Fridays are my friends

I love Fridays.

This particular Friday was an awesome one. Why? Today I completed my 150 hour internship. And even though it isn't officially over-- I still need to do more research to finish my project-- it's still great that I no longer need to fax those time tables and get those signatures from my mentor. Today we barely worked (but do we ever?). Minnie came around 11, and the seven of us went to the Brea Mall. I explored the mall with Sameen helping me find a gift for Judy's 17th birthday. I ended up buying a cute polo from Aeropostale for a good price. Afterwards, Minnie drove us to the Cheesecake Factory. Today was the second time I've been there, and it was even better than the first time I went ( for my 16th birthday with Amanda). Sameen and I shared a really yummyyy pasta (bowtie pasta, mushrooms, carmelized onions, and peas with a garlic cream sauce) and a White Chocolate Raspberry cheesecake. The peach cobbler cheesecake that I got last time was better, but the raspberry one was pretty good too:) Hehe, I'm really stuffed now, and it's already 8:30!

I'm looking forward to the rest of my summer. Though I still have a long way to go before I can finally relax with nothing to worry about, I'm excited for the bonfire, going on my little adventures, my family vacation along the coast of Cali, and starting all of these projects I have in mind. :D

Dooode. So today I created a zinch.com profile (I learned about it from NLC..it sounded really cool, and I guess it is cool, but lags a LOT) and am thinking about whether I should apply for some scholarships on fastweb.com. I also started filling out the commonap (which in my opinion..SUCKS because of the word limits on extracurricular activities) and began creating a little notebook for college research.

What I'm looking for in a college:
-strong research and academic facilities
-diverse and friendly school population
-safe campus
-cool neighborhood (not very isolated, preferably near a large city or town)
-good teacher to student ratio
-good dorms and food
-lots of student activities
-professors are the among the best in their fields but are still committed to teaching undergrads
-study abroad program (?)

One of the reasons why I'm apply to a lot of ivy league schools is not because of the prestige, but because of the incredible amount of diversity they have. I look at the brochures I receive from colleges like Yale and Harvard, and I see how many countries, ethnicities, and cultures that are presented by the students there. I think it'd be so cool to have roommates from all around the world. Rooming with someone so different from me should give me different perspectives.. and hopefully I can learn to be more culturally-aware, tolerant, and less apathetic about current events. I'm not saying that the UCs don't have diversity, but most people that go there are residents of California too :\. I have an urge to meet different people. I'm afraid that if I go to a UC school, I'll just stick with the same group of friends (I'm sure a LOT of people from Troy will end up going to the UCs) and will never really give myself the opportunity to befriend others. Okay, enough about that...

off to more research!:P Stanford is right now. I didn't really like Stanford when I visited with my sister before (I liked UCLA better), but I looked on their website and it seems like they really care about their students; they're not looking perfection, they're looking for genuine people who are passionate about what they do. But maybe that's what they all say, just to make people like me feel like I stand a chance.