Saylor

Ooh, I get you. It's still really cool that you drained it yourself, but I hope you get a more playable one soon.

Yeah, I think the potion ocarinas they have are even smaller than the rupees, so props to whoever can play those lol. Yeah, the design of some of their more professional ocarinas is really neat! They're pretty expensive, though, so I wouldn't want to just buy one on a whim.

That makes sense! It's still a neat hobby, no matter what. Do you design all of the things you've built, or did you use someone else's to help you?

The problem with the rupee ocarina is that it's really tiny! Everyone always tells me my hands are small, but it's still kind of weird holding it. It's also only like six holes compared to the Ocarina of Time's 12, so to get some of the notes out you have to cover half a hole. It just feels really weird to me, but it is a cute little instrument. Where did you buy yours from? The issue some people have with OoT replicas is that the game actually didn't get the ocarina shape right (no flute or flute family instrument can be held like that lol), so they all look backwards, but it's not that big of a deal IMO. I'd like to practice some more and get the Fairy Ocarina from them sometime, and maybe work my way up to the more complex ones.

Ooh wow, that's really impressive! My dad likes to build stuff too (he's not a carpenter though), but I've never really been interested in building stuff on my own, for the most part. Have you ever thought about building stuff as a type of job?

I got an ocarina for Christmas! Actually I got two, because STL Ocarina has a special where you can buy an Ocarina of Time replica and get a rupee ocarina along with it. I've been so busy lately that I haven't been able to practice, so I'm gonna resume soon. What type of ocarina did you have?

That's really neat! Did you build it out of wood?

That's pretty cool! Our school has a piano in pretty much every fine arts room, but I've always been afraid to touch them because the choir teacher doesn't like hers being touched and our old director didn't like us messing around with us instruments we weren't trained in. I'm sorry your family didn't let you practice. Practice makes you better, though, so I don't understand why they wouldn't let you play if they thought you were already bad at it lol.

I've been playing the flute since I started 6th grade, so I guess it's been almost seven years now! Tbh I think learning any instrument can lend itself to learning others, especially if you go from a wind to another wind. That's super cool! I wish we had done neat stuff like that in my physics class. Have you built any other instruments?

Oh that sounds nice. ^^ And yeah that sounds good! I want to go to the Nintendo World store (if it's not too far away) when I go to be honest, since I love Nintendo and I wanna buy all the cool stuff there that I can't find anywhere else. I think it's good to just not plan everything at times and do whatever you want on the day, because you can often find really cool little things you otherwise wouldn't have time for, but I think I do want to plan in advance what I want to do in my free time so I don't waste a day whilst I'm out there. I think we're seeing a musical one evening, having a tour of the city, going up the Empire State building, seeing the statue of Liberty, so all typical tourist-y stuff. But since I'm going with my media class we're going to spend a lot of time filming things whilst we're in the city so we can produce a short film. And I'll probably be the one filming since everyone likes my camera haha xD And yes, I hope you do get to see her!

Wow... You guys do a lot of exams. D: That sounds really tough, and like a lot of hard work. Although I suppose it's easier if you have an exam like half way through the year, you have much less to remember than perhaps if you did your exams ALL at the end of the year. Like for my GCSEs, I started studying for some of them in year 9, and did them in year 11! That meant I had to revise 3 whole years worth of work in some subjects! D: So it was really really hard work. It felt like it was impossible to memorise stuff. But in some ways it would be better to have exams like more often because you have less to memorise so you can focus on it more.

Hopefully so! Anyway you have your summer break now so you don't have to worry about doing any more work or exams so. And yep, exactly. :\ That's why I find it so ridiculous when people are so quick to say that students aren't as smart nowadays or that we are getting good grades even though we don't deserve it. Or if we do badly in a test, it's just that we are of a lower standard. But obviously there is some deeper reason behind that! Most students want to do well in exams and tests, so we do try our best. People just seem to forget that teaching methods have changed over time so that's why it may seem like things are "easier". But really, they are difficult! Also, if students aren't doing well, then there is obviously something behind how well the teacher is teaching their class, or the exam was too difficult for them.. You can't just blame the students!

I've wanted to learn the piano for awhile now, but I'm not so sure that'll work out since we don't own a piano or anything. That's really cool! I sort of self-taught myself the mellophone (more so the ocarina, but I already play the flute so it's not a terribly huge switch), but I had a friend help me out a lot, so I really admire that you could do that haha. And wow, you built it? Do you like to build stuff like that? And are you interested in learning any other instruments?

I'm sure you're not that bad! And I'll let you know, but if you ever see me online you can invite me to a game or something, and I'll probably be ready to play.

Yeah, I hope so too! I got to go to Shedd Aquarium when I went to Chicago on a band trip two years ago, but since it was a school trip I didn't get to spend as much time in it as I would have liked to, you know? And that's cool! I've been wanting to learn an instrument from each of the musical families for awhile, and I think it'd be neat to learn the harp as a string instrument. How long have you been playing the ukulele? And I'm sure you're not that bad. o: Are you self-taught?

Right now the only Nintendo Network capable game I have is Mario Kart, but I'm planning on getting Smash sometime soon. Tbh I'm not super amazing at Mario Kart and I'll likely be terrible at Smash (I've only played like once lol), so if we were to play, you'd probably mop the floor with me.

Oh that sounds lovely! What do you plan on doing whilst you're there? It would be funny if we ended up going to New York at the same time, although I doubt we would bump into each other since it's so busy. I haven't been to America since 2009, and I went to Florida then! And both of those places are totally different so I am looking forward to going somewhere new. And I will do! She's stopping off in London whilst on her 1989 world tour and my dad bought me a ticket to go because he keeps telling me I need to go to a concert! And ohhh I do hope you get to see her someday! ;w; Taylor Swift is such an amazing person, gosh, maybe if you somehow got in contact with her she'd send you a ticket, she is definitely the sort of person who would do that!

And wow that sounds lovely and like a lot of fun! I'd love to work at a place like that! I guess it's a lot of hard work looking after little kids at times, but also a lot of fun because you get to play and stuff too. :'3 And thank you again!

And well, we take our exams at the end of certain years/grades. So at the end of year 11 (age 15/16), we take GCSEs (which I did last year), and then at the end of year 12 (age 16/17) (what I did this year) we do our AS levels. Year 13 (age 17/18) we do the second 'half' of our AS exams, I suppose, and then we get a combined grade from both of those. I will find out what grades I got for my year 12 exams, though, but I still have to keep working hard so that I can then maintain that grade for when I get my year 13 grade added to it! So yeah, you just have to keep working really hard. But I mean from years 7 - 10 you don't really do any official exams which is quite nice! I hope that makes sense haha. xD I know it's very different in America! I think you guys take exams every year of high school don't you? D: That sounds really tough and like a lot of work.

And yeah it is much better. People seem to think that us English people get super easy exams because we all get better grades just because grade boundaries can lower, but to be honest that's how it should be! If everyone did badly, then that's most definitely because it was a difficult exam, so you shouldn't blame the students... It is a bit nicer though anyway haha, although I guess if we had teachers setting our exams that'd be nice too since they would want to set questions they know we'd do well in. To be honest though, my poetry question in my English Lit exam was asking how identity was presented by a certain poet, and I swear we had already done that question before for a mock exam or something?! xD I do think the teachers see the paper beforehand or get a rough idea on what it's going to be on, so it makes life a bit easier for us since the teachers prepare us a bit better. And yeah I guess that's good because it doesn't really affect you much at all!!

I see, I see! That's a shame. I am sure if he knew that sometimes you all get a bit confused and if he knew like a more effective way of teaching you all, then he would be a good teacher. It's always good to want to teach something that is your passion, because then you will enjoy being able to spread your passion to other people, and inspire other people. And yeah well if he sees not many people did well he will try to find different ways to teach you all or get some help from some like people higher up at the school. So hopefully things improve soon!

And oooh that sounds lovely. Where are you going off to? But relaxing sounds good to me! And I am probably going to relax a lot too. I have a few plans coming up in the coming weeks. I'm meeting up with one of my online friends and we're going to a comic festival and a cat café, and then I'll be seeing Taylor Swift in concert, so I'm pretty excited for that! But as for the actual holidays, i'll probably try to go out to places with friends, maybe go up to London, and so on. I'm not going on holiday I don't think... I am going to New York in October though with my media class though which is gonna be good! And ooh wow where do you work? o: I hope you are able to find a job soon, too! And that it all works out okay.

Oh no that sounds bad! Your teacher sounds so harsh. Surely they would want to set you questions that they know you would be able to do well on, or things that they have prepared you for. I mean if you all did badly then surely that reflects badly on him too, since he would look like a bad teacher. But anyway, at least you managed to just get through it and pass it, so that is good! And that's fair enough! I have nice teachers too but they aren't that great at teaching, and I would feel bad if I complained just because they are so nice xD idk! And yes our exams are set by exam boards! So basically the whole country will take the same exam (unless they go with a different board), so we all sort of struggle together. And that way if when they've marked them all, they see that we all did really badly, then that means it was a hard exam so they will lower the grade boundaries.

Also I'm sorry I only just accepted your friend request! I completely spaced about it and haven't really been on my Wii in awhile, but we can play sometime if you'd like!

Senior year can be really fun if you try to make the most of it, I think.

That sounds really fun! I've been wanting to go to the Baltimore aquarium for a long time now, so hopefully I'll get to do that soon. I didn't know you play any instruments! What do you play? And omg, don't feel bad haha. I don't think I was seriously ready for either of them, so it probably all worked out for the best.

That totally makes sense! I've only ever moved once (to a different elementary school in fifth grade), but it was only across town, and I got to see most of my old friends once we started middle school, so I can't imagine what it must be like to be moving so far and losing so many friends. I hope you get to stay in touch with the ones you want to and that you make new ones fast.

Haha, I guess it's a good thing you're feeling nervous! Sometimes I feel like I've been too complacent because I didn't feel that nervous going into senior year, but once I started band camp it really hit me and I felt weird. I hope you do feel ready once school starts!

I just wish I could say the same for my other former best friend haha.

Anyway, yeah! Are you excited for your senior year this year?