33. Our TV addiction

One of the biggest life adjustments I've encountered - apart from not going to school, being around the same 5 people all the time, and moving every week - is the absence of TV. In the US I have Netflix, so binge watching TV shows is a regular occurrence. At Theta we have a roku, two TV's, and 100 girls with DVD's. My roommate, Megan, had an entire binder full of the best movies in alphabetical order.

We have learned to adjust to this though through the wonderful world of YouTube.  There are a lot of full shows on that site! Maybe not mainstream, but we manage. Our show of the week is ANTM. Not America’s Next Top Model, but Africa's Next Top Model. Scarlet spends all day looking forward to sitting in the master bedroom with her sisters, spoons, and three tubs of Nutella. It has also inspired her to be the model of Arden’s photography, though none of them have actually made the cut for her class. 

Brody has watched about 3 full seasons of Fear Factor, and it too has made an impression on his life We have spent this week giving him fear factor challenges. These have included some jumping exercises, hanging from the rope jungle gym for excruciating periods of time, and eating gross stuff – like shrimp eyes. He is always up for the challenge. 

As long as Arden has some way to listen to or watch clips of One Direction, she’s happy. Today,  Arden stayed in while the rest of us walked along the beach. She had some pictures to take and upload for her photography class and this one was my favorite. It falls under the category of “Background and Perspective”

In her absence I realized just how much of the day Arden spends singing. Seriously, everywhere she goes, there is at least some humming going on. Today there was nothing. And these aren't just One Direction songs, she just goes with whatever, changing keys, adding riffs, making alternative melodies…  it’s never ending. One day, she’ll audition for some show like American Idol, mention her inspiring big sister who sings as well, then I’ll land a record deal.

The sun was predicted to set at 18:32 this evening. To end the day, Brody wanted to go to castle hill and watch the sunset. So we, naturally, left the apartment at 18:15 and RAN up the entire mountainside. I guess we have to work off the Nutella somehow. At the top, there was a huge climbing net that we found yesterday and Brody and Scarlet proceeded to race to the top a few times. Arden took some more pictures, and I read a book. Here's another one of Arden's masterpieces from the top.

The hill closed at 7:00 and we started to make our way down around 7:15 to find all the gates locked at the bottom. After turning around a few times we found our way back, maybe not the most direct, but Arden, Scarlet and I spent the extra time discussing what college was like and Arden's birthday. We were awarded in the end with some gelato from Dad!!