There are a few certain things I have came to adore from/at Elite...

Car rides to and from Elite have been especially enjoyable with Natalie and Andrew. Playing "slug bug" and "yellow car" with them have been hilarious. The tendency to flip through radio stations has cause us to randomly sing our hearts out to whatever is playing at the moment. Last but not least, our talks are hysterical. Today our talks ranged from "Tutti Fruit" to "cows" and then to "trains"... You just have to be there!

Slow and steady wins the race! Despite my score not extremely leaping to 200 points better than the first (unlike others), it's still an improvement, and I'm definitely happy about it. If this continues, my SAT scores will end up being extremely better than what I first started with.

All in all, my teachers are pretty cool. They're cute, friendly, and funny. I love their personalities and the way they dress. They're really helpful and make sure we understand everything. I love the staff at this institute too!

My classmates are so chill, and I love that about them. They make my environment comfortable, so even if I make a stupid mistake, I don't feel horrible about myself. Even with my random outbursts, they just laugh it off and aren't surprised at all.

Another week has passed, yay! Hello weekend, am I glad to see you. Two and a half days (counting right now) to do whatever I please. My, does that sound relaxing or not?

P.S. I miss having my "summer" life. People, come save me already! ):

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6:45AM: My alarm rang. Ugh, just let me sleep in until like what, 10? 11? I'M TIRED.

6:51AM: *dial tone
T: You didn't call!
K: I was going to call you at seven.
T: I told you I was going to set my alarm at 6:45.
K: You never told me that...
T: Yeahhuh.
K: Noo..
T: Yeahhuh!
K: Noooo..
T: Oh, okay. So... should we pretend like this never happened, and you call me back in like 10ish minutes.
K: Okay, bye!

7AM: *Sunshine in the Rain ringtone plays
K: Hi!
T: Hi. I am unbelievably tired.
K: Wake up.
T: No.
K: Shower!
T: No.
K: Sunshine, wake up.
T: I'm tired.. What should I wear?
K: Uhhhh. I don't know? A polo.
...
K: I didn't sleep yet. I wanted to stay up to call you because I knew if I went to sleep, I wouldn't wake up until 1PM or something.
...

7:10AM: I went to shower and brush.
7:25AM: I got out of the shower and finished brushing.
7:30AM: I left the house.
7:37AM: Arrived at Nat's house.
7:45AM: Left Nat's house (by the way, thank you for giving me an endless supply of snacks, HAHA)/pick up Andrew.
8:20AM: Arrived at Elite.

8:30AM - 12:15PM: Took a mock SAT test, essay and all. Dude I could just like shoot someone. The first 6 sections were okay, but on the last section before the seven minute break I started fidgeting. Then, after the seven minute break, I felt a little refreshed BUT there were times I had to tell myself that I was almost finished. The sections got shorter though so it wasn't that bad. I never realized how long 25 minutes would feel... I thought it would feel much shorter to complete each of the sections. Well, my mental stamina is still in summer mode or something, but it was mentally tiring to take that test!
12:15PM-12:45PM: We walked to the stores across the street. There's a tapioca place in some Asian place, so that's a bit comforting to know. Maybe we should go exploring and see what else is around there. It was nice to be done with the test.
12:45PM-2PM: We were split into five classes. I'm in a class with Kim, Andrew, and Natalie! Our teacher's name is Paul McCullough - new at Elite and a college English professor. We were given our 2000 vocabulary cards, binders, and bags while waiting for our tests to be graded. Did two icebreakers and finally ended up just going through the answers and questions, not so bad.
2:30PM: Daddy picked us up, dropped Andrew and Natalie at their houses, went to Lucky's to buy milk, and I came home at 3:40PM.

Honestly, wow. I was really up to this, but I am extremely tired already. I hope I get my stamina back or something. Fifty vocabulary words a day, test the next day, and on Monday a 125 vocabulary test.

Seven weeks and four more days to go. I can do this! It should be worth it in the end, so I must persevere. In the meantime, someone plan some nice short hangouts for me when I get back the rest of the week.

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Ever since summer started, I've been out. A lot. Like, out as in I've been out 7 out of the 10 days summer officially started (starting Friday). Recap?!

Thursday: SCHOOL ENDED, hello, I feel good. I just wanted to scream, seriously, HAHA. Congratulations Chaboya's Class of 2009! We went out to eat at Pasta Pomodoro after their graduation.



Friday: It was nice to just sit back at home and just... relax. Man, after a year of hard work, it just felt great to have messy hair sitting at the computer in shorts and an oversized t-shirt and waking up at 10AM. I did some APLit homework. Then, I cleaned a bit, and it felt great to just throw out all of my work, HAHA. :)

Saturday: We had another movie day with the Kelvins and Vy at Vy's house. We watched How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days, which was pretty funny. The guys walked to get pizza nearby and Hitch started to play. The parts that I did watch were hilarious, HAHA, but I didn't get to finish the movie, so that's another goal for me to complete!


Sunday: My aunt/uncle, two cousins, family friend and their sons, dad, and I went to attend my brother's piano recital. The kids were adorable and has talent! The potluck after wards was pretty good too. We came home, changed, and headed over to my cousin's house for Anthony's graduation/belated birthday party. I saw a whole bunch of '08 kids again along with Michelle, a whole bunch of incoming freshmen, and a whole bunch of family friends. Lakers vs. Magic finals, more food, watching them play 2K9, and just talking. Pretty fun!


Monday: I'M SORRY I COULDN'T GO TO THE BBQ YOU GUYS. ): But know that I miss you Chaboya kids greatly! (P.S. I told you to move it and make it a potluck! I still love you Kevin, HAHA.) It was another day at home for me, and it consisted of me webcamming with Natalie and Matthew, online shopping, wanting to go shopping for the Urban sale, and all of that sorts. I finished some more of my APLit homework, and yeaah. Chill day!

Tuesday: POOL PARTY! My first crossed off item on my to-do list. (: I woke up feeling extremely excited because one, I got to see a whole bunch of people, two, it'd be a great time, and three, because I haven't been in a pool/swimming in a long time. I went over to Kelvin's house around two-ish, watching people play Rockband. Then I ended up playing Rockband and switching off with people. Hung out with Sam for a bit, trying to scheme up a plan to get people wet, HAHA. Went back up, played Rockband for a little bit more, went outside, WATERFIGHT. None of the people there got me though, even though I got people wet, darn. Calvin, Kelvin, Michael, Vy, Lena, Robin, Kelvin, and Zach were just sitting around in the jacuzzi talking and joking. Most of us jumped into the freezing pool, but it felt nice after sitting in the jacuzzi for so long. I went in showered (with Lena ;D just kidding, HAHA), and went downstairs and ate yummy food. Took pictures, watched the guys play ping-pong, headed over to Ravenswood around nine to play capture the flag. We all walked back to Kelvin's, watched the guys play Halo, had good talks with Lena, and went home. What a day. :)




Wednesday: Late night webcamming with Natalie, Matthew, Brendan, and Sean. Then, never ending shopping with my mom, seriously. HAHA, woke up at 10AM and headed over to Valley Fair. We shopping until 2:30PM, and then we went to piano. Piano was... alright, it'll get better! After piano lessons, we went to Great Mall to shop for a bit mall, and then came back at almost 7PM. A lot of grrr and rawr after, but I'm glad we fixed that. It was tiring!


Thursday: Babysat, and then I went "running"/walking to visit people, but it was definitely a good exercise. I dropped by Kelvin's house to grab some food, play some ping pong, Egyptian War, and Speed 2. I will get better at it! Then I ran/walked back to EVHS, and Vy picked me up to get dropped off at the other Kelvin's house. I got a drink of water, had a good talk with Vy, then walked back to my house. After showering and freshening up, I went over to Calvin's house. I watched them play cards, ate, watch them play Xbox, then went over to Carolyn Clark to play some capture the flag, watch the guys raid some incoming freshmen's basketball game, infection, walked back, talked, watch them play some deadly ball game (HAHA), and more Xbox. It was a fun but tiring day, seriously.

Friday: Natalie came over, and I almost locked her out of the house. Sorry, I'm just really... deaf, HAHA. It was nice catching up and talking with her. She went home around 6:15PM, then I waited for a bit for my cousin to pick me up to go to Jason's birthday dinner! I saw most of the '08 group again, and it was just a really funny dinner. We took pictures, left to pick up Anthony, then went to Eastridge to watch The Proposal. It was a cute and funny movie, I liked it! I came home around 12:15AM, and stayed up to 5AM in the morning talking to Lena, HAHA. Yay for fun talks.



Saturday: We went to visit some family friends. It was alright, I was kind of bored, but that's mainly because their two sons is like my brother's age. Other than that, it was nice!

Happy Father's Day!

And here I am, blogging on Sunday! I'm not sure how we're really going to celebrate Father's Day if my mom's working... but hopefully we'll do something. I love summer so far, it's been extremely eventful. Elite is starting tomorrow, and I'm kind of sad that the rest of my summer won't be exactly as my past week, but I know it won't be so bad as school! Hopefully. I'm excited for this summer. :)

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1st period - Mr. Diaz, I will see you for one more year. Spanish class was still extremely fun as always, except just a bit harder. People picking on me and all that good stuff, thanks a lot! Learning another language is pretty difficult I have to say, but I know you want the best in learning. Mr. Diaz, you taught me a lot of life lessons and to embrace the world more, giving back and what not.
2nd period - Honestly, it was hard sitting through this class and it wasn't until the end of the year that I started to enjoy myself. The first half of the year just had me extremely annoyed at people who just wouldn't shut up, but as it went on, it just became funny. I had a lot of great laughs that eventually kept me awake, and the labs started to get more interesting. Now, I can honestly say that I'll miss you, Mr. Cheadle, and your class!
3rd period - English class felt really unproductive this year, which just didn't make me try as hard. As second semester rolled around, I felt it was a bit more productive and I had more fun with the people I worked with. There's always this funny smell to this class, but oh well. I guess in the end, thanks for making me more aware of my surroundings and for teaching me to be more creative with my writing, even though I still really despise writing poems. I felt extremely accomplished when I finally got an A on my poem and my research paper, but it sucks that it had to be the last one of the school year.
4th period - I never thought switching instruments would be so hard. I hated going to this class, cried over this class, stressed over this class... Man, I guess I've come a long way, haven't I? I still get those jittery nerves, but at least now I know I'm able to play in front of a full house and be comfortable with my classmates. This class taught me to get over my fears and to let my time shine, and that helped me - a lot.
5th period - Actually, I looked forward going to this class the most. It meant that I survived fourth period, and it meant that I'd be cracking up throughout the whole class period. To the people that gave me such a wonderful time in class, thank you! To Mr. Advincula, you are definitely one cool teacher. You never backed down on your grading system and made us try hard, plus you were pretty helpful. Honestly, the only thing I could say that I hated this year was how I got a C on ONE test and it brought my A+ down to a B+, WHAT THE HELL, HAHA. Our laughing matters and us picking on you can never be matched, and I hope you'll miss your 5th period the most.
6th period - Ms. Mohan, you gave me a taste of dreadful work. Man, half of the time I felt like I knew nothing in your class! You're such a great teacher though, you have no idea. Despite me never feeling ready for anything in your class, I felt ready for the AP test. You knew the way to drill me, you knew the way to review... yeah. HAHA, gosh, I remember the first time I ever walked into your class, you told me and Hannah to stop laughing. I remember dreading your class the most, but you turned out to be a pretty cool teacher and the class turned out to be pretty fun. I'll miss your class and thank you for preparing me for future AP classes to come.

Accomplishments this school year: INTERACT treasurer, CSF secretary, playing my solos perfectly at the last concert, learning how to play the oboe, Battle, 11:11, sticking with (mostly) everything I've done, being more active, meeting more people, trying new things, chopped off my hair (after like, almost 10 years of having long hair)... (:
(These are the things I remember right now, so most likely more will be added over time.)

Looking back, this year was pretty bittersweet. The beginning of the year just seemed lovely, and then a lot of things happened after that. I'm not sure where that leaves us now, but everything happens for a reason, right? I have no regrets. There will always be the what ifs, if this happened, but you know what, this was an interesting year, and next year will just be better. There were a lot of significant things that happened this year, whether it was good or bad, but you know, it has made a huge impact on me and has made me who I am today.

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Things/people that made my week:

yearbook! <3

nice colored Sharpies, HAHA

dinner date at The Cheesecake Factory

Tapioca Express runs AND IN&OUT

One more week to go! You gotta' do what you gotta do. (:

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