detour to radiator springs

Just got back from California at 2 am this morning, Maryland time! I spent awhile having a reunion with my cat, Violet. I think she missed me because I'm the only one who pets her daily.

We left for California on the Thursday before last to visit my aunt, uncle, and cousins, Allison and Adam. Maryland seems to be plagued by badly timed thunderstorms this season. First, the derecho during the heat wave, and then a thunderstorm right before our flight! It was supposed to leave around 8 pm, but was delayed until after midnight! Luckily, we were able to switch flights and leave an hour earlier, which got us into California at around 2 am.

On Friday, we rested up and went to the beach with my cousins! We played in the water, which was ice cold, and then laid on the warm sand. We found a bunch of sand crabs, including two gigantic ones that were really frightening. Then, we played some volleyball. I was much better than I remembered being in middle school, but it still left a bunch of small marks on my forearms for a few days.

On Saturday, we went to the local farmer's market to buy groceries and eat lunch. It's one of my favorite places in California! Fruit is my favorite food, aside from desserts of course, and they have so much fresh fruit that you can't find in Maryland. One stand had 15 types of nectarines, plums, and pluots, and you could try samples of each one!

In the afternoon, we went to Sky Zone, an indoor trampoline park, for the first time. It was so much fun! I hadn't realized how tiring one hour of trampoline jumping could be! It was definitely a workout.

There were a bunch of trampoline pads, even on the walls (which I am bouncing off of in this first picture)...

 And a foam pit! It took me a while, but I mustered up the courage to do a flip!

On Sunday, we had a huge Chinese lunch with my extended family in San Gabriel, and then we all went to my great grandmother's house to hang out. At the end, we had a family photo shoot. 

Later that day, we went to a complex with some Japanese stores. First, we decided to check out a Japanese $1.50 store called Daiso Japan. Cute Japanese things for only $1.50!? It doesn't get much better than that. It was way cooler than any dollar store I've been to! They sell almost everything you could ever want and things you never knew you needed. I had to try really hard to control myself.

I got some bento boxes and grapefruit lip balm. Ella got bento boxes, silicon cupcake molds shaped like hearts and stars, origami paper, and many erasers (including food shaped erasers and an electric eraser, which I didn't even know existed). Now my mom's worried that we're expecting adorable bento lunches, like the ones below. I can't believe that moms put so much time and effort into lunches! I would feel bad eating it...

Totoro... (http://www.annathered.com/)

... pandas... (http://www.susanyuen.wordpress.com/)

... and piggies! (http://dailycuteness.com/)

We also went to a Japanese grocery store next-door to Daiso, called Mitsuwa. My mom spotted this delicious looking drink... Yummy. Who wouldn't buy that? Maybe something's lost in the translation.

There were also some very large beer bottles and Pocky boxes in the drink section...

We spent all of Monday at Disney's California Adventure! I saw the new Cars Land for the first time. They had cool rock structures that you probably recognize from the Cars movie, or the southwest.

In Cars Land, we went on Luigi's Flying Tires, which was like bumper cars steered with your body! There were huge beach balls to throw around, so after we threw our first one, we spent most of the ride chasing them down and unsuccessfully trying to reach them...

We also went on the Radiator Springs Racers. It's one of my favorite rides in California Adventure now! It starts with a nice, peaceful drive around the plateaus, and then you enter a mechanics shop where the other cars prepare you for a race. The best part is the end, where you race another car to the finish! Sadly, we lost the race. But, we were still going really fast, as you can see from my flying hair in the picture below.

My other favorite ride in California Adventure is Soarin'! We waited a little longer so we could sit smack front and center. That way, we didn't see other people's feet dangling above us. I love the pine smell when you're flying over the forest. It reminds me of Christmas time. :) 

We also went on California Screamin' for the first time. I used to be too scared to ride it, because of the loop, but both Ella and I were brave enough to try it. They launch you from 0 to 60 mph! Allison and I determined that they have very loud prerecorded screaming during the launch...

This is me, Allison, and Ella on the Ferris wheel. Allison and Ella wanted to go on the swinging gondola, so I tried it... It was much scarier than California Screamin'! The gondola swings almost completely horizontal, and it feels like you're about to fly off and plummet to the ground! Afterwards I felt pretty sick to my stomach.

You can see Ella holding a cute Dumbo stuffed animal. I won it for her at the water shooting carnival game! Yes, I was actually playing against other people. It doesn't matter that they were all younger than me... Anyways, I somehow managed to aim it perfectly from the very beginning. I was so excited! Nothing like the thrill of victory in carnival games.

We went to dinner at Flo's V8 Cafe. It looked so cool, just like the old style diner from the Cars movie! Ella was disappointed that the waiters weren't in roller-skates.

(http://www.pixarcarsworld.wikia.com/)

Tuesday was our tour of Caltech, which you can read about here!

On Wednesday, after a day to rest our feet, we went to Disneyland! It was a very productive day. We went on all of the rides we wanted to! I love them all... especially Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, Indiana Jones, Big Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain, and Splash Mountain (three "Mountains" in a row)! I was also happily surprised by Star Tours. I remember riding it a really long time ago with my dad and feeling really sick, but this time it was great!

Dumbo the Flying Elephant! It's always the first ride of the day. There's Allison and Ella in the first Dumbo and my mom and me in the second.

Here we are entering the mouth of a whale at Storybook Land! All the mini plants and houses are so cute.

 Here's me and Ella looking focused and determined on Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters.

 In Toontown, Ella and Allison took a nap on Minnie's rock-hard bed. How does she sleep on that?

 Also in Toontown, we took a ride on the Jolly Trolley!

As always, our trip to California included some excellent restaurants and snacks. Shout outs for Souplantation (aka Sweet Tomatoes in the south because maybe plantations conjure up some unpleasant memories) which I absolutely love! Musha which is a cool Japanese fusion restaurant with dishes like cheesy brown rice in a big slab of parmesan. And the always special Yogurtland!

Our trip to California was magical as always!

on tour part 2: pranks and shared bathrooms

My dad, aunt and uncle all went to Caltech in the '80s and lived in the same house, which I hear is the best house. Last time I visited Caltech, I was only 12 years old and was mainly focused on playing in the fountains with my sister and cousins.

This time around, it was all business. First, we went on a tour of the campus. My dad and aunt came on the tour too, so it was interesting hearing the perspectives of some alumni. Unfortunately, I don't have my own pictures of the campus because our camera broke at the beach. :(

The tour guide talked a lot about Caltech pranks. Two of the most famous pranks were the changing of the Hollywood sign to read "Caltech" in 1987 and the rewiring of the scoreboard during the 1984 Rose Bowl game to show that Caltech was leading MIT 38 to 9 when, actually, UCLA was playing the University of Illinois. My aunt commented that she must have been at Caltech during the Golden Age of pranks because both of these pranks happened when she was there.

(http://blog.allanellenberger.com/wp-content/uploads/hollwyoodsigncaltech2.jpg)

Then, the tour guide showed us his dorm room in Dabney House, which was nice to see since most tours don't show housing. It was a single with a loft bed, desk, sink and closet, and looked like a reasonable size for a single. In the hallways, there were shared bathrooms for men and women which seemed a little too progressive.

We also went into the lobby of the GALCIT lab, which is where my dad did his graduate research! The tour guide said that it's really easy for undergrads to find research opportunities, which is awesome! He said that the SURF (Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship) program was just like real research in that the students write proposals that get reviewed, and that 99.9% of them get funded. At that point, my mom whispered to me, "Yeah, except that 99.9% of grants don't get funded in the real world."

After the tour, we went to the information session. It was interesting, the admissions officer said that as long as your test scores are between their 25th and 75th percentile you should stop trying. What he didn't explicitly say is that their 25th percentile numbers are already insanely high.

Afterwards, we had lunch with my grandma at Green Street, which is near Caltech. I loved it! The zucchini bread was so good, and the dishes we had were fresh and delicious. I thought the flavor combinations were interesting, like papaya in chicken quesadillas.

summer of music

last week, i went to the orchestra camp at the university of maryland, called SYMC. i have loyally attended the camp for five consecutive summers now!

this was the first year that ella could do the camp, and it was also my last year. so, sadly, this was our only chance to go together. we got to have orchestra rehearsals and world drumming class together! plus, ella got me to carry her cello around...

as always, they had spirit days every day of the week. i will never be able to top the crazy hair day from my third summer at SYMC! it attracted so much staring and pointing... i have a picture of it in this post! i was only 12 years old!

after the auditions on monday, i found out that i was the concertmaster! it was an amazing way to end my time at the camp. i was a little nervous for the concert, since i had a solo in one piece, but it went really well and i was relieved!

here are some pictures of me and ella at the concert.

and here is a recording of one of the songs we played, which has my solo. it is called celtic roots by soon hee newbold.

the end of easy life

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.

cellorama

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

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)!