Unmask

Get used to thinking you are just as beautiful after looking at yourself without make up. Remember it is only to enhance, remember it is just a substance, of which will never define you the way your own thoughts do. You are beautiful, regardless of make up or any other imperfection. This is something I wrote because sometimes we get so caught up in the way we look we lose sight of what's really beautiful. I know this because I've always had a problem with make up. When I was happily in love, I didn't need it. I was always being assured of how beautiful I was I didn't need make up to tell me. But obviously I'm single and now it's the make up that reassures me. I think it enhances my face a lot because I have imperfections like anyone else but I wish so badly that I didn't feel so bonded to it like I need it to be brave or I need it for people to like me. Because I know that it isn't true, people like you regardless of how clear your skin looks or how long your eyelashes are. So I remind myself a lot that make up is just to enhance and it's just for fun. I'm exactly the same, with or without it. And that goes for everyone else too. 

Adjusting to the New Perspective

Just got back from Paris yesterday and here I am, exhausted and totally not used to the time change. But what I'm really not used to, is being home but having everything seem different. It's like getting a new pair of eyes and having to get used to them. I see things so different now. It was so humbling living in the city of lights isolated. There was no escape, no Americans, no text messaging, no family. It was just me, my friend Ines who speaks pretty good English, and her moderately good english speaking parents. I don't want to reveal too much because I'm making a documentary about the whole 3 weeks but I will leave you with this. France is a beautiful country with great people. But I love it here in California and wouldn't want to live anywhere else. Oh and here's a pic of me with some French cheese. 

Board Games

Yesterday, I spent the entire day playing board games with two friends. It sounds a little bit lame, but honestly, it was so fun. Also, it helps that I won all five times we played (granted, four were the same game, but I digress). We started off with a game of Life. I get quite competitive when it comes to Life, because for some reason I feel that it is an accurate prediction of how my life will actually turn out (it seems that I will be a Nobel-prize winning doctor with a condo).

But the highlight was this amazing game I've never played before. It's called Ticket to Ride and it is probably my favorite board game EVER. You have to take trains all across Europe to complete a journey. You have three short journeys and one long one. The game gets extremely intense as you try to block the other players from their destinations while simultaneously crossing the European continent. Anyways, if you haven't played it they do have an App. It isn't as great as the physical game, but it is still very enjoyable.

On a less pleasant note, I have no idea who I want to do my influential American report on. I considered Ellen DeGeneres and Walt Disney, but for various reasons I decided against both. If anyone has a suggestion, do let me know!

Best Week Ever!!

I am so excited for this week!!!! Here is a whole run down of it:

On Monday, I get to hang out with one of my friends that I haven't seen all summer! We have both been so busy that we haven't had time to hang out and we both finally can!

On Tuesday, I am FINALLY getting my braces off ! 4 years and they are finally deemed ready! YAY!!!! Then, that night, we are having a massive food fight at Adventure from 6-7:30. Everyone should come and bring your friends. :)

Wednesday, I am able to hang out with another one of my friends and we are going to watch the first Percy Jackson movie. She hasn't seen it yet and she wants to go see the new one on the 7th, so she is going to play catch up. I AM SOOOOOO EXCITED FOR THE SECOND PERCY JACKSON MOVIE TO COME OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BEST BOOK SERIES EVER (along with Harry Potter)!

On Thursday, I am taking the drivers test! YAY! Then I shall be an official driver!! You should be careful on the road after that day if I pass ;) hahaha I'm just joking, I am a good driver.

Friday... Well, actually, I don't know if I have any plans then, but it won't matter because I will have my braces off and I'll hopefully have my license! Yay!

Well, that's it for now.  Bye!


P.S. I almost forgot!! If you read my last blog post about not knowing who to pick for the (auto)biography project since I couldn't do the man who invented ASL, I found someone new. I picked Walt Disney. :) Okay, now I am officially done. Bye!

Final Project

So my final project at COSMOS is doing this presentation and write up on satellites... It seems pretty easy but I just don't want to take the time and do all of it. So I have been procrastinating too much. This thing is due Monday -_- and I am going to be in Santa Cruz running the Wharf to Wharf Race this weekend. Then on top of that I have so much summer homework to do still! I have three more books to read for AP Lit and then a whole AP Calc packet and then looking through this graphic designing book for Journalism ;ppppppp My life just has too much work man.

PPL, COMMENT ALREADY.

Now there's a lot I like about blogging. For one, I get to rant as I please and let's be honest, not many people actually read my blogs. It's like venting to a wall. Anyways, I have noticed a little trend amongst our bloggers, they don't exactly like to comment. And I'll be completely truthful and say that I don't like commenting. Some will ask, why not take it out altogether? Well, my reasoning for doing so is that for people that actually like to blog can see what people have to say about whatever you decided to talk about. I would love for someone to comment on my blog, but unfortunately I can't really remember anybody that has.

Maybe I'm in a bad mood because Mock Trial practice has been officially stopped. It was kinda boring, but I love Mock Trial, so much that I'm now holding my own practices, haha. But it's a secret from my coach, shh.

But yea, I'm not angry that people don't comment, but c'mon, SHOW SOME LOVE FOR BLOGGING. Do it. Don't make me count your comments! I sound like such a nerd...

'NOTHER QUOTE FOR YA, graciously came from Daniel Quinnel, the funniest, most eccentric character out in Rocklin.

"It's better to swing from branch to branch and fall down, then walk on the jungle floor and get eaten by a tiger."

This actually cracked me up because he was so proud of his quote, but it holds great wisdom.

Closet

Sometimes if my room is messy, I just sit in my closet because there's nothing on the floor. And I think it's more relaxing to be in a clean room. Does anyone else do this?

My light in my closet turns on with movement, and so every five seconds I have to wave my hand in the air like a maniac because the light turned off on me, and I'm too lazy to stand up and flip the switch to 'on'.

I think my closet says a lot about me. There's not many clothes in it, just a lot of stuff. Not junk, but stuff I actually use all the time and/or have to keep in there, like a suitcase, sleeping bag, etc.

But I've decorated the walls and stuff with loads of pictures (framed because I'm a weirdo) and key chains and things.

When I was younger I had two chairs and an end table in there, and it would be my secret place and I would have picnics with fake food in there. I was 3, don't judge me.

I also have a lot of stuff that was handed down to me, like my mom's old jewelry boxes, and some really old books from when my grandparents were kids and stuff. I just like looking at all that kind of stuff.

So, all in all, my closet is pretty much just an extension of my room.

Pretty Closet

I have hit the low point of procrastination today. I organized my room.

On the bright side, it's super organized now, and I like it!

I just couldn't do homework when if I looked into my closet, my clothes were crushing into the bookcase, so I had to fold some stuff that didn't need hanging and put them on a shelf on the bookshelf. I've never put clothes on my bookshelf before, but I kinda like it. Also, I put my socks in the bedside table in my closet (I guess it's not a bedside table anymore...) because I had sweatshirts in it, but I was afraid I would forget about them, so I put them on the bookcase too.

Yep. This is what I do over the summer! I did see friends though. Well. My friend brought two people with her when she came to my house to drop off a movie. She did ask me to go out with them, but I said no. It was dinner time, and I was hungry. Don't judge me.

So. I guess I should really read past page two of one of my AP Lit books. If I don't blog for a while, it's because I'm busy procrastinating instead of doing my homework.

That Guy...And That Quote

I recently stumbled upon a few awesome people on YouTube. One of them being a little boy (well, he's 17 haha) that speaks 20 languages. Yep, he's that guy. And I swear, I was so close to flipping a table. It's so unfair, but awesome at the same time that he can soak up languages like it's nothing. Shame he doesn't know Spanish... :( But look him up on YouTube and you'll be amazed. His name is Tim Doner; he's what people call a "hyperpolyglot." That's what he looks like (below).

That's about all I have to talk about. I haven't really gone outside...and I know Megan's waiting to take me to Goodwill one of these days...

Oh, but before that, I also heard AN AMAZING QUOTE THAT I'D LIKE TO LIVE BY, but probably won't. Here it is:

There are seven days in a week, and someday ain't one of them. 

Summer Homework

I seriously feel like summer homework is going to be the death of me.

Madame gave us a list, saying that we have to do 15 things on the list for homework. Some of it is fine to do, but others are not. Example: make a French dish and make a copy of the recipe; easy... Learn a song in French, print out the lyrics, and record yourself... Not easy. I CANNOT sing, so that's not an option. Oh well, it's necessary.

I also have to read the Grapes of Wrath and a(n) autobiography/biography on an influential person. I found the perfect person to do, but it turns out that no one ever wrote a biography on him. (sigh) The person I was going to do was Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet. He is the one who made ASL. Before him, deaf people had no way to communicate, so when he was over in France, he met the man that made sign language in France and he learn it. He then adapted it to make it so Americans could use and opened the first school for the deaf.

Well, now I can't do him, so if you have any people you think I should read about, please tell me in the comments! Thanks :)

That's it for now.

Summmmmer

My summer so far:

Been to Britain
Came home from Britain
Read Candide
Victoire arrives (today!)

I still have so much summer homework to do it's not even funny. I haven't even started AP Stats, and thank goodness Econ doesn't have anything.

But since I don't particularly want to do any homework, I have started a lot of the books for Lit, I just haven't finished them.

I am about forty pages in to almost all of them, but I just can't bring myself to pick them back up. I just want to watch TV and movies and read books that I actually want to read. But saying that, I'm glad Lit is forcing me to read them, because I WANT to read them, I just don't want to read them, if you know what I mean.

The book for Psych is good though, and I have started reading the textbook. I'm almost done with the first chapter... yay for me!

Anyway, back to my studies. Yay for summer and time off from school! Ha.

Lovely Ponders

So I have just been listening to this song called If I Ever Leave This World Alive by Flogging Molly, and I really love it. I am definitely going to get more of this band's music. But this song is just so beautiful. When I was listening to it once in a car drive home with my boyfriend, I just started questioning the actual meaning of the song. Like what does he mean by "if I ever leave this world alive?" I know he used it as a metaphor, but I started thinking about it literally... What if when we die we actually wake up in a different world beyond the stars? What if Death is the only pathway to the worlds beyond our universe? Or do we instead then belong to a different parallel universe after death? I was asking my boyfriend (Ryan) about this, and he actually didn't think I was crazed. He just looked at me with his mind blown, and told me that it was a "hella cool thought" and was also then pondering the same questions. Anyways, sorry if that is weird. I am not condemning heaven or anything, I am Christian. I was just wondering if that is what heaven is. All I know is that if that's true I hope I meet Ryan again.

Mammoth Adventures

I've been MIA for a while, it's actually only been like 3 weeks but that's a long time to me. My sister and mom decided to beat the heat and take a trip to the East coast  to look at colleges during the week when it was like 5000 degrees every day. When they got back, our whole fam (including Bella the dog) packed up the car for a road trip to Mammoth Lakes. My dad used to live there and has always dreamed of taking Maddy and I before she graduates. I doubt any of you guys have heard of Mammoth Lakes, but it's about 5 hours away from Rocklin kinda near Yosemite. Mammoth is like Tahoe except you have like 5 different lakes to choose from, and there's not as many people there. We stayed in a hotel (I hate camping) in the main village, so everything we needed was in walking distance. Our first day we hiked from horseshoe lake up to McCloud lake. The views were breathtaking but the water was waaay to cold to swim in. Our second day there we rented a pontoon and went fishing. I learned how to fish, but I didn't catch any:( Anyways, Mammoth Lakes is like Tahoe on roids and you all should visit this chill little town at least once in your lifetime 

Wingman

That awkward moment when you are a wingman to your roommate who you just met like a week ago, for a guy she's just met four days ago, at a science/math camp. Yup, this would happen to me. It's all fine and dandy though! I have just now been having to give advice... A LOT. Now to both parties. Oh well! HAHA! Oh COSMOS. And not to mention I only have three girls in my Cluster, and I am only friends with one. The other one is getting attention from two nerdy Davids... What? I know, I was confused, too. And they are all awkward nerds... Not that there is anything wrong with that, but we are on different social levels. A lot of girls here are trying really hard to get at guys... What ever happened to subtle? If you want a guy, don't freak him out by coming on to him WAY TOO MUCH. One of my pet peeves right there. Ugh, oh well, at least it is somewhat entertaining. I just hope none of the girls think I am "getting in the way of their man." I swear I will slap that chick. No, sorry, I am not interested in your little awkward, way too public, affair... AT A SCIENCE CAMP! -_- That awkward love, man... Gonna give me some anger issues. But back to the wingman thing... I am a wingman, who's advice is gladly taken at least. Hope all goes well with all that, and everyone else at this camp's love affairs.

Sac Night Life

Last night I went to a quinceanera for the first time: flashing lights, fancy clothes, dancing, the works! Seeing a piece of Mexican culture was so eye opening and beautiful, I am so happy I had the chance to witness something so interesting! The only problem was I had the misfortune of borrowing heels that didn't fit, so I walked around a gorgeous party with such a pretty dress on, I wore high tops instead of sparkly shoes. However the real problem was there was absolutely no food! Sure the photobooth was distracting enough but once dancing had become too tiring, my little group and I decided to go home early and hit In'N'Out before we all fell dead asleep on our beds. Needless to say, that was the best In'N'Out burger I've had seeing I hadn't eaten since breakfast that day. All in all, it was a beautiful ceremony and I recommend everyone experiences this culture eye opener, even if you have to crash one! Who says partying isn't risky?

First Fall

So I fell off my bike for the first time today. When I was really little I fell off going down my steep driveway and just skinned both my knees. So I am counting this as my first epic one. I was being really dumb and riding with a drink in one of my hands and there was a speed bump and I guess I was going too fast for it... And ya so I just like fell over sideways and skidded on the pavement. -_- All I got was a scraped left elbow, scraped right knuckle, and abrasions on my right forearm. Thank the Sweet Lord I was wearing pants. I have a huge, long skid mark on my left thigh. But I was unharmed because my pants were thick enough. :D And so then I had to go clean it off. :( It stung SOOOO bad!! I finally built up from cleaning it with just water to cleaning it with alcohol. It is all nice and clean now thanks to my RA (Resident Admin) who had a first aid kit. My new friend Karey was like feeling more pain than I was though. So that was pretty comical. I guess it looks more painful when it is someone else's wound instead of your own because you are more aware of your body. Anyways, she was saying things like "You can scream if you want!" while I was cringing. And finally she told me she was going to "go over here" (my room) and scream for me. XD My RA Regina was calmer. She has been in bike accidents before because she goes to UC Davis. She even said that she didn't mind the feeling of the stinging alcohol. What??? Haha she is crazy. And then I had to tell my mother. I explained everything over text and even sent her pictures of my wounds so she would know they weren't that bad. She called me... My mom is crazy, too. But, at least she wasn't hysterical. She was just like "Are you sure you are okay?" Yes, mom, I wouldn't lie to you about not being okay. Oh well, that's all I have for today.

Yorkminster

While I was in Britain, I also went to York, and climbed to the top of Yorkminster, and I thought I'd share some pictures of the views.

This is the view from half way up. There was a little walkway, and had amazing views of the cathedral.  

This is from the top, and oh my gosh, the views of York are fabulous.

 

This was when I first walked into York, and first saw the cathedral from the ground. It was gorgeous!

St. Paul's Cathedral

When I was in England, I climbed to the top of St. Paul's Cathedral (where Diana and Charles got married), and the views of London were AMAZING!

This is St. Paul's. I climbed past the dome to the little walkway at the top. You can barely see in in the picture but it's below the cross bit, but touching the top of the dome. I'm not scared of heights, but my mom didn't even climb up.

I zoomed in for this view, but I got some double decker buses, and I just thought it looked really cool.

Victoire

My foreign exchange student from France arrives on Thursday! Her name's Victoire, and she seems very nice.

She drinks tea, so she's going to fit in better with my family than me! It'll definitely be a different experience from last summer, but I'm interested to see what's different and what's the same.

My foreign exchange student from last year, Irene, is going to Seattle this year, so I made her promise to post lots of pictures on Facebook, so I can see Seattle because I've always wanted to go!

At the little orientation thing the organization puts on, they said to make them feel comfortable, so they aren't shy speaking English. So I think that I should just attempt to speak French with the worst accent the whole time, just to make it fair. Who knows... she might be impressed. Or not.

Anyway, I'm excited!

My Summer

I'm currently in the middle of four books. So I'm reading two for fun, one for AP Psych, and one for AP Lit.

But one of the books that I am reading for fun is a nonfiction account of the underground city of Edinburgh, (Edin-burr-uh, not edin-burg in case you were wondering) Scotland, and it's really interesting! I'm only a few chapters in, but my mom read it in a few days, so it must have been good. I bought it at Edinburgh Castle, and usually castle's don't sell that good of books, but I have high hopes for this one.

I'm reading Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert for Psych, and it seems pretty good so far, especially for a book you have to read for school.

I'm reading Wuthering Heights for AP Lit, and I'm actually kind of excited about it, because it's a classic that I probably wouldn't have read if not for AP Lit.

Although, it is a little stressful because I feel like I'm behind already, because the summer's half gone!

Books...

I had two friends go to France over the summer, and they brought me back AMAZING gifts! So thanks, guys!

I am adding to my collection of things that I bought in Britain this summer... which was a lot. Oops.

I honestly don't think I have much more wall space. I think my mom's in the same position though because we bought twelve frames today for all the pictures she bought over there... in case you want frames, Aaron Brothers is doing a sale, where if you buy one, you get one for a penny!

My room is just a compilation of my interests: travel and books. I brought back 31 old books. Yep. That's right. 31. I went to Hay-on-Wye, which is a town of bookstores in Wales (I highly recommend it: you should go there one day!) My suitcase was over the limit, so I may, or may not, have put books in my parents' and brother's suitcase as well.... They love me :)

Hay-on-Wye was an AMAZING place. There are alleyways, open to the elements, just full of bookshelves, and bookshelves against the walls surrounding Hay Castle. There are over 40 bookstores I think, and one of them is JUST murder mystery, so of course I bought an old Agatha Christie book!

I bought a gypsy dictionary, because that's always useful. (There are lots of gypsies in Europe)

For those in AP Lit, I bought an old book that has Oedipus and Antigone in it!

And I also have a really old book in Arabic, I think, so it reads back to front. SO COOL! It's my mom's old book, because her dad used to work in Jordan (not that either of them spoke Arabic)

I got books by Charlotte Bronte, Jane Austen (I also went to go see the house she grew up in, and the desk she wrote on!!), and Charles Dickens.

I even bought a book entirely in Welsh! Welsh is a really interesting language because of the alphabet.



That's the Welsh alphabet. It has no Z. And what I do know is that the dd sounds like the English th. so I have no idea what the Welsh th sounds like.

And that was my Hay-on-Wye experience :)

Military Wives Choir

When I was in the airport in Britain, I was bored, so I bought a book about the Military Wives' Choir.

This book is just a mishmash (is that a word??) of loads of different perspectives of the unsung heroes. The wives are left behind and have to be mom, dad, aunt, uncle, grandparent: everything. They live on the military base, so they usually aren't near any family.

It began as a TV show on BBC, but the wives have sung in front of the Royal Family, at Sandhurst, and for lots of charities and things.

I would highly recommend the book, but here's a link to them singing! You can watch the three episode show on YouTube (I'm in the middle of it right now) and I'll link that too.

This is the first part of the first episode: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7UGgsdZQyU&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PLE379A445F06A6F05

And this is them singing in front of the Royal Family at the Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQ7f4lV3e0c

I don't know anyone in the American military, and only one person in the British military, so this was definitely a new perspective for me.

A family friend who's in the military, his wife has joined a local choir, and she's on advertising posters, and has sing at loads of different places.

The whole point of the choir is to bring wives of different ranks and branches of the military together. Before the choir, the wives of different ranks and branches of the military didn't really associate with each other, but the choir's changed all of that, which, in itself, is amazing.

The wives are living their husbands' jobs, and the choir has broken down the barriers between them.

Disney Princess Marathon

So in preparation for next year's homecoming theme as well as our trip to Disneyland together in December, my friend Emily and I watched 5 classic Disney princess movies all in one night!

Going in order of when they were made, we started with Snow White.  I can't believe I used to have nightmares about that!  Although, the evil queen does still scare me. 

Next we watched Cinderella.  The step sisters have monstrously large feet!  Like the glass slipper only fit on Drizella's big toe! 

We continued our marathon with Sleeping Beauty.  You know, sometimes I wonder why the fairies kept her in hiding for 16 years and brought her back to the castle on her 16th birthday when she was supposed to prick her finger?  Like why wouldn't you take her into hiding on her 15th birthday or something and then keep her in hiding until after her 16th birthday when the prophecy is void?  I really don't understand. 

Next, of course, was The Little Mermaid!  If I were Ariel, I'd make Eric become a merman and live under the sea instead of going up on land to live with him.  That's no fun! 

Lastly, my personal favorite, Beauty & The Beast.  I can't even begin to explain how much I love this movie.  It's so perfect!

We still have a couple of movies to go, including Aladdin, another one of my favorites.  Oh how I love a good Disney fairytale :)

Permitted Driver :)

So far July has been a great month because I finally got my driver's permit!  I'm so happy I'm done with online driver's ed.  That was death.  But it was worth it :)  I passed my test on Tuesday!

I'm really scared I'm going to be a terrible driver though.  Like I can totally see that for myself and I'd rather not get killed.  Guess we will just have to wait and see what happens!

Hopefully I can get my license 6 months from now, but there may be one slight problem: I don't know if I'm getting a car.  Both my parents work like ALL THE TIME so it's not like I can use theirs.  But what's a license without a car to drive around?!  I think my parents will have to break down and get me one :)  Life is going to be much easier for them when I start driving too! 

So everyone wish me luck and you may want to stay off the roads for the next 6 months while I'm still learning!

Birthday wishes

What a fun day I had yesterday! That amazing day happened to be my birthday. In the morning I woke up and saw outside my front door was a lot of paper hearts taped to the door and my drive way was chalked (well it was my sidewalk because there were cars in the driveway). I have an amazing best friend! :)

My sister and my best friend took me out for breakfast at the International House of Pancakes (IHOP). I ordered a stack of pancakes with blueberries, strawberries, and whipped cream on top. Tasted amazing! Oh! How I am spoiled!

Next thing I know we are at the mall, shopping! We stopped in lots of stores but ended up in Charlotte Russe, one of my favorite clothing stores were my sister said, "Pick out your birthday present!" I tried on three maxi skirts and ended up getting one. It had ivory and beige splashes of color formed into diagonal lines. It matched the shirt I was wearing perfectly, what a coincidence! 

Then I went swimming with my best friend and ruined my hair that I took a long time to curl, but it was fine because I had a wonderful time. We hung out with her super cute little sisters. They are adorable and so sweet to me!

Finally I went home and spent time with my family. We had some chocolate cupcakes with pink frosting. My wonderful, spectacular parents got me a camera, which I asked for. I got many texts and Facebook messages that wished me a happy birthday. I ended my day with a color run and then some needed sleep.

Color Run

Every week my church has an activity for the youth called mutual. This week we had a color run. It was difficult to run two miles in this heat, the degrees were up in the hundreds! Running with the sweat dripping down everyone's face. We got splashed with color every quarter of a mile or more. It was HOT! But in the end it was worth it because it was just so fun! Pictures were snapped by every girl after the run and a water balloon fight broke out. I had a great time and would not mind doing it again.

Nerdville with an Emphasis on Computer Programming Probs

Okay, so I am not amused. In my cluster there are so many nerds. There are definitely more nerds than actual social people in my cluster. (Cluster=my class that I am in at COSMOS) (COSMOS=California UC's science and math summer program) Anyways, there are just too many. But there are just a couple who I really want to choke... Not like actually choke, don't worry I'm not homicidal. But when you are smart and you are not humble about it and look down on everyone else, I want to choke you. Smart - modesty = not smart. AND OUR TA! Oh my goodness, he does not know how to teach. He needs to figure out that some of the class is dumber than him. Sorry, buddy but talk to me in actual terms I can understand. Basically all I do in lab is type in what he tells me. He doesn't tell me what I am doing. He just thinks I already know. Not all of us just decided to do programming in our free time, let alone have free time. He just needs to calm down. Other then that classes are good. People just got to realize I'm not as smart as them. I actually like to be a well rounded individual.

Tahoe Withdrawals

Last week I went to Tahoe for four day, and it was such an amazing trip. My family and I go up a lot and so this time, we had family friends who live in Bakersfield come with us for a change. Us four children stayed in the separate guest quarters while the parents slept in the main house, and it was a BLAST ! There was a pool table that we would just play for hours on end and because my family and I's favorite beach was only five minutes away, the two full days we had were spent there at Meeks Bay. My best friend since practically birth and I took out one of the two paddle boards and just slept on the water, paddled out to the other corner of the lake, oh my goodness it was beautiful. But sadly we had to leave with horrible sunburns and great memories, and now I sit on my couch avoiding summer homework. Sooo who's going to Tahoe soon?

Emergency Room

If we were in the book 1984 by George Orwell they would torture me by putting me in the Emergency Room. It is a mixture of germs, disease, and crying children. It is not too bad if you really have to go but avoid it if you can.

So you might be wondering why I decided to rant about the emergency room. Well, I have spent my fair share of time there. Most recently because I got a chunk of my leg taken out by a rock in a creek. I was on a hike in Auburn. The first doctor decided to staple my leg shut... the second doctor took the staples out but said my fever obviously had nothing to do with my cut. Well it was a very bad infection and I ended up emitted to the hospital.

So yes I really do not like emergency rooms right now. Partly because they try to go so fast that they often miss the key details.

Pride & Prejudice

After I have enjoyed myself reading with pleasure Jane Austen's famous novel, I have been inthralled with the lovely time period it is set in. I quite wish I could form my words in such a manner as they did. Their sentences are wordy yet beautifully creative. I enjoy it completely. At first, I never wanted to read it because I kept hearing people talk about it so dramatically. All this drama, I guessed, was from the book ending badly. But no. Someone finally told me it was actually a perfectly happy ending. So I wanted to get it and read it and love it. And then, whadaya know, it is one of the options to read for AP Lit! Everything just fell into place perfectly! :D And now I am at COSMOS waiting for my mother to bring me more books for AP Lit to read... Hopefully I will like these too. :3

My New Professor

A stocky, aged man. He is possibly from Middle Eastern decent. But he seems to have adapted well to these United States when he moved here probably for school or after schooling. Anyways, he is here, settled in his niche at UC Davis. But what gets me the most is his accent. His enthusiasm fuels it by allowing it to range in sound and pitch. And he is covered in chalk dust from his rigorous writing because he is a fanatic about this subject. "Oiler (Euler) es the master o' matemateeks!" As goes his arabian inflections in his vocal chords.

Camping and Fireworks

This 4th of July has been the best of all the independence days that I can remember! On July 3rd we packed up our car and left for a camping trip. My mom, sister, and Jared headed up at about 10:00am to enjoy the lake and set up camp. Meanwhile my dad and brother-in-law, Jacob, were supposed to meet us there at 8:30pm because they both had to work. At the campsite we had an amazing time swimming in the lake up at Sugar Pine Forest. I recommend this spot for camping it had an amazing lake! Anyway, after we dried off and got camp set up, we played some card games to pass time until Dad and Jacob got there.

 It was 9:00pm and they still had not arrived which made us start to worry. We had no fire because they had the matches and It was getting dark. While forest noises started to fill our ears Jared starting naming every one we heard. "That's just someone walking to the bathroom... That's a squirrel... That's a dog barking." Finally we decided to get in our tent and enjoy the card game inside. Every time we heard a car drive by we, meaning the girls, rushed to the windows on the tent in hopes it would be Dad and Jacob in their white truck with two red canoes in the trunk. Jared made the side comment, "This is going to be a rough night when I am sleeping by the door and you girls climb over me every time a car drives by. Finally, at about 11:30pm we decided to get in the car and drive 'til we got cell service. As we drove to the exit of Sugar Pine a white truck with two red canoes honked at us. It was them! Coincidentally coming in at the same exact time we decided to leave!
Turned out they ended up in Truckee which is 2 hours away from Sugar Pine because they were chatting it up. We ended up having a great time waiting for them to arrive because of all the card games and jokes about why they were not there yet.

The next morning we packed up camp and headed to the lake to go on rope-swings and canoes. The water felt great! I probably went 5 times on the rope-swing. Jared and I swam across the lake which was a ton of fun. I would not hesitate to go camping at Sugar Pine again!
When we arrived home after our interesting camping experience we got dressed in our red, white, and blue in spirit of our country's birthday! We went to our usual spot for watching fireworks and got red and blue Slurpees from the AMPM gas station a block away. Although we have watched the fireworks in this place many times, this firework show was by far the best I have seen. We sprawled on the ground in hopes of feeling the thundering jolt of what we call "The Shotgun" fireworks. We ended up getting pieces of ashes in our eyes from the fireworks in result of them being right above us but it was completely worth it! What a show! I cannot wait until next year! 

I'm Home!

I just got back from Britain on Thursday, and boy is it nice to be home. I've been gone for a month, with spotty internet access, so this is my first chance to blog this summer!

It's almost 2 am right now, because I am SO jetlagged. Everyone says it's worse going east, but I always have thought it's much harder coming west. I was so exhausted, I went to bed around 4 pm, so I've already had about ten hours sleep. I hate jetlag. So much.

Anyway, Britain was AMAZING! I took so many pictures, and bought way too much stuff... my room's a tad crowded now.

I hope everyone's having an amazing summer!

AP Homework + Sickness = Not Fun

Gah. I really wish I did some of this before I left for France. Seriously. I didn't even do any over in France like I had planned to. Why? Because someone on the trip came with allergies (it wasn't freakin allergies I'll tell ya!) and then decided to give it to almost everyone else (5 people luckily escaped). I wasn't fortunate :( SO for about a week now, I have been getting over a cold that I received in France, and the best part about this is that I get to read AP Lit books. While my mind is still in it's fuzzy state.

I am still amazed at myself for having even a slight comprehension about it. But at least I got one book out of the way! yyyayyyy......... 3 or four more to go and then an AP Psyche book.... this is going to be a great way to immerse myself back into the Rocklin life- doing homework.

finally home and still tired

about four days ago- well, saturday at 11:30 PM, I got home from my two week vacation in France. I'm exhausted and still overwhelmed with everything that has happened. I had been waiting to go to Paris my entire life and I still can't believe that I can now say that I've not only been to Paris, but I've been on the Eiffel Tower, near le pont avignon, and Versailles- OH and Notre Dame. So many places in just a matter of a week. The first week was spent with a host family, who might I add, were the sweetest people on Earth! The second week was spent touring Nice, the city in which we had been living in for almost a week at that point, so we knew that by heart. Then we went up North and went to Paris for only 2 days. But along the way we stopped by Nimes, Antibes, Eze, Arles, (x?), and some other places that escape my memory at this point in time. Let's just say it was a whirlwind of adventure by the time we left Nice and started on our trip that would open our eyes to more French culture. I have to say, it was totally amazing. Pretty much everything I had ever dreamed of happened. I saw places I can cross off my bucket list now and it never even felt real. Ever. And now it feels like a surreal dream that I had. Makes me wish I could go back- which I will be some day in the future because this trip was just too amazing to not go on again. Europe has so much history behind it and I want to know more!!! But besides planning and saving up for that trip, I did some planning for this new school year and I am suppper psyched about next year's journalism staff!!! We are gonna have a LOT of fun!! I can't wait!!

T_T

My baby niece is here for the next two weeks and it's been three days already and I'm just completely exhausted. That, and it's worse when I can't sleep at night, so I ended up getting only three hours of sleep. But it's not my fault! I just wanna watch TV!

I'm such a hot mess right now. I guess there are summer meeting for AP Spanish last time I heard from DeMeyer, which was before the school year ended. And now I'm kind of rushing to try to figure things out, but I don't have time because of my niece. I have no idea when I'm supposed to get my senior portrait done. However, I get to cut my hair after that. Sweet sweet redemption! I can't wait to just take a pair of scissors and burn my hair :).

I have eight minutes until I have to wake my niece up from her nap... She's cute and all, but babies aren't my thing. I have so much to do, even though it's summer, I have been lagging on SO many things.

Busy Busy Busy

Originally, I thought that I would have a pretty relaxing summer. Well, I was wrong.

I have water polo 2 times a week (3 if I go to the scrimmages), summer homework for both French and English, church, working at vbs camps, thinking of fundraiser ideas, and going to my Australia meeting.

In short, I am TIRED. I was up at 7 every morning to be able to get to the vbs camp at 8. Then the camp ended at noon, so I was on the run from then until about 10 every night. During the camp, I had to deal with 2 very bad little 4th grade boys. UGHHHHHH!!!!!!!! Thankfully, I will never see them again and their parents did not ask me to babysit for them (If they did, I would have probably told them no).

Summer homework should have never been invented. We sign up for honors and AP  classes to be pushed harder and to become better in that subject. We take the classes DURING the school year. That should mean homework DURING the school year NOT during summer. It's not like people who have no interest in school sign up for these classes... People who actually want to, sign up. I know that they want summer homework to see if we are actually committed, but come on! Why would we sign up for these classes if we weren't?

If any of you have read my previous blog posts, you would know that I am going to Australia next summer. It costs A LOT of money to go, so I really need to fundraise. I have thought of doing a car wash, a bake sale, and selling my homegrown tomatoes, squash, and zucchini, but I don't have any more ideas. If any of you guys do, please tell me in the comment section! Thanks! I had my first meeting on Saturday. I expected all 22 of us to be there, but only seven of us showed. Three of the people are super awesome, but the other three just acted like they didn't want to be there. Oh well, the first three are super cool and I can tell that we will all have a good time together at all the meetings and on the trip.

Man, this is the most I have ever blogged. I feel very proud. :) I probably won't post this much again because I am never this busy, so oh well. I will post again in two more weeks. Goodbye!