I am a mess.
Fall quarter needs to end NOW.


Gettin' into the holiday mood. Check it out, Mohinder with antlers. Aw yeeeeuh.

Vi a New Moon el miércoles con Michelle y la película era una buena adaptación del libro. Muchas chicas chillaban siempre que Edward o Jacob entraban la pantalla especialmente cuando Jacob se quitó su camisa y mostró su tabla de chocolate. Fue muy divertidísimo.

El jueves, almorcé con la familia de mi papá y finalmente me encontré el perrito de Grace. Se llama Marley y él es muy muy lindo y pequeño. Esa noche, fui a la casa de mi abuela para la cena. Horneé el bizcocho de chocolate con galleta dulce de mantequilla en el fondo. :)

Ahora, estoy tratando empezar un ensayo plagiarado para TCS que necesito entregar el martes. Tengo que escribir ocho a diez páginas…no es tan bueno.

También, ¡arreglé mi horario para el próximo trimestre! Ahora voy a tomar una clase de arte—iniciación de video de cinco a ocho por las noches de los martes y los jueves. También, tomaré una clase de film de la guerra y vamos a mirar las películas de seis a nueve por las noches de los miércoles. Yay, clases nocturnos…

Oh oh oh y voy a estudiar como especialización secundaria el español. Realmente. Yeah...yeah.

Pues, ¡espero que Uds. hayan tenido un día de Acción de Gracias espectacular! ♥

( En inglés... )

I've been listening to John Mayer's Battle Studies almost continuously ever since Michelle gave it to me on Thursday. The more I listen to it, the more I like its variety of songs. I'm even more excited that I get to see him in concert during Spring Break in SJ! :) :) :)

In other news, I am sick & I have a Spanish test tomorrow and a paper that's due on Tuesday. I hope to finish more than half of my paper by tonight...ugh.

I believe this is the most overwhelming quarter I've ever had so far (out of the measly four under my belt). Every week day I wake up at 7:30am to give myself enough time to shower, eat breakfast, and bike to my Spanish class at 9am. On top of that, from Tuesday to Thursday, I'm on campus from 9am-9pm (if I don't go home to eat lunch).

And because I'm on campus a whole lot more this year, I've found places where I can study/read comfortably i.e. a lounge in the MU (student center) or a table outside of the Sci Lab building.

To get to the point, I am freaking tired. I usually try not to complain, but dayum am I tired. I actually fell asleep reading on my bed yesterday. Scattered books and pens, earphones still in my ears, contacts still in my eyes...but I think my roomie helped me out because when I half-woke up, I realized there was a blanket draped over me and my stuff was on my desk. Very sweet of her. <3

Things that made this week not-so-miserable? Core, a coffee date, and friends, especially those that I haven't seen in awhile! I'm having lunch with one of the freshman girls from core tomorrow (sweet!) and DCF has a themed dinner event this Saturday. "What did you want to be when you were a kid?" A pediatrician. I have no idea how I'm going to dress up as one. I just might make a stethoscope out of construction paper.

Let's hope next week will be a better week.

(Ooh and I bought my first pair of TOMS! Barletta Cordones!)

I moved into my apartment on the 6th! My parents, my aunt, and Michelle helped out and we ate sushi for lunch after organizing most of my stuff. Oh and for those of you who don't know, my apartment is about 1.7 miles northwest of campus. A little far, but it's manageable. I have my trusty Giant mountain-bike-turned-road-bike to get me around the city.

I stayed in Davis after I moved-in because DCF had Pre-Fall Retreat last weekend. I thought it'd be best to stay if I wanted to ride with them to the retreat in Concord. So five nights in Davis. I cooked a big pot of spaghetti on Monday, hoping it would last me until I left for retreat. But it didn't. Sadly. So I had to cook ramen, rice, and spam. My friend actually killed all of the spam I cooked because I couldn't finish it all...I didn't wanna leave any unfinished food at the apartment.

Anyways, pre-fall retreat was pretty freaking awesome. It was held at Bruce Borjesson's ranch near Mount Diablo--complete with horses, rattlesnakes, a three-story house, and an amazing view of the valley. About 50 people came and we spent the entire weekend planning for orientation week, training core facilitators (cofas), and just reconnecting with each other and with God. We painted posters, signed up for volunteer work, assembled letters for incoming freshmen, and played games. I also went to a couple of cofa training sessions since I'm going to be a purposeful attendee for one of the girl core groups in Tercero. I get to help out the two cofas as much as possible! Exciting, much? I can't wait to meet all the freshmen girls, but I just pray that I can connect to all of them on a personal level.

So after a weekend of delicious food, games of Ninja, and tons of worship and prayer, I came home on Sunday because I had a dentist appointment yesterday! In fact, I had to get my (only) two wisdom teeth extracted. Oh yeah, and I had to fill two cavities as well. They did my fillings first and then they pulled out my teeth...so I was given about 10-15 shots of local anesthetic in all. It was wonderful. It truly was because I didn't feel any pain when they were taking my teeth out. I just closed my eyes and listened to them do their thing.

When I got home, it was incredibly difficult to talk with all the gauze in my mouth. And once the anesthetic wore off, I had to take painkillers because my mouth began to pulsate with pain. Knocked out for a bit (yay Hydrocodone!) and ate a not-so-satisfying dinner. My diet has been limited to chicken noodle soup, apple sauce, ramen, and rice with soup. As for the swelling, it worsened over night but I'm trying to keep it down with ice packs.

Going back to Davis next Sunday and I hope I'll be recovered enough by then!

Good news.
I came home from Hawaii on Thursday night! The trip seemed unusually longer than it actually was. I stayed at my cousin's hotel in Waikiki for two nights and I stayed at my cousin Harlyne's house in Kailua for the other four nights. Harlyne took us around Oahu, which I loved because I had the chance to see so many other cities besides Honolulu and Kailua. My cousin Abe had his wedding on Sunday! The ceremony was very simple and sweet, and the reception was held at the bride's aunt's restaurant. DELICIOUS FOOD. BEST FOOD I'VE EVER HAD AT A WEDDING. A FUSION OF JAPANESE AND HAWAIIAN, OMG. Also, I went to the beach a couple of times and to a luau where I rode in a canoe.

Bad news.
Tuesday morning, I woke up with a mild sore throat. It worsened as the hours passed and by the end of the night, I had a fever and the chills.

Good news.
I went to a Longs Drugs at 1 in the morning with a jacket on (because of the chills...I must've looked crazy wearing that in the warm and humid weather) and bought medicine, tissue, and cough drops! Thankfully, I'm getting better...I just have a lot of phlegm now.

Bad news.
It seems there may have been a phone charger mix-up amongst my cousins and I. Long story short--I have no idea who has my charger and whose charger I have; therefore, my phone is dead.

Bad news.
I didn't get the cashier position at the UCD Bookstore.

Good news.
At least I'll have more time for homework and studying!

Good news.
I've been catching up on Heroes S3. I can't believe I actually liked Sylar for a couple of eppies. And I liked him with Elle, too. But Nathan is getting on my nerves. And Peter is gorgeous.

Good news.
I'm moving back to Davis in two weeks!

This is pretty legit. Jon Schmidt's "Love Story meets Viva La Vida"! :)

Ever since I watched the pilot of Glee a couple of days ago, I've had "Don't Stop Believin'" stuck in my head. Which led me to discover the awesomeness that is Sam Tsui, teehee.

Other than that, things have been pretty chill. I went over to my cousin's house on Thursday night to work on the slideshow for his upcoming wedding and I didn't go home til 5:30 in the morning...ended up making a late-night run to Carl's Jr. and singing old 90s hits with Jordan. Love it. Although my body probably hates me for eating those fries. Yesterday, I hung out with Kelly, Christine, and StephT! We went to Sky High, had lunch at Macaroni Grill, and walked around the mall. It felt good being out of my house for once. Afterwards, my dad took me driving around Trade Zone. My turns have gotten better, thank goodness. I can tell my dad isn't as nervous as when I first started driving, hahah.

Ooh and I applied to be a cashier at the UCD bookstore on Tuesday night! They called back on Thursday asking me to come in for an interview next week, so yay! Thank you, dad, for having no problem with taking me up to Davis for an hour-long group interview! I should find something else to do while we're there just to make the trip worth it.

Also, I think it's pretty cool how I've known this person for only ten months and I already feel like I'm going to be friends with this person for a really long time.

Monterey Bay Aquarium yesterday! The last time I went was eight years ago, so it was pretty sweet seeing everything again. Reminded me of how I once wanted to become a marine biologist!



Oh and I guess I'll list my summer goals/plans as well! :)

1. Finish reading the Twilight series.
2. Two family weddings! One in SJ and the other in Hawaii.
3. Fellowship in early August?
4. Get my permit and license. Forreals.
5. Finishing reading the New Testament.
6. Get ready to move into my apartment!
7. DCF pre-fall retreat in early September.
8. The Lucky Penny?
9. Find a job hopefully.
10. Annual cousin sleepover!

Two of my friends had their wedding in Davis today! Seven of us had the wonderful opportunity to help the food coordinator with everything. We cut all sorts of fruit and placed them on platters, diced apples and onions and baked them with sausages, cracked 240 eggs to make french toast casserole, opened bottles of sparking apple cider...there was A LOT to do. We were always running around the kitchen and making sure platters were being refilled. And as for clean-up...pretty gross. Hundreds of plates had to be scraped off and cleaned, glasses of water and apple cider had to be emptied...thank goodness, for the sweet lady who came to wash practically everything! All in all, very fun yet tiring day! But never again will I wear 3-inch heels for roughly 8-hours straight!

Ooh and I finished New Moon in like 58 hours! I stayed up til 6:30 in the morning the other day to finish, hahah. But I'm going to have to wait til I can read the next two books because my sister doesn't have them with her right now. :(

These past few days have been utterly amazing.

Friday
-Math live review session brought to you by the Student Housing television production interns! Even though I don't know all of the interns very well, I really am going to miss seeing them every week. This is the internship's last year of existence. :(
-DCF Senior Night! I love the seniors and our anthem, LOL. Went out for pizza after!

Saturday
-My parents came up to drop off some stuff I need to move out i.e. luggage. We had lunch at Noodle City, where we seriously ate so many freaking noodles, omg.
-DCF end-of-the-year party at Will's house! Yummy food, Lyla the cute golden retriever puppy, a talent show, impersonations, Marc Stevens.
-Spontaneous decision to go see Tyler Hilton in Orangevale with Andrew! Keaton Simons opened and he reminded me of Gavin Degraw! Tyler was amazing. "You'll Ask for Me" ♥

Sunday
-Rode to church with Lotty and Michelle!
-Watched Private Eyes for my acting class. Steven Dietz is a genius.
-Dinner at Thai Bistro with the floor mates! Everyone looked nice and gahhhh, lovelovelove. I'm going to miss everybody.

Monday
-Attempted to cook lumpia for my core group, but the pan I was using failed. The rolls kept sticking to the bottom of the pan, so I wasted like ten. I just gave up. But I baked a cake for Lotty's birthday!
-Last core in the Arboretum! Lotty and I led core and it went well. I looooove coooooreeeee.

So I've been thinking of minoring in Spanish because I truly enjoy it. But then earlier this week I had doubts because my Spanish-speaking skills are sucky and I stumble often when I talk. And then I went to my instructor's office hours yesterday and I felt so nervous because I've never talked to my instructor one-on-one in Spanish before. I kept responding to her statements with "yeah" or "sí" because it takes me awhile to formulate sentences. I even apologized to her for being so nervous (in Spanish), hahah. But she said it's fine. It's natural. And she told me that I should go for a minor. So maybe I will go for a minor. It'd be sick to be able to speak Spanish fluently.

That is all. Back to my research paper.

I took a Spanish test today and for one of the sections, I had to create a sentence with the words that were given to me.

Given: Rigoberta Menchú / hacerse / agotado

(Rigoberta Menchú is a Guatemalan human rights activist who despised the military in Guatemala because it killed thousands of innocent people.)

I had no idea what "agotado" meant. And so I just guessed that it meant "agitated" because they sound alike! I came up with this:

Rigoberta Menchú se hace agotado cuando los militares matan los guatemaltecos.
Rigoberta Menchú becomes agitated when the militaries kill the Guatemalans.

I looked up "agotado" in the dictionary a few minutes ago.

It means "exhuasted".

Rigoberta Menchú se hace agotado cuando los militares matan los guatemaltecos.
Rigoberta Menchú becomes exhausted when the militaries kill the Guatemalans.

WONDERFUL.


In other news, I am running on two hours of sleep because I stayed up last night to write a portion of my soc paper. Horrible writing. I'm absolutely sure of it. But whatevs. I can't wait to go home tomorrow! SMT IS SELLING SNOW CONES AT THE BERRYESSA ART & WINE FESTIVAL! ;)

Last Sunday, I went to my first film shoot! My friend from internship and FA had an idea for a FA commercial, and so he had a shoot on this big grassy lawn in the middle of campus. I went primarily to see what a film shoot is like...how different shots are set up, how the director of photography (DP) utilizes the camera, how the director takes control, etc. Oh and I also had a minor role as an actor! As a whole, the shoot was a pretty eye-opening experience. Filming is such a fun, yet tedious process. We were out there for a good 3-4 hours for a 1-2 minute commercial. Totally understandable though because it was one of my friend's first times directing. I really wanna try being a DP in the future...it may be what I want to do as a career...

And last Tuesday, Bridge outreached at Laguna Creek High in Elk Grove. We had a workshop for them during their after-school Filipino club and next week, we're having a workshop on Filipino cuisine and desserts. We're going to make halo-halo, which is a mixture of shaved ice, milk, red beans, lychee, coconut, jell-o, fruits, and lots of other stuff. :) I can't wait to get to know all the students and I'm glad I'm settling into Bridge!

I like being busy. Even though it's stressful, I like having something to do.

Picnic Day, an annual "open-house" campus event, took place yesterday! There was lots of food, music, department activities, animal events, and PEOPLE, ESPECIALLY PEOPLE. Supposedly 50,000-60,000 people flooded the city of Davis! I started off my day by helping out at the DCF house. We sold pizza and soda for lunch, so I helped set up for that. After, I walked around campus with Christina and Ben. We watched border collies herd sheep, ate liquid nitrogen ice cream, looked at the sun through a telescope on the roof of the Physics/Geology building, and watched terriers and other dogs race through obstacles. My parents came around 12:45pm and we ate lunch on the quad. I showed them around the DCF house (yay!), took them to the Plant & Environmental Sciences activities 'cause they like plants, and TRIED to get into the Doxie Derby (hot dog dogs race), but it closed thirty minutes early. After all that, we just chilled in my dorm and ate ice cream 'cause it was super hot outside. They left at 4pm and around 6pm, I had dinner with Christine, her cousin, and her cousin's two little boys at Applebee's. And that was my day. :)


Physics/Geology building interior

3:47-6:30



I did this is in Intro to Acting today (minus the guilty confessions and high school drama) and the first thing I thought about when my TA introduced it was Mean Girls...hahahah. It was one of our trust exercises! Our TA had us catch him, too, and he's 6+ feet tall and weighs a good 200 pounds. Fun stuff!

¡Hola! Voy a escribir un asiento en español porque quiero practicar la lengua. Pues, la primera semana del trimestre primavera está terminando y creo que lo fue muy relajante. No tuve mucha tarea y pasé mucho tiempo libre caminando por el campus. Sobre mis clases, los me gustan más o menos. DRA 010, que es la introducción a actuación, es muy divertido. Mi instructor actuó en un drama de Shakespeare se llama el Cuento de Invierno y lo vi el trimestre pasado. Él tuvo un parte primario—fue el rey de Sicily se llama Leontes. También, él es un actor famoso en los Estados Unidos y sus especialidades son improvisación y comedia. De todos modos, hacemos yoga antes de actuar en la clase. Mi instructor nos dice que el yoga nos ayudará a concentrarse y relajarse. Después del yoga, hacemos actividades de teatro. El primero día de la clase, actuamos la escena apertura de Romeo y Juliet y lo fue muy divertido.

Mi instructora de SPA 021, español intermedio, es una americana y su acento es diferente de los de mis instructoras pasadas. Su acento no es muy hispano y ella enuncia las palabras, pero está bien. Yo le comprendo la mayor parte del tiempo. Muchos estudiantes en la clase se parecen viejos…creo que no hay muchos estudiantes de primero año. En la clase, hay más literatura y aplicación de la gramática.

El tema de SAS 005, ciencia y sociedad, es bosques y sociedad. Se parece divertido, ¿verdad? Pues, la clase es buena, pero es desorganizada un poco. También, no es muy grande. Sólo hay setenta y cinco estudiantes más o menos. Aprendemos sobre la historia natural de los árboles y el primero día de discusión, caminamos por el Arboretum. La clase se parece muy divertido y relajante…tengo que hacer un collage más adelante en el trimestre.

Mi profesora de SOC 003, problemas sociales, es una alemana y su acento es fuerte un poco. La clase es interesante, pero espero que mi profesora explicaría algunos términos. Estoy confundida a veces y ella tiene muchos muchos muchos ejemplos que no los comprendo. Mi TA es una alemana también y el primero día de discusión, ella no es muy organizada. Eh, yo no sé. Espero que esta clase será divertido.

¿Qué otras cosas hay? El martes, fui al gimnasio y corrí una milla alrededor de la pista e hice seis y medio millas en la máquina bicicleta. El jueves, fui a la casa ministerio de DCF para limpiar el patio porque el Día de Picnic es en dos semanas. Rastrillé hojas con Jesse y Lotty y después, toqué la guitarra en el pórtico por sobre una hora. !Hacía sol y me gustó mucho! También, yo cené con Christine y Monique porque era el cumpleaños de Monique. Fuimos a un restaurante coreano y la comida fue deliciosa. Y después, fui a la casa ministerio de DCF para relajar y luego, fui a la primera sesión de Bridge del trimestre. Es una organización que ayuda los estudiantes de la escuela secundaria y los estudiantes de UCD…los filipinos especialmente. Las personas de Bridge eran muy simpáticas y generosas y me sentí muy recibida. Vamos a una escuela secundaria en dos semanas en Elk Grove, pero si quiero ir, necesito conseguir una inyección de tuberculosis. Ayer, fui a DCF y después, había una fiesta en la casa ministerio. Comí mucho chocolate (era muy malo para mi salud) y encontró personas nuevas incluida un hombre que asistió a la escuela secundaria de Live Oak en Morgan Hill. Aparentemente, jugó al fútbol americano y su equipo venció a Independence ese año cuando no ganamos algunos partidos, hahah. Y hoy, Christine y yo fuimos al mercado de los labradores en el centro. Había muchas muchas muchas personas, frutas, vegetables y varias comidas. ¡Debo ir allí más a menudo!

Pues, he escrito este asiento por más de dos horas (con distracciones). Era difícil un poco, pero me divertí. Hay muchos errores probablemente...lo siento.Y también, yo no sé si tengo un resfriado o si tengo alergias. Estoy estornudando mucho, pero ¡nunca he tenido alergias! Mehhh. Pues, ¡hasta luego! ¡Me encanta español! :)

( En inglés... )

Winter quarter was...okay. I feel like if I managed my time more efficiently, I could've done way better. I began to regret packing my Mondays with classes, internship, and core because I didn't have much time to do homework that was due the next day. I'd come home from core at 10:30pm and would stay up til 1am or 2am to finish my homework. I always had a lot of free time on Tuesdays and Thursdays because I ended before 12pm, but I usually didn't get a lot of work done. Meh, whatevs. What's done is done.

One thing I really really like is how the material I've learned in my classes interrelate. In ASA fall quarter, we discussed ways in which Asian-Americans are stereotyped. Last quarter in DRA, we talked about how stereotypes influence performance. We even read the play "Yankee Dawg You Die," which is about two Japanese-Americans who are constantly asked to act as stereotypical Asians in Hollywood. And then in my writing class this quarter, we read Nietzsche's "The Birth of Tragedy," which talks about Apollonian and Dionysian art, and how chaos and structure need each other to exist. My group performance for DRA dealt with structure amongst chaos and I didn't realize I had already learned this concept until after my performance while I was writing my report. I don't know, I just think it's freaking awesome how everything interrelates.

I also grew closer to my DCF family, which I'm very grateful for! There are so many awesome people in DCF and I'm glad I had the opportunity to meet some of them last quarter. I'm really happy that I'm growing closer to my core group, too! Every week we hung out with a different person and it was really cool 'cause we would just have lunch, hang out at the park, or just chill and talk to get to know one another. Sledding in Truckee and brunch at Matt's were definitely fun, too. :)

Next quarter, I plan on joining the film club Filmmakers' Ambitions and hopefully BRIDGE! I really want to get involved with high school outreach, but I don't know if I can join because meetings are on the same night as FA's meetings. :/

That's all from me for now! Hope everyone's enjoying their Spring Break! :)

Unless my professors miraculously decide to change their minds, I am scheduled to have three finals on the same day next quarter.

DRA 10: 8am-10am
SOC 3: 10:30am-12:30pm
SPA 3: 3:30pm-5:30pm

lsdkjfwoies I'm trying to find a class to replace SOC 3 with 'cause I don't HAVE to take it. Oh goshhh, I'm going to die if I can't change anything. ;_;

In other words, it's Spring Break. I spent my first full day of vacation with Em, Joy, PJ, and Rochelle. Pinkberry, Paper Source, Subway, Jubilee. Suh-weeeet.

ETA: Okay, okay, I might replace SOC 3 with POL 1 (the final would be three days after DRA 10 and SPA 3). But because lecture conflicts with my SAS 5 discussion on Thursday, I have to change my SAS 5 discussion to Friday from 4:10pm-5:00pm. Gross. That means I can't go home early. :(