Birthday~!

Maggie, Hoang, Lily!! April babies!!
Bernadette and Maggie cyber bullied
me to make a wish list so here it is...

BEN BARNES:


YAMAPI AND HIS MOVIE "KUROSAGI"


HYUNJOONG


:] kekek ... yes, all the "bad boy" looking guys.
all right.... something out of my dreams then...

• a day where I can hang out with all my friends and take Ulzzang style pictures!!!!!
• A card with pictures of me & my friends I can put up in my college dorm ;)
• Bernadette's personalized design (that I can turn into a sticker and stick in my dorm!)
  
• win the basketball tournament on the 24th
• do well on the practice AP exam for econ on the 25th
  
• have a nice day out with my friends @ Glendale AFTER the tournament
• Barnes & Nobel gift card (Borders is dying)
• JoAnn gift card (I never leave that store without buying anything)
• YesAsia gift certificate~!
  
• the KMF concert ticket I gave up (-cries- $180. I gave it back to Nancy)
• Pretty notebook where I can scribble my stories in~
• The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
• A room with pink, white, blue balloons everywhere on the floor (like so)
• Drama/movie: Case Closed, Kurosagi, Nobuta wo Produce
• Ear phones.... my last one didnt even last 5 months
• A surprise party :D lmao. (jk. maybe in college...)
• pens & pencils (yes, I am serious)

ANGELABABY TYPE OF BIRTHDAY... AND HANG OUT WITH HER :P

Earthquake

So funny story.

Yesterday in fifth period, Jennifer, Binhuang, Danhong, and I were sitting around talking about college acceptances. Jenn and I were saying how we haven't gotten into UCI and we need to pray as much as we can for it. Go to temples, pray to ancestors, Buddah, etc. Binhuang joked that our prayers wont be answered if we ask too much and they'll go "Aish, so noisy! You disturbed my sleep, go away!" So last night... I prayed twice and I was answered by a 4.4 earthquake at 4 in the morning. I even had a dream about being accepted! It's as if I was answered with "In your dreams."

Happy Birthday Mr. Brewer!

So yesterday while I was on the fieldtrip, I got a text from Jiaying informing me about a surprise party for our AP English Lit teacher. The class was pretty empty (considering most of the students were on the fieldtrip). They planned out a "surprise party" and I let the others know through facebook (power of internet). For a last minute party, this worked out really well! I got names of people who were chipping in for the cake and told Hoang, who went to buy it. It was a beautiful cake. I had to hold on to it during second period. My drawing teacher wanted the strawberries (choco covered strawb) and kind of made a scene in class about the cake. Anyway, I thought of an idea before the whole surprise party thing. The night before, I was thinking... if we bring the food into class, he'll suspect something. So we might as well go in all at once. I IMed people and tagged people in facebook notes, notifying them to meet out on the school balcony. During nutrition, Marbella and Daisy were finishing up the ceviche (omg delicious <3) in Cardoza's class while I ran around looking for Olga and holding the cake. I stepped out onto the balcony and I was surprised--a lot of people were actually there. We had someone stand outside Brewer's class and directed everyone to the balcony without making it obvious. Nutrition was before class so it was a good thing. Instead of lining up and getting food, we were out at the balcony signing the birthday card and getting things ready. The bell rang but we didnt go in yet. We waited for EVERYONE in the class to come outside. I actually told only the people with food, but this was even better. The tardy bell rang and we got ready to go inside. I was in the front, holding the cake. We got inside to light the candle and saw Mr. Brewer wandering around the hall looking for us. That was the best part! He was looking around wondering "where'd my whole class go?...is it fourth period or something?" it was so funny. Too bad he wasn't in the class where we could've made a "surprised entrance." But this was good. We walked down the hall, the whole class singing HAPPY BIRTHDAY. He literally backed away with his hands up in the air haha. I'm glad we were "the first class to celebrate" his birthday. We spent the rest of the period eating ceviche and cake instead of reading for Hamlet, haha. Yay! Happy birthday to the lucky "13" beanhead :P Apparently he was born on the 13th weighing 13 pounds with 13 people in the room. When the bell rang at the end, after he said "thank you," he joked "It's not actually my birthday, guys." Hahaha. Anyway, yay! Last minute surprise party was a success!

Fieldtrip

So on March 11, 2010, our econ class took a fieldtrip to the Federal Reserve Bank in downtown. We took the bus and since it was my first time on a public transportation, a lot of people were like "No way!" "Aw, you're growing up," "Ohmygosh, are you scared? There's hobos and it's very dirty" and other jokes. Our teacher sat in the back and then walked up to the front to talk to the bus driver. Then he came and stand next to my classmates and me. He looked down to talk to Helen, who was sitting in front of me and the lady sitting on the side kept looking at them, probably thinking "...why is that creep talking to a kid?" Haha. So when Lucy, friend sitting next to me, joked "Mister, Lily is scared and she's crying." I turned to her and said, "Shh, do we know him? Don't talk to strangers." Haha, but it was good. When we all got off the bus, we headed to FIDM, a fashion school before heading across the street to the FRB (since the tour hasn't started). We took pictures, walked around, did a "photshoot" and yeah. We headed to the FRB after and boy... I have to say... that's the most money I will ever see in my life. A football field size room with money inside. The room literally had scent of money. There were bags of moneys everywhere! After the tour we got a bag of shredded money and did a survey. After that, we walked to Macy's plaza to eat and I wandered around in circles about five times before getting my food. I didn't really know what to eat so I just got Cali rolls and an ice cream after that. Then we walked to MOCA (museum of contemporary arts) and if I wasn't interested in art, I would've been complaining the whole time. The rooms were sooo spacy with only an art work on the wall. It was quiet and some artwork were... weird. But hey, that's what makes it art. From a canvas of blue paint to a canvas with random lines. There were about ten to fifteen guards--one in each room. I would be bored if I were them. After MOCA, we walked to the bus stop. When the bus arrived, we all tried to fit but since there were other people there, only some of us could go in and the rest had to wait for the second bus. I was one of the people who had to wait for hte second bus. Well, it was a good day :)

Second blog in a day?

I was just re-reading letters from fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh grades from my friends. I remember how I used to love writing and reading letters so much I asked my friends and even my brother to write me some! I have kept them until now and the box is overflowing. It's nice to pick out a random letter from the box, open it, and read it.

Anyway... so...

my friends and I use to talk (we still do) about how we don't have connections to anyone famous... or well... the ones we are fans of. It turns out I do have connections. It's just I am not fans of them. Who are the celebrities? They are Asian American [youtube] artists. There's Cathy Ngyen, Jennifer Chung, AJ Rafael, Legaci, Andrew Garcia (American Idol), Jenny Suk, and some other people. Turns out my cousins are friends with them! Pretty cool.

Uh... what else...

My econ teacher: "Do you know why Hello Kitty doesn't have a mouth? Because she speaks from the heart." And he points at his chest. This is after he says Hello Kitty doesnt have a mouth and she can't kiss, etc. Funny, funny. He has a hello kitty wallet (given to him by Marjee--his student) haha.

Okay... bye.

Rant

All right, so here is another rant. My morning didn't start off too well. Was I sad? No. Was I angry? Very. Why? Because I was called "white-washed" by my friends. Friends who should know that I am in no way white-washed. They say I am white washed because I don't know how to speak Chinese when I am. I really think you guys don't know the definition of someone who is white-washed. For your information, I cannot speak Mandarin or Cantonese but I can speak another Chinese dialect and I can speak khmer. I read mangas and even collect them. I watch dramas instead of those TV shows like "Gossip Girls" or "One Tree Hill" or whatever. I dislike those. I prefer cpop, jpop, and kpop over American songs most of the time and I hate rap. Many time, I prefer eating Asian food (Vietnamese food, Chinese food, and Thaif food specifically) over fattening American food such as steak, burgers, pizzas, fried chicken, etc. I dislike stores like Hollister and American Eagle (I have my reasons) and I love "fob" style (from Japan, Taiwan, Korea). Out of my cousins I am considered the "very Asian" one. Even my parents ask me why I am so into Asian stuff unlike everyone else.

White-washed is forgetting your own language and culture and tries to act like a white person to gain acceptance and completely forgotten their culture. Now tell me... what part of me makes me white-washed? At least I am proud to be Chinese instead of wishing I was Korean or Japanese or Thai or whatever.

Bye.

Lunar New Year

I should be reading for psychology and econ but instead, I am blogging. On Lunar New Year Eve, in the afternoon, I prayed for my grandmother and later in the evening, I headed to my uncle's house to pray for my great grandparents. My cousins and I played a game called "Game of Things" and it got very... disturbing? It's basically like "Scenes From a Hat" from Whose Lines is it Anyway. You draw a random card and on the card it has questions like "Things that make you go 'ahh'," "Things that you would not say to your grandmother," "Things that you wouldn't want to be allergic to," etc. and then the READER has to read everyone's answers out loud and everyone has to guess who wrote what. Unlike my cousins, I had to put "innocent" answers so in a way, it was easy for them to figure out which was mine. Lizzie, Jenn, Ivy, and "yall" might think, "What?! Lily? Innocent? Are you sure we're talking about the same person?" Anyway, that whole week, we went to my aunt's house and we did what any other Chinese family would do for Chinese New Year--eat and play cards!

I remember years ago we would spend Chinese New Year at my uncle's house in Solano (old house) and everyone would be in the living room. We'd sit in a circle playing cards and laughter echoed the whole room. The guys would be playing some kind of card game on the kitchen table and they would shout and scream (only because they were excited). All the kids would play eat, play cards, light firecrackers, throw pop-pops, etc. But now, those "kids" are in college (and some already graduated). This year's New Year seemed a bit... quiet and lonely. I like Lunar New Year because it's the only time the family could get together almost everyday for a week and just hang out.

This past weekend, I was at the Chinatown Lunar New Year Festival. On Saturday, I walked down with my brother and watched half of the parade (or maybe it was less than half) then I left by myself to the festival where I stopped by the YUCA booth. Then I walked around and saw Maggie helping out in the "Taste of Korea" tent and she asked me to go buy her food after I bought five bags of seaweed for myself. Hey, it was pretty cheap so why not? I asked Dennis and Trinh if they think they'll need a volunteer for Sunday second shift (since I need hours and I want to participate in the festival) to which they said sure (yes!). The stage for performers were super high! I spotted Yuqi, Lilly, Linda, and others watching "Legaci" performing so I stood with them and recorded the performance. They were really good! I looked around and spotted this guy watching the performance and girls went up to him to take pictures and such and I thought "hm, was he one of the performer?" and turns out he was. I didn't really know who he was but Steven mentioned his name and I checked him out on youtube and I love his covers.

The next day I got to volunteer. Trinh put me at the YUCA booth where I helped out with bracelet making and coloring. What was so cute is this little boy colored a drawing for me and Andy Le. After staying in that section for quite a while, someone from Taste of Korea asked Trinh for two volunteers and I volunteered to go because I was getting tired of staying in one place. Faith (another volunteer) and I followed her to the Taste of Korea tent and she explained that the two of us will be "bodyguards" for the Taste of Korea mascots (picture from top). At first, Faith and I thought WE were going to be the mascot, which would have been funny. Our job was to "talk" for the mascot. So when people would go up to take pictures with them and ask them question, WE have to answer for them and get those people to check out the Taste of Korea tent. We helped a lot of people take pictures with the mascots and even asked those hesitant people if they wanted to get a picture. I had a feeling they wanted to take a picture but didnt know if they could--I know that feeling--so I asked "would you like to take a picture with them?" And they quickly nodded and fished for their camera. Then I saw Nathan, Chris, and Phillip standing around so very stylish that they stood out (thats how I noticed them) and asked if they wanted to take a picture with the mascot. Either Nathan of Chris said "uh... sure" so I was waiting for them to take out their camera but they didn't have it with them. So one of them pointed to my camera and I said, "How am I suppose to send it to you?" And Chris said "Facebook!" So I took one of just the three of them and then I joined them (picture from top).

So after finishing up the "bodyguard" job, I returned to the YUCA booth and had to help out at the bracelet/coloring section again. I had no idea where the volunteers went because at one point it was only three volunteer left and then me. I was literally there alone at the YUCA tent. It went from about ten volunteer plus Dennis and Trinh to just me. After getting some slushie and crepe, Dennis and Trinh returned and was wondering where everyone went. Psh, well aren't they lucky to have me there (just kidding)? So it was 4PM and it was Jennifer Chung's time to perform. Since there were no kids at the bracelet/coloring table anymore, I asked Trinh if I could go get some pictures of Jennifer Chung and she said "sure" so I watched the performance for a while. After her performance, some YUCA people (so that's where you all went), went to take pictures with Seriously and Jennifer Chung. I popped out from behind the YUCA people and said hi to Jenn and told her "hey, I'm __'s cousin!" and she seemed surprise. "Oh my god, it's nice to meet you! I have to hug you" and I was thinking in my head "uh no... I have to hug you!" I never listened to her songs before except that day of the performance. One of her songs touched me and almost made me cry. After taking a picture with her and talking to her, I took pictures with Seriously. Then seeing that Chris and Joseph were wearing short sleeve, I asked if they were cold. Chris replied, "cool?" And I said, "no, cold." Then I realized he was joking when he said "cool? Yeah, I'm cool." And i responded with scoff, "you wish."

Anyway, my this is a long entry.