This Anachronistic Post from July

And there's also this anachronistic, never-before-seen post from July that I never finished and forgot to publish...

My Summer, in a Nutshell
by Layra A Sparks

My whirlwind of a summer started with the visa application process, with its fashionably late I-20 forms, unmentioned scholarships, unresponsive international student counselors, slow deliveries, worldwide technical glitches in the US visa system, rescheduled appointments, unconventional photo dimensions, automated phone systems, dads not keen on giving me bank statements, people attempting to enter the US embassy with pocket knives, and with crazy photo lab ladies telling me that they won't accept my visa photo because my ears aren't visible. That's right, my visa application was a succession of mini nervous breakdowns on my part, which were only tamed by the fact that my visa interviewer happened to be a USC alumna, and the interview she conducted lasted about two whole minutes and went as follows: "Which scholarship did you get? Are you going to do Thematic Option? Yes, I am a Trojan, fight on! I did TO, I loved it. You should get a pass for the football games. Which instrument are you going to play in the marching band? Silks, that's cool, well your visa has been approved." But before you start thinking everything went well after that, my visa was subsequently delivered to the crazy elderly lady next door. Interesting.

I didn't really have time to think about all this, though, because after getting my visa came the time for all the fun things that come with moving abroad to college - doctors appointments, blood tests, dental surgery, opening bank accounts abroad, getting health insurance sorted, yelling at employees of the National Tax and Customs Administration, buying plane tickets and wondering why one piece of extra check-in luggage costs $100 and why two pieces cost $400, saying goodbye to friends, and in midst of all this, getting a haircut that makes me look like a housewife from the 1950s.

And if that's not enough, my high school made national headlines when the government replaced its unanimously supported headteacher with a former teacher who left her graduating class, plagiarized her application and was appointed through nepotism. Now, as a person with a very strong sense of justice, I could not just let this happen without voicing my opinion, and no, posting a couple of semi-aggressive comments under articles doesn't count so when one of the teachers asked me to speak at a demonstration organized by some parents, I had to say yes. I had to do this for my school. I had to edit that badly written speech and make it into something more strongly worded, and I had to recite it in front of the media. That is right, you guys, I was on f!@#ing national television, with my name in published (or whatever you call that) and everything. Unfortunately, though, it was all pointless and the evil bitch is still reigning over my high school. Yeah, there's that. But we never give up.

Moving on. Just like last year, I took the train down to Sopron for the annual Volt festival, where - instead of the Arctic Monkeys - we saw Bastille this year. Well...it's not that it was bad, but it didn't quite live up to my expectations, and what probably hurt the most was that all the pictures I took turned out to be shit. I was so upset about the photos - and yes, taking photos is a huge part of concerts for me and please don't try to lecture me on how it takes away the joy of jumping up and down in a moshpit - that I couldn't enjoy the concert as much as I wanted to. I was also stuck in the third row, which meant that I was trampled on and pushed around half the time, but turned out to be extremely convenient when I got to HIGH FIVE DAN SMITH!!!!

Yep. I'm trying to finish this post in December and there's nothing else I can think of, so I'll just leave it here. Bye. 

PS. Sorry about the lack of photos, they're all on my other laptop. But check my twitter (@lillaspanyi), I have some there.

My First Semester at USC: Video Edition

Guys, it is with overwhelming exhilaration that I inform you: I am still alive.

I am still alive, I still go to USC, I'm still a Cinema major, I'm still in the marching band (oh wait! You guys didn't know that??? More on that later...), I'm still 5'7'', I still have curly hair (and it's still not purple), and I still love my little blog that nobody in the world reads.

What has changed, then, you might ask? Why haven't I posted anything since June? Well, let's see. I go to USC, I'm a Cinema major, I'm in the marching band, and nobody in the world reads my little blog. Also, I'm 5'7''. I'm sure that affects my writing somehow.

Yet if we look at the context of my previous posts, these are all just excuses. And yet while I admit that my first semester at USC had been an extremely wild ride, that's just another reason for me to write about it. Or, in this case, talk.

That is right guys. So much has happened over the past five months that there is no way I could write individual posts on everything, like, ain't nobody got time for that. So instead I decided to film a couple of videos in which I talk about everything that has happened, and try to be a bit more consistent my second semester.

And for now, I'll just leave those here. Oh, and just a few notes of warning: a lot of these were filmed over different time periods, so that is a thing. Also, editing is super rough and the videos are supposed to be HD but for some reason the resolution really sucks? I don't know why...iMovie is weird and I'm too broke for anything else right now. And also, I'm super-boring in person, sorry about that.

ALSO: You might want to watch them on YouTube, because Blogger sucks and it doesn't like videos.

Love you all.

Video #1 - Traveling from Budapest to USC. And some awful color correction.

Video #2 - Band Camp and My First Month at USC, I believe. And me looking awful.

Video #3 - MARCHING BAAAND.

Video #4 - School Life at USC and Such.

Video #5 - Life in LA and Me Failing to Focus the Camera

That is all for now.