Formal Festivities

My friends and my puppy

Strike a pose

Hey everyone! This weekend was the end of our first semester and the end of our final exams! To celebrate, our school threw a big Winter Formal Dance! The fun part about this dance is that girls ask guys to be their date. This means that all the girls asked guys to the dance. Once the girls have carried out an elaborate and cute way of asking the boy, they must start to prepare for the day of the dance! Since it is a formal dance everyone gets their hair and makeup done, and the dates buy each other matching corsages and boutonnieres to wear. The boys get suits with ties to match their date's dress. It's a fun way to coordinate! And don't forget to get together with your friends and take pictures before.

A big Winter Formal picture group

Also, the dance took place at Soka University this year, so there was a lot to do along with dancing. There were casino tables set up with pretend gambling, along with food and drinks, a chocolate fountain, and even a swing dance room with a live band for more formal dancing. Overall, this was a great way to celebrate the end of final exams with all my friends!

How do you relax after a stressful week? Let me know in the comments!

xoxo

Exam Exhaustion

Gotta hit those books!

My friends and I taking a "study break"-very important!

Hey everyone! Now that we have been back from our Holiday Break for two weeks, it's time to begin our week of final exams. My school is on a semester system, so two semesters per school year, and the first semester ends next week. The last week of the semester is always filled with final exams, and then there is a big Winter Formal dance at the end of the week to celebrate being done with exams and the first semester. My friends and I are studying hard this weekend because this semester grades are important for colleges. After first semester, every senior applying to college needs to send the mid year grade report, which has all your grades from first semester, to all their colleges. Colleges will look at this along with the application already sent in to make their decision.

My date for the Winter Formal Dance

My hardest exams will be for the classes AP Spanish and AP biology. These classes are college level classes, so they are much harder and have harder finals. Luckily, if you do really well you can take a test at the end of the year to get college credit so you do not need to take certain classes while in college. Because of this, I am really motivated to do amazing on my final exams and then rock out with my friends when it is all over!

How do you study for your final exams? What are your hardest courses with final exams? Let me know in the comments!

xoxo

Fight to the Finish

Hey everyone! January 7th was a very busy day for me. First of all, it was the day I started school again after my 2 week long Holiday Break. It was so hard waking up for school again! All I wanted to do was hit my alarm button! But I had to go back to school sometime and I guess once all the holidays are over is a good time to do it.
Once the school day was over, that night was a very important night for some of my friends, and I was lucky enough to be involved in it! It was the BCS National Championship for American football between two college teams ranked number 1 and 2: Notre Dame University in Indiana and University of Alabama. My friend will be attending Notre Dame next year, so she was rooting for them to win. She hosted a viewing party at her house with lots of themed food and outfits. All my friends came over and we ate food and watched the live American football game. Unfortunately for my friends, Alabama won the game. Congrats to Alabama for their second win in a row! It was a exciting game with a final score 42-14.

What sporting events do you watch with your friends? Let me know in the comments!

xoxo

Ready for the End and the Beginning

New Year's Celebration

Hey everyone! Happy New Year! The celebration for New Year's Eve was very hectic for me this year! First, I hosted a New Year's Eve party for all of my friends. They all came over to my house and we danced and played games until midnight when we all counted down to 2013. We all blew streamers and noisemakers, wore funny hats, and celebrated for the first hours of 2013! Unfortunately since you have to stay up to midnight, I didn't go to bed till late and I was very tired the next day! 

Happy New Year

Last minuete submittals

The next day was January 1st and the last day to submit college apps. And guess what, I submitted a college app that day right before the deadline. I know I am crazy! But better at the deadline then never! Good thing my late night didn't hurt my application. It's always good to submit everything you want and never miss out on any opportunities. So now that the deadline is officially over, I can say I am officially done with all my college apps. No more last minute submittals for me! Now I can truly enjoy the last couple of days of break before I go back to my hectic school schedule on January 7th.

How did you spend your New Year's Eve and the first day of 2013? Let me know in the comments!

xoxo

Tis the Season

Hey everyone! Pweft! This weekend will finally be a relaxing one for me because I finished all my college applications! Most of the regular applications are due by January 1st, so I had to finish everything this week. I am very excited because now I can spend my rest of my Holiday Break doing other fun activities with my family and friends.

Ice Skating at the Del

A couple days ago I celebrated Christmas with my family. I traveled down to San Diego to have Christmas dinner with my grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousin. It was delicious! We even ended the diner with a chocolate cake shaped like a yule log. The next day we went down to the famous Hotel Del in Coronado and ice skated right next to the beach! It was so fun to be able to experience two different climates. Just be careful if you fall--since it is so warm the ice melts fast and leaves puddles of water!

Disneyland with my Friends

I have been doing a lot of other fun things over the break with my friends too. On the first day of Holiday Break my friends and I went to Disneyland! Since I live so close to Disneyland, I can go with my friends for an afternoon or night. We went on all my favorite rides like the big roller coaster called California Screaming and the ride that drops you up and down called Tower or Terror. It was fun and a great way to start off the Holiday Break Season!

Gift Exchange with my Friends

I've also had Christmas baking parties, like I talked about in my last blog, along with a big Christmas gift exchange. All my friends bought presents for each other to celebrate the holidays and we went to dinner and gave them out. I got so many great things like my favorite perfume and a pink necklace.





I hope all of you have a wonderful rest of holiday season! What do you do on holidays with your family and friends? Let me know in the comments!

xoxo

Holly College-y Christmas

Hey everyone! This last week at school has been pretty hectic because it is the last week before the two week Holiday Vacation we have here in the United States! All high schools have at least two weeks off around this time to celebrate Christmas, New Years, and all the other holidays and most colleges have up to a month off! Because of this large time frame off of school, its the perfect opportunity to spend with family and friends, especially if you have been away at college until now.

For students like me who are in the middle of college applications, Holiday Break is the final time to finish and submit your applications. Since almost all applications are due to schools by the beginning of January, the days off school beforehand are perfect for checking over your applications and making sure they are perfect before you submit them. Once you have submitted all your college apps, you can celebrate by getting together for the holidays with all of your family and friends! I know I will be! I already had a cookie party with all of my friends, where all made and traded different cookies and desserts we made from scratch together. It was delicious!

What do you plan on doing during your Holiday Vacation? How much time do you get off school? Let me know in the comments!

xoxo

Extraordinary Extracurriculars

My Tennis Team

Model UN Team

Hey everyone!  For most colleges and universities in the US, Extracurricular Activities are an important part of the application process.  They want to know how you have spent your time outside of the classroom, and what talents and interests you have other than academics.   Colleges want their students to be interesting people, ones that will participate in the variety of activities that are offered and help make their school a fun place to be. 

Whether its sports, music debate, drama, or community service, or a part time job, pick something you like to do and get involved!  It’s never too early to start!  Don’t try to do everything.  Pick a few activities that are your favorite and get involved in depth.  Colleges like to see personal development and leadership within a few activities much more than a list of a dozen activities that you just tried out.  As they say, quality is better than quantity!

My blog AmericanAmanda

Volunteering-Serving Meals
to the Military

Some of the extracurricular activities I have been involved in are 4 years on my school’s varsity tennis team and track teams, community service volunteer with the National Charity League, Model United Nations delegate, and of course, American Amanda blogger for the US Embassy in Oslo.  Being involved with each of these areas for several years has given me the chance to hold leadership positions and win awards, plus feel like a had a chance to really make a difference in each one. 

Track and Field Long Jump

The pictures all show a different extracurricular activity I am involved in! 

What extracurricular activities are you involved in?  Let me know in the comments!

xoxo