Yeah, I know, we’re not really in London, yet. But we have
another 3 hours of traveling ahead of us, so I would like to use this time to
ramble about some random things that have been on my mind.
The guy on the train just came to
“composte” our ticket. He made three little holes in the paper with a
hole-puncher. Huh. That’s all? Wow, we worked ourselves up for absolutely no
reason. Oh, well. Grandma is peeling an orange. Mmh. Maybe I’ll go one to those
random things now.
First of all, thanks to Script
Frenzy—you know, that challenge where you have to write a play in the month of
April?—a girl has come and shed a light on my past. After having thought about
it for a while, a sudden realization helped me learn more about myself and who
I am. I suppose it all started on the Script Frenzy forums.
Now, I could spend hours on those
forums. I start talking to people, and I just can’t seem to stop. Anyways, I
met this really nice girl named Isis—that’s not her actual name, of course,
it’s her username—and she told me that she was a synesthete.
I remember from Ms. Conlin and her
crazy English classes last year what synesthesia is—it’s when the senses
overlap and sort of meld together. A book with a lot of examples of synesthesia
is The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. Well, I thought that was pretty cool.
Then, she asked me if I was a
synesthete. And I didn’t know. So yesterday morning, while Grandma was out on
one of her walks, I took a test on the Internet. I wasn’t sure of its
effectiveness, but it said that I was 83% synesthete. Then, I started thinking.
If I were a synesthete, it would explain a
lot about my past and about who I am in general. You see, synesthetes tend to
associate colours with days of the week or numbers. For example, when I was
little, I separated my classmates into groups of colours; blue, purple and red.
I would look at them and say, “She’s blue,” or “She’s purple.” It was mostly
for girls, but I did it for guys, as well. Then, in elementary school, certain
school subjects had their colour; I didn’t choose them, they just were. French
was red, Math was green, Science was blue… Also, numbers. They all have their
irrefutable colours, as well. 1 is black, 2 is yellow, 3 is blue, 4 is green, 5
is red… and it goes on and on. I had never realized that that was what I did, I
just… did. But now that I’ve figured it out, it all makes so much sense. I told
Isis, and she assured me that the test wasn’t always that effective, but that
she was sure that I was a synesthete,
after hearing about my past experiences. Saying that she had a test that worked
for all synesthetes, she sent me a list of seemingly random questions.
Apparently, most synesthetes are left-handed, are girls, like the performing
arts, have a really good memory, and so on. Other than the whole left-handed
thing, the description fit me perfectly, and adding up all of my
colour-association, we came to the conclusion… I am a synesthete.
So comment and tell me: Are you a
left-handed girl who has a good memory and likes the performing arts? Are you a synesthete?
Okay, that’s enough of my ramblings. I’ll
be back, after my arrival in London.
~
5 Belgrade Road,
Hampton, England
 |
| King's Cross Station |
I am in England! I’m so, so excited.
Just being on a bus surrounded by people speaking with British accents makes me
all tingly. I can’t believe I’m really here. I’m so lucky; it’s just been so
much fun. Anyways, let me start from the beginning.
Actually, arriving here was not so much fun. The Tube was totally crowded, it
was just insanity. Before that, we had to go through customs before going
through the Chunnel; Grandma forgot our tickets at a table, and I, all tired as
I was, had to run all the way back through the line to go get them. My shoulder
is also hurting me; I had to carry Grandma’s black bag up and down all of the
stairs in the metro. It’s really heavy. I’m so glad all that’s over, now. In
the actual train (you know, we were only underwater for about 20 minutes, which
was a bit disappointing), I began memorizing Romeo and Juliet—really fun—but the
ride seemed quick. It was over so fast, and we had to struggle through the (British!)
crowds to get to Mark and Briana’s. We’re finally here though, which is nice.
We had a very good dinner, but I have only heard a few seconds of Will’s guitar
when we first walked in. More to come…? I really want to hear Callum on the
violin, as well. Mark’s gone to Dublin, which is too bad.
Tomorrow, we’re gone to explore
London, with the help of a river cruise! Can’t wait!
After doing some more research on
synesthesia, here is some extra info about it:
Only about 1 in 23 people are
synesthetes. (Ooh, I’m unique!) There are different types of synesthesia: I
have graphemes à
colour synesthesia and graphemes à personification synesthesia, which
means that I associate colours and personalities to numbers, letters, days of
the week… Yeah, personalities too. That’s how I learned my numbers, when I was
little; 1 was good, and so was 2, but 3 was evil. Tori Amos, Billy Joel and
Marilyn Monroe were all synesthetes, but had different forms of synesthesia.
Oh, and synesthetes also have a more visual memory and had trouble with
left-right and arithmetic when they were little… more ways of defining myself.
Well, that’s all for today. More
British-ness to come!
Which internet test did you take? I'm curious.
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