Character

Two days ago I was talking with Mariah about just that and I was curious as to what other people thought about me joining crew. After all, did they really expect the girl who successfully got out of going to high school while still graduating, the person who lived for some time in a temple and meditated for eight hours a day, and skipped class to grab milkshakes and donuts with her best friends to join one the most intense sports? Nope, probably not.

This epiphany of course occurred to me on yet another oar run during practice this morning. Every weekday morning at 5:00am, 4 girls carrying and running with 2 oars for 1 mile. I wake up at 4:00 every morning when I really am not a morning person. I'm running miles and did 1000 push-ups in a day when I never used my free membership even though I work at a gym. And when crew went through ROTC boot camp for a day the lieutenant said, "In the army, you either become strong or smart." Immediately I thought smart- I would rather be smart. I'm really not built for crew at all.

And then I thought about why I joined crew. And I didn't think much of it at the time, I just signed up at an activity faire and then that was that. Why not?

And that's how I realized I have made most of my decisions in life.....through the use of "Why not?"

I didn't think I would live in Thailand or DC.

I didn't think I would get a role in the musical or one-acts last year.

I didn't think I would actually be ok at impromptu speaking.

I didn't think I would like TCC or hiking as much as I do.

And I didn't think that I would be as close to the people who I am today.

Many of experiences that have helped me to become who I am, have always been out of "character" and out of the box.

So even though this slightly more athletic Turi is pretty ridiculous and amusing, don't think for a second that I thought this through.

Update

It has been a while since my last blog post and thus an update is due!

Part 1: Student
On paperwork it usually asks what your occupation is and as a young adult I write "student." However, I have never really felt that was completely true until now. I have never in my entire life spent so much time studying or sitting in frumpy library seats. I was talking to one of my professors about this to which he responded "well, that's how you know you are going to a good school." Alas.

Part 2: Rotation
The girls on the crew team have decided that our day to day routine goes like this.
         Rowing
         Omelette
         Study
         Sleep
         Repeat
There is an omelette station in the cafeteria and because we get back from practice around 7:40ish, there is only us and the ROTC kids in line. And i must make a confession, I've never had an omelette before I came to AU but nothing tastes better after practice than an omelette, potatoes, and chocolate milk.

Part 3: Monumenting
Here in DC, the monuments on the mall are open all day and night. Mainly because you can't really close them....but doesn't matter. The point is that at night the monuments are beautifully lit and there aren't any tourists. Thus going to see the monuments in the middle of the night is called monumenting- I've been twice so far and this last time my friends and I ran into two people who worked for NYU at the Washington Memorial. They were both here for a conference in DC and only had the weekend to see the city and thus we decided to combine our groups and walk to the LIncoln Memorial. They were both extremely interesting ladies and upon crossing a crosswalk one pulled me aside from the group. She told me that she could tell I was really intelligent and recommended that I never stop or let anything get in my way. I'm incredibly flattered and it caught me off guard. This is because we met as all of my friends and I were singing Africa by Toto while our legs and feet resting on the memorial to star gaze.

Part 4: NYC
This past Saturday I had the opportunity to spend the day in New York City! About 50 kids in the UC program including hopped on a bus to ride 4.5 hours there and then in the evening ride 4.5 hours back. I spent the day with my friend from crew and we did quite a bit.
Found a street fair and ate gyros.
Walked to MoMA- only to figure out that museums in New York are not like DC museums and cost a lot to get into.
Walked through central park to climb a boulder, lye in the sun, and accidentally took a nap.
Visited the met.
Took the subway.
Ate some cheesecake and a diner.
Walked along the Highline in Chelsea which is brand spanking new. It's old railroad tracks that have been renovated to be an outdoor walking path above the city. They still have some of the old tracks, plenty of sitting room with lawns to picnic in. The whole path is surrounded by different greenery and later on the path turns next to the Hudson River. It's beautiful and one of my most favorite spaces ever.
Got chocolate milkshakes.
Met my friend's French Jewish grandmother who was a doctor in Switzerland and went through the Holocaust. She lives on the Upper West Side in a building that Garrison Keiller lives and Alec Baldwin used to. We went to dinner at a Turkish restaurant on Broadway and the food was divine.

This being only the second time in New York, it was an adventure but I found myself remembering the grid of the city just fine from my previous visit and overall it just felt like a bigger Seattle.

Athlete

My mom has always told my sister and I that we were athletes.
Granted, we were competitive swimmers since around the age of 5 in my mom's eyes, but realistically we joined a club team when we were 7.

Through the years I have participated in a lot of different sports. I was a swimmer, soccer player, runner, hiker, went to tennis and diving camps, danced for a year or two, did gymnastics for a few months, attempting to play volleyball, beat my Thai classmates at badminton, but all of that was before I went into high school. I have tried it all and loved every moment but to revise what my mom told me, I was a great kid athlete.

But, oh how that has changed in a week.

I found myself the school's involvement fair last Wednesday. About 90% of the booths reflected some humanitarian effort or a very effective labeled sorority I should join. 10% were basic clubs like frisbee, the Jewish Frat houses that gave out free falafel, and vegetarian clubs.

I had been looking for some sort of dance club the whole day. Waltzing? Swing dance? Salsa? Nada. So I went on to find something physical and active. The tennis club turned out to be super competitive and not for the beginners. And besides I don't actually own a racquet so...I moved on. Eventually, I made my way to the Crew Club. Not stage crew, the rowing type of crew. Knowing that it was an intense, prestigious, and sometimes the only way to get into an ivy league type of sport- I knew I would probably get shot down faster than the tennis club did to me earlier.

To my surprise, crew has a very high learning curb and novices are highly encouraged to join!
And thus I immediately signed up.

Practice started that Saturday where we learned how to use the rowing machines (they called them ergs, probably because whenever you erg, you say "erg" as everyone hates ergs (or it's short for ergometer (either or really)). We got in the eight person boat with the varsity coxswain and off we went...clumsily.
.
Practices have been three days a week so far, starting at 4:25am. Tuesday I couldn't really feel half my legs. Today two people threw up after the fitness test. Crew is very tough. But has it's rewards. I'm already developing friends through crew, once we were out on the water a second time I got the hang of it, I can actually do push-ups now, and I get to be out on the water all the time!
This means I am now qualified as a (one week experienced) college athlete which is a little strange. I always assumed that "college athletes" were gigantic football players, recruited volleyball players, and national champions. But here I am- my butt getting kicked at 4am with no experience of butt-kicking practices in a long time-standing among them.
And thus another revision must be made to my mother's statement, "I am a (one week so far!) college athlete."

On another note, please feel free to suggest any topics that I should write about! Anything about DC, college, my life, opinions on underwater basket weaving, whatever your heart desires!

College

Alright, so I'm traveling again and hence the blog must be a thing again!
What has happened since my return back home?
1. Graduated from high school while talking community college credits which sorta didn't at all transfer to my school now. And got heavily involved in theatre.
2. I went to Stanford for a debate tournament, and don't particularly think San Fran is all that jazz.
3. Kearney vistited right after Thanksgiving and it was just divine.
4. Sophie visited for two weeks where we went to Canada (oh I went to Canada a lot this year), Seattle, Mt. Rainier, and even down to Portland to visit Alex for a couple days.
5. My family hosted an exchange student from Italy named Francesca and we had a blast teaching her that you can't steal food out of the "serve yourself" organic bins at Fred Meyer.
6. Mariah, Tasha, Emma, and I officially created a title for out friendship called "The Circle of Trust." Yes, we are intimidating. Yes, we are incredibly silly. And no, you can not be in it.

And now I'm in college!
I currently am attending American University in Northwest DC and loving it, however the east coast is strange. A gap year was very very tempting however, 1. education is important, 2. I had no money to go abraod and frolic and backpack, and 3. the school gave me money to go here so, why not?

Classes are good, professors are good, I just got a job which is good.
However, just like I did in Thailand, I will probably mainly focus on cultural aspects of my life here at school instead of more scholarly content. And just like I did in Thailand, here are a list of things that are different over here in DC.

1. No hipsters or indie kids- everyone here looks like they can be pinned on a pintrest board rather than placed in a Nirvana concert.
2. Flat- no hills. I'm not sure how I feel about this yet.
3. New chain restaurants- there is a kid on my floor who goes to this Mediterranean restaurant called "Cava" all the time. It is set up subway style except with rice, pita, and felafel. I call him Cavakid, appropriately.
4. Iced black coffee- I mean, why?
5. Boating shoes- with no boats to be seen.
6. Monogramming- I previously just thought this could be found in Land's End catalogs until I realized that the east coast is just Land's End in real life. There is a brand called Vineyard Vines which is kinda a mix between Gap and American Apparel that is popular here?
7. No thrift stores- I honestly don't know what to do.
8. Grassy plains to relax upon- I miss the forests and rocky beaches but there is nothing like a good plain of green grass to stretch out upon.
9. Important people- I got lost in the International Service building during the first week of classes because I wrote my classroom down wrong and asked a man walking in the hall for some help. He helped me find my class but then I realized that I could've just met someone very important that works closely with I don't know the UN and they could've turned me into an ambassador and I totally missed that opportunity because I wrote down a three instead of a five on my schedule. Or it could've been the president of the school and I would have been equally oblivious. It pays to recognize people here and it is a bit stressful.
10. Business- one of the first things I noticed while in DC and the short half hour I spent in Philly with my sister, Anikka, is that people are not especially polite. They aren't rude. They just aren't gregarious. Which is kind of sad. But alas, business as usual.

And that has been kind of what is going on so far in DC but more updates will follow!