"they're crazy, they're like ninjas." -wp

today i woke up at 9 after i went to bed after a few webisodes of funemployed via youtube at midnight. even though i slept for nine hours, it wasn't quite restful sleep. i don't understand how after two weeks, i am still sufferinggggg. i ate a mango and some of grandma's dessert soup from last night for breakfast. kevin and i played geosafari and then sims 3. we made the weasly family so he could have some friends for the potter family. then we watched mulan! all while i downloaded a million ibooks on my ipod (all the classics and jane austen heheh) and kevin suspiciously asked what i doing. grandma made us noodles with shrimp, mushroom and bean sprouts. so yummy, i ate the food like it was crack... one bowl after another. then, i took a walk around 4:30 and caught up with so many people on the phone. it was so lovely talking to natalie and discussing our plans for possibly tomorrow and definitely sunday, to amy and discussing our summer and plans to hang out when i return to toms river, to andre and talking about life. i walked back at like 6 and ate another bowl of the noodles. i helped myself to some durian and facebooked and gchatted with jess before wendy stopped by after work. we caught each other up on the drama of our respective days before going to costco for churros and cuervo. i met charlie, alpha's brother, and mocha and bella, two cute chihuahuas, and these two calico kittens (they're the ninjas). while wendy showered, i started watching buffy... amaaaazing. i'm so ready for when in rome now haha.

tomorrow, we'll be hitting up the san diego zoo! i'm super stoked. natalie might be there which is awesome. then at night, we'll watch charlie st. cloud and saturday we are chilling, hopefully fulfilling our tradition of going to irvine spectrum and barnes & noble to split a slice of cheesecake and drink caramel frappaccinos. i'll always remember that handsome guy on top of the elevator.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” — Mark Twain
 
let's live it up guys. i'm game if you are. sunday will be the day i'll see ray! :))))))) so overdue, i've missed my sugarpie. monday i'm leaving for new york and chilling with emily, meera, anj, savita, and whoever is around. there are too many good-byes for my liking......

"L is for the way you look tonight"

today i woke up at 6:30 in kevin's room. it was so cold because i fell asleep without a blanket. i went back to sleep until aunt jennie woke me up at 9:30 to get ready for DISNEYLAND. wendy came shortly after and we packed our stuff to go. i had a little baguette with tuna fish salad and an apple for breakfast. the sandwich came as a leftover that our aunt made us for lunch. we hopped on the 5 and drove up to anaheim. going to the disney grand california hotel, we met aunt jennie's friend don around noon who got us a park hopper for free (retail cost $97!). we headed to california adventure first and went on the ride that stimulated a tour of california: from san francisco, napa valley, yosemite, palm springs, los angelos to a various other places. the wait was 45 minutes so we ate our tuna sandwiches whilst in line. then we went to california screamin' and the ferris wheel (into the swinging gandola)! afterward, we walked to disneyland and walked through main street. space mountain's wait was too long so we went to matterhorn bobsleds in fantasyland but due to technical difficulties, we had to wait 40 minutes next to high school italian boys who kept trying to pants each other. i didn't need to see their tighty whiteys so often, thank you very much. then we went to "it's a small world afterall" which was lovely, especially when one of the DL guests had a bubble gun :) and kevin gave us see's root beer lollipops. we went to thunder mountain - i think it's my favorite one. after that, we went to pirates of the caribbean. so good. we got really hungry so we headed back to grandma's and had a million crispy vietnamese spring rolls wrapped in lettuce and dipped in fish sauce. aunt jennie blended banana and french vanilla milkshakes and grandma also made dessert soup with corn, coconut and jellies. it was mad legit. then wendy and i started watching wong fu productions on youtube. i'm not into asians, but philip is a cutie. bonne nuit!

"And I may break your heart, but I don't really think there's anybody as bomb as me"

happy belated birthday dave. yesterday was so good. we woke up at 8:30 from the chancellor hotel, suite 1206 and got ready to go to the moma. using our starbucks card from asa, i got a feta, spinach and egg white wrap with a bottle of ethos water. we said our good-byes to keara and mallory as they got onto the bart. the three musketeers remained. we walked to the museum and got by paying the student's price, which was still $9. it's not bad but i'm just not used to paying for admission when i never had to. natalie and her friend liz met up with us and we went to eat at the westfield mall food court in union square. natalie and i shared a salmon cava cobb salad at buckhorn. yum. then we walked jess to the bart to sfo :( john and i went to judy's place via the N and hung out with her for awhile. we watched inception and my mind was blown away. i am so excited to watch it again because i need to see clues i missed to tell what the ending meant. leonardo dicaprio was incredible and i totally adored ellen page and joseph levitt-gordon or gordon-levitt. then we went to a vietnamese place, especially because john hadn't tried it before. i had the vermicelli with veggie spring rolls and the fish sauce. then we watched the bachelorette before john left to go back and judy and i played catch up in her gold satin sheets hehehe. i wonder how many boys she has over jk jk.

happy birthday kenny. this morning i woke up at 4 am to pack my stuff and depart judy's place. leaving in the darkness of the night (how emo), i walked down to 9th and judah to take the night owl N after buying a bottle of orange juice at the 24-hour donut shop. i got to civic center and hopped on the bart to sfo and arrived at 6 am. within 45 minutes, i walked through security and sat at gate A4, amused by a little toddler wreaking havoc in her purple one-sie. i boarded the plane at departed at 7:12 am or so and arrived an hour later in long beach. they gave me a bottle of water and a bag of munchies on the plane, which i appreciated despite the short flight. SO CLOUDY, this is not the weather i imagined. tony and grandma picked me up and i passed out. i was fed and then i started reading kevin's copy of harry potter and the deathly hollows before i slept from 2 (but not before talking to savita! WELCOME HOME IVE MISSED THE SOUND OF YOUR VOICE) until 5:30 - awaken by wendy's arrival. we chatted and chilled out while eating grandma's delicious cooking. we made hainanese chicken and rice, but i didn't have the heart to tell her i don't eat meat. if there is one person who i can't stand to disappoint or see sad, it's my grandma. she's such an amazing cook and i feel bad having her adjust her recipes because of me. so i ate it. along with viet spring rolls (loaded up with pork and shrimp). i felt guilty, but not at the same time. it was so good. uncle ning gave us a tsing tao beer because we're of age haha and we played with alpha, kevin's golden retriever/chow chow mix. she looks more like a golden retriever puppy even though she's an adult now. SO CUTE but pretty rough on you because i don't think she gets played with enough. but we taught her some new tricks and bonded. then we went to yogurtland which is best in california. the one in the west village is good, but not the same if not consumed under the west coast sun. i had a cup of mango yogurt topped with mochi, blueberries and cookie dough. yum. tomorrow we're going to DISNEYLAND. holla atcha boy.

"day and night... the lonely loner seems to free his mind at night"

after we left the hotel, we went to h&m and then hopped on the bart at powell to 16th and mission to go to pica pica. we met up with natalie and her friend from sf and WHO DO WE SEE?? WILLEM and his wife and his baby Gus!! amaaaazing that it is such a small world. i ordered the vegetariana on maize-wich bread with tofu, avocado, plantains and other deliciousness. jess, john, keara and i walked to church and duboce to take the N - Judah muni to ocean city. getting out at 48th avenue, we took off our shoes and walked onto the beach with the sand between our toes. with the ocean spray and confessions, it was the best decision ever to take the journey to the pacific ocean. i always feel more at peace when i'm at the sea. i must live on either coast when i "grow up"... sadly that reality is approaching so much faster than i prefer. we hopped back on the muni and went to the same stop we got on. we met up with natalie and her friend (i feel bad i don't know his name) at casanova on valencia. the best part? mallory hopped on the bart and came out to chill. we had mad bonding time, including a name/location/dance move ice breaker. haha i miss asa sometimes. we got on the bart to get back to the hotel and are watching avatar. i hope it's as mind-blowing as i've been told.

"can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are shooting stars?"

these past 24 hours have been surreal. yesterday i woke up at 10 and chilled out in my room until i got hungry at 12:30. i watched gi joe in the office as i ate potato chips and laffy taffy. it didn't hit me that we would all be going our separate ways so soon, but i didn't mind at that moment. at 2, edgard, iman, elsa, thibault, and nikolay left to depart for paris and then their connecting flights. i had some kimchi ramen noodles and more sugary sweets. we all hung out until 4:45 when all the turkish kids left on their shuttle. i miss merve, deniz, batu, and canberk so much already. they taught me words, but i forget them all now. then we went hung out and just helped willem set up for our final dinner. the last two girls left for honduras at 7something. we had bbq but i only helped myself mashed potatoes, spinach and cous cous. i had cranberry juice and felt reeeeal good. then we went to john's room and hung to play eff, marry, kill, never have i ever and other random conversations. it was a night of lasts. at 3:30 i snuggled with katie and got back into my bed at 8 am this morning. at 10, i finally got up, finished packing and heading downstairs. we went to bongo burger on euclid for breakfast. i had two scrambled eggs, toast with butter and jelly, and onion rings (they ran out of home fries) with like four cups of water. then we went to the park across hearst to talk about whatever before katie left at 2 pm. we hopped into a cab and got into san francisco for $55. holla. it was a sad goodbye to al, i miss him so much already. we're now in john's room on the 12th floor at the chancellor hotel. it's a good time eating handfuls of kettlecorn popcorn.

how did this month go by so fast?

"all the crazy shit i did tonight, those would be the best memories"

wow yesterday was so sad :( the students left asa to return to georgia or china or spain or new york or 30 minutes away to san francisco. i woke up at 9:30 and went to the office at 10 only to be told that we had our meeting at 11. i have been slower at reading our agendas until last minute... so then we just hung around and had lunch at 12 before going to the 12:30 pre-excursion meeting. i had so much food including a small slice of cheese pizza, a greek sandwich on whole wheat, and a chunk of cake. mallory, chris, danielle and i circled the meeting points with yellow markers and then we chatted it up. my right eye was bugging so i only put my left contact in and wore my raybans to cover up my golom-like appearance. chris and i were the bus leaders of bus 2. we had all of the italian kids, most of the spanish girls, the french kids and some of the american kids. we went to alamo square to see the painted ladies (we took group photos, danielle/jean david/jeremy did a crab dance, and i had to take a picture with the infamous duo too!), down haight street where i devoured a pb&j sandwich, banana, apple and mixed berry smoothie from mcd over a few hours, through golden gate park to see the various museums and the pacific ocean (i want to eat at the cliff house - which has lit up six times and been rebuilt just as many times). we took a peak at land's end and then went through presidio park to see the golden gate bridge. i got a photo with edgar :) "eh-hhelen esme Helen" (hi my name is helen in arabic - or something). then we got back on the bus to go to north beach for dinner. willem, sarah, mary, natalie, chris, danielle, mallory, keara and i went to an italian place, capp's family italian dinner. i ordered the eggplant with mozzarella. we had soup and salad and bread - gluttony at it's best. then we got onto the bus near washington square park (totally not as great as the one in new york city) to head back to foothill. i got a few last pictures with some of my favorites, although i guess i'm not supposed to have any.

we got back around 9:48 pm and i got into my room. my girls were so quiet finishing packing so i went to natalie's room after al texted half an hour later. sarah busted us half an hour after that and i went back to my room to do nothing until the slide show... which wasn't loading. al distributed the superlatives instead. i was so happy maria won best smile and mia won best dancer. hugs and smiles all around. at 12, we had check in and i distributed the group photo. i had my girls sign mine and they all had everyone else sign theirs. i also had the roommates write cards to each other. it was super cute. at 12:30, i had circle duty and prevented the kids from going out of the bounds. john kept me company until eddie shooed him away. around 1:30ish, al and i went to the parking lot to hang out with the smokers. sali was up there and i hated saying bye to her, she was one of the ones who was always smiling, which was so nice to see. al left after 20 minutes but left his blanket, clif came for a few minutes and left, and then jean david and jeremy came and started a water fight. they were about to splash me with cold water until i guess when i looked up innocently, they changed their minds - thank goodness. then they pretended to steal my ipod but gave it back because i complained i would be too bored if they took it. willem came and left, and at 3, mallory came to relieve my duty since willem thought it was too effing cold for a sick person to be perched in the middle of the sidewalk huddled like a homeless person in a blanket (not that i'm complaining...). i went to the rec room and watched a bit of gi joe, but mostly hung out with jean david and jeremy. jd saw i was cold so he gave me his pseudo-varsity jacket to wear, which was so nice because when he left i tried to give it back but he insisted i wear it. at one point, they had me as the monkey in the middle with the empty water jug as a soccer ball. they were SO loud and wouldn't stop until clifton came. we moved inside. after the movie ended, the room cleared out and i restarted it since i had never seen it. clif and i watched until pietro, jess, sam, and a few others joined us. artur started playing the piano too loudly and stopped when we hushed him. jd and jeremy came up from behind and covered me with a sheet, which i also used as a blanket. around 4, i started to sneeze so i thought it was best to go to sleep. i wanted to watch the sunrise with sam, but i passed out. 5:30, i was awoken by the cab company there to pick up lu and qi. at 7, i was awoken by hustling girls, but i'm glad i got to say bye to alejandra, ane and ana. then i went back to bed until now. i feel better after sleeping, but i'm sad i didn't get to say bye to the rest of my girls :(

today is going to be such a long day.

"you're so beautiful, so damn beautiful"

yesterday, i woke up at 9:30 and rolled out of bed for our staff meeting. it was a quick meeting to go over the day's schedule. sometimes, i really hate that i only get the information the day of or the day before. it feels disorganized and i can't even count the many times i had to tell the girls in my suite, "i don't know - let me get back to you." it's hard to feel like i put my best foot forward if i don't have everything i need beforehand. the meeting ended pretty early so natalie, katie and i met up at the gym to work on our cardio before lunch in the tv room. there were some old school hannah barbara cartoons playing. i had a crab salad sandwich on whole wheat bread. it was pretty good, but there was absolutely nothing else that seemed appetizing to me. then natalie had to go to office hours, so i went with her but then we started discussing music so i went to get our computers. but before doing that, i was mad chilly so i went to shower and wear some warm and dry clothes. so we worked on the playlist for awhile until we were pretty much done. natalie was sitting in the middle of the office with her yoga mat, which was prertty funny. jean david had to see willem so he came into the office. he asked about going to sf to buy his mother a present for her birthday from HERMES. what a baller. i am not sure if he still holds anything against me, but at least we seemingly have mutual respect. at 2:30, we had our floor meeting and i got my evaluations back. i might have peeked at them and was reminded how different high schoolers are than college kids. pretty good marks. i won't go much into it but i forget how much people don't say what is on their mind until it's too late. don't you know i would have played icebreakers until you knew each other better than you thought you knew yourself? but if you complain, i won't make you. afterward, i went to meet up with natalie and danielle to finish the final playlist, but we shouldn't have bothered since the students didn't give us music until the moment of the dance. at 5:30 i was a bit tired, hungry and grumpy so i got some bad chinese food at the asian food court off euclid. at 6:15 i went down to help set up but there wasn't much to do so i went to get my ipod and we faked it until we made it. at 6:55, we went to the assembly room to set up for the final dinner. it was really silly to have us serve the lukewarm/ cold entrees of chicken, salmon or vegetable lasagna since time would have better been spent... i don't know... hanging out with our girls and guys before they had to leave? students came up to talk about their RA and i was super excited that hannah, ana and ane came up for me. <3

anyway, at 8, we had desserts and an art show in the rec room. the tiramisu was bomb. then we set up for the dance. the party got bumping at sexy bitch, memories, tik tok, and a few random songs. then it got whack when everyone starting to change it all up......... pietro and jean david started to play their techno music but there were some technical difficulties. at one point, clif or whoever got pietro mad so i went to go talk to him to make sure he was ok. then i talked to victor about music and jd started tapping my shoulder and disappearing. then jeremy did it. and then edgar did it. haha i turned around and tell edgar that he was drinking too much red bull and we laughed (since he gave me the can i had... i might be stringing that inside joke too long, hehe but i still enjoy it).  i got to exit around 10:50 when ana lost her keys. we went to the smoking area and then back to the rec room where she found it on the ground by the pool table. at check in we talked about our days and started getting ready for bed. oh man, the heat isn't working and i've been so cold. now i have cold. brr.