lot more time practicing piano since my mom started this system...if I practice less than 1 1/2 hours during the week, I have to pay for my lesson. But if I practice more than 3 hours a week, I get paid $8 an hour for each hour I do above 3. I haven't made that much money, but I have accomplished a lot more than I used to with that instrument. Also, next year I am taking a release-time class, or electronic high school class, during which I will go home and practice piano. I want to get a lot better at it. Somewhat sadly, I am quitting viola next year - but it has been fun while it lasted. Being in an ensemble is great, and don't regret starting in the first place. I'm just ready to move on from that.
• I picked up the ukulele! It's just a little hobby, and I'm not all that great at it, but it's really fun and I enjoy playing it. My reasons for quitting the viola have nothing to do with the uke, in case you were wondering. It's just a fun hobby, like I said.
• School has been pretty stressful, but I have managed to get no lower than an A- in any class. I only got one of those, in algebra 2, and it could have been prevented so easily...but whatever. I'm mostly over it. An A minus in an advanced math class isn't going to keep me out of college. Right now it's my science grade I am most concerned with - but only because I practically failed one test and it's the first thing on our grades. I think I'll be able to bring it back up.
• I went to my friend's Quinceñera a few weeks ago, and it was amazing. It was a little like the dance I had for my birthday, but kind of an even bigger deal...
• Back in February, we had a school dance and a stake dance. Both were pretty fun. At the school dance, I was dancing with this guy and then a whole bunch of people made a ring around us and were whistling or whatever when he spun me. It was really funny, although it was a little embarrassing. It's weird how everyone makes a huge deal about dancing couples at school dances, but not at stake ones - but whatever. The stake dance was great, as usual. I won't go into more detail about that.
• Other than that...I can't really think of anything. Life is pretty good right now, although my days are up and down. As can be expected of a 15-year-old girl. :)

Hello Again...

I promise I'm not done posting on this blog. It surprises me how hard it is to take time to write on here, but I think I'll have a goal to write at LEAST once a month. Hopefully I can get into it enough again to write more, but for now, I'm sorry for the long break I've taken. I have regretted it thoroughly. So much has happened - I really will write about all of it at some point. Soon. But for now I just want to say I'm still around. :)

Oh, and I plan on putting a lot more pictures in the future. It will liven things up and take up space. :P

Day at Disneyland

It has taken me a while to get around to writing this, but better late than never. :) We had been talking about it for a little while, but we found out on Monday the 17th that we were definitely going to Disneyland. The next day.

Early Tuesday morning, 5:15 to be precise, we (my mom, my brother, and I) got up and drove to the airport. I just want to say right now that I love my mom's job - having a flight attendant for a mother is one of the coolest things in the world. So, we flew to California on a nearly-empty plane (I slept lying down on the row behind our given seats), and our dear friend Alicia picked us up in Long Beach. We went out to have a late breakfast, stopped to drop things off at Alicia's, and then drove to Disneyland. There we met up with Alicia's friend, who works at the amusement park, and she got my mom, my brother, and me in for free. Alicia was going to buy herself a pass, but we all chipped in to get her one. And so we found ourselves in the "Happiest Place on Earth."

First off, we took a little tour of a rainforest on the Jungle Cruise ride. From there we headed to the Haunted Mansion (one of my favorites) and then Big Thunder Mountain (another fun one). We walked right onto Pinocchio's Adventure - or whatever it's called - and then flew through the Peter Pan ride. Nemo's Submarine ride came next, followed by the thrilling experience of Space Mountain (which is definitely on the top three favorite rides list). In the photo taken at the end of the ride, my face was split into a wide smile. Next we went on the Buzz Lightyear ride, where you use a little astro gun to shoot all of the targets with a Z (for the evil Zork or whatever the alien is called). The points were all counted up and in the end, my score was the highest. Oddly enough. Anyway, that ride was followed by one of the best rides in the whole amusement park - Pirates of the Caribbean. It's a classic. Afterward, we went on the Matterhorn, which was a lot more jarring than I remember it being in the past - but it was still fun. Following that we drove our way through the ride Autopia; I taped my driver's license in my journal. We also went on the little Rockets ride (so much fun when we were younger), walked through Pixie Hollow, stopped at the First Aid building to get a wheelchair for Alicia (sad that she needed it for her strained and swollen foot, but having a wheelchair-bound member in a group has its perks), and shopped at the Emporium on Main Street. By then we were ready to head to California Adventure, so we had our hands stamped and headed out of Disneyland. We went straight for one of our very favorite rides in the entire amusement park complex: Soarin' Over California. It is such an enjoyable one that we didn't just go on it once - we headed right for the end of the line to do it again when it was over. Besides, we wanted better seats than we got the first time, so we ended up with the best ones in the whole simulator.

We didn't go on any more rides after that. By then, it was getting late, and everything was being shut down for the final attraction of the night: World of Color.

Remember how I said having a wheelchair-bound member in a group has its perks? Well, its perks happened to include the chance to have reasonably good seats, free of charge, for World of Color. Our little group was shown to the wheelchair-seating area, and we settled down for the magnificent show.

It was waterworks like I have never seen before. There wasn't just light, there was vivid color (hence the name) shone on the jets shooting up into the sky. There was music reverberating through the air as everyone watched in awe. And incredibly colorful scenes from many of Disney's well-loved films were projected onto the screens of water. Some parts of it just about had me in tears, it was so beautiful and glorious and unbelievable. the show was unlike any I had ever seen. My favorite moment during the experience would probably be the scene from Pocahontas, with the emotionally intense version of "Colors of the Wind." "You can paint with all the colors of the wind..." I just about cried, and my heart felt ready to burst with the desire for the moment to last forever. All things must have an end, however, and that experience was no exception. The night came to an end, our vacation came to an end, and I found myself back home with endless normal things happening that I had to readjust to. And yes, I just contradicted myself - some things actually do last forever. Certain, special memories being one of them.

I sure hope I never forget the memory of this incredible experience - I don't want the colors to dim in my mind. It is difficult to capture the vivid picture of the night, but writing down what I can may help me remember the way I felt in the moment. I suppose journals and blogs really are for me in that way; through them I can recall the magical times I never want to forget. Writing lets me remember them.

Disneyland is, as our passes declared, the beginning of memories. Nearly all of them being good. I don't know if it really is "The Happiest Place on Earth," but I'm starting to think it comes close. I always walk out with a tug of sadness amid the happy emotions built up during the day. It truly is a blessing to go as often as we do, for as little money as we pay. My life sometimes seems so unbelievable.

And that is the story of my Day at Disneyland.

Music

I've been really into music lately, so I decided to write a tribute to it.

Right now, the piano is the musically related subject that matters the most to me. Some days, it can be really tough to practice; there are times I hardly touch it. But when I do, it is very rewarding. Today I decided to practice for one hour, and I did. It doesn't feel like I made a lot of progress in that time, but I'm sure I made more that I actually notice. At the moment I am playing Rondo Alla Turca (a well-known classical piece), arranging "Fearless" by Taylor Swift, and learning a lovely piece my teacher composed titled "May." I am also gaining experience with transposing (I learned a hymn in E flat, and now I have to transpose it to E - it's hard!!!), getting faster at scales, drilling the notes with flash cards, and learning lots of little secrets that make playing piano incredibly satisfying.

The piano is not the only instrument I play, though it's my best. I am also having a great time playing the viola in my school orchestra. I'm not exactly an incredible violist, but I have fun with it. For a while, I was learning a piano/viola duet with my mom that we were thinking of playing in church, but that will probably wait. We both have some advancing to do in the meantime.

Aside from actually playing instruments, I also listen to music played on them. Namely, classical. I have grown very fond of all sorts of classical music, and the main radio station I listen to nowadays is Classical 89.1. I love how peaceful it can be, but it can also be very powerful. I love that it never swears and isn't at all inappropriate, no matter how you look at it. It is so unique compared to all the popular music of today, which I sometimes enjoy, but not always. That's why I turn to classical music - I never get tired of hearing it.

Finally, the last aspect of music I enjoy is singing. Right now I sing in my church choir, which is very rewarding. I look forward to being part of it each Sunday. Besides that, I've written some songs and have performed vocally quite a few times throughout my life. I have also been in the Salt Lake Children's Choir, which was a fantastic experience but one that took a lot of time and commitment. I took voice lessons years ago when I was almost too young to remember, but since then I have just enjoyed singing whenever I decide to do so.

So, that is basically all the music I'm really into; for the most part, it's classical. But don't get me wrong - I still love many of the more popular songs on the radio. I love participating in dances, where it is a lot of fun to get into the music with all my friends. However, I'm not one that loves listening to that kind of stuff all the time. I always return to the more peaceful, instrumental side of music.