What Is Liechtenstein?

Liechtenstein, officially the Principality of Liechtenstein is a doubly landlocked German-speaking microstate in Central Europe. The principality is a constitutional monarchy headed by the Prince of Liechtenstein.

Not the Liechtensteinian flag

Liechtenstein is bordered by Switzerland to the west and south and Austria to the east and north. It has an area of just over 160 square kilometers (62 square miles), the fourth smallest in Europe, and an estimated population of 37,000. Divided into 11 municipalities, its capital is Vaduz and its largest municipality is Schaan.

Economically, Liechtenstein has one of the highest gross domestic products per person in the world when adjusted for purchasing power parity, and the highest when not adjusted by purchasing power parity. The unemployment rate is one of the lowest in the world at 1.5%. Liechtenstein has been known in the past as a billionaire tax haven; however, it is no longer on any blacklists of uncooperative tax haven countries.

A license plate not from Liechtenstein

Despite its limited natural resources, Liechtenstein is one of the few countries in the world with more registered companies than citizens; it has developed a prosperous, highly industrialized free-enterprise economy and boasts a financial service sector as well as a living standard that compares favourably with those of the urban areas of Liechtenstein's much larger European neighbours.

On the country's national holiday all subjects are invited to the castle of the head of state. A significant portion of the population attends the national celebration at the castle where speeches are made and complimentary beer is served.

We're All Celebrities

We went outside for a break to practice taking pictures, since we need to be experts when we go to our schools. Evan took a photo of Don to start out, then we decided to continue by taking pictures of other people taking pictures.

  

This fake brick!

After a few minutes, our cohort decided to take a photo together in front of the banner. We didn't know how to pose so we chose a couple silly poses, like the typical prom pose. 

The tutorial is always a good bonding time, mostly because it's just taking pictures of each other. Unfortunately, other than people there aren't all that many things to take photos of in front of the school.

Evan and I actually realized that the school is actually all fake brick, which was pretty incredible to me. You can tell from far away that the brick is strangely smooth, but then close up it's visible that it's something stuck on concrete.

The Most Stressful Day

One of the most stressful moments of my life would have to be the last week prior to our homecoming rally. My team and I put our literal blood, sweat, and tears into our homecoming float for the past four months. Everyday after school we would come straight to my house and work nonstop from 4 pm to about 8 or sometimes later, depending on the day. 

Homecoming week arrives much sooner than expected and next thing you know we have less than 5 days to add our finishing touches and be ready to go Friday morning. All of the components had been completed by Tuesday. Wednesday comes along, and I could not believe my eyes. The trailer, the thing that everything goes on top of, had been dropped off at my house before I came home from school. I had given the task of assembling the trailer of to a friend, as she volunteered. What was dropped off at my house was a 6 feet tall box and a trailer that was the wrong size. There was less than 48 hours before the parade.

I contacted more than 20 people, in attempt of getting some help to disassemble and rebuild the entire thing. Thankfully, my neighbor, who is also a contractor, was walking by and told us he would help us rebuild the entire thing. 5 hours later, everyone had left and yet my parents and my neighbor were still outside working. I had regained some hope.

Finally came homecoming day, and everything was set and ready to go. We arrived at Sheldon Elementary earlier than expected and our hopes were high. The parade began, and as our trailer started to move, we heard a crack, and then many more. Our trailer was falling apart, and our float was getting stuck in the trees. I am not exaggerating when I say I almost fainted; however we completed the parade, we received 3rd place, and everything was over with. I would call it a success, and I could not have been more relieved.

Has nothing to do with the blog, but it's still a cute picture

Cats!

I have three cats. The oldest is named "Polter", and the two youngest are called "Lambi" and "Oliver". Oliver and Lambi are actually brothers despite their differences in appearance. Lambi is a white flame point siamese with blue eyes. Oliver on the other hand is an orange tabby with beautiful green eyes. 

Polter being the oldest, and female is always annoyed with Oliver and Lambi. She tries her best to keep a huge bubble of distance between herself and them. However, they just want to play with her and she takes it the wrong way. I wish that Polter could let loose and have fun with them once in awhile.

My cohort and I being models!

Some of the pros of having a cat are that you have your very own lap warmer during the winter. They provide you with company. You have your own alarm clock every morning at 4AM. You will never have a rodent problem. These pros should be more than enough reasons for everyone to want a cat.

Sure you may have to constantly clean litter boxes, use a lint roller everyday, and have band aids on hand, but you really have to work for the affection of a cat. A dog is naturally obedient, and there's no effort into it. A cat is more appreciated and elegant. Plus dogs smell really badly. I love cats!

MOVIES!!!

All my life I wanted to be a gangster. SHOW ME THE MONEY!!!!!!!! You're gonna need a bigger boat. Leave the gun take the cannoli. I want the TRUTH! You can't handle the TRUTH. I feel the need. The need for speed! You know nothing of my work. I am the father. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! I can't believe it. They forgot my @%$^#! birthday. It's elementary Watson.

My Cornell Cohort members and my graceful self

Better a witty fool than a foolish wit. Here's to looking at you kid. We'll always have Paris. Play it again Sam. Out of all the gin joints in all the world, she walks into mine. Frankly my dear I I don't give a d***n. WILSOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON! Inconceivable! My name is Inigo Montoia. you have killed my father. Prepare to die. Life is like a box of chocalates you don't know what you're gonna get. RUN FOREST RUN! I gotta pee. 

This is us practicing for our future modeling careers

Big mistake. Huge. You lookin' at me? I ate his liver with fava beans and a nice chianti. It puts the lotion in the basket. No one would notice. Rosebud. I'm still waiting. If my dog had a face like yours I would shave his butt and make him walk backwards. On Wednesdays we wear pink.  You can shave your back now. Danny DeVito! I love your work! That's why her hair is so big its full of secrets.    

Typing Because I Also Want To Make Typing Noises

Candid. 

So I'm just sitting here trying to write anything other than blah blah blah for this practice blog, I don't want to sit here and overthink everything that I'm doing right now, I hear everyone else in the room typing so I feel like I need to as well. I can't believe I'm actually trying to type something, I want to go out and take pictures with the banner, De Anza is not as nice as everyone told me, as far as I've seen. We are having way too many technical difficulties. So far, I have had some Twizzlers and a cookie, aside from the cup of coffee this morning. I think I'm gonna go get some fries after this. 

I feel like I have so much to do, today is prom for my school and I'm not going. My friend Erika is coming to my house at 2:30 so I can do her hair, I wonder if she will hate me for being a little late getting home. All I hear is typing. What is everybody typing? Don just said this session is not going how it is supposed to. 

I don't know why I decided to hold on to the pole. 

Having the time of our lives!

We're going to take some photos today, I wonder how that's going to go. Maybe I should get up and get a bag of chips but I have to sit here and keep typing. 4 paragraphs, that's how much I have to hit. Now I just hear myself typing. What did everyone else type? I drank a lot of my water bottle, I normally don't even drink this much water throughout the day, I guess I'm just not thinking. It's really cold even though Zunarah already closed the door. She goes here. I still like El Cerrito better, not be sound cocky. But no one is probably gonna read this anyways. Just me typing away for the sake of making some typing sounds. 

I want to start with the photo editing. Honestly the thing I'm looking most forward to about today. Weren't we supposed to get a break? When is that supposed to be happening? There's a little teapot next to me, I bet someone made it in ceramics, it looks so cute! Okay, I feel like I'm doing too much, so I'm gonna go grab a bag of chips now. Blah would have been more interesting than whatever this was I just spent the past 6 minutes doing. 

A Trip to Costco Has Obviously Been Made.

Today I woke up at 6:30, proceeded to accidentally fall asleep for 30 more minutes, and then panicked, I got dressed, made some coffee, and rushed out the door.

Okay, I think I'm done with that paragraph.. Now we have started a new paragraph. I am still very cold. I am trying to write a lot as I think it will appear like the actual blogs will. Okay, now I just going to write words as I have nothing else to say. Blah, blah, blah,blah, blaakijd sdlfiu4 dfuow9 aifuweoiuj feuwoufowlurow3i  woerup fji fjowj foiuf fou48t rjoie u4o8 fjwuo gfj4i guwopurweluo ourtowuit erituot souj foweumjfwoiufrw loiuwrt gwoutw ;ltoipoigtkjsdpogultuwo9t5u oi7t9ru86t 8tou

What a friendly sign.

Good news! The technology seems to be working! Right now our task is to write a certain amount of words so that we can insert a picture and it looks nice. So, now I'm just talking. Blah blah blah. I am very cold right now. I was not expecting this morning to be so cold. I babysat yesterday, that was fun. 

Once at De Anza High School, I helped Don set up, received a packet that was full of various information, turned on the desktop that was in front of me, talked to my table partner, and waiting for the various technological things to work in our favor so that the tutorial could begin.

Last night I ate dinner at 9:00 which I was not very happy about, as I prefer to eat dinner around 6:00 or even 7:00. Don has obviously made a Costco run for this tutorial as there are a vast amount of red vines, chips, cookies, and other items that could only be bought at Costco.

The sun was in our eyes.