Last Year (which was really only a few days ago...)

Two nights ago, I lay in bed unable to fall asleep. In honor of it being New Year's Eve and the pathetic fact that I was in bed by 9, I decided to review my past year. This took me all of-not kidding-two minutes. After the brief reflection, I lay there wondering, "Why does it feel like I wasted a year of my life? Why is it that the New Year always sneaks upon you?" But then I have to remind myself that I didn't waste a year. I saw good movies, went to Quiz Bowl Nationals for the first time, took my AP Euro test, made new friends, got a driver's license, had a golden birthday, a lovely Christmas, and went to Europe. Even though I didn't do a bunch of things that were majorly epic, it was the little things that made 2009 a decent year.

It wasn't great, it wasn't perfect. Just a solid decent.

And I can live with a solid decent. If I were to give it a grade: B+

I think 2010 can pull off a B+ or better.

Another Thing I Learnd and my Fat Face

I forgot to mention something else I learned from War and Peace.

Here it is:

• Apparently, the Russian term for Germans is "nemetz" which literally means "deaf mute." Hence, the Russian do/did not like the Germans. Also, uneducated Russians would apply that term to everyone who didn't speak Russian. Because Russian is the only language worth speaking.

Isn't that just a little bit...hilarious?

So I got my wisdom teeth extracted. It hurts. My cheeks have also swollen, but it's actually not huge. At least not worthy of calling them chipmunk cheeks. Have you ever seen a picture of Luke Wilson? Yeah-my face is a toad face like his.

So sad. :'(

What I have learned from *War and Peace*

War and Peace is a pretty good book. It's super slow, though. It's like...a climb up a very steep hill. Once I reach the top, I'm going to slide down the mountain without using any breaks. Although, I have no idea what I would [metaphorically] crash into....

In reading this huge book by Tolstoy, I have learned many things, namely:

• Everyone and their grandma loved their snuff. No joke. Everyone has a snuff box. This one character even has her son's miniature in the top of her snuff box that she kisses because she misses him.
• Everyone spoke French. After 3/4 of the dialog in that book, it says "Natasha/Andrey/Pierre/Denisov/Nikolay/etc. said, in French." I guess Europe was still stuck in their whole "We love France!" stage. But what I want to know is-during Austerlitz and other battles-how did the two sides, France and Russia, tell their comrades from their enemies? Perhaps it was the beards and furry hats that distinguished the Russians from the French...
• Some people are really selfish/obsessive. Andrey Bolkonsky talks about how he would give up his wife, family, and friends simply to have a moment to impress the tsar. Wow...OK.
• Tolstoy loves his details. We are talking about "what they ate for dinner, what they wore to dinner, why they wore it to dinner, what other people think of what they wore to dinner, what they fantasized about wearing to dinner, and did they sleep that night?" kind of details. Not kidding.
• The Russians like having multiple nicknames for one person. For example, Nikolay could be "Nikolushka" and "Nik" among others. For Natasha I've come across "Nitashka," "Nitrushka," and "Natalia." This makes it rather confusing as these nicknames for one person sound like multiple people when really there isn't.

But overall, War and Peace is a good book. Ish.

It's a love hate relationship.