Wow, it's been how long since I've been here? I think I have solidly moved away from Xanga, which is Sutter/teenage angsty memories for the most part. It's so crazy how time passes by. I came here originally looking for some angsty bitch rant about a then-jerk in freshman year but then I started drifting off to other entries. Mother Theresa, they all seem so long ago!

Anyway, hello. And probably goodbye. Go visit the livejournal if you want to keep up with my uneventful high school life. I think other people's problems make my life exciting, which is sad.

Sophomore year did not end on a good note.
Summer did not launch on a good start.
I'm not looking forward to this vacation as much anymore.

So my parents are back home now, which means I get to go out again. Yay?

Friday night was the the celebration of Ghana's 50th anniversary (and some other African speakers) at CSUS. It was definitely not what I had expected... both negatively and positively. There were a whole lot more Africans and adults than I had expected. The few of us who went together were the only Asians and students there. The speakers were not as inspirational as I hoped to be, except for Mr. Kafele Alemayehu who started preaching the minute he got on the podium. The rest of the speakers, even the famous Ali Mazrui, just really bored me to death. They were given a quote from Ghana's president Kwame Nkrumah saying something along the lines that Ghana's independence does not equal to the total liberation of Africa. Everybody basically just responded with a monotonous 10-20 minute speech. Starace didn't even show up.

Satuday night was Kao's 18th birthday party. We went out to Buca di Beppo by Arden for dinner, but our plans afterwards were a MESS. At first, they wanted to go laser tagging at Country Club but for some reason, we ended up going to Crestview Lanes for bowling. It was 9:00-ish by then. We had about 30-ish people there and we needed 4 lanes. It was a Saturday night and it was jam packed. So we decided to leave and go to RuRuLaLa for karaoke. When we got there, it was already 10:30 and we had to wait for an hour for a room (I also saw Lydia and her friends there, which was kind of weird). They didn't want to wait so they decided to go to the drive-ins across the street to watch a movie. The other two cars left to get food and my carpool with Dason, Melody, and Pachia drove to the drive-ins. We stayed there for about 15 minutes until somebody called and told us they were still at RuRuLaLa hanging out because the movie didn't start until 11:30. Pachia's mom was my ride home and she was picking us up at 11-ish so we decided not to go. I got home at a little bit before 12.

Talk about wasting gas and hurting the environment. Basically, 5-8 was dinner (although Pachia and I were late by an hour because "I took too long"). 8-the rest of the night, roaming around Sacramento county. Pachia and I were the youngest ones and didn't know anybody except for the birthday girl and her best friends (and even then, I still don't really know them). 3/4 of them didn't even go to CKM. It's rather awkward to see some of those people at school and then you don't know what to say to them after the party. I was pretty surprised at how nice my mom was about me staying out so late. BUT! I won't do it again. On the bright side, I curled my hair for the first time ever! And I did enjoy the night... it just wasn't exactly what I had in mind.

This morning was the Lunar New Year celebration at my church. Saw Lydia and a few of her friends again. I think they thought that I was out of high school by now. Haha, I don't blame them because I looked rather.. early-20's today. Went to the library to find nothing I wanted for Mr. Wong's term paper. Even though I didn't have a whole lot of homework this weekend, I feel like I wasted this whole weekend when I should be homeworking.

I am getting quite nervous. I missed the CAHSEE exit exam because I was terribly sick that week and went home during the middle of the English portion. I get to make it up this month but I pray to God that it won't show up on my transcript as I failed the CAHSEE and have to retake it so I can graduate. Argh.

Everyone, go watch La Science des Rêves (The Science of Sleep). I can't really describe this tinkly feeling I got after watching it but it's definitely a good sign in my book. I really liked how the movie just ended like that with no conclusion. The intermix of dream and reality - loved it! And Stephane's character was really enjoyable. Now not only do I find Gael extremely attractive, but I also adore his acting skills.

I really want to watch Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
and I still want to watch Y Tu Mama Tambien.

"In dreams, emotions are overwhelming."

This is kind of lame: today was probably my first time watching television shows from channels other then MTV, Disney, or VH1. I went on ABC, KQCA, CNN, the HISTORY CHANNEL, the DISCOVERY CHANNEL, etc. Man, that felt so good. I ended up just staying on ABC and watched Grey's Anatomy for two hours. I've always felt kind of behind not watching Desperate Housewives, Lost, or other series everybody else watched and I thought if I start now, it's too late. But, I was really drawn to Grey's Anatomy and I didn't feel left behind at all. Even though I had no idea the relationship between the characters or anything, I knew exactly what was going on. Yay! I really do need to stop watching stuff like The Hills, I Love New York, or That's So Raven. I feel dumb watching them.

I've taken a greater appreciation for my culture. HISP has definitely done something good for me. I've became a whole lot more open-minded this year. Learning about Africa/Latin America the first semester and then Middle Eastern/Asian culture this semester - I love every bit of it. Mrs. Varnum had us do this project where we had to show the class our philosophy of life and I noticed a lot of people put family/culture/religion in it (I did too). I think for the first time in my life, I took pride in being Chinese. While I was doing my presentation in class, I felt so comfortable telling them, "Yeah, I am Chinese and my family speaks Chinese," I was really glad. I've never felt Iike this before and it's a good feeling, a really good feeling. I wish everybody could experience it. I found it even shocking that so many people took pride in what they have. All of the presentations in class moved me in some way - it was pretty crazy.

I just feel really grateful for everything and everyone right now. And I want to show them how much I appreciate them.
Goodness, sometimes my optimism goes overboard.

P.S. I really like this Gigi Leung song (梁詠琪 - 一人幾票) I've been listening to. I listen to this song almost every single day this whole month. It would've been so perfect if I got to travel to Hong Kong all by myself but unfortunately, it didn't turn out so. Actually, I have no idea what the lyrics says, I'm just judging by the title. Haha. I surprise myself sometimes with how much Chinese I actually remember.