Winter Break

Winter break is in just a few days and I'm so excited. I just want these next 2 days to end fast.
So what am I going to do during Winter break? Well since my parents, well I mean my mom is super strict, she might not let me hang out that much, but she's going to be home the first week, and the 2nd week, my dad is going to be home. At least my dad is less strict, so I can hang out more the 2nd week. But the first week, I'm not sure what I'll do, but I am not going to stay home the whole week with her.
What I am hoping for is go Christmas shopping. I still haven't done that yet. I want to go to Westfield at San Francisco and shop. I'm probably going to go there with my friends because they want to hang out and the only nice place to go is San Francisco, especially for the holidays. If we could, I want to go to Japantown too and take Pika Pika pictures. It's super cute too.
And I won't be going anywhere. Probably some of my friends are going to go to Las Vegas or Reno or New York or somewhere for Winter break. I wish I could go somewhere but can't.
Alvin and the Chipmunks the Squeakquel is going to be out on the 23rd too. I want to watch that! It looks so cute! I watched the first movie last year and it was super cute! I downloaded the songs that were chipmunkified too. But I deleted them because... I don't know. I felt silly downloading them but my friends downloaded them too.
My birthday is on Monday of the 2nd week. I will be turning 16... A lot of people said I look too young to be 16 and they thought I was like 14 who's going to turn 15 instead. Anyways, I don't know what I will do for my birthday. My mom is going to be at work but my dad is home but I don't think he'll do anything. My friend said they want to throw me a party because it's my sweet 16 but I don't want to. Usually when it's somebody's birthday, they want a big party and invite so many people and want presents and stuff but for me, I'm not like that; I don't want a party; the last time I had a party was when I was in elementary school. Sure, it was fun because we had lots of fun and we were only kids but I don't know. And I don't want people giving me presents. Because since my birthday is only 3 after Christmas, and people go Christmas shopping anyways, then the Christmas presents can also be my birthday presents; not separate presnts. Maybe I'll have a party when I'm 18 or something. I'm probably going to hang out with Leon for my birthday though. I think we're going to San Francisco again too.
I just love going to San Francisco during Christmas. It looks so pretty! I remember there was a giant Christmas tree at Union Square. And the malls are super crowded, which I like. I want to spend the whole day there. And for new years too! I want to go to San Francisco! With Leon too! And I think my friends are going to San Francisco for new years too. If they are, I want to ask my mom if I can go with them. But she's probably going to say no, but I'll try convincing, because I really want to and I never did.

I think this week went by pretty slow. But today gone by fast though, because of the Winter assembly. I had a PE test that I probably failed; it was a vocab test. I left my PE folder in my PE locker so it was in there the whole week. I didn't get a chance to get my PE folder because we're doing bowling right now and we don't even go to the locker rooms to change. But I got the worksheet online and I studied for like a few minutes and after that I got tired and I fell asleep. or today's test, I used my common sense and hopefully I passed the test, because I learned all the vocab words last year in bio. 2nd period, Spanish, we had another quiz about the estar+participle thing and it was sorta confusing but I think I understand it. 3rd period was current life and we were in the computer lab working on our career portfolio. I'm almost done with that and we worked on it for 3 weeks in the computer lab. Next week we have to go to the classroom and learn about sex ed. When is the end of the quarter/semester?

4th period, we went to the 1st assembly and the Winter assembly was all about music. The people performing and playing their instruments were from the music department. I think they were pretty good. I really like the jazz band part. And the video was funny too! I still think last year's assembly was better though! After that we went back to the classroom and on our way back, Michelle had to use the restroom really really bad and we practically ran to the restroom. It was so funny because we ditched Ryan and other people going back to the classroom was watching us too. When we went back to the classroom, we watched the TED video about replacing body parts.. After that, it was lunch. Michelle, Katherine, Ryan and I were suppose to go to Michelle's house but her mom's friend was at home so we went to Hawaiian drive in. It took forever to get our food but we got it eventually.

5th period, we had a sub for O'Malley's class and everyone said she was super mean. Well, she kinda is mean but she looked nice. But nevermind, she Was mean after all. We watched the French Revolution video and took notes. It was kinda interesting because I was actually paying attention; usually his videos that he show us are boring, but I liked it because it was like a reenactment of the French Revolution. 6th period, I got algebra 2 and all we did in there was work. Usually we took notes from Mrs. Needham but today we caught up with our work and did extra credit.

Today was fast. Because the classes except 4th period was only 40 minutes. And there is one more week until winter break! I cannot wait! After that, we have finals. I really can't wait until summer vacation too.

Thanksgiving break has finally ended and the feeling of rushing to finishing my homework Sunday night was absolutely terrible. I mean, I did some of my homework during the week, but just finishing it Sunday night was not a good idea. I was also on the computer chatting with people, was on FaceBook, listening to music and watching TV. I am such a multi-tasker, but I am able to get my work done.

7:00AM of Monday came and I felt super lazy to wake up. The alarm from my clock rang and I turned it off and continued sleeping for 20 minutes until my mom woke me up. 7:20 AM; I still have time to get ready, because I live close to the school. I got ready until 7:45 and I walked out of the door and walked to school. It was freezing walking out of the door at seven again. I did NOT want to go to school. I wanted to stay in my warm bed and just sleep in again.

PE was my first period class and standing on the line of the gym about to do pacers made my stomach hurt. I felt so nervous and I couldn’t do 35 pacers. I can never do them anyways, unless they change it back to 25 or 30. I stopped around 26 and I was just too tired. 1^st period is over and Spanish 3 was next. I felt paranoid because I was afraid I forgot some of the Spanish words and I couldn’t do anything in that class. So Spanish was okay. Current life was okay. English was... I don't know. The sub was kind of weird. History was boring as usual. Math was pretty easy. School ended. I survived the first day back to school. I wish we got this Monday and Tuesday off since our Thanksgiving break started on Wednesday last week while others had the rest of the week off.

I am so excited for Winter break though! 2 weeks and 2 more days left. My birthday is on Monday of the 2nd week and I wonder what I'll do. I don't really want a birthday party so I think I will go to San Francisco with my friends and shop around at Westfield.

I bet those 2 weeks off from school will pass by quick. Whatever. I’m excited for break.

THANKSGIVING BREAK

Well on Wednesday, I did NOT watch New Moon after all. Instead, Leon and I watched 2012. It was pretty sad and interesting. After that we went to Chipotle and ate chicken burrito. Then we walked around until 3 because he had a dentist appointment, so that day went by fast.

Thursday, I stayed home and part of my family came over to my house for a big feast. The whole day my family were preparing food while me and my niece were playing games and walked to South Shore and back. When we came back we were still bored and don't know what to do so she watched Tom and Jerry while I was talking to people online. When food was ready, the rest of my family came over to eat. We had so much food to eat and all I ate was noodles and pumpkin pie... Then I was already full! I have such a small stomach! So while I was done eating, everyone else was eating and I played the piano for about an hour. Everyone else was still eating and talking and laughing when I was done so I stayed in the living room with my niece and watched more TV. When everyone was done, they started heading back home. I felt really tired afterward for some reason so I went to bed early.

On Friday morning, I had piano lessons because my piano teacher isn't going to be there on Saturday. And I was suppose to go shopping on black Friday but I couldn't because of my piano lessons. I wanted to have my lessons on Thursday but she rescheduled it to Friday afternoon but I was going to hang out with Leon again so I asked for 8AM. After piano lessons I told my friend Oscar to drive me back home because no one was able to take me back home because my mom had to work and I don't know anyone else who can drive. Oscar's so nice to take me back home! A little bit before 11, I walked to the theater and Leon was already there. This time I paid for our tickets =] We watched New Moon! There was a long line at the theaters and I hope all of them are not going to watch New Moon because that means there are crazy fan girls screaming Edward's name or Jacob's and that's kind of annoying. But it turns out not that many people watched New Moon. After, we went to Chipotle again to eat chicken burritos. Then went to Borders and read Manga, then Kohl's. After that we didn't know where to go so we went to the beach. Then it started raining and it was time for me to go home anyways so we ran back to the bus stop to wait for Leon's bus. When it came, I ran all the way home and I was soaking wet. So I quickly took a warm hot shower; it felt so good, I didn't want to come out. After showering I just did the usual stuff again: AIM, MSN, FB, listening to music, and doing my blog.

thanksgiving break!

After today, we have 2 more days until it's Thanksgiving break! But for other schools, today is the last day, and once today is over, their Thanksgiving break are gonna start. I wish our school would be like that too; what's the point going to school for just 2 days?
Anyways, on Wednesday I will be watching New Moon with Leon! He's going to come all the way from Castro Valley to hang out with me and watch New Moon with me. I hope it won't be too crowded in the theater for New Moon... well I hope not as bad as how today will be. I bet tonight there will be so many people watching New Moon at 4:00 and 7:00, or whatever the times are.
On Thursday is Thanksgiving day so I will be spending the day with my family. We didn't really plan anything for that day this year but I hope we will have a huge gathering with the rest of my family from Oakland and have a huge feast at my house. I haven't seen one of my cousins in so long and I really miss talking to him. There are so much to catch up with. I hope we go shopping too. I mean on black Friday. I doubt my parents are going to take me so I will just either go with my cousin or friends. My friends from Oakland wants me to go with them but my other friends from Alameda wants me to go with them. So it's going to hard to choose. But whatever, I just want to go shopping and staying up in line until the door opens.
After we're done shopping I will go home and sleep for a few more hours and then around noon Leon, Ethan, Connie are coming to Alameda (all from Castro Valley) and we're going to watch 2012. After that we're just going to hang around until the day is over.
Saturday and Sunday I will be busy, going to piano lessons and probably church.
So that's it for my Thanksgiving break. Then I can't wait for Winter break and then Spring break and then it's Summer again! =D

Yesterday; Veterans day

Yesterday was Veterans day and I thought I would be stuck at home doing nothing but homework all day. First I woke up around 8 and went online to check out some stuff and chatted with some people. Then I realized I got an orthodontist appointment around 4. I was sitting in bed with my laptop on my lap chatting with people until 10. I got out of bed and brushed my teeth and then ate breakfast with my parents and grandpa. After breakfast I played a little bit of piano when I saw my cousin outside my front door. "What are you doing here?" I said. My cousin said "LET'S GO SHOPPING!"
We went to Southland to shop until 3 something. We walked to Kohl's first and then Macy's. We saw this flannel top that looked cute but we didn't get it [yet]. Later we went to forever 21 and a whole bunch of other stores. We saw more flannels again but we still think the ones at Macy's was better. We walked all the way back to Macy's, but then we saw a stand with a lady selling calendars that caught our eyes. We spent 3 minutes looking at calendars and there were some that I really liked too, but of course I'm not gonna get some, Yet. After that we went back to Macy's to get those flannel tops. It was also on sale too.
After we bought our tops and other stuff from other stores, we went to get something to eat. We ate at McDonald's. By the time we were done eating, I just realized I still have my orthodontist appointment! We rushed back to her car and she drove me to the orthodontist in Oakland.
I waited almost 30 minutes until it was my turn... When I was done, we went to the Kohl's in Alameda to walk around and walk around South Shore. I bought a red Mickey Mouse jacket that I thought was very bright and cute. After Kohl's it was cold and dark so we went back home and my cousin stayed for the night.
After dinner, I had to START on my homework. I had a whole bunch of math homework and I had to memorize 3 paragraphs I wrote for my Spanish presentation. I finished my math homework first and then I studied the Spanish presentation; I also tried to say it when I was in the shower... and my mother heard me when she was washing the dishes...
Today, my presentation went pretty well. Today was pretty good, except that it was very windy. I thought today felt like a Monday at first, but by the end of 6th period, it felt like a Friday. We still have tomorrow of school until it's the weekend. And Veterans day felt like a Sunday while Tuesday felt like a Friday. This week got me kind of confused...
We still have tomorrow and the whole week of next week and 2 days until Thanksgiving Break; Why can't we have the whole week off for Thanksgiving break? Other schools has the whole week off............

After going through all my blog posts, I don't think I've improved much. Every week I think about a topic to write about but sometimes I just can't think of anything until the last day. While other people usually continue writing about their blog like a story, I write about something random every week because I can't stick to one topic. Plus I run out of ideas to write about if I stick to one topic. That shows I am really not a writer and I don't plan on being one.

I think my previous blog posts are not perfect but they're okay, I guess. I tend to write stuff that's not even related to the topic too; I ramble on and on about stuff and I'm not supposed to be redundant; I think I am but I try not to. I think I could do better than this but I just don't know what to write. Before I write in big chunks and now I am able to make my writing into paragraphs and write up to 300 words or more, and it's not even that much.

I even think writing this blog post is pretty bad too. After writing so many blogs for weeks, I still haven't improved in my writing and it's already the 2nd quarter of the school year; I wonder what improvements I will have by the end of the school year.

Writing this blog is making me feel bored because I'm procrastinating and multitasking at the moment. It's not even up to 300 words yet, and here I am rambling on and on about random stuff, trying to stick to the topic. This also shows I don't know what to write and just type whatever comes to mind.
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I feel like this topic is hard to write because I can't think of anything to write and I didn't have 300 words above yet. See how hard it is for me? I really hope I can improve by the end of the year and hopefully become an amazing writer some day.
Just kidding.

October 31st; Halloween!

2 days ago, I went to Bay Street, Emeryville with my friends Leon and Peter and 2 other girls, Rebecca and Rui Ren. I haven't seen Peter since I was in 5th grade! While he was in 4th. And he really changed a lot... I mean, he use to be this little smart and innocent looking boy whom I was taller than, and now he's like BAMMM, like 4 feet taller than me, I think.
We bought tickets to Surrogates but we watched Paranormal Activity instead. The movie wasn't what I was expected because it's only those two people filming the whole movie; recording something weird and scary happening to the girlfriend. It was so weird though. After the movie, my legs were shaking; not because I was scared, it's because it was freaky...
After the movie, we walked around Bay Street and went inside stores to look around. After that we went to Barnes and Nobles to get Starbucks and read for awhile. We ended up taking random pictures too. It was so funny... By the time i was already 5 something and I had to go back home fast to get ready to go trick or treating with other friends, so I called my mom to pick me up.
When I got home, I was getting ready. I dressed as a devil! I didn't really buy a devil costume, so I just wore a red shirt with black sleeves and short jeans with black leggings. And a pair of red Converses. The only devil stuff I bought at the party warehouse store are the devil horns, the pitch fork, tail, and a mask, but I didn't wear the mask.
Around 6:30, I met up with my friends Dina, Michelle, her brother Marbin, Nathan, Katherine, Alec and Ryan. We started walking all the way to Grand Ave, then turned back to Otis towards Park Street, and then we went to Quickly to get some food. We took a lot of pictures too. At Quickly, we saw another group of our friends dressed as... whatever they were.
It was already getting late so we waited for our parents to pick me up. When I went home, I had to wipe all my make up. It was so annoying because I don't usually wear eyeliner or eyeshadow, except for special occasions. When I was getting ready to go to bed, I started thinking about Paranormal Activity again and I got scared to go to sleep. I sucked it up and went to sleep anyways because I got my teddy bear and my blanky! All of a sudden, I woke up in the middle of the night and I couldn't go back to sleep, thinking about the movie again! That movie got to me... I think I just laid in bed for probably half an hour; a long time... I tried thinking of something else except the movie, but I just couldn't. It was around 3 AM. Instead, I woke up and went on the computer and watched a little bit of TV and I ended up staying up for the rest of the morning.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

During the night of homecoming, I watched Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs in 3D. I think it was a pretty cute movie. I didn't really need to wear the 3D glasses though. Anyways, this movie is about a guy named Flint Lockwood who loves inventing stuff. When he was kid, he invented spray on shoes, but it turned out he couldn't take them off so he's stuck with it forever. When he grew up, he tried inventing a machine that can rain food! No one had any faith in him, not even his father and his father though he was an embarrassment because it failed.

He tried and tried again, and then something fell out of the sky; cheese, pickles... Hamburgers! Now everyone thought it was totally awesome and it's so cool. His father owns a Sardine store and now since people don't need to buy food anymore because it's raining food, everyone can just eat out of it for free, making his father lose his business.
Everyone wanted to request something to rain out of the sky causing the machine to get busted. But Flint doesn't even know so he keeps doing it. He likes the weather girl and she likes him back and he made a giant jello from his machine and they went inside it and had so much fun bouncing on it. I thought that was so cool and I wanted to go in there to jump around too.
The weather girl knew something bad was going to happen to the machine so she told Flint to stop, but he didn't listen because he was working with the mayor who can make him have big money. In the end, he listened to her and everything sort of went back to normal because his machine broke. Him and the weather girl fell in love (not like they were never in love) and the movie ended in a happy ending.

Brian Cheng & Robert Tong

Brian Cheng and Robert Tong both go to Skyline High. They're two completely different people yet they remind me so much of each other for some reason. And they don't even look like each other.
I met Brian during Summer school at Laney when we were taking Mandarin with Katherine. We had to do a group project presentation and Brian and another guy Andrew was in it. Brian is super funny and hilarious; he's such a total dork. I only met him for about 5 months and I think I know a lot about him. We always talk on aim and we tell each other stuff that's been happening lately in our lives. Also he is super SMART... especially in math. I always ask him for help for my math homework.
I met Robert Tong during pre-school, but I never hung out or played with him. I'm always with my friend Vicki, who also goes to Alameda high now too. I reunited with Robert when one of our friends Leon invited me to go to Water World with them during summer. I thought to myself "Hmm... he looks familiar." I didn't really talk to him though because I was mostly with Leon, Kelly, and Shirley. We were also hanging out with a group of guys too; there was around I think 7 or 8 guys? I don't know. I don't really want to count them right now.
When I came home, we added each other on facebook and Robert and I started talking and I asked him did he go to Yuk Yau pre-school? And he said he doesn't remember me until he looked at the class picture. Too bad I lost my class picture. I can't find it anywhere. It's suppose to be in my red giant photo album but it's not. :(
Both Brian and Robert are super perverted guys online but I wonder how they're like in real life, but I like how Brian and Robert always talk to me on aim and always make fun of Leon. Leon barely goes online now because he has internet issues. It's so funny. I don't even see them anymore but I hope one day we can hang out again, and maybe with more Skyline people too.

Rain

It's been raining so hard yesterday; I can't remember Alameda ever raining this hard. So in the morning, it was already raining super hard, and I was hoping it wouldn't rain that hard in the afternoon, so I wore a thick and warm cotton jacket, jeans, and Vans (yes, I know I'm not suppose to wear Vans during a rainy day, but I had nothing else to wear). My mom drove me to school and by the time I got out of the car, I was about to step into a puddle... then I tried opening my umbrella and it was so windy, it was hard to open it, and it wouldn't open up all the way, so I assumed the umbrella was broken.
When I went inside the school, I was already wet. I stuffed my umbrella in my locker and got out my Spanish stuff. I had to hold my Spanish textbook and my Spanish dictionary. When I got into the girl's locker room, I'm already soaking wet. After PE, it was still raining so very hard but Asmita and I walked in the rain anyways.
During lunch time, my friends Sandy and Michele went to Starbucks and we shared Sandy's umbrella because Michele doesn't own an umbrella... So we had to squish each other while we speed walk. After lunch we walked to the foreign language building because it was the closest building from Starbucks and Sandy had Spanish next. Michele and I had to walk all the way back to the main building. I walked into my math classroom and took off my jacket. I couldn't put my jacket on the chair because all the desks were really close to each other so I had to hold it, which made my lap even more wet. When class was over, I fixed my umbrella and Sandy and I walked home. Our houses isn't that far from school, but it still took awhile because of the rain.
When I got back home, I dropped my stuff and left my wet shoes and umbrella outside my house to let it dry and I took a nice hot shower. After my shower I felt better started on my homework and the usual stuff.
Today, I was ready for the rain; I wore my waterproof jacket that's very warm and Jordans instead of Vans. It was raining really hard early this morning, but when I went outside the house, the sky was clearing. During school, there was a bit of sun too. I saw a lot of people that wore coats and boots, but there was no rain. What a day...
I wonder what the weather will be like tomorrow. Gray skies but no rain? or super hard raining? Ridiculous weather were having here.
I remember in the beginning of summer of 09, it was super cold too. But some days it was super hot. Then super cold again; this is what I call bipolar weather.

Hi pipsqueak!(Michelle was here!)

Halloween!

There are 3 more weeks till Halloween. I already see people decorate their front yard with decorations jack-o-lanterns, tombstones, spider webs and scarecrows. Then on Halloween night, kids dress and go to people's houses and TRICK-OR-TREAT! I bet there are some people who think trick-or-treating are for little kids and they're too old, but no one's ever old to go trick-or-treating! Right? Sometimes teenagers and even adults dress up and go out. Most teens dress up, or they don't have to if they don't want, and they go out during Halloween night and hang out. That's what I did last year :]. I wonder what I'm going to do this year. I might dress up, but I don't know what to dress up as yet. I'll probably think of something during these 3 weeks. And then hopefully if my parents will let, they'll let me hang out again this year. I found out that the homecoming dance was on Halloween too. I kind of wanted to go to the dance, but since I found out it’s on Halloween, I’m not sure anymore.
I remember when I use to live in Oakland, I've always wanted to go trick-or-treating but the neighborhood I live at is really quiet and not that safe and no one ever trick-or-treated or even decorate their house. But I wasn't really that upset about it. But one Halloween night, I remembered I went to Washington Park and there was a a Halloween party or parade or something. It was so cool and I was dressed as a little witch, it was so cute too. When we moved to Alameda, during Halloween, there were so many kids trick-or-treating and they rang our door bell, and we didn't have that many candies, so we gave them all the candies we had including gum, because in Oakland, there weren't trick-or-treaters in our neighborhood, so we didn't know. Then I called my mom and told her to buy candies! By the time she came home, all our candies and gum were gone. That night was crazy though. But I don't know about this year yet...

Defining Racism: Tatum's Article

(1.) […] In almost every audience I address, there is someone who will suggest that racism is a thing of the past. There is always someone who hasn’t noticed the stereotypical images of people of color in the media, who hasn’t observed the housing discrimination in their community, who hasn’t read the newspaper articles about racial bias in lending practices[1] among well-known banks, who isn’t aware of the racial tracking[2] pattern at the local school, who hasn’t seen the reports of rising incidents of racially motivated hate crimes in America—in short, someone who hasn’t been paying attention to issues of race. But if you are paying attention, the legacy of racism is not hard to see, and we are all affected by it.

This paragraph is the only paragraph that I annotated most in. It's the first paragraph and I think it's the most significant because Tatum stated that "someone will suggest that racism is a thing of the past" well, no it's not. There is still racism everywhere; all over the world and there's still racism in the US. During the period of 1960, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made his I Have A Dream Speech, and people think racism ended after he made his speech, but it didn't. "There is always someone who hasn't noticed the stereotypical images of people of color in the media, who hasn't observed the housing discrimination in their community..." I guess that means that people don't even pay attention to anything around the place they live at. If they don't, what do they do?

Ryan Huey

Hi, I'm Elaine Tam, and I am sitting in my school's media center next to a very boring person, and his name is RYAN HUEY! =] did you know it takes him over an hour to eat his dinner?! But he is very smart...... He is in love with Harry Potter; he looks like the Asian version of him!
He is slouching on the chair next to me while I am typing this blog post. All he can say is "wow" in a very boring tone. And he is now blinking his eyes at me and Michelle. Both of our reaction is just laughing while writing this! And he says "WOW" again! He is now looking through a bunch of vocab words..... now he is typing up his blog. And now I have to pee from laughing so hard! He is now scratching his nose, but he says "my nose isn't itchy!" He is now talking about not getting his blog done because of us! He thinks Michelle is very weird and Elaine went somewhere else. Michelle is now reading and laughing for no reason. She's a very smart girl! I am now back, sitting next to the very boring and plain person, RYAN HUEY! Now he is reading this very weird blog post about him. He is on his second paragraph and now he turned his computer screen away from us! Booo! Oh he has blue braces.
Now he looks so serious, I think he's getting annoyed by Michelle typing this! He used to play the piano, that is why he has long fingers. Now he's editing his work on Microsoft word! He just saved the document.
It's almost time for lunch so I better finish this post about RYAN HUEY which is very random but I need to get it done for English class. He's being really mature about this because he isn't getting mad. I assume he doesn't mind me typing this. :)

my Childhood...

I lived in Oakland since I was born and then around 7th grade, I moved to Alameda.
First off, I want to point out how sad it is for people to forget their childhood. I can’t believe how they would forget the most important period of their life. Well, what is childhood anyways? For me I would say it’s a time when you’re spoiled and can get whatever you want, playing with the girls during recess, avoiding the boys, because they might have cooties, or have crushes and will not tell anyone about it, come home everyday from school and watch Arthur and Dragon Tales before starting your homework, always had nap times, always go down to LA and Disneyland and most importantly, you didn’t have to worry about a single thing. At least that’s what it was like for me back then.
Starting of middle school, I had a journal that my friend gave me and everyday I wrote in it about my day and what happened and what I did. I actually finished writing in the whole thing too. I had other journals that I write about random stuff in but I feel like this journal my friend gave me was, in a way, very significant, but I have no idea where that journal went.
Now it’s only the 2nd year of high school and I already have so much to worry about. Sometimes it’s driving me crazy, but I guess it’s okay. I wish I can still relive my childhood though. Sometimes if I have time or in the mood to take out old photo albums, I would sit on my bed and reminisce the good old times I had with my friends and family. I wish I can have a time traveling machine and I can either go back in time or go to the future (only because I’m curious). Since I can’t and I can only move forward in time, I guess the only thing I can do is just look through my old photo albums and just think about the good times I had.

Ponyo!

Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea. is a 2008 Japanese animated film from Studio Ghibli written by Hayao Miyazaki, the academy award winning director of Spirited Away.
One day, 5 year old Sosuke finds a goldfish stuck in a bottle and decides to keep as a pet and named it Ponyo. What Sosuke doesn’t know is that she’s actually a princess who wants to become human. Her father is some kind of wizard and her mother is a goddess. Ponyo uses her father’s magic and transformed herself into a human and falls in love with Sosuke. Ponyo’s father, Fujimoto, summons the waves to get Ponyo back. Ponyo’s mother, Guranmamare, said Sosuke is going to be tested if he really loves Ponyo and can protect her. Sosuke promises to protect Ponyo and she kisses him while turning back into a girl again!
This movie is the most adorable movie ever! I’ve watched other films from Studio Ghibli but Ponyo is the cutest one so far. Even the theme song is very cute. Ponyo and Sosuke are 5 year olds and it’s so cute knowing they’re in love with each other! This film is so magical and uplifting. It sort of reminds me of The Little Mermaid and Finding Nemo. I think Hayao Miyazaki is such a genius. I love his movies! I am looking forward of more movies from him. I really wish I can get the DVD of this; doesn’t matter if it’s in English or Japanese. I found the DVD of Ponyo at a Hello Kitty store and I wish I could’ve bought it. Oh well, maybe next time. But if I had the DVD, I’d so watch it everyday. But eventually I will get tired of it… but that doesn’t matter because eventually I will want to watch it again. Also, I printed out the sheet music of Ponyo’s theme song so I can play it on the piano! After watching this movie, I want to watch all the movies Hayao Miyazaki wrote! :]

Statement of Purpose

After learning piano for 7 years, I still fail in writing my own music. A lot of my friends can make up their own music with a base that matches the melody or listen to a song they like and then compose it. I can't do that. I've tried and I still can't make the left hand match with the right hand. Sometimes I even go on YouTube to look for tutorials but it's too hard for me, so the only thing I do is look for the sheet music on the internet then play.
Other than making up my own music or learning by ear, I still have piano lessons that my teacher gives me books with pieces to play which I think is very boring. I'm also currently learning exam pieces. Right now I'm in the 5th grade. There are 8 levels. My teacher said I can skip 6th to 7th because it's pretty much the same thing. I've taken the 5th grade exam last year, but I failed it; I couldn't get a 100%, instead I got a 90 and I still didn't pass. I think it isn't fair because 90 should be considered as passing and I can't believe I have to retake it again. When I found out I didn't pass, I got so upset that I started procrastinating by playing the songs I print out, therefore I barely remember how to play the exam pieces. I'm disappointed in myself, but recently I thought to myself, "Come on Elaine. Get it together now. You almost passed it, just keep going!"
After school, I practice piano for an hour and I have to admit that I've improved a lot too. Hopefully the next time I take the exam, I'll pass and won't have a super strict judge.
Even though I fail at almost everything about piano and hate the songs my piano teacher gives me, I still love it so much. This is probably a gift I've found about myself. It's also perfect to help me to be calm. Hopefully I will pass 8th grade before I graduate high school and maybe in the future, I can teach kids how to play piano too. :)