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Enviro field trip today! 8D We're going to an air quality conference. It's also a late start today, but we have to board the bus around 8-ish, so I picked up Tiffany went to school around the time I normally do ... and got the first spot in the parking lot! It was such a proud moment I had to take a picture. (`:

We got there pretty early and it started sprinkling (I was wearing flip flops!) so Tiffany and I ducked into the office. They had our college flags posted up! 8D I found my name pretty quickly; it was right in the Records Office lol.

Anyhow, the conference was in the building in LA by the Staple Center. We were supposed to be in this one conference room for two presentations, but after the first one, we realized we had already seen the second presentation (it was the one with the broccoli-hair lady that we had during North's Earth Day assembly), so we filed out and just browsed around all these tables and displays.

We went by this one place where this black lady was demonstrating the effects of this filter she had. After a bit, she started asking us these questions and giving out t-shirts. On the third and last question, I was like 'okay, I gotta get this!' It turned out to be a true or false question, so I was like 'sweet, it's true!' Anyhow, the question was about standards for filtering systems, and I figured it had to be true because the question was so long and detailed, but I didn't just want to yell out the answer mid-question, so I waited til she was done and shouted out "True!" and then this white girl said "True!" almost the same time as me. And then the black lady was like "... Who said it first?" And all the white girl's friends were like "Oh yeah she said it first!" while all our North people were like "Annie said it first!" So then the black lady gave it to the white girl. And we were like "Awh what the heck, Annie answered it first. D:" so the black lady was like "... Oh did you answer it too?" and I said yeah. So she gave me a shirt too. C:

Then later, we got in line to go into this huge transporter thing with all these displays inside, when this asian guy comes up to us, asking if we're Chinese (I'm walking around with all these Koreans and Tiffany lol). So I'm Chinese, and the guy wants to interview me for this Chinese newspaper in Alhambra, and I'm like okay, but my Chinese sucks, and the guy says I can speak in English. 8D It was pretty cool; I surprise myself with how fast I thought of good answers hahaha. Like, he asked me what I thought about the conference, and I said that I thought it was good in how it made us more aware about the environmental situation we're in, especially since we're in LA and we have a huge problem with smog, and all the options we have to change it. And he asked what was the most interesting thing I'd seen here (and here I was like "oh crap," cuhs I wasn't particularly interested in most of this stuff lol), and I quickly referenced the filtering system table we'd seen, and I talked about how we have all this advanced technology that can combat it and stuff. 8D He asked me all these other questions and took a picture of all of us. (x

One of the things inside the transporter; it emitted sounds of some boats and birds and sea lions and stuff.

Afterwards, we grabbed some lunch (Jane complained about what she got, but Jane always complains so I just tuned her out lol) and listened to people talk on the above screens. They brought in all these eco-friendly cars that were being developed; they ranged from convertibles to tractors lol. (x

Later I went over to Arlington for the PTA meeting to accept my scholarship (Mom and I drove separately cuhs I wanted to stay and see some of my teachers; it's their Open House tonigiht). They had all these Adventures in Art pieces on display, and it actually looked pretty good! I remember being in Elementary school and not being able to appreciate any of the stuff we did because I thought it looked so bad lol. And I mean, none of the pieces were really good, but it still looked nice, having been done by kids. If that makes any sense.

The meeting went by really fast; Ryan and I kept praising it, saying this is how all meetings should be run haha. It was weird though, cuhs there was this fobby Japanese lady sitting next to Ryan asking him all these questions about the scholarship (thank goodness it was Ryan; I would've have had the patience to answer all her questions lol), and it got a little weird cuhs she then went on to ask where he lived and for his phone number, probably so she'd have someone to call on for help with her kids (although that makes no sense at all, since her kids are like. What, seven? And by the time she'll need Ryan's help he won't even remember who she is lol). But yeah, I kept teasing him that she was coming on to him hahaha. Anyway, we got some ice cream, as custom of their Open House's Ice Cream Social, and went off to search for our teachers lol.

Ms. Conway! I totally didn't recognize her at first cuhs I think she got a little chubbier hahah. She seemed really happy to see us; we were the first class she taught at Arlington after all. We were talking, and all these teachers Ryan and I had had retired; Mrs. Mand just retired last year, and Ms. Kagdis retired maybe the second or third year Ms. Conway was there. She said she might attend our graduation since apparently she lives right around the corner from North. The whole time Ryan and I kept saying to each other how old we felt, how small everything and everyone was.

I found Ms. Duncan (who went back to Ms. Fish a few years ago lol), and she turned around and recognized me instantly. She said "Annie! You're beautiful!" which was very awhhh. (`: She looks exactly the same. Said she was actually just thinking of me the other day, asked if I'd been writing any poetry lately (I forgot; I used to write a lot in her class, and I was in her poetry class the year she taught for GATE), and I don't really anymore, but I told her about the Shakespeare Award I won for Anderson last year, and she seemed happy.

And since Ryan went with me to visit Duncan, I went with him to visit his teachers. We went to Ms. Camberos class (we found a map which made it so much easier lol), and Ryan really didn't think she was gonna remember him, but she saw him and said "Omg! You were seven just yesterday!" and seemed really excited. And when we left her room I said to Ryan "See, she remembers you!" and he says "She didn't say my name once." Hahaha. Then we visited Mrs. Christie (I forget what her maiden name was) and she definitely remembered him and his name lol. Then she said something about how in 1st grade Ryan told her she hated her and tried to spank her LOL. And I asked Ryan about that and he said the story had been exaggerated over the years hahah and he vaguely remembered saying he hated her but he didn't know why cuhs he loved her as a teacher hahah.

Man, I feel old.