I'm pretty much on a reading rampage right now. I've decided I love being a bookworm...It's something I love to do. I learn so much by just reading...I love to lay there with a book that I just can't put down and go through it for hours and hours until I've realized I just read 200 pages in one day, hehe...Not to mention it makes me seem intellectual, even though that's not really true...lol
  The 2 books I'm reading right now are both very good.
  Dracula: I've been reading this one on and off for literally months. I've read several books inbetween trying to read it. Like I said, it's a good book, but even though interesting things happen in the book, it's just one of those books that's really interesting, and yet you could put it down any time you want. It's written very very very elegantly...and it's one of those books (for me anyway) where subject changes come so subtly, and yet so quickly that you find yourself going, "Wha...?" and having to reread the end of the last paragraph so you know how much time has passed, and where exactly the characters are.
  The second book I'm reading is one I started today, and can't put down. The Teenage Liberation Handbook: Very good so far. It's about how to really experience life, and really learn things aside from  structured schooling. In other words, it's a book about Unschooling, which I'm sure most of you have heard of. So far it's been talking about the mistake that public schools make...how they'll squash every ounce of creativity in you to make you more well-rounded in things you don't really care about. It shows how when you're not really interested in something, you can't really really learn it. You can memorize facts about the subject enough to ace this test or that test, but you won't really, really learn it, unless you want to. The reason a lot of public school kids don't like to learn even the subjects they love is because they're being forced to do that subject, and in a way that doesn't actually require you to learn it, just to memorize the material. They take things that students love, and make it so that it's bland and boring. The mentality that kids get because of this cycle is a resistance to ALL learning...even self-learning. It makes me wonder if a hatred of learning can even really be reversed once that's been instilled in someone.
  Anyways...great book. Really great, so far. It doesn't come from a Christian perspective, but it is Christian-friendly.

  Okay, I've got to tell you something else...I'm going to Italy! At least I think I am...next year, on a mission trip.
  I'll tell you how it all happened...
  I became interested in learning a language last year. I didn't want to learn Spanish like everyone else, but opted for a more romantic (at least in my mind) language...Italian. I learned that for awhile, and I can translate certain words, but rarely a whole sentence (but I assure you, God-willing, by next year, I'll be speaking the language quite well)...Well, learning the language naturally led to an interest in the actual country of Italy, and the culture. (Especially the food, lol!)
  So I started talking to my friends about going to Italy together once we turn 17 and 18 and stuff...just as a fun trip.
  Alright, now this part is going to seem irrelevant...but on Sunday, God asked me to be off of myspace for a week...something I do every once in awhile to get closer to Him, because if you're on myspace, you know it's addictive...So I got off of myspace on Monday, and instead started using mybattleplan.com , which is a Bible Study site somewhat modeled after myspace. That site really helps me grow in my faith, but when I'm really caught up in myspace, I hardly ever get on it.
  Well, while I was there, the site, which encourages students going on mission trips, and really living their faith, had an advertisement for globalexpeditions.com , which is a site for mission trips teens can go on. I went there (which, as I said, I wouldn't have done had I not obeyed and gotten off myspace) and found the site to be really inspiring...well organized. I wanted to go on a mission trip as soon as I got there, lol...
  But as I said, I really wanted to go to Italy, so I clicked on the link that said, 'Europe-Mixer' under the list of countries you could go to on mission trips. Under Europe-Mixer were two trips...one was Germany/Polland, the other was Italy/France!!! I was SOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited! At first I wasn't sure God wanted me to go on that one, because I had already wanted to go to Italy so badly that I didn't know if it was God's will or if it was just me.
  Long story short, I went outside to pray about it for a long time, asking God to show me His will...and when I came back inside, I had gotten an email DURING the time I was outside from someone saying, "I STRONGLY (capital letters not added) suggest you go on this trip, since Italy was already on your heart." I took that as God's answer. I'm ready to go!!! The only thing I'm waiting for right now is for God to open the door for me to get the money to go...So will you please pray for that? It's one of the more expensive trips...
  I love you guys!