The Trizzle

pigtails are back

2011-10-25T22:34:00.004-04:00

Yay! I have finally finished my Spanish project. It is a music video to "Me Vale," a song by a Spanish group called Mana. I know, I know, quite exciting.

The theme of the song is that you should not care what others think of you. The rough translation of the first line is, "I do not care what people think of me. Even if you wear your hair another way, I still like to wear my hair like this." So in our video, we put pigtails in our hair to represent rebelling against the norm.

My group and I chose the song because it is reasonably catchy and upbeat, but what we didn't realize was that it is extremely wordy. Then, it came back to haunt us when our teacher said she wanted us to mouth all the words. So, we had to memorize the whole song for filming, and then edit all of the clips super accurately (to the 0.1 second). I have spent so long on this project that the song is probably permanently embedded in my mind. Why couldn't we have chosen a song like "Egoista," which has one word of lyrics repeated over and over again?

Now, I can look forward to the best part: presenting it in front of the class. Nah, that was sarcasm. Last year, I had to present two Spanish (non-music) video projects, and I seriously wanted to run and hide. Trust me, it is that embarrassing.

on tour

2011-10-21T18:28:00.006-04:00

For my first college tour, my mom, sister, and I took an hour long road trip to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD. My mom says she went there 100 years ago, but I'm not sure I believe her. Anyway, I have always wanted to visit. My mom also mentioned that colleges may read my blog, so in deference to this, I have decided to use proper capitalization in this post.

First, we went on a guided tour of the campus. It started off wonderfully, with my mom subtly informing our tour guide that his fly was down. Wow, what a truly awkward beginning to my first college tour. He looked so embarrassed, the poor guy. I don't think that I could tell a complete stranger that his fly was down, especially if I had to spend the next hour with said stranger. This just shows that my mom is an extremely nice person. In fact, she has also told two strangers that their shirts were inside out and two that their sweatshirts were backwards.

As you would expect, the tour only showed us the nicest buildings on campus. I was especially impressed by Gilman Hall. The guide said that they recently renovated the hall for $73 million. *Jaw drops*. The hall was really dark and old when my mom was at Hopkins, but I guess that the huge chunk of money transformed it into an amazingly beautiful place to hang out and study. The rooms are surrounded with stained glass windows that let light in. There is a little coffee shop with large white lanterns hanging from the high ceiling.

I also really loved the Hutzler Reading Room, nicknamed the "Hut," which is a study area. It looks so quiet and comfy. According to my mom, people pull all-nighters studying at the Hut.

The rec center is also really nice. It was created in 2005, so it is fairly new. Apparently, there are separate workout spaces for athletes and students so that students don't have to exercise next to athletes and feel insecure about themselves. Really, that is actually what the tour guide said. So, since there is a lot of equipment, the rec center isn't too crowded during non-class hours. My mom told me that that was a problem at Berkley, where she went to graduate school. In addition, my little sister and I got pretty excited when we saw that there was a rock climbing wall.

We walked past the freshmen dorms, but didn't get to go inside. Then, we walked to the library, which apparently has six floors. According to the tour guide, the library gets quieter as you go down, so you can customize your study experience. Before we actually went inside the library, my mom, sister, and I left the tour early to catch another tour of the engineering school.

We visited three labs. One was a structural engineering lab where they tested cold form steel with a Multi-axis Structural Testing Rig. It was quite huge and painted blue, thus given the nickname, the Big Blue Baby. The next lab worked mostly on medical devices to assist surgeons. I found it really cool, since I am interested in the biomedical engineering field. One device they designed helps surgeons avoid tremor when doing surgery on the retina of the eye. My mom pointed out to me that the lab, which was programming-related, was located in Hackerman Hall, haha. The last lab was a material sciences lab where they tested how stress, heat, and electrostatics affect various materials.

I don't really have any other colleges to compare to, but I love Hopkins. It is close to home, the facilities are nice, and there are great research opportunities for engineers. I bought some Hopkins clothing at the bookstore, too. :)

feels like san francisco

2011-08-23T13:58:00.015-04:00

both my parents are at work right now. as my little sister and i were sitting on the couch, browsing etsy for crochet robots, our house began to shake. i figured that it was just our washing machine going on overtime, until everything in the house started rattling and some car alarm went off outside. yup-- i just experienced my first earthquake!

according to the radio, it was a 5.9 quake. and even though its center was in virginia, it was felt all the way from north carolina to toronto!

immediately after the earthquake, i called my parents and then logged onto facebook. i thought that i was quick to grab my computer, but i guess that others were quicker! my news feed was already flooded with people screaming "EARTHQUAKEEE"! i can just imagine people posting frantic facebook statuses during the earthquake.

here are some of the many facebook statuses, just for laughs:

"I just farted and the earth shook..."
"Sweet baaaby Jesus"
"Almost fainted... Not because of the earthquake but because I was getting blood drawn during it."
"Only in Bethesda can so many people make statuses that soon after a major event"
"My stomach was a rumblin'..."
"*insert funny earthquake status here*"
"This is a photo that was taken of the devastation caused by the recent D.C. earthquake. Many people have lost lawn chairs and fragile wall ornaments to this heartbreaking natural disaster... Make this your status if you care about helping D.C. recover from this horrible tragedy... 95% of people won't make this their status, are you one of the 5% that cares enough to make a difference?"

when i went upstairs, i found my poor cat hiding under the bed. apparently, she is smarter than ella and me. while she instinctively ran for cover, we just sat on the couch in shock, gripping each other's hands for dear life.

at least everyone is okay! my mom heard on the radio that people were running out of buildings screaming... oh my... the only negative result of the earthquake, for me, was that two of my mom's hats fell out of the closet and i had to pick them up.

my life as the paparazzi

2011-08-12T11:28:00.010-04:00

my mom, ella, and i went to the university of maryland gym yesterday. there was a sign that said the indoor pool was closed on thursday and friday. as we walked up the stairs, we looked through the huge window to the indoor pool. there were lots of cameras and lights set up. my mom thought that they might be taking photos of the umd swimmers. we found it really strange that the athletes had to be hosed off in speedos before being photographed in front of a tile background... we guessed that they were probably going for the "just-out-of-the-pool" effect.

but, after running on the track and swimming in the outdoor pool, we took a closer look at the photo shoot. my mom and i were telling each other, "wow, he looks a lot like michael phelps! you know, with the long face and the broad shoulders." then, a man came up to us and said, "that's because it is michael phelps. he's shooting a head-and-shoulders commercial!"

of course, i went crazy with my mom's camera phone until it ran out of battery. today, when i went running again, i brought the real camera with me! here are some of the many photos that i took. with all of them in series, it's like a storyboard:

so, now you all know what michael phelps looks like when he takes a shower! this was my first "celebrity" sighting, and luckily i managed to get tons of pictures to commemorate it.

retain your excitement

2011-08-09T10:57:00.006-04:00

yesterday, I GOT MY BRACES OFF!! the two years of pain went by so slowly that i thought the day would never come!

to my horror, ella literally can't wait to get braces. apparently she did not hear me constantly complaining about the sore gums and sharp wires.

i went to the appointment anticipating a lot of pain. a while ago, they replaced a single bracket and it felt like they were attempting to pry my tooth out. so, to my surprise, it didn't hurt at all when they pulled all of my brackets off in series. perhaps it helped that i took a dose of tylenol beforehand.

once all the brackets were out, i ran my tongue over my teeth. bad choice. it was extremely slimy! after seeing the disgusted expression on my face, my orthodontist assured me that it was just glue. eek, i hope he was right.

then came the worse part: the drill. my teeth are sensitive! i had to clench my hands together the entire time to keep myself distracted. even worse, my gums got really sore and bloody because they practically drilled right into them. i hated having to inhale the drill fumes; even my orthodontist was wearing a mask to block it!

maybe it was worth it, though, because i was then rewarded with a water bottle full of candy. score! they probably thought i had refrained from eating candy (and countless other "banned" foods) for the past two years... *looks from side to side with shifty eyes*

after my appointment, we went to california tortilla for dinner. the restaurant is filled with big mirrors, so i took this picture of my braceless teeth.

now that my braces are finally off, i am just dreading the next stage of orthodontics: the retainer. dun dun dun.

freshie no longer

2011-06-03T18:45:00.008-04:00

long time no blog! it has been six whole months, and i have been feeling pretty guilty. i'll try to blog more regularly once school ends...

... and that is in just six days! just six more days, which will be stuffed with more projects and exams than we have had for the entire semester. plus a ton of yearbook signing. eeks!

on the bright side, i'll be out of school three days earlier than ella! teehee. one day for senior graduation, one day for my lunch and gym exams (which are nonexistent, as you can probably imagine), and one day for make-up exams.

so, last weekend was memorial day weekend and future shock DC danced at world of dance in brooklyn! here is our performance from saturday. i am to the far left for the first piece. :)

WOD 2011 was definitely one of my favorite shows. all the acts were awesome! on the RhythmAddictsTV youtube channel, you can watch videos of other groups that performed.

i got a red, retro-looking, t-shirt that says "5, 6, 7, 8." i guess it is sort of an inside joke for dancers... maybe? my family got dinner at an african festival near the venue, like last year.

sunday was our NYC tourist day. we took a ferry to liberty island and ellis island. it was packed on the liberty island ferry, but on the ellis island ferry, not so much. for some reason, tourists seem much more interested in a green 151-foot-tall statue than an immigration museum... strange people...

we also saw the off-broadway show, jump! the show was set in the home a family of martial arts experts. the cast was mainly professional korean gymnasts, so the stunts were awesome.

my favorite character was the son-in-law. not only did he have awesome abs... every time he took off his glasses, he would spasm strangely and become a crazy martial arts ninja!

high school music scene

2010-12-16T18:36:00.008-05:00

last night, i performed my first concert with whitman, which also marked my first concert as a concertmistress! it was really exciting, yet nerve-racking, because i walked out to tune the orchestra and even introduced one of our pieces!

at whitman, there are two orchestras and four bands, including the jazz band.

i'm in the concert orchestra. it is mainly for freshies, so it is teeny tiny: 5 first violins, 5 second violins, 2 violas, 3 cellos (2 of which usually come late to class or just skip it all together), and 3 basses.
concert band is mainly freshman as well. for some reason, they are the only group that didn't buy the dresses or borrow the school tuxes.
the symphonic band and the wind ensemble are both bands for sophomores, juniors, and seniors. the wind ensemble is the highest level though. like my mom, you may be wondering: why in the world is it called the wind ensemble when it actually includes brass instruments? well, i'm sort of wondering that too.
the higher level orchestra, the symphonic orchestra, is much bigger since it includes the sophomores, juniors, and seniors.
last of all is the jazz band. it has the best trumpet, trombone, and saxophone players at the school, plus a rhythm section.

the groups performed in that order which to be blunt... is from worst to best.

it was awkward being the first group to perform. everyone was still talking as i started walking onto the stage. that was most likely because the lights in the audience only turned off in the middle of our performance. pretty bad, right?

after the rest of the orchestra was seated, i walked out from stage left, bowed to the audience, and played my A string for the orchestra to tune! sounds minor, i know, but it was quite a rush. notice my newly tailored dress!

our selection order was as follows:

Hanukkah Lights................ Barry Amass
Dance Suite.......................... W.A. Mozart
Silent Night.......................... Franz Gruber

i'm guessing that ms. alvey purposefully chose both a christian and jewish piece for us to perform. smart. maybe dance suite was meant to be the secular piece.

i announced the dance suite. ms. alvey told us that she was "a firm believer in having the kids announce the pieces." she told us during class on the day of the concert that she didn't have time to write our speeches on notecards... so during the school day, i was thinking frantically about what to say: piece or selection? we hope you enjoy it or enjoy? well, i asked a couple of people their opinions, and i think my choices were pretty good.

"The next piece we'll be performing for you tonight is called Dance Suite, composed by Mozart. It has been our most challenging piece this year and is comprised of three movements: Gavotte, Menuet, and Country Dance. We hope you enjoy it."

just for the record, i didn't want to say it was our most challenging piece. ms. butler (my middle school orchestra teacher) used to say that, and i always felt like it was an excuse for bad playing. but... ms. alvey asked me to.

after my performance, i watched the rest of the concert with my family. most people had already left by the end, but i was interested in hearing the other groups. i'm glad i did, because i heard some interesting things. there was even a piece that the symphonic orchestra played called toy symphony where the violists played bird noises (a nightingale, a cuckoo and a quail) instead of their violas. you know, you had to be there.

♫

the opening act for the stanley nickels

2010-12-13T16:06:00.022-05:00

this post is completely late. just pretend that the date up there says SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2010.

on november 6th, jahda, who worked in my mom's lab, had her graduation party and can now be called a doctor! the party was so much fun. it wasn't your average adult party with only socializing. no, there was some awesome entertainment...

jahda's husband, jonathan, is an amazing guitarist. he and his friend lue have a band called "the stanley nickels," and they played at the party! here's the best part: qian, a grad student in my mom's lab, wanted to sing "you belong with me" by taylor swift... so jonathan and i played guitar with her! as my mom likes to point out, this was my guitar debut.

my mom convinced me to post my "debut" on the trizzle, which (in my opinion) is a much better option than her original proposition to post it on facebook. oh no, that would mean that all my facebook friends (or as my mom calls them, “acquaintances that you don't hate”) would have access to it.

we had been discussing whether i should post the video (for a visual aid) or the soundtrack (for better sound quality). i was going to post both, but after more than 24 hours waiting for the soundtrack to "process," i decided to just settle for the video:

credit: qian wang- video taping and editing

credit: jack dong- awkward zooming

jahda's quotes of the night:

"come on bea, you're a teenager, you know j.biebs!"--jahda

"i'm a scientist and i'm still cool... that's okay!"-- jahda

welcome to your off day

2010-11-24T13:17:00.010-05:00

the banquet on friday marked the end of the cross country season. it seems like i got to whitman at just the right time, because the wwxc girls team rocked. the girls won first place at counties, regionals, AND states! as they say at whitman, "GO LADY VIKES!"

it took two hour practices every day except for sundays and even tendinitis in both of my ankles, but i improved so much. the first 5k i ever ran was in the indoor track at the university of maryland, where my mom works. i had been training for the cross country season and trying to run the distance. yeah... that took 37 minutes. you can see on my athletic profile how much i improved over the season. the last race i ran in was counties, and i ran it in 23:22.

i'm glad that all of that hard work paid off!

the coaches: coach hays and coach b

here are the races i ran in, just to summarize my season:

time trials (august 28)-- 17:07
2 miles- flat. grassy.

schools: whitman

i got spikes on "spike night," where people from whitman could buy shoes together for a discount. i wore them during the time trials! they look like this:
woodward relays at georgetown prep (september 7)-- 29:58
3 miles- rolling hills. grassy.

schools: whitman, sherwood, sidwell friends

i didn't want to run in this race since my ankles had been bothering me, but the coaches insisted. when i was running they felt fine, but they felt terrible afterwards. i later saw a doctor and he said it was tendinitis! i missed a bunch of practice, and five meets because of it. but, i still went to the meets to support the team.

tri-school meet (october 5)-- 26:19.17
3 miles-wooded trails. rolling hills.
(super cold, plus a lot of people got lost in the woods)

schools: whitman, wootton, walter johnson

fall classic at georgetown prep (october 16)-- 25:55
5000 meters-rolling hills. grassy.
(the hardest course EVER)

schools: 77 schools, and i don't plan on listing them all :)

montgomery county championships (october 23)--23:22
5000 meters- mostly flat. grass and bike path.
(one of my favorite courses!)

schools: 25 schools in the montgomery county area

the most stressful part, right at the beginning

the turn right before the finish line

the results: do you see my name? :) the numbers are the places

at the banquet, i got the "team cutie pie" paper plate award. it was bitter-sweet: bitter because it was such an amazing season (magical, as coach hays says), and sweet because i can finally go home once school ends!

the transformation from pyle panther to whitman viking

2010-08-30T20:44:00.008-04:00

wow! i can't believe that today was the first day of high school. i feel completely old (which i guess, is considered a good thing among us children).

i packed up my backpack ahead of time and woke up at 6:20 this morning so that i could actually catch the bus... which only happens under extreme duress (like on the first days of school). my mom walked me to the bus stop which, in retrospect, was a little embarrassing. looks like i'm going to have to overcome my fear of being attacked in order to look more like a nonchalant high school student. my mom definitely sped up this process by telling me that the stalkers were probably not out at 6:40 am. when i got to the bus stop, there were two boys that i had never seen before. it was strange since everyone stood at least 5 feet apart (what are they, radioactive?)

when i walked into school, i was completely prepared for first period. then i realized. it was 6:55, and first period started at 7:25. i was shocked, just thinking about the difference that an extra 25 minutes of sleep could have made.

it was not a surprise that i got lost a whole lot. i must know: why is the gym in such an obscure place? well, i hope that this will get easier with time...

most of my teachers gave the insanely boring lecture about their rules and expectations. to be honest, they all have the same rules and expectations.

now this is not saying much, since it's only been one day, but my freshman year is looking bright! the upperclassmen aren't as freakishly large as i had expected.

the end of easy life

2010-08-29T18:56:00.012-04:00

here i am, blogging about the last day of summer... when really, i should be working on my summer reading. annnnd, that brings me to my summer goals!

in my "summertime, and the livin' is easy" post from the last day of 8th grade, i made a few summer goals, and told you:

"i will tell you on the first day of school whether or not i reached my three goals... i'm not too confident though, since i'm already on the road to full procrastination and, honestly, i'm not exactly in the mood for any serious physical activity. arg. summer. it always makes me feel lazy (even lazier than usual. that's a lot)."

so... did i do it?

the goals

blog more! --success-- in fact, i am even blogging right now. though i have not finished writing all of my summer posts... when i have, there will be a lot of posts! just wait and see!! :)

to not procrastinate on my summer work --questionable-- i am not quite done with my summer work (quite!). but, hear me out! i finished most of the work for my fiction selection at the beginning of the summer. then i, well, took a... break... a long break. after several weeks, i read the entire drama selection on the plane from california to new mexico. now, on the last day of summer, i have 3 paragraphs to finish and 5 paragraphs to start (there are 14 paragraphs total). considering that this is due on wednesday, i'm thinking that i have a pretty good chance of surviving.

to gain 5 pounds --failure-- i gained one whole pound. oh my, oh my... no matter how hard i try, the food that goes into my belly always disappears overnight! however, to my credit, i did grow half an inch this summer (and, honestly, i only want to gain weight to get taller).

wouldn't you say that i did pretty well?

cute little reading bug (who doesn't look all too happy to be reading-- like me!)

this summer has been one of the most amazing ones ever; it has been blissful doing absolutely nothing educational... but i am still super psyched to be a high schooler (well, a very short high schooler)! i am going to get lost trying to find the gym, but who cares.

for a while, my backpack had been collecting dust in the corner next to the couch. but, now that my mom made it sparkly clean, all of my supplies are neatly organized inside of it.

well, i've got to get off of the computer now-- i'm going to try to catch the bus tomorrow (please note the word "try"). i usually catch the bus on the first days of school, that is, before i just stop trying and prefer sleeping.

the soggy socks go into the hamper...

2010-08-24T17:17:00.008-04:00

if there is one thing that you get from this blog post, it should be this: walt whitman cross country is intense. i started a few weeks late, like some other people, since i was in new mexico. today was my first day of running with wwxc. i don't think i've ever sweated this much ever before in my life...

even though wwxc is no cuts, most of the members on the team are amazing runners. in fact, some newbies have already quit. i guess you have to be a pretty decent runner to survive this crazy running schedule.

people often say that running gets easier, and i suppose that this can be true for anything that you practice. i definitely believe in this concept: in middle school, i couldn't even run a mile without stopping... it felt like hours, even though it was less than 10 minutes (yeah, i know, pretty sad). i trained a bit before the cross country season, and can now run 3.1 miles without stopping! i'm not saying that i'm good, because i can't run a 5k much faster than 28 minutes. i think it's better, though, to achieve the distance before improving your time.

my only question: how much easier does this get??

go vikes!

cellorama

2010-06-29T22:38:00.020-04:00

a while back, we got tickets to see the NSO and yo yo ma in concert... you see, the yoster is ella's so-called idol. (see number 5 in one of my older posts called "the many things you have yet to learn about ella.")

the big day came up much faster than i had expected, because we just came back from the performance at the kennedy center! we got all gussied up for the occasion, too:

me, mom, and ella

dad (tie and everything!)

this was jeffrey kahane's last time conducting for the NSO before retirement. here are the musical selections, straight from the program (since i could never possibly remember them without it):

RAVEL - Alborada del gracioso

RAVEL - Ma Mère l'Oye – Suite

RAVEL - Rapsodie espagnole

GOLIJOV - Azul

the music selection was slightly strange for my taste. but who really cares, because...

the national symphony orchestra + yo yo ma = complete perfection!

i suppose that complete perfection is only to be expected with the incredible NSO and, not to mention, yo yo ma... but the performance was truly amazing. yo yo ma's playing is so effortlessly beautiful, passionate, and flawless! i now see him in a whole different light.

yo yo ma from afar

if you think you like yo yo ma, wait til you hear him in person!

the flying squirrel

2010-06-25T19:23:00.029-04:00

people often ask me what i'm going to do this summer. i usually start off by saying, "camps, camps, and... well, more camps." my 2010 summer break is like a patchwork of camps, and the best part is that i'm excited for each and every one! you can probably tell from all these exclamation points! anyway, i have decided that each friday, i will update you about my camp experiences!

and the first camp is... *drumroll*... earth treks rock climbing camp!

what? you didn't think i was the adventurous type?? well, i guess you were right. but i do love rock climbing.

monday
the first day of camp: time to learn! buckling up harnesses, tying knots, belaying, rappelling... all that good stuff. i actually had already learned this from calleva rock climbing camp last year, but my mind works in a pattern: learn, forget. learn again, hopefully remember! so the refresher was both needed and appreciated. :)

part of the gym (just for a visual idea)

pretty rad right? (by the way, i'm trying to expand the number of ways i say "cool")

tuesday
welcome to the real rocks! this was the first time ella climbed outside!

ella in the picnic area (before the hike to the rocks)... give her a rubber band, and she becomes quite dangerous

the first climbing site
everyone exhausted (after the hike)

beautiful view... way above the water!

the first climb
(difficulty: medium-hard)

climber (me!)

belayer (ella!)

the second climb
(difficulty: medium)

climber (me!)

belayer (ella!)

by the way, you should see this insane spider web that i found on the rocks!

the second climbing site

ahh, nice shade!

breezy, right next to the water...

the first climb
(difficulty: easy... except for one part)

"did you just take a picture of me? hmph... now there's evidence of me belaying while sitting down..." (haha)

wednesday
there was only one climbing site today, and it was awesome! challenging but so much fun.

the first climb
(difficulty: hard)

climber (me!)

the second climb
(difficulty: medium, except for tricky ledge)

climber (me!)

since we were at the great falls climbing site, we checked out the falls instead of climbing for longer. i had never seen it before, so it was neat to see. the water was surprisingly loud there...

thursday
i loved today's climbing site-- i had been there last year with calleva. the climbs were really challenging since there weren't many ledges. there were five climbs plus another one for rappelling, so there were rarely times that i wasn't climbing. ella and i always found ourselves climbing or belaying at the same time as each other, so we didn't get any climbing pictures today.

i will, however, be able to document the fact that this site was like a dust bowl (well, if you don't take into account that barely noticeable lake in the background).

by the end of the day, ella and i were caked in dust and in desperate need of thorough showers.

friday
olympic day: an exciting prospect for extremely competitive people, such as myself.

the first thing we did was a team building game which was, surprisingly, very fun. we had to work together to survive a treacherous journey through the gym without stepping into the shark-infested waters (a.k.a. the part of the floor not covered with mats). we had only the ropes hanging from the climbing walls, our harnesses, and our carabiners. the mats were about 10 feet apart-- yeah, it was a lot harder than it sounds. the campers who took the unfortunate fall into the water were saved but also became injured: someone became blind, another lost his arm, and one girl even became a mute. at one point, there was an open bottle of water (filled to rim) between two mats. we had to pick it up without spilling any water in order to survive. we put all of our lives into ella's hands, since she was the lightest camper. get this: we clipped the hanging rope to the back of her harness, suspending her body horizontally three feet above the ground, and pushed her across. it was amazing when our plan actually worked.

my team had three people, but the other three teams had four people. lucky me, the two boys on my team were really irritating. well, i shouldn't say that. with young boys, what can you expect? our team ended up being named "the yo mamas" against my will. you see, i was outnumbered. ella's team was called "the fire dragons," not that that's any better.

with our score sheets, we did various activities:

a knot tying relay race: everyone did this together, and our team won!
blind man: we climbed a simple wall while we had a handkerchief tied around our eyes
frostbite: we climbed the same wall with handkerchiefs tying our thumbs to our hands... (pretty creative uses for handkerchiefs)
hanging for life: we hung from a ledge for as long as possible (really hard!)
bouldering: which is climbing across a wall without a harness on

while everyone rotated through activities, people took turns riding a ginormous "swing." the rope hanging from the ceiling was attached to your harness, and once they pulled you all the way to the ceiling... they let the rope go!! swinging so high in the air, across the whole gym, really got the adrenaline pumping...

the last thing we did was perform something for the other groups, which was worth the most points. my group refused to do something musical, so we ended up doing a skit, which i think was meant to be comical... another group sang a song with lyrics that they wrote, and even made a banner. with that, neither my team or ella's team won the olympics.

at the end of the day, we had a little award ceremony (plus, we got brownies)! first, i must tell you about how one boy that was on my team got the "confidence" award. haha :). ella won the "flying squirrel" award for her amazing stunt during our team-building game. i won the award for always being helpful and supportive.

this camp was so much fun, and especially because ella and i could belay each other (not only that... i also had the privilege of carrying shoes, helmets, harnesses, and lunches for two people)!

summertime, and the livin' is easy

2010-06-17T07:45:00.012-04:00

yesterday was the day we all wait for. the day we all count down to in our planners. have you already guessed? school's finally out! everyone always yells "FREEDOM" at the sweet sound of the last bell... and, well, it's true.

chained to the monotonous life of school? putting off work, and not sleeping 'til midnight? waking up early, sporting baggy eyes? stressing for many, many quizzes and tests? no longer! it feels amazing to be unleashed from school's wrath.

please click to enlarge!

brace yourself for something completely unexpected: when my mom and i picked ella up from school yesterday, we saw a 5th grader crying. we made nothing of it, until we saw a whole bunch of 5th graders crying, both boys and girls. why? because they were going to miss school. *gasp* can you believe that? well, i suppose it's possible. it was just unbelievable to us since the end of school is like paradise for ella and me.

now, it's time for some fun in the sun! where to begin, where to begin... i can't wait for those blazing hot days when we jump into the cool pool water.

here is a very recent picture of me at the pool. by the way, it is also my facebook profile picture.

i do have some summer goals that i am determined to reach.

minor and simple goal

blog more! i have been pretty lame about blogging lately. only one post per month? come on bea; you can do better!

major and difficult goals

to not procrastinate on my summer work (i usually do that and it is not fun). let me describe this summer work to you. we all have to read one drama selection and one fiction selection from the reading list they give us. it doesn't sound too bad right? that is what they want you to think, so don't fall into the trap! this is all part of their plan to keep control of our minds so we can't have as much fun as possible.
to gain 5 pounds of muscle (or any type of weight, for that matter). you see, i'm a 76 pound 13 year old, and need all the weight i can get. hopefully, if i stay this ambitious (which may be tough), i'll run with my dad and practice lacrosse throughout the summer.

i will tell you on the first day of school whether or not i reached my three goals... i'm not too confident though, since i'm already on the road to full procrastination and, honestly, i'm not exactly in the mood for any serious physical activity. arg. summer. it always makes me feel lazy (even lazier than usual. that's a lot).

i suppose all i can do now is enjoy summer... because, here comes high school.

finding myself while doing my homework

2010-06-06T22:51:00.010-04:00

i thought that this was noteworthy enough for its own blog post...

while researching for a history paragraph on montgomery county homelessness, i came across the fannie mae website... where they posted a few pictures from the help the homeless walkathon. i'm not sure if i told you, but my dance group, future shock, performed at the walkathon! so, when they wrote, "Please enjoy these videos of the 2009 Walkathon and Mini-Walks," i thought that i'd see my dance group in one of the videos. i clicked the walkathon link, and it took me to this youtube link!

then, suddenly... BAM! at 0:23 seconds (my lucky number), there i am, dancing!

it is not the most flattering or attractive picture; i had hand warmers stuffed up my gloves plus a bright, blue mouth. my mouth coloring is quite cryptic, because i only recall drinking hot chocolate... hmm...

i'm just amazed that, out of the thousands of people there, my picture showed up in this slideshow! i'm famous! well, not really; this video has only gotten 352 views. my mom thinks it was because i was sporting my beautiful, new, help the homeless shirt. :)

how did i get from researching homelessness, to blogging about this youtube video?
is it possible to finish writing a homework paragraph after being sucked into the wonderful world of youtube?

i didn't come to dance

2010-03-30T15:58:00.035-04:00

the words of this blog are coming straight from barcelona!

my dance group was invited to perform at the grand prix in barcelona. of course, i wanted to go! the whole family decided to go, too. once we bought our plane tickets, we realized that we had to buy some package for me to perform. we didn't want the whole package though, so, since we already had our plane tickets, we just turned it into a spring break vacation!

monday, march 29, 2010:
our flight to barcelona started at 4:40 pm, east coast time. first, we flew to paris, and then to barcelona. on the first flight, we got really lucky with an upgrade, and were super cozy in our business lite seats. i loved the leg space, and the footrest too! the seat was like a transformer... in one armrest was a desktop, and in one armrest was a TV. here is the pop out TV screen.

it was very time consuming... because from washington to barcelona, i managed to watch two whole movies: new moon and love actually. after watching both of them, back to back, my eyes were watering like crazy! new moon was excruciatingly boring, but my expectations weren't too high anyway. oh man. now to love actually. i have to say, that movie was really embarrassing to watch on an airplane. i even ended up blocking the screen with a pillow (from the other people on the plane). let me just say... i was surprised it was only rated r.

anyway, to more pleasant things. the plane dinner was really amazing! mmm... baguette with cheese (it is air france), tabbouleh with salmon, pasta with tomato sauce, rice pudding, a piece of cake, and apple juice! sounds really good right? i only managed to eat half of that! i felt bad too... i was still eating a few hours after they served it and they kept asking if they could take it away...

tuesday, march 30, 2010
we arrived at the airport in barcelona at around 11 am, and took a taxi to our apartment. i love staying in an apartment instead of a hotel. it feels a lot like we are living here. we have a refrigerator and washing machine in here!

then, we basically took a 6 hour nap. even when i woke up, my sleepiness was as evident as ever.

after that, we got to know the neighborhood. there are many alleys everywhere... in fact, our apartment was in one!

right when you turn out of our alley... you see this, next to the palau de musica. these bikes are everywhere in barcelona.

there is an awesome, little baklava and samosa shop just around the corner. there is a grocery store, called dia, a few streets down. and, next to that, a small farmer's market. wow! a whole town in a few blocks. this is what i love about city life.

we then went to dinner at taller de tapas. i. love. tapas. i could even say that tapas are my favorite food (excluding sweets). but, what is even better are tapas from spain!! it was amazing. at the beginning, they serve deliciously crisp bread with tomato juice squeezed on top... then our tapas! my favorite dish was the lamb with pomegranate. fue delicioso! i was surprised that i liked it though. before, i had been completely traumatized (for a few years actually) by my dad singing this song as we ate lamb for dinner: "mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb..." i pledged that i would never eat lamb again. after a while, though, i was only persistent in my hatred for lamb to guilt trip my dad. i guess i'll have to let that one go now (one, because i had obviously fallen in love with the lamb at taller de tapas. two, because my dad will most likely read that).

wednesday, march 31, 2010
the first day of sightseeing in a new place is always fascinating (no, that was not sarcastic... you may have thought it was since i usually use "fascinating" when in my sarcastic mood). we have some gaudi books at home, with amazing pictures. so, i had always wanted to see gaudi's work in person and was most excited about the architecture (plus the food). in that case, it was lucky that the first thing we saw were the three famous buildings. the detail on the buildings was beautiful... that i ended up taking a million pictures. well, here's one of them.

the buildings, from closest to farthest, are the casa batllo (designed by gaudi), the casa amatller (designed by cadafalch), and the casa lleo morera (designed by montaner).

you'll be excited by this... more architecture!! :) next, we visited gaudi's sagrada familia. it was cool to see all the cranes and builders working on the church. the towers were pretty complex and super colossal. according to one of our gaudi books, the highest tower in the middle is nearly 560 feel tall!

after that, we headed back towards our apartment and then decided to check out the boqueria (which means market in spanish). it was a ginormous boqueria. there were so many vibrant colors, and tons of fruit.

this is how the market looks as soon as you walk in.

but don't be mistaken, it's not all fruits and veggies... there are sweets too!! that was the best part. here is the candy stand where we got our $1 pieces of chocolate.

now, there are a few things you just have to see:

four strawberries in one

metallic chocolates

you have to admit, that is just not natural... i can't imagine someone wanting to eat that. my mom said that tin man would! haha

thursday, april 1, 2010
in the morning, we took a quick trip to the local market, called the santa caterina market, to get some tissues and a snack. the roof on that place is just awesome! here is a picture from off the web.

but what i really need to show you are these eggs...

well, those are some ginormous eggs. an emu egg for 15€ and an ostrich egg for 28€. check out the regular eggs to their right, for comparison. can you believe that that was a major highlight of my day?

after our amazing egg sighting, we took the tram to montjuic, a part of barcelona. in montjuic, we went to the miro museum. apparently, joan miro is one of my dads favorite artists... who knew? being at the miro museum showed how much miro liked birds, stars, and women. just about every painting there had the word "bird" or "women" (or both) in the title. well, disregarding that, it was a very cool museum.

there were some sculptures on the patio outside. here are a few of them...

(notice how there is a bird and a woman, by the way)...

after walking through the whole museum, we went straight to the gift shop. we spent a while in there, looking at prints. there were so many to choose from, and i am very easily overwhelmed. so, you can probably tell how well that went. but, eventually, both me and ella chose prints.

ella got this painting as a small print in a paper frame.

she was very specific about why she wanted this poster. she said, "i like the guitar and the music notes at the top... but i think the cat at the bottom looks weird." but, in the end, she decided that the good outweighed the bad.

i got this print as a big poster!

i love how the colors blend into each other in the background... and how the lines make up the different figures.

anyway, after our gift shop scouting, we headed towards the poble espanyol (meaning spanish village). it is meant to show visitors samples of architecture from around spain. but, the main thing there are artisan shops. so, we took a bus there... but, upon buying tickets, the ticket man told us that all the shops were closing soon!! of course, we couldn't go to the poble espanyol when the shops were closed.

instead, we walked to the placa d'espanya (meaning spain's square). it is one of the most important squares in spain, and right at the foot of montjuic. check out this building in the square...

isn't that architecture amazing? but, my favorite thing in the square, by far, was the humongous fountain. music came from the fountain as the water spurted in different directions, constantly changing shape. the many different shapes put me in complete awe... and i ended up taking 56 pictures. of. a. fountain. didn't you know how easily i am amused? if not, you do now. here are 2/56 of the pictures. it was difficult to choose only two pictures, as all of them looked mostly the same...

but... i chose this picture since there is something especially beautiful about it. you'll see. :)

ahh... that picture always makes me smile. i was lucky to catch that glimpse of a rainbow. but then again, taking a picture every few seconds made it pretty hard to miss.

now, just for a little bit more perspective, the second picture!

i convinced my family to let us stay for a while to admire the fountain, but after a while they got really tired of just staring at a fountain. i mean, i could have stayed there for hours marveling at the waterworks. well, i suppose i'm just weird. so, i reluctantly left my beloved fountain... to go back to the apartment... :(

friday, april 2, 2010
a little bit before our trip, my mom met another scientist at a meeting, who ended up was actually going to barcelona with his family at the same time as us! we decided on a time to meet up and do some stuff together. we met in some central plaza (i have no idea which one... there are so many plazas in spain...) and decided to go to the chocolate museum! it was cool from the start. our tickets were dark chocolate bars! i'm pretty sure that that's the only time where eating your ticket is acceptable (unless you are a goat, that is). anyway, when you walk in, there is a lot of information to read about where chocolate comes from, how chocolate is made, etc. of course, ella didn't like that part, but i actually managed to live with it. now, to the cool part. the gazillions of chocolate sculptures! there was everything from electric guitars, to the house from the movie up.

electric guitar, shred or eat?

the house from up

and yes. it's all chocolate! to be honest, those sculptures don't look particularly appetizing. i mean, would you take a bite out of that chocolate guitar? well, i'm just wondering how long those chocolate sculptures can last...

after our venture into the land of chocolate, we went to the gehry goldfish waterfront. why is it called the gehry goldfish waterfront, you ask? well, here is the the goldfish, near the waterfront.

unfortunately, it was too cold to go into the water. i guess it didn't matter though, since we didn't bring swimsuits. but, we enjoyed sitting on the large rocks that went out onto the shore. it was amusing enough letting my hair fly in the wind and helping my sister dip her feet in the water (without getting them sandy).

hair!

this was actually my facebook profile picture for a while. check out my glasses hanging from my scarf! i put on that look a lot in barcelona.

the foot dipping attempt (failed)

well, ella really wanted to dip her feet into the water... yup, it really works the thighs. but, in the end, ella just jumped into the water. so all my hard work was for nothing! sigh. then, she wiped her feet on my moms cotton sweater. can you believe that all that work was so she could dip her feet into some freezing water?

for dinner we ate tapas at a restaurant called santa maria. the only downside was that the portions were so small. but the tapas were very unique, and not like traditional tapas. by that, i mean, they were pretty good.

saturday, april 3, 2010

okay. today, we successfully visited the poble espanyol! we spent the whole day there, in mini spain. we stopped by a little (smoke-infested) restaurant for breakfast. we ordered some side dishes and a paella which was really good! even though i was supposed to be admiring the models of architecture from around spain, i was mainly occupied by the artisan shops!

ella and i each got a pair of silk earrings. the colors were vibrant and beautiful, and the idea was unique. the woman there also sold silk scarves and fans, which were, i hate to say, scarily expensive!
we then went to watch a few men making glass. it was amazing to watch them pull the hot glass like bubble gum. we must have watched them for at least 5 minutes. then they cleverly took us straight through the gift shop. there were cute shapes with neat patterns of color inside the glass. ella got an elephant, since she loves both elephants and dragons, and i got a snail!
ella also got something to hang in her room, with a cute stained glass fish.

everything was so tempting. i had to build up my self-control, which is normally quite low, to be in the poble espanol. but, oh well. it was probably good for me anyway! seeing the many different types of art, and even some art in the making, was fascinating and maybe even inspiring (well, maybe not).

sorry that the diary for this day is so short, there is not much more i can write about the spanish village. then again, you may be glad for the shortness, since the other days are colossal!

sunday, april 4, 2010
my mom planned this brilliantly... on one sunday of every month, i believe, the picasso museum is free. luckily, it happened to be while we were here! so, mom planned for us to wake up early, and head to the picasso museum so the wait would not be horrible (but still bad). the line into the museum stretched quite far. it must have taken an hour or so to get inside. it wasn't too bad though, since my dad waited in line while we walked around the stores (p.s. thanks dad). we checked out the postcards at the tourist trap store (as my parents say) and grabbed some pastries to munch on.

soon enough, we were inside. the museum set up is interesting. it is like a timeline... of rooms. in every room, in every time period, you see picasso's art style progress. there is a paragraph or two on the wall in each room, describing the artistic period. it went very quickly from traditional to abstract. there was even a period with completely blue-based paintings, called the blue period. they wrote that picasso felt depressed when one of his close friends committed suicide which inspired the color. wow, i got pretty educational there.

then, of course, there was the gift shop. unfortunately, i don't have a picture of the print that i got. however, as you may have guessed, it is very abstract (and colorful too!)... it is titled "maestri della pittura." don't even bother googling it though, nothing comes up. :( ella got a postcard with the famous dove of peace. here it is:

we decided to close up our trip at gaudi's parc guell. my mom had said it was her favorite place in barcelona. just walking towards parc guell was intriguing, listening to my parents say "i remember this!" or "was that there last time?" upon getting to parc guell, the first thing i realized was that... it was packed. i sort of wished that it was just as empty as in the postcards. but still, the mosaics were beautiful. i shot a bunch of nice photos, but now, cannot find them. distressing, eh? well, here are some internet pictures.

the seats surrounding the center plaza

the columns and intricate ceiling designs

the famous lizard at the park entrance

hopefully, one day, i'll be able to visit parc guell on a non-holiday weekday. or would that be crowded still?

monday, april 5, 2010
we packed all of our things last night so that today, at 4 am, we were ready to go. even after a week in spain, i was still a bit jetlagged... so i only got 3 hours of sleep. after a lot of hard work, we were able to get a cab to the airport (long story: we found a taxi company number, called with a payphone, and the woman hung up because she didn't speak english. we asked a store worker to talk to them for us, and instead she wrote a bunch of jib jab in spanish for us to use. eventually, the apartment owner got us a taxi. phew!).

anyway, i slept for most of the flight and didn't feel too great afterward (i feel queezy just thinking about it!) but on a more positive note, the temperature in maryland increased greatly in only one week... so walking out of the airport was pleasantly surprising :)

pink up the town

2010-03-28T16:44:00.015-04:00

i recently realized that i haven't been blogging very often... is it because i have been too lazy to blog? or because there haven't been any noteworthy events in my life? it is probably a combination of both. but, no need to worry... my life is really starting to get interesting.

i really love cherry blossoms. so, luckily for me, it has been a weekend completely devoted to cherry blossoms!

saturday
on saturday, i performed at the national cherry blossom festival, in the national building museum, for the family day! this was my second year performing at the festival.

it is always really fun because of all the activities around. it is hard to get bored there (but then again, i'm pretty easily amused). me and ella's ultimate favorite thing to do was make tissue paper flowers. we must have more than 10 lying around the house! the thing is, they don't look like cherry blossom flowers. they look more like carnations. i'm completely fine with that, though, because i have always loved carnations.

so, in between the time we were making tissue paper flowers, we performed! it's funny to perform on their stage, because there are no wings. so, when you are not dancing, you are kneeling on the edge of the stage. but, that was actually really fun. in the picture below, we are all crowded together on the side... do you see me kneeling closest to the audience?

anyway, here are some more photos from the performance!

thank you to kevin pajarillaga (my fellow dancer) for the above pictures!

thank you to john park (ella's friend, sophie,'s dad) for the above picture!

also, this next picture isn't of future shock, it is of culture shock (the adult group). i just had to show you it because of its awesomeness. yeah culture shock!!

thank you to kevin pajarillaga, again, for the above picture!

sunday
on sunday, we went into dc to see the cherry blossoms. it really makes total sense to see them right after the cherry blossom performance!

in this picture, i am actually wearing the shirt that ella got from the cherry blossom festival! not only am i wearing ella's shirt, i am also wearing her scarf! i mean, i couldn't wear the shirt without the scarf (or the scarf without the shirt)! :)

here is a picture of me and ella. there were 3 pictures of me and ella with the cherry blossoms... the one that i liked least, ella liked the most. the one that ella liked least, i liked the most. we had to compromise. here is the middle choice picture (for both of us).

here we are in the archway to the pinkness! a very uncomfortable pose... a little bit awkward too... but that's ok right? i think that its coolness makes up for it.

anyways, happy cherry blossom seeing!

mochi madness

2010-03-19T19:39:00.016-04:00

japan. i have been through their airport so many times, but never actually visited. both my mom and dad have been there for business. in fact, my dad has just come home from japan! he was in tokyo for a three day meeting... and came back with some gifts for us. usually it is some unfitted shirt from the airport... but surprisingly, this time, he actually went shopping for some awesome gifts! dad: if you are reading this... THANK YOU!

interestingly yummy
did you know there was such thing as green tea flavored kit kats? it's ok if you haven't, because i didn't either until... dad got me some from japan! sounds weird right? but, it was super yummy in my tummy!

i actually just read, straight from the kit kat website, that:

"Many exotic KIT KAT flavours exist in different countries around the world, depending on local tastes. Some examples include the 'green tea' flavoured KIT KAT in Japan, or Peanut Butter flavoured KIT KAT in UK and Canada."

wow! i'm glad i tried one of their "many exotic kit kat flavours."

i even took some pictures of the box (next to ella's happy cat collection, just to set the scene... also because mom said it looked like a ginormous box without perspective).

my adorably chubby neighbor
i have always loved totoro. he doesn't speak, but he is just so cute! so, i'm glad dad got me this awesome totoro keychain!

chop chop ninja!
the thing that i asked my dad to get for me were... chopsticks! i love chopsticks. i mean, who doesn't love sticks that you use to eat food? i knew that asking for chopsticks was a pretty good bet, because you can easily get cute chopsticks at the japan airport.

but, i was wrong for doubting dad in the first place! he got me two pair of chopsticks. they are adorable. one has owls and one has cats. yippee!

time for tea
recently, my family has grown a great interest in tea (mostly started by my dad). from the last few months, we have gotten a few tea-balls, and even a tea pot with a strainer. we have gotten tea from the chinese grocery store, and also from teavana. so it was awesome when dad brought home some japanese tea for us. the little tin it is in is really cute. they look a bit like this:

pretty huh?

mochi madness
with me, you can never go wrong with food! dad brought home large amounts of mochis. in one package, i hate to say, the mochis looked like slugs. that's ok though, because they were tasty slugs. and in the other package, there were the coolest things ever... MOCHI KABOBS! who knew there was such a variety of mochis? everything from slug mochis to mochi kabobs... that makes me love mochi's even more.

thanks again, dad!

blogging runs in the family

2010-02-16T18:50:00.004-05:00

all things swell
as some of you may know, i have a 9 year old sister named ella. i've even blogged about her a few times, which she loves. anyway, she just recently started her own blog called all things swell! she was really excited about the idea of her own blog, and wanted me to help her with the design right away. as ella puts it, her blog is all about "ella's thoughts on the world." ella is completely hilarious and equally clever, so make sure to check it out!

click the link below
all things swell
click the link above

second winter break!
2009-2010 school year: the year we got two winter breaks! the 55.6 inches of snow got us to miss school from the middle of friday, february 5 to the late morning of tuesday, february 16! i guess this makes up for the horrid power loss.

you know, without school, it is really hard to know what day it is. monday? thursday? who knows. honestly, it was getting quite boring at home. and, from the looks of facebook updates, my friends agreed. but, now that i'm back at school, i wish school was still canceled. why must my mind work like this?

surviving the snowpocalypse

2010-02-07T20:53:00.018-05:00

February 6, 2010

2:36 pm

imagine being trapped in the house with 2 feet of snow outside. not too bad: got the food in the fridge, got the heater, got the internet and got the time-consuming mario kart wii. but, imagine being trapped in the house with 2 feet of snow outside... with no electricity or heat. really bad. i am currently writing this in my journal, but when i actually post this on my blog, the electricity would have finally taken mercy on us. i might freeze to death, making this my last blog, ever. in our own house i am wrapped in 2 jackets, a blanket, my xmas booties, and my oh-so warm PJs, and still suffering majorly (overwhelming boredom also contributes to this). my mom says it's like the refrigerated section of the grocery store. i dread the refrigerated section of the grocery store.

what's even worse is the fact that my dad is currently basking in the hot thai sun as we huddle together like eskimos in alaska. i envy him. mom says she envies anyone with electricity. why go to thailand now, dad?? leaving mom to dig us out of one of the top 5 snowstorms in D.C. (ever).

my mom suggested that i write this contest essay now, with the topic: my special day. i would think that impossible right now. my imagination is not that good.

on the bright side, this is the best part of the day (and that's saying a lot because this is a pretty bad part of the day). why? because in 2 hours, the sun is going to set, leaving us in, not just a hiemal igloo, but a dark hiemal igloo. off to put on a scarf, a hat, and gloves and huddle in my bed under an extensive number of blankets. feel fortuitous that you aren't us.

from the eskimos of cabin john, md

ps. you can thank flocabulary for my newfound interest in big words.

15 or so minutes later

mom just called baltimore gas and electric (which ended up to not be our company). the automatic message that came up said it could be like this for several days. yes, you heard right: several days. they said 80,000 people are having "problems" and 47,000 people have been helped. oh joy! way to bring our hopes down into the gutters, baltimore gas and electric

3 or so hours later

while outside shoveling snow with mom (hoping desperately to distract myself), ella knocked on the window with an urgent expression. she came to the door and told us the power came on! yippee! a swell of joy and relief overcame us. i couldn't wait to crank up the thermostat, eat something warm, and play some mario kart! but that small flicker of hope quickly vanished one minute later when our home was once again a deep hole of darkness and sadness (and to remain so for who knows how long). mom said that they probably fixed the electricity in some places (including ours) but can't turn it on until is completely fixed. *frowns* my mom then proceeded to raise my hopes even more by telling us the horrors of post-hurricane isabel where they lost power for a week. me and ella were lucky though, and got to stay with our babysitter in chevy chase where there was power. not the case here. *sighs heavily*

1 or so hours later

so here i am, sitting at the dining room table, holding a flashlight overhead. mom is down in the basement getting more batteries for the flashlights. i feel like we are back in the dark ages, living in a hut in the woods with only candles for light and books for entertainment. that is not a good image. luckily we have a stove fireplace!! but mom's too afraid of fire to make one with dad away. a sad tale. a very sad tale. now with nothing to do... off to dinner and then then the crazily cold bed.

from an eskimo, depressed in the dark.

February 7, 2010

7:00 am

morning: reporting from the igloo formally known as our house. i was so depressed last night that i was asleep by 7:30 pm. to say i slept badly last night would be a major understatement. ella compared last night to camping. under a sheet, 2 down comforters, and 4 blankets, the bed was still ice cold.

i think that our house is now literally like fridge. if you move your head on the pillow, you will most positively wake up from the chilly shock of the ice cold pillow. if you leave a glass of water on the bedside table, in the morning, it is ice water. yesterday when shoveling, a bunch of snow got into my jacket pockets. this morning, when i put my jacket on, the snow was still fully intact in the pockets. on the bright side (note that it is very hard to be positive right now) our vast storage of refrigerated food will be okay in our refrigerator-like house.

now, we are contemplating whether or not we should get a nearby hotel room. our grandparents are coming tonight and staying for more than a week, and we would never wish this pain and suffering on anyone. i must now sit on my almost immobile hand to avoid frostbite.

we, who are on the verge of death, barely holding on, salute you.

4 or so hours later

within the last 4 or so hours i have found out many things. 1. my dad booked us a hotel that's right in rockville (with free wi-fi, i'm hoping) even though he's in thailand. 2. our grandparents' flight is delayed for the 2nd time, until tuesday. all is good. i spent the last hour outside sitting on the front of the car diligently scraping the tiny pieces of ice off the windshield as i talked to my mom who was working hard shoveling. now, i'm sitting in bed, with ella leeched to my side like she usually is, waiting for my toes to defrost. the suitcase is open, on the floor, calling to me. i'm off to pack for our "trip" to rockville.

from a somewhat satisfied eskimo.

5:09 pm

why is there now a specific time, you ask? WE ARE IN PANERA! not only is it light and warm, there is also wi-fi! after 2 days stuck in a cold and dark house, it's amazingly comforting to be here. it's really warm; strangely warm actually. is it that we are used to the cold or that it is overly heated? who knows. all i know is that i feel warm-hearted and smiley.

from a completely satisfied eskimo.

7:47 pm

the hotel room is awesome! being here is a trillion times better than being at home. it is warm inside while it is cold outside, it is light inside while it is dark outside. i don't know what i would do without my good ol' pal, electricity. at the moment, ella is calling me to watch a movie, so bye for now! :)

February 8, 2010

10:27 am

ahh... warm bed, warm clothes, warm water... life is good. mom just went out and got us deliciously warm doughnuts (i love mom). now we are comfortably eating doughnuts on the bed while watching cash cab on the discovery channel. we have called the house 3 times, and every single time, it rang more than once!! could we possibly have power after 4 days? i hope so! we are going to check out soon.

from an overly happy girl (not eskimo)

1:00 pm

we checked out of the hotel this morning, and now we are at home! the home temperature was only 51 degrees (even after being warmed up for a few hours). right away, i turned on all of the space heaters. then, with one of the space heaters on high next to us, we played mario kart wii! happy, happy, happy! off to the mall for some shopping, and then to dinner!

from people with power!

8:33 pm

both you and i thought that this long journey was finally over. sadly, we were wrong. as driving home from our night out, we were slightly suspicious... some houses were pitch dark and the street lights were out. we thought, "arg! our power can't be out." but, after the long and dark trek down our icy driveway, we found that it was, indeed, out (again). we were all in tears, packing our things, thinking about how we thought it was all over and solved. back to the hotel we went. i suppose it's better than freezing to death at home.

from the very disappointed family

9:39 pm

this really is a series of unfortunate events. you will not believe me when i tell you this: mom just called home, and supposedly, the phone rang more than once. i guess the power is on, once again *clenches teeth and pulls out hair.* wonderful timing, mr. electricity. mom thinks that we should just stay put, though. we probably won't get our $205 back for the night at the hotel, and going back and forth is making us completely lethargic.

i would say i'm a generally positive person, but it is impossible to be positive right now. this has to be one of the worst times of my life, and i'm not being overly dramatic. within the last four days, i have cried 5 times more than i have smiled. every time i think something has gone right, it goes wrong again. i can't feel motivated to do, no matter how hard i try. i must say, i'm proud of myself for having the dedication to blog in this time of horror and depression. really.

from a depressed blogger on the verge of another breakdown

February 9, 2010

3:14 am

hopefully what happened yesterday does not repeat itself today. the power should be on for good. not is. should. they really should stop turning it on and off. mom, me and ella all feel depressed and we all have some sort of headache or migraine. mom is outside trying to shovel out the 2/3 of the driveway still left to shovel. ella is playing time trials on mario kart wii. i am blogging. it seems that we are all relatively satisfied. i ask the dumb people at pepco to leave the power on! thank you.

from a blogger feeling cynical

4:51 pm

ok. i'm convinced that the power is on for good! now we are off to go shopping (again). by now, i'm sure you have caught onto our theory about depression. when depressed, shop. it's a true and tested fact. ella wants new shoes.

from a proud survivor of the snowpocalypse

turning teen

2010-01-25T16:14:00.011-05:00

i can tell that my mom is really scared of me now, because... the subtitle of my blog was recently changed from "my (almost) teenage life" to "my teenage life"! how does it feel to officially be a teenager, you ask? the thought is awesome, but actually being a teenager is not as awesome as i had imagined when i was younger. every time a website told me i had to be 13, i thought about how turning 13 would be the most revolutionary turning point of my life. but now, i can't even recall those sites and there is nothing exclusively for 13-year-olds that i look to do. now, i'm looking forward to the big 16, when the driving lessons start! my mom will be even more scared then.

here is my all-time favorite cake from stella's! mmm... vanilla cake, vanilla mousse, chocolate cake, chocolate mousse, and the best part, the frosting! just writing about it is making my mouth water. when we were getting the cake, we were joking about asking them to write on the cake: happy thirteenth birthday beatriz shue-yi atsavapranee. is that even possible? maybe on a really large cake... anyway, as you look as this cake, are you wondering what that last candle is doing there? well, we seem to have been short on candles. 12 matching candles and 1 non-matching candle is better than just 12 matching candles, right?

an early gift for my birthday was a pair of crochet ugg boots. i'm sure you've seen them because they seem to be the current "in" thing. but, the color completely ups their already high cool factor. they are jacaranda! like the tree (i only know that from google). i love how they can sort of transform by folding it down and up.

we also got mario galaxy for the wii. my heart still belongs to mario kart, but mario galaxy is really fun too. it's a bit complicated to explain, but the main gist is that you go to different galaxies to collect stars. it is more like the original mario game than mario kart, as you may have guessed. what's cool is that it is almost like it's 3D when you go around the planets.

my friend, emma, got me "just dance" for the wii! it is so much fun. we love dancing (and singing) to wanna be, girls just wanna have fun, and womanizer. ella has a signature move in womanizer. plus, we had a blast watching my dad dance the most girly dances of all. what's scary is that he might actually be able to beat us sooner or later...

even though my birthday was on saturday, my friends still decorated my locker for friday! it was amazing. i opened my locker, and there was striped and waxy wallpaper across my locker door, streamers hanging down with the letters BEA taped on them, bows taped onto my magnets, a cute origami lizard called trizzy the lizzy, an adorable japanese keychain which is now on my backpack, the cutest folder (IT HAD POOH ON IT!) and some presents from my friends. they are awesome friends, i must say.

i also logged onto facebook to happily find that 26 people wished me happy birthday! i would also just like to mention that i have barely ever talked to 14 of these people... but that's just part of facebook's charm, right?

from the teenage me

it's a pizza... it's a cake... no, it's supercookie!

2009-12-31T22:20:00.011-05:00

goodbye 2009, hello 2010
happy early new year! 2010 is just hours away! as always, i'll have a hard time remembering to write "2010" instead of "2009" on my school papers. i mean, i've been writing "2009" for a whole year now. anyway, most people like to end the year with a big BANG, right? well, i'm not that type... but i did bake something awesome.

mental light bulb!
have you ever seen one of those giant chocolate chip cookie cakes? today, when i asked mom to bake some cookies, i thought: why not (attempt to) make one of those big things? i thought of using a regular cookie recipe, but then thought i would search up a very specific giant chocolate chip cookie cake recipe on google, just to be safe.

mom and ella were busy speeding down a race track, jumping on giant mushrooms and sometimes falling off cliffs (on mario kart wii, that is). we just got it for christmas, and it has shown just how competitive we atsavapranees are (not that anyone had doubted it before).

i proceeded to create the most colossal cookie i've ever baked! well, i've never baked a cookie bigger than the regular size, so i guess that's not saying much. it's a really simple recipe. the only problem: i preheated the top oven, and when the time came to put the cookie in... it didn't fit! i started to preheat the bottom oven at that moment. all was good from then on.

before:

after:the frosting makes the cookie
but, what would a gigantic cookie be without some nice frosting to go with it? we dug out some frosting from ages ago, but when i tried to get some out, a bunch of oil leaked out from the top. gross.

so we made our very own sour cream frosting. since we had just put away our big mixer after making the big cookie, dad said he would mix it by hand. he ended up being just like an electric mixer! literally. ella enjoyed his nice sound effects and "pressing" his arm to make him mix even faster.

it was pretty coincidental that we baked a cake/cookie, and today is new year's eve. i actually hadn't thought about it. i thought i might as well decorate it as a new year's cake!

i added some food coloring to parts of the frosting. we now have many bowls of frosting in different colors on our dining room table. i had to use a bunch of ziploc bags as icing bags since they kept on ripping, and yes, it was messy.

it took me about an hour to perfect my masterpiece. to everyone who thinks i'm a perfectionist... i guess you are right! i don't really mind though, because it turned out great! at the end, i realized that we had only used about 1/20 of the frosting we made. mom's idea was to make cupcakes and put the frosting on them! yum.

my next post will be in 2010!

go with the snow

2009-12-30T19:38:00.014-05:00

i just got back from our skiing/tubing day trip (our 2nd time ever!), and went straight to my laptop to start blogging. we started our drive to whitetail, only 1 and 1/2 hours away, at 9:00 am. as always for road trips, me and ella were nice and comfy in the back seat with our pillows, blankets, and food.

totally tubular
you won't believe me when i tell you that tubing is pretty terrifying, probably more than skiing. imagine this: you are sliding down a super big hill at full speed with snow crystals flailing in your face, spinning around randomly, an inch away from banging into a ginormous ice wall. yup, it's that freaky... or maybe i'm just a wuss.

last time, ella and mom went tubing while dad and i went skiing. this time, we all went tubing together! we got some tips from the expert tubers in the family. today, we went tubing for 2 hours in the morning from 11-1. we went down the hill 8 times.

probably since it was artificial snow, the snow was completely lumpy. since the bottom of the tubes are really thin, the first time i went down the hill, my butt was completely hurting from the rock hard snow bumps. at that moment, i taught myself to lift my butt up while sliding down the hill. it helped.

we had fun playing around with different combinations going down the hill. first, we all went down solo. then me and ella tied our tubes together. we then decided that we would rather get a double tube. for the grand finale, mom and dad tied their tubes to our double tube and... voila! our foursome was sliding down the hill in no time.

i realized that with more people, it went a lot faster (probably because of the momentum). that basically means: four people is four times more terrifying than usual. mom, being a scientist, went down the hill to experiment different positions with speed. sit up, and you go slower; lie flat, and you go faster. makes sense. :)

most people sit in the tube, right? but some people lie belly-down on the tube. to me, that's like asking to have your head slammed into the wall of ice! dad was the first of the family to try it out. i was begging him not to kill himself, but, of course, he didn't listen and went right ahead. he held the tube by the handles, took a running start toward the hill, and just flopped himself onto it! i was watching him with wide eyes the whole way down to make sure nothing bad happened or anything... later, while i was skiing, mom and ella even tried it! but don't think that i tried it or anything; i'm not the daring type.

see bee ski
this is only my second time skiing, but i really love it. i love it so much that after my first time skiing, when i was creating a new email account, i made my username "beatriz.skiing." everyone always asks me why that's my username, but i'm thinking it's sort of obvious. the last time i went skiing, i got pretty lucky. when i went to meet for a group lesson, i was the only one there! private lesson for a group lesson's cost. this time, with winter break and all, it was more crowded, so there were 9 people instead.

i don't know if you can call the class i took "intermediate." we spent the first half of class skiing in a line, jumping one by one while saying "pop," with the last person saying "corn." then we practiced turning, even though they said the intermediate class was for people who could turn.

what i enjoyed about the lesson was that for the ski lift, instead of waiting in the unbearably long line, we got to go in the special express line for only lessons and patrols. after the lesson, i had to wait in the line as i looked hopelessly and enviously at the people in the special express line. sigh.

the worst part about skiing? the level ground. well, even worse than that is an incline. you should see me lug myself across the snow. it is so lame that you would laugh. first i try pulling myself with the polls, then i try stepping, then i try gliding, then i give up. after moving about a foot, i have to stop and take a break. it's tough, i'm telling you!

once the lesson was over, i went skiing by myself. apparently, last time we were skiing, i scarred dad for life when i forced him down the intermediate slope. but, luckily, he's coming skiing with me next time!

winter wonderland

2009-12-21T19:49:00.007-05:00

winter wonderland
thank you oh mighty snow gods! not only is there no school today, but there is also no school tomorrow! this thursday to the monday after next we have off because of christmas and winter break, so we will only have one day of school for 2 weeks! that is, if they don't cancel wednesday as well...

maryland is awesome
i have been thinking, and i believe that maryland has one of the best case scenerios regarding snow days. it's not like california, where there are no snow days... and it's not like minnesota, where they clear the roads so professionally fast that school never gets cancelled.

find maryland! he's dancing! :)

the longest driveway around
in the morning, i thought the best we were going to get was a 2-hour delay. i was hoping that being trapped at home would give us a good reason to miss school. so, when dad said he would dig us out by my orthodontist appointment (3:15 pm), i was practically begging him not to. he went outside and said that he wouldn't come back in until he was done.

he wasn't kidding around! when i think about how sore my arms are after shoveling only 1/10 of the driveway, i can't even begin to imagine how much pain dad must be in (p.s. sorry dad...). when dad finally came in, my mom asked him, "don't you feel a sense of accomplishment?" and dad says "i feel a sense of pain!" dad vows that the our next house will have a much shorter driveway.

my first painless torture session
i had my orthodontist appointment today, and i was expecting a great load of pain. since my last appointment, my spring had fallen off twice. luckily, they didn't threaten me with painful orthodontic devices this time.

i also no longer have the dreaded "power band": the rubber bands on each tooth are connected to make the teeth move even faster, and make it even more painful for the victim (aka me). let me tell you, it isn't fun.

this is the first time that i haven't been screaming in pain after my orthodontist appointment. i'm happy.

cookies anyone?
tomorrow, my mom is planning on bringing me and ella to her workplace. i'm just swelling with joy at the fact that i get to help ella sell her girl scout cookies. why do i say "swelling with joy" so sarcastically? well, the main reason that ella and mom drag me along with them to sell cookies is because i'm the "social one." therefore, i get to do all the talking. wish me good luck.

enjoying the blizzard of '09

2009-12-20T14:42:00.007-05:00

buried treasure
the 18 inches of snow are so much fun. first, me and ella were just playing with the snow on the roof outside the window. we made a ginormous snowball and brought it downstairs to show dad. he wasn't so pleased. we decided to throw it back onto the roof, where it came from.

then, ella started to bury a small plastic horse deep into the snow on the roof and told me, "we'll get him back when it's spring!" when i asked her, "why are you burying that?" she said, "do you really want this piece of junk?" a while later, she was digging frantically for it. i don't really think she minded losing it, though, considering that she was the one who buried it in the first place... it'll be interesting to see where and how we find it again.

weakling
as we were looking out the window, we saw our neighbor out with his shovel-truck. a few years ago, he actually shoveled our whole driveway for us. so, my dad got really excited when i told him he was starting to shovel our driveway. but then... he stopped and left. major disappointment.

then, after loading on many layers of clothes, we went out to play in the snow. i must have fallen into the snow about 6 times due to the combination of my klutziness and the enormous amount of snow. plus, me and ella had fun jumping into the snow (both back first and front first).

my dad did most of the shoveling around the cars. i don't know why, but after everyone else went in, i kept shoveling the snow behind the cars. maybe, subconsciously, i was hoping for some money (which i did get, by the way). after 20 minutes of grueling hard work, my arms and hands were burning. when i stopped to look around me, i realized that i'd only shoveled about 2 feet in every direction. i'm thinking that's pretty lame.

notice in this picture of our driveway, one, the top of the driveway that our neighbor started to shovel, and two, the small area that i shoveled :(.

finally!
i guess snow on the weekends isn't as bad as i thought! check out the status of montgomery county public schools on www.schoolsout.com...

Posted at Sun Dec 20 14:16:35 -0500 2009
Montgomery County Public Schools and all administrative offices, as well as day cares, are closed Monday (12/21) due to emergency weather conditions. All school and community activities in school buildings are canceled.

finally, the snow isn't going to melt before monday! i don't know what i would have done if there was school though, because we're barely done shoveling 1/3 of our driveway! well, plus, i haven't finished my homework yet... let me say, i love "emergency weather conditions."

dress it up

2009-12-19T12:57:00.010-05:00

the weather guy doesn't lie
just like the weather report said, it is snowing like crazy! every time it snows, i look at this small round table on the porch. it's a nice reference to show how much it snowed. this has to be a record! it only started snowing last night, and that's least a foot!

12:52 pm:
10:25 pm (update):

and look at our driveway! can you even tell it's our driveway?? well, i guess the cars give it away. dad's going to have loads of fun shoveling this thing...

thingamajigs on the christmas tree
this morning, ella kept nagging us to get the christmas decorations from the basement. "you guys are so selfish!" so eventually, mom got tired of listening to ella complain, went down into the basement, and took up 2 dusty boxes of christmas decorations. here's our tree's before and after shot. :)

before:
after:
ta-da! here's a secret: our christmas tree is only decorated on the front! shh... no one has to know... do you see those crochet decorations? our old babysitter, guo ying, made them! aren't they awesome? don't ask where we got all of those thingamajigs, because i have no clue.

a cat's joy
it's not only us humans who like christmas... violet loves it too! her favorite part: the ornaments. she loves to bat at the ornaments on the trees, and something she loves even more is to unravel those thread ornaments.

violet is taking a peek at my gift...

happy tree decorating!

all wrapped up for christmas

2009-12-18T21:20:00.029-05:00

let it snow!... but, on a school day
this weekend, it is supposed to snow 12 inches! 1/3 of me is happy; 2/3 of me is annoyed. this is because every time it snows, it is on a weekend. it snowed the saturday before last, it is going to snow this saturday, and it is going to snow next saturday. you know, i would really appreciate some snow on a school day. i would even be happy with a two-hour delay. there's nothing better than waking up to my mom telling me there's no school.

we are prepared to be trapped inside for the whole weekend. we have groceries and (most excitingly) the christmas tree! i can think of a few good things that come by being snowed in:

i have time to blog, which i usually don't.
i don't have as many excuses to put off doing my homework.

the magic of saran wrap
i realized today that places can get a lot of money for christmas trees. today, we got one for $30. one year, we got one for only $6! well... that's probably since it was a few days before christmas... now, my mom's always looking for a cheaper tree.

we couldn't get the christmas tree for the last few weekends since it has been snowing (hmph). today, we stopped by home depot and picked out a cute little tree. then, they came out with a giant roll and saran wrapped it to our car. yes, saran wrapped. who knew the powers of saran wrap were so amazing?

once we started driving, the tree kept making this loud flapping sound. the faster we drove, the louder it was. i never thought that a 10 minute drive on the freeway could be that unbelievably annoying. my mom's solution to this was to turn the radio up louder.

the snow is starting to stick to the ground right this second. ella just looked out the window and said, "that's a fair amount of snow."

attracted to the magnet?

2009-12-05T21:21:00.002-05:00

so, you are attracted to the magnet program... well, today i went to richard montgomery high school to take the high school magnet test. this is for all you people out there, who were like me, who are stressing about the test and wondering why there is no good info on the magnet site. well, i'm about to give you some good info from my own experience.

just some suggestions on what to bring
i am basically about to tell you what i brought today, using some tips from my SAT book.

make sure you wear layers; i wore 3. you never know what the temperature might be. some rooms might be cold and some might be hot.
bring a pencil pouch so you can carry all of your stuff. take a big eraser (you might need it for the essay), some dull and some sharp #2 pencils (dull pencils are good for bubbling answers quickly, and sharp pencils are good for writing the essay)
if you have a phone, bring it. they will make you turn it off during testing, but after it's over, it's helpful to call your parents. trust me, there is a whole swarm of parents waiting for their kids.

the process
when you first get to the school, the volunteers take you to a classroom with desks in rows. there are about 30 people in each room. you take the multiple choice test for 2 hours.after that, you get a so called "break" where you get up and walk around for a while. you then have unlimited time to write a one-sided page essay to a prompt. when they said "unlimited," i was imagining people who stay for hours upon hours... do you think there are those people?

the dreaded... test
the test is all multiple choice (not including the essay which i will talk about later). questions 1-60 are reading and questions 61-110 are math. consisting of a verbal section and a math section. they give both sections to you in the same booklet. you can start with either section, switch between sections, and spend any amount of time on each section.
i must say, the most boring part was reading the 5 passages in the reading section. 3 times i felt my eyelids slowly closing, so i had to jerk them wide open and focus intensely (that didn't work out so well for me). i swear i could've fallen asleep right there, reading about some fireball that i can't remember the name of now...

verbal section

1/4 of the problems-- word selection (choose a word that best replaces a word in a sentence)
1/4 of the problems-- logical reasoning (you know, those questions that make your brain ache, like: bill is 5'6''. jack is shorter than bill. jack is sitting to the left of amy. amy is sitting to the right of bill. jane is the shortest. the tallest person is sitting 2 from the right. who is the tallest person?)
1/2 of the problems-- reading comprehension (you read 5 passages and answer a few questions about each)

math section

1/4 of the problems-- quantitative comparisons (compare two number values)
3/4 of the problems-- math problems (just your average algebra problems)

the essay
on the magnet application packet, it says you will get 30 minutes to write the essay. but, we actually got unlimited time. hmm...

according to the test prep booklet (link at the bottom of the page) on the 2003 test the essay prompt was:
Mark Twain, American author and humorist, once wrote, “Work and play
are words used to describe the same thing under differing circumstances.”
Is school work or play for you? Why? Use examples from your academic
life to support your position in a coherent, meaningful, brief essay.

today, the essay prompt was:
"The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority." -Ken Blanchard. Do you agree or disagree with Blanchard's statement?

so there are some example of essay prompts to be prepared for.

on a final note
don't be nervous. it really isn't that hard of a test. the only hard part is the time limit. make sure that you pace yourself. remember to consider the time you need to read the reading passages! also, like you've probably heard, if you don't know the answer to a question, skip it, and move on the questions you DO know the answer to. the test prep booklet says that they don't take off points for wrong answers. that means that if you don't know the right answer, just guess.
if you need any extra info, here is the magnet test prep booklet: http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/specialprograms/admissions/high/HSTestPrepBooklet.pdf

good luck!

hobo snowman

2009-12-05T16:40:00.007-05:00

let it snow!
today was the first snow of the season! on chat and email, everyone is really excited. for the last few weeks, this group of guys in spanish class kept randomly screaming "IT'S SNOWING!" and everyone would snap their heads toward the windows (after the first time, i didn't). it started snowing this morning when i was at richard montgomery high school taking the high school magnet test. it even started to stick, but then it just started to melt slowly and sadly. it was almost all melted when me, ella, and mom went out to play in the snow. we just came in, since it is almost dark (even though it is only 4:45!) right now, the snow is turning into rain. sigh.

hoboman (maybe)
so when we went outside, me and ella started rolling up some balls of snow for our snowman. it was originally supposed to be a regular snowman... but since me and ella got some dirt and leaves from the lawn into the snow, we decided to make it a hobo snowman. there he is, panhandling on our front lawn. what for? maybe some clean snow to wear.

how do you like him? what should we name him?

the tired shopping warriors

2009-11-27T17:07:00.005-05:00

we, a.k.a the tired shopping warriors in mom's words, have come back alive from a mission to single-handedly stimulate the economy on black friday! today, me, my mom, and ella went shopping on black friday, but my dad didn't come since he "doesn't like crowds."

the landing
my mom was all worried about parking. she asked if she could drop us off, and meet us some 30 minutes later. i said we would stay with her, so me and ella were prepared to die of boredom in the car. i checked the clock so i could keep track of how long it took. 11:34. and...... parking at 11:35! mom was beaming.

the mission
we were surprised that abercrombie had deals because usually it doesn't. spend $100, get a $25 gift card. apparently i'm getting a $25 gift card for christmas.

then, we went to justice where we were able to hunt down some stocking stuffers for ella. hopefully ella doesn't read this... we got her 3 pairs of furry socks, and a pack of 6 cute food erasers. the erasers are pretty cool. they are sort of like puzzle pieces that connect. check out this site: http://www.iwakousa.com/id70.html .

we looked at some uggs, where ella decided to get some knit gray ones shipped to our house... and, it's just my luck, after ella made up her mind, i realized that i liked those the best as well. then, they didn't have it in my size. and also, they don't have it in stock anywhere at all so the earliest they would be able to ship it is february. i guess they are popular...

by the way, just mentioning, as i was typing the paragraph before this, ella read about her stocking stuffers. it was only after she read it that i realized that she was sitting next to me, staring at it, smiling. even after it says, "hopefully ella doesn't read this..." god.

the success
after going to some more stores like, gap, macy's, sears, benetton, etc. we left a little more than 5 hours later. phew. i think that's a new black friday record! but at least we completed our mission, right?

turkey day

2009-11-26T22:47:00.020-05:00

i've always loved both cooking and eating the food on thanksgiving. our whole family starts cooking dinner together in the morning. this year we made: turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes with gravy, corn bread stuffing, and pear cobbler.

top chef (s)

on a typical trip to a restaurant, my entire family is usually satisfied with two dishes. my mom says it's cheap to feed me and ella. so at the grocery store, we always try to pick the smallest turkey possible. even still, we enjoy many (many) turkey sandwiches after thanksgiving.

my dad always does all the stuff with the turkey. he marinates it in broth, stuffs it with a whole lot of stuff, and carves it (which, by the way, disturbs me... apparently ella is completely fine with it). the turkey was really good. so tender and juicy. mmmm...

meanwhile, me, my mom, and ella make the other stuff!

cranberry sauce
we start making the cranberry sauce in the morning, so it can harden in the fridge by dinnertime. this year, i think we started too late because it didn't harden at all! oh well, at least it was easier to dip the turkey into. :)

the good kind of crummy
last night, we made cornbread for the cornbread stuffing today. ella cut the cornbread into a lot of small cubes. after we put all the ingredients in it... we got to mash it up into crumbs!

it's better with butter
mom and dad did the hard part: peeling the potatoes... then me and ella did the best part: mashing them! then, of course, we added butter. *drools.* i love butter. my mom always says, "it's better with butter!"

sugary goodness
last thanksgiving, we made pear cobbler for the first time. before that, we always made pumpkin pie. honestly, i'm not a huge fan of pumpkin pie, but it's just traditional, you know? the pear cobbler is actually really easy to make, and it is delicious. it requires a lot of sugar though. the first step is to shower the pieces of pear in 2 cups of sugar. it was so tempting to just take a piece and pop it into my mouth.

we served the warm cobbler with vanilla ice cream. ella even added some whipped cream, haha.

i've realized something about cooking thanksgiving dinner: it requires a lot of mashing. we mash the cranberries into cranberry sauce, we mash the potatoes into mashed potatoes, and we mash the cornbread into corn bread stuffing. ahh, mashing. just one reason why thanksgiving is so much fun!

ghost of pictures past

2009-11-20T14:59:00.012-05:00

school pictures. they are really stressful! well at least for me. what if you mess up the picture that goes into the yearbook that everyone will look back on for eternity?? i guess that's a bit melodramatic, but it's true that i do get really anxious before school pictures. today, they gave me my picture. let me just say, i think these braces are messing up my face. they even ruined my new passport picture. anyway, i thought that i would put all of my pictures of the past onto this post, so i can remember them long after i've lost all the copies.

before preschool: i was 2 and a half. i guess this was sort of a daycare stage. hey look! i still had some chub back then. :)

preschool: here i am, in preschool. check it out, my two front teeth fell out. by the way, my hair is pulled back... it was longer than that!

kindergarten: are you starting to wonder what that tree i keep leaning against is? well, for these 3 pictures, i went to greenwood, and they took pictures with trees. it looks so, nature like...

1st grade: this was my first year at bannockburn elementary. i even remember picking out my outfit for this picture. that sweater i am wearing actually says "101 dalmations" on the back. plus, do you see me proudly wearing my girl scouts necklace? :)

2rd grade: wow, my dress and the background matched perfectly (in both 1st grade AND 2nd grade). hmm... i can't remember whether or not i planned that...

3rd grade: i don't know why i decided to go with the background. just wanted to mention, in case you thought i went to some pond to get my school picture taken.

4th grade: if you noticed, i am wearing the same sweater as in 3rd grade. if you didn't notice, i guess i'm stupid for pointing it out. it was a good school picture sweater, though! does it look like i'm laughing in the picture? that is the year that the photographer tried to make me laugh... and i am the easiest person in the world to make laugh. in this picture, i'm just trying my hardest to stop laughing.

5th grade: ermm, i'm not a huge fan of this picture. let me just say, those photographers need to tell us they are going to take the picture... before they take the picture!

6th grade: in this picture, you can tell i was stressing out. i was so tight that the muscles on my neck are sticking out!

8th grade: don't ask where the 7th grade picture went, because i truly don't know. anyway, i'm thinking that all my experience with school pictures helped. notice how i was ready to smile. that's because, as soon as i went to sit on the stool, i put on my smile. after about 30 seconds, the camera man told me to relax since he was setting the camera up the whole time. :-/

wii will rock you

2009-11-19T15:43:00.009-05:00

on wednesday, the wii came in the mail! it is me and ella's big christmas gift this year, but we couldn't wait, and got it early! my dad ordered the wii separately from the mario game, wii fit, wii play, extra controller, and numchuck. what is really aggravating is that almost everything came on tuesday... except the wii!

but, i'm so excited that it finally came! when we went to california in october, we played with allie and adam's wii. it was so awesome! we did a lot of virtual hula hooping and skiing. unfortunately, the day that the wii came was sort of busy since ella had a cello lesson, and i had some homework to do. but, of course, i squeezed in some wii time at 11:40 pm.

the all important... wii fit age
let's see...

when we played the wii at allie and adam's house, ella was 28 (+20), and i was 13 (+1).
during my 11:40 wii session, i ended up being 17 (+5).
yesterday, after school, ella was 9 (+1) and i was 12 (+0). by the way, my parents also tried the wii fit yesterday, and were both 45 (+4).

hmm... i am yet to find out what my wii fit age really is. it is different every time! this whole wii fit age thing is sort of blurry.

wii fit awesomeness!
i love the wii fit! it literally senses your every move. the major thing that the wii fit does is measure your balance. for example, in the yoga section, me and ella like to do the tree pose. they show you a dot that traces your balance, and it's really hard to keep totally still! the only thing about the wii fit is that it can't tell most things other than balance. i'm guessing that this is why they call me "shaky" on the balance exercises and a "body builder" on the strength exercises.

this is mii
i loved creating my mii. i'm not sure how realistic it looks. one thing is for sure: the proportions are not realistic. i copied the mii's from the wii screen. does this look like our family? can you guess who is who? please comment :)

as if having braces wasn't torture enough

2009-11-19T15:22:00.005-05:00

last week, i had an orthodontist appointment. or, in other words, the torture trigger. when i get to the office, the assistant says, "good! none of your brackets came off." but, of course, that's because they threatened me! last time, when my bracket came off from eating a nut, they said that the next time it came off they would "be forced to put a cap on my back tooth." as always, i asked if it hurt, and they said yes. well, that was a successful tactic.

as if having braces wasn't torture enough...
they added in a new torture tool. a rubber band. *shiver*. they are tiny bands that they put on your teeth to... move your jaw? i'm not really sure. well, at least i only have one on the right side. look at me, looking at the glass half full (even though it completely isn't).

snack on!
at first i was really annoyed since i couldn't open my mouth more than half way. they told me that if i yawned, it might snap! eeks! but, when i got brave enough (which took a while), i tried opening my mouth really wide, and it was fine. what are these orthodontists teaching us nowadays? these bands are also a real pain in the butt. i have to take them out when i'm brushing my teeth and when i eat. being me, i eat at random times. i come home from school, eat some chips, study, get myself a bowl of ice cream, talk to my friends on the phone, eat some more chips. actually, i figured out that it's fine to leave it in when i'm just snacking.

the only problem with that is, since i don't take it off when i'm snacking, i forget to take it off for meals. so if a take too big of a bite, the rubber band comes off sometimes. in only a week, i have swallowed 2 rubber bands! i'm pretty sure it's ok, or why would we be putting them in our mouths? the first time it happened, i only realized my rubber band was just gone afterwards. the second time, today at lunch, i took a big bite of a soft pretzel, and felt my rubber band pop off. i spent a while searching through the mush in my mouth, but then decided it was hopeless.

bag-o-bands
at first, i carried the little ziploc bag of rubber bands around in my pocket, so it wasn't a problem if i swallowed it. but now, i guess i'm not as obsessed. actually, come to think of it, i don't have a rubber band on right now (since it came off at lunch)! i better go put one in though, because they also threatened me about keeping my rubber bands on. orthodontists are evilly clever.

music marathon

2009-11-11T15:28:00.013-05:00

yesterday i went to my second all county orchestra audition (last year's audition). before the audition, i was freaking out. not because i was nervous, but because i didn't have a banana that could prevent an anxiety attack. magnesium is magical. my mom comes home and pulls out 5 bananas! sigh, i love her. she knows me so well.

longest practice period ever
i got to the auditions at 6:55 pm, since i was auditioning in the last block from 7:30-9:00. well, i auditioned at 9:44. people cheered when the numbers changed, literally every 20 minutes.

the reason it was so slow was because there was one room with an etude (2 minutes), one room with sight reading (2 minutes), and one room with 2 excerpts plus 2 scales (5 minutes). so the line for the longest one built up fast. last year was much better thought out. wonder why they changed it...

it was obvious that everyone was getting more exhausted as the night dragged on. at first, everyone was practicing frantically. as we were walking towards the practice room, my mom says, "can you spell cacophony?" which, i can't (i had to use spell check to write that). then, as the room emptied out painfully slowly, there were those long patches of silence which i hate. they make it so hard to practice without seeming like a show off. like, once, there was complete silence with no talking, no playing. and one girl just continued playing the slow piece. everyone laughed but she still continued to play. i'm not sure if she knew she was playing a solo, but i'm pretty sure she knew.

honestly, maybe it was better that they were so late. at first i was really worried since i felt so unprepared. but, after more than 2 hours of practicing, i wasn't nervous at all. was it the banana? was it the practicing? maybe a combination...

me and my mom as the night slowly ticked by:

strangely lucky auditions
mr. herman: he conducted the all-county orchestra last year and described our playing with animal analogies... some about elephants... so, i'm outside the first room (with the etude), and the girl waiting next to me looks into the room and says, "hey! that's my teacher." after i auditioned, i asked her who it was, and she told me it was mr. herman. i asked her how she knew, since the judges were behind screens only showing their feet. "the pants." i'm just glad that she told me after i auditioned.

the sightreading wasn't too bad. they only gave us 30 seconds to look at the music before playing it. i thought that was a little weird, since usually they give us as much time as we need. my mom thinks that they shortened the time because they were 44 minutes after the auditions were supposed to end. the time went by fast, so by that time, i had only looked through half of the piece. luckily i was able to wing it ok (i hope). the rhythm was pretty hard, and we had to shift to 4th position once, but other than that, it was all good. :)

when i went to the last, super long room, there was only one person in line, even though they said the line would take forever. they had the music posted outside the room showing what we would play. it turned out that for the hardest piece, brahms 2nd symphony, we only had to play the last half. half of me felt relieved but half of me was really bugged. i mean, the first half was probably my weaker half, but after all that practicing, we didn't have to play it!

me and my mom left and were like "finally!" we only got home at 10:07 pm. i was half asleep. for the all-state auditions on saturday, my mom says that we could get my number, then go get ice cream or something. :)

candy junkie

2009-11-01T21:29:00.012-05:00

yesterday was... halloween! my 2nd favorite day of the year. my friend emily was having a bat mitzvah, but ella wanted to go trick-or-treating with me. so i figured, why not do both? i went trick or treating until 7:30 pm, and went to the party 30 minutes late.

into the rabbit hole
at first, i was just going to wear one of my old costumes, and ella was going to be a candy corn witch. then, my friend emma asked if i wanted to go trick-or-treating with her. i really wanted to, but ella wouldn't go with the theme. so i made my costume at emma's house and then made a matching one for ella at home!

hint: we aren't a deck of cards
i ended up going trick-or-treating with my friends emma, anais and andrea, their friend mary, emma's sister laura, and my sister ella. it was so much fun!

from left to right: andrea (card), mary (queen of hearts), ella (card), me (card), emma (tweedle dee), laura (cheshire cat), anais (tweedle dum).

can you tell what our theme was? when we were out collecting our candy, people asked, "hey, are you a deck of cards?" hmm... maybe they didn't see all of us.

i can be a zombie card next halloween
in the afternoon, before trick-or-treating, i was raking leaves with my mom and the temperature was perfect. i was thinking how great the weather was for trick or treating. but then, it rained. my costume was made with cardboard, tissue paper and glue, and ella's costume was made with cardboard, paint and markers. not exactly waterproof costumes!

i'll take the unwanted candy
once back at emma's house, we dumped all our candy onto the floor. first, we sorted them into piles to make candy trading easier. well, ella just left hers in a big pile. we also developed a "trash pile": you just throw any unwanted candy want into the middle, and it becomes a free-for-all. once andrea said, "who wants to trade me something for this?" after the silence that followed, she said, "ok, i'll just put it into the trash pile." then, everyone lunged towards it. i guess it wasn't good enough to trade, but it was good enough to take from the trash pile. i found myself taking a lot of stuff from the trash pile... i really should have been more selective.

lol moments:
when we were waiting in line for candy at one house, the man was saying "choices... choices..." i get to the bowl, and it is: snickers and crunch. wow. lots of choices you got there.

when my mom was driving me from emma's house, she saw someone's costume and said "hey, it's a hobo! wait... it's a witch..." apparently it was a very ripped up witch costume.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

after trick-or-treating, my mom drove me home so i could change into a different costume for the bat mitzvah. i imagine i would look very awkward as a dancing card. i changed into last year's outfit: a harajuku girl!

technical difficulties
the party was at a hotel. i had some trouble figuring out where the party was. i asked the front desk where it was, and they told me to take the elevator down to the ballroom. in the elevator, there was no button to go down! i just hope no one saw me standing in the glass elevator staring at the buttons. i walked out to ask for more help, and, of course, in the other elevator there were completely different buttons. one huge one that said "BALLROOM."

bat mitzvah swag
there was a candy bar, but since i got there late, all that was left were m&ms, gummy bears, hershey kisses, and tootsie rolls! i missed out on the junior mints, kit kats, and skittles. i comforted myself by remembering my my giant bag of trick-or-treating candy.

there was also a green screen, where you could pick a background and then pose for a picture. there were so many themes choose from! skittles, tootsie rolls, shrek, star wars... haley and i ended up going with star wars, so we striked a battle pose. haley was holding her light saber (well, actually an inflatable guitar), and i was kneeling on the ground all freaked out.

free giveaway
we got a cozy black sweatshirt as the bat mitzvah favor. it is ginormous on me! it has a cute orange ghost and says "emily's bat mitzvah!"

happy halloween!

i wish we all could be california girls

2009-10-22T21:49:00.036-04:00

thursday: today, i woke up at 3:45 am. this is because my mom, my sister, and me are going to san diego for my dance show! i'm missing thursday, friday, and monday of school. partly i'm happy, but i'm so stressed out. on the day i come back, i'm taking a science test, history test, spanish test, and geometry test. that's a test in each class, which i think is a new record! sigh.
today, we are staying with my cousins, allie and adam, and my aunt rosie and uncle michael in redondo beach! i'm so happy, i haven't seen them since summer.

you may think la salsa is a dance...
but, actually, it is where we went for lunch with uncle michael. there are a whole bunch of restaurants called things like "del taco" or "la salsa." creative names, i know. the fact that it's in a different language makes up for that. there was a salsa bar, and usually with salsa bars, i just get one salsa. but, above the salsas it said "mix the salsa to make your own!" it was hard to decide since i liked a bunch of them. at first, i got a chipotle sauce. that's when i realized that it said medium spicy, so to make it less spicy, i added some mild salsa. i ended up with a chipotle, avocado, and mango mix. i learned a lesson today: 3 good things added together can equal a catastrophe. after trying it, i threw it out and got them separately instead.

cold stone creamery, watch out! there's something called yogurtland... it.is.amazing! you get a huge bowl and fill it up with heavenly frozen yogurt! vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, ny cheesecake, mango, double oreo, green tea, blueberry tart, vanilla wafer.... and then you can get vanilla and chocolate combined, strawberry and ny cheesecake combined... i could go on and on, but i won't. first, of course, i had to taste almost everything in the store. but, it wasn't too embarrassing since the one worker was in the back. i just took some tasting cups and tried them one by one. after some contemplation, i finally decided on strawberry and ny cheesecake (not the combined version). that's when it got even more overwhelming since there are a whole bunch of toppings to choose from! but, with the strawberry and ny cheesecake froyo, i couldn't resist the real strawberries and real chunks of cheesecake. how awesome is that? and all for $2!

it's almost like exercise...
they have wii fit, and we were playing on that for a while. by the way, i would just like to tell you that ella's wii fit age is 28, and mine is 13! ella's age is 20 years off, mine is a few months off. pretty good right? my mom would like me to tell you that "ella didn't understand the balance activity and if she retook it, she would have done better..." cough cough. me and ella like the hula hooping game. well, more like the hula hooping movement. if you are trying to imagine what i look like hula hooping on a wii fit, let me tell you... it looks very stupid. standing in front of a tv doing circular hip movements is just not normal. but, it is surprising, hula hooping for 160 seconds can be more exhausting than you think. i was out of breath and sweating after trying to beat ella's record breaking score. i didn't beat it. i'm so out of shape.

warm enough to wade...
it's october, and we went to the beach! me and ella even went into the water. it was freezing cold! the waves were humongous, and i took the pleasure of pretending to run away from the waves screaming to make ella run in horror. she even fell for it 7 times. before we left for the beach, i decided that i wanted to carry the boogie board all the way to the beach, and in the end... i only boogie boarded once until i wiped out, and sand got everywhere. my ears, my nose, my hair. it took forever to get the sand out of my hair!

inner peace, outer screams...
after that i did wii fit for a while more. that whole time, allie and ella were behind me styling adam's hair in front of the mac camera. it's difficult doing tree poses with a whole bunch of screaming, but i did it. the wii told me to take a 10-15 minute break, which is when i run over to mom saying "it told me to take a break" then run straight back to keep going. strangely, i got 4/4 stars on the strength exercises, but i got 1/4 stars on the balancing ones. they called me a bodybuilder... hehe.

friday: great, i'm sick. i think it was either the ice cold beach water, or the wii fit overload. i can't be positive. but of course, i was just fine when it was time to drive to legoland in san diego! the ginormous lego sculptures are crazy!

stories from the land of brick...

this was in the parking lot! since this was the first lego-built thing that we saw, we were really impressed. but... we all agree that they are a tad creepy.

AHH! i was debating myself on whether or not to smile for this picture. i decided that it would look more realistic to put on my "oh my god" face.

there was this driving school ride where you can drive around and "follow the rules of the road." it probably doesn't sound that fun right? but actually, it was really fun. you get into these cute, small cars. it's better than the other driving rides in hershey park and disneyland since they aren't loud and smelly, the pedal and wheel are easy to use, and you can drive around without being guided by something on the ground. actually, i had a dilemma when i was driving around. there are stop signs, but the roads are so small that you can see whether or not there are cars coming. do you stop? or just go... i stopped anyway, just to be a good driver.

outside of the ride, there is this life size lego car! since it's legoland, you would assume that everything is made of lego. but, from far away, the car still looked real!

say cheese! this is me and ella posing for a photoshoot with a movie star (from a lego movie, that is).

there was also this boat school ride called skipper school where you can drive a boat around. my only complaint about this one is that it goes super slow. honestly, these rides would be so much more appealing if their names didn't include "school."

we also went on this completely tame dinosaur roller coaster. my mom was telling me how annoyed she was that the people behind her kept screaming into her ear during the tiny drops. i mean, they weren't even drops, more like bumps! there was another roller coaster that was called "test track." at first, me and ella weren't really into going on, but my mom convinced us to go on. you know how on roller coasters, there's that slow incline before the big drop? when we were going up, i was seriously hyperventilating. but it was so awesome. it was jerky like a real test track, and we ended up going on it 3 times (since there wasn't any line).

we went on this ride where you have to pull the rope to get up, then when you let go, you fall back down. it's not like you are pulling your whole weight, but it was still hard. falling to the bottom was a disappointment too. it was more like exercising than a ride. :(

this dragon and the big car are probably my favorite. seeing them in person is even more impressive. they use these tiny legos that are like 1cm x 1cm. do you see ella standing right next to the giganto horn? i have no idea what she was thinking. it was like she was waiting to have her ear blasted out. we left before it made any sound anyway.

this slide was amazingly fun. we went on it 2 times. the only thing was that it makes you completely staticy!

ok, this is totally random right now, but i just had to show you. when we went to the bathroom, i saw the most hilarious bathroom sign ever!

here i am, battling evil. you're welcome.

my favorite part of legoland was definitely the miniland. it was so cute, and very cool. they said that it was built with 360,000 lego bricks and it weighs 718 pounds! i took a whole bunch of pictures, but i'll just show you some.

here is washington dc. check out that bus on the bridge. the buses, cars, and boats actually move. it is pretty cool.

i thought that the "states bank" engraved into the building was cool. i like the limo, too (hehe)

this is the inauguration!! that looked like it took a lot of work, with all of the people. if you look closely, you can see obama! he is wearing a red tie, and his hand is on the bible!

it was pretty cool how there were moving carousels and buttons you could press to make noise... and this fountain was actually like a real fountain! i'm just a little disturbed... when i looked at the people up close, one guy lost his head! but, i mainly wanted to post this picture to comment on those monstrous pennies.

time square! i was born in new york, so my mom took a picture of me in front of this. but, we weren't exactly sure what the spiders on the buildings were supposed to be. i guess it's the halloween theme!

the lego store is awesome. there are boxes of legos of all different shapes and sizes. we stayed there for 30 minutes only for me to buy 93 cents worth of legos. i'm easily overwhelmed as you have seen (yogurtland, now this!) we stayed at legoland from 10 am-5 pm, which was the whole time it was open. for dinner, we went to the all holy in-and-out burger! i have been looking forward to going there since i left california last time. but i couldn't enjoy it with my sore throat. i'm sad now. now we are in the hotel, but i only have "0 days, 23 hours, 15 mins, 57 seconds" left of internet time. well, i'm not counting on spending 24 hours online between tonight and tomorrow, but i'm tired... so, talk to you later! from...

saturday: today we went to the san diego wild animal park! this was only my 2nd time going, but i love that place. the animals can run around this 12 acre span of land. it is so amazing. on the african safari, where you go on a tour around the animals, they said that they keep the baby cheetahs in the same area as the other animals... i thought that was sort of dumb, but my mom says that they probably keep them more far apart. the camera ran out of battery in the middle of the tour, but i still got some pictures.

this is one of the baby cheetahs that i was talking about before. i think he is super cute! all of the cheetahs there were babies... i don't know where the adult ones were.

here's a white rhino. the tour guide said that his head alone can weigh as much as 1 ton... wow. i weigh 3.25% of that (yes, i used a calculator). no wonder they just sit around all day.

two ostriches! i thought this was a cool picture. they're drinking water together... or they could be having a tete-a-tete. :)

giraffe! i have always liked giraffes. during the whole tour, the guide was saying that animals see brown and green as the same color, so the giraffe wasn't easy prey. but, it's so big. how could you miss it?

there was this cool new "exhilarating" zip line ride over the land with the animals. i was really excited by that... but then i figured out it was $70. yeah, that was out of the picture.
i liked the gorillas. you know, they actually do beat their chests! it was hilarious. the tiny monkeys were really cute doing the monkey bars. i had to tell ella that they were better at monkey bars than she is. i guess i just like primates. :) we left early in the afternoon so we could go to the hotel and rest before the culture shock san diego 10th anniversary choreographer's showcase. it was really cool. actually, the best part was the last half. and that's when ella fell asleep! it's weird where she falls asleep: she fell asleep in the front row of a dance show once, with bursting music (where the dancers could literally sweat on her), but she stayed awake during my munchkin appearance during a wizard of oz off broadway show.

sunday: today, my cousins allie and adam, my uncle michael, and my aunt rosie came to san diego for my dance show. but, before the show i was really busy with techs and rehearsals. i'm part of a dance company called culture shock dc, with two youth groups: future shock dc is for ages 12-17 and mini shock dc is for ages 7-11. i'm in future shock, but i used to be in mini shock. so, since mini shock needed more people to perform with them, i got to perform with both mini shock and future shock! which basically meant twice as much rehearsing. luckily, most of the mini shock rehearsals were when future shock was taking a break.

busy b...
first, i had a future shock tech on the stage. after that, while future shock watched other groups' tech rehearsals, i had the tiniest bit of time to eat a bagel. i came back to the theatre in time for more future shock rehearsal. then, when future shock left for their lunch, and mini shock came, i went with mini shock for rehearsal. after the rehearsal, we went to the stage for our tech rehearsal. during the tech, future shock came to watch our tech...... phew.

a cool park in the middle of nowhere...
then, i had one period where there wasn't anything i had to do with either mini shock or future shock, so i got to go to a mosaic park in escondido with my mom, sister, cousins, aunt, and uncle! it was so pretty. there was a cool (yet super easy) maze to the middle of the park where there were a bunch of sculptures. around the sides, there were...shiny snakes? big colorful worms? i'm not sure.

after we went to the park, i went to a future shock cast meeting before the show.

gotta wait for the dvd...
since future shock performed in act 1, they got to watch act 2. but, since mini shock performed in act 2, they got to watch act 1. which meant... i didn't get to watch any of the show! but, down the hallway from the dressing rooms, there was a room with a screen that had the show live. so, in our free time we got to watch the show.
there were bowls of candy in each dressing room, so the plus of performing with both groups was more candy! there were nerds, tootsie rolls, and lollipops in the future shock room, and there were whoppers and sugar sticks in the mini shock room. ok, i'll be honest. i stuffed some (or a lot of) candy into my backpack pockets.

the moment you've all been waiting for...
the show was so much fun! i would post a video on here, but it's prohibited, according to the directors to preserve "artistic integrity". not that they would ever see my blog or anything... anyway, the future shock theme was "futuristic." it makes sense, right? future shock? futuristic? hmm... i probably didn't have to point that out. it was sort of hard to tell what our theme was. the songs sounded pretty techno-ish, and our costumes had silver, but i guess it's pretty hard to guess. i thought this one dance was really cool, where there are different groups doing different dances to the same song, and they are coming on and off, and some are doing it at the same time. there was a contemporary part, an african part, a wacking part, a popping part, and a housing part.
the mini shock performance didn't have a theme. our costumes were lime and true blue. i could only dance in the 3 dances i knew from last year. it was awesome dancing with mini shock again. i totally miss it.

mmm... buffet...
my parents say that it's not worth it to bring me to buffets, since i don't eat that much. but i am in love with souplantation! we go there every time we come to california. as you can see, all of my favorite places to eat are in california. souplantation, in-and-out burger, yogurtland... and out of all three of those, there can't even be one in maryland! sigh. i always look forward to the unlimited soft serve and the yummy strawberry lemonade. at the souplantation in san diego, they even have warm fudge brownies to go with the soft serve... mmm.... i can almost smell it! then, we all drove back to redondo beach. i was super tired, and i fell asleep in the car.

monday: we flew back to maryland today. we had to leave for the airport at 11:20 am... yogurtland opened at 11:00 am... could we make it? of course! it's yogurtland for crying out loud! i figured out that i like pumpkin pie froyo, and i like blueberry tart froyo, but they don't taste good together. it's like la salsa all over again! anyway, ella was really excited that there were those personal tv's on the airplane. that's always her first choice of entertainment!

heaven on a stick

2009-10-10T16:14:00.004-04:00

i have come to love these magical haagen dazs ice cream bars. luckily for me, we have a costco sized package! it may seem piggish, but i now eat at least one of them a day. actually, i'm eating one right now, and i'm surprised at how fast i can type with one hand. my justification for eating so many of these things is that i am below 5 percentile in weight! (i just typed a smiley face, and mom, who is sitting next to me, added something because she thinks i am "twig girl" :D-I--<)

ahhh! i just dropped it on my computer. i guess they aren't that magical after all...

violet and her many special traits

2009-10-05T15:52:00.009-04:00

it has recently struck me that... i barely ever mention violet to you! so please, meet our kitty cat, violet!

adorable:

curious:

hyper:

flexible:

what price for beauty?

2009-10-04T09:46:00.005-04:00

braces. the. ultimate. torture. device. i got braces on july 2nd. when you get braces, they give you a monstrous list of what you can't eat:

the forbidden foods
-hard candy
-caramel
-taffy
-hard bread crusts
-pizza crust
-hard nuts
-tacos
-tortilla chips
-corn nuts
-popcorn
-jerky
-corn on the cob
-dried fruit
have to be cut into bite size pieces
-bagels
-apples
-carrots
-celery
can't chew
-gum
-ice
-bones
have to be careful of the sugar in
-jelly
-syrup
-honey
-sugary cereals
-desserts
-sodas

but, nobody actually follows this list. i can't imagine someone refering to this list every time they eat. i mean, this list is basically my entire diet! i wouldn't be able to survive. well, maybe i could live without chewing bones...

when you first get braces, enjoy the painless hour right after you get them, because your teeth get super sore on the second day. then, all you eat is mush. mush! after i first got my braces, i was glad that i wouldn't ever have to go through that again... but then on the third orthodontist appointment, they put in a bigger wire. apparently, the first time, they were "warming me up" with a small wire and so on the third time, it hurt like crazy!! here we go again with the mush! but, luckily my mom came up with the genius idea of giving me food that melts in my mouth. :) for the past few days, my diet has consisted of:

breakfast
-oatmeal (which i have to swallow without chewing)
lunch
-yogurt
-apple sauce
-pudding
-mini meringues
-pillow mints
dinner
-oatmeal
-tofu
-mashed potatoes

i don't like eating the same thing two days in a row, but i had to eat the same thing since wednesday. i can't stand this. :(

ps. my mom thinks it's hilarious when they put their stretching tool in my mouth. when my teeth were having a photoshoot (before i got braces) and they put this thing in my mouth, my mom couldn't stop cracking up. so this time, she wanted a picture of her own. she says, "now, whenever i'm feeling down, i can just look at that picture!"

relaxing in right field

2009-10-01T17:27:00.008-04:00

fitness friday update (since the last fitness friday): we were all really happy when we got to miss our friday torture session because of a holiday. but of course, they had to ruin it and make a special "fitness thursday." it actually wasn't as bad as i thought it would be. i didn't sweat at all (probably because it was 65 degrees out)! no gnats bothering me. but i was still dying from cramps and itchy red rashes. thank god it's fall.

softball: after the fitness thursday run, we played some softball! like in 6th grade, you get your glove, stick your hand in, and get the pleasant surprise of sweat. luckily, this also happened in 6th grade, so i now have my own glove to bring to school... if only i could remember it!!
i like to bat but i am hopeless when it comes to catching. in 6th and 7th grade, i would go into the outfield hoping that nobody would hit that far, but they usually did. so, this year i have found a solution that works wonders.

the orange is the path of the ball... and i try to stay far from it. 99% of the people at my school are rightys, so the chances that i will have to catch are tiny! the rest of my softball days are going to be a breeze!

P.E. should stand for Pain Escalation

2009-09-29T15:28:00.012-04:00

recently, someone came up with the horrible idea of fitness friday. we have a system where our classes are every other day, so we have fitness friday every other friday. i guess we are lucky, since other schools have it every week. i'm already having nightmares about the first time... on fitness fridays, we have to run around the outdoor track for at least 4 laps, which is a mile. some people shot for 6 or 7, which i find strange. sure, they get a few extra points, but i'm just fine with the minimum.

it was like torture. the whole time, there was a gnat in my face, and eventually, it flew straight into my eye. and to add to that, the whole time, i was having cramps which explains all the breaks i had to take. my legs were so itchy! oh, and when i looked down, they were completely red.

before this fitness friday thing started, we had to run the mile twice a year. some lucky classes didn't have to do it at all. but now, we have to run in circles every other week. considering how much pain and suffering i had to go through on one friday, imagine how i'll be at the end of the year, after 17 more.

middle school irony

2009-09-29T15:15:00.016-04:00

both last weekend and the weekend before that were "homework free weekends." the reason i put that into quotes is because my school has the most lame excuse for a homework free weekend. ironically, there is more homework than usual. my theory is that the teachers think nobody else is giving homework, so they decide to just dump it all onto us when they get the chance. i don't think our school should even have a homework free weekend. they get our hopes up, then send them crashing down.

but of course, they can't just give us the homework. they need an excuse. it is pretty impressive what they manage to come up with.

the friday excuse: "technically this friday afternoon is not the weekend. do your homework then."
the optional excuse: "this homework is optional, but... if you don't do it, you won't be ready for our next assignment which, by the way, is 50 points."
the high school excuse: "the homework free weekend does not apply to us because this is a high school class. in high school, they aren't having a homework free weekend."
the project excuse: "this is a long term assignment. you don't have to do it on the weekend."

oh well. perhaps it would be best to rename these weekends, "not so homework free weekends."

i walked into a door

2009-09-29T15:02:00.010-04:00

last sunday, i walked into a door. it wasn't actually as stupid as it sounds. my mom and my sister, ella, came to pick me up from dance rehearsal, and when we were walking out... BANG. luckily, nobody but mom and ella saw me, but i still had a big red bump on my forehead.

if it's required, is it really volunteering?

2009-09-10T17:21:00.022-04:00

SSL. or as my mom says: forced volunteering. we need 75 hours of student service learning to graduate from high school, and trust me, it isn't hard to find something to do... there are a ton of options.

my mom thinks my school is just looking for free labor by asking us to take phone calls for them during the summer. thankfully, i have found much better things to do with my time. i worked on the virginia obama campaign (first photo), ran a food stand at a school event, collected trash on the bay, made origami to donate to a children's hospital (second photo), and even poured lemonade into cups.

the worst part about SSL is filling out the "reflection" sheet. we have to write what we learned about ourselves and how we helped the community. it's hard to think of things to write. hmm... collecting trash: i learned that i will never do something like that for fun. pouring lemonade: i helped the community by making sure that they didn't die of thirst.

recently, my mom forwarded me an email, with the subject being: [Fwd: [pylenet] Looking for Teens Interested in Reading]. i was already thinking, oh my god, what was she thinking. i reluctantly opened the email, and saw that nearby libraries are giving SSL to teens for reading new books (that haven't even been released yet) and writing reviews for them. it doesn't sound bad, so i'll be doing that.

i'm currently doing two other SSL projects. my friend lisa and i are doing a collaborative project, making the cutest origami stars. they are really simple to make. we have already made more than 1,000 of them! our plan is to put them onto necklaces and bracelets, sell them at our school, and then donate the money. and then, i had the idea to make earrings with wire and beads, and sell them at the same time. ella helped with some of the designs, and left the wire work for me. here are only some of the earrings i made after 16 hours of wire work:

these are the big earrings that i made. they have big glass beads, some of them with other little beads. in person, you can see the silver inside the glass. i could only make some, since those glass beads cost a lot! i'm selling each pair for $7 each, and the smaller earrings for $5.

here is one of the small pairs. when we went to the store, i fell in love with the colorful, floral glass beads in the picture. so, i got the square, cube, and cylinder ones. i guess i went a bit overboard, but i couldn't help myself!

this is a design with three beads. the hoop around the circle is a separate bead. i made hoops with many different things inside: squares, tiny clear beads, turquoise beads, etc. you might be thinking that i am crazy for spending my free time making different versions of hoop earrings, but it is much more fascinating that you would ever imagine.

pump up the balloons

2009-09-01T18:01:00.018-04:00

i need to keep you updated on the latest ella obsessions, since she starts all the new trends...

we just recently went to my mom's friend's party. he gave us a pack of long balloons and ella loves it! i made some animals for her... (from left to right) there's a: butterfly, bichon frise, mouse, giraffe, and dog. those all came with instructions, except for the mouse and the giraffes, which i came up with myself.

after ella first made the dog, i thought to make a giraffe. when i told her, she said, "OH MY GOD!! CAN YOU PLEASE SHOW ME HOW TO MAKE ONE??" my answer: "you just make the dog... with a longer neck..." she looked sort of disappointed. "oh..."

i spent a ridiculously long amount of time making that balloon hat for ella. first off, it is much more difficult than it looks. and second, in the process of making it, the balloon popped two times. after that traumatic experience, ella asked for a sword; she'd always wanted one, so i thought, why not. so there she is: the balloon pirate! she says, "they're just gonna think i robbed some clowns."

don't you just love ella?

beatriz atsavapranee

school daze

2009-08-31T20:00:00.007-04:00

i am now officially an eighth grader! i get the honor of sitting in the very back of the bus (even though i don't see why that's so special)... we're the kings of the school! since we switch off days having periods 1, 2, 4, 6 (even days) and periods 1, 3, 5, 7 (odd days), i only met half of my teachers today. science with ms. bazizl, history with mr. wesley, spanish with senora sloan, and honors geometry with mrs. xourias. it all started off easy... no homework, no classwork, just the regular "get to know each other games," and going over the rules which was so very boring.

what i found strange was that in US history, with mr. wesley, we have to do a daily warm up... on grammar. yes grammar. it looked familiar from english class last year, but i mean, come on. it's history! then i heard that he grades 10% of our writing by grammar.

then came honors geometry. right when we got there, it was like, pull out the journals!!! and mrs. xourias just starts talking super fast, i am just sitting there scribbling like crazy; arm cramp!!

beatriz atsavapranee

last of the lazy summer days

2009-08-30T17:17:00.011-04:00

friday was the first time i touched my backpack since the last day of school. why? because school starts tomorrow. you see, i love school (except for the learning part). so, that's a problem. but i'm excited to be with my friends again. at my middle school, you only have classes with people on your team (there are 3 teams per grade). so on friday, i texted, emailed, imed, and called my friends to find out what team they were on... and surprisingly the majority of my friends are on my team! i'm just not so thrilled about the tests and homework. you'll be hearing from me tomorrow, about the first day of school!

click to enlarge!

i can relate to sally. i'm not the "going-to-school type" either.

beatriz atsavapranee

elany funtza booba

2009-08-28T11:38:00.004-04:00

ella is developing this very interesting language called "ella language." very creative name, i know. she has made up three words with their definitions. the first word she came up with was:

elany n. a special word in ella language that means poop

but then, she thought about it...
ella- what if that is someones name? maybe we should change it to ello or something.
bea- but that's really close to ella
ella- ...ok, i guess we will keep it as elany
bea- you're just making up words!
ella- yeah, that's just how ella language goes. hmm... can i tell you another word in ella language? wait a sec... i'm a lil rusty, even though i talk to myself in ella language.

funtza adj. that means very cool and awesome. synonyms: ella

when ella read the blog above before i published this, she says, "i'm only rusty because i have to talk in normal language. my family thinks i'm unsocial, but really, i'm very social in ellaland when i'm speaking ella language."

by the way, i just sent this blog to my friend amanda while writing, and when my friend amanda called ella an elany... ella adds the word booba to her ella language dictionary in order to say "booba elany."

booba adj. giant, big, and enormous

beatriz atsavapranee

p.s. i have a feeling that ella only made up this "ella language" today

the many things you have yet to learn about ella

2009-08-24T15:53:00.023-04:00

hey everyone!

the blog you are about to read is all and only about my very interesting 8-year-old sister, ella. here's what she has to say about being on my blog.

here is what ella is all about...

1. corkyland

i bet ella's cork collection can beat all the cork collections out there, and she would like to give a big thanks to our daddy for contributing all those corks (with a few corks worth of help from our grandpa). yesterday, during dinner, my dad gave ella another cork, so we decided to dump all the corks out of the bag and count them. strangely, the one day we decided to count them, there were exactly 300 corks. she's planning on making a raft out of them, sooner or later.

2. her favorite phrase

ella's favorite thing to say is "back off!!" it's not so much aggressive, as it is funny. the first time she ever said that, was when our whole family went swing dancing for the first time. first, we took the class before dancing. and ella explains her aggravation at someone trying to help her with her dancing. you should hear her explain it.

3. material girl

ella, i must say, is a complete fashionista. for those of you who know her, you already know this. i mean, seriously... look at that pose with the sunglasses! everything she is wearing in that pic, and almost everything in her closet, is from her favorite store: justice.

and today, when we were out at marshalls with my grandma and grandpa, she saw this jacket, and she made this face which you just have to see for yourself.

4. camerama

ever since ella got one of those polaroid cameras for christmas, we occasionally turn on the camera... and see 20 pictures of our cat, violet, in as many different poses as ella can force her into. usually she takes pictures (this is straight from the source) until "violet runs away, or [i] need to go to the bathroom." and she still uses that polaroid camera, that's in the picture, even though she could use the digital one. she likes that "it has a pretty frame kind of, and it's fun to pull out the picture." watch this completely candid video of ella fighting with her camera, as ella says, "in a totally not weird way." (turn your sound up all the way, and listen very closely at the end... it's the best part!)

5. "i'm feeling the yo-yo ma-ness!"

so ella likes cello. i'm not saying that she has ever touched a cello, other than in the shop, but she still likes cello. ella says "cause it's close to ello and ello is close to ella." she contemplated what instrument she wanted to play for a long time. she didn't want a "blowing" instrument, so she chose from strings. not only does she like cello, but she also likes yo-yo ma. a lot. we had one of his cd's, and she would listen to it over and over again. eventually, we had listened to all the songs way too many times so my mom offered to get her some new cd's. when she turns up the yo-yo ma music (very loudly, i must say) she always says "i'm feeling the yo-yo ma-ness!!!!"

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

a few of ella's greatest moments, well at least the ones caught on camera:

1. the newest addidion to the jets

a while ago, we were watching the movie, "west side story." my mom and ella thought it would be fun to snap along with the jets, just to torment me. you see, i can not and never will be able to snap (or whistle). ella can do both, but she can't wink and i can! check out ella's amazing impersonation of the jets.

2. random cracking up

today, when we were at the chinese grocery store, on errands with my grandma and grandpa, ella randomly started to crack up.

i hope ella gave you some good laughs... :)

beatriz atsavapranee

surfin california (vid)

2009-08-20T15:53:00.008-04:00

this is a video of me surfing at surf camp in california with my awesome cousin allison! :) this was meant to be in my blog entry called, "surf and turf," but the video wasn't on the computer yet... so then i was going to put it in the blog called, "surfin usa (pix)," but the video still wasn't on the computer. so here it is! finally!

don't i just look so amazingly cool at the end? i know, i know.

beatriz atsavapranee

surfin usa (pix)

2009-08-19T13:55:00.018-04:00

here are the pictures of me surfing that i promised in my last blog, "surf and turf." make sure to click on the pics to look at them close up. the faces i make in the last few are... well... you'll see. by the way, thanks uncle michael for taking these pictures!

steps to surfing:

1. be very concentrated as you get up onto the board

2. make a scared face as you attempt not to wipe out

3. stand...

4. celebrate!

surfing bloopers:

1. bea falls on her butt

2. bea is about to fall off the board (my face on this is golden...)

hope you like the pictures!

beatriz atsavapranee

surf and turf

2009-08-19T00:24:00.026-04:00

hey!

i am writing this exactly one week since my last blog! wow, i'm not blogging once a year anymore! *cheers in the background*!! summer's almost over *boos in the background*, but it has been an awesome summer! though there are still 2 and quarter more books that they are forcing me to read...

at the very beginning of the summer, i went on a road trip to ottawa, canada with my dance group! and, since i live in maryland, it took over 12 hours. now, whenever traveling takes less than 12 hours, it feels completely short to me. the hotel room had 2 queen beds and one pull out bed. sounds pretty spacey right? but no... we had to squish 7 people onto the beds. but on the plus side, we got a standing ovation at our performance! not bad, eh?

the first camp i went to was a gymnastics camp with my little sister, ella. we did some balancing poses for the parent show on the last day. ella was so good that they should’ve recruited her to a chinese acrobatic act! really should’ve.

the second camp was an outdoor rock climbing camp, on real mountains, which was awesome! it was an hour drive from my house, but there were buses that picked us up. so the whole time, we would sing bus songs! lalala! before the last day, we stayed over night to go camping... and i got over 10 spider bites. man, they take forever to go away.

then, i did an art camp with ella. we made so many things in one week. but, considering how much of a perfectionist i am... i'm surprised that i finished most of the projects! last year, when i went to the camp, i was still working on the first thing on the second to last day. things i made: color wheel (i had to draw long arcs by hand), paper mache penguin (a really fat penguin in the shape of a ball), fake fossils with leaf and shell imprints and a clay tile that i decorated to look like the beach... since it's summer!

i also did a music camp that i love. it was my 3rd year there. i was in the advanced orchestra, which was actually sort of sad because they sounded worse than the regular orchestra. a really cool part about the camp was the "spirit days." one day was crazy hair day, and so i decided to go full out. i bet you're wondering how i got my hair to be like that. i actually put a bottle in it. yes, it hurt... a lot. i came into orchestra rehearsal a few minutes late, walking behind everyone. right then, the conductor called my name for attendance. everyone turned around and were totally surprised (since mostly no one else did anything at all for spirit day. lame, i know). for lunch, we sit outside in front of a giant window where people walk by. and since the camp was at a music school, there were a bunch of tours. and every time the people would walk by, everyone would gawk at me and point.

i am part of the dance company culture shock dc... and the youth programs are mini shock (for ages 8-11) and future shock (for ages 12-17). for the auditions, they taught us a dance. the music was incredible... (by lloyd). and after we knew the dance, they would play the song over and over again until it was our turn to audition. and, i danced it full out every single time they played the music. i was sore. everywhere. but i made it in! :)

california:

we went to california to visit my uncle michael, aunt rosie, and cousins allie and adam. they live close to the beach, so we went to the beach a lot. it was surprising that one day, my dad actually agreed to let me and ella bury him in the sand. ella found out how hard it is to cover his feet with sand.

my cousin allie and i did a surf camp together in the mornings for one week. i thought i would be an epic fail, but i wasn’t that bad! from the parking lot, there was a super long hike to the beach where we were surfing (the word super is dedicated to uncle michael, allie, and adam). my scariest surfing near death experience: i let the surf board sit on the water, and when a wave came, the board shoots upward vertical to the water. i look up, and the spikes of the surfboard are coming straight at my face!! eeks!! luckily, i have super fast reflexes (not really) and shielded myself... safe!

we went to disneyland, where the churros are delicioso! we got there 15 minutes after opening a.k.a 8:15 am, and left after the fireworks at 9:30. wow, over 12 hours at the happiest place on earth! we went on a lot of rides. as you can see, to the right, we love the classic rides, like dumbo! my cousin allison and my sister ella are sitting in the front dumbo, and me and my cousin adam are sitting in the back dumbo. i also went on a bunch of new rides that i wasn't brave enough to go on before like: haunted mansion, indiana jones, and pirates of the caribbean. i ended up liking all of them! my aunt rosie is awesome to go on rides with, because she can tell you the scary parts before they happen!

i saw lots of family on my mom's mom and dad's side. got to meet, no, not elvis presley's daughter, but my 2 and a half year old second cousin! lisa marie! after i introduced the game of ring around the rosie to her... she was a bit obsessed. after every time we did it she would pop up from the ground and say "i want more!" and we had to do it again, and again, and again. and whenever we tried to play a different game, she would just hold our hands.

while my mom's side of the family was visiting my grandma's house in california, we all decided to take a walk to caltech which was very close. at first we were all walking together, but there were so many fountains... which my cousins, my sister and i liked walking and playing in. we got distracted, and eventually we didn't see them anymore. while we were walking, i saw a really ironic sign, and took a picture of it. "absoulutely NO STAPLES OR TAPE use push pins only." but they taped that sign on. i thought it was hilarious.

we went to the park, and there was this one thing that kept us amused for a long time. it's more fun than it seems! first, one pair would rock side to side, while the other would rock front and back. then we would switch. then we would rotate who got each seat. that was probably the thing we spent the most time on at the park. you should try it sometime.

we also went to adventure plex in california. they had an outdoor climbing wall. you could just climb up, or you could climb up on one color. each color was a different difficulty. and so i was doing fine (as you can see in the picture to the right) until the guy out there asked me to try the hardest trail. it was so hard, there was barely anything to hold on to! and the fact that i'm short doesn't help much either. i stood there just trying to get up just a little bit. there wasn't anyone belaying us, it was a thing that let you down every time that you let go. so i would go up a little bit, then fall. go up a little bit, then fall. over and over again. i kept trying, and he was so nice, he added handholds to make it easier. and eventually he belayed me so i wouldn't have to go down every single time. i made it!!!! (after an hour of trying, but lets not think about that part).

if you read my "curled by cousins" blog 2 years ago, you would know that my first cousin once removed, kevin, who's now in london, could curl ella when she weighed 35 pounds. now, she is 50 pounds and he can still curl her!

school starts in less than 2 weeks *tear*, need to finish the work they gave us... it's bad to be behind on homework before school even starts. i better get to it.

check back later, i'll try to add some pics of me surfing!

beatriz atsavapranee

i don't think the banana really helps

2009-08-11T18:02:00.013-04:00

ever wonder what an all county orchestra audition in montgomery county maryland is like? well you're in luck. i looked for this information on the web last fall for my violin audition and found nada! zip! zilch! so insider information right here to help my fellow stringers.

what you play for the auditions: they assign you 3 excerpts a few months ahead of time that are posted on the maryland music educators association website. last year the excerpts for violin were, the reformation symphony, which is technically difficult, an exercise from the 2nd wolfhart book, and a largo piece which included a lot of shifting but needed a lot of character. they say you need to buy the books, but nobody checked if we had the books at the auditions. just a money saving tip for you.
you also have to prepare scales. they want you to practice up to 3 sharps and up to 3 flats with arpeggios, but they only choose one for you to play.
then, there's a sight reading portion. there is a few lines of sightreading that you have to play, which isn't technically difficult, but has some tricky rhythms and a simple shift to 3rd position.

the process: the all county auditions are blind, so go ahead and wear your ratty sweats. but with nice shoes (since you are behind a screen which shows your feet). you'll be given a time window to be at the audition, but you should get there 30-45 min earlier so you can be higher up in the queue for audition order. after you sign in, you go into a big room where 40-50 people are practicing. you have to practice at the same time as them. they have a big screen where they project the audition numbers of who is going next. they project the numbers in groups and by instruments. when they project your number on the screen, you go up to the front of the room where someone leads you and the others to the audition rooms. there are 3 different rooms. when you get to the rooms there are people lined up outside each of the rooms waiting to go in and audition. one of the rooms is sight reading and scales. one is the 2 shorter excerpts and one is the long excerpt. posted outside of the excerpt audition rooms are the sheet music marked with brackets showing what they would like you to play. you can choose which room you want to go into first. when you get into the audition room, you don't speak at all and the judge doesn't speak at all. you only whisper with the judge's helper when you get into the room who will give you cues to play etc. in the excerpt rooms, they already have the music there, but you can use your own music since it has your markings on it.

some advice:
in the practice room, you might hear people who play better than you, but you should try not to listen to them because it will psych you out. for example, i heard someone playing one song faster than i had practiced it. and i thought, i'm playing it too slow. in my audition, i ended up speeding up, and messing up. while you aren't playing, you might want to listen to music through headphones... it worked for michael phelps!

during the sightreading portion, give yourself 20-30 seconds to look through the music. don't feel rushed, it doesn't affect your score. spending those seconds will pay off.

during the scales, don't play too fast or too slow. play them at a walking pace. the judges have listened to a lot of scales before yours, so playing them painfully slow won't help.

don't be too nervous...
have you ever heard that eating a banana makes you less nervous? well, it sort of does, but it doesn't get rid of the nerves at all. don't be too nervous because, while at the auditions, my mom calculated the chances of getting in. there were about 70 people auditioning for violin, and there were about 35-40 people who made it in. the chances of you getting into the orchestra is more than half! just practice and don't be nervous!

all state orchestra auditions
the all state audition process is very similar to all county, and there are the same excerpts and requirements. the only thing is that it is harder to get into (ex: i made it into all county and not all state), and they are not blind! so dress nice!

please post comments if you have any extra helpful tips or questions! good luck with your audition!

beatriz atsavapranee

dancing like it's 2009

2009-06-18T21:21:00.020-04:00

hey trizzle readers!

wow. my last blog was on november 16, 2008. its been a while! i guess i am just feeling particularly inspired to blog today. the last day of school was on june 16th! "what time is it? summer time!" that's what we always say at my cousins' house. usually, what happens is, someone asks what time it is, and someone randomly says, "summer time!" but i guess now, it is actually true.

THE SHORT:
january-february: all-county orchestra (i am going to write a separate blog about the whole process of it). mr herman and the pack of elephants in our orchestra. i think he needs some more encouraging analogies.
april: trip to niagara falls during spring break. my sister loved the jacuzzi in the hotel room.
may: east coast dance competition (ECDC). my sister managed to stay awake the whole time this time.
june: trip to new york with my family to do a dance performance (world of dance, but really they just mean the hip hop world of dance), last day of school (yippee!), end of the year party after school on the last day

THE LONG:

niagara falls: over spring break, pull out the passports... my family took a road trip to canada! the hotel we chose was a really cool one, since it had a view of the falls. were were already really excited to stay there, but we were even more excited... when they told us our hotel room was getting updated for free!! it was suite! jacuzzi (with jets), the view, tv, it can't get any better than that. at night, the falls would change colors, it was like a giant nightlight! maple sugar candy is good, eh?

ECDC: in may, culture shock dc hosted the east coast dance competition 2009 at the warner theater. people come from all over to dance or compete at ecdc. this was mini shock dc's second year dancing at ecdc. this year we dressed up as dolls which came to life and of course, danced. i was cast as olive oyl. before that i'd never heard of olive oyl. talk about generation gap. olive oyl is from the cartoon popeye! the sailor man! we spent forever trying to find the right red sweater. right shape, right shade, right size. my mom sewed a white fringe onto the collar so that i looked exactly like olive oyl. she wants me to use the costume for halloween this year. not going to happen. no one would get it. other dolls included dora the explorer, diego, GI joe, GI jane, raggedy ann, cabbage patch dolls, my scene dolls, barbies and popeye.

new york: on june 13 and 14 we went to the big apple. mom calls it going back to my beginning. it was a music filled weekend. we stayed at the buckingham hotel in midtown, where, according to my dad, is where the queen of england stays when she's in town. ha ha. we walked to the world of dance at the roseland ballroom... and i performed with my dance group, mini shock DC! we learned all new dances for this performance... live! from new york! here is the youtube video of our number: . we opened for the beat freaks, boogie bots, ring masters, and iconic! they are all from mtv's americas best dance crew. yay! to add to our musical trip, we saw the musical "in the heights" (from a great height... since our seats were pretty high up).

last day of school: before the last day of school, middle school life is very traumatizing. exams. i was really freaked out by my first day of exams, where i had my two (most stressful) high school exams: my algebra exam, and my spanish exam. it turns out that they were both super easy, and that i was worrying for nothing. good thing i didn't study too much. :)
at my school, the last day of school has no purpose at all. i always wonder why there is an extra day at the end of each school year where we do nothing. very boring. after the dismissal bell rang, it was so loud!! everywhere, people were screaming things like "freedom" or just randomly screaming. i think my hearing was slightly damaged. and emptying out the entire contents of my locker? into my backpack?? not easy to do.
after school, i went to an end of the school party that two of my friends were having. they live across from each other, so it was pretty convenient. i went on the bus home with them, which was more like a circus than a bus. it was amazing how lenient the bus driver was about the "rules"... people were climbing over seats, doing flips, putting their legs out of the windows, running down the aisles... but i just stayed sitting in my seat, looking around me awkwardly. honestly, i've never been one to break the rules. at the party, we had water fights with water balloons and water guns. we ran around having a blast....... for about 2 minutes. that was when we realized we ran out of balloons. there were 10 water balloons. after that, we put a watermelon on the ground, and smashed it open with a baseball bat!! i had always wanted to do that; it is even more fun than it looks on TV. then we ate the pieces of watermelon. i decided to be bold and take one of the most ginormous pieces. i had to bury my face into it in order to get every single piece. by the time i was finished, my face was covered in watermelon, and i was walking around very very slowly.

Yes We Candy!

2008-11-16T19:08:00.020-05:00

hi loyal readers of the infrequent trizzle,

thanks for checking this site often enough to see this blog (my last blog was on august 8). you may ask what has happened since then? broken hand? buried under schoolwork? blogger's block.

THE SHORT:
august: trips to scotland, thailand (touring northern thailand), going to the pool.
september: the month of nothingness... except for school.
october: debate awesomeness (4-0, 2nd place team with jessica and tori, 10th place speaker). grandparents visiting. obama campaign in northern virginia. ami visiting and dressing up as obama on halloween. traveling to atlanta with minishock. having my parents send me off by myself with a cash bribe to do so.
november: david's bar mitzvah and the kennedy center in the same day! california and historic election! craft night.
december: of course... christmas!

THE LONG:
barack-o: ami is my mom's friend from college. he lives in thailand, but he's not thai. he was here for 2 weeks to work on the obama campaign in virginia and i did too because maryland always votes democratic. on election day, they called obama the winner in maryland with exactly... 0% of precincts reporting. i made phone calls to people who'd already been called a few times so they were pretty angry. from this, i've learned that if you don't want to be called anymore, just say that you are voting for mccain... and they will stop. the last time virginia voted democratic was when lyndon johnson won the state in 1964. if the math is too hard, it has been 44 years. 44 YEARS.

i always want my parents to dress up for halloween, but they never do. my mom always says she's not that cool. but this year, we were thrilled to have ami come with us. he combined trick-or-treating with canvassing by dressing up as obama! it was kind of a last minute thing, so we saved money and printed out a picture of a mask. he wore a suit, obama pins and all that jazz. the tough part was finding out who was for obama and who wasn't. one person said, "that IS scary!" other than that, most people seemed like they liked it. at each house ami would say, "yes we candy!" or sometimes, "we are the trick-or-treaters you have been waiting for." the cherry on top was the deep obama voice and dramatic hand motions.

davids bar mitzvah: since i had a performance at the kennedy center on the same day, i missed the whole ceremony. it was dissapointing because the ceremony was shortened, but i missed it!! i guess now i will go to unshortened bar mitzvahs from now on. i only got there during the after party. i missed all the big hats but i got there early enough for the sumo wrestling. there were gigantic sumo wrestler suits and wigs. it looked hard to walk (or move) in them. i didn't have the nerve to play, but it was interesting to watch.

london calling

2008-08-05T12:51:00.012-04:00

now i can say i have been to london! the flight was not long at all compared to what i usually sit through. it is awesome traveling with dad. he is a "star alliance gold" member which means that we can go into all the cool lounges where you get free food. shh... i always grab a bunch of the free candy when no one (that i know of) is looking . you also get a lot of priority baggage service instead of waiting in the long lines. i just love the feeling of passing by the long lines; doesn't everyone? as we were walking out of the airport, ella, my sister, was holding her passport then dad said, "ella, give me your passport." what you never thought a 7 year old would say, she said. “can’t a girl look at her own passport?” i think she says the cutest things.

in the airport we were watched like a hawk by CCTV cameras. not that that only happens in the airport... there are cameras everywhere you look! i hope i looked okay for the cameras. i actually saw a few signs that said, "thieves beware! we have CCTV cameras." what an effective way to keep away thieves...

my family and i went to the tower of london where we saw the crown jewels. first, we went to what we thought was the display. all that was there were a bunch of replicas of jewels. you should have seen my face… like a little kid who just got their candy yanked from their hands. then we saw the real display. i liked the second display much better. there was a 530 carat diamond. that really impressed me. my jaw completely dropped. of course, we went to the souvenir shop, what my mom calls a “tourist trap.” i looked around for a surprising amount of time. there was so much jewelry; i was kinda overwhelmed. i didn’t spend any of my budget there. mom said i “made it out of the trap”

prices, prices. everything is twice as much as it would be in america. i saw a really pretty burberry dress. it wasn't the burberry pattern because if it was they would have to reduce the price until it costed $10. it had ruffles which i love… but then i checked the price tag. $1,200? um, yeah right.

we went to harrods, the famous department store, to shop. there were so many displays. they were all very unique... i saw teddy bears squished into a couch. i've never seen that before, have you?

there were boutiques and all but obviously way (WAY) too expensive.

i enjoyed putting hats on and making funny faces though. look at me (on the left) and my sister with those leopard hats on.

the food department was impressive with chocolate and pig sculptures. there was chocolate molded into cool shapes. like, golf balls and even telephone booths. harrods is pretty creative, with all the displays and stuff.

one thing i love about london are the phone booths and mailboxes. they are just so retro. we should definitely have those in

america

. the phone booths are everywhere. in the city, in front of castles, in pictures. EVERYWHERE. if you are walking around, about every 10 seconds you will see a phone booth. literally! and there are so many pictures of phone
booths on sale, with everything, but the booths, black & white. i thought that was a cute idea for a picture... until i saw about 20 of them.

you don't see the mailboxes too much tho. by the way... the pose below, i got from a movie =). actually a few. thats a common joke but i thought it would be funny anyway. hehe

almost famous

2008-05-03T22:52:00.012-04:00

hello,

p.e. highlight of 2008: we were playing flag football in p.e. for the first time they told me i was runningback. i was sort of freaked out because i barely even knew what runningback was. i knew i should've spent more time watching football with my grandpa. i was running to the other side of the field with no one blocking me cuz no one expected me to do anything. nathan threw the ball to me and luckily i caught it. i was running and everyone kept pulling at my flags. i kept looking back cuz i thought someone had pulled it already, but no they were still there. i kept running and i passed the little white line! i was kind of confused. did i just do that? yes! i did! i made a touchdown!

who's got spirit? i've got spirit, how bout u? not that many people had spirit at our school spirit week. on monday, it was crazy hair day. but of course a lot of people didn't do it cuz they forgot. i didn't forget. after i took my shower i braided all my hair and then slept on it. i woke up early to take out the braids and it was so frizzy. i put it in a sloppy ponytail on the side of my head. when i got to school my friend natalie thought i was having a bad hair day. while sticking my hair up in front of my locker mirror, i told her that i would never leave the house looking like that.

fortunately i didn't have to participate in tuesday's spirit day, mismatch day. that would have been a true test of school spirit. instead of being at school, i was at a pbs kids video shoot. i felt a little bad because i haven't watched pbs kids too much since we got cable. but i used to love watching arthur and dragon tales. my mom liked zoom. an email said that they were going to use some moves from captain huggy. since i haven't been updated on the latest pbs kids shows i didn't really know who captain huggy was. i used the awesome power of you tube to uncover his identity. apparently he's a monkey who acts out a word (like for example, sad or happy) then dances his monkey dance.

to be in this video, i had to audition the week before. in the audition, we didn't exactly do the hardest things. first they asked us to run from each side of the room to see how we followed directions. of course, i was a pro at that. after that they asked us to act like a monkey then a robot. then they asked us to freestyle dance to elevator sounding music. then they gave us 8 counts of a simple dance. the whole audition lasted around 5 minutes.

at the end of the week, i found out that i got picked to be in the video. only 11 out of 110 kids were chosen. i knew about half of the kids that got picked for the video since they were in my dance group, minishock. it was really fun to be there with people i knew. before the shoot, we were given choreography. but the real challenge to the routine was to try to dance looking enthusiastic. this was basically the only challenge because the dance didn't ever require you to move your arms while you were moving your feet. we were supposed to bring our own clothes for them to pick out an outfit for us to wear. we weren't supposed to wear anything with logos or anything green, white or orange. this was hard because almost all the clothes in my closet are green or have the abercrombie logo, a moose, on it. the studio background was green so that they could manipulate the background separately. maybe you'll see us dancing in front of the eiffel tower or maybe the zoo while we're dancing the monkey dance. it was really cool to see all the different cameras and how they videotaped other videos and commercials.

beatriz atsavapranee

got hope, but wish i could vote

2008-02-22T21:12:00.017-05:00

hi everyone!

sorry that i'm not keeping very up to date on my blogging... but for my birthday, on january 23, my family and i went to manhattan, new york, where i was born. we walked a lot and it was freezing cold which was a bad combination. my legs basically went numb if i walked for more than 7 blocks. the bagels at Ess-a Bagels were really yummy. we trekked 14 blocks each way from the hotel to get them. it was worth it though. weirdly, i felt VERY lucky to ride the subway, where my legs could thaw. but... in some of the subway stations, the escalators were broken, so we had to climb about 10 flight of stairs (over 100 steps, maybe 200). also in the subway station, that was much more dreadful, was a man who was playing violin to get some money. but it was the equivalent of fingernails on a chalkboard. after we passed, my mom whispered, "you're WAY better than he is." and i was like, "um, YA!"
my dad and i saw the musical, "legally blonde." i thought the acting and dancing were really good but the songs weren't very original. most of the songs had "ooooh my god" in their lyrics. during this time, my mom and sister were at m and m world admiring m and m's dressed like the statue of liberty and saturday night fever's tony manero. there was even a scanner that told u what color m and m u are. when i was at the musical my mom and sister also went to the american girl doll store for the 2nd time that weekend.

we went to a store with gigantic stuffed animals and lots of candy called FAO Schwarz. there were really big pink stuffed dogs lined across the wall, twenty foot tall dragons and life-sized mythical creatures from the harry potter novels that were really freaky... to me at least (i'm easily scared.) there were also some people who were dancing on a keyboard mat. it was actually really impressive that they could jump on notes together, so from that you could tell that they had to be working for the store and weren't just kids playing for fun.
for my birthday i got a 2nd DDR dance mat from my cousins. and i got a digital recorder from my parents. it's a really good gift for me because i can record how my violin and quartet sound.

i've been playing a lot of violin lately especially because i've been playing with a quartet for the solo and ensemble festival next month. the music on its own isn't difficult, but when we play as quartet it's hard to stay together because we play at different speeds on our own pieces. i cue the quartet, as to when to start playing, with the scroll of my violin. but not just that, but i get the "honor" of sniffing (loudly) a beat before we start because our cellist can't see me since my stand is in the way. my quartet is going to play minuetto by bach for the festival. so sometimes my mom and i say "you bach!" as a pun on "you rock!" i haven't decided yet what solo piece to play though. i'll probably do either a bach minuet in G or a baccarini piece.

i was really excited because i got to see obama speak at the comcast center, at the university of maryland on february 11, the day before the maryland primaries. my mom, my sister and i were walking down the line of people, and i was amazed at how long it went. every time we turned a corner, there were more people standing there. the line had to be about 2 miles, literally. it snaked from the comcast, over the hill, past the parking garage, across the footbridge and past the rec center. the line probably went further than that, but luckily we saw someone we knew waiting in line. she told us that the police officer told her she was at the halfway point. we stood with her for about 10 minutes, then we were able to return the favor by bringing her into the arena early when the officers let us bypass the line and go in a side door because our party had kids in it. we got pretty good seats where we could actually see his face. we waited in the arena for about 3 hours before obama actually came to speak. while we were waiting, about 2 hours before his speech, "cheerleaders" kept chanting and trying to get people to cheer. all fired up! ready to go! (it gets very annoying after a while). i think that obama's a good speaker and the speech was really inspiring. it was a great experience seeing him live and hearing him speak. i really like when he said "things now aren't how they have to be. it's time to turn the page." i hope he wins the most delegates so he can run in the presidential election. i like his message in how he wants to change things. if i was 18, i'd vote for barack obama.

beatriz

ps. my best post this year!!

remember december

2007-12-21T21:47:00.007-05:00

hi everyone,
at the very beginning of december i went to sportrock with my girl scout troop and we stayed over night. we learned how to belay, put our harness on, and do safety knots. we learned all this by midnight, and then only after that were we allowed to climb. they only turned the lights out at 2:30 am so i stayed up really late. at one point i was belaying a 14 yr old girl and i didn't have an anchor to hold me down to the floor. so when she was coming down the wall, i flew off the ground and my belaying backup was holding my ankle, trying to pull me down. it was so freaky. i thought it would work because one of the people who worked at sportrock did an example like that, but apparently he's much heavier than i am.

about a week into december, i had my first debate. our team was jessica, david and me. for the debate, we met a lot to practice speaking and to get data organized. we went to the debate and we debated four topics, four different teams. for one topic, there should be childcare facilities for all high school students on site. since we were the proposition side, we made our definition, childcare for high school mothers' children. the other team stated that teenage pregnancy is bad, then david stood up and asked him "why is teenage pregnancy bad?" he couldn't think of an answer to that. he didn't say anything for a really long time and the other two girls on his team were writing notes really quickly to him. he couldn't read their writing so he just said "uh, okay?" in the end, we won 7th place team out of about 30 teams.

the next weekend, our girl scout troop and i went to "just cakes" to decorate cookies and cakes. we rolled dough and made it into gingerbread cookies. we decorated them with frosting. we were given cakes to put the frosting on and we decorated them with different colors and shapes of frosting caps. on my cake, i made a green border around the bottom of the cake, a border around the top and a christmas tree in the middle. the bakery smelled like butter and sugar, the things that make food taste so good.

that weekend, i also danced in a hip hop version of the play, a christmas carol. there were 3 shows. we had to stay at the performances for 2 hrs before they even started, basically to just get our make-up and costumes ready, but most of the time we were just sitting around, not allowed to talk. the 2nd and 3rd plays were much better than the first. for one of the dances in the first play, they couldn't find the music, so we had to skip that dance. there was one really big dressing room with a lot of people in it. people were running in and out of the dressing room to get backstage. on the bright side, there was a speaker in the room that connected to the microphones on stage so we could hear the songs and the lines of the actors. it was really fun to dress up as beggars, '80s people, and in christmas colors. we danced the same routines we performed at the walk for the homeless event and the miss teen dc pageant. we also added a few christmas dances into the play.

on tuesday, i performed in our school orchestra/band concert. my friend simone and i played with the 7th/8th grade orchestra. we played "the entrance of the queen of sheba"and "themes from the nutcracker." a few weeks back, i tried out for 6th grade county honors orchestra. we had to play a prepared piece which was really simple, play a few scales, and sight read a piece our orchestra teacher chose. i was excited when i found out that a couple of my friends and i all made honors orchestra. i'm hoping we'll play more complicated pieces than the pieces we play in school orchestra.

very recently, my mom and i made cookies for all my teachers, except for my PE teacher. he said he takes a walk at 5 am everyday so i figured he wouldn't want cookies. we made chocolate chip cookies, shortbread cookies and fudge. the chocolate chip cookies and the shortbread turned out really well. the fudge not so much. we only had enough good pieces to give one per teacher. there were 9 teachers. you'd think we'd know how to make fudge perfectly because i did a science fair project on how lava is like fudge last year. we made a lot of fudge then. we got little christmas tins with snowmen on them (because they're non-denominational) to put our cookies in. i gave gift cards to a few of my teachers, plus my PE teacher.

my next post will probably be from california! land of fun + sun!!

beatriz

flies and grounds

2007-10-03T22:41:00.006-04:00

hi everyone,

i have PE every other day, right now we are playing softball. we are going to be playing it longer than the other sports. things i like about softball: while you're waiting to bat, you can stand behind the fence where no gnats can fly around your face and annoy you. i like how you can be an outfielder and talk to the other outfielders (until someone tells you to spread out). things i hate about softball: the gross sweaty softball gloves. i hate when you accidentally pick up a lefty glove and there aren't any others left. one time some girls were talking in the locker room and this is what happened... we had to run a lap around the field and then two more laps during PE class. i was so pooped out. we have to do 10 push ups on the concrete (where there are ants and sharp rocks) or on the grass (where it is very wet and dirt-ish). for sit-ups, we can either do them on the concrete (where it really hurts your back) or on the grass (where you're back and hair get all gross).
i have a lot of homework due tomorrow, which is mostly math homework. i have problems from my textbook and a lot of plotting scatter plots. i wish we could use excel, that would make life so much easier.

beatriz

tom pyle = beating the crap outta me

2007-09-22T11:33:00.005-04:00

hi everyone,

sorry that i haven't blogged for such a long time. but, in the last week or two, i have basically gotten a lot of homework and projects, and missed the bus a lot. i actually once, fell asleep in reading class... but is it really my fault? the lights were off because of the overhead, i was tired, and my reading teacher is kinda boring. besides, it was only about 10/90 minutes that i was asleep for. the homework assignments have been pretty basic, such as, write a concrete poem based on foundations, or do problems 1-20 on page 647 in your text book. but all these projects are wearing me out. i have finished my data display project (looking at teens and sleep. i am a perfect example), a personal timeline project, but still have to work on my author biography. i have missed my bus home about 50% of the school days so far because my bus is always first. except, i always manage to catch another bus that stops about half a block away from my house.
the music in my band class has been very simple. but since my mom and my friend's mom commented about it to my teacher, my friend simone and i played for her yesterday. she played sarabande in d minor which was pretty complicated, and i played ashokan farewell. so, we now have some new music to practice, that the 7th and 8th grade orchestra are playing so we can play it in the concert along with them.
i actually got my gym uniform on friday. they had to order ones for the "small people" because they didn't have anymore. so mine came late. i was really excited... until i put it on. baggy shorts and a giant t-shirt. which is SO not my style =/.
this morning, i woke up really dizzy, so when i got up from bed... i fell straight down onto my nose :(. but, my mom thinks it is because i need more iron and stuff. but, i feel unstable when i walk which is getting annoying. my mom thinks that's because i need more calcium.

beatriz

two degrees of separation

2007-09-03T20:54:00.003-04:00

hey everyone,

today i had a violin lesson. it was surprising because my violin teacher knows my band teacher, who plays the oboe. at the beginning my mom was complaining that my band teacher wanted us to buy a flute book to learn violin. so alice, my violin teacher, mentioned someone asking her for help on how to teach string instruments. it ended up that that was my band teacher.
after that, we went to palisade pool for the "grill, chill and thrills" party. it was so fun because at one point, they had people get in the pool and hold hands. i didn't exactly know what they were doing, and they started circling around really fast and different people started jumping in. it looked so fun so i decided to jump in myself. it was so freaky, there were so many people in that teeny pool, i almost got run over about 10 times. the whirlpool went around so fast that even if you lifted your feet up you'd still go with it. it was so scary but so awesome, it made me really dizzy.

beatriz

shopping for the shoulders

2007-09-02T21:19:00.002-04:00

hi all,

yesterday, we went to montgomery mall. we went to abercrombie and i got a few shirts. the main goal of the trip was to find something that fell within the pyle dress code. i went into hollister for the first time, the clothes were awesome but it was really loud and dark. i got a gray sweater that came with a cool belt, a white shirt that i can wear over my tank tops, a long dark blue short sleeve layering shirt, and a light blue long sleeve shirt. once we bought the clothes, i was so happy. the music was so loud, so i figured i had to scream for people to hear me. so i screamed "thank you so much mommy!!!" right after the song ended, when there was that gap of silence. how embarassing is that?

today, we saw the simpsons movie. it was so funny when lisa met this boy and she was describing him to her mom then said "i still haven't told you the best part... he's not imaginary!" lol.
today was almost as great as the last day of 5th grade was. :)

beatriz

pizzicato pain

2007-09-01T20:31:00.002-04:00

hi everyone,

this summer i went to this really cool camp, summer youth music camp at the university of maryland. this camp is for 6th-9th graders. we would play music about two and half hours each day, which made me half asleep at the end of the day rehearsal. some of our instructors had PhDs in music and were university professors. they really focused on our technique which was intense. for that week, i thought that my stomach was full of rosin because i was breathing it in so much. everyone had 7 sessions a day, everyone had a rehearsal in the morning and afternoon. the orchestra rehearsed together, and the band rehearsed together. my second session was musical theater. we didn't read any music or set up a performance, it was mostly identifying musicals from the songs. my third session was technology, we used garage band (which are on macs) to create songs and then we burned them on to CDs. for fourth session we had lunch outside, on the grass hills, then we watched a concert. one day, almost recess came. they sang a song and let the audience pick a style for them to sing the same song in, which was awesome. there was actually someone who asked them to do heavy metal, they also did country, rap, jazz, etc. lol. we all had numbers on our name tags, according to our last names. the camp director would do a raffle for things everyday. fifth session for me, was sectionals which was where all the violins came together and practiced the violin part, in my case the 2nd violin part. for sixth session i had camp chorus, we learned 2 songs, neither of them english, but we did have music to read which was helpful, and we sang harmonies which was confusing at times. for the concert, we played 3 songs, which can be downloaded from the site below. we all had to wear tan pants, and a black camp t-shirt which was ginormous. they even wanted us to tuck it in! and since it was so long, it was really, REALLY bunchy. after the concert my mom, ella, and i went to cold stone creamery which was in college park, pretty close to the camp. i actually saw about 12 kids from my camp there, lol.

http://beatriz.skiing.googlepages.com/home

beatriz

cover your armpits!

2007-08-28T22:31:00.004-04:00

hi everyone,

the bus for pyle usually comes around 7:25 AM which is about one and half hours earlier than my elementary school bus came. i've been having a really hard time waking up so early in the morning. i think i'm losing my beauty sleep so i'll look really bad by the end of the school year.
attention all elementary school kids: wear what you want now because if you go to pyle middle school, you won't be able to wear spaghetti straps (hard to believe!), any skirts or shorts above your fingertips when you put your arms at your side. you can't show your midsection or undergarments (which is understandable). shirts have to cover the top of your shoulders and "come" to the armpit (which i really don't understand). i mean why can't you show your shoulders?? what's so appealing about seeing people's armpits that they should be covered up? i can't wear 3/4 of my clothes now!
on the first day of school, opening my locker was so easy, i got it on the first try every time. today, for 3rd period, we went to gym and got a gym locker as well. i'm not sure if my locker is jammed or if i'm confused from my gym locker, but my locker won't open on the first few tries. our gym uniform is a gigantic gray t-shirt with the pyle panther on it and some really baggy black shorts, which are really long.
my new bus driver skipped my stop and everyone was yelling "you missed that stop, you missed that stop" but he would just say "there's no stop there" and look at the paper with all the bus stops. so we stopped off at the next bus stop which was two blocks away from my house. so i walked back with wyatt who's also at my stop. i really don't understand how that could happen since he picks us up from that bus stop in the morning.

beatriz atsavapranee

first day in a new giant school

2007-08-28T15:10:00.002-04:00

hey everyone!

yesterday... was the first day of school for me at pyle middle school! i went onto the bus, the 6th graders have to sit in the front. a bit like how the kindergarteners had to sit in the front in elementary school. yesterday was an even day, so i had periods 1, 2, 4, and 6. one is social studies which is shorter than the other periods because i have it everyday. my social studies teacher is mr. dixon. he is really nice but other people seem to think otherwise. two is science, my teacher is ms. hall, she is really perky, in a good way tho. she gave each of her classes a color for their paper storage and journals. four is math, i am in math b. my math teacher is ms. ozenberger and the classroom is right across from my locker. my locker is in the basement. six is band, i play violin. my band teacher is ms. butler, there were over 75 trophies on the walls;7th and 8th graders compete, but 6th graders don't. most of the band time yesterday was just reading off rules and consequences. when i was riding home on the bus, a little before my stop i asked the bus driver if i should get off there or if he would stop at my street. he said to walk, but he stopped there anyway!! afterwards my mom, sister and i went to staples to get more journals and a new binder.

beatriz atsavapranee

carrots + horse bucket + vacation = bad smelly idea

2007-08-25T22:17:00.002-04:00

hi everyone,

last night at about 12:00 PM my dad picked us up from the airport. my dad had brought us some candy from my grandpa (from thailand), some rings, necklaces, an olive green cell phone case for me, and my grandma's old small red velvet jewelry box from his trip to thailand.
when i got home last night the house was dark and i thought that the carrots in my horse bucket looked weird, so i reached into them... and they were moldy! so, my horse shoe at the bottom was rusty. so today, i mixed baking soda with a little bit of water and rubbed it on my horse shoe for about 45 minutes, and it got much better. just a little more rusty than when it had come off the horses foot.

i got my hair cut a few inches and an angle in the front. the last few times i got my hair cut, nobody noticed so i don't think anyone will notice this time either. i went to the hair cuttery very close to the university of maryland as i always do. and i've had a stylist there do my hair for a pretty long time. my whole family has the same stylist do their hair.
we went bowling today and ella really wanted to get a spare. she has before so i don't know why it was such a goal for her that day. right after we stopped keeping score, i took another shot and got a strike. lol.

beatriz atsavapranee

curled by cousins

2007-08-24T11:03:00.006-04:00

hey everyone,

yesterday... we went to the american girl doll store, which is only in LA and new york city. it was cool, they had a hair salon for the dolls, a restaurant, and a hospital (they take your doll and give you a new one, but i think it costs the same as getting a new doll. but i guess its supposed to feel like it's the same doll). ella got nicki, the doll of the year. the character likes horses and when ella was choosing, she said, "i want nicki. she likes horses, and i do, too! it's my favorite animal." my mom said, "really?" and ella said, "yeah, my favorite farm animal." everyone has to ask permission before they touch nicki's hair. we found out that they're actually coming out with an asian doll, ivy ling, in november.
we met my great aunt may, great uncle james, and my first cousins (once removed), eric and kevin (my grandma's relatives) for lunch at the cheesecake factory. my aunt and uncle live in houston, so i'd never met them or my cousins before. i had salad and a piece of pizza and a slice of chocolate oreo mudslide cheesecake :) yum... kevin's in business school at wharton and eric is a corporate lawyer in new york. after that, everyone who didn't get cheesecake (which was everyone except me) went to get ice cream at the farmer's market. it was funny because kevin was curling adam and me. although it made me feel kind of sick because of all the cheesecake before that. it was impressive that he could do it cuz i'm 60 lbs. he also carried ella (who's about 35 lbs) and adam (who is 51 lbs even though ella's a little bit older) at the same time. eric asked how heavy ella was and said "no way, i could curl you" and then he started curling her and then he said "you are 35 lbs".
next, we went to the getty center which was so beautiful. the garden in the back had grass that was so green, short and smooth that it literally looked like a green carpet. there were beautiful flowers on the path, a fountain, and a waterfall that flowed down around a bush maze. the getty was up on a hill in west l.a. so you could look down and see the city.
while we were driving, everyone was looking for cell phone towers that were dressed up as trees, palm trees or evergreens. adam spotted a lot of them.
we had dinner with my grandparents, great grandma, great aunts jane and karen, great uncle bobby, my first cousins (once removed) michael, robert and his wife annie and their baby lisa marie (9 mos) (these are my grandpa's relatives). lisa marie was so cute and she had a few teeth on the bottom. we were stuck in traffic on the freeways so we were about an hour late.
we went to fosselman's afterwards and i got some mango ice cream and some watermelon and green apple taffy too.

beatriz atsavapranee

The Trizzle

pigtails are back

on tour

feels like san francisco

"I just farted and the earth shook..."

"Sweet baaaby Jesus"

"Almost fainted... Not because of the earthquake but because I was getting blood drawn during it."

"Only in Bethesda can so many people make statuses that soon after a major event"

"My stomach was a rumblin'..."

"*insert funny earthquake status here*"

my life as the paparazzi

retain your excitement

freshie no longer

high school music scene

the opening act for the stanley nickels

welcome to your off day

the transformation from pyle panther to whitman viking

the end of easy life

the soggy socks go into the hamper...

cellorama

the flying squirrel

summertime, and the livin' is easy

finding myself while doing my homework

i didn't come to dance

pink up the town

mochi madness

blogging runs in the family

surviving the snowpocalypse

turning teen

it's a pizza... it's a cake... no, it's supercookie!

go with the snow

winter wonderland

enjoying the blizzard of '09

dress it up

all wrapped up for christmas

attracted to the magnet?

hobo snowman

the tired shopping warriors

turkey day

ghost of pictures past

wii will rock you

as if having braces wasn't torture enough

music marathon

candy junkie

i wish we all could be california girls

heaven on a stick

violet and her many special traits

what price for beauty?

relaxing in right field

P.E. should stand for Pain Escalation

middle school irony

i walked into a door

if it's required, is it really volunteering?

pump up the balloons

school daze

last of the lazy summer days

elany funtza booba

the many things you have yet to learn about ella

surfin california (vid)

surfin usa (pix)

surf and turf

i don't think the banana really helps

dancing like it's 2009

Yes We Candy!

london calling

almost famous

got hope, but wish i could vote

remember december

flies and grounds

tom pyle = beating the crap outta me

two degrees of separation

shopping for the shoulders

pizzicato pain

cover your armpits!

first day in a new giant school

carrots + horse bucket + vacation = bad smelly idea

curled by cousins

"insert funny earthquake status here"