Cheerleading Tryouts

I’m currently writing this blog post at my friend Christine‘s kitchen counter with her dog, Winkie, lying on my feet and chewing on the MacBook charger. Despite the fact that today is Friday (the day we all live for all week), we’re both very nervous right now because the cheerleading tryouts are tomorrow! Christine and I were in the Junior Varsity squad this year, so this year’s tryout will be the deciding factor between JV and Varsity. AHH I’m so stressed out right now – what if all of my friends get into Varsity and I get left behind in JV? (Ew. Winkie’s licking on my ankle now.) I have so many concerns at the moment, but I decided that practicing with a friend would be less freakier than having nightmares about it.

We ran through the tryout dance and cheer at least 10 times, and our individual cheer about 5 times. I’ll upload pictures and videos soon – unfortunately, WordPress has some errors occurring at the moment. In the meantime, check out Christine’s blog for pictures and details and wish us luck everyone! 🙂

Thank you Christine, for calming me down!

Coffee Bean at Starbucks?

Since it was a public holiday yesterday, I was determined to use my time efficiently to get started on the piles and piles of school work. This was how my morning went:

1. 8:13 am: Wake up and go back to sleep.
2. 9:00 am: Wake up and stagger to the bathroom and wash face.
3. 9:11 am: Grab some cereal and milk.
4. 9:23 am: Eat breakfast and reply to wall posts on Facebook.
5. 9:37 am: Go back to sleep.
6. 10:13 am: Irene wakes me up and asks if we can go to Bel La Beans Coffee (uh oh, I’ve made my sister addicted to coffee!). Coldly refuse and continue sleeping.
7. 11:02 am: Wake up and stagger to the bathroom and wash face.
8. 11:10 am: Eat Chinese food for lunch.
9. 11:46 am: Brush my teeth and take a shower.
10. 12:06 pm: Work on English project.
11. 1:20 pm: Take a nap.
12. 2:30 pm: Dad wakes me up and asks if we can play Scrabble. Coldly refuse and continue sleeping.

At this point, I started feeling guilty about taking all this time for granted, so I decided to go to Starbucks with my dad since I haven’t been there for a long time and I needed to go someplace where I wouldn’t fall asleep. For the fifth time.

Around 4 o’clock, we each grabbed our backpacks full of work and a pair of sunglasses to walk to Starbucks. Unfortunately, all the seats were taken, but since Gangnam has a lot of cafes, we started walking to another nearby Starbucks. Apparently, the nearby Starbucks was replaced by Tully’s coffee. We decided to try it out and went into the place. For one thing, nobody was in there, and I could see why: it was hot in there, despite the heat outside. We immediately left and thought of going to Paris Baguette, but I spotted another Starbucks across the street and decided to go in there first. The sofa seats were all taken, so we went out again and went to the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf.

Finally! Coffee Bean wasn’t crowded and had comfortable seats, so I ordered a vanilla latte in a mug and took out my Mac to get to work. Wait a sec – what’s this? Server not found? Dad, can you ask what their wireless internet server is? What? They don’t have wireless internet connection here?
For about a minute, my dad and I panicked because a wireless internet service was absolutely necessary to do my work for hours and hours. My dad suggested taking the coffee from Coffee Bean to Starbucks – it’d be a little mean, but if the Starbucks staff gave us “the look”, we could buy a slice of cake or something. Besides, there were so many people at Starbucks; they wouldn’t notice because we’d be hiding in the corner. 🙂 Phew. Problem solved.

WAIT. I ordered my vanilla latte in a mug! My heroic dad once again rushed up to the lady and asked her for a regular paper coffee cup. Phew. Problem really solved. Hiding our coffee cups from Coffee Bean, we carefully entered Starbucks and settled in a corner near the sofa seats, so we’d be able to grab it as soon as somebody stood up to leave. Perfect!

We managed to not get caught, and did eventually occupy a sofa seat. Yes, we were drinking Coffee Bean coffee at Starbucks – rebellious! 😀 I felt so bad when the staff greeted, “Thank you, come again!” as we left – my dad and I agreed not to do that again. Unless it was absolutely necessary. But hey, I have to admit: it was fun.

I hadn’t been able to spend much time with my dad because we were both busy – my dad recently came back from a business trip from Hong Kong, and I was kept busy with schoolwork this week. I’m so thankful I finally had some time to hang out with my dad. It was indeed a crazy, fun day!

↑ Haha I’m such a poser.
↓ Who do you think I got those genes from?

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
Thanks Dad, you’re awesome!

Writer’s Block

Hello there.

How awkward. I never start my blog entries with formal greetings. I’m always eager to start typing away; my only worry is that I’ll forget what I wanted to say as millions of thoughts zoom by my mind, but I end up writing more than I planned to in the first place.

This is so weird. I have absolutely nothing to write about. I tried writing about the yearbook, which I am definitely excited about because it’ll finally be in my hands next week after a whole year’s work put into it, but apparently, I’m not excited enough to write on and on about it. I also tried writing about being under pressure; lately, I’ve been under quite a lot of pressure, but I suppose I wasn’t too annoyed by it, seeing that I don’t have much to write about it either. I clicked the “New Post” button and ended up clicking the “Save Draft” button after 15 minutes about 6 times this morning – in geometry class, Chinese class, reading block, and right now during lunch.

I’m running desperate by the day.
Yesterday, I made a brief list of possible blog topics:
– Yearbook
– China Town
– DMZ trip
– Pressure
– Facebook
– Parents
– Stream of consciousness
– Cheerleading

But no, none of these actually make me want to write. Instead, this list rushes me; I feel like I have to write because I will be getting graded on it. I need a source of excitement. And it’s not like there’s not much happening in my life. In fact, I have so many things going on; I spent last weekend volunteering at an animal shelter (where Yeayoung got bitten by a dog!), my parents both are in Hong Kong right now (my mom will be coming home tonight!), our school had an award ceremony yesterday (two of my best friends received the Founder’s Scholarship!), I have two field trips scheduled this week and next week, three tests on Monday, three projects due in less than a week, and…so much more.

At least I’ll be publishing something. At least this blog entry will prevent a wide gap between my posts. I’m sorry this post is so long and boring. As corny as it sounds, I just want to write about something that comes from the heart.

Just one of those days, huh?

Summer 2010

June is inching closer!

I cannot wait until summer break!
Now I don’t like mosquito bites, cicadas, and paying 500 won more for ice coffee, but there are still tons to love about summer.

I’ll list a few below…

1. No school – duh!
Isn’t it obvious? No more all-nighters, waking up at 4 in the morning to finish the homework I couldn’t finish the night before, no more sacrificed lunches, no more Powerschool, no more fights over the printer, no more Apple Remote Desktop! Can you think of anything else? Comment below!

2. My birthday!
I don’t have any specific plans as of yet, and for some strange reason, I’m not expecting much. I mean, I’m excited to celebrate it with family and friends, but there’s nothing much I particularly want. I’ve already received so much from my family and friends throughout the year; it would almost make me feel guilty if I asked for more. But hey, gifts and pleasant surprises don’t hurt. It’s June 23rd, by the way! 🙂 No pressure.

3. Grandpa’s birthday!
The biggest family event of the summer would probably be my grandpa’s birthday. This July, he’ll be turning ninety years old – can you believe it? My mom is planning a huge birthday party for my grandpa, and I will be making an awesome iMovie to showcase at the party. I’m determined to make this party a memorable one for my favorite relative. I hope everything goes well!

4. SAT hagwon
Okay, SAT isn’t fun, but I’ll be seeing a lot of my school friends there. How do you enjoy summer without your friends? I’ll also have to make sure I work productively over the summer and show some progress!

5. Global journalism camp
My friend Jung invited me to join him at the global journalism camp hosted by the Korea Herald. I don’t have much experience with journalism, so I think it’s a great chance for me to explore and discover new interests.

6. Yoga program
During breaks, I tend to procrastinate a lot. This means I wake up at 2 o’clock in the afternoon and roll around the house watching Grey’s Anatomy as I munch on junk food. I will force myself to wake up early and attend yoga classes so I don’t stiffen over the summer. I am blessed to have a sports center right in front of my house – it takes approximately 11 seconds to walk to Samsung Leports Center from my house!

Just looking over the list makes me feel happy and calm…until I see Animal Farm peacefully resting, untouched, next to my MacBook and realize there’s going to be a test on it. Wishful thinking.

Do you have any summer plans? Comment below!