see i'm smiling

"it means i'm happy that you're here" :)

the last five years one of my favorite musicals of all time. the musical is beautiful and the singers on the cd are fabulous. the guy who wrote it is a professor at usc and i met him!!! so exciting! if you have time and are interested in listening to a two person musical with a piano and violin i would highly recommend it.

so my history teacher showed this to us in class and it kinda made my day:


the government had these posters posted everywhere during WWII.
i have two more week of school! can't wait.

Procrastination

i give up updating this in a timely fashion. whenever i think about updating a list of important school work pops into my head and i figure i should put this off until a later time. and then, of course, i end up not doing this at all. go me. ah well. here goes. a few months later...

so i saw spring awakening twice. and it was AMAZING. made me so happy. and guess what i saw last tuesday? RENT! my two favorite musicals! omg now that was amazing. two guy, adam pascal and anthony rapp, were singing the main parts. they also happened to be the two original guys who played the part in the original broadway cast and the movie. they were so fantastic. i was in complete awe of how amazing they were and didn't think anyone else in the show would be as good but they were! the entire production was spectacular and i am so happy i was able to go see them.

lets see. i not the biggest fan of my schedule this year, mainly because i'm not a big fan of chemistry. 5 units! i took a test last week and i'm still waiting to see how i did. i guess my lab teacher guy is expect around 2 people (out of our 25 people lab class) to do so bad on the test that there is no way they can pass the test by the end of the year. scary. and the only chem class had a class average of around 50 something percent. yikes. math isn't too bad. i took the silly bio calculus and we're doing stuff that i did in mr. lenaway's class sophomore year. so i'm not too worried about that class. thank you mr. lenaway. and i'm taking english 100 (because i got a 4 on my ib test and didn't get credit for the class here) which isn't too bad. we learned how to write thesis sentences and paragraphs. but we also got to watch movies like finding nemo, cars, kung fu panda, and ratatouille for our last essay. later we're watching a walk to remember and the dark knight. that will be fun. i'm also in a history class that is sooo easy it's ridiculous. for some reason long beach doesn't take history ib credit so i had to take history again. i'm just glad i have an easy class this semester. let's see. last class i'm taking is critical thinking (which is an honors class) and i really like it. the teacher is from houston, texas and sounds like my uncle when he talks. it's funny though and we are talking about the matrix so much. makes me want to watch the matrix and the matrix revohillbillied again.

wow long paragraph. so this weekend i watched empire of the sun and it's really good. by stephen spielberg and i guess ben stiller was in there somewhere. i also watched fearless for my english class (the jet li version because my teacher is obsessed with kung fu. i guess he does tai chi or something like that) but i also thought that was a good movie. i could definitely write an essay on that. and it's not just a kung fu movie! it definitely had deeper themes. i've been reading a lot too. just finished the other boleyn girl and it is so much better than the movie, which is such a shame. they had good actors but the adapted screenplay was crap. it was nice because i know my history but i still didn't know what was going to happen. couldn't put the book down. i also read the road and i didn't like it too much, which is disappointing. the movie (hopefully) is coming out soon though and i'll definitely watch it because viggo mortensen is in it. did you watch the oscars? hugh jackman is now one of my favorites. "i wolverine!" yeah well i really should start reading my chemistry book now. and doing my chem homework. and math hw. fun stuff. oh and i changed my background. unfortunately there was nothing purple that i liked. hope everyones doing well.

college life

so i've been meaning to to write this for a very long time, i swear. i just end up forgetting or i'm too tired when i try to write. the olympics is over. darn. the closing ceremony was good though. two more years until canada. college is completely different than life at home. it's weird and nice at the same time. i went home last weekend and told my mother i was going out and she didn't want me to, which made ma laugh because if i were here, she wouldn't even know if i was going out or not!

i'm living in the dorms at csulb and there is so much walking on this campus. it's insane. especially with a recovering hip. i live in los alamitos on the third floor and it's a hall style. which means fourty girls share the same bathrooms and showers... interesting. takes a while getting use to, let me tell you that. my RA is really nice and i still don't know what to say about my roommate. she's a junior and likes to listen to rap music. very easy going though so i can't really complain. i am very thankful for lauren bates and andrew kemper though. we have been hanging out a lot because we don't know that many other people and enjoy being anti-social. the dining food isn't the best but i can't complain. it's "fine." we went to a place called yogurtland, which is like berry star but better. so if you come visit, i'll take you there and it'll be awesome. the campus is also really pretty. i sat outside on the landscaped lawn and in the mediterranean climate and i must say i was pretty impressed. beautiful.

so my classes. on mondays and wednesdays i have chinese 101 and geography 100. chinese is absolutely insane. like if i didn't know any chinese i would have been completely and utterly lost. i am definitely going to have to work hard in that class. tuesdays and thursdays i have communications (speech), viewing dance, and my honors harry potter class. i'm suppose to find out what house i'm in tomorrow so i'll let you know if i remember. the communications class is nothing compared to ib and i got my diploma in the mail! very exciting. i also have a university 100 class for the first five mondays so all in all thats 17 units. not as bad as some people but i'm still going to be busy. i think.

so did you hear about breaking dawn? yeah i'm mad too. curse "friends" who betray famous friends and make them not want to finish a book that everyone wanted to read. on a happier note i think i got free tickets to go to Spring Awakening the second night it opens! omg! oct 30 and i can't wait. i got a lovely poster too which made my day. thank goodness for lauren who knows i love that musical. i'm rereading eragon right now, along with all my other homework, and i'm going to try to finish that book and eldest before the next books comes out this month. i hope it's good. and Emily i'm not going to write about the whole movie drama. we went to go see batman and there was an "incident." it was absolutely hallarious though. maybe if you ask nicely Emily will tell you the story :) i visited the AV last weekend which was a nice change. i miss my mother's cooking. i know there are a lot of things i'm forgetting but i just don't remember right now.. too many things going on. hope everyones doing well.

the olympics 2008 in beijing, china

i have been watching the olympics diligently since 08.08.2008. it makes me really happy and i was in complete awe of the opening ceremony. it was so beautiful and really showed the world china's amazing culture and history. 2008 men hitting drums at the same time with a memorized routine but without a conductor left me speechless. could you imagine trying to do a field show without a conductor? i was impressed. and at the last minute they told the men to smile more because if not they would be too intimidating. and they were! kinda makes me proud to have chinese ancestory.

my favorite event, and it has always been my favorite event not just because i use to swim, is swimming. and i have many good reasons why its my favorite. compared to events like gymnastics, the people competing can't fall! it was so nerve racking to watch the chinese and american girl gymnasts today. they kept on falling! its always depressing watching them fall and you feel so bad for them after they do. in swimming no one falls or makes mistakes like that. it just depends on how fast they are. and my other big reason why swimming is my favorite is simply two words: michael phelps. hes so good! breaking all those world records, especially the 4x100 freestyle relay. that was honestly the best race i have ever seen. i was cheering like crazy and the americans beat the french. i was so happy. if you click on the link, please watch the video on that page. it's brilliant. katie hoff, another good swimmer, should have won a gold medal but at the very last minute lost, just like those french. i guess you can't win all the time. but these olympics are actually making me proud to me an american. weird.

so i decided to listen to the music of the lord of the rings musical. and i actually liked it so much that i'm seriously considering buying the cd on itunes. this song is my favorite so far. i feel like a complete nerd but you have admit the music is pretty good! very catchy too. even someone who is not obsessed with lotr agrees with me. and that is saying something in a good way.

today was the last day that i saw my friend before she went to college. now that was a depressing thing. i'm also working on a puzzle of the cinderella castle and helping tani in a bake sale. finished a book called howl's moving castle (which i adored and laughed out loud at howl at one point in the book) and am about to start watching scrubs. hopefully. i'm pretty happy i don't have to go back to school tomorrow though :) everyone i talked to today hasn't finished breaking dawn yet and that is driving me crazy. i need to talk to someone about that book. december 12th is when the movie is coming out. i still can't decide if looking forward to it or dreading it. either way i'm excited. and i just realized that peter jackson is going to produce the movie the hobbit. that completely made my day. only a couple more years to wait... i wish all my friends who are going to college the best and i hope they keep in touch. i will really miss them. curse growing up.

i can't believe it's over

so breaking dawn came out on August 2nd, the last book in the twilight series, and I was unable to make it to the midnight showing. luckily i have awesome friends who did go and i was able to receive my book around one in the morning. i don't want to spoil anything but i was pretty content with the book. i also watched the breaking dawn concert series online. if anyone is a fan of those books i would highly suggest watching it again on August 7th.

last saturday was the first time i got out of my house since my surgery and it was a very nice change. i am off to college, along with lots of my friends, and some of them are leaving very soon. Christy's party was a lot of fun and i enjoyed seeing a lot of my friends before we all leave. plus i decided that i am still a huge fan of apples to apples. that game is so much fun and perfect for any occasion. i also got a poster from my friend when she went to england. it was from the lord of the rings musical. yes, i did just say musical. it completely made my day.

so i decided that being on summer break is really nice. i actually have time to do thing i want for a change. i've been reading lots of books and watching tons of movies. i will be forever grateful to ib but its nice to have a life for once. school starts soon. scary. and i think i'm starting to get the hang of this, which is a very good thing. oh and Emily makes the best lasagna in the world :)

Indifference is a strange thing

well hello there. Emily, who is absolutely wonderful, helped me make this so i figured i should use it. just had surgery a week ago and i am confined to my house and bed. i feel so apathetic its insane. I'm on my new macbook that i have not named yet and am trying to ween myself off of grey's anatomy. thank you Emily :) i'm currently addicted to the show and i can't help myself! it's really good. i love how i can actually understand what the doctors are talking about sometimes. yey mrs. nichter. if you can get into her class, do it. shes an amazing teacher.
i'm also trying to read wuthering heights. i swear i have a very good reason. stephanie meyer would always reference the book in eclipse and i really want to reread eclipse and understand it better before next saturday! breaking dawn is coming out and bares & noble is going to have a bridal shower, i'm so excited. well i haven't really figured out how to use anything on this thing but when i do, i'll post some pictures or something. good stuff. i'm off to waste hours in my current obsession.